Adam Ster, healer

Um, this week on the podcast we have a very interesting character. He is an athlete, but he primarily is known as a healer and one of the most well respected healers by some of the highest level athletes in the world. Uh, he works with many of the Denver Broncos , uh, uh, keep to leap on the , uh , Los Angeles Rams, lots of red bull athletes. He is a master body worker , which happens to be his Instagram handle also.

Um, some of his, he's not traditionally trained as you'll hear, he has trouble defining some of what he does, but it's hard to argue with the results. And although sometimes he'll tell me something that kind of makes me cock my head and, and scratch my head a little bit. There's a reason that Chris Harris jr Von Miller, Kate, Courtney, whoever it is, continue coming back and asking for services. Um, I think you'll find this conversation very interesting. I certainly did.

Alright , here's the episode with Adam stir . So where with Adam stor , uh, how would you describe yourself? Uh,

Um, but I think what's important to note here is that you are entrusted with healing and helping maintain the bodies of some of the best athletes in the world. Absolutely. Folks that I'm sure almost everyone back home will have heard of. Um, can you rifle through some of the names that you've worked with? How about today? Who did you work with today? Who today has come from? Today's lineup was,

But a professional athlete needs to be, at least on a game day, they need to be going heavy. So where's the balance? And so I basically put them at 7,000. 8,000 is too much, you'll blow out. 6,000 just isn't enough. So we get them to that 7,000, and they're consistent. They're , they're efficient. They're not going to blow out and , uh, and nobody can keep up with them. And so , um , but it's, it's very energetic. It's, it's extra SIS , its own States.

Um , at the end I finish up with , um, different, different movements and energies and breathing and stuff like that where I'm transferring and kind of taking all the, all the bad toxic energy that's in them and their , and then giving them what they need to go and be, you know, just an athlete today and take away all anything that going on in their lives. Taking a , you know, any, any media negative and just saying go trust it. Play the game. You love the game.

It's not about money, it's not about your families. It's not about cars, it's not about the media and the cameras, it's about you on the field. Besting the next guy. And uh , and you know, the funny thing is, is that I actually do it even more so. So each guy, I have start at a specific time. So I do one before the other and it's like cranking up the volume on a , uh , on receiver. So each one of them, I'm plugging in to the receiver and I crank up the volume just a little bit .

So the next guy is attached to the guy before. So they're in the same room? Uh , not , no, but they, they see each other. They interact one after the other, cause they come in the next one leaves and it's one after the other. The other.

If you're an athlete and you've been doing it long enough, there's workouts where you get in the zone and you just pop out of it and you're like, what just happened ? You know, people have them in competitions, people have them you where you just are in it and you're, you're out of mind because everything's automatic . The moment. Exactly. Yeah. M and M's in it. Trust me, that song has been a big part of my life too.

Um , but uh, but yeah, it's, it's one of those, one of those cool things that I get to do because over the years I've developed the trust for them to let me do it.

Cause in a previous life I did, you know, those kinds of things that ran a big wine sellers and really obscure liquors and things like that. And I saw the label and I was like, dude, this guy must know what he's actually like got , this is a very obscure thing. It's not like something you just go to a cigar shop and go, although one looks good. And uh, and I asked him, I was like, I didn't know he's a football player. He's a big dude and started talking to him about this cigar.

And he's like, yeah, the girl at the cigar place just said that I want this. He likes a good cigar. Like he's not just smoking it because it was a one time thing. So we started talking and then his friends came over and thought I was like being weird through as a football player. And I had just started doing stuff that I would , that I'm doing now. And so as soon as I learned that and we had already developed a rapport, he brought me out to San Diego. I'm my last $2 to fill my gas tank.

I didn't have enough for a hotel. I didn't have enough for anything. I drove from Vegas to San Diego with the last bit of money that I had to put them on the table in there. And uh, yeah. And, and within 20 minutes of me leaving, he called me and he's like, you need to move here. And uh, and so he was hiring you personally? Ah , yeah . Yeah . So everybody, everybody's independent guy don't work for the teams. I didn't do any of that stuff.

Um, I just don't like the idea of somebody trying to tell me that my way doesn't work. Yeah . Obviously it goes or people wouldn't keep coming back. So , um, but uh, but yeah, so long story short, Louis Vasquez who was an all pro , uh, retired lineman now, but he's all pro, so he's best in the league. Uh , the year, the first year we went to the super bowl here , um, he had a severe high ankle sprain in the NFL.

That's a six to eight week injury minimum and he's a 340 pound dude that's also adds to that length of time. And he missed one game working with me and , uh, and, and I , I actually, I wasn't even completely and totally confident in my skills at that point. Like I was, but I wasn't, I was like to be safe. Maybe you should sit this one out too. And he's like, no contract here . I gotta be out there. I'm like, alright , go. What did you do? Um, I just, I, I balance tissues.

I teach the body to heal itself. I'm just the middleman, you know, like if you can find the anchors, if you can find the pieces that are far away from the injury, the body doesn't have to worry about all the other stuff. And it goes straight to where the engine problem is. If you can create a balance between the tissues, the slings and the ankle, that's why I taped the sprinters and stuff.

I tape their ankles the way that I do, because you have slings, you know, front back, side to side and rotations. And so I support all of them in the right ratio so that the ankle can function the way it's supposed to. And in turn, because the ankle is in with gravity, the rest of the body follows. And so you all of a sudden you have an efficient body, you have an efficient system or machine to do your job. It's well-oiled and it's ready to go. So it just happened that way.

And you know, I just moved his body around and I re reprogrammed the nervous system so to speak. And his brain stopped protecting it, stop sending the pain signal because it felt better. And then they go for professional athlete when you hurt yourself seriously, there's also another level of the mental side like, Oh ma, I can't hurt it again. Or, and then your tightened up soul , you're wound up so tight that even the littlest bit freaked you out. And so that's part of my job too.

And in that process they're also gaining performance. So, so they're gaining more than they had before. The injury. The injuries had injuries going away in a fractions of the time and their mental capabilities like Oh wow , alright . And I'm good too. And they'd go, they just fire. So Von Miller and Chris Harris jr were the perfect examples . They both had ACL reconstructions in the same year. I started with them pretty much at the same time, that entire off season and, and preseason.

And then the season that year , um, I worked on them five days a week minimum, and they both were second team, all pro . So they basically were second in the entire NFL in their position right off of an ACL reconstruction. Jeez . And so, so, and there's that consistency there. It's, it's, eh , I'm very consistent. I'm very methodical and I do it a certain way every time because then if something comes up, I can adapt. Yeah. And that's, yeah.

So what is your, what is your method using, using that ACL as a case study? Same . Same situation. And I take pieces, bits and pieces from everywhere. A lot of movement therapies, you know, I'll use acupuncture, acupressure, but I use it, I use my hands so I'm bare feet and bare hands for everything. Huh ? I don't use equipment for the most part. I mean every so often I'll use certain things, but for the most part it's bare, bare feet, bare hands.

Um, I have like a strap that goes on my table and that's about it. Um , but uh, it really is just different pieces. And so I can't claim to one thing that everyone knows. I actually, I actually tell people, no joke just like this. I'm like everything you've ever heard of, mix it in a pot and square it. Hmm . Interesting. That's I , it's really, cause every person is different. So when when my hands start to work, I just work. They just, they just go, I don't, I'm out of mind.

I'm not sitting there assessing you. Yeah. It sounds like it comes really naturally. Yeah, absolutely. I don't, I don't sit there and assess. How did you get into it? Like when, when did you learn, because what I'm hearing is, it sounds like you've got, you've got a gift for this clearly. Oh , otherwise you wouldn't be in a position where you are, but how did you stumble upon that? Okay, so bartending worldwide. Okay. Really high end bars.

I mean, for the biggest name chefs in the world, the Daniel Ballou's, the, the Eric repairs , uh, the, the Joel Rover, Shawn's , I mean, these guys, they're famous, famous, like godfathers of the entire thing, you know, food, right? Anybody that learns now learns from them. I got tired of that and I had gotten to the pinnacle where it's either open my own or move on to something else. Yep . And I in that world, when you're bartending, I mean, you know, that's kind of nightlife.

There's a lot of girls around and stuff like that. And so I had this trick, I have this trick, what I thought was a trick and I could make my hands really hot just by thinking about it. And so, yeah, really? And so and so, but it was like a parlor trick and I was like, you know, I was kind of , you know, the girls and stuff like that. It was just kind of part of it, you know, it was bartending and yet I would just use it.

It was probably to change the temperature of your hands by thinking about it. And so like it pretty quick too . Um, and so like it was just this thing and then when I was getting done with it and I was just done, I needed something else and I just kept getting drawn to this massage school. Right. And I just wanted out of the bar and whatever. So I went to this massage school, which ended up being the best massage school in the world at the time.

And they had a contract with , uh , the UNL V a doctor program. So we got some go learn our anatomy in the cadaver lab. So I get to dissect or be there like holding tissues. I mean, I looked through old ladies and freaking eyeball cause I had it cut in half and you could literally see how, what this reality look like to this person. And so like, and you know some that's a superpower , right? But I can still see it to this day. Like it's wild, you know?

And it just so happened that I became completely obsessed. But then what really interesting is I learned all the books. I studied everybody, I studied doctor programs online, I studied, you know, the trainers. I study everybody what they're doing and I found holes and I didn't believe in all of it. And so my teachers actually just started letting me do whatever I have been to do. And uh , Ray , right before I was about done with the master's level part of it.

And you know, I knew I wanted to do something with it, but it certainly wasn't spa massage or any of that crap. Like that's not me. I don't like the concept of it. So this girl comes up to me and she was a, you know, ex dancer in Vegas and her best friend, her husband was a professional motocross and he was, he was sponsored by the other energy drinks and uh, one of them, but the other one at the time we got , we all know who it's from. That is.

And uh , so he wrecked on a huge jump and broke everything from his ribcage down. And I mean shattered. We're talking shattered disc , like gnarly. This, this person at one point when I was working with him, the third time he rebroke everything. I actually had the straight face to face conversation. Like, are you sure you don't want to just amputate your legs? Really? Like I had to actually have that conversation with him because he was so broken. Like we're talking hundreds of bricks.

I mean just shattered everything. He died seven times on the table , uh, from the first one. Um, he was laying in halos and by died seven times, he was flat line , flat line seven different surgery in surgery. Yep. Fuck. And so and so what, and so, and mind you, I am out of the bar business for four months, right. I'm just obsessed with the human body and I'd see it different. So I'm not, I'm not bound by the other, by the books that are telling me what to do.

And so she asked me if work with this kid and I'm like, yeah, yes. To sign some releases. Like, Hey, I'm not even in business or anything. Like I don't even know what I'm going to do with all of that , but yeah, I'll, I'll do it. And he couldn't, he couldn't pay me. And so he was paying, he was growing his own marijuana and I don't smoke, but I let him pay me. So it felt like a, like a trade. Yeah . And then I just gave it to a friend. That was , yeah . But that's how that all turned about.

And , uh, he was told that he would never walk again under his own power ever. Uh, and then they told them after about a year of really intensive PT in Cairo that he might be able to walk with a Walker. And I have video of him walking , uh , we'll, we'll call it about 20 yards in his house on cement a month after I started with them without any help me either. His wife was freaking out and she shaken him.

You have to remember he was in halos, the size of my thumb with pins all through his legs for nine months. I mean, basically she was cleaning him, she was feeding him, you know, he was hooked on painkillers cause everything hurt. His rib cage had an entire like cage implanted like a metal cage because he's toast. Right. And uh, I left, I handled it well. You'll see it in my eyes in here in a second, but I like I left and I handled it right like a pro, just this is what's supposed to happen.

I left, give me the sugars now I left and I drove around the corner and I for wreaked out. I just looked at my hands and I was shaken . Like, what the fuck ? I have to excuse the language, but like I was freaking out. I was losing it. And , uh, I called my girlfriend at the time and I'm like, obviously she doesn't, she can't understand that. Like she just knows that we were, you know , switching out of the bar business. Right.

So then I was like for just losing it and then I just kinda came to grips and I guess I was like, I guess is what I'm supposed to do. And at that point I started master body worker that night. Um, got the websites, started the trademarks, she was a graphic designer. So she set up my, my logos that night and then no off to the races and uh, [inaudible] yeah, that's where that started. My very first, how long ago was that? That was almost a decade now.

Just about , uh, we're about three months away from it being a 10 year anniversary. Wow. Okay. So fast forwarding , um, Denver Broncos, who else are you working with these days? Uh, I also fly to LA once a week and work with the keep to leap and I'm Marcus Peters on the Rams. Yup. They're doing all right right now. Yep . I think that says a lot. I mean obviously Tully was, she was on the Broncos and I assume that's where y'all got linked up. Yep .

And then once he left the Broncos, he kept you on board. Yeah , absolutely. Um, that, that's literally less than a 24 hour period. Yeah . I fly in on Thursday afternoon. I drive Uber to his house, do a session, go back to the hotel and I fly out at 5:00 AM and then I come back here and I work all day. Okay. So are these, are these guys

But when I first started watching, when the NFL season starts up again, every year I have to recalibrate my , um, my violence meter. Like I have to, I have to to come to terms with what a violent game it is. Again. Yeah . What these guys have to go through is unbelievable.

And I think probably from a healer standpoint, it's really F I don't want to say fun, but it's a, it's a gratifying challenge I'm sure to deal with on a daily basis to deal with the athletes that are having to go through the most from an injury standpoint yet in the world and what they have to play through. Is it, I have to assume it's fair to say that almost never is there a player on the field that is 100% healthy

Yeah , definitely. They have an advantage. Right, right, right . Um , the, the amount of impact, the things that it does, the body, there's two things that I, I will always, I've gone back to every time I've ever talked about that kind of staying. Number one is car crashes. Have you ever been in a , in a, just a minor car crash, your body freezes up and you sore for the next couple of days and you're , yeah , man, why am I just like had a fender bender bits ?

Because the protect mechanism, right? You just Slack and your whole body just triggers into a protect phase. They're in a car crash multiple times every day. No, every day, every day . Practice and practice, right. Sports , of course guys don't not go. Even when they don't have padded practices, it's still gnarly. I remember watching them in a cage

So at the end of every season I do kind of, it's a recovery from the season, right? So we go, I go an entire week after we're done, whenever that happens and get these guys kind of get their body starting to heal and this crazy thing happens to all of them about two weeks after 10 days to 14 days after they're done. Like they don't have any more impact. Their bodies turn into a big bruise, huh ? The whole thing. It's crazy. The biggest nasty has bruises that you would look at.

We look at and go, what did you do? And they're like, I don't even know. Cause it doesn't hurt. It's just filtering the damage from the bone level out because there's so many in a , every year it trips me out. I just see it and I'm like, I know this is coming. I know this is a thing. And at some point I'll , I can do is put their body in a good place to heal so that it can do that faster and get it out. It's amazing. It's almost like they're shedding their armor. It's gnarly .

Like no , it's crazy. Just in the world. That's shocking. Yeah. And that's, that's something that you, nobody, I don't even think anybody has paid attention to it because they're not in their facility. Right , right. They're not, once they're done, they're done. They're on their own. They're doing their own thing. So being able to witness that does have a name for that. I don't know if anybody's ever, I don't mean like a scientific name, but like a rep the play don't even know.

They don't even notice it's me that notices. I'm like, yo , what did you do your 90 day plan? Interesting. Oh nothing. I've been sitting on the couch, you know, like trying to recover. And I'm like, but I started seeing it year after year after year with every single person that I work with. And then I started, you know, you get into new guys that can want , need some help in the off season or they have to get, you know, a little surgeries or whatever. And I started seeing it there too.

And I just started paying attention. And for the last like six, seven years now I've been noticing it and expecting it and kind of learning how to deal with it after the season so that they can get into off season as soon as they want to. But like, I don't know if anybody's ever talked about it, I couldn't find any information on it. Bottom line is it's like a big huge bruise that you can't see and then your body now the protection is down and all the sudden you can feel it in your hands.

Yeah. It just feels like , uh , well I can feel that during the, during the season. Now I know what, what it actually is going to happen. But like you don't see it during the season, so does it just feel like , um, what does it feel like? Is it like almost a , uh , is there like pitting edema sort of deal going on or luck ? It's like a block.

It's like , uh , it's like, you know, just moving throughout space and then there's like cold coming from somewhere and you're like, where's that coming from? But it's crazy. It's just the most out of everything that I've ever experienced with any athlete. And that's the ones that have been like paralyzed and hurt and those types of things. I've never seen a phenomenon like that and I can't seem to find anything about it because I don't think that, you know, the players just think it's them.

But I'm seeing it with every single one of them. Interesting. Think about it. Somebody hits you with the helmet in the thigh, hard like, and it bothers you, but you played through it. You deal with it for the rest of the season, whatever word , you know, it is what it is, but it never shows up. It was a bruise . And then that bruise shows up after you're all done. It's kind of like that, but everywhere.

So anything they've taken, you know the get cuts and stuff, but you never see bruises like this time of year, I Rivera rarely see bruises, high bodies at all. And these guys, they're , nah , they're beat up. They're hitting the, I mean that right now matters cause it's playoff time. Yeah . You know, are starting to get to it. So like they're toast, they'll have swelling, they'll have like what should be a bruise. Like when you clip your shin but there's no black and blue season ends.

All those spaces go and you see the bruises from before. That's crazy. I'm just like trying to process all this cause it's so, so far. One thing that that really strikes me too is that in any given, you know , subculture of sport, whether it be football or we were talking about red bull rampage earlier before we started recording things that are very not normal to the average person get normalized to the people that are in it, right?

So red bull rampage for example, doing a backflip off of of a hundred foot long jump . They're scared to do that, but they're all pushing each other. You know, there's these 20 to 30 guys, only 20 to 30 guys in the world that are all kind of pushing each other to do it and that's type of risk gets normalized and they're so good that surprisingly infrequently do things actually happen. Right. In the NFL. I can see that .

I don't know this but I'm just assuming that playing through injury is normalized . Right . And Oh yeah. Discomfort. Uh, everyone has recalibrated and I'm sure you know in those locker rooms there's always these discussions about the little Nicks that different guys have. And the baseline injury of what would take you out of a game is just so much higher. Their , their baseline for what they play through is what we would sit for a week and not do anything.

Yeah. Maybe more, you know, I mean the doctor would have us in every X Ray machine and everything. They go to MRIs once a week. Yeah. These guys get pictures of things. They're like, okay, let's just make sure, Oh let's just make sure.

Oh you're , no, no, no. You go, I'm just going to say , I'll tell you what I think about mountain bikers here in a good way. Yeah. So I uh, I broke off my [inaudible] and my, my elbow was just huge, like super swollen and uh, I was like, ah, it's fine cause I wanted to race the next day really badly. I was like, ah, it's fine.

So I got a tee shirt, made myself a slang , went up, went to a nice Italian restaurant on a date with my, with my girlfriend eating pasta, literally bled on their white tablecloth, went back to the hotel and I was like, wow, you know the races tomorrow I should probably just like try to lean on my bike and make sure that I can actually ride it. I had road rash everywhere at the road. Rash is what hurt the most. Yeah, I bet.

And so I'm in the hotel room leaning on my bike and I , I put weight on my arms and my right arm just gives out. Oh yeah. And my chest goes straight to the STEM and I , it hurts you . I was like, I was like, huh, that shouldn't happen. What's going on? Not even that, it hurt, it just didn't go. I was like, dammit . And I try again. I'm like , ah , maybe like my muscle is just torn or something. And , uh, my girlfriend is like, you know, you should probably just go in and get it checked.

And I was like, Oh , let's just wait until the morning. I'm gonna wake up tomorrow and it'll be fine. And she was racing too, so I see you're off for her race, drive myself to the urgent care clinic. Um, and the doctor there kind of pushes and pulls on my elbow and he's like, what's your, what's your pain level? And I'm like, ah, I dunno . Maybe a six out of 10. And he's like, alright , you know, just ice it, I guess you just have a bad hematoma.

Year of year , six out of 10, it's somebody else's 10 how to take exactly. And so and so , uh, he says, all right, you know, you're good to go. And I was like, well, it was kind of giving, getting out in the hotel room. It was just buckling in this weird way. And he was like, well, do you want to get an X Ray? And I was like, ah , it's probably a good idea. So he gets an X. Ray comes back in 30 minutes later and he's like, dude, your elbow is exploded.

I haven't seen an electrode on broken off like this severely in a while . I was like, Oh wow , okay, got some glad we got an X Ray. I will tell you, not in bikers out of every sport that I have ever worked with, y'all have the most structural damage. Oh really? And you played through it. We're talking pins and screws. Yeah , we're talking like the gnarliest stuff. Rock like , you know, like, you know, like when I first met Jill. Yeah . And I'm like, you have what? Going on your ankle. And

Yeah. Cause that's really, I don't know what I sup was changing my boat open repeatedly. Like I went to , I would up and mountain bike with , uh , in, in Washington with , uh, with Jill and Brin and , uh , Liz last summer. Yeah . And uh, and I got a feel like, okay, now I get it. Like I'm not afraid of anything. Let's go, you know, like I'll take my time, I know my limits, I'll make it down.

But then I started to realize like you could just hit a stump with your foot while it's on a pedal and completely like break your foot. Yeah. You come around the corner and you come off and you just, your leg swings and this in half . Yup. Yup. Have a dream trees . Like Hey, I have a buddy that almost got his foot amputated by a root like mid run. Like he does .

There was a, there was a little crazy , there was a loop route and he had a foot out going around the corner, hooked his foot under the root. Yup. 30 plus miles an hour. [inaudible] whipped him straight off his bike and his foot was barely still a chest.

So his lower leg doing this flopping and that, but that, it's funny cause you know we, we've been talking about football players and trust me they get beat up but it's a different way and it's, it's kind of almost, it's almost streamlined to specific things. Like I have very specific protocol that every football player gets in that I worked with work within. When I get y'all on the table, it's everybody. And I mean everybody's different. Huh? Centerstone blew out their elbow .

Somebody blew out their ankle. They didn't. Y'all are still going. That's the thing that just gets me every time. I'm like what? Ah , well it's funny. I mean in a good way, even understandable to me though on the road cyclists because when they hit the pavement they're going twice as fast. The ground is twice as hard and it happens way more frequently. And what those guys ride through and the tour de France, like one of my buddies lost some cratic broke his scapula. Stage one broke his scapula.

Finished the tour. Yeah. Yeah. In st like you use, you use, you know as , as someone familiar with the body to ride a bike, you use your scapula a decent amount. Well it has to hold your back up. Exactly. It doesn't put you in the best position by road bikers. Difference scenario. Body wise . Yeah . For me . But yes, if your scapula isn't doing its job, you're not breathing. You know like I have to, I have to set clavicles and I pull scapulas off of off of rib cages cause nobody knows.

It's even stuck and then your rib cage can't expand. You know? That's an important thing, especially in breathing . It just , you know. But yeah, that's eh , that's what I love about athletics at this level though, is the amount of want for a specific goal, right? You're willing to push it through a serious injury that would take 99% of the human population months to get better if they do at all, to even want to do whatever it is that hurt them.

Again, whether it's stepping down the wrong, a stare wrong or riding a bike or whatever. And, and you in athletics, we want it so bad. And I know this because I'm an athlete and I push myself too . I beat myself up. We all do, right? We all push ourselves to every bit of human limit that we have and we will, and we'll keep doing it. And it doesn't, it's just part of the obsession, right? But the, the thing for me is being able to jump in there and go, I understand, let's fix it.

And also let's find out what you're doing and how your body moves to not have it happen. Right. You know, and , and rehab , prehab. I've , I've definitely used that term a few times too. So , um, and I do a lot of that with the, with the player . I find injury before it happens. I found tiger, I called tiger woods, his injury before it happened. What do you mean? I called it how so? I said he was going to get injured. I told them what was going to happen. And then that happened six days later.

I told the muscle farm guys at a , at their facility in their golf simulator. Did you see, I just see, I just saw a discrepancy. Kind of like his body was saying it was injured, but he didn't know. Huh. And I saw it six days later. What was his injury again? Uh , it was a spinal situation, but from a rotational standpoint, his last, there was an overuse thing. Unbalanced was , it was an overuse and imbalance. It was a little bit of both. But also be , it wasn't a traumatic injury.

No. And it was a overtime straw that broke the camel's back. Yep. No pun intended on any of that. But like he literally broke his back and it, the vertebrae are supposed to be like kind of parallel and his were like this and they were rotated so old , his last little bit of his swing, he had this little torque that he would do and that's how he got all of this extra distance is what made him a bad ass . But he was doing that millions of times and you never, nobody ever balanced them out.

And so I just saw it, I saw it happening and then I just called it and I was like, he's about to get injured. And they're like, how do you know? Then they had just paid him a lot of money to carry their bag. That's how I even knew that he was on their radar. So then I pay attention and sort of universal law, just like something gets put in front of me and then all of a sudden I start seeing it everywhere and then I see what's what.

And it was like his body was just like screaming out, I'm about to have a problem and nobody was doing anything about it. And then he just took one swing and everyone and pinched down that nerve and he couldn't figure it out. And it was so bad that it was traveling down his leg and dropping him. Like he was like crumbling and that that's the stuff they wouldn't show on camera. I told him I could fix it and they hate chose to get surgery instead. Oh , but wow.

Yeah. So, but the point is is that's my job. I see it, I see it before it goes, Oh now I can't promise that I can make it not happen. I mean everything has it's impact points. You fall down and hit a tree. It's not like I can be like, well

But for those that don't know, Kate Courtney current mountain bike world champion, how awesome was that? I cried that day. I did too . I was with, I was with Luzzi , so we have the same and Lucy as both Kate and my , uh, marketing manager at red bull and , uh, Lucy and I were at Bay climb in San Francisco and I went down to breakfast and he just, he looked at me, he was like pacing and he had tears in his eyes and I was like, why don't I freak out ?

I was like, dude, they were going to pull her out. Yeah. She was

And I was at this retreat, I was at this, at this retreat , uh , in, in Santa Cruz. And because I was close, I was like, I was within five hours. So I had my van, I borrowed my friend's car. And right after the first night of the retreat, I drove up for the day.

So I just drove up five hours, put her on the table and then drove back the same day like , and so [inaudible] but that's what it takes, you know, like I take pleasure in, but also if I am given a gift like this and I can help somebody, and this isn't just about athlete athletics and money and I need to make sure that I put that very specifically cause for my end money, it will always have to be there . Money will come. But if you have something to give you give it, you know?

And that's, that's the price you pay. It's the rent you pay for the gift. Right. Don't waste the gift. So, right, exactly. And so like, you know, if a cancer patient needs help, I'll help them. If they come to me and they say they haven't given up, you know, and that's the thing and I'll do it. If they can't afford it, it doesn't matter. Right. Those are the things that people don't know about me because I don't run around and say, yeah, I give away free shit.

Thousands of dollars worth of sessions and knowledge to help some, but I want them to live like actually stay alive. Like, so , uh, you know, Aaron called me and said, can you go, what's it going to take? And I was like, man, is this like, like what kind of series is this? He's like, well, we're going to have to pull her out of , of the thing. And you know, so this is our first year elite. First year, Larry first . Yeah . At 22 years I need to pull her out.

And I was like, okay , you know what dude? Like he's always taken care of. Red bull has always been very, very good to me. They treat me with respect and they allow me to do my craft and nobody ever tells me how to do anything. They just go, you do that. Yup . And so I was like, all right , I'll make it happen. When up one session told her to get on her bike, I was like, it might hurt, might not get on your bike and then I'll see you next week.

And so I went back to Santa Cruz and she called and she got a full training run in the next day. And I told her, I was like, it's probably gonna come back a little, but don't freak out. Like redefine the pain. I say that a lot too to a lot of people redefine what the pain is. Cause now you have the tools. I gave her specific movements to do if things started to pop up in certain areas and I'm very accessible. So if I have to get on a , you know , a video call or something.

And then I went back to my retreat and uh , and then once I left, I told them I could go back up as soon as I was done there. And so I took a took off back up there and worked on her a couple more times. But I'm , I mean for, for her it was just an imbalance. It was, it was too much power in one place and not enough in another, it was being locked down in that then that crouch position, it's the, all of those things they combined with each other. Right? It's the umami effect.

And that's not always a good thing. You have 15 imbalances, they're all gonna find a way into one spot that it's going to get centralized. And that just happened to be her knee link in the chain is going to have to compromise. Yep. Exactly. So, but the anchor, I call them anchors, anchors are never anywhere near the actual problem. And the anchors being the sources of the issue, the , the anchor is what's holding the body back from putting the issued area in pain.

Okay. Okay. So for her, the anchor was, you know, kind of low back up basically every like around the 12th rib and it was a rotational problem and most medical doesn't teach rotations and so on.

I'm an expert in them and I didn't , and again I'm not trying to be, I specialize Ian rotations of the body and so I found the rotational issue and the rotational issue was causing a front to back issue and the front and back issue was causing you side to side issue, which basically it was 65% power on one side and 35 on the other. That's going to really, that's going to create a problem.

We actually had another, a triathlete that we actually tested the theory on to see if I was correct on the side to side with the biker. After one session he got on his triathlete and uh , his meter read specifically 50, 50. And he sent, they sent pictures that he'd sent pictures to meeting Aaron like right after [inaudible] was, do you not with the date mentioned whether her power meter was reading? Nope . In imbalance ? Nope. Okay. I just see it. I feel it .

What's crazy about all this too is that it's, you know, you're , you're doing stuff that other people aren't doing. And so there could be, there's no one out there also saying, yeah, this is how it works. And so there could be doubters. Oh , always. But the proof is in the pudding. Right. I mean [inaudible] wouldn't be flying you out all the time for one day. Didn't work.

And, and you know, like, I, I'm, it's not a , you , the endorsers you have are the people that are the most in touch with their bodies and tearing them up the most, and they also make the money to hire anybody around the way . Exactly. And yeah, they , they're not mean . They're not subtle . Exactly. They, if I wasn't getting the job done, they would find they pay someone else.

I mean, I've had people dis , you know , dip off because I was expensive and ended up paying like five times as much per month for somebody else and then coming back to me, you know, like it happens. But , um , but yes, that for me, that's, that it took me a long time actually to get that. But for me it's like, you know what? I actually get to watch the body of work and go, cool.

You know, what, if that's the way that that game's got to be played because at least the human is healing or , or healed or able to do what they love because there's nothing worse than an athlete that gets taken out of their sport before they're ready. Yeah . There's nothing worse. That's some real deal. Like PTSD slash depression stuff. Oh yeah .

People don't talk about, take a player out of a game that they've been doing their whole lives like quickly or just just happens on accident or something. Whatever it is, they go through real stuff. I've had players that couldn't walk into a stadium after they were done that, that an unfulfilled potential. 100%. Yeah. I mean, one of the same, but I, on the way down here, I'll drive down to her last side.

I listened to a podcast , uh , the cycling news podcast and they were interviewing , uh , this somewhat recently retired pro racer named Michael creed, who lives in Colorado Springs, was

But , um, exactly what you're talking about. I mean, the, the toll emotionally that that takes is pretty

Cause she had triple skier . She had blown her ACL and you know, she's had a few injuries and so I came up to work with her and I wasn't connected to red bull in any way. It was just a connection through another connection. And it was like, okay. So I came up and we didn't have a place to work, so I basically drove into LA just like whatever, you know, like I'm gonna work with this person, you know, to work with Michelle. You're saying we're working with working with shell .

I didn't know who she was. I'm a huge skier. I love the back country situation. Cliffs and powder and whatever else you can throw me into. I'm a , I'm down. So I'm like, all right , sweet, let's go work with a skier, you know, and uh, allegedly curiosity . I did not know at the time. Um, but , uh , you know, like I said, I keep, I keep a low profile on who I know and what I know about them cause I want to learn what their body's telling me.

Not so much what a magazine told me, you know what I'm saying? So I go in and we ended up working at red bull headquarters and so in high performance and high performance. And so they were just like, yeah, let's just do it here, you know, no big deal. Okay. I put her on the table, everybody starts paying attention. I'm like, what in the world are you doing? And then from then on that day I was supposed to have one session with her that day they had proceeded to be two days of 15 sessions.

And then the second day we left and they asked me to go up to wings for life because it was a thing. And so the next day we went up to wings for life and we, I ran wings for life at 3:00 AM barefooted. Oh wow. Because I had fruit , didn't have shoes and , and I'm somewhat of a barefooter. I mean I'm usually barefoot all the time. What does wings for life?

So wings for life is a , uh , it's a thing that red bull does for spinal injury and they do it worldwide and they start everybody at the same time worldwide . So some places it'll be like 7:00 AM, some places will be 3:00 AM and you have this huge group of people. And what it is is it's kind of like a race. So everybody takes off and then this car, this pace car chases you down and if it gets to you, then your race is over.

And whoever's the last one standing, when the pace car finally gets to them, that's the person who quote unquote wins or with the distance. I mean it's not a wind situation, but it's for spinal cord, spinal cord awareness and research and all kinds of stuff. So on a cord injury in action sports, I mean that's the , the most risk of any sport really.

I mean, I guess football a little bit, but kind of like you're talking about though, just quick side note, you know, action sports versus football, you know, action sports. Have these debilitating injuries or broken bones and football has broken bones of course, but it's more of a accumulation and it's very regulated. I mean you , you're within lines, right? You have referees. Like when you, when you fall, it's, it's from a couple feet up.

Yeah. And there's a reason why there's common injuries, right? Yeah . You know, so from the concussions down to the knees and ankle, like th it's common stuff for a , for a different player profile, whether it's a receiver or quarterback or whatever. Everybody has a different thing, right. So , um, either way, wings for life is, it's a, it's a charity event and it raises a ton of money and it's fun. Like everybody comes out.

I mean, when I was at that one, every athlete in like this, half of the U S was there, it was tons of everybody. And I was just brand new to the whole thing cause I was just pointing out of her. So Aaron comes up to me while I was working on somebody's phone . Yeah . Uh , sorry. Uh , Luzzi I'll just call you by that, Aaron . I know you're going to be listening to this. So mom, man, so it gets referenced pretty often. He's , he's family to me for sure.

So , um, but uh, so he came up to me and he was like, so I have this guy and we don't know what to do next. We, we've gotten about Paul Paul , yep . And we don't know what to do next and you know, we're, we're wondering if he, maybe you can help them a little bit. And I was like, okay, what happened? You see that guy? He broke his back. Okay . Paralyze , yes, but not anymore. Like he's gotten some feeling back, but he still has a little drop foot and stuff like that, whatever.

And I look at Aaron and I was like, Oh, he'll walk today. And I got the kind of , uh , w what like, okay , bro, do you think you are ? And I'm brand new. This is the first time, I've mean in the red bull facility, but it just blurted out. It's like a, it's like a university. It's not like I'm vomiting information.

It just, it just blurted out like, I just, and I don't even know why I said it like that and they're just kind of looked at me and I remember her so well cause it was like they were doing slacklining and that was when slackline is becoming big. And so they had a couple of guys in there doing demos in the, in the production area, the big area. And so Paul comes in and he's, he's like forcing himself on canes , but it's just totally labored, like, you know, basically dragging himself around.

And uh , I put him on the table and I just opened him up in a certain way and then I put his canes on the floor and I was like, let's go. And I put my hands under his elbows and he took like 1520 steps and pear was sitting there, jaw drop. And you know, his girlfriend who is well fiance now, she's just looking at me like, what's happening? And I basically asked when I was like, do you want to race again? Do you want to just ride a bike again? What do you want?

Because I'll give you that and obviously at that point it's less than a year from this all happening. You know, he, he wanted to say, I want to raise , I want to do what I was doing before. She was like, no, yeah, don't even answer that question like that. He's like, I'd just be happy to be on a bike again.

Fast forward to the summer and we had been working, I had been going there every two weeks for about a three day period and we were working constantly and uh, I rode , we have a picture, I think I've even have a video of it, but I have a picture of me and him both. I rode with him out of the first times he was on his bike again and I was following a roof kicking my ass, like straight up. Like he was whipping me. I was like, bro , uh, okay .

And I'll put , I'm following him in a , it was like hard to hold back the emotion to it. But the thing is like how this all started with the emotional side of things with, with an athlete, when you get it taken, you know it's the Y and then it's the, that removed feeling from that whole community that you are built into. It's the, what do I do with my life now? Like tough part is so many athletes equate their self worth with their , their athletic ability. Right?

And so all of a sudden more or less you're taking those self-worth away. Yup. 100% you're taking everything that they know of from an human, like living on this planet, you taking it away from them all at once. And so, you know, I definitely had those conversations with them .

Like, you know, and that's the hardest part because I have to, I have to more or less snatch the bad energy away from somebody and you know, it, we got to kind of a plateau point with us and then all of a sudden he's riding and you know, it's never for an athlete, it's never good enough unless you're back to where you were. You know what I'm saying? That's the , it's just not, it never will be. It doesn't matter what anybody says, nobody will understand it.

But another athlete is, if it's taken away and you want it back and it starts to come back, it is not good enough until it's back. Yeah . And so that, you know, you have to come to grips with that. And now, I mean, you know, he's, he's still sponsoring bikes as he bikes now he's killing it. The documentary like you know, and , and he's a voice now to others and I, and major voice, we talk about that too.

I was like, you're going to have, you're the, you're the one like you're , you're going to be the one that is able to tell people that there is hope. You know, you understand cause they , they have that thing, the the, you can't know or, or that you do , you can't understand. There's no way for you to understand. Right. Cause you haven't gone through it. So, but he has and so now he is to bridge that gap and it was cool for me to be able to be a part of that.

Like get to, to witness and to help that process to where he could get to a point where he could be in front of another person and not be scorned and upset and instead now he's a positive light to those people and to be able to assist in him getting through that problem, you know, to a point where he could do that is huge because it's beneficial to the rest of everybody else too. Yeah. All right , so going back to you , Paul, go back to the NFL really quick.

One of the last things I w just a personal curiosity that I wanted to cover there. So like today, pregame, this is where we started an hour or an hour tendon . So earlier this morning you were, you were getting the guys pregame ready. Can you be , how specific can you be about what you do in terms of giving them ready? I mean, I know you, I know you don't want to give away all your stories, but it , but it's not even, it's not even that.

It's that my, my biggest issue is not giving away what I do. It's that people that try to do it. Oh, hurt someone else . Yeah . I'm very refined in my movements. Right. So, so whatever your , whatever you're comfortable sharing. I mean the bottom line is is is I'm, I'm physically, I'm putting their body in a balanced position for their specific performance. Okay . Uh, Chris Harris and a manual Sanders need to be able to cut both directions in and outside of side rotations. All of it.

You have a Von that's mostly off of the left side. So I have to watch out for the balance between the left side and the right side because one does more power moving than the other side. And that never even crossed my mind. That's a balance nightmare. And that's, so that's what, but I have to know that between the, those different guys. Now it also comes down to knowing the game of football. What might our game plan be for X player? Gotcha.

Because if, you know, they might try to switch it up and then throw that outside rusher to the other side and then all of a sudden their body's not used to power moves from that side. Which puts them at risk in certain places. So physically I'm setting up a balance so that their relationship with gravity and how they have to perform is free and open to do it with the least possible risk. Okay. I'm triggering the nervous system.

So when I do recovery sessions, we get them into what's called parasympathetic nervous system . So basically the rest and digest. I ate a big Thanksgiving dinner and I just want to lay on the couch. And when you do that, you're able to get into the ligaments. You're able to move and get their bodies where it needs to be so that it can really recover. But game day is the opposite. So I need to get them into sympathetic fight or flight. But I need to take away the gas warrior , my buyer .

But I need to take the gasoline from the fire because that's when you start to make mistakes. So as a performance athlete, making mistakes is the biggest thing that gets you. If you make a mistake, it can be detrimental to your team to whatever. Right? So we've all gone into competition and we get the wobbly legs. I talked to Jake about this last night. I did. I was like wobbly right before, right before the bell, you know , my bell went off.

So you have to get these, you have to get your athletes into that position where they can be a little nervous. That's normal, but not going out and blowing every bit of energy store and every performance, that bit of performance they have gained in the first quarter, many hours. So, so it's, it's, it's a well oiled machine, but it's also oil on the fire, not gasoline. Oil still burn oil still give you a nice little shell, but oil will last. Yeah, gasoline does not.

And so a lot of people come out in that adrenaline pump, right when you walk. I mean, I don't know if y'all haven't been in front of 78,000 people screaming your name. Like that's an adrenaline thing. So to be able to handle that adrenaline and stay in your focus, that's where I come in. So within a 20 minute period I in day I jolt the entire system awake, ready to go without being overly hyped and adrenaline filled and tape them and have the next guy on the table at the 20 minute Mark. Huh ?

Constant straight go, go, go , go, go until everybody's done. Wow. Huh. Yeah. So speaking of a well we'll get through those . Did that answer your question? Big time. Big time, big time. I'm just starting to think about the gazillion other questions I have and how long was , could go through it . You know what ? We could do a speed round, speed round, speed round. You just go and I'll give you like a , like a one sentence answer and you'd be like, and then you're going to be like, what?

Wait, that doesn't sound as fun. But , um, before we started recording, we were somewhat jokingly talking about this , uh, phenomenon that some of my friends and I have experienced. Uh, it's a , it's a bike pro bike racer tradition, at least in our small circle called a blue flame. Um, so when you're, when you're a pro athlete and you're pretty regimented about things, a lot of the time, sometimes you gotta cut loose a little bit, right?

So I think probably in all , uh, in all different types of pro athletics, there's sometimes a tradition of getting, getting a little wild now and then , um , I'm sure you, I'm sure you have some stories, but , uh, so blue flame is a , this concept where if you are out, you know, having a good time the night before, hard training ride and have a decent amount to drink and you wake up the next day now feeling like a hundred bucks , uh, got a solid hangover going , um, you know, you , that's not an

excuse. You got to still get out and get your work done. And low and behold, a lot of times you get out there and you have one of the best workouts of the year. And when I mentioned this to you, you said, well, yeah, duh. Of

So you get up and you go and sometimes you have the best workout of your life because you're, when you're, when you're hung over, when you're toast from the night before, your nervous system is calm and you're not really in your own head about what you need to get done. You're just more or less like, okay , I know I need to work out and then get a little bit of sweat and all of a sudden you have this killer workout and like how did this even happen? Um, but it's just the nervous system is calm.

You're not kind of in an ecstatic state. Um,

And then also when you're, when you're, when you're, you know, if I'm mountain biking and I'm riding through a technical section multiple times, I've gotten through, you know, say really tough rock garden and all of a sudden it's dawned on me how fast I'm going and how absentmindedly I'm doing it. And for a minute you're ma , you're like, man, this is, this is not good. I probably have , I have red lining this. Yeah. Am I putting myself on the line? Should I even be writing right now? Right .

But you're, you're, you're lot , you're on autopilot. You're in that zone state.

There's a million different outside sort of things that could be bothering us that take us away from the, the, the unfocused focus. Does that make sense? It's kind of like the blur and then you wake up and you're like, it's almost like mass when you, when you, when you notice that you're in it, it's gone now and that's, and that's the thing, it's it .

That's what happens is as soon as you start to try and be in that zone or stay in that zone, the zone dissipates and then you're like, and then you want it back. You're like, wait, I need, I need that back. But the whole, the whole point is is you have to stop trying to get it back and then it shows back up. Yeah . That's the paradox of all of all of creation, like writing seriously, paradox, humor and change, right? Those are the three universal laws.

Those things will always exist in every situation. So like paradox, the paradox here is the less you try, the more you're going to get. Right ? Right. It's so weird because as an athlete we try so hard to get better and try so hard to perform, but yet it's the absence of try the, gets you the result that you've been trying to get. Totally. Totally, totally messed up. Right. So like , um, but yeah, the uh, the, those ecstatic States are pretty, pretty sweet though. Yeah .

And, but that's what I'm doing when I'm warming them up and when I'm doing that, that's what we're going for. Yeah . I'm setting up an ecstatic state and a group ecstatic state. So everybody's tuned into the same frequency. They're tuned into the same channel. When you go on the field, that's cohesiveness. When you have a team sport, everybody needs to be on the same page. You're not energetically then. And , but the cool thing is here, it's contagious. Hmm .

So let's say that I do this for six, seven guys on the defensive side of the ball . We use that just because it's an easier word . We've been talking about 11 people. You get six or seven guys that are on the exact same frequency and they're flowing kind of like fish that are being chased by a whale. Right. They all move in the same direction because the first one that's closest to the whales shifted and they all shift with them. Right. Huh . So if they're all moving, the other ones catch it.

The , the it like taches tool and they don't even know why. And it pulls them into it. Just seeing that like it started to get contagious. It was crazy. Like somebody that I had known, even T touch don't even know is now benefiting from the zone States which we created before the game started. It's transitive. It's crazy. It's so crazy. It's so cool to see.

Um, and, and when you know, to look for it, you start to notice and everybody go , you know, that's why home games are so easy cause all the crowd is there with the energy factor. Right. And so it is amazing how much difference that makes. It does. Especially in basketball. Absolutely. No 100%. I mean if you have somebody pulling a tighter enclosed space. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a , it's one of the, it's just crazy, right? A good zone state. I have no doubt. We're kind of in one right now.

I feel like I have verbally. Do you want to take a quick break? Do you need to know I'm solid. I don't know . It's up to you guys. Cool. How are you feeling Jake? I'm doing great. Jason and Jason [inaudible] . Thank you sir. Thank you. Thank you. Jason is the along for the ride right here going, Oh my God. What am I listening to right now?

Cause if you look at, we'll take road cycling for example, the weight that they need to maintain for a period of time to perform optimally have the highest Watts per Hilo that they can hire . Best power to weight ratio isn't healthy and they can't maintain it for awhile , right ? Yes. To win races , um, you, you can achieve that power to weight ratio for a short period of time, but you can't do it for a long period of time. It's not healthy.

We're not designed to do that for a long period of time. Similarly in the NFL, you know, these guys are playing through injuries like crazy. So I guess my question to you would be, and maybe you're , you're a good example here because you're, I mean, you're an athlete , um, Ninja warrior. What is your relationship and philosophies? This is broad, but what are your, your philosophy surrounding this idea of, you know, performance versus health?

Um, and if you're aware that those things are going to occur. Actually, Jake, you were, we were talking about it before. You don't like to train unless you're 100% like you're , there was no recovery left. You'd like to train right then and there and maybe you're getting some benefit and you are, cause you're pushing yourself beyond boundaries. But when you start to dwindle away, you start burning that candle down and [inaudible] it needs to replenish.

And a lot of people, they, they burn too much without the replenishment. So it's like, it's two steps down, one step up, two steps down, and then sooner or later you're going to get to that crash point and then your body's going to say, all right , now you don't get to do anything until you're recovered. Yeah . Um , and so like for me, health versus performance is finding the little space. So for me, I take a half an hour, 45 minutes and I will lay down and I'll try and take a nap.

Not a nap nap. It's more of like rest , it's more of a rest like, okay , you know what, I'm not feeling awesome. I know I've got this training session coming up or I know I have to work. I go and I parked somewhere. That's the beauty of fan life, you know, and I parked somewhere and I laid down because I know that maybe I'm not going to get that 12 hours, but if I don't prepare for not getting that 12 hours when I need it, I'm getting little, it's like micro recovery. Okay .

Um , and I've actually used that term a few times in my career. Micro recovery is taking every single extra moment that you have to do something that's recovery based and sometimes it's mental. If you've been eating only salads and just perfectly healthy, eat a damn candy bar. Okay. Because it helps, right? If you, if you have just been riding the bike or for us and it just like honestly hanging stuff, pull ups, salmon ladders, like stuff. We're like hanging and pulling all the time.

Go to the gym and do some bench press. Light ones. Just do something. Yeah, and it's pushed. We have pushed days obviously, but it's those, it's those pieces and you have to plan them out, but also be adaptive. Right? If I, if I know that tomorrow is a push day, but just not feeling it, I'm not going to have a push day. I'm not going to force push day . I'm just getting going to do a different workout.

I'm going to adapt to whatever my body needs and a lot of times we get so written down, this is what I have to do today, but you never allow your body to dictate it. Right? If I don't feel like training today, I'm going to call and be like, yo, I'm my coach John. I'll be like, I can't. I can't make it today. Like I'm toast. I'm toast. I know I'm toast. If I push it too far, then I'm going to too many of those two steps down, one step up. And that's what's missing.

And the people that perform the best are the ones that take the time when their body says to do it and not a lot. It's not that all or nothing thing. It's that 30 minutes of just like, okay, you know what? I know that I don't feel right right now. I don't want to hurt myself. I don't want to deplete and get sick. I don't whatever. Right. So I'm going to take the 30 minutes and I'm going to take that time because my body says so.

Not because my time schedule and my thing in my book and my trainer has me on this very specific eating plan. If I don't feel like eating beets today, but I can't, I have like hankering for like pasta, I'm going to eat that pasta. Okay. And that goes for endurance athletes as well. I've been one my whole life before Ninja. I was triathlon and Spartan race like hardcore and you know, you have to give your body that stuff. Like we burn it.

I, it's funny cause people ask me about sugar all the time. I'm like, Hey, I got a problem with it. Not gonna lie. I mean I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't get a go get high or anything like that. So I don't have any of those avenues. I have a sugar problem. I don't know why I will like my sneakers. I like, and it's different. It's different throughout the year. Like springtime , it's like a tropical Skittles.

Um, this time, this time of year, I'm starting to filter away from the , the King size Snickers. But there was a point in the summer where I was like knocking the baby's back, like two of them a day. It was, that speaks to me. [inaudible] and you know, it's funny because I joke with everybody cause I worked so hard at being an athlete that I stay healthy when I can.

But if I want a pizza, I'm going to literally eat an entire pizza in one meal and then I'm going to fast the next day and I'm going to work out and then I'll just filter my way through. It's not like I'm being gluttonous three meals a day, but listen to your body, right? If your mental capacity is unhappy or your gut is unhappy because you're not eating the foods that make you happy, then you're going to deplete. That plays a part in it. It's like a three dimensional to step down, one step up.

It's not just a a fine line like on a piece of paper. Yeah , and if you take the time to listen to yourself, Hey you man, you know what? I should, I probably don't want to go in, but I'm going to go to the gym anyway, but I'm going to sit in a hot tub and I'm going to go in the sauna and I'm going to breathe and I'm going to like meditate and shit. Okay. That's what I needed to do today. If that's what feels right, even if it feels stupid, I'm going to do it.

And maybe I'll feel like I didn't get anything done, but I did because I went with a purpose. I got it done. I did something that was good for my body that's going to help me later. Yup . You know, and , and that's, that would be the biggest thing that I do for myself, but also that I want others to do as a professional athlete. We pushed too hard the same way every day. If your body says, do something else, do it. Just don't be dumb about it. But yeah , you know, within reason do it .

You want a pizza? Eat the pizza. You want an app, take a nap. That's a skip a workout. Skip a workout. But don't get into a habit of doing those things. You're gonna still an athlete, but they will benefit you in the long run. Totally. Yeah. That's similar to something my coach always likes to say, which is just do, what are you doing today to get better? Right. Even if it's just one thing and even if it is eating a pizza, right, and that's the truth.

And it's very easy to take that, that the wrong way and go, well that means that I need to be on the bike today even though I'm probably not feeling it. That's not what that means at all. That means what are you doing that makes you, that comes with experience though. Exactly . Like I remember, I remember what age you mean when you're younger you're like, I'll go for sure. I'll go and I won't stop and all , I'll be sore . No , I don't care. I'll do it again. Yeah , exactly.

But if somebody is doing, if an athlete is doing something in , they're , they're staying healthy, not just performing, staying healthy. The reason that it's supposed to work for you is cause it will. So just kind of downgraded a little bit, you know , take it a little, a little easier. Okay. Um, but for the people at home, like, you know, I tell, I tell a lot of people that are sedentary and, and I do my own movement protocols. I do love yoga. Like when I have a chance to do it.

A lot of westernized yoga is a little bit too intense for me. It's more of a workout than it is more meditative. And I like the meditative side. The yin yoga is the, you know, the Hoffa stuff where it's more about breathing and really focusing on, on being a part of your own body. Right. Um , but people that are sedentary, I tell them to go do yoga first, first and foremost, just because you have to learn to like what your body's doing. Like how does your big toe feel when you move it?

Have you ever thought about that? Like most people don't. They go, Oh yeah, and I actually miss my big toe. When was the last time you actually focused in on your big toe? Everyone listening right now. Focus on your big toe.

Huh. Okay. So if I go in and I feel like I didn't do nothing, right. If I, if I go in and this is for people that haven't right in a while , go in and do just the lightest workout and leave going, I need to come back tomorrow. I want to come back, leave something on the table. Exactly. Because what , what I find 99 Solmon pretty much every time we'll say it , I say 99% a lot because I kind of have a company that's called 99 bucks .

So it's a , I say it a lot, but the point is is that um, you go in and you do like half of a workout, half of the weight you use to like next to nothing where you literally feel like you didn't do anything and you wasted your time, but you really didn't. Because if you build it into a lifestyle and you put yourself in a position to not be sore or not hate it the next day, then you're going to want to keep going and keep going. And the consistency is what gets you where you want to be.

But everybody goes, dive in straight back in like love it. Oh man, I know .

And if you need a little help, find some help, but then put your own spin on it. What works for you. You know, I can tell you a million different things you absolutely should do, but I don't know most of the people that are going to be listening to this. How do I know what you, what your life is?

It's not a, I'm going to work out for a month, get down to my target weight and I'm going to screw off. Lifestyle make is a lifestyle. It doesn't need to be heavy duty. Go for a walk a mile a day will change your life. Totally will . Yeah. All right. So quickly, can you tell why , I don't know if it's not super quick, but can you tell the , uh, the ironic story about your last name and your, the work you do? Okay. So , um , a guy named Jamie Wheal actually wrote a book called stealing fire.

And , uh , this book is actually pretty, it's internationally kind of the bestseller at this point now. Um , but it's all about zone States , XIS , things like that. And they've interviewed Navy seals, martial artists, people that are in action sports. They do a ton with action sports, which is what led me to the book in the first place. Um, you have to get in this life or death zone state, like you're completely encompassed energetically, your focus. Everything is on this.

And uh, and so , um, I was reading this book and they have this acronym that is basically what you need to be in a zone state. And those things need to align for your , for you to be ready to be in one of those ecstatic States. And it's a selflessness, timelessness, effortlessness, and richness. And so when all of those pieces are together , um, then you are in the best position to be in a zone state. That doesn't mean that you just are in one, but those are the common threads.

Those are the ingredients. Those are the ingredients right there . The base ingredients that make it easy to remember the acronym S T E R happens to be my last name. And ironically I've been inducing the zone States with my professional athletes for many, many years. So when I read this book, I was telling them the story. I was actually driving, we're going to just repeat the story, but I was driving to Jackson hole during a huge snow event two years ago and there's two feet of snow everywhere.

The pass had the red lights telling you not to go. And I'm like, no, I'm not gonna miss out. I had driven like 17 hours from Vegas that day through ice and all kinds of stuff to get there. So I went down, I was coming down in the past and it's, you know, unguarded roads.

Like there's no guardrail, you know, there's snow everywhere and I hear them talk about this and almost crashed the vehicle, like almost went off the cliff because it's one thing to know these certain things, but what, why in the world? Like your entire acronym to the whole concept of being in a zone. I mean Michael Jordan, we made , it was made famous because of being in the zone and then it became a thing and it's like a , it's like a blanketed statement.

All they're in the zone right now, they're getting hot, you know, whatever. And to have that entire concept be grouped into these four pieces of an acronym. And that happens to be my last name, which my last name is not exactly a common name. There's actually only, there's a handful of stirs in the world. Um huh . And so it's ironic that we are the most uncommon name that I've been able to find and it now is this, this whole thing about the ecstatic States. And I love zone States.

I love being in them, I love inducing them. I want to see what people and your real potential comes out of being in them. Yeah . That I love it. And that's, everyone should be able to experience his own state accrued and, and when you, you know, I recommend, I think that's what makes you fall in love with right. A pastime sport in a lot of ways. All right . And even then when you're a spectator, you're zoned in. Oh yeah. That's why people love going to games.

And I wish more people would come to Ninja because it's when you watch a Ninja on fire, that's cool. Yeah. His cell phone to watch and like watching any athlete in the yeah. In that white moment. That's pretty good . That's very true. Absolutely. Anyone be truly great at what they do. [inaudible] all right , last thing. Yup . You are , uh , how do I phrase this politely? Well, you are, you're, you're, you're contracted by NFL players yet you choose to live in a van. True. Why is that?

Always wanted to. Now when you say van, let's all be clear. We're going to go look at this fan . It's a ball or it's a really nice van. It's a ball. It's a ball event. I've seen fans, I've seen the RV that's advanced . I've seen fans that are more expensive. Like the internal build is more expensive than a lot of people's houses. Right. But still, I'm just, and this one is what I'll turn my starter van . Okay. I wanted to go into the van life, but I had got an RV and it was a bad situation.

I just, I wasted some money on it. It's too big gas guzzler. I have to drive around. I mean, I'm actually moving. I'm not stopping somewhere in parking it. Um, and so I went and this was available. It was sitting on the lot. I traded it in. I lost a bunch of money, but I love it. Right. So , um, the thing I love about the van is that I'm free. There's a, there's a freedom to it that you can't explain unless you've done it there .

And , and sometimes that's a scary freedom sometimes when you're stressing about, Hmm , where am I going to park tonight? You know, and, and you know, other people like I have, I have players every time, like a new person. They like you live in a van, do you have a gun? And I'm like, I have a bat, I have a bat and some throwing stars and stuff like gay , like Ninja style. I am a weapon. I have a Ninja. Don't you worry that's not needed.

Well, and I also know the human body, so nobody really wants a master . I can heal you and I can break. Yeah. It has two sides. Um, but I would, I could never, well, if somebody was starting mirror diesel, yeah, we could probably have, I'd feel bad for them. So anyway. Um, but I, I choose to live in a van at a , at least at the moment, because it's, it is that level of freedom, you know? And I like having a stationary home. I mean, there's this things that I used to live on my house.

I'm not going to lie, but you know, when, when I can go today I warmed up some players. I have my dog with me. It's got a furnace, it's full. It's got solar than maybe the thing run. It's a self-sustaining system. I mean, kitchen, bathroom, everything is in there. So it's not, it's not like I'm losing out. Right . It's just smaller. Yeah . But it's , it's very nice.

But I liked the fact that I can have my dog, we get done here, go watch the game or whatever, and then I just take him on a trail and, or we go to a park and I'm , I'll play ball with them or whatever, and then I can go and go to another park or the same one and take a nap or, you know, and I can bounce around. I don't have to go, okay , I'm off of work. I need to go home now or, or if I need a shower, that's where my home is now.

A lot of times people ask where home is and I'm like, he's right there. Yeah . That's it. I mean, you know, my, my house is in Vegas, my home is in Vegas, but so you do have a house? I do have a house, yeah . Oh yeah. I mean, what you would call a home base shirt . Um , when I'm, when I'm on, you know , I call it on tour , but basically NFL season , um , all moving around, I'm all over the place and uh, you know, red bull season comes around, follow the Broncos to yeah.

I go where they go, I go wherever they are. I am cool. Very cool. So , um, but yeah, the family is a pretty sweet thing actually is good deal man. Well that's all I got for ya. Um, for this round I think of likely there will be a sequel. Yeah . Any last uh, thoughts or things you'd want to bring up? Um, you know, what, like anybody that's listening to the athletes or whatever, like just do what feels right. You know what I mean?

Like the , the biggest challenge that anybody ever has that gets in their own ways, thinking that they have to do something the way that somebody else says. So, you know, I do things completely off book. I don't, I studied those books. I know what's going on, but I, I'm also not afraid to go against them if I feel it necessary. And the reason I'm saying that is a lot of times people get kind of stuck and then they lose that energetic, like their true self. Just do.

If it feels right to you, do it. If you want to go on vacation, find a way to make vacation happen. If you want to go and be an engineer, being an engineer, you want to drive a truck, drive a truck. You want to live in a van, live in a van. At least. See if you like it . He can always, not live in a van, but just follow what makes you feel good. What makes you vibrate.

You know what makes you, what makes you feel like a human and and a lot of times we forget what that's supposed to feel like, you know, and, and to stay healthy is also, if you're in touch with that feeling, your body will tell you the rest.

We're still not selling any sponsorships by choice, and it'll stay that way for a little while. Um, so donations go a long way. Thanks very much, and I will catch you all next week .