WHOOP Podcast - WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins, Cesaro, and Coach Josh Gallegos on competing for the best WHOOP data, how it helps them adapt their training, and what really happens when they get in the ring.

Episode Date: April 9, 2019

Seth Rollins, the WWE's new Universal Champion, fellow wrestler Cesaro, and coach Josh Gallegos talk about their "WHOOP gang" (7:21), the similarities between wrestling and CrossFit (8:53), competing for the best WHOOP data (11:25) and the discoveries they've made from it (12:51), what increases their HRV (15:11), adapting workouts based on recovery (19:50), diet and nutrition (24:43), how to avoid injury in the ring (30:10), the art of wrestling (31:57) and how it compares to dancing the tango (33:33), what causes the most strain during a match (40:35), tips for getting to sleep (42:50), advice for success (46:17), and the worst recoveries they've ever had (51:58).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 Whoop Podcast.

Because recovery is a huge part of our game anyway. so much at such a high level all the time. If you're overworked, if you're overtrained, then your performance suffers, and then that's indicative of where you sit on the card and where you're at in the company. So I mean, try to find all these different ways to recover, but having the date of the whoop is nice because it will give you a nice guide to follow. Hello, folks. Today's podcast is a unique one.

We've got the universal champion of the WWE, Seth Rollins. We've got his buddy, fellow W.W.E. wrestler Cesarro, and their coach, Josh Gallegos. We sat down together in Brooklyn last week as they prepared for WrestleMania 35, so this was a few days before WrestleMania. And lo and behold, Seth is now the universal champion. It turns out these guys are big whoop users. It's grown organically within the WWE, which has been fascinating for me to see. and we talk about how they use their data every day. About 15 of them are on a whoop team together,

so they're constantly competing around their data. We talk a little bit about what it takes to be successful in the entertainment industry and what it takes to be successful as a competitive athlete. And there's some great behind-the-scenes stuff here too, what pro wrestling's really like, the absurd travel schedule, how the storytelling can adapt and change from match to match,

and why being in the ring is similar to dancing the tango. Even if you're not a fan of wrestling, I think you're still going to learn a lot from these amazing guys. Here are Seth, Cesarro, and Josh. Guys, thanks for doing this. Welcome. Thanks for having us, man. Excited.

We got a full crew here of people gearing up for the WWE WrestleMania. I just did a bit of research on WrestleMania. It's unbelievable the popularity of this upcoming event. the fifth most popular sporting event ahead of the Olympics and Major League Baseball's finals. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, I'll take that. So congratulations on what you guys have done.

I want to first start with Josh. You serve as the trainer to Seth. How do you keep track of this guy? Constant text messages. A lot of angry text messages. No, but we talk on a daily basis about just kind of how he trains throughout the day or how he's feeling. I send them, obviously, his weekly programming.

And shortly after that, I get the angry text messages to be like, oh, this workout looks awful or, oh, this one looks terrible. But nonetheless, they still do them all. And then I still get the angry text messages afterwards. I'm like, oh, my God, that was a terrible workout. I was right. But that's how, more or less, I keep track of Seth's workouts throughout the week. And how often are you guys actually together like you are right now?

Oh, rarely, right? once a month maybe yeah once a month once every other month depending on the events usually i try to keep my schedule open on the bigger events like russellmania roland bowl survival survival series summer slam all the big events i used to what i like to try to go to or if there's an event closer to where i live where it's easy for me to get in and out and you're like on the road all the time right i mean it's a crazy travel schedule yeah as w w superstars we're on the road all year there's no off season you know we travel um 250 days a year probably roughly that's You know, wrestle close to, depending on where you're at, 100, I mean, I probably wrestle

close to 170 matches last year, right? Yeah, if you're doing it every week in a full schedule and stuff like that. So, you know, we're jumping time zones and continents and all that sort of stuff. But yeah, it's the gig, you know. What does like a week look like for you to describe a week of being a pro wrestling? A typical week for me or for us is we would fly into a town from home on a Friday or for Sassaro would be on a Saturday. So you take off from wherever you're from,

or usually a very early morning flight for a.m. wake-up call. And then you fly into a town, grab a rental car. You'll do a workout probably that day, usually to, you know, get some of the rust off or rest if you need to. And then you have a show that night.

You're looking at another three to four-hour drive after that to the next town. Get some rest. It's wild. Yeah, yeah. We drive ourselves. We have our own rental cars and stuff. stuff like that, have another show on the next day, and then another four-hour drive,

throwing a couple of workouts through this process. We have another, you know, three, four-hour drive, and then another non-televised event, and then another three- or four-hour drive, and then finally on a Monday or a Tuesday, depending on what day is your last day of what we call our loops, we'll do our television, which is a 10-hour long day of, you know, live TV and taping a bunch of backstage segments and stuff like that. and then you will fly home, usually another early morning flight, either on a Tuesday or a Wednesday for him, and then you will be home for roughly two and a half days.

The first one, you're usually trying to catch your bearings, and then the second one you're okay, and then you're getting ready to leave. And we do that every week, and that's if we don't have media somewhere else during the week, if you're not going to New York to, you know, like, Cesar was in New York last week doing a... We had like an appearance for the National Champions Cup, which is football, football, football, football, football, football, the real football.

The real football, you know, just promoting that, and then flew home Thursday night and left again Friday morning. Yeah, and then if you're here, we're here in, you know, Brooklyn all week, promoting WrestleMania, and we've, you know, if we have international tours, which we do coming up here in May, we've got two weeks in Europe. So, and then you just go, go, go every single day. So it really just depends on the week, but the normal one is a four. four-day on, three-day off kind of split.

I'm very excited for Europe to see how the gang does and that. Oh, that's part of time. How the whoop handles Europe. I'm very excited how the whoop handles Europe or how I handle Europe. I mean, one of the things that's cool is for me is getting to meet people on whoop, and I discovered that, you know, WW had really adopted whoop internally, a bit of a grassroots movement. Josh, I think you started this, right?

What got you interested in the product and had you get these guys? guys on to it. We had a trainer at the gym that I work at. She had one and I was like, oh, what is that? And she was like, oh, this is a band that tracks are recovery and how I, you know, approach my training regimen. And I'm like, oh, that's really interesting. So I brought it to these guys attention. And they're like, oh, yeah, let's try it out. And as soon as we put it on, it became an internal game. Like, oh, who can recover faster? Who has the most sleep? And it just kind of grew like wildfire. The next thing I know I have, you know, when I'm, when I'm fortunate enough to travel these guys, you know, guys come up to me backstage, you're like,

oh that whoop that you guys are all wearing like what is that and so we all kind of tell them what's going on and so now they want to be a part of the what we call the whoop gang because they see how how how important it is for these guys to to track their recovery as well as their training because sometimes you know I'll look at them like man I feel great and then I'll look at the app and I'm like oh man I did not get any sleep and I am I am clearly not recovered so maybe I shouldn't train today maybe I should take a rest day where before I'd be like I think I feel okay, so I'm just going to go into the gym and then get upset and why my workouts weren't as great as they were, so.

And so let's talk a little bit about the training piece of this. Like, you guys do workouts that are pretty similar to CrossFit workouts, right? Or you define them as CrossFit? Yeah, I just do CrossFit. Yeah. And that's similar for you, sorry? Yeah. And what drew you into the CrossFit community?

Well, Josh, actually. I mean, I jumped in early. I've been doing CrossFit for about nine years, and for me, just like the paradigm was better. like the training style was better. You know, I obviously got hooked because of the wads. Like, that was the first thing. Just never having done cardio in that way, it was awesome. And then you join a gym and the class atmosphere is cool.

You get to compete, which, you know, that's a fun part of it. And then, you know, I was kind of just getting workouts here and there for a while or like, you know, a coach at my gym. Or, you know, I would follow that programming when I was on the road. but then Josh hit me up on Twitter using Lindsay Valenzuela, famous crossfitter's profile to lure me in to Dogtown Crossfield where he was working at the time. And I went in and met him and he was a big wrestling fan. And we hit it off and he asked if he could program for me.

And I was like, yeah, sure. So then here we are like, what is it, three, four years later now? Five. Five years later. Five years later. Well, I'm flies. I'm old. And so we've been, you know, we adjust my programming to see, you know, how I feel.

and my capacity as it's increased or decreased over the years, depending on how I'm feeling from week to week. And then, Cesarro here is my training buddy, we ride together. So you guys grind it out together. Well, we used to. We're on separate brands now, so we don't get to travel as much. But for a while there, we rode together every day for like four or five years straight. And so we're on the same wavelength as far as how we operate,

which is very important when you're on the road when you're with someone. I mean, I'm with him more than I'm with my family. right right so you have to get along with them you guys have to have the same mindset when it comes to training and eating and traveling and like you know if you don't have those things you you just end up riding by yourself so um you know we had the same thing going on and i would always try to like come on do the workout with me do it oh i'll do this one i'll do this one but i'm not good at that one i'll do this one i'm not good at that one i'm not good at this yeah don't let him pull you he says he's not good at anything but he's always beat he always beats us and then he's like oh i had a good day today i'm a weightlifter him a weight lifter yeah you know I'm like, oh, he worked us, he tricked us again. So eventually we suckered him into doing, and he still does a lot of his own stuff, but he'll hop on the Joshy programming bandwagon from time to time. So will you guys now compare your strain levels on whoop? No.

Oh, every day. I think it's a competition on every possible, like, aspect at the whoop tracks from strain to HRV, to resting heart rate, to sleep, to sleep performance, to the number of Hours of sleep, like everything, like everything you can measure. And like even before we, we now are lucky enough to be connected, like, through the Whoop app that you can just look at everything. Yeah, you guys are on a team together. Yeah, we used to be in a text group, but they were at Half One. And it would just be like, every morning you would wake up, there would be like seven screenshots.

We're like, oh, this person won. Then they're like, oh, it's just like, it was, yeah. So describe who's on the team together. The Whoop team. What do we have now, 10 people or something? Yeah, we have. Cesaro and Seth, we have Becky Lynch, who's a wrestler. We have Bailey, who's a wrestler.

Seamus, he's a wrestler. And then we have some people from my gym as well. But the WWE group were the originators of the whoop gang. And so like Cesarro said, at 5am, I'm usually at the gym, and I'll send mine first, and then he'll send his. And then we'll wait a couple hours. And then all of us, the next few texts are just us yelling at whoever's in first place. Like, how did you get, you know, 98 recovery?

I'm at 36. You slept for two hours less than me. This is bull crap. Yeah. Yeah, we get real angry. But in a competitive way, obviously. So, Seth, what's something you've discovered about yourself from using Woop? Oh, my HRVs through the roof, baby.

I got that high HRV. I can tell you what I've discovered is that his resting heart rate is the lowest I've ever seen. Are you in the 30s? 37, yeah, it was the other day, 38. I think my average is around like 38 or 39. That's like Olympic swimmer level. Oh, yeah. No, I knew.

that but that my HRV is very high um I don't I mean I knew I didn't sleep enough but like figuring out how little I slept like has made me like now I'm like okay no no no I have to get to sleep so now you'll get more yeah like I'll literally I'm like yeah I need it let's go to sleep so my whoop doesn't hate me you know I think that's a big part because like when you get you know when you get to the hotel after a long drive it's like I need to wind down let me watch and then you just start watching a TV show or something on YouTube and then sometimes it's an hour later and you're like oh it's still kind of awake but like with the whoop was like i i need my sleep so it's just like you know stretch with a bed period thing just like how can i get to bed

as quick as possible because i need my sleep so well this is the thing that is always funny when i'm talking to someone who's completely out of the pro sports world or like a professional atmosphere and i describe whoop to them they always say like well don't pro athletes already know they need sleep and it's it's like yes that's true but when super competitive people have data that they can look at that says they're not doing something as well as they could. I mean, there's a mindset shift

that just happens and clearly you guys are describing it. Yeah, and also it's like, I know I know I can function on six hours of sleep. Like, I just know, like, yeah, I can do that. That's not ideal.

Yeah, that's not the problem. You're not going to be optimal. Yeah, but like I just know, okay, yeah, six hours or like, if I get a hotel and, you know, like I want to watch like I'm catching up on Game of Thrones or something and I'm like, you know what I mean?

Then it's like, oh, I can sleep in oh, I can sleep in oh, seven and a half or six, I'll be fine with six and then you watch but like now you know like oh my whoops says I should really sleep seven and a half hours I'm just gonna go to sleep

no you know so it's like or even the HRV too it's like before I probably make oh I know I run hot I know I'm like a hot head but now I'm like okay well maybe I should download like a meditation after maybe I should do more yoga classes I gotta get this HRV up through the roof because right now it says that it's at 32

and I don't want to be at 32 when you see somebody that has like 178 I know right so let's talk about that for a second What are some things that you guys have found boost or decrease your HRV? Just like things that you might be taking in your life. It could be diet. It could be tricks that you do before bed.

I'm convinced the CBD. I'm convinced the CBD helps my HRV. And how do you take it? So I take it orally. I find that the powder is the best. I have like a one gram isolate that I take. I just put it under my tongue and let it dissolve. And then once it dissolve it, let it sit for a minute and swallow it.

If I take that like half hour before bed or so, I find that my HRV is more consistent. consistently hired. Oh, that's fascinating. Yeah. So I don't know if that's just something that puts me into a deeper sleep or not, but I, and maybe it's a placebo. I don't know either, but I have the date.

Yeah, exactly, but I have the data. You're not the first athlete I've talked to who's pretty into CBD. Yeah, so I tried other ways. Like, I've tried balms on my joints and muscles and stuff like that, but it doesn't seem to like have the same effect as far as reducing the inflammation to remove pain or a soreness, I find that the best thing for the CBD is that I feel much more rested when I wake up. And now I've got a little data to back it up with the whoop, so I feel like, you know.

Feels like it's working. Yes, it feels like it's something that's effective. How about you, Cesar? I'm still trying to figure it out with my HIV is really low. Crap. But like, it's consistently low. So it's not like, yeah, keep in mind. That was the fun book.

It was like, first time, you know, when you had it was like, why is this like quadruple mine, you know? And then it's just like that's just But you realize some of it is genetic too Like we get questions every day from whoop users Like why someone have a higher HRV? So like I just found Like I'm still trying to find the optimum

HRV or like how to improve it I found not eating as close To bedtime helps Oh interesting But again like I don't have any Long term data to back that up So that's just what I'm going by now Hopefully for you what is not close to bed time

So, because, like, when I used to drive, you know, like, I bring my own meals on the road. So I would drive, get to the hotel, throw in food, eat, and then immediately go to bed. And then, you know, like, I felt like, you know, my body's probably processed or something like that. And then, like, I think just, just last weekend, we had really long drives, like, four and a half hour drives every night. So I actually ate halfway through the drive, then got to tell him fell asleep. And I felt my age was better. So, like, I'm just, you know, small stuff like that. Now, you guys travel an insane amount.

I mean, sitting in a car for that long is a real deal. Are there certain tricks that you have to dealing with that? Now, when you say sitting in a car is a real deal, you mean like it hurts when you stand up? Yeah, it's bad on your joints. Yeah, I mean, it creates stiffness, right? Romwad works for us. So, I mean, that's just easy because you don't have to think about it.

So you get out of the car, you put your stuff down, you put on the app, tells you how to stretch. for 15 to 20 minutes. So this is an app for stretching. Yeah, it's an app for you. We'll include that in the show notes for people listening. Yeah, yeah. It's really good if you're into it.

But it's just a way to like kind of wind down your brain because all you do is focus on your breathing and stretching for 20 minutes and just chill. And then I find that that just doing a little bit of that every night will make me feel exponentially better when I wake up. Like I just feel far less stiff. Well, one thing I love about you guys is just how experimental you are. Like it's fascinating to me. You guys are at the very top of your sport and you're still trying new things.

You're still testing new things. It's amazing to me because we keep seeing this over and over again with all the athletes that we work with. Well, I feel like you said, like going on the road so much, you have to travel and surround yourself with people who have a same mindset. Yeah, totally. And it's like very, like, very competitive. Yeah. So someone's opening an ad. But it's like, for example, like I saw I'm stretching.

Like, what is it? He was like, oh, it's wrong. I'm like, oh, great. It was like, I used to stretch. but it's like I just do my same three stretches that I know and then like after like five or six minutes I'm like well I guess I'm done I would like to stretch more I just don't have like you know ADD so you know I started doing wrong one I'm like this is great

because it's just 20 minutes instead of stretching and just like whatever helps so like if I find something that like hey you know this really helps on the road okay let's let's all do that you know so we just try to share the wealth and try to I think that also goes for like the whoop too once we had it everyone's like oh what is that and they're able to track their recovery and see how, you know, their bodies adapt to being on the road and wrestling and working out and being like, okay, this is where I need to rest and this is where I need to recover. And so, you know, I think that all of those have been great tools, at least for these guys. Now, if an individual has a low recovery or Seth's got a low recovery, is there a certain type of workout that you try to think about implementing in that case? Not necessarily.

They'll usually tell me like, hey, you know, today was a, you know, crappy travel day. I don't not necessarily want to do the workout but how can we modify this workout because let's say my lower back hurts or I'm really sore from the day before so luckily we're in a day and age you can text me and I can write them back within five minutes and give them

an alternative workout to do so it really all depends on them and how they're feeling sometimes I'm like hey we're not going to make it to the gym today just because our travel was so long and we're not going to have time to hit a gym can we do this tomorrow or can you find us another gym for the next day

so and for you guys what are some other forms of um you know recovery uh tools that you like i mean we just talked about the app use for stretching are you guys into any of these things like foam rolling or some of these different tools like hyper ice and other products like that do contrast therapy we do have hyper ice and foam rolls and everything yeah because we have like trainers and doctors have child with us as well so there's always you know like they help stretch us out you know like with the ar t and stretching like that and then that form rollers, you know, hyper-ice. And then again, like Josh said with the modifying the workouts and the workload.

And like now thanks to the, thanks to the, we have like signs behind that. So like if I have a low recovery, you know, like today, but I know tonight I get a full nights of sleep and I can choose when I work out. Like before I would be like, well, no, I'm gonna work out today because then it's done and I'm over with, but now it's like, okay, no, no, I'm gonna work out tomorrow. Maybe if I go in the day and like, you know, like, you know, set ones to work out. I'll do one of the workouts with him and take it a little bit easier and then I'll go again full speed tomorrow. So I think that helps to have that data to just, you know, confirm and help you adjust to that.

I think to, you know, we use, I think we use every, like for me, I need to, like, I notice I feel better when I warm up more before a workout instead of just jumping right in. You know what I'm saying? So for me to get my heart rate up early and then get warm, get loose, stretch out, roll out, whatever I need to. do and then i have like kind of a routine when i'm home to like we see i have a massage that i see every week chiropractor that i see to try to make sure that things set so because recovery is a huge part of the of our game anyway like so important yeah yeah because it's we perform so much at such a high level all the time that like you have to if you're not recovery yeah it's not a priority yeah if you're overworked if you're overtrained then your performance suffers and then

you know what i mean and that that's indicative of where you sit on the card and where you're out in the company so there's a mindset you know we talked about this before you go on where yeah the top level athlete you your mindset is to over train like yeah right you want that's it's in your head that's just the next level and so like having you know and then we try to find all these different ways to recover or anything you know how do i feel better how do i get looser how does do i perform better in this workout and but having the date of the whoop is nice because it will give you a nice guide to follow and like uh sarah was saying you end up in a situation where now you can play in your workouts better yeah totally yeah you can

adjust the capacity or the intensity uh all that sort of stuff moving forward or like you know like josh sends me a week's worth of programming so if it's like oh i'm supposed to squat heavy on tuesday but i'm screwed like i'll just switch the lift you know what i'm saying so you will change the work yeah yeah exactly so my recovery is crap and i feel like crap and the whoops telling me that I need to take it easy. And I'm like, all, you know, maybe, you know, a 20-minute wad is not the ticket today. Maybe that's find something, you know, with just a nice easy cardiovascular pace or an e-mom or something like that where I can take it easy and work on some form.

And so I'll look at the schedule for the week and, you know, pick and choose and stuff like that. You know, so, and it's just, it helps all around, I think. That makes a lot of sense. It's a great reminder, too, because, you know, a perfect example was we did a workout today where I test. it on Saturday and my whoop on Saturday said like hey you're in the red it's no it's no good today but I'm like oh my I'm gonna test it anyway and so I got a time and then today after a flight I'm like oh man there's no way I'm gonna do any I'm not I'm not gonna do better today I know it but my whoop said I was recovered and I did it

today and I was faster than I did it on Saturday so that's pretty cool isn't it still slower than me still slower than him but still I was like oh the whoop was right I was totally recovered enough to do better on this workout that than I did on Saturday, but not faster than. Not faster. And that is a cool moment when you realize that a piece of technology knows your body better than you can feel, right?

Yeah, that is cool. I mean, it is frustrating, but yes. I'm like, how? I only had three hours of sleep. How is this possible? So where does diet fit in for you guys? Like, what kinds of things do you do from a diet standpoint? There's a lot of fads right now, keto and all these other things.

I find consistency is important. I think no matter what you want to do if you're dieting, and this is kind of the advice I give to, you know, because we get a lot of questions about this, is like whatever you need, whatever you do, you just need to do it consistently over a long period of time. I think that's smart. Yeah, and you will find some, you will find a result. And then you can take that result and decide if you want to continue to implement that diet if that's what you wanted.

But most people, like you said, there's so many fad diets. Most people just don't want to take the time to do the research. And so they're bouncing around and trying different things. They're not being strict enough. And it's like, okay, you're not going to get results. You want to know why you haven't lost any weight. haven't toned up or you haven't gained any weight well it's because you haven't been consistent with your diet so i think whatever you do you know if you have a dietitian or nutritionist or whatever listen

to them just be consistent for two months three months get some results and then you can go off of that um and and then and then move forward you know but it's tough because everyone just bounces around so much and your diet personally what does that look like oh for me i i mean i don't i don't i don't forget dieting but just what do you what do you what do you do you do you looks like when we're on the road the kind people at trifectin nutrition have been awesome with us and they supply us meals

and so I find that between that eating three to four of those a day and then you know a protein shake after workout or after a match and or both usually that usually eats up a good chunk of my calorie content for what I need

and trifect is cool because they just have a that's very clean as far as you're not eating a ton of of sugar. You're getting a good amount of fiber, clean carbs, leaner proteins, you know, healthy fats. And so once you kind of find your balance with that and not overeat, not under-eat, you know, we've been doing this for a long time now, so you kind of figure out. Yeah, you kind of find out what your body wants. You know, some people track their macros and stuff like that. It's not my cup of tea, really. I just kind of go based on feel. And

that works for me. So, and then I'll splurge from time to time, too. Don't be afraid to splurge, all right? Good advice for Sethra. Just a little bit. Because you lose, you get crazy, you know what I'm saying? You have to have something. Like, you know, if you're just a little bit, but you get too strict, you get too crazy.

Like, don't be afraid to, like, enjoy food. Yeah, you know what I mean? I don't want it to be a chore for you. Yeah. Unless you're, you know, unless it's competition. How about you, Czaris are similar? It's pretty much the same. Like, I used to, died really hard.

I did like the, what was the, like the P90X long long time ago yeah 10 11 years ago there you go with like the super strict plan you know and then like and I had like a trainer who gave me like the macros to the to the gram and I did that and then when I got on the road with WWB it's just like I couldn't I didn't want to count all the carbs and stuff and then just kind of like find a diet that works for you and that used to be you know like we used to go to Chipotle three times a day or like just get three meals a day and live off you know do that and then like you mentioned traffic Fetta helped us out with the nutrition.

Actually, Seamus, the tactic partners in the gang as well, he started bringing meals on the road in a big Yeti cooler. And we were all like, what the hell is that? You bring your fridge on the road. What are you doing, you're an idiot? Just like make fun of him. And then like, you know, six months later, we all had our big yetis on the road with our food and brought it

because he was the first one that, you know, had the meal plan and everything. And now there's a whole bunch of us that have it because it just makes it so easy. You know, like I mentioned earlier, You drive for four hours, you just stop at the rest stop. You throw it in. You have a good, healthy, awesome meal at 2 o'clock in the morning.

That doesn't really work otherwise. Yeah, if you go to Arby's, you've got to get the curly fries. Now you're running into our problems. I don't really have a sweet tooth. So, like, similar to him, I have three trifectors a day when I'm on the road. And then, you know, I have a protein shake. I have breakfast at whatever local spot. I love breakfast.

It's my favorite meal the day. So I go to find a local breakfast spot. I have an omelet there. And then I have a protein cereal, and that's... Don't forget the cereal. Don't forget the cereal. That's what I'm famous for. And when I'm at home, I cook my own food.

So, yeah. Let's just clarify that he eats cereal in, basically in a protein shake. Yes. So he gets, like, the healthiest cereal he can find, like a cautious. It's great. And then he gets his little disposable or a foldable bowl that he has. And then he puts the cereal in or the water in or whatever. but he also puts his progenics protein in the water and makes like a chocolate

chocolate milk cookies and cream protein water then puts his cereal in that and he just to the last drop it's the best you can eat it on the plane you can eat in the car whenever you're hungry like you have an appearance you're on the way oh what i have my cereal right here just you stop it it's crazy i made fun of them once and then i tried it and i was like oh this is actually really really good when i was on the road with him i was like hey we need to stop he's like why we got to stop for I'm like, oh, because I want to get that Kashi cereal. And he was like, I knew it. I got you hooked.

It's so good. Yeah. It's pretty surprised. One weekend off with me, with him by yourself, and you're on the cereal game. It's great. So transitioning for a second, I mean, you guys do some pretty incredible moves when you're performing at these events. A lot of them seem high risk, obviously.

When do you guys practice those, and how do you make sure you're focused on executing against them properly? I'll let you take down Well, so we've been doing this for so long That we used to When me and them first started We went, we were training at a place called FCW Which is like the pre-NXT

WWV trainings camp So to speak, training. It's like a developmental system Yeah, developmental system And they teach you all the different Well like we already kind of knew What we was when you first train wrestling They teach you how to follow

They teach you the holds, the basics You know like how to do How to do the holds how to take a fall, all that stuff. Then when you come with WWE, they kind of re-teach you how they want you to do stuff and have, like, a different preference and the different style. Also, like, the ring is bigger, it's like all kinds of different things. So you kind of learn there, but then once you get full-time on the road, like when we started

on the road, we rested five days a week. Now it's only four, which is better for recovery and everybody. That's one of the reasons why they went down to four. special five times a week so you're in the ring performing in front of people five times a week which is the best way you learn so that's where you're trying stuff that's where you perfect your timing that's when you're like oh i have an idea i want to try that okay let's try that tonight you know because it's like so you'll talk about it beforehand and then you'll go out and just do it yep just like that yeah so it's like non on the on the non-televised events you know like we would

drive together and be like hey i want to try this tomorrow and then like i go to my phone and be like, hey, I thought maybe we can try this, maybe we can try that. Like, okay, cool, let's try it. So the storylines have a high degree of flexibility in what you guys are actually doing during the event. Yes. Yeah, well, so the stories are separate from the matches are like part of telling a story, right? So there's a lot of layers to telling your stories. But the cool thing about what we do is that it's art.

And so there are many different ways to tell the same story. So you can try different types of matches. and see how the audience responds between yourself and your opponent and the ability to, like, kind of do that on the flux over a long period of time or even in the middle of a match, and that's part of what you learn, the more you do it. So what are examples of different types of matches? Well, there's a million, man.

There's a million. I mean, there's so many variables because you can, you know, you can start with a basic one-on-one singles match with you guys have never, you know, maybe Sissarro and I have never met. We've never wrestled each other. We have no, we don't care about each other. The object is who's the better man, right? And from there, you can literally add in an infinite amount of variability to the story

and every little piece of information about who he is or about who I am or if I hurt my finger during the match to, you know, he tried to steal my wife or something like that. You know what I'm saying? So every single different piece of information that happens over a period of, of time you can use to tell a story in the context of the wrestling ring and so it starts from nothing and you make it into whatever you want it to be that's pretty amazing because i think i like i had a point of view that maybe more of it was choreographed even than what you're describing like it seems like you guys are figuring it out on the fly just because you've been so

used to working together too it's kind of people always ask like when you guys get together to like choreograph and it's like I wouldn't call it choreograph because it's kind of the way I always my head it works as an analogy is like if you dance right so like if if you dance tango and you see somebody across the room dancing tango like okay hey let's dance and you dance and if you both know how to it will be good right but then like if you meet somebody and you have really good freaking chemistry with then it's going to be one hell of a tango right so it's the same wrestling is like we both know how to wrestle right so like if you have a match it's going to be good even if we barely talked you know what i mean because like we just know the basics but if you have a

chance to before and you know what i mean like we pick the song we pick the like surroundings the costumes whatever and then like you put on the performance it's just on another level so like that's what i mean like you can you can have an infinite number of variability that you can just go with and like essentially then like you know like even if if this is a story like in the match we can decide how we want to tell that story. And that comes with experience. That comes with trying it out every single night in front of a different crowd. You know, like, oh, maybe this works better here.

Maybe that works. So it's like a lot of trial in there. So I like the dancing analogy. What it makes me think of, though, is if you're dancing someone as inexperienced, thinks, you know, they're stepping on your foot, right? You have to lead them. And you have to lead them. And that's accurate.

It's all. It's the same thing. If you, you know, him and I have a lot of experience in the ring. And so we would be relied upon in a match with someone who's been wrestling a lot fewer years than we have or even some fewer years than we have to, you know, be the lead. Now, does that ever become dangerous for you because they are less equipped at handling certain situations? If you're not intelligent enough to manage that.

So that's something that, again, you learn over time how to simplify things for someone in that level so that you don't put yourself in danger. Right. you know so yes it can be a danger you learn very quickly once you know once you get knocked in your head one too many times you're like okay well this we'll not worry about that one anymore you know what I mean so yeah you learn how to simplify things to make it easier for your opponent now what's the worst injury you've had in the ring me uh oh I had I blew my knee out pretty hard a few years back I'd say that's probably the worst one I've had cumulative injuries over time but the knee is like

the worst like injury injury i did a flip and landed kind of on my inside of my uh foot and it just buckled my knee and tore me a c lmcil meniscus all at once wow so i had to have the whole whole thing redone and how long did that recovery process take what did they do five and a half months i think wow yeah he also he also finished the match and then ended up uh walking through the airport into the hotel and everything because he didn't know how bad it was until the next day that's a crazy thing about um that type of entry right is like you can't quite tell well i knew it was i knew something was wrong yeah went went but then it was really loose but then i was like ah but i can still you know put some weight on it here and there and i just didn't know i never had anything like

that so um yeah i i that was in late november early november and i came back in mid-may i think so and you finished the fight it sounds like yeah i did i was close to the end he let's not get crazy i wasn't out there for 20 minutes but yeah that one was uh i i got it done that's but that's our instinct. Now, if you're doing four or five events a week, I have to think there's a lot of nights where you're going out, and it's like, oh, my elbows sore from that thing last night with the chair or whatever. Like, how do you manage that kind of pain?

Just practice, or are there certain creams I like to use? You have to use ibuprofen, stuff like that. I mean, yeah, like, if you need to, right? Yeah, that. But also, again, we have so many ways of telling the story that we talked about earlier, like, and we'd experience and experienced guys so like if I know his elbow hurt I'll make sure that nothing touches

that elbow or like if you know what I mean you can change the story you can change the story if somebody has a has a hurt knee or a back back like you'll take care of that because that's another part you know

we've been on the road so much with the people like you make it easy you know what I mean like it's like you help them out and like no and if you do it right like nobody will ever notice you know what I mean like because there's no different. You know, you can just mask that. If somebody, like, if I have a hurt wrist or a hurt back,

like, you know, it's just like, I don't lift people. You know what I mean? And it's like you do something else. It's just like that's what you learn to do. Apart from that, you know, like all the stuff that helps, you know, like, uh, ibuprofen, like, you know, like, what is it the, I see hot, biofree. Biofree. I see hot, pyro freeze. That's really a cool thing about these guys, too, when I got to be on the road with them is, you know, I'll go into the stands and watch it and it could be Casper, Wyoming, or it could be, you know, LA, and they're putting on a show for the same crowd, and they're giving it their all. I'm like, hey, man, it was like, you know, 1,000 people in that audience.

You didn't have to go that hard, and he was just like, yeah, man, they paid their ticket just like the people in L.A., you know what I mean? And so it's really cool to see, like, they were just saying, like, I couldn't tell that, you know, something was hurt because they're giving it their all, which is really cool to see. Do you guys still get that, like, rush of adrenaline every time you go out? Yeah. Yes. yeah i would say um it it does um it's just it's so much fun because like you always

i feel like it's different because like you always learn and it's always different experience you know like in front of every crowd there's something different or like you discover something else that you can do or like you can get away with or so like and like it's just it's fun you know um and then like of course like for like you know wrestling like this week that's it on a like adrenaline on a different level you know but i think like as much as that is like wow this is amazing walking in front of i don't know 60 70 000 people it's also a lot of fun to just go out there one of 500 people or you know what i mean like a thousand two thousand and it's just it's a different atmosphere but it's so much more intimate you know what i mean so like and like you know

we came from small indies wrestling in front of you know 20 30 people so it's just it's it's it's fun to see how that progressed in that way. Yeah, I mean, I still get adrenaline. Not before everyone. I've had a lot of matches. I don't get me wrong, I have fun every time, but sometimes it takes me getting in the ring and moving around a little bit to get fired up,

you know what I'm saying? So it's just the big ones I still get up, I go, I got to pee a hundred times before I go out. But, yeah, sometimes, you know, it's work, and you go out there, and yeah, ugh, got to fall down and get back up again. So you guys have been wearing whoop during the event, Have you noticed that the activity will get auto-detected before you go out, or is it always like...

Oh, yeah. So you are getting a little bit amped up at least quite a vascular. It detects my... Sometimes, like, if I'm just going over, even if I'm just going over a promo, not even wrestling. Like, I'm just going over a promo, I'm getting amped up, just talking and going on my thing. Or I'm getting close, my heart rate builds up a little bit, but we'll detect the activity early. Yeah, it's pretty wild. And how does an event on Woop compare to, like, a CrossFit workout that you do with Josh?

sometimes it's way higher. Not sometimes. It's always way higher for me. Well, it depends on your match, right? Depends on what you're doing. My man, Cesaros, you're standing on the apron for, you know, he's in a tag team right now. So sometimes it's sort of a lop and down. But it's pretty much always higher than the work.

I was like, it's longer and it's just like that constant. It's constantly intense. Even, and it's fun to look back because like even when I think I'm relaxed, like when he's Like, I'm standing on apron and I'm relaxed. I'm not relaxed. It's just like, I'm like, so it's great. You know, and it's interesting. You just see how your heart works.

You can see, you know, when you look back at the activity in a workout, you can see, like, say if you're doing intervals or something, you can see where the rest periods were. Sure. The same thing applies in a match. Like, if I look back at the match and I look at the time and, like, know how long I was out there, you can see what parts of the match things were, you know what I mean?

Yeah, right. time where I'm laying down for a while, like, trying to catch my breath. You can see the dip in the heart rate and the spike on the way up when you're running around and going crazy. So it's cool to see, like, watch the ebbs and flows. What'll get you most jacked up during an event? Um, fighting. Just throwing hands, like, a lot of them, like, what we would call a pull apart. So, like, if you just, if you're just intensely trying to punch somebody in the face and there's like a bunch of body's trying to hold you back and you're just like yelling and screaming and punching and kicking, it's like, uh, your heart's just going a million miles

an hour yeah in a match you can kind of get in the flow because you're relaxed and stuff like that but when there's like when it's when there's just like a straight sprint you know what i mean with basically no warm up then it's like you know your heart rates at 200 so now after the event how do you guys try to wind down you know so it sounds like most of the time you're actually immediately in a car close yeah yeah but sometimes you might go back to your hotel even like this weekend right you'll you'll go back to your hotel will it take some time for you guys to sort of like relax after that and be able to fall asleep uh for me it's like it's stretching really helps and that no it sounds simple but like it just winds me down and i think now my body kind of knows okay

we're stretching i am we're going to sleep which is nice or like um if even the same time like just going up to eat you know talk a bit you know have it have something like a little more normal happen yeah yeah I just have it kind of gradually take, you know, let the adrenaline. Do you guys like to use ice? Yeah, and if I need to. Yeah, if I'm sore after a match, knee or my back or whatever, maybe, sure. Yeah, we don't, like, there's, I think last week they had, like, an ice bath, which I don't know, the cryo is the new thing.

Cold bath. But, like, other than that, we don't have that accessible all the time. Do you guys like cryo? I've never done it. I've done it a couple times. I'm not, I'm not, I've not. Yeah, I have no. Yeah, I have no.

Yeah, same, same. I have no evidence that it improves anything. I think with that and the same as like ice bath, I feel like you need to be consistent with it. And again, like that's what we have earlier. It's a consistency. And for me, a lot of the stuff that I do on the road, like, it needs to be consistent.

It needs to be something that I know I can do consistent. Like it's the same with like a foam roller. Like I know I can do that consistent. So I'll probably do that. Like with the, with the, with the, with the, it's like, okay, you need to sleep consistently, right? Again, again, the right word. I'm like, okay.

So I know that because like, I can have one. day in the red and if I all of a sudden it's three days you know because it's like I'm not consistent with it totally so I feel like a lot of the stuff that even if people tell me like hey try this you know what I mean and if it's something that I just know I will not be able to do because it doesn't suit my lifestyle and I won't be able to it consistently it's just I know in advance it's not going to work you know what I mean like any tips in the bedroom environment in terms of how you wind down like to you guys like to have a cold room dark

68, cold and dark, cold and dark. Cold and dark. Six, six, six, six. Sixty-eight, it's the magic number for me. Sixty-six, cold and dark. CBD oil, it sounds like. Like the CBD.

Do you guys, ever taking melatonin? Magnesium? I took a, for a while, there's a, on it has. The on-it spray? Yeah, not the spray. They have like a pill, the sleep pill. Oh, I don't know. Yeah, you've had the pill.

You've had the, it's nice. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't actually. I like it on a spray. I haven't messed with a spray yet. See, but. that's my problem with the same thing with the sleep with the pill it's like I'll take it three days and then all of a sudden you know like I forget so then and then the consistency's at the window so like when people ask me oh how do you like it I did and then I forgot so it's just I need to get in the habit of it although the one thing I've seen with sleep supplements and I don't mean sleeping pills but like supplements is that sometimes if you cycle on and off them it actually makes them more effective yeah yeah because if you use them too consistently and then your body gets used to so I like to use melatonin whenever you're I travel to a different time zone because it will just help me get on the time zone if I'm trying to fall asleep.

That's not a bad idea. But I find if I take it every night, then it's a little bit less effective. Yeah, I could see that. That's for sure. All right, so transitioning quickly, and then I'll let you guys get out of here. You guys are at the top of your games, right? You're having an amazing career. For people listening to this who are thinking, you know, how can I make it?

How can I be more successful? What's your advice, Seth? I'll start with you. I know I listened to you talk about earlier in your career. just how much work it was to get here. Yeah, so the two things that I think, the two pillars of, I mean, you can say hard work, right? Hard work, I feel like that's a no-brainer.

But we talked about it a little bit with diet, and I'm going to say it again when it comes to success is consistency, right? So you have to consistently show up, consistently perform, you have to consistently be aware of your surroundings and the people you put next to you. Like, you just have to always show up and do the work. And I think that coupled with patience, because people don't understand this stuff doesn't happen overnight. Success especially, you know, aside from winning the lottery of that's your goal. But like hard-earned success generally does not happen overnight.

It's a long-term investment in yourself. And so having the patience to be consistent and show up every single day is what's going to put you in position to get the opportunities to succeed. and then it's hit or miss, you know, it's swing or swing and hit it or swing and miss and move on to the next one. But I think for me, those two pillars, that consistency, along with the patience, understanding that it's a long game and not a short game is what's going to get you the opportunities to get to where you want to go from a next level. And the more consistent you are, the more you start to feel momentum too, right? Yes.

And that momentum keeps fueling it. Yeah, because look, it's ebbs and flows. Success isn't just like very rarely, you know, If you looked at it on a chart, a line graph or something, is it just a consistent uphill? You know, you're going to have peaks and valleys in that thing. So understanding that you're going to have setbacks, you're going to have things that are going to get in your way, but you're going to have to overcome those things, A, it's going to make you stronger and more prepared for the success you're going to have, understanding that it never gets easier, but B, like, that's the patience I'm talking about. You need to have that and the realization that it takes a long time.

and paint the picture for someone listening of like the first two years of you thinking you wanted to be a pro wrestler like oh i mean what kind of a grind was that yeah when you do i mean i live with my folks till i was 24 you know i mean if i didn't have the support of my parents to be i would there's no way like they you know they you know they provided me to put a roof over my head and stuff like that but like you know sasara said we used to wrestle in front of crowds of 20 to 30 people and little uh national guard armories or bingo halls or you know, tents or whoever they could put up a ring. Like we would go there and wrestle, it didn't matter because we wanted the experience and we were trying to network and get better.

We were losing money. Our bodies hurt, but we had so much passion for what we were doing that those were all sacrifices we were willing to make to try to get to the next level. And so, yeah, I mean, when you're trying to break into the business, it's tough and it's, it's disheartening because you've run into a lot of valleys very quickly, and you have to look yourself in the mirror and be like, is this something that I really want? something that's feasible for me you know it's it's a long road to get to the top in our industry from where we came from and so it you have to be consistent and patient and put in the time well well said

man i mean you're an inspiration too for a lot of people so caesar how about for you i mean it's the same like like he pretty much hit the nail on the head but i think that goes for uh any job any industry anything it doesn't happen overnight all the all those overnight success story that people see that's like for like a long time in the making it's just people discover the stuff overnight then it becomes popular it took 12 years for you get rich overnight

yeah exactly exactly you know what I mean it's like it's like oh there's this new product have you seen it it's great and people think like oh that came from here to there but there was you know like the 12 years when people tried to develop that product you know like that doesn't register so like yeah exactly what he said it's like consistency and hard work and maybe get the chance and if you get it you take it

And if not, you wait for the next one and swing again, you know? Don't be afraid to, don't be afraid to fail, I feel. Like, that's another thing, you know. That's how you learn, you know. Josh, what about for you? Kind of going off what he said, taking a chance, you know. When I met these guys, I was kind of like in a transitional period, I was working on movies and TV shows, and I didn't really think, like,

fitness was, even though I had a passion for it, I didn't think that was going to be a career path and being like, all right, I'm going to take this chance and try this as a new career. And then, like he said, using a friend of mine, like, I knew that they were coming into town, but I would never reach out to a celebrity in the way that I did, but I was like, you know what? I mean, the worst he could say is no if he doesn't want to come to my gym. Totally.

And luckily, he said yes. And, you know, from there, he, you know, had this trajectory in his wrestling career, same with, with Cesarro. And I was lucky enough to be their friend. And, you know, we got to, you know, start dead boys fitness. And it all just became on, you know, that all came from a chance of me being like,

hey, man, you should come into my gym. You should come check out, you know, the gym that I'm working at. you know, taking a chance in doing stuff that you love, I think really also kind of helps define success. You know, I know people that are successful business people, but they hate their job. And even though they're successful, they hate what they do. And is that a measure of success? I mean, to a certain extent, yes, but I don't think inside that are very successful, where I love what I do and I get to, you know, hang out my friends and still, you know, have a lot

fun doing it so it's to me i feel like i'm successful whether i have one dead boy's fitness member or three hundred and ten all right well last question for each of you what is the lowest recovery that you've gotten on whoop and why we'll start with you josh i think it was seven seven percent Vegas Vegas Vegas with all of the Vegas period yes Vegas period no a lot of we saw diplo so I was up to like five in the morning six in the morning oh I've been somewhere in the teens, and it was just probably after a crappy, like I just beat the hell out of myself over the weekend, early flight home, didn't sleep. And then, like, on a Tuesday or whatever, I wake up.

And I'm like, oh, gosh, 12%. Great. I was just going to say, I think mine was 12. I don't know why it was in my head. I think it was around there, and probably the same thing. And I think I was surprised to be. I was like, oh, my God. Like, I slept like five hours.

but like 12 um yeah it's just and I think it was like it didn't get better for like three days I think like three days of red um yeah yeah no I beat you guys on that yeah I'm the champ on that one seven percent but it's also like that's the interesting but again like consistency you can see like some downward tour you're just like oh no oh no just like no you're just like yellow yellow you're like please be green okay we get a lot of sleep tonight you know one of those but But, yeah, it's definitely trying to stay away from those red. Well, look, guys, it's been awesome having you guys on whoop. And if you guys ever need anything for me, don't hesitate to reach out.

And thanks again for doing the podcast. Appreciate it. Thanks, it's a blast. All right. Thank you. Massive thank you to Seth Rollins, Cesarro, and Josh Giego's for coming on the podcast. And congrats again to Seth, the WWE's new Universal Champion. If you're not already a member, you can.

join the whoop 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 whoop 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, 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 whoop.com slash the locker for show notes and more, including links to relevant topics from our

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