The Masters Athlete Survival Guide
We explore thriving as an athlete after 40. Each episode, we’ll dive into tips, hacks, and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes and our personal experience. Whether you’re a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook for staying fit, strong, and motivated
The Masters Athlete Survival Guide
The Masters Athlete Holiday Gift Guide 2024
In this episode, you'll get to hear our personal wish lists as we explore the world of gifting for masters athletes, where humor meets practicality in a festive setting. From essentials to quirky items, we've got you covered with ideas that will not only entertain but also enhance your athletic prowess.
Ever wondered how a simple sniff could supercharge your workout? We unravel the mystery of Zone Smelling Salts, a surprisingly potent training tool that has an unforgettable story attached from the Arnold Sports Festival. Posture perfection might sound like a dream, but with our recommended tools, it's more achievable than ever. Discover the bow tie posture corrector—a game-changer for countering those bad habits we picked up during the pandemic. We also delve into the Big Ray Strap, a genius alternative to inversion tables that provides relief for back discomfort. And let's not forget the unsung hero of muscle recovery: the foam roller. We'll provide tips on choosing the right firmness for optimal results, ensuring you or your loved ones can enjoy improved flexibility and wellness.
Fitness meets travel in our exploration of apps and recovery tools that elevate your lifestyle. Whether you're a masters athlete looking to boost your performance with Great Ape Grips or a road trip enthusiast eager to enhance your journey with the Guide Along app, there's something here for everyone. On the tech side, we discuss Strava, Lose It, and Headspace, offering innovative ways to track, manage, and meditate your way to better health. Finally, we highlight the power of infrared saunas and massage guns in recovery, providing you with the ultimate guide to maintaining peak physical condition. Join us for an episode packed with fun and functional gift ideas that promise to enrich your life.
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New episodes come out every other Thursday!
Welcome to the Master's Athlete Survival Guide, where we explore the secrets to thriving in sports after 40. I'm John Catalinas and, along with Scott Fyke, we'll dive into training tips, nutrition hacks and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes who defy age limits. Whether you're a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook for staying fit, strong and motivated. Let's get started, and we're back with the holiday episode of the Masters Athlete Survival Guide. Thank you, Thank you. This is going to be a fun episode where we talk about the things that we would both like to give and receive a master's athlete for the holidays. Scott and I went to our individual gingerbread homes and we made some lists and we checked them twice and we're going to share them with you now. So, Scott, what's on your list?
Speaker 2:I'm not quite sure that I checked mine twice. But Do you not listen to songs? I don't, I don't. That's the problem. I sing songs. Would you like me to sing you a song, could you not? Thank you, all right, I'll try not to. My list sort of goes in two different directions. One of the things is I looked at thing, uh, items from my list that help benefit, like my weightlifting, my, my training you know me as a master's athlete and then I looked at a couple of things that also are disposables, that really right away, they just sort of um, you use them and they're only good for a certain amount of time. Which direction would you like me to go first?
Speaker 1:there I have a long and voluminous list of things, so pick your favorite. I have a rent. I'm apparently easy to both shop for and buy people stuff for, so all right, so I will go now.
Speaker 2:A lot of the stuff that I am looking for or really started thinking about. You can can get at Serious Steel Fitness.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know that.
Speaker 2:Yep, you can go to Serious Steel Fitness or SeriousSteelFitnesscom, and if you are interested in any of the things that are there, we do have a discount code. It is the letters O-F-G, capital C, o-m-p-o-u-n-d, so O-F-G compound. That'll get you 10%.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Now the first thing, and we? There is a story that goes with this. When you think about smelling salts, no, they get used all the time in the gym. I was never a real big fan of them before, but I got to tell you over the last three, four years I've really found the impact of smelling salts Cleaning my head out, getting my brain from wandering around. Am I going to lift it? Am I not going to lift it? And just straight on? So they are an exclusive dealer of Zone Smelling Salts. So I got a story for it. Tell me a story.
Speaker 2:A couple years ago we were at the Arnold Sports Festival. I was there. You Tell me a story. A couple years ago we were at the Arnold Sports Festival. I was there, you were there, and we had been using Zenon's smelling salts at the gym for a while. So John and I walk up to the Serious Steel Fitness booth and he sees the red bottle which are the blood salts which at one point were their most dangerous, most deadly salts. Smell these things and you would swear to God the blood was coming out of your head. I mean eyes, ears, nose. They really straightened and shocked everything out, amen. So we walk up, and normally their most deadly salts are all the way to the right. John walks up and I'm talking to the owner, justin who is just a, an absolutely phenomenal, phenomenal guy. We can't say enough good things about him.
Speaker 1:This is not a funny story. It's all a perspective thing.
Speaker 2:It's an absolutely hilarious fucking story. John walks up and says oh, what's this? This looks new. Picks up this jar, takes the top off, shoves it up into his nose Honest to God, he almost hit the ground. It was so funny. His head turns red. He's shoves it up into his nose Honest to God, he almost hit the ground. It was so funny. His head turns red. He's screaming. There's like blood coming out of his ears. His eyes are turning red because everything is bursting. And Justin goes yeah, that shouldn't be sitting there. That should be all the way over to the other side. John's like no, shit.
Speaker 1:Well, you know there was some hyperbole in scott's uh explanation of that, but none whatsoever damn, that was, that was a thing. So, yeah, if, if you really need smelling salts, if you're, if you're going the smelling salt route, I have to uh agree that. What is it? The blood ones?
Speaker 2:the blood salts were the ones we were using before and they were phenomenal. These new ones, and these are the ones that we've started using at the compound. Now they told us what they did, was they changed the way that they sort of packaged them? Yeah, so they they're stronger for a longer time frame. And they started introducing eucalyptus into it. Yeah, so not only does it open everything up with the eucalyptus, it then proceeds to burn out your insides yeah so that's fine so yeah, I don't know if it's smelling salts, I don't know if it's placebo.
Speaker 1:I mean, I I've heard things that the ammonia creates knocks in your blood vessels which gives you a little bit of a rush of oxygen. For me it's just, I don't know if it, like I said, I think it might be placebo. But you're focused for two, three minutes, you are focused on task, right, because it it burns through the rest of the noise.
Speaker 2:So okay, so for me that's my first thing, so I'm going to kick it over to john for his okay, yeah, that's a good stocking stuffer.
Speaker 1:The zone smelling salts uh, use uh ofg compound as a 10 off at that. We even have a discount code, and it's not to Cheetos yet.
Speaker 1:Yet Nice. How about Pop-Tarts? Okay, I have a whole humongous list. So what am I going to go with? You know, I'm going to start with something nonspecific, because I like this. It's the carrot I have in quotes. I think a great gift for someone who is in your life who is trying to attempt a goal is for you to give them the gift of if you accomplish X, I will give you Y, and that might be a bottle of bourbon, that might be a vacation, that might be a car wash, that might be their favorite food Schmiltz Any of that, yeah, it could be a six-pack Schmiltz, any of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it could be a six pack of Jenny Cream Ale, but I think a good gift is that thing that matters enough to that person that helps them achieve their goal and also recognizes the fact that you understand both the fact that they're going after a goal and what they really like in life.
Speaker 2:So my first thing is the carrot. Wow, I know that one kind of deep. I know I really wasn't expecting you to go that way. I'm a deep person, yeah, all right. So I guess my next thing you could really put these into two chunks, so I'll give you the first chunk, because it seems like you put a lot more thought into gift giving than I do.
Speaker 1:I'm more thoughtful.
Speaker 2:You're never going to hear me say that again. The second sort of chunk of gifts that I have deals with that in the moment, sort of physical help for an athlete, and you can define athlete however you want. You know you can be a strength athlete. You can be. You know you can play John's favorite sport of pickleball.
Speaker 2:You can do whatever direction you want to go, again by our friends at Serious Steel. They are the owners of the original stick. It is a rolling stick, that's a good call. It's very flexible. It uh as short as like eight inches or I think that one that we got the one time was what like 24 inches long. This thing basically is little beads that are on a a pretty flexible metal bar. You hold the handles and you can put it behind your back. You can put wherever you want. You can put as much pressure into the muscle or the whatever that's cramping up on. You Absolutely love these things. I think we've got about a half dozen of it at the compound and I use them almost every time I am training or even at times when it's just you know it's a day off or something like that Just to loosen up. You know it's's, I guess, a more physical version of foam rolling. But item number two falls into that that chunk, and it is anything from the original stick at serious steel fitness I.
Speaker 1:I applaud that choice. That that's excellent because, yes, you're right, I have used both the giant one behind my back, to sort of get my lats woke up. And again, you know, I've seen the science, you know that everybody makes the argument for everything from facial release to blood flow to placebo, but I've used the one, the giant one on my back and the smaller ones on, like my calves, just to kind of warm up. That'd be an excellent present I would receive too and, while challenging to wrap, it would be a great stocking stuffer oh no, I think it's easy to wrap.
Speaker 1:You just take a couple pieces of paper, roll it around, make it look like a tootsie roll so how many of our listeners was worried that scott was going to bust out into actual wrap right then? Because I was. I absolutely was like most of my muscles just tensed a little bit. Use the original stick. Yeah, use the original stick.
Speaker 1:Um, I'm gonna go with my next thing, which is not super applicable here in new york, or at least it's a little more challenging, but it is a full blood workup.
Speaker 1:Uh, if you are outside new york state, you can go to a lot of providers and get an entire full workup of all your um, all your blood markers, and it's, I mean, the places you can get it in New York.
Speaker 1:The deal is you have to go through a doctor. Some States you can just do it on demand, but they usually have a package like a men's athlete over 50 or women's athlete over 50 package that include things like vitamin D and hormones and all the usual blood markers, things like A1C, excuse me and uh, I think that's an important place to start. Uh, maybe not the sexiest present, but definitely, if you are, um, an athlete of any kind or just, you know, someone over 40 years old, getting that full workout is a good baseline as you progress, and then I would suggest getting one I don't know every two years something like that been on that train because in a previous episode we spoke with a good friend of yours and mine, mike safel, and his episode on posturology and the way that your joints sort of move and the way that through different exercises and stretches you can limber them up.
Speaker 2:Getting in touch with mike safel and having him do a full workup to see where your strengths and weaknesses are in posturology Yep, I would counter your full blood workup with a posturology workup through Mike.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Can I have both? I like both. You can have both. Thanks, I'm not buying them for you, okay.
Speaker 1:That's fair, but no, you're not wrong. I guess it's all those things Like what is like some of the baselines for health and wellness is really the more data. I mean I'm very data driven, so anything where I can gather some some real scientific data is a good move, which, I guess, brings me to my next thing is a fitness tracker. I have recently swapped from a apple watch to a garmin phoenix 7x. Oh look, I knew what it was. And um, this thing gives you a ridiculous amount of data too much and it's very sort of runner specific.
Speaker 1:Uh, honestly, I switched because an apple watch battery lasts like a day and this lasts like 27 days.
Speaker 2:I thought you were gonna tell me you're starting to run. I was going to laugh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would be go under Christmas miracle.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, yes, virginia, there is a Santa Claus, but something like a fitness tracker whether it be one of the watches or one of the rings or a whoop strap or something just again to generate some data on sleep or hydration steps, which is always sort you know sort of good analog for how are you moving? Sadly, this new watch has a solar gain function, so it basically illustrates how often I've been outside, which in this post-covid working from home world some days is, uh, I should get a sun lamp, um, but yeah so. So a fitness tracker, which is also something. It's a little larger ticket, so sometimes people aren't going to buy them for themselves.
Speaker 2:So there's an idea, all right all right, sticking with the more immediate, more sort of easier to purchase type of things. I'm going to combine two of my thoughts. I am going to counter what you said and offer you the bow tie and the big Ray. Oh, I don't know what the big Ray is. All right, so let's start with the bow tie, cause that's the easiest to explain.
Speaker 2:If you picture a bow tie that you would see in you know, old formal wear or wedding wear, it is basically that, except you can put your arms through the loops, you wear it on your back instead of in front of you, and what it does, is it helps correct your posture? It does, is it helps correct your posture. So for, like you had said, this post-covid world where we're really sitting over a desk at home and we're always over our computers or our tablets or or or, this is something that's going to help you sort of pull your shoulders back a little bit, which straightens your back out a little bit, which causes some of that pain that you constantly feel between your shoulder blades, right To disappear.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you think about it, it's like incredibly, not incredibly stretchy, but it's stretchy bands, uh, in the shape of like backpack straps. Yeah, it's actually in a figure eight, but it pulls your, your shoulders back and up and it I own one. It's great.
Speaker 2:Uh, spud, spud makes spudding, and spud is also the person who created the big ray strap what's the big?
Speaker 1:so are we. Are we concerned why you're laughing?
Speaker 2:I'm concerned why you're laughing. I'm laughing because I saw you in this stupid thing once. Oh, that thing, that thing, oh, this leads to my next thing. Okay, so the big gray strap uh, big gray was this 450 pound, uh just monster of a man who was having back pain because of all the weightlifting he was doing. So he took, in essence, a large thick rubber band, probably 48 inches by, oh, I don't know, maybe four or five inches wide, maybe Industrial strength, industrial strength, yes, and he hooked it up between a couple of things and you know, like two poles on a squat rack.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And he stretched using it. So Spud of Spud Inc said let me work with it. So Spud took that idea of the band, industrialized the strength of the band and then took a nylon strap so it now hangs from a rack. And the neat thing about this is, most of the times, when you think about it, when we use things like inversion tables, we hang from our ankles. When we use things like inversion tables, we hang from our ankles. How small are our ankles in terms of holding? In my case, 300, give or take pounds.
Speaker 2:You don't want that hanging on there because it then puts all that pressure on your ankles. Really, where the stretch needs to happen is in that hip girdle or down the back. So the really neat thing with the big race trap is you can put it up. Make sure whatever you put it up to is firmly anchored to the ground so you don't flip it over. Amen. You put it into a comfortable position right around your hips and then you literally can invert so your feet are up in the air and your head's pointing towards the ground. Think Spider-Man in the movie when he's hanging upside down by a web. Oh, in the movie when he's hanging upside down by a web.
Speaker 2:Oh, do I have to kiss MJ every time I use it? You can try. Karen might be upset. So you can do it either that way, yeah, or if you don't like to go upside down like that, you can sort of put your arms through it, so it's underneath your armpits and you're hugging the front of those nylon straps, and then you just I am sorry, you're hugging those nylon straps, and then you just I am sorry, you're hugging those nylon straps and you literally just sit down and it does the same thing. It sort of pulls your back apart a little bit and stretches everything out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and it's funny, cause I, uh, I have the Teeter inversion board on my list, which is the similar thing than what Scott was talking about, except for the fact that the inversion is actually better. You get a better stretch. It's actually more portable. It's something you could throw in your gym bag and take to a commercial gym Planet Fitness. They might throw you out, but if they have a squat rack or power I guess a power rack it is definitely a good move. Um, it takes a moment to get used to, but the stretch is phenomenal and, uh, it is sort of, it's definitely decompressing in all the best ways. So, yeah, uh, I will take your, your big ray strap and I will take my teeter inversion board off my list and supplement it with your strap and, uh, merry christmas to us, merry christmas to us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I talked about the original stick before and I sort of mentioned foam rolling. I can't tell you all the years of martial arts wrestling, football, weightlifting, everything else I didn't get hooked on these things until five years ago. Oh my God, the way my back will pop, the way the joints, the sort of fascia within there, and they get stretched out just enough that my motion increases exponentially when I'm doing exercises. So if you can find a good, stiff foam roller not one of those ones that's really, really spongy If you are local to Western New York, I know that Pachillos sells them. I am pretty sure that Rogue sells them. So take a look, find yourself one. Depending on how you're using it will depend on how long you want the roller to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I have some slight recommendations on that. I mean, as much as you want them to be firm, the ones that are kind of tracked like have a bit of a tread to them can be a little too aggressive. Yeah, they can be painful. And the other thing I have done in the past because I thought I was being innovative Um, you could take, like schedule 80, uh, three inch PVC and use it like a roller. But that is brutal, that has no give and that that can be rough. It can be great but it can be rough.
Speaker 2:You better be expecting it, that's for sure. Yeah, amen.
Speaker 1:Amen, I'm going to go a little smaller into something that actually is in my own personal toolkit and it's a bit of a cautionary tale and it's one of those mouth guards I forget who mine is through. It's actually sitting over there. I cracked a tooth in the gym Now.
Speaker 2:I can't say't how did you do that?
Speaker 1:I don't know um, I can't say I'm the hardest worker in the gym. I mean I work pretty hard, pretty.
Speaker 2:But no, you have other people work hard.
Speaker 1:You are the most satanically diabolical person at coming up with workouts for everyone else but yourself I will take that as a compliment, I think, um, but yeah, so I uh cracked a tooth which I had to have pulled, which was horrible, which I currently have a steel post in my jaw, which was less horrible but still is annoying, and my tongue won't leave it alone, and I think a mouth guard, which I now use religiously, would have saved me from a lot of that. They say that there's strength gain from using a mouth guard. Um, I'm uncertain. I mean, I've convinced myself that it works like that too. I really have, but you know I'm young and impressionable. But, uh, a mouth guard and they work like, like, if you've been anybody around anybody in youth sports, it's the same thing Boiling water stick it in there, throw it in your mouth, bite on it hard, and it leaves a decent impression and it's personalized and it's good for a while until you kind of chew through it or it gets nasty, like mine currently is. So, yeah, get a mouth guard.
Speaker 2:Sticking with my weightlifting theme, one of the things that I think is relatively inexpensive and is an absolute lifesaver At some point when you're weightlifting, we know that your grip gives out before your actual weightlifting does. I mean, we're talking absolutely tiny muscles through your hands up into your forearms and you feel them after a while and you could be deadlifting predominantly. So one of the things that I think is kind of a neat gift and you're only talking $20 to $30 for good ones are deadlifting straps, and they really come in two different varieties. You can do the ones that sort of loop around your wrist and hang down, so you have to actually wrap them around. That's my favorite.
Speaker 2:I currently have a pair of leather ones from Schick that I got from Pachillo's, which is local to Western New York. The other pair that I have become more fond of, I think and I use these especially in competitions are versa grips, because, oh, I like those. Yeah, when you get into a competition that has deadlifting, a lot of times what they'll do to you is they'll say, start off the platform and then they'll start the clock and you have to strap into the weight at the same time. So what these VersaGrips do is they loop around your hands. You sort of tighten them in and then there's just a leather flap that hangs straight down. So all you do is you just sort of put your hands down there, you reach under the bar, you grab it, you twist your arms a little bit and up it comes. It just gives you something to grab onto besides the knurling. So you don't turn your hands into a cheese grater, regardless of how tough your calluses are.
Speaker 1:Two really good grip athletes. Telling you to use straps is kind of anti-thematic, but no, it's good because what it does I mean we both use them in training and it's just it extends. I mean, as good as my grip is. My grip gives out way before my back does.
Speaker 1:So, if I want to get a significant back workout in at some point. If you're doing something heavy, you need straps. I own the original kind that Scott was talking about, the kind that go over your wrist and then wrap around the bar. I got custom made from Dominator Athletics way back in the day. The ones I can't use are those figure eights.
Speaker 2:I hate the way they sit on my hands. Yeah, I mean, it feels like they're gonna break the thumb. It really does, but there are others. A lot of the professionals really swear by that. Yeah, well it's because it does.
Speaker 1:I mean it definitely solves that run up to the bar strap in thing um at significant Um. Some of the controversy for things like from the Shaw classic, from the pro strong men was, um, their, their fingers and their thumbs kind of floating off, because with those finger eight straps you can pretty much have a bar just kind of floating off your wrist hanging from your wrist.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So that's a huge controversy that you hear.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I think I think lifting straps is an excellent choice, um, for someone that's just looking to lift more than their hands will allow them to it. Just it gets you farther down the road during any heavy workout. Thanks for that, Scott. I'm going to stick with grip, Okay. So when we went to the Shaw classic, we met a young man who had invented something called the. I don't know what it is. Mine's sitting over there. It's a great ape. I feel bad if I don't. I think so. Yeah, it's over by that black chair. Go get that.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:And what it is, and I'm going to have a hard time explaining it, but it works great. Picture a white cotton glove on your hand. Picture a bag sewn to the wrist of that white cotton glove, between the white cotton glove and the uh, and the bag is rice and a couple of uh squeeze balls and basically what it allows you to do is the thing that many people have seen, where they buy 20 pounds of rice and throw it in a bucket and shove their hand in it and do a bunch of stuff. I've owned this for a while. I use it almost every day. Not a single grain of rice is loose in my house anywhere. It's very portable. It's about the size of I don't know, a cartoon boxing glove. That's what I'm going to go with.
Speaker 2:They're really hard to get through TSA, though, are they? Yeah, my bag got pulled over, because when we got those out in Colorado, I got pulled over and they said what's this? I'm like it's a rice bag.
Speaker 1:Oh, I must have checked mine then, because I didn't have a problem Possible? Yeah, it is, and Scott went and grabbed it as I was talking. It is great ape grips. I recommend it super highly. First of all, the inventor is a really good kid. I think he invented it for baseball.
Speaker 2:Pitchers yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not super expensive. I think it was $40, something like that. Definitely worth it. Super durable the kind of thing you can do while you're sitting on the couch. With your other hand you might be eating a Cheeto or two.
Speaker 2:You're killing me. Still not a sponsor. Still not a sponsor. Learned, uh, through our athletics as, as well as through the research that we've done, is the people who tend to live longer. Some of the traits that they have in common. Here's two of them. Number one their grip, because they're just doing something, yep. The other one is vo2 max yep.
Speaker 1:Okay, I do not have something for vo2 I was gonna say where are we going with that? That would have been impressive if you said here is this.
Speaker 2:I mean, I bought those masks that you see, I think it was used in one of the creed movies or something like that, where they're running on a treadmill and they're oh, they're restricted breathing things.
Speaker 1:That is such a pain in the ass. I think I've seen data that that may not be super legit.
Speaker 2:It's really no, now I'm going to go back to the Colorado trip that we just made. Okay, now I don't know the name of this. This is where you're going to be able to help me, because I know what I'm talking about, but I don't remember the name. It was actually something that you owned?
Speaker 1:I don't think I either.
Speaker 2:Truly awesome things that John and I are blessed to do when we go to these different competitions is. We travel quite extensively to some of these things, and when we were out in Colorado, john convinced me to drive up into the Rocky Mountains, where at one point the road was barely wide enough for two vehicles, and then it was a sheer drop for 100 million miles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I never felt more like a landlubber than being up in the like. All I could think and I probably said it 400 times was how did people do this in a covered wagon? Covered wagons, yep.
Speaker 2:All right. So as we're driving around, John says, oh, I've got this app, Karen and I used it when we were driving around. So what this app does and I'll let John tell you a little bit more about it in a second but what this app does is it'll tell you on this turn, this is what's going to happen here, On this spot, over here. If you want to see this go this way, It'll actually give you different historic or informative points at different spots.
Speaker 1:Go yeah, the app is called Guide Along spots. Go yeah, the the app is called guide along and I first discovered it when we did a bit of a tour through the badlands and teddy roosevelt national park and yosemite and grand teton, and I don't know who made it and it costs, I don't know. You get the app for free and then you download the kind of the parks or areas you're going to and each area is probably somewhere between 12 and 20 bucks. But in Yosemite, um, what an amazing job. Like if you're driving from south to north, it's different stories than if you're driving north to south.
Speaker 1:And I give this guy, whoever did it, such credit because, like up he'll, up here on the left is this and if you have a lot of time you can turn over and look at it, but it's not the most important thing. But up here on the right you should stop and you should take the 10 minutes to look at this because it's cool. So Scott and I used that app when we went to Rocky Mountain National Park and it added a lot. It was different. Yes, and it that app when?
Speaker 2:we went to rocky mountain national park and it it added a lot different.
Speaker 1:Yes, and it added a lot I mean it gave you everything from some geologic background to historical background, just to what you're gonna see, and like, when I used it in yosemite, it pretty much called out oh here's some bison, because there's always bison there. So that kind of thing. Um, yeah, that well, not truly an athletic thing, but to enhance your travels, and I know there's ones for most of the major national parks. Um, I know on the east coast there's one for vermont for, like, leaf peepers. Um, it's worth checking it's guide along. It's a cool app. I would.
Speaker 1:I would consider that cool, yeah what you got for us bud uh, you know, since we're here, I'm gonna go into sort of this bundle and this. This bundle is just apps. Um, there are a ton of things out there, like you know, not just like guide along, but actual apps that are, uh, athletically focused, and I wrote down three of them just to give you a smattering. A real popular running one is Strava. It's a great way to track your runs. It pretty much interfaces with most fitness trackers, like my Apple Watch or my current Garmin watch, and for a runner, it's definitely something that they're going to want to consider. Tracks the runs, track their progress, can they can share their progress with the running group. There's an app called lose it, which is a weight loss, and I think this is the one where you kind of share your goal with others you know, by putting your goal out there it makes it a little more adherent to it.
Speaker 1:But it also gives you know tips and tricks and diet plans and track stuff. And then the last one and it's actually one I use is headspace right, and it is just the mindfulness meditation take a minute, center yourself, kind of thing, and I thought it was kind silly. I think I got a free trial of it and use it a couple of times and I got to tell you it's definitely something that if you want to gift something to someone you love, that's a pretty cool gift because it has sort of a overarching benefit Everything from. I got it to kind of chill out from late workouts, but I find myself using it on, you know, at the end of a busy day or, uh, if I haven't slept well, even in the morning to kind of get ready for the day. So a gift I would consider for a master's athlete toolkit is, uh, some apps all right, I will see your apps and I will counter you.
Speaker 2:And now this is going to sound weird with a Tabata clock, oh, I think I own one of those. I think you might I do. So you go to places like rogue or Titan, and don't get me wrong, we own a lot of stuff from Rogan Titan. God bless Rogan Titan. They're they're expensive. Now, the Tabata clocks that we use. You can get them on amazon, you know the good ones for less than 100 bucks.
Speaker 2:But the idea of changing the intervals, most importantly, is okay, let's say you've got an hour and you want to get a full workout in, but you're like, okay, do I do a workout? Do I do cardio? Which do I do? That's the biggest point with the Tabata clocks, at least in my mind, is I will set it up. So as soon as I finish a set, I turn and look at the clock and there is a maximum of two minutes that I'll wait between them. So we have stuff like that. Or if we'll do different training sessions or grind sessions at the compound, we'll use that for motions or stuff like that. You can get a good tabata clock for less than a hundred bucks and I think it is invaluable to, and it doesn't matter what type of athletes you are, because you can use it for cardio, you can use it for uh, track athletes, you can use it for swimming, all of these things.
Speaker 1:It really for a hundred bucks, you can't go wrong yeah, and and if you don't know what a tabata is, um, oh, and I wish I prepared better because I could tell you who the actual uh, I think it was japanese exercise scientists that came up with it, but basically it's a period of effort, a period of rest for a number of rounds and usually they're intense. So it might be on an assault bike 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, for 10 rounds, something like that. And you know you get through something like that and you know you may have seen Jesus at some point, because that can be an incredibly difficult workout.
Speaker 2:Tabata was invented by Dr Izumi Tabata.
Speaker 1:Oh duh, me tabata, oh duh. And the other thing about it, like especially the amazon tabata clock I own it also will do every minute on a minute uh workouts where uh basically just cycles through a minute countdown. Yeah, we did one the other day, scott and I and two other athletes in the gym. We set up four stations and we did uh enough rounds that I think we got to each implement twice. Yep, and by the end of that workout, um, I was done, uh, it, it. It's easy to force you to not sit around and talk and drink Gatorade and tell stories and tales of woe.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry. So basically, what you're saying is everything that you do.
Speaker 1:It teaches us not to do in volleyball that is called a set. I just set that up for Scott, so you're welcome.
Speaker 2:But yes, he's absolutely right.
Speaker 1:The hell out of that. Yes, it keeps it. It keeps you absolutely focused. It is definitely the best way to compress a workout into the most meaningful movement in the smallest amount of time. It's not an everyday. You couldn't do Tabatas every day for every workout because You'd destroy yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's too much.
Speaker 1:It's not the purpose. But again, a Tabata clock. You know, in things like a home gym, like even the most rooted mentory of home gyms, if you consider Tabatas on your own, you know if you're having a hard time with motivation, just yourself that. I think that you're right. And it's small and it's not super expensive. I think that's an excellent choice.
Speaker 2:Am I next on my?
Speaker 1:list. I have such a list. It is the best list. Can I go big for a second? You can go big. I'm gonna go big. The 110 volt infrared plug-in sauna. You went big, I did. You can get them at home depot. You can get them at home depot for a couple hundred bucks. Um, I love infrared sauna. I have a friend who has one and he is gracious enough to let me use it.
Speaker 1:And I got to tell you. It improves my sleep, it improves my recovery. It's just general wellbeing from sitting there sweating, reading a book. I can't say enough. If I had a home with enough property and some spare cash, I would probably get the wood-fired barrel sauna. Is that like a hint?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If anybody's looking for Christmas presents for me. Oh, my birthday. I think my birthday is in like 93 days, by the way.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying.
Speaker 1:This is an annual thing. Yeah, I'm sorry that's who I am, but no, the sauna thing, whether you have, you know, and if you, if you don't want to buy one for a couple hundred bucks, there are several places where you can, um, essentially join a sauna place. Um, there's a spa near here that has, like a salt cave, infrared sauna and massage available, and I would recommend all of it. So, again, a little bit bigger. You need a little space. It does plug into regular home power, but if you've got the space for it in the corner of a basement, I would recommend a plug-in sauna. So there, that's gonna be hard to put in a stocking, but it's a big stock, it's wrappable.
Speaker 2:All right, I've got two left. Okay, I'm gonna throw them both at you at the same time, because there are many times that I will use both of them now, like yours, these are a little bit more expensive, like that last one just threw up yep three years ago, I think, we were walking around at the arnold and this incredibly persuasive salesperson- oh, came up to us and said hey, are you guys sore?
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, we're masters, athletes, of course. We're certain we wake up like that. If we didn't, we'd be dead. Okay, so she pulled us into this, uh, little area and she said what hurts the most? And I'm like, okay, so my forearms. So she puts these electrodes or these electric pads on, hooks up this little small the size of of what a deck of cards, cell phone, something like that cell phone, an electric stim machine that will give you multiple patterns. Yes, so there was event pricing and all kinds of stuff. And what was kind of neat is you can use, like, if you have a flex spending account for healthcare, you could use it for it, because it legitimately falls into there. Yep, it's a medical device, this thing. Since we've gotten it, I've used it for my shoulder, I've used it for my arms, I've used it for my hands, I've used it for my legs, I've even used it for spots on my back. At one point, uh, one of the things that we got there were gloves.
Speaker 2:Yep, that you could actually you soak the gloves and you put them in water and then you put uh, you hook it onto one spot and then you put it onto a different spot in your form. So there's that. And then the other side of that is and this is my last one for the day is a massage gun oh, I never thought of like a theragun or a knockoff one.
Speaker 1:Oh my god good point.
Speaker 2:I gotta tell you, um, john knows I've got some really bad issues with my one shoulder and using that gun literally can take that pain away yeah and you can get them with different uh front end adapters on the theragun and whatnot. So so between these two, you're you're, you're talking a healthy little amount of money, but I got to tell you, as a master's athlete, it might be some of the best equipment that I own when it comes to my recuperation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the muscle stim thing is definitely like a, an on-demand aggressive massage, um, like the thing that Scott was talking about, the the gloves. So it is. It is a metal infused glove where the other electrode goes in your forearm and if you think about sort of flexing your fingers as hard as you can without closing and making a fist, it does that about a trillion times of an hour. Um, that might be a little exaggeration, okay half a trillion.
Speaker 1:But yeah, that is great. I have used it on my calves, on my thighs. That's a good thing, and the Theragun is also good too, and Theragun's a brand. There's a billion of them on Amazon. Mine was pretty cheap. The battery is weird. My battery lasts, I don't know, know forever my. I may have accidentally bought a nuclear powered one, because I don't remember last time, I don't remember last time I charged it, but it is a you know.
Speaker 1:again, it's good, it's aggressive, but I am a huge fan and I guess you know, if I'm going to transition into recovery modalities, if we're talking muscle stim and theragun, yep, I'm gonna go something with my lovely girlfriend karen found, which is a hot tub. She found an inflatable hot tub online. I was gonna say that's a little bit outside of the stocking stuff or something.
Speaker 1:Here's the deal I'm still flabbergasted by this. So the hot tub itself is inflatable. Um, it is big enough that I can sit in it and be kind of neck deep in water. So I mean it's probably five ish feet, four ish feet in diameter, all inflatable that part. And then the pump and heater is about the size of a large microwave. Plugs in the wall power, we'll get to 104 degrees celsius and blows bubbles, fahrenheit, fahrenheit.
Speaker 1:Did I say celsius? You said celsius, you can apparently make soup in it too. You know, it's like boiling the skin off your body. Okay, here we're gonna go with the first master's athlete toolkit. Uh, disclaimer never sit in 104 degree celsius water. I can't believe the scientists of the group just did that fuck up yeah, you know it's late, but yeah, this inflatable hot tub, ridiculous I I swear it was like 150 dollars that is phenomenal.
Speaker 1:I think he's got through, like walmart online or something um, and that's just. I mean, I think everybody, lots of people fall into the oh, I would love a hot tub and you see lots of people online like would you take this hot tub, would you remove it because it died and it's in my backyard and I can't move it.
Speaker 2:So this is well.
Speaker 1:I lied, I now have one other thing that I was thinking of.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you said the hot tub. I did One of the things that's become a fad lately and there's some science behind it, and John and I are sort of looking at a different little egg-shaped thing to do like point spot cryo-healing. But the thing that I'm talking about right now is there are just like there's an inflatable hot tub, there's inflatable cold plunge tubs out there right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not mad enough for a cold plunge, but I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:A lot of people have asked us well, can you put one at the compound? Yeah, the answer is definitively no. Yeah, because I just know I agree. But if you are into it and we have a lot of friends who swear by it, absolutely swear by it. Western Winsky Yep Six strongest man in the world, yep. He actually does some sponsorships of some of them and he swears by them. He absolutely loves them.
Speaker 1:I have seen. I mean, I've seen the like the, the ultra pro strong man videos. Like Eddie Hall has a like a gazebo in his backyard and they make a commercial product where three quarters of it is hot tub and one quarter of it is cold plunge and you can do contrast therapy in and out. What is it like? I think that's swedish therapy or something they're smarter than all of us.
Speaker 1:So probably, probably. But yeah, cold plunge especially, you know. And again, there's two ways to skin this cat. You can just fill it with ice and water, um, or you can spend some money and actually get a compressor and get cryo cooler. Get yeah, get cold water. I thought you were going to go the other way, the thing we saw at the shaw, where there's some emerging science. I forget what it's called and I apologize.
Speaker 2:I will look up rocks or something like that something like that.
Speaker 1:It basically makes cold for your hands and what they say is because your hands are so vascular. Cooling down your hands cools down your muscles, allows you to recover faster and possibly allows you to extend a workout longer. Now I have seen another one online that kind of looks like the yoke from a f14, like if you can picture that thing, and on either side of it is a metal plate and when you squeeze it it turns on and it cools your hand. That's cool. Yeah, neither of these things are cheap and they're emergency science, but if you know, if you have an athlete in your life that's gadget friendly and looking to recover, I think those are the kind of fringy things that can really make a difference. Like, not everybody owns my great ape rice bag, but you know I'm a better human being for because I own one and you don't. Do I have anything else on my list?
Speaker 2:wow, I know I've got to tell you though, john yes sir, I, my list wasn't quite as diverse as yours. Yeah, but if you want to give me anything on this list, anything at all, anything, anything at all okay, I would like a five person portable hot tub that sits permanently in my yard with a Bluetooth and drink cooler on it.
Speaker 1:Nice, I think I would go sauna.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, I would be okay with that. I would be okay with that.
Speaker 1:What would I want on my list? I don't know. I have all this. I would actually like this next thing. So this next thing is something I've always wanted. I've never done. I have done bod pod for um, lean muscle mass, where they, you know it's basically you sit in the egg looking like mork for mork. Shout out the old people who know who mark for mork is, and robin williams.
Speaker 1:God rest his soul yeah and through the properties of volume and weight. You do those both uh, very uh specifically. You can uh figure out your lean body mass. But I would like a dexa scan where they actually do an actual scan of your body and can tell you things like bone density and fat percentage and lean percentage and all sorts of that stuff. Um, places that have them are like 100 bucks. Um, I don't know if there's even one near me. I would like one near me. Um, that would be something I would. I would accept. Um, and then my last one, I'll wrap up. Okay, I'll wrap up. I'll wrap up. Okay, I'll wrap up, because I want more things than you, and this goes back to one of our previous episodes.
Speaker 1:Get someone you love a coach or a trainer. If they're serious about whatever sport they're competing in, they would benefit from having some professional help, eyes, guidance on whatever sport they're doing, whether it be a lesson in pickleball, bring it back to pickleball. Or a weightlifting coach, or even a mindset coach or any manner of something that might help them in their sport, you know. Or join a running group or something. Uh, spend a little money because we find and in our previous episode talking to dr charles inferna. Everybody could benefit from a coach, but a good coach is not cheap and a cheap coach probably isn't worth it agreed. So if there's someone out there who you love, who you're looking for something for the holidays, consider getting them a coach or a trainer at the gym.
Speaker 2:Well, that has been our episode tonight, as we look at some of the different things that both John and I have seen used or would like to use in the future for Christmas. If you have anything, please drop a line in the comments. And, as we wrap up, I'm still Scott, he's still John Bye.
Speaker 1:And Merry Christmas. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post it on your social media or leave a review. To catch all the latest from us, you can follow us on instagram at masters athlete survival guide. Thanks again. Now get off our lawn, you damn kids.