The Dad Bods and Dumbbells Podcast

Bart and Mitch talk about Mitch's New Chapter, Sciatica issues, and College Football

• Barton Bryan and Mitch Royer • Season 1 • Episode 78

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We go from college football and whiskey festivals to a real talk on sciatica, recovery, and how to train smarter without losing momentum. Mitch shares a new role at Moon Valley Nursery and we lay out a practical plan to cool nerve pain and manage load through the holidays.

• gratitude for sponsors and premium members
• quick Texas and Oregon playoff outlook
• recap of Smoke and Whiskey Festival
• premium workout highlights and community goals
• Mitch’s career pivot to Moon Valley Nursery
• what sciatica feels like and common triggers
• hip, glute, and hamstring mobility priorities
• cold plunge strategy without tensing up
• load management for running and soccer
• risks of compensation and secondary strains
• seat ergonomics, driving breaks, daily posture
• plan to consult a physical therapist
• scheduling note on a possible holiday hiatus

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Dad Bods and Dumbbells. My name is Mitch. Hey, I'm Bart. Thanks so much for listening, liking, subscribing, and sharing. We are so grateful that you listen and download. Let's talk a little bit about our sponsors. Thank you, Solutions Pharmacy. I am almost out of my hair ointment. It's time to go. It's going to be super easy. I'll just drop by the drive-thru today and grab some. So thank you for that, Solutions Pharmacy. Check it out. If you are a premium member, thank you so much for being a premium member. You get exclusive uh special things, exclusive interviews. We had a cool workout uh this weekend or last weekend on the 25th uh with our group. So thank you guys for doing that. If you're not already a premium member, check it out. We'd love to have you on today's episode. We discuss where I was, we discuss uh sports and we discuss being old and dealing with a sciatica issue. Bart, how you doing?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm all right, doing good. Um felt real sad not doing the podcast with you last week. I had to do it solo, and you know, there's something about just talking for 20 minutes without anybody to talk to, or you're like, you're like, hello in there, hello. You're just kind of in in your so I was in my living room just you know doing the podcast, and I had a lot of fun doing it, but it was just kind of odd. I missed you, Mitch. But we needed you there, and I'm sure everybody would agree having you here much better.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I missed you guys too. Uh also, don't lie, you put mirrors up and you watched yourself as you as you were speaking so that you didn't feel alone. It's possible. So I'd love to talk a little bit about your Texas longhorns. Let's do a little minute of college football. How about them longhorns? Arch Manning's back. He just had to get hit in the head real hard, and now all of a sudden he is who he we thought he was.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you know, I think sometimes it takes uh a couple of different things, probably five or six games under his belt to, you know, to get his uh wings about him. But also I think uh yeah, just they look good until the fourth quarter when their defense kind of just like got lazy and let a couple of touchdowns go. Um, but definitely a sign that, you know, they're not a championship caliber team, but they could make the playoffs and and there could be there could be a little bit of excitement in in December, uh, especially as they get up, you know, they got Georgia this week, and then they've got Arkansas, and then they've got uh Texas AM in the final game of the season, which could decide who goes to the um SEC championships and that kind of stuff. So lots of interest and intrigue in the next uh three or four weeks.

SPEAKER_00:

That's cool. Uh and the Ducks had a bye week, so they are undefeated uh this weekend. That was kind of disappointing. I didn't realize they had two bye weeks, which is kind of nuts, but uh their schedule is kind of cake until the Big Ten championship. I guess they pay Ohio State, so that'll be a tough one. But I think at this point they'll probably make it into the playoffs, you know, just run the table and they'll be fine. Just do what they know they need to do. So uh that'll be cool to watch this week. Um, but I wanted to hear uh because I was at a whiskey event last week with uh the Texas Whiskey Festival. We were in um Flower Mound, Texas, and it was it's called Smoke Fest. Well, now they call it Smoke and Whiskey Festival because it is they have this whiskey corral and we invite all the distiller friendships that we have. We had about 12 distillers there, and people pay for tickets to come around and drink whiskey for a few hours and hang out. It's always good to just have a nice, you know, smoke a cigar, hang out with friends, and um, you know, make some money while doing it. So that's what I was doing. How about you? What how was the premium membership exclusive workout?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I touched base on a little bit last week, but definitely it was so fun. So, I mean, I obviously uh invited our premium members from the Austin area uh over to Tiger ATX, which you've been to. Uh, and uh the one who showed was uh Ryan, hardcore Ryan uh Talbot and Talbot and Ryan and I worked out and we had a great time, pushed sleds and just did a bunch of fun, like kind of like cross-training. And I told him he's a king of cardio, but I I beat him on some strength stuff, but who cares? I mean, it was just fun, and uh yeah, I mean it was super wet because it had just rained the night before. That was that for a late Friday night rainstorm, and so like the artificial turf was a little slippery, and we, you know, pushing sleds was kind of fun because it was like whoa, you get the heavyweight going, and all of a sudden you would just like fly. Uh so anyway, it was it was great. I want to do more of those. Uh, I'd love to get more of our um premium members out to those types of events. Obviously, hard to coordinate with the weekend. You know, you've got stuff going on, I've got kids' stuff and all that kind of stuff. So those are always hard to do, but we will do them when we can, and hopefully uh more of you will be a part of it.

SPEAKER_00:

I love it. Uh definitely. I can't wait for the day when we have hundreds of people showing up to these workouts with us paying uh for a premium membership. That'll be really nice. I'm I'm looking forward to that. Uh, so I do have uh an update, and uh sorry to say I didn't listen to your episode. I'm sorry, but what did you tell the people I was doing and where I was?

SPEAKER_01:

I I said so. First of all, those listeners who knew that I talked about the workout with Ryan last week knew before he even said that that he had not listened to the episode. Uh wow. Um, but anyway, uh so no, I just said that you had you had stuff going on and that there would be a you know big reveal uh later on with the what's going on, you know, just just to give him an update on what's happening uh while you're out uh you know making things happen.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think now's the time, it's the best time as ever. So, you know, I've been uh dealing with uh transitions in professionally, a lot of different things going on. Uh, I still am in brand management, which I do with quite a few athletes, creators, but I got connected to a guy that went to one of my lift run shoot experiences with Cam Haynes last year, and his name's Mike. Shout out Mike. Uh, and he was, I think he's a listener too. So uh Mike is the man and just has a ton of energy, love the guy, and uh he works at Moon Valley Nursery. And I was like, Oh, I wonder, you know, like I've been kind of looking at for not necessarily a career change, but just kind of a different trajectory. Like, I'm good at sales, like, how can I utilize that? And there happens to be a moon valley, like two miles from my house. And so ultimately I called Mike and he's like, dude, it's a great job. You're gonna love it, it's great people, they've been there forever. It's a you know, all the good things you want to hear about a company. And so I went through the process thanks to Mike, how it kind of helped me through it. Um, and I start on tomorrow. Well, I start on yesterday because this comes out Thursday. I start on Wednesday, and you know, there's a lot of things I don't know about the job or know exactly what I'll be doing, but you know, there's so many opportunities in that space because it's a nursery that deals with fully mature trees, 20 years to three years. They may they they basically grow all of them themselves, so they have their own nurseries, they build, they grow them in pots, and so it's a very nice. Their product is very nice, high quality, it's uh guaranteed. And basically, I get to work with people in my community, which I've been desiring to do in a lot for a long time. Instead of all of these, I deal with people all over the country. Now I get to deal with people in my community and help uh people navigate that. So it it's it's different than I thought it would look like, definitely. But I think I think for my family it's gonna be a pretty cool transition, a fresh start, so so to speak. And uh I'm pretty excited about it.

SPEAKER_01:

So we're changing the name of the podcast to dad bot dad bods, dumbbells, and tree huggers. No, it's good. Uh yeah, I love that about uh Mitch. You're always uh such an entrepreneur in terms of like looking for that next thing, but also then you're such a great salesperson, too. So uh I know you'll do well. Uh well, and I think we might need a tree in our backyard, so we'll have to talk. I don't know. Uh just right now, let's do this. Uh, give Mitch a big bump in the beginning of his new career. So if you are looking about buying, you want to get a tree in your yard, something a little bit more mature, three years old or more. Reach out to Mitch. Let's let's make sure he shows up in his new role and just like hits hits like hits it out of the park in the first month. That would be so cool. All right, let's uh let's dig in a little bit with some uh sciatic issues. Now, you probably think we're talking about LeBron James at 40 years old. 40 years old, LeBron James has not played a minute of basketball this season because he has sciatica. And you know, it's funny because it's kind of like having, I don't know, bersitis or like planner fascia. It just sounds like what old people get, right? And so when you get it as a person, you're like, ooh, isn't that what old people get? You're like, yeah, you're old. Um, but Mitch is exactly the same age as uh as LeBron. And the same athleticism, I would say that you've seen Mitch on the uh Footman soccer field, man, it is impressive. But Mitch, you have the kind of a bit of a story on like your hamstring, what we thought was a hamstring pull. Let's talk about that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so as you know, I'm getting back into soccer and I've been playing every week, and it's you know, my knees are hurting, things hurt. But the last time I played two weeks ago, my I always I've had a bad, I have a bad hamstring, uh left hamstring anyway, but I I you know I felt a pop in it or something. It just like tweaked and it's been hurting ever since. I mean, been like two, two full months of just or two full weeks of just like it's just this dull pain, and it doesn't go away no matter how much I stretch. And I'm like, dang, this is really hurting. And I was working with a buddy and I was telling him about it because there's like this inner leg pain too in my lower lower calf, and I'm like, man, this is really becoming a problem because now it's affecting my leg because my I'm compensating for something, I don't know. But he goes, dude, where is it? And I I pointed to you know, my just above my glute, like in my glute, right? And uh and shooting down to my leg. He's like, dude, you got a sciatica issue. And I'm like, no, this is uh this is the thing. And so I mean, I think the hardest thing about it is like we're sitting here on this couch, and I I can barely like sit still, it's so uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_01:

So just to be clear, he was diagnosed by who? A buddy, not not a doctor, but a buddy who uh thinks it's maybe sciatica, but it does, it does track in terms of like when you get sciatica, it's not necessarily like you have this only have a localized pain in your in your glute. It's really like the sciatic nerve is aggravated and it's sending these like nerve ish, like pain signals down your leg. You feel it in your shin sometime and your calf and your quad and your hamstring, and it just so uncomfortable to sit. You know it constantly moving around. There's a comedian, uh Sebastian Mano Scalco, he's about our he's about 53, 54. I think he had sciatica for like two years, but he'd go on like uh Fallon and he'd just be sitting there like shifting, and and and he would tell Falon, like, oh my sciatic is horrible. I can't work out, I can't do anything. I the only thing I can do is stand up because you have you know you can stand up and walk around all the time. But anyway, so back at it. So unofficial diagnosis is sciatica. It tracks though with what you're telling me. Um, let's talk about some solutions.

SPEAKER_00:

So, how do I solve it, Part? Teach me how.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I would I mean, there's always the most important uh variable, and all of it is just time. Like you gotta rest it, can't aggravate it. But and there's, you know, I mean, I think there's stretching. You think about like the sciatic nerve is kind of tucked in there around the glute, the piriformis, like you know, the the hip area, and so there's a lot of muscles. And so when you aggravate a muscle and that muscle can get inflamed, and that inflammation can start to push or aggravate the sciatic nerve, which then once the nerve is annoyed, then it's just like tenfold takes longer to to like kind of which is why like you know, just it's even when there's no pain, you have to kind of like give it a couple more weeks, like because you just you just want to make sure it's completely healed. So uh definitely hip stretching, uh you know, pigeon type stretching, hamstring stretching, uh inner adductor and glute stretches, things like that are gonna help. Um, I'd I would say I don't know if there's a lot of like specific evidence of this, but if you think about inflammation, how do you get inflammation down? Ice, but it's kind of hard to like ice your glute like deep in there. But the best way to be doing that would be like you've got a cold plunge, would be like get in your cold plunge, probably like not at a super cold temperature, like 55, 50 to 55, and just sit in there and just try to bring your core body temperature in your butt down. Um, you could also put ice cubes up your butthole, but uh uh Martin Sheen did that uh before uh if you watch anyone watch the Martin Sheen uh uh interviewer or his uh documentary, he talks about he was so tired he was falling asleep on set. So he went to the bathroom and stuck an ice cube in his butt so that he would be energized to come out and deliver his lines. And then they showed the video of the lines he was saying, and he's like, So while I'm saying this right now, I have an ice cube up my butthole. Anyway, don't recommend that unless you're curious. Um but yeah, I would just say ice, I would I would get get in an ice bath where it's not so cold that you like because you don't want to tense, you want to be relaxed. And so I think 55 degrees are pretty cool, but like, and then just stay in there long enough for your core temperature to get cool, and then after that, um you know, just try to like try not to like aggravate it so it can kind of like stay cool, stay, stay released.

SPEAKER_00:

So can I I mean I'm still running every day and I'm still playing soccer tonight, like is that gonna be a problem? 'Cause it it's a nerve thing, so it shouldn't like I can't tweak it more, maybe. Maybe I can. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Alright. Um, so this is one of those things where it's like if you want to have sciatic pain for a long time, go ahead and play soccer. Go ahead and run every day. Uh and you know, and you it may even get to the point where it's like kind of manageable, but it's kind of like, you know, it's like any type of it's not tendinitis, but if it's like if you ever had like you know elbow tendinitis or plantar fasciitis or any of those types of itises, you know, you unless you stop the thing that you that created the the the exercise, you know, the the pain, you're really not gonna recover from it. Like it's just gonna continue to aggravate. Um so that's uh that's a tough one. I mean, I that's where maybe like foam rolling and and and and and doing some like mobility stretching, and then just don't go for like maximum miles, you know, at a like a slow pace, may not bother at all. And then so I would test it out where you're like, hey, I I rolled, I I mobilized it, I went on a three-mile jog, nice, you know, 10-minute pace or whatever, came back the whole day, didn't feel it. Perfect, great. That sounds like a good place to stay. But if you do that and you come back and you're like, man, my side was just pissed off all day. Now the other thing is you drive used to drive a lot. Hopefully, with this new gig, you're not driving quite as much. Maybe you're like a little bit more like on your feet or just like said, you're like not because the driving just kills you, you know, because you're just like, I mean, those seats are never built for big guys like you, so like us. Yeah, yeah. But I with my Toyota, I I never felt like my hips squarely sat in the seat with the Rivian. I feel great. Like I've my back doesn't hurt at all. But like if I drive like an hour in a Toyota Forerunner, I was just like, oh it'd be so shifty all over the place, and hip would bother you. So anyway, I those are just the like you always want to think what can I do that's not gonna like send me two steps backwards. So that I mean the the soccer is a tough one because it's just like you don't know what that one step is that's gonna like where you like plant and you're like and then like and then you know it's just it's tough because also you think about rememberes haliburton, calf strain, kept playing on it, eventually Achilles tear. Right? So if you play on injury, if you play through injury, all the other muscles around it are gonna get tighter and tighter. So the idea that you might have like a adductor tear or a uh hamstring, you know, grade one, grade two strain or tear is like tenfold higher. So you're just you're you're kind of playing because everything's gonna be anytime you mess with a nerve or the spine or like anything that's like really like fundamental to your to our like life and death, like anything along the spine really in the hips, it's like your body's gonna just compensate like crazy to protect prevent that from being injured again, which means like peripheral muscles like hamstrings and calves and whatever, they'll go. They'll go instead of like you throwing out your hip again or back or like messing up your psychic nerve anymore. So that's just something that you always think about like your body wants to stay alive first. So like it would much rather like tear your rotator cuff than allow you to like drop the weight on your chest, right? Like, you know, like you think about a bench press, like somebody throws and messes up their shoulder. Your your body's gonna protect your spine at all costs by taking all those muscles that are supposed to like move your body around, and they just get tighter and tighter and tighter, and then we end up with a whole bunch of like pain in like the hips and the low back and the QL that like weren't the actual injury, but they're the ones that are almost like more like pissed off now just because they've been squeezing and holding for so long. So you just have to be real careful with that. And then on the days off, that's where you do a lot of the like really gentle stretching, nothing too crazy, and then ice, you know, or cold plunge.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's good. Thanks, Havex Wellness, for my cold plunge. I can definitely do that. It's in my garage. I have not cold plunged lately, so it's gonna be good to get back into it because it's freezing outside now. It's like 45 degrees. But I appreciate that, man. It's hard getting old. It's a it's a hard thing. Uh to those of you who are dealing with uh aches and pains and different things like that, but still want to push through. I think uh, as our buddy who's the physical therapist said, load management is key. You know, it's not that you can't be active, it's just how do you manage the load? So I am going to play soccer tonight, but I'll foam roll before, before, see how that goes, you know, use my body as a test on me. Because, you know, this marathon coming up waits for no man. So I gotta stay on it. But uh uh it was good, it was good to finally catch up, man. It's been a couple weeks and uh I think we got some big things on the horizon. So thanks uh for taking the time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, man. I think the last thing is you might reach out to Chris Dickerson. Yeah, you know, he's uh he's the guy hole. He he would know what to any any more specific recommendations on specific stretching or or you know activation or strengthening certain muscles to help you kind of get through it better. But yeah, this has been great. Uh, you know, we're coming up on the holidays. We've got uh we've got some you know big family things going on. You're going to Europe potentially. Um I've got some I'm or we always go to El Paso for Thanksgiving, and we got I got my mom coming in for Christmas and all that kind of stuff. So lots of exciting stuff around the family type things, uh, which means that we're probably gonna do a little bit, um, we're not gonna be able to really do the podcast all every week. Yeah, but so we might take a little hiatus. We're not we're not uh 100% sure when that's gonna be, but it might just be around between kind of Thanksgiving and and uh Christmas time. But we'll let you know. Uh this will definitely not be the last episode before uh any of that information is given out. So just be aware of that. If we if we do do that, it's not we we haven't forgotten about you. We're gonna come right back in uh in January to kick off some more episodes. So until then, Mitch, what do you got? Last words for us?

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks so much for listening. Like and subscribing. We love you guys. Have a great day. Thanks for listening.