Mark Bell's Power Project - Alain Ngalani - 5x World Champion Explains How He Stays Jacked Flexible & Strong @ 46 || MBPP Ep 792

Episode Date: August 29, 2022

In this Podcast Episode, Alain Ngalani, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza talk about Alain's incredible career in combat sports. Alain is a Cameroonian mixed martial artist and Muay Thai kickboxer currently signed to ONE Championship, where he competes in the Heavyweight division and is a 5x World Champion. Follow Alain on IG: https://www.instagram.com/alain.ngalani/ Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the new Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw Special perks for our listeners below! ➢https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!! ➢Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM ➢https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/powerproject Code POWERPROJECT20 for 20% off Vivo Barefoot shoes! ➢https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off site wide including Within You supplements! ➢https://mindbullet.com/ Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://eatlegendary.com Use Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://bubsnaturals.com Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% of your next order! ➢https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order at Vuori! ➢https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro at 8 Sleep! ➢https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS at Marek Health! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150 Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject  ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok  FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en  Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz

And I never seen myself without six-pack. Really? You've never been out of shape? No, never. What did you eat, like, as a kid? My mom was very particular about eating right. Eating vegetables, drinking a lot of water, sleeping on time. One day, I came to see my brother doing karate, and they were having a tournament.

Someone was missing. They asked me if I wanted to replace. I replaced, and I won the whole thing. How did you start getting into some of this mobility stuff that you do now? I've always been doing, practicing flexibility and mobility exercise, even when I was younger, but not to this degree. You're in a sport of fighting where it's one of, actually, I think it's the most physically demanding sport because people are hitting you. You're getting all these hits. And most people get out of that because of all of the stress in the body.

They don't feel good over time. But as you continue to age, you're continuing to get stronger. You're maintaining your flexibility. You're aging well. So what would you attribute that to? I'm aging well. 46, 47, 48. I think even when I reach my 50, i think i'll just be just as good and if and if uh i think even better have you ever been depressed no i didn't think so did you uh

have the uh the same approach for wins and losses early in your career yes i never never threw a tantrum never you know swear swear and be angry and have like all these things i don't need to what was it like winning your first championship i was happy i think i was i must have felt amazing all the years of training amazing and all your years dream also this something that i saw that's something that i that i i visualized there's something that i wanted this was my goal yeah did it bother you at all because bob Sapp is he's enhanced he's been on I mean I think everybody knows he was on a lot of stuff did that ever like stop you from wanting to fight him no actually most of my opponent or the opponent some of them

who has been into something or someone come and tell me that that opponent is probably taking this or that. I just couldn't care less. Have you ever fought Andrew Tate? Yeah, a lot of the stuff I've seen you do almost looks like you're doing like jujitsu against the ground a lot of times. You know, it's like you versus the ground. So I think... That was so good.

That was so good. I knew you were athletic, but that's unbelievable. That almost looks fake. Almost. You see, I hate to ever say it's fake. Power Project family, this episode is brought to you by Vivo Barefoot Shoes. Now, we've been wearing Vivos for over a year now, and we've been loving these shoes because unlike your normal lifting shoes, Converse, et cetera, they have a wide toe box.

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So we need shoes that we can express our strength through. And that's why we love Vivo. They also look f***ing amazing. They don't look like s***, Andrew. No, they don't. Not at all. These are my absolute favorite shoes. And, um, you know, we could talk and brag about them, but you really just got to get your awesome feet into these amazing shoes. You guys got to head

over to vivo barefoot.com slash power project. When you guys go there, you'll see a backstory on why we love these shoes so much, but when you're ready to purchase, make sure you guys use promo code power project 20 to save 20 off. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. I just feel like sometimes you get used to something and you don't necessarily need it, but you just get used to it. And you try it, you get used to it, and you think that you need it, but actually you don't need it. Yeah, you rely on it. Yeah, you rely on it. Yeah. Yeah. But what if you just enjoy it though? Like coffee? Coffee is good. Yeah, you rely on it. Yeah, you rely on it. Yeah. But what if you just enjoy it though?

Like coffee. Coffee's good. Yeah. Yeah. Pain off. It's an addiction. No. But the whole ritual,

like dude, if we were hanging out and we went and got a cup of coffee, like that's cool. Like I like that. Like I'm not going to have a decaf.

Even though if I like it. But most people get addicted. Of course. Yeah. Most people that. Like, I'm not going to have a decaf. But most people get addicted. Of course. Yeah. Most people that I know, they just get addicted. So if they start with coffee, they're having coffee all the time. And then guess what? They have coffee and because they get addicted, now they have problems sleeping.

So I have a friend, he's been drinking coffee so much that now he can't sleep. So now he's taking pills to sleep yeah people are like i don't know why i can't sleep and they have thousands of milligrams of caffeine every single day like but i need the caffeine because i'm tired and it's just a vicious cycle vicious cycle there you go you probably feel pretty good energy wise because you're always moving like uh between the mobility drills you're doing lifting um i don't know if you do you do any like running as well you do some running and on top of it all the mma type stuff that you're doing you're constantly moving and you probably have been since you were a

kid yeah started like some sports when you were real young and probably just never looked back right never looked back and um just being consistent and all year round i have to say that i kept the same shape the same form like say since i'm 19 i have the same weight and pretty much the same form 19. man imagine running into him at 19. Like, damn. By the way, guys, he's 230 pounds at 5'11". And how old are you now? 46. Wow. Great.

And what was I going to say? Yeah, since I'm 19, same weight. And I never seen myself without six-pack. Really? You've never been out of shape? No, never. Never. So often I travel back home.

Are we on already? Yeah. Are we on? Yeah. So often I travel back home and I see some friends, right? So they're doing bodybuilding or whatever the competition they're doing bodybuilding or you know whatever the competition they're doing and they have season

where they're in shape and they're not in shape so when they're not in shape they're like completely bloated they're like they're like

20 kilo heavier they're like really big really fat you know and they say I'm off season I'm just taking my time

and when I'm gonna be when it's gonna be time I'm gonna lose all the weight I'm gonna get my time. And when it's going to be time, I'm going to lose all the weight, I'm going to get fit, and so on. And it's true, when it's time, they are shredded, right? But it's something that I never could understand. I never could, this will never be me. I cannot understand that I'm taking 20 kilos of fat

and then I have to lose it six months later. I just don't get it. You see, so every time we see each other i'm always the same right it's me i'm always the same same way the same shape always every year any time right and there they're always changing so sometimes i see them and they're like like bloated totally different like a different person like 20 different person, like 20, 30 kilo heavier, like really big, really fat. And I think it's very unhealthy, but that's just me. Yeah. Could you imagine doing that in another sport?

Imagine doing that with fighting. If I came up to you and said, hey, let's spar. And you were like, no, I'm in the off season. I really kind of forgot how to throw my kicks and punches. They don't do it in other sports. It's just in bodybuilding. I'm in my off season. It's like an excuse to be fat, get a little plump. But I think they're just trying to put on some extra muscle, right?

In their defense. So have you ever bulked? Have you ever purposefully like tried to get heavier? Like when you were younger, before that, did you ever try to just bulk and gain weight? Or did you just slowly get to your weight and you've been the same weight since? No. In fact, I remember when we were teenager my brother and i my older brother we were i think i was i was 15 or 16 and we were doing there was a competition going on

and during the elimination we both got to the final it's a martial arts competition competition so we both got to the final and we we had to fight each other and i remember we fought each other and i was serious i really wanted to get you know to i wanted to hurt him you know i just i have to have to be honest i wanted to hurt him at You know, I just, I have to, I have to be honest. I wanted to hurt him. At the time, I thought that he was bullying me. I thought, you know, I had some grudge against him. I thought he was, uh, he was better than me. And, uh, and I love him. I love my brother. But, you know, we had that, uh, that rivalry going on since we were a kid and it was, it was a positive rivalry, right? So, and he really has helped us, you know, to

you know, mold us to what we are today. But anyway, we fought and I wanted to hurt him and I lost the fight. He got me, he beat me, but he beat me nicely. He didn't hurt me.

But during the fight, I wanted to take his head off. I remember I was really mean. I was like vicious. I wanted to hurt him. I didn't manage, but I learned a lot from that fight. I learned a lot from that fight. And then after the fight, my mom was not happy. So she asked us to never do that again, never compete against each other.

And then we had to choose. One of us has to go up in weight and the other one has to stay down. And that was the only time I remember thinking about gaining weight too quickly to go up and he stay down. Because I was catching up to him too quickly. So it was easy for me to gain weight. It was easy for me to gain weight. And I think I was 14 and he was 16. So it was easy for me to get with. It was easy for me to get with. And I think I was 14 and he was 16. So it was easy for me to get with. So I decided I went up and then he stayed down.

Yeah. How was it for your mom? Cause you said she put you in, she put all of you guys in martial arts, but how was it, how did she manage to watch you guys get hit as children? You know, usually parents are scared of letting their kids get into martial arts, and you were doing striking martial arts. Yeah. So kickboxing, Muay Thai. Why did she do that? My mom is pretty tough. Okay.

She's not the average mom in Africa, I think. You're coming from Africa, I'm sure. Yeah, I know. You have an idea. No, my mom is pretty tough. She mean it. So she needed us to be stronger, to be independent, to be able to take care of ourselves. And that was it.

So she didn't care. We have to go and do martial arts. We have to learn how to be, like she always say, be a man. You know, learn how to be a man. Grow up. Was your dad there? Yeah. My dad was there.

Yeah? Yeah. Okay. But he was always busy with work and stuff. Dad is not taking care of the house. So mom is, like, in charge. She takes care of the house, and the house includes the kids and school and stuff like that. And that's Africa.

Dad provides, and he does his job and mom takes care of the house. Did you learn English in school? Like where did you go to school? Born in Cameroon. Cameroon is bilingual, so it's French and English. Base.

You learned it early on. Okay. But at the time, I was doing French school, so it was mainly French. So English was just the basic. Like, you know, what's your name stuff like that yeah it must have been really helpful as you became a fighter and getting better fights and stuff like

that being able to communicate really well right I'm sure that that's a big part of it I think it was a traveling that that helped because you meet different people you meet you go into you meet, you go into different country and you have no choice than to have to learn the local language. So I think traveling has helped a lot and you know, because you're in a situation where you have to speak, you didn't have a choice. But obviously starting from at school, you help, you know, from the basic that we learn were something already. And coming back to your question about my mom, she never came to watch me fight.

Actually, never, ever. She never felt comfortable with the idea of seeing her kids getting hit. So she wanted us to be tough she wanted to learn martial art she thought it was a good thing she thought that as a parent you need to get your kids to be to learn discipline but also to learn respect and she has those value you know up there yes value up there and she she needed us to have this value and and and until today i really thank her for that you know for me to make making sure that we're going

you know um on that path i think it was the best thing that could have happened to us and and i'm very grateful that i uh with that i managed to go and go as far as I could go and be the person that I am today. Do you also speak some Chinese as well? Yeah. That's amazing. I always find it amazing when people, like we've had a bunch of people on the show lately that have been able to speak like multiple languages. I find that to be fascinating. That's something you learned later.

I know. And we don't even do it correctly. Is that something you learned later on because now you live in Hong Kong? Yeah. I just picked it up. I would be like, I don't know what the fuck's going on. I'm still stuck on the statement, I've never been out of shape. Just because like here in America, that's like one of the biggest topics, right?

It's like, how do I lose weight or how do I get jacked? How do I do this and that? And you're like, I have never had to worry about it. But obviously, it wasn't like free. But I'm curious, what did you eat like as a kid? Like what was your diet, if you can remember? In Africa, I think we eat a lot of meat. But personally, in our household, my mom was very particular about eating right.

Eating vegetables, drinking a lot of water, sleeping on time, waking up earlier. She was really on point, you know, on this habit. So make sure to drink enough water. Have you drank water in the morning? First thing you do when you wake up, drink water first. A bottle of water, finish it. You finish a bottle of water and I remember I have seven

siblings, right? Six brothers, one sister and she has to make sure that each one of us drank his water. Each one of us has his breakfast. So I remember she was really particular about that. So eating was correct

and you get those habits and you never stop. And because I was into the sport and I started doing competition at a very young age, I understood the importance of being healthy. I think at a young age I understood that already. So for me, if my friend was like smoking, I didn't want to join them. You know, I didn't want to join them

because I thought, no, no, no, I can't do that. You know, I have to be, I'm competing soon. So I have to make sure to sleep. I need to go home.

I need to sleep because my teacher said I need to rest. So I'm going to go home and rest. So you see, so this idea of resting, sleeping, not joining the crowd and not joining them to smoke or whatever because this will not go with me competing i don't want to

lose i need to win and so on so that mentality you know you know we started that mentality and we never stopped so so i think um it's a it's a creating this habit has just helped me grow myself into the person that I am. As a kid, I'm curious about this. Did you ever, since you were in martial arts, a lot of parents think that if they put their child in fighting, their child will be violent, right? Yeah, I know that. So I had to, I spoke to some of the parents, some parents who had those ideas. Oh, I don't want him to be violent because he's going to learn this and he's going to fight.

And I always take myself as an example. I always say to them, look, when I was a kid, my parents put me into martial art. And since they put me into martial art, I never had a fight outside of the ring or outside of the competition. I never needed to. You know, I knew that I was, you know, above. I knew that I was good. I knew that I was strong.

I knew that I could defend myself. And I knew the value of martial art, meaning respect and not terrorizing people and not being aggressive. I was always there to help others. And actually, this thing,

this has brought me more trouble than anything else, you know, trying to help others. I was always like, if someone gets in bully, I'm going to be there

and it's going to bring me trouble because people are going to be angry with me and so on and so on. I almost got stabbed in Africa because of that. I, yeah, I have a lot of people who were, you know, against me just because of that, because I was always interfering

with whatever that they were doing. So, yeah. And I just felt a sense of responsibility. I felt like because I'm strong, I should intervene. I always, if someone, you know, grabs somebody back over there and start running, I'm going to chase the person. I'm always going to find myself doing that.

You know, if a girl gets harassed, I'm going to be there. So I was always, you know, always, my mom has to come and bail me from the police station because, you know, I was in a fight to come and bail me from the police station because, you know, I was in a fight. I was in a fight because I was looking for a fight. I was in a fight because I tried to defend someone and I ended up there. So it was always happening like that. How'd you actually get into fighting? You started out with some martial arts when you're young, but martial arts is one thing and sparring is one thing, but like becoming a fighter

fighter is a different yeah i started with martial art and and um and i was doing good and i think uh the instructor in the club wanted they saw that i was doing good so they wanted me to join the competition was this judo or judo first then i joined and i was doing really good and uh one day i came to see my brother doing karate and they were having a tournament someone was missing they asked me if i want to replace i replace and i won the whole thing and and just from there you know he just just kept going and this guy is like he's talented so let him do this let him do that then i started representing the school then i started representing the our region then i started representing the country, and so on.

When was it that you went to Hong Kong to fight? Because you have four different world championships, right? Five, yeah. Five. What were they in, and when did that happen? I think I spent half of my life now in Hong Kong. And after university, I went to, I decided that I wanted to focus on just martial art. I wanted to be a world champion. And that was my focus. Okay, let's step back. Yeah. My parents wanted me to be a doctor. Uh-huh. There we go.

There it is. Yeah. So, you know, in Africa, so with a big family like this, my mom or my parents, they're like trying to influence us. You should be a doctor. You should be a, I don't know, my brother should be an architect, this one a lawyer, this one a police officer, whatever. And while I was studying, the deal was, if you keep doing good at school,

I'm going to support you with your martial arts. You can train, I'm going to take care of that. So just make sure to study and have some good notes from school. That's it, that's the deal. And the make sure to study and have some good notes from school. Okay, that's it. That's the deal. And the one time I didn't have a good grade at school, my mom canceled everything. My membership, I wasn't allowed to go to the gym. I wasn't even allowed to do sport at school.

She went to the school and she told them, if he even joined the session that you guys have here at school, I'm going to sue you. And I wasn't allowed to do anything. So she completely banned me from any activity until I bring back my grade back to normal. She was serious. So this is what happened.

When I was at home, I had to wake up in the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping to start training. I have to go in the living room when everyone is sleeping. It's quiet and I'm doing my push-ups, sit-ups. And I take the chair from the living room and I lift it. I'm doing some lifting with it, you know. And that's what I was doing. 45 minutes of that and then, you know, I go back to bed.

And I'm all sweaty. I lay down and I sleep like that. And then my mom wake up in the morning. She said, but I don't get it. It's like smelling, this sweaty smell. Like every morning I wake up and smell. I said, what's going on here? She couldn't get it.

One night she woke up in the middle of the night because I was making some noise and then she's like, is someone there? And I'm doing that in the dark. In the dark. I'm doing that in the dark.

Is someone there? And then I hide. So we played that for like about a month. That's what I was doing. But, you know, thinking about that today, I just think how crazy I was about it. How crazy I was about martial arts.

I had to wake up in the middle of the night, go and train and go back to sleep sweaty and I closed my eyes and I'm like, I'm getting to sleep now. I feel the pump. I feel the pump. I'm asleep now. That's how crazy I was. pump that's how crazy I was but that's how crazy

my mom was too you know about the discipline you know you're not doing it until you have good grades and I went came back with good grades

then she let me go back to the gym and so I was supposed to be a doctor I didn't like it but I had to fake like I like it just to please my parents. And I had to have good grades.

So I was doing good in science. I was doing good in biology and just to please my parents. But when I got to university and when I started working part-time to finance my own study, I realized that I'm a man on my own. So I can be independent. I can decide, you know, what I want to do, and then I switch. So I studied a bit of sport medicine, and then I left uni. So I came up with my diploma of sport medicine,

and I went fully into martial art. I went to be a world champion. I traveled the world, and that's what I wanted to do. And that's how I landed in Hong Kong. I had a sponsor that brought me to Hong Kong, and I got to Hong Kong. It was amazing. I had everything the government took me,

and they gave me everything that I needed. How did you start getting into some of this mobility stuff that you do now? I have to say that I've always been doing, practicing flexibility and mobility exercise, even when I was younger, but not to this degree. I didn't take it as serious as I took it, you know, a few years ago. When I was younger, I was flexible. You know, there's always been a challenge,

my brother and I, to see who's more flexible, you know. And this also has helped us, you know, just to try and do the split, try and work on one thing or another and work on our flexibility. It's interesting. It's part of the culture of martial arts is to be able to really move really well and flawlessly, right? Yeah, yeah. But also, you know, my family, my mom, she's flexible. Not because she was born flexible. She exercised, right?

She exercised. But challenging each other. I wanted to do the split better than my brother. So I always tried to do more than him because I wanted to do better than him. So I think this little challenge got me to where I am today. Trying to do better. Trying to do better than him and do more and try and do more. And if you do the

split, I want to do the split in like elevated into chair because he didn't do that. So I can do that. Like Van Damme. Yeah. And if you do that, then I'll try and do something else, you know. So there's always a challenge. But then when I got to, when I was a teenager and I got a bit bigger and have like much more muscle

than the average teenager, I got injured. I remember I wasn't doing my, I wasn't working on my flexibility as much as I wanted to. So, so then I started focusing on it. You know, I focused on flexibility because I got injured and that has really helped me and changed the person that I am.

So because of an injury, I started focusing more on my flexibility and, and I never stopped. Some of the movement you showed us today, it seems to be really, like I felt a lot of it in my back and in my, I guess the muscles in the side, like the serratus, the obliques, things like that. And you were saying that it seemed to help your lower back. It helped a lot.

And I have to say that most of the things that I do, I think that I try on myself. I just try to feel better. I just try to relax and to explore the potential. Our body can do so much. The possibilities are limitless. You just have to have the discipline to look for it, search, you know, and that's what I do every day.

I spend some time, I'm in the corner over there and I'm looking and I'm trying to, I'm talking, I'm feeling myself and I'm talking to myself and I'm exploring, you know, and I'm looking for movement that will make me feel comfortable or that will, you know, help me. And that's how I managed to do things that I do. And people will look at me and think, this guy's crazy. What is he doing? You know? And I'll say that I'm just doing me, you know, and it works for me, you know, it works for me because today I see that I'm

fitter, I'm stronger, I'm more flexible than I was 20 years ago, you know, and I'm in my 40s, right? And I'm amazed, I'm amazed by that. And I'm very happy that I'm doing that now. I'm happy that I'm enjoying such a good health, you know, because that, for me, is all about longevity. You know, it's not about, you know, winning the world championship. For me, winning the world championship is having the health that I have right now.

You know, waking up in the morning and feeling good. You know, I jump off the bed. You know, today in my hotel room, I woke up, I pulled the blanket and I did a flip, you know? Yeah, I did like a somersault. You know, I came up and I was like, damn, I'm feeling good. You know, I did that and I recorded.

I took my phone, I put it there and then I record myself doing a flip again and I did the split and I roll and I came to the camera and I say, good morning to you too. And was like damn i'm feeling good yeah i'm ready for mike let's go mike you know i was like okay now i'm good let's go let's go and do this podcast and see these guys you know i'm ready i'm good but but that's the spirit that's what i like you know i wake up in the morning i take a deep breath and i'm happy to be alive and I'm happy to feeling good. So,

and that encouraged me. For me, this is priceless, right? It's priceless. The fact that I'm doing, the fact that I'm feeling like this, it makes me, encourage me to do even more. So then, because I'm feeling like this, tomorrow I'll do more and more and more. And it just helped me. Yeah. I think a lot of times things are deceiving. Sometimes you think that something's going to make you feel better. What you're saying is you're always exploring to feel better, to feel better. Some people are like, I'm going to go outside and take a break and smoke this cigarette. And they have the same intention as you.

They're trying to feel better. But when you are reliant on something, doing some of the work for you or taking you to a certain place, it's way different than like physically working on yourself. And I've found myself more recently, especially when I was traveling more recently, just moving around a ton,

like getting up out of my chair, like when I'm on the airplane, stretching, moving around, doing some squats, even get on the ground, do some push-ups. And yeah, people think it's weird or think it's whatever, but it makes you feel like a million bucks. Like you really do feel a lot better. If you just drop down and hit some push-ups or drop down and hit some squats

after you've been sitting for a while, you'll feel incredible. Yeah. You know, I was eating earlier at the lobby in the restaurant and the chef came out and he kept walking past me. Then finally he came and he said, look, I want to bother you. I cannot ask you, how do I get to be like you? But I always get that. Yeah. So when he asked me that, I just thought, there we go again.

And I looked at him and he said, I don't want to bother you, but I just want to ask that one question. Right? He looked overweight, you know, like he's obviously overweight and everything.

And I say, what do you do to help yourself? Like, you just tell me, what do you do for me to help you? How do you help yourself?

How have you been helping yourself? He said, no, I was always thinking about it, but I said, yeah,

there you go. If I tell you go to the gym, you won't. So I'll just say the simplest thing. Start slowly. Whatever you're doing, whatever you're eating, cut in half, right? Whatever you're doing. And start counting your calorie or start counting your step, for instance.

Count your step. You know, like walk a bit more, stop taking the lift, you know, take the stairs instead of taking the lift. Do these little things and you make a difference, right? But if you're consistent, you say, how many push-ups do you think I should do? And I say, how many push-ups do you want to do? You say, but I'm sure you're going to ask me to do 100 push-ups.

I say, no, I'm not going to ask you to do 100 push-ups. Do 10 push-ups. Do 10. Do 10 push-ups, but do them every day. Yeah. Just be consistent. Do them every day. And you're going to see at one stage, I'm not going to ask you to do anything. You're going to try and put the push-up, you're going to add 5 to it

or 20 to it because you can, because you're feeling better, right? Because you're feeling better, you're going to add to it. I don't have to tell you anything so start with 10. it seems like uh it seems like nothing right 10 is very easy right you say yes okay start with 10. just do this little thing but do them every day be consistent so i think it's all about you know being consistent and people are always rushing people want it now they want it quick i i i know because i always get this message oh how do you do to get your lats or how do you do to and if i say oh i did this oh but yeah but i've been doing it for six months how

come i don't have it also you know everyone is in a hurry everyone is like rush you know i don't do you think how long is going to take me to do the split? Can I do the split in two months? You see what I mean? Everyone is in a hurry. Oh, you want to do the split in two months? Oh, okay. What else? Can I get the lats in like a month?

Can I get this? Can I get that? You know, it's very easy. But if they start with the simplest thing, okay, very simple, just start with the easiest thing and just be consistent, and that's what I'm doing. And because I'm consistent, I manage to do what I'm doing, and people will look and say, oh, it's fake.

Oh, he's probably taking steroids. Oh, he's doing it because he's double-jointed. They always got something to say, right? Lately, he's doing it because he's double jointed. They always got something to say, right? Lately, he's doing it because he's double jointed. No, I'm not. Yeah, you are, because how can you do it otherwise? You know, it's not possible. See, it's not possible because,

and people who are saying that, it's always people who are sitting there on the couch and they never try anything. And for them, they need to justify by looking for something very simple and throw at you, and that's it. Yeah. Do you feel better now than you did 10 years ago? Yeah.

And that's the interesting thing is you're 46 years old, right? You're in a sport of fighting where it's one of, actually, I think it's the most physically demanding sport because people are hitting you. You're getting all these hits. And most people get out of that because of all of the stress to the body. They don't feel good over time. But as you continue to age, you're continuing to get stronger. You're maintaining your flexibility. You're aging well.

So what would you attribute that to? I'm aging well. 46, 47, 48. I think even when I reach my 50, I think I'll just be just as good and I think even better. Yeah. I think the way I'm going right now, I feel better than I felt 10 years ago,

20 years ago. I think just the lifestyle that I chose is working for me. Yeah. I think the lifestyle I chose is working for me. Yeah. I think the lifestyle I chose is working for me. I'm doing the simplest thing, like sleeping well, waking up in the morning,

having my routine, making sure to, these little, little things, I think adding together, make it a whole, you know? And this little thing, and I say it again, everyone will say,

oh, this is a cliche, you know? Sleeping well, waking up in the morning, drinking water, meditation. It seems like a movie, you know, like, you know, oh, yeah, so you're going to tell us that you're doing your meditation now, or you're going to tell us that you, you're going to tell us that you, but, but, but honestly, meditation, when I say meditation, it doesn't mean that I have to sit there for hours, you know? No. meditation when I say meditation it doesn't mean that I have to sit there for hours you know no I wake up I take a deep breath I close my eyes and I'm I'm just breathing you know and I'm just clearing my my my clearing my head and I just want a good thought you know I always have positive

thought you know like when I woke up this morning I you know just first I wake up and then I'm just breathing. I'm starting thinking and then I call positive thought. I'm going to see Mike today. We're going to have a good day. This is going to be fun. You know what? Push the blanket. Do a flip, a somersault.

Get up, do the split. I'm feeling good. And then say it. And I say it. I'm feeling good. You believe it. Yeah. Believe it. Say it loud. Right. Because sometimes you, you, you, you say it loud, you remind yourself, you know, and I say it and then I put some music and I like that, you know, then this is all positive. You know, you're going to call that energy, you know, put some music,

you know, dance, you know, you know, be happy, you know, be happy because, you know, when I wake up, I feel like, uh, uh, I'm grateful just to be alive. Right. I'm, I'm one of the lucky, uh, people just waking up. So I'm grateful. And I think that, uh, that, uh, spirit of gratitude and, uh, and, uh, and positivity, um, give me what I want. Yeah. And you're still fighting.

And I'm still fighting. And everybody say, don't you think that at your age you should stop? Don't you feel like you should retire? Now let me tell you something. Retire is a word that I don't want to use. I feel like if I say that I'm retired, it's a word that I don't want to use. I feel like if I say that I'm retired,

I feel like you guys are putting me in a home. You know, for all people, like he's retired. That's how I feel. So I don't want to use that word. And I don't even want to say that word. I avoid saying it. So instead of saying that I'm retired, I'll say that I'm just

evolving. I'm doing even more. I'm training just the same. So, if I were to fight tomorrow, I could fight tomorrow, after tomorrow, anytime. Right now, I run every week. I'm doing my training every week. I'm doing kickboxing. I'm doing weight training. I'm doing HIIT training. I'm doing my training every week. I'm doing kickboxing.

I'm doing weight training. I'm doing HIIT training. I'm doing it all. And I'm doing my flexibility, my mobility every day. I make time for it. I always make time. And people say, we don't have time. You're taking all your day doing this, but we don't have time.

No, no. I always make time. It's called self-care. For time. It's called self-care. For me, it's called self-care. Self-care for me is making time for me, and I always make time for myself. You know, while I'm brushing my teeth, I'm doing my mobility. And today, I made sure to record it.

I was brushing and I was doing my mobility work while I'm brushing my teeth, so I'm always making time. So you can always, and I realize, you know, people say they don't have time. You have time. It's up to you now. You just decide. You know, you prioritize, you know. So, you know, I make time for myself and it's called self-care. I take care of myself.

I make sure that I sleep, you know, I have this much sleep. I make sure that, you know do my uh my training in the morning makes me feel good and i feel happy you know so i take care of myself so so it's important to take care of yourself and because of that i'm feeling healthy i'm feeling happy and i'm not about to stop so i'm never gonna say that i'm retiring i'm i'm still there maybe i'm not gonna compete as much as i used to compete maybe because also because I don't need to. You know, I evolve. So I'm doing things that I don't need

to compete like when I was 20 years old to earn money. I earned my money already doing other things and I have enough to not fight. But I'm still doing it because I'm feeling good. I'm still doing it because I like, but I'm still doing it because I'm feeling good. I'm still doing it because I like it.

I'm still doing it because I'm enjoying myself and I just want to have fun. Have you ever been depressed? No. I didn't think so. I didn't think so. I think with all the self-care, you know, when you make yourself, when you,

it kind of makes you into somebody, you know? And then you were talking earlier about like believing in yourself and positive affirmations like saying, I feel good this morning. Say it. Right. I think all those things are really important. People look at me like, you never have a problem. We all have issues.

We all have our problem. We all are broken, you know, from one reason or another. It could be relationship. It could be work. It could be anything, right? It could be family. It could be so many things. But again, I say the way I face all of this, my approach to it is just what has helped me, you know, my approach to it. I try to approach things with always gratitude and positive attitude. And I always say that it could always be worse than it is. So if I want to complain about something, I remember that before I try to complain

about it, I need to remember that it could be even worse. So I need to accept that whatever so so say i take an example i lose my phone right someone can lose their phone and think i lost my phone my god i lost my phone it's so expensive i just bought it i lost it you know you can go into all these uh emotion because you lost your phone and And I'm just taking an example. This is the phone I'm talking about. You could be, your house could be on fire.

You could lose your house, your car, you lose your car, you know, it's on fire or they stole your car, whatever. Whatever happened, it could always be worse.

So I always say, it's okay. It's just a phone. It could be worse. It could have been worse, right? It's just a phone. Yeah, how big a deal are you going to make? Yeah, what's the big deal? You're not going to exercise tomorrow

because you lost your phone? I miss a flight. It's okay. I take the next one. It's okay. No big deal. It's gone. It's okay. I can't hop on the plane now. It's okay. You see what I mean? Yeah. So, this is how I face things.

This is how I face things. I always think, you know, I'm not going to make a big deal. I'm not going to stress myself. I'm not going to have a ulcer because of this. I'm not going to have high blood pressure because of this. I do not want to have high blood pressure because of this, so I will not stress myself. I'm late. I miss a meeting.

I had an appointment with Mike. I couldn't make it because of this. I still won't stress myself. I'm late. I miss a meeting. I had an appointment with Mike. I couldn't make it because of this. I still won't stress myself. Mike, I'm very sorry. I couldn't make it. What can we do? That's how I see it. What can we do?

Let's talk about it. What can we do? Did you have the same approach for wins and losses early in your career? Yes. Wow. Same approach. You know, you know, for wins and losses early in your career? Yes. Wow. Same approach. You know, I lose a fight, I get up, I'm like, okay. That's okay.

Give me a hug. That's okay. Congratulations. I'm going back and I'm trying to do better. That's it. I'm going back and I try and do better. That's it. I never threw a tantrum, never, you know, swear and be angry and have like all these things.

I don't need to. I don't need to. And I remember I was invited to be with Mike Tyson a few years back. We were training in Thailand together. His team contacted me and they brought me over to Thailand and we were together and I had the chance to speak to him. And we talked a bit about how things went with him in his life and how he was always into, you know, fighting and angry

and he has like a lot of anger and he was like beating people up because they were always pushing him to the edge and he couldn't help it. And I was trying to tell him that, you know, the same thing, you know, the same happened to me. Of course, you know, different level, right? His level was like over there. And for me, at my tiny little level over here, how do I cope with it?

And I'm trying just to compare how to cope with it because we're all coping with things. You know, it could be at this level, it's there. But, you know, at your level, you also have to cope with the same thing, even though it's not the same level, right? And my approach is just different. You know, I just refuse to engage to negative things. I just refuse for it to affect me the way it could affect a person where you're going to react like that and hit someone and then end up at a police station or end up in jail

or end up here, there, and so on and create like so much thing. I think I'm just above that. I just choose to think before I act. I choose to do that. I choose to think before I act. So anger doesn't fuel you. No. Yeah.

So I choose to think before I act. Pat, Roger, family, how's it going? We talk about sleep all the time on this podcast. That's why we partnered with Eight Sleep Mattresses. Now, this mattress is the Tesla of sleep. It's the Tesla of beds. Its technology tracks your heart rate, your heart rate variability. It changes its own temperature based off the way you sleep so that you get better sleep every single night. It is quite literally insane. Check them out. Andrew, how do they get it?

Yes. And before I do that, I wanted to let you guys know that you can actually set the bed to wake you up silently. I know that sounds weird, but actually the bed starts vibrating around your head and it doesn't wake up the entire household the way my phone used to do back in the day. So now I just kind of have the bed wake me up silently. And it's amazing. You guys got to head over to eight sleep.com slash power project. That's E I G H T sleep.com slash power project. When you guys go there, you'll see a banner across the top saying that you're going to receive $150 off automatically. So again, that's 8sleep.com slash power project to receive $150 off your Pod Pro cover or your Pod Pro cover

and mattress combo. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Let's get back to the podcast. How about something extremely positive? What's your reaction to a win, something really good happening to you? What's your reaction to a win, something really good happening to you? No, I'm very happy, but also it's always under control. Yeah, I'm very happy and I show my happiness. Look, even when I lose a fight, I'm still happy that I came there and that i joined the event i'm still happy so i'm always happy anyway so um at work when i'm at work i always tell my staff i always tell them

you see me when i enter this place i'm always happy it's always hey man hey mark hey andrew hey guys what's up you know what's good But you guys don't know that before I came, before the lift opened and I came in here, I had like a huge fight with my girlfriend or whatever. I'm stressed because I have this issue, that issue, that issue. But as soon as the lift opened, I put everything aside and my attitude is just different. Hi Mike, how are you man?

Good to see you. Andrew man, let's do this. What's up guys? Okay, okay, okay. Let's do this. You see, so I don't bring that negativity with me and share it with people. I don't do that. I decided to stop it. When I take the lift, I remind myself and I say, okay, throw it.

Put it away and then you know walk in there and be good you know it's gonna be okay you know it's one of these things it could always be worse but it's not so go out there have a good training and you're gonna feel better after it could be worse and it could be better right so if you want to be better if you want to fight and you got hit a lot you could say like i was lucky to win that one, but maybe I should go back and watch the tape. Exactly. So, so it's always a matter of how you see it. How do you see it?

Do you think that because, I mean, you're obviously probably, are you more well off now than when you were growing up? Yes. obviously probably are you more well off now than when you were growing up? Um, yes. Now I wonder sometimes, cause like when Mark asked if you've ever been depressed, you said you've never been depressed. Um, because in America, in the United States, like we take 90% of pharmaceuticals here, right? Depression's rampant amongst young kids here, even though some people here have a lot. But is any of that lack of depression because you've seen the differences and disparity in the way people live and you're grateful? Do you think it's because you understand that or is it just how you are? I mean, that's a good point. I have to think about that, right? Because I never

thought about it. But I realized that... That's interesting in and of itself that you never thought about it, because that might mean that when you were young, you don't feel like you were missing anything. No, no. i never thought that i was missing anything and uh when we were eating maybe one meal because at one point we were eating we had everything yeah then my parents went through um they lost they lost everything right and when they lost everything we have to cut down on our way of life we have to cut down our living standard we have to move we have to do things differently right so if you had a driver or, we have to cut down on our way of life, we have to cut down on our living standard, we have to move, we have to do things differently, right? So if you had a driver or helper, we have to cut that down.

When we cut, we adjusted. We, the kids, adjusted just fine. I think my parents had a way of making sure that we adjust, and we did. And we were fine with it. So from living in a big mansion

to living in a small houses where we have to share the same room with my brother, we were fine. When I had to share the same room with my brother, I was like happy to be with him. I was like,

I'm happy to be with you. So I wasn't like, oh my God, I'm going to be with him. How can I be with him? No, I was like, I'm so happy to be with him. Actually, I'm going to be with him. How can I be with him? No, I was like, I'm so happy to be with him. Actually, I prefer that I'm with you.

So it was just different. And if you had to watch just on one screen, one TV, we were happy to be together and watching one TV. But before we had like each room, each one TV. And when we had to cut that, bring that down, we were just happy to be together. So you see what I mean? So it's different.

The approach is different. We're just happy to be together. So, yeah. What was it like winning your first championship, your first belt? I was happy. I think I was. It must have felt amazing, all the years of training.

Amazing. All the years of training, but also this is something that I saw. That's something that I visualized. That's something that I wanted. This was my goal. I needed to prove, and I needed to prove to my mom that I can do it because she was like, I want you to be a doctor. You chose to go and do this shit.

You are so stupid. How could you do that? You know, who's going to, who can, who makes money doing this stupid fighting thing? I shouldn't have let you do that. You see what I mean? So I had to prove. I'm like, chef, I need to prove to her that, you see, I need to prove that, you know, you can be successful doing something that you like to do, doing martial art.

You can be successful. And I'm grateful that I managed to prove that to her. I did. Did she ever watch any of your fights that were televised? She never watched directly, but indirectly, yeah. I mean, later, after. It's interesting like i've watched you fight many times uh like over the years even but it's interesting talking to you now and seeing like you're super super uh philosophical you seem to be very like kind

hearted and to see you like knock that guy down and get on top of him and punch him is just hearted and to see you like knock that guy down and then get on top of him and punch him is just it's different than your demeanor than your demeanor it's amazing how we switch character yeah it's amazing how you switch character when you're there yeah and it goes so quick and i don't even i just go and just switch and just bam and that's it it's over and then you come back to your sense and you remember that you got that he's a human being and you go and tell him

something nice and come back to your normal self. Yeah. Do you feel relaxed when you fight? Like in the ring? Not as relaxed

as I would want to be. Not as relaxed as I would want to be. I wish I could be more relaxed yeah yeah that guy looks pretty big he's just running it like what

jesus christ yeah i uh i remember punching him the last punch i didn't need to do that the last punch I didn't need to do that and then yeah but in my head it was too quick it was too fast

I was thinking is he done is he finished is he finished already that was a good one too right underneath his arm yeah and where's this

where does the salute come from yeah right after you win yeah no I just I always thought the salute

is just a form of respect, you know, just giving my respect to the crowd, to the people who are supporting me, to my friend in the armed force

and so on. I just thought, you know, yeah. Have you ever been contacted by the UFC? Yes, previous,

yeah, yeah. Is that something you thought about or wanted to do? No, no. People always say, dude, you could have done so much better in the UFC. You could have focused more on fighting instead of doing everything that you do in training,

you know, and go to the UFC and then you'll be like so much more and so on. And I always say, so much more is what exactly? What is so much more and so on. And I always say so much more is what exactly? What is so much more? I'm happy and I've got enough. It's all people know here in the United States. Oh, you could be so much more. You'll be like so big and so much more money. And I'm like, what's much more?

And when is it enough? Anyway, I'm happy with the leader that I have. And the leader success that I have makes me happy. And that's all. That's all I want. Being a heavyweight, you must have fought some really huge people, right? Yeah. And you're 5'10", 5'11".

I mean, you must have fought Frank Sapp and some of those people. Bob Sapp. Bob Sapp. Yeah. Bob Sapp. Bob Sapp. Yeah, Bob Sapp. Bob Sapp was 180 kilos when I fought him. Have you ever seen

Bob Sapp before? Dude, Bob Sapp looks like he's straight out of you fought him before? Yeah, I fought him, yeah. Really? And I just thought, I think it was

the scariest thing for me. The scariest thing because it's not that he was killed but it's just that he has so much power because of his size you know if he catches you once

you're done right so yeah Jesus Christ Bob Sapp looks like he comes straight out of Punch Out

I mean look at the size of us that is inhuman he has 75 kilos on him you're just dodging. Oh, my God. Wow.

Yeah, Bob Sapp is a machine. Former football player that you played at the University of Washington. You know, for that fight, all I did is just, I did a lot of running. I bet, right? All I was doing was running. Just running, running. Hit and run, hit and run. That was the deal.

He's pretty skilled, though, too, right? I mean, he's got a little bit. He just gets sloppy with his arms maybe a little bit here and there? He gets sloppy. He has a way of doing this hammer punch. Hammer punch. And then he swings that thing. He hits you with his forearm.

He's made a lot of money in Japan, though, huh? Yeah, he did. He was really famous then. Did it? it uh everybody wanted to watch Bob Sapp? Yeah did it bother you at all because Bob Sapp is um he's enhanced he's been on I mean I think everybody knows he was on a lot of stuff did that ever like stop you from wanting to fight him? No actually most of my opponent or the opponent uh some of them who has been into something or someone come and tell me that that opponent is probably taking this or that Most of my opponent, other opponent, some of them who has been into something

or someone come and tell me that that opponent is probably taking this or that. I just couldn't care much. It's interesting because you are a fighter that probably gets some of the most steroid accusations because you're built like a bodybuilder. It used to bother me. It used to bother me and I used to fight this accusation. I used to always say, why would you say that to me? I used to take all my time to defend myself.

Why would you say that to me? You never even meet me. I never did because I never needed to. I never needed to, so I never did that. You should see my family. Oh, it's impossible for you to be this big you know naturally

it's impossible impossible to be this big naturally first it's impossible to be this big naturally I'm like but look at my brothers they're all the same

we're all the same right so all of them are just the same and one of my brother he's not even into martial art right he's not into martial art he want to invest in England and after University

he got cancer and he's been struggling with cancer for all this year but look at him right he come out of the hospital after his treatment and he's doing maybe two months of treatment and I say send And I said, send me a picture. And he sent me a picture, and he looked like he just came out of the gym. He has like... He got shredded. He's body shredded.

And I'm like, what have you been doing? He said, no, I just was at the beach, and I did a little bit of push-up. And I think I'm starting to feel a bit better. But if you look at him, I mean, it's amazing. I mean, he looked like an athlete. Someone who just came out of the gym.

He's been spending like the last three, four years in the gym. And we're talking about someone who has cancer and who's been in the hospital, under treatment and so on. You see, so I just thought we are, you know, this is just an heritage that we are very lucky to have.

But of course, you know, also hard work and education. I train every day. I'm very disciplined. So people should not take that away from me. You know, I'm always too hard this worker in the room. And people who know me, people who knows me or who are close to me, they know that. You fought a lot of different disciplines.

Is it sometimes hard to remember what the heck you're doing? Like kickboxing versus MMA? You just all of a sudden want to go and take someone down or something? Actually, no, I never felt like that. I'm just thinking, man, it must be confusing in there sometimes. When you're in trouble, yeah. When you're in trouble. Yeah, you just throw everything at them. Grab for anything, right? When you're in trouble, yeah. When you're in trouble, you just throw everything at him.

Grab for anything, right? When you're in trouble, yeah, perhaps. With Bob Sapp, was that kickboxing or was that just MMA?

With Bob Sapp, it was kickboxing. Kickboxing. Yeah, it was kickboxing. Have you ever fought Andrew Tate? He's a kickboxer,

right? He was. I think he was. Different weight class, probably. No, I didn't. No. Oh oh my god yeah i wanted to uh to talk about some of the injuries but the one we talked about beforehand is pretty gnarly um because so i just got a vasectomy last week and i've been some doing some heroic shit by not missing a podcast i'm feeling pretty damn awesome talking to him about it

he had a vasectomy and then he went and fought two months later. But what happened during that fight? I got knee on the groin. Ah! God! Yes, yes, yes. Makes me feel like a pussy right here. I was down on the ground.

And I think it was like two months or two and, you know, two and a half months, you know, after the operation. And I got hit on the groin and I was on the ground and I tell you, I never felt that much pain. And again, my opponent was like 20 kilos heavier than me. He was huge. He gave me this power knee and he took me.

I was sweating. I swear, I cried with my tears right there. Other than that, have you experienced anything close to that in the ring? Close to that, no. No, fuck. Yeah, close to that, no. Is there anybody out there that you'd really want to fight still?

You've been fighting for a long time. You've probably fought most of the people that you want to fight. I fought most of the people that I want to fight, and today I just like a good challenge, I just like a good challenge. I always like a good challenge. I think life is about challenging ourselves. You know, we get out there. It doesn't matter if I win or lose.

I just want to challenge myself. And I just want to please myself. You know, I know when I did something good. When I finish a fight or a competition, I know if I've done good, you know, and I'm happy about my performance, you know, and I know what I did and I want to do better. And I look at it that way. So whether I win or I lose, I know what I did. So if I win, you know, I could still win, but maybe I didn't perform as best as I wanted to. So this little challenge for me is that, that's what kept me going.

How about lifting? How do you, uh, how, how are you programming your lifting with your training? Because you're still huge and you said you've been like the same weight or the same weight since you were 19. So how does that work for you? Yeah, it's funny because I'm doing a lot of, I'm doing a lot of cardio. I think I do more cardio than I lift, right? So I lift maybe once, twice a week and the rest of the time is cardio, cardio, cardio, cardio, cardio. And I still manage to keep, you know, I don't understand, but yeah. How about body weight stuff? Do you count body weight as lifting or do you do body weight stuff every day? I do body weight every day. Yeah.

I don't even count it as lifting. Okay. I lift maybe once or twice, but I do body weight like this every day. Yeah, a lot of the stuff I've seen you do almost looks like you're doing like jujitsu against the ground a lot of times. It's like you versus the ground. like you're doing like jujitsu against the ground a lot of times you know it's like you you versus the ground i think working on your core your stability i think it's very challenging i think these are these are things that for me it's uh more challenging than anything else than just lifting uh tons of weight or whatever and i think i always want to make sure that I'm really strong.

But when I say strong, I don't mean just lifting 200 kilos strong, but being able to control yourself, being able to do one hands, handstands, or

to do things that bring your core into action even more than anything else. Yeah. I think it's very easy to be able to lift, you know, like 100 kilos, 150, 200 kilos. I think anybody can do that, you know. Anyone in doing, like this laborer can do that.

Yeah. You take a laborer there, he come there with his big arm, he take the weight, he lift it. But being able to do this core exercise, very challenging. Yeah.

And being able to do some of the stuff that you do, like this unconventional stuff where you're balancing shoes on your own shoes. And rolling. But you were also mentioning like... This, for instance, is like a very good hips, hips mobility exercise

and back. You feel it on your hips and your back. That's a trial. And you really challenge your core. You're really thinking about it here. You're like, what am I going to do?

How do I roll? Yeah, how much glue did you put on the bottom of your shoe? Oh my gosh. Look at his left leg though. Look like how he has to maneuver that leg to bring. Oh my God.

Yeah. It's wild. And do you have cramp doing this? I know. I'm getting cramp just watching. I'm trying that after the podcast. You were saying sometimes you'll pair a lift with another exercise to get the cardio in. So is that part of your lifting or is that part of your cardio?

Like when you said you were riding a bike and doing deadlifts in between. Yeah. I think. You put that more in the cardio. I always like to be unconventional. So I'd always do things outside of the book. So it's not there. So I'm trying things like I'll do weight training

and I'll go and do kickboxing. You know, I'll just finish now and then I'll step in the ring there and start hitting the pads, right? My trainer. And I like to do that because I never want to be stiff. I never want to be, you know,

uncomfortable and being like very stiff. I never want to be like that. I always want to be uh you know uncomfortable and being like very stiff i never want to be like that i always want to be loose i want to be long i want to have a long limbs i never want to walk around being stiff you know i think i think it's not pretty i like to be pretty no i think it's very healthy that way. And it works for me. It works for me. I'm not worried about losing my muscle. And I think because I'm not worried about it, I never lost it.

I'm not worrying. I think the fact that I'm not worrying put me in a good place. So I just enjoy my training and i do my mobility i do my weight training i go into my kickboxing i do my running so i'm always there and and i feel great you know you we were talking a little bit about your diet and the way you eat in the gym and you know you know that we like eating right? But you mentioned how your diet, you do different things with the way you eat.

Can you tell us about some of that? Yeah, I change occasionally or most of the time. I could go vegan for a period of time. So like now I'm not eating meat. And you feel better? Like you said, do you feel lighter that way? And I feel good. I feel good.

I sleep well. I feel strong. Nothing has changed. I'm fast. I run. I lift. I feel good. And how long is a period that you would go vegan for?

A year. But you said vegan with chicken and with salmon. Then I'll change. Then I'll change. Then I'll change. That's true. And if I change, and if I travel and go see my mom, for instance, I'll change, right? I'll stop and then I'll go back to eating meat because it's traditional, right? That's what we do.

Because this is traditional, right? That's what we do. If I'm going to meet some friend or if I'm coming to meet somebody, I don't want to be an outsider. We understand, yeah. So if I'm coming here and say we're eating, I say, okay, give me some chicken and I'm going to blend with you and so on.

But I know that this is a one-time thing and then I'll go back to whatever. I'm not that strict into it, but I'll do it whenever I'm pleased, whenever I feel like I go from vegan to be vegetarian or change to pescatarian and I just have fish for a while. And I think changing like this, I feel really good about it. You know, I like it. I don't like to be stuck into one thing. I like to explore. I like to change. And sometimes I'll go, I'd say, for instance, for the next three months, I'll do intermittent fasting.

And I'll do maybe eating three days without eating, drinking water for two days, and no water, so dry fast yeah and i do that for for a period of time and while when i'm dude when i'm doing that i'm still training i don't stop my training i do the same training i wake up in the morning go and do the same training and so why do you switch things up are you doing it to kind of see how you handle it are you doing it to experiment both yeah how I handle it but also to experiment also just challenging myself and uh and um yeah I think it's good for my mind it's good for my brain it's good for my body to to stop doing like like if I'm eating meat every time and I'm eating all the time i'm eating all the time i want to stop and cleanse and and just not eat meat for a while i want my body to you know to change a bit

and i feel good you know and since i've been doing that i noticed that you know it works for me i really feel good and and so i like it yeah do you experiment with different kinds of running do you go out and sprint and do some other things like that? I do a lot of sprint. Jumping and things like that? Long distance, so I do sprint, yeah. Really mix it up. Yeah, I mix it up.

So it's the same thing. The same approach that I have with my diet is the same approach that I have with my training. I also mix things. I do running, sometimes long distance, sometimes short and just sprint. And I do a lot of different things. I do running, sometimes long distance, sometimes short and just sprint. And I do a lot of different things. Jumping, jumping high. I'm doing a lot of... Make it fun, make it interesting. Make it interesting, yeah. When you do any, like, let's say running or when you're sparring,

do you pay attention to what you're doing with your breathing? Like I noticed sometimes when people are doing jujitsu and stuff, they breathe through their mouth. Do you care attention to what you're doing with your breathing? Like I notice sometimes when people are doing jujitsu and stuff, they breathe through their mouth. Do you care whether you're breathing through your nose, whether you're breathing through your mouth? Do you notice any difference? I care, and I try to remind myself. Sometimes I forget, and often I remind myself,

and I get back on track. So for you, is it mainly through the— when you say remind yourself, are you trying to breathe through your nose? Like when I'm running, I'm trying to breathe through my nose. Okay. I'm trying to control my breath. I don't want to be like, you're taking too much. You're taking too much and that's what you should avoid, right?

Because when you're fighting, when we're fighting, you don't open your mouth and, no, you have to, it's like swimming. And I'm not a good swimmer. Don't make those jokes, guys. You better chill. I'm not a good swimmer. But it's like that. You have to breathe. I was doing some swimming training just a few weeks ago.

And then the instructor was telling me, you have to save it and just like use it little by little right so you don't want to be like you don't want to be like that you want to be like very discreet so so i think that was so good I was so good. You. I knew you were athletic, but that's unbelievable. That almost looks fake.

Almost. You see, hate to ever say it's fake. I remember seeing it. That was such a good video. I watched that at least a million times. Oh, God. Sorry. I'm not a good streamer.

But as I was saying, breathing is important. So when I'm running, I try to breathe through my nose and try to not inhale too much, not exhale too much. Like slowly, slowly. Control it. It's a little bit like intermittent fasting. Like just because you're hungry doesn't mean you have to eat. Just because you feel like you need to breathe a little harder doesn't mean that you necessarily have to do that.

You can work your way through it. And you find yourself, you know, you'll go up a hill and your breathing might feel like it needs to be more erratic. But once you start to override it with your mind and once your conditioning gets a little bit better, it gets a little easier to deal with. Yeah. And I'm doing some cold and hot.

Oh, yeah, nice. So we're doing some training where when I'm going to the ice, I have to stop breathing and then I start breathing very slowly because at first when I was doing was I jump in there and I'm like yeah you see what I mean because suddenly your body is in total stress right and you feel like to to reject it you want to like and that's this is something that you shouldn't you have to jump in there and stop breathing. I jump in there and I stop and I start doing it slowly and controlling it. And it's something I just work on.

So you can read a lot about it and check on the internet and it's been very helpful. How long have you been doing like cold therapy? We have cold plunges that we use. We use them like every day pretty much. But how long have you been doing it? And what have you noticed has been a benefit? I've been doing it for quite some

time now. And I think it's awesome. I think it's one of the best things that I discovered also. And helping with reducing the body inflammation. Yeah.

And I think that's awesome. And also for recuperation, I think, especially for someone like me that trains, you know, like every day, I think it's just perfect thing. Yeah. I think these are the things that help for your sleep and so I sleep well. This is just complement the whole thing, right?

Yeah. It makes it feel like you hit the reset button on your training. It makes it feel almost like you didn't train at all to a certain extent, especially right when you get out of a cold plunge. I imagine I have to train twice a day or three times a day. It's something that you need, right? Yeah. It's awesome. you need, right? Yeah. It's awesome.

You have a gym in Hong Kong still? Yeah. How's that work? Is it a kickboxing gym? Is it an MMA gym? Both. Both? Cool.

Nice. You have a fight coming up? I had. It's been canceled like two or three times already. I'm just keeping in shape and i let them do their thing and you know when they when it's ready they let me know are you doing more mma or more kickboxing i just want to do mma why because i've been struggling with mma and because i've been struggling with mma i don't know when to stop that's what i want to do because it's challenging me. And that's

the challenge. So you got to work more on your jiu-jitsu and ground game and stuff like that? Yes, I have to work more on my jiu-jitsu and be able to go down and up. So, being able to go up and down and up and down. Yeah. He showed you how

to kick? You show him how? How long have you been doing grappling? Because you did how long you have like um how long have you been doing grappling because you you did judo yeah so but how long have you been doing like jujitsu and that stuff i'm uh purple belt yeah nice so i was in sema right or no you're brown belt my bad so when it comes to mma um as your jiu-jitsu is concerned, do you think that's the biggest piece that you need to work on and everything else is handled? Yeah.

Yeah? Yeah. Do you like jiu-jitsu? Because some people… No, at first I didn't. Yeah? At first I didn't. I had to force myself.

And I think like most of the striker, you're used to what you're doing and you're stubborn. So I was stubborn. and finally I had to admit that that was my weakness and I needed to go back and work. It's totally different to judo, right? So I thought because I don't judo when I was a kid, I thought, ah, it's okay, I already know judo, so it should be okay.

But it's not judo. It's different. Yeah. Do you like coaching people? Yeah, I love it. You have an opportunity people yeah i love it you have opportunity to coach people you get opportunity to coach some kids and stuff like that too yeah i love it i think it's one of the best rewards that i have into this uh this business so i'm passionate about it yeah giving back and teaching and and and showing i love that looks like insemin was doing

pretty good but he's getting tired, right? Holding up those heavy legs. Man, my hips, man. My hips and glutes. He didn't want to hold the pads for me. I just wanted to do one more. He'll take my face off. I was like...

That was fun, man. That was great. I'm sorry if it's old news, but something was happening with Vitor Belfort. Like, what happened there? Oh, the fight with Vitor Belfort? Yeah. I think Vitor Belfort doesn't want to talk about it anymore.

I think right now he probably blocked me. So you guys were supposed to fight? We were supposed to fight, and it didn't happen. And now he doesn't want to do it anymore. And he doesn't want to talk to me anymore. Damn. What do you think is one of the greatest fights in your career? Or what do the fans kind of think?

I've got that question a lot. And every time I say that, I wouldn't say the greatest fight because many fights were really great for me. And I think each fight was different. And a few of the fights, some of the fights that I had, I had a great time, you know. And not just the fight itself, even the training before the fight. You know, the whole thing before the fight also make the fight, you know. So I think there wasn't just one moment i had a few good

moments in there yeah was there a couple fights where you got knocked down and had to come back and do you have anything anything like that that happened yeah i just really got the shit knocked out of you and had to come back you get you get beaten up you feel like you feel like you're done here but you keep pushing and you're proud of yourself. You know, at the end, you're proud of yourself. And I think these are amazing moments. Whether I win even or whether I even lose, you know, I feel good because I finished the fight

or because I knew I was in trouble to start with and I didn't think that I even could survive until then and I managed to get to the end. And yeah, even more than a victory, this is more worth it. Did you ever have an opportunity to fight your brother again? No, not anymore. Damn it. Yeah.

Does he still fight? No, he has stopped now. He just had a car accident and he's going through rehab to recovering he was very lucky he made it alive and i'm i'm just you know supporting him through his uh recovery process and and hopefully by next year you'll be you know back to training with me i'm hoping with the mobility stuff you said that the main focus now is on the hips. And what are you finding

with the hips in particular? Because you were mentioning to me like that's kind of our powerhouse for just about everything, huh? Yeah, I just feel like most of the power that we generate throughout our body comes from the hips.

And it's often underutilized or underappreciated. So I think what people, I think what we have to do is... We're watching a video of him doing splits on the chair. I'm just reading some book, you know. That's great.

I mean, does that hurt at all? Do you feel that a lot? Or like when you're doing a split like that? I think you can always feel. It's just to what degree can you relax and take it. Yeah. You can always feel. Shit.

So your Instagram, like we've seen a couple of videos that are extremely entertaining. Is this all you or do you have help with your Instagram like we've seen a couple of like videos that are extremely entertaining is this all you or do you have help with your Instagram it's me

yeah you just come up with everything on the spot I like to have fun also and I like to be creative

you know I like to be creative not just in training but in everything and sometimes I find it funny and I want to be and my Instagram

is just it's just me having fun. You know, my training is me and, and, and when I put something funny or when I'm dancing, you know, I like to dance. So I'm showing me, you know, I just having, just doing me. Oh, you do salsa? Yeah, salsa. I like to, I like to do that. And that's me, you know, I'm just having fun.

I'm just dancing. I'm just, you know, living my best life. I think, I think I'm just living my and that's me. You know, I'm just having fun. I'm just dancing. I'm just, you know, living my best life. I think, I think I'm just living my best life. Yeah. Some people are

sending messages and say, no, instead of doing this, you should focus on your training. You know, that's why you lost

your last fight. And I'm like, why does he hurt you so much more than he hurt me? Because I lost my last fight. I'm having

the best time of my life. Yeah. Best time of my life. That's such a good way to look at it. Yeah, Instagram's supposed to be kind of fun, right? Yeah, I mean,

I mean, people, people are just people. Yeah. What can you say? All right, Andrew, you want to take us on out of here? Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you, everybody, for checking out today's episode. Please drop us a comment down below. Let us know what you guys think about today's conversation. Make sure you guys subscribe if you guys are not subscribed already

and hit that like button on the way out. Please follow the podcast at MBPowerProject on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. My Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter is at IamAndrewZNsema. Where are you at? At NsemaYinYang on Instagram and YouTube. IamAndrewZNsemaYinYang on TikTok and Twitter. Discord is in the description, so go to that Discord because

it's popping in there. And where can people find you? Instagram. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. Check me out.

And if you have anything, if you have a comment, drop me a message. It's always a pleasure. Where can people find some of your,

can people find any of your stretching routines? Yeah, actually, on my Instagram, but also on YouTube. Okay. Yeah.

Cool. I'm at Mark Smelly Bell. Strength is never weakness. Weakness is never strength. Catch you guys later. Bye. I like that. I like that.