The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka - 231. TJ Dillashaw: On Biohacking, Longevity, Injury Recovery and Life After UFC

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

I sat down with two-time UFC Champion TJ Dillashaw to discuss the "delusional optimism" and biohacking protocols, like stem cell therapy and zone two training, that fueled his legendary career and his recovery from a dark identity crisis. Now, we’re diving into how he’s applying that same championship grit to disrupt the supplement industry with Wild Society Nutrition, proving that the pursuit of excellence in business and longevity is the ultimate human journey. Get the Longevity + Performance Stack here: https://bit.ly/3YPMNO4 Full Audience: Use code GARY15 for 15% off (one-time purchase) CLICK HERE TO BECOME GARYS VIP!: https://bit.ly/4ai0Xwg Connect with TJ Dillashaw Website: https://bit.ly/499sJLj  YouTube: https://bit.ly/4q9vfIE  Instagram: https://bit.ly/4avH5bk  Facebook: https://bit.ly/3MURVhk  TikTok: https://bit.ly/49jB8fp  X: https://bit.ly/4jlszVY  LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4jeEXH4  Thank you to our partners H2TABS: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4hMNdgg BODYHEALTH: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: http://bit.ly/4e5IjsV BAJA GOLD: "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3WSBqUa COLD LIFE: THE ULTIMATE HUMAN PLUNGE: https://bit.ly/4eULUKp WHOOP: JOIN AND GET 1 FREE MONTH!: https://bit.ly/3VQ0nzW AION: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4h6KHAD A-GAME: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: http://bit.ly/4kek1ij PEPTUAL: “TUH10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4mKxgcn CARAWAY: “ULTIMATE” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3Q1VmkC HEALF: 10% OFF YOUR ORDER: https://bit.ly/41HJg6S RHO NUTRITION: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: https://bit.ly/44fFza0 GOPUFF: GET YOUR FAVORITE SNACK!: https://bit.ly/4obIFDC GENETIC METHYLATION TEST (UK ONLY): https://bit.ly/48QJJrk GENETIC TEST (USA ONLY): ⁠https://bit.ly/3Yg1Uk9 Watch  the “Ultimate Human Podcast” every Tuesday & Thursday at 9AM EST: YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPQYX8 Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3RQftU0 Connect with Gary Brecka Instagram: https://bit.ly/3RPpnFs TikTok: https://bit.ly/4coJ8fo X: https://bit.ly/3Opc8tf Facebook: https://bit.ly/464VA1H LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4hH7Ri2 Website: https://bit.ly/4eLDbdU Merch: https://bit.ly/4aBpOM1 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/47ejrws Ask Gary: https://bit.ly/3PEAJuG Timestamps 00:00 ​Intro of Show 02:14 TJ Dillashaw identity & the transition from professional fighting 03:44 Early wrestling roots and "Hazardous Hal" 04:47 Dropping out of grad school for MMA 05:53 The rapid growth of the UFC and bantamweight class 09:43 Career evolution and the "overworking" trap 10:46 Meeting Coach Sam Calavita and measuring toxins 13:11 Mastering energy systems and Zone 2 training 13:29 Understanding VO2 Max and lactic thresholds 22:58 Facing the legendary Joe Soto on 24 hours' notice 24:32 The power of delusional optimism and positive affirmations 26:36 Re-injuring the shoulder during a tetherball challenge 27:21 Using stem cells to avoid career-ending surgery 35:15 Adversity, suspension, and taking extreme ownership 40:08 Rebuilding identity and the "walk back" to the octagon 44:03 Disrupting the supplement industry with Wild Society 45:29 The "Caveman Eats" 20oz ribeye innovation 49:36 Partnering with Sprouts and avoiding "kill list" ingredients 57:41 Dana White’s documentary on life after fighting 1:03:12 What does it mean to you to be an Ultimate Human? The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast is at the user’s own risk. The Content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you want to be a champion, you can't leave no stone unturned, you got to have all energy systems trained to the best ability. Chasing peak performance and longevity go hand in hand. And if you treat the body the way that it was intended to be treated and you recover the right way, you eat the right food, you supplement the right way, your performance is so much better. Well, you suffered through a lot of injuries during your career. I mean, I know that you fought with two blown-out shoulders. Yeah, I mean, just wearing terror from wrestling since I was eight-year-old through college and then more so as being a professional. You were doing stem cells early on in your career to try to preserve as much of that time as you had. I do all my research trying to figure out, like, what are like the Kobe Bryant's

of doing in the world to preserve themselves or whatever it may be to keep me in the game without having to get surgery? So you get the stem cells, you come back, you win another championship. Yeah, I win the world title back. Wow. Now that you're more woke to longevity and wellness, you've got this brand out there, which I'm sure you're pouring your soul into. What made you say, this is the next career path for me?

Something I've noticed from just training in my experience is that Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human podcast. I'm your host, human biologist Gary Brecker, where we go down the road of everything, anti-aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between. And today's guest is no strangers. to biohacking. Now he's into longevity. It's the everything in between

that we're going to talk about today. And, you know, I've got two-time U.S. Bantam Weight World Champion, T.J. Dillishaw, dude. I am so pumped that you're on the Ultimate Human Podcast, brother. I am beyond pumped. This is exciting. I'm a fan of the podcast. I'm a fan of what you stand for

and the whole Maha movement. So I'm ecstatic to be here. Thanks, man. I really appreciate that. You know, I think that your journey is, like so many professional athletes' journeys and so many A-listers, celebrities, actors, people that have been, had careers

where they were very much in the public eye, you know, worked themselves to greatness. And then one day, it just ends, right? Yeah. And, you know, I've read a lot about you and, you know, how disappointed you were about the way that your career ended, it didn't end, the way that you would, you know,

plan for it to end. you know you had some skirmishes along the way which you've been very transparent about you know to your suspension for PEDs and like what you learned from that but I wonder for my audience that maybe isn't into the UFC or into professional fighting or MMA but understands that you know people that achieve world championship status you know must have given so much for so long of their life and when it ends like how does that transition go you know because i think most people are building at the time when your career was decrescendoing and i've heard you talk about it before and i think my audience

would get a lot out of it yeah it becomes like a part of who you are like um my sense of purpose and the whole reason why i started wrestling like wrestling's not a very enjoyable sport and i always think my little son is wrestling now too and it always baffles me of why kids get into it and they stay with it but it's like this sense of accomplishment and purpose you have and I was good at it and he got rewarded for it right I started eight years old yeah my son's seven he's wrestling now and is he really yeah and I became really good at it and it was just something that like filled my cup and now ever since that ever happened and I've just been chasing greatness ever since and peak performance the whole reason why I went to college it wasn't like a a great student but

had to be had to turn into one because of athletics and you know student athlete and yeah had to do all that so pushed through college um studied kinesiology just because it was i thought was going to make me a better athlete was going to possibly be a physician's assistant or physical therapy because it was just into the body right on um got talked into fighting and so i dropped out of grad school yeah how did that go so first of all i want i want to just give a little credit to your dad i think it was your father that was a wrestler how yeah my dad howl was a he had a cool nickname. What was that? Hazardous Hal. Like, okay, if you're raised by Hazardous Hal at some point, you got to, does your son have a nickname?

Not yet. I know, I hope he doesn't turn into anything like hazard. I mean, hazardous is how he's now in his 60s and acts like he's still in his 30s. And you can, like, he's beat himself up. He's hazardous, you know? Like jumping off 100 foot cliffs into water, fracturing his arm, like never slowing down. Right. But yes, he got me into wrestling and push me to where I am today. but to drop out of grad school I had an assistant wrestling coach Mark Munoz he was a UFC fighter at the time and after I got done wrestling I never reached my goals I never like became a national champion never was an all-American I just felt like I fell short and it'll come full circle that I overworked myself and didn't know how to compete yet to my

full stability later but he's like hey I think you're a real aggressive wrestler you'd be a great fighter you should give it a shot dropped out of grad school said i gave myself a year if i'm any good with fighting then i'll stick with it if not i can always go back to school and at the time it wasn't it wasn't the grand stage it is today i mean the sport grew while you were your career was growing too because you know at ufc was like very much kind of in the fringes you know especially when dana first and the fatigis first bought it and and then it became the fastest growing sanctioned sport in the world yes um and i you know and and i think they did obviously an incredible job for it. I mean, you think any thing you buy for two and a half million dollars you sell for

four billion. Yeah. I mean, I owe them the world to build a stage that made me build the brand of myself. Yeah. The ultimate fighter came out my freshman year of college. Wow. Yeah, and that's what really took it off the map. Okay. So my weight class wasn't even owned by the UFC yet when I first started fighting. WEC owned it. And then Zufa bought WEC. And so I was on the first ultimate fighter. So crazy story. I graduated college, dropped out of grad school started fighting within nine months built up four fights got i was only i was only four and oh got on the first ultimate fighter for my weight class because the ufc just bought wec and so i had a chance to make it the ufc when it was only four and that's phantom weight it just hadn't it didn't exist i didn't

know that you could own certain weight classes what do you mean you can't promotion right so wc was the promotion, they had 155, 145, and 135. The UFC at the time only had 155 and up. Okay. And so once the lower weight classes started catching momentum, the UFC came in and acquired it. Required the WC and rolled it into the UFC promotion. Oh, right on.

So I jumped on the first ultimate fighter and I only had four fights, only been fighting for a year, made it to the finale and got myself a contract. And then three years later, I won a world title. So it was kind of like a skyrocketed. career that is wild but your question was like that was my that was like my identity to a point right i put so much work into it for it just to be over like that due to injury and not being able to perform anymore was was eye-opening experience because like and that's all i ever did that's what i was i mean i didn't really have much business outside of fighting i mean dabbled a little

bit here and there but how i fed my family how i kept a roof over my head was by performing in that octagon and so it was and it was really just getting paid for those fights yeah i mean you had to make that work for the rest of the year or the time frame in between fights and it's why you know you don't get paid to train no right i mean maybe you get sponsorships yeah i mean thanks to social media um sponsorships became more prevalent for like organic lifestyle stuff right um and hopefully people are supporting brands that they actually use which a lot of come around to why i start a wild society. But, uh, yeah, sponsors help pay the bills in between fights. And luckily enough, I was able to build a brand by being a champion so that I can get bigger and better

sponsorships to supply my lifestyle. Yeah. Um, you know, I, I think, I think everyone, you know, we, we get wiser as we get older. And I've, I've actually heard you talk about how you wish you knew then, which you know now, right? I think we're all kind of that way to some extent. Um, But, you know, what changed after your career that you wish you had known during your career? I mean, obviously, you must have had excellent training or you wouldn't have become, you know, a two-time world champion.

So you can't really point a finger at how I wasn't training properly. But were you missing, like, the nutrition piece, the recovery piece, the supplement piece? Like, what was missing then that you wish you could have plugged in? And do you think that would have changed the trajectory of your career when you made your comeback? Yeah, I'm so glad you asked that. I mean, 100% it would have changed.

I could have been even better in my mind because of the things that I changed in my 30s, I wish I would have known when I was in college. But if I would have known this in college and performed the way I should have in wrestling, I might have never dabbled into the MMA. Right, because your wrestling career could have taken you a different direction.

Yeah, I could have become a national champion All-American and maybe I stick with wrestling, which I'm so glad I was meant to become a fighter, just my mentality. So that could have happened. But even the way that I was training in my 20s and became a world champion training, this way, but I was burning the candle

at both ends. I was training six, seven days a week, as hard as I possibly can, two or three days, and wasn't taking my nutrition, my supplementation the right way. I was a wrestler. And growing up as a wrestler, you're always taught just to outwork your opponent. So whatever it is,

just outwork him. Just do it harder, do it more, do it better, which leads to being overworked, and I had no idea what being overworked was. To where when I would get to the end of my season in wrestling when I was in college, It's a nine-month season. It's really, really long, and I'd always peak in December.

And then Nationals is in March, I'd always felt like I was either really injured or I felt like I was out of shape. And I was like, how is that possible? I've trained so hard. I'm not drinking out with my friends. I'm, you know, doing all the right things. I'm getting up in the morning and I'm running. And then my body would just crash.

Yeah. And I held, I learned a little bit more when I first started fighting through Uriah and the way that he treated his body at Alpha Male. But nowhere to the extent that I was. I learned once I hit my 30s and was like just needed to figure out why I was waking up tired why I didn't want to train like just cortisol up hormones low um I met a coach Sam Calveda a lot of us call him coach Cal he owns the training lab a very eye-opening experience what time frame is this this was when I was coaching the ultimate fighter and end of 2016 yeah

into 2016 going to the beginning of 2017 I met him I met him through another fighter he came out to the ultimate fighter just to kind of pick my brain and I wanted to teach some of the guys some of the knowledge that I was learning and it was just an eye-opening experience

of the things that he knew that he could make me better we did blood work we did hair analysis all these things to find out what my body was doing what toxins I had where my hormones were

he was actually measuring toxins back then good for him yeah I found out that I had insanely high levels of arsenic. Yeah. Which we've tested a lot of wrestlers in, for whatever reason, a lot of wrestlers do. I don't know if it's like what the mats are cleaned with or the mats in general or just obviously lifestyles.

Yeah. But yeah, a lot of the wrestlers we've tested have a high arsenic. So it was an eye-opening experience that he was like, hey, look, you're, we're a world champion, but we can make you this much better. Yeah. So when I met him, I was living in Colorado at the time. I decided to go do two weeks with him in Southern California, where I went to school at Cal State Fullerton.

down in that area to go do two weeks with him and I was blown away with all that he was informing on the way that we'd train that I had to move my whole life back down there so I moved from Colorado back to Southern California because of Coach Cal. Wow.

Why didn't you move the coach out dude? You didn't have the money at that time. Definitely, I mean also it's hard to move like someone else I tell is building a gym don't pay for the fighters pay for the coaches right but also the coach is hard for them to move their entire life.

So he has nine kids. He's got to set up, like, spot in your Belinda. So I'm an athlete wanting to get better. I was one willing to make the sacrifice, and I would move my life. Right. I was from California, too, and I was living in Colorado at the time because of training with the coach. And so I decided that this was my next step of evolution, so I moved back to Southern

California. Right on. And how much of an impact did that make, making that shift? Oh, it was game-changing when it came to, I think. the biggest thing that he taught me to is how I periodized like my entire life when it came to like when I was training hard what days I was recovering

MMA is the hardest sport in my opinion to train for because we use so many energy systems so he teach me like when I need to do my zone two training which we call our low base how many times a week and what days I should do it turning T.J. Dillish out into the CEO of my own body

like me really rather than just like having all these coaches to pull me in different directions. I set my schedule. So Mondays was low base in the morning and then I would do wrestling or jujitsu, right? And then Tuesday would be my really hard day where I'm sparring.

I'm doing insane strength and conditioning to where that's where I'm gonna, I learned what pushing lactic thresholds were. Oh, yeah. And learning what even a lactic threshold was. Yeah, that is brutal. And I'm so glad now, that's the only thing I'm glad of retirement

that I don't have to do lactic threshold training anymore. For people that don't know what that is, I mean, you're not talking about restriction bands or you're talking about just getting into that zone. Yeah, well, so I guess I'm skipping so much, there's so much information to talk about, but the first thing you do when you meet Sam Calveda is you test your body.

When it comes to your VO2 max, what you're doing an RMR, so what I'm breathing at rest, you know, if I'm burning fat or carbs at rest, and learning when my body is, you know, hopefully I'm burning 100, percent fats at rest. But due to lifestyles in the way that we're training most athletes and just people in general are burning carbs at rest. Wow. You know, which you're producing lactic acid. So the longer you can burn fats for energy, the farther off you can start producing

lactic acid. So first you test your RMR and then you test your VO2 max and you finds that exact crossover point of when you start per heart for your heartbeat, when you start burning carbs for energy rather than fats. Wow. Dominantly. And then that's your zone two. So it's like his algorithm knows to the beat when I'm in Zone 2. Wow. So I knew when I first met him, my heart rate at 141 and below, I was burning mainly fat for my energy system. Once I got over 141, I started burning carbs.

And when I start burning carbs, I start producing lactic acid. And then you have a threshold and knowing what that threshold is by doing a VO2 max. Wow. So this helps you keep pace during a fight. So you're like, even though you're not looking at a heart monitor during your fight, you kind of trained enough that you know this is, I'm getting out of that zone. and I need to, like, ease back and get back into that zone where I'm actually burning fat.

Yes, and by changing your lifestyle when it comes to the way you eat, the way you train, the way you recover, the supplements you're taking, you can change your zones. So when I first met him, I was living in Vegas, coaching an ultimate fighter, eating bad. He met me the day after my birthday, went out drinking for my birthday,

and, like, he did all my tests, right? So I was at 1-41, but after working with Sam for my first camp, I move my heart rate up to like high 50s, like 158. Anything under that, I'm burning mainly fats for my energy. Wow. And so now I can go to my heart rate to 158 before I start burning carbs and I start producing lactic acid. So by creating a lower base, that's why we do Zone 2 training,

this low base, to build this base. Right. And by doing that, now I'm not burning, you know, I'm producing lactic acid to 158. So now if I move that threshold, then I can move my lactic threshold further. learning how to stay in it longer. Well, because you won two championship fights

in the fifth round, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, because, I mean, so it could be three. Oh, no, two, you're right, too. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was, see, I did my research. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I did my research. Actually, my team did the research. Malia, thank you. No, I mean, I was fascinated by that because, you know, I'm a fan of the UFC. I don't pretend to, you know, understand jihitsu at that level or the competitive fight sport at any high level.

But, you know, I've always respected athletes that still had a gas tank in the fifth round because, you know, just for a layman, if you put on a set of boxing gloves and you just stand in front of a heavy bag and you just go off on that heavy bag as hard as you can for 60 seconds, you're taking a knee.

Yeah. And to be watching, you know, these guys go at that level for 25 minutes. I'm exhausted watching. I used to be fascinated, Nate Diaz would do that a lot and, like, get into these late rounds and just kind of start slapping people around.

He looked like he was having fun. Yeah. And, like, he wasn't worn out at all. Nate Diaz is, and also you've got to go, like, everyone's genetically made up a little bit different, too, but he's a slow twitch athlete. He's not someone that I'm going to say he's like real explosive, real powerful,

not really muscle bound. So his thresholds are different, right? Like, he's probably doing a lot of aerobic training to where I feel like there's that perfect balance. you look at a guy like Marab, I think genetically he's made up differently as well, too, and probably deals with lactic acid a little bit differently than a lot of us do. But he's explosive as well, like strong. So I want to be anaerobic strong.

I want to be aerobic strong. And I want to a great lactic threshold. Like I want to be a well-balanced athlete. So if I looked at Nate Diaz, yes, he has cardio for days. Right. But where he's lacking to where if you want to be a champion. Knockout strength. Yeah, if you want to be a champion, you can't leave no stone unturned.

You got to have all energy systems trained to the best ability. And I think he lacks that power, like that explosiveness, that squeeze strength. Like, you know, like Habib had really good, like grappling strength and cardio to where he can grab your wrist. He's going to hold you down forever, right? Right. So missing that a little bit. Right. If you know me, you know I'm a huge believer in the benefits of hydrogen water.

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Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast. But do you think that understanding this lactic threshold and actually knowing that you're not in the car burning zone and accelerating towards lactic acid? I mean, this is what allowed you to win two championships in the late rounds. I mean, in the fifth round. Yeah, I mean, I won...

That's deep into a fight. I won my first championship before I met Sam Calavita. It was more so when I got... to my 30s and like how much better I felt like before I was burning the candles at two ends and I just like felt tired all the time yeah I was a stimulant junkie I would drink which is I live my life not the way I do anymore so right right diet for yeah we're gonna get into that too I've been on this longevity path for like a decade now but before that I was drinking five-hour energy drinks of those little shots at like 6 7 p.m. wow I know and and I might

obviously my adrenal glands were toast I'd learn this from Sam then my adrenal glands were toast because of the way that I was living my life, but I was, I was exhausted all the time. So I drink a five-hour energy drink because I was going to go hit Mitz at 7 or 8 p.m. And then I'm expected to go to sleep. Yeah. You know, but I processed, I feel like caffeine different back then because I was just, it wasn't treating my body right. Yeah. I mean, your metabolism was probably just screaming at that point. I mean, I mean, you're burning so many calories. But it's fascinating to know how much structure and architecture goes into this. Obviously, not just the training game for jiu-jitsu and stand-up

and for wrestling and, you know, but studying, you know, your opponent, I've watched podcasts of yours and how much tape that you would watch and how, you know, you would look at how a fighter stance and they would hold a right hand up and try to keep you off with their left hand and then open it up for your left cross and, like, you would have game plans.

In fact, I watched you talk about how you had your game plans ruined, you know, in fights where they substitute another fighter, like 24 hours out. You're like, I spent my whole training camp, you know, training to fight one guy. And I forget his name, but you had actually trained with him. Yeah. In your camp to get ready for the fight, and then you ended up fighting him.

So I have the biggest, like, upset in UFC history at the time. I beat Hindenborough. I was undefeated for his entire career, like number one pound for pound chain. I was at 8 to 1 underdog going into this fight. But I think I know the way that my mind works is just delusional optimism that I knew that I was to win like you did most this is the utmost belief of myself no matter what i feel like that's what has gotten me to the top but also got me in a lot of trouble as well we can get into but i was a massive underdog won that fight and uh i was on an ultimate fighter contract wasn't

getting you know paid to be a champion yet so it was awesome to get to rip that contract up get paid different going to dana's office and the fortitas and like congratulate me give me a bonus like yeah i made it yeah i'm getting married three weeks later that's awesome for my honeymoon. They did? Yeah, they paid for my honeymoon out at a one and only Palmilla. Amazing place. Like, I hadn't lived the life that I got to live at my honeymoon forever.

And then they hit me up. They're like, hey, but we need you to fight eight weeks later. It was kind of like, here, a little cherry on top. We need you to fight eight weeks later. Yeah. And I need you to defend the belt against interbrow. This monster that I just beat, and no one thought I was going to beat. So I'm training on my honeymoon. I'm waking up in the morning. I'm hitting the treadmill. I'm sprinting. Just because that's the way

my mind works. I just, and I just knew that I had to train harder than the next guy that's what I would do. So I'm training on my honeymoon. I got back, get into camp, an hour before weigh-ins. I get a call from Linzo Furtita saying like, hey, champ, brow's not going to make weight. He fell, hit his head, got to be rushed off to the hospital. We need you to fight Joe Soto. So I knew Joe Soto. So you're preparing for this champ. So yeah, at least you were taking it about as serious as you've ever taken a fight, obviously. Yeah, but completely. different fighting styles. Wow. Right? Like Barow was a dominant

striker. Yeah, he's got good jiu-jitsu, but very high knockout power dominant striker to where Joe Soto was a wrestler that I've knew wrestling since we were kids and we were in training camp because he was going to fight in Sacramento. So he trained in Sacramento with us a little bit. And I got to train with him. He was the Belator

champion. His first fight at the U.S. No one knew who he was yet. And I knew how tough he was. And I had to lay everything. Because you trained with him. I had to let everything on the line to fight someone that no one knew. I had everything to lose. The most nervous I've ever been for a fight, but Lorenzo called me, he's like, hey, we need you to take this fight.

Lorenzo for Tita called you. Yeah, I mean, you got to take it. Lorenzo's calling you, man. The boss man, you know. And he's so calm. He's actually a very nice guy. He is. I love him. But yeah, yeah. He's a great human. Yeah, so the whole game plan had to go throwing out the window and like within 24 hours, just kind of had to

switch it up, you know? Wow. Yeah. But you don't have 24 hours to like retrain everything that you had done because you were preparing. for this guy using a lot of, you know, I remember you talking about it, you know, put his left hand out and he would hold his right hand up and you were going to be using your left cross

and you had a whole different game plans. I mean, how much did that throw you off going into that fight? It just turned into, you have to shut the brain off, which you hope to do in most fights anyways and just getting into that. Just starting to try to say, I'm not ready for this. What if this happens?

What if that happens? Yeah. Going down pathways, a worst-case scenario. My delusional optimism, right? Like, everything in your mind wants to tell you, you that you're not going to win, that you're not going to be successful, that this fight's not the fight you should take, whatever it may be. And it's so generic that I just smash it with with positive affirmations. Like, I have a negative thought. I slam three positive ones on top of it

and eventually just trick my subconscious to believe in that I'm the baddest man on the planet and nothing can get in my way. And it's helped me a lot throughout my career. And like I said, it's also gotten me in some trouble. It's why I can't lift my arm to the sky and I need to reverse shoulder replacement, um, things like that. But without it, I don't think I would have became a world champion either. Well, you, you, you, you suffered through a lot of injuries, you know, during your career. I mean, I know that you, you, you fought with, um, two blown out shoulders. Yeah. Um, you know, you were, you were doing stem cells, you know, early on in your career, you know, to try to preserve as much of that, you know, time as you had. And, and, and I wonder

if you talk a little bit about that, like, what were some of the things that you were doing before you really had your arms around biohacking and you had your own supplement line and you really dialed in. What were you just doing as a competitive athlete and with that kind of shoulder pain, you know, first fighting through it and training through it, but how were you able to compete at that level?

Do you think it was the stem cells? Were you doing regular rehabilitation therapy? Like, what were you doing? Both all the above. It's a good story for you. So, again, I'm coaching the Ultimate Fighter, 2016. And at the end of the season, there's a coaches challenge for me and Cody O'Brent, where the Cody Garbrandt were the coaches and we have to do a challenge against each other.

And whoever wins this challenge, like we win like 15,000 and then we win 2,000 for every one of our fighters. So it's fun, right? It's like we're going to be gambling out there. So we're playing tetherball, but it's in the winter and it's above a pool on a gymnastics balance beam. I'm on a balance beam. He's on a balance beam and we got to play tetherball. Okay. And the first one to get to 20 or 10, whatever it was, wins.

And if you fall off the balance beam, you have to get up and get back on the balance beam as fast as you possibly can before he hits it to the end. Oh, because he can just keep racking up points. You're not there, right? It's like when you're a kid on the playground, you're hitting it. It's over their head and you just keep going. Yeah, yeah. I actually remember that. I'm kind of dating myself because we used to play tetherball.

Yeah, me too. I don't think anybody plays tetherball anymore. I don't know if they do. There's a whole generation going, what the fuck is that? like yeah so i first disillow well i had my first shoulder surgery in 2004 during wrestling but and that was 2004 and then i re-injured it playing this tetherball game i fell off and i tried to catch myself on the balance beam so i can get back up as fast as i can before i let him score yeah i'm very competitive yeah yeah like i don't want to lose at anything i don't care for playing monopoly

like there's nothing i want to lose that right so i'm like and i dislocate my shoulder out the back no it's subluxes though so it goes out and goes right back in I didn't think anything of it it was like whatever just finishes the game and then afterwards my shoulder was hurting I tried doing stem cells here in the state well to get so me and Cody

we're coaching an ultimate fighter at the end of a little bit fighter we're supposed to fight each other for the world title I had lost my belt which was just burning me because I shouldn't have lost the fight it was a split decision lost against Domina Cruz that still to this day I feel like at once

I wanted my belt back so bad I'm fighting Cody Garbrand at the end of the show and I blow my shoulder out. Like, I can't afford to get surgery because if I get surgery, I'm out for a year and a half, two years, like a year just to get back to what I need to

and then obviously get back into fight shape again. Right. So I do all my research trying to figure out, like, what are like the Kobe Bryant's stuff doing in the world to preserve themselves or whatever it may be to these other alternative medicines to keep me in the game without having to get surgery?

and I find stem cells and so I go down to Panama for the stem cell Neil Reardon's stem cell institute he's like the godfather of stem cells yeah that was my first

first treatment amazing held me together I had intra-articular and also intramuscular stem cells that then I was able to do as much of bands as I possibly could to kind of encase my shoulder

in concrete right like I knew since a capsule was probably stretched or torn you need the muscle muscles to kind of... I had a full tear, right? I had a full tear, so I knew it's not going to just, like, grow back.

Like, some cells are going to grow something that's not there. Right. But all my other, like, my delts and also my other... They have four rotator cuffs, like, and their muscles as well. I knew my other ones really need to be as strong as possible just to kind of, like, in case that thing in concrete, so it wouldn't sublux again. It would sublux here and there, but it did a lot better job of being able to, like, strengthen those.

It sped up my recovery a lot. and even more so I met a very influential person at the Panama instance of place and he got into testing cells all over the world and we found out

the bioaccelerator placed on a meta-ean had by far the most powerful cells the biggest competition out there actually their viability of their stem cells were zero compared to what bio accelerator was so I knew that's where I needed to go

so from 2017 to the end of my career bio accelerator held me together in multiple facets that's my shoulders. Yeah, I've been down there. Yeah. My L4, my L5 disc were bulging, and I had to get those, like, to reabsorb, which helped with that. Mm-hmm. I had arthritis in my hand. Did they put you under and do the thing? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's the way to go, because those inner articulars are not fun. Yeah. And then the soren as afterwards is no joke either. You know, like for a few hours afterwards, you're like, oh, this isn't, this isn't so bad. And then the next day, you feel like a truck ran over your shoulder. But then they absorb and they really get to work. from what I've been told, maybe you can help me with this

is that like usually if it hurts more after your injection, it's because you have more inflammation there and it was like going and working. It was doing its job. Oh, yeah. If you inject your knee, which I've had a massive knee surgery too, it was like very painful. And my understanding was because it was working.

It was doing what you need to do. Oh, yeah. The more damage, the more inflammation, the more inflammation, the more pain. Okay. So, you know, that's a, it's a great sign that it's working. It's just not fun to go through it. Yeah.

I had the same thing, not quite to that extent at all, but I had a torn bicept tendon, not completely torn, but a torn bicep tendon, and I had injected, and we've done a lot of injections in the NFL alumni association with professional athletes. And they are game changers, man. I mean, I don't know a professional athlete alive today that if they weren't facing a similar injury

wouldn't be thinking about stem cells, exosomes, those kinds of things. And even things I didn't realize that were going to come from it that happened, too. Like, again, I wasn't treating my body the right way before I met Sam and it wasn't eating the right kinds of foods and so I'd have psoriasis outbreaks. Wow. And when I went down to bio-accelerator

and I got the IV stem cells like my psoriasis would go away. Right. You know? Yeah, because, you know, these are, you know, not to steal the podcast, but our skin is not just a barrier.

It's a gateway. And we use the skin as a secondary route of waste elimination very often. I mean, this is why you get the cold sweats. I mean, when you have a fever and you're actually, you know, sweating. Sometimes you're actually freezing cold and you're still sweating. That's your liver using the skin as a secondary route of waste elimination.

And if you look at eczema and psoriasis, there's certain classes of bacteria that are very often tied to being absent and people that have those. And stem cells are excellent for those topical inflammatory conditions. Okay. Yeah, so that's good. It has a systemic effect. Even if you inject it into the shoulder, they're going everywhere.

They're going into the bloodstream. They're going everywhere. breathing them out of your lungs are actually really good for your lungs. If you do an IV of stem cells, about 80% of those, or if you do exosomes, will actually come out through the lungs. Okay. You'll breathe them out. And so it's really good for your lungs, you know, too.

Interesting. Which is a part of that competitive sport, too. Yeah. But so you get the stem cells. You come back. You win another championship. Yeah, I win the world title back. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. With two blown shoulders. Yeah, well, yeah, that was the first one. and then throughout my second camp, I tore my super, so I tore my super spenadus in both shoulders and a little bit of partial labrum tear

and bicep tendon tear, a little bit of everything in my left and my right was a super spadetis. Just where, it's always... Somebody crank it in judicious or... Wrestling, grappling and jiu-jitsu. Wrestling is always, I feel like, the sport that hurts me. It's a very intense sport.

You get yourself into these leverage positions to where, like, striking doesn't do that to you. But jiu-jitsu and wrestling do. you know and they're accidental like i'll shoot a double leg in my arms over my head and a guy sprawling on it and puts a lot of pressure on a joint that's not supposed to move that way right right um so yeah i mean just wearing tear from wrestling since i was eight year old through college and then you know more so as being a professional yeah listen there's what i share on this podcast and then there's what i share with my inner circle if you've been following me for a while you know

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to your ultimate potential. Now let's get back to the ultimate human podcast. So I want to get to two highlights of your career, you know, one because I, the first one, because I think that this will really benefit my audience, you know, when, when you're facing adversity and you basically at the height of your career, you know, you use a PED to cut weight and, and then they pop you and you get a two-year suspension. And then I, I, I, I, know that you talked about what a low point you hit immediately after that. And I wonder if you could talk about that a little bit. Like, was that the, because your identity had been stripped from you, were you worried about the public persona? Because you immediately took responsibility, owned up to it,

and stood tall and said, I'm not mad that I did it. Here's why I did it. And, you know, these are the rules of the game. And I violated the rules of the game. And I'm going to take this suspension. I'm going to come back stronger. But after that, I think you went, you went maybe to a dark place. Yeah, I mean, it was hard not to. You know, being a champion of the world was going to drop a weight class. So I was fighting 135s. I was going to drop to 120. I did drop to 125s to try to get a second belt, submit my legacy, you know, make more money, all the dreams you're chasing. And I went full, full-blown enemic. Wow. Like I was my hermatic. was in the low 30s like I'd wake up I'd be cold I wouldn't want to train I was like a fraction

of myself and so I started taking an anemia medication which in anemia medication has a rethropoietin in it to help you produce more red blood cells and um was told that it would be out of my system in time and no matter what it was the wrong choice to do what I should have done was backed out of the fight but again my delusional optimism brain was like now I got this I'm gonna get it done like got myself in trouble and and um I just knew coming out and hitting it and admitting to everything I did was going to be the best for my overall health and my stress and my well-being to where if I feel like I was hiding from things, it was just going to pile on. So I feel like just admitting to it was the best way to get it out and get it out.

Taking ownership and saying. Yeah. But I did go to that very, very bad, dark place. Like you said, my identity was like stripped for me. And like everything that I had accomplished in the past, like, that's the worst part of failing a drug test isn't the two-year suspension. is that what everyone thinks the years beforehand got you there.

Like everything I did was just, in my mind, destroyed. Like, it was like, oh, he's been doing this his whole career. Called him to the question, yeah. Yeah, and, you know, you saw it did a very good job and you saw it as very, very strict. They show up to your house at 6 in the morning all the time and drug test. Yeah, I got drug tested like, I don't know, almost 100 times in a year because I was the champion. No kidding. Yeah, all the time.

A hundred times in a year? I got drug test. And all these are like, uh, You can go and look them up and when you get tested. I would get drug tested days back to back. Did drug test me on Tuesday? Then a drug test me on Wednesday. And you don't know?

No, it's completely random. There's an app on my phone that has to tell them where I'm at 365 days a year. It could be Christmas and they can show up and drug test you. It hasn't happened, but they could. Right. But they always collect an A and B sample. The A sample they test right then and there. The B sample they keep for any instances like mine that came back.

and so I've been drug tested since 2016 on they went back and retested all my samples and to make sure that this wasn't happening beforehand so even though they did that and it's public it's still like the public guy's gonna beat you down for it right and that's the but that's why it works right because no athletes should want to go through that

and it was a very very dark place um I'd say for the first like six months I just wanted to like bury myself and in like drink and like not have to think about it did you stop training oh yeah Well, I got double shoulder surgery when I got suspended. Oh. So not only was like, well, I got some time off.

I might as well as you get it. Well, my identity was stripped for me. I got surgery on my left on my right shoulder. And then eight weeks later, you got one on my left shoulder. As soon as I was able to get out of a sling, I got one on my left shoulder. So, you know, eating pain pills and being suspended wasn't the best choice. But I wanted to get back to being myself. Wow.

Yeah. And so talk about the walk back because, you know, walking out of that. that hole um it takes it takes a strong mental fortitude to be able to do it um i feel like a lot of people maybe would have got broken and just did something else but i think that mental toughness that has turned me into a champion has also got me back into the line and i also felt like i had to do it right because i was being questioned so much it was like yeah i have to come back like i have to come back and i improve myself yeah yeah so there's a little bit of that that fired me up as well, too, like wanting my identity back,

wanted my self-purpose back. Because two years is not that long of time when you start thinking about dual shoulder surgery. If you stop training and let yourself get out of shape a little bit, maybe you were drinking, you were taking pain medication, you were in kind of a dark place. But then you have to, from that ground zero, back into the octagon,

is not that long of a time frame, maybe a year. Yeah. Right? And so where was your family and all this? Like, were they, like, hey, TJ, it's okay if you don't want to go back? Or was your wife, like, you're a world champion? I want to support you all the way. Like, where, what other support systems did you have going on?

Or was this just all inside of TJ's head? Mostly it was inside of my head, but I do have a rock of a wife that is supported. We've been together for 20 years now all through my, like, wrestling career. She's seen, like, all of it. She knew my mindset. She knew I was, that was never a question if I was going back. That was just like, she knew that, right? Yeah, that's what?

knows my personality. She knows my mentality. Like, I don't, I don't shut off. I don't, I don't stop. Right. Um, so that was nothing. But she's always been a rock there to support me. And, uh, that's what I felt the worst about my situation too was like, not only that it affected me and how bad it hurt me, but it hurt my coaches. It hurt my family. It hurt my training partners. Like, it gave them a bad book, too. Yeah. Yeah. They're, they're all on this journey with you too. Yeah. Yeah. So the ripple effect of that was made me feel really, really bad as too. And I took a lot of like extra

just punishment on myself for that too, you know. But luckily I've had a great support system, great coaches, my family. My family is the most supportive family in the entire world. I mean, that's awesome. They live in Northern California, seven hour drive to Fullerton where I wrestled that.

My dad would finish work a little bit early as a contractor, drive all the way down to Fullerton, watch me wrestle, drive home that night because he didn't want to miss work the next day. Seven hours? So 14 total trip, just to watch me wrestle a dual match. Oh, my God. My dad's great.

That's where I get it from. Like, my dad's very intense. Hazard is how. Yeah, hazard. I see where the hazard comes from now, dude. Yeah. Yeah, that's a hazard on the road even if you're sober. Yeah.

So we'll brighten the mood now a little bit because I want to talk about, you know, the transition to where you are now. You know, I know, first of all, I know Dana thinks the world of you. That's awesome. I think the world, Dana. And, you know, he's actually doing a documentary, you know, with you. Can we talk about it? Yeah. Okay, yeah, he's doing a documentary with you about, you know, life after fighting.

Yeah. And I think this is awesome because I've always been, I've always watched those shows growing up, like the one hit wonder. And you're like, oh, yeah, I remember that song. You never heard from them again. And, you know, professional athletes and, you know, actors, A, listeners, those people that have been very, very in the public eye, you always do wonder what, you know, happened to him after achieving that level of fame, stardom, whatever you want to call it,

notoriety. So what made you choose longevity, wellness, you know, supplements? Because I know you have your undergrad was in kinesiology, but you've talked about how you didn't learn anything there. You actually learned it in the real world. Probably learned most of it from Sam. You know, what was that direction about. I mean, what made you say this is, this is the next career path for me. It's like I'm disrupt, I want to disrupt the supplement industry or I'm just not happy with what's out there. I'm starting to, you know, pull back the layers of what's really on the market. I realize how many charlatans and how much garbage is out there. And I want to change that game. Like, what was that about? Yeah. I told you this when I first got here and started checking out

your, I mean, I'm very jealous of your longevity center. Do you have here and all the tools you have? I've been made fun of what I have. I got a hyperbaric chamber, the red light, the son of the cold plunge, the EW. Like, I have it all as well, too, but you're blowing me out of the water. I was very jealous of it. And you want a hydrogen nanobath today. I do. Yeah.

I'm giving them a hydrogen nanobath. It's amazing. It's going to be awesome. But something I've noticed, anecdotally, from just training in my experience, is that chasing pre-performance and longevity go hand in hand. And if you treat the body the way that it was intended to be treated and you recover the right way you eat the right foods you supplement the right way your performance is so much better and the way you feel is so much better and i noticed that by meeting sam calveda and training in his garage um

and when i retired from fighting it's a great story too but i first met sam he came to vegas and i had all these supplements on the counter and they were and they were all garbage like someone i was sponsored by and i'm promoting it i'm saying like what do you mean these are bad is like stop taking these instantly it's like what do you mean he's like they're horrible for you like packed was sucralose and artificial sweeteners and things I didn't know about. Right. And he made me throw all these away and turn me on to the good

supplements that were made naturally and organic and things that I needed. My whole style, my whole life changed, I'm eating salmon. That was a big part of it. So when I retired and I had felt so much better from the training I did in the supplementation I was doing, I knew that that's what I wanted to chase. That's awesome. When I retired, it was kind of like, what am I going to do now? Right? Like, same way as

when I got suspended, it was kind of like my identity was taken away. Like, what am I going to do now? I needed to put my energy towards something. And the lifestyle that I was living in longevity and health and wellness is what I wanted to continue in. And so that's where wild society nutrition started. Yeah. I love your stuff, by the way, man. My son and I eat your rib eyes constantly, the dried rib eyes. Yeah, the caveman eats. Yeah, I take them on planes. I take it with me everywhere. Yeah. And I tried them first at that SproutsCon.

Yeah. When I met you at SproutsCon and my son had been taking him for a while. And he's like, Dad, you got to come over and meet T.J. J. Jalashaw. And I knew who you weren't. And he's like, I've been eating this stuff. I love this stuff. And now I'm like, I love it too, man. I take it on the road. Amazing. I love to hear that because that's why I built it. Not only, I mean, I built it for everyone, but also selfishly myself. Yeah. Right. Like products I wish I would have when I was competing to strive for peak performance. Our K-manis that we're talking about is a 20-ounce grass-fed ribeye in sea salt. That's all it is. That is so awesome. So we slice it

in a bag. Yeah, we slice it really thin. We air dry it, we put it in a five-ounce bag, and it's crazy how well it's doing. Dude, it's, it is, it really is. And I'm not, I've got no affiliate link with you guys or anything, but I will tell you, man, they're, they're amazing. Thank you. I mean, you're talking about traveling. I mean, that's the selfish reason why I created them.

Like, I had to do a lot of traveling for business or when I was fighting, and I can't eat in an airport. No, no, no. There's no way. There's the most dangerous place in the world to eat. It's insane. You know, like, I can't buy a water that's not in a glass, and it's not in plastic. Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy's trying to change that right now.

He just got a lot of flack for it, too. They just announced that they were going to add extra breastfeeding stations for women. They were going to put playgrounds in for kids to get the Zumi's out in airports and turn some of the bars into gyms and shower and changing facilities. And people went nuts. And I was like, dude, I would much rather fly next to somebody who had just had a workout in a fresh shower than some dude that had four beers and a basket of fries.

And if you're a breastfeeding mother, I mean, you've got to go into a public restroom, kind of hiding a stall right now. Why wouldn't we give extra places for that? And, you know, playground for kids to get the zoomies out? You know, I walk by these vape booths and smoking booths. And there's like six bars between when you get out security and get to your, get to your, you know, get to your gate. What are the top three reasons why I prefer a vertical cold plunge versus a laydown tub? Well, I've used both.

When you're in a vertical position, your body naturally regulates your breathing better. So if you're holding on to the sides and you're in a vertical position, you can just focus on your breathwork and you can stay calm. A lot of people feel more calm when they're in a vertical position than when they're laying down in the water and think they might slip under the water. So when you're vertical plunging, you're fully immersed faster. You can focus on recovery, inflammation reduction, and you're not struggling to just stay in a lie down position. Your body floats in an awkward way sometimes. So it's just a more efficient, comfortable experience in my opinion. It takes up way less space too.

It has a smaller footprint so you can put these on your patio, your garage, your bathroom, your locker room. You can really put it anywhere. I've got one on my balcony. I've got two in my bathroom. So this is why Cold Life is my favorite cold plunge on the market. So click the link below and you can order yours today. Make sure you get the ultimate human version. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast.

So I love that the genesis of this because, you know, if I was to sort of summarize a lot of the guests that come on my podcast and they're the most impactful, very, influential, passionate, purpose-driven people. It's always the people that solve the problem in their life. They don't necessarily have to be the most qualified. You know, some of the soccer moms that I've had on my podcast have solved problems like Lyme disease and, you know, being on the journey with Jelly Roll and he conquered drug addiction and alcohol addiction and being 510 pounds and this overwhelming sense of self-hatred.

So what would you say is the problem that you saw? that started this journey into this place. Learning that the products I was being paid to talk about on my social media and ended up feeling really bad about it that I'm promoting something now that. And even after I found out about it, I was getting paid to talk about it. And I kept doing it because I was getting paid.

It's like I felt so guilty about that. So then once I retired and I didn't have these sponsorships, it was like, I'm going to create something that I know is good for you. The reason why I rolled out into sprouts first as well, too, like a lot of professional athletes will build the product again i built these selfishly for myself and we'll get into why i built them but like i wanted to roll out into sprouts first because a lot of professional athletes will slap their face on a brand and then you can and then release it on the website on their website i mean i could be building this in my garage the same thing happens in

my space a lot of people that i some of them that i look up to they get to the top of the mountain they just become a prostitute for every product or service yeah and then there's like especially in the supplement industry you could be building this product in your garage and selling it like the way that it's not regulated is insane you were talking to me about protein powders at the sprouts con and i forget what you said to me but i remember it blew my mind i actually wrote it down i meant to talk to you about it on the podcast and i forgot what it was but it was about like the scam and how they can artificially inflate the protein content oh yeah um you know on on the label and i didn't know about that tell me a little bit about that because i found it

fascinating then well how much is actually like usable and bioavailable and Like, only like, you know, sometimes some of these products are only 20% what actually is in the product. And until you're doing third-party testing, what they say does not, like, you have no idea what it is. Somebody's like, wow, it's 30 grams of protein. But really, it's 10. Yeah, it's got 10. And there's a lot of that out there. So multiple reasons I built this is so chasing peak performance and simplifying some products.

Sprouts was a great partner to partner with. I didn't sell one product online first. I went straight to retail I went that's a different strategy Wow yeah I went straight to Sprouts first Which obviously your property how did you get them to carry your stuff Just because of your name yeah Okay yeah the name and the marketing I was gonna put behind it

And Sprouts is a great partner to have this innovation center To where they give like new brands a chance Because they are in tune with like what's popular right now What's healthy for you Yeah my son sells is hydrogen tablets there We met at SproutsCon yeah and it was that was the first time I'd met a whole team from behind sprouts and they really do have an awesome team

and they're very intentional about what they're putting on their shelves for the for the public which I like to yeah they're they're a great brand I hope they continue to explode oh they will they're growing really really well and the reason why I wanted to go into sprouts is they have a kill list of ingredients you can't have within your product and live within their four walls

like you can't have artificial sweeteners you can't have preservatives things like that you want to avoid anyways. So you know when you're shopping at sprouts, you're shopping. Somebody is, we wish our FDA would do that for us. Exactly.

Yeah. But that's cool. And so that was a, bring a lot of validity to what I was building. Rather than me to slap my face on something selling it online, I could be building in my garage

and who knows what's in it. Another point was that we went straight third-party testing from the get-go for every product we've made. It's been by informed choice, informed sport. So you know that what's on that nutritional effects panel

or something in fact's panel really is in there. And we test all heavy metals, all that stuff, right? It's so good, man. And being as very transparent as possible. That means a lot, man. Yeah. Yeah, no, and it means a lot to the consumer.

And I think the general populace is becoming more woke to these things. I think the pandemic did us all a failure. Yes, big time. You know, we realize, hey, maybe our government elites don't have our best interests at heart. And I think they do now in this current administration. But, you know, in the past, maybe not so much. And also, we just can't trust everything that we read and here out there.

So I think people follow people and not brands too. So just knowing that your heart's behind this and you develop this as much for you as you did for them. And my seven-year-old son. Like, you know if I'm giving it to my seven-year-old's-old. Oh, yeah. He's like when I get it. So it's been hard for us to keep Arcade Man eats in the house

because it's selling so much. Like I have to stay in front of production and everything I'm building is going straight to sprouts like onto our website. So when I bring it home, he smashes in. And it's always been a battle to like, I'm really into my diet. I'm really into performance. And so it's always like I'm trying to feed my son the same way.

And I always want to increase his protein content. He's growing, really good for his brain. And it's like, that's the easiest hack for me is to give him caveman eats because he loves it and he'll mow it. And there's 95 grams of protein in one bag. That's so good. And he'll eat half a bag. That is so good.

Dude, maybe that's going to be his nickname, you know. Yeah. Cave Mandela Shaw. There we go. I like it. He'll be the new guy. He'll be able to turn to the caveman. Hazardous hell.

That's awesome. Yeah. And so what's like a typical, now that you're more woke to longevity and wellness, you've got this brand out there, which I'm sure you're pouring your soul into. Oh, yeah. What is it typical day look like for you now? I mean, clearly you're keeping yourself in good shape. Yeah, I ran this morning.

Yeah, you and I ran the same route out here in Coral Gables. Yeah, we should have run into each other. I know. I can't not work out. like it's my happy place it's what I do it's like and now knowing about longevity and taking care of taking care of yourself being active is very very important um so trying to squeeze that in wherever I can you know it might only be 30 minutes I think I've heard you say this like snacking on exercise yeah I use the term all the time uh to where like I might only have 30 minutes at lunch because

I'm in between calls and like I'll get a little workout in yeah or and I'll do multiple of them throughout the day but they're little or maybe I'll just go for a walk after I eat dinner with my family like finding little windows to be able to work out to where I used to, that's all I did, right? So my life is very busy now. I remember towards the end of my career telling my wife, man, it would be nice to retire one day and live a normal life, you know?

Now I would go- Says a UFC fighter, right? I would love to go back and kick people in the head again. It was way easier than it is running your own business and being an entrepreneur. You have to be very mentally tough being a CEO and founder of your own brand and running it because there's fires every day

you're putting out like you always feel like the company's on the verge of like being destroyed you're like nervous about it because there's like logistics problems like showing up to sprouts in time or manufacturing problems and until you become completely vertically integrated and control all pieces you're relying on so many other people and the ball gets dropped.

Still your brand though man. And like if if my product doesn't show up and say my K-Man East doesn't taste the way that it's supposed to taste, that's on me, even though my manufacturer is the one that messed it up. And, like, that just, like, stresses you out so much, you know? Yeah, I told my kids early on, you know, because my son owns H2Tab. My daughter's launching a chemical-free skincare line. Awesome.

My youngest wants to launch a chemical-free active wear line, which I'm super supportive of. I mean, having my kids close proximity to me is the greatest blessing of my entire adult lifetime. I mean, there's nothing better than being best friends and kind of on the journey with your kids. So cool. And your son is learning more by observation than he is by what you teach and tell him. You know, their eyes are a lot more open to what you think. And like seeing dad in the grind is that's, you know, that itch is going to get planted in dance too. But, you know, I told him, you know, when they wanted to start their own business, I said, it's great.

I mean, just don't start it for the wrong reason. Just remember, you're never going to own this business. It's always going to own you. Yeah. Because, you know, if you're a good entrepreneur, your reputation in that business means everything, right? 100%. And so talk to me a little bit about, and it should be great for your business. You know, this documentary that's going on with, is it Paramount?

So it was going to be released this year. But now with the whole Paramount deal, we're going to wait until next year. Okay. Just because of it. So it's on the shelf. It's on the shelf right now. It's already been recorded. They followed me around for like seven different days.

all the way out to like meeting with venture capitalists in New York to SproutsCon to going into sprouts and going to my manufacturing and show them how the process is made to formulations and my office at home my office in Orange County you know filmed like all that this all started because Dana is an very very passionate entrepreneur like I think that's his first love I know he's got the UFC and everything but like he loves entrepreneurship and building something and making it turning it into something successful and we just just got in touch. I probably stayed in touch with him more now since I've retired than even when I was fighting and just kind of filling him in on what's going all with my brand and it was a joke because I heard he was like teaming up with first form and excuse my language where I said, yo fuck first form

I was like just joking. I know wild society's not big enough yet but we did we did some numbers of the sales we did in April and we're just getting started and like that same savage I was in the cage is the same savage I'm outside the cage and I'm going to get this done I'm going to make it successful and I'm going to turn the supplement industry upside down. Well, he loved it.

It resonated with him. He's like, this is awesome, gave me a great idea. And I was like, awesome. What's the idea? Ghost me for like two days. He'll ghost you. He'll be like, hold tight or something like that. And you're like, no, dude, I don't want to hold tight.

And so, like, my brain's going. He's like, I got a great idea. He's like, oh, maybe I'm going to partner with you. You see this and that. And like, he goes to me for like two days. And like 1030 at night, he calls me like two days later. It's like, hey, man, I want to create a documentary of what you're doing, what success looks like after retirement.

and still being on that same grind that you were as a fighter, now as an entrepreneur. And so they follow me around filming it, you know. And if Dana says it, it happens. He's not just like, yeah, I think we'll do this documentary. It sounds like a great idea kind of guy. He's like, oh, no, we're going to do a documentary where it's, I mean, it's happening. Yeah.

He doesn't, the thing I love most about him, he's very black and white. Like, you know exactly where he stands. But talk about a guy whose word you could take to the best. If he tells you that he's going to do something, there's 100% chance to get done. We were sitting here at my kitchen table a few months ago and with his daughter and my son was here and he started talking to my son Cole about the Great World Race.

He ran seven marathons on seven continents and seven days. And he was like, wait, what the fuck? He ran a marathon in Antarctica and then Africa and then Australia. And he's like, when you do documentary on this? He goes, do you want to do it? And Cole goes, I want you to do it. And Cole goes, I want you to do it. Of course, yeah.

He literally picked up the phone right then and called his team and now it's, now it's underway. Oh, that's so cool. He's, we're meeting with the documentary film crew and, yeah, he's either all gas or all break. I mean, there's no sort of in between. So that's awesome, man. I think that's going to have a huge impact on your, on your career. It is just kind of sheds light on what I'm building and why I'm building it.

You know, I've always talked about, like, I'm building products that I wish I would have had when I was competing, you know, like my concentrates that are grass fed and we, added organic mushroom complex to it to deal with a not only athletic ability but reducing stress and cortisol and my longevity protein that's, you know, got creatine, weight protein isolates, collagen, lactoferrin, ureth, and a, like...

Listen to you, man, yeah, I love this. Yeah, and just the reason why I created what I did and the benefits behind it and K-Man, he's been able to take it on the road and, like, most of the... Like, I'm on a very high-protein diet, you know, high-protein, good food, fats, lower carbs, like good carbs.

I've been wanting to put on size, but I'll put on lean size. And it's been fantastic for that. But most of my protein I get is from the food I eat and why we created K-Manus. 100%. I think you get it from whole foods. Exactly. But it's nearly impossible sometimes when you're working hard or you're working out hard to, you know, get the nutrients you need right away. Right.

Right. So the like the longevity is or the isolates we created. Like I can drink them while I'm working out. And I get, you know, the rapid absorption of amino acid. and proteins and things that I need for protein synthesis and just thought about chasing world championships and that's what Wildcside Nutrition is. That's so awesome.

So where do you see this brand going? You have an online presence now. Yep. You can continue to go after the retail channel. Yeah, I love retail specific channels too, like especially around the natural sector. We're looking to roll out into Whole Foods here in the beginning of 2006.

We're in Sprouts. G&C has actually been a massive help for us as well too. GNC has trying to turn around what they've been known as in the past and only like putting out like weight gainers and products that have artificial. They still have that. Yeah, they want that longevity. But yeah, so our like our longevity product is solely at G&C right now because they want a whole longevity section. That's sick. You know, they want people like the times are changing.

Yeah, totally agree. People like you. People. Yeah. And they're educating, like me, educating me and educating the world on, like, what we should be eating and how we should be treating ourselves. And the G&C is, like, seeing that trend. Yeah, totally agree, man. I'm really excited for you.

Well, so I have a group of followers that call my VIP group. And they're the only guys and women that I let know what guest is coming on the podcast before they come on. So I want to take you into a room with them. I do a private podcast with them. I want to, they have a whole list of questions for you. But if you're interested in becoming a VIP, just go over to the ultimatehuman.com forward slash VIP. And you can sign up to be a VIP today. You get private podcasts.

You get Q&As with me. You get all of my protocols, including becoming the ultimate human version of yourself. And maybe I'll even negotiate a discount for T.Js for some of those yummy rib-eyes. Love it. Yeah. But before we go into that room, I always wind down all of my podcasts by asking my guests, the same question. What does it mean to you to be an ultimate human? I've heard your podcast, so I had a little bit time to think about this. You knew it was coming. Yeah, I did. I knew it was

coming. But for me, it's the pursuit of excellence, mentally, spiritually, and physically. I just need to be chasing something. I need a sense of purpose. I know that sense of purpose keeps me going. Keeps me motivated. When I'm motivated for something, like, greatness can happen. and I want that excellence all the time and I want that excellence to rub off all my son or my family and maybe people that fall along on my journey. Yeah, T.J. Dill Shaw, I wish you all the success, man. Thank you.

You're moving the needle in this world. I really appreciate you coming on the ultimate human. This is amazing. Thank you. And until next time, guys, that's just science.