THPStrength

John: 00:00

We know that training makes you a better athlete, but what aspects of your life play into creating an athlete such as mister fifty point five inch over here? That is what we're gonna talk about today in this podcast. But before we do that, make sure you go to teachmestrength.com and sign up for coaching if you wanna be a better athlete. So, actually, let me ask you this, Isaiah. What do you define as successful when it comes to jumping?

John: 00:27

Like, if you say you look at the other aspects that you have, like, what do you consider as

Isaiah: 00:32

a success? I think it's getting within a certain percentage of your athletic potential, your genetic potential.

John: 00:39

And what is that percentage?

Isaiah: 00:40

I don't know.

John: 00:41

Like, as close like, you you've optimized as many things as possible and you're at you're

Isaiah: 00:45

at that level. I mean, like, your goal assuming your goal is to jump higher, what are the things aside from programming that need to happen in your brain for you to to reach that? Because the the programming, theoretically, you could adhere to a program perfectly, but people don't. Right? Or the way they train might not be with max intent.

Isaiah: 01:09

Or a vacation pops up, what's gonna make you Not go. Not go and prioritize. Yeah.

John: 01:15

So that's a good question. That's a good question. So what what we'll call these intangibles, these aspects of life that you have to have, whether it's psychologically or yeah. Pretty much psychologically, I feel like. Right?

John: 01:28

This is pretty yeah. Yeah. I would say so or decision making in life. What are some of these aspects? What do you think?

John: 01:34

I think diet is a big one.

Isaiah: 01:35

Diet?

John: 01:36

Diet's a huge one. I think that is, like, such a I mean, you don't necessarily struggle with that because you're mister 5% body fat underwater weighing, and you can pretty much walk around at that year round. And, yeah, it's fine. Austin and I on the other hand, we've got fat white guy genetics and we have to constantly pay attention to fat white guy genetics. Okay.

Austin: 01:58

Who's a white guy?

John: 02:00

That's a great question.

Austin: 02:01

I don't

John: 02:01

know if I could define that in the scope of this in this podcast. We are getting so off track right now. Technically not. Okay. So what is to to me, at least, when it comes to diet are I would say that genetically speaking, I've seen you eat copious amounts of shit and you can sustain a 5% body fat.

John: 02:21

Even if it's not copious amounts of shit, you you eat a ton of calories a day. And you can eat copious amounts of shit, and it pretty much has no impact. Whereas Austin and I, we could have our caloric intake, you know, at 23, 2,500 calories a day, satiety dialed in, and we still might have issues with with maintaining low body fat percentages. So what do you think in terms of that, how do you view that as an intangible? Do you think that you have more mental resilience because you have a genetic predisposition to that, or is it just like you know, if you're in Austin or I shoes, would you say that we have to have more focus in that sense or that we're just not as fortunate?

John: 03:00

How would you view that? You all aren't as fortunate. We're the less Yeah.

Isaiah: 03:05

I don't think I have, like, mental rhythm, like

John: 03:08

it comes to diet?

Isaiah: 03:08

Yeah. I mean, I have

John: 03:13

I think you're decently disciplined.

Isaiah: 03:15

Yeah. Like, because I could be I love candy, and I could be eating candy every day, but I stop myself from

Austin: 03:21

That's a newer

John: 03:22

thing,

Isaiah: 03:22

I

John: 03:22

feel like.

Isaiah: 03:22

Do you

John: 03:23

have a vice? Yeah. Do you have a vice?

Austin: 03:27

A vice?

John: 03:28

A vice. Of course.

Austin: 03:28

We're gonna bring this up Do and hand me the

Isaiah: 03:30

I have a vice?

John: 03:31

Yeah. Do you have a vice?

Isaiah: 03:32

You have a vice? Cereal. Cereal's my vice. I do I I do think I have decent discipline with that because there has been there was a period of time where I tried intermittent fasting and I didn't have an issue with it.

John: 03:46

I like intermittent fasting,

Isaiah: 03:47

personally.

Austin: 03:48

Yeah. I do too.

John: 03:48

To be fair.

Isaiah: 03:49

So But, yeah, my advice is definitely candy and cereal.

Austin: 03:53

Yeah. Mine is literally Asian food, like, of any sort, like, just ramen, food, like sushi, like, anything. Like, I I probably go I get Asian food from this one bar called Izybon. Like, I'm a regular there. I sit at the bar and I just eat, and, like, I go there, like, four times a week.

Austin: 04:08

Like, I work on stuff or I work there. I love it, but I'm I found some healthy options there recently, so be good. And then, obviously, alcohol. Those are my two vices. Asian food and alcohol.

John: 04:19

You said obviously obviously alcohol.

Isaiah: 04:21

I mean, everyone's like, yeah. Like, I'm okay. I also I also practice dietary discipline in the form of keeping my environment healthy for you. Like, I don't think I don't know if you guys have seen this, but there's been times where I've bought like like a big ass bag of candy or a and then I You toss it. Yeah.

Isaiah: 04:42

I toss it because I literally know if it's in the house and it's unhealthy, I'm it's gonna get eaten. Yeah. Like, I can't not. But I know that about myself, so I just don't keep snacks in the house.

Austin: 04:52

So the the you just reminded me of something. So in 2022, obviously, glory years, I actually found a picture of my scale, and I wasn't one sixty. I was actually one fifty eight, like one fifty seven. And I said, would take pictures of my scale. So I realized I never went out because at the time I wasn't drinking.

Austin: 05:08

I was I had no friends or anything. I I wasn't comfortable going out to eat at all. Now I'm very comfortable just going out to eat by myself and things of that nature. But my whole household environment is very it's set up much like Isaiah's. I don't have any snacks.

Austin: 05:20

I don't have anything unhealthy. There's nothing bad at my house. So the biggest thing for me is definitely just like staying home, and I think part of it's anxiety and just boredom. Like, wanna go somewhere, and that messes with my diet. But I feel like if you set up the environment, like, that's all I was doing.

Austin: 05:34

It's like I wasn't drinking when I was super super lean. I wasn't eating unhealthily, like, because the food there was no unhealthy options. The other thing I would say too is once you get down to a lower body fat percentage, and that's another reason I think you're fine, is it's so much harder to gain gain it back. Like, I remember when my diet was super strict, I got super lean, and then I kinda eased off on my diet. And it took about eight months until I got hurt where I was still super shredded, but I was eating kinda whatever I wanted, because you do need to eat a a surplus to gain the weight back.

Austin: 06:05

Like so I feel like getting down to that lower body fat percentage is definitely a lot harder than it is to maintain it.

Isaiah: 06:12

I also with the going out thing, I I would say I have really good discipline with that as well. Like, like drink. I would say, like, heavily drink, like, you know, like, go out type of thing, like, once or twice a month.

John: 06:25

Yeah. Yeah. You're you'd

Isaiah: 06:26

you don't even before I had because I have a child so it's obviously hard to go out but even before I had a child like we were in '29 because Marines drink Yeah. A ton and I actually was drinking like my least during that. Like it was like once every two months I was going out and like drinking.

Austin: 06:40

I think a lot of that a lot of that is social environment too. Like, I definitely started drinking more when I started dating my ex. I started drinking more when you guys came to town specifically. This guy because he likes he likes he likes a nice brew. Like, you know, like, it's it's like a bonding thing.

Austin: 06:55

I think a lot of it is your environment more than anything for sure. I would say that. But, yeah, I probably I probably get drunk, like, once every two weeks, like like

John: 07:05

Like drunk.

Austin: 07:06

Like drunk. So

John: 07:08

He's showing his words. Yeah. I think controlling your environment as far as we add that as one of the intangibles, I think that that plays a really, really big role. Your decision to do things that other people wouldn't do because they like their creature comforts, it it plays maybe one of the most important roles. Right?

John: 07:27

Like, I'm even looking at moving, and I'm considering where I move. The number one factor is how close am I to a track and how close am I to a gym that allows me to train effectively. Like most people, that's the last thing that they look at for where they're moving. Right? They're gonna be like, well, is it safe?

John: 07:42

Is the house nice? Does it have a pool? Does it have a nice yard? Can I put my furniture in the places that I want? Does it have a lot of sunlight?

John: 07:48

Like, I don't get me wrong. I I value that stuff, but the I'll do that after I select a location that has access to the facilities that I need to train effectively. And I think a lot of people, they don't view it that way. They're like, well, I'm gonna sign up for a training program that, you know, will work to and accommodate my needs versus accommodating my life to fit the training program. And I think that the same thing is true of your diet.

John: 08:12

Right? Like, recently, I just started doing a factor, and factor is basically just it's like cheap meal prep, easy meal prep service. I just wanted to try it, see if I like it. Is the food freaking the best thing I've ever had? No.

John: 08:24

But is it easy? Is it fast? And does it give me the right macronutrient profile? Absolutely. I can select whether I want a certain amount of protein or carbohydrate, and it's minimum sodium.

John: 08:34

And that takes care of a lot of the other stuff that I don't necessarily like doing, which is cooking. Right? I don't necessarily love cooking. It takes a lot of time. I am a good cook, but I just don't like doing it that much.

John: 08:43

Specifically, like, the amount of time it takes to cook and then clean also. Right? Like, I just don't I like doing it, but I don't wanna do it all the time. And, you know, shopping. Shopping is actually probably more of a deterrent for me than cooking itself.

John: 08:58

It's like shopping for the meals that I wanna eat.

Austin: 09:00

Which is crazy because there's literally a supermarket walking distance from your apartment I still hate it. Parking lot. Like, you could like, I love I like I like shopping at the supermarket. It makes me feel accomplished personally.

John: 09:10

Like just takes see? Yeah. It just takes too much time.

Austin: 09:12

Mind you, I like to go. I like to pick some avocados.

John: 09:14

Yeah. Nice. I like doing that, but I when you're doing a meal and you're like it's like, well, you need chili flakes, but you don't need any chili flake. You need this specific chili flake. And there's one thing I've learned if you're new at cooking is do not try to make your own adjustments because it will taste like shit, and it will not taste the way it's supposed to.

John: 09:28

It will not look the way it's supposed to. Do what the recipe says as written, and it will be perfect.

Austin: 09:33

Can I add something

John: 09:34

to Unless you're a chef or Hispanic?

Austin: 09:37

So another thing I do wanna mention too that affects, I guess, training quality is your friend group. Having a lot of friends apart from John and Isaiah that are not in this walk of life where they're training every you know, they go to the gym and stuff, but they're not necessarily worried about athletic performance is there's a lot more peer pressure. And I'm not saying they're bad people. They'll be just don't just they don't get why I wanna go to bed early, they don't get why I don't wanna drink on a Wednesday, they don't get why I don't wanna go out to eat and do this and that, and it's it's hard because it's so normal for them and they make you feel crazy and it's easy to fold. They'll be like, oh, like, you don't wanna go on this cruise, like, oh, you don't wanna do this.

Austin: 10:08

It's like, it's because I I wanna train and my walk of life is much different than yours. And they think it's like and a lot of people take it personal and it's easy to be pressured. So be careful with that.

Isaiah: 10:18

So that's why I had no friends. Yes.

John: 10:20

There's some friends. Just the ones that agree with you.

Isaiah: 10:24

Oh, okay. You're not disappointed and motivated. You're not my friend.

John: 10:29

There's some truth to that. There's some truth

Isaiah: 10:31

to that.

Austin: 10:31

It's like every day I get invited somewhere and I'm like, I can't I I'm sorry. I can't go have, you know, wine night on a Tuesday. Like, I'm like, no. Like

John: 10:39

Yeah. I I will say that On Thursday. Controlling the environment, like, even when I got a girlfriend, it was, hey, do wanna go to dinner and whatever else? And I'm like programmed to finish all the food. My girlfriend will get, like, her eyes are bigger than her stomach.

John: 10:51

She'll be like, oh, I can finish all this food, orders it all. I'm like, well, I can't let this go to waste. So I'll like eat it. And I feel like your ability to recognize and have the foresight to know, I can't go do x, y, and z thing or, you know, don't tell your girlfriend, hey, you're not gonna finish all that food, and I'm gonna finish it. And it's setting those boundaries and understanding, like, it is not personal.

John: 11:14

It's something that you're trying to mitigate the effects of, and that's okay. Like, if you're I worked with Olympians a ton of Olympians and athletes of that caliber, where they are a finely, finely tuned, you know, system, and they're incredibly meticulous about the food they take in, where they go out to eat, when they eat, and as they get closer to competition, they become even more and more meticulous. And that makes sense because as you're further out, you know, you would assume athletes wanna be as particular as possible all the time, but that's a hard thing to do. I've seen it with Touring Kilgannon. I've seen it with Jay Clark.

John: 11:48

I've seen it with you guys at certain times. I've seen it with myself. The Duke athletes, when they get closer to competition, they tend to dial in things like the amount of vegetables that they intake or how many carbohydrates worth protein, and if you're a jumper, you're trying to stay as lean as possible. Those things do happen and it is an active choice. It is a decision to do that.

John: 12:08

That's why universities are the best farm system in the world for track and field, because they give you everything that you possibly need as easily and as accessible as possible to be successful, right? Like, you have everything you could possibly need there on campus right next to you, and you have an infrastructure of people in the same exact situation of you as you, whether they're on your team or they have access to all those all those different amenities. They have you're in a community of people that also live a like minded lifestyle. And if they don't, the coach is either gonna get on them to do that or they're gonna get kicked off the team. Their performance is gonna be detrimental.

John: 12:41

So I think community is maybe another one that we're getting to.

Austin: 12:44

Like the ability to say no in your community just to add on to that.

John: 12:47

What what what's you're saying in terms of saying no, Isaiah?

Isaiah: 12:50

Focus is the quantity and quality of things you say no to. Let me

John: 12:53

see that. Let me see that.

Isaiah: 12:54

It's the tattoo.

John: 12:55

Let me see that tat right there. Focus. Focus. Oh, there it is. There we go.

John: 13:02

You're gonna have to focus on Austin's face again. Now you'll be alright.

Austin: 13:05

That's something I noticed like a lot, not as much as Isaiah in the beginning, but Isaiah like progressively started saying no and no more and being okay with saying no. A lot of people, including myself, have trouble saying no to things just because you feel like you're offending people or whatever. But one person I I really noticed it with was was Kilgannon when I spent some time with him. It was, like, so it would be like the most random thing that you wouldn't think would affect Yeah. Whatever, but he's already thinking about everything coming up, and he'll say no immediately.

Austin: 13:32

Like he has no problems saying no. It's nothing personal.

Isaiah: 13:34

He's kind of the epitome of if we're talking about that definition of focus when it comes to dunking specifically. Yeah, because I view the same thing. I think one period of time that was actually like very life changing, not life changing, but it changed my career as a dunker was 2021 did a contest in Vegas and mind you this was I just came off a sub par year as far like performance wise and training wise and then I did a contest against him he mopped the floor with everybody and then I remember I talked to him for a long time and then I just he put me onto a book Atomic Habits and it kind of that's when I was like woah I have shit habits. And mind you this is compared to the top of the sport obviously but compared to because compared to a average person I had good habits but I was like I have shit habits. That's what went through my in my head.

Isaiah: 14:27

And then that's when I really got on point with, specifically, I was gonna mention this in terms of the focus thing is, not playing basketball when I'm not supposed

Austin: 14:36

to.

Isaiah: 14:36

That's actually the tattoo is actually what I looked at. I didn't tell you this, but John had cleared me to play basketball that day when I went to

Austin: 14:42

He mentioned it. He asked if you played, I was like

Isaiah: 14:45

Yeah. And I was literally sitting there. My my shoes were in the bag and stuff, and I was sitting there, I and then I looked at it, and I was like, I'm trying to get healthy. I'm trying to dunk well. I should say no to basketball.

John: 14:55

To be clear, I said it's a bad idea, but yeah.

Austin: 14:57

Yeah. You normally do preface things with that. Yeah. Yeah. This is a terrible idea, but you could.

Austin: 15:02

Yeah.

John: 15:02

Do it. I mean, yeah.

Isaiah: 15:03

It's good.

Austin: 15:03

It's probably

John: 15:04

a bad idea, but you could.

Isaiah: 15:05

Yeah. And

John: 15:05

I gave all the reasons why, and I'm like, you're an educated you're an adult. Make your own decision. That is typically how I how I coach with my top top tier guys. I'm like, you you know the consequences of this. I'll remind you of them, but let you make that decision.

John: 15:17

I do think that that was a big thing that needed to change in the past for you, by the way, as something as an aside.

Isaiah: 15:25

That's why I think moving to '29 was useful.

John: 15:27

Yeah. Because it got you away from Yeah.

Isaiah: 15:29

It's different now. Like But Community?

Austin: 15:31

Community. Like, me and him would just be sitting together and be like, wanna go play basketball?

Isaiah: 15:35

Yeah, and not just that, the people around us. Yeah. Like we had LA, Nick, Lewis, CJ and Steven were here all the time. Yeah. So it was like Everyone would be having a there was, you literally had the opportunity to dunk and or play basketball, like, basically every day or every

Austin: 15:50

other Everyone the dunk sessions were on different days and they were hooping. They're like, hey. I'm going to dunk. I'm going to hoop. And we're like Yeah.

Austin: 15:55

It's

John: 15:56

weird for me because I've never ever struggled with that. Like, in terms of I'll just be like, no. Yeah. Like Yeah. When it comes to tall compliance with training programs, to me, it's like it's on the piece of paper.

John: 16:07

I'm gonna do it on the piece of paper, and I'm good at identifying what the most important things are and knowing what I have to do. I feel like you guys it took you guys a little bit of time to learn that with me because I would. You guys were used to, before I before I started coaching you, doing stuff like that and adding extra curricular activities, and I'd be like, these extra curricular activities have a cost and a consequence that comes along with doing them that will mean that you can't do x, y, or z thing. But until I gained your trust enough where you realized, yeah, maybe this stuff is actually Yeah. Limiting me, I'm gonna keep doing it.

John: 16:39

And then eventually when you were like, oh, I stopped doing these things. I feel better. My knees feel better. I'm jumping higher. And it's like, yeah, because you changed load, which is the number one variable.

John: 16:47

You could You could literally

Isaiah: 16:49

plot. Like, you could plot knee pain, vertical jump gain, ability to say no to basketball and dunking. Like, you could plot all of them and you would see a spike in health and ability to say no to dunk. Yeah. That's cool.

Isaiah: 17:03

And ability to say you you could plot them and it would you would see a spike right when your ability to say no to playing basketball and dunking when you're not supposed to.

John: 17:12

We had a guy today is I think his name was maybe John Perez, I can't remember. I think his last name was Perez, but he was he's like, hey, my knee pain's coming up or whatever. And I like, well, how much the first thing I asked was how much are you playing basketball? He's like, four, six times a week. And I was like, yeah.

John: 17:24

He's like, well, skill work doesn't bother me. And I'm like, obviously, it does bother you because if it didn't bother you, then you wouldn't be feeling your knees. So I feel like, you know, little changes like that and and understanding the consequences that come along with your decision making is maybe another intangible. Like, what effect does this action that I'm about to make have on my long term development? And I don't think a lot of people are willing to make those sacrifices.

John: 17:50

And I'm not saying the sacrifices are crazy. Like, saying no to basketball for me is not hard. For you guys, maybe that was a harder thing. Yeah. But for me personally, not difficult.

John: 17:59

Or if we're looking at like alcohol. For some people, it's really hard to say no to to drinking on a Thursday when all their friends are out or whatever and they're in college. For me, that's easy. I don't have any problem with that. Or if it's going on a hike or something, right, the day before a dunk session.

John: 18:14

In the past, Isaiah's friends would be in town or whatever, and they'd like, we wanna do this? And he's like, yeah. I'm gonna say yes to this. Like, they're never in town. Never see them.

John: 18:20

Whatever. I was like, no. Absolutely not. Like Yeah. I'm not doing that.

John: 18:23

So maybe your what you're saying no to is different, but the ability to identify and recognize what that is and then make that decision over time. And maybe that's another one another intangible is like, are you willing to change and improve? Are you willing when you identify those issues to make a change? Or are you willing to not? And it's okay not.

John: 18:42

Yeah. It is. It's okay to not. I think I think you can get to 90%. You won't be your best.

John: 18:48

Won't be best. You can be you won't you might not achieve your like, you were saying, you know, what at the very beginning of the podcast, it's like, what do you define as what did I ask? What do define as successful?

Isaiah: 18:58

Yeah.

John: 18:58

Like, technically, if you're at 90% of your best, by that definition, you're not successful because you haven't achieved or let's say 85%. Yeah. Maybe that's good enough for you to win mill or e spare or whatever, but that's not good enough for you to do the best you've ever done.

Isaiah: 19:13

And everything I say, everything, every piece of advice, every video I ever make is prefaced with I'm trying to have you reach your genetic potential. That's what I like doing. That's what I like doing for myself. That's what I like to see in other guys, but it's okay if that's not your goal, but it's still a big difference. Like, think 90% for me, that's five inches less.

Isaiah: 19:36

That's a 45. I just went from, you know, crazy performance outlier to it's good, but no one's gonna bat an eye.

John: 19:45

Yeah. No one's gonna look at that and be like, Yeah. No. I definitely agree. So I think the the ones we've covered, your ability to say no, the community and the people that you surround yourself with and your environment, the ability the decision to control your environment.

Isaiah: 19:58

The thing, focus.

John: 19:59

Yeah. It's really focus.

Isaiah: 20:00

Ability to say no to things.

John: 20:01

Yeah. I think but if we were to go more in detail and kind of break it down, controlling your environment, whether that's your diet, where you live, you know, the people you surround yourself with, I think is like a a huge one.

Austin: 20:13

Yeah.

Isaiah: 20:14

Understand a big understanding of the process. Yeah. Like, you're gonna get hurt. There's gonna be fluctuations up and down. You're not always gonna be at your best.

Isaiah: 20:21

Like, having a good understanding of that

John: 20:23

We could do a whole It's on that one too. People don't understand how long how hard and how long it takes to get better. And we have a guarantee on the website that is what? Three inches in

Isaiah: 20:35

In six months.

John: 20:36

In six months. And that's based on the data that we have. Used to be six inches in four weeks, or it was like the more ridiculous you could make the claim, the more sales you made. Yeah. And our numbers are based off the data that we have.

John: 20:48

Right? And it's not always the case. Like, there's some athletes that train with us for a year, and they see an inch or two. And Mhmm. The reality is, okay, you're further along in in your progression as an athlete.

John: 20:58

You have more training age or maybe you you have less control of your environment. I think another big one is back to the saying no to things is like, do you are you willing to step away from your sport to improve in this area as a better athlete? Like, most people aren't willing to do that. Or if you're a collegiate athlete, are you willing to have a conversation with your coach and say, hey. I think I need to do this to get better right now.

John: 21:26

Most people aren't willing to do that. They're not willing to open that dialogue mostly because coaches are stubborn and whatever else. And we're on the we're on the receiving end of it. Right? Like, we're the ones that are gonna be cut first because we take a lower priority than the sports coach.

John: 21:41

And the sports coach doesn't necessarily care about what's gonna make them better in the long term. Sometimes they're more concerned with the year of coaching that they currently have in front of them. Right? Like if you're a volleyball coach or a basketball coach, you don't care whether your athlete's a better athlete next year. You care about are you winning this year because your contract is getting renewed yearly or whatever else.

John: 22:00

Right? Or you can get fired if you have a bad year. And that short term mindset can be really dangerous for athletes because they're an accessory to their coaches success. Right? Like, that coaches success is more important than that athlete's health or their betterment of their long term development.

John: 22:20

We've had a couple guys where I've been able to help them in the off season, but because of their in season work like demands or requirements, they have a hard time improving. Like we have some athletes that jump three times as much as I would like them to because their coach requires them to or they have club volleyball or they have club basketball. Austin's back. But, yeah, that that that's another big one too is you're are you are you willing to open a dialogue with your with your team coach or sports I feel like that's a huge one.

Isaiah: 22:48

And then I have I have two more. One more is enjoying being process driven instead of goal driven is huge. Yeah. And then liking suffering. Like, I I I always say this, like, training is all about how much suffering you can handle.

Isaiah: 23:05

Like, if you think about it, lifting is kinda just torturing yourself.

Austin: 23:10

Yeah. I think

Isaiah: 23:10

it's Like, if you if you woke up alright. If you woke up in the middle of the night feeling the sensations you get from a one rep max From back a one rep max back squat, you would be horrified. Yeah. Like if you felt that in the middle of the night, but because you're doing it in middle of training, you have context on what's happening, and like there's like almost like a euphoric feeling right after that you get from it. But it's literally torture.

Isaiah: 23:37

Yeah, yeah. You're torturing yourself. But you have to have you have to have this thing in your brain where you kind of like can enjoy it. Maybe not maybe it's not the actual lift itself, but how you feel afterwards. Like, something that makes you look forward to training.

Isaiah: 23:49

Like, me and I know me and John

John: 23:51

It's like just running around crazy.

Isaiah: 23:53

Me and John, we love going to the gym. We love like it's like it's just fun.

John: 23:58

Like I literally said in the podcast yesterday after, like, suffering. I was like, oh, I feel so much better when I'm lifting. Like, just so much more fun. Like, I Yeah. Just can step away from everything, focus on what I'm doing.

John: 24:08

I know what improves me, makes me a better athlete, athlete, and it's just fun. I just like it. I like lifting.

Austin: 24:12

I like lifting a lot more this year, like after spending it with you guys like this, because I feel like the times that we lifted in the past, I wasn't really passionate about it, and I was more goal oriented and I freaking hated like feeling like crap. But now, I definitely enjoy the weight room a lot more with you guys. Like, I feel like I look forward to that daily. Yeah. It used to be something I felt like I had of them, like, I'm like, oh, I have to go lift now.

Austin: 24:32

And it's like, now it's like, oh, cool. It's lift time,

John: 24:33

you know?

Isaiah: 24:34

No. I would Crazy. I would be lifting

John: 24:36

I'm like an ego Yeah. Lifter on my

Isaiah: 24:38

I I would be My cats. I would be lifting just as hard and just as consistently if, like, it did nothing from my vertical or if I stopped jumping. But I've I've always been like that. Like, I watch freaking bodybuilding videos on my free time

Austin: 24:50

for a That's long what we've discussed though. Like, we've both said once we're done dunking, we're probably gonna be bodybuilders because there's nothing like, you know, like, once it's like, we're still gonna work out.

Isaiah: 25:00

Like I've I've come to terms though, I I used to think that way, but I've come to terms of the fact that I'm gonna be trying to dunk probably I'm like really old.

Austin: 25:07

I'm saying you can't. Like, obviously, like

John: 25:08

I would still train as if

Isaiah: 25:10

I Well, my my perspective changes on that, though, because I feel like Yeah. I feel you can't, it probably means you can't lift, except, like, upper body maybe.

John: 25:18

And you probably need to change your training so you can.

Isaiah: 25:20

Yeah. Because what's changed my view on that is like I see Andy, right, in his fifties jumping as high as ever. And then the other day I was on Instagram, this dude was interviewing a guy at the basketball court. He was 74. Really?

Isaiah: 25:35

And he was playing basketball, like pickup basketball, and he gave a few things, actually. What is that? He's like he's like, one, I play a couple hours every day, and I never stopped. Like, throughout his life, he literally never stopped never stopped playing, which is, like, I've come to realize that dunking is almost like the fountain of youth. Yeah.

Isaiah: 25:53

Because if you keep dunking, don't stop and you maintain those qualities, it maintains your health really freaking well. Like your tendons and stuff like that are gonna be resilient. That was one of them. The other one, he said he's only been drunk twice in his life. Really?

Isaiah: 26:06

Yeah. Doesn't doesn't drink. He said he drunk drunk at his like wedding and then like some other random time when he's like 18.

Austin: 26:12

I'm convinced alcohol is like super bad. Like I'm I'm I'm

John: 26:15

I'm I think I think that's pretty pretty objective, Austin. No.

Isaiah: 26:19

No. No.

Austin: 26:19

I think it's like I've normally like I believe like there is you know, we've talked about it like the estrogen levels and things of that nature, but I do think like I don't know. I I just It's like the 5%. I don't think every time I am the best at dunking and shredded, am sober as can be. Like, it happened in 2019 when I was doing, like, all that three sixties and two foot jumps and this and that. I was super shredded.

Austin: 26:39

I was, one fifty then. And then 2022, I was sober for the most part of the year. And even then I I, like, I came back and started drinking, wasn't drinking that much because my tolerance was so low. Like, think it's I just

Isaiah: 26:51

see I mean, I see the same thing. Like, when I when I look at pro dunkers and the guys that make it the farthest, like the guys who ended earlier or heavy, they abuse their bodies, drinking, drugs, and that type of thing. The guys that make it later are really disciplined about their drinking habits.

John: 27:09

Yeah. Well, I feel like that's a good place to stop. We've been going for a while talking about this. And, yeah, I feel like look at these guys looking at the timestamp. Don't worry about that.

John: 27:18

You're not the tech guy.

Isaiah: 27:19

If you wanna sign up hold on.

John: 27:22

Okay. Alright. Tell him. Tell him.

Isaiah: 27:24

If you wanna sign up and get coached by us, go to thpstrength.com. Use the code THP for 10% off of your first month. Are you disciplined? Do you lose sleep because you think about knocking at night? Do you wanna reach your athletic potential?

Isaiah: 27:40

Well, you know where to sign up to get coached by us. We'll see you guys tomorrow.

John: 27:50

And if you're going to dunk camp, cut your

Austin: 27:51

sets

John: 27:51

in half. Bye.