Optimize Your Recovery & Use These Psychological Secrets of High Performers - Gabby Reece

22:29Gabby Reece:It pushes through there. So I think, and you're outside in sunlight. So that's the other thing that people, especially if you're in a city, I know it's harder. But the deeper we go into all of these sort of little niche practices, you realize that the number one thing you could do for your health is to go out and look at the sun. all of the things that the sun does for your system, we don't give it value because it's free. It feels primal, so it can't be that special. How do I hack it? And really the deeper I've gone into all of this learning is right back to, hey, if I can look at the sun and obviously people talk about sunrise and even sunset, this is a very, very powerful tool, maybe one of the most powerful for your health.

23:22Gabby Reece:So we use all of these. I try to pretend like I have to make an appointment because otherwise I will never get into it. It's like people who have a home gym. You don't use it. But if I make an appointment or have a class, I'll go and drive to it. So actually I try to almost make it like it's an appointment. Like, oh, I'm doing this at this time. So I utilize these tools.

23:42Shawn Stevenson:I love it. I love it. So you talked about basically contrast therapy. and i want to ask you a little bit more about you you you said the s word a couple of times but i want to ask you more about it it's not oh uh sleep yeah sleep um mentioning you know this interaction with the sun and how this is something we evolved with getting all of our you know the circadian rhythms yeah this is one of those areas i've been talking about for years and years and years and I know that it's still to come as far as like a focus in medicine being circadian medicine yeah but with that being said a part of that circadian rhythm a large part of that is regulating sleep and our sleep and wake cycles yeah and so how important again working with all these athletes your lifestyle how important is sleep and what are you doing in that domain and what are you coaching for people?

24:44Gabby Reece:Well, listen, these are adults that I deal with. And so it's more about, we all have the information. And so for example, we know a few drinks before bed can disrupt your sleep. But going back to the sun, that's how your melatonin, it's sort of 14 hours from that point, from when you look, your body will go, oh, in, in, you know, 12 or 14 hours, we'll release some melatonin. So if people can start thinking about their sleep earlier in the day, right, so not caffeinating past a certain hour, maybe they say two o 'clock, I actually think for most of us, it would be before that, kind of minimize some of those drinks.

25:25Gabby Reece:And if you have a late afternoon lull, I really like nicotine. And I like ketones, if it's three, four o 'clock, and you know, you have got a solid two more hours of work. So it's finding which tools could give you that boost so nicotine and ketones are you talking about like a fatty cigarette oh no sorry no like i use something i use a brand called uh athletic nicotine the power it's a pouch it's a low dose because the whole thing is is not having smoke to your lungs and in low dose as because it is addicting right so i use a 1.5 or a 3 um and it when i want that kind of little boost but later in the day.

26:03Gabby Reece:I'm a terrible sleeper. I always have been. I've been since I was a kid, hyper alert. So it's something I'm always dealing with. And people talk about sleep hygiene all the time, you know, cold rooms, no light, things like that. I believe in that. But I go to the bed probably within the same time frame, maybe 30 minutes here or there if we're getting crazy and like we're playing games or something but laird likes to be in bed by nine i i personally am like

26:33Shawn Stevenson:that's too early but i'm in bed yeah um compromises within a relationship well also when the other

26:39Gabby Reece:person has the more valid point because i don't want to and i put that in quotes he's still right so i yield to it because i know it's better so i think for a lot of females that's oftentimes the only time they get that pocket for themselves to read or do something else. So I will kind of weigh that out and look at that. The other part of it is I heard of a couple great tricks. If people are in a with a partner is to actually because I like sleeping in the same bed, but you'll hear about people doing sleep divorce. It's very popular. Actually just have different sheets and blankets. So when they roll or you roll, you don't disrupt each other.

27:17Gabby Reece:That really can positively support better sleep. So you're together. So you have that silent energy exchange, but you're not, you know, disrupting each other. So cold room, same time. I get up around the same time and just kind of navigating. Sometimes I have not anxiety because that's a strong word, but I am aware that I'm not a great sleeper, but I'll take a little magnesium before bed and just say, tonight's going to be a great night for sleep. Because that, especially when you have a new baby, a lot of times you go, why bother? Why am I getting into bed? I'm not even going to sleep. So it also depends where you are in life.

27:52Gabby Reece:But it's going to bed at the same time, getting that sunlight, and sort of figure out what is making, am I worrying? Okay, write it down. Is it my hormones? For middle aged women, that will kill your sleep, right? Progesterone, a lack of it. So it's sort of just understanding and dealing with it. Because a lot of times we'll just be like, oh, I'll just keep rolling. I'll just have more coffee or more something and i think in the long run it it can really get you yeah yeah it sounds like just again

28:21Shawn Stevenson:being aware of your temperament and just doing what you can but also having some balance and not being too hard on yourself because it's very easy again knowing like this thing is so important i'm supposed to do this thing and it becomes another stressor and so and again i've had the opportunity to work with many people over the years yeah and um you know just being a little

28:41Gabby Reece:softer with yourself i think being anxious i don't know unless it's like you're jumping out of the way of a moving vehicle is really good ever i think it's really natural and it's it's you know i like i feel i can worry about my children and i think it's good to honor it and say thank you and like i'm going to choose something else i'm going to choose a different response and around sleep it's a big one there's somebody i listen to a lot that's very you know he's sort of pretty harsh but i i think he's right and this goes back to the sunlight which is dr jack cruz talks a lot about the sun and you know we put all of these things in front of some of the most important things and the sleep it's got to be up there as you know equal you

29:29Shawn Stevenson:know to one two or three for sure yeah sure you know you mentioning that exposure to sun and especially again in the early part of the morning yeah really setting the stage for sleep at night There's a study, you know, in my first book, this was 12, 11 years ago when I first, you know, reviewed the study and it was published in Innovations and Clinical Neuroscience. And they found that getting exposure to sun in the early part of the day helped cortisol levels to drop at night as well. So in cortisol and melatonin can kind of be at odds, you know, like that stress. And so it's really it is like the opening act.

30:10Shawn Stevenson:for good sleep at night. And that was the sentiment that I put into the book and into popular culture, which is a great night of sleep starts the moment you wake up in the morning.

30:18Gabby Reece:That's right. And I think I can sleep when I die. We've gone through all of that, right? And it's really about, it's so much more than can you, of course you can. You could go without the sleep and you could probably run your whole life like that. But how do you feel? How are you responding how do you recover um i think my mind gets jumpy when i don't sleep as well i think i'm much more deliberate and present in my relationships in everything so i think sometimes we think oh well i i get away with it it's like yeah you do but there's sort of all these other invisible pockets that i i think it would support us even more yeah i think this story dr jekyll and mr hide is based on sleep deprivation well it's the number one right if we want to torture somebody yeah it's the sleep yeah so so i think and now listen if somebody's a rock star or a night worker right and or an athlete that's competing at 10 o 'clock at night you do the best you can because again to put stress around any of it i think it's it's counterproductive it's like hey this is what you're doing so what does the rest of your life and day look like to either mitigate some of the damage or to support you that when you do sleep, these are great hours.

31:35Shawn Stevenson:Yeah. Something else, and I'm so grateful that you brought this up because it's such a big part of recovery and just our life in general is the emotional burnout potential because we do not, as a culture, really give credit to how much our emotions, stress, just mental, the weight of things can impact our physical health right when we have a physical problem it's just like we look at something mechanistic for the vast majority of us but i've found so often even you know our mutual friend that you introduced me to maya recently she shared this again and looking at how she had this physical manifestation of this issue and after talking with her, I see this emotional component was such a big part of it.

32:25Shawn Stevenson:And so managing the emotional burnout, I want to talk more about that, because this is something that I feel like a lot of people listening are dealing with or have dealt with. And to arm yourself with more awareness around this, that it's not just restoration with all these physical practices, but restoring yourself emotionally as well.

32:47Gabby Reece:You know, I was listening to something where they were talking about perception versus perspective. And I think sometimes, again, this is very quiet, unsexy, not celebrated, you don't get paid more for it out front, usually. It's like, we don't teach our children. We don't learn, I didn't learn, right? How to try to choose how to respond, and how to look at something in a situation and ask myself, what outcome am I looking for? And how best would I react or act? What would I say that would get me to that outcome? And I feel sometimes a lot of us are running around, it's a runaway train. And we're just moving into pockets in our work and our personal relationships.

33:40Gabby Reece:And the reason I have a physical practice and do all this is so I can get to this part so that I can emotionally try to be as honest with myself and with the people around me as kind to myself and to the as kind to the people around me that those practices that sleep that food that's really so I can do that because that just makes everything else easier and it's it's slower it takes restraint takes a certain kind of discipline because it feels good sometimes just to mf somebody and just be like yeah i showed them you know it's like yeah what did they say it's the best 30 seconds you know of something that you're going to say and then put that fire out for three hours but what really made me look at it also was i read somewhere that you could have like an emotional burst like in a parking lot maybe it's by yourself in your car and you're flipping out somebody took your space and they didn't see your blinker on right it's just you unless i'm going to get out and really get into it with somebody but that the hormone damage or reaction or you know for my body was like three hours to come down from that so for that 30 seconds that I like got to just let all of my frustration out because it might not have been about the parking it might have been about a million other things and I needed that place to just let it out I was going to pay for three hours hormonally in my system.

35:08And when I read that, I thought maybe I could honor myself a little,

35:12Gabby Reece:I could do a little better. And if there were stuff I needed to deal with or conversations I needed to have, or just go take a walk to open the valve, that I could find the way to do it without further hurting myself.

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37:32Shawn Stevenson:okay recently i so there's there's we'll just say i'm driving down ventura boulevard yeah right iconic songs about this but it's two lanes each way and in la which i don't remember seeing this inst louis but there's just like random in the streets crosswalks oh yeah for pedestrians it'll be like a flashing yellow light just it ran it's not at a stoplight flashing yellow somebody's just they're on their phone that's my favorite they're on their phone walking across ventura boulevard i am in the left lane there's a car on my right lane they don't see them all right and they're going a little bit above the speed limit and this person their head is down they're just walking across the street i'm hitting my horn like yeah like my ancestors went into hitting this horn and I got the driver next to me to wake up and to catch them this person I saved their life yeah all right and I feel this stress in my body and I'm just like of course I'm saying all things you idiot what the what are you doing all this stuff and then because of the practice yeah I quickly reeled myself back in and I and I laughed about it you know everything is okay yeah I don't they None of these people are going to interact with me again, but I can carry this with me.

39:00Shawn Stevenson:And I was able to laugh it off and to actually find the humor in it, which again, some shit just don't be funny. But I found, Sean, it's okay. Let it go. This isn't helping anything. Something good just happened. An accident was avoided. And it's okay.

39:20Gabby Reece:I think you need to have that gear, though. That's what the whole thing is for. Right. Yes. So I think we need to have that urgency. We need to be able to think clearly and move accordingly because stuff happens. So I think it's great that you could do it. And then how do you find the way to downregulate as quickly as possible? Now, if it's just some person pissing you off and it isn't life and death, then try to avoid that big spike. But if stuff's happening, we need to have that gear. And just the tool to be like, oh, okay. What is it? Longer exhale than inhale. down regulate and just be like oh thank goodness that idiot person whose parents didn't tell them if you i tell my girls all the time if if you ever cross the street and you're looking at your phone i'm like that's what i'll come for you know like i'd rather you steal my car and joy ride then you walk across a crosswalk looking at your phone because you're you're trusting and assuming that everyone is paying attention and you're you know sort of foregoing the number one thing which is pay attention and and it's on you to to be able to survive because not everyone's paying attention

40:30Shawn Stevenson:that part yeah you got to pay attention i've been a lot of places la is like the worst well they're

40:36Gabby Reece:gonna stop it's a crosswalk can't you see the paint that paint will stop the car for sure

40:40Shawn Stevenson:it's like you wouldn't have the audacity to hit me and you don't think any drivers on their phone

40:45Gabby Reece:you know oh man i went to a camp years ago in italy with the technology and and uh like maybe 10 years ago a little less and uh the those self-driving you know self-driving cars were there and i thought this is so ridiculous you know freedom and i like to drive my car and why would you give that up and now after being on the road and literally looking in all the lanes and seeing people on their phone i'm like yeah great get them yeah because it's people are doing they're not doing what they're doing ever right they're eating they're on their phone they're talking they're on their phone they're driving they're it's like we're always doing something else we're here we meet we have dinner but then somehow i'm texting someone else for something for tomorrow so i think it's a that's another thing that i think makes it a lot easier on us hormonally which is just try your best to do what you're doing and then do the next thing and multitasking is a it's a myth anyway.

41:43Gabby Reece:So to the best of your ability, I know life is busy, but if you can do what you're doing and if your ability to do what you're doing is quickly, great, but try because I think it's easier on your system. Yeah.

41:59Shawn Stevenson:This is so good. Just to take a step back really quickly, you said how valuable and important it is to have that go button, right? To have that, even that warrior ready if something goes down. And even, and this is the thing too, a lot of our practices are training us to be able to handle certain situations. And you also talked about the importance of being able to downregulate. And I think that that, that might be one of the most valuable things in our world today, especially today, because I think again nature nature does that automatically you know animals they they down regulate right threat is gone you get back you shake literally shake it off Taylor Swift it and you get back to doing your your elk thing yeah shout out to the elk from Jamie but with that being said and also our ancestors too there would be threats there'd be things that happen but today we're just constantly inundated with things to stress us out and we don't value we don't have a cultural value of being able to down regulate and to self self maintain self regulate and the thing is you have it all like it's built into you to be able to do it and so i remember this quote from uh kelly star we might have collabed on the quote but he said that we're very good at going zero to 100 and we're not very good at going 100 to zero right we can go to 100 zero to a hundred real quick, but not being able to, it wasn't Kelly Starrett and me, it was Kelly Starrett and Drake smashing together.

43:36Shawn Stevenson:But being able to go from zero to 100, I mean 100 to zero to down regulate. And so let's talk a little bit more about that. Like you mentioned earlier, before we even got rolling, about a negativity bias, right? That certain people tend to have a negativity bias that can get us really amped up. And over time, you've found ways that you're able to wrangle your mind, down-regulate, calm down, and to keep things in perspective.

44:11Gabby Reece:You know, it's interesting. I think we get addicted to the – we sort of – it's a permission to really just let it all out. because we're not letting it out. So we can use hysteria, we can use anger, we can use rage, we can use aggression to get that feeling. And it makes us feel alive and on. And I feel like if we had those put healthfully in our lives, we would then welcome and embrace this idea of down regulation because we wouldn't need to be in that other thing so we're living in a we're living unnaturally right our biology is still the same and we live in a world that i'll use young men as an example you know it's there it's like the the neutering of right the flat the flattening of where they're it's like not getting out there rabble rousing rough housing getting cut you know chasing stuff doing stuff it's just kind of oh and so our biology for all of us is yelling for man i need earth and uh and so i think we use those opportunities to get that and stay there and then we and because it's not done in a natural way it's usually done in an artificial way we we don't understand the importance if you're chasing an animal or you know feeling like someone from another tribe was threatening you, you would embrace the opportunity to downregulate.

45:52Gabby Reece:Like, oh, we're good. It's okay. So I think we're not aware of how, I mean, obviously we are, but our biology is mismatched in so many subtle ways too. And it's been a great observation for me to live with Laird who has these gears very big and deep you know like if there's a threat or something is happening this is a person who knows how to activate straight away and then okay turn off and go on and and so it really made me think about how we we don't live in a world where we get that opportunity and we're not going to seek it out right that's hard and and also how do you seek those things out.

46:39Gabby Reece:It's tricky. So now we've gotten flattened. And so we use parking spaces and conflict with a person over nothing to be able to experience that feeling. It's part of being alive.

46:51Shawn Stevenson:Yeah. Yeah. So how can we proactively, again, it's not that these feelings are bad. They're there oftentimes, again, for a reason. how do we express these things or metabolize them so they're not spilling out on people that you know who are honestly a lot of times innocent by unassuming yeah yeah you know i think it's

47:16Gabby Reece:i think it's hard because you you don't want to artificially insert these things but i think for example just being out in nature would provide opportunities that would be unexpected that would make you have to be a little alert. I think even trying something new. Let's take a jujitsu class, for example. There's sort of a time maybe that you would feel scared or you wouldn't know what to do or dominated, or you would actually be in a situation where maybe you're locked up. And rather than pressing, which would be the worst thing you could do, you'd have to in that moment think and go what should i do here so you'd be exercising it in different ways um i think for young people to you know when we were when i was a kid it was like go outside and play and you know you think you're going to fall off a tree 75 times like i thought i almost died of course maybe you didn't but just that feeling of oh that was scary um i think it's is so important for us instead of feeling like artificial things are a threat because they're not.

48:28Gabby Reece:And so like, you know, the idea of I'm offended, it's like, okay, you're offended, you know. So I think nature would be good trying new things. That's why I also think, you know, in control combat sports with a Sansei is very good, because there's all these kind of hierarchies and just dynamics that allow people to experience all kinds of things in a really productive way yeah yeah wow this just reminded

49:00Shawn Stevenson:me of something because competition is a big part of how we evolve right and being able to test ourselves being able to find out things about ourselves um it's one of the ways that even you know in the same thing in the animal kingdom you know it's how um with just lion cubs you know and they're like roughhousing each other fighting they're really practicing yeah right and being able to prepare to be able to survive and to handle yourself in this world and so we do the same thing you know and this is why it's so important and valuable to have that competition and you've been around some of the greatest competitors ever and I want to ask you about the psychology like what do you notice about these phenomenal competitors uh somebody when when I left your house the other day you mentioned Noah being at your house and then I went through a stream of thought because I play him on the all-time Bulls on playing my son in 2k which is that competition could be a little fierce as well yeah but you know again just you've been around all these incredible athletes from different domains right from the Olympics to basketball to you name it how like what are some of the things and I'm asking because if we're interested in taking that on right in how we're showing up in our own lives and also there are many athletes who listen to this show and there are many parents of athletes grandparents of athletes what are some of the things that you notice about their psychology that makes them so great okay that you know there's a couple things

50:46Gabby Reece:first we'll start basic um nothing ever goes as planned right and so what you see pretty commonly with um athletes joe kim mcafree's christian mcafree comes over kawaii leonard jalen brown like serious people and nothing goes as planned but what they a lot of them will do is if you give them let's say you say hey i'll i'll give you some tips instructions so if this is what's happening this is what you'd you'd be trying to do and if it doesn't go as planned what you see is every single one of them will revert to, okay, well, what should I be trying to do? They don't dive into, oh, I'm uncomfortable.

51:35Gabby Reece:This isn't going the way it's supposed to. It goes right to what should I be trying to do? So there is a good decision making in the stressful moment. That's why they can obviously play at that level because it never goes as planned and you're playing against people as talented as you that are have the same goal as you right so then they're there to win as well um the other trait over and over is the level of persistence so oh i didn't get it i'll try again i still didn't get it i'll try again and whether they all use different fuel some will go they get calmer and more you know ninja-like some will get use, you know, anger is a great emotion in the right way.

52:25Gabby Reece:It's an activator. Some will use like Joe Kim is very passionate, right? So he would just lean more into it. A guy like Kawhi Leonard or Jalen Brown, they, they're not using that type of energy. So it's, it's seeing people go, oh, here's discomfort. Here's failure. Yeah, great. I'm going right towards it. I'm not going to avoid it. I'm not going to make an excuse. I'm going to keep at it and figure it out. And the other idea would be making new mistakes. So if something isn't working, they're not just going to keep doing the same thing. They'll either ask a question, get help, try something different.

53:04Gabby Reece:It's kind of like fighting with your spouse. It's like, let's have a new fight. Like who wants to have the same fight for 10 years or five years or one year or one day? Okay, let's figure that out and let's move on to something else. And so I see that. And I see sort of an acceptance or a humility to like not getting it, not being good at it. It's like this doesn't deter them from going forward. A lot of us are scared of failure. That's why we don't want to try new things. I experienced this myself from time to time for sure. It's like, hey man, that's going to be uncomfortable and I'm going to look bad and maybe I can't do it.

53:48Gabby Reece:And I'm going to be in a room full of people who can do it. And versus, you know what? Cool. Because the other thing that's so interesting that we forget is to go, and Laird talks about this all the time, to go from novice to proficient is big it's great so steep and fun to go from proficient or great to mastery is this big it's so it's it's percentages these guys are now working at the level of percentages so we we don't celebrate how good it feels to not be able to do something and to be able to do it a little bit. And so I think a lot of athletes also have enough of a sense of humor about themselves and they know the formula.

54:42Gabby Reece:They've been kind of been through it. You've been wildly embarrassed and you survived. You woke up the next day. You've learned how to win. So you understand that formula you've lost and, and realized that that was, that's where unfortunately all the lessons really came. so I think that there's so many things that go into athletics that you're practicing all the time now I think it also helps if you're on a team because you're in a sisterhood or brotherhood and you look next to each other and you're like oh you know doing it sometimes together that's where that community aspect comes in can be really helpful because on the days you personally don't maybe have it that you just want to go f it I don't even want to do this you know you you kind to draft off the energy of your teammates or having a great coach who knows exactly what to say to you to activate you to get you to do it so that's why i really enjoy and i'm inspired working around and near and with athletes because they remind me of how great how much greatness is in all of us and and listen i see certain athletes where their god-given genetics is off the charts uh you know we were joking one day kawaii leonard if anyone's ever seen him in person you know his lower half of his body like you could train your whole life good luck you'll never be as powerful that came from the gods you know because he's doing what he's supposed to be doing but typically still you have to there is so much greatness in all of us and it doesn't have to to be expressed athletically.

56:21Gabby Reece:It's like when we can dig deep and when we can try things or do things that we didn't think we could, that's in everybody.

56:30Shawn Stevenson:I was surprised that you let off with things never go as planned. And it makes complete sense.

56:37Gabby Reece:Think about a game.

56:38Shawn Stevenson:Yes.

56:39Gabby Reece:You can call plays, but you know, the defense or the offense or whatever, they have other ideas and that's life. That's why adaptability for me and performance, I think it's the number one. It's your ability to go, oh, I had this planned. They did this. I'm going to do that in that split second. You know, it's in parenting. It's being the boss. It's everywhere all the time. So how quickly can you make the right choice? And that's the other thing. Can you make the right decisions in that moment of pressure? And that is really besides, you know, obviously you talk about like certain athletes, they're giant.

57:30Gabby Reece:But there's a lot of giant people that are good athletes, but they can't handle that. And they don't make those decisions in that moment.

57:38Shawn Stevenson:So true. So true. It's so funny. Like you said it out loud and now I see it so clearly because I think a lot of people who are aspirational about being great, they just think that greatness is just, you know, they're just showing up and just being great. But it's really adversity. The adversity is the greatness. And you are 100 % signing up for adversity if you're going to be at that level. Like to say it never goes according to plan is so true. Like you don't know you. I mean, of course, there are patterns or things. You don't know exactly what the other team is going to do, what the other what the other play, how all the pieces are going to happen.

58:25Shawn Stevenson:I was just watching this Joe Montana documentary. It's on. I think it's on. I think it's on the Peacock. There's so many freaking apps. But I just remember, of course, like growing up. and first of all he's got the greatest football name ever i know like how joe montana but the story like it's riddled with so much adversity like this kid was like he was like seventh on the football team as far as like when he he went to notre dame he was seventh on the depth chart right and he got in the game and like brought them back from it was like some crazy sequence of events to put him in that position and he brought them back to a victory and he did it twice but then he had this terrible injury and was out for like a year right this kid does all this to claw his way into this position and then it's just gone right and what all all of the resilience that it took for him to come back and not to mention the high school experience and he was always kind of known poked fun at for being so lanky especially his lower body opposite Kawhi liners yeah polar opposite yeah all right and he found a way to make the most of what he had but what really as you've said this just now in this conversation the thing that makes him stand out the most and why a lot of people consider him the goat tom brady is in the documentary by the way saying he was my oh can you imagine right yeah that was his time he was there at candlestick park when the catch happened like tom brady was there as a little kid yeah and he was terrified like There's a picture of him being scared as shit because his mom's holding him because everybody's going crazy.

1:00:06Shawn Stevenson:But what made him so great was the adversity that he overcame. And he was so great in those moments when all the odds were stacked against him. And for him, it was fun. Yeah, that's hard.

1:00:20Gabby Reece:And I was going to say there are a few athletes, very few, I think, that they reveled in that, man. They love it. They're like, oh, this is now it's getting sticky, you know. and they're more playful maybe self-belief and there's something else that I think maybe great artists it's you're only going to be able to really do it your way I can't be you and you can't be me and so the other thing I think you'll learn in sports and in other areas of life is you have to know yourself well enough to know how you do it because I even say this about my game and volleyball. I was so late to volleyball and I was very, very good at a couple of things.

1:01:04Gabby Reece:And I just leaned into that. I made a career of that and I wasn't going to. So I think it's understanding who you are and the way you do it. Somebody might get into this stressful thing and they need to ramp up and let's go. And they're all verbal and talky and all this stuff. And other guys might drop down, down, down and quiet and slow it down. But it's also the confidence to go, this is me. This is how I do it. This is my game. And I'm just going to try to do that the best I can. And I think in life, especially for young people, the world is so loud with social media and other that we think we got to be like everybody else that we see and mimic versus going back in.

1:01:52Gabby Reece:and go wait a second who am i what am i interested in what would i be good at and trusting that and i think a lot of people who are good at whatever they do they get a relationship with that yeah

1:02:04Shawn Stevenson:for sure oh my goodness all right i jotted them down okay things never go as planned number two persistence number three making new mistakes number four courage to fail having the courage to fail. And then number five was being able to have some humor and to be able to not take yourself so seriously. Embarrassing things are going to happen and to have a spirit to move beyond that. And so all these things are so valuable, especially again for people who, parents of young athletes, the athletes listening, to embrace the adversity piece, to know going into it. That's the name of the game. And to, if you can even find a way to look forward to it.

1:02:50Shawn Stevenson:Sometimes you might find yourself so far ahead of things that you have to manufacture it. Like another person jumping to mind, Michael Jordan, like he would manufacture adversity. He's so far ahead of everybody. He would just create these slights in his mind. Like, and I took that personally, you know, I'll show you. Oh yeah. And, you know, being able to go into it knowing that this is going to be, I'm going to face adversity and it's going to require me to make certain decisions, to possibly go beyond what I think I'm capable of. But one of the biggest takeaways for me personally, and I can't wait to share this with my youngest son as well, is to know going into it that you're gonna be up against something that is gonna challenge you beyond what you're comfortable with and look forward to it.

1:03:48Shawn Stevenson:Have the audacity to look forward to it because if you're gonna be great, that's what you're gonna face. If you're choosing to just be mediocre and just play it safe, play down, that's fine. But if you're looking for greatness, adversity is built into the package every time.

1:04:05Gabby Reece:And it's scary, right? It's really, it's like, oh, here we go again, you know, that tension, the, you know, even when you get ready to go do it, you're bought, you know, like, you're like, oh, here we go, you know, and, and then you maybe switch gears and go to something else. And that goes back to that fuel part, right? Everybody using different fuel to get it done. And the other thing that's really important, though, is you are going to be at a high level of whatever you're doing for a period of time. And the other thing to figure out, though, is where it should live and how not to let it kind of burn up your whole life.

1:04:49Gabby Reece:Because sometimes we open valves that we don't know how to control. And so it can kind of, so in a way it's like a lot of the good gets lost because we also kind of crush our lives with it. And so the important thing is to find the place where it's healthy and good and it should exist and when we should move away from it. And, and, and then that idea of pursuit of excellence. So what happens to a lot of athletes is, of course you miss, miss those apex moments. Cause it's like a note on an instrument. There's a beauty to it. It's so precise. And there's not a lot of opportunities in life to experience that.

1:05:31Gabby Reece:But there kind of is in different ways it's quiet when you're in pursuit of excellence. So again, your practices in your life, your words, the way you treat people, all these things weirdly are also opportunities to be in pursuit of excellence. And it is really different than sport. And so sport always holds a special place. but I think you can sort of turn that into other areas of your life because otherwise you'll be kind of sad or frustrated when you're not competing anymore or there's something about that so rather than it becoming that it becomes this incredible place in school that you learned all these things that then you bring forth hopefully into anything you choose it's like I tell young athletes, maybe they get a career that's is cut short by a real injury.

1:06:28Gabby Reece:And I'm like, listen, but you, you're like a loaded gun. So what's your next target? Because once you understand that you can aim that in a lot of ways. Yeah. So valuable.

1:06:40Shawn Stevenson:Yeah. I want to ask you about this really quickly, just in case people are not familiar.

1:06:46Gabby Reece:Yeah.

1:06:46Shawn Stevenson:We talked about the athletes that you're that you're working with and training with in your training as well these pool workouts if you can give people a little insight into what that looks like what do you mean by that so i

1:06:57Gabby Reece:years ago we built a very large pool at our house my husband is a surfer and um he the waves he likes are large and um so he doesn't like to swim laps so but he's always in his off season gonna he was trying to figure out how to be better in the water so kind of lo and behold myself and a handful of kind of a ragtag team of us were his crash test dummies and we ended up creating a curriculum called xpt trial and error which was basically deep water and shallow ways to be ballistic so jumping in deep water so you're not crushing your joints so you're dump jumping in like our pools like 11 or 12 feet with these weights but you get to take a breath in between you're you're working horizontally so hypoxically so using less air being more efficient with less air so there's probably 40 exercises or more.

1:07:47Gabby Reece:There's sequencing. So there's ways where literally there's ways where drills where I say, hey, listen, this is a patient's drill. This is not a get after it drill. So task completion. So if I say to you, okay, we're going to go there and back with no breath with a dumbbell. If you think, okay, I'm going to go as fast as I can. No, it's task completion. So how hard you hold your weight, how open your eyes are. By the way, when you open your eyes wide and move side to side and process information, you're burning oxygen. You wouldn't know that out here because you have air. When you go in the pool, you know it very quickly.

1:08:19Gabby Reece:So you now are learning your state. You're understanding, oh, well, where are the leaks? Where's their tension? Because the water tells you very quickly. So there's so many opportunities to train the organism, not only ballistically, not hurting yourself. So I get a lot of athletes that are coming off of an Achilles injury or something, and that's the first place they can jump safely. and also that's an emotional thing when you've hurt yourself I have an artificial knee it's scary to go back on the hard surface and start moving in that dynamic way so the pool is also a great place to go oh I can be snappy but I'm not going to hurt myself so there's a lot to it and it's it's really really wonderful and as you get older I will say it's a place you can work very very hard you can be with your friends you can touch the curtain you can hit that edge but you don't have to damage yourself and so it's really a great tool awesome where can people get

1:09:24Shawn Stevenson:more information about that type of training and also tell people about your show which is so

1:09:31Gabby Reece:amazing oh thank you okay so they can find pool training xpt life.com and if they're you know if there's an athlete and by the way you don't have to be a professional athlete we certainly people dm me and i let them come over and i show them the training because it's meant to be shared uh and then my show it's you know i'm interested in learning like you but you and i had a conversation you know that and actually it's out this week but it you know you move so deep into the details and the data of performance and I I feel like I'm at a place where I want to have conversations with people where I can learn and hopefully make it really simple for people to have takeaways that they can hopefully help them here and there in their life but also to remind people that this is an ongoing story there is not one answer there's not one way not one way to move or to be or to breathe or to eat, and that it is an ongoing, ever-changing story that I want to encourage people to keep looking at it and saying, okay, well, what do I need to change right now?

1:10:39Gabby Reece:How do I make changes or improvements? Because I want them to do it forever. And Laird and I are certainly in that pursuit. So it's just being a part of that conversation to help people because because I know people are overwhelmed. And besides our loved ones, I know without a doubt that our health is really the greatest thing that we own. And I do think it's something you have to fight for and even more right now.

1:11:08Shawn Stevenson:Yeah. Name of the show?

1:11:11Gabby Reece:Oh, The Gabby Reese Show, because I'm so original.

1:11:14Shawn Stevenson:We'll have that for everybody in the show notes where you're listening to this. Of course, you can find The Gabby Reese Show.

1:11:19Gabby Reece:And I think if people want, they can backlog by the time they hear this and hear your show. I think they'll get to see a very different side of you. And I really appreciated your openness and vulnerability because I think we need to give each other permission to understand that the real strength is the capacity to be vulnerable. And it's very nuanced. But I think when we talk about those gears, that spectrum, the stronger we are gives us the greater capacity to be more vulnerable and so to encourage people to explore both sides I think is is really important so thank you for doing that of course

1:11:58Shawn Stevenson:thank you for making the environment to where it was it was natural and it felt really good like leaving first of all let me just be clear with this all right there was a lot going on even getting to you that day and my mind was trying to opt out and it was the best thing that I've done in a long time was sitting with you and talking with you it was so needed and so good for my spirit I didn't even know how much I needed that and so thank you because it's not just it's not this this stuff it's it's who you are you can't shake it off of you you made it so I felt comfortable and I felt seen, you know, and there's, you're just, you're, you're a very special person.

1:12:49Shawn Stevenson:You're a great person. And I just appreciate you so much. Thank you for even, I know it's a trek even to get over here.

1:12:57Gabby Reece:I would go anywhere to see you. And you'll tell my teenage daughters, right? That I want to, I want to end this conversation when we talk, cause we talk so much about athletics. So most of us have to have a screw loose, really, to be good at that at sport, right? It's something you're proving something, there's a few people, I'm always interested in like, you know, they all like certain people you go, well, the Manning brothers seem like they're emotionally well adjusted, but they somehow were great. Okay, good for them. You know, they might be the one or two. So I just want to remind people that sport is just a stage, It's just a classroom to learn all the valuable lessons.

1:13:37Gabby Reece:And it's really those lessons that how they help your life is really actually what you want. So if people could find their stage to get those lessons, I think it can be as beneficial as, oh, you were a college or a high school or professional athlete.

1:13:57Shawn Stevenson:Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. You're the best. Thanks. The one and only Gabby Reese. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode today. I hope that you really enjoyed this and got some value from it. Recovery. There's a difference between relaxation and restoration. And much of the good stuff is one of our favorite F words. Free. Free. All right, getting access to some sunlight whenever we can, getting some fresh air, getting some time in nature, but just making it a priority. I know it can be complex in different environments. I'm from Ferguson, Missouri. I grew up in South City, St. Louis, East St.

1:14:33Shawn Stevenson:Louis. All right. These were not bustling places with access to nature. But regardless of the environment that I was in, there is always a way. And we've got some pretty cool parks in St. Louis and just making a priority to make my way there from time to time. Shout out to Forest Park. Shout out to Tower Grove Park. Everybody in STL knows what I'm talking about. but just being able to make it a priority to get some time outside, get some fresh air, helping to set those circadian rhythms to the best of our abilities, prioritizing our sleep quality. These are some of the most powerful things in our universe.

1:15:13Shawn Stevenson:And of course, then we can get into how can we get 5 % more? How can we get that extra 2 % over here with some red light therapy with some hyperbaric oxygen, with some saunas. One of the greatest tips that Gabby shared today is in regards to the use of the sauna and thinking about that beyond just how on earth am I going to get this fancy expensive sauna at my house when she brought the idea of a community sauna, right? So maybe we're investing in this with a couple of friends or neighbors, right? That we all have access to or utilizing our gym membership, right? And maybe this means getting a gym membership that might not be like directly like your close neighborhood gym, but you got to go a little bit further, right?

1:15:59Shawn Stevenson:Where there's a will, there's a thousand ways. There's all kinds of ways to slice and dice it. But, you know, if that's something that we want to try out or value right now, there's also all these different little kind of wellness centers popping up that have saunas and red light therapy that we can consider or invest in as well. Or if we're going to do it the DIY, we're going to do it yourself. You know, simply one of the things that we did again, when I was living in Ferguson and we're doing the DIY sweat lodge, basically we boiled a pot of hot water. Okay. Keep it safe. Put a, honestly, it was a Whole Foods paper bag on the floor, put the pot down, sit next to it.

1:16:40Shawn Stevenson:Somebody puts the blanket over top of you, maybe a couple blankets, all right? And you get that robust sauna action right there, DIY style, all right? There's many ways to slice and dice it. So, but just thinking bigger, thinking differently, thinking external of our day-to-day routines, that is so good for our minds and our bodies as well. It's challenge, it's adversity, and it's figuring things out. that's another thing she reiterated today. So many great nuggets of wisdom. Again, I hope you got a lot of value out of this. If you did share it out with the people that you care about, take a screenshot of the episode.

1:17:15I wanna see you share it on Instagram.

1:17:19Shawn Stevenson:I'm gonna keep an eye out for it. Tag me, I'm at Sean Model on Instagram and tag Gabby as well. Show her some love. All right, I'm gonna be looking out for that. I appreciate you so much. I wanna know that you were here with us and hanging out with us today. It really does mean a lot. We got some epic masterclasses and world-class 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. And for more after the show, make sure to head over to themodelhealthshow.com. That's where you can find all of the show notes. You can find transcriptions, videos for each episode.

1:17:50Shawn Stevenson:And if you got a comment, you can leave me a comment there as well. And please make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that the show is awesome. And I appreciate that so much. And take care. I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering great content to help you transform your life thanks for tuning in