The Masters Athlete Survival Guide

Adriane Wilson On Mobility, Masters Strength, and Celebrating the Warrior Games

• John Katalinas and Scott Fike • Episode 41

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Adriane Wilson joins us to show how daily mobility, honest intensity, and smart recovery keep a world-class thrower competitive as a masters athlete. We unpack her one-hour training template, nutrition resets, and the lessons she brings from coaching the Warrior Games.

• Adrian’s path from collegiate throws to Highland Games world titles
• Why twenty minutes of mobility anchors a one-hour session
• Simple warm-up primers that raise heart rate and pattern the lift
• Managing a “spicy” hip with blocks, variations and RPE
• Season planning for strength early, speed late
• Compression, massage, sleep and hydration as recovery pillars
• Food triggers, alcohol and honest macro tracking
• Underfueling risks for masters athletes
• Coaching adaptive athletes and seated throws at Warrior Games
• How to get involved with adaptive sport and resources

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New episodes come out every other Thursday!

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Masters Athlete Survival Guide, where we explore the secrets to thriving in sports after 40. I'm John Catalinus, and along with Scott Fike, we'll dive into training tips, nutrition hacks, and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes who defy age list. 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. I am John. And I'm still Scott. Hey Scott, guess what? Chicken butt.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, Jesus Christ. Chicken thigh? Chicken thigh. Oh, that's you know. Oh, I love our guest already.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, I was gonna get into oh, we have a guest, and she's so special, and it's Adrian Wilson, and yay, Adrian, but it went sideways right out of the box. Shocker. Wow. Okay, so we have a guest. It is Adrian Wilson. Hi, Adrian. Hi, Adrian.

SPEAKER_04:

Hi, John. Hi, Scott.

SPEAKER_01:

How have you been?

SPEAKER_04:

I'm pretty good, thanks. How about yourself?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think I've seen you like for realsies since like a Chad Clark Highland game forever. I think you're right. Yeah. Long time. That's your fault, not mine. Disagreeing with you. That's true. Okay, fair enough.

SPEAKER_00:

Mark that down.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Um Adrian, before I start like building you up on putting it on a pedestal, could you want to introduce yourself a little bit?

SPEAKER_04:

Alrighty. I'm Adrian Wilson. I'm originally from Ohio. I oh Ohio. Ohio. I currently live in South Carolina. Um, I do all the things. I like to lift the stuff. I like to throw the stuff. I like to tell other people how to lift the stuff and throw the stuff. Um I do enjoy traveling. I have a cat named Honey Bun and a shared dog named Bruno. Um gosh, I just loving life and doing the things.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, well, Adrian, let me jump in before John ruins this whole thing. Basically. So from what John tells me, and you and I have never met, from what John tells me, you are very, very good at lifting the stuff and throwing the stuff. So when so when you tell people they should be listening to you. So it's the exact antithesis of John. Hey. John just likes telling people what to do, but he sucks at it.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow. But if you can't do you keep on fine.

SPEAKER_04:

But John surrounds himself with some very, very smart people. Yeah. And I'm sure he learned a lot.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'm just good by association. That's all it is. So Adrian had like, I don't know, 37 all-Americans in Division II throwing stuff. And I think she was Highland Game World Champion like 27 times or stuff like that. And that's blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_04:

Not entirely accurate, but we're close.

SPEAKER_01:

Whatever.

SPEAKER_00:

It was 29, John, not 27.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, it was 13 time all-American. Uh Division II.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, see, I would have said 12. So there you go.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, the 13 13's my number.

SPEAKER_01:

Sorry about that last time.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, that's all right. Well, that's quite right. And then I just earned my eighth world title. So uh five as a as a elite lady, and then three as a master athlete.

SPEAKER_01:

That is awesome. Here's Scott, I'll throw you this one. Adrian, did you did you go to were you uh masters when uh it was in Iceland? Did you go to Iceland?

SPEAKER_04:

No, I did not. Uh I was I didn't turn 40 until 2028.

SPEAKER_00:

Go ahead and tell her, John.

SPEAKER_01:

No, the reason why because Scott and I want to lift the Housafell stone, and uh that's the goal for summer of 2026. We'll see. Okay. We'll see. But I'm surrounding now I'm surrounding myself with people like the lift rocks in weird countries. Yeah, that's a thing.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, they just announced at Worlds that next year in 2026 it will be in the Netherlands. So you might have to do a little uh a little European tour. Side trip.

SPEAKER_01:

That's cool. Sidebar. Go go see my friend Viva in Friesland. I love that guy. He's the best. Um, the real reason that Adrian Wilson exists on this hearse, though, is her pictures of her and her dog.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, me and the Bruno.

SPEAKER_04:

I'll tell you, that's my favorite time of day. We go for our walks and we do our little team photos.

SPEAKER_01:

It's super fun. There are pictures of her in her car mimicking her dog's like current, I don't know, face. I guess it's oh tell me you're one of those reels. It's my favorite thing. It is absolutely my favorite.

SPEAKER_04:

I should make a really long reel because I have an absurd amount of photos of me and Bruno.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it is absolutely my favorite thing. Doggos are the best. Yeah, that's but I don't know. I don't know. Like, do you take 4,000 of them and reject 3,000 of them?

SPEAKER_03:

Because no, I'll probably I'll probably do you know 10 or 12.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, because you you nail your dog's personality on your own face.

SPEAKER_04:

He's my biological dog. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice.

SPEAKER_04:

So he makes me smile every day.

SPEAKER_01:

It's it's fun. My origin story with Adrian. Let's see, I'm probably gonna get this a little jumbled, but two things happened. One thing is Facebook happened, three things. Facebook happened, um and I had I had met Adrian through Charles and went to Ashland where she went to school and through with that group and learned learned a ton. But after that, um she sent me a random note one day like, oh, aren't you in Buffalo? Uh Buddy Morris is is coaching in Buffalo. You should hook up with him.

SPEAKER_00:

Isn't he the strength coach for the strength NFL team?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, for Arizona Cardinals. And so I spent uh over a year training-ish with him. Man, did I learn all the things? All the things, and everything I thought was wrong. I walked in there, I mean that that was sort of the heyday of my Highland Games thing, you know, big fat 300-pound John Strong. Huge cat. That hasn't changed, but be careful with the big fat 300-pound comments. And and Buddy has me doing like bear crawls and wall sits, and I'm like, this is this is so low level. And I would walk out of there like, I'm dying. Uh-huh. And then he'd be I'd be like, Oh, tell me these new techniques, and he'd whip out these 1975 reprints of Soviet training methods. He goes, They figured things out in the 70s. You don't don't pay attention. Just do this, just do this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, doesn't it sound like a lot of our training now?

SPEAKER_01:

That's I I that's see, see Adrian's in my origin story. And then, and I don't know if I should like be happy or sad. She put she put a picture up once. I don't even know what games it was. She won a shield. Cool. No, that was um Oh, you remember? Uh Livonia. Was Lavonia know it? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, it was a Michigan game.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Yeah, yeah. It might there was a big ish game up there with those guys. I like those Michigan games. Oh, wait, Clean. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_04:

It was Celine, Michigan.

SPEAKER_01:

That's what it was. Yeah, I like those guys. Um, but yeah, she posts with a shield. And my comment is Ooh, there's a sport where you can win like swords and shields. I should do that. And then there was like three years where I didn't win anything, and that was my thing for a while.

SPEAKER_00:

And then I've spent a lot of miles on the road with you. I've heard you whine and cry and moan about how long it took you to the internet knows about it too. Yeah. Yeah. And and uh Oh, I don't know you. I love you. Just keep beating on John, please.

SPEAKER_01:

So if you sit if you were sitting in the studio right now, let's see. One, two, three, there's four swords in this room. Because, you know, at some point you start hoarding them. It's because he bought three of them. So officially, Adrian, uh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being part of my origin story.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I'm glad.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. So when I messaged you about being on the podcast, I sort of told you we were gonna like zip through your Highland stuff, which is amazing. And I don't mean to discount it. You are probably one of the like Hall of Fame-ish. Is there such a thing as a Hall of Fame? There's a Hall of Fame, yeah. Well, then you're in. Um when it comes to Highlands, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Still still stuff I need to do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, you were a great collegiate thrower and uh an all-around nice person, but and uh and your dog's kind of awesome too. But but two things of interest to people that I think the the seven people in the Faroe Islands that listen to this number one on the Faroe Islands. I know that's us. Um not number one with Cheetos, though. You do you post a ton of videos doing mobility work? Yep. What what what up with that? I mean, I'm proud of you, but like tell me a little bit about your training because it you put up a volume of mobility work. I do.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, uh it all started when my body started to revolt. So I've been involved in sport all my life, you know, growing up with softball, swimming, it was uh golf and all sorts of fun stuff. So when I got to high school, I started focusing a little more on softball and then track and field. Um the throwing part, of course, and fast forward, track and field, the field part, throwing that was my jam. And I had a brilliant coach in college, Lee Jud Lin. And an incredible experience. I I learned you know, just how to train, how to train at a certain level, how to raise that level, how to, you know, surpass your expectations because that training group and that coach um just opened so many doors to just what I could be. And I'm I'm just I'm so grateful for that experience and the people I got to share that with. That um you know, athletics was just my thing. I I really connected with you know the training and and you know how tough it is to focus your life around just something physical that you throw a shot, you throw a ball, you know, and you do the resistance, and you spend your entire day focusing around centimeters, you know, and and um it's it's a lifestyle that not a lot of people can relate to. But when you find that that little group of people who know, um you stick with it. So I stuck with it. Uh had a a great career in college and then um a pretty pretty successful career out of college, you know, considering um didn't quite make the Olympic team, but I found you know, this other group of amazing individuals in the Highland Games. And I could still continue to train like a shot putter with eight more events instead of just an open stone. So um that that just opened my eyes to just more sport and more travel, more more people, more more learning. And uh my body you know started saying this is this is a lot of uh a lot of internal rotation and hip extension. This is a lot of you know like this similar movements and uh for years and years and years that um I started to realize that I'm not 23 anymore. Oh, I'm 30 anymore. Um I had my first major surgery at 33 is when I I blew up my ACL throwing in Scotland, throwing the weight for distance. I just got up uh too close to the trig. I rotated into the trig. I threw the throw. I was like, ooh, that was a pinch. So that was it. That was how I blew out my ACL. So what is it?

SPEAKER_01:

What is it like traveling back from Scotland? I'm assuming you didn't get a fix there. So what what No sir? What's it like traveling broken? Oh my god that's one of my that's one of my fears. Like I just shivered.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, fortunately for me, um, I just had a lot of like knee instability. So I but I just walked very straight and very deliberate. I was okay. Um, but I mean unfortunately I missed out on you know going to check out the Dinny Stones. I mean I went, but I couldn't like lift anything. So I was just you know, pretty pretty bummed about that. But um that's when I found some incredible physical therapists in South Carolina. So um Jim Floyd and then at the um was at the time with uh Brandon Vaughn and this is 20, let's see, 2013. Oh my god. So a long, long time ago. Dark dark ages. I know, I know. And um, I had some like minor back issues when I was younger, and it was just you know, spawn all the things that you have, L3, L4. I was always, you know, jacked, and I went through some physical therapy and then poof was back to throwing because I was young enough I could do that. I am now in my early 30s. I can't just be bop back onto the field or just get back into the gym. So um I was just really fortunate that I I got involved with um this group of uh physical therapists and just started learning.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

Because I wanted to get back to throwing as quickly as possible. They wanted me to get there as safely and as smartly as possible.

SPEAKER_01:

Both those things usually don't go together. I mean we we know all sorts of athletes that's like uh I'll just take some aspirin, I'll be fine.

SPEAKER_04:

Mm-hmm. Yep. But I mean, as as disciplined as I was for my sport, I I applied that to my physical therapy. I I didn't blow it off. If they said, okay, we need to do this three times a day, this, this, and this, I did it. And lo and behold, it worked. And so over the years, as as I was um getting more competitive in the Highland Games and competing more and having more demanding schedule, that yeah, you know, I I couldn't keep up with you know the strength training that I was used to. And so that would be dialed back a little bit. And then I realized I needed to do more mobility work. And um I would actually I didn't necessarily have an injury, but I would do just at the beginning of the year, just a little check-in, like, hey, I'm I'm I'm feeling a little off here. Go see the PT, go see Brandon. And he would say, Okay, well, let's let's work on X, Y, and Z. And just kind of do like a once over. So um I do recommend that to people that you know, you don't necessarily have to have a doctor's well in South Carolina, you don't necessarily have to have a doctor's script to go to a PT office. Um, it might be like challenging for you if you don't have one, but you can do it, um, especially if you have if you're an existing patient anyway. But um, so I mean, take advantage of your PTs. They are brilliant, they go to school a long time to get you right, you know. And a lot of times if you do have an acute injury, you'll get in to see the PT faster than you will the Northho, and they're just gonna send you to PT anyway. So skip that step to go see your PT. That's that's what I'm gonna tell my all my master's athletes. Nice.

SPEAKER_01:

No, that that that's absolutely, you know, I think if if if you had to have captions under your uh athletic prowess, I I could just see you like in like a big box gym next to a couple bros doing 600-pound like you know, bench press, you know, terribly bouncing for for two reps. And I know you'd be doing some banded hip thing that they would be like, yeah, God, who is this girl? And why why why does she bother? She can't be she can't be a good athlete.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So I mean that that really is. I I again I really wanted to highlight the fact that you you just you really I see you, and I'm you know, I'm assuming you do more than you videotape. If not, you're either. I do, actually.

SPEAKER_04:

If you you're more narcissistic, I'll have an hour. Yeah, if I have an hour to train, at least 20 minutes of this is just me my mobility and just focusing on my my biggest issue is I have a spicy right hip. Um I had a repair a few years ago. The repair was great. So labor repair had some um uh bone spurs and that sort of jazz. So all that was taken care of. Healing was great, PT was great, um, and I was ready to go within six months of having the repair. Um it's just that over time the arthritis has just been up really quickly. And so I'm just dealing with a lot of arthritis in this right hip. And I've had images saying, wow, you're ready for a replacement. But I don't want that. I'm only 45 right now.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice. Welcome to Masters. This is what we do. We talk about what we're gonna get replaced, what meds we're on. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

You know, and it's so I found that if I'm diligent with this mobility work, if I do it, even if it's you know five minutes on a day that I'm not planning on training, I still have to do it. I still have to sit down, do my little 90-90s, I still have to maybe do a standing hip card or you know, just all these just normal things that it doesn't really take a whole lot of time. I just do it. And um I think that's just wrapping my mind around that that that's an everyday thing is why I can still manage hang and bang with the kids.

SPEAKER_00:

Hang and bang with the kids. Creating those hands is so important. I mean, they're because you know you do it when you're 30, you do it when you're forties, when you get to be 50, 60, 70 years old, it's gonna pay even more dividends. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So I also had the fortunate uh position that I was uh at the time I was coaching full time at the gym. So I was at the gym all day long. I was also demonstrating these things to my clients, and so I would demonstrate and then well, I'll just spend a shot of set. So throughout the day, I'm doing all this mobility that you know most people do not have the time or space or you know, equipment to have, you know, ready to go all day. So um now I actually I I do have a different job. I'm I work from home um as a contractor, but I still work in the gym and come nights a week. So I'm I'm still at home and you know, I'll get down on the carpet and just do some some easy stuff while I'm waiting for you know calls and meetings and stuff. But um yeah, it's it's just it's now an everyday thing and it has to be. I'm I make it a priority.

SPEAKER_01:

So, Scott, when you if you want to be world champion, apparently what you need to do is all the work all the time.

SPEAKER_00:

All the work all the time. Okay, if that's the world champion level, yeah, I'm gonna take that step back and I'll just go with a national level. Okay, fair enough.

SPEAKER_04:

National level, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_04:

Then you just take some ideas with him before you train. There you go. That's national level.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

See, with John, I mean, John and I have been working. No, are we insulting John through this whole thing? You need to be quiet because I'm about to compliment you. Oh, never mind. It's that time of year again, folks. That's right. Christmas presents are gonna be coming, so I gotta make sure that my uh my buddy here gets me something decent instead of the cold that I usually get. We've been working out for what, but four or five years together now, something like that. Something like that. And it's funny because when when we go back and forth with planning the workouts, inevitably, John, when we first started, introduced some very simple mobility stuff, and now we find that we're doing it more and more. And as we're getting older, it's like, ow, you know, okay. And we just came back from a competition last week, and I'm walking around doing one exercise trying to get it so my other shoulder will work, and it's mobility stuff. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I now did you did you invent what I see you do on the internet as far as mobility, or did is that from your PT?

SPEAKER_04:

Like that's all from Brandon Vaughn. So there's some things I'll pick up here and there, and then and the internet in the old Instagram and all that fun stuff, it does provide a really good avenue to get information. Sometimes it's just not applicable to people. Like it's not exactly what they needed, but I love there's so much stuff out there that if you can just hashtag uh internal rotation of the hip, you know, that you'll find a whole bunch of stuff that is is really good. Some things a little bit more advanced, some things are really basic, but the availability is there. And sometimes just you know, maybe you need some guidance just to apply it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the problem you're what exactly you're supposed to be feeling. The problem I see with the uh the the the more casual athletes that approach me, um it's hard to filter because there is some crap out there too, right? I mean, just just because I'm doing something with a band doesn't mean it's helpful. Um so you you coach. This this just popped into my head because this is like an issue. Like, I I never I never coached in this modern era of all this information. Do do people that you're coaching come to you and say, like, hey, I saw this on the internet, why aren't we doing this? Like, do you have to coach kind of against the all of Instagram and Snapchat?

SPEAKER_04:

And well, I want to make sure I have a conversation about it. Like, why do you think this is good? Yeah, how is this gonna benefit you? And then if they have a vow reason, like, let's talk about it, let's try it. Yeah, see how you feel about it. And uh, because I don't know everything, I'm I know I don't. There are a ton of people who are way smarter than me. But you know, I've I won't program something for somebody I haven't done myself. Okay. Um I I'm that's why they never get burpees. I don't like burpees. But as far as mobility, like it there has to be a purpose. And if it's if it's just really fun to see, or like, wow, that looks really impressive. I want to learn how to do that. I'm like, well, can can you tell me the purpose and how that's gonna help? If they have a good reason, then for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's let's work it out. But yeah, like Scott and I just did a strongman where they did the one-sided loaded deadlift.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01:

Um and it's fun, it's a gimmick, right? I've I've seen I've seen videos of them doing them, you know, people trying to deadlift it normal and not be able to lift it. So we we figured out how to do it. But I gotta tell you, I've spent the last four days being really nice to my back because it was it it it tore me up a little bit.

SPEAKER_00:

It wasn't progressive overload, it was overload shock. Overload. Yeah, and everybody had to do it, you know, it wasn't like you could turn and deadlift it from the different side, everybody had to do it on the same side, and it just beat people up.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So and it looked, but see that what made me my brain go there is that it looked cool. It looked really cool, and it was a cool challenge, and it was very interesting. But given my druthers, um I might not want to try that. Easy crampamos. I know, right? My druthers? Hey, we're all masters of athletes here now. We we can use old timey speak. Yeah, I know. Jesus. I know. So uh did I catch you say that like if you had an hour, you'd do like 20 minutes of mobility? 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So I might have time for 20 minutes of the mobility, and then the next eight to ten minutes is is uh usually like some type of mini circuit of just high reps of low weight. Um I get that from uh Matt Wenning. So um, and it's just a modified version just because again, I'm running out of time. So four sets of 25, I might do three sets of 20. You know, it's something that's just the heart rate that's similar to the motion I'm gonna do that day. So if it's like today I squatted, um I did um a little leg extension for 20 reps, I did a goblet squat for 20 reps, and then I did um some lateral locks with a band. So that was my warm-up to get ready for front squats. And so I did all that, I did my front squats, and I had just enough time to do some single leg work and some reverse hyper, and I was done. So it's it's not rocket science, and then but the mobility part that was 20 minutes of really intense, like and and well, every every motion had intent. And that's where I I really focus a lot of my work and and uh make sure that I'm I'm ready to go for the for the day.

SPEAKER_00:

I sorry about talking over you there. I think one of the things that you hit on that John and I don't really uh pound enough in in this podcast is that it's an hour, it doesn't have to be two hours, seven days a week or five days a week. If you put a solid hour in and it's a dedicated, like something is planned, you know, in and like you just said, you are doing mobility work, then you are basically flushing the muscles with those three sets of 20, four sets of twenty, and then looking at what you're trying to do, you can get a lot done, and it can really yield some incredible results with what you're trying to do.

SPEAKER_04:

And again, it took me years to figure this out. Yeah, and also help that I I do I used to train or I still train a lot of general population people who aren't athletes, they they don't know how to um you know identify certain muscles in their body when they're trying to move, they they just move, you know, and so to kind of break it down for them like, well, I want you to feel this first and this first and this first. Let's let's find the sequence. So, you know, and they uh it it helps my training because I have to break it down for somebody else, and then I can really focus on what I'm doing too. Um, so training in the general population was really helpful for my training because I had to really figure out what I was trying to say to them and it helped me further understand the movements.

SPEAKER_01:

That is super impressive to me because again, one of the first times I ever saw you train was in the Ashland lock or in in the Ashland weight room with uh Coach Logan. And uh I don't know what the opposite of sitting on the couch eating Cheetos is, but I'm pretty damn sure that day was it because Well, I'm a salt and vinegar chip kind of guy.

SPEAKER_04:

So perfect.

SPEAKER_01:

Perfect. There you go. But I mean you you grew up like with intensity as your middle name. I mean, the the that workout that that Coach Logan programmed for uh we mortals that day was uh quite something.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, now that we're masters athletes, I mean that's also another reason why 20 minutes of mobility is important because then I have 40 minutes and that's usually the max. Like after that, I'm done. Like I'm uh either the hip's too spicy or you know, I just I I know I have to move on to something else. And maybe it's some stretching, maybe it's you know, that's that's what it is, or else I have to go. You know, you know, life gets busy too, and I reserved an hour, I got an hour. I'm gonna make that hour work.

SPEAKER_01:

So, I mean, again, you're a high-level athlete. I think I've uh given you kudos enough that I can make fun of you now. No, we can give more kudos. Okay, more no good.

SPEAKER_02:

I need a little more.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, here they come. So here they come. Um with that 40 minutes in the gym at as a very high-level master's athlete. Good job. Are you are you building strength? Are you hanging on with both hands, sis strength? Are you are you addressing form imbalances, form, weaknesses? What what's your mentality in the gym?

SPEAKER_04:

Um, I love my big lifts. So I I like my squats, I like my bench, I like my overhead, I like my deadlift. So um my Olympic lifts are um mixed in with my my deadlift. So the hinge part, that's my spicy. I have a hard time with the hinge pattern just because that's that irritates my hip the most. So I have to always pull from blocks, um, and I I um have to do a lot of modifications, even like some fast hip extension and any type of Olympic lifts. I it's I feel the next day right away. So um I like to move like an athlete. Nice. So I I try to reserve either either like early in the week might be just all strength stuff, and then later in the week's gonna be speed stuff. Um I do check my imbalances. I know that this right side um it's it's not as strong as a single leg thing, so I might do an extra set on right side if you know it's pain tolerant. You know, it's it's um I I know what I need to do. It just depends on the day. Sometimes I have to I get to the gym, I start my mobile and like, nope, it's not gonna happen today. It's an up body day. So I have to be ready in my brain to to switch the script and and go overhead or I do a pressing, or um maybe I just do some menthol work. You know, so um I I like to be flexible, but again, I I manage to get in the gym four days a week, sometimes five. And again, it's it's not like crushing two hours five days a week. It's it might be at most 40 minutes of strength training. And that's what I I get out of it. So I think that everything's so condensed with the main lift and then maybe two or three uh you know, auxiliary or you know, accessories that it just kind of fills in the gaps where I can do the mobility, do the main lift, fill in the gaps. That's what I can tolerate.

SPEAKER_00:

You said you know, four or five days a week. How many of those days are you going heavy versus you know, you're sort of building those ancillaries around and you do a little bit of heavy?

SPEAKER_04:

My main lift, I usually, you know, I push it to a you know you know, uh I'm gonna do RPE scales like like seven or eight. I'm I'm really trying. I wanna I wanna maximize what I got that day.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

So you know, today I had um 115 on the bar for a front squat, but I had 80 pounds of change. So that's that's the most I've done in a while because I'm at the end of the season. I'm not trying to lift real heavy here, I'm trying to move it fast. Um so it's it just depends on where I'm in the season and what my intent is. Uh so today was it was probably the higher intense work I've had in a while because I've been competing on the weekends and this weekend I have off. So I'm just gonna just gonna throw tomorrow and Sunday and just you know, fine-tune for my last game coming up. Um it's gonna be a fun game. So I'm I'm I'm not doing a lot of work in the this is kind of like the I just like to move. I like to feel like I did some work in the gym at this point of the season. So I'll I'll tell revamp things in the next couple weeks when I switch to off season training where it's it's the let's see how sore you can be in that volume, you know, kind of deal. But for now, I'm I'm trying to move like an athlete and just try to try to just draw it up just a little bit more. Do I have do I have one more left in the barrel? You know, do I have one more good game to to maximize it? But we'll find out.

SPEAKER_00:

So you you've been talking about you know how you sort of judge where you are in the season. Sometimes it's working those speed accelerations. You've also talked about some of the injuries you've had with your knee and how you're, you know, you're calling it spicy. I call it wonky. The the hips are giving you a hard time. Talk to us a little bit about recovery.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you what do you think about it?

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, of course. I I'm fortunate again at at the gym I have um like a normotex, so that's that compression boots of just air that just helps flush out you know inflammation there. Oh, do those work?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't mean to I No, I I believe they do. Do you?

SPEAKER_04:

I feel really good after I do a normal check. Like I'll sit in there for half an hour just like, oh I need to get out of these, but they feel so nice. It's just that it's I covet it. If you don't have access to like a lot of soft tissue work with a good massage therapist or whatever, it's it's it's a really nice alternative. It's expensive, but I mean it's really nice to have if you have access to that. But um, I will see a massage therapist maybe once a month, maybe every six weeks, depending on my schedule. Um I do drink a lot of water. Um I I eat relatively clean. I probably could eat a little bit more right now because I'm not really eating a whole lot. Um just again, I'm I'm I'm not pushing myself a lot in the weight room, so I'm not really my body's not really demanding a lot of calories, but um getting decent sleep. Um that's recovery stuff. Yeah, uh I like to walk, so I'll take walks. That's that's part of my recovery, and you know, yeah, with the favorite time of day.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice.

SPEAKER_00:

How about supplements?

SPEAKER_04:

Oh I'm not really good at that.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's okay. That's okay.

SPEAKER_04:

A lot of my recovery when I talk about eat from fairly clean is that I know that my body does not care for gluten. So um I'm not I'm not like silly X or anything like that. I just know I have a sensitivity. If I have pizza, it's amazing. I love it. Next day, my joints are super angry. Um, so I I do like swell up. If I have a ring on, then it's hard to get the ring off, you know, that sort of stuff. So I know that I just feel better when I don't eat it. And the same thing with alcohol. If I if I enjoy a beverage or two next day, I I will I have really terrible sleep too. Um I have a Garmin wash and it tracks my sleep. If I have one drink, like my sleep is terrible. Yeah, um, it's really low quality and I'm like restless. So um I don't drink that often. Um, but if I do like a margarita or anything with I do like the dark liquors.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, I guess you do know John well then, don't you? Yeah, I got a lot of brown water. He's got a whole shelf of brown water over here in the studio.

SPEAKER_04:

So that'll be my beverage of choice, but I'll pay for it. And so during the season, I don't I don't try I try not to eat a lot of bread um and any type of like um, you know, that sort of stuff. But um that's wise. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you do you get do you get hung up on your macros? Like do you are you that are you just eat like a like a normal human adult or do you like Um there was a period of time where I was really trying to focus on just narrowing it down because I had you know I had a body weight you know I wanted to be 175 and I was always like stuck at 170.

SPEAKER_04:

Like, what can I do to just get a little bit more mass? It's gonna be I just need more calories. So I determined that I needed to have uh 2,900 calories to maintain my 174 or whatever it was, and I had to be 3100 calories to get up to that 178 or whatever I was I was shooting for. So um I was diligent with my fitness pal and you know following it up and and just seeing if I how it actually works. And it's it's numbers and it's science. You know, it's if you follow the numbers, it's gonna produce what you want, as long as you're just being consistent with it. And I was pretty honest with myself when I was, you know, hit my numbers and when I wasn't. And um, so that was really eye-opening for me. Just I mean, I I hate saying it this way, but it is it's simple, it's uh just it's just math. And but the application of it and the execution of it is really challenging because you have to have those four meals a day just prepped, just right. And it was a lot of work, but it worked. Um and so yes, uh like I haven't I haven't checked on my methods in a couple years now, but uh I I know that I like I like my chicken, like rolled chicken with uh snap peas, and maybe I'll have a piece of fruit for lunch. Um I'll have a practice too, but um I I do best when I have four smaller meals.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah. John gives me grief for being OCD, but that's where being OCD pays off, is when you're trying to, you know, that that sort of stick to itiveness. You're right. Math is math. Math is math. Math is math.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's the okay, I've weighed this out. This is what I'm eating. It's not, oh, I'm gonna taste that, put your finger in something and you taste it. Well, you just tasted 450 calories there, guy. Right. You know, those are the calories that people don't think about.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think I think uh around through my fitness panel, I think most of us have done that, and I think it's a really good learning tool. I don't think I don't think you have to be bridled to it forever, but it it is nice to go through for a while and get a sense of oh, I could do that, but if I do that, like, oh look, I can have one meal a day if I eat like that. Yeah, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And it was it's really I'm opening when I would make suggestions to clients about their food because I'm not a I'm not a nutritionist, not a dietitian, but just like here's a suggestion. Actually, just track your food for three days, lay it out if you if you have a scale and see how little you're actually eating, why you feel crummy, why you're not recovering, you just don't have enough fuel. So um I think it's very valuable to actually have a you know four-week period where you are really consistent with checking in what you're eating and and logging in and so you can see your patterns. And maybe your pattern is that uh you do pretty well through the week, but on the weekends, oh I kind of skipped lunch because we were out running errands and then I had really big dinner. Uh, but that time frame between that breakfast and that dinner was just kind of long. So your body had to do some other way to get the energy for the day. You know, then there's the science part of it. Um, but it was eye-opening for some clients that they're like, wow, I'm really just not eating enough. No wonder it's it's really hard for me to feel muscle or burn fat, you know, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you know, it's funny, you're like the third guest we've had that has touched upon something that I think isn't spoken enough is the underfueling. Like we had we had a we had a legit nutritionist who has a background in like those hundred miler runs and oh dietricians, yeah. And um she pretty much called Scott out that he probably wasn't eating enough consistently, or enough carbs, yeah. Like like uh like like you said, I skipped lunch, I'll I'll make up for it at dinner. True.

SPEAKER_04:

There is a metabolic impact to that, apparently, as opposed to you might get all your calories in for the day, but it's just it wasn't spread out in a way that was optimal for your body. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I agree. Okay, so you're a great athlete. I like that she told me I can eat more. Oh, yeah, I know, right?

SPEAKER_04:

I would like with someone to tell me eat more. I'd love to eat more.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, she's hassling. Apparently, you've never eaten with well, you may have had you know a meal with John, but she's been around Highland Games for years.

SPEAKER_01:

She's seen us. Yeah, it may not be you and I, but she's seen us.

SPEAKER_00:

I will order two dinners. All right, Adrian, I'm sorry. I told John I'd never tell this story again. Oh god, what is this? So we were going to the Arnold two, maybe three years ago, whatever it was, and John's gonna cut weight. Oh, yeah, yeah. John's gonna cut weight. John doesn't do anything in moderation. Okay, I'm sure you know this. So we're driving to Columbus and we pulled off uh where was that uh that steak place we ate? Uh Texas Roadhouse. Yeah, so we ate it at Texas Roadhouse.

SPEAKER_01:

So Willoughby Willoughby Hills, Ohio. Everybody knows where it is. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So the guy that we went with and myself, we order steak and we get broccoli, and you know, I mean, a relatively good meal for an athlete. John says, Can I have water? Guy goes, Would you like lemon? He goes, as many lemons as you can. Guy came out with like 16 lemons cut into wedges on this thing. All right, so that's the start. We get there the night before he can weigh in. He's like in his room crying as he's like licking a gum wrapper trying to get you know something. So we go, we weigh in the next day. He's got a his weight is 110, uh, 110 kilos, so 242 point, you know, a snot. Yeah. He weighs in. He weighed in at like 230. Oh, yeah. Okay, he was so badly missed his cut. But when we're walking in, remember the old school gym duffel bags from like the 80s, like the barrel-looking thing. Like the barrel-looking thing. He opens this up. God is my witness, there had to have been 25,000 calories in there. There might have been. It was nutty buddies and fruit loop bars and like those big sticky buns that are the size of 16-inch softballs. Yeah, so John does not need somebody to tell him to eat more.

SPEAKER_01:

The moral of the story, people, is I put on 23 pounds in about an hour and a half. Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

We had to roll John down. We got him to the escalator. We just like put our foot on top of him so we didn't roll down.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, there's another moral to the story. Apparently, John is really bad at cutting weight.

SPEAKER_00:

Just we got a buddy that asked him because we're going to Nationals next year. And the buddy says, Well, I gotta lose five pounds so I can make the 220 class. And John, John's like, I can help you. I'm like, no, no, I cannot. Don't listen to the case. Anyone not to do?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. No, I cannot. Whatever he says, do the opposite. It was adventure. Before we move on to the next question I want to ask Adrian. Scott, I need you to know that Adrian went to college in Ashland, Ohio.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Ashland, Ohio is the exit of Grandpa's Cheese Park.

SPEAKER_00:

There you go. Oh, that is like when we're driving down, we always make sure that we stop there. When we leave, there are like gobs of cheese and meat sticks. Saturated meat byproduct sticks. Yeah. Pete like got picked crunchy wasabi pee wasabi beans. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my god. Yeah. It's funny. It's definitely like the adult version of kids in a candy store. But about 10 minutes later, the car that we're in driving is not the most awful. Aromatically pleasant. Awful. God bless Grandpa's cheese burn. Okay, moving on. I had to I just had to mention it because she basically lived in the center of the universe. Um I have questions. The Warrior Games. That's where I was hoping you were gonna get. Yeah, thank you. Again, apparently I cyberstalk you more than I realized. Shocker. Can you tell me about the Warrior Games and your involvement with them?

unknown:

Please.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes. So for many years, um I was involved um in the Warrior Games as a coach. So the Warrior Games is uh Department of Defense, they have um it's a Paralympic style event for all the U.S. services to put a team together of um soldiers who are in their in their recovery. So maybe it's um um a training accident where they had they blew out their ACL and they had to go to their warrior care battalion, their SRU, their soldier recovery unit, whatever, that they are they're not fit to do their active duty job. So until they finish their rehab, whatever they need to do to get back to active duty, they are qualified to compete in what's called the warrior games. So any of these soldiers will have to go through their particular service, Army, Navy, um, Air Force, Marines, um, now speech force as well, um, and um SOCOM as well. But they go through their services to make this team. Now um all the sports and the warrior games are adapted. So instead of stand-up volley volleyball, you have the sitting volleyball. Um track and field, we have adapted um as as well to be a seated thrower or standing thrower. Um instead of an ambulatory runner, you can be ambulatory or you could be in a race wheelchair, racer chair. So um there's shooting, there's archery, there's swimming, um, there's um wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby. Uh they uh have introduced uh all sorts of sports in to to be involved. It's been a ton of fun. I first was involved in 2016, it was the first year I coached, and it was just super eye-opening for me because I've coached at the university level and you know, personal coaching and and privately with the high school kids. But when I got into the Paralympic style, like it was just so fun because then you yourself as the coach, you have to think outside the box. Because when you're trying to tell an athlete who is in the amputee who has prosthetic, all right, I want you to turn the right foot and push through your toes, and they don't have that. You have to figure out a way. I want you to feel pressure on your your inner thigh, I want you to fire your quad, I want your your glutes to fire. You you have to you know speak to them in a different language, basically, with a different verbiage, so they understand how to modify or how to move their body um in different ways. And learning how to to coach the seated throws, it's so hard to throw from a chair. And when I say chair, it's it's actually um it's um they call it a throwing frame where it's uh a very tall stool with this uh rectangular or square top, so they they just sit on top. This uh this chair is staked to the ground with some ratchet straps and make sure you it's very, very stable. And then you're gonna be you're gonna be a velcro to this chair, so you don't go anywhere. Um and you only have your upper body and torso to throw the implement. Very, very difficult because you don't have your legs, and that's just one way that they even the field um for all the participants who are what they call classified based on their their um their injury.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah. See, I I I've been I am amazed by those people. My last uh Masters Track and Field Nationals was in uh Chicago, and there was one adaptive shop putter, so they put him in with us, the old guys. And nicest human being on earth, right? You know, just both driven and humble all at once. And and he had he had uh I think he'd lost his right arm. I don't even think he had a prosthetic, he just didn't have a right arm. And you know, it's summertime, it's 90 degrees. He's sweating his brains out. I'm like, are you okay? Is something wrong? Do I need to go get somebody? He's like, Oh no, what you forget is your body is sort of tuned to regulate temperature based on you know your surface area. Well, I've lost surface area, so my body's got a compensate.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm like, oh my god. Man, I I did not know where you were going.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so eye-so here's this guy, and he's in this tower that that Adrian described, and he's strapped in and he's sweating buckets, and he's throwing shot put pretty far left-handed. Right. He was right-handed until he lost his right hand. So he's out there, positive attitude, sweating his butt off, throwing left-handed, having the best time. And he looked at me at the end, he goes, Hey, we got to do with our bodies what we can do with our bodies while we got them. And I'm like, Oh my god, do you know I I can't whine about anything ever again. You didn't listen very well too while I recovered. That was a mic drop moment. Yeah, I recovered. But no, I I've I've seen your stuff with the Warrior games, and it's just it's absolutely incredible.

SPEAKER_04:

Um I have so much respect for our military and what they go through uh to protect our country, and I love them, and I I'm so proud. But to be able to, you know, share something that I love. I've I I've always loved throwing, and I'm like like stupid happy whenever people just try for the first time, and they love it too. Because I want everybody to have a good time throwing stuff because it's it's goofy fun, and you don't realize your own strength until you try it. And that's why I love throwing, and anybody can do it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, plus throwing, and then this goes for all the sports that we ever talk about on here, but the i it's it's a tribe. It's the you know, you you could go to an event where you know no what nobody, and by two hours in you know everybody, and you feel like they're best friends because we all have the same dumb background.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, right, what it only took us about five minutes to meet you. Very first game that I ever met you. Oh god, I don't think I remember this one. Ben Beaver's place. Oh no, we don't I'm not gonna tell the story. We're not gonna tell the story. Let's just say that John was drinking some muddy water. Yeah, do you remember that brown liquid we talked about earlier? Uh-huh. He had a lot. And I think you know where that goes. Maybe, maybe not. Um so the the For those of you that couldn't hear that, Adrian was laughing. She was just trying to be polite. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm gonna change the subject. Um The Warrior Games, is it regional? Is it one big like Olympic fest somewhere in the country?

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, actually, so now my full-time job, I used to be the contracting coach for the team army. I was coaching field events, and then I was starting to coach uh the Paralympic style uh power lifting. So it's bench press element. Yeah, where you just you lie flat on a long bench so your feet are elevated, legs are strapped to this to the bench so you don't move, but it's upper body only, so you don't have your feeling grabs very, very different. Um, also very difficult. Yeah, but um I was brought on as a full-time as more like a coach manager or assistant sports director for Team Army to help with the organization um with Team Army. But to answer your question, uh the Warrior Games is is annually. Um it does change locations year to year, but um it is let's see, next year it will be in San Antonio in June. Uh so in 2026, we'll be in San Antonio, Texas in June.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, you're gonna be hot.

SPEAKER_01:

Um just hang out in the basement of the uh uh the Alamo. You'll be good.

SPEAKER_03:

That's where we're gonna go with the PP Army, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for getting that.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, Masters Athletes.

SPEAKER_01:

Masters athletes, well done. Well done.

SPEAKER_04:

Well done, nice. But um, there are other events throughout the year. So there's a ton of adapted sport events um all over the United States that you know, if people are interested, let me know. I'd love to send you a list of places to go and people to get in touch with because there's a whole community there that if if you don't want to participate, you could help, you can volunteer, you can donate, you can um just spread awareness because this community is incredible and what they do is just brilliant. You know, it's it's really, really a lot of fun to compete and and to help coach. Um and I've been fortunate to be part of uh the coaching staff to go to Australia and the Netherlands and Germany and and um kind of, you know. So um I've been able to um even coach uh US team USA Paralympics. Um we went to I went to the Parapan Amps in Peru and then also in the southern region, Chile. Yeah. So I mean it's just it's been awesome. And I never thought that track and field would take me to these places, but it has. And it's not for me, it's for the athletes. Yeah, I I've had so much more fun coaching than well, I mean, throwing as an athlete is great, but just this experience and seeing them experience what I did as an athlete is pretty rock rocking. Yeah, it's pretty mad. Cool.

SPEAKER_01:

If someone did want to like understand more, like where where do where do I find you, find them somewhere on the web? Is there a site? Is there a there is an internet site. There is how about that?

SPEAKER_04:

I mean teamusa um is is always good, you know. So you can uh teamusa.org is just the general LB ambulatory and then also with the Paralympic. But um, I mean people can reach out to me. Instagram's real easy to find me. Um it's just Adri Sue. So that's that's a good way to find me. And I can connect you with either local coaches or just an organization that might be nearby. Um because I I I love spreading awareness because everybody can throw. I really mean it. Everybody can throw.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's awesome. I mean, between so there's that one Highland athlete that I met years ago. I think his name's Mark. He's an adaptive athlete. Oh, sure, yeah. The broken caber folks. Yeah, he he was a great guy. Uh Alex Armor, the guy who had the power chair passed away. He was a great guy. And then James Spurgeon does James several times.

SPEAKER_00:

He just did a strong man. Yeah, I know. He's better than me. Well, way better than me. I'm going to reserve comment there. But I mean, I just saw him, he was doing it was a circus dumbbell medley. Yep. And you know, when he picks it up, you're like, oh, that's gonna end badly. And then he puts it overhead, and I'm like, holy hell, that dude is strong. I mean, and I've met him, he's got he's got such body awareness.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, I think that that's one of the things that's so inspiring is that working with what they have, given whatever has happened to them, is just like it's jaw-dropping. I I love it so much. Yeah, it's incredible. Cool. Um, I feel like we got to the end. Do we get to the end? Okay. Scott, do you have any questions? Adrian, do you have any questions? Yeah, do you have questions for us, Adrian?

unknown:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, gosh, well, what uh what has been uh have I mentioned anything today? It's like, oh, that's something that I think a lot of our listeners are gonna be really excited about.

SPEAKER_00:

I think the mobility stuff. The mobility stuff, I think the other thing, and I'm sorry to jump in, John, is sorry. It's part of how it works. That's why I gave you a microphone. Oh, that's why I thought it was because I paid you. Oh, there's that too. I think the mobility, but I think the bigger thing is that idea that it's not two hours. You know, it's you know, that and who is the coach that we did um out in Utah? I can't think of his name. Dan John. Dan John. Dan said the same thing, you know, that you're saying. So now we're getting multiple people who are ungodly talented and very good at what they do saying the same thing. If you got 20 minutes, do this. You know, do something.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, you know, there are days that I if I don't have time to get a lift in, like a full lift, like a full hour, and I only have 30 minutes, I'm doing my mobility. That is more beneficial to me than actually getting any strength training in because if I'm not moving great, I'm I'm just a cinder block and I don't move well, and I don't like that feeling. So I'd rather move well and depend on the strength that I've already built than to just try and just hammer through a workout that I'm just gonna be hurting for the next couple days. I like that.

SPEAKER_01:

I like that a lot. Cool. Let's let's uh let's wrap it up there. I Adrian, you you've been awesome like I expected. Uh Scott, thanks. Again, uh on Instagram Adrian Sue if uh you're interested in any of this uh warrior game stuff or any of the parallel. Apparently she's uh she's tied into all the all the uh teams. All the things all the things.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I've met some really cool people.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, everybody check those really cool people. Do your mobility and uh hit your macros and uh be kind to each other and there you go. We'll be kind to everybody but John. Fine. I'm John. I'm John. I'm still Scott. Thank you, Adrian. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share 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.