Performance Doctor on Peptides, the Rise of Nicotine, and Expensive Youth Sports
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The conversation between Dr. Kelly Starrett and his guest critically examines the modern wellness culture, arguing that an excessive obsession with expensive gadgets, biohacking devices, and unproven supplements often distracts from fundamental pillars such as nutrition, sleep, social connection, and play. They contend that this "optimization" mindset functions more like a secular religion or ego-driven narcissism than genuine health science, creating confusion through conflicting messaging rather than fostering true resilience. Drawing parallels between current fitness trends and historical military studies, the speakers assert that high performance relies on basics like hydration and rest; for instance, they note how a Delta Force squadron improved recovery simply by abstaining from alcohol for a month, underscoring that novel technologies are not always necessary to achieve elite results.
Beyond rejecting technological crutches, the discussion highlights essential psychological principles for sustainable athletic development, including the ability to start again after setbacks and viewing play as superior to mere performance metrics. The speakers emphasize that true robustness allows individuals to handle life's disruptions without collapsing, whereas relying on perfect routines creates fragility. They advocate reframing how society views failure, suggesting athletes should see themselves as better people simply for making an effort rather than judging their worth based on binary outcomes like winning or losing. Furthermore, they warn against letting social media metrics and wearable data dictate mood, reminding listeners that no one cares about daily performance numbers after death, and encouraging a shift toward training as a source of joy and connection rather than an austere obligation.
The dialogue also addresses the troubling normalization of unregulated enhancements in sports culture, particularly concerning peptides and nicotine pouches like Zyn, which are being commodified on platforms such as Enhanced Games while risking "sportwashing" gray areas involving youth health. Concerns are raised about young athletes using high doses of nicotine for focus despite significant risks, influenced by social media influencers who falsely claim these products optimize brain function; the speakers argue that this bypasses hard work and cheapens the athletic experience for innocent children. While acknowledging that medical interventions like HGH have specific contexts in injury repair, they insist the broader culture must protect youth from such shortcuts and advise parents to set household standards regarding sleep and nutrition without acting as coaches, instead serving as cheerleaders who prioritize enjoyment over elite performance metrics.
To counteract boring routines and prevent burnout, the speakers advocate incorporating elements of play into training regimens before the main workout begins, citing examples like dancing with Fitness Marshall, playing spikeball, or gamified rowing drills to foster community and make exercise enjoyable. They stress that treating every session as a championship event is unsustainable and emphasize the importance of "offseasons" where athletes can rest without guilt. Ultimately, the conclusion encourages listeners to prioritize fun, simple tools like tennis balls or ropes over expensive solutions, ensuring that movement comes from curiosity and joy rather than suffering or self-punishment, thereby building a healthier relationship with fitness that values human relationships above all else.
Read the full video transcript
Everyone learns better through play.
Play is the miracle drug.
>> Dr. Kelly Starret.
>> He's worked with professional athletes,
Olympians, elite military personnel,
corporations as well.
>> He teaches people how to move better for
sake of sport and for everyday living.
>> What are the principles that are
actionable and applicable to the average
everyday athlete?
>> People are treating their training like
a Super Bowl weekend every weekend. PR,
PR, PR, PR, PR. And if there is no
offseason or downtime and you on this
belief that you have to make constant
progression, that is a misunderstanding
of how this works. If it's going to be a
sustainable experience, we better go and
have fun. That's how I want this to
leave us. I want it to leave us so that
we go out into the world and we're
better people.
Hey everybody, real quick before we dive
in here, I wanted to take a quick second
to genuinely thank you for being here.
The fact that you give us your time and
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All right, let's get into it.
The last time I saw you was, I think
it's probably 8 months ago. Uh we were
both at a a wellness conference uh out
of town.
>> I was in the early days of of you know,
recovering from the surgery. Um, I don't
think I was still wearing a brace, but I
was probably like 50 pounds heavier than
I was.
>> You were like, you were in it.
>> Probably in a semi deflated state,
realizing how much patience this was
going to require and how long this road
was going to be. Here we were at this
event in which a lot of like quote
unquote like wellness influencers were
speaking. And you and I are both kind of
OGs in this world, whether it's fitness
or wellness. uh where we've seen um a
lot of changes. You know, there's
there's been uh a lot of euphemis,
>> you know, one thing about this
conference is it was undeniable like how
huge wellness is. like there it was just
like a giant convention where people had
spent a lot of money and you know a lot
of well-known people were speaking but
there was also a like a convention hall
filled with vendors of every imaginable
product and you know I was just
reflecting on kind of the current state
of wellness what it was like when you
and I were kind of both coming up in
this world how much it's changed and how
uh in in certain ways it's really become
become deranged.
>> That's a kind word.
>> In the ways in which it's impacting and
influencing the average well-intentioned
person out in the world who's just
trying to make good choices for
themselves and their families. We walked
around and ran into a woman that we knew
and she was like, "Hey, can I ask your
opinion? Should I buy this this $1,000
vibration plate?" And I was like, "Well,
tell me what you're doing currently."
And I was like, "No." And then we walked
over here and she's like, "Do I need
this?" And I was like, "No." And she
walked over here and
>> you need a tennis ball and a rope and a
frisbee.
>> You need a You need a friend, right? You
need you need some hopscotch. You need
some like You need to play tag.
>> We have these belts that we use. They're
flag football belts.
>> And the fastest way I know to get people
fired up is to
>> try to play capture the flag. And you
and I, the five of us, six of us
>> started doing this with no tech. very
instantly would be activated, fun, play,
move in weird crazy places. What's that
Amazon flag football belt cost? So I
think what we saw there was that we had
confused like which core pillar is this
thing improving. Is it nutrition? Is it
really making a difference in my
nutrition? Is it making a difference in
my sleep? Is it making a difference in
my pain? I think what we see is that we
can purchase a thing and then that will
take care of the thing,
>> right? It's a way of offloading
responsibility on some level. I spent a
lot of money on this thing. It's going
to take care of it for me. In the same
way, maybe I go to my doctor and they
say, "Take this medication." As opposed
to looking inward and and saying, "Well,
what is causing this? What's the root
cause?" The solution generally isn't
something that
>> necessarily costs money. Uh but it might
require work and a little investigation.
Yeah. Like
>> Yeah. And um you know, let's let's be
generous that you know, people have
always been looking for ways to sell
things to people. We I sell a mobility
app where you can come in and learn how
to take care of your body. Okay. I know
everyone's a little bit guilty of some
of this, but the I think what we're
starting to see there is the maturation
of this marketplace that's that really
misses the idea of what what it is,
what's important, like do you cook food?
Do you eat dinner with your friends?
Stan Stevenson wrote a really good book
about creating kitchen culture for his
family. And if you want to transform
your family, sit down, no tech, everyone
contributes in the kitchen and you eat
food together and then do the dishes
together. That will 180 any biohack you
can you possibly do. And I think I think
it's a feature, not a bug, all of that
stuff. And it's our job to help people
sort of see through theirs, see through
and see what's essential. And let's be
generous about all that stuff. Let's say
that some of those things could be
toemic and they're like I did this thing
and it changed started to get me to
think differently about my sleep and
because I got interested in my sleep I
started thinking about drinking more
water and then I started thinking about
walking. So it can be that way leads to
way leads to way but that's a little bit
like trickle down economics and I'm a
little bit skeptical. You know what I
see is that went in your you used it was
novel and it went into your closet and
it didn't change anything that we're
talking about here.
On the one hand, it's fantastic that
people are thinking about their own
well-being, uh, in a way that, you know,
generations prior didn't. Uh, and that's
good. Anything that gets people moving
or making better food choices, etc., is
a is a is a net positive. I just think
that the focus is so firmly placed on
the marginelia like these these these
hacks or these devices or these things
that there's nothing wrong with them and
they have their you know some are more
evidence-based than others but you know
probably do some good for you in some
certain way but it's one tree in a
massive forest. It's like losing the
forest for the trees. Uh overlooking
like the things that we know, the major
pillars that are driving us towards
being happier and healthier because
they're sexy. I don't think that you can
talk about this without talking about
the epidemic of loneliness and this
crisis of meaning that uh I think is a
kind of a cultural phenomenon right now.
People are looking for more meaning in
their lives and wellness in some
respects to my mind is now showing up
almost as secularized religion like it
is a identitybearing queson into the
ground that people can associate with
where they're going to find like-minded
people. Uh and so in the absence of you
know any other kind of like faith
institutions as those things decline
more and more people are gravitating
towards this as a kind of religion and
as a way of defining themselves like
creating an identity around it. And
within this world we have a whole
spectrum of influential people from very
solid to just
patent grifterism within which there is
an incentive structure for people to
behave badly for the cause of you know
selling some product. And so we see a
lot of confusing messaging around uh
everything they you know like we've all
seen the reels where like everything
they told you was a lie and here's the
secret they don't want you to know about
because of big pharma or whatever and
you should get this uh and then the next
reel says the exact opposite and it just
creates a lot of paralysis and confusion
and it's obfuscating
the message that someone like you is
trying to put out which is very grounded
and principlebased around like what we
know deep down in our DNA, we don't even
need you to tell us like you need
friends, you need to move your body, you
need to experience joy, you need to make
your life about something bigger than
you. And I think there's something very
naval gazing and um and kind of
narcissistic about wellness because it's
so focused upon the self. like this
optimization culture is really like an
egoic pursuit that I think is
fundamentally unhealthy if not checked.
>> Yes. Um, one of the ways that helps me
filter this out because I I'm a consumer
on the internet too
>> and I love all this stuff and I'm in it,
you know, and I probably, you know, like
I'm not only am I a participant, I'm a
purveyor, you know, so like what is my
responsibility in this?
>> I I am part of the problem. I recognize
that one of the ways that I try to make
sense of it is if I drop a performance
lens, how does this hold up? Does this
get me to the Olympics? Does this, you
know, at high speeds, high loads, does
this matter? And that could be high
psychological loads and demands. And
that really gets me through like, okay,
this is sort of entertainment. Fitness
and wellness is entertainment. It's the
bgeois
dying of their own wei. And this is
another cake party. That's what this is.
Like I have some money and I wanna it
feels good and I'm I'm a dilotant and
sort of you know um a tourist like
touristing is super fun and didn't
meaningfully change anything. But as
soon as I dropped this fil this
performance filter, you know, did you go
faster? Did it improve your wattage and
your recovery? Did like that's a really
easy way for me to see.
>> Mhm.
>> And the other thing I can look around
I'm like well who's using this thing? I
mean, I think that's really it's
interesting. A lot of that we haven't
and it's getting complicated with GLP1s,
which I'm a huge fan of, but it's always
been about aesthetics and in service of
being skinny and having this ideal. So,
there is very much an egoic
narcissist thing underneath us. And
look, I think it's reasonable not want
to be gross for your wife. Like, that's
my again my goal. and and to have a body
that I have feel proud of and is
capable, I think that's a really
reasonable goal for people. But if it's
only about being skinny and restriction
and again this this my brain doesn't
think I'm safe and I have to do these
things in order for me to have this.
It's we know what's going to happen.
We've run this experiment how many times
how many generations are we going to run
this experiment on? We've been selling
fat shakers to women about, you know,
like the German, you know, belt drive
from, you know, we've been we've been
talking about these things uh for as
long as there have been humans. So, I
think it is it is a feature of being
human. When I again try to understand
this, I'm like, well, is it does it fit
in and if could this get me to the
Olympics? Do I bring how does this
scale? Let me ask you this. If you
anyone is doing these things, a simple
way of understanding is this valuable,
worth my time is, would you let your
kids do it?
>> Mhm.
>> You know what I mean? And you're like,
oh, your kids aren't getting infusions
and ozone treatments and like why not?
Because at 17, it's dangerous or it's,
you know what I mean? But you'll take I
just saw the Guardian. This is a really
good example. The Guardian just did a
test of some uh peptides that they
gotten from a reputable site. I'm just
going to put, you know, and they had him
tested and it contained no peptides.
>> Wow.
>> But it contains lead and but because
>> the solution is this is easier
then I'm I'm more willing to put that
aside. And again, if we just look at the
dichotomy between, hey, I'll take this
untested peptide that doesn't have any
rigorous trials,
but I won't take this vaccine. Like
there's a real sort of divergence of
logic there.
>> Yeah.
>> And and I I
>> have to do some real mental gymnastics.
>> Yeah.
>> To justify that uh you know that
conflict
>> and without you know I know I just here
the rake's going to hit me in the face
here but um you know again the
performance piece really helps me you
know you know hey I I discovered that
I'm vitamin D deficient right? So,
just saying metaphorically, right? We
had a woman who uh we knew was a
strength coach in New York. She got
pushed into a railing. She's a woman of
color. Broke her ribs. And she was like,
I couldn't believe it. I was like, oh,
you found out you're vitamin D
deficient. She's like, how'd you know?
I'm like, you're a woman of color. You
work out in a gym and you live in New
York. And I was like, you're never in
the sun, ever in the sun. When our
second daughter was born, Caroline, she
was born a preeie. She was born six
weeks early. And we spent three weeks in
the NICU with Caroline. This is our our
division one water pol player.
>> And we had a placenta mama problem. And
when they sent us out, and I think this
says it all. They were like, "Okay, you
got to give your kid these vitamins.
We're getting out of the NICU." And I
was like, "I have to give my kid
vitamins." And they're like, "Yeah, they
she has to take these vitamins." And I
was like, "Look me in the eye and tell
me that this mother's milk is incomplete
nutrition for my child. Go ahead. Go
ahead. I'm waiting for it." And I just
crossed my arms. And they were like,
"Um, well," and I was like, "What's the
problem?" And they were like, "The
problem is that the
white women in San Francisco don't go in
the sun. There's no vitamin D in their
bodies. The child doesn't get any
vitamin D." And I was like, "Okay, so
what you're saying is here's a solution
to a behavior problem. What I need to do
is make sure that my kid gets a little
bit of sun exposure every day." And
they're like, "Yes." And I was like,
"Great." And I think that is sort of
what we're doing. This this wellness
thing is surrogacy for the real work.
It's hard work to have relationships and
to schedule dinners and to go on
adventures. It's hard work
>> to be a human engaging in a human
society. But as long as we're can be on
my phone not doing those things, then
I'm I'm looking for this exogenous
solution. and and we'll continue to do
that until we wrap our heads around what
does it mean to be a person in a
community.
>> The other interesting thing that I think
a lot about uh is
>> using that like conference as an example
and it's not to denigrate the conference
like I had a great time there but when
you're in that environment where there's
lots of ddads and gadgets and here's the
latest bio hack etc. Um, and all of
these things are being kind of
positioned and sold as this is what's
missing in your life and if you want to
be a peak performer, you need this. Uh,
what again? Exactly. So, so as somebody
who has competed in sport at a at a high
level and has a long history of being in
athletics and yourself being somebody
who has worked with so many athletes in
so many different sports at the highest
level, uh like do any of the Olympic
athletes that you know do any of those
things?
>> No,
>> not at all. This doesn't exist.
>> This is not how you do it. No Olympic
athlete is doing any I mean they're
maybe they're dipping their toe here and
there into certain things but it's not
like a major aspect of how they're
training and recovering on a day in
dayout basis.
>> It it can't be there's no
>> and these are the highest performers in
the world. And so the conversation
around high performance has you know the
elephant in the room is the fact that
the highest performers in the world
actually aren't doing any of those
things.
>> And your high performance is what?
looking good naked in the mirror on a
Tuesday for Instagram. You know, your
high performance is having less brain
fog because you drank one less bottle of
wine, you know? I mean, like I'm I I
agree with you 100%. And I think that's
what is suspicious. You know, when you
are in these places, then you see that
you're like, where is this disconnect?
That's why I say that filter of
performance, real performance, athletic
performance, mental performance, you
start to see, let me give you an
example, and I hope I don't get in
trouble with this. Um,
Delta Force spends a lot of time
thinking about sleep. And the army is
starting to think differently about
sleep. Maybe we should do training
differently. If we keep our young
captains awake for 36 hours, they make
bad decisions. So they, right, they
they're changing the core DNA of some
training exercises because they were
having too many injuries and all these
things. One of the things that one of
these tier military groups do, they're
always looking for how do we improve
performance? Well, you know what made
the biggest the only thing that changed
heart rate variability and recovery? One
of the squadrons went dry. They didn't
drink for a month. They just didn't
drink for a month.
>> Everyone slept better. Everyone
performed better. They won the the
monthly Olympics. Their heart rate
variabilities changed. What did we pull
out? We just pulled out this coping
strategy. This elite they didn't change.
They didn't add some tech thing
downregulate vasil veagal like none of
that. It wasn't injections of super
serum. It was maybe when we're stressed,
we shouldn't drink. And uh when we come
back to these fundamentals, you and I
are the same person we were 10,000 years
ago. I'm fatter, your femur is longer.
It's the same. So there hasn't really
been, and you're telling me in 10,000
years, we haven't really been obsessed
with I mean, the the first sport science
in the world is military science. The
Prussians figured out that at this
temperature, we can march these dudes
with this load this far.
>> And at this temperature, we can march
these dudes this load this far.
>> People have been obsessed with this
forever. Go to Scotland. What are all
those stones just laying around? People
are just like, I bet I can lift that
stone. You know, um Hapthor, right, the
mountain did this famous thing where he
walked this mast and he it's like a
3,000lb mast. some insane mass on a ship
and he lifts it up and he walks four
steps and it is everyone loses their
mind because the old Viking history of a
thousand years ago is the guy walked
three steps. So we have all of the
technology, all of the drugs, all the
recovery, he gets one more step with the
3,000lb mass. That's how long people
have been savages. That's when and I
mean I mean savage athlete performance
machines. Let's not pretend we're the
first generation to give a [ __ ] about
going fast. Come on. That's so
>> that's just not even true.
>> So, how is the average person meant to
get their head around all of all of the
messaging that's out there on social
media, etc. Um, around like, I just want
to be healthier. I want to eat a little
bit better. I want to feel good. I want
to be robust. The other piece that's
missing here is the fact that all of
these things should make us more
resilient and more robust. And it seems
as if there's a little bit of of the
opposite going on. Like there was that
whole kurfuffle when Steven Bartlett
said, "Oh, I drank and then I couldn't
like focus for three days and it ruined
my like like oh you if you're thrown off
your wellness routine by a micrometer
then like your whole life caves in and
you're you're you can't get out of bed,
you know,
>> then you've never ever been at the
pointy end of the spear. Like the whole
idea is to be robust and resilient so
that when you are in a position where
you're not in control of your
environment in the way that you would
like, you can like roll with the punches
and be fine. I'll give you two examples.
I I love that position. Our friend Lar
Hamilton, he's like, "Hey, if we go out
for a long time and you bonk, you're a
liability." What do you mean? You have
to eat every like, you know, your watch
went off glucose. like you can't just go
out long. When um Jimmy Chin climbed and
did Meu, right? This is you've probably
seen Maru,
>> the first failed attempt. They're what,
like 300 meters from the top, 30 ft from
the like they they have turned around.
It's a failure, right?
>> They're out of food. And you can watch
this in documentary. What you don't
know, and he told me, is that they had a
third of a cliff bar a day for 4 days.
They had to down climb that whole thing.
And they each got a third of a cliff
bar. So what I'm going to say to you is
you get a third of a cliff bar a day for
the next 3 days. Go about your life. Let
me know how it goes. If they don't get
down, they die. So this is the reality.
They get to the bottom, all their food's
buried. They have another 12 mile walk,
something some ridiculous, right? And
that says a lot about the capacities
that you know it's not these micrometer
little micro that's not that's not
reality. Lar also says that if the only
food we have available to us is a
hamburger and you can't eat it because
your knuckles are going to swell up,
you're a liability. Like you can't go
out and have amazing glass of wine or
amazing beer or be a human being and
partake. And I'm not going to say that
that's you do whatever you want with the
alcohol piece. The point is, you know,
that if you're so fragile and you're
off, you're not going to be able to take
that that show dog, that show pony, and
go race it Hidalgo style across the
desert. You're not going to last. I'm on
a training camp in Greece with a team.
There's no gels. There's no bar. Like,
you know what I did? I went down to
local bodega thing and bought these €1
chocolate crispy wafer bars and they
were €1 and they had 30 g of carbs in
there and they're super palatable and we
crush the [ __ ] out of those week after
like day after day after day local
what's available how do we solve this
problem these are elite athletes let's
make sure it's fueling and not worrying
about it and then we'll you know we'll
solve it on the back end so you know if
we get so special and specialized and so
precious us that we can't go out into
the world and and make mistakes. When's
the last time you bonked? Like really
bonked.
>> Well, it's been years because I haven't
been able to like move my body
adequately enough to get to the place
where I could bonk,
>> you know? But I've bonked.
>> Yeah, you bonked. And you're like, I
don't want to do that again. But I'm
just saying that like as we talked
earlier, when is the last time you risk
something like, you know, I'm not saying
we need to some misoge that we're, you
know, like, but we often times are like,
I have to do this. If you're going for a
bike ride with your friends for an hour,
>> you don't need a water bottle. You
you'll feel better if you have some
water. You know, if we're racing, I And
if you want to reduce the session cost,
yeah, drink some water. But like we you
it doesn't have to be perfect. Stop it.
Stop being so dressing your up in the
yourself up in the cloak and the mantle
of professionalism when that's not the
real world because you're not elite.
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One of the things that's so compelling
uh and unique about you is that you've
worked with so many different types of
athletes and sport teams. Like all kinds
of athletes from every imaginable
discipline plus special forces people
and first responders. Like in your
career of having worked with such a
diversity of people like what are the
what are the consistent or like parallel
principles that you extract from all of
them that are you know like actionable
and applicable to the average everyday
athlete.
One of the most important ones is the
ability to start again. I don't think
people realize like the internet leads
us to believe especially if you're
watching the gym stuff, the fitness
thing is that you just make infinite
progress. This PR PR PR PR PR when
you're a beginner. Yeah, it's true. You
take an untrained person, you put them
on the bike, they squat more, right? One
of the most important principles that
comes out of this is the ability to
start again. The consistency is really
amazing. We we think that sometimes
people should just continue to see
linear progression, which is just not
the way it works. For example, in the
weight room, like if I miss this
workout, X will happen, you know? I'm
like, really? Like, you didn't do
pull-ups for a week and went on
vacation. You thought you lost your
gains. Like, let me introduce you to
what actually happens in sport. We
traveled to a different country. We got
to compete. We had multiple games. No
one was in the gym. So, the next time we
went back to the gym, we started over
again. And when we start to see that it
can't just be about naked raw
progression and strength like
>> athletes starting over and over and over
again. You didn't just continue to build
off of a season at Stanford. You had an
off season and then you hopefully took
some time off and then rebuilt your body
and initially in that season you were
slow. You couldn't handle the volume.
You started again and again. So there is
natural periodizations that happens for
professional athletes where they have an
offseason or a downtime or they and we
see that in our pro I mean this is it. I
mean, basically go to the Super Bowl and
then you need to chill. But people are
treating their training like a Super
Bowl weekend every weekend.
>> And if there is no offseason or downtime
and you're on this belief that you have
to make constant progression and you
can't start again, otherwise you've
failed. That is a misunderstanding of
how this works. We're just going to come
back in and begin again and begin again.
And as soon as you you ever been
injured? Yeah. We're going to start
again. Ever had a hot spot and couldn't
compete in a thing? Yes. and we're going
to begin again. That is one of the
biggest through lines this as we look at
this concept of you know sort of like
what's what's important is central
across all domains this raw naked
consistency and ability to start again
wherever I am based on what it gives us
curiosity and it's not a failure you
know I you it's you know I just was
talking I was at a friend's wedding I
was talking to a two-time Olympic
swimmer he's pretty good he's a mutant
66 Matt target and I was telling him
about um he's an Australian. You can
look him up. Um I was telling him about
my I'm a beginner now and and basically
you pointed out something. I am the
worst, fattest, skinniest, weakest,
slowest person in every room I am. So I
got to I got to
>> I didn't say that. You made it sound
like I said that to you. I did not say
that.
>> You said Kelly, you work with a lot of
diverse sports. Like I am the worst
person in the room. So it's nice to be
really curious when you come in and you
have nothing at stake because I'm not in
my domains. I really get to be curious
and like what's that rare and I talk to
all the coaches and how when when are
your off days and you know how do you
feel your women and I'm always gathering
cuz someone has solved this problem for
me. So Matt said he's like I I was like
hey I'm I'm working on these timed 100s.
I want to do 10 timed 100s so that when
we do a conditioning piece like our test
set I want to get in with some of our
athletes and just be able to be like I
see you. I know what you're suffering.
I'm going to do a time 50 to their 100.
Maybe I'll do a 25. Like, they're so
fast.
>> But I was like, "No one told me about
swimming with fins. Like, this is
amazing." And he was like, "Bro,
you cannot believe that every single
time I got in the pool, I put fins on
first because swimmers get in the water
and they're like, I feel slow today. I
feel sluggish. My body, right?" It takes
a second to kind of come to yourself.
One of the reasons
>> we love movement preparation is game is
to just remind yourself, who am I? How
does it work? What's what's feeling
today? And he's like, "I put fins on and
I did my first few hundreds with fins
because every time I put fins on, I'm
fast." And my brain was like, "Look how
fast we are." And then I took the fins
off and he's like, "I'm going to have a
great day cuz I'm fast." Versus getting
in the pool and being like, "Whoa,
I'm so slow. This is so hard." And here
is this idea that
>> he recognized that he couldn't say
sustain these hu Olympic swimmer. He's a
monster, but he was going to have down
days. And here was a coping strategy he
had where instead of getting in his own
head about, wow, I hard to put out, he
put fins on, felt fast, and then the
rest of it was
>> right. That's so interesting. Just a
psychological reframe.
>> Yeah. It's very different from waking up
like the average person example of that
is like waking up and then looking at
your phone that is tethered to your
wearable that's telling you like you're
not awesome.
>> You're not awesome.
>> And then you have to go do whatever you
have to do that day anyway. you know,
despite that, which is starting your day
off with that kind of messaging versus
like how do I start my day off with
something that feels good that gives
gets me in a positive frame of mind.
>> I think as sport has become more
sophisticated and training for sport has
become more sophisticated,
the thing that continues to lag is the
psychology. We don't have the language.
We don't have the tools. And I'm talking
about narps, non-athletic regular
people. Like I'm just a wreck athlete.
Everyone is like
nonathletic
>> regular person. That's a collegiate term
that there's kids who do college sports
and then everyone else they may be the
best athlete in the world but they're
not doing their own college sport.
They're a narp and it's not a
denigration term but just you know you
don't have to do all this silliness.
You're probably what we would call a
sarp. A super athletic now regular
person. I would say if we took the
average narp and uh like me I just I
want to be less gross for my wife.
That's one of my physical goals. I don't
want my wife to leave me. I want to be
less gross. I know I'm gross. I think
you're you're doing all right.
>> Less gross is the game.
>> So I'm interested in training and I love
training and I love to exercise and play
and what's my selft talk when it gets
hard what do I say? So even the mental
framework of how do I approach this hard
thing that I'm going to do and then how
do I actually approach that and say okay
what's my framework for having this
difficult conversation with my wife or
my child or addressing something at work
or grief. We're not sort of consummating
the, you know, the experience and we're
certainly not empowering people to have
a template for even how to frame some of
these the mental piece. We just were
like, let me just throw as much at the
wall and I hope it sticks and I hope I'm
become mentally tough and I just David
Gogggins the crap out of this and you
know weakness strength is never a
weakness and like that just doesn't
work. It didn't really work for me. I
was much more need to understand and be
be party to the process. But the selft
talk is a is a great example of of Matt
swimming figuring out a mechanical selft
talk that he got in the water he's like
look how fast I am and already he was
going to have a better workout than me
because I got in the water and was like
oh my god I suck today right and we need
formal training in this and there are
plenty of great places and and resources
for this but it's the least sexy and
it's the one that we feel like is the
least tactical. Uh we did a workout
earlier today. Uh for people that are
watching on YouTube, you can see this is
my home gym behind me right now. Kelly
was kind enough uh to arrive very early
this morning and put me through a few
paces. We're going to make a video of
that uh that we're going to be sharing.
Um but you gave me that gift because you
kind of contextualize this as as like
you you're wiping the slate clean like
you're recovering from this back
surgery. You're reassembling yourself.
And so every time you do something, it's
a PR. You're like, you just PR, you just
PR like reframe. Instead of like, oh my
god, I can barely do this or whatever.
You're like, no, you just you just set a
new PR because we're starting from a new
place. We've wiped the slate clean. It's
top raza. You've rebooted the operating
system. Everything that came before that
burned down in the library of Alexandria
a long time ago or whatever. and like
we're we're thinking about this as a
fresh start. And that just little like
reframe, that little mental tweak made
it a lot more fun. Can you imagine if we
had that same phrase towards we if we
took that and applied it to the
curiosity, the joy? I mean, that's
really what we're supposed to do.
>> Like, and there are people in your life
who are like that. You're like, they're
always stoked. One of the common threads
for Juliet and I and all the friends,
the most successful people and the
people we want to be around are the most
stoked and they're like curious and
they're fired up and they're not it's
not polyiana, but they're just like,
"Oh, I can't wait to see, you know,
they're just so curious about the
process."
>> And if we could if we could use training
as a way of of practicing that, then
this all becomes physical practice.
>> And theoretically,
no one's going to look at your strava
someday. And no one's going to be like,
"Well,
>> I know
>> Tuesday."
>> Yeah. After you pass at your funeral,
everyone's like, "Look, well, I don't
know. You didn't have a good day that
day." Like, you think these things
matter and that people care and nobody
cares.
>> And it is reasonable as a human,
especially when we you can track it and
see it. And
>> one of the things that you haven't had a
chance to do in a long time is
experience beginner gains.
>> And if you do something or pick up a new
skill for the first time, you're like,
"Whoa, put 100 pounds on my bench." And
like, how long you been benching? 2
days, right? You can make massive
progress with skills or physiology when
you're beginning, but going from 9 to
10,
>> 9.9 to 10, like that. How long did that
take you to shave a second off your best
time?
>> One of the things that that happens
progressively as you get older and you
become more and more set in your ways is
that you just want to do the things that
you are good at. You know, like, oh, I'm
good at this and I just want to get fit
enough to be able to continue to do that
thing. and you lose a little bit of that
curiosity and that willingness to like
learn a new thing and be bad at it and
allow yourself that joyous uh experience
of vulnerability. And when you showed up
today, in my mind, I was thinking,
"Okay, Kelly's going to take me through
a workout. I can't wait to learn." I
thought like he's gonna he's going to
pick up these kettle bells and show me
these compound movements. You know,
Kelly's the mobility guy. He's the, you
know, kind of uh strength and
conditioning guy. Yes. But really it's
about uh all of these more holistic
complex movements that are creating a
stable infrastructure for adventure and
performance, etc. And instead, what you
did is you showed up with a Frisbee, a
tennis ball, and an orange rope. And you
had me like swinging a rope around in a
way that was confusing my brain and like
making me catch tennis balls. And I was
like, what are we doing here? you know,
and I was bad at it. I have terrible eye
hand coordination. My balance isn't
great right now in this post surgery,
uh, you know, kind of reparations period
that I'm in. And even in on my best day,
I'm not strong in these areas. But it
was fun. Like, it was goofy and like
silly and it reminded me like this is
supposed to be fun. It's not about like
fronting with a puffed up chest and you
know, whatever ends up on Strava. It's
about like falling in love with physical
movement and doing certain things that
are yes like setting you up for a
stable, you know, uh, future of movement
with longevity. Um, but let's not forget
like why we're really doing this, you
know, and that is something that is a
mountain that has been difficult for me
to climb because I hold these athletic
pursuits so preciously with a certain
hardness. And for me, training has
always been equated with suffering,
almost like self-punishment or like a
tariff that I have to pay to feel worthy
in the world.
>> And my goal is to do it from a place of
joy uh and and kind of transcend that
hardness that has always accompanied my
relationship with endurance sports for
sure and swimming.
what you just said is so beautiful and
so important and so difficult and we
have really sucked the joy out of the
gym. It's become this austere place
where I measure like Russian Drago doing
his like you know and then you know
Rocky's in the woods throwing logs and
playing around and inventing and being
creative and as allegory we need to
figure out a place where we still were
doing preparation for your back like I I
needed to see how you were moving. Were
you able to move quick? Were you able to
breathe and rotate? We did a lot of very
complex things under the guise of play.
And as I get to work with other teams
and and other cultures, one of the
things that we see is this has got to be
a joy. If it's going to be a sustainable
experience, we better go and have fun.
>> Uh, you know, I mentioned that um, you
know, I I get to go and travel. I'm the
performance director, performance lead
for this water polo team in college, and
I I travel with them, but I'm also in
charge of their warm-ups. And um our
games warm-ups are gnarly. We'll wrestle
on an exhale breath hold. Like I have
women like before the national
championship. We're locked up. We
exhale. The girls are fighting and we're
and the laughing, the attrainment, the
listening. We're dialed in together. I
created um I really love the hakka.
Every time I see a hakka, you know, this
it it hits me someplace.
>> I wish that I had that. I will tell
everyone that if you want to cry,
there's an a wedding video where in New
Zealand the the men perform a haka for
the bride and groom. And every single
time it just makes me weep because of
just this intensity and what's going on.
having a chance to work with the All
Blacks, um, spend some time with them,
you know, they would do the haka and
then they'd actually have to go in and
chill out because they were too revved
up and they would play terribly. So,
they would be like, "Ah," and then,
"Okay, too much. Let's go." But I
recognized
>> I thought that was the point to get
>> too much, too, like make mistakes. But I
recognized that like our team needed
that thing and we're not Mauy. We're not
traditional indigenous New Zealand
people and so we're not going to do a
haka cuz that would be inappropriate.
>> But I was like, what could we do? And we
we circle everyone up and we try to do
it in a place where we own the place. So
we've done our official warm-up and then
we're on the pool deck and we're about
to do our swim warm-up and one of our
seniors goes in the middle and she yells
the word hell as loud as she can and
everyone just goes, "Yeah."
And it's just back and forth. Hell,
yeah. Hell, yeah. Yeah. And what we have
is this moment where all of these women
are locked in, prepped, and the
affirmation where you say, "Yeah, yeah,
yeah." And you're looking at your
friends in the eye.
We're unbeatable. We might lose, but we
are unbeatable. And
the metaphor here or the story here, the
moral is that's how I want this to leave
us. I want it to leave us so that we go
out into the world and we're better
people. That we're we've gotten out our
demons and we sweat our heart. There's
still time to do intervals. I'm not like
if my training is difficult. If you do
my programming, which I hope you'll
you'll jump into, you're going to be
like, Kelly is a terrible person.
>> He doesn't care for my well-being. And
simultaneously, I want us to feel like
we can go out and we just have to remove
some of this stigma. One or zero, I'm a
failure. And that begins with a a
self-practice.
>> Yeah.
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Speaking of uh dressing yourself up in
the cloak of professionalism, uh did you
watch the enhanced games?
So, um I was I have friends who were
asked to be on the advisor board. I may
have been approached about being part of
that. Professionally, I couldn't touch
it and wouldn't touch it. I had two
friends who are Olympic lifters. One of
them is an Olympian. One of them was
real good who went in and parttook. And
I loved it for them because they got to
make a living Olympic lifting after
their retirement. Right.
And what I would say is, did you watch
uh the documentary um about the cyclist
who discovers the crazy doping thing in
Russia?
>> Yeah, Icarus.
>> So
>> So I had him on the show.
>> He's amazing. And that story is amazing.
But when that movie came out, I was
working with a cyclist, a professional
tour to France cyclist, and I told him,
I was like, "Hey, have you heard about
this?" And
>> and he's like, "Let me guess. He did all
the drugs and he went slower." And I was
like, "Yeah." And he's like, "It's
because it's never just that." And he
wasn't elite. And so he sometimes we can
tell our stories that I could have been
great if this thing didn't happen to me.
And I was because someone else had
something. And the point of this is
drugs and performance drugs have always
let the best athletes in the world work
harder and recover fresher so they can
work harder. They were never shortcuts.
Never have been shortcuts. And now we're
recognizing that there are places and in
methodologies and systems that doesn't
even require us to do that.
>> Mhm.
>> I think there's an opening when someone
has a really bad injury.
Should we be able to avail ourselves of
modern pharmaceuticals to repair this
person? That's a different conversation.
You know, like uh you know, there was a
famous football player who got popped
for taking HGH at quarterback, right?
and because his neck was destroyed and
I'm like, "Wow, if he's the marquee of
my team and he's on human growth hormone
so that he can repair this thing on his
neck." I'm like, "So that he can stop
that and then go back and do his job."
>> Is there a morality? And already the NFL
is is entertainment anyway, right?
>> Yeah. I mean, that is a serious gray
area. I think it speaks to many things.
I mean, first of all, let me just say
that I agree with you that the enhanced
games provided well-deserving athletes
with the opportunity to actually be
fairly compensated for their gifts. And
I appreciate that. And I think that
athletes who signed up to participate in
it and were able to be remunerated in
that way, like good for them. You know
what I mean? Like they've been taken
advantage of for way too long. There's
been gigantic organizations that have
leveraged athletes for their own gain
and athletes are always at the bottom of
the food chain and this was an
opportunity for them to actually make
decent money. So,
>> and I would say that's fantastic.
>> They did the wrong thing for the right
reason. That's what I would say. So, I
guess I can also understand an athlete
in the twilight of their career who's
being thrown a lifeline to get up on a
stage and, you know, do their thing in
front of a lot of people and make that
bargain for themselves. I think that's a
personal decision and I have no judgment
on that. But I think the broader point
that I want to make or explore with you
has nothing to do with like good or bad
or judgment. It's more a reflection of
where our culture is at right now. It's
a very different relationship with what
we would traditionally call peeds
because of things like peptides and even
to your point human growth hormone. Like
a somebody who just wants to repair
their neck like is that a perform like
should they be barred for life because
in the offseason when they were injured
they needed something to like help them
improve their recovery. That's a
conversation that you know has valid
points on both sides of it. Um, but I
think we're entering an era uh in which
we're developing a different cultural
relationship with these things. It's
normal. Yeah. Like the enhanced games
normalizes this use which was the entire
reason for doing it because this
corporation that put it it's a private,
you know, entity. It's unregulated. Like
they want to sell their enhancements.
Like that's the entire value. That was
why they they're doing this. But when
you reflect upon the self- optimization
culture and kind of obsession and
fascination that we have right now and
then you look at these
>> biochemical developments
where people normal people are using
these things
>> unregulated, unmanaged, unsupported
like garage gym. Let me just work this
out. Like holy [ __ ]
>> But now it's sort of out in the open,
you know? It's not the guy in the locker
room at Gold's Gym who's secretly
handing the bodybuilder a bag when no
one's looking. Like it's out in the
open. It's commerce on the internet and
it's being broadcast and live streamed
through the enhanced games. And that is,
you know, to again use the word trickle
down like how does that trickle down
into the 40year-old guy who is still
remembering how he could throw a
touchdown pass and wishes he could do it
again. You know what I mean? And is that
is that a bad thing? Is it a good thing?
How should we be thinking about these
things? How should the 14-year-old
aspirant athlete be thinking about his
relationship to sport and you know his
future as an athlete in the context of
what that person is seeing online right
now. Let me make two points. One is when
I met my wife Juliet, we were at the
World Championships for whitewater
paddling sponsored by Camel Cigarette
South Africa.
>> Yeah, cuz Camel used to sponsor like all
these like Raid and like I think even
like some of these adventure races and
stuff like that which is so hilarious. I
obviously was so
evolved that I was like, I'm not going
to take a free trip to Chile as a broke
slalom athlete in a sport no one cares
about and promote this cigarette brand.
Like that didn't even occur to me. And I
will say that we're on the same slope
here, right? And there were stacks of
cigarettes on the table every dinner and
we would take them and then bribe our
way through South America with
cigarettes. So on one level I want to
say that you know that athlete position
is really untenable. I'm broke. How do I
have health insurance? How do I you know
the system hasn't set me up to to
retire? So that that's a thing. The real
question here and I think what's
interesting is well let's apply that
logic. So the enhanced games everyone's
over 18, everyone's consenting. Duh. But
if we take that to nicotine,
we are seeing an epidemic of young
people, young athletes take buying Zins,
using Zins, using these pouch nicotines,
massive amounts of these huge energy
drinks with huge amounts of and what
we're seeing is sort of the greenwashing
of it, but it's called sportwashing.
>> And I think that's what the the enhanced
games did. sportwashed a lot of these
sort of gray areas, untested,
unregulated
things. And I'm not saying that
everything they did was I know they were
under the care of physician and
testosterone is a great safe supplement
for the right person. However, you're
right. When you have a generation of
kids, what's our morality? What are our
ethics towards this generation? What are
we normalizing in terms of again, you
think that you're elite, but you're not
elite because you just didn't do the
thing?
>> Mh. And we in the case of when we see
influencers talking about the
neotropics, the effects of brain focus
and then kids at college and again this
is firsthand witnessing this isn't
second. We're seeing the use of these
zins among college athletes is
astounding and where kids are packing
multiple 15 milligrams which is like
pack of cigarettes in your mouth. And uh
they do that multiple times a day and
highly addictive, but so and so
influencer told me it was safe and good
for my brain and I'm optimized. And so
the really we don't have this filter.
Meanwhile, the gum disease, the the
heart problems of this huge amounts of
nicotine.
>> This is the same conversation and one
it's worth worth having. Um do I think
we will learn anything from the what did
we learn from the we were entertained.
We saw old
>> gladiators. It was the coliseum. It was
the coliseum.
>> It's the new coliseum. It seems to be of
two minds. Either the lackluster
performances are a commentary on the
fact that everybody at an elite level is
on these things and that's why the
performances at the enhanced games were
not so impressive. Uh or it's that they
don't really work in the way that we
thought they did. But and maybe those
athletes needed I believe these athletes
were only on like a 2 and 1/2 month
protocol or something like that. So you
know listen you need to train on these
things for a longer period of time I
think to reap the benefits. I don't
know. But
>> in Canada, I have heard firsthand from
people's families that elderly people
going to do a big ad adventure, the
doctor would be like, "Let's put you on
HGH for 6 weeks." And they' prescribe
it. And this person was able to go be an
adventurer, have less pain, come out
because the doctor prescribed a course
of HGH for six weeks. I'm like, that is
the best use of a PE I've ever had.
grandma went hiking in the mountains
like that's that's awesome.
>> That is not the same thing of what we're
talking about here. And when
particularly first principles are
displaced and the message is I don't
have to do this work and I don't have to
put in this time and I don't have to do
all these things and I'm don't have to
be genetically gifted then it cheapens
this experience. It cheap it definitely
cheapens and I'll tell you it's real
hard to use perent drugs these days.
hard. The biological passport is real
good. And you're seeing there are
countries we won't name, but you can
imagine that these countries go dark,
they train up, then their athletes
become mutants, and then they come back
to the Olympics. And we see that happen
for sure. So drugs in sport, if there's
an incentive, um Caster Semenya is a
great example.
>> She is the biological woman who had a
high she's, you know, high natural
testosterone.
the track and field was like, "No, you
can't run the 800, right? You're you can
run a longer distance. We can't run the
800." So, and I was like, "This is
crazy." You know, and I went and watched
her run at the pre-fontaine. And she was
tiny. She was a tiny woman. I literally
was like disappointed. I was like, "Oh,
I thought I was going to see some hulked
up person. She doesn't even have any of
the top eight 100 meter times in the
world. Those are all done by East German
women in the peak, you know, phase. So
it is not a level playing field if you
chose the wrong parents and have the
wrong genetics and the wrong motivation
and the wrong coaching and you get
injured like it's not that we're never
it's never been a level
>> if you're a swimmer and you have size 15
ft
>> that's probably going to inure to your
benefit
>> right that there are some people and
bodies that just are freakish and
simultaneously
I guess we have to ask the question what
is it we value as a culture culture,
you know, how do we protect those
innocents
so they can come through and make good
decisions for themselves? And there's um
Allen Lim again, we're coming back to
him. He has a great saying is you cannot
cheat your biology. Full stop. You
cannot cheat your biology.
>> Your physiology cannot be cheated. You
don't get something for nothing.
As somebody who's parented uh young
athletes through this confusing world,
what is the message that you have for
the parents out there who are trying to
make good decisions for their kids who
they know are seeing all kinds of
strange stuff on social media. There's
so many fitness influencers out there
and such a push around aesthetics and
that doesn't even consider like this
whole new world of enhancements and all
this sort of stuff that is like
filtering into the awareness of the mind
that is not even fully formed. So, how
do you help your kids make good
decisions when they're being impulsed
and influenced in in in those ways on
these addictive supercomputers that we
all have?
>> Someone can probably control some things
in their household, not every household,
and that's not even
Do your kids eat breakfast? Do you eat
dinners together? Are you fueling with
whole foods? Did your kids even eat a
vegetable or a fruit today? Chances are
not. Um, you know, where's their
caffeine consumption? Can you help say,
"Hey, we go to bed at 11:00 because we
wake up at 7:00. That means lights are
off at 7:00." 11:00, we all agree. You
start to set standards for this. And you
just can't ghost ride and hope that it
works out anymore. You have to be much
more aware and intentional because if
you're not the voice and your family
isn't the model, will the kids will
solve that problem somewhere else. Why
are kids needing three energy drinks? I
just heard of an 11-year-old or
12-year-old drinking two or three
Monsters a day. He's a skater,
>> you know, like
>> where do you go from there? What
>> that's kind of like skate culture, too.
>> Where do you go from there? You know, so
how are we going to keep in mind that
the probably the most important thing
you can do is say, "I love you. I'm so
proud of you. That was so fun. And I'm
going to swear on this podcast. You can
bleep me out." Shut the [ __ ] up in the
stands and do not talk in the car on the
way home. Create a safe environment
where you're like, "It is so enjoyable.
I want to ride home with my dad because
we put on the music and we vibe and he
doesn't ask me about it and we have such
a good time and we make it this
enjoyable process that's sort of
agnostic to performance and we stop
carrying our our expectations of high
level performance and eliteness on our
children. We fuel them. We hang out with
them. We talk. We're not their coaches.
We are their cheerleaders." And this is
most important. This came from Carmen
Bot who is a specialist in Canada on
return to play after ACL's. And she
said, "Your job is chief reminder. Your
kid is not an elite pro alete." So I
think that so for example with Caroline,
I would make her breakfast every day.
Why? Because gives me enjoyment,
but I know that she's going to leave the
house with a fruit, a vegetable. Maybe
there's a probiotic food and a protein
and I'm covered, right? One meal as I've
controlled. And I discovered that sleep
is so important and she went to a hard
school and she's a badass that I would
let her sleep to the very end. And guess
what she didn't want to do first thing
in the morning? Sit down and eat a big
breakfast. Do you want to sit down and
eat a big breakfast first in the
morning?
>> But she wanted to eat first period. So I
would make her breakfast to go. And we
discovered that I had better adherence.
She ate breakfast. She got the
micronutrients. she got in right and I
got to help control that and shape that
and then we took it with her so she
could do that. So that's the kind of
thinking where I got to protect her
sleep instead of waking her up a half
hour earlier and forcing her to eat some
breakfast she don't want to eat at that
moment where we could sleep a little bit
longer she take this meal with her
>> you know I think one of the you want to
talk about a performance dancing drug
>> this is everyone get ready there's this
thing called goons have you seen this
the groons the gummy bears the green
gummy bears
>> okay I am not sponsored by grooms but I
want to be sponsored by goons so groans
is just a green powder gummy bear
that is highly palatable and just like
all athletic greens, all greens, it's
just a vitamin. Let's just treat it like
a vitamin. But your kids don't get any
fiber. Your kids don't get any vitamin
C. Your kids don't get any
micronutrients and f and and minerals.
And this highly palatable gummy bear
green powder candy snack gummy is the
adherence goes through the roof. You
send your kids with one of those. At
least it's not a food, but at least
we're putting something into the system
to water the plant. It's like putting
Miracle Grow on the thing. You still
need sunlight, but that they just sold
to Unilver for $1.2 billion. But of all
the stuff I've seen in the last decade,
that is the most cutting edge behavior
changing thing that's come out because I
can make sure that my kid eats something
that is good for them in a packaged way
that they can be highly reproducible for
years and years and years. It's the 2026
version of the Flintstones multivitamin.
>> Well, those kids are never going to be
elite because they didn't eat the
Flintstone vitamin. Maybe that's why
we're elite. Well, why you are elite?
>> Um, so in the workout this morning, uh,
you walked me through all of these
warm-up exercises that were very joyful
and about play. So I think a good way to
kind of bring this conversation to a
close is to leave the audience with uh
some version of that that they can begin
to practice and incorporate into their
lives.
We
have ruined the jib experience. It's
there's some person in the middle with
their camera filming themselves. It's
lonely. There's so many good examples of
physical culture on the internet, of
people dancing, of people playing with
tennis balls, of rhythmic drills. If you
took the first 15 minutes of your gym
time and and you need to get hot and
sweaty and prepped and awake anyway, and
we could do breath work and we could do
we could do eye training and tracking.
If you played spikeball, right? If you
just engaged with having to move in a
funny way, played frisbee like we talked
about, you would see that you would have
a better workout. It would be fun and
you'd get to create a community around
that. There's so much cool stuff on the
internet. I get I am so inspired. I get
so many good ideas. I will point at a
friend named Rhett Larson who is a
incredible coach. He used to be at EXOS.
He's the German national volleyball team
women's coach and he has a thing called
no zombies. And he what he saw was that
for years kids would just zombie through
the warm-ups and adults zombie I have to
touch my toes I have you know and he was
like this isn't getting what we want. So
he created an entire ecosystem of play
of games where he got invested as a
coach again. He wasn't phoning it in and
his athletes performed better. And I
think you could go on the internet and
be inspired by something you see and be
like I'm going to learn that. I'm going
to play that. I'm going to throw a
tennis ball against the wall and play
butts up. Do you remember that game?
Right. That was just like you would
throw a ball and if you didn't catch it,
>> you had to like go up against this is
not a politically correct game in the
this is again the 70s.
>> You would bend over and then whoever
threw the ball got to peg you in the
butt with the ball.
>> Uhhuh.
>> But what it did was it shortened the
distance between you and making errors
because you didn't want to get pegged
and it incentivized you to catch the
ball. that idea of play, of engagement,
of like we have lost that section as
adults and we know that everyone learns
better through play like play is the
miracle drug and let's put a little bit
of play. What I'd say is if you're on a
bike, I mean, do you remember these
little rides where you'd sprint to the
town sign, you sprint to the town line
sign? Those are games within games. So,
we play a game on the rowing machine.
This is the worst game ever. Rowing is
terrible. It's suffering. It's awful. s
and we see who can get closest to the
500 meter, who can get closest to the
thousand, and we play it like golf.
Whoever is closest gets a point. So,
there's so many ways where you can start
to gamify. Don't lose the narrative. But
in that first 15 minutes, I think
there's a lot of ways to explore, move.
Um, there's a gentleman named the
fitness marshall
>> and he has a YouTube channel full of
dances. He's a local kid here. I have
used the fitness marshall to warm up my
athletes more times than you can shake a
stick at because dancing's fun and moves
you in funny ways and you got to load
and rhythm and four minutes or five
minutes later you're sweating and
grinning. So, let's do more of that.
>> All right. Awesome. More dam more
dancing.
>> Dance Marshall. Fitness marshall.
>> The fitness marshall on YouTube. Yep.
>> All right.
>> Have your mind blown. He has 14 million
followers.
>> Wow.
>> Yeah, you're going to have your mind
blown. Caleb is a genius. Um, it's wild
how there are people that can have that
many uh people following them and then
you've never heard of them and you're
like, you know, sort of space, but
>> I am Kelly Star. How do you Yeah. Yeah.
>> Um,
>> tons of followers.
>> I love you, man. You're such a force for
good and I just appreciate you being
such a grounded uh source of trust in a
very confusing world. um you haven't
lost your mind in this crazy insanity
that we're all trying to survive right
now. Um and you're my go-to guy on all
things fitness, movement, mobility,
stability, strength, and I do want to
say publicly that you have been behind
the scenes an unbelievable support
system for me. Like when I came out of
surgery, you were just on it like you
need to do this and you sent me that
electro stem thing and here's how you
use it. like you've you've just really
taken care of me in a in a way that like
you didn't have to do that, man. And
>> um it just speaks to your character and
who you are as a person and I just adore
you and and your wife and
>> um really appreciate you basically
spending almost an entire day with me
today. So, thank you.
>> Thank you.
This is all I think about. It's so fun.
You're really important to us and to the
world and so we need you back. So very
selfishly, I was like, the faster I can
get rich back to being rich, then I do
better, right? And I just want to say
rich is dead, long live rich. Thank you,
brother.
>> Thank you, man. Peace.