The Dr. Hyman Show - From Drug Smuggler to Healer: How Nick Brewer Created Primal Moves

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

On this episode of The Dr. Hyman Show, I sit down with Nick Brewer, founder of Primal Moves—a method born from his own healing journey. Once a pro skier turned drug smuggler, he spent ten years in p...rison, including four in solitary, where he discovered the power of breath and movement to rebuild his body and mind. I had the chance to try Nick’s class myself, and I was struck by how powerful such simple movements can be. I’m excited to share that experience with you. You can watch the full conversation on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. [YOUTUBE THUMBNAIL] We discuss: • How to spot when your nervous system is stuck—and steps to restore balance • Why talk therapy alone can’t release trauma in the body • How group movement triggers natural feel-good brain chemistry • Why we feel cut off from our bodies and how to reconnect Healing starts in the body. By working through stress and pain, we gain the strength and energy to show up fully in life. My hope is that this conversation encourages you to explore these practices and see what they unlock for you. View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman https://drhyman.com/pages/picks?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Sign Up for Dr. Hyman’s Weekly Longevity Journal https://drhyman.com/pages/longevity?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Join the 10-Day Detox to Reset Your Health https://drhyman.com/pages/10-day-detox Join the Hyman Hive for Expert Support and Real Resultshttps://drhyman.com/pages/hyman-hive This episode is brought to you by BON CHARGE, Timeline, Function Health, Big Bold Health, Paleovalley and LMNT. Head to boncharge.com and use code DRMARK for 15% off your order. Support essential mitochondrial health and save 10% on Mitopure. Visit timeline.com/drhyman to get 10% off today. Join today at FunctionHealth.com/Mark and use code HYMAN100 to get $100 toward your membership. Get 30% off HTB Immune Energy Chews at bigboldhealth.com and use code DRMARK30. Get nutrient-dense, whole foods. Head to paleovalley.com/hyman for 15% off your first purchase. Get a free LMNT Sample Pack with any order—just head to drinklmnt.com/hyman.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Coming up on this episode of the Dr. Hyman Show. Went from Crackdown on Cocaine to Cracked Open in your consciousness. I smashed myself to pieces. I got into drug trafficking. I found myself in South America. I wound up with 10 years in prison in Argentina for smuggling cocaine. And I had a broken body and a broken mind. You had this life as a smuggler.
Starting point is 00:00:18 It's finished. And I sat and I asked, I said, what am I going to do? And I heard this voice it came through and it said that I was going to be a facilitator of movement into people's lives. So it was through a damaged body that I develop primal moves. Nick Brewer is the founder of primal moves. Fusing movement. Breathwork. And trauma-informed awareness.
Starting point is 00:00:38 He turned a prison sentence into a blueprint for freedom. Reconnecting people to their bodies. And out of pain. People say, what's the meaning of life? What's the purpose of life? To me, it's getting free. There's a lot of fear around actually wanting to be well because people are actually quite happy living in pain.
Starting point is 00:00:51 They think it's a place where they can reside. It's comfortable. So many people don't live in their body. They are disconnected. from their body. As part of my recovery from back surgery, I've been using the red light therapy panel from bond charge, and it's become a consistent part of my wellness routine. What I love about red and near-infrared light is how researchers are exploring their effects
Starting point is 00:01:14 on things like tissue repair, circulation, and even supporting our mitochondria. I use the panel at home to help unwind after physical therapy or to support recovery after exercise or travel. It's easy to integrate just a few minutes a day, no complicated setup, and I personally found it helpful for managing occasional discomfort and supporting overall resilience. If you're looking for a simple research-informed tool to support your recovery or performance goals, this is one I recommend exploring. Visit bondcharge.com and use code DR mark for 15% off. That's B-O-N-C-H-A-R-G-E.com, code DR-Mark. Trust me when I say that I've tried a lot of supplements over the years, but there are just a few that I cannot travel without, and one of them
Starting point is 00:01:53 is mitopure by timeline. It contains urolithin A, a power. compound that supports your mitochondria, the tiny power plants in your cells that drive energy, metabolism, and healthy aging. I take it as part of my young forever longevity shake. Why? Because it helps clear out old dysfunctional mitochondria and helps your body build new, more efficient ones. That means better energy, better muscle function, better brain health, all the things that start to slow down as we age. And now timeline has made it even easier to take with sugar-free strawberry gummies. Two a day gives you the full, clinically effective dose. They taste great and they're part of my daily routine, no skipping. Timeline is offering my listeners a special discount. Just go to
Starting point is 00:02:32 timeline.com slash DR. Hyman and give yourselves the support they deserve. Nick, welcome on podcast. So great to have you on today. Thanks, Mark. Thanks for host to me. I'm a big fan of yours. Oh, ditto. I mean, here we are in Ibiza, in your house, or Ibitha, as they say in Spain. This morning, I just came from one of your classes called Primal Moose, which we're going to talk about, which is a powerful way of rehabilitating the body and gaining strength. of healing injury and I've known you for years I've come to your class for years but I don't think the world really knows about you very much and I don't think the world knows about this practice that you've developed that is quite powerful and for me is this looks deceptively easy but
Starting point is 00:03:15 it's actually quite hard and and I want to sort of start off by kind of talking about something that just happened to me which is I'm rehabilitating for my own back surgery and I've shared a little about that and I really was taken down and I've been doing better and better and it's been about six months and I gained a lot of strength and I was weight training by myself
Starting point is 00:03:37 because I was traveling and I was lifting these weights in a way that kind of tweak my back a little bit and I was really hurting and I was a little nervous about that I do something wrong that I screw it up. I was uncomfortable but I decided
Starting point is 00:03:48 I'm going to go to the class and just do what I can do and I just did one class and I was huffing and puffing and sweating and by using these sort of very weird movements that are like animal movements crawling on the floor crawling backwards going on your side stomach stretching it's like this kind of wild practice
Starting point is 00:04:06 in one class my pain was gone and I was like holy shit it's powerful stuff yeah that's very rewarding to hear I want to sort of start out by talking about your background because it's so interesting and you know you're not your typical yoga teacher who you know like our fitness trainer who kind of just went through the traditional route. You had a kind of a crazy story. You went from basically cracked down on cocaine to cracked open in your consciousness.
Starting point is 00:04:35 Through an incredible story that we can't really tell the whole thing because it takes hours. And we were in Africa together and you told me the story. It took hours to tell the story. It blew my mind. But essentially, I want you to sort of start by how you first injured yourself and then how you became like a drug smuggler. and then how that led to you being in prison and then what you learned in prison. So kind of take us through that story and what happened to you and how you came out the other side as a whole human being.
Starting point is 00:05:03 Yeah, I mean, that's a big backdrop. So, you know, first and foremost, movement is medicine. It's a healer for the body. It's a healer from the mind. And when I was growing up in my teenage years, I was a pro skier. I had an idyllic life. I lived in the Alps. I was on the international circuit.
Starting point is 00:05:21 and I broke my back in two places. You fractured your vertebrae? Yeah, I fractured L3 and L4, so compression fractures and completely herniated all the lumbar spine. That was the first injury. Five years later, I broke T7 and T9 in a motocross accident. So, you know, in my teenage years in my early 20s, I smashed myself to pieces.
Starting point is 00:05:43 In the process of that, you know, I'd hit the self-destruct switch, I'd gotten into drug trafficking. I found myself in South America. I wound up with 10 years in prison in Argentina for smuggling cocaine and I had a broken body and a broken mind and it was the template that I had for my skiing days.
Starting point is 00:06:01 I haven't had anybody on my podcast who's been in prison for 10 years. Actually, of those 10 years that I spent in prison, I spent four years in isolation. Wow. Which is another story. That was a deep, deep dive into myself, into practice which is actually where a lot of the kind of benefits
Starting point is 00:06:16 and a lot of the rewards that I get today for movement and meditative practices came from. And that's kind of how and why I developed primal moves. I came out of prison in 210 with a broken body. You know, my spine looked like it had scoliosis. I had total lumbar herniation. I had degeneration of the discs. When you went into prison.
Starting point is 00:06:33 Yeah. So when I came out, I was in a lot of pain. And I spent years practicing with the chiropractor. The kind of modern medicine were like, look, let's just open up your spine. Let's put a big bolt in there. Let's stitch the entire lumbar spine together and bolt it together. and I was like no way like there's no way we're going down that route just yet
Starting point is 00:06:54 so I started to That's major surgery that's what I just had by the Yeah I mean you know I think yours was Undeniable you had to have it I had that but I was still in that position of you know I was 40 years of age yeah And I was like I don't want to have a rod in my back So I went down the route of yoga pilatus
Starting point is 00:07:09 Elementary gymnastics training And I tapped into lots of different modalities of movement And you know I just came out of prison as well Where I developed a deep deep yoga practice In prison In prison. And that was what started the whole kind of journey into rehabilitation, like physical and mental. My body was not in a good place when I was 40.
Starting point is 00:07:26 I was in a lot of pain. I had joint pain, my spine hurt. More often than not, I'd be two or three weeks lying down in my bed in the fetal position where the discs are just completely bulging. I had no spinal stability. I had no joint stability. So I basically went about restabilizing my joints through quadrupedal body weight movement. Quadripetal body weight movement.
Starting point is 00:07:50 Yeah, so my body weight moving on all fours. Yeah. In a non-linear fashion. Yeah. So it would be forwards, backwards, sideways, diagonally. Yeah. Moving in multiple planes of direction, multiple joint action, but with my body weight, not creating any levers in the body, which would then create stress in the lumbar spine,
Starting point is 00:08:10 which is what you've done. You've picked up a weight in an awkward fashion. And that lever, you know, the weak part of the lever is the hinge. and that's what's happened. You've just tweaked it. So what I was looking at doing was restabilizing my body. So I did it through this practice.
Starting point is 00:08:24 So it was through a damaged body that I developed primal moves. And the story that I'm hearing from you today is a story that I've heard hundreds and hundreds of times that people come to class and they've got stiff bodies, jammed up bodies,
Starting point is 00:08:38 herniations in their lower back, destabilized joints, hypermobility, stiffness, and just basically like degenerating bodies. They come to class once, twice, three times. They get hooked and they're going away happy humans. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:52 And they're going away pain-free. And then they take on them really, then they start to embody the practice. Because not only do they get their physical youth back, but they actually start to like grow with that and really start to enjoy their body again and start doing things in their 40s and 50s that they thought they'd never ever be able to do again. You said earlier you were in solitary confinement for four years. I mean, that would drive most people insane.
Starting point is 00:09:12 I mean, you'll end up climbing the walls. Yeah. And, you know, there are practices like the darker treats. that the Tibetans do where they go for months or longer in darkness. And Vipasanas. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:23 But you didn't choose this. It chose me. It chose you. And four years is a hell of a long time. Yeah. It's a long time. It's a long time. And you were in a little cell.
Starting point is 00:09:34 Yep. I was in a cell. It was probably two meters by three meters. It had a tiny little window at the top. And gray concrete walls. And you had to figure out how to move in that space. So I had some books on yoga that I managed to get sent in. So they'll let you have books in solitary.
Starting point is 00:09:49 So I could have books. I was in there like 22 hours a day. So I did a lot of city practice. I did a lot of kind of reflection, a lot of mind work. I started to study the works of Ramrah Maharashi, which was about observing the mind and the ego, which I actually didn't even know we had one until I got into isolation. So this was really quite effective.
Starting point is 00:10:07 You didn't know you had a mind and an ego? I had no idea that we had a mind and an ego prior to going into prison. You were just going through life. I was completely numbed out and desensitized going through life like a bullet. Like a steam train, completely on the self-destruct mission. So actually it was a really beautiful process of actually going into that space of, you know, I was a very grateful convict, albeit, you know, South American prisons are slightly rough. And Argentina was not a pleasant place to be in prison.
Starting point is 00:10:34 It wasn't like where Martha Stewart went to prison. No, no, no, no. It was nothing like that. The opportunity that I had to go into that isolated period for four years of my life was really quite profound. And, you know, I got into the yoga practice, but it was still. static. So that was fine. It kept me moving. I was basically practicing all day. But when I got I mean yoga postures? Yeah, it was static. It was map based. So when I got out of prison and I had a studio to move in, I thought, wow, let's try moving this across the floor. So I was doing my
Starting point is 00:11:03 sans salutations and the static poses. You know, instead of just staying on the mat, I actually moved across the floor. And then it was through the healing that started to come around my body. And then I started to practice with clients. And through that, the practice, built a small community in London and it was from this community and observing bodies that then I really started to systemize an entire method around it and then you kind of found that yourself out of prison but your body was still not great and then through these embodied practices that we now you've called primal moves you've been able to sort of repair all that so all the broken back all the discrenations all the pain because you're like in your mid-50s now you're one of the
Starting point is 00:11:45 strongest guys I've never met. And you can do like a one-armed handstand and crazy shit. Exactly. And it is my absolute joy. And you feel like that sort of that time in prison helped you sort of get grounded and present in yourself. So you could kind of start to listen to what was happening. Because you didn't have a lot of distractions. Pre-prison, I was totally distracted. I was numb down and I was desensitized. Going into prison and going into isolation and going back into that space of stillness and started to embody myself, meaning I was, able to actually feel and stop thinking you know so instead of asking myself what I was thinking I was asking myself what am I feeling yeah and that was a completely different
Starting point is 00:12:27 outlook that was a completely different lens to look at my life through you know how am I feeling in the morning how am I sleeping what do I feel like how's my cognition how's my memory how's my evacuation do I have energy am I recovered am I feeling depressed so I was actually able to start feeling myself again yeah and then I worked out that But through embodying these practices, which was a lot of breath work and a lot of movement, you know, I was able to remove that, that kind of depressed feeling that came down into me. You know, anything that became stagnant, any stuck energies, I moved them through with practice. It was through moving my body that I was able to free myself completely.
Starting point is 00:13:07 So not only do you kind of move your way out of physical pain, you were able to move your way out of emotional and mental pain. Absolutely. Because all the traumas that I had, you know, from 15 years of smuggling and breaking my body and being on that self-destructive path, I was actually able to go in there and start healing that in prison through these practices. You know, I realized I was so stuck. I was so stuck in my head. I was so rigid. There was so much control.
Starting point is 00:13:34 There was so much manipulation going on up there. There was a lot of darkness that was going on in my life at the time and I had no idea. Yeah, it was just your life. That was basically what it was. And then as I started to work through my body, I started to work through the facial system, I started to work through the mind. You know, I also broke down.
Starting point is 00:13:52 You know, I had mental breakdowns as well. I think three or four years into prison. I'd been in isolation for about two years, and it brought me to my knees. You know, I had a complete emotional mental breakdown. What did that look like? What did that look like? That looked like a baby crying on the floor,
Starting point is 00:14:07 sobbing for about two weeks, completely broken and shaking. You were kind of letting go of your old self. old self with my I was having a total ego death I didn't even know it yeah it completely crushed me it brought me to my knees I lay there crying and sobbing for about two weeks and where I was there was no humanity there was no one coming around to check up on you and say hey hey hey you doing you want a hug do you need something you need any help the prison guards weren't doing that the prison guards in South America didn't even come and check they just came and check for dead bodies
Starting point is 00:14:37 they just want give you your food and the thing they gave you a head count that was it I didn't even feed you no well how did you your food. You had to get your food in. So they just went to. Someone from the outside had to bring your food in for you and you'd have it in boxes and bags and you had to try and make it and cook it somehow. Really? So there was no food in prison. The people dying with malnutrition. It was terrible. It was horrific. It was like third world. That's a powerful story because, you know, most of us are pretty locked into our psychological framework. Our emotions are pretty sort of fixed in the way we relate to the world to our experience, to relationships, to work,
Starting point is 00:15:10 to family, to ourselves. And those rigid patterns like, keep us from being free. The constructs that we create in their head, which actually I realized post-prison that freedom is actually a state of mind because I've met so many people that are actually in prison
Starting point is 00:15:27 because it is bound by their thoughts. They're so rigid. They've built so many constructs that actually they've stopped themselves from being free anymore and I didn't actually realize that until I got out of prison. That's true. You can be a billionaire and be still in the prison of your mind. Exactly. So I was euphorically, year five in prison, I was euphalically happy.
Starting point is 00:15:42 that's incredible euphorically happy she went from like breaking completely down yeah from having complete ego deaths total mental emotional breakdowns
Starting point is 00:15:52 again it was it was movement and meditation breath work of a daily practice that got me out of that but I went into states
Starting point is 00:16:00 of absolute euphoric happiness which I haven't actually achieved since being in prison because now I'm actually you know I'm back in the world and I've got distraction again
Starting point is 00:16:09 yeah yeah you know I have a house I have to pay rent I have a business business. I need to pay salaries. You know, I have a lover. So I have desires. So I actually went into some really interesting states of being when I was in there. Yeah. And it's a sort of a gift in disguise, right? Totally. I mean, I had that now as a reference point to go back to. So I've been there. I've understood that blissful state of nothingness. You know, when you absolutely
Starting point is 00:16:35 own nothing, have nothing. And you can be blissfully happily. So I have experienced that. Well, I'm curious about what happened in the process of the breakdown because you describe it almost as a physical experience you're both laying on the floor sobbing and going through the somatic expression and discharge of all the emotion you know talk therapy really doesn't do that no and for me you know I went through a lot of things in my life I've had many illnesses many marriages probably about five years ago I found myself fairly you know sort of stuck in the prison of my own beliefs in mind And I knew intellectually what the issues were from my childhood and my mother who was a child of deaf parents and how that affected her and how that affected her parenting me. And it's a long story, but I really did not know how to get rid of it.
Starting point is 00:17:27 And through a series of processes and things, I was able to kind of have this semantic experience where I just like literally broke down on the floor, crying and crying for days, like a week. Yeah, so you've had that breakdown. And I, and I, and it was the weirdest thing. I had the same experience after you. I literally, after it was all free from that, I emerged and I felt euphoric, like high. Like I just taken some, like drugs, but like happy drugs. I hate it. And it was, it was pretty remarkable.
Starting point is 00:17:57 And I just went around in this state for quite a while. It's why I think being in your body is so important and why the work you do is so important. Because if we just stay in our heads, we'll never get there. And you were, you were forced into it. willing. Exactly. And I had no one to talk to. Yeah. So I couldn't do talk therapy. Yeah. So the only way that I knew was somatic work. To release myself of pain, mental, emotional and physical, all I could do was move. And sometimes I woke up in pain. My hips were hurting, my shoulders, but my pain, my head was in pain. You know, so I had no one actually there to talk
Starting point is 00:18:28 to you. I had no one to intellectualize it or compartmentalize it with. But I understood, okay, these were the traumas, but the only way I could actually release myself from that was from basic breath work and movement. And it was actually the movement, the somatic work that I was doing in the prison and just constantly working with my somatic nervous system that started to ease out. It was agitating all this stuck energy.
Starting point is 00:18:52 It was agitating these traumas to move out of the somatic system out of the fascial system and it was freeing me up. You know, don't get wrong. Some days I had to stand there in my room for maybe an hour having an internal fight with myself because there was one part of me
Starting point is 00:19:08 that wanted to lay down and just be depressed. And there was another part of it. It was like, no, you've got to do your practice because this pain your feeling will move through your body. Yeah. The water you drink,
Starting point is 00:19:21 the air you breathe, and the fabrics you live in, your environment can leave a fingerprint on your health. Well, guess what? Function health measures it. Consider PFS, the forever chemicals, everybody's talking about, which are often found in nonstick pans
Starting point is 00:19:34 and water resistant clothing. Well, they build up in your body and they impact your cholesterol. metabolism, your thyroid function, your immune response, and more. Well, mold exposure, that's another culprit. Chronic inflammation of mold spores can trigger this problem we call SERS or chronic inflammatory response syndrome. It's a condition where the immune system mounts a persistent and, unfortunately, inappropriate
Starting point is 00:19:57 reaction to mold toxins. And there's biomarkers. Biomarkers like C4A can indicate this kind of immune activation, while other inflammatory markers like HSCRP can reveal how environmental exposures are impacting your health. you can make better choices about your household and your future. You can access over 160 lab tests from heart to hormones, toxins, to inflammation, stress, and lots more. You can also access MRI scans at an additional cost,
Starting point is 00:20:21 all attract in one secure place over time. It's a near 360 view to see what's happening inside your body. And you can learn more and join at functionhealth.com slash mark and use the code Hyman 100 to get $100 toward your membership. That's only for the first thousand people. this week. Your immune system isn't just your body's defense. It's a reflection of how well your cells function every day. That's why I'm excited about Himalayan tartary buckwheat or H.TB. An incredible nutrient-dense seed loaded with polyphenols like rutin and quercidin, compound studied for their
Starting point is 00:20:56 roles in immune balance and healthy aging. Big Bold Health has taken this ancient seed and sprouted it to unlock even more nutritional power. The result, H-TB immune energy chews, a delicious, on-the-go way to support your immune system with precision. Each chew delivers 500 milligrams of sprouted H.T.B plus zinc, vitamin D3, vitamin C, and magnesium. Whether you're traveling, working long hours, or just want an easy way to boost your daily resilience, these chews make it simple. I've made them part of my daily wellness routine, and I think you'll feel the difference too. Try them today at big boldhealth.com and use code DR Mark 30 for 30% off your first order.
Starting point is 00:21:35 I would literally stand there and have a stand-up fight with myself. hour and I would not move until I did my practice and the euphoid feeling that came through me as I started to move my body even raising my hands above my head and touching the floor yeah and synchronizing that with some breathing yeah lightness came yeah and it moved through me and I went through this like a year two years of this internal fight of to practice or not to practice yeah you know that's why now for me I think one of the reasons that primal moves has become so successful is because of 15 years, I've shown up every single day to practice.
Starting point is 00:22:14 Yeah. And when you don't feel like that, right? Everyone comes down and they see me kind of leading through example and inspiration. Like, hey, this guy's down. They're looking at a great concrete floor two or three hours a day and he's euphically happy. I'll try that. I went through a different experience recently where I kind of went through this portal where I almost died and I had an infection in my back.
Starting point is 00:22:33 It led to an abscess and I had had major surgery and I was in bed for six weeks. I couldn't walk. I lost 20 pounds, which I'm already pretty skinny. I came out of that, and I was really unable to move. I couldn't tie my shoes. I couldn't get off the toilet by myself. I couldn't do the most basic life things that you think getting dressed. You take it for granted.
Starting point is 00:22:59 Yeah, I mean, and I recently saw my surgeon, and he said, most people at your stage are on a walker or maybe never get off a walker. And I did what you did, no matter how. bad I felt or how depressed I was or how broken I was. I literally got up into the gym every day and worked with physical therapists and trainer. I started moving. I'm not 100% back yet, but I'm out of pain. I'm moving. I'm doing your class. No, I mean, I've seen the MRI scans of your spine. It's incredible. Yeah, I've got all hardware in there, like a hardware store in there. And, you know, I'm there with a bunch of 30 year olds in the class. And I'm
Starting point is 00:23:38 65 and that's amazing that's inspiring and it's just like your body has that capacity and what I really find interesting and I wonder if you're any insight of this is as I look around the world and especially in America so many people don't live in their body they are disconnected from their body and you can see their bodies become overweight or they they are hunched over or they're you can see they don't move fluidly and and it's interesting that people are kind of locked in this state of physical contraction and don't really even know it or aware of it. And they don't realize that there's a way to the other side of that and actually getting free.
Starting point is 00:24:17 Because I think more and more because we're so connected to our devices, we're so not having to move our bodies, we're just sort of out of this traditional way of living that we've done for hundreds of thousands of years. I think the question that for you is seeing what's happening in the world around this sort of disconnection from our body. how do we start to inch forward because it feels like a big hurl for a lot of people who who aren't in their bodies who aren't exercising regularly who aren't moving regularly to actually go from that to doing something yeah it's a big push I mean it's mental you have to
Starting point is 00:24:51 like you have no it has to be a mindset you need to shift the perception of your mindset and make movement a lifestyle it has to become part of your life you know I say to a lot of people here that you know have full-time jobs and they work that you need to actually book this session in and make it part of your life it needs to be embodied as a daily practice and they see the benefits from that and trying to create that shift
Starting point is 00:25:15 of people where they actually think yeah you know what just going to give myself one hour a day to go to class or to get on the mat or to go to the gym and do something even go for a walk or a swim
Starting point is 00:25:25 but something just move your body because this is a hunter-gatherer body it needs to move it was designed and created to move and the more you move it the better it feels and it will degenerate The body, if you sit in a chair all day, the body will just slowly degenerate
Starting point is 00:25:39 quicker than you think. That's true. It doesn't discriminate. The more you move it, the better it's going to feel. I mean, I was in bed for six weeks, and I never felt so debilitated. Powerless, yeah. Powerless, but also just like my body lost all of its function, and I couldn't go to the bathroom by myself.
Starting point is 00:25:59 I couldn't do the most simple life skills. I think because if you had that template, that framework of being healthy, Because, well, I could get, I could remember what it was like, but I was like, you remember what it felt like. So you had muscle memory to be like, hey, I want to go back to feeling like this. I don't want to feel like I am now. I mean, I was a yoga teacher in my, you know, 20s and, you know, we had seven hours of yoga day for like a month.
Starting point is 00:26:19 Yeah. You get pretty flexible. But even as kids, you know, growing up now, you know, it's not in the school curriculum. There's no sport. There's not a daily session of sport where they're encouraging children to move and be fit and be conscious and try and be embodied and do mindful practices. You know, they sat down in a chair and they're given a book. And that's true.
Starting point is 00:26:38 And I think, you know, because we're so disconnected from our bodies, I think it also prevents us from being able to access a very powerful liberating force, which is using the body and the somatic practices, as you call them, to start to free up a lot of the stuck emotions and the beliefs and the fears. And yes, sometimes, you know, talk therapy helps or coaching helps or those things can be helpful or psychedelic medicine. But I think, you know, movement is medicine. you said that right at the beginning
Starting point is 00:27:05 is powerful and a lot of people are into longevity and they want to take this vitamin or this drug or do this special thing or take a hyperbaric chamber or whatever
Starting point is 00:27:14 and it's like you don't actually move for me it's bypassing they're trying to hack their way to health by bypassing doing the hard work which is actually to go into a class I mean one of the beautiful things about Primal
Starting point is 00:27:27 is a very community driven brand so we have like a big group of people that move together and that's really beautiful and really inspiring You know, we sometimes have 80 people come into class. I know, it's pretty crowded this morning. And I was like, very beautiful about that because of, you know, you get this.
Starting point is 00:27:42 I could really find a, I could really find a place on the hanging bar. On the high bar, yeah. So many people there, but, you know, just moving together as a group, it brings about exponential growth. Yeah. You know, it brings a flow state around. It's inspiring. You release oxytocins. You release serotonium and dopamine.
Starting point is 00:27:57 You get that happy drug feeling of just moving in a group. Yeah. You know, when you're doing a class, which biomechanically, what you're doing, you know, works not only do you feel emotionally good but you feel bloody physically good as well yeah you know and that's what primal essentially is yeah it's sort of like healing almost invisibly when you do it and you don't have to think about it you just and it's and you know I think whether it's yoga whether it's primal moves or whether it's in other forms of exercise if people can get in their bodies it's really the key to yeah to feeling good to healing if I don't exercise for a few days I start to feel cranky
Starting point is 00:28:31 it's physical longevity you know people talk a lot about physical longevity these days you know just move and so do are you familiar with the science around around how this all works in terms of the somatic healing of primal or just in general i've studied it i've looked into it quite deeply so can you tell us sort of about the the science behind this because i think it's you know people may not really be aware of what the the sort of underlying principles are of why this works and how it works i've written a manual on this I wrote a 100-page manual on why primal moves works. Where can people find that?
Starting point is 00:29:08 You have to do one of my teacher trainings to get that. That's like my blueprint. So it's a big topic, is a big conversation about what it does. But it's actually starting to, it starts to rebuild muscle mass. It starts to restabilize your joints. It starts to increase cognitive and behavioral patterns physically and mentally.
Starting point is 00:29:28 It's nonlinear. It starts to break down rigidity in the mind. The fascial networks, it starts to move the fluids around in the facial system. The motion creates the lotion. The body starts to move. It starts to become lean and supple. It becomes healthy. The muscles are working properly.
Starting point is 00:29:46 You start to get bone density, muscle density again. You know, you're working with neuronal and non-neuronal intelligence. You know, the cells are working to release stem cell, creating stem cell because of this micro trauma in the body. Every time you're moving, cross the floor, all the joints are creating what we call micro-microtrauma, which then gives stem cell a job to actually start healing you again. You know, if you don't do anything, stem cell doesn't work.
Starting point is 00:30:12 It doesn't need to. It goes to sleep. The more you work your body, the more stem cell has a job. So it starts to heal the body. It starts to rejuvenate the muscles, the bones, the skin, the connective tissue. You know, along with that, if you're also eating consciously as well, that for me is hacking. That's biohacking. Breathing, eating, moving.
Starting point is 00:30:28 I think the hurdle for a lot of people is just getting started. right so how would you sort of advise people who want to get just show up to class show up to class well not every town has primal moves yet yeah so we well we've got a digital space so you where do you find it online so www.com so we've got a plug and play really cheap subscription model and on there you've got probably like 150 sessions and it's mat based so all you need is a mat and a small space you don't need to go to a gym you don't need equipment. You can literally roll out your mat, open up your
Starting point is 00:31:01 tablet, and you get visual. You don't need a big floor space to do it? So I guide the sessions. Actually, I built it in COVID because when the studios started to shut in COVID, everyone reached out to me and was like, hey, how can we practice? So I built this very simple plug and play digital
Starting point is 00:31:18 space where people could just literally turn on the system and they could work through their bodies if we have like full flow classes or you can work on stabilizing your spine, opening your hips. strengthen your shoulders. Amazing. So there's a lot of content on there.
Starting point is 00:31:31 That's definitely my future. Yeah, and obviously now what we're trying to do, you know, because there's so many people that have come into this community of Pramble that when they're going home to their cities throughout the states in Europe, they're actually wanting to open studios.
Starting point is 00:31:44 So now we have a whole training program, and the idea is that over the next few years we're going to be opening, you know, like mothership destination studios in the bigger cities. That's great. And if you don't live in one of those cities, you can do it online.
Starting point is 00:31:56 Exactly. I think, I'm going to start doing that. I miss it like when I'm not here. I'm like, I'm like, I'm not... I mean, the session's like half an hour. There's 10, 20, 30 minute sessions. That's all you need.
Starting point is 00:32:04 Just a little bit every single day. You just got to tap into the body every day. And also it gets you out of your head. You know, for me, there's nothing more pleasurable than living in my body. It's the most pleasurable place I can ever be. Well, I think most people don't live in their body. They don't pay attention to the signals that their body says.
Starting point is 00:32:21 They don't eat when they're hungry and not eat when they're not hungry. They don't sleep when they're tired. They push themselves. people are in all sorts of strange disconnect from their physical body. They're upregulated, they're anxious, they're living on sugar, their sleep patterns aren't good. And you're very disciplined about your practices, right? Really, yeah, it's a daily thing for me. It's a non-negotiable.
Starting point is 00:32:43 Tell us about your food patterns and your habits, because it's different than most people. So I'm a very simple eater. I'm 80% carnival. So my main meat is red meat, and I'm super particular about how. source it so I actually go to the farm myself I look at the cows I need to understand that the cow is walking around eating grass under the sun and does not go in the barn and the way that the animals killed is very special as you know the whole food conversation is a big topic is a big debate and getting well-sourced foods is a
Starting point is 00:33:17 really hard thing to do these days you know the soils are devitalized they're demineralized the foods are genetically modified the animals are being injected with God knows what. So sourcing your food is a, for me, it's a really important thing. You know, what I believe that, you know, what we eat is what we are. You know, what's going in the soils and what's going in these animals is who our body becomes. So, you know, my, my, my meat's grass fed, grass finished, and I eat a lot of it. I don't eat many vegetables. I don't eat greens. I eat fruit. Which were explaining to me why. Because like, well, greens are good or vegetables are good. So why do you? I started to feel inflamed.
Starting point is 00:33:52 Because you were noticing what your body was feeling. So I was observing my gut. it didn't feel good. When I ate greens, my gut started to feel almost a bit achy and I started to feel a little bit I had like joint ache and a bit foggy in the head.
Starting point is 00:34:10 So I'd go through long periods say three to six months of doing processes of elimination of foods that I would eat and wouldn't eat. So I stopped eating grains completely. I eat very few carbs. You know, every now then I might go out and have some pasta
Starting point is 00:34:24 or some rice but very seldom, like once or twice a month. I don't eat many sugars, hardly any. I eat fruit and all the animals. And potatoes. Potatoes. My classic meal would be a fillet steak, barely cooked, with lashions of ghee. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:41 So I eat a lot of ghee. I eat a lot of fat and a lot of protein. So I'm essentially, I'm fueled by mitochondria, which is the cell's ability to produce energy as opposed to insulin. So my energy levels throughout the day are really well balanced. Neiman, yeah. I have a tularte. and a pan of chocolate so I keep it real I have like my my percentage of diet which is what I call
Starting point is 00:35:02 my junk diet yeah yeah why keep it real you know I have a pan of chocolate I have a coffee every now and I might have an ice cream yeah you know I like to keep it real yeah but I know that 75 80 percent of what I eat is grass for animals really well sourced and for me like you know to understand my mark as I wake up in the morning and I I know you feel it you know how about how am I feeling how am I sleeping how's my recovery how's my mind is it for How's my gut? How's my evacuation? In my practice, my physical practice, you know, how's my body recovering? How am I training? How's my energy levels? It's 95. And they're good. I just recently had my blood's done and I had them checked and they said, well, your blood to like that of a man 30 years ago. Yeah. Of a 30 year old man. Yeah. Like my testosterone is up at a thousand. Yeah. My HDL is really healthy. My hemoglobin is good. My minerals, my Ritamins are really high, and they say, I mean, this is incredible. You don't eat vegetables. Do you take supplements? No. So I don't take supplements. I avoid supplements at all costs. I've started to take creatine just to see how it feels for like cognition and recovery. But I don't supplement. I literally just source really good foods, train and breathe. And that for me is hacking. I take a sauna four times a week and I get in the ice bath when I can. But again, it's more of a lifestyle as opposed to, you know, I try and avoid supplements. And I try and I try. and convert people onto healthy foods, healthy living?
Starting point is 00:36:28 Well, you know, it's interesting, you know, historically we never took supplements because we had a very nutrient-dense diet. And if you look at Hunter-Gatherers diets, and this has been well studied, you know, the amount of vitamins, minerals were extremely high compared to modern diets. And they also had animals that were eating wild plants. Exactly. And those wild plants are full of not just vitamins and minerals, but also phytochemicals that are very healing.
Starting point is 00:36:53 And there's an amazing guy, did a podcast with him, a couple of podcasts, because one of the most incredible people I've ever met named Fred Provenza, who wrote a book called nourishment about what we can learn from animals about how to eat. And what he said was he studied rangeland ecology and the relationship between plants and animals, the soil and nature. He found that the animals would eat, you know, a few main, like, calorie crops or plants, but then they would sample up to 100 or more different plants that had different properties, the different minerals. or different nutrients and that the animals knew like I've been in the Amazon I remember seeing this side of this river
Starting point is 00:37:29 which is clay and the parish just came like fly in fox and we're eating the minerals because they knew their bodies needed from the soul yeah right we're so disconnected we think we need like skittles
Starting point is 00:37:41 you know like oh that looks good the thing is now the food has lost its vitality and so we have to overeat over consume to get all the minerals and vitamins that we need and now we're lacking whereas you know if I eat
Starting point is 00:37:53 three or four hundred grams of grass-fed grass-finish fillet steak. It's so densely nutritious that actually that's all I need for the afternoon. That and a few potatoes for flavor. But that's it. And a couple of big scoops of ghee and I'm done. I feel absolutely amazing. And the meat you're eating though is different because it's animals who are eating wild plants and who are actually getting those phytochemicals in their meat and the nutrients in their meat and the fatty acids and their meat that are different. Yeah. And those actually have profound biological effects.
Starting point is 00:38:24 So it's not only what you eat, it's what you're eating ate. No, I'm really, I mean, I'm very careful. If I go out to a restaurant, you know, I'm super careful about if I eat meat or not. You know, I want to know that it's grass-fed. You know, because if you eat industrial meat, you're going to get sick.
Starting point is 00:38:38 Yeah. It's a fact. You're going to get inflamed. And, you know, I go through periods sometimes if I go away on holiday, then I will, you know, I'll venture out and I'll eat vegetables. And I get flatulents. I get swelling in my gut, I get bloating, I get fogginess in the head, I wake up in the morning and I feel drowsy. So I'm thinking, well, that can't be good.
Starting point is 00:38:59 Well, what's fascinating, Nick, is that, you know, you went from being this kind of broken guy who was dealing drugs and running cocaine between the Argentina and the UK and eating McDonald's. Eating McDonald's. To being at 55 in a way that you really remade your whole self physically, spiritually, spiritually. emotionally, mentally, from the ground up. And most people don't have to go through what you went through to get there. But what's so fascinating to me is that, you know, very few people pay attention to what's happening in their body in real time every day and then listen to it.
Starting point is 00:39:34 Now, I would say the smartest doctor in the room is your body. It'll tell you exactly what's going on. You're like, oh, I ate this and my stomach feels that. Most people have no clue that what they eat affects how they feel. When I was in prison as well, obviously I saw the effects of the huge. condition at its worst, you know, not only for living and the way that humans were treating each other, but what they were eating. So I, I experienced such darkness that when I got out of prison, I was like, okay, I'm going to completely rewrite the story because I don't want to go there
Starting point is 00:40:04 ever again. You know, I completely rewrote my story. And how old were you when you got out of prison? 40. 40. So I've been going 15 years now, yeah. Wow. And I've never looked back once. Wow. I got out of prison and I think within six weeks, I was coaching. And I never took back. I got out of prison with $80 in my back pocket. And I had to go home and live in my parents at the age of 40 with no money in the bedroom I grew up in. And that was tough. I mean, imagine going back to your parents.
Starting point is 00:40:31 Well, you were, you know, a millionaire, right? I was a multi-millionaire. I mean, I had everything. I had boats, cars, cars, all the toys, I mean, houses, investments. I was ahead of the game in my early 30s. And I lost everything. And that was a good process as well. That was, you know, a big process around attachment.
Starting point is 00:40:49 because it was a tough call coming out of prison with $80 in my back pocket. And when you were in prison, did you have the sense that you were wanting to move into teaching what you learned there? I didn't quite know. I was on such a healing journey. You know, everything was really about healing my body and my mind. And I knew that there was going to be a big shift and a big change. But I didn't actually quite know what I was going to do because I never knew when I was going to get out of prison. You know, in South America, prisons are to stay there indefinitely.
Starting point is 00:41:18 because the justice systems are so bad. Early 2010 they came around to see me and they literally said to me one day you got five minutes to get your shit together we're expelling you from the country and a bunch of guys came with machine guns and they shackled me to a van they took me to the airport
Starting point is 00:41:37 and they put me on the back of a plane so my first experience was freedom was the back of a jumbo jet with 400 tourists. Imagine I'd just been in this wild prison in South America where they're killing each other for fun I was shackled and as I got to the bottom of the stairs
Starting point is 00:41:52 of the airplane they unshackled me they took me to the top of the stairs the captain was there to meet me and he said to me when you get to the UK you'll be free to go wow so I sat on the back of the plane for 12 hours and it was like a time warp and I tell you something very interesting was
Starting point is 00:42:11 this was the first realisation that I ever had of living in your body and in your head because I sat at the back of the playing i was like a zen monk you know i've just been in prison for six seven years isolation for four and i just sat still and i looked around me i was like wow these people don't stop fidgeting right you know they were playing with the in-house entertainment they kept opening and closing these poppers and doing these zips up putting things in the overhead locker they had these new phones that had these screens on a thing called facebook and they were just like sitting there tapping
Starting point is 00:42:44 and messaging away and i just thought to myself oh my god these people literally cannot stop fidgeting this so anxious and I suddenly realized wow they're like totally in their heads not in their bodies yeah and this was the first understanding I actually had of observing that in real life you know because in prison I couldn't observe that I could only observe myself and then when I arrived to Heathrow T5 the next day I was I was sitting down and I went and bought myself a coffee the first thing I bought in seven years and I sat there and I asked myself I was like you know what the hell are you going to go and do yeah you know you had this life as a smuggler it's finished yeah you've just sat in prison and you've rehabilitated yourself and you
Starting point is 00:43:29 have all this knowledge on yoga but it's not that compartmentalized you got nowhere to go and you've got no money and I sat and I asked I said what am I going to do and I heard this voice it came through and it said that movement and meditative practices had such a profound impact on my life that it freed me from prison. And if I could facilitate that into one person's life, then everything would be worthwhile. And with that message, I got on the train, I went home to my mum knowing I was going to be a facilitator
Starting point is 00:44:01 of movement into people's lives. And since that day, I've only ever focused on facilitating moving into one person's life. And now we get like 25,000 people a year that come to the space in Ibiza. And the same thing is now following through Europe and the States. So that has been my, it's almost like I was given this mission and I've stuck to it.
Starting point is 00:44:20 I believe in it so much that I actually invested in the studio in Los Angeles because I think it's something that can help transform people and help them in a very sort of sort of subtle, almost sneaky way, get inside people. Totally. And helps them land in their physical body. I come from a place of addictions, of alcoholism, and of trauma. So I know that these practices have helped to,
Starting point is 00:44:46 cure me and shift that and through the studios i work with a lot of people that have a lot of trauma they work with a lot of addictions you know i'm surrounded by them and they use this practice to help channel the behavior of their mind you know and they say to me this is really helping me yeah you know this is really helping me stay centered grounded i'm learning to live in my body you know i'm leaving the narcotics alone i've stopped drinking i've stopped smoking i'm getting healthy i'm getting straight so i know it works on so many subtle levels We've all been there. You're on the go, starving, and your only options are ultra-processed snacks made from GMO corn, hydrogenated oils, and sometimes even mole-contaminated meat.
Starting point is 00:45:30 No thanks. That's why I always keep paleo valleys 100% grass-fed beef sticks on hand. These aren't your average meat sticks. They're made from grass-fed and finished beef raised on regenerative American farms using rotational grazing to restore soil health, their fermented old-world style. a process that takes four times longer, but delivers better flavor, enhanced digestibility, and supports gut health. No sugar, no gluten, no MSG, just organic spices, and nutrient-dense protein. These sticks come in five delicious flavors, original, jalapeno, summer sausage, garlic summer sausage, and terriaki. And they've already sold over 35 million sticks.
Starting point is 00:46:09 So clearly, I'm not the only fan, whether you're traveling, packing a lunchbox, or need a quick protein hit between meetings, Paleo Valley's beef sticks are the cleanest, most sustainable snack you can reach for. Try them now at paleovali.com slash hymen and get 15% off your order today. Let's talk hydration, because most people are getting it wrong. If you're feeling tired, foggy, crampy, or just off, it could be your electrolytes. I see it all the time in my community, especially with folks who are active, eating clean, or doing intermittent fasting.
Starting point is 00:46:36 That's why I use and recommend Element. Element is a zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix that skips all the junk. No sugar, no food dies, no artificial ingredient. Just science-backed hydration, with sodium levels that support optimal health, two to three times what current guidelines recommend. It's a game changer for athletes, biohackers, busy parents, and anyone who wants to feel and function their best. Even Navy SEALs and Olympians use it.
Starting point is 00:46:58 Right now, Element is offering my listeners a free sample pack of their most popular flavors, citrus salt, raspberry salt, watermelon salt, and orange salt, with any purchase. That's eight single serving packets for free. Go to drinkelement.com slash Hyman to claim your free sample pack with any order. That's drinkelement.com slash hymen. Well, what's so interesting, Nick, is, and I'm sure you've heard this, but as I'm doing it, and I was there this morning, the movements are so foreign. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:30 Things that you normally don't do, like you're outstretched, you know, with your arms and you're kind of walking, like, with your feet and your hands on the floor, and your body stretch out like Superman. And it's like not easier. You're going backwards and doing strange things that, yeah. that you normally don't do. In order to actually do them, you have to be so present and aware in your body.
Starting point is 00:47:50 Totally. That all your thoughts kind of go away. So like you're just there. No, it brings a presence about. Yeah, because yoga, like, I can kind of get my mind sometimes to be still, but a lot of times it's drifting and I'm like in my head. Yeah. Because in yoga, you're kind of your map based, you're static.
Starting point is 00:48:07 Yeah. And they're asking you to be still. You know, that's a hard thing. Yeah. You know, to sit and be still and not think is almost impossible. So it's, for me, it's like a moving meditation. Exactly. And that's exactly, you know, I came through a lot of practice of Ashdanga Yoga,
Starting point is 00:48:21 which again is a very beautiful moving meditation. I didn't find that it was, it didn't functionally fit all the physical needs that I wanted, but it was very beautiful practice. I was really inspired from these practices. So it was through the community and so many bodies that I was actually able to fully develop the system, where it has now for so many people become a moving meditation. The practice works physically. that they understand and they know that and I know that
Starting point is 00:48:46 you know I've seen so many benefits from thousands and thousands of people over 15 years but for me it's now people say it's like they're checking yeah it's like their daily place they come to you know it's like their morning church session they just come in they're getting their bodies and they sometimes they call it church it's like for me it's like a moving church yeah it's kind of moving church it's a moving meditation you know it's so rewarding to see
Starting point is 00:49:07 the effects that people receive from this not just physically but mentally emotionally yeah it's beautiful and it's a bridge into something deeper you know because then people actually learn to you know channel the behavior of their body their mind becomes quiet then they can go more into like seetty practices which is pretty difficult if you haven't learned to kind of control your body and your breath so then just try and sit it's almost impossible you know because you're going to be thinking about last night and tomorrow night and what you're going to buy and what you're going to eat you know the mind is just like a constant yeah it's like a monkey mind
Starting point is 00:49:39 it's to channel the behavior that's really hard so for me to channel it through movement is where it sits. It's interesting because when I trained in yoga, which was 42 years ago, a while ago, before they had yoga mats and before they had Lula Lemon, we had like sweatpants in a towel, basically. The practice was powerful because I was like 23 at the time and it was seven hours a day of yoga. But the practice was called meditation in motion. It was a Kapala yoga and basically it was a constant flow of movement and not just a static practice. And it was very breath-focused.
Starting point is 00:50:17 Yeah. So it was like breath and movement and meditation sort of all in one, which is kind of what Primal Moose is. It's like breath and meditation. It connects those three together. And also, you know, in the classes there is a bit of chit-chat,
Starting point is 00:50:29 which creates that social interaction. Was anybody else in prison doing this with you? Were you able to sort of bring anybody else into it? You're just a weird guy doing this stuff. Yeah, I was kind of like the weird crank. They looked at me like, and this guy's lost it. And actually, I mean, it was two or three years after being on the main wing in prison and just observing the human condition that is worst, that I actually took voluntary isolation. Because I wanted to be out of it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:50:56 You know, I was tired of... So you weren't forced to be in... No, I wanted to go into isolation because of the conditions were so bad. The violence perpetrated between humans to human was horrific. Worried by getting stabbed. Stabbed, killed, over nothing. Now, life had no value. And I thought, you know, I'm done with this. I'd rather be on my own all day and checked out and tapping into something completely different. You know, and I used it as I turned it into a little ashram. Like a mini cell ashram. Literally. It was a
Starting point is 00:51:20 four year Vapasana. That's crazy. I mean, said quickly, four years isn't that long, but as you start going through the seasons, you start to realize that you go very deep and start peeling back a lot of the layers of the mind and you really get to know yourself. I mean, they say, you know,
Starting point is 00:51:36 you want to let a man know who he is, just put him in a room with these thoughts. You know, it doesn't take long before the, like the default mind, the superficial part of the mind disappears. And then you start going really deep into, you know, your framework and your blueprint. And you're able to sort of see that. Very clearly. It takes some time. You know, eventually the mind will quieten down and your blueprint will come through. Any issues will come through. All your traumas, they will come through. You will be confronted with yourself. Yeah, I mean, a couple of years ago, I decided to take a retreat and I went for a month,
Starting point is 00:52:10 in a cabin by myself in Vermont. No phone, no computer, beautiful, a journal, no books, just food, me, nature, God. They did have a wood-fired sauna though, I liked that, and it was in the winter, it was in December. But the first few weeks were a little challenging, and then I got really high.
Starting point is 00:52:31 Like, I got really happy, euphoric, and realized that I didn't need anything. Yeah, less is more, for sure. If I had a place to sleep and I had some food and some clothes to wear, the rest is gravy, you know? Exactly. You'd be surprised, you know, how quickly the distraction dies down.
Starting point is 00:52:46 All the cessations of thought, eventually they quieten down. Most people can't do that. So how do people start to sort of break down those old stories and the beliefs and their ego and the things that keep them in prison? Because I think, you know, people say, what's the meaning of life? What's the purpose of life? To me, it's getting free. I mean, having an embodied practice to start with is a good place to go.
Starting point is 00:53:09 having a physical practice which is mindful is definitely a good place to start just starting to fill your body is a very good place to start then you can start working on the other stuff but if you're just going to sit there in your head and try and intellectually work it all out
Starting point is 00:53:23 there's no semantic work being done there it's like doing your own talk therapy and you can talk yourself in and out of an empty carpal box all day long but you're still going to wake up the next day with the same shit well you can see it I mean there's a book the body keeps score and you can see
Starting point is 00:53:37 totally how when you watch observe people where their bodies are not free where they're constricted or limited or just completely living outside of their body i mean how you know how does someone get to 300 pounds you know it's like by being very unconscious at what point you know do you not stop to look and be okay that's enough well it's just trauma usually it's pain it's it's it's feeding an emptiness it's there's all the psychological reasons yeah but you know when you just start to do the simplest things to move, it's kind of a, it's almost like a trap door to get to freedom. It's like, you know, where's that sort of magic button you could push? We can push a lot of
Starting point is 00:54:20 places, but I think if more people lived in their bodies and inhabited their bodies and were doing what you call in body practices, which are not that hard to do, and don't take that much time, it's really profound what happens. And for me, I know it's the quarter of who I am. If I don't move, I don't feel good and I don't feel like I'm alive and I don't feel like I'm free. For me, being sick and not being able to get out of bed for six weeks and not be able to walk for months and, you know, I was like on a cane for a long time. It's amazing what you just did there. Yeah, just a few months.
Starting point is 00:54:55 Like I just, you know, but the body has this incredible reparative capacity. The body is one of the most amazing creations ever. Yeah. And I have people don't realize that. It's so intelligent. And so I've injured myself, where I've done this, or I've done that, so I can't do this, I can't do that. And they started feeling all these limitations. If I have an injury, I'm going to stop this or I'm going to stop that.
Starting point is 00:55:15 Instead of going, okay, how do I actually get to repair my system? How do I get to heal those things? And I was talking to a friend recently about the yoga teacher, because he was a yoga teacher training with me. The yoga teacher that taught us was a 65-year-old woman named Lila, a German woman, who was in a wheelchair, had massive back surgery, kind of like me, had, had, spinal fusion basically made herself completely like gumby, which is like flexible. And as a yoga teacher, through the embodied practices that we're talking about through breath and movement.
Starting point is 00:55:48 It's medicine. It really is. It has to be a non-negotiable. And once you start tapping into it and realizing the benefits of really simple embodied movement practices, you won't turn back. I think this whole idea of somatic medicine is kind of foreign to people. You know, we're used to therapy and talk therapy. You know, I found for my patients and for myself and for many, you can talk all day long,
Starting point is 00:56:10 but if you don't change this sort of meat suit that we're in into something that can be a transducer for understanding, for healing, for repair, you kind of become almost rigidified in these patterns. And so I really encourage everybody listening to think about how they can, in their own life, start to inhabit their body as a way of not just, getting fit or living a long time or for exercise, but as a way of starting to heal some of the psycho-emotional, spiritual things that we all carry through life that we get stuck in. It's a big step, you know, and also there's a lot of fear around actually wanting to be well.
Starting point is 00:56:50 Yeah. Because people are actually quite happy living in pain. They think it's a place where they can reside that sometimes feels quite normal. It's comfortable. I mean, I used to live in pain. You know, I used to live in my trauma-based state of living. That was my day-to-day way of living. numb down, desensitized and in pain. And it felt good.
Starting point is 00:57:09 Sometimes I still go back there. You know, I can regress. I can relapse and I can go into this place of traumatic pain which feels normal to me. But luckily I've got tools where I can move that through. So if someone's listening and they want to reset their nervous system and they want to begin to kind of start with some tools, if you feel anxious or stuck or disconnected, like where do people start? What's the practice that you recommend just starting with?
Starting point is 00:57:35 in terms of reconnecting with your body. I mean, if they have access to go to a local studio and do a body weight movement-based class, it could be yoga, it could be Pilates. Any kind of movement-based practice is a great place to start. That's the beginning. And make it a practice, make it a daily practice.
Starting point is 00:57:53 And very quickly, you're going to see the benefits and the shifts. So don't, don't overthink it, but just start somewhere. Yeah, people say to me, what do I do? Might just show up to class. Or go to primalmoves.com. Yeah, exactly. Just show up. Just do that for yourself.
Starting point is 00:58:07 Give yourself that one thing. Show up to class. Show up for yourself once a day and do something. And that will be a bridge into something different. Like you say you have 10 minute classes, 20 minute classes, 30 minute classes. It's a start. Yeah. It gets you into the body.
Starting point is 00:58:20 It gets you feeling. The relationship to yourself will start to shift very quick. But sometimes I do see that even people who do a lot of yoga, for example, they still can be rigid in their mind. Yeah. And so can you kind of explain that in terms of why some people can. A lot of the yoga practices are quite dogmatic. They're tradition-based. So when I was building the primal system,
Starting point is 00:58:44 I made sure that it was stripped back from any esoteric or traditional belief system. We don't actually do any spiritual work in there as such. I don't teach a belief system. We're not teaching yoga or Buddhism. We don't use any kind of lineage as such, other than that of practice. My lineage is just practice.
Starting point is 00:59:05 Just do it. Just do it. But we're not actually trying to share a belief system. If someone wants to come to practice to have a belief system, that's fine. But we're going to try and break that, that rigidity. And a lot of times in yoga, there's a lot of lineages that are very traditional and they're talked through dogma. So people, again, are getting stuck in rigid kind of thought patterns.
Starting point is 00:59:29 It has to be a certain way. And that was another reason why I actually broke away from a lot of the kind of traditional yogic practices. Yeah. Yeah. I still do breath work. If you want to call that spiritual, that's fine. I go to Primal every day.
Starting point is 00:59:42 If you want to call that spiritual, that's fine. But it could just be a practice. So we strip it back from anything esoteric. And people really enjoy that because we're not trying to put our beliefs upon anyone in class. And people really find that very refreshing. It is refreshing. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:59:59 You know, we're coming to do a practice and that's it. Showing up could be the spiritual part of it. And it could be enough. And also the movements are so unique and different that you do. And they're sometimes very physically challenging and hard that it seems to break a lot of the rigid patterns of thinking and being and moving. It's an agitator. Yeah, it definitely shakes things up.
Starting point is 01:00:20 Exactly. When you agitate. How do you do this? And how do I make my body do this thing? So, I mean, sometimes I get a lot of people asking me questions in class. And I can see that they're really stuck in their heads. And they put their hands on the floor and they can't move. And I say to them, you're completely in your head.
Starting point is 01:00:34 Yeah. Stop thinking. Just move your body. And I don't know how. I said, just follow these people. Just move that way. And they start moving. And I look back at me and they smile.
Starting point is 01:00:42 You know, I can see their body language. They're overthinking how to move. And the body actually knows how to move in that direction. It's such an amazing thing. So this has been an incredible conversation. You've gone from being a guy with a broken body, with a broken life in prison. And it's basically resurrected yourself.
Starting point is 01:01:00 Completely. Yeah. And have transformed your physical, emotional, mental spiritual self in a way that you're now sharing with people and inviting them in with you to try and it's so beautiful and it's so rare and i think you don't put yourself out there as a guru as some guy who's got the answer but you just encourage you to just live in their body i'm a student like everyone else just live in your body yeah which most of us don't get connected to your body which most of us aren't and to listen to your body which most of us don't know how to do yeah and and when
Starting point is 01:01:30 you start to do those simple things like if i if i If I eat something that isn't good for me, my body tells me, like, I feel it. Yeah, you feel it. And I'm like, if I'm in Europe and I'm eating at like 10.30 at night, yeah, my body's like, no, don't do that, you know. The invitation is really to start to listen, like to start to listen to your body and start to change the way you. Yeah, observe how you feel.
Starting point is 01:01:55 Observe how you feel. Connect the dots between. Yeah, wake up in the morning and sit on the edge of the bed. Don't look at your phone. Ask yourself, you know, before you open your apps that's telling you how you slept, ask yourself how you slept. Ask yourself how are you feeling? Yeah. You know, are you foggy? How's your gut? How's your recovery? Yeah. How are you feeling? Yeah. And then from that you can work out, okay, let's, let's maybe shift some things today. Let's eat differently or eat earlier. Or change the way that I'm
Starting point is 01:02:18 eating and change the way that I'm moving. It's such a simple invitation. It's just you're inviting people just to listen. Very much so. To be aware and to be present. I don't use any apps. Yeah. For health data at all. Amazing. Nick, what a journey you've been on. What a gift you've given to the world. I think everybody should check out primal moose.com. Thanks, Mark. They can find you on Instagram at Primal Movese Biza. Prima Mousa Biza. I-B-I-Z-A. And check out your studios where they're coming around in America.
Starting point is 01:02:44 You're going to be in Los Angeles. You're going to be in Miami, Austin, New York, San Francisco. When is Austin opening? Because I live in Austin. We should be doing Austin next year. Amazing, great. Yeah, in 26. I'll be there every day.
Starting point is 01:02:55 Fantastic. So, Nick, thanks so much for what you do. Thanks, Mark. I've been a real pleasure to show with you. Thank you. If you love this. When it comes to something. you only want the best for your body, the kind with the highest quality, cleanest, and most
Starting point is 01:03:05 potent ingredients you can get. That's exactly what you'll find at my supplement store, where I've hand-selected each and every product to meet the most rigorous standards for safety, purity, and effectiveness. These are the only supplements I recommend to my patients, and they're also what I use myself. Whether you want to optimize longevity or reduce your disease risk, or you're looking to improve your sleep, blood sugar, metabolism, gut health, you name it. Dr.hyman.com has the world's best selection of top quality premium supplements all backed by science and expertly vetted by me, Dr. Mark Hyman. So check out Dr.hyman.com, because when it comes to your health, nothing less than the very
Starting point is 01:03:38 best will do. That's Dr.hyman.com, D-R-H-Y-M-A-N dot com. Podcasts, please share it with someone else you think would also enjoy it. You can find me on all social media channels at Dr. Mark Hyman. Please reach out. I'd love to hear your comments and questions. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to the Dr. Hyman show wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to check out my YouTube channel at Dr. Mark Hyman for video of this podcast and more. Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on the Dr. Hyman Show. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the Ultra Wellness Center,
Starting point is 01:04:09 my work at Cleveland Clinic, and Function Health, where I am chief medical officer. This podcast represents my opinions and my guest's opinions. Neither myself nor the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, please seek out a qualified medical practitioner. And if you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, visit my clinic,
Starting point is 01:04:41 the ultra-wellness center at ultra-wellnesscenter.com and request to become a patient. It's important to have someone in your corner who is a trained, licensed healthcare practitioner and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health. This podcast is free as part of my mission to bring practical ways of improving health. health to the public. So I'd like to express gratitude to sponsors that made today's podcast possible. Thanks so much again for listening.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.