Every swipe, click, and notification shapes our digital existence, but at what cost to our real-life presence? I've found solace in wielding a second phone stripped of the social media vortex, discovering a new kind of freedom amid the cacophony of the digital age. Saransh Kapoor joins the conversation, bringing his unique perspective on finding balance in a world where disconnecting feels revolutionary. Together, we tackle the behemoth of technology's impact on our daily routines, touching on the transformative role of fitness as a grounding force, and the stark contrasts in lifestyle choices that define our times.
Amid the hustle of content creation and the glare of the digital spotlight, we explore the personal narratives that chronicle overcoming injuries and pursuing professional accolades in natural bodybuilding. My story weaves through the highs and lows of pushing physical limits and learning to listen to the whispers of the body before they become screams. Dr. SK steps into our 94th episode, enriching our discourse with a discussion on ethical fitness training, steroid use, and prioritizing health over trophies in a culture fixated on extremes.
Navigating the intricacies of recovery and mobility, I open up about my own brush with injury and the subsequent journey back to full form. We dig into the mental barriers of chronic pain, debunking the myth of lifelong suffering with actionable wisdom on smart training and lifestyle choices. The moral compass of the fitness industry also comes under scrutiny as we examine the responsibility of coaches, the influence on younger generations, and the importance of integrity in guidance. This episode isn't just another conversation; it's an intimate reflection on our relentless pursuit of wellness and the mindful steps we take to reclaim our focus, our health, and ultimately, our lives.
Every swipe, click, and notification shapes our digital existence, but at what cost to our real-life presence? I've found solace in wielding a second phone stripped of the social media vortex, discovering a new kind of freedom amid the cacophony of the digital age. Saransh Kapoor joins the conversation, bringing his unique perspective on finding balance in a world where disconnecting feels revolutionary. Together, we tackle the behemoth of technology's impact on our daily routines, touching on the transformative role of fitness as a grounding force, and the stark contrasts in lifestyle choices that define our times.
Amid the hustle of content creation and the glare of the digital spotlight, we explore the personal narratives that chronicle overcoming injuries and pursuing professional accolades in natural bodybuilding. My story weaves through the highs and lows of pushing physical limits and learning to listen to the whispers of the body before they become screams. Dr. SK steps into our 94th episode, enriching our discourse with a discussion on ethical fitness training, steroid use, and prioritizing health over trophies in a culture fixated on extremes.
Navigating the intricacies of recovery and mobility, I open up about my own brush with injury and the subsequent journey back to full form. We dig into the mental barriers of chronic pain, debunking the myth of lifelong suffering with actionable wisdom on smart training and lifestyle choices. The moral compass of the fitness industry also comes under scrutiny as we examine the responsibility of coaches, the influence on younger generations, and the importance of integrity in guidance. This episode isn't just another conversation; it's an intimate reflection on our relentless pursuit of wellness and the mindful steps we take to reclaim our focus, our health, and ultimately, our lives.
That's the thing that drives me absolutely insane, is that it just you get dinged on everything. Nowadays, it's not just you getting dinged on the phone. It used to be just oh, let me just turn the phone off so I don't have to hear anything.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, I just put that on, do not disturb, as I'm getting like three messages from someone, so they're probably like oh, fuck, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I always wondered if they just see it. They see it and just like oh, am I the one that just made him do that? I think every single time I put people on Do Not Disturb, but my phone lives on it. Now I've had this conversation before too. It's so crazy how we used to just wait for someone to text us, call us anything, any type of contact, and nowadays we're just gassed out from having constant notifications. Dude, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:It's just nonstop, it's too much, and like I said, I'll turn this phone off. I have two phones. I left the other one at home and I've talked about it plenty of times. I mean the other phone. My mom, two of my friends have the number and my family, my immediate family. Besides that, no one else has that number. That's good and it's nice, because I'll turn this that to jujitsu or I'll just browse that and there's no social media on it, there's nothing.
Speaker 2:So you get to actually just enjoy and just that's good man, I got to do that. You get to just be present. I mean, you get to just be present. It's like a burner, yeah.
Speaker 1:But the issue? I'm going to tell you what the issue is. The issue is that I turn this off Right and even though I turn this off the iPad, so now I have to go and just like decimate all the notifications because I'm so tired of just hearing everything at the same exact time.
Speaker 2:Dude it's stimulus overload non-stop from the second we wake up to when we sleep.
Speaker 1:I've been really good lately. I've been really good about not overriding my brain and letting it just be constant with things in the background, with constant scrolling, with everything like that. For a long time people were going oh, did you see my story? No, I didn't see anybody's story and it's no offense to you. I'm just intentionally trying to post and dip. I want nothing to do with the app, 100%.
Speaker 2:Especially as content creators, it's so hard to not get sucked in Because you want to consume, so you know what you're posting and be relevant, but it gets you get sucked in you get sucked in and then it says hours.
Speaker 1:It's back when I would scroll. I think today was the longest I scroll in a while. I went to my mom's and I picked up some laundry because I don't have a laundry machine in my apartment and she helps me out because the jujitsu stuff, man, I burn through laundry every two days. There's a mountain of laundry between that and the regular gym and uh, and before we were just sitting standing in the kitchen I showed her a couple of jujitsu memes and we were, she was laughing and then I just kept going. You kept going for like five minutes. You just go whoa, whoa, whoa and you just leave dopamine head man yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's why the other phone. I want no social media on it. There's nothing, nothing at all. Uh, I had read it on it for a little while and then I deleted it because I realized Reddit was just basically the same thing. It's a social site, except now I'm just. I'm looking up hemochromatosis and everything and being paranoid about oh, is this a symptom? Oh, my elbows keep making all this noise. Is this a symptom? It's like no dummy. You've just been double training for months now and your elbows are hate you, so listen, as just for months now, and your elbows are hate you, so listen is just. I just say sk, sk works. I was gonna say because I I feel like you.
Speaker 1:You said sk and then how do you pronounce the entire name, saranj kapoor?
Speaker 2:saranj kapoor, yep perfect saranj kapoor sk yep, welcome to the show brother, thank you, man, thank you for having me I appreciate you for coming down.
Speaker 1:I know you're a busy man. You reminded me that we actually had spent some time together before. Can you enlighten the people about our little meetup prior to?
Speaker 2:this years ago. Yeah, so I was working at Gym Guys, the in-home personal training company, and they asked me to film some videos in someone's backyard. I don't really remember who it was or why it was there.
Speaker 1:It was a fantastic model.
Speaker 2:But yeah, they were like, let's get some videos in and you were the guy filming the videos and that's where we first met, that was probably 2019, something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had just started the year prior, or 2018 is when I really started doing videos. So Josh was like my first big client that I started doing a lot of stuff with, so it was awesome. I mean he brought me to the recharge events and I was doing a lot of stuff with, so it was awesome. I mean he brought me to the um, the recharge events and I was doing a lot of stuff with them. It was great. It's weird because the business is cyclical. So you see, there's like high, just like any business. Honestly, I mean, unless you're in a medical profession where you see sick people all the time generally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's. It's tough Cause everyone asked me that question. Oh, is it a busy season? I'm like it's. It's kind of steady, right, it's like there's. There might be slow time, like weeks or months, but the seasons have been kind of steady, which knock on wood.
Speaker 1:It's great. That's great. Yeah, people just keep getting hurt. I mean that's not great, but it's great that you could put them back together like what is it like humpty, dumpty style? Yeah, exactly, and piece them back together exactly, and uh, so you've always had a passion for fitness and is that kind of what it was was?
Speaker 2:I think it was like when I was 15 16, I started working out. I saw my older brother doing it so I got into it. Youtube Fitness at the time was was blowing up like Matt August, the Hodge twins, all these people and I just fell in love went to the gym, started working out at home. All that stuff came back. I think it was like 11th grade came or came back in 12th grade and everyone's like what the hell happened? How many steroids did you take? I was like I didn't do anything. All I did was just kind of worked out a little bit. I wasn't really even dieting. You were on that.
Speaker 1:A2 grass-fed way before anybody.
Speaker 2:Exactly and then just fell in love with it honestly. And the fitness it's been the one constant in the last 13 years.
Speaker 1:The one constant in a sea of chaos, for all of us Exactly. Yeah, I find that that's a lot of us. We hunker down and we attach ourselves to, whether it's jujitsu, whether it's fitness, whether it's just anything in life. It could be Magic. The Gathering we find our niche, that we really enjoy, that kind of takes us out of the stressors of natural life and everything that we deal with on a daily basis and we can kind of just decompress and enjoy time where time feels like it kind of just, is limitless 100%.
Speaker 2:I think everyone needs that outlet, whether it's fitness, whether it's jujitsu, some form of. I think we do need some form of physical outlet, right, Because there's just nothing like it. Oh yeah, you go into this flow state, you just kind of forget, and it just feels great, right. So I think everyone needs that outlet.
Speaker 1:I actually forget that there are people that don't train at all. It's mind-blowing man, I actually forget that I always ask.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you'll talk to people and you'll just be like yeah, well, I have to just, and not only are they missing out, but you start to actually think about it in terms of, like, what do you do when you just finish work? Or you, before you go to work, you're just hanging around, yeah, and I I don't know. You just come home from work. Let's say you're there all day. You come home from work and you just sit there for another five hours, four hours, and then go to bed.
Speaker 2:That's literally the reality of most people's lives, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm like, okay, I don't know To me, I need that ability to get the energy out. Yeah, You've been sitting all day and it doesn't feel like necessarily you've been at you know. Oh, I feel so tired from work. It's more of a lethargy that you a lethargic feeling that you feel it's not necessarily I'm tired because I was physically exerted.
Speaker 2:Right, absolutely so it's.
Speaker 1:I don't know. It's just always been a weird thought to me that, wow, you just go home and you just don't do anything, or you do I mean, you could do the hobbies that we were talking about but on the side of the physicality of things, to actually get that, the benefits of the health, the benefits of the mind, Right, and that's the main reason now I do it, probably more so for the mental benefit than anything else.
Speaker 2:I don't think I'm getting any more muscle, lean tissue naturally anymore. I just go there to keep myself sane mentally. Honestly, just the one constant, just I need it Right. And again you get addicted to it. But I'd rather be addicted than not addicted because, like you said, most people just going home four or five hours scrolling, you know, screen sucking, or just watching tv, um, I don't think that's that's the right way to live, bro.
Speaker 1:I get digitally depressed looking at some of the things I see on instagram and that's we're talking a minimal timed amount of time, that I'm doing it on the actual Instagram or TikTok or whatever. So can you imagine people that just have no time limit at all and they're just sitting there for hours and hours? I had this debate with my cousin recently. I said to him I said yo, bro, you've just been on your phone the entire time Easter Sunday. He's just sitting at lunch and he must've opened up the TikTok appiktok app. He must have opened it up like six times, watched the same video no facial reaction, nothing and then just closed the app again. But he kept opening it up and just doing nothing.
Speaker 1:I'm like why are you opening the? Put your phone away, bro, and it's just. I said to him. He's like oh, I'm not really on it this much, you're not. Yeah, what do you? What do you do when you're by yourself and you actually are bored? Right, because we use these as a crutch to just take the boredom away at any chance we can numb you, yeah, and they're designed to keep you coming back right.
Speaker 2:Like there's countless times where even I will open up, reopen an app, knowing that I just closed it, and I'm like, what the hell am I doing? But again I have that awareness to be like, okay, okay, what? Like I could see myself reopening it when I just closed it. I'm like so weird, I do it too. We curse right. You're good with cursing right, yeah, you curse, I was just like what the fuck am I doing?
Speaker 2:Like open, reopen. I'm like then I just put it away and, you know, get myself into something more, you know, like deliberate and just active.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I would, I would. Just, I find that the muscle memory and when you switch your home screen around, no matter what, no matter what app, no matter what operating system I'm trying to say not app, whatever, whatever operating system you're running Cause my other phone's Android so it's like, once you start to get that muscle memory of where Instagram is, or where Tik TOK or Snapchat or whatever your, your guilty pleasure is Mail Checking, mail, text messages, anything you find that your fear just gravitates right to it and it's such a weird sensation. It really is, but they're designed for this. We have to remember these things and I've had to explain to a lot of friends you got to stop watching everybody's stories. You got to stop feeding into it. Because why do you think Instagram is free? Because we're the product.
Speaker 1:Our attention is being bartered for currency to the actual tech companies by all these advertisers and we're constantly seeing shit and they'll deny it. Oh no, it's safe. And then we'll mention something and they don't listen to you. No, they never would. Why am I getting ads on if I never clicked on anything? But my man sk just told me about these crazy leather chaps, and I know, all of a sudden, all I see are leather chaps.
Speaker 2:It's crazy. It's the cookies, apparently. If you enable cookies on websites, that gives you gives them the access to get into your microphone and listen to whatever you're saying, so then they're going to run ads targeted specifically to that.
Speaker 1:Every day to me, but then they just ram it down your throat every four seconds, because once you cook cookies, cookies, cookies, it's like every five seconds every site I go to, bro, and then you just go. Oh my God, I don't care, I just want to read the article.
Speaker 2:It's crazy.
Speaker 1:These phones suck, Dude. I got another 10 years of being on these things.
Speaker 2:We're going to shoot some crazy videos and podcasts.
Speaker 1:another 10 years on these things and then hopefully this thing is big enough where I can have other people run it for me and I can just be in the moment for everything?
Speaker 2:Absolutely no, and I agree there's a lot of negative, but I think there's a lot of upside too and a lot of potential, because, again, it enables you to do stuff like this. It enables me to do the way I do my business. A lot of online stuff like that stuff wasn't possible five, 10 years ago, right, it was. You just need an entire production team to do it, right, and and business was just completely different at the time. And now it enables a lot more opportunities. It comes with a huge cost, right, that's taking a toll on a lot of people's lives in a lot of people's lives, but I think the upside outweighs the downside, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:Okay, and now let me ask you this in terms of the upside versus the downside. The downside, obviously mental health issues, just constant scrolling and the derealization or personalization of yourself with life and what life actually is outside of the technological walls, besides business. What do you think is the upside? I'm curious.
Speaker 2:Besides business. I think it gives people the opportunity to see that there's all this potential out there, whatever field it is that you want to succeed in or do art music business field it is that you want to succeed in or or do art music business, whatever it is. I think it enables people to realize that the potential is out there, whatever it is you really want to do. I think that's the huge upside. But again, it comes with the huge cost. Yeah, the inspirational side of right, because a lot of times, you know, you might think you want to do something and you're like, oh no, I don't know if I could do this. And you see other people doing this. You're like, oh, there's a shift in your brain that's like, okay, this is possible. Right, that's why a lot of like coaching programs and mentorships work, because you see a community of other people doing what you're doing. You're like, oh wait, this is totally doable.
Speaker 1:I just got to do X and keep doing it and it'll happen. So I think that's the upside. Okay, I can agree with that. I could agree with that. I like that. I like the uh community driven stuff like I've. I've wanted to deactivate my facebook for a while now, but one of the reasons that I don't is because I do belong to a bunch of epilepsy groups. For kenji, I deleted the app off my phone. So if I, if I do go to facebook, it's very intentional, as opposed to just like clicking it automatically. So I'll do it on a website like the web browser, yeah, and I'll actually focus on doing that. But besides that, I mean I just I try to just limit the amount of time spent on these things and to actually be I've said this a million times but to actually be a content producer versus a consumer. That's really what I want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I agree. Producer versus a consumer that's really what I want. Yeah, no, I agree, and I think. But I think we, you still need to have some form of consumption to be a more effective producer. That's what I've found in my experience. Um, that cause, every time I, you know, I'm trying to get ideas or I'm thinking of what to post, or you know how to talk about this, I'll always refer to other content creators, but that's where you can kind of get sucked in and you're just an hour later you're like what the hell have I just done? I would say that in comparison is the thief of joy. Comparison absolutely. But I think why did this?
Speaker 1:guy get a million views when I explained this more concisely and more thorough than this person.
Speaker 2:I will 100% agree, but I think right now we're at a really good time where good content will outshine, whatever it is. So I think, if someone has that or they think that, I think you have to ask yourself how can I make this better? Because right now the eyeballs are just so high, like the potential. If you post good content you can rock it. Yeah, but most people are just not posting good content. Even sometimes I feel like I'm not posting good content because then I'll go look at other people's other pts, other therapists posting. I'm like damn I could, I'm not even touching you know, like my full potential here there's so much more.
Speaker 1:And then the and then. The downside, though, is that now you feel like it's another job 100. It goes from being something that's fun, yeah, and something where you want to educate people and not only drive business for yourself, for your practice and everything like that, and get more of a name for yourself, especially, but now it's like, oh God, now I got to like I don't. After, how do you work, how do you use after effects to highlight muscles in the video? And you know you do all these extra things and you know you don't realize that these dudes are just outsourced it absolutely, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I think the the bigger you do get, or the deeper you get into this, the more of an obligation you have to your audience. Right, because then you know, when I had a couple thousand followers, I was like all right, whatever I can post, whatever. Now I've gotten a little bit more. I'm like shit, the pressure's on right, because you have more eyeballs. You're like I can't post the same shit. I was posting last year, two years ago. So I think it almost forces yourself to level up.
Speaker 1:I agree, and one caveat I'll say for you especially is and it's positive, it's you don't want to differ yourself too far from where you started and you started gaining traction in the audience 100%. So a lot of people and I'll use joe rogan as an example a lot of people will think that they need to upgrade more than they actually have to, but it was really the original authenticity that the people liked. It wasn't necessarily that they were shooting on 8k cameras or anything like that, or the. The audio was absolutely pristine. They, they, they attached themselves to you as a human being and the stuff that you were putting out there, because it moved them in some particular way. When Joe moved his studio from LA to Austin, he spent a ton of money, like loads of money, on creating this. Like I don't know if you ever do you watch Joe at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, of course you remember when he had the Red Studio that little bubble, that little chamber it looked like.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:People hated it, yeah, so he changed it back to look like the studio in la, with the red crepe in the background and and this and the the picture behind him. That's what. That's what blew him up. It's, but that's. It's so crazy. Like that setup was nowhere near as expensive as what that whole custom echo chamber of a podcast studio was. It's pretty, it's just wild how it just. You know you don't want to stray too far because your fans became fans because they saw you in the infancy stage. 100, yeah, um, but anyway, I wanted to talk about a couple of different things. Reviewing your listen ricky mesh cow shouts to ricky ricky shout out to ricky ricky.
Speaker 1:Uh has been a friend of mine since high school and uh, very well known, very, um, really great dude, well known throughout the island, yeah, as a trainer he's with bft now yeah, what acronyms yeah, I know, I forgot fucking so many bft.
Speaker 1:And uh, he trains a pro fit. He goes a lot of different places and it's uh, it's always good to see him. But we he we've always been in contact like through the grapevine and following each other just never really sparked it up. And he was like yo, you got to get SK on, you guys got to talk about his journey, everything that he's gone through. And then I started looking and parsing through some of your content and I was like, yeah, yo, I need to dive in a little bit deeper about what makes him tick and who you are. So the first things. First, you're a doctor of physical therapy, correct, any other? I?
Speaker 2:mean I had my CPT, but I don't renew that anymore. Okay, it's not personal training. Quote unquote.
Speaker 1:Just DPT Okay, cool. And I saw that this all came about a couple years after you had a pretty bad back injury and that was from deadlifting, deadlifting and squatting, deadlifting and squatting yeah, so now somebody that was doing a lot of compound movements for a good portion of my bodybuilding career, I definitely understand. Now I want you to talk about the herniated disc that you suffered from that. Yeah, I had L5-S1 herniations from a car accident, okay, and I was 19, 20 years old. I used to have radiating pain down my both legs. So I can sympathize when I was reading the story on you and just be like, wow man, I, I, when you, when you wrote that, I felt it. It's like, oh man, my ass cheeks numb. It's not a good numb, it's not a good numb, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I growing up I always had back pain, lower back pain. The doctor said I had slipped disc. Whatever I went to physical therapy I was very young at the time so I don't really know if it worked or not but ever since I got into fitness I was always kind of cautious about my back, but I never really had any issues with working out. It actually felt good. Then I got into powerlifting and was doing really well, hitting good numbers. But again, this was before I was a physical therapist. I wasn't really training smart, I wasn't warming up, I wasn't checking my form. You know, I didn't have like a coach guiding me all this stuff. Um, cause, every variable plays a role in this stuff.
Speaker 2:And then one day was during squats, I hurt my back pretty bad. I could feel it on my way up and that was just like the initial back injury. From there I just took a couple months and didn't really squat, whatever went away. And then I think it was like the same year or the year after is when I was dead lifting. That's when I got. I felt like a pop and I felt the shooting pain down my down my leg. That's when I got like the herniated disc and the sciatica, and from that it was just probably three and a half years of just constant pain. I went to chiropractors, pts, this rehab, all this, nothing worked until I finally sought out some good rehab and he was actually a chiropractor.
Speaker 2:But he does a lot of PT stuff, physical therapy stuff that I do now with my clients, which really helped me understand that like hey, just because you hurt yourself deadlifting doesn't mean we stop deadlifting. That's just because you can't squat 400 pounds doesn't mean you can't squat anything. You know, I remember one of the first sessions with him. He had me do a deadlift from like a kettlebell deadlift from a block.
Speaker 2:It was modified but I was like wow, like this guy has me deadlifting when all the doctors said, don't, you can't deadlift ever again, you can't squat ever again. And here I am deadlifting with no pain here. And he just kind of reinforced that like hey, this is, you have to still do the movement, to still train those muscles in safe and effective ways without flaring anything up, and that kind of made that big mindset shift in my head. And then, of course, going to PT school learning about the body and learning about all these mechanics and improving my mobility. That was a big, big change as well. You know, making sure I'm doing my mobility work, not just going in the gym just pushing weights all around, because that's what I did for years and then that's what kind of led to so many injuries.
Speaker 1:So now the squat. How did you hurt yourself squatting? Was it so now the squat? How did you hurt yourself squatting? Was it like um, was it like tucking the hips underneath at the bottom? Was it just a weird? It was just.
Speaker 2:I just remember I was doing 10 sets of three. I was on a matt ogis program 10 sets of three and I think it was the seventh set. I remember yeah, I believe it was the seventh set. As I was coming up I was like, oh, I had to tweak something. I remember it was so vivid and profite. I just remember like taking taking my belt off and I'm like shit, this is bad. I went to the bathroom like I don't think I can continue this workout, so I just left.
Speaker 2:What were the following days? Like it was just like tightness and this kind of like sharpness pain that I was like very limited in my mobility. But I think, yeah, at the time I didn't like seek, I didn't seek out help right away, which I should have. Because now I see it as a physical therapist, like the faster and the quicker you get the help, the easier and you know, painless your rehab is. The longer you wait, the harder it's going to be right. So that's why I think now, why is that?
Speaker 2:Just because there's so many more variables, right, like if you, if you have something sharp or shooting and you kind of just let it go unmanaged, it can trickle into other areas. Right, your hip could be messed up, you could start compensating on one side, you could start having other issues around the body. It could turn into more, some nerve damage. So I think it's just there's too many other variables to play around with when you can kind of just get that professional help right away, get it managed and then understand how to probably take care of this for the long run, and then you'll be better off so you, you, you tweak yourself squatting, and then how long after were you dead?
Speaker 2:lifting.
Speaker 1:I think I don't remember the exact time, but it was like probably the same year yeah, it wasn't, like it wasn't quick, like a couple days late, no, no, no, like a month or two.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was, it was the same year because I was still powerlifting, I still wanted to compete at the time as a powerlifter and I just kept pushing the buttons yeah, it happens, man I I did that for years I did that for years and you know, until I met my functional medicine guy down in florida and we were talking back and forth and he just said listen, man, you shouldn't.
Speaker 1:You're not deadlifting and your back is killing you because of it. He goes you need to be sumo deadlifting, create a stronger posterior chain and all this stuff. And I was like really, um, okay, I mean, we got me up. I was, I was doing 500 on on sumos, nice, no pain, that's what I was doing. So the more I deadlifted, the less pain I was in. It was so weird, it was so strange, yeah, and it was just crazy how you and I talked to Dr Scott about this when Scott was on Long Island Stretch and he was. And it's crazy how you think of and probably what you went through, which is even more of a reason why it pushed you to become in the position that you're in now. You think of the original physical therapy and what it was.
Speaker 1:You know just stretch here and do a couple of these exercises and, okay, have a good one. You look around, you see a bunch of old people and car accident victims.
Speaker 2:It changes their lives. Right, you do a couple of bridges and clamshells for them.
Speaker 1:It changes their life Great Time and place, but you could just smell the car accident insurance fraud and you're like, wow, man, no one's actually injured here. Oh yeah, but it's so weird how, now, knowing you guys and what you do with patients and how you rehab yourselves which I want to hear about some of the methods that you feel work best it's amazing how that's the real physical therapy, that's the real way to prevent injuries and come back from setbacks of injuries, is to actually rehab properly, work the spots out before it trickles into other areas and creates imbalances and overcompensations and whatnot. It's pretty crazy how the body will just automatically adapt and now, oh well, the lat's locked up, All right, well, let's use more shoulders. You know it'll just start pulling and you're like, oh my God, why is everything hurt now?
Speaker 1:So, I can definitely agree that. That was definitely something that I went through myself, and my original physical therapy when I got my hernia disc was just horrible. It felt like a jail sentence, I could probably guess everything you did oh my god, it felt like.
Speaker 1:it felt like a jail sentence. I had herniated disc but for some reason, if I'm thinking back to it now, I would do the arm by the arm bike for 10 minutes and I was a fat little kid so I was just like sweating my ass off, doing nothing and I was like, oh my god, what's going on here? And then they'd have you stretch and do a couple of movements. It felt like a jail sentence. It felt like community service, like I didn't want to be there type of situation Like I got caught and they're like well, you got to give back. I was like, okay, how about this longer? Absolutely. So we talked about getting injured during your lifts. So now, looking back on that, now, no, with everything that you know now and your rehab techniques, your lifting techniques, whatnot how important is it to have good form when you lift? Oh, very important Cause.
Speaker 2:I look back at some of these videos that I was doing. I'm like I was destined for it to get hurt sooner or later. It was bad Um it it. The thing is it's form definitely matters, for sure. But it also matters as you get more you know, heavier with the weights, because the heavier you get with weights, the the more likely you are to, kind of you know, mess something up if your form is bad. So people get very you know, over, over, like you know, strenuous about form. But I think it really does play a big role when you're, when you're trying to stay pain and pain and injury free for the long run. Absolutely 100%.
Speaker 1:And what are some between bodybuilding, CrossFit? Obviously, you probably see a lot of CrossFit athletes.
Speaker 2:No, not really. I mean, it's mostly bodybuilding. It's mostly people who are avid gym goers. Not a lot of CrossFits, to be honest, really.
Speaker 1:I would have thought that it would have been CrossFit. And listen, no shit on crossfit. I think crossfit's a great sport. I think it kind of what I do now is uh like a hybrid of bodybuilding crossfit at og when I train there. So it's cool. You know, you do a lot of functional compound movements, this now you throw it in, then you're doing sprints on the uh, on the assault runner, but uh, I would assume, because of the workout of the day and just like everyone, how they just run right into it but at the same time they almost have more of a pulse on the modality and mobility work of all of that industry. They have what is it? Whoop and the Sisu Saunas. They just kind of all go hand in hand with recovery and bodybuilders definitely don't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, my first job was in a CrossFit gym and we did I mean, that was almost all the clients we saw there it's definitely more of an injury prone just because, again, there's more variables you're doing You're not just doing standard barbell curls or a couple of bench presses, You're doing hand cleans and cleaning.
Speaker 1:Not just a binary movement.
Speaker 2:Right so there's a lot more variables. So we saw a lot of injuries there. I personally now don't see a lot of crossfitters just because I'm not kind of marketing to them. I'm sure if I marketed to them they'd probably come, but yeah so what do you try to work on now?
Speaker 2:Mostly bodybuilders, average gym goers, because I know that community right. I'm a bodybuilder myself, I get it, even if you're not a bodybuilder quote unquote competing right. If you're an average gym goer and you're hurt, I know what it feels like to not be able to perform at your fullest potential. So that's who I usually market to.
Speaker 1:And what was it like getting your pro card in OCB? It was great, Natural man yeah.
Speaker 2:It was a great feeling. It was a tough prep but it paid off. How long did you prep for? That prep was 10 weeks, 10 weeks, 10 weeks and again that's on the shorter end. You said that was a long prep. Oh yeah, tough prep. I would not recommend that short of a prep. I mean it felt long mentally 23 weeks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was brutal.
Speaker 2:I would recommend 15 to 20 weeks for most people, but 10 weeks I did and then the one after that I did. Nine weeks, 22 pounds, and that was the worst I've ever been Nine weeks and 22 pounds.
Speaker 1:Damn bro. And what was your best look? How long did you give yourself Like time-wise for a prep?
Speaker 2:Well, the one where I got my pro cards, that was my best look.
Speaker 1:for sure I nailed it.
Speaker 2:I nailed it. It was perfect. That was the the nine week one. I missed it. I lost muscle. And what did you? Did you just not peak correctly? I lost muscle. I got into. I was just at a point where calories were so low, right, and my activity was so high. It was just eating away at muscle. I look back at pictures of my legs. It was just, my legs were like gone.
Speaker 1:Isn't it crazy how fast it withers away versus how long it takes to put it on, especially on the natural side of things?
Speaker 2:right and if you look at the weight, wise I was probably. I was like identical weight on the pro card show and my first pro show, identical weight. But the look was completely different for that show my first show as a pro I was also traveling went to alabama, so there was travel. It was like throwing me off because I was still trying to get my meals in holding water. A lot more variables there versus the pro card where I just drove up to Jersey, yeah, but yeah, I never did OCB, I did NPC. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that was an interesting experience 23 weeks as a natural athlete at 22 years old. And you look around you and you go, wow, I am severely outgunned over here. You forgot the steroids, I forgot, yeah, I forgot the steroids. I forgot the steroids. I thought it was the chicken and rice, but it was not.
Speaker 2:It was the steroids. My recommendation is, if you're going to compete naturally, just go to a natural federation. It's just not worth it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was setting myself up for failure. I don't know why I thought I had. I don't know why I thought I just could compete. And I was delusional and I stepped on that stage and I looked at the guys in my class in men's physique and I went oh, these are like two, 12 bodybuilders. I'm going to go sit down. I couldn't wait to get off stage.
Speaker 1:And then I did one more show and I just my heart wasn't in it. It was just each session that I did at between the shows I just started getting more and more discouraged and I was like, oh man, I got to do this again. And then I stepped up there and I looked around and there were only four guys in my class and I got fourth and I just went. I'm good on this, I'm all set. I was like you know, it's not worth the what is it? The juice is not worth the squeeze. Man, that was one and done. Yeah, two and done, two and done. And then I lied to myself a couple times. I said yeah I'm gonna get back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm gonna do it, yeah I got it. And then the functional guy that I was working with. He had me looking insane for six weeks out.
Speaker 1:I looked insane for for what it was. I mean, I was doing 40 minutes of cardio a week a week and I was like 40 minutes a week a week and he had me. That's amazing. He had me diced at six weeks out already and he was just like dude, dude, we are cruising. It's amazing, yeah. But he reverse dieted me the right way. Yeah, we took two years after that show to that, right, and we reverse dieted me the right way. I was maintaining my body weight at 600 grams of carbs a day. It was a hassle to eat that much and I was eating. You know, this is way before I knew seed oils or anything like that. So I was just eating shit, man. I was eating pop tarts, I was eating cereal, I was eating all kinds of stuff just to get the carbs up there. So to say I was healthy, it's another story. But and it wasn't even like his advice, he was just like just eat a lot of rice and I just I was like I don't want to eat that much rice, I'll show you.
Speaker 1:But it was. It was tough man because I sent him the picture and I remember just, I remember just taking the picture, smiling in the mirror for the picture, and then I was just, I finished it, I looked at the picture and I went, all right, cool, I sent it to him. He was like dude you look sick and I, and he goes um, and I said, yeah, I guess, and he just goes. What's wrong, man, I don't want to do this anymore yeah, he goes.
Speaker 2:Really I said yeah, I'm good, he goes.
Speaker 1:All right, dude, go eat, he goes, you're, you're shredded for summer, enjoy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's good, yeah's good. Yeah, it takes away. I mean, it takes everything out of you, like physically, mentally, financially, like it's hectic.
Speaker 1:It takes everything, I don't know there's a lot of sacrifice. There's a lot of sacrifice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the food you got to eat. The supplements, the registration. It's not a sport to make money, but it's definitely a lot of sacrifice.
Speaker 1:Let's see where we at. Where we at, please hold people. I gotta show my man a little something. Something. No, that's a rush. He did not forget the steroids, that's for sure. All right, this is me at 150. That was my first competed you're damn, that's.
Speaker 2:That's. That was your first show. That was my first show. You look good. Yeah, for a natural athlete. Definitely not mpc, because that was mpc. I was I'm saying like competing with the mpc people. Yeah, no, yeah, you would do really good in ocb there, though yeah, you could probably get your pro card, you think so?
Speaker 1:yeah, I've seen the competition about to come back in the competition. And then this was me, six weeks out with the natural guy, with like the oh shit yeah, like that you put on some good muscle.
Speaker 1:Big difference, man big difference and I was 100. I was 150 pounds in the first picture and there I was sitting at like 175 and I was six weeks out still and we were just gonna. We were just chipping away, nice and easy, nice and easy. So it was good man, like for what it was, it was nice, but uh, never again. Now my life it's crazy. Now my life is jujitsu right, I'm in the fight world.
Speaker 2:It's so weird man, it's just, jujitsu is awesome. I have a lot of clients who who love it and you know you get like you're. It's a crazy competitive sport, but in a good competitive way, right, it's not like you're trying to beat people's asses all day long but and you get a crazy workout crazy workout I mean.
Speaker 1:So I go to og, I do all my stuff there every, usually every morning when I'm really serious. So I've gone every day this week except tuesday. I give myself a rest day on tuesday and um, the last couple of days were good. They were push pull. Tomorrow's the conditioning day, mondays are the conditioning days at og, but I usually do jujitsu at night. Yeah, and I'll tell you what man everyone keeps asking me like nick, you look sick, you look this and you look this and that, blah, blah, blah. I still wear 2X. This is a 2X hoodie. I still wear all my 2X hoodies from when I was heavier. But I tell them yo, it's the grappling, it's crazy when I feel good and I haven't been 100% in a few months. I just came back from an ankle injury. Now I have burs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, it's not like bulging out but it's oh dude, if I post on this elbow, it's like you want to just scream. That's how much it hurts. So I actually went today I bought elbow pads with a little sleeve and then I bought a compression sleeve to go over it, so it's double padded so at least I can still drill and not worry about it so much. But when you're rolling man, you like, bash that against the mat, you want to go. You scream. You're like, oh my god, it hurts so bad. But the grappling is just another element of just how you look at a wrestler's body. You look at all these dudes that just have this explosive strength and they're lean and they're muscular and you go oh, it makes sense now. Yeah, but I do like how you said you have clients that do jujitsu because we're always broken.
Speaker 2:No, really it's the gentle art elbows, shoulders, is big with that uh ac joint like, yeah, ac joint even like knees, because any any hinge joint where you're, where you're bending excessively because a lot of that grappling, a lot of that, you're just like in extreme positions. So it's tough. I mean you know you could do everything right. I mean that's what, what bodybuilding? Know you could do everything right. I mean that's what, what bodybuilding?
Speaker 1:so you could do everything right and still get hurt tomorrow yeah, right, the ankle injury was tough that I'm finally coming back from. That was a. I called scott, everybody. I was like, right after it happened I went yeah, I thought my ankle was shot, like I thought it was, it was done. No, I, I almost probably did so.
Speaker 1:Basically, basically, long story short, going back and forth and me and this kid stand up, the round was over. He reengaged me, so I go, okay. So I grab him back and now I'm like what are you doing, bro? Like the round's over and I throw him to the side and he rips me straight down. But he falls on top of me when he does. And when he did that, my right ankle went completely underneath both of us and all you heard was snap. And I was like oh my god, dude, and I felt my big toe go numb and I just went oh, dude, I'm gonna, he's gonna roll off of me and there's gonna be bone sticking out. It's over for this ankle. And he and you know, matt sarah comes over, he's like nick, you good, you good, like what's going on.
Speaker 1:I go I have no idea yet I'm not a doctor, I have no clue and I stood up and it was like tender and I, okay, you know adrenaline's probably high right now for the injury area, so I know that it's gonna hurt later. So I I grab an ice pack and I lay down. I sit down and then I leave and I'm hobbling and as the day goes on I'm really hobbling, fuck. So I went to nick and scott and they said it was probably a grade two spring.
Speaker 2:Yeah I was just gonna say you didn't get an x-ray or anything. No, probably should have, could have?
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably should have. But at this point I mean, that was nine weeks ago, 10 weeks ago. Yeah, it still hurts, not a lot, a little bit Certain movements. You still feel it. Probably 12 weeks or so yeah, 85% in another couple of weeks. But basically the injury started in the front of my ankle, like right and the front right. That's where I felt it instantly, yeah, but then as it started healing and getting progressively better, the, the, the pain point was actually between my, the little bone on the side of my ankle and my Achilles. I guess there's a ligament there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's probably the one. Yeah, that's probably the one, that's probably the one, yeah, so. That's tough.
Speaker 1:It's a tough sport, man. I tell people this all the time, like they have me. Help the new kids out all the time, right, and I tell them all. I literally tell every kid the same thing I go yo, I'll be your honest friend here, because everyone else will not be honest with you. Tap early, yeah, okay, know who you can and won't be able to, because they are just too much. Yeah, and too much doesn't mean that they're going to best me every single time, but too much to me means you're going to make me unleash everything I have every time we go against each other. I don't want to do that, right, because I I got work tomorrow. I just this is, this is a hobby for me. It's not. I'm I'm not a fucking professional fighter, so I'm not going to get paid to do this. I'm not a jujitsu practitioner.
Speaker 2:I'm somebody that is enjoying the journey of doing it and learning new things and having an exercise outlet that really releases energy and that's what a lot of people forget is like the professional athletes they have, they're doing all that stuff but they got the recovery, like you know, night and day. They got cold saunas, cold plunges, whatever it is, ice baths, people massaging them from like the day, from the second they wake up to, you know, when they go to sleep it's just nonstop recovery. On the days they're not like exerting themselves, and that's the same thing with a lot of even like traditional bodybuilding or people that I see it's like all right, you can train hard, but just remember, like the recovery part is huge, right. And again, you're not a professional athlete where you have access to all these resources or time to put into recovery. Right, all we got is eight hours of sleep. Make maximize it. And then, of course, do your mobility work and make sure you're prioritizing that too what do you feel is the most important sections of staying uh injury free?
Speaker 2:I think most important I think will definitely be, of course, sleep, prioritizing some form of mobility work, especially if all you're doing in the gym is push, push, push strength training. You've got to do the other part too, and I'm not talking about just a couple of basic stretches or whatever, like some dynamic mobility stuff to get joints moving right. Because I always say, if you don't like just like we say for our strength if you don't use it, you lose it. The same thing for our mobility If say for our strength, if you don't use it, you lose it. The same thing for our mobility If I don't use my shoulder through its entire range of motion, I'm going to lose that range of motion over time.
Speaker 2:Then what happens? You're 60 and you have arthritis and everyone thinks that's just a normal part of aging. Sure, arthritis might be a normal part of aging, but not everyone that has arthritis is in pain, right? So if you can utilize that joint, the motions, effectively from the start in your 20s, 30s, 40s, I think you're better off in the long run to not have all these symptoms that might come with age-related problems.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of the quotes that you had on one of your posts that I really liked, because I've been told that a lot of times is this is just something that you have to live with forever. Oh yeah, and that's something that you said you can't stand hearing, especially because you were able to not only fix yourself and make yourself healthy and feel better, but you do it with all your patients and clients as well.
Speaker 2:I've heard it, I've heard it from countless doctors when I was hurt, had my herniated disc, the sciatica, like oh, no, this is like I'm like. I'm like I would ask Cause again. I was young, naive, I was in a PT at the time was like, oh, like, so if I do X, y, z, like I'll get out of pain, right, like I won't have to live with this forever. They're like no, you know, this is something that you will likely have to live with forever. It just may not be as bad. I'm like that doesn't sound right, because there's plenty of people who have herniated discs or back pain and then you see them a few years later and they're pain free, right, and I'm at that level, knock on wood, three, four years, four years now being pain-free, and when I say pain-free, like legit pain-free aches and sensations sure, that's a normal part of lifting and you know, whatever, that's fine, but nothing like what it used to be. Um, so I think it's just complete bullshit that you have to live with it forever, and I've seen what it.
Speaker 1:What did it take to get you to be pain-free?
Speaker 2:a lot of the concepts that that I like I talked about doing my mobility work, smart training, right, not lifting with my ego, not going crazy If I feel like I haven't slept that great or if I feel like I'm kind of off, I'm not going to kill myself in the gym. Right, and I feel like even now I'm 29, almost 30, I feel better now than I did in my early twenties. Right, and most people is the opposite, and I think now because of course I'm not like drinking as much, eating better, all these variables that play a big role right, training way more, a lot smarter, not going crazy with deadlift squats like stuff like that that just are more likely to be prone for any kind of pain or injury.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I sometimes I'll write something down to to remember my thing, but you know, you said, obviously you know a lot more because you aren't drinking a lot as much, and this, and that I find that it's a.
Speaker 1:It's a, it's a pro and a negative in terms of just, we are cursed with knowledge at this point because we know so much, I think, so many things that we know, and there's so many things that we know we should do or avoid or this, and that that we actually get to a point of a stalemate where you're just like there's like too much to do to try to just, yeah, be optimal and it can be, uh, you know, hitting the e-brake feeling sometimes, where you're just like I, just there's so much I gotta do. I gotta get my morning sun and I gotta do a couple of ice ice, uh, showers or baths here and there and, uh, the seed oils and no processed foods. But I got to get my cardio in and I got to get my standup desk and it's great that we have all of this information at our fingertips, but sometimes it could be overwhelming 100%.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of it is just like, if you hit the big pieces, like get your sleep right, get your nutrition right, get your fitness right, everything else is kind of just, you know, icing on the cake. The cold showers, the plunges, the sauna, that stuff it might, it's not really going to move the needle in my opinion. Yeah, I'll still do them, I like to do cold showers, whatever, but like you think it helps.
Speaker 2:It's a, it's a supplement, supplement, exactly what a supplement is supposed to really mean and it's hard and it feels good when you're done with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it feels so good when you're done with it, man, the ice plunge see. The thing that sucks about the cold showers, though, is that like I gotta turn yeah, I'm just like oh, now the front, now the back.
Speaker 2:You're just like, oh god, oh, like, don't be a bitch and stand in the same spot. You gotta turn every time it feels like you're getting, keep getting in the cold plunge fresh every time you turn like a turkey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in boston market. Yeah. That's why I like the baths, because you can just jump in and you just sit. You haven't done one yet. I haven't done one. I'm bringing you over, I want to do it. My guys over at iStretch Plus Okay, yeah, they're right here in Huntington Awesome, great team, and they have the infrared sauna and they have the great ice plunges in there, I'd love and then, when you're done, you dunk your head in and you feel like you just took a dip with a polar bear in the Arctic.
Speaker 2:That's what you feel like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, it's funny. You said you're not like ego lifting and all that. We've all been guilty of. It Happens, just. It's part of the progression of learning your way in the weight room and whatnot, and some people grow out of it. A lot of people don't, and then they're constantly injured and hurt.
Speaker 1:But it's reminded me of a quote from Kai from years ago, because I used to film Kai and we did a lot of stuff together and he always said that I'm a weightlifter, I'm a bodybuilder, not a weightlifter, and I always loved that saying because otherwise it's just you're just moving, well, I'm just going to keep moving away. It's like no, you got to challenge the muscle to where it is just moving. Well, I'm just gonna keep moving away. It's like no, you gotta challenge the muscle to where it is. You know, you don't have to squat 500 on everything. Just because you see that dude over there doing it doesn't mean that that's your journey and your path that you have to do right, you have to do what your muscle workload is, and it's different for every single person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's. It's as sad as it is like look at ronnie coleman, right, a legend. The guy has amazing, he's a legend. But like, that's not a prime example of what you want to become right, you want to do this stuff to add years to your life, not take away right, not rely on fucking meds all day long and be you know out of like woo, right. So I think that's just that that will get me enough that I look at that. I'm like, okay, I'll check my ego and I know I'm not going to go crazy with ego training because if I do, I know what's going to happen. And to speak on Kai, even like Phil Heath, a lot of my current training principles I get from them because you look at the way they're training, they're the ones using 20-pound dumbbells to do bicep curls and they're going slow and controlled, pumping up the muscle.
Speaker 1:They'll still train to failure, but it's like it's completely different than what most people are doing nowadays yeah, I filmed kai all over the world and every single time I've seen him do 45 minute warm-ups before he starts. A lot of stretching, a lot of like dynamic movements, of just like rolling the shoulders out, and you know he does, he does it's a dancer. You know he does it like he's on stage in front of a million people, but generally he's warming up the right way and he's doing. He's not going crazy with the weight he doesn't need to Like. Don't get me wrong. I mean not crazy for the weight sometimes for him is like three plates on a bench press and he's just sitting there. That's his journey. He's a guy that is a lot bigger than your average human being. The biggest pain point for me is I got into the fitness industry, like so many others, because I wanted to be healthy and, unfortunately, you wanted to get girls.
Speaker 2:Let's be real. That's why everyone gets in. And then you grow past that.
Speaker 1:I wanted to just stop being fat man. I was like God damn.
Speaker 1:It's crazy out here, but I wanted to just stop being fat man. I was like, goddamn, it's crazy out here, but I wanted to be healthy. That's really what it was. Truthfully, I was pre-diabetic. They told me I'd need an insulin pump if I didn't stop getting heavy and I was like, fuck man, I hate needles, so let's go. And then I wound up getting hemochromatosis, which is the biggest ironic kick in the ass, and I have to do phlebotomies every three months. So it didn't matter anyway, I've been hating needles. But so you know, I wanted to just do this and be healthy, and I see so many other people that wanted the same.
Speaker 1:But they get so caught up in the ego lifting and they get so caught up in the steroids and all this stuff and then their bodies start to fail them early in life 40s, 50s that's still early in life. And you said perfectly, we want to actually get longevity out of our bodies and our, our lifestyles are trying to aid that process. Yeah, not take it away right? So you look at a guy like ronnie whose body is failing him. It's failing him not because it's old age, it's failing him because of the abuse that it's gone through for how many years now it's it's. It's tough through. For how many years now it's tough to watch. When I see him at the expos man, there's like a soft spot in me that feels like weird and there's a lot of people that run up to him. Oh yeah, buddy, you know all this stuff and, okay, you know you play into the character and he does that.
Speaker 1:But I can't help but just sit there and go. Man, that's got to be somewhat depressing. It really does in his shoes, like I. I don't think that he sits there sad for himself because, listen, he's made a name for himself, he's made a lot of money and I'm sure he still is making good money in the sport, maybe. I don't know, I'm not his manager.
Speaker 1:But at the same time you look at that and you're just like, ah, was it worth it? I don't know, has a, it was worth it. Point right, and maybe that was his letting his body just deteriorate the way that it has. But I see him with those double crutches. Man, you're just like, fuck damn, I used to get jazzed up for the gym watching him squat 800, yeah. And now you look and you go, oh god, at what cost? At what cost, man? I don't know. To me it's not worth it. I agree it's the same thing with you. Know, I keep bringing back jujitsu because it's relevant to me, right, this second. But it's the same thing with, like, competing in jujitsu. I'm not bad at jujitsu. I'm not the best, but I'm definitely not horrible. I'm pretty good for the amount of time that I've been training.
Speaker 1:Everyone keeps telling me to do tournaments yeah I'm gonna go there and I'm gonna have a dude that's just gassed up doing fucking smelling salts on the sideline. I'm gonna have him rip an arm bar without letting me tap. I don't know, is it worth it yeah for the trophy? I don't know. Am I gonna be gordon ryan? Probably not, right, you know like. Am I gonna be like one of competing against b team at adcc? Probably not, but uh, I don't know. That's I everyone's point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you never know. And again, I think you just have to ask yourself at what cost is it worth it to you?
Speaker 1:For some, it is, and what was your cost for not going into the NPC?
Speaker 2:Like you said, health, longevity. Now, of course, I know plenty of people, clients, friends who do take stuff. Oh, this is no.
Speaker 1:And I'm very. Everybody that comes on is usually very um open about steroids and transparent and everything like that yeah I do not shit on people for taking steroids.
Speaker 1:I do question people's motives at times and the unfortunate truth that you're probably not you particularly, but on point you know in your seat you're probably taking it because that guy's taking it. He's taking it because that guy's taking it. He's taking it because that guy's taking it. It's not necessarily because they feel like they needed it right out the gate. And that's the unfortunate waterfall effect of just like how everyone winds up on it because they're all competing at the same show and that guy just put on 40 pounds of muscle. Holy shit, now I got to put on 40 pounds.
Speaker 2:To me it wasn't worth it simply because, of course, health and longevity, also because I wasn't trying to become Mr Olympia or go into that next level IFBB, mpc. But if it is your goal, by all means you have to do it right, you have to compete at that level and you have to do what it takes. That's all it is.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you got to get a little crazy you have to do what it takes, but again controlled and doing it with the reminder in your head like, hey, there's consequences to this, whether you like it or not. Right, there's consequences to not doing it too. You're not going to be at the fullest level that you could be Not, naturally, of course, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I tell every single person that I know when John Meadows was alive God rest his soul, man when John Meadows was alive, when I was working with Flex Lewis, all these guys, anytime anything would come up roughly. I would just go just be safe, please. That's all I ask. Just be careful, as your friend, just be careful. You're going to do what you're going to do and that's cool, but just please be safe, be careful and don't abuse the shit, especially in the early years, like 16 to 20, 21.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's so scary, your body, your mind is like still like so freaking fragile. What is it you?
Speaker 1:you, your body isn't fully developed until 25. I think that's something like that. Your brain as well, right, your brain and your neurons, and everything is not fully finished until you're 25 years old. And you have dudes that are looking up to guys at the mr olympia show that are 16, 17 years old, and it's a lot different. The vibes are a lot different.
Speaker 1:When I was that age and I looked at the guys in the magazines, I thought I had to take the supplements that they were pushing to get that big muscle tech, protein, all these, all this extra shit, the fat burners to get shredded and all all that. I didn't think that I had to take steroids, right, that was later presented to me in the form of like oh, that's why they look so different. Oh, you, you mean that 30 day transformation wasn't just because he was taking that fat burner. Oh, he was taking a full cycle. Interesting, and you know you're, you're, you're around it more and more being at the power lifting and the bodybuilding gyms and you know it's, it's, it's a weird thing cause it's so taboo in nature but it's so openly accepted in the industries. Yeah, but don't talk about it. But we all know. But don't talk about it. You just sit there, you go, okay, yeah, all right. Sure, never forget Sean Harris, did you know?
Speaker 2:Sean Harris.
Speaker 1:Yeah, rest in peace, man. Sean Harris was the fucking shit I love Sean. Sean was my, like my my gym dad out. Um, he was eating his oats. He always ate his chocolate oats at the counter after he was done training. Um and uh, he takes out. He takes out like this napkin and he's unrolling something. And I look at him and I go, I go yo, do you use a straw to drink those chunky ass oats? I said what is up with you? And he, and he pulls out and it's a syringe, and he goes this is my insulin. He goes my plan's a little different than yours, nick. And I went oh gotcha.
Speaker 2:He was transparent. It was funny, man. Yeah, as long as you're open about it and you're not trying to do it for the wrong reasons, exactly, I think you're fine and get checked man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the biggest thing that I tell people is get checked out, no matter what. Get your blood work done consistently. If you're going to be on shit, you have to get your markers and know, because if you start taking and then you get your blood test a year later, we don't know where you started before you started taking a cycle. So now your levels could be all fucked up, but to you now this looks like baseline a year later. So there's a lot of things that go into it that you have to take into account absolutely. I just find that this is not there's not always a systematic or uh methodical approach that they go into it. It's more so like this guy told me to do this and I'm gonna do that and that's what. That's what always bothered me about it. You know it was never funny story and then we'll get off steroids. It was never just like a. You never got a real straight answer. So, yeah, when I first did my first show my coach at the time who, as always, I will never name on this show if you know me, you know who he was I can't stand the fucking guy dirtbag anyway. I would constantly wake up on sundays with steroids on my plan constantly, I and I. When I sat down in his office, he told me nick, I just want you to know, it's chemical warfare out here, like, oh, okay, I'm natural, right, if you can't coach me, then I'm gonna go somewhere else. No, no, no, and what he wound up doing is just running me into the ground. But, regardless, we're gonna get back to the sunday plans.
Speaker 1:Sunday plans would come in and I'm away at college and I'd see my meal plan and then at the bottom, where the supplements were, like the ala and the fat burner that I was taking and this, and that all of a sudden, every this, almost this, almost happened every other sunday you'd start seeing clan butyral trend, all this different stuff. And I look and I go what am I reading? Yeah, so I'd email him back and I go hey, let me just ask you something, because we have this conversation pretty regularly. I'm natural I don't want to take steroids, but you keep putting it on my meal plan. That's the first thing, right? The second thing is even if I wanted to get these, where do you expect me to go and get these? Am I supposed to just go to rite aid? You guys serve trend here. You guys have clen behind the counter yeah, nowadays they might.
Speaker 1:They was like are you trans? Not like fuck? Like, oh man, you got me. So yeah, I was just like uh, so you want me to just obtain this from who? Yeah, the shady dude hanging out at the city center. Nah, I, I'm good on that.
Speaker 2:That's crazy, that your coach knew the fact that you were natural, yet still continue to try and push it on you. That's just straight up wrong and unethical, of course, but well, I'll tell you what that was.
Speaker 1:What that was was sloppy coaching is what it was. That was a coach who did not give a fuck about his natural athlete, and what he did instead was he copy and pasted other people's meal plans and put it on mine and his dumb ass, his big monkey ass, fucking stupid.
Speaker 1:he fucking gorilla. He's huge, he really is he really big dude for his size? He's big dude. He would just. He's a really big dude For his size. He's a big dude. He would just copy-paste and he would just put it in there. Yeah, send, that's what he would do, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I get it every Sunday. I'm away at college, bro, where?
Speaker 2:am I getting this yeah?
Speaker 1:Where am I getting this? So that's the unfortunate side of the hurts, man, it really does. It fucking hurts because I want. I was so in love with the sport when I first did it. It was my biggest outlet after heartbreak right, it really was. After I lost that relationship, there was a piece of me that was yearning for something to attach to. It's a way of college. It was all new for me. I didn't know what was going on, but I knew that. Oh man, this makes me feel good. The endorphins that I get from this make me feel good. The changes, changes that I'm seeing in my body. That makes me feel good. Wow, okay. And then I'd find a couple of guys that would go to the gym with me and I wound up going to Montaneri Bros Powerhouse Gym. So that's where I trained up in Connecticut, and it was basically I'm telling you it was Bev's 2.0. In the summer it used to be a firehouse. I don't know if you've ever seen the gym.
Speaker 1:No, I haven't Big garage doors and they open it up and all the then you just feel like you're lifting outside, like in Venice. You have these hot, hot days where you're just you're in the gym and you just feel like you're training outside and it was just, it was so, it was so magical it sounds stupid.
Speaker 2:It doesn't sound like Connecticut.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, no, no. Cool, because you know you have. You have all walks of life to go to the gyms and that's what I love about fitness as a whole. You know, you had a lot of state troopers, you had a lot of businessmen, you had a lot of students. You had a lot of different people co-mingling in a space where the general consensus was we're all just trying to get better. That's really what it is at the end of the day. No matter what you're taking, no matter what you're doing, the general consensus is I'm trying to get stronger, I'm trying to get fitter, whatever it might be. That's generally why people are going there and busting their ass day in and day out. Yeah, absolutely, very bros. Super gym, oh man, I miss it. I gotta go to. I haven't trained like that in a while. There you go, it's literally. Yeah, this looks just like Bev's, it's like.
Speaker 1:Bev's 2.0 with huge ceilings, that's right. And with huge ceilings and the machines are. You know evan centipani who? Evan centipani big time? He was a big time bodybuilder, um, on the pro scene, but he was. He's another one. He was a uh native up there in connecticut. There you go. So that's what that was the garage doors. So they just blast those dudes open in the summer and you just you sweat and you get humid. You feel like you're just dogging it out in there.
Speaker 2:It's great, I love it, that's what I love those old school vibes yeah, that was the best that was the best vibes.
Speaker 1:And it's funny because, as I go on a rent, it's funny because, during covid especially, I was getting those vibes at home and it felt so good, yeah, because I I bought a ton of equipment, I true, yeah, and it's all my mom's house because I have an apartment now, so it's like all of my mom's house because I have an apartment now, so it's all at my mom's house. And she goes are you going to take this? Do not touch the $5,000 rogue monster rack oh, you got that monster rack.
Speaker 1:It's huge. I got the fat bar pull up. I bought three power bars, two Sorenx bars. I got the landmine attachment. I got kettle bells ranging from 10 pounds all the way up to 130 or 140. I had 500 pounds of the calibrated Rogue plates for powerlifting you would love that and I got an assault bike Nice, yeah, I got everything.
Speaker 1:But that's what it felt like when me and the homies would start training. We would just all go in. There was hot, yeah, just hanging out blasting music. There was nothing else to do, we were just training in there. That's the best. I can't believe I was still fat after. That was amazing to me that I was. I came out of that fat. I was like we were all we did was train all day anyway. But then you look at the other time and it was like a lot of whiskey and it was a lot of video games. So that was. That was the adverse.
Speaker 1:Um, let me see what I have. Oh, that's right, the orthopedist. I had a story about that for you. Uh, I went to orthopedist one time and it it kind of derives back to this is just something you're gonna have to live with. I went to an orthopedistopedist and, uh, I was getting weird muscle pain in my hamstring and every time I did a hamstring curl above 120 pounds, I would get this crazy pinching right and it just it was very uncomfortable. I'd get in the knee, a little bit on the side of the knee, and just felt off. So I went to an orthopedist. He does x-rays. Yeah, like dude, I need mri. It's not, I don't need x-ray or whatever, so I does x-ray inner procedure.
Speaker 1:They need that yeah, so stupid man, it's so dumb, such a waste of time. So he comes in and he just goes. Man, you got the the knees of a 15 year old, like oh, I don't know if that's a compliment, brother, I'm like, but hey, thank you like, don't talk about my knees like that, you make me feel weird. So then he just goes. Yeah, it's like, so tell me about what happens and I tell him exactly what I just said to you and he just goes. Okay, you know best, best you know thing I can give you advice wise is just don't go over 120 pounds I saw that coming.
Speaker 2:I swear, I saw that coming okay.
Speaker 1:But like what, if I want to right, he says, yeah, just I wouldn't, because then you're gonna feel that, yeah, I was like all right well that doesn't really fix.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, it's crazy, doesn't?
Speaker 1:really fix what I'm having a problem with. But okay, yeah, I just won't go over 100 pounds, I'll just live and then, anytime I have to, I'll just be like, oh, look, there, it is again the old hamstring, right? So it's so weird it's a cop-out, right.
Speaker 2:that's what said. If you go to a traditional doctor, you tell him hey, squats hurt, okay, let's stop squatting. Hey, deadlifts hurt, okay, just don't deadlift for a month. Just don't do it. It's like okay. But why Like what if that's something you really? Hey, running hurts. Have you tried not running? It's like come on.
Speaker 2:No, I was want to take the time to identify what is actually causing the problem and that's why I think physical therapists and I'm not just like plugging myself, like physical therapists in general have a a big kind of um, just just an area to help people and and kind of listen to people, because your traditional orthos, there people are coming in and out.
Speaker 2:It's like five minutes, you get time with them right if that right and that's where the only kind of one-on-one care you do have in the healthcare world is usually with a physical therapist or occupational therapist. But even then the traditional way is it's still kind of broken because, like we talked about, you're going into a couple of basic exercises, you get 10 minutes with their PT and again, if they're not familiar with the gym, out lifting, it's like how are they equipped to let you know the exact stuff to do?
Speaker 1:and how shocking is it that they aren't, that you go to most of these places, they're just blown out out of shape and you look at them and you go wow, you're supposed to be the one that's going to give me health advice exactly.
Speaker 2:It's like an accountant who's you know whose taxes are messed up yeah, really would you really trust? No, so would you really trust a nutritionist who's 300 pounds?
Speaker 1:I got flack for that. I put a clip up like that. I don't know if you ever saw that one I got flack for that.
Speaker 2:No, I did.
Speaker 1:I said, I can't take you seriously if you're giving me health advice and you're 300 pounds overweight. I can't do it.
Speaker 2:And I crazy man. You just see the people that defend anything. They just want to, they just want to bicker about absolutely anything. And in reverse, like I've had a lot of people who come to me, they're like hey, sk, like I came too because you walk the walk right like you, you work out, you're in shape, like you're in great shape, walk the walk. I was like thank you and and as it should be right like you, we. We think we're not, we're not judging people, but like it's automatic in our brain, if a 300-pound dude is a nutritionist and giving me advice on what to eat, I'm just not going to take it seriously. Neither should you, no one should. It's fucking bullshit.
Speaker 1:Now let's give the adverse Shouts to Evan OG the homie. Evan's in fantastic shape. Taylor is in fantastic shape. Kim, any trainer, joe, eric, all the trainers that train there are in fantastic shape. No one's out of shape. Good, yeah, why would I expect anything different? Why can't I expect my health care provider to hold themselves accountable exactly and to be healthy? It's weird. You told me that I should be eating, uh, less meat this and that, and now you're on this diet, but if that diet yields those results, I don't know if I want to do it brother.
Speaker 2:It's backwards, it's backwards, yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't go to Sarah's Jiu-Jitsu Academy because he sucks at Jiu-Jitsu. No, he's an assassin. Yeah, that's why I go there. I don't go there because he's bad. Absolutely, that's why I go there, I don't go there because he's bad, absolutely, so why would I expect any different from any other facet of life? You got to walk the walk, dude. It's so crazy. Yeah, and actually that goes into another topic for you that I had, which was what are your thoughts on general rehab plans and why don't you like them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and usually what I'm seeing is with these general rehab plans is that there's just not enough challenge for the more active population. And again, it might work for the 60, 70, 80-year-old who's never touched the weight. They have shoulder pain. You give them a couple of external rotation internal rotation changes their life. They have back pain. You give them a couple of bridges, clamshells changes their life. That's fine. But for the more active population people go to the gym, there's more variables to play with. There's just not enough challenge and there's not a consideration for the load that's being put on their body outside of the rehab work in the gym. Right, because there's been plenty of times where I've had patients and clients who've come to me and we've done rehab work. They're not getting that much progress and I'm like, hey, let's look at your workout program, let me tweak some stuff, because again, I walk the walk, I know what we're doing in the gym. Let's tweak some stuff. Boom, the pain is just like gone.
Speaker 2:I had one guy with shoulder pain. We tried so much rehab work, like so much. And then I asked him and this took a while because I was working at a job at the time I asked him like what's your, what's your workout routine? He listed it out. I'm like, well, you're, first of all, you're over training way too much. We cut back volume, put them on the right path and boom, the shoulder pain just disappeared. Yeah, so it's like, was it the rehab or was it just managing load? Right, it's probably a combination, definitely combination of both, but the managing load had a bigger part to that person specifically. So I think it's a it's. It's partly there's not enough challenge in these traditional rehab plans and also not taking into account what they're doing outside of that in terms of overall load on their body yeah, I'm probably over training right now and under eating severely people are yeah, especially with the doubles, the weights in the morning, the hit cardio, all that stuff in the morning and then jujitsu at night, my elbows will not stop making noise.
Speaker 1:It is so scary every time. Click, click, they didn't do it that one time, every time, it could be like a minute that I just don't move them and then I just move the. Uh, if it's not painful, I wouldn't not painful. Yeah, clicking and popping, it's so it's so common.
Speaker 2:Like I could, I could stand. My hip will crack and pop, my knee pops. That's fine. That stuff is not too much of a problem, as long as it's not like pain right away.
Speaker 1:No, no pain but I do get. So I had an AC joint issue when I first started doing jujitsu. A lot of the roughing it out type feelings of like holding a side control and whatnot. Ac joint was bad and then lately it's just been like my shoulder joint has. But it's not when I roll, it's not when I do lightweight. The second I go over like 60, 70 pounds on a shoulder press. You start pinching. So I feel in that pinch, don't go up there.
Speaker 2:It's easy, it's easy how you solve it. Fucking up this whole time.
Speaker 1:Man, I should listen to that guy. He was an expert in the field of just rehab?
Speaker 2:no, but when it goes back to that, actually, you know most traditional orthos, even a lot of traditional pts. They're just not asking enough questions, right? It's like you tell me uh, you know, going over 60, 70 pounds hurts your shoulder. It's like there's definitely more variables playing into account that I, as the professional, have to extract from you. Where exactly does it hurt? Does it hurt? Does it hurt afterwards? Does it only hurt during this motion? Have you tried a different variation of that same exercise? Does it still hurt there? Is it worse in the mornings? Is it better with movement? There's so many questions and I will exhaust my clients often with a lot of questions because it gives me more feedback and data to understand what's really going on.
Speaker 1:Reverse engineering, a car accident Exactly, or like cops and shit. It's crazy. There's so many variables, so more questions will lead to better results and I was going to ask how do you streamline the process of bringing out a newer rehab program for your clients In terms of what Just like? How do you streamline it in terms of, like, efficiently treating whatever is going on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I always try to, of course, address the area that's problematic, but also figure out what other areas could be contributing to this. If you have back pain, we're not just addressing the back. We're looking at the hips, we're looking at the knee, we're looking at the pelvis, we're looking at the T-spine, the upper back, everything. To make sure that we're addressing everything as a whole right and again, sure that we're addressing everything as a whole right and again that that whole concept of like we have to understand the root cause of this right, because a lot of back pain it's not just the back, so it's more. So just understanding that there's more, there's, there's a ton of variables playing into account and we want to control all those variables as best as possible. I got the so right. Do you like this? Yeah, so right, it's cool. I mean, yeah, it's, it's cool. I mean something like that where it's so man, I spent 80 bucks on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, give me something man no, the so right is cool, because a lot of people do have tight hip flexors, right, but there's, I think there's, there's definitely I wouldn't say better, but equally, equally as effective ways to release your psoas rather than needing to spend 80 bucks, right. So, but when something like that blows up. When something like that blows up, it's usually a sign like okay, there's, there's, there's. There's this big problem that a lot of people just want an easy way out. Yeah, you know what I mean. Yeah, if it was as simple as you put this on, you roll it out and boom, you're out of pain, I wouldn't be in business. Yeah, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 1:So generally, when something like that blows up, I'm like okay, let's figure out a better way to attack this and then probably people start coming to you. Once they start seeing it everywhere, the people start coming to you and go. I think I got tight hips.
Speaker 2:Like the foam roller. Right, the foam roller blew up. Yeah, whoever invented that is like freaking racking in billions. It's gotta be somebody that had the original patent, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, styrofoam in a cylinder, here we go, roll on it, genius, make sure you get. I remember watching people get their AT band. Yeah, just rolling on it. I'm like, yeah, this is warming me up for squats and just put 225 on the bar. Right, so it's funny. You said your old videos of you lifting, I sit ass to grass. When I squat. Now, ass to grass, and whether that's good for me every single time or not, I just always sit down. I'm sure there's a time and a place for it. Yeah, just like any other type of lifting. But the funny thing to me is I put a video up. This is when I was in Connecticut.
Speaker 1:I put a video up of me squatting and I thought I was the bee's knees, I thought the form was immaculate. And I look back at that video. Let me tell you, dude, it is cringy, it's a tough watch. It's a tough watch. And one of the comments was like this dude, who was a juiced up dude, he just goes. Let me know when you start squatting. I will never forget that Cause. When I read that, I went oh, he's right, I'm bad, like this is not good. So I started unloading the bar a little bit more focusing on getting my my ankle mobility and open the hips up and push and dude. I was able to like really squat with heavy weight, like actually sit down, but it was that comment that just made me go oh, we got to like get this under control.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, if you're looking back at old videos and you're not cringing, then that's a sign, you know. It's usually a good sign. It's like all right, you know, you've grown, you've progressed. Yeah, Because I look back same way. I'm like holy crap, I did not know anything Even now None of them.
Speaker 1:no-transcript time. Next one we'll all just hang out, eat some food. Uh, so what do you see most often in the bodybuilding world in terms of injuries?
Speaker 2:because they're your target client, I would would say back pain is probably the most prevalent. Okay, and you're?
Speaker 1:working with large individuals most of the time. So you're really, do you see a lot of it's a good mix. It's a good mix. It's a good mix. Yeah, do you see a lot of the back pain due to compensation? Is it injury that they fucked up themselves? It's usually because of lack of prioritizing some form of mobility work, because the lack of prioritizing some form of mobility work and that was the question I was going to ask you afterwards Is it preventable?
Speaker 2:Oh, 100%, yeah, 100%, because I've worked with plenty of people where you know chronic back pain and we start unlocking their hips, their spine, work on some mobility, properly managing the load on their body, and, boom, the pain dissipates Right. So it's totally preventable, absolutely. Just because it's common doesn't mean it's normal right, because one in I think like one, three or two people have back pain by the time they're 40. So just because that's common doesn't mean that it's normal right and it's completely preventable.
Speaker 1:Okay, wrapping up. What is one thing you wish you knew 10 years ago, that you know now?
Speaker 2:one thing I wish I knew 10 years ago, that I that I know now, yep that you currently know that would have helped you 10 years ago.
Speaker 1:Train smarter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, train smarter. But you know, I say that because I I do believe everything happens for a reason. If I didn't get injured, I probably wouldn't be in the spot that I am now, physical therapist helping other people.
Speaker 1:But train smarter, yeah now, how do you listen to your body? What do you? So? What do you think is the best way to train smarter?
Speaker 2:yeah, listen to your body prioritize the mobility work and know when to push, know when to pull back cool yeah, big sk, do me a solid.
Speaker 1:Let everybody know in the camera how they can get in touch with you if they either want to follow you, talk to you, get physical therapy done by you, please. Uh, let the people know yeah, I'm right.
Speaker 2:On instagram it's uh dr, uh saranj underscore kapoor and uh the uh.
Speaker 1:Do you have an office or do you?
Speaker 2:all mobile? Yeah, it's uh. So half of it is in person office, inside a profit upstairs, and I have the other half is online. I didn't realize you're in profit. Yeah, yeah, oh, sick. Okay, that's the in-person side.
Speaker 1:Then I have the online side, which is remote, okay so right in deer park everywhere, yeah, beautiful, uh, I listen, dude, I appreciate you. I don't want to keep you uh any further because I you have to go and I want to be respectful of your time. This is big episode number 94 with my man, sk. Once again, I appreciate you for taking the time out to hang out with Kenji and I, who's been napping the whole time? He's supposed to be operating the cameras. Come on, man, everybody that's listening. I hope you learned something amazing. Definitely hit my man up if you have any questions or concerns. More than willing to answer. He's got a lot of content on his page that you'll learn a ton from as well. And, as usual, the call to action for me like share, subscribe. I really hope you all enjoyed the episode, episode 94 with sk, dr sk, and, on that note, I appreciate all y'all for fucking with us. But for now, peace, peace. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. I appreciate you, of course.