Do These 5 Exercises to Transform Your Athletic Ability, Prevent Injuries, & Perform at Your Best - With Coach Mike Guevara

20:35Shawn Stevenson:That part. Right? And a lot of what you do, I believe, is helping to put stressors on the body so that they're more resilient in the conditions that they face in their sport. And with this being said, a lot of people that are listening right now, they want to be more resilient. Maybe they're afraid of getting an injury down the line, or maybe it's just the clock is ticking on when something's gonna happen. And so we're encouraging everybody to start training right now. Right now. And so with this being said, I've got you here. Let's dig into some training. Let's do it. All right. So when you say train so you don't get hurt, where do we start?

21:19Shawn Stevenson:Like, what do we need to start doing?

21:20Mike Guevara:Yeah. So shameless plug, I have a training app that is a basketball centric focused app. It's for basketball athletes. However, it's not just for pros. It's not just for high level elite basketball players. We have a huge market that are we call them pickup legends. So a pickup legend might be somebody like yourself, you know, still getting to it. Not as a main source of exercise or revenue or anything like that, but just simply because you love basketball and you want to keep up with Braden. But the problem with these types of weekend warrior profiles is that they think that the sport itself or the competition itself, let's say it's a weekend game that you play every weekend, is enough to create the adaptation.

22:11Mike Guevara:And that's where we get hurt. Because at the end of the day, when we start to compete, we forget about the training wheels. We forget about our sore toe or sore ankle or sore knee. we know that we got to get past, I got to get past Sean. And then I got to try and dunk on him or lay it up or hit him or whatever. And sometimes our tissues are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Right, right. Let me say something. Because our body,

22:41Shawn Stevenson:we have to qualify ourselves to do certain things, right? And part of that, and just again, to reiterate the app, I do use the app myself. And I've integrated the exercises that my son uses in my own training. Every time I train, I'm using something I got from you from the app. All right, now, with this being said, one of the things that I was not doing enough of that the GBG app helped me to really cement was the isometrics. They were like - Talk to them. Every now and then, every couple of weeks, I throw some isometrics in there. Now, every training session, I'm doing the isometrics is added into my training.

23:21Shawn Stevenson:Talk about isometrics and why that's so valuable.

23:25Mike Guevara:Isometrics to define what the word basically means is tension or load with zero joint motion or zero joint action. So it's literally holds. Isometrics are holds. And the problem with isometrics is they're not sexy. They're boring. It's almost a jab to the ego if you care. Right. Because ego is all about what you value. But if you care about if someone is looking at you, people may look at you and say, you're not doing anything. You're literally not moving. But if I put you on a wall and make you do a single leg wall sit for 45 seconds, which is a good amount of time, I guarantee if you've never done that before, you're either going to slide down and stop or be shaking like a leaf, which I'm sure you've experienced.

24:17Mike Guevara:And I think the reason why isometrics are so valuable is they're safe. So anybody that is functional enough to walk into the gym can do an isometric. That's from the age of five years old all the way to 95. If you are able to walk into the gym, I can guarantee you can do an isometric hold. And the most quintessential iso that I think we all can relate to is the wall sit. It was basically discipline for whenever we messed up in gym class, if gym class even exists anymore. But anytime you messed up in gym class or anytime you made a mistake in practice, all right, everybody get on the wall. Let's do a wall sit.

24:59Mike Guevara:And basically you're sitting in a 90 degree angle at your knee and hip. And it's a major quad load with no joint action. And the reason why this is very beneficial is it's been known to mitigate pain. So let's say that you walk into the gym with sore knees for whatever reason. It could be the game you just played. It could be maybe you had a heavy squat day. It could be because you were sitting from a long flight. Whatever the case is, your knees are cranky. For some reason, when you do a 45 second wall sit for three to four sets, that pain goes away, which means what? Now your training session is more productive.

25:37Mike Guevara:Now you're not worried about moving through ranges of motion with knee pain. You're confident, you're able to load up and you're able to train hard. So as a basketball player, coach, performance coach, or just anyone who exists in movement space, this is a valuable tool to literally remove pain from a situation. So that's why that's that's a huge reason of why I stand by those. And then also there's a lot of research being done. And shout out to Keith Barr, Dr. Keith Barr out of UC Davis. He's put forth a lot of science-backed objective data that says that if you do isometrics, you can repair tendon.

26:21Mike Guevara:And in the space of basketball and in the world of hoops, anyone that's ever played a season, your knees are not happy. Your Achilles tendon, which we see a lot of ruptures from, you know, now we can start to reinforce the collagen network within these tendons that are going to make you more robust and perhaps take away the risk of injury. Nothing is foolproof. Nothing is guaranteed to not or to prevent you from getting hurt, but we're trying to do as much as we can to make you as robust as possible. So that's why ISOs, which is heavy in the GBG Hoops app, is such a huge presence in our exercise library.

27:01Shawn Stevenson:Yeah.

27:02Mike Guevara:Fire, fire.

27:03Shawn Stevenson:I've never heard somebody say that they want to have less energy. I just got so much energy. I don't know what to do with it. I don't know what to do. For most people today, they want to have more energy. Energy is the fuel of our lives and our experience of energy. If we're looking at it through the lens of biology, boils down, deep down, to the role of our mitochondria, also known as our cellular power plants or cellular energy plants. But it's a dynamic exchange going on constantly with all of these trillions of mitochondria that we have within our bodies. Now, the question is, what is going to help our mitochondria to do what they do and to give us that energy that we're really looking for?

27:49Shawn Stevenson:Of course, we want to mind our mitochondria eat some nutritious food, eat foods that are not creating derangement and all these abnormalities, blood sugar spikes and gumming up all of our cells and our tissues, making sure that we're getting adequate sleep, checking all those boxes. But if we're boiling things down to a category of nutrients that we really want to look for, look no further than that category of electrolytes. Electrolytes are minerals that carry an electric charge and they are critical for the function of your mitochondria. A recent study published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine determined that mitochondrial sodium levels are critical in contributing to changes in mitochondrial energy exchange and redux capacity.

28:37Shawn Stevenson:So this is about delivering energy to all of our cells and resisting the harmful impacts of oxidation and stress. Who knew sodium was so essential for life? Well, a lot of people have known this, including researchers at McGill University, who found that not only does sodium help to maintain proper water balance for all of our cells, but also our most essential organ of energy and life period which is the amazing human brain they also found that sodium functions as a quote on off switch in our brains for specific neurotransmitters that support optimal function and protect our brain against numerous diseases and so we want to make sure that we're targeting plenty of electrolytes in our diet it's going to come in the form most often of whole organic fruits and vegetables.

29:33Shawn Stevenson:But this is also the reason that so many people feel and experience more energy and faster recovery when they're utilizing supplemental electrolytes. Now, if you're going to utilize an electrolyte supplement, the number one science-backed electrolyte supplement that supports active hydration, cognitive performance and a healthy lifestyle overall look no further than the incredible folks at element element has the science-backed ratios of sodium potassium and magnesium to help you to feel and perform at your best the best performers in the world utilize element i'm talking about team usa weightlifting nba athletes nfl teams navy seals the list goes on and on and on.

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31:13Shawn Stevenson:Right. So I'm like doing jumps with rotation, with the deceleration, all these other things that are more explosive because I just feel athletic, you know? And these inputs, I see how they translate. Yes. And so with that being said, doing that rear foot elevated split squat ISO that I learned from you, right? And having that input and seeing, for example, like my son, the first time he did it, he was shaking. Because you don't think it's going to be that difficult. But as you just mentioned, this is getting these inputs without this kind of like focus specifically on the muscles capability to do stuff.

31:52Shawn Stevenson:Correct. We're getting inputs for the tendons and the ligaments. And this is it's safe. That's the thing, too. It's safe. And it's anybody can do it at some level. There are many people I'm sure can't even do a rear foot elevated split squat, but they can do an ISO. They can hold on to something. Yes, sir. And just be able to hold position and get so much benefit.

32:11Mike Guevara:So much benefit. And you took the words out of my brain is it's extremely safe and effective. So, you know, just the culture of training, whether you're a parent or if you're training yourself as an adult. You want to pick up heavy weight. That's just the culture of what it is. And that's starting to change because the functionality of movement and living in the gym is becoming more how does it adapt to what I need or do is starting to take the forefront. But nonetheless, we want to lift heavy. It feels innately good as a man. I pick up heavy things still. But why do I want to put that same mindset on a nine year old kid, a 12 year old kid?

32:58Mike Guevara:How about this? An 18 year old rookie in the NBA who can't hold a rear foot elevated isometric for one minute. They can't. Why am I going to load this pattern? So it's just ripping down all the ego and really trying to get people to understand, like, look, we're not professional weightlifters. If you're competing in some sort of strongman competition or this is what your sport is to look good, different. I'm not talking to you. You do need to lift these weights and, you know, be strategic about it. But if you're an athlete, if you're an adult that wants to be more active with their children, not have back pain when you go to pick your kid up every time they're crawling into a mess or whatever it is, this is for you.

33:45Mike Guevara:Because it's easy, it's safe and it works.

33:48Shawn Stevenson:yeah all right so my personal testimony from my 14 year old son who's a serious hooper uh after two weeks of training and following the workouts that you put together for us the words that came out of his mouth were i just feel more bouncy right i just feel more bouncy which is like gold for a hooper to feel like that you know and he credits you he's just like you know i've been and also of course you gave him some advice with you know getting the protein intake, which he's done like 95 % of the time. And the compliance has been amazing because of who you are and your communication style, man.

34:25Shawn Stevenson:It's just, it's just been really special to see. One of the other things that I noticed immediately on the app was that you had a lot of your

34:32Mike Guevara:athletes and we're talking, we got some championship athletes on here, Rajon Rondo.

34:37Shawn Stevenson:Yes, sir. And they're training barefoot. Yes, sir. Can you talk about why you have your athletes training barefoot?

34:44Mike Guevara:I love to give flowers to people who deserve the credit because, you know, I'm not here by myself. There's been so many hands on me that have molded me and influenced me, including my wife. I just want to take this time. She's right here behind the camera. Shout out. Yeah. Her name is Hedaya Turner. She's amazing. She's the brains and everything behind GBJ Hoops. But the gentleman that has introduced me to the barefoot ideology, his name is Scott Mitchell. Scott Mitchell is basically my mentor when I started 15 to 18 years ago. And he no longer is in the coaching space no more. He's actually a teacher.

35:26Mike Guevara:You know, he traded in his whistle for, you know, a little bit more of what speaks to him, which is teaching kids. And I respect that so much because I love teaching kids. shout out to Brayden too for being 95 % compliant and he's the one that had the five finger style shoes way back when and to the average 25 26 year olds you're like what are those what are those and you know I'm a Jordan guy I love Jordans I never had enough money to buy them when I was younger and now I got a little paper so I'm gonna you know I'm gonna wear some Jordans in the training space. And it's just like, you know, you vibe with your athletes too.

36:10Mike Guevara:Like they see what's on your feet and now it's a conversation and you're cool. But he's the one that put me on to

36:19Mike Guevara:the sensory richness of your palms, the palms of your hands and the bottoms of your feet and how we can lose that sense of proprioception, which is another word of just being able to know where you're at in space in real time, which has a huge effect on athleticism, on balance, on stability, on the ability to prevent injury, injurious movements from happening because we have such awareness of the floor and where we're at in space, right? Well, if you don't create those connections on a daily basis, they start to go away. If you don't use it, you lose it. So being barefoot was just another way for me to add a little bit of an edge to my training.

37:04Mike Guevara:And I would explain it the same way to you. I was just like, look, you're closer to the floor. You're more connected to the floor. You know where your foot is in space. It's going to help you with your balance, your stability, your ability to load different areas of the feet. Your feet are going to be stronger. Your whole body will be stronger. I guarantee it'll translate to everything that you feel. And then also foot pressure. It's not talked about a lot. Like where is the load in my foot? Is it in my heel, my midfoot, my forefoot, my toes? And the four regions of the foot, it'll drastically change where the force goes up the chain.

37:33Mike Guevara:Why aren't we talking about this? If I put you in the rear foot elevated ISO, but have you forefoot loaded, your ankle complex will now take stress. If I have you heel loaded, and no region is better than the other, but if I have you heel loaded, you will be more glute loaded. See what I'm saying? So like, I think that that nuance alone in itself is very valuable to the training space, the training practice, so that you know where you're at on the foot. So that's kind of where that came from. Scott Mitchell is the one that introduced that to me, influenced me in a huge and major way. And, you know, when I played college football, we were in weightlifting shoes with a small heel lift.

38:16Mike Guevara:Not even thinking about where my foot is in space. Not even thinking about where anything is in space. Just pick the damn weight up. But obviously as we get more understanding of like what training is, what purpose does training do for me as an athlete, as a human, that's really where the value is. So yeah, that's how I came to be in the barefoot space.

38:38Shawn Stevenson:Incredible. Again, just ahead of the curve, your access and, you know, our bottoms of our feet, man. Hundreds of thousands of nerve endings just there to pick up data about our movement and ground contact. and it just makes you think like, what if KD was training barefoot back in the day? What if Kobe was training barefoot back in the day? Which he is now.

38:57Mike Guevara:I just want y 'all to know that.

38:58Shawn Stevenson:I saw LeBron had the five finger shoes on too. And he's notorious for having the worst feet, you know? But it's just, again, it's a cultural shift. And, you know, we will never know about the past, but we can see moving into the future, getting athletes to have basically that data not being muted from the ground contact. That's such a good way to put it. Right? Having that access and that data to be able to, again, when your foot hits the ground, it's sending data to what your knee's doing, your ankle, your back, the list goes on and on, and it's muted by the shoes that we're wearing. And so what if we start to train that?

39:39Shawn Stevenson:And over time, and I don't know if you've had this experience as well, but like wearing, you know, zero drop shoes or five digit shoes, I start to really experience my feet differently

39:49Mike Guevara:when I put other shoes on. Can I please talk about that? My feet are growing. And it's not a literal gain in length or whatever, but it's literally like because my feet are expanding and I'm receiving force all the time in these wide toe box five digit types of footwear, my feet expand and now size 10 don't fit no more. I have to go up to 10 and a half. Incredible. Because my tissue is adapting. Like my foot is adapting.

40:20Shawn Stevenson:Everything is adapting to like the forces I'm applying through this footwear. What if the whole time, like your jeans were expecting you to do this? Bro, I'm not supposed to be five foot eight.

40:28Mike Guevara:What are you talking about? You know what I mean? Like that's real. That's a real idea that comes up.

40:32Shawn Stevenson:You know what I mean? So, so powerful. So powerful. Wow. So again, we live and we learn, but you know, just again, going to the app and saying, yeah, we've got different ways of training, training structures, different exercises.

40:45Mike Guevara:Yeah.

40:46Shawn Stevenson:You know, athletes have shoes on in some things other times. and it's just kind of taken the opportunity to train barefoot. How would you advise somebody to start to implement some barefoot training? Because we don't want to go zero to hero overnight, I would imagine.

41:01Mike Guevara:Yeah, so sometimes, you know, we get really excited when we see the LeBron post or we see the Mike G post and we want to just jump straight into that. Well, again, what is a sneaker? What is a shoe, a basketball shoe, a weightlifting shoe? It's a buffer of force between your foot and whatever activity that you're doing. You know, if you try to run in bare feet, you immediately adopt a different gait. Because if you try to run heel-toe without shoes, there's going to be a lot of disruption in the system. It's not going to feel good at all, nor efficient, and your brain innately knows that. You're going to be more forefoot dominant.

41:40Mike Guevara:Well, being more forefoot dominant means that your feet, your Achilles, all the muscles in the lower leg have to be ready for that repetitive five to eight times body weight that you're putting onto it with every step of your run. So in short, in a simpler way of putting it is if you're going to take away the buffer that a normal sneaker would give you, you have to be very cognizant of how you create the new load into your foot with the barefoot training or the five digit footwear training or the zero drop training. because now you don't have that cushion. You don't have that really comfortable buffer that absorbs force from when you play basketball, from when you jump, from when you run, sprint, whatever activity it is.

42:31Mike Guevara:So wearing the sneakers - Which can mask inefficient movement. Correct. Amongst other things, right? The thing about athletes is they compensate and they're really good at that. So getting out of the shoe and being barefoot or in these minimalist footwear, we have to be very cognizant of how we introduce load. And even simply walking five minutes a day on a treadmill is a really good way to introduce those new loads or forces. Closed chain exercise, basically, in other words, when your feet are connected to the ground and you perform an exercise, squat, Romanian deadlift, rear foot elevated split squat, you get the picture, squat to press, Your feet are supported by the floor.

43:18Mike Guevara:Maybe that's a safer way to introduce this type of footwork because there's no impact. There's no impact load. And the impact load is what causes the danger zone. That's when tissue starts to get a little bit overworked and overstressed. And then you, you know, you have a strain or a sprain of some sort. So I think closed chain lifting or exercise is totally OK. But when you start to incorporate impact, that's when we have to be very, very weary of it and aware that, hey, let's do five minutes of walking this week every day. Let's improve that to 10 minutes the second week. Let's maybe start to do a walk jog the third week and then kind of go based off of how you feel and then grade it out accordingly.

44:02Mike Guevara:Amazing. Amazing.

44:04Shawn Stevenson:so with this being said this is just what humans were doing all right prior to this innovation with these you know with the very um especially like the thicker more like maximalist shoes that we have now but the world is different so we got to keep that in context to the environment right so we're concrete and hardwood floors sure are very different than grass and just kind of natural environment. And so, you know, one of the things, so number one, super quick sidebar question with doing isometrics barefoot be like a very easy on-ramp, for example.

44:40Mike Guevara:Very much so. Because again, if, if I'm doing an isometric, usually my feet will be connected to a stable surface, stable environment, which means that there's no impact load. So I definitely think if you're navigating the gym and you're training and you're not doing any jumping, running, hopping, skipping, walking, long duration walking because you got to walk from station to station, then I think you're in a good space. I think this is a very safe space to be in to train barefoot. Now, some of the people who are against this minimalist footwear are going to say, well, if your foot is operating in a way that's unhealthy for the kinetic chain going up.

45:22Mike Guevara:For instance, if you have over pronating feet and now you're taking your shoes away, that kind of give you a little bit of arch support. Now you're just feeding a problem. That's a whole nother conversation. And I don't know how to qualify who, you know, from a vast general standpoint, who should be able to step into this footwear or not, or this world. But from a very global perspective, all right, your feet are somewhat normal, whatever that even means closed chain isometric work, I think is a really good way to start because now you're going to start to understand foot pressure and feel foot pressure.

45:58Mike Guevara:Where, where's my body weight at?

46:00Shawn Stevenson:That's one of the things that you, in some of his workouts was specifically when you mentioned foot dysfunction, right? Where it's like, it's turning in or whatever the case might be, train your feet. Yeah. Right. So you have some exercises, like there's one where we have that's the small ball and we're pushing down with the big toe.

46:20Mike Guevara:Isometric.

46:21Shawn Stevenson:Can you talk about that one a little bit?

46:22Mike Guevara:Yeah. So just to set it up so you guys can see at home in your, in your mind's eye, imagine you're barefoot and you have perhaps the density of a tennis ball, or maybe even a little bit more forgiving, a little bit more squishy. And basically you place that tennis ball underneath. You're standing on two feet. You place on one side the tennis ball underneath the big toe. So now think about the big toe being bent back. So there's a little bit of a stretch perhaps in your big toe joint or maybe even underneath the bottom of the foot. Because your bent toe is kind of being bent backwards or extended is how we would call it in the training space.

47:05Mike Guevara:But then I ask you to press and smash the ball with the big toe. So what are we doing? We're lengthening the tissue responsible for extending the big toe and we're contracting at length. And what that does is it's an isometric because it's a no movement action, but there's still tension. And that strengthens all of the tissue required to create the big toe smash at length. And the beauty behind that is you can potentially lift your arch. you can definitely strengthen the big toe flexion motion. And there's a lot of science that says that the best jumpers in the world have really strong big toes.

47:48Mike Guevara:A lot of people don't know that. And we don't innately, we don't particularly train big toe. There's no big toe day. And I know that those jumpers don't train their big toe, you know, but through the landscape of their lifestyle, maybe they're barefoot a lot. maybe they played outside a lot barefoot. Maybe they played basketball a lot barefoot. Maybe how they compensated. Maybe how they compensated. For some reason, their big toes are really strong and they jump really high. So that's like an easy, you know, bar. Like here, you want to jump higher? Get your big toe strong. It's in the science.

48:23Mike Guevara:And that's a really easy way to visualize how to do so. Just get a squishy ball, maybe a tennis ball, put it underneath your big toe, bend it back, and then press down for 45 seconds. Big toe smash.

48:36Shawn Stevenson:Amazing. Oh, it's so good. All right. So one of the things that I've done outside of isometrics barefoot is proactively, and this was just a little while ago, but now I'm just doing it more consistently, is doing a little bit of jumping, like basically jump rope barefoot, but like on a soft surface. So whether this is grass outside, dirt, grass, or like on a carpet, but just getting that input. And it was so, the first time I did it, It was so like, it just felt kind of wrong, but then it quickly felt like this is so right. It just, I don't know, I can't explain it. It's just taking your shoes off and being able to train and get these inputs, stuff just starts turning on, you know?

49:18Shawn Stevenson:And so I've been doing that, but that's something that anybody can do. Just kind of, again, qualify yourself, make sure that you're comfortable and you can do that kind of thing on a forgiving surface, just a little bit of hopping up and down. but a regression potentially but then it's like a galactical progression might be a trampoline yes what do you think about like a mini trampoline yeah so let me just speak on jump rope jump rope

49:45Mike Guevara:is probably one of the most underrated things that you can do that's my shit and i don't know why it's not championed as such because it's it's it's easy it's cheap like a jump rope is not expensive might make i mean it's one of these actions that you can focus something focus your mind on something else so like it kind of makes the time go by quicker you can put a cool model health show podcast on featuring mike g um and just get your jumps in but as it relates to just life not just sport not just athlete um especially like our older population i don't even know like what would be qualified as such, but like as we get older, we stop running, we stop sprinting, we stop jumping.

50:32And something as safe as a jump rope, which is, you know, maximum three to seven

50:39Mike Guevara:inches off the ground, which is not a lot of force or load, but helps you so much with being elastic. And elastic just basically means the ability to create force quickly. How does that imply to my livelihood as an older person. Maybe I trip and fall on a, on a curb, but I'm able to catch myself because I have that elasticity to move quick and respond. And my brain's used to like gravity perturbation or center of mass perturbation. And then boom, I'm able, I'm aware, you know, all this plays a huge role into fall prevention. So, you know, I just would challenge people out there just keep jump roping, keep jumping, keep doing these fundamental things that we did throughout our childhood years into teenage.

51:27Mike Guevara:And then for some reason, you know, life hits us in the face and we stopped doing these things, but they're so important. And you don't even need a jump rope. You can put your hands on your hips akimbo style and act like there's a jump rope coming underneath you on a yoga mat. That's too hard. Double up your yoga mat. You know what I'm saying? Like for the fact that you do a bare foot is very impressive because missing is a lesson. But if you don't want to, you know, hit yourself, put your hands on your hips and jump around for a minute. You know, what about the idea that the lymphatic drainage that happens from the rebounding?

52:01Mike Guevara:And for those who don't know what that is, you have a limp system that's basically like the waste management part of your body. It clears you all of the bad stuff, but there's no true circulation to it. The only thing that gets it to drain and move is movement and rebounding, which segues perfectly into the trampoline. So the trampoline is beautiful because I think you're right about the spectrum of it could be baseline, but it also can be very, very high level because there are the like, like imagine Jane Fonda back in the seventies, the mini trampoline fitness class that she would have. And there's like a handlebar there and she's running her whole class.

52:44Mike Guevara:But what a lot of people don't realize is that it's very low impact, even though you're jumping and your muscles have to produce a lot of energy to create and absorb force. So what does that do? That keeps you extremely healthy in your joints based off the fact that there's not a lot of joint load, but your muscles are getting a great stimuli. Your heart obviously is getting a great stimuli. And then once again, the lymphatic drainage. And I can't quote like the year or the actual study, but NASA has deemed five minutes of trampoline rebounding a day is one of the most healthiest things you can do for fitness.

53:22Mike Guevara:And ever since I heard that, I've used a mini trampoline in our training with NBA athletes on a weekly basis. true story I'm helping Fred Van Vliet rehabilitate his ACL he ruptured his ACL in September we use the mini trampoline as a forced reintroduction tool to help him gain running gate yeah so it's just another you know way to get from point a to point b even with a high level athlete rehabbing

53:52Shawn Stevenson:an injury are you about that snack life the paradigm of snacks have changed dramatically in recent years. I grew up, my snacks, animal crackers, little Capri Sun, maybe some random candy from my grandma's purse. You know, she's got the butterscotches and peppermints in there. All right. Of course, got a little, little chips, little cookie. Listen, that's all fine and dandy, but our paradigm of eating candy has really messed us up. And so trying to get healthier, I started having granola bars, right? Had granola bars as a kid as well. Super sweetened with a picture of a guy with a wig on, you know, looked like one of the founding fathers on the box.

54:35Shawn Stevenson:You know what I'm talking about. But trying to get healthier, you know, I switch over, I do the granola, healthier, lower sugar, or low fat paradigm of these cereal bars, but still really missing the point. And then today we had all these innovations in these newly invented chemical complexes to try to trick our bodies with fake fats or fake sugars. And we end up with a ultra process conglomeration of a new kind. What about something real? What about utilizing the paradigm of a food bar, something on the go, but with all real food ingredients? And that's what we have with the Paleo Volley Superfood Bars.

55:21Shawn Stevenson:Not only does it have over eight organic superfoods, and collagen-rich, 100 % grass-fed bone broth protein. There are no added sugars or sugar alcohols. They come in a variety of flavors, including red velvet, lemon meringue, apple cinnamon, and what I have right here, dark chocolate chip. These are the only food bars that we keep here at the studio for our team and our guests. And I keep these at home for my family and I travel with these as well. Huge fan of the Paleo Valley Superfood Bars. And right now you get access to 15 % off their amazing superfood bars. When you go to paleovalley.com forward slash model, that's P-A-L-E-O-V-A-L-L-E-Y.com forward slash model for 15 % off their phenomenal superfood bars.

56:11Shawn Stevenson:Plus all of their other incredible snacks and superfood, whole food based supplements. So much more head over there. Check them out. Paleovalley.com forward slash model. And now back to the show.

56:24Mike Guevara:Amazing, amazing.

56:25Shawn Stevenson:And I would imagine too, his brain, his nervous system is just like, it's going to be like, oh, this is okay for you to do. Facts. You know, you can start to get this input and then that can translate to more comfortability. When you run.

56:36Mike Guevara:Yeah. Because I'm scared to run right now. It hurts. Like, I don't know if I can do it, but I get on this trampoline. I got a handlebar or something to support my balance with. So it's not, it's not a balance drill. And now I'm getting these inputs at the joint angles of running gate over and over and over. And as long as I want, again, that can be a huge confidence builder, let alone just tissue alone. Amazing.

57:04Shawn Stevenson:Just thinking about the action of jumping on a trampoline. You know, I think about the times we went to these trampoline parks and, you know, I'm playing basketball with my sons or, you know, just kind of growing up. If by chance somebody had a trampoline, like one of the friends, it's the most epic thing. And so it's getting me thinking about the value of fun being in your workouts. So is that something that you are intentional about with the athletes as you're training?

57:33Mike Guevara:I think the idea of play is such an important component of training, especially when you're working with athletes, because that's what they do. They play. I mean, if you think about it and it's bare, you know, components of what sport is, it's play. It's a child's pastime. And why don't we use that as a supercharged moment to get people in the right frame of mind to challenge themselves in what's about to happen? For instance, if you walk into my gym, Mr. Model Health, and I can read your body language, like as we get good at training, we get really good at reading body language too because it matters.

58:18And your body language is not the same.

58:23Mike Guevara:It's a little tight. You're a little less talkative. You're a little less smiley. Clearly something has happened in your day that makes you not who you normally are. Well, immediately I can do one of two things. We can talk about it, which I try not to do that as much unless that's what they want. Or B, I can totally remove you from the mental space that you came in with. And that's through play. That's through game, gamification. So competition drills that involve as less risk as possible because, you know, we use a lot of gamification during warmups. catching games tag games small sided games things that require you to leave the space that you came in with is a really good way to set the mind frame to train hard because if we don't change your mindset from what you just came from that training session may not be as effective as you had wanted it to be and I think that that's why you show up you show up because you want to walk out feeling way better than when you walked in.

59:29Mike Guevara:And that's my mission. Every time I work with someone is a, you feel amazing and you feel like you've accomplished something and you feel like you got better. So we use games to do that. We use movement games and movement challenges to, to, to create that mind frame.

59:43Shawn Stevenson:Yeah.

59:44Mike Guevara:Amazing. I love it, man. And it's so obvious, but sometimes we,

59:48Shawn Stevenson:we look at training. It's just like, um, I'm not going to say punishment, but sometimes just that's It's a perspective for some people, maybe sometimes in our lives. And so to initiate and to find the fun in everything that we do, it just is a capacity that's there all the time. But we we tend to mute it. So thank you for sharing that. And, you know, obviously, again, I cannot stress enough the value of the GBG app. I cannot stress it enough. Everybody needs this app, especially if you're an athlete, especially if you have a kid who's an athlete. it is priceless, priceless. Now, with that being said, and we'll put the links for everybody, of course, to get access.

1:00:31Shawn Stevenson:But with that being said, just the perspective of all of us being a life athlete and being the best that we possibly can, I know it's incredibly difficult to boil it down to like maybe five specific things that everybody should be doing. But if I had, you know, just like you had no choice. You got to give five exercises or things for us to focus on to be more athletic, to be more resilient.

1:01:01Mike Guevara:Can you give me that five? Well, I'm going to give you the five, but I'm going to preface my five with saying whoever's in front of me, that five changes. Okay. But that doesn't help anyone here. So So that being said, five exercises, five movements that anybody could benefit from in their journey of movement, wellness, staying athletic, staying strong, access, agency. I want to do what I want, when I want, how I want. Not everyone has that. If a killer is chasing me, a dog is chasing me, not everyone can sprint away. that is the definition of fit to me you know god forbid i gotta fight to defend my family i like my chances i'm not a fighter but i like my chances against a regular person now everyone takes mma these days so i don't know about it now but i don't know what somebody knows bro but but grab your nuts pull them over your ears it's like what how did i get here whoa maybe but i'm fit enough to like do what i need to do i think i'm fit enough to run away and grab my wife i think short story shorter five um level change level change so it's not it's it's it's actually an arduous task for people to change levels whenever they want.

1:02:32Mike Guevara:And you kind of talked about it, like going, you know, reaching down and picking your kid up. That's not some, so like people avoid picking their kid up because they don't want to level change because it's so difficult and so hard or painful. And the only person that gets the short end of the stick is the kid. Like pick the kid up, you know what I mean? So like, I have a kid. I'm a new father. He's about to be 17 months. My wife gave me a beautiful baby boy. and you know I've been posting as of late this new you know moniker new dad bod because what's what's the dad bod what's the typical dad bod and I'm just like nah f that we're ain't no dad bod here I'm 41 years old I'm going to be able to play basketball with Kanji his name is Kanji when he's 12 which would put me at a healthy 53.

1:03:18Mike Guevara:Please believe he still won't be able to beat me so being able to level change with him making it a task for me on a daily basis to pick him up to get down with him and play with him and crawl with him. Like he's not crawling anymore. He's walking around, running around. So he's kind of completely, you know, got rid of that pattern. But I crawl with him to show him, hey, we can still do this because there's so much financial, physical benefit. Financial too, if he becomes a pro athlete, right? But point being is not a lot of people can get on the floor and get back up. So I think finding the mode of what can get you to level change, jujitsu, right?

1:04:00Mike Guevara:Like this is one of these beautiful practices that a lot of people are starting to partake into their movement practice is jujitsu. Lots of level change. Being able to get down and use your compressor joints and get long. Compress your joints and get long. I think that's super important. What's a practical exercise for level change? I mean, the easiest, most fundamental direction that you're going to go to is squat. And a lot of people have championed the idea of squatting for five minutes straight, like being able to hold a squat for five minutes, whether that's back supported, whether that's in your own body weight, whether that's holding something.

1:04:48Mike Guevara:but getting down into the bottom of a deep squat is, is the quintessential way of level change and then getting back up and getting back down and getting back up. So anyone can do it. I love that. I love that you put this, the,

1:05:03Shawn Stevenson:the labeling is level change. Yes. There's so much in there. Instead of just do this exercise, it's the thinking. Yes.

1:05:10Mike Guevara:I see what you're doing, man. For sure. Because when I say squat, everyone's like, ah, tell me something I already knew. or you know what I mean? Like, no, no, no, it's not about just squatting, but like that is the, the, the exercise that's life, you know, translates everywhere, but there's things like animal flow and, and, and, and primal fitness and like these primal movement patterns that get you on the hands and feet and getting, getting very comfortable with being on the floor and then being able to get back up. They make it really cool and fun and exciting to level change. That's essentially what it is.

1:05:44Mike Guevara:And then it's a dance. So there's a lot of research that talks about how as we age, things that make you move and think at the same time is really freaking good for you. What's the best one?

1:05:56Shawn Stevenson:Dancing. Dancing.

1:05:59Mike Guevara:Dancing's like, you know, you learn a new dance, you're moving, you're thinking, you're like, one, two, three, four, one, two, like you're trying to figure it out, but you're moving. So paddle sports or racket sports, pickleball, tennis.

1:06:11Shawn Stevenson:So is that number two, dancing?

1:06:13Mike Guevara:Yeah, let's put that. Let's say, what are the activities that we can do that create some sort of heart rate response, but that also require your brain? Thinking, dancing, learning a new sport that's to your level. But that's ours. And when I say ours, my wife and I, we love to dance. And I'm not too, what's the word? ashamed or afraid to look crazy. And I think she appreciates that to a certain extent. However, I'm very aware of what benefit that brings to my brain, to my health, to everything, and also to my relationship. So I think if you're aging with your partner and you're looking to stay healthy and athletic and have a healthy brain, dancing is definitely one of those things.

1:07:07A third would be some sort of heavy strength training for the lower body.

1:07:17Mike Guevara:And the reason, and again, flowers to this amazing young lady. Oh man, I feel really bad because I don't know her full name, but there's a, there's a woman on, on, on the circuit right now. And she's talking about how heavy strength training for the lower body is especially good for the brain as we age and we're talking upwards towards 70 to 80 percent max max effort so that's where it gets a little hairy for people who don't engage into heavy strength training or weight training because how do i even know what 80 is how heavy is that what does that even mean um so

1:07:57Shawn Stevenson:you're talking about stacy sims by chance no louisa oh louisa nicola she's been right here

1:08:03Mike Guevara:Right here in that chair. Shout out to Louisa Nicola. You know who?

1:08:07Shawn Stevenson:She hit me up just a couple weeks ago. And she was just like, when she came on the Model Health Show. Okay. Life changed. She's amazing. She blown up out here. So grateful. I see the talent.

1:08:21Mike Guevara:Thus, you're here right now, man. Bro, like again, flowers. Everyone deserves them if they're contributing. And she's doing it in a major way. But she talked about how, and you know, I knew weight, you know, Heavy strength training has longevity benefits, has athleticism benefits, has a lot of benefits. We got to learn how to weight train heavy, but how do I know how to do so? How do I do it safe? How do I even know what heavy feels like for the regular person, for the person that doesn't engage in this activity? So shout out to Corey Schlesinger, who is an amazing strength coach, performance director of the Detroit Pistons.

1:08:56Mike Guevara:but he talks about machines and how machines are starting to get back into performance training. Well, why? It's not functional because we can load locally really, really heavy safely. And it doesn't take a lot of coordination or skill because squatting with a barbell on your back requires skill. It's an Olympic sport, literally. So how do I regress the input, still provide the input, but in a safe and acceptable fashion for anybody? A leg press. A leg press. And what I would say, and this is me just off the top of the frame of mind, just experiment with how heavy, heavy feels. Get into a leg press.

1:09:43Mike Guevara:Avoid fully extending your knees. Keep a little bit of knee flexion. Okay. Don't lock your knees out after every rep and just keep playing with how heavy you can go for five reps. And once you start to fail, then that probably means that you're pretty heavy. Back up three or four stacks and there's your working weight. And I literally just made that up off the top of my head. But I think that's just a really safe way to load the lower body with heavy strength training and get all those benefits.

1:10:12Shawn Stevenson:Phenomenal. All right. So, number one, we got level change. Number two, we've got movement that requires thinking. Dancing being a great example. Number three, heavy strength training for the lower body specifically.

1:10:26Mike Guevara:Yes. Four, isometrics.

1:10:28Shawn Stevenson:Boom. Yeah.

1:10:29Mike Guevara:That may be number one because of the benefits that it has from a tissue, local tissue adaptation. Your ankle hurts, hold a calf raise. Four sets, one minute. I'm very, very sure as a regular, not performing athlete, but like as a mother of three, as a father of two that loves to play pickup, you do that, I think over time, it's going to start to feel better. Your knee hurts, hold a single leg wall sit for 45 seconds, three sets, four sets. I think you're going to start to feel a benefit and a difference in the way you move and operate in space. Upper body, holding an elevated push-up. I think you're going to start to feel your shoulders less pinchy when you go overhead.

1:11:21Mike Guevara:How about hanging? There's a lot of people talking about the benefits of hanging and being able to hold your body weight for a minute. That's an isometric for grip strength, for shoulder health. Being able to hold your body weight overhead like this does a lot for the shoulder joint. Huge benefits. These are all isometrics. They require very little skill, if any. They're very safe and they're extremely effective. Incredible. What's five? Five would have to be. I think. My mind goes immediately to game to play. So, all right. Pretty. Difficult to apply this to a general aspect standpoint, because people get hurt during games, people get hurt during sport.

1:12:12Mike Guevara:People feel a little insecure about participating in sport because they aren't athletic in their opinion. But it doesn't have to be traditional sport. It doesn't have to be slow pitch softball, volleyball, men's league basketball, flag football, which is very dangerous. My wife still won't let me play to this day, which is one of my favorite things to do in life. Bowling. I've never seen anyone get hurt bowling. Maybe they have. I'm sure it's happened. But bowling is an extremely physical sport. You know what I mean? You have this heavy mass. It's very asymmetrical, but it's active. And maybe we're not bowling two to three times a week.

1:13:00Mike Guevara:We're bowling once a week. It's active. It's competitive. Your mind isn't focused on training. Your mind is focused on the game, knocking the pins down. And talking shit. And talking shit to whoever it is. My wife, she beat me, and I was not trying to let her. It's the ultimate equalizer sport as well. Women can beat you. Women can beat men. Tennis. Your athleticism is equalized because the skill overcomes the ability to move first. The skill of hitting a tennis ball and rallying has nothing to do with athleticism at first. Once you get really good at hitting the tennis ball, now it's like, I'm going to move you and then I'm going to hit a winner.

1:13:47Mike Guevara:Different. Hadaya, my wife, she can beat me in tennis. I think I'm more athletic than her, but for some reason she can hit that ball a little bit better than I can. See what I'm saying? So like, and that's fun. That ain't fun for me, but that's fun for her. And she's not thinking about this is a great workout. She's thinking about I'm beating my husband in a sport. and that fuels my heart. You know what I'm saying? So, and we're sharing that moment. You know what I mean? We're sharing community. We're sharing an activity together that does help us feel more fit and healthy, but it's not about that.

1:14:22Shawn Stevenson:This is fantastic, man. I love this. Every one of these, yes, yes, yes. The play one, I mean, this one is priceless.

1:14:31Mike Guevara:Spikeball. You heard of this game? Spikeball, of course, yeah. You know, play, go play.

1:14:38Shawn Stevenson:Stop being grown up and play. Our genes expect us to play, you know? But it's just like our culture, man, is like, this is what accelerates the aging process. You know, we don't stop playing because we get old. We get old because we stopped playing, as the quote says. And, you know, in our culture, of course, and coming from where I come from, very early on, you play too much stop playing don't play with me you know and all these iterations of like play is bad right and i need to be more serious and then you know the reality is of course like we we keep perspective on this but you know my mother-in-law who i know she's listening to right now you know she's the one who introduced me to this idea that you know seriousness is a sickness and we start taking everything so seriously and we become more rigid we become more rigid in our thinking our bodies start to reflect our perspective of life.

1:15:36And so we have a right to play.

1:15:39Shawn Stevenson:Our genes expect us to play. If you look at the animal kingdom, that's how you learn everything is through play. That's how kids learn through play. So you're just going to stop learning because you are at whatever age. And the cool thing is no matter how old you are, where you are in your story, you can start to add in some play right now and start to get those benefits.

1:15:57Mike Guevara:Yeah, like, you know, I consider myself a culture changer because our culture, the Western culture defines, especially for men, like that serious approach to life, you know, discipline. Go out and take care of business. Go get the money. Go, you know, whatever it is that. And, you know, my dad was like that. And there were benefits, which have created a lot of discipline within me and has given me tools to operate in a high level. But then there are drawbacks. Like, we didn't really share too many moments, like, you know, that I feel like I'm going to share with Kanji forever. So let's change that culture.

1:16:43Mike Guevara:Like, let's keep playing. Let's, with everyone, like anyone's welcome, you know what I mean? And then like that competition itch that I get, you know, I'll, I'll approach that with certain venues. So I'm not going to be hecka competitive with a bunch of kids, obviously, but I'm still going to go play. Like you can ask my wife, she, she, I don't go hang out with the adults. If there's a bunch of kids, I go play with the kids.

1:17:09Shawn Stevenson:Yeah.

1:17:09Mike Guevara:And I get true joy out of that. but if I'm playing you one-on-one I'm gonna get that competitive thing going and we're gonna go at it but we'll still be able to you know be cool after you know yeah for sure for sure yeah this

1:17:23Shawn Stevenson:same thing you know what go kick the ball around whether it's that whether it's you know the kids are playing basketball you know and it's just again it's a it's a circulation of real energy our relationships our connections matter so much and actually this is i want to ask you about this in closing and how important it is for you you know you have your wife here with you yes you've mentioned her several times yeah how impactful is it on your health how you show up every day and you know your vision for your life and what you're creating yeah how impactful is your relationships?

1:18:03Mike Guevara:Oh, I mean, she's my partner in everything. Like when I wake up every morning to attack my day, there's, you know, she's heavily a part of that routine because, you know, she's asleep with, with Kanji, but my, my brain immediately goes, how can I make her day a little easier, a little bit better, a little bit more functional so that she can continue to do what makes her happy and do what she does for us. So when you have something like that and like my history with her in terms of like we're married, obviously we have a romance, we have a beautiful marriage, but we also have a company together.

1:18:48Mike Guevara:Like literally if it wasn't for her, this doesn't exist she designed this logo the app doesn't exist like the the the amount of credit that she deserves that she'll never truly realize in this setting well maybe she will but just right now um is i can't put it in words so that's just like a perspective of how much impact that it has had on me and then obviously she gave me my son which now my perspective on the world has completely changed um i'll be honest with you we live in west hollywood which is borderline hollywood in between labrea and highland so it's not the best area to raise a child but when we bought that house we didn't have a kid and it was the best neighborhood on the planet and all of a sudden i have a baby and i'm like perspective i don't know you know what i mean like everything looks different to me now and not in the right direction.

1:19:49Mike Guevara:So this, this relationship, you know, you know, legacy is a corny way of just saying like, yeah, you know, I want to do everything for my kid, but it's true. Like you, you don't know what that truly means until you have that. And he's a boy and he has my last name and I want him to be better than me. And I try to do anything and everything I can every single day to put him in that position. Yeah. See what I'm saying so like you know and that's just my inner circle my immediate circle but then i have coaches i have friends i have mentors i have peers cory ramsey nigem with kansas um that have helped me in my journey of life that i call on when i feel vulnerable yeah and ask them questions i hope i can add you to that list and because you're such a accomplished individual in so many ways that i've modeled my speaking after how you approach your podcast you don't know that i've been listening to you for 13 14 years now and i'm on the show but like you don't know that the way you speak has had an influence on me let alone the information that you deliver all that to be said like you know you are the the the average of the five people around you man and And that's such a huge part of how I walk every single day.

1:21:12Shawn Stevenson:Bro, this is everything. I just got to say this. It's such a blessing. Your relationship and your son and for him to grow up knowing that you're the only man that he's ever going to have in his life that you want him to be better than you. You know, that's priceless. The only man. That's a real way to put it. Yeah, yeah. That's so real. And that's the mark of a really good human being and a great dad. So, you know, I appreciate you so much for coming on and sharing your incredible wisdom.

1:21:45Mike Guevara:Thank you. We're going to do so much more of this, man. Oh, man, I'm going to be a part of Braden's life for a while, so you better get used to me. I appreciate it, man. You're a blessing. And again, can you share the GBG app where people can get access, get more information, get more into your world? Okay, so GBGhoops.com. Very simple. That's our website. You can access the app, whether you're iOS or Android. We're on both both stores, iOS store and Google Play store. Just type in GBG Hoops and then follow our channels, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, GBG dot hoops. And you'll find free information, free exercise, videos, education.

1:22:29Mike Guevara:And then obviously, if you want the next level, you get the app.

1:22:32Shawn Stevenson:Yeah. Priceless. I'm talking priceless stuff. The quality of everything is phenomenal. It's just super helpful, man. Thank you. You know, and thank you for putting in the work to create it, you know, because I know, I know it takes a lot. Yes, sir. And so you are seen, you're acknowledged, you're appreciated. And I can't wait to see what you do next, man. I'm gonna be right there. Next mountain, let's climb it. All right, my man. The one and only Coach Mike G, everybody. GBG. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode today. I hope that you got a lot of value out of this and enjoyed this interview as much as I did.

1:23:06Shawn Stevenson:If you did, please share this out with the people that you care about. Share this out with the young athletes that you know and that you care about or parents who have young athletes, you know, your friends who have kids who are wanting to perform at a high level to improve their strength and their durability. And regardless of the sport, what Coach Mike G teaches, and again, he has a specialty and he's renowned for his work in the field of basketball and NBA athletes, but he's worked with athletes from pretty much every professional sport domain. And again, we're talking tennis athletes, NFL.

1:23:48Shawn Stevenson:And so, so much of what he teaches translates into just better movement, more durability and better performance. So it's invaluable. Definitely check out his GBG app. I have the app. I utilize this app along with my young son who's 14 and getting so much value out of it is incredible. It's just like, it's priceless. And outside of that, sharing your voice and sharing this empowering information, we can make good health go viral. We can make elite performance and integrity go viral. And this is one of the things that really jumps out about Coach Mike G. So share this on your social media platform.

1:24:28Shawn Stevenson:Take a screenshot of this episode. Tag me, I'm at Sean Model. And make sure to tag Coach Mike G as well. He's at gbg.hoops on Instagram, okay? gbg.hoops on IG. I know that it would absolutely make his day, fill his heart to see that love. So please make sure to share it out as well. and listen, we are just getting warmed up. We've got some incredible masterclasses and world leading, world changing guests coming your way very, very soon. So make sure to stay tuned. Take care, have an amazing day and I'll talk with you soon.