WHOOP Podcast - Marc Gasol, 3-Time NBA All-Star, talks improving his diet, sleep and recovery, avoiding unnecessary strain, and everything else he does to continue playing at an elite level.

Episode Date: January 30, 2019

Marc Gasol, 3-time NBA All-Star, discusses his basketball background (2:57), falling asleep and missing his name being called on draft night (4:52), having an older brother in the league (6:03), things he's doing to extend his career (7:28), avoiding unnecessary strain (11:32), why he uses WHOOP (12:55), recovery tactics (13:50), training advice for young athletes (23:30), role models (27:45), following a paleo diet (29:06), fasting with a "16:8" method (29:45), and what caused his lowest WHOOP recovery (31:25). Support the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

We discovered that there were secrets that your body was trying to tell you that could really help you optimize performance, but no one could monitor those things. And that's when we set out to build the technology that we thought could really change the world. Welcome to the WOOP podcast. I'm your host, Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of WOOP, where we are on a mission to unlock human performance. At WOOP, we measure the body 24-7 and provide analytics to our members to help improve performance. This includes strain, recovery, and sleep. Our clients range for the best professional athletes in the world, to Navy SEALs, to fitness enthusiasts, to Fortune 500 CEOs and executives.

The common thread among WOOP members is a passion to improve. What does it take to optimize performance for athletes, for humans, really anyone? We're launching a podcast to dig deeper. We'll interview experts and industry leaders across sports, data, technology, physiology, athletic achievement, you name it. My hope is that you'll leave these conversations with some new ideas and a greater passion for performance. With that in mind, I welcome you to the WOOP podcast.

Doing the work before practice, doing the work after practice, Obviously, getting your hour's sleep. Now, you know, they monitor everything we do. On the court, all our movement, all our loads. It's been monitored by the NBA, by our team. So you kind of know, so nothing, you know, comes out of nowhere. Today's guest is Mark Gassall, three-time NBA All-Star Center for the Memphis Grizzlies.

Mark has been a whoop user for quite some time, and at 34 years old is having one of the best seasons in recent memory. We talk about his background coming from Spain to the NBA, what he's learned from having an older brother in the league, players he looks up to and models himself after, and even a funny story about falling asleep before the NBA draft. We focus on all the things he does to keep playing at an elite level as he gets older, including pre-game workout routines, recovery tactics, diet,

how he improves his sleep, how he improves travel, takeaways from his whoop data, and the one piece of training advice you'd give to young athletes. Whether you're an athlete, a basketball fan, or just someone looking to improve your performance, I think there's something here for you. And now let's kick it over to Mark. Mark, thanks for doing this. My pleasure. So congratulations on this season for you personally. I know it's been a good one from recent memory. You're trending up in a lot of stats. And I really want to talk to you about some of the things that you do from a training perspective and a recovery perspective, but I thought I'd start with just, did you always know you were going to be a professional basketball player?

No, no, obviously I loved the game. My parents both played back in Spain, not professionally, but they both introduced my brother, obviously, Pau, and myself to the game, and I fell in love with it. And just like a little kid played every day outside, but never, I wasn't a big dreamer, dreamer. Like, I never thought, you know, like playing in the NBA and be a professional basketball player. But I knew that I had a lot of fun doing it, and most of my friends come from this world. And now your older brother, Pau, so he's about five years older, is that correct? Yeah. So when he went to the NBA, was that the moment when you started thinking, okay, this could be a career path for me? No. At that time, we all moved from Barcelona to Memphis, which is a pretty big change. It's a big change. So, you know, we started Memphis as a family.

I went through my junior and senior year of high school there and then moved back. And then my dad kind of made me decide, like, look, if you want to give basketball a shot, it's going to be now. And I'm like, okay, so he allowed me to go back to Spain and enroll in the FC Barcelona basketball team. Okay. And that was kind of the, you know, one of the breaking points for me.

Like, I didn't go to basketball here in the state and new college. I decided to go back there and go through the program that they had in Barcelona. And the Barcelona program, that's more of a professional program than, say, like, going to an NCAA school would be in the states, correct? Correct. Yeah, the basketball club there, you know, they played a special, like a Spanish League, it's professional. It's a, you know, a city that I was already very comfortable with and in a situation that, you know, I was very lucky to be in. well congratulations and as i understand it you were drafted in june of 2007 right yeah yeah and and that was to the lakers so if i'm not mistaken you were actually in a package that included your brother right now

yeah actually i was part of the package that you know got sent back to memphis right um but yeah that you know first of all the draft my draft night like it's not like you know most kids see draft night I was back in Spain You know It was really late at night I was spending the night With actually Pau And my actual wife

And some friends And And by the time they picked me I was not up You know It was fell asleep We start playing games With the drafts

Pigs and taking shots and wine And you know You're drunk I'm just passed out in the couch They woke me up I'm like, hey, they picked, you finally picked you. And it was 48 pick by the Lakers, yeah. And then a few months later, got traded, you know, for one another.

Like, my rights got traded back to Memphis, and Pa got traded to L.A. And went on and won a couple championships. Well, it's fascinating. I mean, the concept of having your brother be a professional athlete in the league with you, what's that been like for you? Has it been a fun dynamic? Yeah, it sets the bar, sort of. Right, right?

And it's cool because I got to, learn before obviously knowing that I was going to be in the NBA, a lot of in and out of how a locker room worked, what things that you need to do outside of the game, what things are really important, what things you should not do to be a professional. So it was pretty cool to see, and I'm always, you know, always looking forward to learning more and more. So what are some obvious examples of things that you feel like you picked up quickly from having a brother in the league? Well, at that time was how to deal. with the veterans in the locker room.

Oh, interesting. You know, Pau was young and from overseas, and at that time, there were not that many international players in the league. So, you know, how he managed that, because he already came from a professional locker room. He also played for Barcelona for a couple seasons. So he already knew a little bit how to interact, but some rookies didn't know and learning and hearing

how some of the veterans would pick on the rookies that would not behave the way they should. Oh, yeah. It was kind of cool, so I always stayed on my lane, what the vents told me, and got, you know, got away with it. So it sounds like you were a well-behaved rookie through that lens at least. Oh, yeah, very myself, better myself. Now, I want to fast forward a little bit. So you're 33 years old, you're about to turn 34 this month, and you've played in every game this year.

You're averaging the most rebounds per game in seven years. You've got a career high in three-pointers per game, career high in steals. What are some things for you that, like, have helped with this longevity? Because I know it's so hard in professional sports to actually have these honeymoon years, you know, later in your career. So first you've got to be lucky. Yeah, I respect that. There's some luck to it that, you know, injuries happen and freak injuries happen. Like I had my injury, a scary one back in 2000, I think was 16,

already, I broke my Navigler Bone, who's finished young men's career, who's finished, you know, so many big men's career. So I was very fortunate to come out of that better than before. So that takes a little bit of luck. You know, you can do everything right. And when the time comes, like the bone didn't heal the way it should and you can't play. So, you know, obviously you can do, you must do all the right things to get that luck. But, you know, I I think luck and staying healthy and understanding what the league is headed to and always having that mindset of continuous growth and adapting, adapting to what the league and the young players demand.

What are some things that for you now as a 33-year-old you're doing that you weren't doing when you were 23-year-old? I do a lot more preparation before and after, obviously, for the game. like you try to invest. You know, when you're younger, you're kind of like always living on credit and taking stuff out of the bank. I think now as you get older, you get a little wiser, not a lot, but a little wiser. So you like to invest more and pay it forward, right?

So, you know, doing the work before practice, doing the work after practice, obviously getting your hours sleep. Now, you know, they monitor everything we do. On the core, all our movements, all our loads, it's been monitored by the end. NBA by our team so you kind of know so nothing you know comes out of out of nowhere like anything that happens to you they know if your accelerations have been up the last few games so you can prevent a lot of the stuff so trying to stay ahead of you know the injuries it's it's it's really important what are some techniques for you that you do like right before a game I really like to do like a minelift

We lift a little bit, not like a real lift, but kind of more of activation. Okay. Hitting the major muscles, hip stretch as well, because you're going to use a lot of during the games. And then I like to do the contrast bath as well. It's something that I like to do. So you go hot, cold. Correct. Two hours before, I'll start on the hot.

I do like three on, three off, three on, three off. Sorry, and three on being three minutes in a hot bath. And then three on the cold. And then three colds. Correct. Oh, really cool. Yeah. So one is probably a 105.

The hub being 105, the cold thing's going to be around 45. Yeah, that sounds right. And I'll just back and forth, and that gets my blood flow going, gets my legs feeling well, and then I'll change and go straight to the weight room and get that, you know, a couple sets of a good lift, maybe six exercises, and get up to shooting and get in your rhythm. And those exercises, so are you trying to trigger me? major muscles? Are you trying to just get a sweat? Major muscles. So you'll do like deadlift or something at a lightweight or squat? RDRL, single leg RDL or double leg

RDL, a little bit of squatting, you know, just run back, push, pool, some core and mobility stuff. And how will you vary that depending on whether you've had practice already in the morning? Because some days you guys will have a practice and then you'll have a game later. Well, I think the practice in the morning, I think it's kind of outdated in today's MBA. We call it a walk-through, but it's, you know, I think teams are still figuring out what is that useful, because you activate your body and then you shut it down for a few hours, but then you really got activated for the game. So I think, you know, shoot-round are kind of old-school and it doesn't do much for the game. I know coach is going to hate me for that, but it's the truth.

Well, one thing that's interesting that we've seen on Woop is that like actually a lot of athletes will go through a walkthrough like that and because maybe they're well rested or because they're excited about the game later they'll put strain on their body that they didn't expect they actually put on yeah like they'll take on more load than they should have so i'm mad i i wear my whoop during those uh shootarounds and uh it'll go up probably to a point something yeah close to a 10 yeah eight to a 10 yeah and uh so You don't necessarily need that at that time. Yeah, exactly.

So that's my whole thing. Like, why doing that at that time? I think it's kind of irrelevant. Like, you want to keep as much energy as you can for the game and activate your body just once for the big event. So you've been a whoop user for a little while. Like, what are some things that you've used the product for? Rest the most, like monitoring my rest.

My strength is kind of hard because of the game, and you can not wear the whoop during the games. Yeah. But for resting and trying to see. see how the different things that I do before going to bed affect my sleep. And sometimes you feel like you had a great night of sleep, but all of a sudden

your recovery number is not what it should be. And you're like, oh, why is that? Like maybe you had a couple of glasses of wine, and you're like, well, maybe I shouldn't do that as much. Even though it feels great. But you want to get your rest and your heart rate, you know,

your resting heart rate, it's normally the same, but you know, the numbers don't always work the way you want And so just feeling that out, it's important for me, like knowing what affects my sleep and when I want to peek, what should I do before that night. What are some things that you've found for you personally help you get a higher recovery on WOOP? So it's hard to turn your brain off after games when you play a game, like your adrenaline, the blue light from the game, like you're all gicked up.

If you lost, like you're going over the game, it's hard to shut it down. So even when I try to read at night sometimes, but my brain, my thoughts will overcome what I'm trying to read. So I try to watch shows, but I know it's not good for the blue light, but I try to watch shows that I'm interested in that completely are, you know, away from basketball and kind of block my mind. And that allows me to sleep a little better, having a good meal, but no wine. or beer. Try not to have as much alcohol. Yeah, you got to watch that, especially after games,

because for your recovery, it doesn't help as much. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And have you found other things like mindfulness or meditation, anything like that's helped you? I try a couple apps. Headspace is one, and the other one.

I can't remember the other one, which one it was. Calm or 10% happier. I have it right here. And we'll include this in the show notes. Waking up. Waking up? Waking up. Oh, is that Sam Harris?

Correct. Yeah, I've listened to some of his stuff. So I'm mixing it up depending on and seeing which one works better for me. But Africa is just hard for me to like... Shut off. I think it's hard for a lot of athletes. I mean, I've had this conversation with other professional athletes like yourself. And especially just the game environment is so animated.

Like, it's impossible not to have an adrenaline response to that. Yeah, the noise level, the line level, everything. like the win, the lose, all that it's, you know, it's pretty intense. It's super cool, and it's nothing like it, right? Yeah, yeah. I think that's what you're going to miss the most once you retire. Like, how you... That much.

Yeah, exactly. Well, when I find something that duplicates that. So that's why I enjoy the game so much. But obviously, as it's down, you know, you can't sleep as much, and especially through rough batches, like, it's hard to sleep. How many hours are you trying to spend in bed? Okay, so I'll spend close to nine. hours in bed. So that's pretty good. Yeah, but I'll sleep probably about six. Oh, okay. Yeah. So that shows actually

how, you know, animated your body must still be. Because you would typically want to see a slightly higher efficiency, right? We think of sleep efficiency as the hours of sleep that you get relative to the time that you spend in bed. And so that's interesting. And I don't take naps. I do not take naps. I tried it. It doesn't work for me. Like, because you feel lethargic afterwards? No, I just can't fall asleep. Like, during the day, just like I'm not used to it. I know it's, you know, for some of my teammates, they find it kind of crazy, but I just can't do it.

And do you take any caffeine throughout the day, or, like, how do you think about that? Yeah, I do. You take some pre-workout before the games kind of thing. It's called Tier 1. Tier 1, it's called. And, you know, get you ready for the game. So that'll get you up a little bit animated. Yeah, and in the mornings, I'm a big coffee drinker.

Yeah, right. Okay, so there's definitely some caffeine. And will you take anything after the game that maybe is working in the opposite direction? Have you ever taken magnesium, melatonin, anything like that? Yeah, we take magnesium, the zinc, melatonin, and the somsleep. Oh, yeah, I've tried that, actually. It's good. It's pretty good.

We tried also the tart cherry tart. Oh, did you like that? Cherry bunny, I think it's called the commercial one. It's not bad. It has a lot of sugar compared to the sum. Which probably is not as good. Which is not a, you know, the trainers don't recommend it as much. But the sum is pretty good.

Like we've tried it. We travel with it. We get some in every city we go. Oh, interesting. So, yeah. Sometimes you need a little bit stronger stuff, like kind of like a Zikwheel or something like that. just to make you out, but the groggy in the morning is not as good. So do you find, like, have you been able to identify which of those products is more effective

on whoop for your sleep? So. That's one thing I'm always, like, playing with personally. Yeah, correct. Like, I'm pretty consistent with the sum and the nighttime vitamins, we called it. Okay. I'm pretty consistent with that, but it's after the game. Like, I'm not, I'm just not going to sleep no matter what I take.

And will you always eat after a game? Yeah, yeah. So sometimes you probably have games finish at what? 11 p.m. or 10 p.m.? Depends, yeah. Definitely 10. So that even in itself is difficult because you're eating then at like 11 and food can affect your sleep too, right?

Correct, correct, yeah. Everything that you do. I try to do the sauna as well, post-games at home. So you'll do a sauna after the game? After the game, yeah. Trying to bring all my nervous system down and relax a little bit. I get in there, I turn off, like we have it at the arena. So kind of the dimer the lights down

and just getting there. and get a good sweat and kind of try to shut down a little bit. Interesting. And will you go cold after that? No. Just shower after that and head home. Wow, that's fascinating. I want to focus on a few different recovery modalities,

and you can just tell me whether you've used them or tried them, okay? Have you ever done the Norma Tech? Yeah, use it a lot. Do you like it? Yeah. And how will you use it? Will you go for 30 minutes, 10 minutes, an hour? An hour.

I do the long as far as I can. And before a game or after a game? Normally use it like after shoot-around. When I get home around midday, I'll do the normal tape for around an hour. So the shoot-around being in the morning, you then do Norma-Tech and then the games later that night? Correct. Okay, so you'll do it the day of the game and for an hour. Okay, how about a product like Hyper Ice or Theragon, you know those like machine gun type?

So we'll use that after the cold tub, the contrast. We'll use that as part of our, not the lift, but more of the activation stuff. We'll use it real quick on our legs and get going. But that's only when I'm really, really sore. Like if I really feel like I need it, if not, I'd rather get the blood flowing like through the lift. Okay, so the lift for you can replace that on some level. It depends. If I have an active issue, exactly.

You have an active issue. Like, that makes you, like, I don't know, your tissue feel really good. Do you ever do rolling? Yeah, yeah. The normal roller, or do you like the vibrating ones? I kind of like the fancy ones. For some reason, like the vibrating feels better. I've used the sphere.

I like the sphere because it gets to place, especially in my upper back. Yeah, right. I can kind of find the trigger point, exactly. I kind of find the trigger points. Massage therapy, do you ever do it? Yeah, but I love getting massage. but it's like not before like not the night before a game like not the night before because you think that might affect your muscles or it's not part of my routine so I kind of

like yeah I don't know you've just never done it so you don't want to do it I've done it and you didn't like your results correct I didn't like how it felt so I kind of like you know just do it either after games so I have like two days yeah or like when I have I know I have I'm going to have two days between games like I'll do it how do you feel about um Copping? I had done it in my upper bag. It's another solution. It's like knitting. I like copying. Do you like acupuncture? Yeah, I do. I do. The dry knitting I like, too. I think it's, depending on the issue that you have, like, all these techniques are great. I'm always open to try new stuff. Is there anything that you've tried that you just don't like from a recovery standpoint? Or you don't like at a certain time? a cold chamber like the oh cryotherapy yeah cryotherapy yeah that one i just if i'm kind of claustrophobic

and i'm pretty big obviously so just i don't i don't like that one that one we have one and i don't now would you say your teammates are using that in the past like i had teammates that used it um in the current team that we have nobody used it oh interesting i find that athletes either fall in love with it or don't go near it um i'm i'm sorry you're i'm sorry Yeah, I'm another, yeah. What about, well, it sounds like you already do ice bath and all sorts of different icing. Yeah. Is that fair to say?

No, it's true. It's true. I normally ice my ankles postgame as well. I think that's more of a routine. Because sometimes the swelling is good for you. Like it's a natural way of your battery recovering your own joints and muscles. So sometimes you want that little swelling to happen and happen naturally. So I think it's more of a routine that I have.

And so, you know, it's, I don't eyes my knees, but my ankles I do. So based on that, are you then less inclined to take things like ibuprofen or any kinds of painkillers? Because those also reduce inflammation. Only were varinated. Yes, you try to use it sparingly. Correct. So when you need it, you really need it, like your body reacts the way it should. Like, if you take it as a matter, like routinely.

As like a daily thing. Correct. Like when you really need it, like your body is already adapted. so you're going to have to take a lot more. Yeah, right, which is tough, obviously. And for, like, the younger athletes who are listening who aspire to be a Marcosol one day, like, what are some things that you would say to them in terms of how to think about training and their daily lives?

I think you've got to find the balance between having, you know, what you like and what you need. Like, you've got to understand what your body needs and kind of setting your goals and diagramming a plan. I think, and then you just work the plan. you got to enjoy life, obviously, and got to have times to go a little bit off of the plan. But then the next day, like, you got to get back on the plan and do the right things that you need to do. If not, it's, you know, if you're inconsistent throughout, you're going to get inconsistent results. That's always, you know, I've always seen that in, you know, in my case. How do you feel about youth athletes specializing in sports younger and younger?

You know, it used to be age 15, maybe you still play three sports competitively. could still go on to be a professional athlete. Whereas we see now a lot of youth athletes, even age 12, 13, they're just picking their sport. Do you think that's good or bad? And how is that for you? Did you pick basketball early? Yeah, yeah. For me, it was basketball at 7.

Oh, wow, and you just went the whole way. Well, we didn't have that system set up like that in Spain. Right. So you have to pick a sport and you go with it because we train, like, well, we train. We had practices at three times a week and the game. on the weekend so there was no other slots for any other sport obviously we all played soccer growing up but that's more in the breaks so it sounds like from your standpoint specialization is is fine because as long as kids are happy yeah i think kids got to do what makes them happy yeah

burnout is obviously yeah and and the team spirit and sharing and helping each other i think those those things are crucial have you ever gone through a period in your career where you felt a little burned out? Obviously, yeah. But, you know, the summers are great for recovering. Yeah. During the summers, I sleep great. I get my vitamin D.

You know, I walk, get up early. I have two kids, so kids make you kind of like. Keep track of that. Yeah, exactly. They make you organize. You can't go sleep too late because they're going to wake up whenever they wake up. What's the most relaxing vacation you've ever gone on? Oh, on a boat.

when me and my wife go on a boat, only the two of us, and the sunset in the water, we anchor down somewhere and just relaxing, reading, listening to good music, that's the best. That's awesome. How about from a standpoint of travel, like generally speaking, you know, we have a lot of executives who listen to this podcast to have to travel all the time for work. What are some things that you feel like you've learned about travel in your body that, you know, might appeal to a larger audience? To me, it's like when I get to a room,

I always put it on the same temperature. That's really smart. That's actually great advice that people should all do. That puts my, I don't know, my body and kind of... Calibrate. Correct. And it gets in my routine. I try to go outside and see, like, if it's still dark,

I mean, if still daylight outside or it's dark, so have your body exposed to the weather and the environment and the time of day. Exactly. And if I'm, if I have time, I'll, you know, not today, but if we get to a city early, I like to work out. Right. And that always helps my body, whatever workout you like to do. If it's a little cardio, cardio, if it's something more lifting and more activated, why not? If it's sport, sport, if it's sauna, sauna, something, something to activate your body.

So what's the time cutoff for you where you won't work out? So, like, right now we're recording this. It's almost 7 p.m. in Boston playing the Celtics tomorrow. Correct. So you're not going to exercise tonight. No. I think if we got in here at 3, I would have definitely worked out. Okay, that makes sense.

Yeah, at 3, I think they caught off being a 5, you know, anything later than 5 kind of gets, you know, opposite. You get kind of in the game, like you activate your body so much that then it's hard for me to shut it down. Who are some players in the league today that you find, like, you have a lot of respect for, or, you know, you try to. to learn from them you look at the older guys you know yeah as you get older you turn to look like you always look up and see the guys um there that have been able to extend their careers correct like Vince Carter their nuiski like my brother obviously uh Tony Parker you look at guys like last year manu gnobley the team duncan a couple years ago those guys to me are examples because they they still going through the grind and through the you know through the hectic of the of the NBA

and I admire that because it's not easy to go 15, 17 years. Yeah, it's a grind. It really is. It really is. And you have to love it. Like, there's not the way. At some point, you're going to say, you know what, it's not worth it. But, you know, the love of the game makes you, like, just keep going in the competitive nature.

I always want you to, like, show the rest of the guys, the younger guys that, okay, you guys are really good, but you guys cannot beat me yet. What's the, like, what's the corkiest thing that, that you've learned from a veteran athlete that you think has actually contributed to them staying, staying longer in their career? Hmm. I don't know. I think... Could be like a weird diet or a weird supplement or... See, like, I messed around with diets.

The paleo diet is something that I've learned, you know, to work well. Yeah, paleo diet had been something that I've seen that, first, I think, the spurs used to do it, and Timmy started it, or I don't know who started, but I heard it from Tim Duncan, and it's something that, you know, it worked out for me pretty well. So you won't eat bread, you won't eat pasta? No. Wow, that's amazing. And it's hard, too, because you find bread and pasta everywhere, and it's really good.

And so what are you getting from a nutritional standpoint that you think is giving you energy, like sweet potatoes and stuff like that are obviously paleo? So what I do the 16-8. I'll fast for 16 hours. eight through eight. Oh, wow. So you're fasting and paleo. Correct. Wow. Yeah. You got to make sure you get those calories in. No, we do. We do. We do. We have, you know, the trainers that they're great. Yeah, yeah. I'm sure. Helps me a lot with it and they really do a good job of a, of put it, you know, in the schedule. But yeah, we've been doing it and it's great. And is that most of the team or just

you? No, just me. I'm the only one that does that. And how long have you been doing both of those things? Now for two years. and you've seen a positive response from your body obviously and energy wise like much higher energy much higher and especially the time that I needed too like during the morning while fasting like my brain just functions differently I'm so much more I'm so much more wired and everything comes much clearer than if I ate breakfast and kind of had a full meal in the morning so I'm just thinking about this from the standpoint of a day right like so you'll wake up in the morning and you probably won't eat

You'll do a shoot-around or something. And then your eating process will start, what, like early afternoon? A one. One. Number of one. Okay. And so after a game, you won't eat if it's past nine, or you're kind of, roughly speaking. Correct.

At that point, like, you want to eat as fast as possible because that's the metabolic window is when it happens. So you want to eat as fast as possible. And then just rest and then just have you lost weight on the diet a little bit? A little bit, yeah. Yeah, probably 10 pounds. But that was... But it feels like an efficient 10 pounds. Correct.

Correct. And it feels good, too. Wow, that's awesome, man. Yeah. What was the lowest recovery you've ever gotten on me? Single digits. Really? Yeah, single digits.

And what was it from sickness or drinking or overtraining? It was more about like a loss, like losing the game and drinking maybe one or two glasses. Of wine? Of more wine. Like, normally my cutoff is two glasses. And then you want... Maybe I went to, yeah, for three, four, and I pay for that. Sometimes you need it.

Sometimes you need that extra glass of wine. Just to reset. Correct, correct. Well, it's a real pleasure having you on Woop, and this has been a really fun interview, Mark. Thank you. If you ever need anything, you know, don't hesitate to reach out. Love it. Thank you so much, guys.

Yeah, awesome. Thank you. Thanks again to Mark for coming on the show. We hope you have a phenomenal second half, Mark, and we're proud to have you on WOOP. If you're not already a member, you can join the WOOP community now for as low as $18 a month. We'll provide you with 24-7 access to your biometric data as well as analytics across strain, sleep, recovery, and more. The membership comes with a free Woop Strap 2.0.

And for listening to this podcast, folks, if you enter the code, Will Ahmed, that's W-I-L-L-A-H-M-E-D at checkout, we'll give you 30 bucks off. So thank you for listening, put 30 bucks on my tab, get that free month, and hopefully you enjoy Woop. For our European customers, the code is Will Ahmed E.U. Just tag EU on the end of my name, and that'll get you 30 euros off when you join. Check out Woop.com slash the locker for show notes and more,

including links to relevant topics from our conversation. You can subscribe, rate, and review the Woop podcast on iTunes, Google, Spotify, or wherever you've found this podcast. We'd love to hear your feedback. You can find me online at Will Ahmed and follow at Whoop on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. You can also email The Locker at Whoop.com with any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions.

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