October 2, 2024 • 52 mins
Rebecca Rouse joins Nathan on the Cult of Recreationalism #podcast! Rebecca is an Olympic weightlifter, tactical strength and conditioning coach, entrepreneur, speaker, and founder of Semper Stronger. In this episode they talk about Rebecca's journey into weightlifting from the world of gymnastics, the importance of tactical strength training for first responders, and the role of breath work in performance. Rebecca shares insights on her experiences in the United Grid League, the significance of recovery practices like cold plunges and saunas, and her philosophy on discipline and consistency in training. And as always, they end with rapid fire questions. It's another great episode. Give it a listen!
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Rebecca Rouse and Her Journey
03:04 The Transition from Gymnastics to Weightlifting
06:00 The Evolution of Tactical Strength and Conditioning
09:08 The Importance of Physical Training for First Responders
11:46 The Role of Semper Stronger Foundation
14:50 Breath Work and Its Impact on Performance
18:00 The Benefits of Cold Plunge and Sauna
20:49 The Shift from Individual to Team Sports
24:05 The Experience of Competing in Grid League
26:51 The Importance of Consistency in Training and Recovery
30:06 Rapid Fire Questions and Personal Insights
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youtube.com/@UCm6BpEBqMx9obhtj4qBHYiA
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:13):
What's up everybody?
Welcome to the Cult of Recreationalism podcast.
I'm your host today, Nathan Morris, and we've got Rebecca Rouse.
Welcome, Rebecca.
Yeah, I saw you dance into our little jingle music.
-huh.
That's one of those.
I sent it to Sean.
He's more of a metal guy and he's like, I actually really like this.
I don't know why.
(00:33):
You start head bobbing.
Yeah, just sets the mood.
Yeah.
Cool, well guys, Rebecca, we have her today on the show.
Rebecca is a weightlifter, tactical strength and conditioning coach, entrepreneur,speaker, and founder of Simper Stronger.
anything that I missed in there?
(00:54):
Okay.
And then, so I'll start, put weightlifter was the first one on there, and I literally juststole that from your Instagram as far as how you describe yourself.
what was the meet you just did in Texas?
That was the American Open Series 2.
Okay, and how'd you do with that?
I did not have a good meet.
It was not my best day, but they can't all be, so that's okay, we move forward.
(01:18):
No, it's good to have the not great meets every once in a while.
I had a really good year up to that point, so I think every once in a while you need thatpunch in the gut to remind you that it's not always gonna be rainbows and butterflies and
just figure out what you can improve on and get back to work.
Yeah.
Do you have any other meets coming up this year?
I think I'll do one more local one just here outside of Dallas where I live and thenthat'll probably be it for this year and then I got Texas State in January.
(01:47):
Okay, cool.
What got you into weightlifting?
I got into weightlifting kind of on a whim.
I don't know, maybe isn't the right way to say it, but when I, was a competitive gymnastwhen I was little, all through my childhood.
And then I didn't do anything competitive as far as athletics go in high school orcollege.
And then I got my first job, started working in fitness and I've always loved strengthtraining and being strong and lifting weights, but I didn't think I'd ever compete again
(02:14):
after I stopped gymnastics when I was 15.
And then when I was 27, I just got the urge to compete in something.
I was kind of at a transitional point in my life and my career had just moved from Westcoast to East coast and decided to just kind of give me something to work towards and have
something external of my career to focus on.
I wanted to compete in something.
So I hired a coach and I said, I want to compete in something related to strength.
(02:37):
I'm kind of leaning towards either power lifting or weightlifting.
I just didn't know which one, which direction to go.
He himself was a weightlifting coach and
competitor, so being very biased, he obviously said weightlifting was the way to go, butalso with my gymnastics background, my mobility and my body awareness, he said those
things would lend themselves really well to weightlifting.
So I was like, cool, let's do it.
(02:57):
And then that was in 2018.
I did my first meet in 2019 and just stuck with it.
Here we are five years later.
Nice, that's awesome.
So I've done one Olympic lifting meet ever that was like five years ago probably at thispoint.
And I really didn't train a whole lot for it.
I just did some supplemental stuff along with, I own a CrossFit gym, so I was just doingsome supplemental ollie training.
(03:21):
But I started, doing an Olympic lifting meet on October 19th, the Colorado State Games.
And so, do know who Mike Service is?
He works with Power Monkey.
He's really good friends with like Chad Vaughn and all those guys.
yeah, he he's programming for me.
And he was like, if you do this, he's like, you you've got to be like, it's like, I don'twant to.
(03:44):
We're doing like a three month thing leading up to it.
Like can't what's out after one month.
And he's like, and you have to commit.
He's like, if I program it for you, if I program you arrest it, you have to take it.
And I was like, yeah, I'm in.
Let's try it.
So so far, like knock on wood.
It's been going good.
They're definitely, like you were saying, been some days though where it's like, well thatsucked.
(04:07):
But it's made the good ones.
It's like, hitting some things from the hang I haven't hit in a long time.
Like this is fun.
yeah.
Nice, that's exciting.
this will be, you said this will be your second meet ever, but first one in quite a while.
Very cool.
Do you have numbers you're shooting for?
And, I, so there's, I, and I should know more about this, but I don't, there's anotherlike masters nationals or something in Tucson in December based off of numbers that I can
(04:34):
like hit regularly.
I should qualify for that for my weight class.
And then I'm in the 35 to 39 masters.
but like numbers that I know I can hit even on like not a great day, I should be able toqualify for that.
So I was like, okay, that's kind of my goal.
I just want to do it and compete and like have fun and everybody says that, but in theback of their mind, they have like, no, I want to do.
(04:57):
but yeah, it'd really cool to qualify for that.
And, yeah.
That's exciting.
I'm excited to hear about it.
You have to let me know how it goes.
Yeah, I will for sure.
so gymnastics growing up, but then it kind of fizzled out as you hit high school.
Is that?
Yep, I was in eighth grade and it's kind of a crossroads point for a lot of gymnasts whogrow up in the sport because high school is getting ready to go to college and you kind of
(05:24):
have to decide, am I going to pursue gymnastics in college or am I not?
Or if I'm going to try to go beyond that and go get to the elite level.
And I was kind of in the middle.
I knew academics were really important to me and getting into a good school and all thatwas really important to me too.
So I had to make that decision.
And I was leaning towards not continuing into high school.
And then four days before the state championships, when I was in eighth grade, Idislocated my knee.
(05:47):
And I couldn't compete at the state, obviously, four days later.
And so that was pretty much the end for me.
And it kind of made that decision a little easier.
And it just solidified that I was going to stop gymnastics and then focus on academicsgoing into high school, which is what I did.
And then, so focused on academics in high school, went to college.
Where'd you go to college?
Okay, cool.
(06:07):
And are you from the East Coast?
I'm not, I'm from Southern California.
Okay, so you went cross country to, what prompted that?
Just change the scenery.
I grew up, my whole childhood in California.
Most of my high school friends were staying local and going to all the UC or the Cal Stateschools.
And I just decided kind of on a whim, again, on a whim, not really on a whim.
(06:28):
It was well thought out, but just figured I have four years to try something new.
And if I don't like it, I can come back after four years and return home.
If I do like it, great.
At least I get a chance to live somewhere else, see something else.
And I did that.
and I have no regrets, that's where I met my now husband.
So we've been moving every two to three years since, so it's been a journey.
(06:49):
And you're moving because military stuff or what's?
Yeah.
And so what happened after college?
What did you do then?
After college, did, so my last semester of college was an internship.
I studied public health.
And so I did an internship in Quantico at the Marine Corps base there, which is where myhusband was going through training, his officer training, kind of the first installment of
(07:12):
that.
And then after that, he got stationed for another bout of training in California, which iswhere I'm from.
So he went out into the middle of nowhere for a year doing training there as a recentcollege graduate with two degrees and no job.
That was just not the place to go.
So I moved back in with my parents for that year while he was in training.
I wasn't going to see him that much anyway.
So I got a job as a personal trainer at a gym and figured I would do that for a year whilehe was in training.
(07:34):
And then after that, we would kind of regroup our life and figure out what came next.
And it was game changing.
It was the catalyst for basically everything that I got into in the later years.
So I fell in love with fitness, fell in love with training, helping people get stronger,reach their fitness goals, and at the same time working towards my own goals.
So I'm learning about
I'm learning about fitness and helping people change their lives and their bodies while atthe same time experimenting with different types of strength training with my own journey
(07:59):
and everything else just kind of fell into place and I fell in love with that career fieldand path and stayed on it ever since.
And then because now it's you like tactical strength and conditioning is kind of sorry mydog is moving around that couch is kind of loud I don't know if you can hear that or not
Okay, cool.
If you're an audio listener, my dog just peeked into like the camera for a little bit butBut so like tactical strength and conditioning.
(08:25):
I know like that's I Don't want to say it's like a buzzword, but it's something likealmost newer that's come on the scene in the last like five to ten years
Totally.
What differentiates tactical strength and conditioning from traditional strength andconditioning?
it's who I'm working with, the population.
So tactical strength and conditioning focuses specifically on men and women who serve insome capacity and uniform.
(08:47):
So military, first responders, know, law enforcement, firefighters, EMS, that type ofthing.
that really came about in my life in the last two years or so.
I've always been, it's always been something I'm passionate about because I'm married to aMarine, but it wasn't something I really looked into from a professional standpoint until
the last two, three years after seeing him go through some of what he went through.
(09:08):
related combat related injuries, brain injury and things like that.
Just seeing how much service members put their bodies through in their time and serviceand how lacking when it comes to resources for physical training, recovery, nutrition,
they just, they're expected to perform like athletes and serve other people.
(09:28):
Athletes are more for entertainment.
This is for saving people's lives, protecting our country, protecting our communities, butthey don't get the same largely.
there are exceptions, largely with special operations, et cetera, but for conventionalmilitary and for our first responders, there's really not a lot when it comes to training
and education on the things that matter when it comes to preserving their bodies,preserving their brains, and having a decent quality of life during their time, but also
(09:53):
after their time when they're no longer serving, what is their life gonna look like, andwhat have they sacrificed when it comes to all of that for their physical and mental
health?
So that's what I'm really passionate about now, and that's what I'm doing professionally.
That's cool.
And so do you travel quite a bit for that?
Like, are you visiting like, what does that look like for you, like on the work side?
It varies.
(10:14):
It actually started out here locally in Dallas.
There's a neurology clinic that treats, they have a program specifically for post -9 -11combat veterans, and they've recently expanded it to include first responders who are
suffering from traumatic brain injury, sustained in combat or in the line of duty.
And so they treat people who are experiencing brain injury symptoms.
(10:35):
so my husband Joel, he got to go through that program.
And while he was going through it, he got to talk to the doctors about...
what are they, you he kind of asked them, what are you guys doing from a physicalstandpoint?
We understand the brain treatment, but what about the body?
Because they work so closely together, it kind of makes sense to work on both.
So fast forward, I became part of that program.
created a curriculum from scratch, implemented it, and now we work as part of that programas well.
(10:56):
So whenever they have veterans or first responders going through that treatment program,I'm there working with them, providing physical movement coaching, mobility, stability,
strength, balance and coordination, kind all the things that they've lost as a result oftheir brain injury.
So I do that here locally.
In addition to that, I do travel.
I do work with departments or units.
I provide seminars, workshops, hands -on or virtual, and just talk about the things that Iknow and I'm passionate about.
(11:22):
And I know it will help them from a physical and mental restoration standpoint.
So how to train effectively in the gym in a way that translates to what their day -to -dayjob looks like out in the field or wherever they're serving.
And then how to sleep and recover from all the things that they put their brains andbodies through, how to fuel.
for all of those things, so nutrition, hydration, kind of full scope of wellness,physical, mental wellness.
(11:46):
That's really cool.
It's been kind of interesting.
for me, just owning a gym, it's like I have firefighters and police officers and all thatin there.
And it's one of those like, I'm happy to offer.
I think every CrossFit gym does, or for like military and first responders does some sortof discount, even if it's just like 20 bucks.
But it's like, yeah, like you guys need to be fit to do what you're like.
(12:07):
When the paramedic comes, if I get hit, I like, I want them to get there faster.
So I'm going to make sure that I'm going do my part to make sure they're in shape.
for sure.
But it's been kind of cool because growing up, feel like it was kind of a joke in myhometown of all of the cops were overweight.
And I ran cross country and it's like, you know, if I wanted to break the law, they're notgoing to catch me.
(12:31):
Yeah.
So it's kind of been cool to see that changing, especially over the last 10, 20 years.
The shift of, no, I need to be able to perform to do my job and people taking that moreseriously.
It's been really cool to watch that happen.
and see that happen.
Yeah, it's a real career field now in strength and conditioning, and there's acertification just for that, which is what I pursued in 2022.
(12:53):
So instead of just the CSCS, which is kind of the gold standard for strength andconditioning for athletes, the tactical strength and conditioning is a whole other
textbook and certification that someone can pursue just to understand better what ourservice members and first responders have to undergo when it comes to the environments
they're working in, the climate, the weather, the...
(13:13):
just anything and everything that they might encounter, the different schedules, shiftwork, things that regular sport athletes do not have to really worry about.
Yeah, it's the, you have to perform, but it's like, no, you're being woken up at 3 a andhave to perform and you were in the REM cycle and it's not like you're rested up and ready
to go at 2 p tomorrow afternoon exactly.
(13:35):
So, cool.
So is that part of like what you're doing with that clinic in Dallas, is that through, isSemper stronger the one doing that or is that a separate organization?
It's a combination.
the neurology clinic is, it's just a clinic that have doctors and providers there.
And then the funding, so the program that treats veterans and first responders iscompletely funded by nonprofit.
(13:59):
And there's a few different nonprofits that funds the brain treatment side.
And then we created our own nonprofit, the Semper Stronger Foundation, which is our 501C3that provides the funding for the.
physical movement training.
So that's our nonprofit.
We also have our business.
they're both, they're Semper Stronger is the business Semper Stronger Foundation is anonprofit.
So they're similar, but the business Semper Stronger is more of just general populationwhere we're providing fitness programming and we have an app and nutrition resources and
(14:27):
we have a membership and community online.
And that's we've had that since 2020, the nonprofit we started last year.
Okay, cool.
I didn't realize it was two separate organizations.
I thought it was all the nonprofit.
I didn't realize there was the other side of it too.
So if people want to find, we're talking about it, if people want to find that, where dothey go?
SemperStronger .com or to my Instagram or my husband's Instagram.
(14:50):
Cool.
Yeah, no, I spent a little bit of time going to the site and it's like, this is reallycool.
Yeah, sorry.
I'm kind of rambling about that, but it was just really cool.
Like, dang, they're taking this seriously.
This is really cool to see.
I used to work at a nonprofit.
That was actually how I met Sean from Bubz.
He was volunteering some time and helping with it, so I got to meet him while I was doingthat.
(15:14):
it's really cool when you see nonprofits who are doing like...
able to do things with, especially running lean and all that.
so it was just kind of cool to see all that.
Yeah, definitely.
I knew nothing about the nonprofit world until we got started with our own and there is alot to learn.
It's a whole other animal.
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
(15:35):
Yeah, it's funny.
I don't know which one it was a part of, but I remember there was a while back, like,like, Bubb's Instagram and stuff, like, I'm in there running stuff, and I saw when you
were doing a, I think it was an online presentation, and you're like, yep, I built outlike 40 slides, got through 15 or 20 or something like that, and I was like, I get that.
It's like, I had a two -hour presentation, only got through half of the information.
(16:00):
So what kind of like speaking are you doing when you're doing that?
Like is it, I'm sure you could speak about the nutrition side, the training side and allthat.
Do you have like something that you really hone in on?
It kind of depends on who I'm speaking to and what they need.
So anytime I'm going to do a speaking engagement, it depends on how much time I have.
Do I have 30 minutes?
Do I have four hours?
(16:20):
Do have eight hours?
And I tailor it to the time that I'm given and the priorities of the audience to whom I'mspeaking.
if it's a, for example, I'm going to Kentucky to speak to a law enforcement department ina couple of weeks and I have a four hour block of time and their priorities were sleep and
recovery.
And then they wanted to learn about kettlebell training specifically for law enforcementbecause they have a full
(16:40):
decked out gym in their department.
So I'm gonna do two hours in the classroom and two hours in the gym.
And the two hours in the classroom are gonna be focused on sleep and recovery.
And then we're gonna go hands on and do some kettlebell training.
So that's what I'm doing for them.
I've done a couple of, spoken at a couple of conferences to mostly law enforcement.
And they, again, it kind of depends.
(17:01):
What I've done up to this point, just through figuring out what I'm gonna be speakingabout and kind of a general framework for myself, I have four pillars that I've,
I feel confident I can speak about and provide value.
So I have movement, have nourishment, I have recovery and then breath work.
And I feel like those four things kind of encompass wellness that will apply to,regardless of what the population is, if it's military, if it's law enforcement, if it's
(17:27):
firefighters, or really anybody for that matter.
But those are the four pillars that I have and I have a high level overview presentationthat goes into just a little bit of each of those four.
And then I've got a deep dive presentation on all four of those.
And so I can talk about all four and just go surface level.
I can go one, two, three, depending on what the audience needs and how much time I have.
And I can go a little bit deeper on any of the pillars.
(17:49):
So that's kind of how I've structured it.
you to go deeper on the breath work.
Like the other stuff I feel like a lot of people are familiar with but like when you'respeaking about breath work and the importance of that, talk about that for a little bit.
Sure, so our breath, we have, we're obviously going to breathe until we take our lastbreath.
We are going to breathe and that's pretty involuntary, right?
(18:12):
We don't have to think about it or be intentional about the fact that we are going tobreathe.
But how we breathe is in our control.
And I don't think a lot of people understand that you can alter your mental state and yourphysical state very, very quickly.
And I'm talking a matter of seconds just by altering how you breathe.
And that is basically learning how to control your nervous system, which is so incrediblyimportant for people who are handling weapons and dealing with suspects and in very, very
(18:36):
high pressure environments.
Being able to control your nervous system and the state of your being through a coupleseconds of breath work is so incredibly powerful and pivotal for those moments that
matter.
And so I like to talk about and have them experience up regulation and down regulation oftheir nervous system by just changing the breath.
So the ratio of time of the inhale versus the exhale is really all you need to experienceit you can do it in just a couple of breaths.
(19:03):
So if you have your inhale longer than your exhale, you're going to up -regulate yournervous system.
So you're gonna feel like you got pins and needles, you're gonna feel your adrenalinerising, your body temperature rising.
If you make your exhale longer than your inhale, you're going to bring about that state ofrelaxation and kind of down -regulation of the nervous system.
And so I have them experience that and then explain how that applies to what they do intheir day -to -day life.
(19:27):
So if they're trying to apprehend someone, they're trying to shoot accurately, the breathis everything, which is why if you've, anyone who's shot before, you take that exhale, you
bring that nervous system down, and then you take your shot, because you want to be calmand focused, not all over the place and scattered.
So I try to have them experience that.
And then when I go speak to the law enforcement department next week when we talk aboutkettlebells, anyone who's learned kettlebells,
(19:50):
the breath is very much a part of kettlebell training too.
So learning how to pair your breath or any exercise for that matter, right?
Breathing is so important.
And so understanding how to manipulate the breath to control the nervous system.
can control your breath, control your physiology and your psychology.
Yeah, that's cool.
did you go like for training for like breath work and all that?
(20:10):
Where did you?
How did you go about that?
Just through my, a lot of it was through learning about kettlebells.
I have a strong first certification.
There's a whole bit about breath work when it comes to that and understanding the tensionrelaxation principle, which is kind of the same thing as the inhale exhale thing.
And then I have some friends who have done some really rigorous training with breath workand I've learned from them, not in any kind of formal capacity, but just through talking
(20:36):
to them, experiencing some breath work training and just reading a lot and doing a lot oftrial and error on myself.
has been a great way to learn too, but I take in as much information as I can fromcredible sources.
It's kind of cool.
It's one I haven't got.
I haven't like deep dived into it, but the like box breathing and stuff like that, likewhere it's like four seconds in four second hold, four second out, four second hold.
(21:00):
It's actually the holds that are the hardest for me.
Like it's like you're saying like, yeah, you breathe every day in and out.
It's fine.
like sitting there and like trying to like bring your heart rate down and like exhale andthen wait four seconds before starting to inhale.
I don't know why.
Like it's just my brain.
I can do it, but it takes me longer than what I would think it should to get to thatpoint.
(21:23):
Yeah.
I did a Wim Hof workshop.
my gosh, this was 2019 probably.
So that was kind of my very first introduction to it, I think, was we did the ice bath andwe did the breathing and all that stuff.
And I was like, at the time I was not in a place to even comprehend or appreciate all ofthat.
But over the years, as I've gone through my own journey and learned to how in highpressure situations that I've been through competing on the weightlifting platform, which
(21:46):
you've experienced and will do again soon, there's a lot of stress and pressure.
and you need to perform.
Obviously, my life's not on the line, and nobody else's life is on the line, but learninghow to control my breath and control my physiology and my nerves before I go out on the
platform has been really powerful.
Same thing with public speaking and just exposing myself to those types of stimuli thatcreate that stress response and then learning every single time there's an opportunity to
(22:11):
learn how to regulate that and control it.
And it always makes me a better person for it.
It's yeah, it's kind of cool.
It's for me personally, like training when I'm doing my Olympic lifting training, I have athing in my gym where it's like, Hey, if a class is going on, there's no open gym time,
but we can do open gym, outside of classes.
And so it's been a lot of me training by myself or just like one or two other peoplearound.
(22:36):
And there's a physical therapist who sets up there and he's awesome.
And he's got a few clients that come in regularly and one of them only listens to countrymusic.
And.
When I'm training, that's like the absolute last thing I want to listen to.
Just personally, nothing against country music, but I don't like training to it.
And, but I was like, you know what?
(22:58):
I should train to this today.
Like I should train there.
like, I have no idea what kind of music they're going to be playing.
If they're going to be playing music there.
Like I've trained in silence a couple of times, like when I'm there by myself, I'm like, Ihave to be able to perform under no, like whatever circumstance there is.
it's like, might as well expose myself to it now.
And so it's not new whenever I get there.
So true.
Yeah, I don't think many people think about that or appreciate that, but I think there's alot of value to doing that.
(23:23):
Yeah.
Like the amount of times I've trained to a podcast or like gone out for a run, like justlistening to a podcast and people like, you don't want to like amp yourself up and like,
no, if I can do this, then it's really easy if there's like high intensity music.
So yeah.
I used to listen to music all the time when I trained and now the coach I've been workingwith for the last three years, he is 77 years old and he is hard of hearing.
(23:45):
And so even though we're in a two car garage when we train, there's music on or even ifthere's no music on and I'm facing away from him, I'll have to repeat myself.
He won't hear me.
So we nixed music like two years ago when he was about 75.
And ever since I've been training, it's just the sound of barbells dropping and
(24:05):
a little bit of conversation, but for the most part it's just silence and I've learned toembrace it and now I don't, which has actually been really good because I don't need music
now.
can get myself amped up inside my own body, my own mind, and I don't need music and if Ido have it, I have that much more of that external motivation, but I've learned to just
find it within, which has been, I think, beneficial.
(24:25):
So what happens if you have friends come over to train with you?
Are they like, why is it so quiet in here?
I train by myself most of the time, I don't train with other people that often, but I'llturn music on, I don't mind it.
I'm very adaptable in that way, so it works.
yeah.
And then we talked about like you mentioned Wim Hof a little bit like ice bath and stuffbecause you have an ice bath and do you have a sauna as well?
(24:54):
How often do you use those and like and how do you use them?
I am in the sauna five to six nights a week, so almost every day.
And I'm in the cold plunge.
I was really, really religious about cold plunging every single day.
No questions asked for a good year, the first year I got it.
And now I'm doing it probably three days a week, maybe four, three days a week, let's say.
(25:15):
So, and I do the cold in the morning and then I do the hot in the evening.
And there's a reason for that, a couple of reasons.
So the cold in the morning one is it's gonna boost the adrenaline a lot.
you've, anyone who's gotten in cold water is very -
familiar with this experience, but you get in cold water, your body is just light enough,like you are on a whole other level when you get out of that cold bath.
So it boosts the adrenaline, it boosts the dopamine, so you're just buzzing on this highenergy vibe for a few hours.
(25:42):
And so I do that in the morning also because I'm training heavy and training hard four orfive days a week.
And so I wake up in the morning sometimes feeling a little bit like the Tin Man fromstiffness and soreness and inflammation, which is normal.
So if I get in there, I immediately feel like I shed that, at least the top layer ofinflammation.
And then I start moving and feeling a little bit better after that.
(26:04):
So I do that in the morning also because we don't want to do it after training.
If you're training for strength or hypertrophy, you don't want to get into cold for aboutsix to eight hours after because you can dampen that stimulus of that inflammation that
you need post -training.
So we definitely don't want to do cold after training.
So I just get it done in the morning.
And then I do heat in the evening.
One, because it just.
love the way that sauna feels at end of the day.
(26:26):
It's kind of like my barrier between the day and the night.
And it's just helps me transition into going from wakefulness into sleepiness.
And it's that catalyst for me.
So I think part of it's just, I've conditioned myself now to know that sauna equalswinding down from the day, getting ready for bed.
And then there's also a physiological reason for it too, because when you, in order for usto fall asleep and stay asleep, our body temperature has to drop one to two degrees
(26:50):
Fahrenheit.
And the elevation of body temperature by way of sauna or hot bath will actually cause thereverse effects.
When you get out of the sauna, your body temperature is elevated.
And then the natural response to that is, I'm really hot.
I need to cool myself down.
And so that cool down process will happen a lot faster.
And then within about 20 to 30 minutes after getting out of the sauna, rinse off, I amlike zonked and ready to fall asleep.
(27:13):
And so it's just a very effective and efficient way to transition from the day into thenight and then into sleep.
That's one of those, I never researched it, but just kind of figured that out.
I think I was traveling and the Airbnb or the hotel we were staying at had a sauna.
And was late at night, like, I'm gonna hop, we have access to it, I never get to do this.
(27:35):
And I slept so good that night.
And I usually don't sleep that well when I travel.
So I just kind of kept doing it and then a little bit of research.
so now, I always shower at night, because I hate getting into my bed dirty.
I want to get in there clean.
But then as I realized, just pushed off, I just take a shower, a hot shower right before Igo to bed.
(27:56):
I notice a difference if I don't do that.
Where it takes me longer to fall asleep and all that.
Yep, now you know why, there's science behind it.
Mm -hmm.
Science.
Cool.
So you do the cold plunge because it the adrenaline pumping in the morning.
You also drink coffee in the morning, I know.
Obviously, I don't miss a day.
(28:18):
Cheers.
I'm on my second cup right now.
Usually I'm a two cup a day consistent.
Any more than that might be a little bit too much caffeine for me, but one is just notenough.
Yeah.
And then do you have to like cut yourself off at it?
know you cut yourself off at two, but if you drink it past a certain time, do you have ahard time falling asleep?
Yeah, I actually cut myself off like no later than noon, sometimes 11.
(28:40):
So I just know my body.
I'm very sensitive to caffeine.
Everyone's sensitivity level is a little different.
Everyone's, what's the word I'm looking for?
The metabolism, like how fast you metabolize caffeine.
Everyone's a little different, but I know my body.
And if I have caffeine like eight to 10 hours per bed, it will affect my sleep.
And I'm just not about that life.
I gotta sleep.
(29:01):
Yeah, I can for me I found it really is it's like noon or like 1201 if I have any at 1201or later and I don't know why it works that way it's like I'm up until 4 a And it was
funny that physical therapist I was mentioning that who works out of my gym He they had ababy actually have another one on the way But like after he had the baby was like every
(29:22):
day I'd go and he's like do You want to make some coffee like he had never really askedthat for him like yeah, man I'll make us some coffee and then it's kind of turned into our
thing
and then, there's times where it's like two and he's like, Hey, so I was like, I can'tright now.
If you're working, I'll make you some.
don't care.
Like, I'll start a pot for you, but yeah.
Yeah, it's hard too when everyone, like you love, we love coffee.
(29:44):
And so when it's two or three in the afternoon and you smell someone else who's drinkingcoffee and you're like, I want it so bad.
And there, in the past, there were times when I would give in and I would have it.
And then I obviously would pay the price later and not sleep.
now that sleep, being a athlete and at the level that I am, like I will do very few thingsvoluntarily to sacrifice sleep.
And so the caffeine after noon had to go.
(30:06):
Yeah.
What a, and then, you're competing not just in Olympic weightlifting, you're also likegrid league and is there anything else that you're doing outside of those two?
Nope, those two are plenty.
My body, thankfully, is holding up okay so far, but those two give me plenty to keep busywith physical activity.
What's Grid League like?
Like, what's it like competing for Grid League?
(30:28):
It is wildly different than weightlifting and it's a lot of fun in all the waysweightlifting is not.
I mean, if you've competed in weightlifting, which you know, the meets are very quiet.
Everyone's very focused.
Everyone is very into themselves and it's just not a high energy type of environment atall.
(30:49):
And grid league is a complete opposite.
It is so high energy.
I'm sure it's similar to CrossFit.
I've not done CrossFit competition, so I don't know, but.
I'm sure it's very similar in that way.
Everyone's yelling and screaming and supporting each other and there's music and it'speople are just cheering.
It's like, can't even describe it.
You kind of have to be there in order to feel that energy.
Even watching it on YouTube, you don't get the same, but it's really, really fun.
(31:11):
And then this is my first time playing a team sport.
I've been an individual sport athlete.
For all of the years I competed growing up in gymnastics and then weightlifting.
So this is my first time being a part of a team and it's been a lot of fun, challenging,but fun.
yeah, I was going to ask you about that.
Cause like you're going from working out quietly in your garage to you're now on a team.
And like, do you, do you think that helps?
(31:32):
Like, does that help you?
Does it hurt you?
Like the, are there benefits to being on a team?
Like, I know that's a silly question, but I just, I'm trying to start a conversation aboutit.
no, I think it's it's different.
I think when when you're on your own, when you're in an individual sport, everything thathappens or fails to happen is on you and I guess partially the coach.
But it's more pressure.
(31:55):
But also, you know that like you did everything you could.
And that's all that matters.
Like what anyone else is doing, it doesn't make a difference.
This is just me and my time.
And so you can train hard and know that like if your training paid off, it's going to gowell for you.
And then hopefully, and then when it comes to the team sport, you could train hard and youcould have all your own ducks in a row and you could do the best performance that you do.
(32:17):
But if your team isn't up to speed or your teammates aren't working as hard or they're notpulling their weight, like you still might not have the outcome that you want.
So it's not just about your own effort and your own performance.
It's about 15 other people's performance and effort at the same time.
So it's been interesting.
Also the personality differences, just different characters and different people.
(32:39):
and personalities on the team has been interesting.
Being a remote athlete, so my team's in Florida and I'm in Texas.
There's two people on the team, myself and one other guy who are remote.
Everybody else is in Tampa.
So there are challenges being a team sport that's very strategy -based, being that I'mcalling in on Zoom for my, or on Facebook Messenger for our team practices.
So there are some elements of that that are challenging, but when we get together for gameday, it all seems to fall into place.
(33:04):
So.
It's been good.
I'm glad I signed up for it, even though I had no idea what I was getting into, but it'sbeen going okay.
So for that to start, did they reach out to you or were they like, hey, we need like, weneed a weightlifter or like, how did that happen?
Yeah, so the way that grid works is there are three different positions, quote unquote.
There's body weight specialists, there's strength specialists, and then there's utilityplayer.
(33:27):
So the body weight specialists are kind of doing more of the gymnastics stuff, handstandsand rings and back flips and burpees and all the kinds of crazy stuff you see.
And then the strength specialists are more barbell based people.
So anything from strong man, powerlifting, Olympic lifting, just conventional strengthtraining, but people who tend to be bigger and stronger.
And then the utility players are generally cross fitters who can do a little bit ofeverything.
(33:50):
So the people that can do the rings, can do kettlebells, can do barbells, they can do bodyweights, so they kind of have it all.
So those are the three positions.
And so I was contacted by the team captain.
They needed a female strength specialist.
And so I was able to do all of the things that I needed to do.
was lower weight than I'm used to working at because for weightlifting, it's always closeto 85 % plus.
(34:13):
So these weights were not hard, but the stuff I had to do for the tryout was way higherreps than I was used to.
So I was like, wait a minute, have to 10 reps?
I don't even know what that means.
Weightlifters can't compute 10 reps.
So yeah, was very cardio, very much cardio.
So that was interesting, but I've gotten a little bit better at it over the last couple ofmonths, having been on the team.
(34:33):
as having the gymnastics background too, even though was recruited as a strengthspecialist, I can still also do some of the gymnastics, the handstand stuff, also the
kettlebell stuff.
strength, focus, but also a little bit of utility in that I can kind of do most of thethings that the utility players do.
Because I've not ever really done crossfit, I'm not really good on the rings and climbingropes, that stuff I just never had access to.
(34:55):
So everything else I can do decently well.
I was going to ask if they ever like throw you into like some of the gymnastics stuff justbecause of your background.
Yeah, the first match we had, they had to have someone do aerials, which if you don't knowan aerial is no handed cartwheel.
Yeah.
So I had not done one since I was probably 15, 16 years old and they needed two for twodifferent races.
(35:16):
They needed people doing aerials.
So we have one girl who was a gymnast for a long time too.
She could crush them.
No problem.
I was like, I know it's in my memory bank somewhere, but I might break myself in theprocess of trying, but let's see what happens.
So I did it and it came back like first rep.
I was able to do it and I couldn't believe it had been.
over 15 years since I had done it, but I was able to do it and my body survived.
(35:38):
So like when you're getting ready to set up for that, like, you know you're capable ofdoing it, but you're like, hey guys, go grab all of the mats that we have and put them
out.
Or was it like just on a floor and you did it?
They had one of the gymnastics landing mats.
I did, my kind of buildup to it was a couple of regular cartwheels, fast, and then acouple of one -handed cartwheels.
(36:01):
And then after I think two or three one -handed cartwheels, I was like, all right, sendit.
And then I tried it, landed on the mat and it was fine.
And then on the actual competition, there was no mat in the actual match.
So it was just on the rubber floor.
And I was used to doing everything barefoot, because in gymnastics you don't wear shoes,but for this they don't allow barefoot.
in competition, so I had to wear minimalist shoes and it went okay.
(36:22):
Nice.
What did that feel like when you're in that moment, you like, hell yes, I still got this?
What did that feel like?
I was pumped.
really, it was kind of one of those like my mind's telling me yes, but let's see what mybody says.
And I was pretty stoked that I could still do it.
And I think it's kind of a further proof that when we learn stuff, when we're a kid, whenwe're young, the brain retains so much more of it than when you try to learn something as
(36:51):
an adult and it's just neuroplasticity.
Like the brain is always changing and always evolving.
And when we're young and then after like when we're in our mid twenties, that processstarts to slow down.
which is why if you try to learn a language, I started learning Spanish when I was a kidand I still remember and I know a lot of Spanish and I studied it through school, but try
to learn any new skill, new language, new anything when you're like in your mid thirtiesand it's like you have to try so much harder.
(37:16):
And so I didn't really appreciate that until going through some of these types ofexperiences where I'm like, wow, my body can still do that.
And thank God I've kept up with being physically active.
If I hadn't done anything in 15 years and that would have been a different story becauseI've stayed active, I've stayed strong, I have good mobility.
my body was able to handle it.
That's cool.
What was the other team like?
Wait, no, that's the weightlifter.
(37:36):
She's not allowed to do aerials.
Yeah, so that's the other thing too with grid is like you you are whatever position youare But there's no rule that a strength specialist has to do that movement.
It's really whoever can do it the best the fastest Most consistently and there's a lot ofsteps where it's kind of the strategy piece of grid lead comes in Where you have to pick
the best person for the job But also know that fatigue has to be managed across the entireteam So yeah, you might have one rock star person that can do everything but you can't
(38:03):
have them do everything because then they're gonna be no good for
anything, they're going to be so overworked and exhausted and risk injury.
So you have to divide it among all of the talent.
that's kind of a tangent.
But yeah, I think people were surprised.
I was surprised that I could still do some of that stuff after all those years.
Cool.
(38:23):
Yeah, it's funny.
You're talking about neuroplasticity.
There's a few things that come out now where it's like, yeah, I can still do that.
Handstands, growing up, my brother and I would just, we did martial arts and it was one ofthose, it was not part of it, but it was this big floor with padded mats and all that.
(38:43):
And so after class, was like, right, gotta walk, handstand walk to the door.
And it one of those, was 16, 17, 18 years old.
It was just.
messing around, trying it.
And then when I started doing CrossFit, was like, it just came right back.
It was like, maybe not like right on the first one, but like, I just kind of got up andwas able to handstand walk.
it was, the coach was like, do you have a gymnastics background?
(39:05):
I was like, no.
And he was like, why are you good at that?
Like one time for a while, my brother and I just kind of got really into it.
And I guess I still have it.
So yeah, that's cool.
Well, yeah.
Do you have any speaking engagements coming up?
Yeah, the next one was what I was telling you about in October.
(39:26):
I'm going to let the Lexington Police Department for a four hour.
It's a full day, two four hour seminars and basically do the same thing twice.
That's going to be the recovery and then the kettlebells.
So that's my next one on deck.
And then I've got in 2025, I just signed on as a an instructor with the Texas TacticalPolice Officers Association.
So it's basically a organization that offers different types of training and all differenttypes of arenas for that law enforcement need to be well trained in.
(39:53):
And so I just got contracted with them as a wellness instructor.
So I'm going to be hosting workshops for the different regions.
The state of Texas is so big, there's eight regions for the state.
So I'm going to be doing a presentation, a full day eight hour workshop with one of theregions.
The region where I live was, I think, region seven.
So I'll be doing that in January, right first week of the new year.
And then their annual conference for the entire organization is in April.
(40:17):
So I'm going to be doing a whole, I think, one or two day presentation there.
for any, I think there's gonna be close to thousand attendees.
So those are gonna be some big ones on deck and I'm hoping to just get more opportunities.
You the more you do, the more you get yourself out there, the more people see you, themore opportunities you'll generate from that.
So that's what I'm hoping for.
In 2025, I'd like to be doing a lot more speaking engagements and workshops and things inperson.
(40:38):
That's cool.
And actually the reason I was asking, I was like, are there speaking engagements?
Those ones sounds like they're not closed doors, but they're like four specific audiences.
Like, do you have any like public ones coming up that if people are interested, they couldcome see or see online.
So far no, but that's the goal.
Yeah.
you do, we will help post about it from the bubs account, so yeah.
(41:02):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, cool.
We talked about a lot.
I always have a set of rapid fire questions I ask at the end.
Just kind of fun thing.
Yeah, it's nothing crazy, but clear your mind, close your eyes, clear your mind.
Okay, open your eyes back up.
Rebecca Rouse, what was your first job?
(41:23):
My first job, I was a tutor for younger kids when I was in high school.
I started tutoring kids who were struggling academically.
What, like was it a specific subject?
Spanish, English, none of the math science stuff, but mostly the Spanish and English.
Okay, cool.
Do you prefer tall socks or short socks?
(41:45):
If you'd asked me a year ago to send short socks, but I'm really into the tall socks now.
Just started a stock company actually, my husband and I just on a whim.
Here's the third time on it.
We're doing a lot of things on a whim, but we started a little stock company.
We got three styles right now.
WearForce1 .store.
I'll send you the link.
Okay, yeah, I'll throw it all in there.
I did not know that.
(42:05):
I just threw that in there because I had a conversation like, yeah, Gen Z, they're allabout the taller socks now.
And I was like, that's a thing?
They're like, yeah, if you wear short socks, it means you're a boomer.
yep.
I mean, my dad would always wear the dad socks, the like mid -shin socks.
And I was like, what are these horrible white socks you're wearing?
And now it's like everybody, so then he bought all no -show socks because it was cool.
(42:28):
And now the high socks are back and he was like, well, thanks for nothing.
That's yeah, no, that's like, like, what was it like 10 years ago?
Like when stent socks got really big and it was like everybody had those.
And I, so if my feet are hot, everything is hot.
So like, especially at Colorado in the summer, like it gets hot out here.
It's like I'm barefoot or I'm wearing like, I go no socks or really short socks.
(42:51):
And so it's only like in the winter will I wear tall socks.
and even then it's like sometimes too much, but yeah.
this one will be interesting since you're from Texas.
Rank these from best to worst.
Salsa queso guacamole.
that's easy.
Guacamole, salsa, queso.
Okay, so Queso's a lot of people that's what we found is like we have people from TexasQueso is usually number one.
(43:17):
Well, I'm not from Texas originally.
I'm from California.
So salsa and guacamole.
Yeah, cool.
You're really active on social media and Instagram and all that.
Do you have any hobbies or interests that people don't see or that you don't share withsocial media?
That's a really good question.
(43:37):
Hobbies or interests?
I'm a pretty open book.
My life is very boring and consistent and the same thing over and over.
So pretty much everything that I'm doing or do on a regular basis I share.
I, I, I, no, no, I'm not crocheting.
I can't think of anything.
(43:58):
No, if I do, I'll let you know.
Nothing comes to mind.
Do you have a mantra or a piece of advice that you live by?
No one's gonna be surprised by this, but discipline equals freedom is kind of my, that'slike the Jocko mantra, I guess.
I don't know if Jocko would call it a mantra, but that's kind of his slogan.
(44:21):
And I do think that it lends itself well to the way that I live my life when it comes toall the things that I do.
Everything requires discipline and it's the way that I've gotten to where I am.
I was actually just talking to my husband about this this morning.
Like I'm not really that talented in anything.
I've just worked really, really hard to be good at the things that I'm good at, but it allrequires a lot of discipline.
(44:43):
Discipline to train and show up even when I don't feel like it.
Discipline to eat well, eat the right things for my body, stay hydrated, sleep a ton, dothe sauna, do the cold plunge, work on my business, travel, like do all the things, like I
wouldn't be able to do everything that I'm doing if I wasn't disciplined in every arena,so.
And because of that, I'm able to live the life that I want and build the schedule that Iwant.
(45:05):
there's the freedom part is I'm setting myself up for the future that I want because ofthe discipline that I've instilled into my life now.
Yeah, I like that answer.
That's a good one.
And then, yeah, I know you said it's like no surprise, but as you talk about it, it'slike, yeah, this checks out, makes sense.
So, last one, what do do to relax?
(45:29):
I go on a walk once a day, if not twice a day, usually sunrise, sunset.
So that kind of sets the tone for the day and then ends, kind of bookends my days.
And then the sauna, and I like to read.
So I, because I train hard and I'm on a lot during the day, whether it's training or workor practicing work for my speaking engagements, there's a lot of brain power and physical
(45:51):
power that goes into everything that I do.
So I'm also as intentional about setting aside, setting aside time to.
unwind and relax so that I can get good quality sleep and be able to do it again tomorrow.
So I think that a lot of people understand and put the value on hard work, but I alsothink that taking the time to recover as hard is just as important and much more
(46:12):
overlooked by most quote high performers.
And so I think that that's that's been a really big important lesson I've learned throughmy own journey over the last couple of years is learning how to relax and why it's okay to
do so.
Yeah.
What, you mentioned reading.
What are you reading right now?
Right now I'm reading Outlive by Peter Attia.
(46:34):
It's about longevity and how to extend not just lifespan but health span.
Cool, that sounds good.
Do you typically go more non -fiction?
Yeah, I tend to.
Yeah, what's the last fiction book you read?
last affection I
you enjoyed?
Like what's the first one that comes to mind, I guess?
(46:54):
My goodness, the Dan Brown books, he wrote the Da Vinci Code and his whole series of, allthose were fiction, but really, really, really good.
Yeah, that's one of those I kind of missed it.
Like it was all of a sudden the movies were out and I never read the books.
And then it was like too far past it to where like, okay, there's other things out now.
(47:15):
So yeah.
one that comes to mind, but maybe there were others, I don't remember.
Yeah, cool.
We covered a lot today.
I know we mentioned, I'll throw links to Simper Stronger and stuff in the show notes andmake sure we share all those.
But if people want to learn more about you, take some time, promote whatever you want.
(47:37):
Cool, so the website for our business Semper Stronger is just semperstronger .com.
For the nonprofit is semperstrongerfoundation .org.
And then our new brand new sock shop is Wear Force One, W -E -A -R Force, and the numberone dot store.
We've got three different styles of socks that we are selling.
(47:59):
So we've got the patriotic socks called Patriot Socks, it's got the stars and stripes.
We've got the Don't Tread on Me, which have the snake.
And then we have the blaze socks, are pretty 90s throwback, like the flames.
They're black socks with the orange and yellow flames.
They're pretty rad if you were around in the 90s.
So we have those.
Those are my favorite ones.
It just reminds me of when flames paint on cars was a thing.
(48:23):
It just reminds me of that.
Yeah, it feels 90s to me.
So those are the three designs we start with.
We're to see how that goes.
And what else?
So then Instagram, I'm just that's where I'm most active on social media.
That would be at Rebecca dot Rouse.
And then our business is at Semper Stronger.
The stock page also has an Instagram where force one where force dot one where I don'teven remember.
(48:46):
I'll give it to you.
And then what else?
I don't know all of my
my partner organizations, so Bubs obviously is all my links to my partners are there,Jocko Fuel and Whoop, my Whoop group, just all the things that I do, Primal Beef.
I do, are you gonna Whoop?
I haven't had it in a while.
It was one of those, had to like, I had to take a break.
(49:09):
I was focusing too much on the numbers, so.
But I had it for a couple years, so.
I've been a whoop user a little over two years now.
It's been life -changing for me.
so whenever I have the opportunity to tell people about, doesn't have to be whoop, butjust get a little data, get a little insight.
There's a too much, there's a spectrum.
(49:30):
Not enough is not good, too much is not good.
But I think there is a lot of value in learning how your body is responding to the thingswe're doing or not doing in our life.
And especially if you are trying to sleep better, recover harder, all those things.
So it's helped me a lot.
Yeah, I was doing the like waking up too much and it was like, like just focusing on likethe green versus red, yellow, all that stuff.
(49:51):
So yeah, I was like, I'm just going to give myself a break on this a little bit.
And I've been looking into more like just like heart rate trackers and stuff for justworking out, but yeah.
that too.
feel like people, yeah, there's a lot of knowledge to be gained by getting more in tunewith your body and how it responds to things.
Yeah.
The thing I loved about it the most when I had it was actually the sleep tracking andsleep information.
(50:17):
that was like everything from like how I was sleeping when I was sleeping to, just likethe biggest thing for sleep was just consistency of going to bed at the same time.
and how I like physically felt like without looking at like, am I in the green?
Do I feel good today?
but like actually waking up and feeling really rested and ready to go.
(50:37):
So.
Totally.
Yeah, think people know that quality and quantity are super important.
I think unless you've been living under a rock, most people know that.
But consistency is that other one that's really overlooked.
Unfortunately for a lot of people, depending on their work schedule, people who workshifts, night shift, or deployed military personnel, there's not a lot they can do about
it.
that consistency, that getting that plus or minus 30 to 60 minutes, both sleep time andwake time, is so powerful for circadian health and circadian rhythm.
(51:05):
So I'm glad you mentioned that.
Yeah, the other one that was just kind of like fun to play around with on that was likewith the sleep score and all that.
was like, if I had a couple beers on a Saturday, like hanging out, if I would have it inthe afternoon at like one or two, or if I would have it at dinner, like my sleep score,
like one or two, and then I would sleep normally.
(51:26):
But if I had it later in the evening, it really dramatically negatively affected my sleep.
yeah, there goes your REM sleep.
Adios.
It's similar to caffeine, a little different, but kind of in terms of the timing.
There's no positive health benefits to drinking alcohol.
You could say that there are to caffeine, but if you are gonna do it, there is a bettertime, and that would be earlier in the day, further away from sleep, if you're gonna do it
(51:52):
at all.
Same with caffeine, we don't wanna do it too close to bedtime.
Cool.
Well, yeah, Rebecca, thank you so much for coming on.
I know it was kind of last minute, the, well, not last minute, but you hopped on and waslike, Hey, does next in the next couple of days working like, yeah, let's do it.
So thank you for that.
It makes my life easier.
(52:14):
but yeah.
And then, so guys, thank you for tuning in as always.
Thank you for listening and Cult of Recreationalism podcast is available on all podcastservices and YouTube if, and
Pretty much every social media we're on that as well.
If you type in bubs naturals, we're going to pop up.
We're going to be the first one.
and while you're there, leave us a five star review, leave us a thumbs up.
(52:36):
Every positive review helps.
And it means we get to keep doing these.
We can keep getting to talk to cool people like Rebecca and sharing stories andinformation.
So cool.
Rebecca, thanks so much for being on with us.
Thank you for having me.
Great talking to you.
What's up everybody?
Welcome to the Cult of Recreationalism podcast.
I'm your host today, Nathan Morris, and we've got Rebecca Rouse.
Welcome, Rebecca.
Yeah, I saw you dance into our little jingle music.
-huh.
That's one of those.
I sent it to Sean.
He's more of a metal guy and he's like, I actually really like this.
I don't know why.
(00:33):
You start head bobbing.
Yeah, just sets the mood.
Yeah.
Cool, well guys, Rebecca, we have her today on the show.
Rebecca is a weightlifter, tactical strength and conditioning coach, entrepreneur,speaker, and founder of Simper Stronger.
anything that I missed in there?
(00:54):
Okay.
And then, so I'll start, put weightlifter was the first one on there, and I literally juststole that from your Instagram as far as how you describe yourself.
what was the meet you just did in Texas?
That was the American Open Series 2.
Okay, and how'd you do with that?
I did not have a good meet.
It was not my best day, but they can't all be, so that's okay, we move forward.
(01:18):
No, it's good to have the not great meets every once in a while.
I had a really good year up to that point, so I think every once in a while you need thatpunch in the gut to remind you that it's not always gonna be rainbows and butterflies and
just figure out what you can improve on and get back to work.
Yeah.
Do you have any other meets coming up this year?
I think I'll do one more local one just here outside of Dallas where I live and thenthat'll probably be it for this year and then I got Texas State in January.
(01:47):
Okay, cool.
What got you into weightlifting?
I got into weightlifting kind of on a whim.
I don't know, maybe isn't the right way to say it, but when I, was a competitive gymnastwhen I was little, all through my childhood.
And then I didn't do anything competitive as far as athletics go in high school orcollege.
And then I got my first job, started working in fitness and I've always loved strengthtraining and being strong and lifting weights, but I didn't think I'd ever compete again
(02:14):
after I stopped gymnastics when I was 15.
And then when I was 27, I just got the urge to compete in something.
I was kind of at a transitional point in my life and my career had just moved from Westcoast to East coast and decided to just kind of give me something to work towards and have
something external of my career to focus on.
I wanted to compete in something.
So I hired a coach and I said, I want to compete in something related to strength.
(02:37):
I'm kind of leaning towards either power lifting or weightlifting.
I just didn't know which one, which direction to go.
He himself was a weightlifting coach and
competitor, so being very biased, he obviously said weightlifting was the way to go, butalso with my gymnastics background, my mobility and my body awareness, he said those
things would lend themselves really well to weightlifting.
So I was like, cool, let's do it.
(02:57):
And then that was in 2018.
I did my first meet in 2019 and just stuck with it.
Here we are five years later.
Nice, that's awesome.
So I've done one Olympic lifting meet ever that was like five years ago probably at thispoint.
And I really didn't train a whole lot for it.
I just did some supplemental stuff along with, I own a CrossFit gym, so I was just doingsome supplemental ollie training.
(03:21):
But I started, doing an Olympic lifting meet on October 19th, the Colorado State Games.
And so, do know who Mike Service is?
He works with Power Monkey.
He's really good friends with like Chad Vaughn and all those guys.
yeah, he he's programming for me.
And he was like, if you do this, he's like, you you've got to be like, it's like, I don'twant to.
(03:44):
We're doing like a three month thing leading up to it.
Like can't what's out after one month.
And he's like, and you have to commit.
He's like, if I program it for you, if I program you arrest it, you have to take it.
And I was like, yeah, I'm in.
Let's try it.
So so far, like knock on wood.
It's been going good.
They're definitely, like you were saying, been some days though where it's like, well thatsucked.
(04:07):
But it's made the good ones.
It's like, hitting some things from the hang I haven't hit in a long time.
Like this is fun.
yeah.
Nice, that's exciting.
this will be, you said this will be your second meet ever, but first one in quite a while.
Very cool.
Do you have numbers you're shooting for?
And, I, so there's, I, and I should know more about this, but I don't, there's anotherlike masters nationals or something in Tucson in December based off of numbers that I can
(04:34):
like hit regularly.
I should qualify for that for my weight class.
And then I'm in the 35 to 39 masters.
but like numbers that I know I can hit even on like not a great day, I should be able toqualify for that.
So I was like, okay, that's kind of my goal.
I just want to do it and compete and like have fun and everybody says that, but in theback of their mind, they have like, no, I want to do.
(04:57):
but yeah, it'd really cool to qualify for that.
And, yeah.
That's exciting.
I'm excited to hear about it.
You have to let me know how it goes.
Yeah, I will for sure.
so gymnastics growing up, but then it kind of fizzled out as you hit high school.
Is that?
Yep, I was in eighth grade and it's kind of a crossroads point for a lot of gymnasts whogrow up in the sport because high school is getting ready to go to college and you kind of
(05:24):
have to decide, am I going to pursue gymnastics in college or am I not?
Or if I'm going to try to go beyond that and go get to the elite level.
And I was kind of in the middle.
I knew academics were really important to me and getting into a good school and all thatwas really important to me too.
So I had to make that decision.
And I was leaning towards not continuing into high school.
And then four days before the state championships, when I was in eighth grade, Idislocated my knee.
(05:47):
And I couldn't compete at the state, obviously, four days later.
And so that was pretty much the end for me.
And it kind of made that decision a little easier.
And it just solidified that I was going to stop gymnastics and then focus on academicsgoing into high school, which is what I did.
And then, so focused on academics in high school, went to college.
Where'd you go to college?
Okay, cool.
(06:07):
And are you from the East Coast?
I'm not, I'm from Southern California.
Okay, so you went cross country to, what prompted that?
Just change the scenery.
I grew up, my whole childhood in California.
Most of my high school friends were staying local and going to all the UC or the Cal Stateschools.
And I just decided kind of on a whim, again, on a whim, not really on a whim.
(06:28):
It was well thought out, but just figured I have four years to try something new.
And if I don't like it, I can come back after four years and return home.
If I do like it, great.
At least I get a chance to live somewhere else, see something else.
And I did that.
and I have no regrets, that's where I met my now husband.
So we've been moving every two to three years since, so it's been a journey.
(06:49):
And you're moving because military stuff or what's?
Yeah.
And so what happened after college?
What did you do then?
After college, did, so my last semester of college was an internship.
I studied public health.
And so I did an internship in Quantico at the Marine Corps base there, which is where myhusband was going through training, his officer training, kind of the first installment of
(07:12):
that.
And then after that, he got stationed for another bout of training in California, which iswhere I'm from.
So he went out into the middle of nowhere for a year doing training there as a recentcollege graduate with two degrees and no job.
That was just not the place to go.
So I moved back in with my parents for that year while he was in training.
I wasn't going to see him that much anyway.
So I got a job as a personal trainer at a gym and figured I would do that for a year whilehe was in training.
(07:34):
And then after that, we would kind of regroup our life and figure out what came next.
And it was game changing.
It was the catalyst for basically everything that I got into in the later years.
So I fell in love with fitness, fell in love with training, helping people get stronger,reach their fitness goals, and at the same time working towards my own goals.
So I'm learning about
I'm learning about fitness and helping people change their lives and their bodies while atthe same time experimenting with different types of strength training with my own journey
(07:59):
and everything else just kind of fell into place and I fell in love with that career fieldand path and stayed on it ever since.
And then because now it's you like tactical strength and conditioning is kind of sorry mydog is moving around that couch is kind of loud I don't know if you can hear that or not
Okay, cool.
If you're an audio listener, my dog just peeked into like the camera for a little bit butBut so like tactical strength and conditioning.
(08:25):
I know like that's I Don't want to say it's like a buzzword, but it's something likealmost newer that's come on the scene in the last like five to ten years
Totally.
What differentiates tactical strength and conditioning from traditional strength andconditioning?
it's who I'm working with, the population.
So tactical strength and conditioning focuses specifically on men and women who serve insome capacity and uniform.
(08:47):
So military, first responders, know, law enforcement, firefighters, EMS, that type ofthing.
that really came about in my life in the last two years or so.
I've always been, it's always been something I'm passionate about because I'm married to aMarine, but it wasn't something I really looked into from a professional standpoint until
the last two, three years after seeing him go through some of what he went through.
(09:08):
related combat related injuries, brain injury and things like that.
Just seeing how much service members put their bodies through in their time and serviceand how lacking when it comes to resources for physical training, recovery, nutrition,
they just, they're expected to perform like athletes and serve other people.
(09:28):
Athletes are more for entertainment.
This is for saving people's lives, protecting our country, protecting our communities, butthey don't get the same largely.
there are exceptions, largely with special operations, et cetera, but for conventionalmilitary and for our first responders, there's really not a lot when it comes to training
and education on the things that matter when it comes to preserving their bodies,preserving their brains, and having a decent quality of life during their time, but also
(09:53):
after their time when they're no longer serving, what is their life gonna look like, andwhat have they sacrificed when it comes to all of that for their physical and mental
health?
So that's what I'm really passionate about now, and that's what I'm doing professionally.
That's cool.
And so do you travel quite a bit for that?
Like, are you visiting like, what does that look like for you, like on the work side?
It varies.
(10:14):
It actually started out here locally in Dallas.
There's a neurology clinic that treats, they have a program specifically for post -9 -11combat veterans, and they've recently expanded it to include first responders who are
suffering from traumatic brain injury, sustained in combat or in the line of duty.
And so they treat people who are experiencing brain injury symptoms.
(10:35):
so my husband Joel, he got to go through that program.
And while he was going through it, he got to talk to the doctors about...
what are they, you he kind of asked them, what are you guys doing from a physicalstandpoint?
We understand the brain treatment, but what about the body?
Because they work so closely together, it kind of makes sense to work on both.
So fast forward, I became part of that program.
created a curriculum from scratch, implemented it, and now we work as part of that programas well.
(10:56):
So whenever they have veterans or first responders going through that treatment program,I'm there working with them, providing physical movement coaching, mobility, stability,
strength, balance and coordination, kind all the things that they've lost as a result oftheir brain injury.
So I do that here locally.
In addition to that, I do travel.
I do work with departments or units.
I provide seminars, workshops, hands -on or virtual, and just talk about the things that Iknow and I'm passionate about.
(11:22):
And I know it will help them from a physical and mental restoration standpoint.
So how to train effectively in the gym in a way that translates to what their day -to -dayjob looks like out in the field or wherever they're serving.
And then how to sleep and recover from all the things that they put their brains andbodies through, how to fuel.
for all of those things, so nutrition, hydration, kind of full scope of wellness,physical, mental wellness.
(11:46):
That's really cool.
It's been kind of interesting.
for me, just owning a gym, it's like I have firefighters and police officers and all thatin there.
And it's one of those like, I'm happy to offer.
I think every CrossFit gym does, or for like military and first responders does some sortof discount, even if it's just like 20 bucks.
But it's like, yeah, like you guys need to be fit to do what you're like.
(12:07):
When the paramedic comes, if I get hit, I like, I want them to get there faster.
So I'm going to make sure that I'm going do my part to make sure they're in shape.
for sure.
But it's been kind of cool because growing up, feel like it was kind of a joke in myhometown of all of the cops were overweight.
And I ran cross country and it's like, you know, if I wanted to break the law, they're notgoing to catch me.
(12:31):
Yeah.
So it's kind of been cool to see that changing, especially over the last 10, 20 years.
The shift of, no, I need to be able to perform to do my job and people taking that moreseriously.
It's been really cool to watch that happen.
and see that happen.
Yeah, it's a real career field now in strength and conditioning, and there's acertification just for that, which is what I pursued in 2022.
(12:53):
So instead of just the CSCS, which is kind of the gold standard for strength andconditioning for athletes, the tactical strength and conditioning is a whole other
textbook and certification that someone can pursue just to understand better what ourservice members and first responders have to undergo when it comes to the environments
they're working in, the climate, the weather, the...
(13:13):
just anything and everything that they might encounter, the different schedules, shiftwork, things that regular sport athletes do not have to really worry about.
Yeah, it's the, you have to perform, but it's like, no, you're being woken up at 3 a andhave to perform and you were in the REM cycle and it's not like you're rested up and ready
to go at 2 p tomorrow afternoon exactly.
(13:35):
So, cool.
So is that part of like what you're doing with that clinic in Dallas, is that through, isSemper stronger the one doing that or is that a separate organization?
It's a combination.
the neurology clinic is, it's just a clinic that have doctors and providers there.
And then the funding, so the program that treats veterans and first responders iscompletely funded by nonprofit.
(13:59):
And there's a few different nonprofits that funds the brain treatment side.
And then we created our own nonprofit, the Semper Stronger Foundation, which is our 501C3that provides the funding for the.
physical movement training.
So that's our nonprofit.
We also have our business.
they're both, they're Semper Stronger is the business Semper Stronger Foundation is anonprofit.
So they're similar, but the business Semper Stronger is more of just general populationwhere we're providing fitness programming and we have an app and nutrition resources and
(14:27):
we have a membership and community online.
And that's we've had that since 2020, the nonprofit we started last year.
Okay, cool.
I didn't realize it was two separate organizations.
I thought it was all the nonprofit.
I didn't realize there was the other side of it too.
So if people want to find, we're talking about it, if people want to find that, where dothey go?
SemperStronger .com or to my Instagram or my husband's Instagram.
(14:50):
Cool.
Yeah, no, I spent a little bit of time going to the site and it's like, this is reallycool.
Yeah, sorry.
I'm kind of rambling about that, but it was just really cool.
Like, dang, they're taking this seriously.
This is really cool to see.
I used to work at a nonprofit.
That was actually how I met Sean from Bubz.
He was volunteering some time and helping with it, so I got to meet him while I was doingthat.
(15:14):
it's really cool when you see nonprofits who are doing like...
able to do things with, especially running lean and all that.
so it was just kind of cool to see all that.
Yeah, definitely.
I knew nothing about the nonprofit world until we got started with our own and there is alot to learn.
It's a whole other animal.
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
(15:35):
Yeah, it's funny.
I don't know which one it was a part of, but I remember there was a while back, like,like, Bubb's Instagram and stuff, like, I'm in there running stuff, and I saw when you
were doing a, I think it was an online presentation, and you're like, yep, I built outlike 40 slides, got through 15 or 20 or something like that, and I was like, I get that.
It's like, I had a two -hour presentation, only got through half of the information.
(16:00):
So what kind of like speaking are you doing when you're doing that?
Like is it, I'm sure you could speak about the nutrition side, the training side and allthat.
Do you have like something that you really hone in on?
It kind of depends on who I'm speaking to and what they need.
So anytime I'm going to do a speaking engagement, it depends on how much time I have.
Do I have 30 minutes?
Do I have four hours?
(16:20):
Do have eight hours?
And I tailor it to the time that I'm given and the priorities of the audience to whom I'mspeaking.
if it's a, for example, I'm going to Kentucky to speak to a law enforcement department ina couple of weeks and I have a four hour block of time and their priorities were sleep and
recovery.
And then they wanted to learn about kettlebell training specifically for law enforcementbecause they have a full
(16:40):
decked out gym in their department.
So I'm gonna do two hours in the classroom and two hours in the gym.
And the two hours in the classroom are gonna be focused on sleep and recovery.
And then we're gonna go hands on and do some kettlebell training.
So that's what I'm doing for them.
I've done a couple of, spoken at a couple of conferences to mostly law enforcement.
And they, again, it kind of depends.
(17:01):
What I've done up to this point, just through figuring out what I'm gonna be speakingabout and kind of a general framework for myself, I have four pillars that I've,
I feel confident I can speak about and provide value.
So I have movement, have nourishment, I have recovery and then breath work.
And I feel like those four things kind of encompass wellness that will apply to,regardless of what the population is, if it's military, if it's law enforcement, if it's
(17:27):
firefighters, or really anybody for that matter.
But those are the four pillars that I have and I have a high level overview presentationthat goes into just a little bit of each of those four.
And then I've got a deep dive presentation on all four of those.
And so I can talk about all four and just go surface level.
I can go one, two, three, depending on what the audience needs and how much time I have.
And I can go a little bit deeper on any of the pillars.
(17:49):
So that's kind of how I've structured it.
you to go deeper on the breath work.
Like the other stuff I feel like a lot of people are familiar with but like when you'respeaking about breath work and the importance of that, talk about that for a little bit.
Sure, so our breath, we have, we're obviously going to breathe until we take our lastbreath.
We are going to breathe and that's pretty involuntary, right?
(18:12):
We don't have to think about it or be intentional about the fact that we are going tobreathe.
But how we breathe is in our control.
And I don't think a lot of people understand that you can alter your mental state and yourphysical state very, very quickly.
And I'm talking a matter of seconds just by altering how you breathe.
And that is basically learning how to control your nervous system, which is so incrediblyimportant for people who are handling weapons and dealing with suspects and in very, very
(18:36):
high pressure environments.
Being able to control your nervous system and the state of your being through a coupleseconds of breath work is so incredibly powerful and pivotal for those moments that
matter.
And so I like to talk about and have them experience up regulation and down regulation oftheir nervous system by just changing the breath.
So the ratio of time of the inhale versus the exhale is really all you need to experienceit you can do it in just a couple of breaths.
(19:03):
So if you have your inhale longer than your exhale, you're going to up -regulate yournervous system.
So you're gonna feel like you got pins and needles, you're gonna feel your adrenalinerising, your body temperature rising.
If you make your exhale longer than your inhale, you're going to bring about that state ofrelaxation and kind of down -regulation of the nervous system.
And so I have them experience that and then explain how that applies to what they do intheir day -to -day life.
(19:27):
So if they're trying to apprehend someone, they're trying to shoot accurately, the breathis everything, which is why if you've, anyone who's shot before, you take that exhale, you
bring that nervous system down, and then you take your shot, because you want to be calmand focused, not all over the place and scattered.
So I try to have them experience that.
And then when I go speak to the law enforcement department next week when we talk aboutkettlebells, anyone who's learned kettlebells,
(19:50):
the breath is very much a part of kettlebell training too.
So learning how to pair your breath or any exercise for that matter, right?
Breathing is so important.
And so understanding how to manipulate the breath to control the nervous system.
can control your breath, control your physiology and your psychology.
Yeah, that's cool.
did you go like for training for like breath work and all that?
(20:10):
Where did you?
How did you go about that?
Just through my, a lot of it was through learning about kettlebells.
I have a strong first certification.
There's a whole bit about breath work when it comes to that and understanding the tensionrelaxation principle, which is kind of the same thing as the inhale exhale thing.
And then I have some friends who have done some really rigorous training with breath workand I've learned from them, not in any kind of formal capacity, but just through talking
(20:36):
to them, experiencing some breath work training and just reading a lot and doing a lot oftrial and error on myself.
has been a great way to learn too, but I take in as much information as I can fromcredible sources.
It's kind of cool.
It's one I haven't got.
I haven't like deep dived into it, but the like box breathing and stuff like that, likewhere it's like four seconds in four second hold, four second out, four second hold.
(21:00):
It's actually the holds that are the hardest for me.
Like it's like you're saying like, yeah, you breathe every day in and out.
It's fine.
like sitting there and like trying to like bring your heart rate down and like exhale andthen wait four seconds before starting to inhale.
I don't know why.
Like it's just my brain.
I can do it, but it takes me longer than what I would think it should to get to thatpoint.
(21:23):
Yeah.
I did a Wim Hof workshop.
my gosh, this was 2019 probably.
So that was kind of my very first introduction to it, I think, was we did the ice bath andwe did the breathing and all that stuff.
And I was like, at the time I was not in a place to even comprehend or appreciate all ofthat.
But over the years, as I've gone through my own journey and learned to how in highpressure situations that I've been through competing on the weightlifting platform, which
(21:46):
you've experienced and will do again soon, there's a lot of stress and pressure.
and you need to perform.
Obviously, my life's not on the line, and nobody else's life is on the line, but learninghow to control my breath and control my physiology and my nerves before I go out on the
platform has been really powerful.
Same thing with public speaking and just exposing myself to those types of stimuli thatcreate that stress response and then learning every single time there's an opportunity to
(22:11):
learn how to regulate that and control it.
And it always makes me a better person for it.
It's yeah, it's kind of cool.
It's for me personally, like training when I'm doing my Olympic lifting training, I have athing in my gym where it's like, Hey, if a class is going on, there's no open gym time,
but we can do open gym, outside of classes.
And so it's been a lot of me training by myself or just like one or two other peoplearound.
(22:36):
And there's a physical therapist who sets up there and he's awesome.
And he's got a few clients that come in regularly and one of them only listens to countrymusic.
And.
When I'm training, that's like the absolute last thing I want to listen to.
Just personally, nothing against country music, but I don't like training to it.
And, but I was like, you know what?
(22:58):
I should train to this today.
Like I should train there.
like, I have no idea what kind of music they're going to be playing.
If they're going to be playing music there.
Like I've trained in silence a couple of times, like when I'm there by myself, I'm like, Ihave to be able to perform under no, like whatever circumstance there is.
it's like, might as well expose myself to it now.
And so it's not new whenever I get there.
So true.
Yeah, I don't think many people think about that or appreciate that, but I think there's alot of value to doing that.
(23:23):
Yeah.
Like the amount of times I've trained to a podcast or like gone out for a run, like justlistening to a podcast and people like, you don't want to like amp yourself up and like,
no, if I can do this, then it's really easy if there's like high intensity music.
So yeah.
I used to listen to music all the time when I trained and now the coach I've been workingwith for the last three years, he is 77 years old and he is hard of hearing.
(23:45):
And so even though we're in a two car garage when we train, there's music on or even ifthere's no music on and I'm facing away from him, I'll have to repeat myself.
He won't hear me.
So we nixed music like two years ago when he was about 75.
And ever since I've been training, it's just the sound of barbells dropping and
(24:05):
a little bit of conversation, but for the most part it's just silence and I've learned toembrace it and now I don't, which has actually been really good because I don't need music
now.
can get myself amped up inside my own body, my own mind, and I don't need music and if Ido have it, I have that much more of that external motivation, but I've learned to just
find it within, which has been, I think, beneficial.
(24:25):
So what happens if you have friends come over to train with you?
Are they like, why is it so quiet in here?
I train by myself most of the time, I don't train with other people that often, but I'llturn music on, I don't mind it.
I'm very adaptable in that way, so it works.
yeah.
And then we talked about like you mentioned Wim Hof a little bit like ice bath and stuffbecause you have an ice bath and do you have a sauna as well?
(24:54):
How often do you use those and like and how do you use them?
I am in the sauna five to six nights a week, so almost every day.
And I'm in the cold plunge.
I was really, really religious about cold plunging every single day.
No questions asked for a good year, the first year I got it.
And now I'm doing it probably three days a week, maybe four, three days a week, let's say.
(25:15):
So, and I do the cold in the morning and then I do the hot in the evening.
And there's a reason for that, a couple of reasons.
So the cold in the morning one is it's gonna boost the adrenaline a lot.
you've, anyone who's gotten in cold water is very -
familiar with this experience, but you get in cold water, your body is just light enough,like you are on a whole other level when you get out of that cold bath.
So it boosts the adrenaline, it boosts the dopamine, so you're just buzzing on this highenergy vibe for a few hours.
(25:42):
And so I do that in the morning also because I'm training heavy and training hard four orfive days a week.
And so I wake up in the morning sometimes feeling a little bit like the Tin Man fromstiffness and soreness and inflammation, which is normal.
So if I get in there, I immediately feel like I shed that, at least the top layer ofinflammation.
And then I start moving and feeling a little bit better after that.
(26:04):
So I do that in the morning also because we don't want to do it after training.
If you're training for strength or hypertrophy, you don't want to get into cold for aboutsix to eight hours after because you can dampen that stimulus of that inflammation that
you need post -training.
So we definitely don't want to do cold after training.
So I just get it done in the morning.
And then I do heat in the evening.
One, because it just.
love the way that sauna feels at end of the day.
(26:26):
It's kind of like my barrier between the day and the night.
And it's just helps me transition into going from wakefulness into sleepiness.
And it's that catalyst for me.
So I think part of it's just, I've conditioned myself now to know that sauna equalswinding down from the day, getting ready for bed.
And then there's also a physiological reason for it too, because when you, in order for usto fall asleep and stay asleep, our body temperature has to drop one to two degrees
(26:50):
Fahrenheit.
And the elevation of body temperature by way of sauna or hot bath will actually cause thereverse effects.
When you get out of the sauna, your body temperature is elevated.
And then the natural response to that is, I'm really hot.
I need to cool myself down.
And so that cool down process will happen a lot faster.
And then within about 20 to 30 minutes after getting out of the sauna, rinse off, I amlike zonked and ready to fall asleep.
(27:13):
And so it's just a very effective and efficient way to transition from the day into thenight and then into sleep.
That's one of those, I never researched it, but just kind of figured that out.
I think I was traveling and the Airbnb or the hotel we were staying at had a sauna.
And was late at night, like, I'm gonna hop, we have access to it, I never get to do this.
(27:35):
And I slept so good that night.
And I usually don't sleep that well when I travel.
So I just kind of kept doing it and then a little bit of research.
so now, I always shower at night, because I hate getting into my bed dirty.
I want to get in there clean.
But then as I realized, just pushed off, I just take a shower, a hot shower right before Igo to bed.
(27:56):
I notice a difference if I don't do that.
Where it takes me longer to fall asleep and all that.
Yep, now you know why, there's science behind it.
Mm -hmm.
Science.
Cool.
So you do the cold plunge because it the adrenaline pumping in the morning.
You also drink coffee in the morning, I know.
Obviously, I don't miss a day.
(28:18):
Cheers.
I'm on my second cup right now.
Usually I'm a two cup a day consistent.
Any more than that might be a little bit too much caffeine for me, but one is just notenough.
Yeah.
And then do you have to like cut yourself off at it?
know you cut yourself off at two, but if you drink it past a certain time, do you have ahard time falling asleep?
Yeah, I actually cut myself off like no later than noon, sometimes 11.
(28:40):
So I just know my body.
I'm very sensitive to caffeine.
Everyone's sensitivity level is a little different.
Everyone's, what's the word I'm looking for?
The metabolism, like how fast you metabolize caffeine.
Everyone's a little different, but I know my body.
And if I have caffeine like eight to 10 hours per bed, it will affect my sleep.
And I'm just not about that life.
I gotta sleep.
(29:01):
Yeah, I can for me I found it really is it's like noon or like 1201 if I have any at 1201or later and I don't know why it works that way it's like I'm up until 4 a And it was
funny that physical therapist I was mentioning that who works out of my gym He they had ababy actually have another one on the way But like after he had the baby was like every
(29:22):
day I'd go and he's like do You want to make some coffee like he had never really askedthat for him like yeah, man I'll make us some coffee and then it's kind of turned into our
thing
and then, there's times where it's like two and he's like, Hey, so I was like, I can'tright now.
If you're working, I'll make you some.
don't care.
Like, I'll start a pot for you, but yeah.
Yeah, it's hard too when everyone, like you love, we love coffee.
(29:44):
And so when it's two or three in the afternoon and you smell someone else who's drinkingcoffee and you're like, I want it so bad.
And there, in the past, there were times when I would give in and I would have it.
And then I obviously would pay the price later and not sleep.
now that sleep, being a athlete and at the level that I am, like I will do very few thingsvoluntarily to sacrifice sleep.
And so the caffeine after noon had to go.
(30:06):
Yeah.
What a, and then, you're competing not just in Olympic weightlifting, you're also likegrid league and is there anything else that you're doing outside of those two?
Nope, those two are plenty.
My body, thankfully, is holding up okay so far, but those two give me plenty to keep busywith physical activity.
What's Grid League like?
Like, what's it like competing for Grid League?
(30:28):
It is wildly different than weightlifting and it's a lot of fun in all the waysweightlifting is not.
I mean, if you've competed in weightlifting, which you know, the meets are very quiet.
Everyone's very focused.
Everyone is very into themselves and it's just not a high energy type of environment atall.
(30:49):
And grid league is a complete opposite.
It is so high energy.
I'm sure it's similar to CrossFit.
I've not done CrossFit competition, so I don't know, but.
I'm sure it's very similar in that way.
Everyone's yelling and screaming and supporting each other and there's music and it'speople are just cheering.
It's like, can't even describe it.
You kind of have to be there in order to feel that energy.
Even watching it on YouTube, you don't get the same, but it's really, really fun.
(31:11):
And then this is my first time playing a team sport.
I've been an individual sport athlete.
For all of the years I competed growing up in gymnastics and then weightlifting.
So this is my first time being a part of a team and it's been a lot of fun, challenging,but fun.
yeah, I was going to ask you about that.
Cause like you're going from working out quietly in your garage to you're now on a team.
And like, do you, do you think that helps?
(31:32):
Like, does that help you?
Does it hurt you?
Like the, are there benefits to being on a team?
Like, I know that's a silly question, but I just, I'm trying to start a conversation aboutit.
no, I think it's it's different.
I think when when you're on your own, when you're in an individual sport, everything thathappens or fails to happen is on you and I guess partially the coach.
But it's more pressure.
(31:55):
But also, you know that like you did everything you could.
And that's all that matters.
Like what anyone else is doing, it doesn't make a difference.
This is just me and my time.
And so you can train hard and know that like if your training paid off, it's going to gowell for you.
And then hopefully, and then when it comes to the team sport, you could train hard and youcould have all your own ducks in a row and you could do the best performance that you do.
(32:17):
But if your team isn't up to speed or your teammates aren't working as hard or they're notpulling their weight, like you still might not have the outcome that you want.
So it's not just about your own effort and your own performance.
It's about 15 other people's performance and effort at the same time.
So it's been interesting.
Also the personality differences, just different characters and different people.
(32:39):
and personalities on the team has been interesting.
Being a remote athlete, so my team's in Florida and I'm in Texas.
There's two people on the team, myself and one other guy who are remote.
Everybody else is in Tampa.
So there are challenges being a team sport that's very strategy -based, being that I'mcalling in on Zoom for my, or on Facebook Messenger for our team practices.
So there are some elements of that that are challenging, but when we get together for gameday, it all seems to fall into place.
(33:04):
So.
It's been good.
I'm glad I signed up for it, even though I had no idea what I was getting into, but it'sbeen going okay.
So for that to start, did they reach out to you or were they like, hey, we need like, weneed a weightlifter or like, how did that happen?
Yeah, so the way that grid works is there are three different positions, quote unquote.
There's body weight specialists, there's strength specialists, and then there's utilityplayer.
(33:27):
So the body weight specialists are kind of doing more of the gymnastics stuff, handstandsand rings and back flips and burpees and all the kinds of crazy stuff you see.
And then the strength specialists are more barbell based people.
So anything from strong man, powerlifting, Olympic lifting, just conventional strengthtraining, but people who tend to be bigger and stronger.
And then the utility players are generally cross fitters who can do a little bit ofeverything.
(33:50):
So the people that can do the rings, can do kettlebells, can do barbells, they can do bodyweights, so they kind of have it all.
So those are the three positions.
And so I was contacted by the team captain.
They needed a female strength specialist.
And so I was able to do all of the things that I needed to do.
was lower weight than I'm used to working at because for weightlifting, it's always closeto 85 % plus.
(34:13):
So these weights were not hard, but the stuff I had to do for the tryout was way higherreps than I was used to.
So I was like, wait a minute, have to 10 reps?
I don't even know what that means.
Weightlifters can't compute 10 reps.
So yeah, was very cardio, very much cardio.
So that was interesting, but I've gotten a little bit better at it over the last couple ofmonths, having been on the team.
(34:33):
as having the gymnastics background too, even though was recruited as a strengthspecialist, I can still also do some of the gymnastics, the handstand stuff, also the
kettlebell stuff.
strength, focus, but also a little bit of utility in that I can kind of do most of thethings that the utility players do.
Because I've not ever really done crossfit, I'm not really good on the rings and climbingropes, that stuff I just never had access to.
(34:55):
So everything else I can do decently well.
I was going to ask if they ever like throw you into like some of the gymnastics stuff justbecause of your background.
Yeah, the first match we had, they had to have someone do aerials, which if you don't knowan aerial is no handed cartwheel.
Yeah.
So I had not done one since I was probably 15, 16 years old and they needed two for twodifferent races.
(35:16):
They needed people doing aerials.
So we have one girl who was a gymnast for a long time too.
She could crush them.
No problem.
I was like, I know it's in my memory bank somewhere, but I might break myself in theprocess of trying, but let's see what happens.
So I did it and it came back like first rep.
I was able to do it and I couldn't believe it had been.
over 15 years since I had done it, but I was able to do it and my body survived.
(35:38):
So like when you're getting ready to set up for that, like, you know you're capable ofdoing it, but you're like, hey guys, go grab all of the mats that we have and put them
out.
Or was it like just on a floor and you did it?
They had one of the gymnastics landing mats.
I did, my kind of buildup to it was a couple of regular cartwheels, fast, and then acouple of one -handed cartwheels.
(36:01):
And then after I think two or three one -handed cartwheels, I was like, all right, sendit.
And then I tried it, landed on the mat and it was fine.
And then on the actual competition, there was no mat in the actual match.
So it was just on the rubber floor.
And I was used to doing everything barefoot, because in gymnastics you don't wear shoes,but for this they don't allow barefoot.
in competition, so I had to wear minimalist shoes and it went okay.
(36:22):
Nice.
What did that feel like when you're in that moment, you like, hell yes, I still got this?
What did that feel like?
I was pumped.
really, it was kind of one of those like my mind's telling me yes, but let's see what mybody says.
And I was pretty stoked that I could still do it.
And I think it's kind of a further proof that when we learn stuff, when we're a kid, whenwe're young, the brain retains so much more of it than when you try to learn something as
(36:51):
an adult and it's just neuroplasticity.
Like the brain is always changing and always evolving.
And when we're young and then after like when we're in our mid twenties, that processstarts to slow down.
which is why if you try to learn a language, I started learning Spanish when I was a kidand I still remember and I know a lot of Spanish and I studied it through school, but try
to learn any new skill, new language, new anything when you're like in your mid thirtiesand it's like you have to try so much harder.
(37:16):
And so I didn't really appreciate that until going through some of these types ofexperiences where I'm like, wow, my body can still do that.
And thank God I've kept up with being physically active.
If I hadn't done anything in 15 years and that would have been a different story becauseI've stayed active, I've stayed strong, I have good mobility.
my body was able to handle it.
That's cool.
What was the other team like?
Wait, no, that's the weightlifter.
(37:36):
She's not allowed to do aerials.
Yeah, so that's the other thing too with grid is like you you are whatever position youare But there's no rule that a strength specialist has to do that movement.
It's really whoever can do it the best the fastest Most consistently and there's a lot ofsteps where it's kind of the strategy piece of grid lead comes in Where you have to pick
the best person for the job But also know that fatigue has to be managed across the entireteam So yeah, you might have one rock star person that can do everything but you can't
(38:03):
have them do everything because then they're gonna be no good for
anything, they're going to be so overworked and exhausted and risk injury.
So you have to divide it among all of the talent.
that's kind of a tangent.
But yeah, I think people were surprised.
I was surprised that I could still do some of that stuff after all those years.
Cool.
(38:23):
Yeah, it's funny.
You're talking about neuroplasticity.
There's a few things that come out now where it's like, yeah, I can still do that.
Handstands, growing up, my brother and I would just, we did martial arts and it was one ofthose, it was not part of it, but it was this big floor with padded mats and all that.
(38:43):
And so after class, was like, right, gotta walk, handstand walk to the door.
And it one of those, was 16, 17, 18 years old.
It was just.
messing around, trying it.
And then when I started doing CrossFit, was like, it just came right back.
It was like, maybe not like right on the first one, but like, I just kind of got up andwas able to handstand walk.
it was, the coach was like, do you have a gymnastics background?
(39:05):
I was like, no.
And he was like, why are you good at that?
Like one time for a while, my brother and I just kind of got really into it.
And I guess I still have it.
So yeah, that's cool.
Well, yeah.
Do you have any speaking engagements coming up?
Yeah, the next one was what I was telling you about in October.
(39:26):
I'm going to let the Lexington Police Department for a four hour.
It's a full day, two four hour seminars and basically do the same thing twice.
That's going to be the recovery and then the kettlebells.
So that's my next one on deck.
And then I've got in 2025, I just signed on as a an instructor with the Texas TacticalPolice Officers Association.
So it's basically a organization that offers different types of training and all differenttypes of arenas for that law enforcement need to be well trained in.
(39:53):
And so I just got contracted with them as a wellness instructor.
So I'm going to be hosting workshops for the different regions.
The state of Texas is so big, there's eight regions for the state.
So I'm going to be doing a presentation, a full day eight hour workshop with one of theregions.
The region where I live was, I think, region seven.
So I'll be doing that in January, right first week of the new year.
And then their annual conference for the entire organization is in April.
(40:17):
So I'm going to be doing a whole, I think, one or two day presentation there.
for any, I think there's gonna be close to thousand attendees.
So those are gonna be some big ones on deck and I'm hoping to just get more opportunities.
You the more you do, the more you get yourself out there, the more people see you, themore opportunities you'll generate from that.
So that's what I'm hoping for.
In 2025, I'd like to be doing a lot more speaking engagements and workshops and things inperson.
(40:38):
That's cool.
And actually the reason I was asking, I was like, are there speaking engagements?
Those ones sounds like they're not closed doors, but they're like four specific audiences.
Like, do you have any like public ones coming up that if people are interested, they couldcome see or see online.
So far no, but that's the goal.
Yeah.
you do, we will help post about it from the bubs account, so yeah.
(41:02):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, cool.
We talked about a lot.
I always have a set of rapid fire questions I ask at the end.
Just kind of fun thing.
Yeah, it's nothing crazy, but clear your mind, close your eyes, clear your mind.
Okay, open your eyes back up.
Rebecca Rouse, what was your first job?
(41:23):
My first job, I was a tutor for younger kids when I was in high school.
I started tutoring kids who were struggling academically.
What, like was it a specific subject?
Spanish, English, none of the math science stuff, but mostly the Spanish and English.
Okay, cool.
Do you prefer tall socks or short socks?
(41:45):
If you'd asked me a year ago to send short socks, but I'm really into the tall socks now.
Just started a stock company actually, my husband and I just on a whim.
Here's the third time on it.
We're doing a lot of things on a whim, but we started a little stock company.
We got three styles right now.
WearForce1 .store.
I'll send you the link.
Okay, yeah, I'll throw it all in there.
I did not know that.
(42:05):
I just threw that in there because I had a conversation like, yeah, Gen Z, they're allabout the taller socks now.
And I was like, that's a thing?
They're like, yeah, if you wear short socks, it means you're a boomer.
yep.
I mean, my dad would always wear the dad socks, the like mid -shin socks.
And I was like, what are these horrible white socks you're wearing?
And now it's like everybody, so then he bought all no -show socks because it was cool.
(42:28):
And now the high socks are back and he was like, well, thanks for nothing.
That's yeah, no, that's like, like, what was it like 10 years ago?
Like when stent socks got really big and it was like everybody had those.
And I, so if my feet are hot, everything is hot.
So like, especially at Colorado in the summer, like it gets hot out here.
It's like I'm barefoot or I'm wearing like, I go no socks or really short socks.
(42:51):
And so it's only like in the winter will I wear tall socks.
and even then it's like sometimes too much, but yeah.
this one will be interesting since you're from Texas.
Rank these from best to worst.
Salsa queso guacamole.
that's easy.
Guacamole, salsa, queso.
Okay, so Queso's a lot of people that's what we found is like we have people from TexasQueso is usually number one.
(43:17):
Well, I'm not from Texas originally.
I'm from California.
So salsa and guacamole.
Yeah, cool.
You're really active on social media and Instagram and all that.
Do you have any hobbies or interests that people don't see or that you don't share withsocial media?
That's a really good question.
(43:37):
Hobbies or interests?
I'm a pretty open book.
My life is very boring and consistent and the same thing over and over.
So pretty much everything that I'm doing or do on a regular basis I share.
I, I, I, no, no, I'm not crocheting.
I can't think of anything.
(43:58):
No, if I do, I'll let you know.
Nothing comes to mind.
Do you have a mantra or a piece of advice that you live by?
No one's gonna be surprised by this, but discipline equals freedom is kind of my, that'slike the Jocko mantra, I guess.
I don't know if Jocko would call it a mantra, but that's kind of his slogan.
(44:21):
And I do think that it lends itself well to the way that I live my life when it comes toall the things that I do.
Everything requires discipline and it's the way that I've gotten to where I am.
I was actually just talking to my husband about this this morning.
Like I'm not really that talented in anything.
I've just worked really, really hard to be good at the things that I'm good at, but it allrequires a lot of discipline.
(44:43):
Discipline to train and show up even when I don't feel like it.
Discipline to eat well, eat the right things for my body, stay hydrated, sleep a ton, dothe sauna, do the cold plunge, work on my business, travel, like do all the things, like I
wouldn't be able to do everything that I'm doing if I wasn't disciplined in every arena,so.
And because of that, I'm able to live the life that I want and build the schedule that Iwant.
(45:05):
there's the freedom part is I'm setting myself up for the future that I want because ofthe discipline that I've instilled into my life now.
Yeah, I like that answer.
That's a good one.
And then, yeah, I know you said it's like no surprise, but as you talk about it, it'slike, yeah, this checks out, makes sense.
So, last one, what do do to relax?
(45:29):
I go on a walk once a day, if not twice a day, usually sunrise, sunset.
So that kind of sets the tone for the day and then ends, kind of bookends my days.
And then the sauna, and I like to read.
So I, because I train hard and I'm on a lot during the day, whether it's training or workor practicing work for my speaking engagements, there's a lot of brain power and physical
(45:51):
power that goes into everything that I do.
So I'm also as intentional about setting aside, setting aside time to.
unwind and relax so that I can get good quality sleep and be able to do it again tomorrow.
So I think that a lot of people understand and put the value on hard work, but I alsothink that taking the time to recover as hard is just as important and much more
(46:12):
overlooked by most quote high performers.
And so I think that that's that's been a really big important lesson I've learned throughmy own journey over the last couple of years is learning how to relax and why it's okay to
do so.
Yeah.
What, you mentioned reading.
What are you reading right now?
Right now I'm reading Outlive by Peter Attia.
(46:34):
It's about longevity and how to extend not just lifespan but health span.
Cool, that sounds good.
Do you typically go more non -fiction?
Yeah, I tend to.
Yeah, what's the last fiction book you read?
last affection I
you enjoyed?
Like what's the first one that comes to mind, I guess?
(46:54):
My goodness, the Dan Brown books, he wrote the Da Vinci Code and his whole series of, allthose were fiction, but really, really, really good.
Yeah, that's one of those I kind of missed it.
Like it was all of a sudden the movies were out and I never read the books.
And then it was like too far past it to where like, okay, there's other things out now.
(47:15):
So yeah.
one that comes to mind, but maybe there were others, I don't remember.
Yeah, cool.
We covered a lot today.
I know we mentioned, I'll throw links to Simper Stronger and stuff in the show notes andmake sure we share all those.
But if people want to learn more about you, take some time, promote whatever you want.
(47:37):
Cool, so the website for our business Semper Stronger is just semperstronger .com.
For the nonprofit is semperstrongerfoundation .org.
And then our new brand new sock shop is Wear Force One, W -E -A -R Force, and the numberone dot store.
We've got three different styles of socks that we are selling.
(47:59):
So we've got the patriotic socks called Patriot Socks, it's got the stars and stripes.
We've got the Don't Tread on Me, which have the snake.
And then we have the blaze socks, are pretty 90s throwback, like the flames.
They're black socks with the orange and yellow flames.
They're pretty rad if you were around in the 90s.
So we have those.
Those are my favorite ones.
It just reminds me of when flames paint on cars was a thing.
(48:23):
It just reminds me of that.
Yeah, it feels 90s to me.
So those are the three designs we start with.
We're to see how that goes.
And what else?
So then Instagram, I'm just that's where I'm most active on social media.
That would be at Rebecca dot Rouse.
And then our business is at Semper Stronger.
The stock page also has an Instagram where force one where force dot one where I don'teven remember.
(48:46):
I'll give it to you.
And then what else?
I don't know all of my
my partner organizations, so Bubs obviously is all my links to my partners are there,Jocko Fuel and Whoop, my Whoop group, just all the things that I do, Primal Beef.
I do, are you gonna Whoop?
I haven't had it in a while.
It was one of those, had to like, I had to take a break.
(49:09):
I was focusing too much on the numbers, so.
But I had it for a couple years, so.
I've been a whoop user a little over two years now.
It's been life -changing for me.
so whenever I have the opportunity to tell people about, doesn't have to be whoop, butjust get a little data, get a little insight.
There's a too much, there's a spectrum.
(49:30):
Not enough is not good, too much is not good.
But I think there is a lot of value in learning how your body is responding to the thingswe're doing or not doing in our life.
And especially if you are trying to sleep better, recover harder, all those things.
So it's helped me a lot.
Yeah, I was doing the like waking up too much and it was like, like just focusing on likethe green versus red, yellow, all that stuff.
(49:51):
So yeah, I was like, I'm just going to give myself a break on this a little bit.
And I've been looking into more like just like heart rate trackers and stuff for justworking out, but yeah.
that too.
feel like people, yeah, there's a lot of knowledge to be gained by getting more in tunewith your body and how it responds to things.
Yeah.
The thing I loved about it the most when I had it was actually the sleep tracking andsleep information.
(50:17):
that was like everything from like how I was sleeping when I was sleeping to, just likethe biggest thing for sleep was just consistency of going to bed at the same time.
and how I like physically felt like without looking at like, am I in the green?
Do I feel good today?
but like actually waking up and feeling really rested and ready to go.
(50:37):
So.
Totally.
Yeah, think people know that quality and quantity are super important.
I think unless you've been living under a rock, most people know that.
But consistency is that other one that's really overlooked.
Unfortunately for a lot of people, depending on their work schedule, people who workshifts, night shift, or deployed military personnel, there's not a lot they can do about
it.
that consistency, that getting that plus or minus 30 to 60 minutes, both sleep time andwake time, is so powerful for circadian health and circadian rhythm.
(51:05):
So I'm glad you mentioned that.
Yeah, the other one that was just kind of like fun to play around with on that was likewith the sleep score and all that.
was like, if I had a couple beers on a Saturday, like hanging out, if I would have it inthe afternoon at like one or two, or if I would have it at dinner, like my sleep score,
like one or two, and then I would sleep normally.
(51:26):
But if I had it later in the evening, it really dramatically negatively affected my sleep.
yeah, there goes your REM sleep.
Adios.
It's similar to caffeine, a little different, but kind of in terms of the timing.
There's no positive health benefits to drinking alcohol.
You could say that there are to caffeine, but if you are gonna do it, there is a bettertime, and that would be earlier in the day, further away from sleep, if you're gonna do it
(51:52):
at all.
Same with caffeine, we don't wanna do it too close to bedtime.
Cool.
Well, yeah, Rebecca, thank you so much for coming on.
I know it was kind of last minute, the, well, not last minute, but you hopped on and waslike, Hey, does next in the next couple of days working like, yeah, let's do it.
So thank you for that.
It makes my life easier.
(52:14):
but yeah.
And then, so guys, thank you for tuning in as always.
Thank you for listening and Cult of Recreationalism podcast is available on all podcastservices and YouTube if, and
Pretty much every social media we're on that as well.
If you type in bubs naturals, we're going to pop up.
We're going to be the first one.
and while you're there, leave us a five star review, leave us a thumbs up.
(52:36):
Every positive review helps.
And it means we get to keep doing these.
We can keep getting to talk to cool people like Rebecca and sharing stories andinformation.
So cool.
Rebecca, thanks so much for being on with us.
Thank you for having me.
Great talking to you.
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