Mark Bell's Power Project - How to Become A DOMINANT Athlete - ADCC 2022 Champ, Giancarlo Bodoni || MBPP Ep. 939

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

In Episode 939, Giancarlo Bodoni, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza talk about what it takes to become a Grappling/BJJ World Champion and how to become a dangerous athlete that competitors fear. Follow Giancarlo on IG: https://www.instagram.com/giancarlobodoni/   New Power Project Website: https://powerproject.live 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://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!   ➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off all gear and apparel!   ➢ https://mindbullet.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off Mind Bullet!   ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save up to 25% off your Build a Box   ➢ Better Fed Beef: https://betterfedbeef.com/pages/powerproject   ➢ https://hostagetape.com/powerproject Free shipping and free bedside tin!   ➢ 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 to save 15% off Vivo Barefoot shoes!   ➢ 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://www.PowerProject.live ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject   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   #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast #markbellspowerproject

The way that John teaches as well, he leaves no stone unturned. John really pushes on us that training isn't about winning, it's about developing skills. I don't care about winning in the gym, I just care about winning on the day that it counts. For competition prep for, say, white belts or just newbies in general, do you have a different approach? Don't change anything. As you do it more and more, you could start to make adjustments based on your own personal experience.

Do you notice any different type of pressure now that there's like a much bigger target on your back? Like you're not a dark horse anymore. Yeah, but like I said, it's all fake. John also says to us is like, you know, to be constantly thinking about jiu-jitsu, even when you're not training. I train during the day and then I teach at night. So I'm like doing jiu-jitsu basically from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. So you can only train for a few hours a day.

That's what your body allows. If you think about the sport, you can actually make a lot of progress just thinking about it. As long as your mind is in it, you will get better. A lot of people in jujitsu, I believe they'll say technique is everything

and it's super important, but strength has got to play into it. You're right. If your goal is to get stronger for jujitsu, it's good for you to do strength training, but I don't think it should take so much out of you that you're going to take away from your actual training in the gym. How much time does it take to really see good progress in jiu-jitsu?

So consistency is the most important thing. More time on the mat is better. The belt is not a good marker for where your skills are at. All right. Well, for those people that hate when we talk about jiu jujitsu, welcome to today's show, John Carlo. Should be fun. Appreciate you being here, and that was fun getting in a workout. Yeah, that was awesome.

Meathead session. You like training like that? Yeah, yeah, I love training like that. Most of the time when I go to the gym these days, it's kind of like stuff like that. I'm trying different things, just trying to mess around, not go crazy. I'm not trying to like pr anymore even though we did a pretty intense workout um like i felt like that was just like right up my alley in terms of like what i would um like to do yeah not so much damage that you might be able to recover from it or anything too crazy but yeah we did a lot of did a lot of chest we did some bench pressing and stuff like that got to use the slingshot

have you found you know a lot of people in jiu-jitsu I believe they'll say that technique is kind of everything and it's super important but strength has got to play into it to some degree right yeah definitely I mean so there's got everybody uh you know once you get up to a certain level like everybody's going to be tough and strong and so and in that element technique is king in my opinion but when you match somebody who you're equal in terms of skill level in theory the stronger person should win in that so if you've got somebody i guess somebody that's you know your same experience level size and technique level in theory if you have a strength advantage you should win and so it definitely plays a factor, especially in like the professional realm of like jujitsu as a sport,

strength is always going to be relevant. Do you think of like any sports specific stuff necessarily? Like, are you thinking, you know, if I do this movement, maybe it could help me get out of this position or if I strengthen these muscles, maybe it would help or do you not really mess around with anything like that? Um, I've gone back and forth over the years with that. These days, I tend to find that the most sport specific thing you can do in terms of improving performance is the sport itself. But strength, especially the way that we like worked out today or, you know, you know, some people like, you know, more bodybuilding style or CrossFit or whatever the case is, you're going to develop some degree of general strength.

And so if you can improve upon different pushing and pulling movements and driving movements and your strength through different planes of motion, I think it will ultimately benefit you, planes of motion, I think it will ultimately benefit you, provided that it doesn't take away from your actual skill development in the sport itself. So these days when I do strength and conditioning and lifting, I was talking to your brother a little bit about it before, but I think up to a certain degree of strength in the gym is going to help you. And then trying to push for like going from like, you know, a three 50 bench to like, you know,

three 75 is going to have diminishing returns on my performance on the mat. Although I am technically getting stronger in that lift, I'm just getting stronger in that specific lift. Whereas you're not going to feel a difference. If you and I roll, you're not going to be like, Oh, now that his lift is three75 instead of 350, that he's

that much stronger when we grapple, if that makes sense. But if you go to do a squat and 225 kind of folds you up like an accordion and you work on your squat just because you're not proficient at it, then maybe I would notice a difference. Yes. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. So what about reps though?

Like what if you can hit that 350 for a couple more reps? Yeah. it then maybe i would notice a difference yes yeah 100 yeah so what about reps though like what if you can hit that 350 for i know a couple more reps yeah i mean um it definitely can't hurt like you know but um for me in particular like one side like so there was a while where i was really working on my deadlift and for i wanted to get a 500 deadlift like that was just like my own like ego i was like i need to get a 500 deadlift long ass arms over here yeah so that i was just like my own like ego. I was like I need to get a 500 deadlift. You got long ass arms over here. Yeah. So I was always like I always favored deadlift in the gym over like squatting and bench pressing when I was doing like more powerlifting style training. And so I was able to get 515.

That was my heaviest one. And, you know, I just felt like, okay, that was really hard. And then when I hit that, I remember like the next month I was so taxed that like my, you know, training was just like terrible. I was just like I could not respond to everything. Like, you know, it was a pretty heavy lift for me. deadlift to 600 or can I maintain this strength and still be, you know, feel strong to everybody, even if they're able to maybe even lift heavier than me and then just be more technical. So I do want to be strong. I don't think that you should, you know, um, completely neglect it. But I got to the point where I was like, I think I'm more in like a maintenance phase in terms of like my strength and muscle mass and like size. I stopped trying to like necessarily get stronger

in particular lifts. And now I just kind of try to just try different things in the gym that challenged me without necessarily trying to go for that, like, you know, next number. A lot of grapplers start out and they start only grappling when they don't have any straight training background. They haven't built much muscle muscle so what would your advice to be for someone who wants to really get good at grappling but they don't want their training to i guess take away from their progress on the mat but they do have to get strong um it's hard to say because there's different like theories on that um i would say trying as many things as you can so you're not just fixated in like one particular like rep range or one particular modality because um if i just try to stick to you know five by five for example like you're going to get really

good at that but then you know you're you're neglecting like different areas of training or whatever training modality you choose to go into. And ultimately, like if your goal is to get better, to get stronger for jujitsu, it's good for you to, um, to do strength training, but I don't think it should take so much out, out of you that you're going to, it's's gonna take away from your actual training in the gym um and so i think you know just doing like basic stuff and then building upon that so like you could do like basic lifts you can work on you know different rep ranges maybe you start off with like five by five for example um you work on your bench you work on like an overhead press you work on those basic movements and then just adding like maybe some accessory work behind that. And then, you know, that should be enough. And then once you feel like, and you know, especially when you're just starting off, like you're, you'll notice like that the, the gains that you make in the beginning are always going to be the biggest ones. And then like when you're trying to put on those extra, like two

pounds after you've been lifting for like five or ten years or whatever the case is that's like really hard and so i think once you can build up like uh once you can get past that like first i guess year of gains and strength and size and muscle mass or whatever your goals are which is important too like it depends upon your goal like what you're trying to do are you trying to gain mass are you trying to um i think once you do that if your goal is jujitsu just maintaining that and just making small incremental um adjustments to your training to where you're still challenging yourself in the gym is kind of the best way to go that's kind of at least where i'm at now gotcha how much time does it take to like really see good progress in jujitsu, are we talking about like three times a week or?

Consistency is the most important thing. So at least as long as you're going, if you can only make it three times a week, that's what your life allows you, you're going to see results as long as you stay consistent three times a week. It's not like you're on for like, you know, six weeks and then you're off for three weeks,

then obviously you're going to backtrack. But so consistency is the most important thing. More time on the mat is better overall. But it also depends on the individual because somebody who – I teach beginners all the time. And so I get beginners that have been training for three months but the kid is 16 years old and he's played sports all his life. This kid gets good fast. Whereas, you know, I have, you know, a 38 year old dad who, you know, sits all day on a nine to five and he only gets to train four days a week. Even if the 16 year old also trains four days a week, you're going to tend to see for the most part that the progression

is a little faster. You know, the, the, the younger that they are, they tend to respond quicker to movements. And I tend to relate that to, you know, one, like how active they are and how active, you know, the 30, yeah, they've been their whole life. But also, you know, how many movements have you actually learned in your 16 years of life as opposed to your 38 years of life? And how many, how much of that movement have you accommodated your body to? Is it your body just used to doing? With your personal progress, and everyone should probably check out the documentary Becoming Dangerous, that Flowmate, it was fucking awesome. But Gordon, in a segment, he said that the one year that you guys trained together

when you came and started training with Donaher, that he thinks you progressed more in that one year than your whole span of training. Do you know what he meant by that? And do you feel that like just because of that training setting, it just vastly improved your jiu-jitsu because you already had really good jiu-jitsu at that point? Yeah, I've been training jiu-jitsu a long time. I think there's a couple of factors to that. that point yeah i've been training jiu-jitsu a long time i think there's a couple of uh factors to that there's one is that i was fully immersed in no gi whereas up until that point i would say 80 to 90 percent of what i did was gi so like when i started training jiu-jitsu we only had one gi one no gi class a week uh in my academy and you know the other rest of the other days i was only

training in the gi um and then you know um in the last couple of years, I've been trying to focus more on no-gi, competing more. More so when I was a black belt, I started to transition a little more to no-gi. How many years do you think that's been? So I've been a black belt for two and a half, three years, I think. Okay. I can't remember exactly when I – I feel like that should be like a date that I remember. Yeah. But so I feel like the last couple of years, I think it might have been just because like the way that the sport was progressing.

There was a lot more of – it seemed like Nogi was just trending a lot more and it just seemed like there was more opportunities in that um that area and for whatever reason even when i was training mostly gi i would seemingly do a little bit better in nogi tournaments i don't know if i just put less pressure on myself i was you know training it less so i was like whatever let's just see what happens but uh for whatever reason like even as a brown and early black belt i like meddled better or meddled or performed better at nogi tournaments and then once um you know there was like this big like uproar in nogi and you know adcc was starting to get a lot of hype behind it i put in my mind that i was going to do the trials and that was

what i was going to focus on yeah and so at that time I was, uh, training by myself. I was teaching, uh, in Massachusetts at Bernardo Faria school. Um, and so what I would do was I would, uh, teach in the evenings and I would get a small group of my students and we would go upstairs. There was like an upstairs mat area and we would just, I would take like seven or eight guys and I would teach them and then I would grapple with them. And that was like my training camp for, you know, however many months prior to the trials. And then three weeks before the trials is when I finally actually like moved to Austin. So I was able to kind of like put the finishing touches on, you know, tactics and stuff like that. Um, and then, you know, I was able to like win the trials, but in terms of like that year, I think that because I had fully immersed myself into

nogi, I was learning a lot of new skills and a lot of holes in my game that I had because I hadn't come from that nogi background, even though I had trained nogi here and there, it wasn't like, you know, once you're fully immersed in it you do realize that they are different sports it's like wrestling and judo you know so um there is a tons of similarities to them it's still jujitsu at the end of the day it's another facet of jujitsu but like a lot of like the things that you can do in the gi in terms of takedowns in terms of you submissions. Like the whole leg lock game changes everything, the whole wrestling aspect.

There's submissions that you just can't do in no-gi that you can do in gi, so you have to specialize in certain moves, things like that. Friction versus less friction, sweat. There's so many different things that change the way that you approach the game that I was really able to hone in on that specific facet of my j jiu-jitsu which made me go from a good nogi submission grappler to like a great nogi submission grappler where i was able to really

just like fill in all those gaps and just round out my game and i'm still you know round there's still a bunch of different skills that i personally want to improve upon and that I still feel that I'm not as good at, you know, that I can be. And so, yeah, that's kind of what I think, you know, played a factor. And also, you know, I was a student full-time. I was just a full-time student. Like I was showing up to class every day. I wasn't teaching.

I was just taking classes from, you know, the best coach that you could ask for. So, you know, it's all those pieces of the puzzle make it relevant. Did the black belt not matter to you that much? Is that partly why you don't remember? And did you also go to practice like the next day, the day after you may have gotten your belt? Yeah. Yeah. So for whatever, so I spent like quite a while at my purple belt because I was moving. Um, so I moved from my home gym to a different state. And I had moved around for like about two years to a couple different places. And so I never got belted at Purple Belt. And that was kind of the beginning of where I started to decide that I wanted to be a full

time competitor, even with like, everybody's goal is like, okay, I want to be a world champion. but like, what does that really mean? You know, like, what does that entail? And I was still figuring that out, but I knew I wanted to be, you know, I wanted to pursue Jiu-Jitsu competitively at that point. And so, um, trained at a couple of different places. And then I ultimately ended up in, uh, you know, in North Carolina where that's where I ended up getting my black belt under Lucas Lepre. And for whatever reason, when I was, you know, coming up through the ranks, like a black belt was very important. I was like, okay, I'm going to get my black belt. Like that was important to me. And as time went on and I spent like a few years, like not getting belted, I just stopped worrying about like the belt that's like on my waist i just felt like it was irrelevant um and the only reason why at that point my like when i

was a competitor or when i was you know starting to pursue competitive jiu-jitsu that the belt was important to me was because i wanted to compete at a black belt level against the guys that i was watching you know so that was the only reason. Entry into going against the very best. Correct. Yeah, exactly. So I would watch a world championship or an ADCC. ADCC doesn't have belts, but like Worlds at the time when I was training in the Gi. And I would see those guys and I'm like,

okay, one day I'm going to compete on that level with those guys. on that, on that level with those guys. And, um, but really like the skill that the belt is not, you know, a good, uh, marker for where your skills are at. And so for me now, and in that time, I started to drift less towards the belt and more towards how good am I actually. Um, and so that's why I think like when I got my black belt, it was a little bit more cold than any of the other belts. Like every other belt I was like, yeah, I got my belt. Like that means like something. But you're no different than you were five seconds before you got the belt.

So that's kind of like how I started to approach it. And I try to like emphasize that to my students that, yes, you are going to get, um, emphasize that toward to my students that yes, you are going to get belted at some point, but that shouldn't be your goal. You should, your goal should be your own personal development. You mentioned watching a lot of athletes, like the guys that you wanted to compete against. How did you, how did you make that transition into becoming that person? Because that was another big part of that documentary, that your belief in yourself as an athlete, knowing that you had those skills to compete against those people.

When do you think you started to recognize that you are also at that level and you can compete at that level? These guys that you may have been watching for years, they're not your idols anymore. They're your competition. Yeah, yeah. I think when I started competing as a black belt my first ever black belt tournament was pan ams um that was when i had my first match against hulk

and um you know we we started kind of that rivalry yeah um and i would compete against i mean this is kind of like the story throughout a lot of my career but particularly at black belt like i would compete against guys that were you know good or had been black belts for a while or you know hulk at that time had already won worlds and done all these things and like i always had these like narrow matches and i was like every time i would walk off the mat i'd be like okay i lost that match by like two points nothing he didn't really do anything to me and i would always question myself and i'd be like man if i would have just like opened up more and like tried something like he wasn't gonna he wouldn't have been able to like I would have been able to win that match so I always felt like it was on me it wasn't on the other guy and so that

started to shift the way that I trained and the way that I you know approached um you know training and competing how um I would just make my so previously I started to think about like I would just make my – so previously I started to think about like I would go into tournaments with the intention of just winning. Like I was like, OK, I need to go out there and I need to win. I need to come home with a gold medal. But what happens from the first second that you step on the mat and to the gold medal, there's a whole lot that happens in between. medal, there's a whole lot that happens in between. And so what I started to realize and, and, um, my coach who, uh, at the time who gave me my, my Brown and Black Belt, Lucas Lepre, he helped me understand this. Um, and John also helped me understand this as well. Um, which was what matters isn't winning. Winning is just a byproduct of how you perform.

And so if your goal, if your focus is, everything's about what you focus on. So if you're focused on winning and more specifically, if you're focused on not losing, that's another way. Another thing that's important is like, I was worried about losing to a guy and then I was like, okay, let me think about winning, but it shouldn't be the result that you're focused on or that you're focused on. You should focus on the performance. And if you perform well and you perform the way that you're focused on. You should focus on the performance. And if you perform well and you perform the way that you know that you can and that you train for and the way that you do every day in the gym, then the result will almost certainly be a byproduct of that performance. And that's kind of like how I started to shift my focus in tournaments.

And it's always going to be a battle. Your mind is never your friend, especially in moments like that. And so for me, I just try to put my focus on the things that I do every single day in the gym and just try to replicate those things in the tournament, independent of the stage that I'm on or who I'm competing against or whatever it is. Like I ultimately, the most important thing is that I perform. Yeah. We were talking in the gym about powerlifting a little bit. And I was saying how, you know, the biggest squat in the gym, the biggest bench in the gym and the biggest deadlift in the gym,

none of those are owned by me, but I do have the biggest total. And I talked about how you can, you know, how you take pride in trying to piece together that total as a power lifter. It's the main thing that you're after. And I think some of what you're pointing out here is like a guy might be able to get you in this or that. He might be able to beat you in this area or that area. But can he actually,

is he going to take the risks necessary to kind of go all out and not play to lose? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, not playing to lose, you know, like playing to progress and to win ultimately. But that's why we were talking about that, and I was talking about the positional sparring that we do. It's like any position that I get into, I know that I have an answer or should have an answer. And so that's what the training is for. And, um, that's why, like, even if I get into a match and I get in a bad spot, like, you know, I did at one point in this match, I'm like pretty relaxed and like

comfortable because I just think about, I just focus on what's happening at this, this very moment. Like I try not to get into a state of like, oh, fuck, this guy got my back. It's over. Or I'm in a terrible position. Everybody's watching me. I might lose this match. Now you're starting to drift and your mind's going to play tricks on you like that.

But if you can narrow that focus to what's important at this very second, that's what, in my opinion, I think is going to count the most. Maybe change your interpretation of what a – maybe there are no bad positions. Right, exactly. If you know what to do, there are really no bad positions.

I mean there's definitely favorable positions, scoring positions, positions that you want to be in. But ultimately, this is one thing that John really helped me understand. It's like what makes you win, like your knowledge, it's all about what you know. So if you're in a position and you don't know what to do, you're not going to have the answer. You're just going to react, and you're going to go off of instinct,

and that's not always going to be the case. But if you know what to do, you're going to respond accordingly. How do you guys calm yourself down like watching this match like this seems like you get in such compromised positions yeah any of you guys can answer this but like how do you how do you tell yourself that you're like okay yeah like it looks like you're not okay sometimes that particular move like i had trained that escape multiple times um so like that's you know just one of like a few escapes that you can do from that position so again it like comes down to like what you know and um your understanding of like of the actual the game that

you're playing right i hear a lot of people mention like when i first started like listening to hodger grace stuff a few years ago um one thing that he mentions that he did a lot of people mention like when I first started like listening to hundred race stuff a few years ago, um, one thing that he mentioned is that he did a lot of positional training and he also mentioned that like none of his training partners were at his level and that kind of surprised me, you know, cause like he's so fucking great,

but he said he never watched the matches of his opponents that he was going to compete against. And I wonder, cause I've heard you, I actually heard John mentioned that like you guys had game plans for people obviously you're going to play your own game but some people purposely do not watch tape from people they're going to compete against do you think what do you think of that strategy do you think obviously you want to play your game but what are your thoughts on that I've

never personally I mean I don't want to say i've never done it but i for the most part don't watch other people's tape i watch a lot of my own tape and we do tape study um you know with john pretty frequently where sometimes it's like spur of the moment he'll just bring up matches that we should watch that could be jiu-jitsu matches that could be particular moves from you know like wrestling matches or whatever he's studying um And I do definitely watch a lot of my own footage. But I almost never watch. And there was a period where I was starting to watch. I would go into a tournament and see, okay, there's this so-and-so is in my division.

Maybe I should watch his match. I never felt like it helped me. So I was just like, whatever, I'll just focus on myself. I don't really care what he's gonna do if like again it all comes down to like if i have the answer regardless of what they're doing you know and the way that we train and we do like positional rounds and you know a lot of you know the way that john teaches as well is like he leaves no stone unturned he's like very very thorough and so um that prepares us for like you know all situations and you know to touch on like what you said about hodger like i would say 80 of my training is against people that you know are either smaller than me or maybe less

experienced than me or whatever the case is because i'm trying to develop skills and the closer we get the tournaments that's when I'll start ramping up the intensity and trying to go against the tougher guys in the room because that's when I need to like get used to going hard or get used to you know trying a move and having it fail and having a guy counter me and put me in a bad spot and just be able to practice the tactics required to get to good positions but also the you know the calmness of like being in a bad i'm gonna go against you know gordon or whoever like you're gonna get put in shitty positions you know it's just you know when you're going against the best guys in the room but i don't want to go um i would say that that would that would be about 20

percent of the time and closer to competition with them yes really and then closer to competition uh more often and then less often when i'm either far away from a tournament and i'm focused just on skill development i'm trying to practice a new move we're trying to work on a particular tactic tactic to get to a position that i want to i have to practice it against people that i know i can you know almost like rep things out on, if that makes sense. Because otherwise, you know, it's going to be hard to hit a move for the first time on the best guy in the room. Can I ask you something about that? That makes me really like, so, I mean, obviously there's like Gordon, there's Merrick, there's all these fucking Dan,

big Dan, all those guys in that room, right? I don't know if they're in the room every time when you guys train or whatever, but so when you't know if they're in the room every time when you guys train or whatever. But so when you're getting – you're saying when you're getting closer to a competition, you will roll with them more. But when you're outside of competition, most of your roles are with people that you can just work technique on that you know like you can work that on? Yeah, I mean I still roll with those guys. But it will be definitely like less intense. OK. And for the most part, yeah, when I'm trying to work on technique, technique i'll try to or i'm trying to work on a new skills like skill development i'm trying to do it against some of the lower level guys in the room or the less experienced guys in the room

gotcha so that i can practice that move and feel like i really get a knack for it um and then as you feel like okay i'm getting better at this move you increase the level of the opponent and you increase the level of the opponent better at this move, you increase the level of the opponent. You increase the level of the opponent, work on it for a bit, increase the level of the opponent until ultimately, hopefully you get to a level with that move that you can hit it on the best guy in the room. It's not always the case, but at least you have that. You've developed that skill in your repertoire,

and when a match comes, there might be a time where you need to pull that move out, and you've sharpened that tool, and you have another you know skill in your skill set gotcha it's so interesting because it it appears that almost all learning kind of works very similar yeah and all progress and adaptation it seems to work very similar obviously like you can throttle stuff and you can go like you know you can go nuts on things and you can go into a full sprint if you want to be faster and there's a lot of different ways to get to the same way – get to the same road. But it appears with jujitsu, wrestling, lifting, running, it appears that you have to be able to think about what it is that you're doing kind of while you're doing it. And therefore, the percentage must be reduced significantly. One of the things I wrote about in a book I published years ago called Jacked and Tan, explaining some of my training methods, was I would oftentimes at the end of a workout use a very, very lightweight 30 or 40 percent of your max.

And I would just do practice reps. And it's actually really interesting. In powerlifting and bodybuilding, you don't and i would just do practice reps and it's actually really interesting in power lifting and bodybuilding you don't really hear people talk about practice reps they do it in olympic lifting a little bit but it's rare for people to really practice break it down try it barefoot try it with different shoes now if you're going to go and do all that and you're going to have olympic shoes on versus flat shoes versus no shoes it'd be a giant mistake to do that with 90 percent of your max or 100 of your max you could really end up hurting yourself so a lot of what you're saying makes a lot of sense the training is only good as good as your recovery and i imagine

if you're rolling with these monsters while it might feel great to go all out and to go intense you do that for a handful of days in a row and you're probably just all wearing it. At a certain point, you can only keep up physically, you know, to a certain degree. And, um, and like, you know, John really pushes on us that training isn't about winning. It's about developing skills. And it only matters when you, to win on the day that it counts. Um, and so I don't care. Like I tap all the time in the gym you know like sometimes i tell people that and they're like are you like yeah we're like letting ourselves get put into

submission holds and practicing escaping them you know or you know sometimes you just get caught in a move like it is what it is like who cares so who cares if the guy passes my guard like just fucking start again it's just training you know what i mean it just matters like gsp that's all i got, bro. GSP used to say that all the time. He would go into different areas of martial arts, Muay Thai, BJJ, or whatever,

and he would go against the best guys because he knew he would never be able to keep up with them. But when he would step in the cage, that was when it mattered to win. And so that's really all that matters. Like you have to win on the day. It doesn't matter winning, like being the gym champion, you know, isn't like, unless you're, you know, if that's what you want, like, that's fine. But

like for me personally, uh, like I don't care about winning in the gym. I just care about winning like on the day that it counts. When did you realize that? Cause how long did it take you to realize that? Like you shouldn't try, like you should allow yourself to get in those positions and training. Um, I think it was, it wasn't like a specific moment. I think just over time you start to mature and start to realize that. Um, and, um, when I first met John and I was training at Bernardo's, I was, you know, I only had my, my students to train. There wasn't a ton of people. Um, and at that point, Bernardo was like already retired and he, he, you know, he was barely training, you know, maybe once or twice a week. And so, um, I would frequently have

conversations with John would talk about technique and training and stuff like that. And then he, that was one thing that he, you know, told me, he was like, you only have to go hard, like one or two days a week. And, you know, maybe you increase that a little bit more when you get closer to a competition. But for the most part, you should be training with your guys, letting them out, you practice escaping, let them, you know, you pass their guard, you let them regard, you pass again, you let them extend your arm and then arm bar, and you practice getting out. And if you tap tap who cares uh you know what you have to work on now you know and so that's kind of like not nowadays i only approach training that way and i feel like that's allowed me to progress a lot faster in the last few years um than before you know especially like you know when you're starting something you can pretty much do anything and get good but it's again it's adding those extra two pounds to your, to your max, you know, like that there's, you got to do very specific things to get that, to get that, that, that number up and same thing with skills. We'll never stop talking to you guys about how

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How many days a week do you train? Every day? Yeah, every day. And how many sessions a day? So Monday through Friday, we do a morning session and then an afternoon session. That's just my personal training. And then Saturdays and Sundays, it's just one session. Now, the thing is, is like there's so much frequency there.

But I'm assuming with everything you've just mentioned, you're throttling your intensity from session to session. Because it sounds like a lot, but like certain sessions, you're kind of flowing and you're not killing yourself right yeah for sure and it's a lot of drills you know so you're doing a lot of drilling so that's that takes a lot of impact away from the the rolling and like the positional sparring um is also like you're not starting in a neutral position and trying to wrestle the guy for you know 30 minutes straight um you know you're starting in a mountain and you're like playing in the position so there's a lot of playfulness in the way that you train cute yeah yeah exactly you're trying to take something violent and make it playful doesn't look playful but uh that's kind of like you know especially

when i'm trying to work on stuff or if i need to get like a lighter session, I just try to flow a little bit more. But I, you know, I'm constantly moving, so I'm still getting a workout. Just take a little bit of the impact away from the, you know, and a little bit of the intensity off so that I can at least do multiple sessions and train every day. You went to the best trainer in the world. You went to the most intense gym in the world, or maybe it appears that it's the most intense gym and maybe it's, it's the most intense gym and maybe it's uh maybe they uh just train really well but when he told you like one time a week

were you kind of like i mean obviously he's he's the guy to go to right john donahue is the guy to go to so you're going to listen to him but at first we were like that can't be it i was to back way off that can't be it yeah yeah back way off, that can't be it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was kind of like it made sense the way that he put it. You know, and once you develop skills, he gave me this analogy that was really insightful, which was like if you take a bicycle, like you flip a bicycle upside down, you take the tire you start

spinning it at the beginning it's going to be hard to spin but once you get it going you can you can barely flick it and you can keep it at that speed for a long time and so maintaining skills are is a lot easier than developing skills and so um you just got to keep sharpening it every so often. And again, it goes back to the consistency is the most important thing. If you could train – like the way that we train allows us to win with training volume as opposed to training intensity. So you get more volume over time of training, more time spent in every position than anybody else. of training, more time spent in every position than anybody else. And so, um, that's, I think like, I mean, I know for a fact that it's the best way to train because I mean, I've just seen the results, um, not just in myself, but in other people. Um, and so, um, I definitely feel best

training this way. I mean, training every day, no matter what, at some point, like you're going to fatigue, you're going to be tired, you're tired you're gonna feel um beat up or whatever that pretty much what you guys do is train every day ish yeah yeah and like he doesn't 100 enforce that on everybody it's not like you have to fucking train every single day but like he's there every day and you know you want to be a champion and so you can't like you know just i i at least feel like i'm obligated to train every day. And like I have always put that pressure on myself. I've always enjoyed training a lot.

And so if I'm in the gym every day, even if I'm not doing a very intense session, at least I'm there. At least I'm learning something and at least I'm moving my body and I'm staying consistent. Like that's the most important thing for me. What happens if you miss a day? Like do you feel like somebody starts talking about something that like you're here, right? You're not there. And when you go back, you know, like someone has like discoveries and different things. Like, oh, we were working on this.

Do you feel like you missed out on a lot sometimes? Yeah, sometimes. I mean there's definitely been times where that's happened where I've like traveled for like a week or two. And then when I come back, I'll i'll be like wait what have you guys been working on he's like showing something that he's never taught me before i'm like fuck like but um it's just like it is what it is these days like i like again like as long as i'm consistent if i take a day off or i lose you know a week because i'm traveling or whatever the case is so as long as i'm coming back and I'm just rebuilding back into that normal routine,

like again, it's that training volume over time that I think is going to make the most, um, difference. Seeing some of your matches, uh, over the last couple of weeks, trying to follow along with what you're doing. Uh, it appears that you are really good at, uh, I guess I don't even know the, some of the terms terms but like using your legs and getting people like in a body lock like that guy right there just that match that you just did just seemed unbelievable the way you're able to control the guy is that something that you like do you spend a lot of time on that or does that come natural to you or um the uh the body triangle like when i'm behind him um that seems to come natural to me i mean it

just depends on who you're going against. Obviously, if I'm going against somebody who's really big, it's hard to lock it. But it's definitely from that position. That looks like it sucks. Especially with your arm stretched over your head. Yeah, it's terrible. That's how guys get their ribs fucking popped, bro.

Yeah. It sucks. As someone who doesn't know what's going on, it doesn't look like much. But that is massively much. Yeah. But that is massively painful. Yeah. That's probably the most controlling position you can be in.

You know, you control like your training partner's whole body. You have closed wedges around their hips, you know, and you're behind them. So, yeah, it's definitely, in my opinion, the best way that you can control somebody from the back would be using that body triangle. Do you have a wrestling background? No, no. I wish I had wrestled. It looks like you do. I definitely like to wrestle, and I feel very confident in standing position, but I don't have a background.

I never wrestled in elementary school or high school or anything like that. So I always enjoyed standing position wrestling and judo and john teaches a lot of wrestling and he's very knowledgeable so um you know we're able to to um you know pick things up relatively quickly um and he has us go through phases of like learning different things but yeah he he emphasizes a lot of the standing position in training so we do that every day pretty much. You know, if someone is trying to get into competing a lot and they do want that to happen, but let's say that maybe they don't have crazy high-level training partners, right? You mentioned something really amazing about how you train every day, but it's not like you're going intense every day.

I think a lot of people, when they hear someone like you mention they train every day, they expect you to be going 100% all the time. So stretching your intensity makes a lot of sense. But what are some other things that you see guys who train – they're just concepts that are messing up with the way that they're trying to train and the level they're trying to get to? I definitely think that – are you referring to somebody who has never competed before who wants to compete or somebody who competes regularly? Let's say that they have a goal of trying to increase their level and compete regularly. Okay. I think the most important thing for – at least for me, what makes the most difference in terms of my performing and competition is competing also at a relatively consistent frequency where I'm not taking too many breaks between tournaments because that way one I'm always training for something yeah two I have the um you know the the result of the previous tournament to kind of study

and see okay what can I improve upon from this one to the next one um so competing regularly for me is important whether that's once a month once once every two months, once every two weeks or whatever frequency you want. Everybody's a little bit different. So that's important. And I think that you can learn a lot from watching your own matches. So if you've competed and you see that there's a certain, you know, maybe you're losing in a particular way more so than others, you can learn a lot from your own matches as to what you have to work on. For me, that's why I almost only watch my own matches or I occasionally watch other people's matches, my teammates or whatever the case is.

But for the most part, when I actually want to go back and watch an old match, I usually watch my own matches so I can see what it is that i've improved upon or what it is that i need to improve upon and go and implement that in the in the training room so you can learn a lot from watching your own matches and in a relatively short amount of time a lot of times it's a simple strategy that you just messed up on in your previous match that cost you the match the guy got a takedown on you and that you know that was it or whatever it could be anything it could be a very minor adjustment that you can immediately implement and then boom you go into the next tournament and just because you fix that one little thing

you know that could increase your performance so when you get into competition like there's a lot of variables outside of like technique you know there's like the rule set and the time and you know so there's a lot of different things the style of the opponent etc strategies um and so that's why i like to watch my own matches because yeah i'm in the gym every single day i'm working on technique but i can watch my tournaments and see okay how can i improve upon this strategy or what's a different strategy that i could have taken that i can go in and implement when we're doing live rounds like that's kind of like when you can practice that, uh, those strategies.

Do you also record your training or no? Uh, no, usually not. No, I don't think I've ever recorded it. Okay. Yeah. I'm not opposed to it. I just don't, don't do it. Gotcha.

What about, uh, what are some things that you may have copied or, um, kind of took note of observed from teammates when you first got to train with john donahue where you're like ah like okay this is how like was there anything that kind of surprised you when you saw maybe how they trained or maybe even just how they acted in between like oh shit that guy he eats he eats his food right away like when he's done with his uh when he's done with his you know morning practice like i need to implement. Were there any habits or anything that you saw from people where you're like, I think I need to take that for myself? I definitely find that I do learn a lot from my teammates in terms of techniques and stuff like that. Rolling with them, just picking up on stuff that they do when they roll or if I watch them roll.

And then just asking questions, you know. And we do that quite a bit, like go back and forth with technique and questions in our, in our gym. Um, but one thing that I did find is that, um, and I, I was familiar with the training cause I had cross trained, um, with John and those guys before I actually joined a few times. Um, so I kind of knew what the training structure was like and I was familiar with it and uh you know knew the guys etc but um one thing that i found is that um when you're at our gym new wave a lot of the guys have much more crossover in terms of the moves that they do than in a lot of other gyms and so um we follow – there's obviously differences in sizes, in style,

in attributes and things like that. Some people are a little bit faster, more explosive. What's a crossover move? What does that mean? In terms of like you see that there's a lot of – It's like there's a system. Yeah, there's a system in place that everybody is following that's similar. But each person has their own way of implementing that, maybe their own different ways that they like to chain techniques together, different details that they like to use. But there's a similar system.

And so what I mean, there's like a lot of crossover in terms of the way that we approach jiu-jitsu. So what I mean is like a lot of crossover in terms of the way that we approach jiu-jitsu. Whereas if you go to a lot of other gyms, you find that there's – a lot of people have a lot of different games. One guy is a really good half guard player. Another guy is really good at takedowns. And so there's kind of like – it seems as though like there is an environment in which you get a lot of guys that are tough and they're training together. And they all kind of figure their own stuff out on their own and they find what they like and they just stick to that. And that's what, you know, in the years coming up, I got to train a lot of different gyms. And so I noticed that that was one of the main differences that I found. And John doesn't really push anything outside of systems to us. So

everybody has their own lifting protocol, sleep protocol, recovery protocol, if they even have it at all, though, everybody eats differently. And so there's like, a lot of individuality in terms of the way that everybody like lives their life. He doesn't really push anything like that on us. But there's a lot of crossover in terms of the way that we approach jujitsu. And so and he's very open, open minded in terms of like way that we approach jujitsu. And so, um, and he's very open, open-minded in terms of like creativity and he'll always encourage people to be creative. And so he'll get, he'll almost like lay out the group blueprint and he's like, okay, now you try to figure stuff out inside there, make it your own, you know? And that's what I, um, that's,

I always really, uh, was drawn to that training environment, like from the first day, even from visiting them. But like from the first day, even from visiting them. But like from the first day that I started training there full time, I always really enjoyed that, that way of, of, of training. So that's what I feel like I get the most is that, you know, you could see that there's like an overall, like everybody's kind of working on the same things and they're just, everybody's kind of like adding to it. It makes lot of sense that's what happened at west side barbell you couldn't even really you can't necessarily just work out there you know you're doing like the west side program and as you're pointing out there was people with many different types of backgrounds and had to work on different

things but there was an overall system of the whole thing yeah yeah exactly would you say that like what would you say is the difference in the way that you guys think about jujitsu and progressing in jujitsu versus rant like other schools is there a way you guys look at it that you think is just different which allows you to kind of work within that system um yeah i think um one is the overarching kind of philosophy that John pushes is that jiu-jitsu is a sport that is control that leads to submission. So ultimately you should be looking to progress through a series of movements that ultimately lead you into dominant positions that allow you to finish your opponent. So that's just always going to be the emphasis is that the the best way to win a match is by submission and um he really emphasizes that but also like you know he doesn't john sees

everything and he studies everything and so there's never an area there's always an air a new area of the game that we're working on and even if it's something that we've already done there's always something new that's being added on to that yeah um and so you can tell that there's a lot of like intention to the way that he's uh that he's teaching um and so i feel that for me i've always wanted to be as well-rounded as possible i never i don't like i want to be good everywhere i know that's something that's like a really hard thing to ask of yourself or of like any athlete, but like why not try to have the best, you know, case scenario, right?

Shoot for that and then, you know, worst case scenario, you get close to it. And so I, if I ever felt that I was neglecting an area of my game, I'll immediately try to go and start working on that and try to touch on everything. And so he's very thorough in that aspect and makes it so that we have a system from every single position. And that's why we do positional rounds from every single position. And so that way you get a chance to actually work on those and spend time in those in a live setting.

But it's in a controlled space where you're spending as much time as possible in that area getting to work on your moves, et cetera, et cetera, as opposed to like we were talking about earlier. If we just roll, yeah, that's the fun part. But it's always the stuff you don't want to do that makes you better. to do that makes you better and so when i roll with you if we're similar in skill level how long am i actually going to spend in a mounted position realistically if we roll for eight minutes but if you're tough you know now it's going to take me like six minutes to even probably pass your guard and then you know then you're trying to escape the whole time you're shelling up like i might spend 30 seconds in a mountain or a minute as opposed to spending seven or eight minutes every single day, twice a day.

And so that accumulation, I think, is what – well, it's one of the elements, I think, that makes it different. What you got over there, Andrew? Yeah, I guess I should probably apologize to the upper belts in the room and listening online because I got a bunch of white belt questions. No worries. I got no belt. Well, okay.

So I guess, well, you got a lifting belt, so that's something. There we go. So just, again, like how we were speaking in the store, you know, I have my first competition coming up in a month. So for competition prep for, let's say, white belts or just newbies in general, do you have a different approach for some of the guys that you've worked with when it comes to their you know either again early in their competition career or maybe even their first yeah my advice is always just don't change anything just go to the tournament and don't change your the way you train don't change the way you eat for it I mean unless you're trying to make a specific weight class or whatever the case is. But for the most part, I think if it's your first tournament, regardless of what belt you're at, just go out there and just have the experience.

So you shouldn't have to like. So I have some students that are going into their first tournament. They're like, how should I train? I'm like, the way we train every day. You know, like, what do you mean? How should he train? every day you know like what do you mean how should he train um and so uh you know i think a lot of people especially when they're new to competition they think that they need to do something different because they you know they put a lot of pressure on like um you know the event

so i would say just go out and just do the tournament train the way you normally trained you know maybe a day before the tournament or two rest or not you know see how you feel and then the next tournament you do if you felt good doing what you did and you want to try something different go ahead maybe you you know take a couple days off or maybe if you took a couple days off you didn't feel good you train all the way up until the day of the tournament um And so I would say that the first most important thing is just doing it. And then as you do it more and more, you could start to make adjustments based on your own personal experience. But I wouldn't put much of an emphasis on changing anything or doing anything.

Just go out, especially because you've only been training for seven months, right? Yeah. And so in terms of how long you will train or are capable of training it's a very short amount of time and so like i wouldn't put any unnecessary um i wouldn't add any like extra things i think it's like it's unnecessary just go out there and have the experience and that's the most important thing don't change anything down the road if you know you do more tournaments and you feel like you could do something different then yeah it's a different story yeah and then so like somebody had mentioned they're like oh whatever you suck at just like keep working on that and i was like i don't even know if i have

the ability to really understand what i technically do suck at so i guess maybe i should ask somebody else like my instructor but i i found that comment pretty interesting but have you ever been asked something like that too or it's like where i need to focus on for this comp yeah yeah i get that question all the time from you know my students especially the newer ones that they ask me maybe not specifically for a tournament but like you know what do you think i need to work on and it's i always structure the classes based on around what i think the group as a whole needs to work on um and so i always you know reinforce that in their head um and um but i think if you're competing you know uh watching your own match footage and reviewing it with your instructor

or teammates or whatever uh watch re-watching it yourself, is a good way to see where you're at and what you can potentially work on and also see what you're doing good. You know, like, oh, I'm pretty good. Like I hit a nice guard pass or, you know, whatever the case is. And so I think that that's definitely a good way that you can kind of gauge where you're at and in the gym your feet are able to do what they're supposed to do in this shoe they have tons of options for hiking running training in the gym chilling and relaxing casual shoes if you're out on a date you need to check them out and andrew how can they get it yes that's over at vivo barefoot.com slash power project and you guys will receive 15 off your

order automatically again vivo barefoot.com slash power project links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Yeah, I film a majority of my training sessions and we did a comp simulation round and I was getting coached by one of the coaches and you know, he was just he was calling out like a very simple thing like, oh, you have his back right now. And then I had no idea. Like, what do you mean? And then looking at the footage, I was like, damn, it was right there. But in that moment, because it was, like, right before class, and who knows, maybe, like, three people were watching,

but it felt like the entire class was around watching me. So, like, even in that moment, like, I kind of got caught up in it, and I'm like, dude, the lights aren't even on right now, you know, so it was kind of weird. So for both of you guys, because in SEMA we talked about this, where it's like, oh, like, you got to, like, rest up like rest up in between matches and you're like yeah I've fallen asleep before and in my head I'm like thinking about the the the tournament I'm like my palms get a little sweaty you know I'm like I'm trying to like how am I going to calm myself down I guess does that just come with experience

or is there something else that you guys both do in order to kind of keep yourself calm um for me i i always i'm gonna put some degree of pressure on myself and have nerves like i still that's never changed even like i competed uh a week ago a week or two ago and um it was a small local tournament you know and i fucking was nervous before like it's just normal um and i competed like on the biggest stage in the sport and so uh that i i don't think that that it can go away for some people for me i don't think it's ever going to go away um and i think that that's kind of a good thing to have because if you're just not nervous at all, it probably means that you don't care about the result. But if you're too nervous, maybe you care too much. And so there's going to, I think there's a, there's a fine line where you can be just kind

of like the right amount and ultimately, um, just understanding where the nerves are coming from. Are you worried because, you know, maybe your family's watching you and you don't want to look like, you know, like crap in front of your family because they'll disown you or whatever, you know. It's all like I was like, he's been spending a lot of time in that place. This is the reason. Wow. That's why I started filming because my wife was like, yeah, you talk about jujitsu all day long, but I've never seen you once play jujitsu guy. And I'm like, all right, I'll start filming. Are you really at jujitsu? Yeah, but i've never seen you once play jujitsu guy and i'm like all right i'll start filming are you really at jujitsu yeah exactly yeah where are you who is jujitsu spend a lot of time with this person but yeah no that makes a lot of sense yeah but it's all like

self it's all fake it's not like a real you know and so like um it's okay to feel that everybody feels it i think to a certain degree no matter how much you portray, you know, that you aren't, you know, nervous or whatever the case is. But yeah, I think it's, it's normal. And just, you know, focus on the things you can control. That's kind of like what I say. That's why I say like, I can't control what the result is, but I can control the way I can perform, you know, that's huge. Do you notice any different type of pressure now that there's like a much bigger target on your back like you're not a dark horse anymore right yeah but like I said it's all fake like it's just all me it's all my own head you know there's not like a real like pressure on me yeah um and so I again I just try to like what is it

nothing's different about me nothing's different about my skills if anything. They're just better. And so like what can I control? Like that's kind of like where – that's what I try to constantly remind myself of at least. There's always going to be like a voice in your head. There's always going to be nerves or whatever the case is. But I try to constantly remind myself of like what is it that is important in order for me to achieve the thing that I'm trying to achieve. You know, what's the problem that's directly in front of me at this moment that needs to be addressed when I'm competing.

You fought in the biggest tournament there is and you won the whole goddamn thing. In that tournament, it seemed like jiu-jitsu has changed quite a bit over the last couple of years. that tournament it seemed like uh jujitsu has changed quite a bit over the last couple years uh it seems like uh a little bit like wwe-ish where there's uh like it it seems really entertaining the crowds into it everyone's all fired up do you have like entrance music and all that kind of thing and and what's the what does it feel like um so at adcc they did have music uh we didn't choose the music or at least I didn't damn

maybe next time I wanted to come out to Eye of the Tiger and Galbao came out to it but I didn't get to choose anyway so it didn't matter but he came out to it does Gordon get to choose his music?

what's the order of operations? maybe for the super fight they got to choose their music but uh i i didn't get to choose i didn't even know what was playing honestly i think they might have had like some drums yeah i was completely forgot what they even what they even played yeah but um this gotta be wild i mean you just go into like regular practices like just doing your thing head down and i'm sure like at some of the national ones and international ones you've had but like this got smoke and like yeah no this was insane this was like the best sporting event i've ever been to how sick is that yeah that had to feel cool like nervous or just

energize the shit out of you or how's it feel um i felt like for this particular tournament i was really feeding off of like the energy of the crowd and just like the weekend in general like i was just very happy um to be there and we like so we gordon was in the super fight so like our team had like their own like private warm-up area uh the two super fight uh people did so like their teammates would would all be in there and like so like all of our team was like in the back in the warm-up area and like i was almost never there like i was out in the back in the warm-up area. And like I was almost never there. Like I was out in the crowd watching all the fights and just like I just wanted to be there for a couple of reasons. One, I like to acclimate to the noise and I don't want to go from like dead silence to like lights and music and stuff like that. cool spectacle to like be a part of that i felt like as i was progressing through the tournament and doing better and better and just being exposed to that and seeing like this was like that was

like these were like fans that were like there for just pure enjoyment of the sport was a really cool thing because like we didn't have that until recently in our sport and so it's just cool to see that you're getting that like you know like it's like almost like it was like a ufc event or wwe like you know your people are there to watch it's not like a tournament where like the people that are watching are also competing it was like those people were there just to watch us compete and so i felt uh very unique and um i was really happy to just be a part of it. So it was cool for me to, I felt like I did feed off of that energy. And there was obviously like nerves and stuff, but I didn't feel like it was any different than anything else.

And I felt like if anything, it boosted up my performance even more. Do you like see the crowd or like when you're like actually in the match, you know, different people have different experiences. Yeah, I mean, you definitely – I tried to narrow my focus, have kind of tunnel vision on what I was doing. But I definitely did hear the crowd at a couple of moments. And I remember at one point I was on – in the finals, when I was on his back, the crowd started chanting USA. And I was having a hard time like penetrating the neck

and then i was like fuck now i have to finish this guy cheering usa i can't fail them did you have it go the other way at all like where the guy did something and the crowd cheered for him and you're like he didn't really do much yeah yeah yeah yeah for sure because i i uh part of pro wrestling many many years ago i did I did this tough man competition or whatever. It was a boxing thing. And the guy that I was going against, he was throwing all these punches, but I was blocking him and moving out of the way. And the crowd, it was at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. And the crowd started chanting for him, and they're making all this noise.

I'm like, he's not doing anything. And then luckily I caught him with a pretty good shot towards the end and was able to put him out of his misery. But it was actually really tough because I was blocking his shots, but I was like, how long is he going to be able to put this up for? And I started to actually get tired. So even the low amount of punches that I threw towards the end, I was getting very fatigued. But a lot of it had to do with the crowd. The crowd kind of took my legs away from me almost. For sure, yeah.

Made me nervous. Yeah, for sure. it could sway you and um like a lot of the reason why people get tired in tournaments is just because of the you know the nerves like sometimes you can go in the gym for an hour but all of a sudden you do a match for 10 minutes and you're like fucking winded it's like um so that like you know that being able to like kind of control that adrenaline and like try to it's it's the hardest thing to do like especially when you're in a in a on a stage but um i think that's crucial you know is to just take that and just try to eliminate that from uh affecting you do you have any tips on how to control that um just again like

focusing on the stuff that that matters you, like focusing on like what you're doing and allowing your brain to be engaged in the problem that is like at hand, you know, which is the guy in front of you. Yeah. Not what the ref's doing, not what, you know, people are saying in the crowd or his corner or whatever the case is. And you're going to hear it here and there, but, you know you know you gotta try to like okay let me let me bring it back you know let me try to to get back to what's important like there's a guy trying to pass my guard like i'm down on points or whatever the case is like what do i need to do right now in order to solve this problem when it comes to sideline coaching are your ears cut like do you first off did you have what was donna her yelling at things at you and were you attuned to that?

Or were you just rolling and focusing on that? Sometimes I can hear my corner. Other times I can't. So I literally heard a single word that John said the entire weekend. You didn't? I heard one word. One word. Yeah, which was right at the end I was locking up.

I was trying to lock up the rear was locking up i was trying to lock up the rear naked and i was trying to lock a figure four and he told me he's because we were right he was right behind me so he was like okay palm to palm palm to palm so then i locked it palm to palm and that's how i finished it that's like all i heard from him the whole weekend because it was so loud yeah and uh most of the time i was like far away in my match my second fight gordon was coaching me and i was able to hear him a lot. It was a little bit quieter for whatever reason. And, you know, maybe I was a little bit closer.

I didn't hear everything he told me, but there was a lot of moments where maybe we were stopped for a second and like I could I could hear him coaching me. And so but it just kind of depends on, know where you are in the match are you guys moving in the middle of something or you know is the crowd loud or whatever the case is yeah so what makes gordon ryan in his mid-20s one of the best jujitsu uh practitioners of all time oh this well well like i said he was in my corner right And so like everything he was saying to me in the corner and any time that he's ever cornered me, he cornered me throughout my entire trials one where I won the trials to get into the tournament.

And like everything that he would tell me that I would hear was just like money. Like it was just like on point, the perfect, the exact thing that I needed to hear at that moment to do whatever I had to do. And so your confidence, John preaches this a lot, confidence comes from knowledge and skill set. Like where's your actual skill set? And his skill set is just like his knowledge and the knowledge that he has actually converted into skills is just I think miles ahead of pretty much anybody. You can ask him any question. The only person that knows more jiu-jitsu than him is John.

And he's – especially for no-gi grappling, like he knows pretty much you know as much as john are really close and so um he's just you know very very skilled and everything that he's done is incredibly precise and you ask him any question about jiu-jitsu and he knows like the answer it's like it's actually like unbelievable like how much he knows um And so that for me, I got a lot better because of the knowledge that I gained and how much of that knowledge I was able to convert into skills through training. So that's kind of like the process. First you learn something, then you harness it and you make it a skill. And I think that that's like the determining factor for anything like you can't really deny that um in his career especially the last like you know five years or like you know 60 plus matches that he's won in a row yeah um and so i mean if you watch somebody compete

even if you're new to the sport or you don't know much about it you can tell when somebody is doing something intentionally and because they know what they're doing as opposed to just reacting. So that's kind of the case with him. Will you have an opportunity to go against him? Is that anything you guys talk about, or is that anything that is possible? We're in different weight classes, and so I'm minus 88 and he's plus 99, so we're two weight classes apart.

And so I'm minus 88, and he's plus 99, so we're two weight classes apart. But, I mean, our teammates have competed against each other. Sometimes you end up in the same tournament, same bracket, and we're pretty open as a team about competing against each other. And kind of the way that we approach it, or the way that actually Gordon said this, and it made a lot of sense, is if I'm going to lose to anybody at a tournament or rather it'd be my teammate than somebody else and if you don't want to face your teammate then it probably you know you you would want them to lose so you wouldn't have to fight them so does that make you really you know a good

teammate and so at adcc in particular you have to face your your teammates you can only have one you can only have two teammates in the same bracket and you have to face in the, um, in the second round. Well, you can only have two teammates in the, in the same bracket or the same weight class and the same weight class and the same weight class. So really, yeah. So it's two per, I guess actually, so actually I take that back. So there's not, you can't, I don't think you can only have two. I think only in the absolute it's two per team. Okay. Because there is a case that in my weight class actually that there was three autos guys. So two of them went in the first round, and then the winner of that fought the other guy in the second round.

So they make them go early because they want to avoid – one, they don't allow closeouts, which was, um, you know, a big thing. And IBJJF just changed that rule, but like the other federation IBJJF, which is more towards the ghee, um, they had an issue for a long time. It wasn't an issue, but like a lot of people didn't like it is that like teammates would meet in the finals and then they wouldn't fight. They would flip a coin and say, okay, you know, know uh you take the medal and we both take a picture and we both say that we won because we met in the finals and like nobody wants to see that you know especially on the finals day all the finals are happening and it would be like out of 10 finals like six of them were closeouts like what's the point um and so they recently changed that rule which was cool um but adcc just doesn't allow that the teammates have to be in the second round

and so that you just avoid anybody trying to make fake matches or whatever the case is yeah um and so um if i mean if i it wouldn't be just him but like if we were ever in the same weight class with any of my teammates uh we'd have to go in the second round and it's pretty open i mean i think like for the spectators it's better and you know. If you train with your teammate every day, if you lose to them, at least, you know, be happy for them. I lost to my teammate in the absolute. So I won my weight class, and then I went to the open class right after, and I had to fight my teammate, Nicholas Miragali.

And so, you know, I lost to him. He went on to get to the finals. So, I mean, whatever. I was happy for him. When you are facing him, like, when you, you know, realize he won and you him when you are facing him like when you you know realize he won and you won and you're kind of like fuck i mean it's probably like a little bit of that because you know what he's got right yeah for sure i mean like it's obviously it's competition at the end of the day um and so you have to kind of you know put it aside for whatever 10 20 minutes

that you're competing against each other um It was definitely like a weird feeling competing against him. It felt different than just a guy that I didn't know. But, yeah, it is what it is. Just part of the game, I guess. You mentioned Gordon's jiu-jitsu IQ being really high. Outside of training jiu-jitsu a lot, is there anything that you do or that he does that allows someone to better understand jiu-jitsu?

Definitely I think studying jiu-jitsu can help. In what way? Like instructionals or matches? Yeah. Everybody learns differently, so it's hard to say one specific thing. For me, I get a lot of information in the classes so and then on top of that when i i train during the day and then i teach at night so i'm like doing jiu-jitsu basically from the moment i wake up to the moment i go to bed um and so and even then like you know you're watching stuff on instagram or youtube that's jiu-jitsu related i'm always thinking about it i'm always thinking about my training when i'm driving to training or I'm driving home from training. I'm thinking about how training went, what I got to do next time.

And so it's like constantly in your head. And so that's one thing that John also says to us is like to be constantly thinking about jiu-jitsu even when you're not training. So you can only train for a few hours a day. That's what your body allows. not training. So you can only train for a few hours a day. That's what your body allows. But if you think about the sport, you can actually make a lot of progress just thinking about it. And so I think that that like obsessive mentality where you're constantly thinking about the sport and ways that you can improve yourself or ways that you can train differently or how you trained and improve upon that. As long as your mind is in it, you will get better.

Even when I'm injured and I can't train, if I've had an injury that had to completely take me out of the mat, I'm still thinking about jiu-jitsu and I'm still showing up to practice and watching or I'm at home watching and it's just still, it's still in my mind. I'm improving. Even though my body's physically unable to do that, I'm gaining knowledge. And then when it's time for me to actually go back to training,

I could start to hone that into skills. And so I think that that's crucial. Hey, Pat Broderick family, shut your mouth. No, not really, but kind of. You should keep your mouth shut when you're asleep. Now on the podcast, we've been talking about the importance of nasal breathing for years. And we've been talking about using mouth tape during your sleep for years, as it's going to help your sleep quality because you're going to be breathing through your nose. We had James Nestor,

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Links in the description along with the podcast show notes. Shut your mouth. Is John Donahue a little weird? Like does he, you know, recommend philosophy books or like, does he go into like giving you a speech? He definitely doesn't. He doesn't recommend particular like philosophy books. What I always say is that there's nobody on the planet like John and there never has been, but he's also just like a normal guy. like John and there never has been, but he's also just like a normal guy. So it's kind of like both, um, like what he's been able to do, like just a regular person can't do. Um, and he has a, like an interesting, like, you know, story, how he started jujitsu late in life and things like that. Um, but then there's also just a regular, like elements to them that are just completely normal. Like people see him, you know, on podcasts and stuff. And he talks about all this philosophical things that,

but when you're with him day to day, he's just, you know, a normal person. He likes to crack jokes, tell stories. Um, he wears rash guards on the street.

That's a little unconventional, but so there's, like I said, there's nobody like him, but he's also just a regular guy. Like he's like a normal, like guy from New Zealand, you know,

he's got like that sense of humor and um and uh but he's relatable he's relatable exactly but he um but he's so unique in the way that he thinks and um you know the way that he kind of lives his life it's very you know different than anybody else i do either him or maybe even gordon kind of help you with the like i guess because like with gordon he got so popular i don't know how fast he got popular but he's he's huge he's you know the king as a as a uh as it's now his title um has he or john helped you with like that side of things of like the business side of jujitsu because you're doing it 24 7 there's a lot of people that probably wish that they could do that,

but, you know, they have to do their 8 to 5. So you've made a career out of it. Are they helping you with the business side of things? I think, like, you know, for me, like, I definitely ask, like, questions and, you know, based upon their experience. But in terms, terms like for us, like the way that we make most of our living, most jujitsu athletes is going to be through teaching.

And so really it comes down to, do people want to learn from you? And I'm pretty fortunate that, you know, like, I mean, I started a YouTube channel a few years ago just to like get my teaching out there and, you know, just to be able to share techniques and insights and stuff like that. People started to like that. So I think people started to associate me a lot with teaching and they like the way that I teach. Maybe some people don't, but I think I do have a pretty good following in terms of people that like to learn from me. of in terms of people that like to learn from me. Um, and so, um, the way that we, you know, uh, make money, I guess to say the business side of jujitsu would be, you know, teaching seminars,

teaching group classes. I teach regular classes at a, at a normal gym. Um, I teach, you know, private lessons, I'll teach seminars and then I sell instructional videos. And that's kind of like the the way that we support ourselves um and so each person like i said is going to have their own um individual um thing that people relate to and so as of late for me people have been really interested in you know my story because of the documentary and because i kind of like so to speak came out of nowhere at adcc um and so uh people have liked to see how like you know i was able to improve my jiu-jitsu in such a short amount of time um and so i think that like i can share a lot of like insights and people like, you know, relate to that. You know, how do you go from being a good grappler to being a great grappler? Or how do you go from being great to being the best or whatever the case is?

And so I've noticed in that in the time since ADCC that that's been something that a lot of people have, you know, been inspired by or have related themselves to me. And that kind of like, you know, that helps me in that, in that aspect, in terms of like teaching and, you know, doing seminars. And I got a lot of the same questions at a lot of different seminars. So you could see that there's a lot of crossover between people in general, in terms of, you know, the questions that they have or the struggles that they may face. And if I can, you know, help with that, if they relate to my, you know, my story or my persona or whatever the case is, and I can help them. I think that that helps me in that side. You said Gi and no Gi are like two different sports. And you, unless I'm mistaken, you came mainly from doing a lot of Gi and then learning, like really getting

better at no Gi. So if somebody is doing jujitsu, what do you think is easier? Is it easier to learn gi and transition and learn no-gi? Or would it be easier learning, because a lot of people are going straight no-gi and then learning gi? Yeah. What do you think? I think overall there are a lot of people that are doing just no-gi now or going straight into no-gi. But it's still mostly gi in terms of recreational practice.

So most academies, it's changing a little bit in America. There's a lot more no-gi only academies. But if you go to Europe and like other countries that are big in jiu-jitsu, it's still mostly the gi scene in terms of like recreational practitioners. And then professional like competition is a little bit different no gi is still has more professional shows outside of like ibjjf and stuff that are putting on super fights and like you know paying athletes and things like that but i think that for the most part most people tend to start with gi do no gi uh you know at whatever classes are offered at their gym, and then if they like that more, then they'll just do more of that. I don't think it's necessarily easier to transition from one to the other.

It's just a matter of understanding what the differences are. Because there's a ton of similarities. So if to the naked eye, it looks similar, right? But like, you know, like people are grabbing a jacket. So there's a lot of like, you know, little details like that. But for the most part, the positions are almost all the same. You get the mount, you get the back, you're passing guard, you're getting takedowns. The techniques that you apply, there's a lot of similarities to them.

There's still triangles, there's still you apply, there's a lot of similarities to them. There's still triangles. There's still arm bars. There's still strangles. But there are differences in the way that you apply them and in the way that you get to them. And so easier or not easier, I think it comes down to personal preference, honestly. It's hard to say one is easier than the other.

I think it's just kind of like what you enjoy more. Do you think there's any ways in which they complement each other? Like I've heard Merigali mention like his top pressure is getting better. I don't know, but I imagine maybe it's from no-gi top pressure. Yeah, 100%. Like that specific aspect of like top pressure and control because you don't have the friction of the gi. And so if you can control somebody

that's sweaty and slippery then when you use those same techniques to control somebody who's in a jacket you know you have a lot more uh control and friction and so um yeah there are definitely a lot of things that can cross over because again they're they're there's a lot of similarities but they are ultimately different sports one is like gi jiuiu Jitsu. The other one is no Gi. Now it's being referred to as submission grappling. And so they are ultimately different sports. The way you attack the back or even escape the back in the Gi versus no Gi, it's different. Even though the kind of like overall principles are the same, the techniques and stuff that you'll use are going to be a little bit different because there's different weapons,

different variables, things like that. Gotcha. Yeah. Is there something else that you would like to pursue in the next several years? Or is it mainly just head down jujitsu? In terms of like my athletic career,

I think for the most part, jujitsu, I do. And most of my goals right now are no gi even though i still have things i still want to compete in the gi i still have things that i want to do in the gi i think no gi and adcc take the priority um especially you know um because of like the last year or so um but i do still like you know i train train MMA to help my teammate Gary Tonin. I'll spar with him and I'll drill with him, especially when he's in camp for stuff.

And I've always trained it on and off here and there. And also, you know, I just want to learn because I do want to continue coaching as I get older and retire. And so it would be good to have that skill set so that I could coach guys in MMA as well. As far as like pursuing an MMAma career i'm not sure i'm not completely closed off to the idea but i have just so many goals in grappling that i still want to pursue that i think that um that would definitely take the priority and if i'm going to do something i'm going to do it for real like i'm going to do it i'm not going to do it just to try it um and so if I was going to pursue MMA, I would pursue solely MMA. I wouldn't want to split my focus.

That's just me. And then I do want to compete in the Gi. I'm just not 100% sure exactly what goals. I haven't quite set the goals in mind just yet. But it is something that I do plan on pursuing. If you had to pick one till the day you die gear nogi if you had to uh let's just put this yeah right now if i had to choose today i would pick nogi okay i would pick nogi okay what did you do when you were younger did you play a lot of conventional sports when you were young so i started um the first sport or activity that i can remember doing was karate, just like a local dojo.

Then transitioned to taekwondo again, just like a local school. I did some sports. I pretty much played mostly like, you know, backyard sports, like with my friends. friends but anytime that i ever started playing like a like a ball sport like a football or basketball or baseball or anything that i ever tried i always lost interest in it you know relatively quickly whereas for whatever reason jujitsu the moment that i tried it i felt like i just really enjoyed it like i always just liked doing it um and i never really lost that you know enjoyment for it and you started that really young that, you know, enjoyment for it. And you started that really young, like 12 years old or something, right?

Yeah, I was about 12 when I started, yeah. What do you think that did for you? Did you, like, as a younger guy, you know, a lot of people, a lot of teenagers especially, like, really struggle with confidence and stuff. Did you maybe have more confidence because you were doing jiu-jitsu or were you just as lost as every other teenager um i mean maybe to some degree i was just as lost as everybody else but i always knew that i wanted to um i don't think i necessarily had like confidence issues um maybe because i did other

martial arts um but uh when i at that point in my life like i wasn't like an unconfident kid that then started jujitsu and got better but i definitely, when I, at that point in my life, like I wasn't like an unconfident kid that then started jujitsu and got better, but I definitely think that it helped fuel that, um, and helped me, you know, um, just help with my overall personal development. Like, you know, growing up, especially as a teenager, like starting at 12 and then, you know, it's definitely good for any kid. I would recommend it. Um, and that's just martial arts in general, not specifically

jujitsu, but I think jujitsu is a, you know, one of the better ones. Um, and, um, sorry, what was the second part of your question? Was that a, like a, was that your, one of your parents brought you to class or something like that? Yeah. Yeah. My, uh, my dad, so I went to a school, I was going to middle school and, uh, the jujitsu gymiu-jitsu gym was two blocks down the road. We just drove past it one day and it wasn't even open at the time. They were still just starting.

They were just constructing it. We walked in and then we got interested and a couple months later we signed up. Then I would just walk after school. Your dad did it with you? He tried it for a little bit but he never like pursued it that must have been kind of cool yeah but he did a little bit of judo when he was growing up but my brother and i started together so my brother actually still trains he lives in austin uh now and he trains with us he's a purple belt um and he competes here and there but he's not he doesn't he didn't pursue it like

as far as much as i did younger or older uh older? Uh, three years younger. Okay. Yeah. And, um, he, um, so he just moved there, but he's always trained. We've always trained together. Uh, and my sister did it for a little bit and then she stopped for a few years and she just recently started training again. Um, and so yeah, me and my brother and now my sister is starting to, uh, to starting to do it. Cool. It's in the family blood. Yeah. Super cool. How about like for longevity though? Like do you do anything now that you're kind of just trying to, like I said, to extend out the life of your career?

Like just, I don't know, just in general, anything? I'm starting to think about that more and more lately in terms of like little minor injuries. Like even just now, like standing up, my back's been sore for like the last 30 minutes. Oh shit. No, no, it's okay. But, uh, uh, just like little things like, you know, I have like small little things that, um, will bother me or like, you know, if I train hard for a few days, so you wake up, there's stiff shoulders, stiff knee, things like that. So I try to, I'm trying to, I should say I'm not actively, cause I'm not the type of person that like warms up or does like physical therapy, like on his own, you know,

stretches, foam rolls, does that kind of stuff. Like, uh, I was telling you guys before, like whenever I have like a small injury and like a guy gives me like a protocol, like do these exercises three times a week. I'm like the last thing I want to do after three sessions a day is come home and do more exercise like i'm just gonna lay down and just relax as much as possible yeah um and so like uh but i am trying to be a little bit more intelligent with the way that like i train so that i can because i do want to compete for a long time i don't have like a date that i want to that i want to stop competing like i want to compete for a long time. I don't have like a date that I want to stop competing. Like I want to stop competing at this age. But I want to compete as long as I know that I can perform at a high level.

And if I ever feel that I can't do that, then I won't want to compete. So I would like to extend that as much as possible. So anything I can do to like any habit that I can form that would help me, whether that be just, I don't know, rolling on a ball before training or something small. Yeah, stuff I showed you today will help a lot. Yeah, that's stuff that we talked about. Just like little things that you can add in. I'll definitely do that to try to extend it so I'm not like dealing with a problem that's, you know, accumulated over years.

Yeah, we've become addicted to it. There's something once oh yeah when it comes to like the comments i see when it comes to like when guys see really impressive grapplers is oh they're just you know all these guys run a bunch of juice etc what do you think people are getting wrong when they think about like some of the drug use that is in grappling because adcc does allow it it is open that they're very, you know, they're open about that. Um,

what do you think people are missing? Um, it's hard to say like, uh, it is not tested in jujitsu. I mean, there's one organization that tests, but they only test that one tournament and they only test the winner on the day

of with like a cup of pee. IBJJF. Yeah, IBJJF. Yeah. And so it's not really – it's more of an intelligence test. And people still fail it. We saw it recently. And so like – but like across all sports, it's undeniable that like that's just something that's gonna happen

i think what you have to realize is that if you've trained in any sport whether it be powerlifting or whatever the case is like to say that the only reason why somebody is good or great would be because of you know whatever that is that they took it doesn't have to be sports like people that play fucking poker they just like you know they take adderalls or like whatever the case is to improve their their performance yeah so when you're working at a high level like ultimately everybody's going to be strong tough fit or whatever the case is so the actual determining factor for consistent success and dominance in a sport is a hundred percent based around your skill set um and you can you can you know make arguments for anybody but like at the

end of the day it's a skill-based sport like if you you can walk in to any jujitsu gym with an ass full of steroids and you just walked in with no experience and then you take a 14 year old girl and she's gonna fucking strangle you unconscious like it's just the case that's just how it is um and so shit bro i'm gonna load up on trend i see red bro dude i black out it's like. Dude, I black out. It's like, yeah, you're going to black out. You're going to be out cold. But in terms of the physical performance, it's like we talked about

before, right? So if your technique is equal, then the stronger guy will win. So I think if in that element, it can give you an advantage. Same way like in basketball, you know what I mean? Like if you take fucking like LeBron James and if you take him completely clean, he's not going to perform the same way that he did in the beginning of the season. Towards the end of the season, your body is going to break down.

So it's like that with any sport. People are just trying to stay in it longer. But ultimately, it's the skill that determines who's the best. Yeah. We know he's natural, though. I believe in LeBron. Naturally gifted, yeah. Anything else, guys?

You know anything in SEMA? Or tapped out? Dude, I'm really excited for the seminar later today, dude. I'm really pumped. So thanks for making more time for us. Well, actually, you know what? On that note, how do you personally handle your recovery right now? I know that you mentioned you're working on that more,

but do you try to get a certain amount of sleep? Do you pay attention to certain things? Seven hours of sleep to me is the best. If I sleep eight hours, I honestly feel a little bit more tired. And I don't like napping during the day. I feel again, like if I nap, I just feel like I'm really groggy and it takes me like two hours to like wake up again. Um, and so for me, like seven, seven and a half hours is ideal, um, for me to sleep. And this, if I don't sleep good, I just feel like terrible. Um, and actually like, uh, we were talking about like the CPAP before.

Like there was a while where my sleep was just really, really bad. And then I discovered through a buddy of mine who was my student at the time. He's a strong man. And he told me about getting a sleep study that I might have sleep apnea or whatever the case is. And when I discovered that, and even then, I was hesitant to do the study or to wear that machine because I was like, I'm not going to wear that stupid thing. And I got the study. And then I found out that I had it. And then even there, I waited like a year before I started using it.

And I literally went from dragging myself through a day where I was literally just like, like just dragging my feet through the day. Like training was awful. Everything sucked to within like three or four days, just feeling amazing. Um, and so I'd have sleep apnea.

Yeah, I did have it. Um, and, uh, I mean, I do have it still and I use the, the machine and,

like I encourage people to like, actually if they have problems sleeping, to do a sleep study and see what it is that you might have. Did you do an at-home sleep study or did you have to go somewhere? Yeah, I did multiple at-home ones. But I actually want to do – because at first I was like, oh, maybe this one is just like bullshit. So I did another one. Did you go through a doctor or something like that? Because you have to get it prescribed or sent to you.

I didn't have insurance at the time. So i just went through um some dude at the gym yeah well so the one that my friend did that who's the uh who's the strong man and then i did some research and like found a different one um but i actually want to do one where you actually go to a place and sleep i'd actually be curious to see and to see if it's changed at all since then because this was a couple of years ago. But that helped me a ton. Diet, I think, is important, but I noticed that sleep and hydration too

has helped me more than anything. Like drinking, so I actively drink six liters of water a day with salt and like electrolytes like i always do that because i sweat like crazy and i noticed that like if i don't do it i literally feel more tired um and so like the difference between just taking having salt in my water while i'm training or before i'm training to not doing it um was a huge difference for me i think those are the things that like i noticed the most lately I've been trying to get more sunlight. So I'll do that more. But for me,

like sleep is the most important one. I'd say hydration number two, food is kind of arguable. I think, you know, like, I think it's definitely important for health and longevity, but not necessarily for like, you know, performing well. And then, yeah, I think maybe getting sunlight can help. Probably surprises some people, but I agree with that. The type of food that people eat is like all over the map. Yeah. And people are still extremely successful. I mean, I guess you can make an argument and say this person would be more successful if they ate a little bit better, but you're like, well, the guy's like a world

champion. I eat the way that I eat just because it makes me feel good. Like my, it makes my stomach feel good. I don't feel like overly bloated or, but I don't necessarily eat that way because I think, oh, if I eat this meal, I'll perform better. Um, because like you said, it's all over the map. There's some guys that live on fricking McDonald's and they're beasts and they can train for fucking two hours. And there's some guys that all they eat is chicken and rice and they, you know, they perform well. So it's like broccoli, chicken and broccoli. Yes. So, okay. So I am curious though, what you eat. Cause when Musa mentioned like, I eat pizzas all the time, people are wild. So what, what do you eat um so most of my diet is centered around um uh high protein so i usually eat mostly red meat uh every day um usually in some form of like ground beef or steak so i would say that my protein source comes from almost exclusively meat and eggs um i also eat chicken uh here and there uh weak bird yeah occasionally i'll eat fish but

mostly mostly i would say like 90 of the time it's meat and eggs there we go um and then like rice potatoes fruits um pretty much everything but i would say that that encompasses about 80 of my diet and then if i eat out i can get i get get sushi or I'll get a burger or I'll get whatever. But when I'm eating at home, it's almost always ground beef, which I love. I love eating ground beef. Eggs, things like that. That sounds like my diet. That's pretty much what I eat.

That's the only thing I really try to track for the most part is I'm making sure that I'm trying to get a certain amount of protein intake in a day. good shit dude take us out of here and all righty thank you everybody for checking out today's episode sincerely appreciate it drop those comments down below and real quick shout out to jake jordan of the academy and outgrow for helping us out today with today's guests i really appreciate that brother thank you uh make sure you guys are following the podcast at mb power project all over the place my instagram is at i am andrew z and sima where you at discord's down below ask all your questions there for the next Q&A. I'm Seema Inyang on Instagram and YouTube. And I'm Seema Inyang on TikTok and Twitter. Giancarlo, what

could be behind you? You can find me primarily on Instagram and YouTube. So I do a lot of instructional content and stuff on YouTube. You can find me on Instagram for just my regular day to day posts and to find out like where I'm going to be and when and then you know I sell instructionals as well on BJ Fanatics I'm at Mark Smiley Bell strength is never weakness weakness never strength catch you guys later bye