Hey, Athletes! Do you know the quality of the air you breathe? What about the water you drink? This week we talk about this and more!
Episode 75 of The Garage Gym Athlete Podcast is up!
It All Matters: Air, Water, & Mobility
In this week’s podcast Ashley, Jerred, Joe, and Kyle are back. They give us updates and announcements before going over this week’s study. The study is on air quality, water quality, and how being outdoors can improve your performance. For this week’s topic, the coaches go over mobility and give some examples of how they utilize mobility in their training. This week’s Meet Yourself Saturday Workout is called The Eo3 Iron Mile. Prepare to meet yourself on this one!
If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to the Garage Gym Athlete podcast either on Stitcher, iTunes, or Google Play by using the link below:
IN THIS 61-MINUTE EPISODE WE DISCUSS:
- The Eo3 Iron Mile
- Air Quality
- Mobility
- Water Quality
- Outdoor Training
- Tips For MYS
- Updates and Announcements
- And A LOT MORE!!
Diving Deeper
If you want to go a little bit deeper on this episode, here are some links for you:
Study of the Week
Garage Gym Athlete Workout of the Week
Be sure to listen to this week’s episode:
Related Resources at End of Three Fitness:
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Thanks for listening to the podcast, and if you have any questions be sure to add it to the comments below!
To becoming better!
Jerred
Transcript:
Jerred Moon
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the garage gym athlete podcast. Jared moon here with Kyle Shrum. Joe Courtney, Ashley Hicks, everyone. How’s it going?
Kyle Shrum
So
Jerred Moon
they waved because, you know,
Kyle Shrum
because we’re on video Now,
Joe Courtney
I’m not saying hi anymore. I’m just waving
Jerred Moon
you got the most most people are listening though. I know we’re on video.
Joe Courtney
It’s true. Hi.
Jerred Moon
So I’m just gonna go with Ashley. Ashley How you doing? How’s life?
Ashley Hicks
I’m out of quarantine. So it’s real nice.
Joe Courtney
Earlier anyways,
Kyle Shrum
so are you actually quarantined? We quarantine.
Ashley Hicks
We did we we stuck to Scott’s quarantine. And then we lasted two more days of Connor and I so on day 12 we officially like cut out but on day 14 though, for real. I went I got a Mani pedi we went on a date night we went to church on Sunday. Like it was real nice. So. And yeah, we’re doing good. But uh, as of tomorrow, go back for more medical stuff, just because things are still not figured out. Joe, you kind of talked about it with you and Liz, but I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been. And it’s, it’s kind of hard to like, you know, again, I talked about it earlier, like mentally, like I’m doing the right things with my diet as well as my workouts. So obviously, it’s more hormonal. And so I just definitely need some help. And me excited to see what my functional medicine doctor has to say tomorrow. But doing another elimination diet just really dialing it in have no alcohol. And I mean, when I say no alcohol, I barely drink any anyways. And then like no legumes, or any sort of gluten free grains, so anything that’s like gluten free flour, or like gluten free noodles, stay away from that. So just up in the veggies and, you know, sticking to less starches, like you know, I’ll do sweet potatoes or whatnot, but gotta stay away from the rice and stay away from the white potatoes. It’s not bad. It’s just what I’m going to do. So anyways.
Jerred Moon
Yeah, elimination diets are probably just how people should eat.
Kyle Shrum
Like,
Jerred Moon
that’s like my theory of it all. If you look at like the elimination diets, it’s just like, yeah, cut out all this stuff. And then you’re supposed to bring it back one at a time. But I say if you go on elimination diet, and you’re loving life, just don’t bring any of it back.
Ashley Hicks
Yeah, the last time. I mean, I feel like you learned so much about your body, but then also like what you should be eating and the last time. So I’m staying away from red meat this time around again. And we ate so much fish last time. And we still eat fish about three times a week. But I’m interested to see like how I have it just because I’ll probably get trapped tired of chicken and turkey. That’s that’s typically what we eat if we stay on. On no red meat. So
Jerred Moon
awesome. It’s pretty. It’s pretty What? slim?
Kyle Shrum
Yeah, it is pretty slim, slim pickins. Meat department.
Jerred Moon
You need to go make you need to shake a lunch with meat and vegetables. And then a dinner. There’s nothing else a human needs.
Ashley Hicks
You know what? Funny enough? That’s exactly what my meals look like, then I don’t really snack in between very often either. So yeah, I have like a tea that is more herbal and not, doesn’t have any caffeine in the afternoon. I used to have an afternoon coffee. And I’ve eliminated that. And that’s probably my hardest thing is eliminating caffeine. Because I really love coffee in the morning.
Jerred Moon
It’s really hard for me to justify, or here’s the deal. I can I can do a lot of things. I mean, I can stick to things, no problem. If there’s a reason for it, I have a legitimate reason. If they’re like you can’t eat this thing. And it was my favorite thing, whatever. I would never eat it again, if there’s like a medical reason, that would be easy for me. I’ve tried cutting out coffee a few times. And I just can’t find the real reason for doing it. It’s more like yeah, let’s try it like well, I just have to have it. That’s the only thing that I have to have. And I can’t find a reason to stop doing it.
Ashley Hicks
I think the reason that they tell you to is because most people drink like Folgers or Maxwell House or you know what I mean? So the quality of coffee that they’re drinking actually has a lot of carcinogens in it and so it’s like, oh, I think that’s the point. Instead of saying like, go buy a Swiss water filter coffee that’s $14 for a pound like people would freak out, you know And I know you and Emily get good coffee. So yeah, I mean that’s that’s what I would focus on more importantly is like make sure like the sources of the things that you do have. Make sure that they’re good quality stuff. Anyway. Sorry. Tangent on my update. Maybe
Jerred Moon
Kyle should go. I could tell you coffee all day around coffee, so he’s sitting here bored.
Kyle Shrum
I didn’t I don’t hate coffee. I drink coffee every day. Look, you know, I mean, I drink coffee every day.
Joe Courtney
I drink Really? alkane coffee. That’s, that’s, you know,
Kyle Shrum
I like the taste of it. I like the taste of coffee. I just, I don’t need the caffeine. So natural energy I get
Joe Courtney
always hyped.
Kyle Shrum
I’m always hyped. I’m ready to go, man.
Ashley Hicks
Why do you think harder is the way he is?
Kyle Shrum
Right. Maybe? Yeah. to rethink this whole thing that’s going on. Anyway. My updates, I guess I’m going next. My updates BCT update switch to a training max on squats instead of the true max. Because this wave is ridiculous. Because I think Jared is trying to kill us.
Jerred Moon
I think everyone’s slightly dying. It’s just gonna be some massive changes next next cycle.
Kyle Shrum
Yes. So yeah, still loving the the heavy squatting, but I needed it to be a little less heavy. Just to make sure I’m sticking with the technique and all that stuff. So yeah, things like, like the weight and the reps going up as the sets go, like not going down. Like as the weight goes up. It’s Yeah, it’s kind of fun. It’s It’s fun. But yeah, switch to train to max. I think everybody on the track has done that. But yeah, anyway. Another big update. Big for me. Maybe other people don’t care. Hannah is buying gym stuff now. So she bought it’s not a big thing. Not a big thing. She bought a timer to hang up in the gym. So that’s awesome. The interval timer hanging up in the gym. Now I hung it up this morning. All that good stuff. Got a good deal on it for Cyber Monday. It’s not the rogue brand, because those suckers were still like $230. Yeah, so it’s like no, but it does everything a rope does. Just that with the slightly works
Joe Courtney
out and out. It works.
Kyle Shrum
It works. Got a good deal on anyway, the big point is Hannah’s moving ever closer to the official garage, gym athlete status. And maybe she’s achieved it.
Joe Courtney
Maybe she’s got two PR shirts, so
Kyle Shrum
she does. And now she’s buying gym stuff. So
Joe Courtney
was this like a two year Jedi mind trick you you pulled? You will? Like garage dramatic.
Kyle Shrum
Yeah. So yeah, we’re there now. My wife is buying gym stuff. So I think big accomplishment. We’re good to go. Now if I can just get her on the podcast.
Joe Courtney
I’ve already been booted off that podcast.
Jerred Moon
Think it’s just gonna end up being Ashley. And
Ashley Hicks
it’ll probably be the best athlete interview today.
Jerred Moon
Joseph
Joe Courtney
I don’t have the long version. It’s all around long radicals. So count macros, it’s actually getting a lot easier than it seems. So it’s just like a habit. Now it’s not too bad. But one funny thing that I noticed just looking at some of my Garmin stats, and this might drive some people crazy. But so for looking at my resting heart rate for the first couple for the couple of weeks before I was counting my macros. So you know like normally when you have a resting heart rate, the choosey hovers between about three three beat range. Well my three beat range and these two weeks that I’ve been counting macros have actually decreased by about two beats, which was unexpected. I don’t know why. But that was kind of cool. And yeah, so that was fun. And finally, I finally got my chili pad hooked up. We received it in the mail like a month ago, only to find out that one of the power cords wasn’t wasn’t included when I shipped it or when or when my dad shifted or whoever. It’s probably my fault because I learned through this move that I suck at moving and I suck at packing
Kyle Shrum
stream ownership bro.
Joe Courtney
Yeah, it was all me. But so I also so we had those The only one power cord because one of them we never opened so I gave it to Liz so that she could use it and experience the magic. So now I finally got a power cord that I ordered on Amazon and I still Last the remote don’t know how that happened because it was here we swear by it. So we don’t hold the remote. So I turn it on manually, but that’s fine, whatever. I just don’t adjust it during the night. But either way.
Jerred Moon
I lost the remote the first week I got it. So Oh, I’ve been I’ve been pressing the button like a caveman.
Joe Courtney
Not always on always on low.
Kyle Shrum
The caveman had to get
Joe Courtney
out of my bed to get out of my bed to turn it on. It’s so ridiculous. It’s easier to just curl up in a tighter ball to stay warmer than to get out of bed and do that.
Jerred Moon
You adjust it. I mean, the reason that remote is actually pointless for me, and I’m totally being facetious is that I turn it on as cold as it can go. And then I get in my bed. That’s it. There’s never an adjustment needed.
Joe Courtney
I start with a couple of degrees above. But if it’s like 2am, and I’m already getting chilly, I might pop it by like three degrees. And that’s it. And it’s it makes a little bit of a difference.
Kyle Shrum
Who knew Joe would be more high maintenance.
Joe Courtney
super high maintenance than me? Yeah.
Jerred Moon
Am I high maintenance? Kyle? No.
You missed the job.
Kyle Shrum
It was established joke. Sarcasm is dead.
Joe Courtney
It’s fine. So bedtime is the opposite of lit right now. And a new wreck. I told you guys and I told my siblings, we were kind of impressed. So Thursday, Thanksgiving, I cooked a 20 pound turkey. By Monday, we had finished all of our leftovers all of our sides everything because we pretty much ate nothing but that and it was like the most giant Mondo plates. And it was also kind of a good thing because that also means we didn’t have to figure out how to calculate our macros off of Thanksgiving leftovers. So that was fun. But it was delicious.
Most impressive.
Joe Courtney
I have to cook another one soon. And I’ll just end my updates there because I feel like I’ve taken up a lot of time.
Jerred Moon
Yeah, so you have that was a long, that was a lot of time now.
Joe Courtney
I’ll be less entertaining.
Jerred Moon
Uh, I don’t have a lot of updates. coming off of Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, all that stuff. So we did this is our second year, I might be a new tradition where we spend our Thanksgiving at an Airbnb somewhere. It kicked off last year with our team retreat. That was the Spartan Race and ended up doing Thanksgiving with my family in some random Airbnb in South Carolina. And then we went to Broken Bow Oklahoma this year. So it’s a fun fun thing. It was a it was great to get out of town. But got back to some news. And the news is I’ve been updating people on the building the backyard, they denied the building. Oh, being connected to our septic it’s not like you can’t build it. It’s just we had to get an additional additional tank to the septic. So that’s I’m at the decision point of do we do it? Because it’s complete waste of money.
Joe Courtney
Just well house is a composting toilet. But you know,
Jerred Moon
everyone acts like it’s really easy to just go outside. But have you ever urinated in your backyard multiple times a day for years on end? I haven’t but I have a feeling because normally when you pee outside, it’s like you just it was you had to you’re in a situation where that happened and it’s like a one off thing. But if you pee in the same spot multiple times per day for years on end, I just have a feeling is not like something’s gonna be bad like that. I think that’s why the black plague happened like pee and poop in the streets. Come on.
Kyle Shrum
So just saying going back to caveman status
Jerred Moon
so anyway,
he would let me in the house so yeah, no
Jerred Moon
I can easily come inside. So that’s that is where we add those are the options is pay to get the septic it’s not a new septic it’s like an add on. I don’t know much about septic tanks is my first one any, any way or eliminate the bathroom from the space or don’t do it. I guess those three options. And then the only other thing I want to say was we got a lot of people who committed so we introduced a lifetime garage mathlete membership and annual membership and a lot of people combined between those two took us up on it and that’s awesome. I kind of threw down the gauntlet in the podcast saying hey, if you want to commit and a lot of you committed so that’s awesome. The lifetime ers. A bad news. We’re actually shutting garage mathlete down next year. So lifetime is only about six months. joke’s on you. Yeah, of course. That is a joke. I plan to keep garage mathlete up and running for as long as I am able and
Joe Courtney
even past that.
Jerred Moon
One time, the duration that we have we have if Jared dies plan, halfway worked out anyway. So yeah, you just keep on training. So you’re good. So in all seriousness, it was huge because people are committing to year they’re committing to lifetime memberships. And it says a lot about this community. And that was the thing that I wanted to highlight, because I didn’t expect such an overwhelming response. But that just means people really, really believe in the programming and what we’re doing and the training. And they’re really committed to getting better and proving themselves and being consistent. So it’s really just a, you know, a compliment to the community itself. So you guys are awesome. And thanks for thanks for sticking around and trusting us and the team and all that we’re doing. So I guess we can, we can talk science kind of. So the study this week, is not really study, it’s actually a scientific paper. It’s the first paper that we’ve done, scientific papers kind of highlight an issue and they link to a bunch of different studies and point things out. And the scientific paper that we are going to kind of cover is called environmental influences on elite sport athletes well being from gold, silver, and bronze, to blue, green, and gold. So let me get fancy with the video. There it is. If you want to check it out, there we go. There it is. So like I said, this is a scientific paper inside of the scientific paper, there were 58 linked studies. And the main thing, that main reason I wanted to cover this one, I care very little about the Olympics, and the health of our Olympians and their performance, you know, in different environmental factors. But what’s really cool about this study, we obviously will have this study linked in the show notes. But go check it out. Because like I said, there are 58 different studies that they link to. And I just have a bunch of quotes that I want to read from the study as we dive into it. But they’re really looking at air pollution, water quality, and being outside and how these things can help you. But they linked to the studies that kind of prove it. And just let’s see was two weeks ago ish, something like that we got this question on water quality, and how important is water quality? And my response was, it all matters like water, your water quality matters, your air quality matters, your food quality matters, it all matters, none of these things should be overlooked. Maybe you shouldn’t be obsessive about them. But it’s all very important. So I wanted to highlight some of these things from the study, specifically covering air pollution, environmental stuff, in general, so I’ll throw it to you guys. I like I said there’s not a there’s not a big takeaway other than this stuff is important. And we can get into some, some other specifics. But would you guys pull from this, this paper, should I say that you thought was cool or found important.
Kyle Shrum
The first thing I thought was when reading through it was rip Olympic Games. So it talks about how the 2020 Olympic Games were going to be held in Tokyo. And so if you want to date the paper too, you know, it’s kind of like well, then 2020 happened. And we didn’t actually have Olympics, I was actually sad about that I really enjoy the the Summer Olympic Games, I think they’re really, really cool. And I enjoy watching them. So that’s just one other thing that 2020 kind of took away from me. But we won’t go there. Anyway, something that that they’re obviously trying to highlight with this paper is how important it is to reduce pollution. And they’re kind of highlighting how different places that have hosted the Olympic Games were pretty high on the pollution scale, especially in Beijing and then in Rio weren’t sort of even London wasn’t a wasn’t a super great place as far as pollution goes. But that Tokyo actually is a great place like it’s not a highly polluted city, even with the population density that it has so many people live in there, where they still keep pollution down. And so, but they’re talking about that and how the outdoors, the the environment that people were competing in, affects them. But one quote that I wanted to pull out was specifically there’s potential for natural environments to reduce stress, aid recovery from stressful events, improve cognitive function, and provide beneficial changes in cardiovascular indicators of stress. So basically go outside and reduce stress outside as good for you. And so that’s kind of the biggest, the biggest thing that I took away, I don’t know, you know, really, I think a lot of our people do train outdoors, at least part of their training is outdoors. And so I think we’re all kind of experiencing that experiencing the benefits of training outdoors and just being outdoors in general. But it’s good to have something here that kind of highlights, not just a basic overview of the benefits of being outdoors but also linking a bunch of studies that actually prove It so there’s something that I took away from it.
Ashley Hicks
For me, I just have kind of like little things that, you know, we could potentially use utilize if we’re performing like an a Spartan or doing something else, you know, because I have a feeling not a lot of us are Olympian athletes. But one of the things I will say, though, is I was pretty shocked about Japan being as environmentally friendly as they were. So I wonder like, what restriction they have in place, like, do you have to take, you know, public transportation that is, you know, trains or whatnot to eliminate all of the air pollution that’s going on. So kudos to Japan for doing whatever it is that they’re doing. So I’ll talk a little bit about outdoors versus indoors training, because before I was a garage, gym athlete, I Well, I was a graduate athlete, but I was using base gyms. And so I was doing a lot of indoor work. But like if we did, running or conditioning or whatnot, we always made sure to get out to the track if we could. And I will say I was a little more apprehensive is not the word I was a little more like, didn’t really want to do the workout. If I had to be indoors and like running on a treadmill or whatnot, especially in England, you know, it’s raining, it’s cold. So I will say that my attitude does change a lot when I’m outdoors running versus when I’m indoors. Granted, I don’t really like treadmills anyways, but something I thought we could take away from this. They talked about the water quality. And that’s something Jared brought up. If I was going someplace that I was kind of questionable about water quality. They’ve got now water bottles that you can take that you can filter some stuff out of it. I don’t know how great those are. But I was thinking about like a travel size, some sort of Berkey or pro pure filter water. Those are just two brands, you can get that you can you know do at your house. I know Jared and Emily have a Berkey
you can look at
Jerred Moon
water bottle that you’re talking about the
Ashley Hicks
I think so
Jerred Moon
yeah, they have a sport travel water bottle, it’s got like a filter on the inside. It’s pretty cool.
Ashley Hicks
Yeah. And so it just takes out some of the bad stuff that you would get like a normal tap water. So maybe travel around with that. And then another thing I thought about too, is like in the area, where you are at, maybe get there a little bit earlier, like I was thinking about this as I was reading, like, you know, going to different places, traveling different places, obviously, for Olympian athletes, they’re potentially going across the ocean or wherever that they’re at. So you want to get acclimated to where you’re at. But for us as athletes, like if we’re going to performance places, you know, maybe don’t do what I did before the Spartan and just show up the night before, after a day of travel, you know, just kind of maybe get there let your body acclimate to whatever, because they were talking about that as well. They were talking about how different elevations affected people as well as Olympian athletes, but yeah, get outside. I mean, it just shows like, outdoors definitely can improve your mental health your the way, you know, the way you train. So yeah, I agree with Kyle on that one too.
Joe Courtney
We’re gonna have San Diego is always fantastic to have the gym outside. And now even here, like there’s the outdoor gym here, and the indoor gym. And right now it’s it’s perfect weather to be working out outdoors. But once that he picks up, it’s going to be really sad that I’m gonna have to work out indoors, it’s gonna be miserable. But speaking of here, and air quality, this is actually something that I found out after we moved here. But the air quality here is actually bad. And you actually have to look at, if you’re gonna run outside to see check the air quality for the day, if it’s like high risk, there are bad air quality, you basically shouldn’t work outside. And even like normally it’s still labeled as unsafe. And like I can kind of tell you in your weather app, actually, but then I also went to this website while I was reading the study. And it tells you Wherever you’re living, you can look at the see what the air quality is and what it is on the rating scale, which is kind of cool. And here it is unsafe. So but right now since the winter months, it’s cooler, it’s not so bad. So I think once it gets picks up the heat, that makes the air quality worse. I won’t be outside running anyway. But to to go back to your point of Japan and why they’re just so clean and good. I mean that they’re some of the technology they have is fantastic. But back in February, I went to Singapore. Singapore is a huge, very busy high traffic city. Lots of people that travel there. And one thing I noticed when there is that, I mean their technology is very advanced. They it’s very clean, but also I just noticed the air quality there was was fantastic. It’s like been in all the cities that I’ve been in. It had really good air quality. And that’s because one thing they do there is you look at these buildings and like The architecture, there’s phenomenal, it’s ridiculous some of the stuff to do, but they design buildings to grow green on the entire side of buildings, like we’re talking 10 1215 stories of like green walls, and like the roofs are green. And then like, they make it very artsy. And then there’s parks everywhere and trees. And you, you really notice the difference. And on their website that I checked, the air quality that they’re, they’re in the green, they’re in really like really good air quality for even, especially for having such a big city. So stuff like that, I think is really cool. And just shows that having trees around really helps. which kind of makes me think about getting a plant, although I hate plants, and I would probably kill it anyway. And I don’t, I don’t think aloe is going to do much for your air quality. That’s about the only thing that I can keep alive. It’s about it for the plants. But I think I just think it’s kind of interesting for that aspect. And maybe even checking to see what your air quality might be. And if depending on where you live in, even if you have an air purifier in your house, because sometimes you can’t help where you live, city wise or job wise, but you’re in your house at least sleeping eight or so hours a day, probably in your house, a total of 10 to 12. So at least half the day or so you’re breathing the air in your house. So maybe at least at least adjusting the the air quality in your own house with air purifiers and things like that could help whether it’s fitness wise, overall health wise and the like.
Jerred Moon
Yeah, those are some great tips. And just the the bigger. You know, tying this back to athletes to the bigger picture is if you do look, you dive into this, you know, in their 58 link studies and you pull up some of their studies, it’s actual performance increases with some of these things that they’re looking at when they move athletes to greener spaces, or have them work outdoors, as opposed to indoor. So it’s not just like, a theoretical thing to and I know one thing that I noticed, and the only thing I can think, you know, this is very anecdotal. But Dallas, kind of like Bahrain, it’s like the in the summer when it’s really hot, the air quality is worse, there’s just you know, that’s, that’s pretty much everywhere, like when he goes up, the air quality gets a little bit worse. That’s like, just pretty standard. And so you we do look out for those things. Like during the summer, the performance goes down just because of the heat. But also, you know, the air quality is just not as not as great. Now I don’t live in Dallas, Dallas, like the actual city where it would be be bad, but you know, the surrounding area. And when I moved to North Carolina, we basically met live in the middle of the forest, you know, with like a couple other houses. And one thing that I thought was really cool. It’s been about five months after we got there. We were testing because at that time, we were doing the 1.5 mile run. And we were doing the 1.5 mile run and I ran, nothing had changed in my training. Like it was just I was doing hard to kill like, and I was just testing because it was a fit week. And I ran like a nine to eight mile and a half. And I remember when I finished I was like I got this, like I can’t be done. Like I’m not that tired. And like, you know, this should have been harder, like did I miss judge the distance but it was on GPS. And so I was right. But I could just breathe so much better. And I’ve always thought about that because I had been in the mountains for several months. And then you know, in there the summer was pretty mild getting into the summer months. And so that’s just one thing I always think about with air quality, that it was so much better where we were at North Carolina and I think it actually helped my performance quite a bit. Now it’s not like I run an 11 minute in Texas and you know, it’s it’s not that drastically different but it’s just something that was was noticeable. Now some other things I wanted to point out from the study some cool things that I didn’t know existed. They pointed out there’s a consistent evidence of positive relationship between natural environment exposure and health and then there’s these theories the attention restoration theory by Kaplan and Kaplan 1989 stress reduction theory. Oh rich at all. 1991. So some cool stuff some cool like theories to check out. Beyond just like another scientific study. They they pull this systematic review that also found a physical activity and natural violence was associated with decreased feelings of tension, confusion, anger and depression, while exhibiting greater feelings of revitalization. Another one This was on track athletes. In comparison, indoor activity was associated with increased frustration, anxiety, anger and sadness, investigated performance of 128 collegiate track and field athletes across four locations rated for greenness. They reported that greenness was a predictor of performance which more The athletes best performance is occurring at the site with the highest greenness rating. So this, I didn’t dive further into that specific study. But in the paper, this is just what they mentioned this direct quote, but areas that are more green, so more trees, more grass, things like that. There is statistical significance that track and field athletes perform better. I thought that was really interesting. And then they kind of summed it all up. They said in some there’s consistent evidence, the exercise, exercising and clean natural environments is associated with positive changes in self reported psychological state, given the results of such studies, considering the relationship between athlete’s performance and health, and Olympic cities has particular relevance. And I think it just has particular relevance in everybody’s life. So get outside as much as you can, I know, I have a true form runner, when I run on it, I pull it into my driveway, you know, underneath the trees, or at least I’m still outside, because I don’t like just being inside. And I try to do as much stuff outside as I can. And I think it’s really, really a huge, huge factor in your overall health. And well being going to the gym over and over again. While most everyone listening, this is a garage, gym athlete, you don’t need to like lock yourself in, like I’m seeing people, you know, fully insulate their spaces and add air conditions and all this crap. And I’m like, I don’t know if that’s what you really want. And it goes back to this comfort idea, right? Like, do you really need to be that comfortable when you’re exercising, like my garage gets to 125 degrees in the summer, a bit excessive, but is it worth sealing the whole thing off and adding an air conditioning because it gets too hot, and I don’t want to be outside, I think there’d be more performance benefit in the long term of just dealing with it and, and getting outside. So,
Joe Courtney
so the pulling a treadmill outside just reminded me of a funny video, if you guys have seen it, where a guy put a treadmill on wheels, and hooked it up to a motor. So he was running on a treadmill. But as he ran on the treadmill, it powered the wheels, and he was the treadmill was going on like a running track.
Jerred Moon
Just for fun.
Joe Courtney
It’s absolutely ridiculous. I’m sure some of you will have seen it. Also, this is why we tell you to pick up your heavy objects and go take them for walks every once in a while.
Kyle Shrum
Other alert for the worker out there Yeah.
Joe Courtney
Well, or shadowing.
Jerred Moon
Okay, so my overall takeaway, two things, it all matters. It all matters. Everything matters. Don’t think that it doesn’t. Just cuz we don’t talk about them all the time doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. So it all matters, and go outside. That’s it. Now on to the topic.
Joe Courtney
So a lot of people ask about mobility, and it’s usually very specific to what’s going on with them. That’s what but it’s mobility is great to do for almost everyone. For whatever reason, whether it’s a injury, a limitation you have and although figuring out what’s the best mobility specifically for whatever you might have, I think I just wanted to go over some mobility tips, whether we’ve had or experience or things to consider when mobilizing or anything like that related. So Kyle, let’s get you first.
Kyle Shrum
Oh, man,
Joe Courtney
you don’t want anybody to take yours. And yeah, ability expert, official
Kyle Shrum
billing expert, okay. Sarcasm isn’t dead, I guess. Alright. So I would say band work. As far as mobility, it’s band work is something that I do quite a bit of, especially with the BCT track, and with all the squatting and all the running that we’re doing, and there’s a lot of lower body mobility that I’ve been doing. Since being on this track, a lot of ankle work, a lot of knee work, just warming things up, making sure that things are are smashed out after the workout, those kinds of things. You know, I’ve talked on here before about you know, my lack of ankle mobility something I’m definitely working on with the squatting and you know, the the lifting shoes help with that. But you know, I would rather just have solid mobile flexible ankles that will just operate the way they’re supposed to. So band work has been really, really helpful for me. There’s a lot of different movements that you can look up online, I would say check out the ready state on YouTube. They also have an app that you can use, you have to buy a subscription with it and use it but they have their app is really really cool, really robust. They have pre workout movements, post workout movements, off day movements, all that kind of stuff. Go check that out. some specific things that I do especially warming up for BCT I’ll do band A Good Mornings those help out a whole lot with uh, keeping things nice and nice and Warm, for for squatting and for running, and also do like monster walks and sidesteps. By the way Jared decided to throw those in the training in the programming. So now I don’t just do them for the warm up, I also do them in the session work. So lots of lots of bandwidth going on right now. But those things are just, they’re really, really good for keeping your legs warmed up and keeping them mobile, especially on your off days. Especially.
Ashley Hicks
So for me, I try to look at, if we’re talking about ability after a workout, I try to look at the areas that were really taxed that day. So you know, whether it was an arm day like yesterday for her to kill, or if it you know, lower body day, I kind of focus on those areas and kind of go off what I’ve done before, whether it be from soccer stretches or stuff that I’ve taken from like yoga classes or whatnot. Two good apps that I’ve used both go WOD and ROM WOD. They, again, kind of what Kyle said, they’re subscription apps, you can pay for them, I think their monthly subscriptions, you can actually physically type in the movements that you did that day, you can tell it how much time you have. For mobility sessions, you know, whether it’s five to 20 minutes, if you want to do that long. And that generates how much time you should actually be in that position and the different positions you should be doing. Another cool thing I like to use as a lacrosse ball, I really wish I had a theragun. But alas, lacrosse ball works, you can get it put it up against the wall for lots of movements up on shoulders and arms and kind of stuff. I mean, if you’ve ever taken a lacrosse ball and stuck it in your glutes and tried to like roll, I mean that sucker hurts in a good way, breaking up some tissue there. But yeah, and I also like to do some yoga on my rest days. So Thursday is my, my Sunday’s are typically the day that like we go on a walk or we do something, you know, so moving, but Thursday, I try to take that day. And during my workout time, I actually do like a yoga session, and it’s maybe 20 to 30 minutes long. And I find that it definitely helps with my my mobility, just the different poses that they’re having you do like a lot of runners pose or the warrior pose or whatnot, and definitely open up your hips a lot. So I kind of steal what we do on those yoga movements on other days to like, exactly what Kyle was saying, like if we’re squatting and then I try to like, warm up my hips warm up my lower body. And yeah, that’s my advice.
Joe Courtney
So I’ve got a few things, but I’m interested to hear what Jared has before I hit mine.
Jerred Moon
All right, mobility.
Joe Courtney
You know, I think very powerful person. So I don’t know how much you’ve had to do it in the past Besides, after injuries?
Jerred Moon
Well, let me tell you a story. So the time when I saw I trained for a long time before I ever started mobility. I mean, I mean, I don’t know how many years, but I’ve been lifting heavy and conditioning hard for quite a while before I was like, oh, maybe I should do some mobility. And at that point, let’s say was, I don’t know, 10 years ago, maybe a little bit more, is when I started doing that stuff. I was not very mobile, I was not. So I didn’t have like I had a lot of issues just like tightness in my quads and hips and all this stuff. But then I just made it a part of my routine but and I worked on those specific issues, you know, I worked specifically on like quad tightness and things and I’ve never had anything, like I don’t deal with a problem anymore. I don’t have like continual chronic quad tightness or something like that, you know what I mean? Like, I feel like I focused on those things for long periods of time. And then they, they gave up, I won. It’s mobile now. And you know, so I don’t I don’t struggle those things, but it is a big part of what I’m doing. I don’t complicate it too much. I’ve used ROM WOD in the past, but I really don’t, I don’t know I don’t like to complicate mobility too much by doing too many like little things here and there and, and all that stuff. So the my main mobility routine, like I said, I worked on specific issues for a while those issues went away and now I just tried to maintain mobility. So it’s really like a seated forward fold held for like two or three minutes which is great for your lower back, upper back if you kind of tuck your head in and your hamstrings and then Standing Forward Fold really hit the hamstrings. I’ll do a saddle stretch where I lay all the way back really opens up your hips and your quads. And really those two or three exercises. I’m not saying at all You ever need, but that’s going to take care of lower back, hips, quads, and even your ankles with the saddle stretch there. Those are the main ones I do on a consistent basis. And I hold them for two minutes, three minutes, four minutes at a time. And really, that’s about all I do these days, I don’t have a lot of upper body tightness, I do a lot of PVC pass throughs in my warm up, and I still use the crossover symmetry. I think that’s a big reason why I don’t have as many issues with my shoulders, which I used to, I used to have big problems with my shoulders, and those have all kind of gone away. So it’s, it’s all good. But I don’t I don’t over complicate, I just do a couple things, I hold the stretches for really long periods of time. And that’s about it, I feel like that really, really helps me maintain my mobility.
Joe Courtney
Yeah, the timeline is a good thing to hit on. Because mobility is very uncomfortable if you’re if you especially if you need it. So the longer you hold it, the better kind of really just 20 seconds is not going to get what you what you need. So, you know, 45 6090 seconds, depending on what you’re doing, not like a strenuous stretch. But if you’re smashing it and stuff like that. Some of the some of the
Jerred Moon
real quick on the on the time there, you will actually feel your muscles give up. So when I was saying, like, give up earlier, like, if you’re holding a quad stretch, just just a simple, let’s say you’re standing you grab your you know, you grab your foot, and you do a quad stretch, the very basic quad stretch, if you hold it for 30 seconds or whatever, yeah, you’re gonna feel a light stretch, but you’re you’re essentially doing nothing, maybe just hurting the performance of, of your training, you know, if you’re not doing it dynamically, but if you hold that to where it’s, it’s that uncomfortable position, feeling in your quad for two minutes, and it feels the same keep holding it just hold it until you actually feel your muscle, it’s not giving up, it’s relaxing, the muscles finally relaxing. And it that is where you kind of got to that that point, right. And that’s where I feel like you’re actually seeing progress in your mobility. If you’re just like stretching and calling it good. You’re not probably making any progress, you’re just you might be avoiding some injury, but you’re not really making progress in your mobility, you will actually feel it I know in the saddle stretch, it happens every day that I do it, you know, I’ll get in the saddle stretch. And it’s like, almost unbearable. Because my if you guys know, the saddle stretches, I’m laid all the way back, my legs are tucked up underneath me, you know, it’s a pretty intense stretch. But then after about two minutes, I feel like I could stay there all day, like my quads relaxed, my hips relax, and everything just kind of like let’s go and then it’s like, you know, at that point, you’ve maxed out the only way for me to like, push mobility further would be to have a human being like compressing that or stretching it further. So just know that there is a point where you’re you’re being you know, you’re doing good for mobility and there is a you could just be wasting your time if you’re not really taking it to that level.
Joe Courtney
Stretch for me.
Ashley Hicks
Yeah, I was like I felt that in my hamstrings. Mine is the renders pose, or you come inside with your hands, and you have your, you know, your knee and then I actually physically come down on my elbows to give it a deeper stretch. And when I do that I can like feel it almost feels like a steel rod that is just like moves and then relaxes. Like that’s the weirdest feeling ever. But yeah, I definitely agree with that. Sorry, Joe
Joe Courtney
knows why. And for the deeper stretches, it’s usually best to do after workouts recovery, not before the workout, right? We’ve kind of hit on that in the past. Mobility pre workouts is usually really good like smashing something active something you’re active release, if you’re moving through it and stuff like that. Other big points that I’ve because I’m the de facto mobility person because I’ve had really bad mobility in the past. And I’ve had a lot of coaches put me through a lot of really uncomfortable mobility. So I just kind of learned what what hurts and what works. Sometimes it’s not the issue that you think it is like a lot of a lot of people have issue with the front rack, for example. And they’re always they’re always first think is on my wrist and needs to be more mobile, I can’t bend my wrist back far enough. Well, your wrist can only go back so far, it’s probably something else. It’s probably your lats, which are huge and have the most room to give. And then if it’s not your last, then it’s probably your triceps. So if you’re having trouble with some specific movement, don’t just target one little area and think that that one little thing is going to make the biggest difference. It’s probably something else. Your muscles connect all together through all different ways. So I mean some sometimes with your when I was going through PT for my shoulder, I was thinking a lot of it was my lats, but it was actually my pecs that were a big issue because it was pulling everything forward. So just that’s an example of how sometimes working the opposite of what you think can actually help to for breaking that down. Yeah, I think that’s about it.
Kyle Shrum
I would also say as far as mobility goes, few, join garage gym athlete programming, we program your mobility for you. So
Joe Courtney
yeah, just on top of what you said, suggestion. Yeah. Besides bandage work. Voodoo floss is fantastic to have for certain certain joint things like some, a few people recently have talked about elbow issues, or I’ve used it on my Achilles, because I’ve tendinitis in my Achilles as well, that can be really good. And with some of the stretching, I see this a lot in the gym, when people do the banded lat stretch, and just kind of put their hand in band and they just kind of bend over and like, okay, I feel a stretch, but you’re like, clamping down on the band with like, all force, you need to actually like relax into your stretch because you’re clenching your muscles and stretching. It’s it’s kind of your you’re not it’s not going to relax into it, you’re going to feel like it’s stretching because the forces are opposing but you’re not actually stretching. so relaxing into into things like that, even though it’s really sucks to relax into some of that mobility, but it’s it’s gonna pay off daily for decades. Well,
Jerred Moon
yeah. And mobility is super I, I hate it. It’s annoying. Like, it’s like cleaning your house, like, Yeah, I got to do it. But damn, every day, come on. So anyway, it is really important. I know one thing. If you go to the industry fitness YouTube channel, I have I don’t even know if they’re so active because it used to be mobility WOD. And now that the ready state and stuff, but Kelly seret did, I think it was a full year, right? It’s 365 days of free, free videos. So we’re talking about paid services. And yes, garage gym athlete, we do normally program one to two mobility exercises at the end of the event into the training session that kind of coincided with what we did that day. So and that kind of stuff is great for me as someone who like I said, I’m not working on a specific issue as much these days. So just hitting something one or two things after the workout. But if you do go to the industry fitness YouTube channel, we have a playlist that you could check out, it’s not our stuff. But it’s at least the first hundred or 200 days or something of that. And I do think that that’s a great introduction to those things. Because I remember one of the challenges he gave in the first couple of weeks was something we had that I programmed recently actually was a hold five minutes in the bottom of the squat. So accumulate five total minutes in the bottom of the squat position, no, no barbell or anything, just an air squat. And remember, the first time I ever did that, I was like, that was very, very hard. That was like I was doing like 20 seconds at a time. 30 seconds, maybe 60 seconds if I really want to push it. But that’s how bad my mobility was when I first started all this stuff. And now, I mean, I could sit in the bottom of a squat and just watch TV, like all night if I wanted to. It’s not like a you know, factor anymore. So these things do, you can make some significant progress by doing these things. And I think that’s another great start to check out.
Joe Courtney
That’s really sorry, go know your stability goes hand in hand with with mobility as well. If you do a crap ton of mobility, then you need to stabilize the areas in those range of motions.
Ashley Hicks
I was only going to just piggyback off of Jared and say that yes, I worked on the bottom of a squat for a while when I first started CrossFit, I found out that I had hip flexor mobility issues and like I couldn’t even sit in the bottom of the squat and keep my chest up. Like my chest was almost like to the ground when I would sit in the bottom of a squat, which is not good. So definitely use a lot of stuff like that, but also use what you have. So like if you don’t have a lacrosse ball, you don’t have bands or whatnot. You can even use a barbell, I’ve used a barbell to smash my quads. Now obviously, I’m holding it some using the end of the barbell and I’m rolling it across, you know, and you can give it as much pressure as you need to sew as hard or as late as you need to do it. I’ve even smashed my triceps just on the metal part of the bar, just lower it down on the rack. And so it’s it doesn’t even have to get just like Jared said, you don’t have to get crazy with it. Use what you got and just do something.
Jerred Moon
workout time.
Ashley Hicks
Let’s do it.
Jerred Moon
This is the iron mile correct?
Ashley Hicks
Yeah, I think Kyle should brief it. It’s his favorite.
Jerred Moon
Yeah. What do we got? Kyle? How do you do this one?
Kyle Shrum
This one’s super complicated.
Jerred Moon
Which is what paper everybody
Kyle Shrum
I have to I have to really think about it and plan it out. The R mile consists of walking for a mile with either a barbell or a man what’s it called?
Joe Courtney
yoke, yoke
Kyle Shrum
on barbell or a yo I don’t ever use the yoke so I just see I don’t even think about it either a barbell or a yoke on your back. Walk from out simple as it gets, but not as easy as it gets. So be careful. So I I would say, this is the best meet yourself Saturday workout. And Sam, I’ve done almost all of them. Almost I’ve done more than Joe. But I just say this is this, that’s not the best one. I think the biggest, I think the biggest issue that I have when doing the armor is a blood flow to my hands, because I’m holding the barbell up here. And so and especially now with it coming up this week, it’s probably going to be cold outside when I do it. So my hands are going to be cold and the blood flow is going to be restricted. So, but it’s just part of part of the mental aspect of it. So just get out and do it, I would challenge everyone to do it without sitting down the bar. And it’s not just to throw a challenge out there, it’s actually strategic. If you set the bar down, that means you have to pick it up off the ground and get it back on your back before you can start walking again. So it’s not just to challenge you, it’s to actually help you because I’ve done it several times. And I’ve done it both ways of setting the bar down and not setting the bar down. And keeping it up there is by far the best way to to go. So last point, maybe after you do the armo, try the iron five K. One of the one of the members of our community, Darren actually did an iron five k last week, and he accumulated it was over 70 kilometers, I think, over the last month over the month of November. And I’m doing the iron mile almost every day, I guess it was every day. But then he capped it off by doing an iron five case. So if you want to get done with the iron mile and you realize how much fun it is, just go ahead and make it an arm five K, see, see if you can keep going with it
Joe Courtney
doesn’t mean that the first Saturday after is on? It’s an iron vial? Yeah.
Jerred Moon
Yeah, we switched it just for him.
Joe Courtney
Because I think some people joined him in that last week. Or at least a five K or something.
Kyle Shrum
It’s our sick joke. It’s like, Oh, go do it again.
Joe Courtney
Yeah.
Ashley Hicks
I would say be smart about the weight, we always say that. That’s, you know, do something that you know, you can get done. But also that’s going to be challenging. So you know, don’t sandbag it. But also, don’t go at it and be like, well, I’m going to do RX when you’re normally like an established or a recruit. athlete. So this is Kyle’s favorite workout and I beat Kyle and his favorite workout and I’ll just, I guess gotta say that in there. But for the wine pairing with this,
I
Ashley Hicks
said the 30 Seconds to Mars, or pod, or five finger death punch would be like my choices. And just like
Jerred Moon
I haven’t heard some of those names in a very long time, but I’m aware of the band’s
Kyle Shrum
I have thrown it back.
Ashley Hicks
I’ve been bringing it back lately. So I’ve just that’s what I’m giving it because normally I’m like Rage Against machine Slipknot corn, like well, now let’s change it up a little bit. But anything that motivates you to move, and then my, I’m going with Kyle, try not to set the barbell down. So ignore the pain. Just keep moving. And like he said, move your arms because I always move out and then come back in, move out and come back in because of the blood flow. But just keep going. And the faster you move, the easier or the faster you’ll be done.
Kyle Shrum
So I don’t even do tunes for this one. Oh, I noticed. I just get in there and suffer. I don’t do that for all of them. Yeah, but this one, I just I get in there and suffer. It’s part of the part of the part of the deal for me with this one.
Joe Courtney
What I was gonna say for tunes is put awesome smooth jazz. You might have actually, you know, I think you try it again. And you might actually be actually this time.
Kyle Shrum
Oh, ouch. Oh, man. Okay,
Joe Courtney
I just it’s too simple for workout to have tips, I got nothing.
Jerred Moon
Well, I think the tip of not setting it down is maybe like the most hidden mean, advice you can give. And I’m just going to call it out right now the longer you walk, and then decide to set it down. So if you’re going to take this advice of not sitting down, you don’t set it down, there’s no option of setting it down. Because the longer you walk, and then you do decide to set it down, the harder the workout. Because if you were to be like, Okay, you know what, I’m gonna stop every 100 meters or 200 meters or whatever, he had some sort of strategy, you’re gonna stop rest this amount of time, then keep going. Now what I recommend, but if you do that, it’s not gonna be very challenging as challenging. But if you decide to do okay, I’m just not going to set it down but then you get 2.7 mile and you’re like, I absolutely have to set this down. You set it down after you put it back on your back. You’ll probably end up stopping like 30 times before it’s over. You just keep dropping it over and over again. So be careful with that advice either go all the way Or go with strategy, which I was surprised Joe didn’t have. I thought that’s what Joe is gonna bring to the table today. I thought he was gonna say, plan it out. plan out your rest.
Kyle Shrum
Joe, have you done the armor?
Joe Courtney
Yes, I have
Jerred Moon
design with me. So we’ve been together with a yes. Well,
Joe Courtney
yeah, we did that was back when we tried to do a periscope with it. And somebody thought Jericho Timberlake. Yeah.
Jerred Moon
That’s all you’re doing lives on Periscope back that
Joe Courtney
day. Just so you know, we won’t have to I think we did. Anyway, yeah, I’ve because I’ve done it before. And when you set it down, it’s like, okay, you make it. Like, I think I made it halfway. One of the times. I was like, Okay, cool. I made it halfway. I’m gonna drop it halfway. And then I’m arrested. I’ll pick it up and take it back. But once you put it back on, you walk and you’re like, Huh, this is just got so much harder. I’m so much more fatigued, I can set it down again. And that’s just, you know, a slippery slope once you do it. So maybe you’ll just go numb before then.
Kyle Shrum
Yep.
Joe Courtney
I don’t know how if I’m gonna be able to do this because the gym is outdoors. It’s kind of like slightly fenced in. I don’t know how they feel about just be like walking out like, Hey, guys. See you later?
Jerred Moon
Yeah, I’ve heard that doesn’t work. Well. Also, I’ve heard putting a barbell loaded with weight on your back and getting on one of their treadmills is not,
don’t do that.
Joe Courtney
Yeah, we did not. And then that just don’t do it.
Kyle Shrum
Definitely can’t set the bar down at that point.
Jerred Moon
I also it’s going to depend on everybody’s body type. But there might be a spot on your back where you can kind of balance a barbell and put your arms down.
Joe Courtney
Trip city.
Jerred Moon
So this will be body dependent. But just try it out.
Ashley Hicks
While you’re walking, though.
Jerred Moon
Yeah, just walk slow. I can’t do it for a long period of time. No, I honestly do this in the iron mine. If I’m trying to go like don’t set it down. I will just drop my arms by my side. And then take small steps. Very small steps in, then I’ll get my arms back up there. Because you guys are talking about arms going out back in. They’re still up, you know what I mean? So it’s still, it’s still gonna be hard for your body to recover.
Ashley Hicks
I know what you mean.
Jerred Moon
Yeah, it’s just it’s hard for them to fully recover. So if you can get your arms down by your sides without dropping the barbell
Kyle Shrum
that’s helping with the I’ll usually dangle one at a time. Like I’ll keep one up and put one down and kind of shake it out some. That is when you start walking in circles. Yeah, you can’t. I can’t do it for very long, because, you know, I start, I wind up loading, you know, loading one side more than the other. So then I’ll just shake the lawn out and killin even and now
Jerred Moon
let’s talk Wait, what, what’s everyone’s weight going to be? I actually I think I am going to do this one because I haven’t done the iron mine in a while. And I have the yoke ready to go. So I’m going to do with the yoke, which is awesome. So what do you guys gonna do? Who’s doing it? And what Wait, are you doing?
Kyle Shrum
Did it was 135 last time, so I feel like I can’t go lower than that. Almost 145 it’s probably not gonna go more. Yeah,
Ashley Hicks
I did. 95. So I’ll probably stick with 95
Joe Courtney
All right,
Joe’s nice. tile. Again.
Kyle Shrum
We’ll see. We’ll see. I might,
Jerred Moon
I might go. bodyweight I might, because it’s the yoke. To be honest, the yoke a little bit easier. I’m not gonna lie. It’s a fatter bar.
Kyle Shrum
If I had a yoke, I would try it with the yoke. But
Jerred Moon
it’s a much flatter bar. So it doesn’t dig in as much you I feel like you could walk all day with a yoke. So I’ll do actually, I’m, I’m bigger now. So 195 181 9195
Kyle Shrum
I always just weigh yourself on the day.
Jerred Moon
I’ve weighed 185 for like, forever. And now I gained some weight because I squat too much.
Cuz I squat.
Jerred Moon
Too often. Not too much weight. It’s still less than 500. So all right, I guess that’s it for the iron mile. And that’s it for everything. Now, if you committed, I just want to highlight those athletes again to the lifetime or the year. Awesome. So glad to have you as part of the community. And you’re looking for that consistency and you really trust our training. So again, I appreciate that. I love this community. I love everybody listens to the podcast watching this on YouTube. Everyone in the Facebook group is just such an awesome and supportive community. And I mean, it’s been great in 2020 as much as 2020 has sucked in a lot of ways the community has been awesome. And so thanks for being awesome. If you are not a part of the awesomeness for some odd reason. Go to garage mathlete comm fix that reason, or fix that problem. You can sign up for a 14 day free trial and try out the training. See if you like it, I guarantee that you will if you don’t like it, it’s just a trial. It’s not a big deal. Just try it out. That’s what it trial is that’s it guys. That’s all we have for this podcast. Thanks for watching on the YouTube if you’re watching or listening if you’re on your podcast player peace