The Okay Podcast Powered by The Strength Co. - EP 13: Being A Florida Man, Deloads, The Marine Corps, & Crazy Life Stories feat. Nolan Hickey

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

Podcast Hosts: Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach. Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and Lifter Tres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and Lifter Check out BW Tax: https://www.bwtaxllc.com TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Intro 00:47 - BTC Update 01:23 - Missing Training  04:50 - Getting Back Into Running 05:36 - When To Reload 12:11 - Jeff and Tres Join 15:27 - RIP General Gray 20:07 - Lifting Questions Bracket 31:16 - Nolan Joins The Crew 34:07 - Jeff’s Car Story 37:32 - Transitioning Out Of The Marine Corps 41:59 - Crazy Teacher Story 46:18 - Life As A Florida Man 47:59 - Living Through Hurricane Ian 56:03 - Hot Takes 01:02:52 - Nolan’s Training 01:12:56 - Nolan’s Mom 01:16:50 - BW Tax Long Island Edition 01:21:02 - Sign Off

All right, welcome back to episode 013 of the OK podcast. I'm your host, Grant Brogy. Joined live in studio from the beautiful upstate of South Carolina, much better than Philadelphia or New Jersey, which we'll talk about later with PJ, our producer. What's up? Today is Tuesday, March the 26th in the year of our Lord, 2024. So this means 13 straight weeks. I mean, on a 12-week powerlifting program, you go to meet on week 13. So this is quite the run we've had.

What's the block height? Today's block height is 836,445. Bitcoin price is $70,398. Not bad. We're still up over 70. That's great. I didn't, I didn't get to check it while I was in the field. And I think I checked it Wednesday and it was like 65. And then this. I didn't, I didn't get to check it while I was in the field. And I think I checked it Wednesday and it was like 65. And then this morning I checked it and saw it was back at 70. And I was like, Oh, right. They're just waiting on another podcast. They're just waiting. That's why they call it Bitcoin. They're just waiting. Yeah. So back at 70. So Bitcoin's going places. We're here to take you to the moon. Exciting stuff exciting stuff we got a guest joining us this week from long island we'll introduce him later uh the guys are going to come on a little bit earlier

than normal uh just due to time constraints but um yeah i've been gone i've been in new jersey doing some marine training and um so that was, I was just telling Jordy in the, in the pre-show conversation, that was the longest stretch I've gone without lifting weights. Um, it was a week. It was six days. Okay. I trained Wednesday morning. I flew out Wednesday and then I got back in the gym today. I could have technically tried to lift yesterday in Philadelphia, but my wife was there. She'd never been before. We'll probably talk about that with the guys, some, some places that we checked out in Philadelphia, but I just decided like, Hey, today's not the day. So I went in today and I think one thing that's important

for lifters is just to understand expectations after a, I don't know, let's call it a setback, something that takes you out of routine. So I generally train four to five days a week. I'll do one to two lifts a day. I never really miss. I always kind of have that routine. And so today, you know, I think, I think the Tuesday before the Monday before when I squatted, I did 405 for 5x5. And here I am, six days out of the gym, seven days since squatting. And I'm like, I'm not going to go in and do 5x5 and kill myself. realizing, okay, it's been cold. It's been raining in Jersey. I've been sleeping on the floor. I've been eating MREs for chow. Yes, I'm no longer a carnivore. I have not slept much. My nutrition's been poor. I need to get back in the gym. And just realizing, hey, I'm not going to go in and expect to have a better day than I had seven, eight days ago where the conditions were not perfect, but

much more ideal. And so as we talked about in last week's episode, I reduced the volume. I usually do five sets of five on the first day of the week. I did three sets of five and I just worked up to something that was like challenging, but not crazy. I squatted three 55 for three sets of five and I kind of a three lift workout. I strict pressed one 85 for three sets of five and that it weighted chin. So when you come back from a layoff or you come back from a setback, maybe you've had the flu, maybe you've had a fever, uh, you've had something wrong with you. Don't freak out. Don't compare it to your last great greatest session. Just set your expectations of like, Hey, I'm going to make today challenging. Um, and I'll ramp it up quick. Like I bet next week, you know, I'll probably be three 85, three 95 for five by five. So I'll ramp it back up,

but start in at something that's manageable. Um, that's doable that you get a good workout. It is hard. It is challenging, but you're not killing yourself and you're not trying to say, I got to add weight from the last time I did. No, you don't. You've had, you've had a lot of stuff go on. Uh, and then the biggest thing is don't miss too much time. So, you know, weeks about what you can get away with without much setback. Um, after that things start changing. So I got back in the gym today, actually ran into you. You were there doing some business, uh,

not in the gym at a place outside the gym. Um, but yeah, so, and I got to start running again. Oh man, I guess that means I do too. Yeah.

Yeah. I got to start running. So sometime between now and one July, I got to run three miles from the Marine Corps. So it's going to hit 18 minutes. No, um, sub 21 is usually kind of my

fair attainable goal um but i was running really good up through november you know usually twice a week and then it got cold some sub 21 is that's booking yeah that's good yeah it's good so that's that's the goal i'm gonna i'm gonna run It'll probably be slow. I'll probably run like a 10 minute mile, but I got to bust the rust and conditioning always comes back faster than the strength training. So I have a question. Yeah. Send it. So when, uh, when you're doing all this starting strength stuff, when do you do a deload or do you think deloads just happen? No, I think there's definitely times to do a deload. Um, do you have a specific reason you're asking this? Well, you're, you took the time off. We were talking about the 12, the 12 episodes of the podcast and I just thought, Oh, it was next week deload week. But I was like, no, I'm not sure. When do you do a deload? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, sure when do you do a deal yeah yeah yeah so i mean in general

uh i learned this the hard way if you compete and you peak and you max and you do a power lifting meet and you you know literally do one rep max is like you know deadlifts that take 12 seconds you know really heavy squats maybe fail a squat yeah failches. Um, I used to come back and try to train really hard the next week and I tweaked my back a lot doing that. So I kind of learned that the, the hard way. So, I mean, I think the problem is that for most people, deloads are never needed because they never get to the point where they actually need one right because because natural deloads happen yeah marine core training even for someone that takes their training as seriously as me comes in and you do miss a week you know uh i don't know some family event that you're gone for for four

days and you're like hey i could go train but i'm with my like whatever they usually had a fever last week three days there you go so they usually just kind of happen. Uh, but in a perfect world where everyone's consistent and they train three times a week, um, yeah, deloads needed. And it's probably usually after a testing, I like to ramp people up test. And then I, I call it a recovery week. Like, Hey, we're still going to go to the gym. We're going to keep the habit. We're going to do stuff, but it's going to be much lighter. Uh, and so that might be like, Hey, three sets of five squats on day one at 65% deadlifts, three sets of five at 65% on Wednesday, you know, some pressing at in the seventies and benching in the seventies. And you do that just to like, Hey, I'm fatigued.

I know I need to recover, but I still need to go to the gym. And then the next week, you get right back into it. And it's not a crazy reduction in weight, but there's definitely a reduction in weight because you're starting a new cycle. You're starting a new program that you want to run up and do. So yeah, I mean, I think every two to three months, if you're training real consistently,

you need to have a week where you just kind of like give yourself a break a little bit and you're still training, but you know, it's just not quite as intense. That was good. Yeah. There you go. Question answered. But like for you coming off a fever, a fever's tough because sickness is stressful in other ways. Yeah. So like if you actually have a fever, it takes a toll on the body. And so that's where it's just like, hey, come back into the gym.

Don't look at your logbook. You know what hard feels like. Yep. And go up like, hey like hey i mean what's your top squat 4 30 no no 375 375 for a single first thing your deadlift's 465 455 at the arnold okay at the arnold um yeah so 375 so yeah 315 five by fives like up there for you on a five by five yeah that would that's challenging like you've done it though. I've done 325.

Yeah, got it. So for like with those numbers, 375 max, 315 5x5, if I'm coming back after a fever, I'm just kind of being like, okay, 375 is my best. I've done this like 275 3x5. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not going to be easy. No, but I'm not worried about that.

You're not worried about it. Yeah. So I'd say I did three 55 and a lot of this is like mental numbers and it's like, well, this, like, this will be easy. And it wasn't easy. I watched it. It looked fast, but it felt hard. Cause you're like, I haven't squatted in seven days or eight days or however

long. I think I squatted this Sunday before. So days or however long. I think I squatted this Sunday before. So it had actually been eight days since I squatted. So like your knees feel funky. You know, everything's kind of out of whack. I did the opposite of what you're supposed to do. I think on Friday, that was the day after I recovered from my fever. I was supposed to deadlift.

And I was like, dude, I got to try to go to the gym. Grant's going to make fun of me. This is terrible. I'm not going to make fun of you. I'm just going to ask you, did you lift? And you're going to feel guilty. It's the same thing. That's how I spent it. Um, but I think you had me programmed to deadlift for 45, I think for a single back down. Yeah. And I was like, ain't no way I'll try. I can try, but they ain't no way. like ain't no way i'll try i can try but there ain't no way and so i i did 405 and i was like all right that it went we'll see how it goes though let me let me just do one more warm-up before i try that yeah and i did 425 and that was like one of the slowest deadlifts i've ever done but you got 425 i got 425. did you post it and i was just in the field no i didn't

even post it i was like don't look. No, no one needs to see this. But I was funny because I looked at my Arnold video for 55 and I compared it to my four 25 and the four 25 was way slower, way slower. But I did, I did think I had a fever for three days. I lost like six, seven pounds, probably a lot of just dehydration, right? I need a lot of milk now. Um, and the day after i was able to just go pull 24 25 off the ground and that's not like records but i was like sure hey three

days of a fever feeling like great crap it's always increasing the baseline yeah it's always increasing the bottom number like the top number you know what's my top down the 575 it's never about like I mean yes it's about like a hey I want to live 580 but it's about like hey I can kind of go into the gym any day now and down to 500 and that baseline has come up yeah so it's kind of like it's almost being better on your worst days yeah I was I was really happy about that yeah that's good because I was not eating like hardly anything and you chose 425 over 420 for some reason elon musk because i hate elon apparently no i don't hate

elon but he uh but yeah i was happy about that just to be able to pull that off the ground i was like all right cool on my this is like as bad as i'm one i'm at the bottom there you go of my physical preparedness and that's 425 i was like okay i'll take it you'll take it all right let's get these guys in here episode 013 of the okay okay okay okay oh podcast i forgot how we did it too. Yeah, that's all right. Powered by the Strength Company. We're here with PJ, Tris, also known as Trey Gottlich. Mr. Jeff Biggie drinking out of a Strength Co mug and a Patagonia hat and Grant Brogy. And it's week 13.

So we, I mean, I think Aaron Rodgers healed his Achilles in 13 weeks. So, yeah, something like that. Something extraordinary. And so we are now extraordinary that we are still here. He was on mushrooms, though. Yeah, he was thinking of psychedelics. He was inoculated. Not like on his pizza kind of mushrooms?

No, no, I think this was special South American mushrooms. No, i've heard it was pizza mushrooms i've heard of pizza mushrooms i've heard if you eat pizza mushrooms and listen to fleet foxes your life changes yeah dude it's so great i do it every day yeah every day mushroom pizza uh and my brother so my brother called me last episode he said he was a big fan of so he was a big fan of matios oh man he's like that guy's hilarious i got a lot of text i say a lot like i got more than usual so maybe i think five nice people that were but but what was funny it was people that had no idea who Matios was. And they're like, that dude was hilarious. Yeah. And I was like,

you know, this one. Yeah. I was like, you know, Matios is here for a reason and we are sponsored. So we'll play you that reason. Absolutely.

BW tracks. I love them. They're based out of South Carolina, but they can do taxes for you anywhere. They have CPAs. They have the team that you need to cut through all the red tape they did trace taxes got them in and got them out uh we've got to mention that whenever you're calling them don't think you're going to be talking to

some chat gpt some bot you're not going to be put on hold for 25 minutes and then told we're going to call you back and then end up at church when they finally do and not be able to answer because you're in communion with the people that are around you and how could you possibly stop when you make the call they're going to answer bw tax llc from south carolina to everywhere everywhere so thanks our sponsors Everywhere. Everywhere. Thanks to our sponsors, BWTX. Nailed it. Abby, after she listened to that, she goes,

did BW do her taxes last year? I go, no. Hey, hey, Jordy, PJ, PJ, not yet. We are under contract. We have to get our taxes to money. Trey, we are in breach of contract now. All the podcast money not yet you can't

afford not to can't afford not to let's see Biggie we got about 15 minutes for our guest comes on so what road you taking us down I'm always headed towards hell I usually get about halfway there and then I run out of artillery punch and come back

classic if you want me to turn somewhere just just tell me I usually get about halfway there, and then I run out of artillery punch and come back. Classic. If you want me to turn somewhere, just tell me. To segue off that Fiddler's Green reference, I think we got to give a quick shout out to General Gray, 29th Commandant of the Marine Corps. R.I.P. Did they name somebody? Very special commandant. No, not that guy.

The 29th Commandant he's artillery officer yep only one to get his like official photo in camis he's wearing a point he's like it's like we're a war fighting organization like i'm gonna be in my war fighting like uniform uh and then i was telling headquarters battery about him and then Top Shepherd made sure to point out that he's also from Jersey. So Sean Shepherd, New Jersey. Big Jersey guy pointed out. All right, General Gray from Jersey as well. Yeah.

I mean, so he's on his way. Is it Fiddler's Green? Yep. Another Mattis guy, type guy, like never married. He likes books. Married to his own reading list. You know, the common that's reading list. Yeah.

But yeah. RIP general gray. The photo's kind of like funny though. Cause it doesn't, I mean, I got to pay homage. He looks hardcore, but like it's,

it's, it's kind of a funny photo. Wait. RIP. Is he dead? Yeah. General gray died. Wait, R.I.P. Is he dead? I'm trying to find it. Yeah, he died. General Gray died.

Oh, okay. R.I.P., Trey. It means rest in peace. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You wouldn't get it, but Jeff and I do because we're from the South. Is that him? I thought you were saying that he was. I had no idea who he was.

I thought you were saying he was named Commandant. I was like, oh. No. I was completely lost there i was like what's happening you know general gray he's like in a lot of the white uh books the mc oh yeah yeah yeah oh yeah gray's anatomy yeah yeah that i've definitely seen all those episodes yeah he was on it i sat next to uh patrick dempsey um playing one time yeah Yeah, that was crazy. Is that the assistant commandant? Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. Real quick, what's the story behind the clothes? So the official commandant photo, it's usually taken in a uniform called Alphas, Marine Dress Alphas. So it's a green suit. Not that. That's still tight. green suit. Not that. That's still tight.

Just type in Commandant photo and you'll see everyone else is wearing a different uniform, often referred to as the pickle suit. Okay. Okay. That's not bad. That's General Gray in his alphas.

That's usually the official photo, but if you go into like quantico museum but when he took his official photo he was in camis because war fighters war fighters real story they were just at the dryer cleaners yeah he was like oh shoot is it today i didn't buy all the stars i need I didn't buy all the stars I need. I haven't got them fitted since TBS, so they're a little snug. I bought them from the exchange instead of the marine shop. Anyway. They really sold me on how close their location was.

I can get my alterations done. God, what a racket. What a racket racket the marine shop i was just on the phone with him this week because when we got our uh master sponsor for last year potential sponsor the marine shop quantico virginia filling the needs of officers uniform needs since 1775 um yeah they sent me a uh cover it was like eight sizes too big i mean and and and trey my head's not as big as yours but it's close is it would be too big for me i'd be way too big for you it was it was i was like who would have said this they're like what's the biggest size we got send it to

this major yeah i just did the reserves. I sent it back and they called me. I sent it back like two months ago. They finally called me and told me the replacement's on the way. 7-3-8. My Stetson shipped. That's good. Yeah, it's great.

I mean, it's summertime. Straw? You're ready to roll. Straw, yeah. I got my summer hat in. Marine shop. What's a good slogan I mean, it's summertime. Straw? You're ready to roll. Yeah, I got my summer hat. Oh. Marine shop. Let me see. What's a good slogan for the marine shop? Marine shop.

Once an officer, always a failure. You're going to pay a lot of money. Pay a lot of money where it wants. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Basically. Basically. All right, Jeff.

What else we got up on the docket here uh trey you want to go into your like you have something you have special oh dude yeah question well i got yeah so it's march madness right so i figured madness women's basketball i'm here for it yeah so i figured we do a bracket edition of lifting questions. Okay. I don't want a time crunch. We're already in the Elite Eight. I picked out eight questions. They're going to go against

each other. Let's do this. I'm going to have Grant and PJ guess. I'm going to have Jeff and PJ guess what Grant's going to pick. We'll see. Y'all are filling out your bracket. All right. to have Jeff and PJ guess what Grant's going to pick. And we'll see. So y'all are filling out your bracket. So this is... So you'll

two questions and then Grant's going to pick which one we think is better. The topic is, yeah, so it's a bracket. So as like a coach, what do you hear or see the most, like the most often? Got it. I think once we start, yeah, lifting thing.

Once we start, we'll figure it out. So once, all right, so the first round, all right, so here's the first game. We have, do you see butt wink on squat, or do you see a rounded back on deadlift more often? PJ. I'm going rounded back on deadlift more often? PJ. I'm going rounded back. Rounded back? We'll go Bowling.

Okay. I like picking the opposite, Biggie, but it's definitely rounded back on the deadlift. Okay. Yeah. Definitely. That's the first winner. Okay.

So then we have uh next game we have giving up on a rep too soon and going against not squatting to death oh oh i'm going squatting to death yeah definitely squat to death like people that are coming i gotta people that are coming into like my facility yeah like gaining or the general public no i say the people that you're as a coach like what do you what do you see more often so i think jeff and jordy are correct in squatting high, but if you just yell at them, they go down. You have to yell. You have to yell.

You can't tell them. You have to yell. But I think giving up too soon is a harder thing to teach, and I think I see that more often. So if someone squats the first rep high, I go, deeper! And they're like, crap. That's it. I had not squatting to depth as like a one seed.

That's an upset right there. Yeah. Oof. I'm not trying to go against everybody. I just. It's all right. Okay. So you have.

Okay. Hang on. Hang on. Jeff has thoughts. Jeff has thoughts. I think like, yeah, if it's. Is it like first, second week? I think the squatting to depth.

But then. Once they actually start putting weight on like they don't know what heavy is and so as a coach seeing people in the gym the squatting depth is definitely a prevalent problem but it's so fixable yeah that it's fixed. And the giving up, though, you can scream at someone and they'll just rack it after rep three when they're supposed to. I think that's more prevalent. I was going to die.

And you'll be like, it was moving as fast on all the reps. It was fine. All right, let's go to the next game. All right, next game. We have someone not having any hip drive on the squad and it's going against. Should I deload? Okay.

Jeff, you can go first. Silence. silence is i think it's a similar type thing in that like uh the you can coach the hip drive quicker and but like everyone thinks they need a deload week like once it starts like getting a little bit difficult they're like oh i need to see i i need to deload i don't want to overtrain i don't want to overtrain i don't want to overtrain i feel. I don't want to over-train. I don't want to over-train. I feel like hip drive, sometimes I feel like whenever, and it just might be in my head, like when I get heavy, I feel like my hip drive might be the first to go. I don't know. I'm going D-load as well.

So D-load versus hip drive. I'm the authority here. I'm going to go hip drive on that one. So we're keeping hip drive. Okay. Yeah, hip hip drive on that one. So we're keeping hip drive. Okay. Yeah. Hip drive wins out that, that seed.

It's like angel Reese. You just pull a little hair and LSU that goes to the next round. Are you ready for the next one? Yeah. We have a bar placement too high on squad and it's going against skipping lifts or skipping lifting because i'm hurt or sick oh this is an easy one yeah go for it pj this is gonna be skipping lifting yeah yeah skipping it's a blowout okay skipping over there that that's like south carolina first

presbyterian college so when the final four right now 91 to 39 it's a blowout. Skipping lifting. Can you hear me? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I lost audio for a second. Okay. Final four.

You ready? Yeah, we're ready. All right. We got rounded back going up against giving up on a rep too soon. I'm still going to go giving up on a rep. Okay. Yeah. That's I'm going going to go giving up on a rep. Okay. Yeah. That's what I'm going with too.

I'm going to go with that as well. Giving up on a rep. Yeah. Giving up on a rep. All right. And then the other side of the... The other one is... So someone not having... So hip drive going against skipping lifting because I'm hurt.

Skip... I think it's skipping lifting ah the tournament's rigged no i was gonna say it's a script script all right so now we have skipping lifting against uh giving up on a rep that's really that's a good matchup that's a final that is a final Jeff Jeff that's a good one I'm going to say I'm going

giving up on a rep I was going to get the same thing because you can you can just tell someone to come to the gym when they're back they still won't come but I'm also I was going to get the same thing because you can just tell someone to come to the gym when their back is a little sore. They still won't come, but I'm also going giving up on a rep. So that's the most common out of all the ones you see. You think that's a good one to win? Yeah.

So then how would you coach, let's say, against that? Let's say Abby's doing something heavy. So the toughest thing about that one and why I think it's a good winner is that giving up on a rep like yes it's coached but it's it's literally an intangible which is a word marines love to say like oh it's an intangible you can't teach that but you kind of the person has to actually believe i'm supposed to lift it's supposed to be hard and i'm supposed to be in a lot of discomfort and that is not what the populace of the world thinks. They think everything should feel good. But yeah, I would say giving up on a rack, just like, no, keep pulling.

It's still moving. My mom, dad lifted 235 for two yesterday. And I watched it. I remember you posted a video of it. I was like, mom like mom beast you're amazing and i'm not just saying that because she's my mom but like the first rep was so slow so slow and like you see that sometimes on a set of five first reps a lot slower than the next few but the first rep was slow and then she like went down and her program said 235 by two

and they were all pr weights her previous pr was 230 and she did the second one and like i don't know where that i didn't teach her that i'd love to say i did her coach didn't teach her that like that's something like where she's like yep this is supposed to be hard yeah i it i'm supposed to wonder if i can do this and she did it so some people just naturally much better I guess higher pain tolerance I don't know whatever you want to call it yeah I mean I kind of pushed through it be taught you do see people come through like and they train over and over and they fail and they keep in like they learn like a lot of people and they keep in like they learn like a lot of people in the squat particularly if you film them and they fail a rep and take it to the pins and then you play it back and you're like it was still

going up and it'll like something will register like oh crap keep going that really was going and i just quit and then but like and so some people will be like wow i was a huge wimp there's a lot of words i could use right here but i'll just use it um and that was a huge wimp and next time i have to try harder and it clicks and for some people like no that was hard i can't do that um or like on a deadlift i think he told me once it's like count to five like pull and five mississippi yeah i used that a few days ago so i got my Kate, my fiance to start doing the starting strength. So she's on a deadlift and she does her, I was mean and I made her jump up 10 pounds instead of five. And so body weight, what? Yeah. And body weight, a lot of milk. No, she goes

up and she goes up 10 pounds and she's doing it. She does the first rep and she like pulls it. And like, by the way, I'm looking at it. It's fine. She sets it down and she goes, I don't know if I can rep that. I looked at it and it was like, flew up into the air. I was just like, you got it. It'll go. Just do it again. She was like, okay.

She just took it up. She was like, I don't know. I was like, just do three more. She was like, okay. Then she did three more and it was fine. I was like, this is lifting. Yeah. It's easy to get in your head when it gets heavy, man. Yeah. I got it. Oh, he's got it. He's got it. I always just tell people to do delayed cadence.

Yeah. Oh, delayed cadence. You'll get it. Delayed cadence. Delayed cadence. One. Deadlift has not moved. Two. Gonna keep them pulled. Three. Gonna go to the knees. Four. Oh, I used the five seconds though. said just pulling out for five seconds i did say that that seemed to be good it worked good bracket what were you gonna say yeah squad jeff you it's like you don't like you have to like push them out it like they have to like get out

into deep water and like actually like, just try it. Like they're like, it's in until you, you hit that third rep and you're like, Oh, I have two more. This is not happening.

And then you actually do it. Then you're like, Oh, that's what it's going to feel like. Okay. I'm not going to die. It's not going to be fun, but it's going to be hard.

And that's what we want. Feelings are fake. Should we let this guy from Long Island in? Hey, Strong Island. All right, let me let him in. Hey. Handsome gentleman. Hey, my boy.

Okay. Look at this crew. Baby boy. Surprise guest. Surprise to everyone from long island chaminade grad lacrosse player naval academy graduate marine corps captain best storyteller i've ever met in my life and remember i'm not a shittai number one uh joining us from i think sunny florida we'll let him tell you but uh nolan nolan hickey needs no introduction um marine with uh jeff trey and i

back in the day uh we all lived together um nolan thanks for coming into the okay. Okay. Okay. Podcast. I'm not an honest. Pretty impressive guy you just described there, Grant. As Don Hickey would say, an officer and a gentleman. Am I right? He would. He would agree with that.

What's going on, Nolan? I don't know. It's tax season. I'm a little worried about getting the right guy lined up. That's right. If only we knew a guy. Yeah, you're going to get your opportunity to read a tax read, but we like to do that a little bit later once we get to know you a little bit. What if Nolan just comes on and just does the ad read and he's like,

bye, I'm out of here. Just leaves. I made my money for the call. I'm old, Jay. You put put a sponsors you'd be right i know we're hard to keep track of these days but currently in sarasota florida can't beat it where is that and that's a real question because i'm homeschooled it's next to it's next to trump's house right well i know it's a lot i know it's near hurricanes yes that would be that's true very true yeah we're just south of tampa um north of four mires nice little nice little gulf coast

uh i guess it's pretty central just on the gulf coast side but oh i'm looking on the map you're on the uh what we call the alabama side of florida uh very well very well yeah just below the pan handle can't beat it can't wait for you guys to come down here got the uh garage gym set up with we call the Alabama side of Florida? Very well, very well. Yeah, just below the panhandle. Can't beat it. Can't wait for you guys to come down here. Got the garage gym set up with the swimming strength. Got the plates, got the bar. It's quite nice.

Nice. Do you still call it the dojo? I do. Because you gave me that name. You were the very first person that you were like, I set up the gym, you're like, nice dojo gym you're like nice dojo i was like what's that if i remember correctly it was the carlsbad california dojo right yeah dojo dojo 1.0 until we all decided to move in together and uh dana point uh dojo 2.0 happy happy to save my life

dojo 2.0 was great those poor neighbors yeah yep but uh bringing back some good memories my one of my favorite memories would be when jeff decided to leave his car in our driveway during deployment aka jeff and uh wait wait let me let me explain yes We named the Jeep Grand Cherokee Jeff. on who was in like the tightest bind um but you know cut down on everyone's costs and i don't even think jeff knew what was going on for nine months so i appreciated it i feel like we did him a favor but no my favorite is the gear my favorite is jeff's car for some reason like the manufacturer decided to put like you could like set the record for like top speed. Like it's like a top speed record.

I'm like, why would you like, are you drag racing? Like, why would you put this on a Jeep? And then we ended up breaking it while Jeff was gone. Every, every week.

Oh yeah. Well, you're just like, as I most correctly named it, the high score, high scores, one 22. I i'm like put me on the five i'll break that yeah i think my favorite la it was all over the place you name it and then yeah like got back from deployment and then like that like within two hours like

back to my core and gordon is like oh yeah they set the record for the car, and Gordon is like, oh, yeah, they set the record for the high score. I was like, what's that? This immediately spills the beans. Thanks, Gordon. I was like, you know what? All the parts seem to be intact. It's still running. I'm missing half of my wardrobe,

but the car's still running, so that's good. Chef's sitting outside potential sponsor gordon mcleod hey oh good sponsor yeah it'd be a good sponsor i mean he kind of sponsored us as lieutenants we just wherever we went wherever we went he paid all right he took me to be sweet 16 yeah well no we don't want this to be about us. We want it to be about you. So tell us, you're what, four years removed from the Marine Corps? Yeah, this summer will be four years. Got out end of July of 20, got out of the Marine Corps. COVID times. Yeah, yeah, dark times. But yeah, it's been a fun four years since getting out. I'm probably not good for viewership, but I haven't missed it one day

since getting out. Reach! It's good for viewership. The grass is greener, the air is fresher, and the food tastes better on this side. It's been fantastic. And you got out? Go ahead.

I was on recruiting duty in Phoenix for the Marine Corps. And that could be a whole podcast in itself of what transpired there for 38 months. But from there, moved up to San Francisco, to the Bay Area to work for a builder. Was there for about two years. And now I'm down in Southwest Florida with a different builder for the last two years. And construction management, I'm on my third project. It's been fun. Yeah, no complaints. So I talk about this a lot. I was talking about this weekend because I had Marine Drill Weekend about Marines leaving. And I always say like, when you decide you want to leave the Marine Corps,

and I always say like when you decide you want to leave the Marine Corps everyone's just like okay see you later and because everyone that's your boss or over you has never left the Marine Corps because they're still in the Marine Corps but like what was uh I don't know maybe we got some maybe we got some viewers that are still active maybe we got some reservists listing. Like your transition from, hey, I'm this captain getting my ish pushed in every day in Phoenix as an XO working around the clock to going. Like, how did you like, did you use a recruiting office? Did you just like, like, what did you throw resumes into the wind? Like, what did you do? I got I kind of had a blessing and a curse. like what did you throw resumes into the wind? Like what did you do? Do you know a guy? I got, I kind of had a blessing and a curse.

I didn't want to go on recruiting. Typical Catholic. And yeah, very true. Catholic roots. And yeah, I didn't have a choice. So they said, go to Phoenix for three years or you can get out. So I ended up going to Phoenix and my first two years I was the officer recruiter. So really every week I was at a career fair of some sort, meeting people, trying to bring people in the Marine Corps. But I ended up meeting a lot of different companies and a lot of hiring managers or recruiters for different companies. And that's when I kind of got the idea in my head, like, all right, I think this ship has sailed.

But shout out to Lieutenant Colonel Jody Cooley. Only one time on the phone, legend. Jody was basically like, you're going to wake up one day and you're going to know it's time to get out. I was like, that's good advice, but you're still on active duty. So like, how do you know what that feels like? And like, he's right though, right? You're going to have a feeling one time it's time to hang it up.

So my CO at the time, he's actually a third LAR CEO right now, Scott Stewart. I basically told him like a year and a half out, like, I've explored all different options. I'm ready to get out. And I think I'm going to start the process here soon. And after him trying to sell me to stay in, it was fully supportive. And I know not all CEOs are like that, but he was pretty special. It was fully supportive. And I know not all CEOs are like that, but he was pretty special. And I just started doing some due diligence in the area, setting up breakfast and coffee with people.

And every time I met with someone, I'd ask them for like two or three more contacts. And before you know it, good things happen. And thankfully, at the Marine Corps birthday celebration in Phoenix, there's a huge collection of veterans there. They get together, cut the cake and celebrate. The same gentleman, Scott Stewart, got up on the microphone, several hundred people in a ballroom, everyone's fired up. And he introduces his staff and he goes, oh, by the way, Captain Hickey's getting out in like a year. He's looking for a job. So everyone should come up and talk to him. And, you know know he didn't have to do that but he did and that led to a bunch of different opportunities and a couple of the gentlemen I met there just took like a special interest in me and introducing the people that were in the area and Phoenix at

the time was primarily like wealth management insurance and um I I was interested in it but after meeting with a couple of folks, it probably wasn't for me. And then just continued to dive into my network, talked to some folks that I knew from back home on Long Island that were in construction management. And my old man was in the industry and just ended up finding an opportunity with a contact from Long Island who gave me my first shot up in the bay and probably would have never moved to San Francisco on my own, but the opportunity was too good and sprinkle COVID in there. A lot of folks had their, especially Marines getting out, had their offer letters rescinded and it just caused a lot of problems. But thankfully I had some good people in my, in my corner helping me out. That was great. That was like a real professional answer. i'm gonna i'm gonna kick it to jeff and trey because we gotta like get long island nolan hickey out of the box here so yeah keep it coming

yeah uh trey i think you like get nolan out of his box that like you know i to me get him on an irish story maybe it's about his mother in a in a in a school maybe it's about his dad it could be about a professor could be about nolan nolan nolan need i say more he's our friend he's our friend he's our friend so well jeff so what what i usually do is i end up telling like a story i'll be like in a random group and I'll tell a story that Nolan told me and I'm like yes I have this buddy and he like had this teacher and I'll like start telling it and then like halfway through I'll just call Nolan randomly and Nolan knows nobody like who I'm talking to and I go hey Nolan tell that story about Mr. Hawk and then I'll just

like pick a Mr. Hawk story and Nolan like, like without skipping a beat, we'll just like hop in and just like tell them these strangers a story. My favorite is the, what's the, you got to tell a Mr. Hawk story and set up who Mr. Hawk was. But with the one with the, remember they're at the teacher conference and like they have to do like parking or was it like. Yeah. They had to do something.

And this is like a folklore of the high school so you have uh yeah just a fine institution i'm a proud alum and uh yeah you know every faculty member there is just like unique in so many ways they're the salt of the earth they do anything for the students you know they would do anything for the alumni and uh you know when you meet different alumni they all have like the same great stories about like the same teachers and kind of like the who's who but there was a one story that happened long before i got there where the administration had this orientation for freshmen and for the longest time it used to be uh volunteer and if you if you went to it you made

a little extra cash it cut into your summer but you know it was a good incentive to come so for whatever reason someone in the administration made a decision to say that this year or excuse me the upcoming summer it's no longer volunteer right you had to come and do it for all teachers no ifs ands or buts that's just like the way it was going to be so this one one professor gets up there and um he had this personality for just kind of saying whatever he thought to students to you know whoever it may be and everyone loved the guy so the administration's mr hawk yeah just he's long retired absolute gentleman lived like 100 yards away from the front door of the high school would walk every day.

And so as the story goes, after the administrator is done breaking the hearts of everyone, telling them, hey, you got to come in like a week or two early for orientation. He ends up saying, you know, stands up up, raises his hand, and he goes, are we going to be compensated for this? And the administrator goes, no, no one's being compensated for it. And he raises his hand again. And they say, yep. And he goes, why don't you just kick me in my balls in front of the entire faculty know faculty and staff and yeah everyone got a laugh out of it that was just kind of like his humor and he shows up smile on his face and you know he's just a great guy enjoying retirement now but um yeah just a million stories from that school and too funny but he's a legend i never had him as a teacher but you'd ask anyone who had him

it was like a stand-up comedy act while he's teaching physics during the day yeah i would get between you and brian finn i think i feel like i know the guy yeah yeah there's uh yeah he's a piece of work but yeah he's got a couple of good ones out there a few that we can't repeat on the air but um yeah just like a total legend but every teacher was similar to him just a total riot um most of them were born and raised on long island so they all had kind of like the same attitudes and uh and sense of humor but yeah good good place to be from that's for sure didn't uh didn't bill o'reilly go to school he did yeah bill o'reilly was uh

it's in one of the openings of his books. He was sitting in like freshman religion class at Shamrod when JFK was shot. And he like never forgot like who the teacher was. But he'd come back every year for career fair and just kind of he was like the capstone, you know, finishing touch on career fair night and just talk about himself and how it got to the point where he was there. It was always interesting. He would dive into all the details. But another guy that was super loyal to the high school and always giving back. Jeff, what can you get out of Big Nolan?

I mean, we've established a world-class storyteller. So a strong Long Island boy now living in florida what's the adjustment been like any like crazy like florida man stories or is there any like culture shock are you basically dave portnoy like one house and man talk or wherever it is and one in miami like what's happening no no uh just the one place we move around a lot the uh i'll tell you what i thought i knew humidity until i worked in naples for the summer that was like jeff and i know you know what you want to know why because because we're from the south naples is not the south it's horrible yeah it's just a different beast down here in terms of like the people the pace and everything um you know everywhere i've lived in this area is a bunch of new york transplants

or midwest transplants so very rare you meet a florida native but there's they're definitely here um but yeah it's blown up you, cost of living is unaffordable for housing. Um, you got houses on the market for like 675 that are about $200,000 would frame not up to code, you know, people are buying them. So that's a little frustrating at times, but, um, yeah, it's nice. The traffic is, uh, less than ideal, especially in season with all the snowbirds here, but there's good people, plenty of work, and the food could be a little bit better. I feel like Jordy lived in Miami for a while.

I feel like he's got some questions for you. Yeah, I just wanted to ask you, were you there during Hurricane Ian in 2022? Before I get into that, Jordy, why don't you give me a little intro so i know who i'm talking to hey what's the state of the agency pj used to be off camera and so now he's on camera so like we don't actually know if we should introduce him i just heard a story about you just call random people you don't know and

tell a deep, intimate story. And now you're giving me 20 questions. I feel insulted, but that's all right. Answer the question, Jordy. Yeah, for real. Yeah, Jordy, where are you from? Yeah, Jordy. Yeah, so I'm Jordy, a.k.a. PJ, on this podcast.

I'm Grant's video guy doing all the production stuff here. I do that for my job i was in miami for two a little over two years uh working with a like a podcast down those based down there and now i'm in greenville south carolina living down the street from this guy and also a fantastic singer nolan i don't know yeah great pipes that's great there you go yeah so i was in uh so i moved to naples like march of 22 and uh i was i moved i was living in an airbnb like seven blocks off the gulf in downtown naples and uh my wife and i relocated to a house you know just on our own accord for a rental after we kind of got established in the area and trying to figure everything out. So we moved September 1st, September 28th of that same month is when the hurricane hit.

Right. So you were watching the news like everyone else. And, you know, the weathermen, weather forecasters, they get everything wrong, right? So they're telling the entire state. Yeah, well, they're telling the whole state that's going to hit Tampa, right? So everyone from Tampa is freaking out, 100-year storm. So people start heading south and north and whatever, getting out of Tampa. And then they say, oh, it's actually going to hit Sarasota. So then people from Sarasota get concerned they go up to gainesville they go to

the east coast so we're sitting in naples thinking hey we're great you know it's going north we'll hang tight what could go wrong and uh so fast forward like the morning of they were not in the evacuation zone but we were like the next one and we we're new to Florida, so we're thinking, oh, we'll be all right. We're in a two-year-old home. It's up to code. So fast forward, I think it was like 9 a.m., 10 a.m., Governor DeSantis gets on, and he's like, all right. Was he wearing his high heels?

His high heels? Those killer boots? I don't know if he was. He was holding court from Tallahassee. Just curious. Jeff's cat's arrived. uh those killer boots i don't know if he was he was holding court from tallahassee just this whole team uh jeff's cats arrived uh nolan we always pause every story when jeff's cat arrives not a cat guy it happens once per show there's zoe hi there we go okay good all right nolan continue no one's allergic from there yeah just from here i'm like breaking out

Nolan, continue. Nolan's allergic from there. Yeah, just from here, I'm like breaking out. So the governor gets on and basically tells everyone, hey, if you haven't left yet, party's over. You got to hunker down. And that's when I was like, all right, we might have made a terrible mistake. Because the cone is now like, you know,

my blue dot is like blinking and touching the cone and it's like all right we're on it in the evac but we may like have a rough go here you're in the worst possible spot yeah i mean it came right through where all my co-workers live you know the subcontractors were like everyone we i rub elbows with like had a horror story. Wait, so did you leave? No, we should have, though. It was totally irresponsible. When you think about the hundreds of thousands of- Going down with the ship, am I right?

Retreat hell. I just got here. If you think about every risk management sheet we filled out, I basically just obliterated 12 years of federal risk management with that one decision and uh anyway not a good idea don't recommend it so it's we uh yeah we hunker down and then like before the storm really hit the tornado warning started so my wife and i were in the closet just like watching uh that's when we started watching the crown didn't stop until completion.

And then, yeah, you know, and then, uh, yeah, we started losing power and whatnot. And then like when the hurricane showed up, it sounded like the long Island railroad,

like in between my neighbor's house and I wins and everything. But thankfully we were in, you know, brand new home for the most part. So we didn't have any issues, but surrounding area, like it really ruined uh northport um port charlotte uh like matt lachey is an area that basically got like

i mean it's gone it's you know sad to see with all the like before and after so storm blows through we didn't have power for like five maybe six days but like the state of florida ran like a full-fledged military operation to get everyone like up and running um you know look for survivors rescue people they had chinooks flying overhead i mean it was really impressive um with how quickly they got everything up and running but so you're saying the way that the military operates is impressive no like the like the florida yeah just like the first oh sorry about that yeah just for uh yeah the way the state of florida was ready to respond was like inspiring right they had fpl had linemen ready to go like sleeping in parking lots in the center of the state.

But really, they just got everyone up and running in a week and a half, unless you were a total loss of a house, which unfortunately happened in a few areas. But we miss about, let's call it a week of work. By the time we got back, all of our different employees, whether they worked for our company or they were sub our subcontractors, like everyone had a horror story. Right. Or if they didn't happen to them directly, you know, they knew someone. Right. So like, you know, I work with a guy who is in his, in his attic, using a chainsaw to open his roof to like get up to high ground.

Like that's how bad it was. but the good thing was like the neighborhood like the community down here was unbelievable what people did to respond to help out people came from miami came down from jacksonville bringing supplies and um you know just like unbelievable what people did for each other and uh i don't think this the response would have been the same other parts of the country but it was it was cool to see a fortune to be a part of, but cool to see the response. So Nolan's horror story, like everyone had a horror story. Nolan's was like, yeah, I watched all of the crowd.

That was his cross to bear. I won't get that time back. Yeah. No, thankfully, but you know, the timing wise, we moved out of our old place September 1st, you know, after everyone got cell phone reception back and kind of checked in on their, you know, family and friends. I texted our own landlord who actually lived down the block from us. And her first response, you know, typical Midwesterner from Minneapolis living down here was like more worried about us. And she was like, I was just happy you guys weren't in the rental

anymore. It got five feet of water. Right. And then like oh well what about your house she's like oh yeah our house is destroyed you know we got six feet we yeah because they were they were like a block or two close to the water so with the surge and everything it was like every block just got you know way worse way worse and um but yeah you know people people are unbelievable and it's i think it's a big reason why they live down here good community base florida i think it was one degree one in terms of wind miles per hour it was like one degree under a category five like it was knocking on the door yeah some insurance company made that happen i can yeah for sure yeah so so nolan we're gonna we're starting a new kind of uh segment on the podcast called hot takes and it's the it's the guest hot takes and so we're gonna round robin no one knows about this except for me so i'll start it but i'm just gonna say one word it might be a city it might be a

sports team it might be whatever and. It might be a sports team. It might be whatever. And we just want you to like, you have 30 seconds. I'm going to start a timer. You have 30 seconds to just kind of like give your hot take. I have a lot of negative things to say about the city of Philadelphia. I was just there yesterday. And so I'm going to start out and just say, Philadelphia as a Long Islander, hot takes go.

I remember as a Long Islander, hot takes, go. I remember as a kid, one of my uncles told me that the city of Philadelphia was one of the only cities in the country that had a judge at their professional sports stadium because their fans were so rowdy. They would just arrest them on site, book them, and get them out of town. That was just the quality of person in Philly. So I had all those horror stories, but I don't know. Everyone I know from Philly, I generally think they're loyal and pretty awesome. That was great. That was right at 30 seconds. Yeah. We went to Philly. I mean, Diana had never been. So we saw the Liberty bell.

We saw independence hall. She ran up Rocky steps. We had a cheesesteak and I was like, now get me out of here. But that was a good hot take. We're going to round Robin. We're going to Jeff next. Jeff, you got something that you want to hot take from Noah? Yeah, we've been planning this for a while, Jeff. Yeah, I'm so ready for this.

Everything's planned here. As soon as you say it, I'm going to hit start it live in a house with six lieutenants start 30 seconds oh he's drinking i'm gonna give him two seconds back go living in a house with six lieutenants i gotta say that was one of the most ridiculous years of my life but it was really good for a lot of people, i.e. our neighbors. We thought we were going to get sheriff, you know, removed from the rental house, but I remember they loved us. And at Thanksgiving, we threw a banger for a friend's giving one year and our neighbor brought

over like white wine for us because you just want to make sure where you could like keep things going. But a lot of, a lot of milestones in Dojo 2.0, that's for sure. That's a good hot take. All right, Trey. Oh, my goodness. So ready for this, huh? Do you want to go to PJ next?

No, I'll go. I'll see if I can come up with a random one. Nicolas Cage, pretty good actor hot take i mean he's got an academy award right so it's hard to say wait does he i just made is he i'm pretty sure yeah hey pj get on that look that up yeah pj do your job i'll reset the camera don't worry worry. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I just, Con Air was on the other day. That guy just makes that movie special. He makes, I don't know.

I think he makes movies to where it's like, they're like not good, but like whenever they're on, you have to watch them. You have to watch them. Yeah, I got a short list of things I just like have to finish. Con Air is on them. It's horrible. Yeah. You know, yeah, he's pretty good in The Rock, but.

National treasure. Sometimes you just got to finish it. it he does have an academy award by the way is it uh raising no it was arizona no it was leaving las vegas ah best actor i've heard fear loving and las Las Vegas is a good show. Never seen it. The book's better. Big book guy. Dominance reading list over here. The other hot take should just be Grant knows culture. All right, PJ. Hit no one. The guy you don't even know.

He doesn't even know you. The only thing I think I can ask is hot takes on Florida. The whole state? Just being in Florida, being a Florida man. I was a Florida man, so I want to hear your hot take. It's nice. I don't think it's forever, but it's great

right now. You just breathe at me. You just moved to Greenville. Yeah, that was very hot. No, it's good. I've been all over the state with the exception of like Tallahassee, Yeah, that wasn't very hot. No, it's good. I've been all over the state with the exception of like Tallahassee, maybe like one other big city.

But, yeah, I mean, everything's a little different. Jacksonville's cool. Tampa's great. But I think Sarasota's the second best. St. Petersburg is pretty awesome. It's got like all redevelopment, great food. You got sports teams up there. It's a nice layout.

But, yeah, I mean, I'm a huge fan, especially the Gulf Coast. That's pretty good. Okay, round two. Women's college basketball. I know you are a huge South Carolina fan. That's about all I know. That's all I get they're good at. As of three weeks ago, yeah. I mean, but I'm here.

Maybe four. Yeah, that's about all I know. South Carolina has a women's basketball team. You want LSU, you want Iowa, and you want South Carolina in the final four. If that happens, it's going to be exciting. Plus another team. Is that what your bracket says? No, it's not about my bracket it's about like angry women on the team that will

pull each other's hair and fight yeah each of those teams has them he likes the drives crazy to be fair if you ask me about men's basketball like the only thing i'd be able to tell you is like mike kaszewski is not at du anymore. That's the extent of what I know. I bet if I asked you about men's basketball, you would know more about women's because you listen to the OK Podcast. And you'd be like, I don't know. Who's the number one seed in the March Madness men's tournament? Go ahead. Tell me.

A number one seed? A number one seed. Name one. Overall. Overall. Well, it should number one seed. Name one. Overall. Overall. Well, it should be four total. All right. Yes. Correct.

That was a trick question, Grant. There should be four number one seeds. Well, I think he's asking for the overall number one. Okay. Let me follow up question. Name one number one seed in the women's. South Carolina. it's obvious it's obvious big advocate for women's sports over here big title nine guy yeah big title nine guy i love it i take love it uh

nolan i feel like we gotta get a little more out of you before we let you yeah let's go keep it going let's go what's how's uh how's the dojo treating you you getting some good lifts in how's training going yeah we just moved in like a week and a half ago so it's still work in progress but i uh all my plates are starting strength strength i've got a air starting yeah strength go sorry i'm working on it i've got good um the bench i have a pretty nice like thompson pad nice and fat that's a good bench yeah yeah i'm pretty excited about it but um yeah no big garage so i'll get it get it set up again but yeah so far so good trying to get back into it but um how often are you getting in there like are you three days a week are you like

kind of inconsistent or like where would you say your prior to this move i was looking at like two days a week if i was lucky yeah just with like work and everything that's probably been like my biggest my biggest problem but uh i was taking like some of your advice and just doing like two of the of the lifts due to time constraints and then um and i gotta get up early for work so finding time and i have a long commute unfortunately but trying to make some time for it but in terms of like my my days in phoenix and camp pendleton like i'm nowhere near that so you're not even close you're six seven right six seven and three quarters what do you weigh i ever met yeah what do you weigh in these days probably like 275 okay so you're solid yeah it's like two i think it was like my eas i was probably like 250 okay so okay but yeah it's a lot of

what do you feel good at at 6'7 what do you feel like fighting weight like what do you feel like hey I'm working out I look decent like is 275 the weight or do you feel good at 260 because I always felt like the Marine Corps wanted me at like

205 but I didn't feel good at 205 at like 215 i remember i feel solid yeah you're getting me getting me going now because the uh i remember at tbs yeah i was at tbs i remember getting like humiliated getting called out of the classroom to like where's hickey needs to weigh in. And everyone's like, Ooh, you know, a bunch of grown men and women go. So I had to, I had to go back to the room, change,

come down. And I, I weighed in at, I think it was like two, two 40. And my max was like two 44 based on my height. And they made like a huge, huge deal out of it. But if you look at the entire eight years on active duty but the worst shape of

my life was dbs right so i remember being like if i look like this and feel like this like i'm just gonna have this you know height and weight thing following me the entire time and then uh yeah after meeting all you guys out of pendleton, I remember one time telling, I guess it was Major Martin, I was like, you got to put weight back on after having my jaw issue. Oh, yeah. I was like, I am going to get gigantic, right? Like, I'm going to just do what I can. I remember in like three months, I got on the scale.

I was like 285, no neck. I wanted you to be 300. i could i could have done it and i just remember guys like cooley i walked into the three shop to get taped and they're like what have you done like i felt like a walking science experiment but um you know i i was doing max max relax on the run. You know, you weren't, I wasn't going to run anything close to what I came in at, but that was probably the best I've ever felt physically was not at that, that heavy, but like in that time period, like the last probably like year and a half in the fleet, just doing, you know, heavy lifting three days a week.

Uh, I, the, the calorie intake was just like gluttonous but it was fun and um like i remember walking down to that ramones in the taco taco shop and just like wolfing down two burritos and like you know cleaning my lip and like walking back to the battery office to like have a you know a uh you know three cups of coffee before the next meeting. Or like Nolan, is that what, were we living together then? Yeah. When we were all carpooling. Yeah. I remember. I remember. So like Nolan would have like just eat dinner and then like,

I would finish working out. Then I would go to like Chipotle. And I'll be like, should we go to Chipotle? I'd be like, let's do it, man. Just right. Post meal. Yeah. If I did that now, i would go into like cardiac arrest the 30s are crazy the 30s are crazy like i so i just did a four-day field op let's see i flew there wednesday thursday friday saturday sunday in the field so i ate mres for four days and this is like coming off a carnivore diet and i was wrecked coming out like gas felt like crap and i was like wow like i used to go to the field need mres and think nothing and now i'm like this is the worst thing ever. I remember we came back from like three weeks in 29 Palms for training.

And I was like terrified. Like, oh, we just got, you know, we PR'd a couple of weeks before the field. You know, it felt great. I remember we came back and you're like, just keep going and see how you feel. And I like, like 315, five by three. No, I was like, oh, I feel like a million bucks. Yeah. Like for me to get back to

that at this you know time of my life oh my gosh like so what's your lifting at now like what's your squat like i really assume you have squats coming up this week like what are you gonna put on them i won't go above 225 for anything anymore just because you're worried about yeah i had like like sciatica you know just like being tall being uh like i sit a lot for work right now it's probably the most i've ever sat like in my life it's the worst and uh oh it's horrible it's absolutely horrible so um yeah i just i haven't really gone over that because i just feel good doing it you know i don't want to i'm more worried about like mobility and everything, but yeah, as far as bench like two 25 easy, um,

for squad, I won't go over to 25, but I've been hovering around like one 65, one 80, just to get, get the mobility in. And then for dead, for deadlift, I've been like staying well below one 85 just to like get it in. And then, um, you know cardio maybe but yeah my days of like actively getting under the bar and like logging everything i have a log book but if you were to read if anyone i wouldn't put it this way i wouldn't let anyone on this podcast read my log book how bad it is uh there would be no judgment. It's impressive watching a 6'7 dude squat 315, man.

Actually, just getting down below parallel. Yeah. It was like, geez louise. It's a lot of traveling. It was rough. Yeah, I just feel like it was a struggle. I got to the point where it was just like an absolute struggle. But I don't know. Maybe I'll get back into it.

Try to get up to like three plates. I'd say just smaller incremental additions, man, with those change plates. Only if we knew someone who sold some good change plates. Yeah. If you guys know anyone. We'll find them.

You got to get that deadlift back up at least body weight for sets of five that would be yeah no i i can't i just need to make time for it that's like everyone's excuse but yeah you know it is what it is two days a week 60 minutes you had a program where you were doing like it's a lifted day right essentially yeah it's pretty much what i've been doing i'm a little off now because i was in the field and so i did three lifts today for the first time in a long time but yeah generally i do three lifts i do one lift a day so i'll go in and i'll squat on monday

and i usually have time for five by five if you didn't you could do three by five so it's it could be anywhere from a 30 to 45 minute workout and boom, you're out the door. The next out coming in bench, the next out coming in deadlifts. I'll take the next day off. That's a great day to do cardio. And like, I think people overthink cardio, like, Hey, just go run a mile. Like literally just run one mile. It doesn't matter what time it takes. Then the following day, come back and I'll press. then the following day come back and uh i'll press and the following day which would be like friday or saturday squat kind of like heavier so if i did five by five on monday or three by five like something heavy um that's what i generally run you don't make a bunch of progress on it like you don't necessarily like get way stronger but

you don't lose anything um so yeah one lift a day is especially no one if you and i know you have a long commute but especially if you're if you have your home gym so like for me my biggest complaint is i gotta drive eight minutes which isn't far but it's a thing i gotta get in my car gotta drive eight minutes i go inside i put my shoes on where's like it's in your garage it's really it's actually way easier to just be like hey i'm home okay i could just go inside and start eating dinner let me just work out for 40 minutes um so yeah i'm a big fan of one lift a day if you're busy um no that's good that's real good and the what you said about cardio too like uh it's super flat here so we just try to get like a walk in every night before bed if we're lucky or walk after dinner um yeah i remember you were the

one who got me into like you know running trails or like walking trails pretty actively like and that's huge right that makes all the difference on like your recovery just getting outside because you know being this this height and this weight running on pavement on a regular basis is like the rest recipe for disaster so nolan i got like one more thing that i really want you to talk about but we gotta break out your mother's accent before i get you there so is there like a story you could tell us about your mom something she's upset about just to get the accent going and then i'll ask kind of the final question for you yeah so like maybe something about school you know there's a lot of options yeah she's like she's like thriving

in retirement right now as she should after a career and so she she was a teacher on launch born and raised long island uh daughter of a new york city cop and former postal service worker and uh she's the youngest of five so the stories are just incredible from like growing up back then but um yeah so she she got into teaching after having three kids you know was full-time mom and uh you know dinner on the table every night we didn't really eat out because of uh she was talking about like preservatives and things before it was like, cool to talk about like dyes and foods, right. We'd be going to Trader Joe's on, you know, all this stuff. She's talking about all this stuff that's now like, you know, people can't shut up about. So she was ahead of the head of the curve, but she went back to teaching

and she, uh, she was just, her stories are incredible. But one of my favorite is one time I'm home from college, and I'm the youngest, right? So, you know, after me, there's no more kids in the house. So I'll clean up the language a little bit. But I'm in the laundry room, finishing up my laundry, and I see all these kids' clothes, like, in a bag. And I'm looking at them, and my mom comes in and she's you know do you have everything you need blah blah but what's with the what's with the kids clothes and she's like oh yeah you know these kids these kids they smell terrible right so i'm like okay like i'm trying to pin this all together like what kids are we talking about? Why are these clothes here?

I ended up finding out that she had kids bringing laundry to school so that she could bring it home and do it, like her students. It's just the type of person she is. What a lady. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolute rock star. She won Teacher of the Year once.

Everyone in the district loved her and when she retired she was always planning on retiring in the summer of 20 like to the point where she would be like at an event and someone would say oh you know how's it going you know colleen how's it going how's school and she'd go 12 more septembers you know like yeah like counting it down you're like okay you know nine more right like you know like the countdown was on but it wasn't like she was mailing in she was like you know everyone in the school district loved her all the kids loved her so when she retired unfortunately it was during covid which everyone thought was like on purpose like oh she retired because of covid and like the people that really knew her like no she's been like this has

been premeditated for like you know the countdown yeah we've all been tracking it so she's one of these uh one of the teachers that got honored where they had all the cars lined up like around the corner from our house and uh i think i forget my old man was like of course counting and it was like six six yeah my my my father had to be meticulous with like the re you know the details on how they honored her it was like something like 60 cars you know ripping through the neighborhood honking and sending her off but um yeah she's a riot with her sense of humor but now she's just you know she's got three grandkids she's doing what you should be doing hanging out

so Nolan we we have a sponsor of this podcast it's it's called BW tax BW tax lc.com and they they really just try to like help people during tax season get through the things that are difficult you know there's a lot of loopholes with the government and you know hey i got a kid coming i'm married i have a dependent like how do i file my taxes maybe i i own an llc it doesn't really matter where you live you could live anywhere and you could use bw tax and so we were just wondering if maybe you could kind of tell the people about BW tax, but in your mother's accent and just like, Hey, this is what BW tax can provide. And, um, yeah, if you wouldn't mind doing that for us, we, we, we, we, we'd love that. Where are my notes?

Uh, I just gave them to you. You now have those. The to remember is bwtaxllc.com and then everything you think about taxes they can fix so just in your mother's accent give that and in with the website and we'll be good bwtax.com no bwtaxllc.com there There you go. Good. You're ready. Let's go. All right, boys, listen up. Hmm. Preach. Tax season's coming up.

You got to get out there. You got to get organized. BW tax LLC.com. One stop shopping. Total Long Island ad. I long island ad i love it listen up i love to listen up boys you could probably sweet talk her into getting a recording i don't know how it would play in the south i think people would get so you know so we'll play a little recording so you get an idea you ready that? That's what I love. What I've always loved about BW Tax is, you know, you can be someone like me.

I have a W-2 job still. You know, got to support the wife, the kids. There you go. Kids, you know, there's child tax credits. You know, the government has really created a wild maze that is income tax and loopholes and all that. And that's what the folks at BW Tax, that's their bread and butter. I mean, that's what they're known for and what they've come to be so excellent at. And that's why you could talk to them remotely, even if you're from some place in the sticks like western northeast South Dakota.

You can still talk to a warm body at BW Tax. It's not a bot. It's not a chat GPT service. It's real people there providing a real service. And that's what I love about them at BWTax.com. BWTaxLLC.com. Yeah, that's what I like about them. L-L-C dot com.

Yeah, that's what I like about it. Yeah, I mean, you kind of hit on a topic that a lot of family and friends have all been on board with, is that my mother needs her own podcast. She doesn't know she's funny and hilarious and awesome. And she doesn't think anyone would want to listen to her. But I think viewership would be through the roof. Would she put her on this one this one yeah put her on this one yeah she could have my spot we'd have we'd have to do a dry run but it's possible it's really possible we have editing software that's what pj's here for if you if you get my father to to start squatting and dead lifting i'll see what i can do all right

don hickey my challenge to you don I still want a 5Ws from PJ at some point. It doesn't have to be live. Yeah. I don't know what that means, but... I'll put it in the show notes. It triggered a CCIR. Yeah. Trey, Jeff's got to go.

We all got to go. Trey's really good at this. Trey, why don't you sign us off? Tell us where the people can find us. Tell them where they can find Nolan Hickey. Give them a whole deal. Well, I think he's on Instagram like inhickey6969

or something like that. Just kidding. 4269. Yeah. Definitely not that. Just give us a good sign off. Sign us off. Let's do this.

013. Thank you. You've been listening to The OK Podcast. Wait, wait, wait. you've been listening to okay okay the okay podcast Nolan can you give us a good okay okay that's pretty good

I've heard worse I've heard worse alright everybody hey I want to thank you for listening to the okay okay there it is This has been episode 013. I would like to thank our sponsors,

BW Tax. Tax season coming up. Reach out to them if you got any questions. April 15th, 17th, we still don't know. That's the question. Anybody? No. Can always get extended. Yeah, just always extend it it they know how to do that uh if you have uh any social media uh myspace hofspace not facebook we're still not on facebook

we're not on facebook instagram ever x whatever it might be, please reach out, find us there. The best way to find us though, is www.theokpodcast.com. I'd like to thank our guests, big Nolan coming on. You can find him on Instagram, maybe at. Come on, you know, no one know no one hickey Gus Polinsky Gus Polinsky that's right Gus underscore Polinsky that's it yeah

I knew it was at Noah's best movie cameo of all time Gus Polinsky and find Big Nolan on Instagram at Gus underscore Polinsky hey thank everybody for listening they're right on the show uh www.theokpodcast.com biggie jp on ig

three gotlitch on x for trey jordy underscore underscore long on X. Follow me at Grant SSC on X. And thanks for tuning in. Episode 013. We'll see you next week.