The Benefits of Using Your Fitness | ETP#224

This week we have a slightly different kind of episode. We talk less about the mechanics of training and more about the benefits of using your fitness out in the world, specifically outdoors. We talk about environment, how the right gym or the mountains can pull effort out of you when your own motivation is low.

The back half of the episode revisits the Misogi Challenge and the value of planning something with a real chance of failure, why hard physical challenges reframe everyday life, and how the pursuit of hard things changes from your twenties to thirties and forties. It closes on the big one, using your fitness to buy a longer and more capable lifespan, why your 30s are when the trajectory of your actions starts to show, and why 56 does not look so old looking forward from 44.

Covered in this episode

• Pushing a session to a day you can actually give it a better effort
• How environment, the right gym or the mountains, pulls effort out of you
• The carryover that lets you hike well even at a heavier body weight
• Awe as a real mechanism, and why noticing is the key word
• Dacher Keltner's book on the science of everyday wonder
• Keeping the mountains from ever becoming just another Wednesday
• Revisiting the misogi and planning something with a real chance of failure
• Why hard physical challenges reframe everyday life as manageable
• How the pursuit of hard things changes from 24 to 34 to 44
• Using your fitness for a longer, more capable lifespan
• Why your 30s are when the trajectory of your actions starts to show
• Mountains versus the ocean, and the wildlife you only see out there

Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro
00:05:00 - You don't have to train every day to keep your fitness
00:09:30 - Environment and how the right gym pulls effort out of you
00:13:30 - The benefits of using your fitness outdoors
00:16:30 - Awe as a mechanism, and Keltner's science of wonder
00:20:00 - Revisiting the misogi and planning something hard
00:24:30 - Doing hard things, and how that pursuit changes with age
00:32:00 - Using your fitness for a longer, more capable lifespan

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Transcript

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0:29

What is going on, guys? Welcome back to Eat Train Prosper. This is episode 224, and we are talking about the benefits of using your fitness, specifically in the context of being outdoors. It has been four weeks, I think, since we have recorded a podcast, potentially three. Brian was doing a big family trip, which he's going to dive into. Uh, and I have been in the ringer slinging training, nutrition, coaching, and doing my best. best to reintegrate a aspect of my life that I have always really, really enjoyed, which prompted us to talking about the this episode. So we're gonna get into that. But before, Brian, as always, can you kick us off with some updates, please? Yeah, have lot of updates. Sorry to waste y'all's y'all's time here, but it's been like four weeks since we've chatted, so I'm gonna take you through my life recently. Um, so the last time we chatted was just before we left for our 10 day road trip to the canyons, and it was awesome. We did uh two nights in Black Gunnison Canyon, two nights in Moab, where we did Canyon lands and arches, and then we drove to Grand Canyon, where we stayed there for four nights. three or four nights. And it was awesome. Like Aaron asked me offline what my you know favorite canyon was. And the interesting answer is that, you know, we see the Grand Canyon in in all of these images and pictures and videos and movies and stuff. And it's amazing. It's so grand. But I think because it's the Grand Canyon, it has this like aura about it and I expected it to be amazing. So it did. It lived up to my expectations for sure. It was amazing. But Canyon Lands And even Black Gunnison in some ways, but Canyon Lands was so cool. It was just so expansive. And everywhere you walked was just like thousand-foot drops right and left as you're like traversing these hikes around it. And you can see endless distance of just these insane red rock structures everywhere. And uh I started getting curious about because I I know I knew that stuff was underwater back in the day, and I was curious how long ago it was that it was underwater. All of it, like all of Utah, Colorado, all of that. And they said between eighty and ninety-five million years ago, all of that was underwater, which in the grand scheme of things, like dude, I mean, to fathom eighty to ninety million years is like insane to even think about since we live like a hundred years in our life. Um, but in the grand scheme of the existence of Earth, um eighty to ninety million is about two percent of our existence. So two percent of our existence ago, all of this stuff was underwater. And it's just insane to see the history and you can see like these marks on the rocks where the erosion and where the water like would slowly build or fade over time. And it was just really um it put like life in perspective in some ways, just to see how awesome in like the true word of the sense, awesome all of that is. Um so that was cool. 10-day road trip, a lot of time with the kids. Um got some good hikes in, did a little bit of lifting. I think over the 10 days I did. three hikes including one by myself which was a workout the other ones were more like with kids and then I ran once and I think I got three resistance training sessions in. So like not my normal daily workout structure, but enough to at least maintain. And the one hike I did by myself, I woke up at 5 a.m when we were in the Grand Canyon and I went down this trail called Angel Bright, which goes If you were to go all the way down, it would take you all the way from the top of the canyon into the bottom of the canyon. the canyon is one mile of a vertical depth down, so think 5,280 feet of like vertical depth. But it's six miles for you to like traverse the canyon and get to the bottom. Um, so I didn't do that. That would have been insane to go like six miles down and then six miles back up again. But I went, I ran two miles down and then I hiked two miles up. And that was amazing. It took me a little over an hour. uh such a great workout, so beautiful. Loved that day. And then we came back from the canyon and we went immediately into having eight days of visitors. So my brother and his niece came and spent four days, five days with us, and we did some cool activities and stuff. And then my buddy from college, uh, my college roommate, came with his three kids. And we went to like Estes Park and did hiking and hung out and went to the pool and stuff like that. Great end of the summer, just extremely busy, 18 days non-stop with no child care or anything. And so I am just so amped to be back in Colorado, to have the kids back in school. They started a few days ago, having my like seven to eight hours of time for myself each day and all of that. Um, and then just two quick other updates here. uh My birthday's this Friday. I guess by the time this comes out, it'll probably be my birthday. I'll be 44, which is kind of wild. I guess officially entering into my mid-40s. Uh, we have a huge concert that we're going to with a ton of friends on Saturday. So uh Folsom Field, which is where CU Boulder plays football. They're hosting Rufus DuSoul, which is, you know, international famous EDM group. so we're gonna go with a bunch of friends to that. Really excited about it. And Ultimately, I think that this Grand Canyon trip, where I only worked out, I guess like four official times over 10 days, kind of taught me that it's okay to not do something every day. I've kind of got stuck in this structure that I really do enjoy, where every day I'm doing something like alternating cardio and weights, cardio and weights. And I think in a perfect world, like I do enjoy having that structure. I like doing one hard thing every day that gets my heart rate elevated, that sort of thing. But It also was really kind of nice and reaffirming to realize that I don't have to do something every day and I don't get out of shape. I don't lose my fitness. And so since then, I've even been a little more able to be like, okay, today I don't really feel like working out. I think I'm just gonna go for like a really long walk and listen to a podcast. And that's okay. And then I come back the next day and have a better workout. And so actually two days ago, that's what I did. I was supposed to do legs two days ago. And I just wasn't feeling it. I just wanted to be outside. I didn't want to have this like dungeon leg dread session. So I put it off one day and I felt better yesterday and had an incredible leg workout. Like set some some current PRs for some of my movements. super sore today. And it just reminds me that it's better to push a session off to a day where you're gonna be able to give it a better effort than to force it necessarily on a day where. Maybe you don't want to. And and honestly, like sometimes those days where I don't want to and I do it, it's like you get started and then it's an amazing session and and it's fine. But I think it's just having that freedom of mindset to be able to say, you know what? I think I will push it off because I'll be more motivated to do this tomorrow and therefore I'll get more enjoyment out of it. So anyway, just some kind of introspective thoughts from me as we wrap up the summer here. What is going on with you? Yeah, so first of all, happy early birthday, Brian. You will make 44 look very, very good, uh, I am sure. Appreciate it. I I have some thoughts on the back end of the final thing that that you said there. Um and I think from my experience in environment plays a very large role in that. Uh and I'm finding myself a little bit yearning for that environment right now where I could definitely see like having a home gym is always kind of the dream right you have you get to choose what what's in there it's your domain however you're you are solely responsible for the cultivation of that environment too and sometimes I know for me I get a little bit cabin feverish right especially I work from home I most days of the week the only time I leave the house is to go on a or to go to the gym, right? So if I'm not going to the gym, like I'm kind of not leaving my house, and you can have the nicest house in the world. If you never leave, you kind of start to hate it a little bit. and I find that that was one or is one of the beautiful things about undefeated gym in Bali. That environment is Oozing with motivation with drive. If you're not feeling it and you're like, I don't really feel like training today, if you just get there, it permeates into you and you're ready to train because there are dozens of people fucking getting after it. And I think, and that was the very similar, that was the beauty of CrossFit. The culture and the environment was incredible, right? Because there was such high energy. Everyone that you could see was working as hard as they possibly can. And it would be unreasonable for you not to do the same or get infected by that type of energy. so I do think that is why when you are searching for a gym or that sort of thing or evaluating gyms, the environment can be a very, very big positive or negative contributing factor. Um a different motivation factor when you just have to walk downstairs and do it on your own. Definitely, it definitely requires a higher one there. kind of on the back end of that, ironically, one of the things that that my sole update, I should say, came on the back of yours is I'm not necessarily enjoying my training or the goals that I have set. One of the things, just to be a little bit more transparent and share, is Now that there's these other aspects in my life, like a family and a child on the way, I am s not necessarily speedrunning, but kind of hurrying up some of my goals because I want to be able to transition to other things in in my life. Um and one of my pretty much my only remaining kind of personal fitness goals, sort of competition goals, I I want a top five placing at a pro show. And what that means is I have to take it everything very seriously in order to achieve that, right? Specifically with my lateral delts and in my upper back. I am not enjoying my training and the pursuit of it, but I am very committed to achieving that top five placement. So I am just in the throes of it and a Three to four of my training sessions per week are I'm here because I said I was going to do this and I will keep my word to myself. Um it isn't enjoyable. I would say if if I'm really being honest, going to the gym right now is probably the one of the least enjoyable parts of my day, but I am committed to that outcome because I I I said that I would. So while I I do think it is important to be able to have those keep your word to yourself, I am being transparent with everyone that I I'm enjoyment chunk of it. just to be honest. Yeah, I mean, those periods I think are natural. Like training, motivation ebbs and flows. And especially because you're coming off the end of extreme success in your goals. Like you literally in the last year achieved a pro bodybuilder status in your first pro show or first pro attempt. So I think it's natural to kind of have a little bit of a come down after that and then to stay like directly focused on. this thing that you've put forth as like a future goal that's still far enough away that it doesn't feel like it's right there. Mm. Yeah. And a little bit of kind of what takes us into the the topic of today. I'm I'm yearning to be to do different things, right? I want to be outside more. every time I drive up the canyons, there's the dudes and women riding their road bikes, you know, up the canyons, and I think, fuck, I wanna get into that. But then I have to uh not relegate, but like be honest with myself. Like Aaron, you're two hundred and thirty five pounds. Like you can't do that at y you know, and I have to I have to do this thing first. So that because I said that I would, so that I can move into these next phases of of things that that interest me. Like I want to get into, you know, I mean, I'm not running, let's be honest, but I want to get into doing like bigger hikes and and longer hikes. And I want to get into road biking and spending more time outside and mountain biking and using the things that that are in close proximity with us with this move, but I can't chase that and being a top lover. you know, men's physique pro at the same time. Uh so I am putting a lot more pressure to get this thing done so that I can get to, you know, the fun parts or what I'm telling myself are the fun parts on the back end. Yep. I feel that. That makes sense. Well, I can't wait for you to eventually get into uh some sort of hardcore cardio pursuit. I think that's gonna be a hilarious development in your life. Okay. So the topic today being the benefits of using your fitness. Brian has uh alluded to in in his intro, just the positives uh of with the the trip they just took and and being able to spend that time with the family. The kids are old enough now to go outside and do some of those things. And one of the things that that I have found is every Sunday I get up and I go hiking. It's very up there is the is the favorite parts of my week and just the just the awe of of of what it is, the the access the The minimally uh accessed and in in touch parts of the canyons and stuff and the elation is a very good term to get to use that I get from being out there, having my heart rate up, using my fitness, you know, moving my body. And one of the things that I was honestly I was curious a and slightly concerned about is the last time I did any consistent kind of serious quote unquote hiking was when we were here last time, but I was a hundred and ninety pounds. Um and like I just said, I am I'm 45 pounds heavier. and I was concerned that I would suck at it and that I would be dying, wouldn't be able to like keep up and these things in it. It has actually not been the case. Um it's I feel like it costs me more a bit now, but I can still per perform at a similar capacity, which I'm really, really excited about. But I love being able to go out there and because I train hard and my heart rates are elevated in training and stuff, it does provide for me at least a pretty good carryover in into hiking. Which is pretty much the only cardio modality that I really care to be able to perform well at right now. And it's It's really enjoyable to know that, you know, that that the time that I spend in the gym, the muscle that I've built, the endurance with the muscle that I've built, like I can go use it in these endeavors of being outside because then the positives of being outside, being in nature, the the mood that that it helps you with and in the perspective. You mentioned that earlier with just standing and looking at the canyons, the perspective it helps give you on life and the time to reflect is my favorite one. The last two two weeks I've been out by myself. Jenny just hasn't been feeling that great and I decided like, all right, I'm gonna go. I'm not gonna make you go. You don't feel good, right? that time is is just reflecting on my life and stuff where it's there is no cell phone service or anything like that. So even if I did want to dick around on your favorite, you know, Doom scrolling up, I can't. uh and it really, really just adds such a nice value uh into my week and and I love starting my one day off with that. Yeah, that's great that you're still like able to do that all at the heavier body weight. I've noticed it similar with me where I was worried since I gained those fifteen pounds starting TRT that it was also gonna affect me, but I haven't noticed any negative really effects on on my cardiovascular abilities. So that's been awesome. I do wanna touch on one of the things you said, which was awe. And um there's a book that I have been delving into uh actually audio. I love I I find it interesting when people say they read a book, but they're actually like listening to a book because I do that all the time. I'm like, I read this book, but really I just like consumed it on audible. Um, but the book is called Awe, The New Science of Everyday Wonder. And it's by a guy named Dr. Doc Dr. Keltner, um, D-A-C-H-E-R. And it is uh it's really interesting because it talks about the energy inducing Aspect of noticing awe. And I think noticing is kind of like a key word there because there's awe around us everywhere anytime we're outside in nature. And whether you notice it and like consume it and internalize it, I think changes how what you get from the awe that's around you. And so simply like going out for a hike in nature is great because you're getting. you know, the oxygen and the green and the nature and all of these things that are that are happening outside of kind of your purposeful intent. But then you can amplify that experience by simply noticing all of the awe around you or noticing how the leaves are changing colors or noticing, you know, the way that that root sticks out of the ground and creates this like interesting connection to the tree or whatever. I mean, there's so many different things that you could notice. The clouds, like look at the clouds today. They're so amazing. Like just just instead of being, um, noticing. And I think that that makes the awe much more transformational and uh and powerful. Yeah, that the that was funny 'cause I never I never thought about that at all, but there was one point during the the hike where this there was in this I was in this densely like forest type type uh section and there was one tree that was so much like wider, thicker than the other ones. And I I stopped and thought I was like, I wonder like how old that tree is. That was probably the first tree in this section or or something like that. Because it I think it had to be five feet in diameter, like the thickness of it. but and it's I remember I mean this was just on Sunday, so two days ago, and just stopping and thinking like fuck that tree is gigantic. relative to all the other ones and that's exactly what you were talking about. Yep, exactly. And it's energy inducing. Like I find that even if I'm feeling like low energy or mentally lethargic, as soon as I open my eyes and I start trying to notice, like actively notice the things around me, I feel like it induces energy inside of me and I feel much better. It's it's kind of crazy how how that works. Yeah, yeah, I haven't noticed anything like that. But I haven't really actually thought to to try it. But the mountains do kind of do that. One of the things that I will always say to myself, because you know where in over time the things just become normal, right? You go from making your whatever fucking pizza job in university to your first, you know, adult job and you're making whatever, four times the amount of money and it feels like incredible, and then three months later it's just another Wednesday or paycheck day sort of thing. One of the things here that I'm really doing my best to stay very New and appreciate every single time is the mountains when I'm driving home. Right. So, like anytime I'm coming back and driving east, like the mountains behind the house and everything are just huge. And always trying to keep that top of mind of being in awe of the mountains still because of how cool they are. Now, kind of shifting a little bit from just simply being outdoors to the one of the things that you wanted to talk about, which is the Masogi that has come up on the podcast a few times. W is there a currently planned one? So what's interesting is no, we don't have one necessarily on the agenda, but a buddy of mine who flag football season just started for Bryson. So they had their first practice the other day. And I was talking with one of the dads and he was just like, Hey, do you wanna do the Skyline Traverse in a couple of weeks? And the Skyline Traverse is what we did for our Masogi last year when we did it or whatever, a year and a half ago. And uh we had like, you know, mentally prepared. We didn't physically prepare because that's the whole point is to kind of go in unprepared. But mentally we were prepared. We had this date in sight. It was like, okay, we have this big day, you know, I gotta prepare for this eight plus hour experience. Um, this dude literally like he's a cardio guy, but he was like, Yeah, you just want to do the Skyline Traverse like next weekend. And I was like, dude, like for me, this is a huge, massive undertaking. And for you, it's just like another day of going out and doing some cardio. Um But I do think I'm gonna do this with him. I'm trying to find a day with with Kim where I can basically be gone from like six a.m. to six p.m., assuming we'll do the Masogee and then get some beers and some food afterward or whatever. Um, so I think I'm gonna do that again. And uh I guess it will be less Masogee-ish because I know that I can already complete it. But he's pushing me to run part of it. So last time it took us seven and a half hours to sum it and then eight and a half hours, you know, to get back down to the car. The goal this time. I think would be to try to summit it in six hours. So see if I can cut off an hour and a half of time um by running a little bit instead of hiking all of it. So maybe the downhills or the flats, I try to jog a little bit. I'm uh I'm a bit nervous, not about my physical fitness, but honestly mostly about my feet and um my muscles like cramping and stuff. I remember the first time I did it that about Halfway through, maybe on the latter half of the hat, like 60% in, there's like a three-hour descent that you go down because the first half of it is a lot of climbing, and then you have like a three-hour gradual descent. And on that descent, I remember my feet really hurting and my calves and quads starting to cramp up from like having to resist the descent, the eccentric contractions, you know. Um, and so it's weird how like going up will burn your muscles, but it's not so destructive. And then going down is really where like the joint structures and stuff really get get tested. so I'm a little nervous as to see how my body will hold up through through that, especially if we're trying to run part of it. but that's that's the plan. Um I think ultimately the I'll I'll go talk about Masogi more in a little bit, but yeah, that's that's the plan. No no go ahead. I I want to talk about the Masobi. Uh, okay, well I was just gonna say that I think I don't even know what I was gonna say. Just say what you're gonna say and it'll come back to me. Okay. So the the the kind of the premise and I and I know we've we've talked about this before, but in the event that you this is one of the er the first episode you're listening to, simply having like a very hard physical endeavor challenge sort of event planned. And if I'm if I'm not mistaken, Brian, the additional the context is around something like a sixty percent uh chance of success, right? You might fail it, so it's to be 50-50. So you choose an event, you choose an event where there's like a 50% chance you fail. And that's why this Skyline Traverse maybe isn't quite a Masogee, because I think I go into it with like more of like a 90% chance that I'm going to succeed. It's still obviously a monumental physical undertaking. But I think aside from the fact that you're potentially facing failure, which has its own benefit, obviously, I think the best benefit to doing any of these really hard physical challenges like this. Are simply the perspective that it creates on everyday life. That if you can get through this thing that's so daunting and so challenging and you survive it, then you know, the the general trials and tribulations that you go through on a daily basis in life, whether it's parenting or work or, you know, self-growth or all of these things, they all seem much more manageable in the face of this thing that you just went through and accomplished. Some questions on the back end of that. Um, it's in full transparency a little bit from from selfish uh reasons. Do you find because I know we have what are you? I you're about six years older than me. Do you find as you've gotten older that your pursuit of some of these sorts of really hard, you know, challenges is increasing? Is it decreasing? Do they uh have I would say a more meaningful impact to your life now? Less than to let let's do maybe an example, right? You're about to be 44, so that's a good anchor. We'll maybe do 34 and then and then 24 to help frame that time frame in part for the question. Yeah. I didn't really do much hard stuff when I was 24. I pretty much just partied and lifted weights so that I looked good. And I didn't really even do much cardio. I was just trying to have as much fun as I could. So I don't think I contextualized hard things as even like being that important back then. Um 34 was a bit of a hybrid because we had the CrossFit era in there. And CrossFit in its own is like a bit Masogee-ish, like certain certain CrossFit things. Like, you know, doing a competition where there's two or three days of workouts that you're doing two or three workouts a day, that is a bit Masogee-ish um in all of the prep that goes into it, all of the mental and physical fortitude. And then the sense of accomplishment that comes out of it, I think, is all very Masogee-ish. So I think through CrossFit, I did a lot of hard things. that was mediated by having the community. So I think there's that aspect too that's kind of hard to separate out is, you know, you you feel like it's part of your identity. And so it doesn't necessarily feel like this monumental challenge that you're forcing yourself to do. It feels like something that you have to do because it's how you define yourself. And so The CrossFit was maybe like a hybrid between being 24 and 44 in that in that middle area. And then yeah, at 44, I think I do seek out more hard stuff. and it's interesting, I don't really exactly know why. Aside from I just think that it is more valuable. I I think just as you get older, you become more introspective and more self-aware, and you realize the way in which your actions impact. your mentality more. Um, so I would just say at this age that would be maybe more the motivating factor there. I I I I really like your answer. I would say I think mine aligns similarly. As I've gotten older, the value that I place on doing hard things has grown dramatically. Whereas in my early twenties, late twenties, I would even say into early thirties I tried to avoid it because of the I didn't want to have to deal with the failure or being kind of different or or something like that, having people asking questions about it. I j just the general avoidance. The CrossFit was there, yeah, but like you said, that was a lot of community driven. There was pressure. obviously anyone that knew me at the time, I I would do things, but I was a miserable wreck throughout the entirety of it. Um, whereas now the only things that I'm really interested in doing are these big hard things. And I think more so because I'm I'm feeling the pressure of time a little bit. And I'm afraid that I'm gonna, you know, blink a couple times. I'm gonna be 56, and a lot of those years are behind me, and I and I can't do them anymore. So I'm really trying to make best use of the the years that I have, the time that I have, and doing hard things and setting these really big goals to to chase down, to hunt down, provides me a lot of accomplishment. and it's inward. accomplishment, not an an accolade or something like that that that I've achieved or received, but the the recognition of myself that of of who I can become or I can overcome these things and I get a lot of you know positive uh reinforcement from that. Yeah. No, I think that that's definitely right. And I think that's a mature position to take. I've uh talked about it on this podcast when I turned forty, because now we've we've been doing this for five plus six years already. Um, but when I turned forty, I talked about how I was sitting in this hot tub in Estes Park by myself. And I was just like in my brain, you know, at at thirty-nine and three hundred and sixty-four days old, I didn't really think about my mortality so much. And then, like literally, I turn 40 and suddenly I'm hit with this all in my face, being like, wow, I'm 40 now. I could potentially be at like the halfway point of this journey. I mean, who knows where my halfway point is, but in theory, 40 could be my halfway point. it could be 30, it could be 50, whatever. but in my mind, that was very meaningful. Like to sit there in that hot tub by myself, chosen on my own to be on my own on my birthday. My 40th birthday was so weird to do. But I did that and I started getting like depressed thinking about how I'm on now this like downslope of life. Like I'm on the back end of life. And in that moment, that's really where I decided to commit to doing more cardio and stuff. It wasn't necessarily doing hard things, but it was doing things that are gonna foster this more like longevity and health in focused way that I want to go forward in the future. And uh I wanna be there, you know, for my kids. I wanna see them grow old. I don't I like I I don't wanna. Like you said, fifty-six is an interesting number because fifty-six is actually how old I'm gonna be when my last kid goes off to college. And so that number, when you said it, I was like, Yeah, I've thought about that number a lot. because that's it in some ways it's it's quite old. From like a 30-year-old's perspective, 56 is quite old. Um, from a 44-year-old's perspective, 56 no longer feels like that old. Cause I I don't think physically I've changed a ton. negatively from twelve years prior. Like if you look at me at thirty two to forty four. I actually think in many ways I'm I'm physically healthier than I was at 32. My joints don't hurt as much. My my body feels good. My mind is my mind is doing great. Um overall I feel like a a more centered, robust version of myself to the point that I wonder at 56 if I'll look back and be like, yeah, I don't really feel that different from 44, or whether there's gonna be a series of things that occur between those years that that change that sense. Yeah, I I love that. And tying it back to the the title of the episode of The Benefits of Using Your Fitness, the time goes by regardless, but what your life looks like at certain ages is extremely influenced in how you spend that time. And if you're someone who's, I don't know, 24 listening to this, you you have about six seven years before things probably start to catch up to you. But once you hit around 30, 31, 32, 33, you generally want to start looking at your your actions and in the trajectory of what you would like your life to be in your, you know, late thirties, maybe early forties, those sorts of things. And I'm sure it's I'm sure for you, but but even for me, I'm I have friends that I from high school or or people that I spent my younger, more destructive years with and they're saying things like, well You know, my knees at at at thirty nine just aren't the way they used to be. You know how it is. I'm like, I don't know how it is. My knees are fucking great. And I guarantee that I put extremely more dem an extreme amount of more demand through my knees than you do. It's just the compounding years of of the actions over those years. Um and I think with benefits of using your fitness is you get much more capable lifespan. Right? And I can do things at 38 that are no different than I could do it 18 from a lot of like a an output capacity sort of sort of thing. And because I value being able to use my body in the capacity, high output that I want to, excuse me, using my fitness and the decisions through lifestyle and food and stuff that that drive into that allow me to have much more of a high output capacity life that that aligns with the youth that I want to maintain for as long as I can. Yeah, yeah. And I also think it's important to note that like with the way that people prioritize their bodies and health these days, it really has almost like saved us a decade of resilience. Like somebody at forty four from my parents' generation seems much older and physically fragile than I seem at forty-four, and that many of my other friends in the same period of life seem to feel at this age. So um a lot has changed with the way people take care of themselves and the priorities that they have over the past generation. Yeah. So what do you think it is about like for you? You know, you obviously spend a lot of your time in the gym. You go for walks, of course, around like maybe one or two walks a day. But what is it? Do you think about going out and doing those hikes and being in that expanse of nature, you know, surrounded by it on all sides, essentially being like in the mountains? Like you're not just climbing a mountain, you're like surrounded by mountains and nature. Like, what is it about that that feels to you so much more like reaffirming and uh clarifying than just simply like going for a walk around the neighborhood or being in the gym? it's a really good question. I think I have always had a draw towards the mountains. Very similarly to how you know some people just love the beach. The beach is their spot. They it's, you know, de stressing. They love the sun and they could just go to the beach and sit there on a towel for six hours and have the time of their life. I think that's how the mountains are for for me. Uh Just I remember uh being being younger and and learning about certain mountains and the and the size of 'em and stuff. And then when I first when I first took my first trip to uh I did not go to Boulder that trip, but Denver and Steamboat Springs and driving out there, it hit me and I was I was, yeah, mountains are mountains are it for me. I want to move to the mountains. And it's taken me fourteen years, you know, since that that trip to er twelve, fourteen, whatever, to get here, but I think that's what it is. I just I've always loved the mountains and the high altitude and the trees and the views and the landscapes. so I think that's why I'm just preferential to them. What do you uh like you spent a lot of time obviously with me in San Diego as well, and the water has its own kind of magical allure to it. Um I I also love the mountains. I find both to be uh uniquely uh beneficial and impressive. Um, what I love about the mountains is the sturdiness of them, how they're just not going anywhere. They're just there. And when you stare at them, it's like staring at something confident and sturdy and strong. Um, but I think the opposite of that is what the ocean presents, which is kind of like it is sturdy in a sense, but it's also constantly moving and changing. And so When I stare at the ocean and I watch the waves come in and crash and I watch the water move, or even it can happen like on a creek or a river, like as I'm going for a walk and I notice the water like lapping up over the rocks or something, there's something totally different, but equally awesome in the true sense of the word of watching water move as there is watching mountains be sturdy, if that makes sense. The ocean kind of scares me, if I'm if I'm honest. not in like scares me where I won't go in the water, but have you ever been somewhere? One one one year when we were in Bali, whatever s storm trajectory, the waves were gigantic, like fourteen foot waves. And it's it was that happened to be the first year when we lived within like walking distance to them. And Jenny and I went down there and we were standing, not even on the beach, probably a solid, I don't know. sixty yards, something like that from from the waves. And I just remember being like, fuck that. Like the power, the strength, and like how angry they they were. And I was like, yeah, no way. I'm not I'm not going anywhere near that. Uh so I've always had a a bit of a very trepidatious respect for for the ocean. But I I d I can't say that I love it personally. I've lived many years at the beach enough to know that I I don't care about the beach. So you don't you don't love just like sitting there and watching the waves just like lap in and lap out and seeing like the the calmness and the tranquility and the constant movement? You know what I think it is? You you don't really ever get the beach to yourself. So y I mean you can if you go at three in the morning or something, but normally at the beach there's other people around. There's often, you know, unfortunately like garbage and things like that. Like the humans are often ruining it. Whereas I can go up into these mountains and like this hike I did this past weekend, I I saw three people total on the on the entirety of my way. So you get generally untouched, unfucked by humans, which I which I generally like. One of the other things I think that's really unique about the mountains too is that you see you can see tons of unique wildlife that you wouldn't see in in everyday life. So like when we were on our Grand Canyon trip, we saw so many elk that by the end of the trip we'd be like, look, kids, elk, and they're just like, uh-huh, another elk, whatever. Um, it just wasn't even like impressive anymore. And then we saw these like little mountain goats and watching them traverse these like incredibly steep cliffs and their hooves are just so precise that they're able to to just traverse this stuff and and dart down it and dart up it and jump from thing to thing and like they're just so confident and so safe. And those are the things that like in everyday life you'd never see like a mountain goat just walking around your neighborhood. and even when you look at the ocean, it's very rare that you actually see any ocean creatures because they're always existing under the water. And then when you see a dolphin come up or a whale come up it's like my God like blah blah. It's like this insane thing. But you see a lot more of that awesomeness when you're out in the mountains hiking. Like every single time I go in the mountains, I see some kind of wildlife. Yeah, that's it's cool. I I haven't gotten over the necessary like fear yet of it. especially the ocean, you're scared of the animals. Dude is just fearful. Right, right. regularly see moose and bear. And I just I guess I haven't had enough experiences to know if it's okay or if I should or if like the that there's a problem. I we saw last time we were here there was a moose uh off the trail. Uh and and it was it was the first time I ever saw one and it I didn't realize how fucking big they were. It was like an SUV parked. Yeah. Yeah. So it's yeah, up here there's there's rattlesnakes, there's moose, and there's bear. So I think I need a little bit more skill in preparation before I can be super comfortable with th those sorts of things happening. So yep. to it is like really awesome to see it from far away where you feel safe. Yeah. Cool. So a little bit different of an episode, of course, but hopefully uh with the f remaining weeks of summer and it being nice, Brian and I have inspired some of you guys. If you are in close proximity or nearest proximity to go on maybe a little adventure this weekend, get outside, get your heart rate up, use some of your your fitness, use some of the lunges and squats to to to take a big hike and get outside and enjoy some things that Brian and I get such, you know, strong value in our lives out of. And then make sure to take notice of all the awe around you because it will change your whole demeanor and your your sense of perspective. All right, B, we will be back next week with things a little bit more our pace. I'll talk to you next week. Bye bye.