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
Part 2 Coach Dan John on Creating a "Life Made Simple"
Listen to Coach Dan John's Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/6iQUODyzsCIKcLKkzWUG9z?si=1cca00deeec44f9a
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Discover the transformative power of sleep with the insightful Coach Dan John, who shares his wisdom on how crucial rest is for both athletic success and everyday life. Coach John explains how enhancing sleep quality can significantly improve athletic performance, reduce body fat, and increase focus. He shares practical strategies, including meditation techniques and sleep-enhancing apps, alongside travel-friendly tools like the Musicozy blackout mask, ensuring you never compromise on quality rest, even on the go.
Unlock the potential of walking as a powerful ally in your fitness journey, especially when paired with strength training. We discuss how something as simple as a 10-minute walk post-meal can kickstart fat loss by utilizing free fatty acids. From years of balancing weightlifting with life's demands, we share how minimalistic training approaches, focusing on essential exercises such as squats and snatches, can lead to remarkable athletic achievements without the need for extravagant facilities or equipment.
For those seeking holistic well-being, the episode offers valuable insights into balancing fitness with broader life priorities. Coach Dan John delves into his personal journey of maintaining health and longevity, emphasizing the role of varied activities and adequate rest in a sustainable fitness regimen. We also explore the rejuvenating benefits of saunas, sharing personal experiences and preferences for individual wellness choices. Join us for a conversation filled with wisdom and practical tips on leading a balanced, fulfilling life, both in and out of the gym.
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New episodes come out every other Thursday!
Hey everybody, this is John. Welcome to part two of our conversation with Coach Dan John. If you didn't listen to part one, stop right now. Go back, listen to that. It'll make it a little more relevant, but our ramblings and whatnot probably still work. If you only want to listen to part two, make sure you make it to the end, where Coach Dan John shares some discount codes on his content some of the best stuff that you could ever find on the internet. Enjoy the episode. 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. So if I had married into the John family, I would have gotten a Highland Games my children would have been taking. I've made horrible mistakes in this life.
Speaker 2:I do know how to tell you that. Yes, absolutely true, so okay. So now it's easy to slide over to sleep. So the next big thing is sleep, and it breaks my heart. So I don't know of a TV show Okay, ted Lasso but I don't know of a TV show that is worth staying up for, and I get it. We're all stuck online. I am too. That's my business. But sleep is probably the secret epidemic of America is lack of sleep, and I'll talk to guys. Well, I only need six hours of sleep. No, you don't. Your waistline is 47. You're 5'10". I drink coffee. No, listen, I love. Coffee is a good thing yep the polyphenols and coffee are amazing.
Speaker 2:Number two there's two grams of soluble fiber in every cup of coffee, so that means I'm getting 500 600 grams of fiber a day oh, is that true?
Speaker 1:oh, I'm gonna I'm stealing that stat that, that that's going in my arsenal of why I drink so much coffee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, look it up to make sure it's partially true.
Speaker 1:I trust you, I'm going with it, no matter whether it's true or not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I usually figure. If I like a statistic, I just run with it. So coffee is a marvelous thing, but if you're using energy drinks just to get through the day, I mean, I've worked with a young man. He does those. You know those commercial ones. You know that give you wings, yep, he's, but you know that it's that's. I mean that's, why are you taking so much? Well, I don't sleep much, well you're. They get in that cycle. So I'm a big believer that, uh, one of the best things most men, uh, especially athletes, should do is it comes from bud winter, relaxing when you need to learn to meditate at some level and put yourself to sleep when you can what was the name of the book?
Speaker 1:because I I, while I will have the occasional energy drink, I, I, just I'm a poor sleeper and it's more that I can't shut my mind off than anything. It's not a caffeine thing, it's not anything.
Speaker 2:So there's a. There's an app I use. There's. I have two apps I use one's free. It's called one moment meditation. It's one minute and you can probably use your timer. But I like the guy because he closed. The little cartoon character closes his eyes, it goes bing and then you count the breaths in one minute and then it goes bing and you open your eyes. I use that for any tough phone calls. I use that before I go into the doctor's office. Hey, go to the doctor's office a few weeks ago. So I'm 68. My heart rate is 52. What? Wow, yeah, and I'm like this stuff works. And then the other app I use is called Brainfm and there are some meditation tapes in there that are really good. I used to use YouTube, but now they put commercials in the middle of the meditation tapes, so you'll be like like you're in a forest. Now I said dodge strong, yeah, but uh, I think and I don't. How old are you, by the way?
Speaker 1:I am 57 and I am 54 just children oh, you're adorable gramps yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:So even at 54 and 57, you can train yourself to uh, to fall asleep like easily. Yeah, and uh. I also use a thing called music, uh, uh, cozy, uh, music, music, cozy, m-u-s-i-c-o-z-y. Okay, and it's a blackout mask with bluetooth in it so I can put this blackout mask on and meditate and it's great for flights, airplane flights and jet lag. You know when you're in, you know, know when I go to England or Denmark and I'm jet lagged and I got to work tomorrow, so, and you know, and so it really helps me calm down. I've also tried those, like those magic pajamas and stuff that they say, and I think that helps on the road. But practicing, practicing, meditating is a marvelous way to prepare yourself to get to sleep better. And it's now. Now you're in the circle the more you see, the more body fat you lose. A good piece of advice I got recently if you want to accelerate your body fat, go for an extra walk, but if you really want to accelerate your body fat, get an extra hour of sleep.
Speaker 1:Really? And do you see that, given the sphere that you're in, Do you see the?
Speaker 2:I mean I know it because I live it.
Speaker 1:But the correlation between poor sleep and poor performance in whatever athletic endeavor.
Speaker 2:Oh, not just athletics, but parenting writing focus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, um, yeah, and that's yeah, I, I really, I really put sleep on a high, on a high, high bar, yeah, yeah no, I, I, I totally get that and, like I said, I'm a really poor sleeper and I've it's funny because I've tried the things I mean you know, my bedroom is crypt dark and there's no all all you know all the LEDs are covered in tape, I think.
Speaker 1:but I've really never explored meditation and in binging through a lot of your podcasts, I did hear you answer a question to somebody who had, you know, performance anxiety when it comes to athletics and you you basically mentioned some of the same kind of things to just get you in the mindset Right. Exactly what's bucket three? I love these buckets. I don't know If nobody listens to this. I am winning because I am learning all the things.
Speaker 3:I need to learn. I'm taking notes just so you're aware. There's a notepad in front of me, scott's scribbling his brains out.
Speaker 2:And one thing on the diet thing I did not say caloric restriction at all. What I basically said was I want you to kind of rethink. You know where the calories are coming in and the nice thing is if you get rid of and you know like I brought. I use dave's bread.
Speaker 1:Okay, dave, uh it's just dave's really good bread I'm familiar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the one yeah, damn good bread I'm familiar. Yeah, that's the one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, damn good bread, or whatever it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I get the thin slice one. So those, each slice is 70 calories. All right, so you have two pieces of toast for breakfast and two sandwiches. All right, that's not bad. That's 420 calories. That's not bad. That's what a bean burrito is at Del Taco. Their taco salad is the same too. Well, 420 calories of salmon is a shocking amount of food. Yeah, that's true. Let's go back to the other one. That's six Irish whiskeys or whatever. The hard drink is.
Speaker 1:I love the Dan John scale of caloric intake. It is my favorite thing.
Speaker 2:I'm going to start measuring everything in bourbons but what's nice about doing it that way is when I say irish whiskey everyone, there's no way you could drink seven shots of irish whiskey. I'm like, yeah, you're probably right, I probably couldn't. But listen to what we're saying, right, but is it possible for you to drink a full-sized, uh, uh, normal soft drink at a game? Sure, yeah, there's more cal in that than all the irish whiskey stories we've been talking about yeah, and it's funny that you say that.
Speaker 3:Um, we've talked before a little bit about diets and things of that nature. A few years ago I mean, john and I are both diabetic and a few years ago I was diagnosed and I always said to myself growing up, because diabetes ran my family, I always said, if I was ever, you know, I crossed that magical line, so to speak that I would completely change my diet. And I know that's a foolish statement now, but growing up, you know, you didn't care and when it happened I completely changed my diet. I am pretty OCD about what I eat now and it's funny because you talk about the composition, changes of bodies and the way things sort of redistribute.
Speaker 3:And it asked John pictures of me from before to pictures of me competing. Now it's a different picture. You know, my knees don't hurt when I walk. Yeah, it doesn't sound like a friend of ours put something on social media and she said asking for a friend, is it supposed to sound like popcorn inside of a crumpling pop can when I stand up? You know, and I you know you joke and you poke fun back and forth with it, but I don't hear that anymore and that's to me a lot of that is, is the diet changes. So you know you're talking about diet and sleep has always been a poor thing for me, you know historically, for for different reasons.
Speaker 1:But I mean, I wasn't kidding when I said I was taking notes on this coach, so please, yeah, and to give you some backstories uh, coach um scott was the silver medalist at last year's um masters, uh, national championships in strongman, and to just and it's funny, as you were saying it, I was going to shake his hand after this and say he kind of backed into what you said, where he's incredibly disciplined about his eating, not psychotic, and the volumes are probably pretty damn high, honestly, um, but you know it's protein, it's mostly protein, and it's back filled with some vegetables, and I've known him to have a bourbon or two. Um, and you know he's throwing slabs of muscles on where a lot of people don't.
Speaker 2:So you're not wrong. We have a real, we have a real world case sitting right across the table from me In the third bucket and I gotta be careful calling it exercise, but it is exercise and I I mean my biggest. If I have a secret, I think after every strength training session you should walk. Now this comes from stew mcgill. Yep, the spine up in, uh guelph yeah, I'm familiar with stew buffley.
Speaker 1:You know guelph is not that far from here.
Speaker 2:I'm familiar with it was a wonderful guy, but it also comes from just about every fat loss expert I trust. Walking is stealing in our business and that's why I have a book called Easy Strength from Fat Loss, where you lift weights and you go for a walk and people say why I go? Well, the way I had explained to me by a guy named Rusty Moore was that so I only train fasted.
Speaker 1:Now the way um oh, really, do you train in the morning, in the evening, where you're in the morning and I olympic?
Speaker 2:lifted. Okay, olympic, you know, in winter, in my garage, so it's, it's rough, but so I get. You know what you know. Eight hours sleep. I haven't eaten since dinner. Usually I'm coming into my workout. You know what you know? Eight hours sleep. I haven't eaten since dinner. Usually I'm coming into my workout. You know 13, 14, 15, 16 hours of fasting. Okay, I Olympic lift generally and then, but what so? I'm also drinking massive amounts of caffeine. Sleep frees up the free fatty acids, the caffeine. Coffee frees up the free fatty acids. The lifting frees up the free fatty acids. The lifting frees up the free fatty acids. Going for the walk is great for the spine, some of the joints, but it allows the body. I always explain it like little pacman they go around eating all those free fatty acids. It's stealing in fat loss stealing yeah, we uh on on here.
Speaker 1:We talk about the 10 minute walk after, uh, after a meal or I don't. I I'm a I'm a career scientist and I've done the research and it's not completely clear to me, but there is so much evidence that the most lowest hanging fruit is a 10 minute walk and that that that has been since day one of meeting John.
Speaker 3:But in this podcast, like we've got a friend who you know, that's how we sort of pushed him to start and he's lost a significant amount of weight every day. Go for a 10 minute walk. That's what we tell people. You know you want to start. Go for a 10 minute walk If you do nothing else just start there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's so very simply. That's where I start. Okay, that's so for me. Now I I obviously. I mean I've been lifting weights. This is my, by the way, the 60th year for me in the weight room, really yeah, that's impressive.
Speaker 1:Oh, you know I really I just I need to interject here because there's a pattern that I don't think you fit into. But most of the people we talked to and a lot of our friends in our cohort, um took, uh, like I don't know, from 28 to 35 off and raised kids and got distracted and didn't do anything. Did you have that moment or did you just keep going?
Speaker 2:Look at okay, Look at the things I'm noted for.
Speaker 1:Okay, I know.
Speaker 2:Easy strength. Those 15 minute workouts right, yep, uh, loaded carries, getting work capacity by going into my backyard and dragging sleds and weights at the same time. Those were all because I was working when I, when I was at my best. Yeah, okay, this is true. My best year. Yeah, okay, this is true. My best year as a discus thrower. I was age 47, and I threw the international implements really far. I mean 55-meter-plus throws, I mean at 47, guys drug-free.
Speaker 3:I know that's impressive.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I knew you didn't fit in the mold, but I just Let me just yeah, keep going, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I knew you didn't fit in the mold, but I just want… but let me just… yeah, keep going.
Speaker 2:I was either administrator or a teacher, plus a professor in religious studies. Daughters at home, and I made that breakfast every day and dinner every day and I took care of the commute I had. I, if I could weasel out 15 minutes, I would get it in and that's what I did. If there's a lesson you learn, for me it's when, in doubt, you point, you pointed your ears and you try to use the thing that's between them to figure out the answer. You don't just quit, you don't keep trying to train like you're 22. You're in college anymore. You think it through and what it does is it really teaches. I'm a big believer.
Speaker 2:Today on Pat Flynn's podcast, somebody mentioned minimalism. Sometimes I get thrown in that minimalism camp. That's not necessarily true. I'm much more of a cleaver okay, not not beaver, cleaver and the cleaver family, but I. What I do is when I run out of time, I just lop off the extra and I keep coming back. What do I need? What do I? I had a I'm working with an all-american discus story. Now you got to go to the campus we're at and you'd realize we don't have rings. We don't have any. We throw into nets, that's all well, it's the partition from the basketball team. That's what we, that's all we throw, that's all we do, that's all we have. Well, how do I end up with an all-american? Well, people that they people ask me your strength program and I'll say, well, she squats, snatches and does suitcase carries. And then, of course, guess what? You can't help yourself. Both of you want to say this what about inclines? What about bench? What about? What about concentration curls? What about? What about? You can't help it, right.
Speaker 1:But yeah, see, I'm, I'm blessed that my pedigree and it's why I was so excited to talk to you, because my pedigree I sort of bumbled into like, uh, a friend of mine trained in front of Dr Bondarchuk hammer up in Kamloops. And they throw mostly in the mat. You know stalls, mats that are hanging from the ceiling. It's not some sort of fancy Olympic training facility, but they get it done.
Speaker 2:By the way, I just wrote a big piece called the geometry of success about not having any equipment. I think it's an advantage to only have a rusty barbell and a broken and a rocky found out in in in the river. I think that's an advantage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how so elaborate Cause, because I I think I agree with you, but I want to hear more that's if.
Speaker 2:Okay, here's okay, let's go this way. You know, I was up at this university, uh and uh they were. They were just about to fire the coach. I knew really well. His name was brady hook hook. And bring in this other guy, uh, other guy who cheated to win a national championship, and I'm not going to mention who, but it was last year in college Division. I I'm not going to tell you the team.
Speaker 2:The first thing he said is he wanted yeah, I got to upgrade everything. Listen, if you have a billion-dollar facility, you better be putting out billion-dollar results. And here's the thing You're. All your answers are always going to be the latest greatest machine, the latest greatest exercise program. You know, like my, my athletes will ask me coach, these other schools have hydration stations. I say, well, yeah, we got, you know, get used to it. And the nice thing is is is that it forces you to use again your brain to solve the problems. You're not just throwing money at everything and after a while you learn a great lesson. It sometimes the simplest. I mean like, for example, when I was training with mike pakowski.
Speaker 1:He was a, he might know him oh, I know, mike and mindy, right, they were highland yeah yeah, good, good, very, very good friends of mine, bet.
Speaker 2:I visited him in vermont last year. Um, you know, mike showed up. He invented his own, uh, olympic hammer chain one time. That was just the handle with a little steel cable and a bunch of chains hanging out of it so he could throw anywhere in any field and I'm like, without putting pock marks in yeah, I think, I think he put that in his book. I think I stole that well, and if you read his book, you'll probably come away. Who does he steal all of his information from?
Speaker 1:um, what's his face? Uh, the coach they work with.
Speaker 2:Um, I can't think of his name because I'm old uh, john powell, yeah well, and then look at the other person who's the other person? You. Well, the book called a contrarian broach. Yeah, so, and I'm the king of contrarian.
Speaker 1:You are the king well, it's funny because another thing in my dna is I was blessed um, through no fault of his own. Uh, buddy morris for the current. Oh yeah, you know he got. He was trapped here in western new york for a while and he didn't like it.
Speaker 1:He's happy in arizona coaching larry fitzgerald, but I got a chance to work with him and he, you, you guys are the same. He, he wastes no time. Uh, it's nothing fancy. Um, I walked in there after I had gone to world championships in highland. Um, thinking I was all that in a bag of chips and he was just gonna polish the edges. He had me do like gpp I mean, I was doing things that he also had like 12 year old softball girls doing because he just saw that you know you're not going to progress if you don't put this very basic work in. And it was shocking. I expected you know these high level strength coaches to be have you know these big fancy secrets, and I think that comes from the instagram. You know I'm a trainer and I know these 11 crazy things you can do that's going to get you gains with the z seven ways to terrorize your tricep.
Speaker 1:Yeah basically, you've read that article, have you?
Speaker 2:I think I wrote it actually, but you know it's.
Speaker 3:You talk about this sort of minimalist approach and you know where can you make the most improvement when you don't always have the most time. That's a lot of where john and I are at in our training right now. Um, you know, the gym we work out at it doesn't have all the fancy bells and whistles, and I don't want it, you know it's. It's a matter of we're in there to do what needs to get done. I don't need to make sure that this is turned this way and this machine hits just this 14 degrees of motion in its flexation. No, in yeah I know well.
Speaker 2:I mean, when people look at my programs, almost universally, they're always like that that's it. Yeah, well, what you know. But like I tell them, well, did you? Did you snatch uh, three, three hundred? No, yeah, well then, really, then, what let? Well, then, why don't we have you snatch 300, and then we'll talk about this idea that you have. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, it's funny, when I texted you to try to set up this, an old thread came back up with under your name and it was me asking you for how to build a slosh pipe. Yeah, I did that for about a year. And I got to asking you for, um, how to build a slosh pipe. And, yeah, I did that for about a year. And I gotta tell you people, if you don't know what a slosh pipe is, uh, pour some water in a pvc pipe cap, both ends, uh, and try to walk with it or turn with it or anything, and the simplest thing that will cost you six dollars at home depot is going to destroy you in ways you didn't know was possible. So, yes, you are. You are the best of minimalist, if that's you know. You are the ultra contrarian and I and I.
Speaker 2:The reason I take it seriously is because, in fact, uh, yeah, that's that whole I was. I was just taught. If you get a chance, go to my website. I just typed it in. It's stolen all up. It's called the Aquarian Approach to the Discus Throw. Okay, and I wrote it 23 years ago and it's based on the lessons I got from a high school I worked at that had no track, no field and no place to throw and we had the national champion in the discus that year and we had the national champion in the discus that year and I mean, people from all over the United States were coming to see how I coach people and constantly I was getting this whole wait, what about? We can't do this idea you have, because we don't. We have a wall, and that's what we have Right, and we share a weight room with 20 other sports, so that's what we have Right, that's in, we have, and we share a weight room with 20 other sports, so that's what we have. You know, enjoy, you know, enjoy.
Speaker 1:Do you feel your message hits the way that it hit 20 years ago? Cause, I mean, it feels like every college feels the need to put a $500,000 weight room in to attract those athletes.
Speaker 2:And on some level.
Speaker 1:My old man sitting on the rocking chair on my porch wants to yell at him and be like you're wasting your time and your money. This could be so much more simple.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree 100% with that. I think we spend far too much money on these. And then I'll hear that same school with the billion dollars worth of stuff you know, with every single weight rack has an iPod in it measuring the speed of the bar. Those same coaches say we don't do the Olympic lifts. And I'll say why. And then they'll say we can't coach them. And I'm like you just fired yourself. You can't keep. You're a strength coach. You can't teach kettlebells, olympic lifts. We don't do deadlifts because I can't teach them. Get out, you're just all you are is a bodybuilder. You're just a bodybuilding coach. That you know.
Speaker 1:And I'm trying to be nice yeah, no, I appreciate that and I mean you can invent yourself as a trainer just with the content you can mine out of the Internet. The problem is is that without the knowledge, like you said, point to your ears? If you don't have that knowledge there, you can't parse out the crap.
Speaker 3:No, and we've had that conversation with some of the members at my gym. No, and we've had that conversation with some of the members at my gym. They'll come up to me and they'll say, well, I'm not getting this and I don't look like I used to. Okay, are you stronger, are you feeling better? Are you doing more physically? Well, yeah, so what do you want? Do you want the beach muscles or do you want to be healthier and stronger? Yeah, the beach muscles or do you want to be healthier and stronger? It's those conversations, and I've lost members because of it. Well, of course, it's not what the compound is about. We're there, a big part of its family, but it's also just to help people be better versions of themselves. Yeah, but it's also just to help people be better versions of themselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah Now. For example, I had someone summarize it brilliantly. I thought on my old forum over at Dave Draper, they said Olympic lift when you're young, power lift. Yeah, so basically you, olympic lift from when you start to about 34, power lift from 35 to 55, and then body build the rest of your life. And I thought to myself that is perfect, that is exactly what I think.
Speaker 1:Uh, now, no, do of course, yeah, but is this where I have to admit that I have absolutely no rack position and I admire you because I can't.
Speaker 2:I tried. I mean, I take mobility extremely seriously. Then that's another thing. I'm doing a workshop out in North Carolina again for Tim Anderson as an original strength, original strength. It's funny he always says that easy strength and original strength go together like peas and carrots. He's got that. Southern, he's got that.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:You know my training. I mean, depending on the program I'm on, very often I'll do a set of three and snatch, and then pop on the ground and do one of the original strength mobility movements, like rocks or neck nods or something. Then I pop up, do the next set. My rest periods are mobility work and then, of course, at the end of all that, boom off of my walk, which is, I think, really are mobility work, and then, of course, at the end of all that, boom off of my walk, which is, I think, really important, mobility work.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, it's funny. In one of your podcasts I heard someone ask a question like do you think rest periods between sets of 10 to 12 minutes are are too much? Like oh my god, I just want to go to the gym, do work and get out. I mean, I love the gym but I don't want to live there.
Speaker 2:I remember that that was like one of those who, in the world.
Speaker 1:Somebody, clearly somebody is. You know what, If you're a world-class powerlifter, I will give you a 10-minute break between you know attempts at 900-pound bench, but yeah, I mean, how about reading a book?
Speaker 2:or, you know, I don't know, helping your neighbor? I, I just yeah, oh, I'm not trying to be all I'm wonderful, I think I'm, I'm a dirt bag and I, I'm, I'm, I'm mean as hell, but uh, yeah, but at the same time there's, there's a little bit more to life, to uh, to life than being in the gym. And what would you do in 12 minutes I get, I don't know. You know, my, my mike brown, loves to make fun of me. Uh, he's the guy I train with because he'll go if I'm not moving.
Speaker 2:I start doing stuff like I'll be in the backyard cutting a tree down you know, you know, doing something, I just if I, if I rest more than 30 seconds, my mind starts to wander I would.
Speaker 1:I'd like to introduce you to my training partner, scott here, who is the same person. Whereas I am a little bit of a like oh, look something shiny, I'll go over there and I can't. You know, he's the best training partner for me because he's like um, you're up, let's go yeah and uh, okay.
Speaker 2:So to finish up on the work, that was actually the thing. So you know, uh, you know where I'm at my life now. I I do take my own advice and so you know I, I do focus a little more body composition, like you know. The nice thing, though, if you're like me I've never done curls my whole life, so you know I'm over there doing curls, you know so it's kind of fun, nice, and I do I.
Speaker 2:I do a lot of uh, continuous clean and press. I do a lot of uh, uh military press. I do deficit deadlifts, hip thrust, goblet squats. You know a lot of a lot of hanging bent knee, leg raises. That those are.
Speaker 2:Those would be my featured lifts where I'm at now yeah but even though when I'm doing continuous clean and press, I consider that a bodybuilding movement, but most of your audience are going to look at me doing it going that's olympic lifts. No, that's that's high rep. You know, it's eight reps bodybuilding, you know well, I would hope.
Speaker 1:I would hope that somebody would look at you and go oh my god, that guy's in his 60s, what the hell is he doing? I, I really should get off this calf raise machine and go do something on the list of things that will never happen. Yeah so correct me. Correct me if I'm wrong, because I this has been such a revelation. Can I summarize dan john's approach as sleep, eat right and exercise?
Speaker 2:well, you made it really complicated john has that ability, yeah wow, I mean thank you.
Speaker 1:I mean thank you for being on the podcast, because that I mean. That is such a powerful message. I mean scott, and I can bang that drum all day long, but I mean a you live it. I mean anybody if you. If you doubt anything that that's come out in this, just google dan john and then listen to him.
Speaker 2:Um that pleasanton highland game. Yeah, because that's from decades ago and I wouldn't be surprised if you found a weightlifting video of me now. Oh, in fact, I mean on my instagram feed, there's pictures of me at weightlifting meets in the last couple of months yeah, that's amazing that you're still getting after it now.
Speaker 1:I I I I thought I heard you mention that you're actually dropping weight. Is that for a weight class or is that just for I want to live forever elwyn and daisy, my grandchild okay, I I appreciate that deeply because I think that's a big part of why, if you aren't an elite class masters athlete, you still need to do something because, yeah, you do what you want to be as healthy as you can be for as long as you can be, let me get too cocky, but I think I'm still an elite masters athlete you are yeah, yeah without a doubt, yeah
Speaker 2:yeah, no, yeah. But so I'm at 214 now, which is the second lightest I've been since I got back from middle east in 85. But I'm doing, I'm doing it, I'm trying to lose. So last year I we do a concept called bumpers, so my bumpers last year were 218 to 228. Okay, okay. So what that means is, if I'm, if you know, I get back from Denmark and I step on the scale and I'm 228, well, that's not fair, cause I lose weight when I go to Europe because the food is so much better, um, there's so much less processed, and I'm not being some hippie from the sixties, it's a fact.
Speaker 1:Um, uh, you are. You are from the 60s. It's a fact. Um uh, you are.
Speaker 2:You are from the 60s, by the way, I just point that out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but so, okay. So what that means is that if I'm in the middle of those two numbers, if I'm at 224, okay then I'm fine. I don't freak out, I don't change anything. You know, obviously. You know you can swim about four to five. You guys who are taller, you might even be able to swim in a day six or seven pounds, depending on water and what food. If you fasted for a day, you might lose five or six pounds off the scale just because of the between the bowel movements and lack of new food coming in.
Speaker 2:I turned my sauna on about a few minutes ago. I like the sauna A couple hours before I go to bed to help me. You know turn. I mean, if I fast and take a big sauna, magically my body weight goes down. Well, I don't want to do that with the bumper concept. But if you start hedging up 227 and if I get to 229, 230, that's, the switch flips on. I fold my arms and say, bs, there's something wrong with you. So this year I, my bumper is 217 to 227, but I haven't been over 218 in almost two weeks now.
Speaker 2:Now we're talking new year, oh, and so I'm working real hard. I'm getting great advice from brad pilon, great advice from rusty moore. I got my training cohort. That helps me a ton. Uh, my, and of course, the other thing that really helps me is I look at a picture of ellen, or my, my daughter, you know she's pregnant and daisy's kicking in there, and it's like I want to, uh, you know, to quote tony bennett, you know I want to be around yeah, yeah I love your motivation.
Speaker 2:That that's, and so what that does for me is that and I, I don't know, I'm thinking right now for body weight I wouldn't mind ending the year at about 207, you know which is uh, according to you know some things about the top end of, if you're a thicker person, that's about at six foot that that's a good weight. Now, if I was going to compete as a thrower, I'd probably do some extra stuff, but I don't think I need to. Yeah, yeah, but uh, so have you been?
Speaker 1:have you been able to hang on to strength as you've bled off the pounds um? Because it sounds like you're doing it correctly.
Speaker 2:It's not like you dropped 10 pounds, which so, uh, I don't tell you what I'm gonna, so I'm gonna email you. You guys can share it. If you want, I'll email, give me, I'm gonna email you guys what I actually do every day. If that's all right, sure, of course, hang on. And it's not BS, guys, it's actual stuff. Okay, I believe you.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't know if you know this about yourself, but you're not really into BS.
Speaker 2:It's not your thing. Yeah, I'm not good at it. Okay, so hold on and feel free to share. So it's just going to take me a second to uh, okay, so I'm going to email this to uh, john, yep, and if you guys want to put this, I want you to post the video and then post these two things.
Speaker 1:it's to be kind of fun actually I'm down.
Speaker 2:It's actually what I'm doing currently, right now. Yeah, uh, I give you all the details. Uh, by the way, I'm very, very Irish. My dad is French-Canadian, but there's a lot of kilt in that blood. So I have an issue with skin cancer, and that's fine, I'm good. There's no woe is me. You'll notice, there's a couple of things I do, um, to deal with, uh, like, for example, my, my skin doctor. Really, he has me taking Rogaine for this pack, this thinning patch in the back of my head, and so there's things that. And I do take metformin, but that's because, uh, when I was in the Middle East, I picked up a liver parasite, but that's because when I was in the Middle East I picked up a liver parasite, but there's nothing wrong with it.
Speaker 2:So in your email is my every supplement. I take my fasting protocol. It doesn't have my workout in there, but you'll figure it out.
Speaker 1:That's all right. There's 22 books of your workout. Everybody can find that with a little bit of work people.
Speaker 2:So it's my longevity protocol and, uh, I mean some of it. I I fast, um, so I fast friday day, so I fast from thursday evening to friday evening.
Speaker 1:I fast from sunday evening to monday evening, so I do two 24-hour fasts now do you find that, do you suffer through that, or is that I mean no, the first time, the first time you feel like you're you know, should you know you're a martyr, yeah, but then.
Speaker 2:But the thing is, I mean, before I do the fast, I I do my continuous cleaning press, some military press, some curls, and then I eat a lot of protein and then I don't eat and that big protein hit keeps me going the 24 hours. Ah, but the thing is, don't forget, in the morning my workout group comes. Those mornings I work my glutes and I walk, and then I coach and then I do, I teach original strength, and then I write books and by the time I'm done with all this stuff I do on friday and monday, those are the two busiest work days for me. By the time I get done with all that, it's time to eat yeah so, yeah, it's not bad.
Speaker 1:I love how simple all this has been. I I love how simple. The one thing I can't gloss over and we'll wrap this up at some point, but I you accidentally dropped these amazing nuggets, so let's let's back up to sauna that you briefly mentioned, because I love sauna. I love sauna. I love sauna. It is a little bit of suffering. I love sauna. Infrared traditional.
Speaker 2:I've got a. It's a wooden box. Yep, that's right in my office, it's right next to me and it's got a big heater in it. The thing is, I get it. You know, all these influencers are trying to sell you guys on all this stuff. Buy the pool, buy this. Yeah, by the way, for those of you who don't want to buy one, a hot bath for me. Actually, hot baths are harder on me than saunas. I sweat so hard, you know. Oh, so saunas are great for all kinds of things. Um, it's really good for body body composition changes and it's also just magical to help you sleep. A hot bath if you're having a hard time sleeping. So you know, grab that irish whiskey, uh, pop into a hot bath until your forehead is sweaty. Yeah, pop, and then just dry off and lay down and see what the first night. Just lay down, you know, and just don't make it a big deal. Just see if, naturally, as you cool off, you fall asleep just just see, I like it.
Speaker 1:I feel like I have dan john homework now.
Speaker 2:I have like I gotta meditate because I I sauna.
Speaker 1:I sauna for I mean, I sauna for sleep. Um, because I'm a scientist. I actually convinced my doctor to give me a constant glucose monitor and I gotta tell you, uh, sauna for me will drive my blood glucose down to a way acceptable level from any sort of high I might be experiencing. It's good for my skin, you know, it's also just, it's relaxing. Like I'm never cold plunging, I know.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:I don't care, I don't care if it's good for me, there's. You know, I pick my modalities.
Speaker 2:In one of the Wim Hof books. I have a little broader, but I read the books right through and I liked it I did. Having said that, I then found out that the heat, the body's heat, reactive proteins. Whether you're um, uh, they're the same, whether you're in a sauna or in a cold pool.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:However, you're not going to enjoy a cold pool.
Speaker 1:Nope.
Speaker 2:You know. And if say, like you know you, one of you were talking about to enjoy a cold pool, nope, you know. And if say, like you know you, one of you were talking about being in a divorce.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's me.
Speaker 2:So divorce, uh, death of a spouse, kids get sick. Do you really want to? Do you really want to stress yourself out with your recovery?
Speaker 1:I guess that you're right. I guess I don't need more misery in my life misery in my life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good, good, really good point. And and the truth is, when they every time someone tells me that all this cold plunging and body fat comp changes, yeah, this is gonna sound so rude and I'm glad my mom's with us anymore. I say it nicely but I don't see it, if you know what I'm saying. Yep, yeah, you know. Uh, saucer milk table one, you know, because I don't see it. You know, and I know it's a catty comment, but you know. Oh, you're doing all this stuff but you're still fat. You know, I don't. But with saunas, the other thing, I also like the research on saunas. The one thing I like the best is if you cold plunge and you're allowed to eat openly in a buffet setting, you eat 10 more than you normally do.
Speaker 2:Oh, I've never seen that fact, wow and then interesting, if you and if you, but if you sauna and you're, uh, you're given a, a buffet. A lot of people just go. Yeah, I'm good, I'll just have a glass of water you know or you know? Uh, because, and and if you also, if you look at the way humans have evolved around the planet, you'll get a sense that those who come from the hotter areas tend to be leaner than those who come from the coldest areas which I think intuitively just makes sense.
Speaker 2:I'm done with that yeah, and you know and and and you know it's funny because there's good reason. You know, our people, our friends up north, uh, ate a lot of like seal and stuff like that. Not a lot of vegetables, right, because seals available and vegetables aren't. So we humans are one marvels at adaption, but it's really hard to adapt to a regular size serving of french fries in in the, uh yeah, in the food court at the mall um I don't know how you're gonna do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know how well, coach john, we should probably wrap things up. We've held you up long enough for sure. Um well, let's do it. Yeah, I, I'd love you know, I here here's. Here's what I'd love to do. I would love to apply some of the things I just learned from you and come back and give you sort of a book report on how my life went.
Speaker 2:Well, you have. So in the thing I sent you, I give you my Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday schedule. Just make sure you scroll all the way down that email. Okay, but I also give you every pill I take. I give you every supplement I take. I give you everything, everything, and there's no lie. I start every day with sugar-free orange-flavored Metamucil. I take four creatine tablets to get me gummies. That gets me to five grams. That's how I start my day, and then after that I drink way too much coffee.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know in the grand scheme of vices that that I don't even think. That rep for you registers as a vice.
Speaker 2:So right, but just just keep, when you look through it, you'll, you'll come up with a few ideas and hopefully, well, great.
Speaker 1:No thanks, hey before, before I let you go, why don't you tell our four, four listeners how they can find you, where they should reach out to learn more of the things that we forgot to cover?
Speaker 2:Well, could you share my podcast address?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And then Dan John University Tell you what. They'll all get a discounted membership Type in E-S-P-E-N and they get a big discount Cool.
Speaker 1:The Wandering Waits newsletter. That's still a thing I actually I accidentally read sword in a stone because of your uh newsletter who else would write a quarter of a million words about a book? Yeah, you know I gotta tell you I always you know that's that's how I. That's the last question I want to ask you why did you transcribe a book that I then read through your newsletter? I mean thank you for it, but what was the motivation behind that?
Speaker 2:Somebody told me the best way to learn to write better was to literally copy another work. And then I did that and then I thought well, if I were to do it, I might as well make commentaries about every single line.
Speaker 1:And it was great. It a great journey and I'm glad I was on there for it. Uh, coach john, on behalf of my friend scott, my name is john, my name is scott still, and uh, thanks for your time, coach. Thank you very much bye guys, good night bye, bye.
Speaker 1: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.