Barbell Shrugged - Real Chalk  — The Sisu Way w/ Scott McGee  — 35

Episode Date: August 7, 2018

Scott McGee is founder and host of The Sisu Way and co-host of Wodcast Podcast. He is also a police member in Santa Monica, CA, and a detective, beat officer, and member of the SWAT team. Scott describes himself as a family man, friend, thinker, guardian, and a peaceful warrior with an open mind and unconquerable soul. The Sisu Way is a show about grit, character, life philosophy, fitness, leadership, service, and what it means to choose strength. One of Scott’s biggest drives and inspirations is wanting to leave lessons for his kids to find as they grow up.  He wants them to have content and lessons they can share with their kids.   In this episode, we talked about Scott’s new podcast “The Sisu Way”, the emotional story about the birth of his son and how the entire family was able to pull through, how he lives his main motivation in life is to prepare his kids and leave as much as he can behind, How gratefulness will transform your entire mindset and have you brewing over with happiness, breathing methods including Wim Hof breathing, how to be more present during your workout, and more.   Enjoy!   – Ryan and Yaya   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/rc_mcgee --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please Support our Sponsor Use code  REALCHALK for 20% off at organifishop.com   ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/ barbellshruggedpodcast

Hey there ladies and gentlemen, this is Doug from Barbell Shrugged. I just want to let you know that we now offer 11 of our top training programs as a part of a single membership site that we're calling the Program Vault. We used to launch training programs every few months and people were always bummed that they couldn't sign up at any time. You had to be around for the launch. The launch was only four or five days. If you missed it, then you had to wait six months or a year depending on what training program we were offering next.

And it was kind of a hassle, even when people signed up for training programs, to switch to a different program when they got to the end of their current program, or they just happened to be in a new phase of training. They hit their past goal, and now they have new goals, and new goals require different training programs. So inevitably, it was a pain in the ass for people to switch programs. So we took all that feedback, and we decided to just put all of our programs together on this thing we now call the Program Vault.

That way all Shrugged athletes can have access to all the workouts that we have and move from program to program as they saw fit for themselves. Makes sense. So there's 11 programs. Three of them are long-term, very comprehensive programs where there's a warm-up and there's mobility and there's nutrition added in there. All the workouts are there. There's a cool-down. There's stuff to do on your off days. They're super, super comprehensive. And those programs last for over 18 months if you want to stick around for that long. And there's also eight short-term programs. These programs are three months long and these are basically add-on programs. So if you are already doing classes at a gym and you don't want to stop doing your classes but you want to work on one particular thing maybe you want to

like work on your shoulder health or you want to work on your conditioning like your your aerobic capacity or maybe you just want to work on your squatting strength or your pull-up strength or something like that then we have these short-term add-on programs that are super low volume but they're just like an extra you know two or three exercises at the end of your workout to help work on whatever those very specific goals are that you have so the three long-term programs are flight weightlifting that's a very weightlifting specific training program it builds it builds you from someone who's more like beginner intermediate at weightlifting and builds you up to be a more technical professional professional-style weightlifter over the course of 12 or 18 months. We also have Muscle Gain Challenge.

If you just want to put on muscle mass and you want a higher volume training program, this, in my opinion, is more of an intermediate program. If you don't have good technique on the Olympic lifts yet, you're going to kind of be thrown right to the wolves, so to speak. It doesn't ramp you up like flight does flight has very specific progressions for weightlifting to let you learn all the technique over time muscle gain challenge kind of just throws you right into it so ideally you already have some experience with olympic weightlifting before you start the muscle gain challenge

and there's a very high emphasis of course with the muscle gain challenge on gaining muscle so that means you got to eat a lot of food so there's a lot of emphasis, of course, with the Muscle Gain Challenge on gaining muscle. So that means you've got to eat a lot of food. So there's a lot of emphasis on how much to eat, what to eat, and your recovery as a part of that program. So that way you can get bigger and stronger. Also, we have Strug Strength Challenge, which is more of a traditional kind of CrossFit program. If you do CrossFit classes at a CrossFit gym, you probably do some strength movements at the very beginning of class. You know, maybe do front squats for five sets of five. and then you do a Metcon that's, you know, 20 or 25 minutes or whatever it happens to be. That's more typical of the shrugged strength

challenge where strength is the goal, but certainly conditioning is a key part of that as well. It has more of a strength bias than kind of a regular generalized CrossFit-y type program. So the eight short-term training programs, again, these are about three months long, and they're kind of an add-on program. So the first one is Boulders for Shoulders. That's a shoulder health and stability program, health, mobility, and stability program. That doesn't mean you're going to be doing a whole lot of jerks and overhead presses necessarily. This is, again, an add-on program, so you're going to be doing a lot of of jerks and overhead presses necessarily this is again an add-on program so you're gonna be doing a lot of assistance work

for your shoulders your thoracic spine uh etc that way you can have the healthiest shoulders possible there's the aerobic monster program which is adding in a bunch of extra mostly aerobic conditioning you'll be on the airdyne a lot you're going to be on the rower a lot you're going to be doing a lot of monostructural stuff so So, you know, if you already have your regular workout, you do strength, you do your Metcon, and then, you know, as a very overly simplistic example, you do, you know, 20 minutes of rowing, or you do 30 on 30 off for 10 rounds, or you're doing a hard 30 and an easy 30, or whatever it is, just a little bit extra aerobic work. There's the squat the house program where, you know where we add in two leg exercises three days a week. So you might squat and then do some lunges or something like that.

Depending on what your regular classes are like, you might already be doing a lot of squatting. But if you're not currently able to do a lot of squatting and you want to do some more squatting and you just want to add that onto your current training, then Squat the House is a great program. Anaerobic Assault, that is a high- a high intensity interval style program where you're doing very fast Metcons. So you might be doing airdyne sprints, you know, 30 seconds on 100% full speed and then take a three minute break and do it again. Or even, you know, five touch and go deadlifts followed by, you know, 10 burpees, rest two minutes and then do it again. But you're doing it all 100% full speed, really teaching you how to kick it into high gear and move very very quickly when you're doing your metcons there's

my first pull-up which is not going to give you a whole lot of actually doing pull-ups these are this is a program for people that can't do a pull-up yet so there's a lot of assistance work for pull-ups and there's a lot of extra assistance work for just all the muscle groups involved in doing pull-ups everything from just doing extra lat work, extra scapular retraction, rhomboid lower trap work, extra bicep work, etc. To help get you to the point where you can do your first pull-up. There's a strongman accessory program where you can be doing yoke walks, picking up stones, pulling heavy sleds, and things like that. And then there's two more programs that are kind of a little bit higher volume. You could do them on your own if you wanted to.

And you also can combine these. You could do Aerobic Monster and Aerobic Assault and My First Pull-Up all together if you wanted to, if you just wanted to add extra volume. But the last two, Open Prep is exactly what it sounds like. This gets you ready for the CrossFit Open or other similar competitions. You'll be doing a lot of Metcons. And the last one is Barbell Beginner to Meet. It's prepping you for your first Olympic weightlifting competition.

Each program is scheduled between three and five days per week. There's videos explaining all the programming. There's demos. There's technique explanations for everything. And then also you have access to the private Strug Collective Facebook group. That way you can get advice from ourselves. We'll be in there hanging out. Our guests from our shows.

We also have a bunch of athletes, coaches, and strength experts that are friends of ours that are in there too to help you out. If you're interested, since I've been talking long enough, you can go to shruggedcollective.com backslash vault for all the information. Again, that is shruggedcollective.com backslash V-A-U-L-T. That spells vault. Go there, check it out. If you have any questions, email help at barbellshrugged.com and enjoy the show. Welcome to Real Chalk, a Shrugged Collective production. Mike Bledsoe here.

Stoked to be launching this network so that we can introduce you to amazing content providers like Ryan Fisher. We'll be posting new shows every weekday, so be on the lookout. As a thank you for listening, Thrive Market has a special offer for you. You get $60 of free organic groceries, plus free shipping and a 30-day trial. Go to thrivemarket.com slash real chalk. This is how it works. Users will get $20 off their first three orders of $49 or more plus free shipping. No code is necessary because the discount will be applied at checkout. Many of you will be going to the store this week, so just hit up Thrive Market today. Go to thrivemarket.com slash realchalk to get set up.

Enjoy the show. You guys, one thing that I always promise myself is not to complain about the heat because we always want it to be hotter in the wintertime, and then the summer comes and everyone's complaining about how hot it is but i'm not gonna lie to you i'm sweating my fucking balls off right now sitting here in newport california got hit with a fat heat wave this week but i know my main priority is to get this podcast out to you guys just on time so you guys get your weekly dose of knowledge and also of course dick jokes more importantly the dick jokes i know that's why you guys are really here this is

yaya you guys are tuned in to real chalk podcast this is the shrugged collective and this week we got a goodie for you guys we sat down with scott McGee, the co-host of the WattCast podcast, and what an awesome guy he is. Him and Ryan knew each other because Ryan has been on his show, I think, two or three or four or five times already. They love each other. Super buddy-buddy. I came in and immediately just loved having scott on a podcast it was so refreshing to have another professional not to call myself a professional i don't know what i'm doing i'm just floating through life like the happy butterfly that i am but you definitely knew and could tell right away that scott has experience in this podcast thing he knows how to set this up he takes pauses at the right time.

He knows how to tell a story and it's just super entertaining. I had so much fun just interviewing him and it actually got a little bit emotional. He got a little bit emotional. I got a little bit emotional. I don't think Ryan has emotions, so nothing from that side, but he spoke about his son and the complications that him and his wife had during birth and before birth and what that has done for him and his family. And it actually sparked him to start another podcast next to the WOCast podcast called the Sisu Way. And everything that he does on that podcast is sparked by his main motivation now and that's just in life to prepare his kids and leave as much as he can behind so for one day when he's not here anymore, at least his kids have that podcast

and everything else he leaves behind kind of as life lessons and to guide them through their life. We also talk a lot about meditation and different practices, especially how gratefulness will transform your entire mindset and just have you brewing over with happiness, something that I've experienced in the past, something that Scott has experienced a lot as well, different breathing methods, an example, Wim Hof breathing and how to just be more present during your workout and actually get a better workout than just be a freaking zombie. I'm going to go take a cold shower. But you guys have listen to our show or even any other show in the Shrug Collective, there's a really good chance that you guys have heard the word mushroom being swung around. You guys probably know what we're referring to. This one is a little different.

These mushrooms you can actually drink. I'm talking about the mushrooms you guys get over at 4sigmatic.com. Pretty cool company we teamed up with recently. The Barbra Shrug guys actually made a trip over there and recorded some really cool episodes. So go ahead and head back on their channel to listen to those Four Sigmatic episodes. But like I said, you can drink these special mushrooms and they're nothing short of magic. You guys can get anything from mushroom coffee to matcha all the way to hot cocoa and other varieties of their drinks. This stuff truly enhances your daily routine starting from get going in the morning all the way to winding down later at night. I've actually personally been using these from a long, long time ago even before we started the podcast and immediately got hooked, especially the mushroom coffee was the one product that stood out to me and that I first

started trying a long time ago. I like it simply because it tastes exactly like coffee, but it doesn't give you the jitters and it doesn't give you the crash at the end of the day. Some of this stuff will seriously put put you guys on fire like the mushroom coffee or the lion's mane that they offer while other products like the reishi that they have in a delicious hot chocolate will help you guys to finally chill the fuck out at the end of the day so go ahead and head over to foursigmatic.com slash chalk or just go to foursigmatic.com and use the code chalk that is f-o-u-r-s-i-g-m-a-t-i-c dot c-o-m slash c-h-a-l-k foursigmatic.com check out their products and you guys are welcome if there's one thing in the world that you guys noted ryan and i love more than

working out and podcasting, then that's eating. If you guys watched a vlog recently in our Phoenix trip, we literally just ate the entire trip and just bounced around from restaurant to restaurant. But even with us eating so much food all day, every day, one of the hard parts is to get enough greens. Sometimes it's just not a lot of fun. The burger most of the time sounds a lot better than the salad, and especially on the road, the stuff can get tricky. However, if you guys listen to us on a regular basis, you guys know how important it is to get not only a balanced diet but to get those greens in your diet, stay healthy,

keep the immune system going so you guys can keep crushing in and also outside of the gym. When you're on the road, especially as we travel a lot for the podcast, and I assume that most of you guys are mainly on the road as well, your best option is like a green juice from somewhere, but those are always pumped full of sugar or even worse, a ton of preservatives. and most of the time they're also super expensive. The Green Juice by Organifi, that's Organifi with an I. No worries, I'll spell it out later for you guys. The Green Juice is the exact solution to that exact problem, and it tastes just as good, if not even better, than those sugary green drinks you guys can get at the store.

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penis and dicks and buttholes on the other one. On the other one? And I said penises and dicks. It's different. I think that's a good start to the show right now. Penises, dicks, pricks, dude, it's all different. They all have their own little thing.

We are on the air right now. We are with Scott McGee, host of the WODcast podcast and the Sisu Way. The Sisu Way, yep. The Sisu Way, another podcast. So Scott drove up from L.A. Can you imagine running another podcast on top of this podcast? That sounds terrible. Yeah, it's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot.

Yeah, it's a lot of work. We've got a hustler in the room right now, for sure. It is a lot of work. He started in 2012, which was the absolute... I mean, I shouldn't say it's the beginning of podcasts, but I think it was the beginning of functional work exercisers

doing podcasting. Professional amateur exercising for time podcasting. Fitnessing for time. Amateur podcasting. And you were at Dogtown. Yeah. Yeah, 2012, I was at Dogtown. And actually, we started the same month as Barbro Shug did.

And for a long period of time, it was just the WODcast and Barbro Shugged in the CrossFit umbrella of podcasts. Yeah. And now we've birthed some. Well, even CrossFit just got their own podcast, like, what, a few months ago now? Yeah, they're behind the curve. For sure. I don't know what took them so long. Yeah.

We got in trouble for calling it a CrossFit podcast. Oh, I bet. For years? Yeah. We couldn't call it a CrossFit podcast because of the trademark. And then down the line, I also found out that we couldn't say that we talked about CrossFit. Okay, so even in your description or anything, it couldn't even have CrossFit in it. Well, we say that we talked to CrossFit Games athletes.

Oh, okay. There we go. Good. Perfect. There's always just a way to get around everything. Well, it's a functional fitness, right? It's a functional fitness podcast. That's always the loophole. Because functional fitness isn't copyrighted or branded or anything, right?

No, I think with the term CrossFit and to portray yourself as a CrossFit podcast is. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, totally. And it does make sense. Right. But even still, it was three CrossFitters talking about CrossFit.

Which, by the way, CrossFitters talking about CrossFit is a very, very easy thing to do. It's super easy to do. Because that's all CrossFitters talk about anyways. It's embarrassing. If you're outside the gym... It's embarrassing. It's so hard not to do.

If you're outside the gym with another person from the gym, it's almost impossible to not land on the gym. It's embarrassing. It's so hard not to do. If you're outside the gym with another person from the gym, it's almost impossible to not land on the gym eventually. And I get really upset about it. What did you do in the workout this morning? What did you do? Even my mom will be like, hey, mom. She's like, how's the gym and this and that? I'm like, mom, no, no.

No, no, no. It has to end. By the way, how is your mom? My mom is amazing. Does she talk to you? Don't worry about that. She talks to everybody. But she was always so supportive

when you were on the podcast. Oh my god, she is the biggest fan in the world. I actually recently told both of my parents that my goal for the next year or two was to bring them on a dream vacation. Wherever you want to go, for as long as you want to go, let's just do it. I want to make sure

that I get this checked off the bucket list for life. And I don't ever want to regret not being able to do it. So in September, September 10th, my stepdad and I, I don't really have a good relationship with my real dad. We're going to Paris and Switzerland and all over Europe. And he's never even been out of the country. So I'm super, super excited to be able to, one, be able to do that. And two, be able to do that with him is going to be great. Oh, man, that's really awesome.

I'm excited. You don't know what she should do. Get your mom on the podcast. I really want to do that. We've been talking about that, dude. We've been talking about that. She would crush, and she has the dirtiest mouth of all time. You definitely need to get on the podcast.

And super long, super long, like 70s New Jersey nails. I really – Catwoman. You better get on her before we do. She'll smoke a pack of cigarettes before – super long, like, 70s New Jersey nails. I really, you know what? Catwoman. You better get on her before we do. And she'll smoke a pack of cigarettes

before, she'll have a pack of cigarettes on before the episode is over. But anyway, guys, the reason Scott is here

and the reason I really want to talk to Scott and that we want to talk to Scott is he's had so many great episodes and he's been doing it since 2012,

but he never really gets to talk about his own life and all the cool stuff that he does. So I really think it would be cool to just kind of look into that aspect of your life and talk about all the cool things you have going on. Like what do you do for a living? I mean I already know this, but I want everyone else to know. And let's talk about just the cliff notes of Scott McGee's life. Gotcha, gotcha. By the way, I just want to say it's so refreshing to have another professional on this because usually the first, like, 10, 15 minutes is kind of, like, I don't know, weird. You're kind of, like, testing the waters.

Like, we're talking to the guest before the podcast with no headset, no computer, no nothing, and everything's cool. And then you hit record and they just, like, freeze up. It takes, like, 10 minutes to, like, loosen up. And, like, with you, we're already in it. We're doing great. We're fucking four minutes in and we're crushing. I definitely takes like 10 minutes to like loosen up and like with you we're already in it we're doing great we're fucking 4 minutes in

and we're crushing I definitely did not used to be like that right I was completely reserved on the microphone at first I initially started as a guest on the WODcast

I think it was episode like 14 in the very beginning oh I didn't know that and they would ask me a question and I'm like yes no yes no yeah it was like i didn't i didn't all right good we're

done that's enough but but there's something eventually that's important that i learned later on and that is like vulnerability right and i've also found that there's strength there and being vulnerable and being open and so eventually it helped me tell a story. And I also didn't totally know what it's like. Cause with the wide cast, we've had 300 and I don't know, 335 episodes somewhere in there. And I can remember the ones that were like this, like,

yes. Yeah. And I'm like, ah, this is going to be terrible. Yeah. And you only have so many questions written down. You're like getting towards the end of them.

You're like, fuck, I don't know how to drag this out anymore. And then some other ones you have questions written down. You get to two questions and the podcast is over. And it's the best podcast ever because you got sidetracked, but you got sidetracked in the best way possible. Yeah, we had Julian Pano, who you guys probably know know, strong fit, and John Wellborn. You have one question, and you take your headset, put it down, and just an hour and a half later, turn the recorder off. John Wellborn is one of the few people I could just listen to.

I could listen to him talk about anything all day. He's fantastic. He's fucking unreal. You know who he's really bad at? The lightning round. You can't get questions in. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

But so to circle back on the wadcast i tend to as you guys know now transitioning especially ryan to host and that is balancing the information about yourself and talking about yourself versus giving the guests time to speak and really helping them tell their story especially if they've driven from far away and so on the WODcast, I don't know, you've been on, I don't know, six, no way. On yours?

More than twice. I can think of at least, because you were at my house. One with Kenny Leverage. Yeah, you've come to the house a few times. My ex-girlfriend was there, and we were talking about ridiculous things. Yep, naturally.

I think that's it. I think I've only been on twice, I'm sure. Well, there's been a lot of attempts, because it's a hike up the freeway here. Yeah. And it's always a blast, right? But when you come on, I want to talk to you and give you time to talk.

And so the amount of times that you've been on, you actually don't know that much about me, which in a way I kind of think that's good, because it's not the Scott McGee show. The WODcast is kind of all-encompassing, and I like people to have a chance to come and share their story. You get little pieces in here and there, and I'm always interested. Yeah, because you know what? And I follow you on Instagram.

Well, thank you. And I know there's a lot of stuff going on there. Thank you, thank you. There is a method there. And plus, I also understand that a lot of the stuff going on with me can sometimes derail the conversation, especially when it comes to law enforcement. So that's what I do. I'm a professional good guy. I'm in law enforcement. That's my day job. Actually, my night job, because I work overnight shifts right now. But I don't identify as that. So it kind of helps. I'm sure you guys probably know some people in law enforcement

that they, like, scream it all the time. Right. Right. But to me, it's something I get to do based on my personality. So I'm very grateful, and I have a great time doing it. And so there's all kinds of fun stories there. So when you bring up that, that tends to, like, change the direction of conversations. So try to keep it quiet.

Let's talk about... You don't want it to turn into interrogation. Yeah, well, everyone wants to tell the story about a parking ticket they got or a speeding ticket or a stop sign ticket or, oh my gosh, what do you think about guns? Well, plus people just love talking about themselves. So I feel like whenever there's a relatable story,

we'll try and throw comments about ourselves in there like oh yeah i've had that same experience that type of thing but other than that you just want to make the person on the podcast feel good so just kind of keep like yeah tell me more about yourself tell me more about yourself and you can just feel them like opening up more and more and more yeah it's a it's a fine line between like uh showing sympathy or an empathy by sharing a quick little story that happened with you as well but also sometimes it can take the attention away that someone will share something and then you'll share something and it kind of can come across as like a one-up right it's like so let me tell you what happened to me the exact same story but just in a cooler

way oh yeah that's cool about you but me but me right and so there's like but there's a fine line between that and and and really being able to connect with somebody and let them tell that story and I think there's the opposite of that too like I've listened to podcasts before where they're asking

the guest a question the guest will answer the question actually like a very vulnerable way and kind of open up and they're done talking and the host will just

jump in right into the next question like not even acknowledge anything that they just said it's kind of just like a question answer question answer question answer

no real flow going on. But that takes skill. That takes some skill to be able to, for a host who's constantly thinking of what's going to come next. Because a lot of times I'll go back and listen to episodes because I'm thinking too far ahead that I'm not actually in the moment listening. Yep. And so that takes some balance between, you know who's really good at that is Kenny Kane. He does a good job of actually really listening to the guest.

Well, and it's because you mentioned this before the show too, that you kind of have like a storyline mapped out before you even start the episode, right? You kind of have like a line of questioning and you know exactly where you want to get to at the end. Yeah.

And that's something I'm, I'm, I'm able to do with the CCUA podcast. The WODcast is fun. There's three hosts hosts we're all totally different and we have a good time it's like like a bunch of people drinking beers and talking about crossfit right i'm interested in this sisu thing so when i think of sisu i think of miko salo he's like the first person to ever really bring that i think he was the first person to really like

bring that word into the crossfit community just because you know from my memory at least as an athlete I remember just being like Sisu what is that and then the Rogue had a Sisu shirt and then I was like what is this whole thing they had a Sisu hammer and I remember just being like what is this thing I look and I remember just remembering that something that Miko really believed was that no matter how hard you worked out you never laid on the floor you never wanted anyone to see that you were you know vulnerable at any point if that's correct at all so let's talk about that and let's talk about why you named your podcast that and maybe it relates to your law enforcement background all those things but you're not just law enforcement right you've done SWAT and like this guy's you know a little better than the average cop badass motherfucker and can you

define the sisu too for someone who's never heard of it at all? Yeah, Sisu is so – for those people on CrossFit, and a lot of people nowadays, Ryan, probably don't even know who Miko Salo is. That's fine. It's crazy, right? Google him. But for people who have been doing CrossFit for, at this point, more than eight years, I think,

because I think that video probably came out in 2009, 10. And so Sisu is actually a Finnish term. And it's hugely in their culture. And Sisu is like the closest thing in English we have is maybe grit. Or guts.

Or persistence. It's having an unconquerable soul in the face of adversity. Like you think of Rocky. Rocky face of adversity. Like you think of Rocky. Rocky had Sisu. If you think of all those documentaries you watch and you see somebody down and they come back and they show strength of character and fortitude, that's Sisu. Absolutely.

And so it's kind of a hard term to really define in English. And to circle back, so for the listeners, Miko said after workouts he would never go lie down on his back because he said that's what animals do when they submit or they surrender. And he never wanted to do that, so he always stood up. So unless the camera wasn't on and then he was rolling over or what he was doing in the closet when he was sitting there so infamously rowing 5Ks in his closet.

So that particular term started when I – let's see, early 2012. My wife was pregnant. And our kid that she was pregnant with, we go and do these checkups. And he had, let me see where I want to start here. Something came back weird. And eventually we had to go back. We all do these tests. Like, oh, come here.

It's all generic. And if nothing is going on, then we're not going to call you. So we got a call. Like, uh-oh. So we go in and turns out he had something called hydrops. So his blood was very anemic. His heart was like two-thirds the size of his chest. He had swelling underneath his scalp. In between his scalp and his skull was swelling and swelling all over his body and this is like 20 weeks old for 20 weeks in utero and It came to a point where the doctor was like hey, do you want to like basically a abort or Drive forward and if you drive forward, this is the possibilities. You have

possibilities of being blind, being deaf, all kinds of different genetic problems. And this is the path. And the path was doing intrauterine blood transfusions. That means taking a syringe through the stomach into the uterus, into the umbilical cord, into a vein in the umbilical cord, and then doing a blood transfusion on a little human, like, you know, just, you know, think of it, like that big. Yeah. And so we decided to fight on it.

We were like, no, we're not, it was like, let's know we're going forward. We're going to drive forward. So we go in like two weeks later to do the first one. And my wife thinks he's, he's gone already because there was no movement. And so we got to the hospital. All she wanted to do is get the ultrasound on him and to see if he had a heartbeat and he, he did have a heartbeat heartbeat and so we go in she does her first surgery and i'm sitting in the waiting room and the doctors all come out walking towards me and it's like one doctor plus like a whole bunch of other people so i'm like oh here we go because i'm like that's his backup because he thinks i'm gonna wring his neck or something

so he comes up and he's like, hey, just so you know, your wife's fine. The baby's okay. His blood was like water. And they could only do half the transfusion. And so what was going on, just to kind of explain, was something in his blood, my wife had a, what's I'm going to call it in the blood? I can't believe I'm forgetting the name of it. You know you get a flu shot and it builds up antibodies.

There we go. Thanks, Ryan. So my wife had antibodies for his blood. So when he was trying to develop red blood cells, her body was attacking it and killing his red blood cells and his ability to create red blood cells. Whole other long story. So we're doing this, and then they do half of it. He wasn't moving still, and then we had to come back. And so we go home, and we're sitting on the couch and just kind of staring off longingly.

You know those days you get such bad news, you just sit and just stare, and you kind of feel like you're underwater. You don't really hear anything. You're just kind of like the skin would fall off if it wasn't attached to your skeleton. So it was one of those moments, and we're just sitting on the couch,

and then my wife just reaches over and grabs my wrist and puts it on her stomach. And then all of a sudden, I I'm looking and they're all confused. And then I feel this gigantic, like one of these, like boom, like a front kick into my hand. And it was the first time I'd ever felt my son move. And so when he kicked my hand, I felt like this incredible jolt of energy and inspiration and drive, and I knew that we were going to be okay.

He totally recalibrated me. Like, Dad, stop it. Kick it. Get going. We're going to make it. Everything's going to be fine. Right. He slapped you in the face.

Like, get out of here. Yeah. Completely strong-willed little creature inspired me. So eventually we go through this whole bunch a lot more. There's a lot more going on with him. Damn. I just got a jolt of energy as well. Dude. more. There's a lot more going on with him. Damn. I just got a jolt of energy as well. Dude.

That was a really good fucking five minutes right there. When he kicked me in the hand like that and the energy surge I felt, it was almost like I knew I was going to be okay the rest of my life because my son was strong-willed and he's ready and he's going to fight and everything is going to be fine. Really, from a parent, that's what you really want in your kids. You want them to have a strong will. You want them to have grit.

You want them to be able to face adversity and be okay with it. Because protecting them from that is impossible, right? You can't protect anybody. All you can do is hope they have the strength to face it honorably. And you've prepared them enough so they can take it anybody. All you can do is hope they have the strength to face it honorably. And you've prepared them enough so they can take it on.

Yeah. So six more surgeries, not breathing at birth. There was other complications. My wife had to be in the labor and delivery unit for like a month. He was born prematurely. He was in the NICU for a while. And so all these things, all this strength and determination in the face of adversity, this little indomitable spirit is what really helped me launch the Sisu Way. And so to circle back, his behavior, that strong-willed behavior,

is why we named him Connor because it means strong-willed behavior, is why we named him Connor, because it means strong-willed. And being open and sharing stories also goes back to my dad passed away a week after my first son was born. His first grandson. Born one week later, my dad died. And he had cancer. So during this time,

when it looked like he wasn't going to make it, I had a conversation with him. I told him that, by the way, this is like a terrible discussion to have, but a very necessary one, is that I told him to write to his grandson. So I just started writing to him, because he's not going to be around.

I love that. And so just even like articulating, having that sound come out of your throat to your father was difficult, but necessary. So I told him this, and he, let's see, so a week later after my son was born, I get a call from my mom, and all she's doing is apologizing to me. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

And she was apologizing not because my dad had died, and that was what she was calling to tell me, but she was calling to apologize because he didn't finish writing. So he had started writing on an iPad, and two paragraphs in started coughing up blood and died. And so when I read that what he wrote on the iPad, it was information I never knew about him. Like, and I would just want him to keep writing. And so all these things coupled together is what's helped me open up and, and be very personal on the CC way

because I'm leaving content out there for my kids and I'm helping others leave content out for their kids not just the kids but people out there in their family and doing character stories correctly and sharing lessons having gratitude and appreciation understanding that health is wealth that vulnerability is strength and that health is wealth, that vulnerability is strength, and that strength is a choice, and having those stories out there. That's why the Sisu way is.

Damn. That's incredible, man. I love that as a motivation. I mean, there's always people talking about whatever you do, whatever you want to do in life, you always need a strong why and motivation. I feel like for a podcast, at least, that's the greatest motivation and why i've ever heard of well thank you thank you my first episode is uh i titled it for dad and it's just i never thought i would ever in my life and like i never thought i would sit down and record a podcast to share with

the world if they want and talk by myself like i never thought that would i was like how did i get here i'm sitting here alone talking into this piece of metal and it's gonna resonate with people and those moments are really cool in life too you were talking about one of the moments that we've all had when like you get really bad news and you're just kind of like sitting there and you're like paralyzed almost i really like that moment too where you were all of a sudden, maybe because you've been busy, maybe because you just haven't been paying attention, whatever it is,

maybe because there's just so much going on, and then all of a sudden it's just someone hits pause and you just look around. And it can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing where you're just like, how did I get here? You know what I mean? Like, oftentimes it is a good thing. We just kind of, like, look around and you're like, wow,

I can't believe, like, I have this house, I have this family, I have these kids, I have all this. And it feels like for me, if two weeks ago it feels like I was freaking living in Germany being 17 years old going to high school. And then all of a sudden I'm here and I'm sitting down with you recording a podcast with the guy that started WalkHouse Podcast in 2012. It's like, holy shit. Like, how does that – how do I get from here to here? You know what I mean? But it's so cool to just take that moment and take that time sometimes to just look back and be nostalgic.

Well, a couple things. Having gratitude and appreciation and doing it daily is, I think, one of the most important things you can do because otherwise life is just going to keep going by and you're not going to realize what you have absolutely and if you're happy with what you have or what you get to do then you are a wealthy person what are some of the ways that you like to you know go through these routines so it's it's this is it's not necessarily a routine. No, for some people it is. And these are things I've learned. So on the Sisu Way, I've had different types of people on.

I've had Dan Clark on recently, Nitro, who had a heart attack and almost died. Oh, yeah, he has a book now. Yeah, F Dying. And so I just had him on. It just came out this week. I've had somebody on whose 15-month-old baby was killed by a DUI driver. I've had somebody on that is fostering a young baby that could get taken away at any point in time. And all these people, there's a whole story here, and it's all about appreciation and gratitude, regardless of what the possible outcome could be that is out of your control.

And so if you take a second. So what I mean by this is some people have a gratitude journal. Some people do in the morning. Some people do in the evening. There's a lot of different things. I actually just started the five-minute journal, if you've heard of that, this morning. I just got it on Amazon yesterday, and I just started it this morning. Two things about this.

When people are developing, I always recommend people to read, right? Read, right. Okay, read. Read books. Study. Don't just read. Study. And study the books as if you're going to teach them.

It helps you retain the information i think sometimes people focus on reading books for time like it's a crossfit workout yeah and just to say and put on the shelf and say i read that book i've done that before and like without without actually taking notes it's it's in one ear and out the other even a podcast i can't sit and listen to a podcast unless i actually take notes yeah you have to well so i mean i can but like when it's over like i'll forget like a lot of it yeah but you might Even a podcast, I can't sit and listen to a podcast unless I actually take notes. Yeah, you have to. I mean, I can, but when it's over, I'll forget a lot of it. Yeah, but you might be a visual person where seeing a written letter is different than hearing it. Yeah.

But anyway, my point being is don't rush. Actually study it. Really try and learn the information. But even greater than that for development and developing gratitude would be writing. It's so much harder than people think. Absolutely. And then write to somebody.

So before my kids were born, or before my first son was born, I wrote to him years ago. And so write to your former self. Pick something very specific and write. And you'll be amazed at what comes out. You don't even have to share with anybody. Just start writing. And if you have kids, this is another thing I've talked about a lot on my podcast.

If you have young kids, start writing. Write to them. At a minimum, write to them on their birthdays. Because for parents, we're not guaranteed. You can go get coffee and get hit by a car. And this is, coffee and get hit by a car.

And this is, you can get stage four cancer out of the blue. Just happened to my aunt. We all know of somebody that has just kind of, like, died suddenly. And part of the drawbacks, positive or negative, however you want to look at it, of being in law enforcement, especially being in patrol, you see all the people that die and how common it is. And so life is not like, life is a gift, right? It's a privilege. It's not guaranteed, nor is it a right. And so to really start, you want to be able to leave something for them. So that's what

I mean to go back to writing. So you talk about gratitude and appreciation, and living there makes you so wealthy. It makes everything so much fun. Yep. Like, when I walked in here today, I was, like, surging in happiness. I had the ability, first of all, I had the ability to walk in here. I could stand up straight. I've had back injuries, and sometimes I can't stand up. I don't know if you guys have had that, where you can't stand up straight.

I think he does, but not me so much. Okay, so you know what I'm talking about. You know those days when you can't, you stand up, but you, like, can't. So you do, like, either this or this. You're not really sure, like, do I put my hips here and stand and make it look like I'm standing? Or do I just do, like, hunch over? And so having the ability to stand up straight and walk in somewhere without pain. That to me is amazing.

Yep. And I have all my fingers here. I have this thumb. I could grip my coffee and hold it. I live in an area where Starbucks is everywhere. I didn't know it was a coffee spot right there across the street. Otherwise I probably would have gone there. That's a great coffee shop.

So I can hold this and I can drink it and then I can come into my buddy Ryan's gym. That's awesome. And there are all these people enjoying their health and their fitness, and they're getting after it. So that's what I mean, like in every single moment. And then I can walk. I have all my toes. I can balance.

I'm wearing Chuck 2s. They're way more comfortable than Chuck 1s. So if you keep going, if you actually stop and evaluate, right now, boom, if you were to stop and think what you have and what you get to do, it helps you live in appreciation and gratitude. Absolutely. It's incredible. And, I mean, we talk about that all the time.

We talk about meditation on this podcast a lot as well. And I think gratitude in general, no matter what kind of meditation, I feel like everybody kind of has their own way of meditating. Like it doesn't really have to be sitting down on the ground and closing your eyes and breathing type of thing. Like there's different outlets for different people. But I think gratitude is always one thing that comes up a lot and all over and all over again i think it just helps kind of break those mental cycles and loops that you're just going through all day every day right you're having these conversations in your head with people that aren't actually happening you're imagining all these things that are bad and oh my god what if this happens what if this happens but none of it ever actually happens it's just all these like ghosts that you keep making up in your head and the gratitude kind of like slaps you in

the face and completely snaps you out of that and i actually started doing that like a while ago um where i take a moment at night and i find even before i had the five minute journal and i mean the five minute journal actually makes you write it down but i just kind of did it more as like a meditation practice where i find three things that i'm grateful for during that day and within a short period of time i want to say like three four maybe five days i felt myself being happier throughout the day even and i wasn't even it wasn't clicking that that's where it was coming from so i was like going through the day and it felt like I was almost high. Everything was brighter.

Everything was more fun. Everything was more colorful. And after three, four days of this going on, I sat myself down. I'm like, what have I been doing differently? Am I sleeping more? No. Am I eating differently? No.

And then it all just came down to those 10 minutes at nighttime where I just find three things that I'm grateful for, and it just completely changes your mental behavior. First of all, your imagination is a liar. I tell people that, right? Our monkey mind is always jumping around, making noise and being scared and fearful and pointing out false realities that, if you

think about it, are not going to come true. I read a stat the other day. The average human has about 30,000 thoughts a day 97% of those are negative jeez so the good news is that there's something we can do about it

the other thing so gratitude and appreciation you said three things at night that's one thing I do with my kids well my five year old now my little one is still too young. But in bed, I have him tell me three things he's grateful for. And it's amazing the things that come out of a five-year-old's mouth that he's grateful for.

Let's do the highlights right now. Yeah, but it's, oh, my gosh. Just give me the top three. Oh, man, he's grateful for his penis. Oh, my God, he said that? Yeah, yeah, you know why? Because he was telling me how he could stand up and point, and he's happy about that. I'm grateful for my penis. Oh my god, he said that? Yeah, you know why? Because he was telling me how he could stand up and point and he's happy about that.

I'm grateful for my penis. Right, right. Oh man. But it's also like, so you're talking about that and the beautiful lessons that you can, if you watch kids, man, they're happy. If you put a kid in a corner with like a ball,

they're going to be totally happy. Because they can sit there and play. Kids are awesome if you just watch them and get to kind of look at life through a little kid's eyes. Absolutely. Because the stuff that we've learned to like be cranky about is learned and you can unlearn it, right? So it's force-pawing, but you can get rid of it. Now, meditating, that is a whole other component that, well, so meditation is like a big umbrella, right? So there's a lot of things that can fall underneath that. Absolutely. And the term that's

getting thrown around a lot now is mindfulness. Yep. And so one thing that I think is really, really important is inaction. So in CrossFit, it's action. And it's always action. And it's stress. You're always stressing out your body, you're stressing out your cells, you're stressing out your mind by staring at a clock

and being nervous about if you're going to win or lose or if you're going to be super slow, whatever the case may be. It's stress. Action is stress. And so the flip side, we have to work on inaction you have to be good at both of them

I think Mark Devine said a warrior has to be as skilled in inaction as he is in action and especially if you live in an area covered by concrete and noise and cars and priorities and time all these things especially like

in this area like in in L.A., there's this whole weird stressful pressure to put down on everybody. If you sit here, if you go outside, you feel it, but if you go up in the woods, you don't feel that. I actually just went to Yosemite a couple weeks ago. Whatever that is isn't there. It's crazy.

As soon as you drive into that place, you just feel like a different human being. Yeah. If you drove your car down the street, get out. Just pay attention to how you feel.

And then drive your car to Yosemite, get out and pay attention to the way you feel. It's completely different. That's a crazy observation. Like, I feel it,

but I don't really think about it like in that way. Well, it's there. And this is part of the mindfulness because you get to

kind of realize it. You start to realize, like this room right here. Imagine we're sitting here for a while, and now we left. We go outside, and then we come back in here, and we realize how hot and stinky it is. I'm not saying it is right now, but my point being, so if you're in it for so long, you don't realize it,

and so you have to kind of do something to change your perspective or get some focus and kind of wake up a little bit to see what's kind of. I already love where this is going. Right? Okay. So a way to do that is meditation. And so sometimes people, I'm careful with the word meditation because some people have a negative connotation to it. 100%.

Right? Kind of like the word CrossFit. You say CrossFit to people and already they have judgments and preconceived ideas about it and they're turned off. That's why this place is called Chalk. So? Yeah. And meditation is the same thing. My girlfriend makes fun of me all the time for meditating because she's like, you're not the fucking guy to meditate.

Like, you know what I mean? People think of like some dude with a long beard and like monk clothes and freaking going through life, Zen all the time. And like, it's not about that at all. Yep. Well, it sounds like your wife, your girlfriend needs it.

Yeah. That's what I would tell you. Cause most people, most people that have that need it. And so we're, so if we're going to talk about inaction, cause I think action is pretty like, you know,

we talk about a lot in all of our podcasts, you know, what's your squat program? What's this program? How often are you doing Metcons and all this stuff? We always talk about that. But how often are we talking about, hey, are you doing four rounds of breathing? Are you sitting still? I want you to sit still.

Here's your workout, 10 minutes. Go sit still. That's what I mean. We don't do that stuff. And it's tremendously beneficial and so we talk about that all the time on the podcast as well like you to be a good athlete or to be a good performer in almost any path of life like we the way the way we talk about it oftentimes is with crossfit just because that's kind of like the nature of the conversation usually

but you can really take that and apply it to everything else where you need to be good at like ramping up your nervous system it needs to be ramped up right like okay three two one go let's fucking hit this and let's just go all the way through but then you also need the opposite side like your parasympathetic nervous system you just need to be able to calm down like can you actually sit on your couch at night after everything is done like you had a great productive day you got a great workout in you got all your work done you got your errands done you did all this are you able to actually sit on your couch and just calm down before you go to sleep or are you sitting down on your couch your mind is still racing and you're doing this and you're trying to figure out 500,000 things and you're never actually getting the rest that you need that's me yeah so so well it's it's good

because now we're going to get into something that we talked about earlier. And you're talking about the differences between your sympathetic and your parasympathetic nervous system. Another fascinating thing to talk about is also the vagus nerve and how it relates to both of those. This thing can go on forever. So let's pick a path. So what we're going to, I'd like to talk about with you, Ryan, is you recently discovered the Wim Hof method and so I think that is actually a very good like baseline entry point into people that might not have a mindfulness practice or or a pranayama as they say in Sanskrit that it's a breathing practice. So have you done it?

Have you done the Wim Hof Method? Yeah, I do every morning too. Okay, so you see like, well, I'm kind of curious because Ryan, you are like an action man, right? I'm super high energy all the time. Right? And I love adventure for sure.

What have you learned in the Wim Hof so far? Well, it's only been a week, but... Let me point something out. I feel like I get a little bit of energy from it. I mean in conjunction with the fact that I'm in a freezing cold shower. You don't need any more energy. You're fine.

Well, okay. So – But in the morning, I wake up and I train this lady every single morning at 6 a.m., 6.30 a.m., every single day. And I wake up at 5.30 every day and I'm just like kind of like dragging along and I know I have to train her. And then after that, I don't really want to work out because I'm still kind of like groggy and like – I don't know. Like I didn't – I just didn't want to start my morning that way every day i don't really want to train her in the morning just because it's i won't i really want to wake up one day and like enjoy my morning for a little bit before i you know make someone else's morning

better like every single day do me a favor don't get married no no no uh when you wake up say i get to i know yeah yeah the gratitude thing i just try it i get to because this is what it's totally different now with the with the breathing and the cold shower because like now when i'm done i'm i have more energy to do things that i don't really want to do like i can work out now like after i'm done training her or i can get some work done without like that little like awkward phase of like should i get coffee or should i do this or do that and it's kind of like a mopey kind of start it's not good um but now it's crazy like how uncomfortable a cold shower is but how much i look forward to it now like i can't wait to be uncomfortable and like right now i'm smiling right now ear to ear i. I can't wait to be uncomfortable. Right now I'm smiling right now ear to ear.

I can't wait to get my cold shower tomorrow. I almost want to take a cold shower every night but I know it'll wake me up. But the breathing also is another thing. They're both two small obstacles that I just won before my day even started. I just have a sense of accomplishment before anything's even started

and I think it just feels great. You could probably talk to 99% of the people you talk to but hey take a freezing cold shower in the morning but go fuck yourself well but it's the same way if you said hey go do a crossfit workout most people say go fuck yourself yeah it's difficult so like the wim hof method is broken down in three components you have a breathing component you have a cold exposure component and then the the commitment, the mindset component. That's my favorite part. Yeah, most... I love discipline.

I would... Like, when I was a kid, people asked me what my dream job would be, and I wanted to be a drill sergeant. And I, like, I kind of am that now as a... Oh, you should get a Smokey the Bear hat. Oh. Dude, I actually still, like...

When I think of just like an awesome job I'd be like just a Navy SEAL instructor just fucking yelling at people and just like just beating all of them and everything. I just think that'd be the greatest job ever. And so you come across somebody that's completely okay with that then it's irrelevant.

And the people who do it like hate it usually. Well their voices. They have a cool mustache though it's so funny so the breathing so most crossfitters or most people committed to

some type of fitness lifestyle have the commitment template right the mindset template to where they're going to do something difficult and not run away from it immediately and so in in a way, I look at cold exposure similar to CrossFit. So in CrossFit, you start doing a workout. Let's just say you're just picking up a barbell and doing some squats until you can't do squats anymore. You get to a certain point where you're like, ow, put the barbell down. And then your mind kicks in and says, no, we're going to keep going.

Finish. Right? Okay. And then your body's like, ow, stop. Put the barbell down. And the mind says, no, we're going to keep going. And it's just a constant back and forth. Right? So the mind is going to be stronger than the body if that is what you want to be. And so that's what I mean.

Like the mindset commitment is there when it comes to cold exposure. Because you get into taking an ice bath. If you were to like put your hand in there, your body's going to say no, don't go in there. And then just like when the workout gets hard, are you going to bail? So there's like little wins there. And that's where I think the mindset commitment

is already built in for people, especially for CrossFitters. Now the breathing component, it's hard to say which one of the three is, like, most important. It's hard. Like, for me, I kind of go, I cycle back between all of them. But the breathing component and doing the 30 to 40 power breaths and then the breath holds and then the deep inhale and hold,

those are so critical for most people. And if I could, just for most people that are dedicated to something in action, it would be to do the breathing work. Just to sit still and do conscious breathing. And people are like, no, I can't do that. It's weird. I'm like, you do 20,000 of those a day, empty. Just, you know, in and out, in and out.

But you can directly influence your overall health and well-being. Just by sitting still and doing some conscious breathing. Body, mind, spirit, all of it. All of it. Hit it. And that's the thing.

Right now I can take a big deep breath and my shoulders will drop and I'll just feel so much more in the moment. Okay, let's talk about that. If somebody wants to do a quick little hijack, and I don't even like saying hijack or hack because all we're doing is getting in touch with our human self, right?

Just fucking breathing. That's been there for a long time. It's not a deep, dark secret. Before the internet and before everything. So if somebody were to take a deep breath in through the nose, like deep. And then letting it out. Just a nice, deep cycle. Relaxing your face.

Having loose, happy eyes and a smile. Just by doing that, you've stimulated the vagus nerve and putting yourself back into a parasympathetic state. And now you're kind of like, oh my gosh, I feel a lot better. I'm in the moment, I'm happy, I have gratitude. And my nervous system isn't freaking out. That simple little thing. And that takes, what, 30 seconds? Yep. And so the benefit of breathing,

I'm not going to get into all the science there. If you guys check out, go check out the Wim Hof Method. But the science is there all the way down to a cellular level. And then how that improves overall you know wealth uh health well-being um the first time i ever did it i felt my like any depression and anxiety was like gone i had this weird thing that i did four rounds of it and i felt like somebody had taken something away from me like something was gone and i don't know what it was but i felt like i could taken something away from me. Like something was gone. And I don't know what it was. But I felt like I could smile like I used to smile.

And what I mean by used to smile is prior to a career in law enforcement. Now, a career in law enforcement, you're exposed on a daily basis to trauma and suffering and stress and the worst parts of human behavior. And that stuff starts to wear on a person. It starts to wear. Anything that your imagination can think of. Dead babies, sexually abused kids, the sound a mom makes when she loses her child. All this stuff.

And then hate from people, the sound of the radio, having to put on a bulletproof vest to go to work. Imagine you get, Ryan, you gotta go to work. Okay, make sure you put this vest on and make sure you have a gun. Alright, okay, go. It's constant stress and trauma. I never even thought of it like that. That is crazy to think about. Well, just the amount of things that you see. I understand the things you guys

go through. To say a cop has a dangerous day, you get that. No, man. But I don't think people think about the things that you guys go through. To say a cop has a dangerous day, you get that. No, man. But I don't think people think about the things that you guys have to see every day. Or like a nurse, for instance. Yeah, I'll get into it.

Let me get in. So having that stuff happen, I kind of eventually realized that I wasn't the same person. I'm still like me. I still identify as a good man. But I was carrying something heavy. And first responders have that burden of carrying stuff

for the general community. Most people were like the weird emotional shield, right? And so I kind of felt like something there was taken away from me from the breathing and the mindfulness. To get into it, there is is so is it dangerous? yes the most dangerous thing by the way is drivers

just in general like car accidents and collisions and stuff like that is terribly dangerous for everybody but especially law enforcement

because a lot of the guys in patrol are spending that's their office it's a mobile it's a mobile office right in a car but imagine going to work and then, okay, everyone is at their worst moment.

You're going to go to it. And that's your day. It's not like, hey, it's Billy's 13th birthday party. Call the police. That'd be one hell of a party, though, if the cops no it does happen yeah

obviously there's noise complaints and stuff no no I'm joking but what I'm saying is like first responders see the worst parts of human behavior yeah

and it's also something sometimes like I'm home and I'm so like off in the distance and sometimes I realize it sometimes I don't but if my wife

kind of asks me what's going on I have them I'm coming to a crossroads where i'm like i'm not sure i want to lay this on her yeah i don't know if i really want to tell her what's bugging me because it's going to emotionally affect her but this is a whole other side of my life i'm trying to discover and um working with other people in law enforcement to kind of find a good way to do that because it's beneficial. That's going to be my next question.

Is there, I don't want to say help, but support for these kind of situations? I mean, is that something that everybody deals with? I know mindfulness is not the newest concept in general, but I feel like it's getting more and more traction in just mental health in general. Yeah, so in law enforcement, there are shooting qualifications. There are physical fitness qualifications. There are updates on domestic violence. You name it.

There's always training because especially first responders, they have to be good at everything. You have to be a doctor. You have to be a psychologist. You have to know kung fu. You have to be a marksman, like from be a psychologist. You have to know Kung Fu. You have to be a marksman from the highest ranking. You can never miss. You have to be able to shoot somebody running in the leg. It doesn't happen.

You have to be hand-to-hand combat. You have to be a stunt driver. You have to be in the world's greatest shape. You have to be able to talk to everybody and speak a bunch of different languages. It's an impossible thing. And to be perfect isn't possible. And we're all humans that grew up in the same communities as everybody else that are trying to do a hard job. So the goal is to be as excellent as they can.

But there's never, at least in my experience so far, there's not like a qualification where somebody come in and they go, how are you? It doesn't happen. And so we get this mental health training, but a lot of time

it's somebody else's mental health. And so just like being in this room, like I was saying earlier how it stinks, a lot of times in law enforcement, you don't really realize it, that you're in like a stinky room, emotionally stinky room yeah until you go on vacation sometimes i go on vacation i'm gone for a while or if i went to yosemite and then you realize it and then you come back into it and the next thing you know like it's easy to get sunk into

the cynicism of the world right and you you start seeing the worst parts of human behavior, and so that's what you believe in. And we start seeing the world differently. Like if we looked out the window and we saw somebody standing next to a car looking at it, some people might think that person's like checking out their hair or their outfit. But law enforcement will probably think

that guy's going to break into the car. That's like, it's not a normal way of thinking. And so it is a stressful thing. And so the answers there are talking about it, are having a mindfulness practice, are is meditating, is doing yoga,

is doing physical fitness, trying to get some sleep, which is difficult for shift work. All the things that a normal person would do. It just, for law enforcement, I think it's very important, especially the sitting still, doing some breathing and doing a gratitude practice, all the things we talked about. Yeah.

But deliberate. But it's tough sometimes for an alpha male to actually admit that they need some help oh yeah i can definitely imagine and that's another thing and that's why i think the wim hof is such a good in kind of into the whole thing because one just like ryan said he's been doing it for like a week and you can just feel something happening right away so i feel like that's a really good start for people to like get into that whole routine and maybe then start dabbling with meditation start dabbling with this whatever it is right and then on the other hand it's not like super like zen yogi type of shit you know what i mean it's not like yo go sit outside and just don't move for 10 minutes type of thing you know what i mean

we're like a lot of like alpha males or people in crossfit like people that are so active and moving all the time they're gonna be like nah dude that sounds fucking terrible whereas the wim hof is kind of like it has like that active component it feels like you're actually doing something yeah you know you're just breathing yeah sure but there's a challenge to it there's like okay i want to do this i want to be able to like complete this i want to get better at this type of thing that exactly but let me point something out here uh two things number one it's not always the amount of time or how many times a week you do it right quality is important um but also with something to point out about the wim hof method and this is something i noticed

in myself by doing the breathing and then the holds i used to time it, my hold, see how long I wasn't breathing. Yeah. And then each time I would try and beat it. For sure. So now I'm making a competition out of this. Now I'm starting to kind of stress out about my time. And I'm trying to hold it. I'm trying to – and that's what it became now. Now it's a game.

Now it's a stress to me. So I don't even time that shit anymore. I used to do that too. But like you're saying, and then you might be sitting down at the same time every day. You might be doing this, but the state that your body is in, the state your mind is in

can be so all over the place that yeah, maybe yesterday you were able to hold it for this long, but then maybe today you're not because something happened or you're already stressed out or you're tired or you didn't sleep well.

So it's ridiculous to try and hold it to this standard and like, okay, i'm going to beat myself by two seconds or whatever yeah it doesn't really matter anyway yeah yeah and it's okay it's it's kind of like the same thing it's okay to not be okay it's okay and just like the breathing let it go that's one of the things i like about wim hof when he says let it go. He does two things. When he's exhaling, let it go. And he comes down and he gets this deep tone, and he almost gets back into that like really, really deep vibration,

which if you guys don't realize it, but it's also stimulating your vagus nerve, which is helping you get back to your parasympathetic state. This whole thing is all very fascinating. But you're talking about law enforcement. I just went to a Wim Hof course that was taught by a retired law enforcement officer. And I was in it with

several other law enforcement officers. So it's kind of cool to see like, and we were okay sitting, laying down next to each other like completely breathing and taking our clothes off and getting in an ice bath together. It's important and it's a bond and it's about keeping an open mind and being supportive of each other, which is a whole other thing that most people,

I don't think most people do it. People automatically will like kind of like judge and look for something to make fun of. And if they're doing that, that generally means they got something going on with themselves and it's something they got to do. And maybe they should get an ice bath with somebody, but there's also a community component too like the breathing stuff and doing that in a community is important yep i still can't believe that guy climbed the top of mount everest with no shirt on well he went what'd he do he did kill a manjaro in fact he's doing a

half marathon he might have already done it. In some mountain somewhere. Minus 20 degrees. But he's also been doing cold exposure, which you build tolerance to. He's been doing the breath work and stuff since he was in college. He's an old man now. So he might have a brown fat adaptation so he can withstand it maybe more than others. Oh, for sure. But he's definitely like,

it's undeniable that he's onto something that's going to help people have a healthy life and taking control of your autonomic nervous system and your immune system. Do you feel like this whole trend and shift in, let's say, society in general, towards mindfulness, towards gratefulness, towards just kind of like the whole mental health thing?

Is there a response to something else that's going on in society at all? Possibly. People are depressed. People are sad. More than ever, right? I don't know. I haven't been around forever.

But at least in our short lifetimes and being aware and and also being um mindful of our well-being so if you're committed to fitness and nutrition you kind of already on this like self-diagnosis thing right some people are not into that at all so that part most people right most yeah so well some people are scared of that right you're like scared of what you're gonna find if you actually fucking slow down and that's another component yeah on your head that's another component i have a buddy who's like it's gonna sound weird but he's like scared to actually sit and take deep breaths. That was me like before the podcast started.

Like before the podcast started, I'd be like, fuck you. I'm not doing that. That's dumb. Or like this is dumb. That's dumb. I'm not thinking about that. I'm like I would never want to sit and think about nothing. Like all these things, I'm just like no.

Like fucking go, go, go like all the time. You feel like it's a waste of time too. I do. Or you did at least. Like just after the show, we're going to go do like one of those float tank things and i don't want to do it for the first time and this just shows you perfectly that how like different our mind states are right i'm super fucking excited for that i'm like hell yeah dude that's sensory like deprivation just take everything else out let's just be me in my head and just see what's going on do like a deep

dive type of thing right and fish is like freaking out about it he's like dude i can't be in that thing for long yeah it doesn't matter he's like no matter how much salt is in there this density is gonna sink yeah i just think about all the cool things i could be doing in the hour like with not being in the thing oh my gosh here's you know what is? A lot of this stuff that we're doing, it's an outward focus. And by sitting still, breathing, and also a sensory deprivation tank, like floating, it's also important to take a journey inward. Because it's inward that you find the most amount of strength. It's where you find, like, your true source of power.

It's all within you, man. And so tapping into that and then getting a relationship with yourself, loving yourself, and you discovering the strength within you is so important. Yep. And then being able to apply that to your life

and just the gratitude and all that stuff, it builds better relationships too with all the people around you. Yeah. And you might even start saying no to stuff. Yeah stuff yeah yeah i've been getting better at that for sure and you're just like you're you're more in touch with everything and you're just a lot more honest i had a moment like that on saturday we're out getting breakfast with your friends and one of the friends asked me to like go out at nighttime and i was like yeah maybe like we'll see and then

before we're leaving she was like you're better enough lake on me tonight and i was like yeah maybe like we'll see and then before we're leaving she was like you're better enough for they call me tonight and i'm like you know what i might like and i feel like no one would ever say that but i was like thinking about i was like you know what i might i kind of just wanted to like take it easy tonight and be mellow so like we'll see but i'll let you know and you could just totally tell like on her face that she was totally caught off guard by that she was like what it's actually really fucking honest. You got to honor yourself and take care of yourself so that you can do that for other people.

And it's less stressful that way. Right. It's so like life is so much less stressful that way. If you're just honest and if you're actually saying what's on your mind and if you're actually like being able to connect with people and if you're in the moment and if you're taking everything in and then like one of the biggest, I don't want to call it an issue,

but one of the biggest fights I have in my relationship with my girlfriend is that I don't understand stress. I don't. I'm never stressed out. And she works like a regular 9-to-5, and I understand that my lifestyle is a lot different from hers, but I don't understand the concept of stress. And I think a lot of that comes from my dad.

My dad works a nine to five and he was always at work all day, every day. But he would come home and he would love my mom and he would make us dinner and he would play with us and then he would send us to bed. He was never tired. He was never stressed out. He'd never had any of the like,

oh my God, fucking traffic was so bad. Like I've never seen that from my dad at all. And I mean, I just had my green card appointment like two months ago something like that i was stressed for that i was i couldn't sleep for a couple nights before that because that's like that's that's life changing right if that doesn't go well i gotta leave the country i gotta go home and everything i've built for myself in the past five six years is gone you can stress about that that's fine right if a loved one is sick so you can stress about that that's fine but because a loved one is sick so you can stress about

that that's fine but because fucking nancy said something to you at work like who gives a shit just let it go and i feel like so many of our issues nowadays in our society would be resolved if we could just fucking let it go you know don't comment on it don't write a yelp review don't do anything just take a deep breath and go on with your life. I'm going to tell you something, and this is something I've learned. Having a father like you did, right, and give you these lessons and grit and hard work and gratitude and appreciation, that is a gift that you got that maybe not everybody has that. Absolutely. And so your girlfriend might have a completely different framework

that she's been raised on. And there's also different languages and things that might be affecting her that's different than yours. And so I always tell people, and this is paraphrasing a whole bunch of quotes, but really, really, really work hard on trying to understand her. Yeah. Right? Have empathy.

And then try and figure out what's actually going on. Because then you'll be able to fix or help. You can't fix it because you have to give her the strength. Just like your dad did for you, you could do this for her. So I found that, like, especially in a relationship, this is a whole other topic. When you get in a relationship with somebody, business or romantic or your team, whatever it is. So your girlfriend, there's a whole lot of chicks out here, especially, what is this, Orange County?

Come on, man. You chose her, right? And so by not having an understanding or even trying to be right in an argument is detrimental to your team. So if you really try and understand her and help build her up, that's going to make your team stronger.

There's a whole thing I've been... And also speaking in different love languages and trying to understand each other. Love that shit too. Seek to understand. Don't try and win. Don't try and win. And then eventually later on down the line

you can try to be understood. Yeah. No, I'm with you. And I'm 100 100 like even in arguments i used to be different in relationship and arguments like before i started meditation and all that stuff where i was like that where i was like well i'm fucking right yeah and now i think it kind of we always talk about the pendulum and how it kind of like swings now i'm almost like swung all the way the other way where i'm so just i don't want to say distatched but for lack of a better term let's just go with that from the situation where like she's telling me something or like we're arguing about something and I'm just like

yeah you're right yeah whatever you say because I really like you know like what you're saying like I'm trying to understand her and I'm trying to help her and I I don't really stress out about the stuff that we fight about. So then I'm just kind of like letting her know like, yeah, whatever. But then she – it comes to her thinking that I don't care about it. Well, you don't care about when I talk about this. I'm just like, no, I do care. I just don't really like – it doesn't get to me as much as it gets to you.

But I guess what you're saying is correct, like just trying to understand and that the empathy factor is huge. What if one day you said to her like, hey really i really want to help i really care about you what can i do to help yeah holy smokes i said to my wife she's like what do you want um but crossfit i think eventually we're going to start seeing built into the workout. You have your warm-up. You have this. You have that.

But throwing in some actually breath work into it. I think I'm kind of curious, Ryan, as you get going, how you're going to realize in your workout how you can also go back to your parasympathetic nervous system based on your mindset and breathing, and then you're going to be able to do stuff harder and longer. Have you done the push-ups yet? Mm-mm so like one hot push-up well I mean the push-ups are push-ups right now so try this like right now if you look if you to do them like a max set of push-ups what do you what do you normally would get to? like 12 I think you'd probably get close to 100 I'm joking 100 pushups?

yeah for sure I could do I could do 50 at a clip for sure like your arms are like foreign okay and your big old chest

I get it so here's my point penis hits the ground first yeah range of motion yeah so here's the thing whatever like you normally would get to in a push-up, think about that.

And then what ends up happening is if you do four rounds of the Wim Hof breathing. So let's just say, simplicity, you're doing 30 breaths. And then in your 30th breath, you're exhaling and you're holding until you can't breathe. Then go a little bit longer until you really can't breathe and go a little bit longer. And then when you really need to breathe, you take one gigantic breath in. All the way in. Hold that. Kind of like flex on it a little bit.

Think about pushing the oxygen up to your brain. And then letting that go. That's one round. So on the breath hold. On the fourth round. So you're breathing in. Letting it go. Not breathing in, letting it go. Not breathing.

Do push-ups. So you're doing a max set of push-ups without breathing. The whole time. I guarantee you, you're going to do more push-ups than you ever have. So breathe in, breathe out,

all air out, and then I start doing push-ups. Yeah, so here's the trick. On the last power breath, you're staying out. So you're breathing in, right, and breathing out. Breathing in, breathing out. For the sake of the microphone, I'm not actually going to do it, but breathing in.

25 times. Breathing out. But on the exhale, it's not like you're not letting it all out. Yeah. It's a natural letting it fall, right? Breathe in and then relax. Okay, so he's not in Wim Hof breath. These are just big breaths.

No, no, that's a Wim Hof breath. You're never fully's all right. Wim Hof breath. These are just big breaths. No, no. That's a Wim Hof breath. You're never fully exhaling for the Wim Hof. It's letting it fall is the way I think about it. I'm breathing it. And then I'm letting it fall. Now at this point, I'm not breathing. So I'm doing my push-ups.

Okay, gotcha. But do that on the fourth round. So when your body is like tingling and like vibrating with oxygen, there's oxygen all through your cells. So your body has fully breathed. All your respiratory, all your cells and your mitochondria, everything is like dancing. And then you do pushups. And you're're gonna be absolutely amazed on how many you can do

i'm gonna think about my mitochondria dancing the entire time doing push-ups now good no actually that was such a good like imagery right there yeah just watching my mitochondria dancing inside my body the whole double membrane inside your cell adenosine triphosphate yes but you get in and then you do it, and then you might even finish doing push-ups and then not even have to breathe yet. And then once you feel it, then you take the big old breath in and flex on it, get all the oxygen up to the brain,

and then letting it go. And then eventually doing that, then getting in the cold shower. By the way, the cold shower thing, also, I don't know if you're just going cold turkey in the cold shower, but the way, the cold shower thing, also, I don't know if you're just going cold turkey in the cold shower, but another way is take a normal shower and then slowly bring it down, bring it down, bring it down, and then spend, like, the last

in the beginning, spend, like, the last 30 seconds in cold water. I start, like, I don't actually like warm showers at all. I never have. Like, I always start, start like right in the middle. Like mine's like it's already kind of cold already, like just on the little bit.

So I do that for like literally two minutes when I wake up in the morning and then I just crank it all the way down just right away and then I just sit there and deal with it. And I do like two or three little spins and I start doing, I do that first and then I do the breath. It's a fascinating thing.

So how it's uncomfortable, right? But really everything that's beneficial in life is generally uncomfortable. You always have to go through a struggle or suffering to find some beauty. Yeah. And that's like the lesson and the hardship. And also like our world. Lean into that discomfort. Our worlds are like become soft humans.

It's fucking sad. We're reading R.B. Marcus' book On the Day and he's talking about how just like even just – we have floors now that fucking warm up so our feet don't get cold. Heated seats in cars. There's just so many little things that it's like, oh, God forbid that you'd be uncomfortable for a fucking second. And it's like no wonder why everybody today is a pussy. Like everybody is such a fucking pussy like all the time. Everybody just complains about fucking everything.

You know what I mean? Like as soon as there's a little bit of discomfort in their life, they're just kind of finding a way out or they're finding somebody else to blame or they're finding an outlet or they're finding some fucking message board to post on and then starting a movement. And now they're complaining with 100 other people. And it's like, oh, my God, dude. You could have just freaking taken a breath and moved on with your life. But instead, you decided to make this your life now. Well, complaining is a trick. It's a trap.

And it's addictive and it's easy to get into. That's another thing mindfulness will help. Even if somebody next, like if you guys right now, if you start complaining, what do you think he's going to do? Yeah. I'll start complaining about something. Right? Yeah.

I want to share complaints. Or complaining or shit talking or anything under the pessimistic mean umbrella. If you're in a group, this is a homework for everybody. if you're in a group this is a homework for everybody if you're in a group and somebody starts doing that another wake up don't do it it's a trap yeah ben bergeron talks about this stuff all the time too where like when you get to the gym and you don't want to work out and you don't feel good and you don't do this just shut up just don't tell anybody because other people are actually here and they actually want to work out

and they feel good if you come in in the mornings and you walk into to class or whatever and you're like this workout is fucking stupid like this looks dumb i don't want to do this you know then other people start looking at they're like yeah he's right it is dumb yeah get out of here with your emotional pollution you know what i mean henry did that like one of his first days one of my new coaches he saw a workout i had a lot of running in and he's like damn you guys gotta run a lot today and i was like i literally right after class like i heard it and i was like after class i was like bro don't ever say that again like one there's a bunch of people here that are actually excited because they like to run because they just think running burn calories blah blah blah and then like you know there's some people

who don't want they didn't know the workout they got here and they're really bummed about it but if you get them excited put some good music on and fucking start getting the vibe going it doesn't matter dude running is like such a like a privilege and the ability to go frolic about the world holy smokes i can't do it anymore my i have my knee i can't run well because you weigh 350 well legit i have no meniscus, no cartilage left on bone on bone. If I run on the sand, it's not as bad. What if you did a short distance? But I ski now instead of run. If I had running in a workout for the gym, I'd do the ski or I'd do the bike or row or whatever.

But I literally haven't ran in a long time. Everyone did Murph this year, and it was the first year. I was like, fuck, I can't do it. Can you walk? I walk just fine, but if I... Can you walk fast? Yeah.

All right, next time just grab a sled, attach it two ways and go for a walk. That's actually not a bad idea. That I could do. I would limp around for a day or two after that,

but it wouldn't be as... So start slow. Impact. It's, yeah. I don't know. My point being here is on the optimism side and looking for ways to make it work.

Yeah. Instead of the other way. And it's easy to go the other way. And it's easy to let your friends go the other way. Why is that, though? Like, why is it so much easier to give into that, like, oh, my God, this sucks, and this sucks, and this sucks. And, like, then talk to people about it. They're like, oh, yeah, it does suck.

Like, why is that so much easier than just being, like. It's fear-based. people are afraid of failing okay there's also at all times it doesn't matter who you talk to in the world we have dichotomy of thoughts right you have put it simply you have like an angel and a devil always working and the devil is tricky you know if you're going to get up in the morning and the devil is like, no, you can just stay in a little longer. Or like, yeah, it's okay, you can have that cookie. Or like, yeah, it's okay, yeah, the weight's getting heavy. You know, go ahead and put the bar down right here.

Or, oh, yeah, we're getting tired. Maybe just slow down a little bit on the run. Or, yeah, it's okay, we can talk shit about your friend. They're not going to hear us. It's constantly trying to deceive you and mess you up and take you off your goals. I actually had an offensive coordinator when I was in college. He told us a story. And we were in camp.

And so people were dying. I couldn't even walk downstairs. And yet, like, an hour later, I'm running routes. But he says all the stuff, all the difficult stuff. Dude, that's so true. Like I played college football too and it was so funny. Like during spring training, you could literally, we would sit on campus in like where like the big areas

where like everybody hangs out and you could just point out the football players because everybody's walking normal and you just got one guy in the crowd like hunched over, fucking holding his back back like taking one step then pausing taking another step then pausing we're like yep that guy's fucked and then an hour later he's fucking that's okay but that's that's also that mindset to drive on to keep moving forward no matter how you're feeling a normal person would be like i need to go lay down and not move for two

weeks yeah uh but he was telling a story and his thoughts he's like talking about the mornings he was talking about the ice baths. He was talking about mobility. He was talking about the work and how your mindset, your mind is going to try and trick you and tell you you're weak, tell you that you're hurting,

tell you that you can't do anymore. And he's like, you know what you got to do? You got to look at that little devil on your shoulder and go, fuck you, little man. So ever since then, man, sometimes when I get my little inner bitch starts happening, I'm like, no, man. Fuck you, little man.

Yeah, fuck you, little man. You're not in control. I like that. I'll think about that from now on for sure. Yeah, it works. But now here's my point. Now you are in control, and you also get to decide who's in control.

It's another little trick that I've learned through some meditating I found myself meditating I'm on the middle of like this rock in the middle of this river and like it's flowing past me and at first the river was like rough and there's all kinds of debris in it

and stuff and I kept looking and I saw like something going by and I was kind of like freaking out about it, I was like no I don't want to lose that thing oh my gosh oh my gosh all this stuff and then eventually like I realized that the river was in my control and I like calmed down the waters I next thing you know the river was almost like glass and then there's stuff floating and then next thing you know there was less stuff floating past me and then the thing that floated past me earlier which was like some personal thought that was going on in my life instead of freaking out about it now it was floating past me because i can't control that stuff i looked and i saw it and then i let it go i know i noticed it but i didn't freak

out about it yeah it's like oh look at that i'm good and i think that's a perfect analogy for meditation in general i feel like when i talk to friends of mine one thing that they're super scared of is like well i don't want to like control my thoughts and blah blah and do this and i the one thing i would say is it's not really controlling your thoughts it's not changing your mindset at all it's just kind of like being able to see more clearly what's going on in your head and then organizing your thoughts if anything like oh there's a thought or here's a thought or there's a thought if it's a bad thought like dude i don't know if this happens to you but i have i go through life now my day all the time

and like a thought pops into my head and it's that thought usually would have fucked me up or would have like completely thrown me off my course and now you just kind of like you laugh and you're like that's a weird thought to have and then it's gone you know like instead of actually buying into it and putting any energy into like a random thought you just you realize that it that's all it is it's just a thought that your brain came up with for some reason but you're still in control now you know what i like to do and i just recently started talking about this because i i've been doing it for a long time it was kind of of a private thing, but applying mindfulness in the action, so in the training. So most people, if you're training hard, and this parallels a lot of stuff in law enforcement.

So in law enforcement, if you're in a foot pursuit, you have to chase somebody. You have to talk on the radio. You have to say what's going on, what that person looks like, what they're wearing, what direction you're going, when they're turning, what wall they're jumping over, all while looking at this person to make sure they're not trying to, at that exact moment, try and harm you, knowing you're probably about to get into a fight. And so you have to, it's a physical task, but you also have to have mindfulness and awareness of your surroundings and everything that's going on, all while talking. So it's like this weird thing.

And you probably were just sitting still. So imagine right now we're sitting here, like just like this, you've been sitting here, and now let's put a weight vest on both of you. And then at any point, right now, go do Fran. Yeah. Right now, go. And then at any point, right now, go do Fran. Yeah. Right now, go. And then talk about it

and be aware of everything and like what color are the weights on there? What's behind you? What's that person over there? What color shirt are they wearing? What's six times seven? Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?

So you have all these things, components, right? I was like, oh shit. But being actually awake and mindful of everything while you're doing your training it's like a it's it's a trick because a lot of times we get going you've ever noticed that some of the workouts are kind of hard to even count for sure right 14 15 oh god there's so many syllables even though i'm not talking i can't even count with syllables in my

head right yep but being being that aware or even right after you finish a hard workout and then sitting there and doing a bunch of addition it's hard you're like thought drunk and you're like I can't even add

six plus four right now and changing that perspective and like so even like people running around here like every now and then just like hold up

don't even say anything just hold up a number and then come back after the workout see if anyone remembers what it was that's awesome. I like that.

That's cool. Or like throwing stuff out there or stop and giving them a problem or having them be, having more awareness because what ends up happening in this component here is it almost shuts off thinking.

I don't need thoughts. I don't need to think. I singularly need to focus on this one thing. Yeah. And we talk about that a lot. I don't know if i coined this but i'll just go with this i coined it the whole like active meditation thing where you're like super present in your workout and instead of just like you said completely zoning

out you just kind of like a zombie that's running through the motions and then the workout's over and you kind of like look up and like what the fuck just happened to me the the active meditation part where you're in the workout and you're aware of your breathing you're aware of where you're at you know it hurts but you're able to kind of like just lean into the discomfort and the the benefit that you get from it after the workout is so much bigger like the whole zombie thing you walk out of here and you're fucked right you go home and you eat and you go to sleep and you just you feel terrible for the rest of the day but when you when you're able to to control your mind like that within the workout and really being like aware of what you're doing

and what's going on and what's happening you walk out you just have this like spurt of energy for the rest of the day yeah well that's it's essentially what i'm talking about even in the middle of a workout go up and ask me what day of the week it is yeah try it you'll see it's like I can't think oh wow that is amazing to think of the I probably wouldn't know with a little bit

of practice though you'll wake up like don't go to sleep in your workouts stay awake be aware be aware of your body

be aware of your placement be aware of the barbell what's the temperature of the barbell what's a knurling like all these things like what song is playing after a workout have people like stop alright here's a temperature of the barbell? What's a knurling like? All these things. What song is playing? After a workout, have people stop.

All right, here's a piece of paper. Write down the songs that came up. Or even what style of music it was. Most people are like, don't register it. Even through a breathing practice, right, and then applying that to action is beneficial so now like when i do my physical training i i'm doing my very best to stay nasal breathing for as long as i can i have to do like some weird things with my face so like when i when i take a deep breath

open the nostrils if i have like natural or a neutral face i don't breathe well through my nose it's like it's like stuck but I do it like this, it opens up. For some reason, I'm always like got this frown going. But it helps your training, right? There's a whole lot of benefits into nasal breathing. I'm not going to necessarily get into that. Everyone can kind of Google that. But then how the breathing really affects.

So if you do the breathing, a lot of times if you're sitting there, you can almost focus on spots in your body that are tense and focus on it and do some breathing and some focus. The next thing you know, it's like ugh. It's strange, right? It's completely in our control. But also doing that in the workout.

Being mindful of little parts of your body that might be tricking you that it's stinging or hurting when it's not yeah and i mean that's it's an analogy for life too you know like you're even when you're sitting down and just meditating and you kind of like your right shoulder hurts or whatever you tend to even tense up more and more and more in an area trying to get rid of it right you're like oh my shoulder hurts you like you lean to that side and you whatever it is but when you actually just take a breath and just let that go and i feel like that's an analogy for life and a lot of stuff because something is wrong and

something's going on and you're just like cramping and stressing and like putting so much focus and energy on it where all you need to really do is just take a breath and just distance yourself and just let yourself go and i mean the the whole like being present and everything like in the workout is so easily then applied to everyday life. One thing that I feel like has changed the most for me and I feel like that's a lot of what a lot of people say is when you're driving. There's been so many times before this when I was driving and then I've been driving for 20 minutes and I'm like, you just wake up because you were so deep in like a thought process that you're like, how the fuck did I not just die? Like, I don't even remember driving for the last 20 minutes yeah and um i'm the worst person to go on a road trip with i can't stay awake i'm driving sitting in traffic and like

all that stuff and it could be good depending on what's going on and just noticing those little things you know what i mean for me it's always my hands so like when i get lost in like a thought or something like that my hands always like tense up and that's always the first thing that i notice where i like looked on i'm like what the fuck do i have fists right now like why are my hands all like tied up and you take a deep breath to let it go and then you realize that you kind of like got trapped in that but it's in workouts it's in it's in life it's in conversations it's in relationships it's in everything that if you're able to just actually be there instead of being in your head and just letting everything else take control,

everything gets easier. You know what Wim Hof says? He says, breathe, motherfuckers. Yeah. That's like, my buddy actually had that up in his house on his whole mirror. Actually, red lights, I box breathe. Red light is a reminder for me to do some box breathing.

Oh, cool. Yeah. Especially, I mean, I still do it. It's a habit now. But especially when I'm in uniform, red light is a reminder for me to do some box breathing oh cool yeah especially especially i mean i still do it it's a habit now but especially when i'm in uniform in a black and white with a radio going and i got you know boots on my feet and thick wool i'm wearing a bullet i hope it's proof vest very bullet resistant you know they tell you it's not necessarily proof uh sitting there and all this like the badge is nameplate and the weight of this leather. And I got, you know, all this ammunition.

And I got a life-saving tool. A gun is actually a life-saving tool in the hands of a good guy. All this stuff, right? And then being able to do box breathing and refocus. Can you explain what box breathing is? Yeah. So if somebody would picture, like, it's more like square breathing, I think. Right, yeah.

Or warrior breath. I mean, there's all kinds of different names to it. But in essence, let's just say for the simplicity, a four count. So if you inhale for four, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four, that is one round of box breathing. So if you pick a square, inhale, hold, exhale, hold. Inhale, hold, exhale, hold. And so you can even do that at three count.

So you're breathing in for three and holding for three and exhaling for three, holding for three. Some people can do that. Some people can go up to a four count or even a five count or higher, depending on the person. It's not necessarily like the higher the number, the better you are as a human. It's not about that. It's not about that.

I tend to find that for me, I like to get into a four count rhythm because I actually do it with my heartbeats. So I get in a rhythm, my breathing is in sync with my heart and my blood pressure. And I've found that that is, once I sync those things up, I find some sort of, um, something powerful in that. And it's actually, I started talking to my buddy, Josh Montz, who's, uh, the author of, uh, the beauty of a darker soul. Fascinating guy. You guys should look into him. He ended up, he was overseas.

He got sniped around, went through his staff sergeant's aorta, hit him in the femoral artery. He ended up flatlining for 15 minutes. Fuck. Yeah. So they were pulling people off base camp to give him blood. They continued doing CPR because they didn't give up. And so he came back.

He's fine. Well, fine, you know, in quotes. Physically, there's nothing wrong. But, like, his passing was actually or was, like, the most peaceful thing he ever experienced. Yeah. And it was, like, the moral injuries and the moral trauma and the suffering from everything and survivor's guilt and everything. That's what really hurt him. But I forget why I even brought him up.

Why did I say it? We were talking about the breathing and then the car. I don't know. Either way, check out Josh. Okay. He was out for 15 minutes. You know who else is really good is Greg Amundsen, who is the original CrossFit fire breather, right?

If you've been doing CrossFit for eight to ten years, you probably watched Greg, learned from him on YouTube. And when CrossFit.com, the main site, when it was like the only site out there, you'd watch him and learn how to do some of the movements. But he has several books out there. One is The Warrior and the Monk, but the other one is called Fire Breather Fitness.

It's a really cool book. And so within Greg's book, Fire Breather Fitness, he lays out – it's like a fitness-ish book, but it's broken down into mind, body, and spirit. But he also has – he talks about the benefits of yoga, Kokoro Yoga, Warrior Yoga, which he's a yogi now and he instructs it. There's actually videos. If you look up Kokoro yoga, there's a subscription. You can start doing like this warrior yoga at home if you don't have time to get to a place to do it. But he also lays out workouts. He has like a 21-day workout for beginners, intermediate, advanced.

And it might be interesting for you guys to even check out to see different ideas because he programs in his workout his breath work. It's not just fit. It's not just workout. That's so cool. I really love that idea, actually. There's like a gratitude part. There's a certain specific breathing stuff at the beginning

and I think even at the end. That's one thing I like to do i do that now i've been doing wim hof breathing getting into a workout and then after the workout getting into my little like meditation pose which is a stretch for me actually not not so much you know sitting on your laurels you know you point your feet and kind of sit that i used to not be able to do that man holy smokes i like i used to not be able to like that, man. Holy smokes. I used to not be able to hack it. It was the ankles. It wasn't anything. But the thing is, just like anything, if you want to do it, you can.

You just have to work at it. And so I started propped up for a while. I would use a folding mat. I would prop my feet. It could bend a little bit. And I slowly over time lowered and lowered and lowered. And I actually sit on a meditation stool that goes like just right above my calves. Okay.

And I put my butt on it. Gotcha. So I also stay more vertical, more stacked through the skeleton system. Yeah. But then sitting in that position and then doing some more focused breathing. And so I end up just doing some box breathing after the workout to help myself refocus and get back into like a parasympathetic state, which is a lot less stressful for your organs, your digestive tract, your mind, your heart, your lungs. It helps recovery too. Your brain.

Yeah. And you know what's funny, man? Like when you're like super tired after a workout, what do we normally do? Most people just grab their stuff and hurry up and go to work. Yeah. Right? So you're going from stress to stress to stress to stress to stress you're never actually like sitting down and appreciating the work you just did and appreciating the the human body operate and feel the beauty of it and then that helps and that's like what a couple minutes maybe

right you can go i don't know whatever works it could be one minute yep somebody sat still and did five box breathing for one minute one of my favorite sayings when it comes to meditation, because it's like 10 minutes a day, right? 10 minutes, 15 minutes a day, something like that. And it's always my favorite saying is, if you don't have 10 minutes, you need two weeks. So if you can't even take 10 minutes out of your day to do this, you need to go on a two-week vacation

because your life is definitely way too stressful. Yeah, or sign off of Instagram for a little while. Yeah, dude, the fucking Instagram. You can jump on and look at how much time in the memory or the party phone. You can go see how much time you spent there. I don't have 10 minutes, bro. Because I have three and a half hours per day on Instagram.

Three and a half hours on Instagram. But on the new iOS that's coming out, I guess you can set limitations and timers and all that stuff for yourself. People are going to be fiending, man. I need to scroll. I need to scroll. I actually never look at people's stuff

really that often. If it's not the first two or three, it won't happen. It's the opposite of mindfulness, too. It's mindlessness. People are just in their phone and scrolling. They don't even know what the fuck they're looking at. They're just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. They don't actually are what the fuck they're looking at. They're just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling, and they don't actually are taking in the content.

They're not taking in the information. They're not actually doing it because, oh, I wonder what my friends are doing. It's fucking mindlessness. It's just zombie scroll. I know so many people who just have podcasts on all day. They say they listen to all these podcasts, and I'm like, okay, tell me something about the podcast.

Any of them. Just give me any of them just give me any of them and nothing happens like like what they learned yeah oh yeah those same things because it's like background tell me one thing you talked about and you're like not this episode it was good it was good but it's dude after this episode people are going to be so somebody has something so much breathing check out. Here's another idea. And for a while, I didn't want to make this public, but I'm going to anyways. Is this a big reveal right now on this episode?

Well, now it's going to be a spoiler. Oh, okay. We're coming to an end right now, so this could be. No, no. But this story will help circle back to how I got here. Perfect. But this story will help circle back to how I got here. Perfect. And that is I used to do it every day or try to do it every day,

but that doesn't work for me anymore. I do it when I feel the passion, and I try to feel the passion frequently. And that is to open up your phone, go to your contact list, and do one swipe. And then wherever it lands, send somebody a text in that picture okay right send somebody a text of gratitude and appreciation or if it's somebody you haven't talked to in a while just send them a text man and be nice try and lighten them up and then two more swipes and then pick somebody else and then then after that, do three. Three swipes. Bing, bing, bing. Three swipes.

And then send it to a third person. Yeah. And if it's like a bunch of people you know. Is that why I got one from you the other day? That's exactly correct. Oh, dude, that's awesome. Yeah, that's so cool. And that's why you're here.

And so I came across, and obviously I have options, right? I look at the screen, and I'm looking, and I see Ryan. I'm like, man, I haven't talked to Ryan in a while. Man, I'm really proud. He's doing this podcast. He's been on the podcast so many times. I'm proud of him. He sent me such a nice message.

I was like, oh, fuck, I have to have him on the show. He's so awesome. And it just feels so good too. So that's my point. So that feeling, right? And so trying to be like to spread some love and spread some gratitude and lift others up. And that's when you do this. I've found the beauty

isn't necessarily in like how I feel sending the text, right? The beauty's generally been for me the response from that person. And the reconnection or the connection

or there's some type of love shared and it lifts us both up. I actually wrote you back something up lifting back. Yeah. I remember because you were like

everything is going so well and I was like, dude, I'm actually happy I get to help all these other people or whatever. See? Yeah. And all that is. And even if he wasn't doing well, like something like that will probably like snap him out of his negative thinking as well, you know?

Yep. It's a win-win. Yep. And the stuff that can come out of it, I mean, look, it's ending me here sitting in this chair. And so the whole beauty of it is in rekindling positivity and what's in our control. The other thing is I saw this receipt once. I was just getting breakfast, and this receipt,

and I'm looking at it, and at the bottom of the receipt, it said, never stifle a generous impulse. And so I've taken that to heart. And so most of us have good intention. You might have intention. You look and be like, wow, he's squatting well. But do you go tell that person? And so I don't fear things.

I'm not scared. I'm not a big fan. That's such a weird fear. But regret. We're talking about regret, which we try not to have. And so one of my fears about regret is that my intentions become regrets. And I don't want my intentions and the way I feel to become regrets. I don't want, like, say something happened to Ryan, and I'm like, damn, I should have sent that text.

Or I should have told that person this. That's my trip with my dad that I'm going on. Right? So that's what I'm saying. If you have those intentions, act on them. Send the text. Like, let it go, man. Let it go.

The more often you do that, the more it just becomes just natural impulse. You know what I mean? Then the connection in between the thought and the action gets shorter and shorter and shorter. And eventually you just stop thinking about it. And it's just like thought, action, thought, action all the time yeah i like the gratitude of that too i'll add one thing to that too to what you're saying just call your mom man just if you don't have a mom call your dad call your sister call your family like they're not around forever so just you know i love the whole like texas strangers from gratitude stuff love it but call your mom

dude just tell your lover that's it That's the last thing I'll say. And then write. That circles back to what happened with my dad and starting the podcast. Just sharing these stories and helping lift other people. My first podcast, man, I got people all over the world sharing gratitude there was a guy even like in south korea that listened to it and then told me he reached out to his dad he hadn't talked to his

dad in 10 years and they're having lunch like things like that and it all comes from like sharing your vulnerabilities unbelievable right right sharing vulnerability because in that vulnerability some strength and it takes it takes more strength to share it than not to. And I always remind people that strength is a choice. I have a crazy – my dad's story is pretty good. It would probably do really well on your Sisu podcast that nobody really knows about. Yaya knows about it. So also the big difference obviously between WODcast and the CCUA,

the CCUA is really, really story-driven, and we're really talking to people. We're not just coming on and like, hey, what's your squat or what's your nutrition like? How's the gym going? We're really figuring out what's going on with Ryan because you have a ton of grit, you know? You wouldn't be here without it.

You're resilient. You're tough. I want to find the word of service-driven. You wouldn't have this connection to people if it wasn't service-oriented. And a warrior's path of service is the most honorable way to go and so talking about where that came from and getting into it what i think would be uh it would

be fun for me dig into you dude my my story is pretty good yeah a little teaser for next episode well scott like i said when we started the podcast i'd love to have a professional on i had no idea this is how good it was going to get but um thanks so much for joining us man thanks so much for making that hike from la all the way out here oh man much it sucks um anything else you want to add where people can find you any of that stuff uh i am at my my personal instagram is at one scott mcgee and that's the number one not one and then the sisu way is at the sisu way that's uh number one, not O-N-E, one. And then the Sisu Way is at the Sisu Way. That's S-I-S-U Way. It's pronounced Sisu.

And the podcast is the Sisu Way. You can find that on wherever podcasts are. And also there's the WODcast podcast. Check that out as well. There's 300 and a lot of episodes and a whole bunch of characters. If you want to listen to Ryan's first podcast,

you can probably find it somewhere. That one's really funny. I remember that was like your highest rated podcast. It was so much fun. We'll link that actually. Ryan's actually one of our favorite guests, for sure. Because the type of guest,

you're the type of guest that's perfect for the WODcast, right? With just the sense of humor, the openness, the wittiness. Yeah. Not taking ourselves too seriously. For sure.

But also I want to point something out about my personal Instagram. And that is, if you look at it, I want you to think, if you don't mind, like, and if you're looking, especially read what I write.

Most of that stuff is there. I want you to picture it as if I'm talking to my 18-year-old son. They're three and five now. Cool. But I'm leaving crumbs there. So it's very thoughtful for me. I don't just sit and just post. I only follow

200 people, so you're one of them. Well, thank you. For everybody out there who there's a reason I follow, he has good stuff on there. Well, thank you very much. And thank you guys for having me. I'm one of the two suckers. Well, guys yeah definitely did you have fish no i'm stoked on that that was really good you too all right thanks so much for coming out man all right is your brain growing or what that was a super fun episode like i said opex month all week so come back next week for james fits that's going to be super fucking awesome or skip

back one episode to listen to marcus philly you guys are going to get the whole opex experience this month as always guys if you guys have any other questions left feel free to hit me up at yaya's view on instagram you can find ryan at ryan fish on instagram or simply the shrug collective at shrug collective on instagram always love hearing from you guys thoughts You can find Ryan at Ryan Fish on Instagram or simply the Shrug Collective at Shrug Collective on Instagram. Always love hearing from you guys. Thoughts, remarks, comments, concerns. Ryan loves naked dudes. So if you just want to send him like a bunch of dick pics over there, he loves that stuff.

That's his favorite. So go ahead and send those over to at Ryan Fish. Slide into those DMs and make his day. Other than that, we're going to make your day right now. You guys get to join Chalk online completely for free. We finally hit 1,000 members online. So you guys now get to check it out for free. Head over to CrossFitChalk.com.

Use code SHRUGGED for your first month completely free and follow what ryan programs for me for everybody here over at crossfit chalk and why we're all looking so goddamn sexy in our bathing suits beach season is here time to get shredded shrugged at crossfit chalk.com gets you a full free month and i'm yaya i'll see you guys here next week