The Joe Rogan Experience - #2568 - Ross Edgley
Episode Date: October 20, 2026Ross Edgley is an ultra-marathon sea swimmer, athletic coach, television personality, and author. His new book, "How to Hero," will be available on November 10.www.youtube.com/@rossedgleywww.linktr.ee.../HowtoHeroBookwww.rossedgley.com Perplexity: Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at https://pplx.ai/rogan. Don’t miss out on all the action this week at DraftKings! Download the DraftKings app today! Sign-up using https://dkng.co/rogan or through my promo code ROGAN. Switch today at https://www.Visible.com for just 25/mo. Or Save $10 on your first month of Visible+ Pro with code ROGAN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
The Joe Rogan Experience.
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Thank you.
My man brought 18-year-old.
That's good.
Woo!
That's the real deal.
18-year-old single malt, scotch whiskey.
That's smoky.
That's smoky.
This is a true story.
I had a deal set up for a whiskey deal.
Like they wanted to do, you know, they do these things, like with celebrities.
And I was like, well, we got a lot of money.
I guess I could do it.
All right, let's do it.
And so they said that they could help me, like, design the whiskey.
I'm like, oh, that would be really cool.
So first I wanted to do it with Buffalo Trace.
But Buffalo Trace was like, look, we love you.
But the reality is our whiskey takes like eight years in a barrel, period.
Like, that's the only way they do it.
Like, oh, that makes sense.
That's why it's so good.
Okay, that makes sense.
So I tried this whiskey.
I was like, oh, it's pretty good.
It's pretty good.
It's pretty good.
I gave it to my friends.
Like, it's pretty good.
And then I fucked up.
And I had some 18-year-old scotch.
And it was so good.
I'm like, I can't lie.
If I'll say this is my favorite whiskey, but that will be a lie.
Because this is so much better.
There's no substitute for time.
No.
There's no substitute for time in those barrels.
That tastes like Scotland as well, doesn't it?
I remember one of the writers when I was on news radio, he exposed me to
this stuff. He said, do you like whiskey? I'm like, it's okay. It's kind of nasty. He just
do it to get a buzz, right? He's like, no, no, no. He got to like, he was like very specific.
He had like a large cube of ice. And he's like, come on, let me buy you. It's like a $200
whiskey. I'm like, what? $200 for a fucking glass. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, trust me,
trust me. And so he bought me this glass. I was like, oh, oh, okay. It was 200 pounds.
It's a different thing. It's a different thing. If you drink a 20-year-old whiskey,
It's a very different thing.
So it costs me, who knows how much money?
Because I got to get out of the deal.
And they're like, what?
And I was like, I can't do it.
No, like, I can't lie.
I can't lie and say this is my favorite.
I respect that. I respect.
I can't.
I could if I was poor.
Look, if I was broke, I could lie.
But I have a lot of money.
So I'm like, I'm not lying.
To the sanctity of whiskey.
I respect that.
Because this is, they figured it out.
Like, the Irish and the Scots, the Scots, they figured it out.
In Scotland, this is.
is like a religious thing.
Yeah, for sure. They don't fuck around.
For sure. You get some really old
scotch, man. Really old Scotch
whiskey has a very distinct taste.
And they're willing
to wait fucking 18 years
to get that taste. That's crazy.
We had to stop the podcast
before the podcast even started
because we were talking about so much cool shit. I'm like,
I'm going to leave the room.
Because I don't want us to miss any of this.
So first of all, you were
telling me, you swam around 60 hours in Loch Ness?
Yeah. Speaking of Scotland.
Oh, because this is strange, because obviously it was seven years ago now when we caught
up when I swam around Great Britain and then since then...
God, that was seven years ago.
Weird, right?
Wow.
And then now I've just been on this kind of strange career trajectory.
If you can call it a career in inverted commas.
So we did, yeah, a 60-hour non-stop swimming in Loch Ness was going well.
So it was all for ocean conservation.
We raised so much money.
It was amazing.
It was going well until the 60 hour point.
Started hallucinating, started seeing things.
Basically, the only way I can describe it is you're looking through the eye of a needle.
It's just getting smaller and smaller or smaller.
And then it just went completely black.
It just went completely dark.
Did you black out?
Yeah, blacked out.
Basically, it was hypothermia mixed with cellulitis.
So cellulitis is skin infection.
Exactly, exactly, from the wetsuit that was just getting to my bloodstream.
Oh, God.
You had a staff infection, and at the same time you were hypothermic?
Yeah.
And at the same time, you've been up for three days.
Yeah, exactly.
It was a bad place to be, Joe.
It was a bad place to...
That's so crazy.
60 hours of swimming is so insane.
60 hours of running is insane.
But you could stop running and take a nap.
You know what I'm saying?
It was so bad.
With the lockness monster.
It was bad.
Do you think that's real?
I mean, something touched my leg when I was in there.
But you were hallucinating.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's true.
I'm not the best person to ask.
But exactly what you just said.
It was strange because my skin was on fire from the cellulitis.
Oh.
But then I could feel in my bones I was getting so cold.
Anyway, long story short, blacked out.
I woke up and just thought, oh, there we go, yeah.
Oh, there you go, yes.
Oh, that's all over your back in your neck?
Yeah, you can see.
Oh, so you're just ridden with staff infection.
Yeah, that's how bad it was.
Oh, that's horrible.
And I think it was that coupled with the hypothermia.
So this is going to sound so strange, but it went completely black.
I remember waking up and then I was in the hospital.
So did they have to scoop you out of the water?
Yeah, yeah.
How do they, do you have some?
someone beside you, like with a net?
Yeah, yeah.
We had a team, they were amazing.
They scoop me up.
I look, I basically opened my eyes.
The next thing I know, I see my mom and my girlfriend
ahead of the hospital bed.
And I just went, oh, it's not gone well, has it?
And they were like, Ross, no, it's not gone.
You woke up in the hospital room.
Yeah.
Wow.
So the entire transport to the hospital, you were out cold?
Yeah.
How long were you out cold for?
They think about 13 hours.
Yeah, I was sort of.
You were out cold for 13 hours.
Yeah, coming in and out.
I don't say it proudly, sort of coming in and out of consciousness.
I still sort of remember little bits.
but then, like I said, the main thing was just being there with my mum and my girlfriend,
and they were just, they looked disappointed.
I was like, I'm so sorry.
So from there, what's interesting, a year later in Lake Tresemino in Italy, we did another swim for charity.
It was amazing.
Everything was organised, but because of Italian bureaucracy, they said you have to do it on this particular day.
Getting into the water, it was 36 degrees.
I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit, but hot.
It was a bath, basically.
We got caught in a heat wave.
So going in there, I had hypothermia before.
Now I have hypothermia, so heat stroke.
So you're like swimming in a hot bath?
Basically.
What is 36 degrees in Fahrenheit?
Is that like 90 degrees?
Yeah, 96.8.
Yeah.
96. Holy shit.
That's crazy.
What is there a fucking volcano under there?
This is it.
That's nuts.
So they said it was the hottest month ever recorded in Italy.
I got caught in this.
It's got to kill fish, no?
Yeah, it was.
I was swimming past fish that had been boiled alive.
Oh my God.
By the way, go back to that picture of him.
Jack, son.
That was after Iceland.
He looked like the real live Wolverine in that picture.
It's like if Marvel Comics, if Wolverine, that's what it looked like.
You can see the chafing on my shoulder there, but no cellulitis, thankfully.
Thank God.
So this is...
That was Iceland, yeah.
Yeah, and I think what's interesting.
Why do you think you got cellulitis from the water in Scotland?
They think because it was freshwater.
Right.
Yeah, yeah.
That makes sense.
The swim around ice and for instance.
Just as bad.
It was so bad.
But equally, you just got salt water.
Right, but it's not, doesn't have the bacteria content.
It's exactly it, yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Of course.
Boy, fresh water's nasty.
Yeah.
It's nasty.
But especially it, well, it wasn't 96 degrees.
But if it was, imagine that.
Yeah.
Ugh.
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interesting is from then, trust me, so I got Raptomylysis there, so that's just muscle breakdown basically.
You got Robdo too?
Bad.
Yeah, really bad.
Wait a minute.
In Iceland or in Scotland?
Well, certainly in Iceland, but in Italy.
Yes.
So I said hypothermia and cellulitis in Loch Ness.
Fast forward a year.
Then I got Rabdermilysis and heat stroke in Italy.
What's so strange, though?
And this is, I'm aware this sounds a little bit twisted.
But as a sports scientist, I'd obviously research the theory and philosophy
all this.
Whereas actually subjecting my body to it, I was like, oh, cool.
You know, this is what hypothermia feels like.
And it was the same with rabdomyysis.
So basically sitting here right now just chilling, you know, we've not been training or anything like that.
Ah, creatine kinase, so that's an enzyme that's responsible for muscle breakdown.
So when it's in your muscle, basically, in your blood, it says there's been some muscle breakdown.
Sitting here right now, it might be about 80.
If we had a hard workout, maybe 300.
If you run a marathon, 1,000.
If you run an ultramarathon, maybe getting up to 4,000, 5,000.
At 10,000, your creatine kinase, they are rushing you to a hospital.
at that point they're really worried about your kidneys that are just working overtime to try to filter it out
they said ross yours is at 19,000 which is so weird for a sport where you are suspended in water it's not even weight bearing
you shouldn't have this amount of muscle breakdown so I think thankfully my kidneys did an amazing job
shout out to my kidneys filled me out and got me out of the hospital in a few days but I think
what's so strange is that sort of a career then led me to swim around Iceland where I just knew
what, rhabdomyelitis, hypothermia,
cellulitis. I knew what all of those things were.
So as a result, I kind of turned up in Iceland
as this kind of bulletproof swimmer
who was like, oh, it doesn't matter what it's going to throw at me,
I'm going to understand.
Oh my God, dude, that is insane.
And then we swam 1,000 miles around Iceland,
which was amazing.
When you were getting the hypothermia,
they say that before people die, they get hot
and they want to take their clothes off.
Did you have that feeling?
Exactly that.
But I think part of that was the cellulitis as well.
because my skin felt like it was on fire, but then equally at the same time, like, I could just,
I was shivering with my internal organs.
It's a strange position to be.
Did you take into consideration the possibility of cellulitis before you got into that
fresh water?
Did you know about it?
No.
You didn't know about it?
I became an expert afterwards.
I would want to research, like, throw it in perplexity.
Like, what are the cons?
What's the worst thing that can happen here in the water?
What are the physical dangers I have to worry about with freshwater versus salt water?
Yeah, yeah.
Is the lock monster real?
I should have researched that.
I think what's weird, and I'm glad we started, you know,
our catch-up like this, because I think so often people go,
why do you do it?
But I think now looking at the anthropology of as humans,
the history of his humans across different cultures, different countries,
we've always been doing this idea of self-discipline for self-discovery.
Yeah.
You know, you look at the marathon monks of Japan, for instance.
Over seven years, over a thousand days, we'll almost do a marathon a day.
Those guys in Mexico from the born to run,
book.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Taramar or whatever.
Yeah.
They run either barefoot or with small homemade shoes.
They make from rubber tires and shit.
Exactly.
They make like sandals out of like retreaded tires.
Exactly.
I mean, it's weird as well.
Like even going back further as well.
So I ended up doing a documentary ages ago.
So that 20 years ago now.
Did Irawaska for a week in the Amazon jungle with the Jamonauer tribe?
At the end of this week as part of the initiation into manhood, we basically then, this
He's such a random story, but they kill the snake,
and you have to bite the tongue out of the snake.
Pass, hard pass.
I'd rather be a boy forever.
Fuck you.
You can't tell me I have to eat a snake's tongue to be a man.
Next thing you know, you gotta suck a pig's dick.
If you don't suck that pig's dick, you're not a real man.
Says some fucking guy in the jungle who doesn't even have Starlink?
Fuck you.
Fuck you, buddy.
How about you get a pair of Nikes?
You don't even have shoes.
I was, you fucking idiot.
I was young and impressionable.
I didn't question it, so I did it.
I bit the tongue.
Joe, I bit the tongue on it.
I would have bit the tongue, too.
I'm just fucking around.
I would definitely bit that tongue.
Especially if they brought me in
and put face pain on me and shit.
That was it.
I was caught up in the moment.
I was caught up in the moment.
We all do...
Sorry for a side track.
I got a side track when I was looking up
people biting tongues of snakes.
Men get high from cobra bite on tongue.
It says they got high for at least a month.
Oh, my God.
Why did you hate your life so much?
You sign up to get high for a month by getting bit on the tongue by a cobra.
They're like, fucking take me away.
This job sucks.
I just want to be high.
We've all done things we regret.
Yeah, but that's off the charts.
Getting bit on the tongue by a cobra?
I'd be like, is there a way?
Can I just grab the cobra venom and put it on a fucking cue tip?
Maybe a little better.
It's after than astrologer's nightmare advice.
They did it.
Oh, after astrologer's nightmare advice.
This might be a different story.
Well, that's a different snake too, isn't that?
Performing a ritual, that was probably what I was doing, yeah.
Telly sniked by Bidaband's tongue after an astrologer told him that performing a ritual with the serpent would stop his nightmares.
That is essentially what I did.
Bro, where's that guy from?
Say that name.
Ross, you got it.
Go for it.
Gobi-Cechidu Pelagium.
That might be accurate.
That's pretty good.
That's a real-world traveler, ladies and gentlemen.
And that's how they pronounce things.
They roll their ars and shit.
Can you put that back up, please?
Yeah, yeah.
That was nuts.
This is crazy.
So he wasn't lying.
So this is a different snake.
This is the Russell's Viper.
One of the most common snakes to inflict bites on people in India.
During the ritual, the man mimicked the snake's tongue flickering movements,
which is when the incredibly deadly snake bit him on the tongue.
Yo!
After the snake bit the man, the priest attempted to make a cut in his tongue using a knife,
which only worsened the pain.
Shocker!
I thought that would have fixed everything.
The venom for the Russell's viper
usually causes cardiovascular complications,
hemostatic abnormalities, renal failure.
Is renal failure?
What is that?
Essentially, I think it's the kidneys basically,
no way they're doing their job shutting down.
So, like, Rhabdo?
Very similar.
Those who are bitten need treatment immediately,
the man was rushed to a nearby medical center.
Jesus Christ.
Did that guy even get high?
This was not. This was in the same
surgery was performed probably for the cut on his tongue.
Like who the fuck did you let cut your tongue, dude?
Also in India, they get high off of this.
So it was a side-by-side story there.
So this is the same snake or the cobra?
Different, different, different.
This is a cobra.
Loads of people doing it.
So this, see, this makes me feel better.
But here's my question.
It does make me feel better too.
But here's my question.
What is the venom?
Like, can't you just rub it on your tongue?
Can you put it on like a spatula or some shit?
Oh boy fella
Why?
No
No I didn't do that
No no no
Imagine
But he's making it out with the same
And then all of a sudden
You're in front of God
And God's explaining
The nature of life
And the universe
It's a continuous cycle
And you've done this a million times before
And you're getting better at it
But you're not done
And when you do get done
You will be God
Bye
That's amazing
I wish I'd have had that experience
Yeah it'll last three days
For three days you're talking to God
and God's coming out of a serpent's tongue.
That's amazing.
But we did that.
I didn't, as was slightly different to that,
so basically after you had basically just, you know,
tonged a snake,
they turn to you and they go, okay,
now you have the wisdom of the jungle,
but you cannot speak for 24 hours.
So everyone's just like that.
Okay, we take a vow of silence.
And then for the next 24 hours,
one of the things that they had us do was climb a tree.
So I disappear about four meters up this tree,
holding on like that, completely naked,
and they just start smacking the bottom of the tree.
Naked.
And I just get engulfed in fire ants.
But can't make a sound.
You can't make a sound.
And they said,
if you make a sound,
the spirit of the snake will haunt you for the rest of your life.
But if you don't make a sound,
you'll be blessed with the wisdom of the jungle.
How old are you?
21.
Yeah, 21.
Jesus.
So was that the beginning of all this self-torture?
I think it might have been.
This is turned into therapy.
How many times did you get bit by fire ants?
Oh, loads.
I was covered.
Did they get the nuggets?
They get the whole thing.
They got all the nuggets.
They got all the nuggets.
Damn, son.
But I think it's interesting that when I talk about my swims.
This kills fucking 60,000 people a year in India.
What?
Oh my God.
I would say you're lucky to be alive, clearly.
Wow.
Well, I don't know if it's the same snake.
This is from the Russell's Viper.
Right, but he didn't get a Russell's Viper.
He was in the Amazon.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's a different animal.
Mine seems friendly.
The Indian thing seems insane though.
I don't know what's going on here.
They let it bite their tongue.
I guess India, like in certain parts of it, life is so hard, they're like, fuck it.
I'll do anything.
You know what I mean?
Like, you see some of the scenes online of India and the pollution in the rivers is so, it's so preposterous.
You're like, how did it get this bad where like entire rivers are filled with plastic?
Like you don't see any water at all.
You just see plastic.
And then you see people just dumping.
their stuff into that river, you're like, is there no adults in the room?
Like, how the fuck did this happen?
There's no other way?
There's no other way to do this than to dump all the plastic in the river and everyone's
in agreement.
This is crazy.
Like, what the fuck?
Give me the snake.
I'll take that snake.
That's my way out.
Let's go.
I want to talk to God.
How many times I have to do this forever?
This is, how many times have I done?
Hundreds of thousands?
Oh, no.
I thought it was unique.
Oh, my God.
There's pictures.
What do you got?
Do I don't want to...
Show me!
Let's go.
Oh, boy.
The process of the tongue.
Oh, God.
These assholes, they get their tongue rotted out
because that's one of the things that venom does.
That's why when a rattlesnake bites you, it's so dangerous.
It's not just the venom can kill you,
but it also rots all the fucking tissue around where the bite is.
I saw this poor guy he got bitten,
and he had multiple reconstructions of his arm,
and he documented it all on.
online. And this was quite a while ago. It was like the early days of the internet. But this guy
did this documentation of what his arm looked like from the time he got bit by this rattlesnake
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Guys doing it to his tongue.
Oh, I think it's weird as well.
This is going to sound so strange, but I think sometimes that, that granted is strange because
it's voluntary.
But again, this is a weird example, but I was living with the, in Olenyox, in Siberia,
with the Evanky herders out there.
And I think so often we've become too civilized, we kind of have civilization over survival.
You know, and there's certain things that they do, whether it's, they rely on the reindeer,
they kill them, they have them for their, for their milk, butter, make all sorts out of
them.
But there's one particular story.
I'm going to apologize in advance now.
But to manage the amount of reindeer that they have in these huge herds,
they basically said to us, look, we need to basically castrate some of the male reindeer
because they're fighting.
So we still need them, but we need to castrate them.
I was like, okay, that's a bit off key, but give me the knife and I'll do whatever you need to do.
And they said, no, no, no, we'll stop you there, or we'll.
We actually do a form of semi-castration.
So we just want to make them slightly more docile, so they're not fighting as much.
They do with the teeth?
Exactly that.
Yeah, they grab them from behind and they bite their nuts with their teeth.
That's exactly it.
Yeah.
So when I was out there, they said, would you like to perform it?
I'm not proud of it.
That's what I did.
I understand that they have to do that, like the way they geld horses.
You know, they do that with horses as well.
I understand it.
But I don't want to be a part of that.
I won't even do that to my dogs.
I went to a veterinarian once, and she literally cradled my dog Johnny Cash.
I had this mastiff named Johnny Cash.
She was the best.
And this lady cradled his balls.
She goes, what are these?
Why are these here?
I go, well, those are his testicles, and he was born with them.
And that's how his body produces testosterone.
And she's like, wouldn't it be responsible to have him neutered?
And I was like, why would that be responsible?
He's not having unnecessary babies.
Why do you want his body to not produce testosterone?
Is it because there's a narrative?
Is it because you profit off of it?
Like what?
Fortunately for me, I had a doctor when I first moved to Los Angeles, a veterinarian.
who was an, I mean, this guy was an animal lover.
I mean, he was like a dog whisper.
I brought it my dog in, and immediately he was like my dog's best friend.
And I said, should I get him fixed?
He goes, no.
There is no reading.
He goes, you have a fence?
Your dog's not going to hop out and make puppies that aren't going to be taken care of.
If you're a responsible dog owner, don't get your dog fixed.
I go, really?
I thought it was like for their health so they don't get cancer.
He goes, complete horseshit.
He goes, if dogs get cancer, it's most likely probably from really bad food.
They're eating shitty food just like people get cancer
You know not a lot of animals get cancer
It's not a lot of well Tasmanian devils do
But they get cancer from biting each other
They're one of the weirdest cases of cancer
They have a transmissible cancer
Like Tasmanian devil for like the cartoon
You ever seen those fuckers in real life?
Yeah yeah yeah
They have the craziest sounds
Anyway my point is don't cut your nuts off your dog
If you're a responsible dog owner
Because they get tired
Even Huberman, we were talking about Huberman before, he did it to his bulldog and he felt bad, so he started giving his bulldog testosterone.
He said, yeah, when I caught up with him, yeah.
Is it true as well? Sharks don't get cancer as well. They've got these crazy immune systems.
Yeah.
Yeah, sharks. Also, they're not bones. It's like we're so distant from them. They're so old.
My God. So, yeah, I went swimming with Great Whites of Tasmania. Oh, my God.
What? Yeah, you'll be aware of this as well.
Tasmania? Yeah. So outside Australia, the real ones. The real ones. Those are the OGs.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they get big.
They stop growing.
The females, certainly, they stop growing in length at a certain point,
and they just get bigger.
It's just a submarine with teeth.
Like New Zealand rugby players.
Exactly like that.
Exactly like that.
It is nuts.
So they explained to me.
They basically said they have something called the ampule of Lorenzini,
so they're able to pick up electrical impulses.
Is your heart beating quick?
Are you twitching?
Do you look like prey?
Oh, Jesus Christ.
I was down there with some very experienced divers as well.
We dived and we swam with them.
On the dive, when we went down about 40 feet,
What was nuts is they immediately knew that I was the weakest link.
They immediately knew that I was kind of out of my depth when it came to diving.
And they all just started swimming towards me like that.
And they're just going, Ross, Ross, I'm not saying square up to it,
but please stop breathing so heavy and acting like prey.
So in that moment, it was just strange how we had a conversation,
but it was obviously nonverbal and across species,
that it was looking at me, came straight up to me.
I sort of tried.
Again, I'm not saying I squared up to.
but kind of was like, can I help you?
And then it just went, all right, you're okay.
Well, you didn't panic.
No.
And if you panicked, that might have been the end.
Yeah, but just the way that they just, like I said, described that ampuley of Lorenzini
that they are just looking at me.
There is this, it's an apex predator with just like thousands of years and it's downloading
data on me.
And it just knew, 10 of us down there and it knew that I was the weakest link.
Jeez.
Yeah.
Well, it's probably so obvious, right?
Those other guys are so comfortable in the water.
done it a million times, probably have a very low heart rate down there. It's a novel experience
for you and there's sharks. Exactly that. My good friend Adam Green Tree, one of his buddies back home
in Australia got his head bit off by a shark. He was spearfishing and he came out of a thing
like a crevice or something in the reef and a shark just took his head up. Didn't even see it
coming. Didn't even see it coming. Just popped out and the shark saw something that looked like food
that was coming out of the reef
because they're in the reefs
looking for all sorts of whatever they eat
whatever fish fuck up
and you know
or in the wrong place
at the wrong time
they're so damn scary
because they're ambush predators
as well
the tiger sharks off Bahamas
similarly swimming with them
and so often it's just enough
to look at them
as long as they can see your eyes
they go okay you've seen me
but the amount of time
sometimes when we were down there
and they're like Ross
have your head on a swivel
because they were just calming up behind me
and had I have not
turned around a hundred percent I wouldn't be speaking to you now.
Dude, in Hawaii, they're a real problem, man.
They're a real problem for the surfers.
Whenever you hear about someone getting got, it's a tiger shark.
There's a crazy video we played on here once.
This guy, he's in a kayak.
He's out in the middle of the ocean fishing.
And a tiger shark just slams into his kayak,
and you see its mouth wide open, this big fucking head,
and it knocks the kayak sideways.
It's terrifying.
And he's screaming,
Tiger shark, Tiger Shark,
just this.
Here it is, watch this, watch this.
Watch this.
Watch this.
Oh, no.
Bro, fuck that.
Fuck all that.
That was a tiger.
Yes.
Fuck all that.
Look at this thing.
Launch up,
imagine if he was in an inflatable.
If he was in an inflatable,
that's a rap.
You just got your shit popped by a tiger,
and now you're floating,
a mile offshore,
the fuck he is.
Oh.
It's the same like bull sharks as well,
the bull sharks are just angry.
Oh, yeah.
Experts, like friends of mine have just said,
like they will just come over to you.
With a white shark,
they're curious, their taste buds are in their throat.
They'll come over and nip you
and then just be like, oh, sorry,
I didn't realize you weren't a seal.
The only problem is is you're bleeding out.
Whereas a bull shark, they'll just be like,
I'm just in a bad mood.
I'm just going to come over and just, yeah, exactly.
I talked to this dude in Florida.
He said he will not spearfish anymore.
He said, they live in Central,
like Central Florida, he said
when you're off the reefs, he said it's so
fucking dangerous. He's like the bull sharks are
all over the place now. Yeah.
Because everybody's like, sharks are amazing.
Stop the shark fin soup.
Fucking serve it up.
Okay, serve up
monster dick soup. It should be
everywhere. What the fuck
are you talking about? You want to eat
beautiful things like cows that are sweet
and kind. You want to eat veal
but you won't eat monsters. You should
be eating monsters. Monsters should be on
every menu. If you can give
fucking veal scallapini in Italian restaurant
you should be able to get monster dick soup.
They should sell that shit everywhere.
They should become our food. Fuck
them. Fuck sharks.
But further to that point,
I would say that then I was completely out of my doubt.
I've never felt more vulnerable
in that moment. The only other time I felt vulnerable
was I broke the record for the
world's longest non-stop river swim. So it was
510 kilometers, 60
hours all the way down the Yukon River.
We hit these, the five-finger
at one point. I basically kind of just got thrown against rocks, cut up pretty bad.
So where does this start in the Yukon?
Yeah, yes, it was a White Horse to Dawson. I hope I've got that the right way around.
Yeah. So are you in BC? Like where are you in? What is you in? What is you
Con. No, no, no. Canada.
Canada.
But it goes to Alaska. Yeah, yeah. If you continue with the Yukon River, it will eventually
go to Alaska. So does it come down, what part of Canada does it come through? Oh, that's a good
question. So it's cold as fuck, though, is my point. It's freezing. Yeah. And what time are you
going there? We went like...
Oh, here it goes.
Oh, amazing. Yeah. We went July.
So the Northwest Territories. That's what they call it, right?
Yeah. Is that what they call it?
Yeah. And we just, it was, it's just the wild, wild west out there. And I, we took off,
like I said, we started. Basically, what was so, so strange is for the first 24 hours,
didn't see much in the way of wildlife. I got thrown against these white water rapids,
got hit on the rocks, and that's where the back of my legs are still cut up now.
And then from that, the rules are no one can touch you, you can't touch the boat.
So I'm like, guys, I can't stop.
So I just pull my leg out the water like this.
And as I do, blood is just dripping out the end of my wetsuit.
Literally like clockwork, as soon as that happened, bears, wolves, everything.
I said, what's happening?
And they said, Ross, they can smell the blood.
You're like an ice cream van.
You're just advertising yourself to all the wildlife now in the Yukon.
Really?
Yeah.
Now the black bears, fine.
As you know, they're skittish.
And it was so, for me, strange Englishmen, first time dealing with bears.
The black bears were looking just like, what are?
you, I don't know, a bit skittish.
The brown bears, no.
They look at you very different.
They look right through you.
So different.
They're just almost like sitting there just kind of look at.
And we had like I said, a boat full of people.
We had protection on there and stuff.
But it just didn't care.
It was, I was so aware.
How big was the brown bear?
I would have no, as an Englishman who has no experience that I've done it, just scaryly big for me.
Yeah, it was big.
Yeah.
And I just carry on swimming.
It was interesting how, it was almost.
like it was looking going, you're not a salmon, but you're not a bear. I don't know. I wonder if
you're hungry. And I just, I carry on. So I turn to the guys. I said, guys, am I okay? Am I safe?
Shall I keep swimming? Thankfully, one of the team turned around. It wasn't even a gun. It was like
a cannon. And they said, Ross, don't worry. If it gets too close to you, it'll end up in my
freezer. I was like, right, that's what I wanted to hear. We just carried on.
Yeah, I know. You know, statistically, you're more likely to get killed by a black bear.
Hmm. Well, no, that's not correct.
statistically when a black bear attacks you it's more likely in predation whereas when a brown bear attacks you it's more likely surprised and it's defending itself or it's a mother with her cubs which is the most dangerous just like in real life you fuck with the ladies kids like you fuck with if you fuck with a grizzly bear and you come near its kids they they are terrifying they run at you full clip most of the times the dudes get attacked and killed that's that's where you fucked up
You run into a 700-pound mama with her babies and a jaw that could just crush your head like a candy bar.
Like, fuck you.
And you can't run away from her and you can't climb up a tree.
You can't do shit.
And you just zigged when you should have zagged and you got too close to her kids.
And she doesn't want to take any chances.
So you just became food.
Yeah.
What was kind of strange?
That's kind of, it was so weird.
going from the Yukon, and then a year later we did the Iceland swim.
And there were some of these old sort of modern-day Viking chiefs
who basically were explaining about the concept of a berserker as well.
Berserker obviously just meaning bear shirt, saying that these berserkerskers,
these ancient Nordic warriors would so often just try to embody the spirit of the animal.
There was even the Ufner, which are...
It's called bear shirts.
That's what berserker means?
Yeah, bear pelt, bear shirt, basically.
That's what berserker means.
Wow.
You learn something new every day, Jamie.
So they would embody literally the spirit of the animal.
Like I said, from berserkers as well, there were almost like subcategories as well.
So there were the, I hope I'm pronounced it right, Uffner, which were the wolf warriors.
And they were Odin's chosen warriors.
There, there's stories of them just running into battle, no armor, basically naked, painted,
biting down onto their shields as well and howling into the wind.
You know, they were also doing mushrooms.
I know, right?
Yeah.
That was one of the things about those fellows.
berserker comes from the old Norse berserker
most likely meaning bear shirt
a warrior wearing a bear skin
exact entomology is disputed
an alternative interpretation is bear
shirt referring to fighting without armor
in plain English it means a frenzied warrior
but I guess you have to be a pretty frenzied warrior
to kill a fucking bear back then
you know there was no rifle son
you had to do it in an intimate fashion
if you're gonna kill a brown bear
you're gonna kill especially a male
The ones in, if you get to anywhere where the salmon live, they get gigantic.
Which brought me to this terrible idea that I have that I really shouldn't put out there in the universe.
But if you wanted to have like the ultimate, really fucking dangerous jackass stunt, you'd put these guys in salmon suits.
Awesome terrible.
And make them swim through when those bears are like catching those salmon that are going up the waterfall.
And those rivers where there's like nine, ten of them.
I would watch it.
Yeah.
Put the jackass guys
I shouldn't have said it
I shouldn't have said it
Because someone's gonna take
I could see Steveo
Calling his fucking costume designer right now
But it was so interesting as well
Because again swimming around Iceland
You hear stories of berserkers
You know the famous one of Stamford Bridge
No
This was an amazing story
1066 I believe when the Norwegians
were invading England
Stanford Bridge
Basically the Norwegians were retreating
And as they were
There was just this one lone berserker
Who just stood on the bridge
With a massive axe
and was just taking down, just soldier after soldiers,
they just wave after wave and took them down.
Eventually, it was somebody who actually went under the bridge
and managed to stab him from underneath.
But it was known as the berserker of Stamford Bridge.
Stab him from under the bridge.
That's how they got him.
Yeah, eventually.
But he was just with his axe.
Well, if you see, like, those guys in Iceland
that win those strong man competitions,
just imagine one of those guys with a battle axe.
You know, imagine, like, the mountain from Game of Thrones
with a giant wood and steel, wood and iron,
fucking huge shield in front of them
and an enormous battle axe that you
couldn't even pick up and he's just
hacking through people and everyone's
watching their friends dies so they're all in a panic
and he's covered in blood and he's 400
pounds. It's so true and I think
even as well I mean I'm a huge fan of Gunner Nelson
as well you know you look at the
history of just Icelandic athletes
warriors and it's nuts
yeah dude Gunner beat
Jeff Monson in an absolute
contest in Abu Dhabi
when Gunner
Gunner fought in the UFC
I only think he's
fought as a welterweight, correct?
He's only fought at 170.
Jeff Monson's like
250, do you know what Jeff Monson is? Yeah, of course.
He's a muscle.
He's just muscle.
His whole fucking body, like his
shoulders start
at the top of his head. He's fucking
enormous. And Monson
and the him, they went into an
absolute, which is there's no weight classes
in grappling. They still allow that.
And he beat him, which is fucking insane.
That is crazy.
But it traces back to their culture as well.
This is one thing that I loved when swimming around Iceland.
That, for instance, you know the story of Odin and Ragnarok?
Yes.
At the end, where, you know, spoiler alert, for those listening,
Odin knew he was going to die in Ragnarok, the Norse apocalypse,
but ran in anyway.
Spoiler alert, he got eaten by a giant wolf.
But this is what I loved, that the Icelandic and Nordic folklore is like,
look, you can't control fate.
Everybody believe that you were destined.
That's already written for you.
but it's how you can control your attitude towards it.
And I think that's the thing that I've certainly found from Icelandic culture,
that it doesn't matter if you are Gun and Nelson going up against a $250,000,000,
you will just run into battle anyway.
Yeah.
You know, that is your fate, but it's choosing your attitude towards it.
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Yeah.
Yeah, well, that's very attractive to most people.
Most men, they wish they could be like that.
Damn, it shows.
It's true.
I mean, how many goddamn Viking shows have there been?
There's so many Viking shows and Viking Move Me.
Have you seen the Northmen, that movie?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amazing.
Yeah, and quite accurate, apparently, as well.
Yeah, I bet it's accurate.
Well, except for the supernatural shit.
But, again, mushrooms.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
These guys are high as fuck all the time on psilocybin.
Who knows what they're.
were seeing and they you know they that's what's interesting is because like people assume that
mushrooms make you peaceful that's why the whole thing so confusing because they really for most
people they make you like more connected to everyone around you possibly but it's unproven
the idea is that berserkers ate mushrooms before battles a popular theory not an established
historical fact there's no solid archaeological or textual evidence demonstrating drug use
okay so what is the what is the oh it's a amnita pascaria but i've heard of
I've heard it also be psilocybin.
I've heard that being proposed.
You know, it's in that Viking show, I think.
Can put that back up, please?
I think in the Viking show, they talk about us,
or it looks like they're eating psilocybin.
It doesn't look like Amanenum mascara.
Aminema mascara is like really obvious.
It's a bright red with white dots on it.
It looks like Santa Claus.
The red one with the white spots,
the effects don't nearly explain the battle fury.
It can cause delirium, twitching, drowsiness, while violent aggression isn't typical.
Yeah, even the delirium, twitching, and drowsiness, the problem with this explanation is it's not really known what amoeira muscaria does.
It's not like a, it's not a normal psychedelic.
And it also doesn't seem to be as effective as it was at one point in time.
So the theory is, like Terrence McKenna's theory was that it's very variable, like a lot of things are, like peppers are.
very variable in genetics, region, and maybe even seasonally, that you had to, like, get these mushrooms from a very specific area.
It's like, like, you want Cuban cigars.
There's, like, some mushrooms in a very specific area that contained a much more potent version of whatever they do to you.
You know, but it's unclear.
I'm going to eat in my scarier's uncle.
Like, psilocybin's very clear.
Like, no one eats that and goes, oh, I don't see it.
Like you eat the silly
But aminated mascara
It varies a lot
I've heard people having
Insane experiences on it
And I myself tried it
And it was almost nothing
Did very little
It made you feel weird
But you're so right as well
With that mixed with
Certainly being out in Iceland
When you hear stories of elves
Trolls
You know what you think
And then when you're out there
Like I said
I started the swim
I had a blot ceremony
Basically just means
That they blessed my journey
As I swam around Iceland
And at the start
They were talking about
You know
The different realms of Iceland
as well
Do you know the story about the different guardians of Iceland?
What are the different guardians?
So basically the story goes that.
Back in the day there was a foreign king who wanted to invade Iceland.
So he sent this sorcerer disguised as a whale to see where they could attack from.
Went over to the west coast.
There was a huge bull that is a representative of strength and power.
Said you can't attack there.
Went around to the north coast.
Over the north coast, huge eagle that represents vision can see for miles.
It was like, right, you can't attack there.
East Coast, dragon, realm of the dragon.
Basic dragons love fast flowing water.
So there's loads of waterfalls, the East Icelandic current guns down there.
And then on the south coast, there was a massive giant as well.
Upon hearing this at the start during the blot ceremony,
I was like, oh, okay, that's a cool story.
You get around the top of Iceland and all of a sudden birds are just coming down,
dive bombing me.
Like you get over to the East Coast and you see some of the caves and the waterfalls.
And I'm like, oh, for sure, if you were on mushrooms,
I can 100% believe this.
Yeah, it's amazing.
And even now as well, if you're in Iceland and you see a road,
that is just like inexplicably curved and goes around.
I'm like, what's happening there?
That road makes no sense.
It should just be going straight.
And with a completely straight face,
a lot of locals will say,
that's going through the elves' sacred land.
We had to build around it.
And I'll say, what do you mean?
And they said, we were trying to build a road.
And then inexplicably, the machines broke down,
the bulldozer broke down.
We got some more in.
So there's a lot of people out there who still believe in that.
And I'm like, yeah, on mushrooms, I couldn't believe it.
Well, think about,
Do you know the popular theory?
There's a popular theory that consciousness is rendered, or rather reality is rendered by consciousness.
And that consciousness renders reality much like a computer and a 3D game engine renders a game.
So like if you're playing a game, like say if you're playing Halo, it doesn't have to register, it doesn't have to render all these maps that you're not in.
It's only rendering the map that you're in.
Right.
Right. So as you go into the new maps, then it starts to render it.
So there's legitimate physicists that are entertaining the possibility that reality is not concrete and that reality is actually rendered by consciousness.
And here's my thought. I don't know if this is accurate. I don't know if they're right. I don't know if they're wrong. It's weird and it makes sense, but reality doesn't make sense. Neither is the fact the universe is infinite. So let's put all that aside. And God made us all in his image. Great.
Let's put that aside and just stop and think about what is reality, what is consciousness capable of rendering when it has access to science?
It has access to all these different university courses you can take on biology and evolution and the nature of the world and what causes the tide and what makes thunderstorms happen and all these different things that we know now.
Now imagine if those things didn't exist.
and all you have is just super hyper focused on nature primitive people who have gods as an explanation for everything and they're on mushrooms.
Like if consciousness really does render reality, then, well, then the elves are real, right?
Because then, because if you've done enough mushrooms, you have encountered an entity.
You've encountered something that doesn't seem like you're making it up.
It seems like it's there all the time, but you don't have access to it.
And then all of a sudden you're in front of it.
And if you're in a world where there's no explanations for anything because no one knows how to read, okay?
You have a bunch of fucking weird grunts for your language.
You have extra constants and shit and all your words.
Like this is, and they're warrior people.
And you're on mushrooms and you're respecting the elf land.
So much so you move your rules.
Road around?
100%.
But I...
That sounds better than today.
I agree.
I agree.
I love what you said there as well,
because I remember at the start of my swim,
I did a training swim.
I'm toweling down afterwards,
getting out of my wetsuit.
And this, like, old, old guy,
this old fisherman just comes out of nowhere.
First thing he says to me,
under the northern lights,
I'm looking up, they're amazing.
They've just illuminated the entire sky.
I'm like, wow, looking up.
And he just comes over and just whispers in my ear.
And he just said,
they're probably deciding if you live or die.
And I went,
Oh, excuse me.
Oh, boy.
I'm sorry.
This asshole keeps swimming for 60 hours at a time.
He wants to die.
They probably saw it right through you.
This guy's crazy.
I said, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
What did you say?
What did you say?
They're probably deciding if you live or die.
I said, please, you're going to have to explain.
He said that we believe that in an ancient Nordic folklore that basically the northern
lights are the valkyries, Odin's female warriors.
And that is their shimmering shields and their swords as they're riding through the sky,
looking down at the fallen to see who makes it back to Valhalla to dine with Odin.
And I was again, at the time, I was like, oh, that's a bit off key.
That's a bit off key.
But then...
What a funny way to describe it.
A hundred and twelve days later, we swim, obviously, through the summer,
so there's less chance to see the northern lights because you get 24 hours of daylight.
And then right at the very end, on the very, very, very last swim,
northern lights come up again.
It was weird.
And I am on my back.
Synchronicity.
Just like, look, as the Valkyries, if Odin is listening, thank you so much.
Well, again, if you live back then, you would think that your journey is complete.
And so at the end of the video game, you get to see some cool montage of scenes and beautiful sights.
And, I mean, that's what happens in a movie.
100%.
Like, this is the end of the movie.
Yeah, yeah.
You did it.
That's what's weird about reality.
Like, this idea that consciousness is rendering reality.
Again, I really don't understand it.
I don't know if it's, I don't even know if it makes sense.
Oh, there we go.
Yeah.
In Iceland, respect the elves or else.
Yeah, I'm respecting the fuck out of them else.
Okay?
This rock, they won't move.
I'm not touching that rock.
The elves don't want to move.
Yeah, I think they're real, dude.
A hundred percent.
I think they're real.
I think you just can't see them normally.
It said news crews tried to film the rock, and every day time they tried to film it,
like it wouldn't record, something like that.
Good.
Fuck you.
Fuck you.
Fake news.
Fake news, don't film the rock.
Yeah, the real news is there's fucking elves are real.
They moved the road.
Even TV crews said their cameras failed to record anything when pointed out the rock.
I bet I go over there and record the shit out of it with my iPhone.
Fuck you.
How's there a picture of it?
Fuck off.
You got a guy working for you that's an asshole.
He's probably got his tongue bit by a cobra two days ago.
The guy's tripping balls.
Fuck off.
That might have been a different rock
It's just fun
It's just fun
Like whoever the guy was saying
They're deciding whether you live or die
He's having fun
It's a good time
Who was that guy?
He was just an old fisherman
Yeah that old fisherman was fucking with
This cocky jacked British guy
He's looking at you like fuck you in your six pack
The elves are gonna kill you
He's fucking with you
That guy was fucking with you
100%
He disguises himself as an old man
Or he's an asshole
He's an old fisherman
He's fucking drunk every night.
He's tired of life.
He sees his beautiful young Englishman with a fucking manly beard, a six-pack, just looking jacked, ready to swim for days.
He's like, fuck you.
The elves are going to kill you.
He wanted you to be nervous.
He's like, this fucking dork, fuck him.
80%.
In the survey, over 80% of the respondents refused to deny the existence of elves.
Wow.
And 8% were certain they existed.
Well, those guys are dangerous.
The 8% are certain.
Those are dangerous people.
Those are religious fanatics.
Put the back up, please.
Those guys, they can't be trusted.
How the fuck do you know?
It's all about respect for nature, which is something Icelanders know is very much alive.
I agree with that.
Said gunnell.
What an Iceland name.
Guy's name is gunnall.
But when your house can be destroyed by an earthquake, when you can be blown over by the wind,
when boiling water from your taps tells you there's lava not far beneath your feet,
then you don't mess with nature.
Holy shit.
They get boiling water from their taps.
sometimes yeah what the fuck man yes you imagine going asleep you know that there's so much
lava underneath your house that water is boiling coming out of your tap you're like
good night no deal I wonder what's on real housewives of Beverly Hills you fucking sit
there staring at Kim Kardashian and no way Caitlin Jenner on TV oh they're all together
there again. We want this fucking lava
under your feet. But that's Icelandic people.
They're just hard as nails. I said this.
It's like, it's just a country that's trying
to kill you. When we were there actually at the
very end, so I
basically, I made it back by
three days for the birth of my first child.
Congratulations. Thank you so
much. That's awesome. Oh, yeah. That's a life changer,
huh? It was amazing. Yeah.
But at the end, for instance, so
my girlfriend, she's amazing. We've been together 13 years
and the, basically, the
University of Iceland said, look, if you can collect
to EDNA samples, environmental DNA samples
around the coast of Iceland, we can track
biodiversity in a level of detail we've never seen before.
So we had them on board, we had sponsors on board,
we had a boat on board, and then we found
that we were pregnant. I was like, oh,
so, you know, I sort of said. In America, we frown
upon that we are pregnant.
Oh, really? You frown upon that. She's pregnant?
Yeah, she's pregnant. I'm pregnant. You're definitely
are pregnant. You definitely are pregnant. She's
pregnant. And when I say
in America, I mean, me.
I frown upon that kind of talk.
She's pregnant. Yeah.
She's amazing.
She just said, look, go, but you need to make it back.
So we had that hard deadline.
That's a good thing to say.
You need to live.
You need to survive.
The Valkyrie's.
You're about to have a baby.
Don't swim for 60 days, you're fucking asshole.
You have responsibilities.
I know.
But I think, and I've heard you talk about, you know, fatherhood and stuff.
It invoked something in me, a level of motivation that I've never experienced before.
It was just at the end.
So we got caught in Hurricane Erin was coming through the Atlantic.
So that was over the East Coast.
We had 100 miles.
to finish. And in Grindavik, there was a volcano going off that had poisonous gas. We couldn't
get too close to that as well. In hail it you dead. And then here, there was one of Europe's
largest glaciers that just sent shards of ice as big as this table. And at night, you just
couldn't see it. You're just hitting them. Oh, my God. The team was like, look, Ross, I'm so
sorry. We're going to be here for two weeks. And I was like, no, no, I'm, I'm so sorry.
I need to get back. You know, and it was that, that form of motivation at the end,
just knowing you had that hard deadline. Yeah. I just, I gun it. Jellyfish.
coming off my face, tongue falling off from salt water exposure.
It didn't matter.
I was like, I'm not not being back for the birth of my son.
And I made it back, like I said, by three days.
Wow.
Yeah, but it got nuts.
Well, it's a very primal feeling.
It ignites something in you that does not exist in people that don't have children.
I don't think.
I don't think.
I mean, I am very careful about this.
I do not think you have to have children.
I don't like to shame people that don't want to have kids.
I don't like shame people who never had kids.
I don't think it's, I think you can be a wonderful.
person and contribute to the world without children.
But I could just say for me, it changed who I am.
It changed, it changed me in a very profound way.
And I always bring up this Dave Chappelle quote, so I apologize to people who've heard it before.
But he said something very profound once in the parking lot of the comedy store.
He said, not only did having children change the amount of love that I have, he goes,
it changed my capacity for love.
I love that.
Yeah, and it did that for me.
And it also did for me this other thing.
also did for me this other very profound thing. It made me stop looking at people as a static thing.
If I met a guy and he's 40 and he's an asshole, I'm like, fuck that guy's a fucking asshole.
I don't think that way anymore. Now, I mean, sometimes I do if I'm short-tempered, if I'm in a
bad mood, if I'm, you know, I'm in a rush under stress. I can have slips. I'm not perfect
to this. But when I'm at peace, I look at that guy as a baby. That's a baby. That's someone's
little boy and shit didn't go well for him.
There was a series of either
bad decisions or bad experiences
or bad parenting
or bad judgment or bad
luck. And now here he is.
It's just a fucking mess.
And that's why I have a hard time
seeing homeless people. It
genuinely bothers me. I never see homeless
people and I go fuck that guy.
I'll go fuck that guy if they're like getting close to my
kids and they're being aggressive and they're schizophrenic.
But most of the time
I think that was somebody's baby.
that's somebody's baby.
I'm exactly the same.
It completely changes your life biochemistry.
I was talking to Huberman about this.
And I really hormonally, I felt I was always a bit selfish, a bit single-minded in my swims and stuff.
As soon as he arrived, I was like, that's it.
Everything changes.
It was crazy.
I think as well it was strange for me because I lost my dad as well four years ago and I was becoming a dad myself.
So the Iceland swim sort of existed in this strange world between the two.
And that was like really sort of big for me.
I even said, you know, in my new book, I talk about how it's kind of this idea that the swim was almost a tribute to everything that my dad had taught me, but equally a letter to my future son.
You know, and I hope that they look at that and go, okay, yeah, all the values and everything that I was taught.
Well, just living the way you live, just by example, it would be an insane role model for your kid.
I mean, you're a very unusual person. Your will is very odd.
You know, the ability to do those kind of things, I respect greatly. I don't want to do it.
I think it's retarded, but I respect it greatly.
You know, I'm good friends with Cameron Haynes, and, you know, he runs a lot of these, like, really insane 200, 300-mile races.
And I respect it.
I don't think it's good for you, but I get what he's doing.
He's trying to find out where his breaking point is.
You know, he's trying to push himself to his breaking point.
That is exactly.
Yeah.
And I admire that greatly, because that is a noble quest.
Whether or not you think it's smart, I don't.
I don't think it's smart.
But I don't want to do it.
But it is a noble quest.
It is an absolutely noble quest, and he is different than me.
We are all different.
And everyone has this thing in their head that they need to sort out.
And sometimes the way you sort it out is by doing something that's fucking insanely hard to find out who you really are.
And I think I think I like to do it a little bit every day.
That's my method.
My method is do a little bit every day.
When I say a little bit, like a couple hours.
That's what I like.
A couple hours of torture every day.
day, find out who I am. And when I take a few days off, I get nervous, I get confused, who am I?
I don't know. I don't know if I could do this anymore. You know what I mean? You know those feelings?
I'm sure you even get those. As many times if you take a few weeks off working out and you start
working out again, like, oh my God, am I really going to put myself through this again?
It's so true. Right? Am I really going to go swim for six days again? What the fuck is wrong
with me? You know?
It's so true. But I was chatting to Huberman about this because I was just like, I'm so
aware that my dopamine system probably works a little bit differently, you know, in that someone
says, oh, let's go do a, you know, 24-hour swim. I go, yeah. And then they go, oh, three days,
past bears. I'm like, okay, hold my beer. I'm in. And I think that's what's so weird. But,
but I know you and Hooverman spoke about with your anterior mid-singulate cortex. And that's the only way
that I can actually, for me, it was so interesting chatting to him, because in my head, when your
tongue is falling off or, or, you know, you're just chafing cellulitis. I think of it, like, weighing
scales and you kind of got grit or quit pain and purpose and at any point the anterior
mid-singulate cortex that part of your brain is just weighing them up yeah for me you just need
as much pain as it is you just need to outweigh it with as enough of purpose yeah do that you'll
continue if not and I think it's so much i mean i love the ufc there are certain fighters who if you
did a scan 100% their anterior mid-singular cortex would just be like this 100% this episode is
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I was going to bring this up earlier.
One of the fighters got pulled from a card a few years.
years back. I can't remember when, but it was because of exactly what you were talking about,
like creatine levels in his blood. And I was like, what? I was confused at the time. I didn't know
like what that meant. I was like, creatine. What does that mean? He took too much creatine? Like, no,
his body's so broken down from training. It's not safe for him to fight. I'm like, how's that
possible? Like, how does somebody show up at the actual fight day, blown out? Junior Dos Santos,
fighting is worth the health risk because it's everything to me. Was it junior?
He got pulled from a fight?
Yeah.
So I think there you go, Rabdomalysis, breaking down.
Oh, but I don't think that he got pulled from the fight.
I think this is just what happened to him in that fight.
So that fight...
So he had two fights, well, you have three fights with Kane Velazquez.
Kane Velasquez has the greatest cardio of any heavyweight that ever lived.
They used to call him Cardio Kane.
It was a freaky gift that he had.
And it was also his understanding of management of cardio.
It was incredible.
He never threw anything full blast.
Everything was like 60, 70%, but with perfect technique.
And he would just never get tired.
Like, never get tired.
And the first fight, Junior Dos Santos caught him with a big right hand
and knocked him out.
It was on Fox.
It was a big deal.
Then they have this rematch.
And the rematch, Kane's healthy.
The first fight he went into with a blown-out knee.
He had his knee wrapped up.
He fucked up his meniscus like in training.
and then in the second fight he's fully healthy
and he mauls Junior Dos Santos
and it's a war
it's a five round crazy war
where it looks like they're both gonna...
well it looks like Junior's gonna die
it looks like he's gonna die
and then he does it again in the second fight
they have a third fight rather
second rematch the second rematch the same
sort of result Kane just mauls him
like Kane was just
Kane was on a completely different level
to everybody else when it came to cardio
guys would get this thousand yard stare
in the second round like I can't do this for five
rounds. I can't keep this guy off me. It's impossible. And so if he got rabdo from that fight,
I would not be surprised. I bet a lot of fighters get rabdo after the fights. Because some of those
fights say they're on death's fucking door. They're on death's door. I think one of the worst got
to be Lawler McDonald, right? Oh my God. Oh my God. One of the craziest life or death
fights in the history of the sport.
And they stand each other down in the final round.
How about they're staring each other down and blood is pouring out of both of their
faces?
Robbie's lip is split halfway open.
The whole thing was the end of it when I was interviewing him, half of his lip is like open
like a slice of pie.
It's fucking insane.
And he's saying how he's never going to quit.
I'm going to keep coming and keep coming and I'm never going to stop.
And I was like, holy shit.
This guy just got through five.
rounds of the most violent shit ever. Look at the two of them. Just staring each other down.
It was unbelievable. Like life or death. Like they got they got to the death door and it
Rory when he collapsed it's like his nose had been shattered and the pain was just overwhelmed his
brain. His body shut off and he just collapsed. He couldn't take it anymore. It was crazy too.
Yeah when they're staring each other before the final round like motherfucker.
Is that the worst? Look at Robbie.
screaming in the crowd with his arms up.
So what I think is going on there, there's a few things.
I think there's like stress-induced an analgesia,
the way that like an injured animal will bite off its arms,
get out of a trap.
That must be going on.
So just pain suppression, nor epinephrine, everything.
There's also some fucking genetics.
Robbie Law has got some caveman jeans, son.
He's got some warrior jeans.
That dude, that's in his DNA.
I've been watching that kid fight since he was 20 years old.
He's a fucking sad.
A savage to the core.
One of the greatest knockouts in the history of sport happened when Robbie was fighting up a division.
So he was fighting this guy, Melvin Manhoof.
And Melvin Manhoof is a kickboxer, a very high-level kickboxer who came out of Mike's Gym in Amsterdam.
Mike's gym in Amsterdam is legendary.
Produce Botter Harri.
There's like a series of like wicked kickboxers came out of Mike's gym.
And Melvin Manhoef sort of epitomize that style.
They were hyper aggressive.
And Melvin is built like you.
Like, look at him.
So Melvin in this fight, Melvin is chewing up Robbie's legs.
He keeps leg kicking him.
I mean, he's punishing his legs.
Melvin was so fast and so powerful.
And they get into the exchange and boom, Robbie hits him with one punch and knocks him out.
And he's just out cold.
Like, look at they zoom in on his face.
He's in the shadow realm right now.
But if you go to earlier in the fight, like what Melvin is.
was doing to him, it was a crazy
comeback. Like, go earlier in the fight.
Melvin is all over him.
I mean, he's so dangerous
and so fast
like Melvin was
putting him in really bad spots.
He kept rocking him.
And when you talk about, like, high-level
kickboxers, Melvin was elite.
Like, perfect technique,
ridiculous power and athleticism,
and just a warrior spirit,
just attack you from the...
He would come out for his fights with a dog
collar on. But he wear like a
spiked dog collar and be dancing
getting ready for his fights.
Terrifying human being.
He's scary, but I think going back to the
berserker, there's such a parallel between him
and Alex Pereira. You know, that idea, like, with
the Jaguar style, you know, embodying
the spirit of an animal. I mean,
I don't know about Melvin, I would be terrified
if I was in the cage and I saw Pereira
walking out. Well, do you know the team
the fighting nerds? Of course,
yeah. So the head dude,
I'm blanking on his name, but I
I was just watching this video about Carlos Prattes, who is one of my all-time favorites right now in the UFC in the Welterweight Division.
And one of the things that were talking about is how he has his fighters mimic animals.
And he studies animals and animals fighting to the death online and that it's all about controlling the space.
Like they give an example of the mongoose and the cobra.
And it's not that the mongoose is faster than the cobra or more deadly than the cobra, is that mongoose.
is that mongoose is a master of controlling space.
The mongoose is like fainting.
Like as he's coming into the cobra, he's like moving in a little bit.
Yeah, Pablo.
Pablo is a brilliant guy and he's the one.
I mean, they really are nerds.
Like they really do like data analytics and they study moves that work and moves that don't work
and what happens at what percentage of time.
Like he's got a very data-driven approach to MMA training,
but also like super open-minded because he's like considering animal movements.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
And the things that he was talking about was mongooses and cobras.
And they had this example.
And it shows like these mongooses, they're essentially like jukeing with the cobra.
They're fainting.
They're trying to get the cobra to react.
And they move back when the cobra reacts.
But they're trying to draw this cobra in and get a sense of what the cobra's distance is.
That's crazy.
And all of his fighters, particularly Carlos, is a master at controlling distance.
He's always pressing forward.
And then when you come at him, he slides away and he's pressing forward.
And you're always in danger.
You're constantly in danger.
So you're always like on the defensive.
And you're trying to get some offensive and it doesn't work and you're back on the defense.
Masterful.
That's fascinating.
Yeah.
I think it's almost lost.
It was the 17th century writer, English writer, wasn't it?
Samuel Johnson, who said, become a beast to get rid of the pain of being a man.
And I think so often we've lost that.
Certainly for me when swimming in many ways, I was very much inspired by the
shark, you know, when I was swimming very much like the berserker, the bear. And I think some of the
best athletes, like I said, I love Pereira and his Jaguar style, you know, both feet on the
floor, so constantly generated power. But yeah, Samuel Johnson, become a beast to get rid of the
pain of being a man. I love that quote. That's a great quote. And very applicable.
Definitely. But for most people, like the journey, the path is just too daunting. There's the idea of it.
It's just, oh, what am I going to do? I'm going to start out a beginner and just get humiliated
all the time, fuck that.
It's just like doesn't seem fun
at all, you know, and they don't want to do it
and so then they'll dismiss it and talk about
and then it becomes toxic
masculinity, which is adorable.
That one's adorable.
I think also what I found so
interesting is, again, I was chatting
to whom about this, but the different parts of the brain,
so your ventral striatin, the part of the brain that's
almost involved in
expectation, reward,
and reality. So
to use a fighting example, when things
are going well for a fighter, what's happening. The ventral striatum is going, okay, I've done this
and that, and I'm winning. It's prime Connor McGregor, it's prime Anderson Silver, it's modern day
Iliotupura, you know, that everything's going well. But as soon as that goes wrong, something
goes wrong, all of a sudden dopamine plummets, ventral striatum goes, okay, that behavior is now
not working. And I think it's been so interesting seeing fighters, the same with it, when I'm swimming,
I can get caught in a countercurrent. There's been times where I swim and they go, Ross, you've got to
swim for four hours to swim out of this massive whirlpool. I swim for four hours, head down,
head down like that. My alarm goes off. I look on my watch. I go, guys, how far have we swam?
And they go, Ross, you've been swimming on the same spot. You've not moved. You've just been
swimming on the same spot for four hours. And I think it's interesting that it's not just losing.
It's actually like the brain, the biochemistry just implodes. And I think you kind of saw that, like I said,
Like I said, I think...
What happened in your mind when you found that you were in the same spot for four hours?
I mean, like I said, it's not just a loss.
Understanding the neuroscience of it, basically the ventral striatom going, this isn't working.
Dopamine is no longer released.
All of a sudden, it is just like a dark biochemical cloud.
And when you understand that, you can start to try to process out of it.
How'd you get out of that?
I'm glad you asked.
There's another part of the brain as well called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and that's involved in strategy.
So essentially when you are completely losing, ventral striatum goes, this isn't working.
So when I'm swimming, tongues falling off, neck chafing, cellulitis, ventral striatum, this is not working.
And then you've got two options.
Again, this is an oversimplification, but in my head, this is how I basically map it out.
anterior midsingulate cortex, grit or quit, pain and purpose, discipline.
You just do it because you said you were going to do it.
You just grit your teeth and get through it.
Or dorsolateral prefrontal cortex over here, which is more strategy.
And sometimes you can just completely reframe what you're doing.
You can change technique and everything as well when you're swimming,
but sometimes just reframing that suffering.
You know, a great man said, be the hero of your own movie.
And I think looking at the hero's journey as well,
I think that's so interesting where Joseph Campbell talks about
the idea of just kind of the hero slaying your dragon
in the most cave battling.
So I think sometimes that strategy is just reframing your suffering
when you're constantly losing.
And how long did it take you to get out of that whirlpool?
I think we were there for most of that day.
Most of that day.
And then with the tide, because basically over the top of Iceland,
it's like a giant bay, so you get countercurrents, whirlpools.
And eventually, with everything that's happening,
you'll eventually be able to swim out of it.
Eventually.
Yeah.
Yeah, but you can.
Yeah.
I'm dead.
I'm dead too, bitch.
I'm dead too, bitch.
How much can you swim?
Can you swim good?
Yeah.
I don't know.
I mean, what do you mean?
What's the challenge?
What do you want me to do?
What do you want to do?
I could probably hang.
I don't know how strong of an under two I've never been tested.
I'll be dead in 15 minutes.
15 minutes I'm underwater.
In the ocean.
I could probably save someone.
You could save someone?
Depending on the waves.
You know who saves somebody?
Greg Fitzsimmons.
Did you ever hear that story?
Didn't he tell him on the podcast?
Yeah.
I wouldn't go out though.
I wouldn't test my thing.
Some lady, it was on vacation.
Some lady was drowning.
He jumped in the water and rescued her.
Oh.
Yeah.
Yeah, she was offshore and I guess the riptide caught her.
And Greg risked his fucking life.
Went out there and grabbed her and helped her.
What a legend.
Legend.
I was like, damn, dude.
I'm like, did you think at one point?
Because his family was there too.
He was on vacation.
I was like, do you think that maybe you wouldn't be able to make it back?
Did you worry about that?
He's like, yeah.
Because it's crazy.
People don't understand.
Like, certainly on the-
Drowning people are dangerous.
Yeah.
Because they'll hold on to you and you won't be able to like get them to relax.
Yeah.
And then they won't let go with you and then you're both drowning.
Exactly.
It's in ice on the south coast.
It's called Reynes Fjorda.
It's considered like literally one of the most dangerous beaches in the world.
And they have these sneaker ways that just come from nowhere.
And we were there and I think it was a family.
I think it was a little girl who lost a life.
But witnessing it as well, there were so many tourists who thought it was fun to run up as close as they could.
And as the waves crash over, they get a selfie.
They run.
And I was like, I don't want to be like, oh, here we go.
What the fuck, dude.
That's like some shit right out of Lord of the Rings.
Look at that.
That doesn't even look real.
But the sneaker waves from there, they will come from nowhere.
And they were just absolutely somewhere.
Yeah.
Fuck you.
There you see the tourists there.
I don't go anywhere near that shit.
Fuck you.
Oh, there you go.
Yeah, so you'd have tourists when we were there.
And I felt I was so conflicted because I was like, look, I don't want to be a killjoy or anything.
There's people taking pictures while sitting on those rocks.
and then you just saw massive waves.
We left, and then an hour later, we saw helicopters overhead.
We heard ambulances, and we knew the worst that happened.
Yeah, you can die.
You can die doing that.
That is a guy who was a W.W.E. wrestler died a few years ago.
He got caught in a rip-cord, a rip-tide, right?
Is that what happened to him?
I was thinking it was.
I was saying it like, I think that was like on Venice Beach or Santa Monica.
I think you're right.
I think it wasn't Venice.
Yeah, man, it's fucking terrifying.
If you don't know how to swim, the ocean is a monster, man.
Oh, yeah.
Even on certain parts, it's.
Well, when you get wind over tide, that's the worst.
The tide's going one way, wind's going the other.
And you get what's called the overfalls.
And swimming over there, it was nuts.
There's the waves, they're not rolling anymore.
They're detonating.
That's the only way I can describe it.
It's just going off around you.
And when you're swimming in there as well, what's happening underneath is all the jellyfish
are just getting smashed on the rocks.
So as you're swimming, jellyfish tentacles are literally going up your nose in your ear.
You're inhaling them as well.
Oh, great.
That's got to be good for you.
Jellyfish can fuck you up too
Yeah
They'll sting your shit out of you
Especially the wrong ones
The ones in Iceland all right
But I think after you take maybe like
Five or six
They start attacking your lymph nodes
You start scratching under your armpits
Of your groin
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My youngest daughter got a little bit just a touch from a jellyfish in Costa Rica.
And oh my God, it was horrible.
She was in agony.
It was terrible.
And they keep like stuff on the beach that you pour on them because it happens so often.
And people get zapped by jelly.
They're not dangerous.
They don't kill you, but they fucking hurt like hell.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dude, the ocean itself is just like, like what's interesting about all those people in that photograph that's in that video they're watching and standing?
Isn't it fascinating how people are drawn to that abyss?
They're drawn to the majesty of that water, just the vastness of it.
There's something about that that I think is really good for people.
I think it's one of the reasons why people like going to the ocean and sitting on the beach.
I think there's something about that that just calms people to fuck down because it puts you into perspective.
It's like, hey, bitch, look out at all that fucking water.
Okay, you can't live in any of that, all right?
You are so nothing.
And that's why I think beach towns are so chill.
Like beach towns are not like, why is downtown Manhattan so,
beep, be, beat, fuck you.
Everybody's like hyped up.
It's because they're surrounded by people created shit.
If you're just standing there staring at the vastness of the ocean, you're like,
all right, relax.
And then at nighttime, you see the stars too.
You see the fucking Milky Way.
And then there's the ocean.
Like, all right, this is clearly, I'm not that important.
A hundred percent.
I'm barely anything.
A hundred percent.
And like we said with Iceland, with some mushrooms under the northern lights.
Oh!
Especially on the last day of your swim.
It's like the universe letting you know.
You did it.
You completed your journey.
Fucking bananas, man.
This is exactly it.
But I love what you said there as well.
I mean, certainly on the swim, it was so interesting.
Sometimes I tried to swim with gratitude as much as I can.
You know, swim with a smile and you're just grateful to be there.
Because I love David Goggins.
And I've tried his form of motivation where his,
you know, man up, grit your chief, get through this.
But for me personally, after, you know, a hundred days,
I can't keep calling myself a bitch.
I'm just like, oh, have a day off.
Listen, David is a very unique character.
I don't know anybody like him, and I don't recommend it.
I don't recommend you becoming him.
Good fucking luck.
You have to have that demon inside of you like that guy does.
He's a sweetheart of a guy, though.
I love him to death.
But that dude, that fire ain't going out.
He's 50 years old.
That fire is not going.
He does things where people aren't watching.
That's what's crazy about David.
It's not all these like things where people get to see.
It's not, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
He calls it being in the lab.
Like every day he's doing it.
Like, dude, every day he's out there running 20 miles.
He runs with a weight vest on.
He gets in from that.
He does weights.
He does chin ups and push-ups.
Like it's not, it doesn't stop.
It doesn't end.
And then the next day, it's another thing.
It's another fucking insane thing.
And it never ends.
No one's watching. No one's watching. It's not being documented. He's just doing it.
And then every now and then he'll go out and run some fucking 200 mile race and everybody's like,
what the fuck, man? And he's also got no knees. His knees are completely blown apart.
He's got bone on bone on both of his fucking knees. He's had multiple operations where they had to actually
his bone had grown so fucked up that they had to chop his fucking leg in half and pull it down
so they could make it level. Because the, the, the, the, the bone.
bone, it's like called, what is it called Wolf Syndrome or some shit?
Where you're, they grind against each other.
So your body tries to protect itself by building extra bone.
And when it builds it, it fucks up the geometry of the knees.
They don't work correctly.
So then you're running like bone on bone with fucked up geometry and you get back pain
and all kinds of, so he had his fucking knee sawed off and had shifted downward and then
screwed into place.
And you know what he did?
He just got on a fucking bicycle and he started using a bicycle then.
And so he's fucking indoor cycling all day for five, six hours.
It's an animal.
Yeah, subachromial decompression with my shoulder, which so often weightlifters will get it.
But they said we've never really seen it in a swimmer.
But it was exactly the same.
I need to have the bone shaved down to make room again.
Holy shit.
Yeah, yeah, that was that left shoulder.
The right's always been fine.
So when they shaved down the bone, did they have to, is your cartilage okay?
Yeah, cartilage was fun.
And it was, you know, anthracobic.
It was just a bone?
It was just there.
Yeah, just went in, shaved down the bone.
How much bone did they shave down?
A good amount.
Did you get like a little cup of it to save?
I should have asked, shouldn't I?
Should save that?
But I love what you said there as well,
because I just think Goggins taps into something
that so few people want to almost address.
Carl Jung talked about it with your shadow self,
you know, that part of your psyche
that you don't want to reveal to the world.
Are you aggressive, jealous, hyper-competitive?
Again, it was Nietzsche, wasn't it?
Whoever fights monsters should see to it
that they too don't become a monster.
If you stare into the abyss too long,
the abyss will stare back into you.
Yeah.
And I think that's what Goggins does brilliantly.
Or Jordan Peterson as well.
You know, the problem isn't having a monster.
It's making sure you can't put it back in the cage.
Yeah.
And I think that's what Goggins does so well.
And I did take inspiration from that on certain swims as well where, you know, reading a few
comments online, people go, he's never going to do this swim.
He's too big to be a swimmer.
This is going to fail badly.
That is the weird thing about you, though.
Like most endurance athletes aren't that heavily muscled.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
It's very odd.
I'll show pictures of you to my friends.
And I would like, I want to talk about people who've done crazy shit.
And I've detailed some of the insane things you've done, some of the insane swims.
And they're like, how is he doing that when is that jacked?
I'm like, that is weird, right?
Yeah, I think there's a few different things to unpack.
So the first is you just need bulk.
So going back to biomimicry.
I mean, we're talking about that a lot now.
But I think what's so interesting is I want to become more whale-like.
You know, I think absolutely, you look at a pool swimmer.
They are poetic in the water.
They're amazing.
They look like dolphins and maco-shar.
that would be useless for me when caught in an Arctic storm.
You need strength.
Strength and bulk, yeah, muscle mass being thermic so I can generate heat with every single movement.
But equally on top of that, I think it's also really interesting that through my strength train,
it's called mechanotransduction, just basically means people think a strength training is improving
the strength of the muscles.
But it's connective tissue, ligaments and tendons that respond to that mechanical stimuli.
So for me, when swimming, I need the connected tissue.
The tendons in my rotator cuff
need to be bulletproof
because that's what's going to give up.
This swim isn't going to stop
because of my VO2 or lactic threshold.
It's going to stop because something tears.
So that's why being like this,
I'm not as fast,
but I sacrifice that for being more physically robust.
That makes sense.
And I think finally, this is something as well
which is really interesting at the moment.
So I'm a huge fan of Cam McAvoy.
He's the 50-meter world record holder for freestyle.
And he's just rewritten the rulebook on swimming.
Basically, there's a direct correlation between your one-rep max on pull-ups and your swim sprint speed.
Really?
Yeah, really, real strong correlation.
So he's now basically doing one-rep max with pull-ups with 80, 90 kilos and just speed reps as well, Joe, just ripping.
And you see what he's done.
He's barely swimming in terms of-90 kilos.
Yeah, he's an absolute savage.
Isn't that like 185 pounds or some shit?
What is that?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's on his Instagram recently did it with 80.
He's an absolute specimen.
And how many chin-ups is he doing that way?
I think he was doing about three.
He's an absolute specimen, yeah.
And what she's...
So that's swimming.
That's sprinting.
So obviously that's not endurance.
But taking inspiration from that,
you have what's called your strength reserve.
So strength reserve just basically means
if you are capable of doing a pull-up with 100 kilos,
that means your own body weight
is basically a smaller percentage
of what you're capable of.
Here we go.
Is that him?
There he goes.
80 kilos.
Oh my God, that's insane.
What is it, Jamie?
Did we figure out what that is?
I'll ask my phone.
It's 2.2, so it's like a 176, I think.
What is 80 kilograms in pounds?
But look how strict and how casual.
Yeah, 176.
That's crazy.
He's amazing.
And he's completely rewritten the rule books when it comes.
Like I said, 50 world record holder at the moment.
Oh.
That's crazy.
He's doing that three sets of five with 50.
kilograms. And so this is just to generate strength for the sprinting aspect.
Exactly. You think about it. If your one rep max on pull-ups is so good. Every single stroke is almost
like a unilateral, a single lit limb pull down. So he's just ripping through the water like that.
But what's been really interesting is traditionally you used to just swim for miles and miles.
It was almost, we call it like garbage yardage that you're just swimming, swimming, swimming.
He was swimming sometimes in his sets like 800 meters, which is my warm up. But it was just all flat-hand.
So he's revolutionized swimming.
So that's sprinting.
But what I've taken from it, like I said, your strength reserve.
Basically, if you're capable of a huge one-rette-max on pull-ups,
it means that every single stroke that you take is a smaller percentage of what you're capable of.
I think the best example I can think of like this is a good friend of mine, Eddie Hall,
Warr Strong's Man, first guy to death lived 500 kilos.
He entered a CrossFit competition.
And there was a particular wad.
It was 60 kilos.
There's a brilliant video if you've seen it, Jamie.
but it's 60 kilos
and you see these crossfitters
they're up to overhead
and it's a clean
and it's a beautiful push press
but because Eddie is so strong
and he's got such a big strength reserve
he basically, as you're about to see now,
just
I mean that's a front dealt raise
mixed with a row
that's crazy
if you don't know
that is so much harder to do it that way
60 kilos I believe 60 kilos
and so like I said
The crossfitters, perfect technique.
They clean it to the chest.
And then they are bending their knees and they are pressing.
That shit isn't even touching his chest.
That's crazy.
It's a front delt raise, kind of with a row.
That's literally insane.
If you don't know, that's literally insane.
But my point here is, I mean, Eddie's an absolute specimen.
But my point here is, he doesn't train for this.
This is completely, he doesn't, this isn't his thing.
Clearly, because he doesn't do that movement.
If he did that movement, he wouldn't be doing it that way.
But he's got an immense strength reserve.
And so that's my point.
There we go.
Actually,
actually time,
you broke the record.
That is so insane.
That's so insane that he did that that way.
Now, watch a regular crossfitter do it.
Can you show a regular crossfitter do it?
Regular,
but you can find it.
Regular crossfitters,
they catch it on their chest.
Is exactly it.
And then they step back.
It's a poetic technique.
And so that's my point.
So coming back to the swimming,
that as strong as I get when I'm strength training,
it just means that every single stroke
over the Arctic Circle is a smaller fraction of what I'm capable of.
That makes sense.
That makes sense.
And then you have to be able to have that fine line between endurance and bulk.
Is exactly.
So muscular endurance and, you know, but also having strength.
Is exactly it.
I think also what was really interesting, that MRI scan revealed, so you have slow twitch
fibers that are very resistance to fatigue, they're your ultramarathon runners, then you have
your fast twitch fibers that are sprint speed power.
And what was so strange is on my MRI, they said, Ross, you have an unusual
proportion of fast oxidative glycolytic fibers.
So they're basically in between the two.
They're able to produce a lot of force, but they're very resistance to fatigue as well.
Is that cultivated?
Interesting. They said, I think I had a genetic predisposition for that, but with the amount
of training I've done, I've also nurtured it.
Interesting. Now, how do they know that you have a genetic predisposition for it if they
didn't examine you before you started all this training?
It was all theory. Yeah, they said anything.
My question is, I wonder how much of it is adaptable.
I wonder how much of what we say, oh, he has a.
genetic advantage, like, are we sure?
Or did this guy's body
change because of necessity?
It made intuitive sense
when they said that. What would you call that? A clean press?
The, oh, what?
Eddie Hall did?
No, it's, there's a...
It's part of a workout called the Isabella.
There we go. Thank you, Jamie.
It's called the Isabella.
Oh, here we go.
So this is Noah Olson, who's an absolute specimen,
by the way.
Yeah, I think he's competed in more
clastic games.
And then using his legs to complete it.
So he's doing it awesome
This is perfect technique
Look at that
Catching it
Oh so they're not catching it on their chest
No so that's a snap
It's like a snatch press kind of something
Okay so he's
So it's called the Isabella
But do you see the rest I suppose
Between sets compared to the
Right
The Delores and like I said
Noah's a good friend
He's an absolute specimen
What is the term Wad
What does that stand for again?
What is it Work Out of the Day?
What is it Work Out of the Day?
And Emoms is
reps per minute, right?
Isn't that what it is?
Where are we?
Okay, so this workout of the day is a whole
bunch of these?
Oh, 30 snatches. I think this one's different, actually.
It might be different.
Yeah, because it's third.
Why did the, Eddie, it said that
he did that particular
Isabel benchmark workout in 50 seconds.
I think that's, I mean, that's just what I'm
going off of. I was trying to find it. Interesting.
If it's something different, my bad.
No, but yeah, but it does illustrate.
Interesting.
Beating the pre-
previous male record previously associated with figures like Rich Froning, but Rich Fronings like way smaller than him.
Yeah, which is crazy that he could do that because it's the same weight, right?
Mm-hmm.
Is it the same weight they're all using?
Yeah, yeah, it will be 60.
Yeah.
That's even nuts that Rich Fronan could do that with, because I don't think his body weight is anywhere even close to that.
Eddie Hall's 300 plus pounds.
Yeah, he's got a bit leaner now as well.
Yeah, he's getting smaller.
Well, he's done some MMA fights and shit.
Yeah, with Tommy as well.
Did you see he went the distance as well with Tommy Fury.
Yes, crazy.
I think they both won that fight.
It was amazing in that, you know, yeah, no one expected him to go that far.
You know what I was really impressed with when he had a boxing match with the mountain.
And what I was really impressed was was the mountain.
I never say his name correctly.
How do he say his name?
Thor Bjornson.
Bjornson.
Thor Bjornson, yeah.
He didn't use his strength.
Like he was throwing punches like with perfect technique.
He was throwing punches like a boxer.
Like he learned how to do whoever trained him
They did an amazing job because the guys obviously got ridiculous power
But he he he's like throwing punches correctly and he dropped Eddie Hall a few times whereas Eddie Hall's just winging out him with these wild power shots
Thor is moving around him and look see how he's throwing his technique? It's very clean man even his jab
Look at that it's he's not overextending
I mean he clearly is like a new boxer but a very good athlete and
and is figuring out how to use his technique
and recognize that the power is always going to be there
because he's so fucking huge.
He dropped him a few times, at least once in that fight.
I find that amazing when sometimes the laws of martial arts
sometimes need to be slightly bent for people that size.
Again, having rolled with certain people,
you get an arm bar and they just stand up with you.
Yeah, well, that's a problem.
There's certain technical.
Marcelo Garcia, who's the giant killer,
he famously would just go for necks.
because he felt like Kimura
obviously he knew how to use a Camora
he was a very high level black belt
one of the greatest grapplers of all time
if not the greatest and Marcello never hit Camuras
he would just get necks so he became a neck specialist
so his whole thing was a high elbow guillotine
and rear naked choke if he got your back you're fucked
and that was how he was able to defeat much larger opponents
because you can't really defend
if he can get that rear naked choke around your neck
and stop the blood to your brain
and that's it.
You go to sleep.
Like you can not tap.
If someone gets you an arm bar,
you can allow your arm to get broken.
And I've seen it happen a lot of times.
But what you can't do is stop a guy from choking your unconscious.
And so Marcello, being as smart as he is,
and being a small guy, he's like 160 pounds,
he just figured, okay, I'll just get everybody's neck.
And he just became a neck specialist.
See, I love what you said there as well,
because I often think, you know,
the best athletes are the best at doing what they do best.
And what I mean by that,
whether it's ultramarathon running,
whether it is CrossFit.
the strongest man, it doesn't matter. You lean into what you're really good at. You sort of
with Kabib wrestling, you know, Pereira striking. Sure. It's just, you just drill what you're
really good. And I think for me, swimming, certainly that's what I've sort of honed in on. I'm like,
look, I'm not going to be built like Michael Phelps. I don't have this poetic, nice stroke. But what
I can do is just get crazy strong for an endurance athlete. So my strength is there's so much
bigger. And do something really insane, like swimming for three fucking days. That's the thing is like
Most of these guys are just not going to be willing to do that.
They're willing to do a race because in a race you just go all out and, you know, it only lasts for a few seconds.
And when it's over, it's over.
But, you know, you do that and you can turn around the shores right there.
Like, you have to keep going.
You have many days in front of you.
And that's just a completely different thing.
You know, I think that's it because I've always, I was brought up with my dad and my granddad telling me stories, one of athletes, but two, you know, the heroic age of Antarctic exploration when Admond's.
and Robert Falcon Scott, Shackleton were trying to get to the South Pole.
And you know about Robert Falcon Scott and Admondson, the contrast in what they did.
You know, with Admondson, just Norwegian efficiency to get to the South Pole.
So turns up he's learnt so much from those indigenous in the Arctic.
Learned about dogs.
All of the crew were gifted in cross-country skiing.
In comparison, the British guy, Robert Falcon Scott, brought ponies that fell through the ice,
mechanical sleds that broke down, tinned food, terrible.
What was so interesting.
And as they got there, Admondson even knew, as he got to the South Pole, he had a certain amount of dogs.
And on the way back, he knew he could start systematically eating the dogs on the way back.
Whereas the British, Robert Falcon Scott refused to do that.
They were just handling, manhandling all of their sleds.
And when they got there to the South Pole, they saw the Norwegian flag there already.
Then were forced to trek back.
And, I mean, one of the most harrowing, it was Lawrence Oates, whose foot was, you know, badly injured.
And he just knew that he was holding up the team.
And then famously, as they were caught in a blizzard, he just turned to the team and just said, gentlemen, I'm going for a short walk.
I might be a while.
And he just walked to his death to try to make sure these team made it.
Oh, my God.
And they didn't, they didn't, unfortunately.
Yeah.
And I think it's that idea of kind of like, you know, civilization and survival.
You have to go to a strange place sometimes to actually make it.
And I think that was almost the appeal for my career in inverted commas, if you could call it.
Well, that's the appeal to.
people that are watching for sure that you're clearly going to some strange place where you could die
you know and that's why people like watching your what would you call i almost said stunts but that's
disrespectful no no i'd say but they're not stunts they're you know journeys yeah they're they're
in some ways when we're quest is a noble way of saying i appreciate that yeah no because it is
no right it is i always say they're almost these sporting spectacles that we use as a trojan horse
to deliver ocean conservation so i don't mind
stunned at all. Well, that's good that you're doing that. Yeah. I mean, obviously that's good. You know,
I mean, I think that there's one area of the world that we really are disrespecting, and that's our
oceans. And when I say that, I mean, we can't keep pulling fish out at the rate we're doing.
It's nuts. If you talk to fishermen and if you talk, like the people that have done surveys,
obviously the ocean is enormous. It's very hard to understand. But the middle of it is not where
everything is. Most of the life on the ocean is near the shores and or at least reasonably
close to the shores. 90 fucking percent of all big fish aren't in the ocean anymore. Like all these
tuna men that used to fish tuna way back in the day and catch thousands. It's a lot less now.
And no one is even thinking about it. And, you know, there's regulations that some countries have
on the way they're allowed to fish. But some countries don't.
follow any of those fucking regulations.
You know?
I mean, it's, and what we've done to the, you know, fun fact, this is how Somalians became pirates.
So, Somalians became pirates because they were fishermen.
And they were all just fishermen.
They were just peaceful fishermen living in Somalia.
And these different countries were dumping toxic waste off their shore.
And it was killing all the fish.
And so they first started kidnapping these people who were dumping these boats.
filled with toxic sludge or whatever the fuck they were dumping nuclear waste, whatever they're dumping into the ocean, and demanding a ransom because these people have caused them so much loss because their fish are all dead.
And then they thought about and said, well, fuck this.
Why don't we just kidnap people?
And so that became their new sport.
So the fish are all dead.
And they were on that, what is that stuff called?
Cat?
Is that what it's called?
So there's a
There's a narcotic that they take
Called cat and it's a leaf that you chew
Is a nut? Is it a nut? It's a leaf?
Whatever it is
It's something that you chew that gives you like an amphetamine
Like state like look at me I'm the captain now
Like that's that's cat
You're messed up you weigh 80 pounds
You've been up for seven days
And now you're kidnapping people
And so that's literally Somalis history.
So when you look at like the Somalians scams that are happening in America and you look at like this stuff that's going on in Minnesota, like, how do all these Somalians get involved in all these scams?
It all goes back to Europeans poisoning their water.
Wow.
Yep.
Yeah.
Russian, I think, I think Russian poison.
I don't want to blame any countries.
But someone was dumping toxic waste in their water and that's what started all off.
That's true, right?
I think they called themselves the People's Coast Guard.
of Somalia. That's how they started off.
Wow. They don't have a long
history of pirates. They're not like Blackbeard
or any shit like that. This is a fairly
recent in human history
turn for their
culture. And it probably led
to a lot of other criminal activity if you think
about it. Like if the core
nature of your civilization
gets shut off, the core
nature is you're a fisherman, right? You live
in a village, you all catch fish, that's what
you live off of. All that gets shut down.
People go into desperation mode.
People start taking cat.
They're probably taking cat already.
But they're doing amphetamines.
And then they're kidnapping folks.
Next thing you know, you're getting machine guns.
You get all that money.
Now you've got a fucking, you got carbines.
You got a 50 cow.
Is that cat legal?
Can I take that when I'm water test it all?
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I don't think it is.
I think it's, I think it's, I don't know what it is in America.
We probably have it schedule one.
How Somalians fishermen became pirates.
It's old.
It's 2009.
It's mostly just says that once they lost their government, it became a free-for-all right here.
I do think that was part of it as well.
Fishermen just kind of got pissed.
I think that was part of it as well, but I think there was an aspect of it about poisoning the water.
I'm sure it probably came up later because it's still 2009.
This is right when it was kicking off, really.
At this time, when this article was written, it said they had 18 cargo ships being held.
Okay.
This is, see, I think this is everything had already started to fall apart.
And I think it started to fall apart when the fish went away.
If I remember correctly, this was quite a long time ago.
I read this.
But see if you can put it into perplexity.
Say, is there a connection between Somali pirates and off.
shore dumping of toxic waste that led to depleting of their fishing grounds.
I didn't ask that exact question.
I just asked what was the reason they started taking ransoms.
But see if that factors in.
See if it says that, if you say, was there an aspect of it where they were kidnapping people
who had poisoned their water?
Kidnapping people who poisoned their water.
Isn't AI wonderful?
I know it's going to kill us all.
Not necessarily.
People that kidnapped were not all people poisoned the water.
Right, but initially, there were serious reports and allegations of foreign companies dumping hazardous waste off of Somalia.
However, a UN environmental OHA account said two years earlier, UN fact-checking missions found no evidence.
Probably because the UN was dumping.
And its post-Soonami inquiries did not identify specific dumping sites.
So they were kidnapping people poisoning their water is much more definitive than the evidence supports.
Yeah, I don't know if we know the problem with.
AIs that's pulling from all these different sources online.
And this, yeah, maybe the story I read was bias as well.
But the store that I read was a sort of a sympathetic take on why there's so many pirates
are, I don't, not sympathetic, but an understanding take.
Like they're saying like, you need to understand that this is a chain of consequences,
a chain of events that took place.
And one of those things was people do, like, for sure, someone's.
dump toxic shit into the ocean.
We know they do that.
And so it doesn't seem that far of a stretch to imagine
that that initially started off a crash in their economy
if their fishing lands were...
Do you want to do a swim there?
Go and try and sort it out.
I'll do a swim there.
Don't do that.
Yeah, swim and dress up like a dollar bill.
I think I could.
I've been there or what straight up old news.
In a gold boat.
Get yourself at a gold boat and put a sign that says,
we have no guns.
and go have fun.
That would be amazing.
I re-asked and it gave a different answer.
Yes, some Somali pirates explicitly as
retaliation for toxic waste dumping,
not just illegal fishing.
Previous answer understated the reporting behind that claim,
but it does not establish that the crews
they kidnapped themselves dumping waste.
Right, they probably just found people offshore
and said, you were dumping.
I'm the captain now.
And 2008 pirate spokesman
Oh, they have a spokesman.
I wonder if he was elected.
I wonder how he became spokesman.
You think he had a campaign?
You think people had like signs on their lawn.
Elect Joana Ali Jama for spokesman of the pirates.
Described a ransom demand as a way of reacting to the toxic waste
that's been continually dumped on the shores of our country for nearly 20 years.
Oh, shit.
20 years is a long fucking time.
But I believe that.
The report connected that claim to the captured MV-F.
Finna, a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and military equipment, not a vessel identified in the report as a dumping waste.
But what a great ship to bust.
Imagine you get a boat that's got tanks and military equipment.
Now you got yourself a motherfucking army dog.
Environmental accusations weren't solely a private invention.
In that reporting, UN envoy, boy, say that guy's name.
Help me out.
I'm not even going to attempt that one.
Al-Madu-Alud Abdallah said the UN had reliable information that European and Asian companies were dumping toxic waste off Somalia.
UNEP spokesman Nick Natal described Somalia as a hazardous waste dumping ground, but said insecurity prevented a proper scientific assessment of the problems extent.
Listen, man, people love to dump shit in the ocean, these fucking assholes.
Like, you know, you remember when that kid got killed in Egypt?
He was at a resort in Egypt and he got killed by a shark.
I think I saw the video.
It's a horrible video because he's screaming for his father.
He's screaming for his father.
So what we had heard and we looked into it, it's not conclusive, but it seems like they were dumping sheep carcasses in the ocean.
Like when they had sheep carcasses, they didn't want to just laying around rotting.
So they would put them in a boat, take them out to sea and dump them in the water.
So what did that attract?
What do you think that attracted?
Some sharks.
And so then these sharks were in that area.
And people, there was a really beautiful resort.
People go, take their families, go on vacation in a fucking monster soup.
Monster soup right out there.
I'll tell you, make fucking soup out of their dicks.
Pull them out of the water, serve it up.
We need to go back to sharks fin soup.
These fucking people think sharks are their friends.
So do I need to swim Somalia and sort that out then?
I don't think you do.
I think you should probably stay out of that.
Maybe that'll be the one that kills you.
Whatever the fuck is in that water.
Whatever, the 20 years of toxic dumping, that's not good.
You don't want that in your skin.
No deal, no deal.
Yeah.
Going back to the cardio, I wanted to ask your opinion on this.
Best cardio in the UFC or MMA, actually, in history.
Oh, boy.
I'm going to go, I'm going to put some up there.
Marab.
Marab is probably.
Bisping.
Yeah.
Bisping had phenomenal cardio.
Bisping would melt people.
I remember his fight with Jason Mayhem Miller, who was very talented.
But Bispin just melted them.
This pace was insane.
Nick Diaz?
Nick Diaz, insane pace.
Yep.
Nate Diaz also.
Also incredible cardio.
Yeah.
There's a lot of these guys now.
It's like it's, we're in a realm now of athletes, Joshua Van, insane cardio.
Insane cardio.
Joshua Van, who's the flyway champion, the fifth round, fights like he's in the first round.
Insane.
The level now is at an all-time high.
That's why Kane Velazquez was so weird because it just didn't make sense.
Didn't make sense.
Demistrius Johnson and the small.
you're just kind of like, yeah, yeah, you're not inhibited by gravity the same way.
But we came for Lasquez, you're like, that just, you shouldn't, you should be able to do that.
D.C. told me Kane would take a couple months off of training.
Like, he had an injury, had to take time off of training.
Come back three months later, fuck everybody up at the gym.
He said, in cardio drills.
He said it was nuts.
Oh.
He said, his base was just insanity.
Meanwhile, he lost the title to Fabricio Verdum in Mexico City at altitude because he was only there for two weeks.
and Fabrizio Verduem
he got a place to train in the mountains
above Mexico City
so Fabricio was living at like
I think it was like 9,000 plus
feet above sea level and training up there
and so he had phenomenal cardio
and Kane actually gassed out in that fight
and Fabricio caught him in a guillotine
to win the title I remember yeah
yeah man that was a big moment because
nobody had ever not just beaten Kane that way
but beaten Kane with like
where Kane was tired
Like you never saw Cain Tired
It just shows you that altitude training is
fucking critical man
If you want to compete at altitude
I was showing you the hypoxia chamber that we have here
The exalt
I think it's called the Exalt XP
Hypoxia trainer
It is so hard to work out at altitude
But if you can do it
I did it in preparation for this
Hunt that I did in Utah
And so I did it for two months
and I was very rigorous, but I was very regular.
I was doing two really hard cardio workouts inside that thing a week,
and that's all they recommend is that don't do more than that,
because you'll get to a point where you can't recover.
Like you want two, maybe three once you've built up,
but I never got to three.
Made a giant difference, giant difference.
Like I could really, because I go to the same place every year,
and at the highest point, it's probably 9,000 feet.
Sometimes you're at 5,000, 7,000,
but, you know, you're walking up like very,
steep, loose dirt at 5,000, 7,000 feet. It's hard. It's really hard.
So you could feel it physiologically?
100%.
100%.
I could feel that I had more gas. 100%. Yeah, a big difference. Big difference. And I only
got to do it for two months and now I'm thinking I'm getting ready for next September. I'm
like, if I can do it for a whole year, if I could do that twice a week for a year, that'll
make a giant difference by the time September rolls around. 100%. I think that's going to change
a lot of the way. I think that particular
type of training when you're training at like that machine can crank you up to above 20,000
feet above sea level. I've only done 14. I've done 14.5. That's the highest I've done. It's,
it's insanity. There's no air in there, man. There's no fucking air in there. And you're doing
sprints on the air dime machine. You're doing sprints on the treadmill. And you're doing
kettlebell swings. And it's like when you get out of there, man, it's like your body gets this
rush of oxygen. You're like, oh, as soon as you open the door, you're like, oh my God. But then
once you recover from it, the next time it's a little bit easier.
And the next time it's a little bit easier.
It's like you feel your body adapting because it's like, oh shit, we got to do this.
So in a real world scenario, like what we are here, like what is the sea level here?
What's the altitude here?
500, 600 feet?
Nothing.
It's nothing.
You feel like there's so much fucking air.
You can run through a building.
That's what it feels like.
And I think that's a game changer.
And so many of these like really high level camps have chosen to train.
at altitude.
You know, you have a bunch of them.
Obviously, the Dagestanis, they train, I don't know what, what is Dagestan, what is
Dagestan above sea level?
I got to, it's in the mountains.
Yeah.
I got to say they're probably 4,500,000, 5,000 feet.
You know, obviously they have the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs.
I think that's above 5,000 feet, you know, and.
They have actually both, they go, they have areas below sea level that are down by the
Caspian Coast, and they have mountain peaks at...
Average elevation is 500 meters, though.
Interesting.
So it's like 1,500, 600, 600 feet.
Yeah, that's enough for an adaptation.
Max is what?
That's a peak.
It's a mountain peak is 14,000.
Max is 14,000.
But some of these mountain towns, like where Khabib is, where's he at?
I know they do runs.
They do runs at altitude.
You know, as does, like, the guys in Denver.
It's in a high spot.
What's that?
2,000 meters above, so 6,500 or so.
where he is Sildy.
Okay, so he's pretty high.
Six thousand feet is high.
So if you're training at that altitude,
that's akin to Colorado Springs
or a lot of these places,
you know, Justin Gachie's coach,
Trevor Whitman, he has a lot of his guys.
They do runs in the mountains.
They do these runs uphill in the mountains.
On limited water as well.
Some good stuff around dehydration training.
That's Justin's big thing.
He will not drink water while he's training.
Control dehydration.
Yeah.
Oh, Jesus.
There could be up there.
That view is insane.
So there is a weird story.
I've got a, there is a method that could make you a faster runner.
And I'm going to apologize now.
This is a little bit left feel.
But I was in Namibia.
I was learning from the Sand Bushman out there.
So we were.
How do you organize that?
Yeah, oh, it was a documentary.
To WhatsApp?
Yeah.
Can I come?
So we are out there doing like a marathon a day.
We, for the entire week, barely any water.
It was horrible.
one particular guy out there
and they're amazing
they're just gliding across the sand
basically as well
I'm just like heavy running
trying to keep up with them
and there was one particular guy
in the tribe as well
who was
could trace his ancestry
back to the curligin tribes
did you know about the curligin tribe
no so it's basically
an ethnic group specific to Kenya
you are you already smashed yours
I'm still working on my dog
I'm sorry I'm sorry
talking shit
let's go sorry
so basically curlegin tribe
ethnic groups specific to Kenya
produce more amazing marathon
and runners than anywhere else.
It's disproportionate just how good they are with this particular group of people.
And as we're sitting around the campfire, they turned to me and they said, this guy goes,
Ross, do you know why we're so good?
Do you know why the curledons and drive are so good at running?
And I said, altitude.
And he went, nope.
And I was like, barefoot running, so beautiful biomechanics.
Nope. Circumcision.
Oh, you know it.
Yeah, and crawling through needles.
Oh, you know it?
Crawling through thorns.
You're right?
And they, but with the mud as well?
Yeah.
And they don't pass on, yeah.
So it's.
Yeah, circumcision as a grown boy with no, no, nothing, no water, no cleansliness, no anesthesia, just they cut it.
I think he's a knife, right, or a sharp rock.
Well, the theory goes that he was saying that basically with the circumcision, you're basically as a young man in front of the entire tribe, they all come out and they put clay like mud on your face.
And so you have to like just sit there.
And then basically the guy takes, the chief of the tribe takes your tackle.
And then with essentially a tackle.
I like that.
Takes your tackle, circumcise you.
You cannot flinch.
If you flinch and the mud cracks,
all of a sudden in the tribe,
everyone will be like,
ah, he's not very desirable.
So you don't basically find a girl,
you don't have kids,
and only those where the mud doesn't crack,
they're considered desirable,
and they pass on their genetics.
So generation after generation,
you're passing on this pain tolerance,
and then the end you end up,
curligent tribe,
just unbelievable runners.
Yeah.
I mean, he looked across,
and said, Ross, do you want to be faster?
Pulled out a knife.
And I was like, I'm good.
What if you already circumcised?
What is he going to do?
Take it back an inch?
Fuck, dude.
Yeah, what does he do then?
You're like, I won in, but the problem is they did me when I was a kid.
I didn't even help.
I didn't have to crawl through thorns, nothing.
Yeah, you have to crawl through thorns with your bloody dick.
Yeah, yeah.
And you can't wince.
Can't make any noise.
That's the whole point, yeah.
And then those who don't react to consider desirable, they pass on their genetics,
So generation after generation, you just get this incredible...
Are you going to show me a video, Jamie?
How dare you?
It's paused.
I just...
That's what they look like.
Put them on their faces, I think.
Oh, boy.
Getting ready.
Some lady talking about it.
Yeah.
Fun times.
And then you just got to remain there.
All that just to run.
Yeah.
I hope somebody beats them that doesn't do that.
Well, it's funny you said that, actually.
So do you know about Emil Zatapec?
No.
Oh, my God.
The greatest endurance runner, in my opinion, to ever exist.
amazing. So basically, to this day, no one's ever done what he did at the Olympics.
Helsinki Olympics won the 5,000, won the 10,000. And then turned to his coach, and he just went,
I think I would run marathon tomorrow. And his coach was like, no, no, no, this is a terrible
idea. You should not run the marathon. It's completely different events, you know, over twice as far.
Emil, this is a terrible, an idea. And he turns, and Emil just goes, who is the favorite?
And it was a British guy. So it was the British guy. He's, everybody thinks he's going to
win. And Emil goes, okay, no problem. What I do, I will run on his shoulder. And then just at the end,
before we get into stadium, I go, boop. And I run around and I will finish. And the coach is like,
please, amel, this is just, you've got two gold medals, please, let's just leave it there. And he goes,
no, no, no, no. This documentary is amazing. It then cuts to the British guy who's older and he's
recounting this, this entire race. And he says, I am running and things are going well. And then I,
feel on my shoulder, I seal this, this, this, Emil just pops up on my shoulder. And Emil turns him,
He goes, I'm so sorry, I've never run marathon before.
So I don't know if he's too fast or too slow.
And I thought to myself, you shit, I'm going to mess with you.
I'm going to mess with your head.
So I turned and I said, no, no, no, this is far too slow.
We're in trouble thinking that would break in.
And Emil just turned and went, no problem.
I will see you at finish line and ran and won.
Three gold medals, Helsinki Olympics.
The reason I tell that story as well is not many people will know.
So his training, next time you're down on athletics track,
He used to do 100, 400 meter sprints.
What?
In a day?
Not a day, but he pioneered interval training.
People didn't think you could train that hard.
There he is.
What I love as well is how he ran.
He ran like he'd been shot in the leg.
That's not Emil.
What do you mean?
There he was just, there he is.
So he runs like he's shot at his ugly technique.
Bad fire mechanic.
Yeah.
This, again, I think this is the marathon.
So this is after he's already won the 5,000 and the 10,000.
And here he is.
It looks like he's in agony.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, and the story goes with that as well, and this is what I love.
So with somebody like him, a hundred, 400 meter sprints, but his wife was an amazing javelin throw as well.
So date night for them is they'd go out and his wife would just like launch the javelin and he would go and get it like a dog.
And then come back and be like, he'd go, babe.
She'd be like, thanks, babe.
That's hilarious.
He used to run with his wife on his back through.
the woods. And then sometimes when he wasn't able to run because it was snowing too much or
condition would allow famously he would get in the bath and just basically just tread on
dirty laundry as well just to try to just play it as well. So Emil Zatapek, to your point,
I always find it fascinating that sometimes when you talk about people who are, you know, I've been
training so hard, I've sacrificed so much. I'm like, yeah, that's great. But I don't want to go
against an Emil Zatapak, someone who just loves it, someone who just date night is running out their
intervals, bringing back. Well, have you heard of that race they do?
where it's a race until everyone else drops out?
Of course, backyard ultras.
Yeah.
But there can only be one.
One person can win.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that's amazing.
I think Chris Williamson was talking about,
you know, a mutual friend of ours talking about Mark Dowdell,
who was just basically like hunting and like just stalking the competition.
And it was called the Last Soul Ultra.
So Mark Dowdell, when this guy stopped like tie his shoelace,
Mark was behind him and just hunting him like prey.
And they had them on the night vision.
And they're like, what is going on?
It's just mind games.
And so one person eventually doesn't quit.
Exactly.
Everybody else quits.
Yeah, exactly.
How long did they go?
These go, I think there's the current record, I swear somebody did something like 91 hours.
Yeah.
It's just nuts.
It's just nuts.
I swear, yeah.
Oh, my God.
I think it was Phil, Jamie, if you find a bit.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, go.
Mark Doudal.
That's when he won the last one.
Last Soul Ultra.
95 laps, 636.5 kilometers.
The Man's sandwich.
Last Soul Ultra.
Oh my God.
But he talks about it as well.
What I love is he talks about actually collecting their souls.
So at the end, you're basically given a trinket, which has got everybody sold on it.
And he's there like some ancient warrior holding it out.
In a way, he's kind of right.
Oh, there you go, yeah.
He ran for 94 straight hours without sleep to win the Last Soul
94 hours is crazy.
Like what was he seeing?
What was he seeing at hour 92?
How many elves did he come into contact with?
For sure he saw elves, right?
For sure.
For sure.
There's him on Loop 72.
Oh my God.
And the thing about him too is he's kind of a bigger guy.
I believe his background was lacrosse as well.
So he weight trains, which goes back to what I was talking about before, about mechanotransducts.
strength reserve, that you'd say that doesn't make sense for an ultra-endurance athlete.
But again, I would argue that his biomechanics are just perfect and they won't break down
compared to somebody who doesn't have that strength background.
So there's a backyard ultra-year.
He's actually doing it at the moment, I think.
94 hours is bananas.
Oh, that was an update from now.
What's that?
That video I just played was right now.
Yeah, they're doing it now.
So I think it's Team America.
Oh, it's happening right now?
Yeah.
He's on Loop 54 right now, or this one, two hours ago.
And he's just on social media, just talking for everything as well.
Loop 54.
How many days ago is that?
This is 20 hours ago.
Yeah, this is right now.
Yeah.
He talks about, like, on the first 24 hours, he's just like, that's just your ticket, you know.
That just gets you in the race.
It's now it begins, and that's after 24 hours.
Oh, my God.
What a legend.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
I think, and it's 24 hours, it's crazy.
It's nuts.
It's not.
I mean, for me, on some of my social.
swims as well, just those hallucinations. Like when they start, probably one of my worst was
Loch Ness, and that was before everything went really bad. Lockness is basically really narrow.
And when you look up at night, it looked like there was loads of trees, but the trees
almost formed the silhouette of, like, a cruise ship. I remember being like, that's really weird.
I'm eating a banana, and I'm looking up. And all of a sudden, the branches start waving.
And to me, at the time, I was like, it looks like people have come to the side of the cruise ship to
support me. So my girlfriend's watching
and all the crew and I'm just there eating a banana
and I'm going, guys, thank you so
much your support me, especially 2 o'clock
in the morning. God bless you guys, thank you
like that. And my girlfriend's like, oh,
he's talking to the trees.
Like he's thanking them for their support.
So sometimes, oh, here you go.
Yeah, that's when he's, that's when he's stalking him.
He's just waiting behind him.
And he's like, what are you doing?
But what I love, it's all mind games at this point.
I'm not going anywhere.
Wow.
I think the reason
I love Mark as well is because he's bringing a level of gamesmanship and mind games that
wasn't really seen in ultra endurance.
Right.
They're all supposed to be super supportive of each other.
Exactly.
And I think you see it in other sports as well.
Yeah, but you can't be super supportive if there's only going to be one person standing.
Exactly.
Exactly.
I mean, one of my favorite examples in MMA was Yeri and Pereira where they were talking
about no shamanic ritual.
Yeah.
And I'm like, look, whatever you think.
Yuri was saying, don't use any voodoo, please.
Don't use any magic.
I was like, this is the greatest time in the UFC
when someone's going, you're not allowed to use magic.
I want a clean fight, no magic.
It's amazing.
I mean, on that note, who do you think is the best at mind games
in UFC history?
Chalcunin?
Chalcun is really good, but Connor McGregor's pretty damn good too.
Connor McGregor, when he fought Joseo Aldo,
he had Joseo in a funk.
Because Aldo was a legend,
and he was respected by everyone,
and Connor was just continually disrespecting him
and just mocking him.
He stole his belt famously at the press conference.
He was in his fucking head, you know,
but obviously that backfired against Khabib
because that shit didn't work on Khabi.
Khabi was on top of him, punched him in the face saying,
let's talk now.
Let's talk now.
He just punched him in the face.
Let's talk now.
And Connor was trying to say it's only business.
He's like, come on, we're talking.
This is what I find so strange
that if aliens came down to this world
and you had to explain to them,
like who is the best man?
mixed martial artist. You'd go, okay, so here's Khabib, devout Muslim, doesn't drink,
you know, lives in the mountains. And you'd go, oh, cool. So that's the blueprint. And you'd go,
ah, well, no. Sorry, so there's a guy John Jones over here. It does coke and fucks everybody up.
There's outliers. There's outliers. There's outliers. There's outliers, you know.
There's always like these Bo Jackson characters that can do anything. There's people out there in the
world that are outliers. And it's very unusual when you stumble across them. It's one of the things
we love watching an outlier. We love watching someone that's just like so unique and different
than everyone else. Like wow. We love that. Like Michael Jordan, a Tiger Woods or someone is just like
above and beyond. You're like wow. We love that. That was it. Definitely looking at like the hero's
journey with Joseph Campbell, Good versus Evil. And with the whole Daniel Comey and John Jones rivalry,
I was like, oh, this is it. This is amazing. This is the, you know, the good and evil and this is. And then
You have something like John Jones who just goes, oh, no, that's not.
For me in boxing as well, it was Mayweather, and I loved Ricky Hatton as well.
So when you saw Mayweather there, like, if it doesn't make money, it doesn't make sense on the bags.
And then you got Ricky Hatton having a cup of tea with his grandma and you're like, oh, this is it.
That's so wholesome.
That's a little bit of bullshit, though.
Ricky was a fucking animal.
He was an animal.
Ricky Hatt separated a lot of people from their consciousness.
He was an animal.
That was just a skill thing.
Right.
Okay, but Daniel Comey is a good one.
They're teaching kids wrestling and you're like, oh, this is amazing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, you know, John's not a bad guy.
He's just an animal.
I mean, he's cut from a different cloth.
You know, there's people in this world that are just wilder, you know, and it's one of the reasons why he's so good.
There's a certain element if you want to be a professional cage fighter.
You have to, there's a certain amount of, you have to have all these things.
To be the goat, like John, you have to have all these things.
Like, perfect technique, incredible work ethic.
when he does work, amazing talent, and an IQ for it.
That's a really underrated factor.
John knows what to do with each.
Famously, will not take a fight on short notice.
Even with a guy like Chale Sondon, who, on paper, you can wake John up at 3 o'clock in the morning,
he's going to fuck Chale Sondon up, on paper.
No disrespect to Chale.
He's a great fighter.
But there's levels, and I think John is just on a complete, and he's a larger man, right?
Chale did some of his best work, almost won the title.
against Anderson Silva at 185.
John is never making 185.
He's a much bigger man.
And John would not take a fight with Chale Sondon on short notice.
And when he did take a fight with Chale Sondon,
he fucked him up in the first round.
He just annihilated him.
Even with a bad toe.
Well, he smashed his toe in the process.
He was pushing off the ground so hard
that he twisted his own fucking toe around.
I think we isolated it in a replay.
Well, we could see the moment where his toe snapped.
And it was because he was delivering ground and pound
with such force that as he was pushing off,
he snapped his own toe and turned it around.
And to this day, when he fights,
he has to tape those toes together.
To this day.
One of my favorite John Jones is the arm bar with Vito Bellford.
Oh, yeah.
Completely hyper-extended.
But it's another example of, like,
guys won't tap if you break their arm.
You know, they will hang on.
And then he wound up winning that fight by Kimora in the next round.
Yeah.
He got through that where most people would have tapped.
His arm was,
fucked. And he couldn't fight for a long time after that because he had to rehabilitate that arm.
His arm was fucked. Yeah.
Going back to the...
Yeah, look at that. I mean, that is...
And also, that's Vitor, who was a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Carlson Gracie, elite arm bar,
and then he wound up tapping Vitor in the next round.
Even with his fight with Gustafsson as well, it just, like, going back to that anterior mettingulate cortex,
it just must be massive in him.
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Who do you think?
There's obviously Gaichi.
Who do you think is one of the most durable, one of the most?
Gai Chi's probably the most durable guy ever,
which is incredible that Max Hollowey knocked him out like that.
But other guys had stopped him before too, but that's just a part of being a human being.
If you're a human being and you get hit by the greatest fighters in the world, you get stopped.
It's just how it is.
It's just like there's, if you get hit clean, no matter who you are, some guys are more durable than other guys.
But no matter who you are, if somebody head kicks you, if somebody hits you with a wheel kick or something like that, you're most likely going to go unconscious or close to it.
Yeah.
That's just a part of the game, a flying knee.
Very few people can survive that.
It's just, it's like one of those things.
Or you get hit and you just set.
Did you see the fight this weekend?
or two weekends ago, rather, with Johnny Walker.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
Johnny Walker hit this dude with a knee from the tie clinch.
A heavyweight.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And just separated him from his consciousness.
And this guy's a massive 265-pound man that he did it to.
And it just proves my point.
It's like, no matter who you are, there's certain things if you get hit with them, you just can't take it.
Yeah.
You just can't take it.
And with, you know, the Max Holloway fight with Justin, that was in a five-round war.
He had been beaten up because he got hit with a jump-spinning back kick to the face at the end of the first round shattered his nose.
So his nose bone was broken.
So he's compromised from the end of the first round on.
And then Max is hitting him with all these shots.
And then finally in the fifth round in a fight that Max is winning, Max points to the ground and says, let's just stand and throw.
And they just wail on each other.
And Max famously knocks him out.
Like one of the greatest.
That's not indicative of how durable he is.
It's like most people would have never made it to that fifth round.
He's insanely durable.
And that's why you saw that fight with Ilya Teporia.
He weathered that second round.
It came back strong in the third.
He's insanely durable.
Like maybe the most durable guy in the sport.
And the most calm under fire.
Like he never, it never changes his expression.
He never looks lost.
Even when he's getting hurt, he never looks out of it.
He just looks hurt.
but he's always like he went back to his corner
after the second round with Toporia
Deporia dropped him with a liver shot
he goes nice liver shot
he said nice liver shot
he got me with a nice body shot
he was like complimenting his opponent
for hitting him in a good spot
he was like that calm
like that was nice nice liver shot
I feel it's almost that Emil Zatapec
it's genuine you've seen in the corner
he's having the best time
I'm just like oh you're wired different
he's wired different
Justin's wired very different
he's wired very different
he's very smart
Like he's a smart meathead
Like people think of him as being a dumbass
Because he's like silly and he does backflips and
Uh-uh
He's thought it out
Like he's he knows what he's doing
Like he's he's doing things that are very intelligent in there
And he has a bunch of things that he does
That he does better than anybody else
And one of them is the uppercut from the collar tie
He does this collar tie
Uppercut and he hits everybody with it
Because he's a really good wrestler
Even though he doesn't use his wrestling in MMA
He started out as a wrestler
And he's a very good out
athlete. And he's got this collar tie
uppercut that he catches everybody with.
And he pulls you into that uppercut, man. He fucks a lot
of guys up with that. That's one of his signature
moves. But you've spoke about it as well with his wrestling in the past. I think
this is so interesting. Going back to what we said about the
ventral striatum, the part of the brain that when things aren't going
well, it almost implodes. Like losing feels so
bad. But I think wrestlers are just used to just getting
beaten up, beating up. One of the best examples on the swim, I have a
friend who's in the special forces.
I was just every single tide,
every single swim. I was just behind.
I was behind. It was just again, like I said,
just biochemically, neuroscience.
I was just imploding. And he turned to me, and
this really helped to
sort of change my perspective on things. He said,
Ross, in the special forces, we're not seeing
how well you can win. We're seeing how well you can lose.
Time and time again. I said,
well, what do you mean? He goes, there was one particular exercise
that we did. Basically, you're on the assault
bike, heart rate over 180,
and they're checking heart rate monitor. So you are a red
and coughing up along, breathing.
They get you off the assault bike,
they take you into a room.
There's a guy there who's like six foot six,
just huge.
And then there's a door behind him.
And they say, okay, you need to get past him
behind that door.
Your friends, your platoon regiment
are over the other side of the door.
So they just run in.
This guy, six foot six is there just holding you.
And then there's a guy with a clipboard in the corner.
Guy with clipboard gives a nod.
Bang, knocks them clean out.
He's out cold.
The next thing he knows,
he's being brought back around
with smelling salts.
And he gets up like that
and there's it in his face going,
do you want to quit?
Do you want to quit?
And my friend at the time was just like,
no, no, I'm good.
And they said they let him up.
He goes again, starts wrestling.
This massive six weeks.
He waits for the signal.
Guy with a clipboard nods.
Bang, not down again.
Did it three times brought them back round.
And then they go, okay, you passed, you passed.
What was interesting is my friend said
one guy actually made it past and got to the door
only to find it was bolted shut.
You were never going to win,
like ever, but that's not what they were testing.
They were testing your ability to lose time and time again.
That's terrible for you.
No, it's bad.
But that idea of just sheer adversity training.
The idea is interesting.
However, concussions, repeated concussions can change a person's life.
For sure.
Yeah, you knock a guy out, a big, giant guy knocks you out three times?
That's a terrible idea.
For sure they was punching them?
He was punching them in the face?
The way that the story was told to me, yeah.
I know.
I mean, there's some
selection.
Some of my friends
in the special forces
some of the stories
they tell me about
selection,
I'm like,
that is brutal.
But then you realize
that's why they're
mentally bulletproof.
Do you know who
Mr. Bollin is on YouTube?
No.
A really interesting guy.
He's got a great YouTube channel
where he tells all these
crazy, spooky mystery stories,
but he's a Navy SEAL.
Former Navy SEAL.
And one of the things that he said
about the people
that make it through Buds,
two people that do really well,
two groups of people,
one of them is wrestlers.
because they're just mentally tough.
They're like they're training
and constantly being dehydrated and tired
and just pushing and taking satisfaction
being the most miserable.
That's one of the things that wrestlers do.
They take satisfaction and suffering the most.
They do really well and then water polo players.
And then I was like, wow, why water polo?
And then I didn't know that water polo players
never touch the ground.
They're constantly treading water
while they're playing that fucking game.
Well, you have to be an insane shape to be in water polo.
I never would have thought of water polo.
You didn't know that was my background, by the way.
I didn't.
Yeah, so I played England schoolboys all the way through to international.
Well, that makes sense.
No, no, no.
I love that you brought that up because it's absolutely true.
Again, there's a famous, very famous match.
It was basically called Blood in the Water, and it was the Hungarians versus the Soviets.
And they were at war.
So they were actually at war.
The Hungarians were training under gunfire, bombs going off and everything.
They then drew each other
I can't remember the name
it might have been the Melbourne Olympics
I believe in the semi-finals
They drew each other
There's famous pictures where basically
The water just went red
Blood in the water
That's what it was called the match
And they just go at it
So they were at war with each other in real life
Yeah and then they drew each other
So the Hungarians were war with the Russians
And then they went to war in volleyball
In water polo
They got yeah they got put against each other
And they just go at it
It's nuts
I mean even like
You can't see, but under my tongue, it's all a little bit of a mess under there.
Because I remember I was playing water photo.
We were in the south of France.
I come over the top like that.
And as I do, I catch an elbow.
And I just like bite down.
My tongue must have been out.
And so it cut my tongue in half.
And then I remember, you then have to defend.
It's kind of like basketball constantly back and forth.
It's that quid.
Why you got a mouthful of blood?
Oh, there we go.
Yeah.
Blood in the water.
Yeah.
So they're just fighting each other.
Yeah.
I think Hungary won.
I believe 4-0.
You have to be an insane shape.
Yeah.
To do that game.
They're trained.
I always found this interesting because I made the England schoolboy squad at 13 and I was playing against under 18.
So I was the wrong side of puberty.
And I was just like playing against these just like men who were trained in like water jiu-jitsu.
So I would throw a punch and then I'd just be under the water while.
You fight all the time in that.
All the time.
So it's like hockey.
It's exactly.
Yeah.
Hockey in the water.
It's exactly.
that. Yeah, yeah. So one guy's holding me down.
Oh my new favorite sport. Are they still allowed
to fight? Yeah, yeah. If you put on YouTube, just put
underwater fights, water polo, just put it on and they'll have
cameras at the Olympics. And it's absolutely
I mean, also... In the Olympics, currently
you're still allowed to fight? For sure. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, look, some of the women... Are they allowed to fight in the
Olympics in hockey? Oh, I don't know.
That's weak.
Weak sauce. That's part of the game.
I mean...
They have boxing. You have boxing in the Olympics and you won't let
people fight in hockey? That's what. That's
Whack.
Agreed.
But yeah,
so back to my
tongue.
I come over the
top.
Would you say,
Jamie?
Strictly
prohibited in
Olympics.
Strictly.
Certainly not in
Waterfoil.
You still see it.
And the women's
water pole,
they still get after it.
The women's games
worse as well
because obviously
they've got more
of a suit to grab hold
of as well.
Oh,
pulling boobs out.
There are boobs out.
There are boobs that come out.
There are indeed.
But I, yeah,
come over the top,
bang,
take base it
and it splits my
tongue in half.
And I remember I then
sprinted back to
defend.
because they're at Ross, defend, defend.
So I sprint all the way back, and you can imagine now,
blood is just pumping around my body.
My heart is going nuts.
And I stop, and there's just blood everywhere.
Like, the whole water is just turned red around me.
But I don't notice.
I think it's somebody else.
So I go, guys, guys, stop, stop.
Someone's been here.
And then I look, and everyone in the stands is looking at me.
And as they did, I remember, it's almost like,
you know when you got like toffee or something in your mouth stuck in your teeth?
Well, that was my tongue.
So I was like, I was going like, trying to spit whatever it was.
was out and then I looked and it was just laughing.
And they were like, no, no, no, you're done.
And they sewed it up.
Oh, boy.
How long does that take to heal?
Weirdly, the tongue heals really quickly.
Yeah.
So it wasn't too long.
I was good in about a week.
Wow.
Yeah, it was pretty bad.
But it's the same in Malta as well.
So it's a huge in Malta.
But out there, they will just put goals in the middle of the sea and just start playing.
So we would go out.
And if you're in gold and jellyfish come over, that is.
That is just popping the game.
Warrior people.
Let me see Water Polo fights.
Yeah, it's not that exciting.
Not that exciting?
We'd have to curate.
I mean, it's a lot of dudes in really small.
It's moving very slowly because it's underwater.
Right.
Let me see.
And it's also in slow motion.
Oh, it's slow-mo.
Also, they're showing these guys hitting each other in slow-mo.
It's really hard to catch it, I think, as fast movements happening.
It's just the amount of endurance that you have to have to,
play a game like this, how long are your periods?
Like, how long are you playing for?
Four quarters. It depends on the age.
But, yeah, four, four, four, four minute quarters, four, four, four minute quarters.
So for four minutes, you're treading water and sprinting.
It's weird.
You're exactly right.
It's swimming mixed with BJJ.
Whoa, people are right.
It's swimming mixed with, like, yeah, I mean, Hungary are amazing.
Oh, they're smacking each other in the face and shit.
Oh, the guy's choking that guy.
Oh, they literally hold on to each other.
Yeah.
And then they swing it.
Oh, this is crazy.
Yeah.
There we go.
Oh, my God.
This is crazy.
It's pretty standard.
This is just, yeah, even at a local competition, that's pretty standard.
No wonder why these guys make good seals.
Yeah, yeah.
It's, you're literally drownproofing yourself.
Like, there's sometimes when I'm caught in an Arctic storm, I'm like it's not as bad as playing
Hungary.
Like the amount of times I was so close to drowning.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
And I think especially as well, I was.
always so young, like I said, I made the under 18 England schoolboys team when I was 13.
So I was the wrong side of puberty. And we were playing against Malta at the time.
And they were just like big, like beards, playing against Hungary. And I just learned very quickly
to be comfortable, being uncomfortable. You know, that Justin Gagee stress inoculation training.
Ever since when I swim now and they're like, Ross is an Arctic storm, I go,
I still got my tongue.
Fuck, dude.
It's not too fat.
You know, we were talking about Carlos Proustic.
protest in that video that I was watching about the fighting nerds, about how the guy, like, emulates animals and stuff.
One of the things that they were talking about is how Carlos had a losing record early in his career.
He's like, or close to it.
It's like five wins, four losses or something like that.
It wasn't doing well, the first nine fights of his career.
And then he decides to go to Thailand, and he flies to Thailand.
And the only way to make any money in Thailand is you have to fight.
So he fights out fighting like every week.
So he fights like six times in a month.
And he's like fighting constantly.
But because of that constant fighting, then he gets like really accustomed and calm fighting.
He has over 100 Muay fights.
So he's fighting all the time.
And it just becomes relaxed to him.
And so when you see him fight, he's always smiling and having fun in there.
It's because he's fought so many times that he's sort of that fear of whatever that experience is like.
For most people, it's like this daunting thing.
They lock the cage door.
Holy shit.
This guy is smoking cigarettes the week of the fight.
Smoking cigarettes the day of the fight, drinking, partying.
Just dead relax when he gets in there and fucking everybody up.
Literally, world-class fighters like Jack Delamadalena, who was the former world champion, beat the fuck out of him in his home country of Australia.
Just beats his ass in a ferocious way where you're watching like, wow, like the level, the gap between them is so vast.
and he's just essentially a product of that
of just like being in the fire for so long
you just get forged
like constantly fighting
see I love that that goes back to like the ancient stoics
Epicetus famously I love this term he said getting wintered
he said that wars were fought in the summer
but what you do in the winter has a profound impact
on how well prepared you'd be
so they would just be doing a cold hard winter's training
the Spartans as well famously would be given essentially a loincloth
and just been told to endure the winter
to fight, you know, for your food.
You know, so you just create these crazy warriors.
And I think now we're getting modern versions.
I think the closest, you know, our mutual friend Liam Harrison,
but he's just, he's wired different, you know.
Yeah, I told him he fights like he has rabies.
Absolutely, that's the best way to fit.
He's like a little demon.
But what I love about Liam is, well,
if anyone's ever spent any time around him,
and he won't mind me saying this,
but he's like vibrating.
He's definitely got age.
But now there's so many studies with fighters saying those with ADHD actually process things so much quicker.
I don't even believe in ADHD.
Oh, you don't?
No.
I don't think it's a disease.
I don't think it's a disorder.
I think it's a superpower.
I think we are conditioning children to sit in a classroom and do something that's insanely boring.
And some people can endure it and God bless them.
And some people are not designed for it and I'm one of them.
And I don't think ADHD is a problem at all.
Oh, I agree.
Not a problem.
I think it's a superpower.
I think it gives you the ability to concentrate on things that you love to an extent that most people cannot fathom.
Oh, I agree.
You get obsessed at things.
I can play pool for 10 hours in a row and I don't eat.
I just drink coffee and play pool.
And I don't have any problem with that.
And everybody else wants to quit.
I want to keep going forever.
That's ADHD.
Yeah, yeah.
I see it in other people that are great at things.
Gordon Ryan, for sure, he's got it.
He fucking trains 365 days a year.
It's both things.
It's discipline, but it's also this obsession that comes.
from if you were in school, they would say you have a disorder.
There's something wrong with you.
Why can't you sit down, do this boring shit all day?
Well, because I don't like that.
But if you sit those kids down in front of a computer and let them play video games,
look at all the concentration they have.
Look at all the focus they have.
Look at how locked in they are and what they're doing.
I don't believe in it.
I believe it's a thing.
I don't believe it's a disorder.
And by the way, I'm not unsympathetic to the varying degrees that people suffer from all sorts of disorders.
I think for some people, it probably is some sort of an arrest.
real genuine issue, right, where they can't focus it and it's not something they can concentrate
on other things that they love.
They're just constantly scattered.
I'm not talking about that.
I think it's entirely over-taagnosed.
And I think there's a lot of people that are just people that are just not wired to follow
the standard norm of what I think is a very boring structure of most schoolwork and most school.
Most of what you have to endure when you're a young kid is sitting down.
when you have the most energy.
You just woke up, okay?
You were fully rested.
You ate breakfast.
It's probably filled with sugar
and you're just fucking piping.
You're sitting in that chair going,
Jesus Christ, I don't give a fuck about Hitler.
Why am I in this class worrying about World War II?
I'm 10.
I want to go outside.
I want to play ball.
I want to run around with my friends.
I want to do fun things.
This sucks.
And they'll tell you you need to get on riddling.
You know, they'll say, Billy can't concentrate.
Billy doesn't know how to count.
I complete.
Because I think to that point, exactly, friends of mine have said, like, Ross, you have definitely traits of ADHD.
And again, I'm the same as you.
I don't like that term because I always just say my dopamine works a little bit differently.
And what I mean by that sometimes as well is even understanding the sort of biochemistry on 400 milligrams of caffeine and then maybe like cognizant for acetylcholine as well.
So I'm playing.
What is cognizant?
It basically is a supplement, a nutropic that will positively interact with acetylcholine, which is a neurotransmitter that is a neurotransmitter that is.
Less jacked up, you're just kind of dialed in and focused.
That and alpha-GPC.
If I take that combination, I am just dialed in and just swimming.
Every single stroke, I'm just there like going good, high elbow, good.
So are you constantly filling up in that stuff?
Are you like replenishing your stock as you're swimming?
Yeah, Alpha-GPC, I know Huberman talks about, you have to cycle that, so that I will.
But certainly with caffeine cognizant, I would be having that pretty much on most swims.
Alpha-GPC you have to cycle in terms of like how often can you take it.
Hooberman talks about every two days and then three days off, I think, that sort of cycle.
Yeah, you can build up a very quick tolerance to it.
Interesting, two days and then three days off.
But this other stuff, Cognizant, you said, so what is in that?
So that's the ingredient.
That's the neutropic.
I hope I'm getting this right.
So it is an actual, it's not a combination.
No, no, no, no.
And that affects acetylcholene, which is amazing just for there, just focus.
Do you ever take acetylcholone by itself?
No, so that's the neurotransmisset.
Or alpha-GPC.
Do you ever take that?
that?
Alpha GPC.
Yeah, alpha-GPC. Yeah, there you go.
So it's a patented, branded form of cytokoline, a natural brain nutrient and
neutropic ingredient used in dietary supplements, energy drinks, and functional beverages.
I like that term.
Functional beverages.
Isn't everything beverage functional?
You know, you're getting hydrated, you're getting drunk.
You get caffeinated.
These are functional.
But will you do that as well, whether you're training or dialed in on something?
You'll know how your brain runs.
You'll say, yeah.
You know what really helps me is creatine.
Creatine's a big one.
And I only become aware of that over the last, I don't know, a few years or so, that
how much of an effect it has on mental focus.
And one of the things that they've shown is people with sleep deprivation that when you
have, we're sleep deprived, when you take, I think it's 10 or 20 milligrams.
It's a lot, right?
Yeah.
20.
Is it 20 grams?
I think it's more than that.
Is it?
So whatever it is, I believe it's 20 grams.
or above, whatever it is.
Whatever the number, what's fine out what the number is, just so we can help people.
I think it's 20, yeah.
It severely mitigates the negative aspects of sleep deprivation in terms of cognitive function,
memory, all those different things.
And I find that.
You know, I've done a bunch of podcasts where, you know, like I said, I play pool a lot.
I have a real problem.
And sometimes I'll come home from the comedy club and it'll be, you know, midnight and I'm wired
from, you know, hanging out and 25-th-30 grams for many adults.
It's a small study.
Strongest acute study is large.
Okay.
Not a normal daily maintenance dose.
Okay, so if you're tired, take 25 to 30 grams.
And then that's the response.
And normally I take 10 or 20.
That's my normal.
And that's for cognitively, then you'll be back to baseline?
Allegedly.
It's hard to know.
I mean, we all vary daily.
I have days where I come in and I'm like, ooh, I'm firing today.
And then other days where I'm like,
I can't even remember words.
Like, how the fuck am I doing this for a living?
Yeah.
You know, your brain is very, it's like the fucking earth's temperature.
It's fucking fluctuates a lot.
That is exactly it.
And certainly on my longer swims now, Creatine, I actually didn't do that during the Yukon swim.
So weirdly, there's just a part of me that does want to go back just to actually trial that.
Because towards the end of the Yukon swim, I was in pieces.
So I would love to see if I could actually, you know, supplement to go that much further.
And I think creatine was one that I would love to add to the arsenal.
So here's what Jamie just pulled up.
It says as part of the study, 15 test subjects were kept awake overnight and had to solve cognitive tasks during this time.
Sleep deprivation tends to change, uh, leads rather to changes in brain metabolism that promote the cellular uptake of creatine.
Beforehand, the test subjects have received a high single dose of creatine, an important metabolic product that is found in food and can also be produced by the body itself.
Three hours after taking the creatine, a positive effect on the brain metabolism and cognitive performance of the test subjects could already be observed.
The effect reached its peak after four hours and lasted up to nine hours.
In particular, the improvements in processing capacity and short-term memory were seen.
The results suggested that a single but high dose of creatine enhances thinking capacity
and causes changes, rather, in the brain's energy reserves during sleep deprivation.
I wonder what it does if you're not sleep deprived.
Like, what if you're a kid and you have to take your ACTs or something like that?
What would that do for you?
That is interesting.
Because I think that's the next frontier almost as well.
Like I think we've known small test subject, right?
But it's still, if you get a significant result from 15 people and you can measure the changes.
I'd like to see it on a large study, but it's interesting.
What are a lot of the athletes using now in the O.C supplement-wise?
Creatine's for sure, one of them.
But the issue with creatine is also it helps you put mass on.
And a lot of these guys are trying to lose weight.
So I don't know what they're doing in terms of like there's some guys that are extreme weight.
cutters.
Those guys that are cutting, you know, 20 pounds, 30 pounds, the week of the fight.
It's really, and rehydrating to a ridiculous extent, like before the fight.
Like, Alex Pereira is the greatest example.
Alex would gain 40 pounds when he was fighting at 185 pounds.
So he's fighting at 185 and he would weigh in on fight day at 225, 226, which is nuts.
Yeah, I always love Rob Whittaker when he's like, who let this guy in?
Fairish, so it's also saying don't take that much.
Right.
Don't take that much.
Even once it says it's bad.
Oh, even once it's bad?
It says for the time being, however, it's not advisable for people to take such a high dose of creatine at home at home as high doses of the substance put a heavy strain on the kidneys and can cause health risks.
I wonder if you could mitigate that strain by hyper.
It said it was temporary too.
It's temporary.
Yeah, for sure.
It says four hours.
But what's temporary?
The gain of cognitive effects.
Well, for the large dose, right?
For sleep-deprived people.
That seems risky.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't think...
But I think one dose is probably akin to one night of drinking.
Like, I don't think it's that bad.
I think the real problem is you can't take that amount every day.
No.
Like, what is...
I know people that take 20 grams a day, though.
There's so many people, though, that are just redlining.
And the thing is, it's like, their biology might be different than your biology.
You know, some people, like, they don't...
have a problem drinking every day. Like Shane Gillis can just drink every day. He's, he got his liver
test that he's fine. And we were all like, what? I'm fascinated by this. Like I said, for future
swims, I think, you know, certainly at 41 years old, I'm kind of as fit as I'm going to be,
you know, is that's, this is the new frontier for me. Yeah. You know, looking at new tropics.
I know where, I bet hypoxia training too. You think. Yeah. That could add. Yeah. Yeah. I really do.
I think it just raises your capacity.
I think it changes the red blood cell count in your body.
That's it, yeah.
Yeah, just like EPO does, right?
Aggregation of marginal gains.
Now I'm just at a point where I'm like, right, where can I just get like 1% here there?
Are you using sauna regularly?
Not as often I should be.
Yeah, that should be a daily for you.
And even doing my cardio in there as well.
Well, yeah, you can.
I mean, that's one of the aspects of the exalt chamber.
So they do two different types of training in it.
One type of training is high altitude.
the other type is high heat.
So I'll do sessions in there at 100 degrees.
And so, yeah.
But it's not high altitude.
It's regular altitude.
It's counterproductive to do the two of them together.
Yeah, because it's blood plasma.
According to the guys who are smart.
The thing you're doing is when you are at high altitude,
your heartbeat is naturally lower.
It's difficult to get your heartbeat out high because there's no oxygen in the air.
When you're at high heat, your heart rate is high immediately.
Like one of the things that I do, I'll do bag work.
I do heavy bag rounds.
And then after the rounds, I jump right into the sauna.
So I go from being exhausted, I give myself just so I'm not dying so I could breathe normal.
Like at the end of the rounds, I'm usually like really breathing heavy.
I drink some electrolytes.
I always bring a big 64 ounce jug of water with ice and electrolytes in it.
And then I go in 196 degrees.
And I sit in there for 20, 25 minutes, and I wear one of those straps, one of those heart rate monitors.
And my shit will be at like 147, 148 the entire time I'm sitting there.
Because I never got to go down.
So it's jacked up from the workout, right?
And then I go right in.
And I might be at 100 when I step in there and it goes right back up, right back up.
So like 10, 15 minutes in there.
I'm just sitting there.
and I'm at one, especially when I start doing heavy stretches, which is why I do a lot of,
I find that you can do stretches when you're in that 195 degree, 196 degree heat,
that you're just not going to be able to pull off.
And so I force my tissue to force it into position and hold it.
And that really jacks your heart rate up.
Then I'll get into the 150s.
Because I love, to go on a bit of a tangent as well.
Like now there's so many good meta studies on, so studies of lots of studies of ultra
endurance athletes, but some of the best now.
These aren't guys just like hanging in there.
These guys are winning between 35 up to 50.
You know, those like grisily old guys and old women who are just amazing.
Don't you think that's mental, though?
Like your mind gets harder as you get older.
This is exactly what I was about to jump on.
So I think there's a few things.
One is capillary density, mitochondrial efficiency.
That you only get after like years and years and years.
So it's like when you're younger, VO2 lactic threshold, elasticity of tendons, all of those
things absolutely are better when you're younger.
And that's why you see so many 100 meter, you know, champions and sprinters, they're always
younger.
But now I think all of those things that you're talking about now, heat adaptation, hyperbaric
chains, everything like that, and hypoxic chambers, sorry, everything like that is just
trying to create, I think, now, a new generation of older athletes.
And we've even seen it 39 years old, Alex Perea?
Yes.
Your Romero 49?
Yeah, yeah.
But he is, he's off the charts.
He makes no sense.
That's an outlier. He's an outlier. He's another guy. He is, yeah. He's so unusual. When you look at him, he doesn't seem like he's aging. It's insane. You know, and he still moves like a cat at 49 years old. Did you see his bare knuckle fight that he had with Darren Till? Crazy. I know. Knocked Darantelle down. Arguably, he could have won that fight. I know. It was a very close fight, but arguably, you could have given the, a lot of people online thought, Yoel won that fight. 49.
Yeah. I think we're seeing it across the board now as well. Like, Kip Chogi won the...
the very recent marathon.
Was it Melbourne?
I can't remember.
You got Messi, you got Ronaldo.
Messies only just retired Ronaldo.
LeBron.
I think LeBron makes no sense
because everything that I just described there,
your proportion of fast-twitch fibers
reduces as you get older.
Elasticity of tendons.
Yeah.
So I understand if you're Messi,
who's just amazing,
his vision of the game and everything,
you can sit there in midfield,
just spraying the ball.
But LeBron makes no sense.
Well, LeBron is meticulous in his rehabilitation.
Maticulous.
He spends an incredible
amount of time, like famously spends millions of dollars just on rehabilitating his body every year.
On massage and all different therapies.
I mean, he's doing everything.
And I'm sure he's, I don't know what the rules are in the NBA with peptides and all that other jazz, but I'm sure he's on all that stuff too.
Right.
I mean, if he's not, I'd be stunned.
Like, why wouldn't you be?
That's crazy.
You know, why wouldn't you be on BPC-157 and TB 500?
And if you're allowed to be, you should definitely be on testosterone and definitely be on some sort.
of human growth hormone, either something that pumps it up, like Samoralin, which like naturally
makes your body produce more testosterone or more human growth hormone, something that allows
his body to regenerate tissue and heal quicker.
He has to be on something.
I mean, I would imagine.
Otherwise, it's crazy that he could perform.
Because one of the things that we talk about a lot, or I talk about a lot, with Cyril Gone,
who's the EOC heavyweight champion, is that Cyril has a background in basketball.
And I think that's a factor.
Because I think his movement, his ability to move, his, it's like basketball, you're doing pliometrics all the time.
Peptides are banned in the NBA.
Synthetic and growth hormone releasing peptides are banned in the NBA.
Are they testing them?
What is banned?
Gross hormone releasing peptides, growth hormone secretagogues.
How do you say that word?
Secretagogs.
That sounds good.
and other synthetic compounds designed to stimulate growth hormone or enhance recovery are strictly prohibited.
But what about BPC 157?
Specifically that one.
BPC 157 was weird because it was allowed by water and then it was banned.
It should be allowed.
All it does is regenerate tissue or rather help heal tissue.
It's banned.
Ban in the NBA is classified as an unapproved substance on the world anti-doping agency's prohibited list
and follows broader anti-doping policies against unapproved peptidepress.
and experimental drugs.
Listen, man, there's zero studies that show there's any negative effects of BBC 157.
And there's a lot of at least anecdotal evidence, first and foremost,
that it's very beneficial for people recovering from injuries.
But then there's others also studies that indicate that it really is helpful for people.
So someone was suspended.
No, I was looking this up because last year this player was on the Lakers,
Luca Donch, very famously got hurt right before the playoffs started.
And he went to Spain to get treated and did not get.
it better. And what that treatment was was not really publicly talked about. But people were saying,
you know, get them on stem cells, get them on BPC 157, get him back so we can play. I don't know
if they are doing it, they have to take time off so they can hide, you know, from test or whatever.
Sort of like Connor did when he broke his leg, right? He got out of the doping pool. Right.
Yeah. And then he got jacked. And they go fucking jacked.
Became Wolverine. He got super jagged. He looked like you. All of a sudden he weighed 220 pounds.
Fucking jacked.
I don't know if you got that big, but the point is, like, I think at least peptides that help injuries.
Listen, you're dealing with a sport where your primary goal is to create an injury on your opponent.
And you're practicing injuring each other all day long.
Like, you're going to get injuries.
And anything that would help these athletes get to the finish line, like get to the cage in reasonable health because they're always banged up.
Like, whenever you see, even at a world championship level, you see a guy who looks awesome, guarantee that guy's dealing with some shit.
Guarantee that guy's got a sore hand, a fucked up shoulders, knee hurts.
Something's wrong.
There's no way you get through a 12-week camp with a bunch of fucking trained assassins,
and you don't get banged up.
You're getting banged up.
And BPC 157 would help those people.
But they're also doing, there's a lot of stuff these guys are doing now.
A lot of guys are invested in hyperbaric chambers.
They're doing a lot of hyperbaric therapy,
which really does accelerate healing from injuries and just general.
just general overall recovery from just life itself.
I mean, it's incredible.
They were amazing for me.
Like we were talking out earlier,
when I tore most of the tendons in my rotator cuff,
that was after the Yukon.
And the doctor was like, how did you not know?
And I was like, well, I had hypothermia,
and I was trying to dodge bears.
I had other stuff on my mind in the time.
If I was a doctor, I'd be so pumped to talk to you.
I'd be like, whoa.
Like, look, this is an interesting study.
Right, right.
Like, what?
What did you say?
But it was new stem cells were amazing.
And then hyperbaric, red light therapy.
I did everything.
And that got me back to the start line ready for Iceland.
I think without it, I might have needed them reattached with surgery.
So that's how good they were for me.
Yeah, it's extraordinary what they can do now.
And it keeps getting better.
And, you know, in this country, there's this battle between pharmaceutical drug companies
that want to, they want to patent these peptides and they want to profit off of them.
And then there's also a lot.
of people who don't want people taking these therapies because it will cost them money in terms
of the amount of orthopedic surgeries they get.
That's a real thing and they have influence and it's a real problem.
And unfortunately, people are willing to sacrifice the greater health and recovery of the
entire population for their own personal gain.
And that's dark but accurate.
Agreed.
Yeah.
And if we were really smart, we would be investing an incredible amount of money into studying
these things and there's not just that they're helping people with neurological conditions or helping
people recover from like Parkinson syndrome or Parkinson symptoms you know they're they're doing them
intranasally for people that have lung disorders like there's a lot of like really good work
that's being done with stem cells does it mean they all are the same and they all work right no
it's like there's shady places this is also part of the problem like if you're traveling to some
godforsaken part of the world to go do this therapy because it's not legal in america
okay well you got to be real careful where you're going you know there's some places like the CPI which is in Tijuana it's very ethical and they do everything really great but there's other places where I've heard people get infected they have like horrible disease you know they get staff infections and wind up almost paralyzed a lot of fucked up things can happen when you're doing this stuff if you don't go to a good place yeah but it the bottom line is though that's a problem with all medical interventions that's a problem with all medical interventions that's
a problem with surgery. That's a problem with like, it's a big, one of the main killers in this
country, I think, we talked about this recently. It's like the number three killer in this country
is medical mishaps. Like, it is either misdiagnosis or bad treatment or some sort of a mistake
that someone makes. It's a problem. You know, so it's a problem. It's like human beings are
very vulnerable. And, you know, so it's not a cure all, but it is a very, very, very, very, you know, so it's a
very promising therapy.
And for people that have had incredible results, and I'm one of them, from stem cells.
Like, I'm screaming from the rooftops.
Like, hey, let's not just throw the baby out with the bathwater with this stuff.
This should be, you should, we can help a lot of folks who have a lot of, like, real serious problems
with this shit.
That's what they said to me.
They were like, Ross, you know, this would have been a death sentence for your career.
You know, you'd have swam around Great Britain.
You've just done the Yukon.
You're good.
You're done.
You know, whereas it's amazing now I've seen it, that it's just managed to extend my career.
you know, just a little bit more.
I think that's what you know.
And just also for people that aren't professional athletes,
just extend your health.
Like so many people that have had like these injuries,
like a good friend of mine had a knee problem.
And, you know, he's not an athlete.
He's just a guy who runs and his knee was in pain all the time.
I brought him into waste well.
He got a shot in his knee.
This was two years ago.
And he's like, I run all the time and never bothers me now.
I'm like, that's nuts, man.
That didn't exist before.
Agreed.
That didn't exist.
Agreed.
And I think this is just the beginning.
I think at the beginning of this stuff,
They keep coming out with new innovations and new therapies that are even more effective.
Mew stem cells being one of the greatest ones that's more recent.
I agree.
They need more studies, more stuff, more work.
This is going to help a lot of fucking people, man.
And, you know, we have to be really careful as to what influence we're receiving as to why this is a bad thing.
You know, I think this is a real problem in this country in particular because this country is like so ate up with money.
You know, money influences so many narratives.
in this country, it distorts reality.
You're looking at everything through a fun house mirror lens.
You know, it's hard to tell what's what's good for you, what's bad for, what should be
recommended, what should be never taken, you know.
My hospital visit on that note was so bad at the end.
The rotator cups was also like the...
How bad was the food?
It was pretty good, actually.
Really?
In Canada and the Yukon.
Oh, there you go.
Yeah, yeah.
You give you moose meat?
Moose meat and pancakes?
Genuinely did.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
A jerky as well.
Really?
Oh, it was so good.
That's incredible.
Yeah.
Fuck yeah, Canada.
Yeah, yeah.
That's awesome.
Indeed.
America, you'd get fucking fruit loops.
No, no, no.
A bowl of fruit loops to recover.
It was amazing.
But we, oh, I'm going to apologize now for this story.
But basically, during the Yukon swim, I had a specially made wetsuit.
So because I can't touch the boat, no one can touch me, I can't touch land.
Going to the toilet was obviously problematic.
Oh, boy.
Right, right.
So you have, like, one of them hatches out the back?
It's exactly it.
Yeah, we had a poo flat made.
Like, it's just this it.
Yeah, pooflap made.
So we had a pooflap made on the suit.
It worked in training.
We then took it on the swim.
To this day, I think we were honestly about six hours in to what was a 60 hour swim.
Six hours in.
I didn't even think about pooping.
Yeah.
You don't know, do you?
That's what will, the whole expedition will come unstuck because of that.
We're six hours in.
To this day, I still don't know if the pooflat was in the wrong place or my bumhole is in the wrong place.
But I end up going to the toilet and it doesn't work.
Like what was meant to clear the wetsuit doesn't clear.
So it's filling your suit up with poop.
Exactly that, yeah.
Yeah, I'm then faced with a decision.
And this goes back to what we were talking about,
your anterior mid-singulate cortex.
In that moment, pain versus purpose, grit or quit?
I'm like, Ross, if you quit,
you are going to be known as the guy who soiled himself
and gave up in the Yukon.
Or do you zip it up and just keep going?
So I zipped it up.
I kept going.
Oh, you're swimming in your own poop.
But it was even worse.
It was a black wetsuit as well.
So it was essentially just baking, you know, like a slow cooker.
Oh.
I know.
So none of it got out?
All of it was in there?
I would say 90% remained in.
90%.
Could you reach in and grab it as they're swimming?
No, no, no, no, no.
Clean out the...
No, no, no, no.
There was no reaching in.
I'm so sorry, Jamie.
I'm so sorry.
So anyway, yeah, at the end of the swim, when they're taking me to hospital, I turn to everybody
and I just go, you know, guys.
And again, the people in Canada, the team that we had are amazing.
They're from the Yukon.
You know, they kill bears.
They gut walls.
They've seen everything.
And they were like, Ross, don't you worry.
And I said, no, guys, I'm going to apologize now.
I saw myself in my wetsuit and it's been baking for what has been 55 hours.
They cut me out of my wetsuit.
They cut me out and they go, Ross, don't worry, we're here.
We're a brotherhood.
We've been.
They did.
They did.
They went, and we're here.
Oh, God.
And they bought, so I'm left there with a flannel.
Just covering myself.
Oh, and you just baked poo all over you.
Yeah.
So like I said, when they said, how did you not realize you torn your tendons in rotation back?
I was like, because I soiled myself,
because bears and wolves were after me.
Very reasonable explanation for why you didn't notice that you were in pain.
It doesn't call staff in any way to be performed?
100%.
All kinds of stuff.
Probably septus.
Who knows what that does to you?
That's got to be terrible.
You're scratching yourself and then just pool over your butt.
Oh, the inside of your legs.
Would you have carried on?
I don't know.
I hope so.
I hope I'd be as strong as you.
No one knows until you do it, right?
Well, I think that's one of the things that the kind of events that you participate in really genuinely does.
Like, it changes people's expectations of what's physically and humanly possible.
And they all have to look at themselves and say, okay, maybe I can do more than I think I can.
And I think even though these are like streams and I think most people are not going to swim for 60 hours,
what they're going to get out of that is this understanding that you're capable of so much more than you think you are.
and just raising of expectations or at least raising of the limits of the possible.
What is possible?
And I think that alone is like a great benefit to people.
I'm so glad you said that.
That's exactly what I say.
I say I don't recommend my lifestyle to anyone.
You know, it's a terrible lifestyle choice.
It's terrible.
It's terrible.
But I say that that's not my purpose.
I don't think.
I think my purpose is people to get them to shift their barometer, their own personal barometer,
just one degree of what they think they're capable of.
Yes.
And if that's what I managed to do, then, you know, I will continue to soil myself in my wet seat.
I think you have done that.
I think you have done that.
So congratulations.
And continue on, sir.
Thank you very much, brother.
It's very good to see you.
It's very good to see you.
It's very good.
Thank you.
Oh, it's good to see you.
You're a freak.
You're one of a kind, man.
I appreciate you very much.
Thank you.
It was good.
Well, thank you, man.
You brought it.
Yeah, but you crushed far more than me.
I was trying.
We're having fun.
Thank you.
It's fun.
Thank you.
It's fun.
Bye, everybody.
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