Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Being STRONG is more than just how much weight you can lift.
The Strong New York Podcast is dedicated to inspiring you to become your strongest self- in the gym, in business, in relationships and in life.
Join Kenny as he sits down with his strong as fuck buddies and shoots the shit on what it takes to be strong willed, strong minded and physically strong. Season one features everyone from entrepreneurs and local business owners to doctors and industry leaders in the fitness and wellness space.
With over a decade of experience, Kenny Santucci has made himself known as one of New York City’s top trainers and a thought leader in the health and wellness industry. After transforming his life at 15 years old through fitness, Kenny made it his mission to transform the lives of those around him.
Kenny has trained some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Jon Bon Jovi, Liev Schreiber, and Frank Ocean, and has been tapped as a fitness expert sharing his training approach with Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, Runner's World, SHAPE, Well+Good, among other publications.
Kenny is the creator of STRONG New York, NYC's only Health and Fitness Expo. Strong New York is an immersive day of workouts, wellness experiences, panel discussions, and inspiring conversations with the best in-class wellness professionals, industry leaders, and change makers who are sharing their expertise on today's hottest wellness trends and first-hand experiences on how to optimize your overall health and life.
You can find Kenny at The Strength Club, his private training and group strength training facility in the heart of Manhattan located on 28th and 5th Ave in New York City.
Welcome back to another episode of Strong New York podcast. I'm your host, Kenny Santucci, and as always, we are powered by Celsius. We're gonna crack a couple these open. Um, but I'm excited about 2026. There's a lot going on and, uh, I have a very special guest here. I've been trying to get this guy on for a while.
He's, uh, he's in high demand, uh, former NFL football player, and now the, uh, founder, creator, and owner of Dream Recovery. Thanks for having me, bro. Thank you so much for coming here, bro. I'll know about high demand, depends who you ask. I don't know. I feel like every time I see either Jesse or Devin's story, you're right there with them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you guys are doing some, uh, some stupid endurance thing. Yeah. Yeah. I get dragged into a lot of things I'm not good at. Where, how, how'd you get in, how'd you work yourself into that fold? Uh, so I met Jesse. Um, where did I meet? Oh, so my wife is writing a book. Okay. My wife's a two time Olympian in swimming.
Yep. She was writing a book. I had heard Jesse speak a while back, and I was like, you should reach out to him, you know, and, and see if he could help you with like, marketing stuff. She was like, I don't know how to get this out there, you know, and I'm like, hit him up. And so this was like maybe six years ago he was in Connecticut and he was like, come over.
Yeah. Um, he's got a house in Connecticut. Yeah. And a house in Georgia, right? Yeah. Connecticut has like the ultimate summer house. Yeah. Yeah. And so I went with her and at this time, so I've been into like sauna, cold blown stuff for, I mean, I've been doing it, you know, five times a week for over 10 years.
Well, how old are you? I'm 37. So around that, like when you were playing high school football, college football. Was that the protocol? Were you guys doing cold punch sauna and stuff? No. So like the, like when I was at the Rams, like they, they had coal punch, hot tub next to each other. They had a sauna, but guys didn't really like, use it, use it as much.
They didn't know what to, A lot of guys would do hot tub before practice. Yeah. Which looking back was like good, but there was no education. Like we had it. No one ever talked about it. Yeah. Um, I wonder where that came from because I remember being in high school, I'm a little older than you, and after practices, they'd be like, all right, jump in the coal punch.
Nobody knew why, but they were like, just jump in the coal plunge. And it's like, we jump in, stay for like, and you feel great though. Yeah. But like, it was always like a, a test of who's dick's bigger. Yeah. It's like, all right, stay in as long as you can and jump out. Well, smaller by the end of it. But yeah, like in college we did that too.
And, but no one, like, again, no one knew what they're doing. And I think it was just a way to like, make our legs feel better. Yeah. But, uh, but I've got pretty into it, you know? 'cause all those studies, like those sauna studies came out about 10 years ago, the big, long-term 40 year wind. And so I was super into it.
And so we went to his house. He was like, yo, I have Sonic Coal Plunge, and this is before it was popular. Mm-hmm. So I was like, I love Sonic Coal Plunge. Yeah. And that we pretty much became best friends at that point because no one else was into it. Okay. And so we ended up staying the whole weekend. We were supposed to be there for an hour.
Yeah. And then, and then just kind of involved since I went to that, what we were both at that event that he did in Mid Midtown, A couple. Oh yeah. What last month? Was it? December? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I'll tell you what, like I've always been a fan of his after that talk. So impressed. I thought that show was so well put on.
I mean, obviously the coolest part was when Vanilla showed up. Yeah. Yeah. But at Cool. I thought he was a great, I think he's a great speaker, dude. He is. I feel like he's the most underrated speaker. People don't, he doesn't get enough credit for that, but he's also like the most genuine dude. Like that's him.
Yeah. Like the guy on stage is like, yeah. Yeah. He's like that. He lives every word he says. Yeah. What's cool though is I've went with him to a couple of corporate speeches and that vanilla ice piece is always in there. Mm-hmm. So like he always talks about. The story with Vanilla Ice, like he didn't add that in for that speech.
Yeah. Like, that's always part of the speech. And then he actually got him to come, which is sick. Well, I, I didn't know where he was going. He was like, all right, you got this and this. And he kept talking like, about the passion and at the end how he tied it all together. It was so well done. Like, I love, I mean, you could ask anybody in the room.
I go to everything. I go to every fitness event, I go to motivational stuff, I go to, um, you know, uh, business conferences. Yeah. And I, I try to listen to and see who's a really great speaker and I think good, really good speakers are very hard to find. And Jesse's definitely one of those people. Yeah. I think what's cool about him, and I like this about all speakers and anybody speaking on anything, it's like he also did it like, you know, a lot of speakers are professional speakers.
Yeah. Yeah. And that's how they've grown their business. And they'll be speaking on business and betterment, all this stuff, but like, they're making their money from people watching them speak where Jesse has done stuff. Yeah. And then he's telling people how to live their life based on. What he's done, this resume he's already done, which I think is a lot different.
Yeah. Like, you know, you, and sometimes when, when I hear these guys who are, I'm not knocking 'em, they're amazing speakers, but the people watching are, are part of that sales funnel that he's talking about. Right. So like, I like it when people have accomplished things outside of just speaking. So a lot of the endurance stuff, like when you're going with these guys and they're like, all right, we're gonna take a bike across the country.
You're not like how? I mean, you're a big dude. I mean it's hard for Yeah, dude, tell me about it. Yeah. Most guys, you know, like most guys who are doing a lot of this long distance and doing stuff like, um, there's that one kid who runs across t who ran across Texas. Matt, yeah. Johnson. Yeah. That kid weighs what?
A hundred pounds soap away? He's built for it. Perfect. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's built a long distance run and like people don't understand, the bigger you are the more mass you old. Our hands are only a certain size. If you're trying to like dead hang or do a lot of this long distance or endurance stuff or anything that takes a long time, being bigger doesn't help.
Oh dude, we did rim to rim to. 45 miles, 12,000 feet of elevation gaining loss. It was horrible. Are you like falling behind winter? Oh, well, you know the, I mean, the good thing is is Jesse isn't like an amazing athlete. Yeah. You can tell he's not an half, he doesn't stop. Yeah. Right. Like he can go. Yeah. But he's not a, a great performer.
Like he's not gonna be the fastest guy. And he is older than me, so, but he is, he will get it done. He'll get it done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of like the, that's like my thought going into it. Mm-hmm. And so we're closer than you think, but like, I dread it. But the thing is, is like the experience with those guys outweighs the pain I'm gonna be in.
Oh sure. And that's what it comes down to. It's like, I don't wanna miss out because it's rare to find a group of guys like that later in life that you're so close with to do fun. Like, not many people are willing to do that stuff. And so, yeah, it's gonna suck, but like that's worth it to go through it with them.
Now, how'd you make that transition from like football? You know, kind of doing the nose too. I mean, dude, I had a tough, I had a tough Oh you mean afterwards? Yeah. I mean after football was hard in general. Like I gained a bunch of weight. Yeah, yeah. And like just it, it became hard to even like care about working out.
'cause you go from this football, I feel like is probably the most connected with fitness and like the better you get in the gym, the better you are on the field usually. Yeah. So then I went to just feeling like, okay, I just wanna be in shape. So it was hard. Um, but I thought I wanted to be a college strength condition coach.
Like that's what I was into, got my CSCS, you know, all these certs. And then I got to spend time and did an internship with Dr. Jennifer Martin. And I was like, if I really want to help people, athletes, whoever professionals, like perform at a high level, whatever that is, how is sleep? Not the first thing we're talking about.
And that was 10 years ago. So like the science was still spotty, but as it started to evolve, I was like, everyone needs to be starting with sleep. And then, and then, you know, build upon that, you know, build your fitness on the sleep. And then from. You know, that's, I just focused on sleeping, educating, and then from that, like Dream Recovery was born because I get asked about products all the time.
Yeah. So it was an easy kind of evolution. Well, you know, anytime I listen to anybody, I, I'm always like, all right, if they're not talking about this sleep being the base of the pyramid. Yeah. Because you could kind of cheat and not work out every day. Yeah. You could get away with not having the best diet.
Yeah. Especially if you have good genetics for sure. But you can't really cheat sleep. No. And it's, it's the only thing that's really universal person to person. Yeah. Like there's a, there's a lot of different diets that work, a lot of different workouts that work for sure. There's different, there's, there's all sorts of variations and everything works to an extent.
Sleep is really the one thing that, you know, the, the margins for each person are relatively tight and everybody has this need. But I think that shows physiologically how important it's, if everybody needs it, everybody needs about the same amount. Clearly. It's something our body is craving. So what would you say is the most important protocol?
Because I feel like I'm one of these people. Has trouble sleeping. Yeah. Right. Like I even since I was a kid, like I was younger, I like to stay up. Mm-hmm. And I would sometimes sleep in, but now as soon as you start to own a business and have a job and stuff, now I'm really cutting down on the amount of sleep I'm actually getting.
Yeah. And then when I do sleep long, I'm like in and out of sleep. Mm-hmm. Like, what's the best way to sleep? Well, I mean like the, the number one sleep tip that outweighs everything else is consistency. And it's boring and it's not sexy and nobody likes to hear it. But if you have the same bedtime and wake up time seven days a week, right.
Like, that's by far that outweighs anything else you can do. But I think the other side of that, and it's not really a protocol, it's just the mindset surrounding sleep. I think like what's happened, and I hear this all the time now, like, you know, you're like, oh, you know, you tell everyone you need to start with sleep, right?
Mm-hmm. But you're having a hard time sleeping. And I think what happens is, yes, there's been this, this burst of knowledge and people learning about sleep, understanding the importance of sleep, but at the same time, I think it's created. Sometimes a stressful relationship with sleep where you start thinking about the negative repercussions of sleep.
Mm-hmm. And so the second tip I'd say is just give yourself grace. Right? Like, you're gonna have bad night to sleep, you're gonna be stressed about stuff, but the reason you're stressed about stuff is 'cause you care about it. Mm-hmm. Like, that's kind of a gift in a, in a way. So I think reframing some of those stresses in your life and being like, look, I'm going through a, an era of my life.
I'm working hard, I'm building, you know, you're building all this stuff. It's like amazing to watch from a distance. Mm-hmm. That's a gift. And you're not, there's gonna be, it, it's worth having a few bad nights of sleep and don't beat yourself up. Yeah. You're gonna sacrifice some stuff. Yeah, for sure. And it's worth, if it's worth it, then do it.
Yeah. And if it's not, don't. And how, because the first thing I get asked, especially about diet, right? Everybody wants to start taking supplements and I'm like, that's the last piece of the puzzle. Yeah. How important do you think it is to, you know, kind of start to implement the mouth tape, the nose, tape?
Yeah. I mean, like, I don't even, I don't even like to be product forward, you know? Like I, the mouth tape is just like. The big, usually the biggest issue with sleep minus mindset is probably breathing. Most people with sleep, actual sleep issues, their breathing is off. In some sense, 80% of the population has deviated septum.
And so those are just tools to allow you to breathe through your nose throughout the night. Like that's what we want to do. Breathing is like the steering wheel to the nervous system. Yep. And if you're not breathing outta your nose, you're not fully relaxing your nervous system, you're not combating that stress, you're not gonna be calm.
And so, okay, if the goal is breathing through our nose the entire night, those are just tools to help with that. Not everyone needs it, but they're there if you need it. And so, yeah, that's kind of like the progression. And so one, I think that sleep study should be the new blood work, right? Like we do this blood work all the time, but if you look at the long-term outcome of having sleep apnea, that's just as bad as cardiovascular disease.
I mean, cardiovascular disease comes with it. Neurodegenerative disease, dementia, Alzheimer's. So why is that not. You know, every five years. Well, it's a negative stressor on the body. Yeah, for sure. It's chronic. It's, you know, it's every single night. Yeah. And you're doing it every day. So the, if your breath isn't as long, if your breath isn't in line, your, your sleep is probably gonna be affected and it just creates this snowball effect.
Well, and you're, if you're not sleeping, I know for, you know, just from experience of my own, like when you're up at night, you start to crave carbohydrates. Yeah. You wanna have something so you start to snack. I mean, it happens to everybody. Yeah. I mean that, that's like, uh, you know, it's January right now, so it's like people talk about New Year's resolutions and I'm like, if you're not sleeping well, you're less full.
You crave, you, you crave lower quality foods. Mm-hmm. You have less motivation, uh, like even like your insulin, your body, your body to maintain the same blood sugar level has to produce 25% more insulin. So you're 25% more insulin resistant after one night of bad sleep. So it's like metabolically, you're all thrown off.
So you know, if you have a New Year's resolution, it's like if you're not getting eight hours of sleep, it's an uphill battle. Yeah. So start there and then build everything else on it. Just like everything else. I mean, if I had a new guy who's starting this week and he said, he's like, I wanna do four days a week, five days a week.
I go, you're gonna go from never working out. Yeah. You're a 50-year-old guy. You're gonna go from never working out to five days a week. It's not gonna happen. Yeah. Yeah. So we need to start with two days a week. What's your recommendation for somebody who does sleep? Like shit, like you can't ultimately. I know I've tried.
Yeah. It's like there are some nights where it feels amazing and I do get eight hours of sleep, but for the, I'm nine times outta 10, it's like I incrementally try to build that up. Yeah. Is that a good recommendation? Yeah. I mean, I think the best, uh, like if you're gonna set a goal, you know, if you think about like that person, probably a goal oriented guy.
Mm-hmm. Like, uh, wake up time is a great goal to start with a singular goal because if you have a consistent wake up time, usually your bedtime falls in place. Like you might have to put your face in the fan a couple days and it's gonna suck, right? Mm-hmm. And you might be tired, but it kind of naturally sets your circadian rhythm and then you tend to fall asleep earlier.
Because you're, you're really strict on that wake up time. Like that's a good reset. The other thing is like exercise is the most underrated sleep tool. There's new studies that came out, well, it's 2024. Under 2024. It used to be like, okay, don't work out hard, close to bedtime. Everyone would kind of have this four hour window rule that they adopted.
Well now, you know, when they look at exercise, I did this study that looked at, you know, low intensity cardio, high intensity strength work, like all this stuff, every single exercise was net positive regardless of the type and the timing. So like, move every day, whether it's a walk, a hard workout, it all, uh, affects sleep in a positive way.
Like there's no negative impacts on sleep from exercise. Yeah, I mean, I, one of the taglines that we use for the business is like, there's nothing wrong with being strong. Like there's no downside to exercise. No. It's always gonna improve every aspect of your life. Everything. And it's like, what's cool is when they look at like the sleep architecture, like the sleep cycles.
So your REM sleep is. Adaptable to your emotions. Like when you're under more anxiety, you tend to get more REM sleep. 'cause that's when your mind resets from a mental health perspective. Mm-hmm. And then when they look at exercise, like your body actually adapts the type of sleep cycles you have based on what type of exercise you do.
So when you need more slow a sleep, like for strength work, like physical regeneration of your tissue Yeah. Your body adapts. Like, we're smart, our bodies are smart and just let it do its thing. Yeah. But you need to, like, you need to tire yourself out if you're not tired physically, like you're not gonna have the need to sleep well.
Yeah. I What, what do you say to people who, they're like, well, my mind races at night, I need, I, I start thinking more clearly at night. Yeah. Like, is that a thing? Yeah. I mean, so na anxiety naturally rises through the day. Yeah. Like, that's a normal, um, you know, if you think about the brain, like, and most people feel this way.
You wake up in the morning, you feel pretty, you have clarity. Mm-hmm. You feel pretty good refreshed, but. There's things that build up in the brain throughout the day that create that anxiety too. So that's natural. Like, I don't think people should think something's wrong if you have more anxiety at night.
Totally normal. Um, but I think two things. I think there are things you can do to have an immediate impact, but two, it's also, you know, looking in the mirror, doing some self-reflection. Like, okay, your mind is racing about what? Mm-hmm. Like is it about your job? Is it about your relationship? Because at the end of the day, I think the foundation is like purpose in your life.
Like, what are you living for? Because a lot of times anxiety comes from not having purpose, and so people have sleep issues, but it, it's really stress management. And I think it's oftentimes some, it, it's a, it's a point, it's a pretty impactful point in someone's life when they self-reflect. Think about why they're stressed at night.
Why are they have a racing mind end up going to therapy or something. And it, it has nothing to do with their sleep. It has everything to do with the purpose in their life, what they're doing, what's their community like. One of the things I tell people all the time is. Having, having a a purpose in life is gonna be like your North star.
Yeah. But trying to discover what that is is gonna be the hard part for sure. And I think gravitating towards things you like, was this something that after football you started to become more and more passionate about or how the Yeah, I, I, the passion came from just like the response, like when people fix their sleep, it, it, it really makes 'em a better version of themselves.
And it's like amazing the messages we still get of like, especially like the moms and dads. Like that's, that's pretty cool when people can show up for their family in a bigger way. And uh, in a lot of it was education. A lot of is education. So when you can educate somebody and get this feedback and even like, you know, there's a guy in the Eagles that I talked to his college team and he was like, send me a message Jeff.
They won the Super Bowl. Like, do you have no idea the impact you had on, on my career For sure. From sleep. Yeah. And so I think that's what really keeps us pushing and tries to, we try to be education forward. Like, you know, you ask about the products, but. I think our goal was like educate on sleep, how, how to combat, you know, stress breathing.
And then our products hopefully are the best products when they get to that point. But, you know, if we just keep educating people on sleep, we'll be in a good spot. I love that approach. And one I've felt in the last year or so, I think we've done the, the fitness industry has done a piss poor job of selling people aesthetics.
Yeah. And when we should be selling them all the other benefits. I feel like that's actually making like a resurgence what the aesthetic side of things. Yeah. Do you feel that? Well, yeah. I think now because it's in people's, uh, you know, it, it's kind of in the foreground even like of what's going on because well now people, people can get GLP ones, your Yeah.
Peptides, all this stuff is helping people achieve that. Well, even like peptides, it's like five years ago, no one would be posting vials in. Peptide injections. And I'm like, no way. What? No way. And the younger generation two is, is really, they don't give a shit. No dude. They don't. They'll take everything, dude.
They're talk like, I mean the, the trend twins, I'm like, are you kidding me? And so, and they're the most relevant guys on the planet. I know. Yeah. And so it's kind of interesting to me how this is going. And then when I see, like in Nashville, there's a couple cool gyms, but that like 20 to 25 range is like getting back into that bodybuilding, aesthetically driven world.
Which is kind of weird. 'cause there was a point there where it was like, you know, more performance oriented. Yeah. Which I liked. You know, I think that's a much healthier way to look at things like what you can do. Yeah. As opposed to what you look like. Well, you know, I've been in the industry, I like to say, since I was like 13, 14 years old.
I was heavy as a kid and then I started Same. You were too. Yeah. Yeah. So you, that's why I don't like the tight shirts. Yeah. So for me it's like my body wants to go back to being a fat s slob all the time. I mean, if I miss constantly fighting it, dude. Yeah. Oh. And I think people don't understand that. I think there is like a fat gene.
I think there is something in our chemical makeup. So I have a friend that's a, like a dietician, like she's super smart and I argue this with her all the time. I'm like, I'm telling you calorically, like my body stores fat easier. Like I, I would bet my life somewhere down the road, there's something that's gonna come out genetically that, that's a direct link between, well, look how much we've learned in the last couple years.
You know? I would always think like, because I was such a, a savage with it, I would just starve myself and only eat clean. I got myself down. But there are definitely people who you're now seeing it was just that, it was, it's the mental craving. Yeah. It's the, the chemical imbalance. Like you start taking GLP ones.
I've seen people who could never lose the weight. I know. And that's what's hard with it, is like, I think I say a lot of the fitness industry and I've had some conversations with some really big names and they're like, you just need to eat clean, sleep, all this stuff, and work out and move. And I'm like, I, I totally, I get where you're coming from, but.
You've been 6% body fat your whole life. Yeah. You're not understanding this, you don't get it. No. And two, like there's something to be said about giving someone some, some momentum. Like when, when people feel confident enough to just step foot in the gym, like that's the part they don't understand is like they don't even have a chance to learn the behaviors if they don't get a little bit of confidence.
Yes. And momentum. And so there's definitely a place for it and, and I think it's, it's a shame that people are so polarized on it because it's a tool for certain people. I'll argue with people all day long. I have a couple doctors who, you know, I send people to. I'm like, listen, if you're gonna do it, do it the right way.
Yeah. Go get your blood work done. But at the same time, I think it's a great catalyst for a lot of people to give them that extra kick in the ass that they need to start to feel good. We've demonized testosterone and peptides and all this stuff for so long and now it's come to. That it helps people out more than I think it hurts them, for sure.
Yep. Obviously everything gets abused, right? Mm-hmm. Like even marijuana, look how long it took us for, for the, the amount of people who I think function better, unlike microdosing, mushrooms and all these things, it's only improving people's lives. Now, are you gonna have a bunch of people abuse it? Of course.
For, that's, that's everything. It's crazy, just like how much you think we know, and then some things change and it's like, oh, we really don't even know. Mm-hmm. Like, we really never had an effective weight loss drug. Never. There wasn't a stimulant, which is like, horrible for you. Yeah. It's kind of, well, I, I remember when we were younger, it was like a fedra, everybody was popping.
Like, dude, metabol life. Yeah. That was the stuff. It was just, you were popping all these pills. It was basically on like math the whole day. Yeah. It was crazy. It was like drinking 12 of these at once. It worked though. People were losing weight. I know, but like, I, I remember being in. College and we were all trying to like lose weight.
And I'm like, I would pop like 20 fucking ephedra just to lose. Dude, your heart was just screaming. Yeah. And your heart's screaming. And that's worse for you than a GLP. The peptides are crazy. I'm, I'm curious where that goes though. 'cause like, I think they're just gonna keep improving the regulation's Crazy.
Like there's a peptide called like the, uh, the deep sleep inducing peptide. Okay. DSIP and people have been using that and they've studied it and in the beginning it increases your deep sleep and, but long term it's like not good. And, and so it's like that's, even that being, being out there and just the name of it, I think people think it's good.
And so I, there's there, there needs to be a little bit of like, you know, dialing it in. 'cause everything's off label right now. Like, and so I wonder like, as the science progresses, I'm sure some are gonna be useful, some aren't, but it's so early. Well, I think just in the last couple years, right from the, the original GLP one, what was it?
Um. Uh, that was way back. There was, yeah. They've been out for, but No, but like in the last three years, Ozempic was like the first, uh, glp Yeah. There's like four versions since then. Yeah. And now this Reddit Tru Tide, which is like a GLP one. It's got, you know, multiple components to it. Yeah. This is not only helping you retain muscle tissue mm-hmm.
But helping you kind of control the cravings Yeah. As the glucagon or glucco glucco glucagon receptor. Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. So it's, it's, I think it's like three, yeah. Three different components to it, but it's a more advanced copy of what's been around for three or four or five years now. Um, yeah. I think as, I think as we tighten up the science, it's gonna get better and better.
Yeah. The, the one thing that I'm always like, all right, how are we gonna, is it gonna be aliens? Is it ai? How do we, how does this all end? Is it just like a nuclear war amongst all of us? AI freaks me out for sure. For, yeah. But the one thing I always return to, I'm like, as long as we. Keep ourselves in the forefront as long as like humans are like, all right, listen guys, we should all kind of stay together.
We literally talked, I literally talked about this with Drake on the way over here. Yeah. I was like, I think it's gonna bring people back together to Yeah, just us at our bodies, ourselves, our interactions. I just put up a pi uh, video. Somebody goes, we're about three years away from this, and it's that scene from Terminator two.
Yeah, no, we see how this ends. Yeah. Yeah. Because I go, it's either that I listen to somebody's podcast, you better get strong. You gotta be John Connor. That's it. Or else it's gonna be bad. I, when watching that movie as a kid, I was like, ah, there's no way this is gonna happen. And now in the last five years, I'm like, it's eerie how similar it's.
I, what's crazy is, is that like, who wrote that movie? Because it was a woman they were singing in the future? It was a, yeah, it was a woman like 1981 or 82, you know, like, what is it? Uh, what's the name? Like Skynet. Yeah. And then we're coming out with like Space Force. I'm like, we've seen this. Yeah. This is not n real.
And then there was some who was just telling me, oh, one of my friend, one of a client of mine, she's like, you know, a friend of mine works for the government and they found this like basically this black mass, great in space. And it reformed itself into like three different things. And they have it like far away or they have it?
No, they have it. Oh, great. At like area 51 or some shit and it manipulates itself and could do all this shit. And I'm like, shut the fuck up. There's no way. But you start hearing more and more of this stuff. And then when they have these, uh, these congress meetings and stuff and they're like, uh, did they find this piece of.
You know, fucking foreign object and it wasn't from manmade. And there everybody's like, yeah. And you're like, wait, hold on. Wait, what? This is getting more and more real between the AI and the alien. Shit. I, it freaks me out. Well, so that's, who was I listening to the other day talking about like they, they were saying that the government has like this crazy AI that was from aliens and like this whole back engineering thing.
And I'm like, dude, I can't, let's just do some squats and deadlifts. Yeah. You know, well, going back to like training and health and wellness, people ask me all the time, 'cause I'll go to HFA and I'll go to fibo and I'll go to all these events where they have all this technology and all this new equipment.
And a friend of mine, uh, runs, uh, he owns, uh, ath Athlete Tech News. Oh yeah. And we were talking, he's like, do you see any gyms buying a lot of this AI technology? You know, where it counts your reps? And you, you get on there and it tells you how much you weigh and how much force you put into each foot and blah, blah, blah.
I go. The gyms that are getting built. You know, you got that place in, uh, Dallas, uh, that, uh, what the hell is it called? Uh, absolute Recomp. I don't know. Have you seen these gyms? No. Dude, if you go out to Dallas, this gym, I'll check it out. I wanted to fly out just to go to this gym. Yeah, they have like four of 'em now around Dallas.
They're hundreds of thousands of square feet. They have every piece of equipment, multiple versions of each one, and all these gyms that are getting built these millions, millions of dollar gyms. A buddy of mine just built a $10 million gym in New Jersey. There's no technology there. It's all iron and weights and, you know, plate loaded stuff.
As, as we go further and further down the rabbit hole of this ai, we still want to be as primal and as human as possible and just lift up heavy shit. We wanna pick up iron. We want to feel wood. Yeah, we want to lay on turf. I think that's, I think that says a lot about who we are. And I think there's, the younger generation is gravitating.
Closer to each other. Like they wanted to go and start run clubs and have these dating meetups. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's important. I think it says a lot about, okay, our generation adopted too much of this technology. Yeah, yeah. We're kind of in the, that like range where we, we felt like we had to. Yeah. And it was really appealing.
'cause it was new. I think they're almost turned off to it. Yeah. And they are, they're turning back, which is a good thing. It's great. I think it's amazing. Yeah. And I think that's what's gonna save. And I think the generation after that, these, this younger generation is gonna, it's gonna get weird. Yeah. Well they're gonna have a little bit of both and they'll be able to make the decision.
Because for us it was like, we got introduced to this stuff. Yeah. You had to and you had to use it. Yeah. And now we're like, nah. Even like Yeah. Text messaging was like crazy, you know? Right. Yeah. It's like you didn't have a choice. You had Yeah. And I, I remember boycotting her for a very long time 'cause I just hate typing.
Yeah. And. So I'm like, I would leave voice notes or I would call somebody, and then it just, I, I'd say about 10, 12 years ago, it just drifted so far away from me making a phone call. Now it's weird if you call somebody. Yeah. I don't usually answer unfortunately, but yeah, I probably should. But we've all gotten into that rhythm.
I know. You know, and I think it used to be rude to pick up your phone. Now everybody picks up their phone. Mm-hmm. It's like so commonplace. Yeah. I'm definitely turned off to the, like, I don't like the, the technology in the gym too much. Mm-hmm. I think there's a use, I think there's a use for certain people, athletes.
Obviously there's some technology, but at the most part it's like, I think we were, you know, we were, we evolved, you know, to adapt to this stuff. Mm-hmm. Not, you don't need a million screens. Yeah. And your body wants to adapt to it. And I don't think I've seen so many situations. A buddy of mine, pat, was trying to build this technology that hooks up to the Kaiser equipment.
There were basically these keys and it would tell you that your force output and everything on the Kaiser equipment. And we were using in the gym, and I was just like, I don't give a fuck. I just wanna lift. You know? Yeah, yeah. For sure. And I think that's, I think that's Kaiser's about the extent of the, the technology that I think Me too.
Me, yeah. I, I like the air pressure. Yeah. But I don't, I don't consider that as, you know, the technology of like a lot of this stuff that's coming out. There's no, I know. There's some wild stuff. Yeah. There's like the EGM and techno gym and a lot of these companies that are putting a ton of ai, it'll, you like sit on it and it'll start to adjust to your body.
Yeah. I'm like, I don't give a fuck that much. Yeah. That's not also, that's not gonna really apply to anything you're doing. No, no. It, because there was a guy actually who came in here and he built this robotics of basically you step onto, you step into the, the rack and it'll load the weights for you and stuff.
He's like, yeah, it's just an easier way to do it. I go, yeah, but if I'm gonna back squat 250 pounds, I should be able to pick up a 25 pound plate and put it on there. Yeah. Yeah. It is kind of like when they came out with those, uh, seat belts that automatically. Slid back Slid. Yeah. It's like, it seems like a good idea and easier, but people just hated it.
Yeah. Yeah. It's like, come on too much. What do you think, what do you think the next kind of wave of information's gonna be? Because we, we, we've, I think 2025 we could say is like GLP and peptides. That was like a big thing. I think before that it was a lot of the sleep and recovery and cold plunging and sauna became a really big deal.
What do you think the next step? I honestly think like oral hygiene's gonna be a huge deal. I agree. Yeah. I think like that's great. Like chronic inflammation. I think there's been like correlation studies for a long time looking at cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease, but I think like the mouth microbiome's gonna be a huge deal just because one of the biggest sources of chronic inflammation, and I think that's where're kind of like sorting out is like, you know, GLP one's even, you know, addressing inflammation helps people with that.
I think that's like the next, uh, thing that people will really start looking at differently. I think dentistry will change a lot. I think airways like the, the, like the, the mouth and, and airways in general I think will change. You'll see, I mean obviously I'm a, I'm a little in that world with, but even if I wasn't, I just think the, the bacteria and the microbiome of the mouth is more impactful than people recognize.
It's not just your teeth. Yeah. It, it, it affects your whole body. No, it's true. I went down to this place called Smile House. Yeah. Have you heard about this place? Yeah. So I went down there and they did a whole like, uh, scan of my jaw. Yeah. My airways and stuff. And they're like, well, this leads to this and this happened.
And I go, oh shit, this is actually pretty interesting. I think this is gonna be the next. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's even crazy like, you know, 'cause we, we'd do stuff with the mouth tape and look at studies and just like how acidic your mouth gets from just being open all night. Mm-hmm. That's why the mouth tape can be useful.
But when you look at like, bacteria growth and the balance of the bacteria, the same with like your gut, like, you know, there, there's, there should be certain balance with bacteria. So I think creating that environment, uh, will be, you know, the next five years. I was, I was talking earlier, I think, I think a oral.
Probiotic would crush. Really. I mean, I think there's some, there needs to be some evolution of the science, but I think like that, that balance of bacteria in your mouth to reduce inflammation, that would be a great product for someone to develop. Well, when you think about it, right? Like all the fuel that we take in, unless it's a air all on, thrown our mouth.
Yeah. Like everything you do. And that's where it all starts. So yeah, I think that'll be a focus. How much do you pay attention to, like where your food's coming from and so like, like sourcing? Yeah. Um, I mean I buy like pre-made meals. I'm not crazy about it. 'cause it's just, I mean, it's kind of like microplastics where it's like I have to pick and choose my battles, you know?
It's everywhere, especially with traveling and stuff. So I try to eat well, but at the same time, like, you know, I'll go out to dinner and, and be normal. Yeah. So I'm not, I'm not too crazy. I would love eventually to have a farm and. You know, source some stuff. But right now that's not, that's not happening.
So I've been a part of Devon's farm now for the past like year, and everybody's like, you know what, I want that too. I go, you know what, no one's ever said throughout history. Farming's easy. Yeah, no, like his mom. And when I say I want a farm, I would say I want to have a farm. I don't know if I want to do the farm.
A farm. The farming work is because we were there. I was there one day and you know, there's, you have a a hundred animals who the one cow was giving birth that day. Yeah, no. I'm like, what the fuck? Fuck do you do? You Devon's also crazy. He's the last guy. If you met Dev, like if you went to, you know, he'd probably take you to some crazy place, bond Street or something, and zero Bond.
And then if you were like, this guy grew up on a farm and he pulls, you know, calves out of calves giving birth. Yeah. To his bare hands. He'd be like, no way. Yeah. But the dude is like all up in the farm life. Well, the first time I went down there and he was showing me around go, why do you know so much about this?
Yeah, I, I met him, he's got a Ranger r Rover and a Louis Vuitton bag, and then he taught him about his farm. I'm like, I'm, I'm so conflicted right now. But his mom is a workhorse. She's there, she's awesome. Night and day, all long grinding. Yeah, it's really cool what he's done. His sisters too. Yeah. I mean, they're there, they're all, it's cool what he is done.
It's like, you know, when he told me about the concept, I, I mean that's been a huge trend, even like kind of getting back to nature. Like farms are not cool for sure. But when he told me about the concept originally, I was like, how well is there's horses in the gym? And I was like, oh, I don't know about that.
But I mean, look what's happening. Do you see a lot of that in Nashville though? I feel like Nashville's, he was originally gonna try to open up the second one in Nashville. Yeah. I don't, I don't think that, I don't know if it's gonna happen now, but, um, yeah, I mean people are like, there, there was a lot of people that were downtown and now moving out to build farms.
It's, it's, I mean, farms were always a thing, but it's become a lot more popular. A lot of like celebrities and stuff are billing farms. Yeah, I, I mean, it's probably one of my favorite American cities. Like I, it's the best. If I had to rank them, I would say like, New York, Austin, Nashville. Yeah. I like, so we were between, I mean, we lived here, we almost went back, but we were between Nashville and Austin.
And like, the Austin fitness scene is amazing. Huge. But I, the, the cool thing about Nashville is like, one, it's crazy how connected it is because everybody comes through there. A lot of people are moving. It's, it's right in the middle of the United States for travel. And then just the, um, I mean, it just has great people.
Where'd you grow up? Michigan. Okay. Midwest. And so people are so kind in Nashville and so real where I, I do think Austin got a little bit of that la, you know, vibe. Mm-hmm. And so just like, you know, the, the type, the quality of people we've been able to meet and become friends with in Nashville, I think is, is super unique to Nashville.
That's one of the things I think about sometimes around here. It's true different. It's like New York are very like different. It's different. Northeast. Rude. It's cold. People are angry. Yeah. Different every time I've been in Nashville and you know, Austin too. People are just warmer. I think southern people are just warmer and, and New Yorkers will make the argument of like, oh, it's fake, but I, it's really not fake.
Like, like people, people will root for each other. They tell each other out. I think, you know, there's so many interactions here. People do have a little bit of a guard up for good reason. Like people are also getting burned here all the time, where it's like, in Nashville it's like people literally, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Seriously. And so it's like, you know, I think there's a reason for it. But yeah, I, I valued that and I think, I didn't realize I valued that as much till I moved from here. Yeah. And I was like, it's kind of nice when people are like, open and, and pleasant and like willing to just become friends without, you know, creating this barrier.
How long were you in New York for? Just two years. And then COVID hit and it was like, what did you like about New York? Um, I mean, I love the, it just feels like you have the ability to do anything you want. Mm-hmm. Meet anybody. Do anything you can get ahold of anybody. Like, like the resources are unlimited and you never know what's gonna happen.
Yeah. It's like an excitement and like an unpredictability about it. But on the flip side, it was just, um, like everything's hard, you know, going to the bodega, it's like it takes effort getting to the airport, you know? Yeah. So it's, it's just a different pace of, of, I think it's the inbetweens that are harder.
Mm-hmm. And it's like a lot more relaxing. And somewhere like Nashville, just the quality of life and then space, you know, like having, um, you know, we have like a backyard with like hot tub and a couple saunas and cold ones and all this stuff, and that's been awesome. Just making friends and having people over, like, I love doing that.
Mm-hmm. And so I don't think I could go back to not having the space Yeah. If, if I came back. Yeah, no, I, I definitely nashville's on my radar to if I were ever put anything there, like, what's the gym? What's the fitness? Because Austin's great. No. So there's definitely more opportunity in Nashville because it's, it's, it's not, like I said, it's not quite there.
From a gym perspective. Um, there's some great gyms, but where do you go? I go to a place called hd. It's like more of like a CrossFit, gritty, uh, gym. They're building a collective there. I heard about that. Yeah. In Nashville, Equinox is opening there. Okay, so it's like coming. It's gonna be the first Equinox.
Yeah. And it will be sick. Yeah. 'cause the building it's going in is nice. Um, and then there's this one called Carbon, which is like, I've heard about that, but it's like influencer center. It's, and I've been to gyms everywhere. You walk in there and it is the best looking people. Fittest I've ever really like, it's like influencer Center.
There's that other one. It's like called Quantum. Or Quantum. Yeah. So Quantum was the original, kind of like that one. And then carbon open and everyone like flooded the carbon. I mean, it's an amazing build out like machines, you know, like on paper, sickest gym ever. But it's just not like, I'd rather go to somewhere a little more like this.
Yeah. No, I like the functional spaces. I like to have both. Yeah, they have that there. It's just. There's a lot of tripods, you know, and stuff like that. Well, it's hard to do it in like a big box gym. Even some of the best gyms I've seen, like, you can't be good at everything. Like when it comes to gym spaces, you either have to go with one or the other.
Yeah. Because to have a a great bodybuilding gym, it's the, the functional side's gonna suffer because you're gonna have all these kids flex in and doing dumb shit. Yeah. So, um, there's a great gym in New Jersey. There's a bunch of 'em, but my buddy owns one, it's called Iron Culture, and they have a small functional space, but nobody uses it.
It's not like the, yeah, it's different. The bodybuilding stuff, it's different. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, new York's tough too, 'cause it's space like, you know, it's so expensive. I mean, I pay more for this than where, where do you, do you work out anywhere else? Yeah, I have like three gym memberships. So I do jiujitsu.
I'll bounce around like two nights ago, I, I went up, there was this new place that opened up called Workshop. Okay. Up on like 65th in Lexington. I'm never gonna join there just 'cause it's so far outta the way. But I just wanted to go check it out. I like experience and other stuff. It's like going to eat at a different restaurant.
Yeah. You know? So for me it's like I bounced around. I went to, there's a new powerhouse that just opened up. It's actually the first Powerhouse. Oh, powerhouse. Yeah. Um, it's a lot of, like, a lot of these newer gyms are people with money who are just dumping Yeah. The same type of equipment. For me, it's like, I like variety in my equipment.
Mm-hmm. I don't think one company does everything Rep Right. So I like having, alright. I like this from Rogue. I like that from Panada. I like this from Kaiser. Our small has really come on the scene. I love, well they're a, they're a Tennessee brand. Yeah. Yeah. I've been wanting to, I, so I've been talking to them for it's good stuff a year.
They have a lot of that carbon place. Yeah. It's nice. And they, yeah, they're a local brand for them and they kind of went back to the roots. I feel like they're some of those old school, like they're new school, but they they kind of old school type machines. Yeah. The guy, Andrew, who owns a company, he's awesome guy.
So I met with him when I went out to the Olympia and we worked out that day. How's that? I love it. I mean, I go to old, I always want to go, dude, it's so much actually, if you're, if you're deciding between the Olympia and the Arnold, so I've been to the Arnold in college. I used to go and just get all the supplements, you know?
Yeah. That was, I love it. I love it. I like the energy. I like the people who go, I like just seeing what's new in the industry. Uh, the Arnold's cool because they're, it's a, it's more of a sporting event. Yeah. They have lot of stuff. Yeah. They have everything from like a 5K run outside to guys in armor beating the shit at each other.
So it's cool. Um, the Olympia is fun because it's like, if you wanna see bodybuilding at its highest level, I think that's. Yeah, that's a different crowd. Yeah. Oh, well, I tell people all the time, the bodybuilding community is the fucking weirdest of all the fitness communities. Yes. Yeah. People are like, CrossFit's a cult and High Rocks is a cult.
Yeah. I go, no. The biggest fucking cult is bodybuilders. Yeah. They're the weirdest people because CrossFitters, if you ask anybody from Rich Froning to, you know, the old lady who does CrossFit, you know, just for fun, everybody will say the best part about CrossFit is the community. So you're always around other people.
You're communicating with other people. I love the sports and conditioning world, like any of the guys who I've met through who train athletes and stuff like that, they're always like very community driven. Bodybuilding is like, put your headphones in, you go out on your own like ego, like Yeah. And it's me versus you.
And you're constantly like, the guys are always shaving their bodies and they're on fucking Yeah. Bikinis and shit. I think it's just a weird fucking world. It is. It's like you can, I love it. You can feel it though, like when you're there, you're like, this feels uncomfortable. Yeah. It's like, it's a weird vibe.
Well, the, the weirdest one I've been to, I went to the Dubai Muscle Show. Okay. So most of that is like Middle East, Southeast Asia, and you're getting all these guys and it's just a weird fucking environment. They're all like lotioning each other up and it's fucking, it's a weird environment. Especially there.
That's gotta be a whole different, oh my God. It's a weird fucking world. Why did you go to that? So I was, I worked with the guys from Panada and they were like, yo, you have to, they were like, if you wanna see the best show, it's a massive show. Got it. It's like hundreds of thousands of people. Huge. Yeah. So it's the Dubai Active Show and the Dubai Muscle Show, and they combine the two and they have all these workouts going on.
They have. Everything that happens in Europe in the Middle East will, you know, will meet up there. Got it. That makes sense. So what's your next thing? I mean, I mean, I know these guys are taking you all over the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, we're coming outta the way to blanket, uh, next month, which is cool.
And we got the rights to this. It's pretty cool. So it's this material called Salient and it, it converts thermal energy to infrared energy. Okay. And so we got the, the patent rights for it. And so we put it in a weighted blanket. And so the, the data on weighted blankets are, is really good. Anyways, I have one.
I love it. So what this does is essentially it, you know, your body heat reflects off it converts it infrared, which increases blood flow to soft tissue, it reduces soreness and there's pretty good data on that. So, you know, we're, we're calling it like a recovery blanket. So these, you know, it'll help with your sleep.
It's like netted so it's not hot, but then it will give you a little bit more blood flow to your soft tissue, help you feel better, recover from workouts. Nice. So, so where'd that come about? Uh, I mean, kind of what we've done is like, okay, like we, we wanna have like a full suite portfolio. And so we're like, okay, what products.
Um, our, you know, grounded in science, we have data to back it up and, and where's like the myth, like how can we make 'em better? And so, you know, weighted blankets was always on the list of those products. And then we started poking around like for ways we could make it unique. And that's kind of what we've tried to do with the other stuff.
Like mouth tape has been around, but we've, you know, made some, some changes to it to make it better. Same with the nasal strips. Like we patented those, redesigned them. And so yeah, we found this material Under Armour U. Originally used it in some recovery gear, but I don't think they marketed well and didn't, um.
They put it in like compression gear. And I, I don't think people like, were ready for it. Yeah. And so we got the rights to it, and it should be, it should be pretty cool. No, I think people are adopting a lot more stuff these days than we were in the past. And just the way to blink it alone, like we know it's gonna be effective.
Mm-hmm. And so if we can make it better and make it unique, I'll tell you what, when I first got it, it it does, it's, there's something about it that's just very calming life. Yeah. It's like evolutionary. Like it's, you know, you're meant to, to feel protected. That's why it works so well for, uh, animals. Yeah.
I love it. So what's, what's been harder for you competing, you know, playing football or some of the endurance stuff you're doing now? Oh, the endurance stuff for sure. Really? Uh, dude, it's, I mean, like, I mean, it all started like, uh, four years ago, Jesse was like, we're gonna go on a little Sauna Boys trip in, in, uh, Rome, Georgia.
And I'm like, all right, sick. You know, like just sauna, cold plunge, eat good food. And the first night it's like Devin, Chad Wright, Tim Snee, like all these elite endurance guys. And they're like, let's do a triathlon tomorrow morning. And I'm like two 70 pounds. Like, like not in the best shape. Yeah. And it like changed my whole, it literally changed my whole life.
'cause it was like, we did it. I did it. Never had done anything like that. And I was so far behind. Everyone came back and like helped me finish no shit. Like, as a man that just like, there, I mean, you guys are being super nice, but like, I hate everybody right now. Like, get away from me. And so I kind of made a promise.
I'm like, I'm never gonna be this guy again. And I, you know, I started running and because I'm like, I wanna spend time with these guys and, and, and we had the most amazing time, but it's like, if this is gonna be part of it, I need to at least be able to run and do some of this endurance stuff. So, you know, now I run all the time, at least good enough runner to keep up and not die.
Well, what's your training protocol looking right now? I mean, it's kinda all over the place. Me and my wife, my wife's pregnant. We, she just got pregnant. Went through Congratulations. Yeah. So we went through the IBF process and that was like a journey. So hadn't been as like on as, as I had liked, but now I get back into it.
So I, I do like strength training like four times a week. I try to run every day, um, of some, but I'm doing a half marathon in February, but I need to set some strength goals. Like I, I want to try to, like, I might try to do a thing where by the time my wife has the baby set a half marathon marathon time, and then I did 2 25, 35 times for pro day and see how close I can get to, like, doing that again by the time in nine months, you know, impress.
Yeah, impress. But I don't think I get there, but it'd be fun, like to just see what would happen. Just try to do that because I'm what, you know, 15 years older, so Yeah. You or I'll tear my pack. One of the tears gonna happen. I've, I've been down that road. You don't wanna do that. Have you done it? Yeah. Have surgery.
I completely tore my pack. Yeah. Oh. And I had a repaired, I was doing ring muscle ups and I fell through the rings and it completely tore my pec and my anterior down. Um, that's like one of my biggest fears. Oh, it's the worst. Yeah. It's the recovery on It sucks. Your whole chest, everything. I saw a guy do it like a offensive lineman.
He was dumbbell pressing one 50 and it just like, it just rolls up into your chest. Yeah. It's nasty. It's so painful. You don't feel anything? Yeah. Like your body's in shock. I couldn't move my arm from this. Like, I couldn't like physically like push it down or like let it relax. Was your whole, is it just black and blue?
So my arm was all black and blue. So from here down my arm was black. I thought I tore my bicep. No, I'm, I'm rethinking my goals now. Um, if you don't mind me prying a little bit. Yeah. You did the IVF. Why? Yeah. So we tried for a little bit, like not long, maybe six months. And then, um, you know, I'm 37, my wife's 36.
Yeah. So we, we were like, well, let's just go get all the testing done to make sure, um, like everything's good to go. Did this genetic testing. We actually were both carriers for this same gene. So our kid had a one in four chance to be like nonverbal, wheelchair bound. Holy shit. And so we didn't do, we did it just so they could do the genetic testing prior.
Yeah. So they genetic tests and then they make the embryos. Um, and so it also eliminates that gene from the future. And so it was more of like a choice of like the genetic side of things. Yeah. Which is kind of crazy. What's that journey like? I mean, it's, I know it's not, it was long, man. Like Yeah, I was gonna say, say it takes a while, right?
Yeah. Like my sperm count was a little low, so I had to go on medication, which actually made me feel like not great, like, tanked my estrogen and like, I felt pretty shitty. But, uh, how were we on that for too long? That was a problem. Yeah. It took too long, like nine months. And that kind of fucks up your body and shit too, right?
Yeah. No, it was horrible. I was like so tired in the mornings and, and yeah. So, but it was a journey. It's like a mental journey, but it wasn't like it was long, but we had success on the first try. Like, so she got pregnant on the first go. Oh, that's great. So like, as, as much as it sucked, it was, we were grateful 'cause like, just to be able to do the genetic testing, be able to go through the process, like it's, as, it was as painless as it could have been.
Mm-hmm. Like, it took a while, but it wasn't like, you know, I have such empathy for people who. Try for five years, and then people will do multiple rounds of IVF and it's like years and years and like, yeah, tens of thousands. What'd you have to put your body through? Like the, the, the females, like from a, all these injections and stuff.
So we had a pretty good compared to that. It was a journey for sure, but it wasn't like the worst thing. Well, why I ask is, you know, I, I was dealing with some back pain a couple years back and I had to do, uh, I, I got a blood test done and then a CAT scan, they saw that I had this cyst on my pituitary gland.
They were like, you know, this is going to severely bring down your sperm count. Yeah. 'cause your, your body's not making, so I started taking testosterone now and my doctor's like, well, between me taking testosterone for the past couple years and me not already making any sperm, it's like your chance of having a kid are pretty low at all.
You'd be surprised though. Yeah. Like, like I, uh, I'm friends with this doc who works with, has worked with like huge names in bodybuilding. Okay. Okay. You know, they take massive amounts, tons of shit, and he gets 'em fully backed, normal producing sperm. Really? They've been taking stuff for 10 years. Well, I see.
This is what I said. Yeah. So when my doctor told me that, I go, but look at somebody like Arnold, he knocked up his fucking cleaning lady. That I'm saying like, I like they, they, I think, I think they're always gonna err on the side of caution, but if you, if you can get a doc that's dealt with that, like they can do pretty good stuff.
Is that who you went to? I didn't, 'cause I was, I was like, okay. But, um, I've, I've talked like he's, I can connect you with him, but Yeah, like they, they, there's some crazy stories of guys like had zero count for 10 years and then Oh shit. Gets him back to having two kids. That's crazy. I I was actually talking to that with the guy from Arsenal too.
Yeah. 'cause he said he was been on testosterone for like 10, 12 years. Yeah, yeah. And it's, it's, you know, your, your body responds to a lot of that medication I think. Rarely is it like completely done. Yeah. So going into 2026, what's, uh, you know, what are some other goals that you have, you know? Yeah, yeah. I mean.
For the business, for life, for the business. Like getting into a big retail is a big goal this year. Yeah. You know? Are you guys in any, like all mostly smaller stuff, but, you know, CVS, Walgreens or Walmart, like, you know, nasal, it's crazy. People don't realize it because you don't talk about it. But so many people wear other brands in nasal strip breathe right's been around.
They do a great job for sure. But, you know, I think us being in retail, like that's a retail product. I think people go to CVS, that's where they grab it. And so that's a big goal. Um, and so that's kind of like our focus. I think a lot of what we're seeing nowadays is just this advancement in everyday products.
Yeah. You know, like whether it's fucking gummies and creatine, it's just like everything's the gummies dude. The, it's gummy central with everything though, it's like you, like there's a, they're make GLP one gummies soon. Probably everything, everything's getting in a gummy form, but no, like. Yeah. Any product we have now, even like potato chips.
Right? Like, do you ever try those Masa chips? Oh yeah. They're fucking incredible, dude. The, the, it's a better cinnamon ones. Yeah. It's a better, I just bought like, uh, there was a, they're like 20 bucks. Yeah. There was a deal on them. They were like, if you buy six bags, we'll give you four for free. And I looked, I was like, I spent a hundred dollars on fucking potato chips.
And you smack the like one, you can crush a whole bag, crush a whole bag. It 20 it had to the airport. I was like, dang. Yeah. Stepping the game up. But I think that's what it is. It's like everything's getting a facelift and I think that's what your, your brand is. Yeah. Yeah. And, and that's the other thing too, is like continue to evolve.
Like all the other, like the stuff that we've worked competing against, they have good products and it's just the same. And I think if we keep making things better, making improvements, like that'll be the goal. Yeah. Um, I have a kid that's a big goal, you know? Yeah. When when's the baby due? Uh, August 20th.
Oh, wow. Yeah. So what's the preparation like? Sleep will be challenging. Yeah. I've intentionally not spoken too much on sleep and kids because I wanna. Learn about it first. Yeah. Because it's kind of like this. Even if you know, you know, all the data and the science, it's different than being able to speak on it.
And everyone's situation is completely different. I you, I could recommend a hundred books on business, on training. Yeah. Yeah. There's the one thing I tell people, I go, no one's ever wrote a great book on raising kids. Yeah. Because you could be the richest person in the world. You could be the most successful person.
You everything. Perfect. You could do everything perfect. Your kids could still be a fuck up. I feel like I know a bunch of them too. I know, I know. It's, it's, it's actually kind of scary. Is it? That's, I I was gonna say, how scary is it for you? Well, it's, yeah, I guess you just, it, I mean, it'll probably set in more and more, but it's like, you can, you can do your best, but it's like, you know, they become friends with one kid that has an influence in a bad way.
Like, you know how life goes. Yeah. Like, you never know, like what decisions are gonna impact things. And so. That's scary. I think it'll become more real as we go, but I guess you just do your best and, and try. Do you have any siblings? No. None. Only child. So what do you I always say like most only children tend to be a little weird 'cause they don't tend to communicate.
Yeah, that makes sense. I did have a ton of cousins and like lived in the neighborhood so that, that helped me out. Yeah. But I can be weird sometimes. For sure. What uh, what do you think your parents did? Right? I mean, my parents were amazing. Like they, they were the best. I think they, they were like supportive in all the right ways, like, you know, and things that were good for me.
Sports, like, they would, you know, I, I definitely wasn't spoiled was the only child. But if there wasn't one thing, it was like, if I like, wanted to be good at the sport, they would, they would get me equipment or something. So, I dunno, I just knew that they, I, I think just knowing no matter what happened, like I'd always have their support.
Mm-hmm. But yet they also, like, they put me in a lot of stuff and they like, they not forced me, but they. It gave me the opportunity to try a lot. I think that's the thing is like, I tried so many sports was around so many people, and I think that, I think sometimes like, you know, you, you have to show the way a little bit and like guide things.
I think that's, that's the other thing. They just, you know, they're both teachers and, and I watch them be super fulfilled with their jobs. Treat people really well, be family oriented. So like they walked the walk, like they did all the right things. They were great people. And so like when you see that happening, it's hard not to, like, that's all, you know, especially as an only child.
Yeah. You don't know any different. So. Well I tell everybody, like when people talk about privilege, right? They're like, oh, this one's privilege. I think real privilege is having two people that actually give a shit about you. Yeah. And you could be from any background, you could be from any religion, it doesn't matter.
Like when people, when you know, there's two people who actually give a shit about you. You could have no money. Yeah. Like I didn't grow up with shit, but I knew at the end of the day, like my parents actually gave a shit. Yeah. I think that's probably what my parents did the best. Yeah. When I say that, and they, and they also, I think they, they valued the right stuff.
Like there wasn't talk of like, like money was not the number one priority. It was family. It was, you know, your faith, who you were around, which, which growing up it's like, that was such a gift. But that's all, you know, when you're growing up. So you don't realize it at the time. But yeah, I mean, I think they, they, the values were, were the thing that did the best.
Yeah. I, I feel bad for people. Like, some of the best people I know will always come from like, really good parents. And I know some people who had it rough and they were like, I saw the things that my parents had wrong. I'm gonna do the opposite. Yeah. Yeah. But that's, that's tough, right? Like, as a kid, it's like you don't, sometimes you don't know it's wrong.
Yeah. Until it's too late. Yeah. Favorite exercise in the gym? Oh, favorite exercise? Like for, to do? Yeah. Or like, um. Probably like, just like a power clean old school. Yeah. Yeah. Just, you know, football. Still doing it. Football, yeah. I'll still doing 'em. Yeah. Yeah. I to, I mean I used to love doing the Olympic list, but I definitely doubt that.
Were you ever a CrossFit guy? I did for a li I never like competed, but I used to go Yeah. You know, in like mid, like 20 fifteens when it was like really popular. Yeah. I just worked out with Rich the other day. Rich Ferron. Oh no shit. He's Cook. He's a great dude. Oh, he is the best. Yeah. But he was like, I went up and into his podcast and he was like, let's, uh, we gotta film this workout series.
Let's just do this workout. I'm like six, so we're gonna be on camera and me and next to you, like the fittest. Did you do it at his house? Yeah. Yeah. The barn set. He savage. Yeah. He's also just like salt of the earth. Really good guy, but a psycho. Yeah. Yeah, a psycho. I was there one day we worked out and he must have done five or six workouts.
Nobody was even keeping up with him. No. He stopped. He ate Chick-fil-A, he ate like two Chick-fil-A sandwiches and then went Chick-fil-A grilled chicken, half a diet, half regular lemonade. Every time. I'm like, what is the half diet? Half regular? Yeah, yeah. Whatever. And then went right back to working out, did like four more workouts afterwards.
I'm like, this guy's a fucking psycho. Yeah. He's got a crazy look in his eye when he gets Yeah. It's crazy. My, so my neighbor, like, one of our best friends in Nashville is Judah from the band, Judah and The Lion. Okay. And they played high school baseball together. Oh shit. It's like the weirdest like, connection of all time.
Yeah. Because he's from down there too, right? Cookville. Yeah. It's like an hour outside of Nashville. Yeah. Yeah. Um, favorite pump up song? Favorite pump up song? Um, probably Venito Chief Keef. Okay. Yeah. Pretty hardcore. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. We're in New York too. More recent. Recent. That makes more sense. Yeah.
Um, favorite place to vacation. That's the best place you've ever. Best place I ever Because you get to travel a lot. Yeah. I mean, I went to this Shaw Wellness retreat in Mexico. Dude, my buddy just got back. He loved it. It's insane. Yeah. That was pretty, that was a once in a lifetime thing. It's like everything's custom to you, you know?
Training sessions, blood work that I like. Everything. Food, everything. Like your food is custom. Yeah. The, the pre-me teas are custom to like, whatever you're trying to do. So, and then it's like, beautiful. So that was, I heard that's sick. Was it? It's like 15, 20 grand to go. Yeah. It's super expensive. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Um, and then, uh, what was it, my last one I had one more, uh, one place you haven't been that you want to go. I wanna go to Tokyo. Okay. Never go to Tokyo. I always think like New York, New York has 12 million people. Tokyo has 22 million. So I'm just curious like how that works. Yeah. Everyone says it's unbelievable though.
Yeah, yeah. No, it, it, Japan is always like on my, the top of my list. It is just so far, I'm always like, ah, we gotta take like two weeks off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's like a. That's almost like a quarter, like Q1. I'm going to Japan. Yeah, no, I, I'm trying to find the time. I'm like, when would I, when could I actually take two weeks off?
And it's like, you're gonna need like two days to even like get your bearings back once you get there. But people who've been there, like one of my buddies has been there a bunch and he was telling me, he goes, if you want the best Italian food, if you want the best Japanese food, if you want the best American food, there are restaurants there that just do everything Perfect.
I, yeah. I've never heard, I think just their culture. Yeah. And everyone's like, there's like lost and found boxes on the street. They said if you like drop your wallet, they'll like return it. Like nobody, like the culture's crazy. Yeah. Well I was in Thailand years ago and it, it's very much like that. Like no one steals like New York.
Yeah. Fucking steal your dirty underwear if you left it outside. Like there was, we were, I was there for about two months and there was a guy, I couldn't believe it was selling like fruit and vegetables on the side of the. And at the end of the day, he would just go home and leave everything on the side of the road.
Nobody would fucking take a thing that's forever. You couldn't fucking leave. I love that though. Yeah, I do. I do miss that. I like, I wish we had a little more of that. Like take care of each other vibe here. Well, funny story, when I was in Dubai for that show, I was gonna go work out with these guys and I, in my fanny pack, I had my, my wallet, my passport, all my shit.
So I'm like, if I lose this, I'm fucked. Yeah. And I left it by the desk and I told one of the guys, I was like, dude, is it cool if you just take, keep an eye on that? He goes, if they steal your bag or $5 million, we chop their fucking hand off. I go, I wish we implemented that here. Yeah. I know a lot of guys walking around one fucking hand.
I know. Yeah. Not many though. 'cause I think people stop doing it. Yeah. After, after a while you'd be like, no, I don't want that down. Yeah. There's something to that, like bringing the, bringing the hammer down. I think we've just come so far where it's like every, we just encourage bad behavior here. I know, but I think we need to start implementing more.
It, it's like kids, you let 'em do it, they're gonna get to do it. Yeah. Well, Todd, I appreciate you coming by, man. Thank you so much, man. Good to see you. Yeah. Where could everybody find you? How could, uh, how could everybody support the brand? Dream Recovery is just the brand. Uh, and then I'm on Instagram.
Anybody has any sleeping issues, shoot me a message. And I'm, I'm a little upset that we didn't, uh, get to hang out a running man, but I'll be there this year. I, next year, we'll definitely be back for sure. It's the best. Good guys, as always, thank you so much. Like, share, subscribe with a friend, and as always, stay strong.