I do train regularly in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. That’s where I get a lot of my hard cardio. If I want to improve my cardio, then I’ll do the elliptical. But in this phase of life, I’m pursuing aesthetic pursuits as my number one thing, like bodybuilding. The amount of hard cardio I’m going to be doing is going to directly interfere with my ability to recover from training and retain the muscle. Basically, I lift weights for high reps, and I get plenty out of breath during all my weights workouts. I do a few days a week of jiu-jitsu, trying to beat the crap out of people and not get beat up. Then supplementing that, 10,000 steps a day, on average.
You also have a PhD, which provides a level of credibility here. That mixture of like, “Oh, look at me, I’m good at this stuff, clearly it’s working, I have all these muscles to show for it.” But also, you really know what you’re talking about!
Yeah, “nerd about jock shit” is probably the best description I’ve ever heard for what the fuck I do. I mean, I got a PhD in sport physiology, which was described to me by the chair of the program as the science of taking good athletes and making them better. I parlayed that into physique athletics, bodybuilding, etc. You can think deeply about a lot of different things. I tend to—when I find an interest in something and it becomes valuable to me—think as deeply about it as possible. It’s the fucking demon that will never let go. Actually, every now and again I take recreational marijuana in very high doses, to disrupt my thinking patterns. Point the brain at something, it really thinks through it, and then it helps me develop a plan that makes the most sense for me.
My intellectual curiosity combined with my involvement in this jock stuff allows me to disseminate a lot of information to folks who may not be interested in thinking about the shit this deeply, but would really like to take the advice of someone who has thought about it deeply, has a formal education, and has spent lots of time researching all this stuff. Like, “Hey man, thank fucking god someone’s working on this.” I can simplify these things and tell them, Hey, do this, do that, don’t do this, don’t do that. Then they get fucking sweet results.
Nutrition is part of your whole thing too, right? You were doing some stuff for the Olympics, is that right?
Yeah, I’ve consulted multiple US Olympic athletes at various training centers, and I’ve actually been a professor of nutrition at a major D1 university before. I’ve taught a bunch of good nutrition-adjacent courses. I used to help Olympic weightlifters basically make weight, make appropriate nutritional decisions, and weigh an amount that is still conducive to high performance, but also fits into their weight class. My company and my team of coaches have actually helped multiple folks who have gone to the Olympics and medaled. I wrote the code logic for a whole nutrition app that we have as well, a bunch of books and all this other stuff.
What sports were you training other than weightlifting?
One of my consultation gigs was at the Lake Placid Center. Those were winter sports like bobsled and all the other sports that are downhill at insane speeds. I don’t understand how these people’s risk calculations work, but I’m like, “Yeah, this will make you better at these things.” Lots of experience with weightlifting, some experience with sprint cycling. I’ve consulted a lot of volleyball players. They’re very tall.
On the nutrition front, are you a breakfast guy? Is that something that has to happen every day?
No, I actually don’t intuitively understand the fascination with large breakfasts, with spending a substantial amount of your morning time making a breakfast. My idea is to get from my bed to my work area as quickly as possible, or from my bed to the gym as quickly as possible, depending on my schedule for that day. I also just don’t really have much of a hunger response for breakfast. I could be on the nastiest diet of all time, very low percent body fat, if you wake me up in the morning and you’re like, “Hey, there’s this new drug and it’s just going to get you lean and jacked no matter what you eat. Here’s the drug, let’s go to get some fucking tasty breakfast food.” I’d just be like, “I’m good, man. Can you catch me in four hours or something when I have more of an appetite?”
Generally my breakfast is like a protein shake or a few protein bars with the biggest bastardization of coffee that you may have run into yet. It’s instant coffee from the grocery store, but it gets worse. There’s Splenda in it. Oh, but it gets worse. It’s decaf, and it’s made inside of a protein shaker just by shaking it. The water isn’t even steamed or boiled. It is just hot water from the tap. That’s the level of degeneracy that I live every single fucking day of my life, sir.
Okay, so you’re not spending time making breakfast. Do you have a morning routine?
I mean, I take my supplements like creatine and vitamins and shit like that, and I put on my clothes. Depending on when I’m training that day, I’ll either shower or not shower. But other than that, no. My morning routine really begins when I get down to my basement office and begin to work on the computer.
Do you have a timer on your screen time?
No, I have a very quirky view on that. I think that screen time and non-screen time are, in the next decade, going to fuse. I think people are going to eventually have glasses and contacts and integrated displays through a neural link type of setup, such that we can be aware of internet videos with this part of our field of vision and then go like, “Go away. I’m just going to look at this thing now.” Screens will I think end up mostly disappearing and will be sort of projected or displayed straight to our visual field. Put it right in, baby. Give it to me.
