July 28, 2023 • 61 mins
Have you ever wondered how martial arts could positively impact your physical, emotional, and mental wellness? Join us as we invite my friend, Marcos, a full-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach, on the show who unravels his life journey and how Jiu-Jitsu has played a pivotal role in it. From his childhood years spent in the gym with his father and uncle to his current role as a professor, we take a deep dive into his story that's entwined with the art of Jiu-Jitsu. We explore the origins of the martial art from Japan, shedding light on how it differs from its more modern predecessor, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Our discussion leads us to the physical and spiritual aspects of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and how it's helped Marcos shape his life. We focus on his journey with fighting and martial arts, particularly since Marcos achieved his black belt. We discuss his post-college journey when he decided to commit fully to Jiu-Jitsu. We also touch upon the challenges of starting Jiu-Jitsu later in life and the extra effort it requires.
The conversation rounds up with an exploration of the significance of community in the world of Jiu-Jitsu and how it's been a driving force in Marcos's journey. We discuss the importance of understanding and controlling our primal energy for a balanced life. We emphasize the need to align with a martial arts or fitness center that matches your personal goals, and how pivotal the role of community is in a fruitful Jiu-Jitsu journey. Tune in to our enlightening conversation with Marcos and discover how Jiu-Jitsu can pave the way for a healthier, more balanced life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jon (00:08):
Yo yo, welcome back to the Feel Free podcast, the only
podcast that'll tell you tochase your dreams and call you
out on all your bullshit, myselfincluded.
It's been a while since I didthat little introduction.
Thought it'd be best to getback down to business and do it.
Got a good episode today.
Got my buddy Marcos here totalk about his wellness practice
with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu andhow that has impacted his life.
(00:31):
Got a crazy story coming up onhow he pretty much became a
full-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsucoach, how fighting has impacted
his wellness on a physical,emotional and mental plane.
So you want to stick around.
This is a damn good episode.
Next week I got my buddyBrandon coming by to talk about
his journey with sobriety, music, writing some books.
(00:53):
Honestly, he's doing somefucking sick ass work.
Don't miss that.
He's coming out in a week ortwo.
So, without further ado, stickaround.
Got the episode coming up.
So what is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?
Marcos (01:14):
Yeah, so, man, that's a load of question.
So it is a martial art that isheavily rooted in grappling,
which is there's no punches orkicks, there's no striking, it's
all grabs and holds and bodymanipulation, so turning and
(01:36):
folding and twisting the bodywhile on the ground in order to
control someone physically, andthen the end or the result is a
submission, right where I'm ableto effectively manipulate a
part of you until you give up,right, so I bend your arm
(01:56):
backwards or I hyper-extend yourelbow or I apply a choke of
some sort that causes the otherperson to give up or ultimately
pass out or die eventually.
But it was heavily rooted backin Japan.
It was like a pass down fromthe samurai.
They were the ones whodeveloped this kind of art form,
(02:20):
and then it kind of grew andmigrated into Brazil,
india-japan, and then the guyswho kind of took hold of it in
Brazil kind of made it like thishuge thing.
They basically developed a lotmore, kind of perfected it, and
they have the art what's calledBrazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
So it's kind of its own facetthat's branched off from
(02:42):
Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, which is alot more abrasive and brutal,
whereas Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu haskind of transformed now more
into kind of like a sport but,like we had said earlier, it's
still very heavily infighting tocontrol people.
So it's a very lot likewrestling and judo in the sense
that it's like throws andtakedowns and ways of holding
(03:06):
people on the ground.
So that's like the main.
Those are like the main threewhen it comes to grappling arts,
whereas the other side you havethe striking like kickboxing
and boxing and taekwondo andkarate.
So very, very little grabbingor holding, whereas the other
side of it is completely justthat there's no punches or kicks
.
Jon (03:26):
Okay, yeah, I had no idea that it started in Japan, which
is sad of me to say, because I'mvery big on Japanese culture.
Marcos (03:35):
Yeah, it's translated as the gentle art, right, but it's
not very gentle at times.
A lot of times it's not verygentle.
Jon (03:45):
Yeah, I can see that too.
When did you start with thisjourney for Jujutsu, or martial
arts in general, I should say.
Marcos (03:54):
Yeah, I mean I was juggle about it because I say I
was genetically predisposed tofighting.
My parents were really youngwhen they had me, so like they
were still in high school when Iwas in my mom's stomach.
So my dad wrestled all fouryears in high school.
He graduated, he joined theMarine Corps, he started
wrestling and then like the latenineties, when MMA started kind
(04:18):
of catching hold a little bit,that's when him and my uncle
started training.
So I was like six or seven atthe time and I'd started
wrestling pretty young, when Iwas about four years old, and
then we kind of migrated intofighting, which brought along
Jujutsu and some striking stuff,and so I first kind of got into
(04:39):
that world.
I was like eight or so and thenwe started training at the gym
that we train at now actuallythe gym that I teach at when I
was going into my freshman yearin high school.
So it was a huge part of mydevelopment growing up.
It was a huge part of what wedid.
I did play football, I did playbaseball, but wrestling was
kind of like my main sport.
(05:00):
And then eventually I kind ofleft wrestling and kind of
focused more on Jujutsu.
So yeah, I didn't really havethe choice.
My dad and my uncle I wasraised in the gym, they fought,
they trained, so it was kind oflike a pretty natural path for
me.
Jon (05:15):
Yeah, I was going to ask why you started, but it was
obviously because you had rolemodels around you who were
already in it.
Right, yeah?
Marcos (05:23):
And they're both, both my dad and my uncle still train,
they still.
They don't actively compete,but they're still on the mats,
even almost into their fifties.
So yeah it again.
Jon (05:36):
Like I said, I didn't really have a choice, yeah, but
I think that's a sometimes it'snice that way, though.
You know you found pretty muchthe love of your life in a
passion like this, and it wasalready kind of given to you at
a very young age, so that's ahuge blessing.
Marcos (05:51):
No, 100%, and that's actually a lot of why I've, you
know, devoted my life toteaching and doing jiu-jitsu and
, you know, leaving a lot ofthings behind so that I could
pursue.
This is because of what it didfor me as a kid, as a really
young kid, you know, growing up,learning how to, you know,
(06:12):
navigate the world, and, youknow, be a man, I guess, as you
would like.
You got to know how to defendyourself.
And so, you know, because thatwas such a big part of my life,
I feel the need to give that toother people and to create a
space and to have an environmentwhere people you know can start
even younger than me and takethis thing with them for the
(06:34):
rest of their life, and, youknow, whether they want to be a
champion or they just want to doit as a personal practice.
Like it's something thatultimately shifted my life and
you know, I wanted to be thatand offer that to other people.
And it's crazy now too, becauseI see, you know, entire families
.
You know the mom, the dad, thebrother, the sister all doing
(06:55):
jiu-jitsu.
Now, you know, like, start offwith the son who just wanted to
do it, then the son got thesister, and then they got the
parents and like and so you cansee, like you know, generational
effects where it's like okay,like you know, now you're going
to grow up and you're going toteach your son jiu-jitsu and you
know he's going to teach hisson jiu-jitsu and we're all
going to be able to traintogether.
(07:16):
So that's something that likeit's a very hidden part of it
that a lot of people don't see,but it's a big part of my family
, right.
It's like you know what we doon major holidays we go and we
train and, you know, hang outand beat each other up and that
will that'll be.
That'll continue on.
You know, when I eventuallyhave children of my own someday
and you know a wife and you knowmy siblings have their own
(07:40):
children they're all going totrain and wrestle.
So it's like it'll just besomething that continues to grow
from now until forever.
Jon (07:50):
That's a nice tradition to have too, and it's it's healthy
for you.
Like you said, it helped younavigate the world and I think,
other than just being like aphysical wellness thing, it's
also a spiritual wellness thing,you know.
Marcos (08:02):
That's where we're set, man, because that's all
connected right, like if yourbody or mind or your soul, like
it's all intertwined and youknow you have to do things that
bring it all together, thatforce you to use all of it Right
.
You know, there are a lot ofmindless things or a lot of
things where it's just like justbody or just your brain or
(08:22):
whatever you know, but it's likewhen you can make everything
work together like that, there'ssomething that happens there,
and Jiu-Jitsu is definitely oneof those things where it's like
it forces you into likeeverything's got to be working
at this time, because you can't,you can't really leave a piece
of that out, you know.
Jon (08:39):
Right, so are you considered a master now.
Marcos (08:48):
I am a black man there you go so technically a
professor of Jiu-Jitsu, I don'tbecome a master.
I want to say not exactly sure,but it's a certain degree I
believe five or six degrees in,then you become a master.
That's when they call youmaster.
Jon (09:05):
So they just call you professor now, which takes just
professor or coach.
Marcos (09:09):
Yeah, like it was been coached for a very long time.
But once you become a blackbelt then you're technically a
professor.
So I'm still kind of gettingused to that a little bit.
Jon (09:19):
So first degree.
Marcos (09:20):
Definitely takes some getting used to.
Jon (09:21):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, it's a sign of endearment, for sure, at such a young age
it's very impressive, though,too.
Marcos (09:27):
Right, and it's so like there are people in the gym that
are older than me.
You know that call me professornow, and so it's.
You know, I mean it's even thenlike it's always been kind of a
head trip just being in aposition to influence people of
all ages, right, even people whoare older than you.
There are people who are olderthan you that look up to you now
(09:48):
because of it, so it's trippy.
Jon (09:50):
Yeah, I mean it's not from a place of pride, though.
Marcos (09:53):
You've definitely put in the work and, like you said,
you're out here to like helppeople too, so it's a, it's a
very wholesome experiencebetween you and the student, so
right, and you know I've calleda lot of people, uh, professor,
that you know that I couldn'tbeat in a fight, you know, like
in college, whereas I'm, likeyou know, most black belts, like
you know, I'll call yourprofessor because he could
probably beat me up.
So you know I've done it plentyof times before.
Jon (10:17):
So when did you start teaching people?
Marcos (10:21):
So about 20, 2015, 2016, .
I was a blue belt at the time,which is, you know, still pretty
early on in your career, butyou know there's there's five
belts, so it's white, blue,purple, brown, black.
So you get your first.
You forget your first promotion, your blue belt, usually within
(10:42):
the first couple of years or so.
You know, first within yourfirst year or two, and then
you're able to, you know, kindof teach basics and kids classes
and stuff.
And so I worked at, uh, it wascalled the UFC gym and so I was
working as a, as a salesperson,first and then eventually made
my way over to the training side.
But there were kind of like asplice where it's like, okay, we
(11:05):
have, like, you know, weightsand we have cardio machines and
you know, turf and stuff, but wealso offer boxing and
kickboxing and even jujitsuclasses.
So, like you know, reallyregular, anybody could kind of
sign up and be a member and thenyou could just attend the
classes.
So that's kind of where I got.
My start was like teaching and,you know, helping out in the
kids classes and helping some ofthe older upper belts who were
(11:28):
there already.
You know kind of like run theclass and stuff and you know,
that's kind of where I got my myitch.
I mean, I've been coaching youknow different kinds of sports
and stuff for a long time but,um, man, teaching jujitsu has
always just been uh, everythingalways makes, has always made
sense there.
So it's kind of where I like tostay, but yeah, it's so.
(11:48):
It's been about almost eightyears now, seven years now, of
teaching you know Brazilianjujitsu, and so, yeah, man, it's
, it's crazy to say that.
Jon (12:01):
Yeah, it's a.
It's a long time, but that'sawesome, um, so that was kind of
in college, though, right.
Marcos (12:09):
Yeah, yeah.
So towards the end of college,right, I was, uh, subosa,
graduated 2015, ended upgraduating in 20, middle of 2016
.
So I did a couple of victorylaps there, um, but at that time
I was, you know, yeah, so I wasworking, you know, and
finishing school and theneventually graduating and I, you
(12:30):
know, kind of stuck with it andtried to, like you know, make
it work the whole time.
So, pretty much since then.
Jon (12:36):
So, yeah, man, so I had already asked you this, but I
kind of want to get the low downon it.
You are now a full timeprofessor, right?
Yep, ah, wait, did you do aftercollege?
What made you chase this dreamfull time, instead of taking the
(12:58):
route that everyone normallytakes outside of college?
Marcos (13:03):
So I did actually take the route that everybody did
outside of college.
I was trying to find a reallygood job.
I was all over the place tryingto find I wasn't going to use
my degree.
I was contemplating it becauseI got a degree in criminal law
and justice, so I thought abouteither going to a grad school or
(13:23):
going to be a police officer orsales.
To me, the way that I was goingto get it done was selling
stuff.
I worked for a couple differentcompanies.
I did some side-in jobs.
I worked for a very small itwas like a fitness supply
(13:46):
company.
It was like a small business.
I got the job on Craigslist.
I was doing door-to-door sales.
It was rough.
Then I got a job from a girlthat I knew in college.
I started working for Tesla andso I worked for them for two
years and so eventually sellingthem, and so I was making really
(14:07):
good money at the time.
But I just hated my life.
I hated staring out a computerscreen.
I hated talking to rich dudesabout luxury cars.
I wanted to off myself.
So it was one of those thingswhere I was like dude, you just
got to do something about it.
(14:28):
You got to go freaking, burnthe bridges and just go figure
it out.
And so that was April 2019.
So I'm floundering, trying tofigure it out, and still working
as a personal trainer, and thenthe pandemic hits.
So, less than a year afterquitting my full-time job, the
(14:50):
world goes crazy, and soJiu-Jitsu was deemed illegal
pretty much for the first coupleof two years, because no
contact, and it was crazy.
But yeah, you couldn't train,you couldn't do anything, you
couldn't even meet together.
So I was like, imagine tryingto meet up with people, to
(15:14):
breathe in each other's facesand be really, really close to
people and sweating on them.
It was illegal, man.
So there was a lot of speakeasy type stuff, man.
Like the prohibition days.
People were papering theirwindows and bringing people in
through the back door, lockingthe front door and checking out
(15:37):
the windows and making surenobody was seeing that we were
gathering.
It was some 1920s prohibitionstuff, man.
It was wild.
It's for the love of the game,though, man, and that's the
thing is.
I made it through that veryslowly soon after I tried it,
(15:57):
starting my own Jiu-Jitsuprogram out of a Taekwondo
school.
A good friend of mine who I hadintroduced to Jiu-Jitsu was the
owner of a school.
So we started running our ownprogram.
But it's like man, we couldn'tdo advertising.
We couldn't advertise and tellpeople, hey, we're doing this
thing because we didn't knowlike there's people coming out
(16:17):
and giving out $2,500 tickets orwhatever, all the kinds of
rumors that were going on ofhorror stories of schools
getting busted and stuff.
So it was like you weren'treally sure, like well, can we
do this, can we not?
And so, yeah, it was a lot ofuncertainty in those times for a
lot of people, obviously, butdefinitely in the Jiu-Jitsu
(16:39):
community.
Like I rocked the Jiu-Jitsucommunity very hard.
Jon (16:44):
Yeah, I can imagine I mean even just your personal story
too losing the full-time job2019 and then deciding to chase
your passion, which gets theclamps put on them because of
the pandemic, and I bet you weredealing with a lot of doubts
during that time as well.
Like well, I mean we were downin the whole world at that point
(17:07):
.
Marcos (17:08):
Right, right, nobody knew anything.
That was what it was.
It's like, okay, does this help, does this not help?
You know, masks, no masks.
Shots, no shots.
You know it was, nobody knewanything and everybody knew
everything at the same time.
So it's like, well, this isthis, and no one had any real
(17:29):
proof or whatever.
So, yeah, it was like it was.
You know, it made me veryanti-COVID because it was like,
man, like that almost cost me mylivelihood, like it cost me
every dollar that I had made upinto that point.
Like you know, I'd sold a bunchof stock just to like keep
myself afloat and keep my billspaid.
And, like you know, I didn't goon unemployment.
(17:50):
You know, I got a job at Aldifriggin, you know, working at
Aldi just so I could like makethis thing happen.
And yeah, man, it's.
I've done a few more jobs sincethen to try and just continue
to make this thing happen.
And you know, I still haven'thaven't made it yet.
But yeah, man, like you said,like it's worth it.
(18:13):
Man, there's, there's, there'sliterally nothing else that that
I would rather be doing.
You know so.
Jon (18:21):
I mean, I mean traditional way yeah.
For you to come on here and saythat you were selling Teslas
and you had it made and then tosay that you wanted to off
yourself so you started chasingyour dreams.
Like that's honestly, that'slike the whole point of this
fucking podcast, man, like Iappreciate that.
I appreciate that so much.
It's badass.
Marcos (18:38):
Yeah, and that's why I wanted to come on man, cause,
like one, I love supporting myfriends, right, I love
supporting their projects, thethings that you know, like
you're not making any money offof this yet, right, like you're,
you're having to come home andand dig into these trenches and
and be here and you know, set upstuff and whatever apps and
editing and like all of thatstuff you know goes into
(19:02):
whatever it is that you want todo.
So being able to, to see myfriends like hey, you know, do
this, and wanting to, to, tocreate something like that, that
that makes me happy.
Cause it's like man, I can goand encourage them and tell them
like man, you need to be doingthis, like you know, or, even if
you don't make any money off ofit, like you need to be making
something, creating somethingyou know, building something
(19:23):
like, even if it's just to keepyourself seeing from your
regular everyday life, you knowI don't encourage everybody to,
just like fricking, burn all thebridges, cause dude.
Jon (19:32):
I've burned all the bridges Like there's no, there's no
going back.
Marcos (19:36):
I don't encourage everyone to do it.
But, like you know, most people, I'll definitely say like, yeah
, you should.
You should be doing somesomething of that, Like, because
it's just working for the mandude, it's just not.
It's just not it, man.
Like, I think our wholegeneration was kind of
bamboozled into believing that,you know, everything would be
(19:56):
all right if you just did didall the things that you were
supposed to do, right, Quoteunquote.
And you know a lot of peopleare finding out that that's just
not the case.
Some people are finding outthat it is right.
Some people are doing great,Some people that we know are
doing awesome.
Yeah, Right, I know some peoplethat vibe with that Right.
Yeah, I mean they like thesecurity and the and the you
(20:19):
know the continuity, right, likethe ability to plan and the
ability to like it's.
It's a luxury that we don't getas entrepreneurs or, you know,
contractors.
Jon (20:30):
Right, right, yeah, so I actually.
So I run a bookkeeping businesswith my mom, so it's really
just myself, it used to be mycousin and her, so just three
employees.
You could say it's corporate,it's, you know, it's not.
It's pretty relaxed and stuff,but like we have to come in and
do all the work and stuff youknow.
(20:52):
Right, I don't know if I couldsurvive in like a corporate
America job.
It just wouldn't vibe with me.
You know, I've always workedfamily businesses or done like
odd jobs or like manual laborand stuff like that, for
whatever reason you know.
Marcos (21:07):
And it's it's gotten even worse man Cause, like you
know, even a company like Tesla.
You know they're based out ofPalo Alto, california, which is,
like you know, northernCalifornia, is like the PC
capital of the world.
You know Silicon Valley, soit's like it was just like
seeing some of the stuff thatwent on there is just like bro,
this is ridiculous.
Like yeah.
And not not in a not in a badway, like.
(21:29):
But it's just like for my ownpersonal, like the way that I
operate, like I just can't do itman.
Jon (21:36):
I mean it's.
It's when the corporate, orwhen your job or your career or
when certain institutions inyour life are are asking you to
be something that you can't, itbecomes draining on your soul.
Is the problem.
You know um and so, with thatbeing said, it's funny because
(21:57):
in 2019, I got sober in May of2019.
So you quit your job April 2019, I got sober 2019, and then we
hit the trenches and hit thetrenches in 2020.
So, um, I wanted to ask I mean,you've kind of talked about it
this whole time but why is JiuJitsu, why is martial arts, why
(22:21):
is MMA?
Why is this so important toyour wellness journey?
Marcos (22:28):
Yeah, I, um, that's how you.
I haven't found anything betteryet.
I think that's what it is,because if there was something
better, that's what I would bedoing.
For me it's just again doingthings that make your brain and
(22:51):
your body and your spirit kindof work together.
Fighting is visceral.
There's something inside of usas humans, innately, that
requires conflict.
It requires us to go up againstthings that cause us to react
(23:12):
and change and grow.
We need that form of frictionin our life and so a lot of
people they try to avoid it,they try to go away from it.
We get comfy shoes and comfycouches, and beds that feel like
clouds, and sheets that are airconditioned.
We want as much comfort aspossible and you can go very,
(23:36):
very long periods of timewithout getting any form of
discomfort, especially now inthe days that we live, and so
something things like jiu-jitsuand fighting and rock climbing
those are like my big threeright now you don't have any
choice but to be uncomfortable.
You don't get the option, andso you're going there and you're
(23:59):
faced with adversity physicaladversity, mental adversity.
You got your own body workingfor you, or against you in
certain cases, and it causes youto remove yourself from
everything that's going on andit causes you to be really only
in this exact moment.
I have to watch where my handsare at.
I got to watch where your handsare at.
(24:20):
I got to watch where yourweight is leaning.
I got to make sure, you know,like there's so many things that
I have to be worried about thatI can't think about.
You know, my crushing creditcard day or the fight that I had
with my wife, or whatever, likeyou can't think about, you just
cannot, like, you cannotprocess those things and do this
thing at the same time.
And so when you're able tofocus in on those activities
(24:44):
that require so much brain powerand so much physical exertion
like even if you just did thatfor 30 minutes, right, like you
when you remove yourself and yougo back to normal life, none of
that stuff really matters asmuch anymore.
Obviously, the problems arestill there Right.
But like your body is moreequipped to deal with the stress
(25:06):
that you come across ineveryday life.
Because you're putting yourselfunder so much stress, like
recreationally, like you'repracticing, being under really,
really bad conditions andworking your way through them
through technique or persistenceor perseverance, and you know,
when you come out of the end ofit and you're like, oh man, not
(25:28):
only are you like chemically,like straightened out, but like
you're you can see more clearand your body's like man it's,
it's, it's just like any otherworkout, right, but it just
creates so much focus and timethat can't think of anything
else.
And for me, like, whether it berunning or weightlifting, like
it just doesn't offer that, likeI like doing those things
(25:52):
occasionally but it's and it'sgood to feel to.
You know, hit some, some PRs orget a good pump, or you know.
You know maybe get a littlerunner's high or whatever, but
there's just nothing likegetting slammed around, for you
know 30 minutes to an hour andyou know throwing people on
their head and just sitting andenjoying life after that, you
(26:12):
know.
So it's like I don't know if Ianswered the question fully, but
, like, again, the reason whythat's important is because I
can get that results, and I'veyet to find something that will
get that result better.
That's kind of like the wholethe whole spiel.
Jon (26:28):
But I think that's a very I think that's a very subjective
view of of wellness, which iswhy I asked it, because you know
, however my guests answer it,they usually just go into detail
about why the hell it's soimportant to their life.
You know, and I thought it wasinteresting that you'd mentioned
like you can't think about allthe shit you're stressing about
(26:51):
in normal life.
You got to deal with, you know,kind of pushing yourself to the
limit and almost like usinginstincts like an animal, and
then afterwards, when you'redone with all that, I feel like
it's like you said, it's a loteasier to deal with all the crap
that you're dealing with, youknow, because you've already put
yourself under all that stress.
And I do that with basketball.
(27:12):
So normally, if I'm not hurt,I'm usually playing three to
five times a week, you know, andwhen you're playing fives, five
on five, there's no time for meto think about going grocery
shopping later and do and domeal preps or like paying bills
and shit.
You know, like in that momentit is visceral.
I like that word that you used,it's nice, and I thought it was
(27:36):
interesting that you mentionedcomfort a lot in a couple of
times, because I have talkedabout that a couple of times on
the podcast.
I think that, where we are in,what is it 2023,?
I think we have a problem.
I think we have a problem withcomfort, you know.
Marcos (27:53):
Yeah, it's a drug man, like you know, and it could be.
It could affect every area ofyour life, right?
If you allow yourself to becometoo comfortable in any
situation, whether it be arelationship or a job, or you
know, it's like one thing tohate your life and want to leave
your job.
It's another thing for it to beso comfortable and so cush that
(28:15):
it's just like you don't wantto do anything else, you don't
want to go outside, you don'twant to go out of bounds, you
don't want to work late, youdon't want to do that Like
everything's taken care of,right.
So it's like.
You know, is that a bad thing?
No, it's not a bad thing, ofcourse not.
It's good to be comfortable and, you know, have nice chairs and
good furniture and stuff.
But it's like, you know, it'slike that.
Have you ever saw that Disneymovie Wally?
(28:37):
Yeah, where it's like takesplace in the future and they got
the dudes like floating aroundon, like basically recliners and
they like fall out.
That's where we're headed, manis.
Because it's just like oh, wegot chairs that lean back, that
hold your hands up and massageyour fingers and like, and it's
good, it's good stuff, but it'slike, if you get caught up doing
(28:58):
that for too long and you don'tget off that couch and you
don't, you know, do some pushupsor move around or something, or
something, it's all going tocatch up to you Something, yeah.
Jon (29:09):
And it literally can't go wrong.
And I have been there even inmy sobriety.
I thought that I was going tohave everything fixed and
answered.
And you know I've been soberfor four years now and I hit
ruts.
You know I hit stuff where I'mnot staying up on my working out
or like my going out and stuff,because you know there's always
this comfort to fall back onright.
And I notice internally and youknow we're not going to like
(29:33):
generalize everybody out herebecause, like we were saying
earlier, we have some friendswho do really good in the
corporate jobs everything's laidout.
You know, some people just wantthings taken care of and I
think that's great.
You know, some people want tobe comfortable all the time and
don't want to be uncomfortable.
I get that.
But as humans, as consciousanimals, I do believe that
(29:55):
there's something inside of usthat wants to be pushed to that
limit.
You know, and I see red flagsin my life now because I've
trained myself, if I'm toocomfortable for like even a
couple of weeks, I'm like I gotto fucking do something, I got
to go run, I got to go hoop.
I got to do something, you knowbecause I've been sitting on
this couch, feeling a certainway, for too long, you know.
Marcos (30:19):
Right, and it can be that in itself could be
de-abilitating, right.
It's just like and I see it allthe time because it was me
right, like you know, I alwaystell people who trained your
jiu-jitsu, like when they firststart out, like have a plan
right.
Like two days a week in cement,come hell or high water, these
are the two days I'm going to bein training.
(30:40):
Because what happens is theysee the schedule and they say,
okay, I have class seven days aweek, I'll just go whenever I
can.
You know, you start off good,maybe you do three days.
Then you feel a little sore, soyou take a day off and then you
come for another day and thenyou're like, oh, I got the kids,
they got this and we had soccerpractice, so I skipped that day
and then I was supposed to gothis day and then one skipping
(31:04):
one day turns into skipping aweek and skipping three weeks
and just skipping a month, andnow you have to face the music
and go to class and all thesedudes have been working out for
the past month and you haven'tbeen.
So it's like now you got towalk through the door and get
what's coming to you.
So it's the same way, right,like as long as you're just like
(31:24):
ah, you know, we're justda-da-da-da-da.
One week turns into two weeks,three weeks A month.
You haven't gone to the gym Now, you're just making donations,
you know.
Jon (31:34):
So it's like it's how quickly it happens, man?
Marcos (31:38):
You're just making donations to LA Fitness.
Appreciate it.
Thank you for your donation,I'll see you next month?
Jon (31:44):
Shit, I've done that before , yeah.
Marcos (31:46):
I've been there, I know how it goes, man, I know how it
goes.
I think most people in thiscountry have been there honestly
, yeah, and it's like I said,and that's what again why I'm
such a huge advocate forJiu-Jitsu, especially when it
comes to health and fitness, isbecause when you come in and you
take your class, like we runyour warm-ups, we tell you what
(32:06):
we're doing at first, then wetell you what we're doing second
, then we do our drill, then wedo our rolls, and then you're
done an hour and hour and 15minutes and you're in and out
and whereas, like you know, ifyou're responsible for your own
fitness or whatever and you'vedone it a million times, I'll go
to export.
I'm going to do legs today andyou do a couple bicep curls,
(32:26):
take a couple selfies, check outsome chicks and you've been
there for three hours and you'vedone half your workout.
Jon (32:33):
Right.
Marcos (32:34):
And it's just like well, I haven't got any results.
Well, you know, look at howyou're spending your time, you
know.
So it's like with somethinglike Jiu-Jitsu, you come in, get
your ass kicked for an hour andthen you leave and FU will see
you tomorrow.
You know, that's how it goes.
Jon (32:52):
We talked a lot about like the individual and how this has
affected you and how thisaffects people who do go and use
it.
But one thing that just kind ofcame to mind was you mentioned
people go to the gyms that dothe regular workouts, and I'm
one of those people.
I do my solo stuff, but thenwhen I hoop I'm obviously
(33:13):
playing with a bunch of people.
There's a community aspect tothis Jiu-Jitsu thing.
Not even just the professor andthe student, but everybody
there is there to learn and togrow.
Marcos (33:25):
How has?
Jon (33:26):
that affected you.
Marcos (33:29):
Well, I mean, yeah, I always say, you know, jiu-jitsu
it's a personal journey that'spracticed in a group setting and
you can't practice it withoutat least one other person you
know.
So you have to, at the veryleast, say hello to the guy in
front of you, like you at leastgot to shake his hand before you
(33:51):
try to rip his head off.
Like that forces you intocommunication, it forces you
into interaction and that'swhere you get such a very where
a lot of people call Jiu-Jitsu acult, because people become so
obsessed with this, because it'slike I go there, I see all the
homies you know.
I see the dudes who startedaround the same time that I did.
(34:13):
I see all the dudes that havebeen helping me out, that have,
you know, been there for yearsbefore.
I see the dudes who work in thesame field that I work in or,
you know, they have the sameamount of kids that I have.
So it's like I'm automaticallyplaced into a place where it's
like I know all these dudes and,like you said, like it's not,
it's and it's not everywhere.
It's not every single sport,no-transcript.
(34:42):
Everyone has their own reasonsfor being there.
Yes, everybody has their ownright, but we're all looking to
do this one thing and that'smastery.
So when you have thatenvironment, it's very
encouraging, it's very upliftingand it's very collaborative.
And of course, dude, I love.
You know I can't lift withother people.
I can only lift by myself, likebecause I have to, like do my
(35:05):
numbers, do my sets like do myrest time, like I don't want to
talk, like I have headphones in,like leave me alone.
But you can't do that in ajiu-jitsu gym, like you can't
wear headphones and just modelthrough your workout without
talking to anybody, like it justdoesn't work that way, you know
.
And so, yeah, community is theword right Is where it becomes.
(35:27):
It's like, you know, weobviously have our own language
and our own way that we talkabout things and our own memes
and our own you know, differentjokes and stuff, like.
So you become, like you know,part of the subculture, right?
So that's kind of what drawspeople in too, especially, you
know people who don't have thatanywhere, like they don't, maybe
they don't have a family, ormaybe they don't have friends or
(35:47):
maybe they don't have, you know, constructive people in their
lives.
So they go to a gym where youknow everyone's working out,
everyone's training, everyone'strying to get better, and you
just get mixed in with thoseguys and then you know, you guys
get promoted together.
Man, we started when we werewhite belts, now we're blue
belts, now we're brown belts,now we're black belts, and we've
(36:07):
known each other for damn near15 years now, right, so whoa,
and so that's kind of again it'sa hidden thing that a lot of
people don't think about at thefront end, but you kind of find
it out later on, as you continueon through the art, right when
it's like it becomes tighter andtighter knit.
(36:27):
And the community itself, youknow, even across the world,
really isn't that big, you knowLike.
So everybody knows everybody'ssomewhere along the line.
Jon (36:38):
Yeah, it becomes more than just an individual journey at
that point, because you're doingit with people and I think you
know, with the rise oftechnology and everything that
we have been dealing with, andespecially what happened with
COVID, it kind of gave everybodythe wrong impression that we're
alone, you know, or we're morealone than we make ourselves
(37:00):
believe and now we're trying toget our footing with coming back
into community options likethis.
You know, or you know, it's notalways just a text message or a
message online.
Sometimes you just need to goout and be around people.
You know, even, like you said,even if you're gonna reach some
sort of goal, especially like aphysical goal, like that, you
(37:22):
know, I never understood whenpeople came to play fives on the
basketball court with theirAirPods in, like, literally like
five on five.
I'm like, and I'd have one kidon my team and I look at him and
I'm like, how, how do you dothis?
Marcos (37:38):
What could you be listening?
To right now.
What is it like?
What gets you in the mode toplay such a?
Yeah?
I mean there's a lot of talkingand a lot of things that go on
Right.
I don't get that either.
I've never understood that.
Jon (37:51):
We usually lose those games too, and I don't say anything
after.
I'm not that guy.
I'm not gonna say something youknow, but I'm just saying
there's some correlation here.
Right, right right.
Marcos (38:02):
There's some correlation , maybe not be the same thing,
but no, yeah, absolutely, man.
And so, yeah, I think that youknow that's why Jiu-Jitsu has
become so popular now in a lotof different spaces, you know,
in the first responder space andthe mental health space.
You know military, you knowreally every just everyday
(38:25):
people, and addicts especially.
You know, because it's likewhen you become sober, when you
remove yourself from certainenvironments, that need or that
desire to be a part of somethingdoesn't go away, and that's
when people relapses becausethey don't have things to put in
those places where there wasonce things that sat.
(38:48):
And so, you know, when you giveyour, I tell people I've had a
lot of addictions in my lifewith Jiu-Jitsu's, by far the
most constructive.
But that's just because of whatit offers, it's just because of
the all-encompassing aspect ofit.
It's not because there's magicor there's something that
somebody knows that nobody elseknows, but it's the whole
(39:09):
package.
And if you allow yourself tokind of be involved, then it
kind of pulls you in and getsyou, you know, kind of
acclimates you the way that youshould be right.
And so it takes a lot of place,whereas where people would use
or go party on a Friday night.
They go sweat it out on a matfor two hours and then you know
(39:31):
you're so exhausted you can'teven go out you know, just go
home and go to sleep and youcreate that, you know pattern,
time over time and you know,before you know it, you're you
know X amount of your sober oryou know you don't have those
desires anymore because you'rejust not in that headspace
anymore, you know.
Jon (39:50):
Right, you're more in tune to the healthy side of your body
, your mind and your soul, youknow.
Marcos (39:57):
Yeah, and again it starts to like it's like
Jiu-Jitsu starts to like suckeverything up, like in your life
, and like that's what becomesthe center, because it's like,
okay, well, I can't eat honeybuns and monster energy drinks
for breakfast anymore, you know,I gotta like maybe eat some
oatmeal or maybe eat somewhatever, some eggs or something
, because I gotta go train andI'm not trying to throw up on
(40:19):
the mat, right?
So then yeah, and then.
So then what happens?
You go and you get exhaustedand you wanna eat something good
after.
You don't wanna go toMcDonald's and ruin the workout
that you just had and you'veexerted so much energy that you
just go home and you kinda go tosleep.
Or you know, you see all thestuff that makes its way in.
You know the recovery stuff andthe ice exposure, the cold
exposure, like all of that stuffkind of like seeps its way into
(40:43):
Jiu-Jitsu.
And then you start to learnokay, I'm gonna start doing yoga
or start weightlifting or startrunning because I want my
Jiu-Jitsu to improve, and sothen you just start picking up
more things along the way, butit's all centered around like I
just wanna get good at Jiu-Jitsuwhich is like again, you know
it's call it what it is,whatever it is good or bad, but
(41:04):
you know it's constructive andit brings about other
constructive things you know.
Jon (41:13):
Why do you think that people struggle with finding
something like that in life?
Though, like you found it, Ihave basketball.
I'd like to say my brother hasrunning.
You know, I know, like my onebuddy used to be.
Well, you know I'm Chris.
Megan Beard used to be reallyinto martial arts.
(41:33):
He was taking martial arts forlike two years, but not.
A lot of people have somethinglike this.
Why do you think it's difficultfor people to go and try new
things as we get older, to findthat thing you know?
Marcos (41:55):
I think that the older we get, the more set in our ways
we become, right, and just likewe had talked about earlier, it
was like seeking comfort andseeking softness and
comfortability is nice, right,soft blankets and warm sheets
like those are great, right.
But it's like, but going outand humbling yourself and, you
(42:18):
know, breaking your body downand sweating and grunting and,
you know, failing, it's just notvery appealing, right?
It's not appealing to me.
I still hate it, you know, butthat's my whole life.
It's like, and I now have todeal with people who hate it too
, like you know, and try toencourage people to continue in
their journey and to continuetraining into, but at the end of
(42:39):
the day, dude, it's fuckinghard, like, and it's only the
hard stuff that's really worthit, in my opinion.
Like you know, people likevideo games and I don't wanna
knock anybody else's, whatever,right but it's like there's just
certain things that justthey're just not gonna break you
down and force you to growagain, and plenty of people are
(43:00):
okay with that, like they don'tcare to have that stuff in their
life.
And so, you know, it's hard,dude, it's really hard to start
Jiu-Jitsu in your 30s or your40s, because you also have other
insecurities.
Like you know, I'm a grown assman and I'm gonna go get
physically dominated by anothergrown ass man.
(43:20):
Like you know, they havefamilies and careers, yeah, Like
you know, like a mortgage, it'sa pride thing though.
Yeah, absolutely, and you knowit's.
But it's hard, dude.
It's hard to put on that whitebelt man.
It's hard to go into a roomfull of killers and be brand new
and to not know everything.
And you know, we come furtherand further away from that the
(43:44):
older that we get.
I think you know, like we wantorthopedic shoes and we want,
you know, like, the stuff that'sgonna like.
You know that we didn't preparefor when we were younger, so
it's like well, now, now yougotta pay the piper.
You know, now you gotta do thelittle bit of extra stuff.
And you know it's hard, man,it's a lot of people just don't
(44:06):
care to do it.
Jon (44:07):
It is.
It is very humbling to do newexperiences, and not even just
like physical ones, just to likego out and like meet new people
and do new things, cause youknow, college made it very easy
for you to just like go dothings, meet people and all that
crap.
Marcos (44:26):
Oh yeah.
Jon (44:27):
Then we get in our late 20s and early 30s and then it's
like if you don't go to the bars, you're not meeting new people.
If you're not a part ofsomething like Jiu Jitsu or a
gym, like playing basketball,you're not meeting new people
and you're not getting in shape.
And they just like shove ourphones in our face and they go
look at this screen.
Marcos (44:46):
You know, look at this screen look at this bright
screen so pretty.
Jon (44:49):
Yeah, it's so pretty, you know, pretty and funny screen.
And for people like us and Iknow a lot of people in my life
are the same way there's a redflashing light.
That usually comes with toomuch comfort, you know, and I
know that as I get older itdoesn't mean I can't break those
limits, it just makes it alittle bit more difficult, you
(45:13):
know.
Marcos (45:14):
Yeah, requires a little more.
More effort planning a littlemore more.
Yeah, a little more elbowgrease.
Yeah and yeah, man, it's, it's,yeah, I mean it.
For me, it's like one of thosethings where it's like when I
haven't trained or I haven'tworked out, like I start going
like.
Cuckoo, yeah, yeah like reallylike, really anxious and like
(45:35):
really snappy, and it's justlike man, I got to go do so.
I got to like let this out,like and Again, yeah, like you
said, man, not everybody hasthat and it's unfortunate
because it what what ends uphappening is.
It ends up, like I said, it'sit's fighting, is Inherent in
your body and it's like you needthat.
(45:57):
It's something, and if youdon't, then it just like oozes
out of your eyeball, falls outof your ears, like that's when
you got like dudes who likecatcalls or like or like overly
aggressive with women or womenwho like are very Catty and like
they gossip and they like wantto like.
You know, like it in manifestsitself in negative forms that it
(46:20):
just like Like, literally likeooze out of your pores, like you
, like you just drink a bunch ofvodka the night before, you
know, and you can like smell itlike Ruminating off of you, like
it's the same thing.
You don't get rid of that, likethat's just bad energy yeah just
Like oozes out and you can't,and at that point you can't stop
(46:42):
it and you don't.
You may not know what's gonnahappen, you don't know what's
gonna come out of your mouth,and so it's like for me, I just
got to have that constant likeReleasing that dump and release,
because it's not.
Jon (46:53):
If not I'm, I'll put hands on somebody out here it's, it's
getting control of your energy,you know.
Right, because we all have weall have that primal energy.
Like we've said before, we'restill animals, you know.
Marcos (47:07):
It exists, it does exist , can't, can't, say it doesn't
like.
Jon (47:12):
No matter how Sophisticated we get as a society or as
people, you can't deny thatthose things right, and before I
had taken health more Seriously, I used to, you know, smoke a
lot of weed or I used to drink,or I used to eat very unhealthy
food, because these were thingsthat would take that, that
energy I had, and it would justlike shove it really deep down,
(47:34):
yes, to press it, you know.
And then, you know, you know,eight years goes by and finally
the you know, the lid blows offthe top and I'm like I have to,
I have to do something and Gottamake a change.
Yeah and it started with takingmy health seriously.
You know, physical, mental andemotional finding something like
that and it looks like you havetaken this journey to also help
(47:58):
other people find that as well,and that is.
That is a beautiful thing, man,honestly.
Marcos (48:06):
Yeah, it's a Like I said , I don't know if I'll do it for
the rest of my life.
I think I'll always teachjiu-jitsu or some form of
martial arts, just as a as ageneral practice.
But yeah, man, I, like I said,I've never wanted to do anything
else more than this right now,and it's because of I believe
(48:28):
that the world just needs it,man.
I believe that the world needsto know how to fight and if, if
everyone in the world knowjiu-jitsu, the world would be a
better place.
You know, that's like.
I firmly, wholeheartedlybelieve that, and that's just
why I do what I do, man, becauseI believe that kids need this.
You know, wives need this,women need this to defend
(48:49):
themselves, men need this sothey can learn what it's like
you know to, to grow in a skilland be humble.
And you know, I believe that,whatever cool I don't know who
who says it's really overusednow that, like, was it hard
times create Strong men, andstrong men create good times and
good times create weak man.
Jon (49:10):
Yeah, it's just a cycle, yeah.
Marcos (49:12):
I believe that I don't know who said it, it's really
overused now, but I believe thatwe're in hard times and through
these hard times, great meant,great, strong men will be
created.
Right, and you know, things arevery dark right now in the
world and they may get darker,but that's what creates and
(49:32):
spurs on men like myself, menlike the men in my family, to
Help other people on this pathand say, okay, you know, you
don't have to succumb to thedarkness, right, it doesn't.
Oh, there's not the way that ithas to be.
And those small movements, thosesmall efforts, right, is what
Starts to move the needle in theother direction right and
(49:55):
starts to create strong men thatare gonna continue our society,
and hopefully not, you know,blow it up or lose it in a fight
, you know, like you know,that's all that we can hope for.
So, yeah, man, I think we're ina bad time right now, but I
think that it's created a lot ofopportunity for some strong men
to to arise.
Jon (50:15):
I Totally believe that.
I think this is a this is animportant time of reflection for
everybody, and not and not evenjust saying men, but women in
general, people in general, youknow, like people in general,
man you know we only speakreally for men because I'm not a
woman.
I can't speak right what it isto be a woman so do you teach
(50:36):
women though in class, thoughright, oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
Marcos (50:39):
There's in, I would say, in the lap jujitsu for women,
really grappling for women ingeneral, has grown more in the
last 10 years than it has sinceits inception and More in the
last five years than it has inthe last 10.
It's growing like Tremendouslyand I I love it.
(51:02):
I absolutely Love that.
That's a thing, right, because,again, I think that women need
to do more than men, justbecause of the again, the way
the world that we live in, andyou know, women need to be
equipped with the, the abilityto, to, to make things happen
right, to create and protectthemselves in certain situations
, and so the fact that they'renow getting, you know, kind of
(51:25):
carving out their own littlesection of the market, like it's
, it's incredible, it's great tosee, you know little girls
three years old, four years old,learning how to defend
themselves and you know handlethemselves in a physical
situation.
Because, again, like I've, I'veseen what it does for little
boys, right, being a little boygrowing up in that environment,
(51:47):
and it's like everybody needsthis.
It's not just boys who needthis course, you know, and it's
not, but you know there's a lotof things that they're battling.
I mean women battle a lot right,like even societal pressures of
like, you know, women aren'tallowed to get dirty or be
sweaty or to to be rough, youknow would be strong or be
(52:07):
strong, yeah for sure you knowthey got to be this, this little
dainty, you know spring flower,and it's, it's not the case,
you know, and the empowermentthat comes with you know, moving
your body and getting a strongbody and learning how to, you
know, dismantle another humanbeing, like the empowerment that
comes through that is Unmatchedand in a lot of other spaces,
(52:31):
and again I I'm super gratefulthat, I'm super glad women are
starting to kind of make theirway in and starting to Carve out
their own little piece of itbecause, it's, like man, they
need those spaces just as muchas men do right, yeah, and I
think I think that also helpsthe men in there too.
Jon (52:50):
I think they both help each other by being in there
together, you know yeah so it'snot always so, because they try,
and I say they.
I'm like.
You know the world tries tosplit us up all the time instead
of us just realizing that we'reall in it together.
You know, and you've used theword humility and humbling
experience like getting thrownaround, toss around and all that
(53:11):
stuff, and I think everybodygoing through a very humbling
experience is good and isimportant to grow into the
people that we're supposed to be.
So I think that's even better,that we're all doing it together
.
Marcos (53:23):
Yeah, 1000% man.
And it's like, and you know,yeah, bringing the world
together and being able tointeract with people of all
sizes and shapes is good for you, but I believe also just like
the camaraderie that comes with.
You know, it's different whenit's a bunch of dudes hanging
out and then there's girlsinvolved, like when it's just
(53:46):
dudes.
Like everybody can relax andeveryone can say what they want
to say and they don't want to.
They don't have to feel likethey got to put on a show.
And the same goes with, you know, when you're in an environment
of just fighters, or just men orjust women fighters, like you
know, you don't got to worryabout what your hair looks like,
you don't got to worry aboutwhat your shirt looks like, like
(54:08):
to just go in and train andjust freaking, do your thing
without having to bother you orlook at you weird or whatever.
Like it's priceless dude.
And people need that again,everywhere they need it, they
require it, they can't gowithout it and plenty of people
do, man, they go deprived ofthese spaces and these places
(54:33):
where they can expressthemselves freely.
And you know, jiu Jitsuprovides that man.
Jon (54:39):
Absolutely Now are there.
Is there any tips for anybodyout there who might be
interested in trying out JiuJitsu or a martial arts in
general?
Or any tips for people who justneed to be uncomfortable?
How to start?
I should say yeah.
Marcos (54:56):
Yeah, I mean first things first is shop around, man
, because it's not, it's not aone size fits all approach.
Different gyms have differentvibes.
You know different, differentgoals.
You know there are gyms wherethey they focus heavily on
competition or they focusheavily on fitness or they focus
on one kind of facet of it.
So, you know, if you'reinterested in in really, you
(55:21):
know, getting involved, I wouldshop around and say, okay, I'm
going to go try a class at eachone of these gyms, you know, and
I'm going to talk to theownership and the management and
the instructor, and theownership and the management and
the instructors and you know,and the people there, and you
know, you know, do I see peoplethat look like me?
Do I see people who arefriendly?
Do I see people who care thatI'm there?
(55:42):
Or they just, you know, theyroll their eyes because I'm a
new guy.
You know, like, shop around andsee where you can find yourself
fitting in, because you're goingto have to spend a lot of time
there, right, if you want to bereally good and you want to
really sink your teeth into thisthing, you better be willing to
spend Friday nights there,saturday mornings, monday
mornings, thursday afternoons,like you got to be willing to be
(56:06):
there and spend time there.
So if you don't like it or youknow you feel everyone's kind of
different than you, or they'reall younger and you're kind of
older and it's, like, you know,not really fitting for you, then
you know, go find somewhereelse and go somewhere that works
.
You know, because you're theone who's got to do it, you're
the one who's got to spend thetime and your money and you got
(56:27):
to go.
You know, and then do theactivity itself, which is not
always the most fun thing to do.
I mean, it's a lot of fun, ofcourse, but you know, coming up
learning how to do it like it'snot always the most fun.
But yeah, so that's the thingis like just shop around, like
it's not everything is a onesize fits all approach.
You know the first place you goto may not be the place for you,
(56:49):
or it will be, or you'll go andyou'll try it and you know
everyone's going to be able todo it.
You know you'll try it and youknow everyone will be really
cool.
And you know you meet somefriends first day and
instructors are funny, or youknow he's got some cool skills,
you know.
So it's like you know andyou're there and then just show
up, man, just walk through thedoor.
For the second half, the peoplewho need some uncomfortability,
like you know, they want tomake a change, they want to get
(57:13):
fit, they want to be moreconfident, they want to stop
eating junk, so much like.
Then you got to put yourself inan environment that's set up
for you to win Export.
You know, LA fitness,weightlifting, getting a
personal trainer those thingsare great, those things are
steps, but they're not alwaysgoing to be able to to be that
(57:37):
there for you.
So it's like you have to havesomeone else there to pick you
up, to like, kind of like, sprayalong and like, and for me, for
someone like yourself would beyour instructor and be me.
You know we have conversations,or we talk or we chop it up, or
just, you know, I can help youalong the way, Okay, Help you
(57:57):
with different positions orthings like that, Like.
And then you start to grow andlike, oh, okay, Like, and you
just, you know, go off the races, Like.
It's some people, some peopledon't need the, they just need
the permission.
They go and they do it and thenboom, they're hooked and they
just want to grow and they wantto learn and they want to.
You know, they want to getbetter and you know some other
(58:18):
people.
They got to shop around, theygot to get comfortable a little
bit, you know, and but you know,just got to show up, that's it.
Jon (58:27):
I think, showing up and, like you said, shopping around,
I think, trying to find amartial arts that's or not even
just a martial arts, but justsomething that's good for
everybody, you know.
But I think you have to beuncomfortable and try a bunch of
things.
First, you got to walk intosome places that you haven't
walked into, see some peoplethat you haven't fucking seen
ever in your life.
You got to be uncomfortable, andif you didn't, if you don't
(58:49):
like it, you walk out of thereand you don't even have to see
anybody ever again.
Marcos (58:53):
you know you got to just exactly.
Jon (58:56):
You got to just keep rocking new, new experiences,
get a good sweat on and, youknow, try and make the changes
in your life that everybodyknows they can innately make
deep down, you know.
Marcos (59:10):
And it's, it's hard man.
It's easier said than done.
Jon (59:12):
but it is Honestly, I mean it took.
You know, we said that 2019 wasthe year for both of us.
It's like you don't haveeverything figured out ever
really, and I know people thathave changed their lives in
their mid to late thirties andeven forties, you know, but
Absolutely, if you know that, ifyou know that you can, you got
to take that first step and bereally uncomfortable.
(59:34):
But I promise, after you take acouple really uncomfortable
steps, they'll get morecomfortable after that, for sure
.
Marcos (59:40):
That's right.
It's definitely the hardestpart.
Jon (59:43):
For sure that first couple steps, I'd say the first one,
right.
Yeah, really, I think we hit alot of good points.
I think this was a damn goodconversation.
Honestly, what do?
Marcos (59:55):
you think?
Absolutely, man.
I appreciate you having me onGo chat.
Jon (59:59):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I'll be dropping links toeverything Kind of keep you
posted and drop links to youCollaborate on all this good
stuff Probably going to go up ina couple of days.
I'll let you know when thathappens and everything.
Yeah, man, I appreciate youcoming out, though, and honestly
(01:00:20):
I'll be looking forward tohaving you on again so we can
talk more wellness.
I think this was a greatfucking conversation, would love
to do it again.
Marcos (01:00:27):
Yeah, you're welcome.
Jon (01:00:29):
Thanks, absolutely Thanks, for everybody coming out
Sticking around for the episode.
Y'all have a good rest of yourday, night or week and peace out
Peace.
Marcos (01:00:39):
Peace out.
Yo yo, welcome back to the Feel Free podcast, the only
podcast that'll tell you tochase your dreams and call you
out on all your bullshit, myselfincluded.
It's been a while since I didthat little introduction.
Thought it'd be best to getback down to business and do it.
Got a good episode today.
Got my buddy Marcos here totalk about his wellness practice
with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu andhow that has impacted his life.
(00:31):
Got a crazy story coming up onhow he pretty much became a
full-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsucoach, how fighting has impacted
his wellness on a physical,emotional and mental plane.
So you want to stick around.
This is a damn good episode.
Next week I got my buddyBrandon coming by to talk about
his journey with sobriety, music, writing some books.
(00:53):
Honestly, he's doing somefucking sick ass work.
Don't miss that.
He's coming out in a week ortwo.
So, without further ado, stickaround.
Got the episode coming up.
So what is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?
Marcos (01:14):
Yeah, so, man, that's a load of question.
So it is a martial art that isheavily rooted in grappling,
which is there's no punches orkicks, there's no striking, it's
all grabs and holds and bodymanipulation, so turning and
(01:36):
folding and twisting the bodywhile on the ground in order to
control someone physically, andthen the end or the result is a
submission, right where I'm ableto effectively manipulate a
part of you until you give up,right, so I bend your arm
(01:56):
backwards or I hyper-extend yourelbow or I apply a choke of
some sort that causes the otherperson to give up or ultimately
pass out or die eventually.
But it was heavily rooted backin Japan.
It was like a pass down fromthe samurai.
They were the ones whodeveloped this kind of art form,
(02:20):
and then it kind of grew andmigrated into Brazil,
india-japan, and then the guyswho kind of took hold of it in
Brazil kind of made it like thishuge thing.
They basically developed a lotmore, kind of perfected it, and
they have the art what's calledBrazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
So it's kind of its own facetthat's branched off from
(02:42):
Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, which is alot more abrasive and brutal,
whereas Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu haskind of transformed now more
into kind of like a sport but,like we had said earlier, it's
still very heavily infighting tocontrol people.
So it's a very lot likewrestling and judo in the sense
that it's like throws andtakedowns and ways of holding
(03:06):
people on the ground.
So that's like the main.
Those are like the main threewhen it comes to grappling arts,
whereas the other side you havethe striking like kickboxing
and boxing and taekwondo andkarate.
So very, very little grabbingor holding, whereas the other
side of it is completely justthat there's no punches or kicks
.
Jon (03:26):
Okay, yeah, I had no idea that it started in Japan, which
is sad of me to say, because I'mvery big on Japanese culture.
Marcos (03:35):
Yeah, it's translated as the gentle art, right, but it's
not very gentle at times.
A lot of times it's not verygentle.
Jon (03:45):
Yeah, I can see that too.
When did you start with thisjourney for Jujutsu, or martial
arts in general, I should say.
Marcos (03:54):
Yeah, I mean I was juggle about it because I say I
was genetically predisposed tofighting.
My parents were really youngwhen they had me, so like they
were still in high school when Iwas in my mom's stomach.
So my dad wrestled all fouryears in high school.
He graduated, he joined theMarine Corps, he started
wrestling and then like the latenineties, when MMA started kind
(04:18):
of catching hold a little bit,that's when him and my uncle
started training.
So I was like six or seven atthe time and I'd started
wrestling pretty young, when Iwas about four years old, and
then we kind of migrated intofighting, which brought along
Jujutsu and some striking stuff,and so I first kind of got into
(04:39):
that world.
I was like eight or so and thenwe started training at the gym
that we train at now actuallythe gym that I teach at when I
was going into my freshman yearin high school.
So it was a huge part of mydevelopment growing up.
It was a huge part of what wedid.
I did play football, I did playbaseball, but wrestling was
kind of like my main sport.
(05:00):
And then eventually I kind ofleft wrestling and kind of
focused more on Jujutsu.
So yeah, I didn't really havethe choice.
My dad and my uncle I wasraised in the gym, they fought,
they trained, so it was kind oflike a pretty natural path for
me.
Jon (05:15):
Yeah, I was going to ask why you started, but it was
obviously because you had rolemodels around you who were
already in it.
Right, yeah?
Marcos (05:23):
And they're both, both my dad and my uncle still train,
they still.
They don't actively compete,but they're still on the mats,
even almost into their fifties.
So yeah it again.
Jon (05:36):
Like I said, I didn't really have a choice, yeah, but
I think that's a sometimes it'snice that way, though.
You know you found pretty muchthe love of your life in a
passion like this, and it wasalready kind of given to you at
a very young age, so that's ahuge blessing.
Marcos (05:51):
No, 100%, and that's actually a lot of why I've, you
know, devoted my life toteaching and doing jiu-jitsu and
, you know, leaving a lot ofthings behind so that I could
pursue.
This is because of what it didfor me as a kid, as a really
young kid, you know, growing up,learning how to, you know,
(06:12):
navigate the world, and, youknow, be a man, I guess, as you
would like.
You got to know how to defendyourself.
And so, you know, because thatwas such a big part of my life,
I feel the need to give that toother people and to create a
space and to have an environmentwhere people you know can start
even younger than me and takethis thing with them for the
(06:34):
rest of their life, and, youknow, whether they want to be a
champion or they just want to doit as a personal practice.
Like it's something thatultimately shifted my life and
you know, I wanted to be thatand offer that to other people.
And it's crazy now too, becauseI see, you know, entire families
.
You know the mom, the dad, thebrother, the sister all doing
(06:55):
jiu-jitsu.
Now, you know, like, start offwith the son who just wanted to
do it, then the son got thesister, and then they got the
parents and like and so you cansee, like you know, generational
effects where it's like okay,like you know, now you're going
to grow up and you're going toteach your son jiu-jitsu and you
know he's going to teach hisson jiu-jitsu and we're all
going to be able to traintogether.
(07:16):
So that's something that likeit's a very hidden part of it
that a lot of people don't see,but it's a big part of my family
, right.
It's like you know what we doon major holidays we go and we
train and, you know, hang outand beat each other up and that
will that'll be.
That'll continue on.
You know, when I eventuallyhave children of my own someday
and you know a wife and you knowmy siblings have their own
(07:40):
children they're all going totrain and wrestle.
So it's like it'll just besomething that continues to grow
from now until forever.
Jon (07:50):
That's a nice tradition to have too, and it's it's healthy
for you.
Like you said, it helped younavigate the world and I think,
other than just being like aphysical wellness thing, it's
also a spiritual wellness thing,you know.
Marcos (08:02):
That's where we're set, man, because that's all
connected right, like if yourbody or mind or your soul, like
it's all intertwined and youknow you have to do things that
bring it all together, thatforce you to use all of it Right
.
You know, there are a lot ofmindless things or a lot of
things where it's just like justbody or just your brain or
(08:22):
whatever you know, but it's likewhen you can make everything
work together like that, there'ssomething that happens there,
and Jiu-Jitsu is definitely oneof those things where it's like
it forces you into likeeverything's got to be working
at this time, because you can't,you can't really leave a piece
of that out, you know.
Jon (08:39):
Right, so are you considered a master now.
Marcos (08:48):
I am a black man there you go so technically a
professor of Jiu-Jitsu, I don'tbecome a master.
I want to say not exactly sure,but it's a certain degree I
believe five or six degrees in,then you become a master.
That's when they call youmaster.
Jon (09:05):
So they just call you professor now, which takes just
professor or coach.
Marcos (09:09):
Yeah, like it was been coached for a very long time.
But once you become a blackbelt then you're technically a
professor.
So I'm still kind of gettingused to that a little bit.
Jon (09:19):
So first degree.
Marcos (09:20):
Definitely takes some getting used to.
Jon (09:21):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, it's a sign of endearment, for sure, at such a young age
it's very impressive, though,too.
Marcos (09:27):
Right, and it's so like there are people in the gym that
are older than me.
You know that call me professornow, and so it's.
You know, I mean it's even thenlike it's always been kind of a
head trip just being in aposition to influence people of
all ages, right, even people whoare older than you.
There are people who are olderthan you that look up to you now
(09:48):
because of it, so it's trippy.
Jon (09:50):
Yeah, I mean it's not from a place of pride, though.
Marcos (09:53):
You've definitely put in the work and, like you said,
you're out here to like helppeople too, so it's a, it's a
very wholesome experiencebetween you and the student, so
right, and you know I've calleda lot of people, uh, professor,
that you know that I couldn'tbeat in a fight, you know, like
in college, whereas I'm, likeyou know, most black belts, like
you know, I'll call yourprofessor because he could
probably beat me up.
So you know I've done it plentyof times before.
Jon (10:17):
So when did you start teaching people?
Marcos (10:21):
So about 20, 2015, 2016, .
I was a blue belt at the time,which is, you know, still pretty
early on in your career, butyou know there's there's five
belts, so it's white, blue,purple, brown, black.
So you get your first.
You forget your first promotion, your blue belt, usually within
(10:42):
the first couple of years or so.
You know, first within yourfirst year or two, and then
you're able to, you know, kindof teach basics and kids classes
and stuff.
And so I worked at, uh, it wascalled the UFC gym and so I was
working as a, as a salesperson,first and then eventually made
my way over to the training side.
But there were kind of like asplice where it's like, okay, we
(11:05):
have, like, you know, weightsand we have cardio machines and
you know, turf and stuff, but wealso offer boxing and
kickboxing and even jujitsuclasses.
So, like you know, reallyregular, anybody could kind of
sign up and be a member and thenyou could just attend the
classes.
So that's kind of where I got.
My start was like teaching and,you know, helping out in the
kids classes and helping some ofthe older upper belts who were
(11:28):
there already.
You know kind of like run theclass and stuff and you know,
that's kind of where I got my myitch.
I mean, I've been coaching youknow different kinds of sports
and stuff for a long time but,um, man, teaching jujitsu has
always just been uh, everythingalways makes, has always made
sense there.
So it's kind of where I like tostay, but yeah, it's so.
(11:48):
It's been about almost eightyears now, seven years now, of
teaching you know Brazilianjujitsu, and so, yeah, man, it's
, it's crazy to say that.
Jon (12:01):
Yeah, it's a.
It's a long time, but that'sawesome, um, so that was kind of
in college, though, right.
Marcos (12:09):
Yeah, yeah.
So towards the end of college,right, I was, uh, subosa,
graduated 2015, ended upgraduating in 20, middle of 2016
.
So I did a couple of victorylaps there, um, but at that time
I was, you know, yeah, so I wasworking, you know, and
finishing school and theneventually graduating and I, you
(12:30):
know, kind of stuck with it andtried to, like you know, make
it work the whole time.
So, pretty much since then.
Jon (12:36):
So, yeah, man, so I had already asked you this, but I
kind of want to get the low downon it.
You are now a full timeprofessor, right?
Yep, ah, wait, did you do aftercollege?
What made you chase this dreamfull time, instead of taking the
(12:58):
route that everyone normallytakes outside of college?
Marcos (13:03):
So I did actually take the route that everybody did
outside of college.
I was trying to find a reallygood job.
I was all over the place tryingto find I wasn't going to use
my degree.
I was contemplating it becauseI got a degree in criminal law
and justice, so I thought abouteither going to a grad school or
(13:23):
going to be a police officer orsales.
To me, the way that I was goingto get it done was selling
stuff.
I worked for a couple differentcompanies.
I did some side-in jobs.
I worked for a very small itwas like a fitness supply
(13:46):
company.
It was like a small business.
I got the job on Craigslist.
I was doing door-to-door sales.
It was rough.
Then I got a job from a girlthat I knew in college.
I started working for Tesla andso I worked for them for two
years and so eventually sellingthem, and so I was making really
(14:07):
good money at the time.
But I just hated my life.
I hated staring out a computerscreen.
I hated talking to rich dudesabout luxury cars.
I wanted to off myself.
So it was one of those thingswhere I was like dude, you just
got to do something about it.
(14:28):
You got to go freaking, burnthe bridges and just go figure
it out.
And so that was April 2019.
So I'm floundering, trying tofigure it out, and still working
as a personal trainer, and thenthe pandemic hits.
So, less than a year afterquitting my full-time job, the
(14:50):
world goes crazy, and soJiu-Jitsu was deemed illegal
pretty much for the first coupleof two years, because no
contact, and it was crazy.
But yeah, you couldn't train,you couldn't do anything, you
couldn't even meet together.
So I was like, imagine tryingto meet up with people, to
(15:14):
breathe in each other's facesand be really, really close to
people and sweating on them.
It was illegal, man.
So there was a lot of speakeasy type stuff, man.
Like the prohibition days.
People were papering theirwindows and bringing people in
through the back door, lockingthe front door and checking out
(15:37):
the windows and making surenobody was seeing that we were
gathering.
It was some 1920s prohibitionstuff, man.
It was wild.
It's for the love of the game,though, man, and that's the
thing is.
I made it through that veryslowly soon after I tried it,
(15:57):
starting my own Jiu-Jitsuprogram out of a Taekwondo
school.
A good friend of mine who I hadintroduced to Jiu-Jitsu was the
owner of a school.
So we started running our ownprogram.
But it's like man, we couldn'tdo advertising.
We couldn't advertise and tellpeople, hey, we're doing this
thing because we didn't knowlike there's people coming out
(16:17):
and giving out $2,500 tickets orwhatever, all the kinds of
rumors that were going on ofhorror stories of schools
getting busted and stuff.
So it was like you weren'treally sure, like well, can we
do this, can we not?
And so, yeah, it was a lot ofuncertainty in those times for a
lot of people, obviously, butdefinitely in the Jiu-Jitsu
(16:39):
community.
Like I rocked the Jiu-Jitsucommunity very hard.
Jon (16:44):
Yeah, I can imagine I mean even just your personal story
too losing the full-time job2019 and then deciding to chase
your passion, which gets theclamps put on them because of
the pandemic, and I bet you weredealing with a lot of doubts
during that time as well.
Like well, I mean we were downin the whole world at that point
(17:07):
.
Marcos (17:08):
Right, right, nobody knew anything.
That was what it was.
It's like, okay, does this help, does this not help?
You know, masks, no masks.
Shots, no shots.
You know it was, nobody knewanything and everybody knew
everything at the same time.
So it's like, well, this isthis, and no one had any real
(17:29):
proof or whatever.
So, yeah, it was like it was.
You know, it made me veryanti-COVID because it was like,
man, like that almost cost me mylivelihood, like it cost me
every dollar that I had made upinto that point.
Like you know, I'd sold a bunchof stock just to like keep
myself afloat and keep my billspaid.
And, like you know, I didn't goon unemployment.
(17:50):
You know, I got a job at Aldifriggin, you know, working at
Aldi just so I could like makethis thing happen.
And yeah, man, it's.
I've done a few more jobs sincethen to try and just continue
to make this thing happen.
And you know, I still haven'thaven't made it yet.
But yeah, man, like you said,like it's worth it.
(18:13):
Man, there's, there's, there'sliterally nothing else that that
I would rather be doing.
You know so.
Jon (18:21):
I mean, I mean traditional way yeah.
For you to come on here and saythat you were selling Teslas
and you had it made and then tosay that you wanted to off
yourself so you started chasingyour dreams.
Like that's honestly, that'slike the whole point of this
fucking podcast, man, like Iappreciate that.
I appreciate that so much.
It's badass.
Marcos (18:38):
Yeah, and that's why I wanted to come on man, cause,
like one, I love supporting myfriends, right, I love
supporting their projects, thethings that you know, like
you're not making any money offof this yet, right, like you're,
you're having to come home andand dig into these trenches and
and be here and you know, set upstuff and whatever apps and
editing and like all of thatstuff you know goes into
(19:02):
whatever it is that you want todo.
So being able to, to see myfriends like hey, you know, do
this, and wanting to, to, tocreate something like that, that
that makes me happy.
Cause it's like man, I can goand encourage them and tell them
like man, you need to be doingthis, like you know, or, even if
you don't make any money off ofit, like you need to be making
something, creating somethingyou know, building something
(19:23):
like, even if it's just to keepyourself seeing from your
regular everyday life, you knowI don't encourage everybody to,
just like fricking, burn all thebridges, cause dude.
Jon (19:32):
I've burned all the bridges Like there's no, there's no
going back.
Marcos (19:36):
I don't encourage everyone to do it.
But, like you know, most people, I'll definitely say like, yeah
, you should.
You should be doing somesomething of that, Like, because
it's just working for the mandude, it's just not.
It's just not it, man.
Like, I think our wholegeneration was kind of
bamboozled into believing that,you know, everything would be
(19:56):
all right if you just did didall the things that you were
supposed to do, right, Quoteunquote.
And you know a lot of peopleare finding out that that's just
not the case.
Some people are finding outthat it is right.
Some people are doing great,Some people that we know are
doing awesome.
Yeah, Right, I know some peoplethat vibe with that Right.
Yeah, I mean they like thesecurity and the and the you
(20:19):
know the continuity, right, likethe ability to plan and the
ability to like it's.
It's a luxury that we don't getas entrepreneurs or, you know,
contractors.
Jon (20:30):
Right, right, yeah, so I actually.
So I run a bookkeeping businesswith my mom, so it's really
just myself, it used to be mycousin and her, so just three
employees.
You could say it's corporate,it's, you know, it's not.
It's pretty relaxed and stuff,but like we have to come in and
do all the work and stuff youknow.
(20:52):
Right, I don't know if I couldsurvive in like a corporate
America job.
It just wouldn't vibe with me.
You know, I've always workedfamily businesses or done like
odd jobs or like manual laborand stuff like that, for
whatever reason you know.
Marcos (21:07):
And it's it's gotten even worse man Cause, like you
know, even a company like Tesla.
You know they're based out ofPalo Alto, california, which is,
like you know, northernCalifornia, is like the PC
capital of the world.
You know Silicon Valley, soit's like it was just like
seeing some of the stuff thatwent on there is just like bro,
this is ridiculous.
Like yeah.
And not not in a not in a badway, like.
(21:29):
But it's just like for my ownpersonal, like the way that I
operate, like I just can't do itman.
Jon (21:36):
I mean it's.
It's when the corporate, orwhen your job or your career or
when certain institutions inyour life are are asking you to
be something that you can't, itbecomes draining on your soul.
Is the problem.
You know um and so, with thatbeing said, it's funny because
(21:57):
in 2019, I got sober in May of2019.
So you quit your job April 2019, I got sober 2019, and then we
hit the trenches and hit thetrenches in 2020.
So, um, I wanted to ask I mean,you've kind of talked about it
this whole time but why is JiuJitsu, why is martial arts, why
(22:21):
is MMA?
Why is this so important toyour wellness journey?
Marcos (22:28):
Yeah, I, um, that's how you.
I haven't found anything betteryet.
I think that's what it is,because if there was something
better, that's what I would bedoing.
For me it's just again doingthings that make your brain and
(22:51):
your body and your spirit kindof work together.
Fighting is visceral.
There's something inside of usas humans, innately, that
requires conflict.
It requires us to go up againstthings that cause us to react
(23:12):
and change and grow.
We need that form of frictionin our life and so a lot of
people they try to avoid it,they try to go away from it.
We get comfy shoes and comfycouches, and beds that feel like
clouds, and sheets that are airconditioned.
We want as much comfort aspossible and you can go very,
(23:36):
very long periods of timewithout getting any form of
discomfort, especially now inthe days that we live, and so
something things like jiu-jitsuand fighting and rock climbing
those are like my big threeright now you don't have any
choice but to be uncomfortable.
You don't get the option, andso you're going there and you're
(23:59):
faced with adversity physicaladversity, mental adversity.
You got your own body workingfor you, or against you in
certain cases, and it causes youto remove yourself from
everything that's going on andit causes you to be really only
in this exact moment.
I have to watch where my handsare at.
I got to watch where your handsare at.
(24:20):
I got to watch where yourweight is leaning.
I got to make sure, you know,like there's so many things that
I have to be worried about thatI can't think about.
You know, my crushing creditcard day or the fight that I had
with my wife, or whatever, likeyou can't think about, you just
cannot, like, you cannotprocess those things and do this
thing at the same time.
And so when you're able tofocus in on those activities
(24:44):
that require so much brain powerand so much physical exertion
like even if you just did thatfor 30 minutes, right, like you
when you remove yourself and yougo back to normal life, none of
that stuff really matters asmuch anymore.
Obviously, the problems arestill there Right.
But like your body is moreequipped to deal with the stress
(25:06):
that you come across ineveryday life.
Because you're putting yourselfunder so much stress, like
recreationally, like you'repracticing, being under really,
really bad conditions andworking your way through them
through technique or persistenceor perseverance, and you know,
when you come out of the end ofit and you're like, oh man, not
(25:28):
only are you like chemically,like straightened out, but like
you're you can see more clearand your body's like man it's,
it's, it's just like any otherworkout, right, but it just
creates so much focus and timethat can't think of anything
else.
And for me, like, whether it berunning or weightlifting, like
it just doesn't offer that, likeI like doing those things
(25:52):
occasionally but it's and it'sgood to feel to.
You know, hit some, some PRs orget a good pump, or you know.
You know maybe get a littlerunner's high or whatever, but
there's just nothing likegetting slammed around, for you
know 30 minutes to an hour andyou know throwing people on
their head and just sitting andenjoying life after that, you
(26:12):
know.
So it's like I don't know if Ianswered the question fully, but
, like, again, the reason whythat's important is because I
can get that results, and I'veyet to find something that will
get that result better.
That's kind of like the wholethe whole spiel.
Jon (26:28):
But I think that's a very I think that's a very subjective
view of of wellness, which iswhy I asked it, because you know
, however my guests answer it,they usually just go into detail
about why the hell it's soimportant to their life.
You know, and I thought it wasinteresting that you'd mentioned
like you can't think about allthe shit you're stressing about
(26:51):
in normal life.
You got to deal with, you know,kind of pushing yourself to the
limit and almost like usinginstincts like an animal, and
then afterwards, when you'redone with all that, I feel like
it's like you said, it's a loteasier to deal with all the crap
that you're dealing with, youknow, because you've already put
yourself under all that stress.
And I do that with basketball.
(27:12):
So normally, if I'm not hurt,I'm usually playing three to
five times a week, you know, andwhen you're playing fives, five
on five, there's no time for meto think about going grocery
shopping later and do and domeal preps or like paying bills
and shit.
You know, like in that momentit is visceral.
I like that word that you used,it's nice, and I thought it was
(27:36):
interesting that you mentionedcomfort a lot in a couple of
times, because I have talkedabout that a couple of times on
the podcast.
I think that, where we are in,what is it 2023,?
I think we have a problem.
I think we have a problem withcomfort, you know.
Marcos (27:53):
Yeah, it's a drug man, like you know, and it could be.
It could affect every area ofyour life, right?
If you allow yourself to becometoo comfortable in any
situation, whether it be arelationship or a job, or you
know, it's like one thing tohate your life and want to leave
your job.
It's another thing for it to beso comfortable and so cush that
(28:15):
it's just like you don't wantto do anything else, you don't
want to go outside, you don'twant to go out of bounds, you
don't want to work late, youdon't want to do that Like
everything's taken care of,right.
So it's like.
You know, is that a bad thing?
No, it's not a bad thing, ofcourse not.
It's good to be comfortable and, you know, have nice chairs and
good furniture and stuff.
But it's like, you know, it'slike that.
Have you ever saw that Disneymovie Wally?
(28:37):
Yeah, where it's like takesplace in the future and they got
the dudes like floating aroundon, like basically recliners and
they like fall out.
That's where we're headed, manis.
Because it's just like oh, wegot chairs that lean back, that
hold your hands up and massageyour fingers and like, and it's
good, it's good stuff, but it'slike, if you get caught up doing
(28:58):
that for too long and you don'tget off that couch and you
don't, you know, do some pushupsor move around or something, or
something, it's all going tocatch up to you Something, yeah.
Jon (29:09):
And it literally can't go wrong.
And I have been there even inmy sobriety.
I thought that I was going tohave everything fixed and
answered.
And you know I've been soberfor four years now and I hit
ruts.
You know I hit stuff where I'mnot staying up on my working out
or like my going out and stuff,because you know there's always
this comfort to fall back onright.
And I notice internally and youknow we're not going to like
(29:33):
generalize everybody out herebecause, like we were saying
earlier, we have some friendswho do really good in the
corporate jobs everything's laidout.
You know, some people just wantthings taken care of and I
think that's great.
You know, some people want tobe comfortable all the time and
don't want to be uncomfortable.
I get that.
But as humans, as consciousanimals, I do believe that
(29:55):
there's something inside of usthat wants to be pushed to that
limit.
You know, and I see red flagsin my life now because I've
trained myself, if I'm toocomfortable for like even a
couple of weeks, I'm like I gotto fucking do something, I got
to go run, I got to go hoop.
I got to do something, you knowbecause I've been sitting on
this couch, feeling a certainway, for too long, you know.
Marcos (30:19):
Right, and it can be that in itself could be
de-abilitating, right.
It's just like and I see it allthe time because it was me
right, like you know, I alwaystell people who trained your
jiu-jitsu, like when they firststart out, like have a plan
right.
Like two days a week in cement,come hell or high water, these
are the two days I'm going to bein training.
(30:40):
Because what happens is theysee the schedule and they say,
okay, I have class seven days aweek, I'll just go whenever I
can.
You know, you start off good,maybe you do three days.
Then you feel a little sore, soyou take a day off and then you
come for another day and thenyou're like, oh, I got the kids,
they got this and we had soccerpractice, so I skipped that day
and then I was supposed to gothis day and then one skipping
(31:04):
one day turns into skipping aweek and skipping three weeks
and just skipping a month, andnow you have to face the music
and go to class and all thesedudes have been working out for
the past month and you haven'tbeen.
So it's like now you got towalk through the door and get
what's coming to you.
So it's the same way, right,like as long as you're just like
(31:24):
ah, you know, we're justda-da-da-da-da.
One week turns into two weeks,three weeks A month.
You haven't gone to the gym Now, you're just making donations,
you know.
Jon (31:34):
So it's like it's how quickly it happens, man?
Marcos (31:38):
You're just making donations to LA Fitness.
Appreciate it.
Thank you for your donation,I'll see you next month?
Jon (31:44):
Shit, I've done that before , yeah.
Marcos (31:46):
I've been there, I know how it goes, man, I know how it
goes.
I think most people in thiscountry have been there honestly
, yeah, and it's like I said,and that's what again why I'm
such a huge advocate forJiu-Jitsu, especially when it
comes to health and fitness, isbecause when you come in and you
take your class, like we runyour warm-ups, we tell you what
(32:06):
we're doing at first, then wetell you what we're doing second
, then we do our drill, then wedo our rolls, and then you're
done an hour and hour and 15minutes and you're in and out
and whereas, like you know, ifyou're responsible for your own
fitness or whatever and you'vedone it a million times, I'll go
to export.
I'm going to do legs today andyou do a couple bicep curls,
(32:26):
take a couple selfies, check outsome chicks and you've been
there for three hours and you'vedone half your workout.
Jon (32:33):
Right.
Marcos (32:34):
And it's just like well, I haven't got any results.
Well, you know, look at howyou're spending your time, you
know.
So it's like with somethinglike Jiu-Jitsu, you come in, get
your ass kicked for an hour andthen you leave and FU will see
you tomorrow.
You know, that's how it goes.
Jon (32:52):
We talked a lot about like the individual and how this has
affected you and how thisaffects people who do go and use
it.
But one thing that just kind ofcame to mind was you mentioned
people go to the gyms that dothe regular workouts, and I'm
one of those people.
I do my solo stuff, but thenwhen I hoop I'm obviously
(33:13):
playing with a bunch of people.
There's a community aspect tothis Jiu-Jitsu thing.
Not even just the professor andthe student, but everybody
there is there to learn and togrow.
Marcos (33:25):
How has?
Jon (33:26):
that affected you.
Marcos (33:29):
Well, I mean, yeah, I always say, you know, jiu-jitsu
it's a personal journey that'spracticed in a group setting and
you can't practice it withoutat least one other person you
know.
So you have to, at the veryleast, say hello to the guy in
front of you, like you at leastgot to shake his hand before you
(33:51):
try to rip his head off.
Like that forces you intocommunication, it forces you
into interaction and that'swhere you get such a very where
a lot of people call Jiu-Jitsu acult, because people become so
obsessed with this, because it'slike I go there, I see all the
homies you know.
I see the dudes who startedaround the same time that I did.
(34:13):
I see all the dudes that havebeen helping me out, that have,
you know, been there for yearsbefore.
I see the dudes who work in thesame field that I work in or,
you know, they have the sameamount of kids that I have.
So it's like I'm automaticallyplaced into a place where it's
like I know all these dudes and,like you said, like it's not,
it's and it's not everywhere.
It's not every single sport,no-transcript.
(34:42):
Everyone has their own reasonsfor being there.
Yes, everybody has their ownright, but we're all looking to
do this one thing and that'smastery.
So when you have thatenvironment, it's very
encouraging, it's very upliftingand it's very collaborative.
And of course, dude, I love.
You know I can't lift withother people.
I can only lift by myself, likebecause I have to, like do my
(35:05):
numbers, do my sets like do myrest time, like I don't want to
talk, like I have headphones in,like leave me alone.
But you can't do that in ajiu-jitsu gym, like you can't
wear headphones and just modelthrough your workout without
talking to anybody, like it justdoesn't work that way, you know
.
And so, yeah, community is theword right Is where it becomes.
(35:27):
It's like, you know, weobviously have our own language
and our own way that we talkabout things and our own memes
and our own you know, differentjokes and stuff, like.
So you become, like you know,part of the subculture, right?
So that's kind of what drawspeople in too, especially, you
know people who don't have thatanywhere, like they don't, maybe
they don't have a family, ormaybe they don't have friends or
(35:47):
maybe they don't have, you know, constructive people in their
lives.
So they go to a gym where youknow everyone's working out,
everyone's training, everyone'strying to get better, and you
just get mixed in with thoseguys and then you know, you guys
get promoted together.
Man, we started when we werewhite belts, now we're blue
belts, now we're brown belts,now we're black belts, and we've
(36:07):
known each other for damn near15 years now, right, so whoa,
and so that's kind of again it'sa hidden thing that a lot of
people don't think about at thefront end, but you kind of find
it out later on, as you continueon through the art, right when
it's like it becomes tighter andtighter knit.
(36:27):
And the community itself, youknow, even across the world,
really isn't that big, you knowLike.
So everybody knows everybody'ssomewhere along the line.
Jon (36:38):
Yeah, it becomes more than just an individual journey at
that point, because you're doingit with people and I think you
know, with the rise oftechnology and everything that
we have been dealing with, andespecially what happened with
COVID, it kind of gave everybodythe wrong impression that we're
alone, you know, or we're morealone than we make ourselves
(37:00):
believe and now we're trying toget our footing with coming back
into community options likethis.
You know, or you know, it's notalways just a text message or a
message online.
Sometimes you just need to goout and be around people.
You know, even, like you said,even if you're gonna reach some
sort of goal, especially like aphysical goal, like that, you
(37:22):
know, I never understood whenpeople came to play fives on the
basketball court with theirAirPods in, like, literally like
five on five.
I'm like, and I'd have one kidon my team and I look at him and
I'm like, how, how do you dothis?
Marcos (37:38):
What could you be listening?
To right now.
What is it like?
What gets you in the mode toplay such a?
Yeah?
I mean there's a lot of talkingand a lot of things that go on
Right.
I don't get that either.
I've never understood that.
Jon (37:51):
We usually lose those games too, and I don't say anything
after.
I'm not that guy.
I'm not gonna say something youknow, but I'm just saying
there's some correlation here.
Right, right right.
Marcos (38:02):
There's some correlation , maybe not be the same thing,
but no, yeah, absolutely, man.
And so, yeah, I think that youknow that's why Jiu-Jitsu has
become so popular now in a lotof different spaces, you know,
in the first responder space andthe mental health space.
You know military, you knowreally every just everyday
(38:25):
people, and addicts especially.
You know, because it's likewhen you become sober, when you
remove yourself from certainenvironments, that need or that
desire to be a part of somethingdoesn't go away, and that's
when people relapses becausethey don't have things to put in
those places where there wasonce things that sat.
(38:48):
And so, you know, when you giveyour, I tell people I've had a
lot of addictions in my lifewith Jiu-Jitsu's, by far the
most constructive.
But that's just because of whatit offers, it's just because of
the all-encompassing aspect ofit.
It's not because there's magicor there's something that
somebody knows that nobody elseknows, but it's the whole
(39:09):
package.
And if you allow yourself tokind of be involved, then it
kind of pulls you in and getsyou, you know, kind of
acclimates you the way that youshould be right.
And so it takes a lot of place,whereas where people would use
or go party on a Friday night.
They go sweat it out on a matfor two hours and then you know
(39:31):
you're so exhausted you can'teven go out you know, just go
home and go to sleep and youcreate that, you know pattern,
time over time and you know,before you know it, you're you
know X amount of your sober oryou know you don't have those
desires anymore because you'rejust not in that headspace
anymore, you know.
Jon (39:50):
Right, you're more in tune to the healthy side of your body
, your mind and your soul, youknow.
Marcos (39:57):
Yeah, and again it starts to like it's like
Jiu-Jitsu starts to like suckeverything up, like in your life
, and like that's what becomesthe center, because it's like,
okay, well, I can't eat honeybuns and monster energy drinks
for breakfast anymore, you know,I gotta like maybe eat some
oatmeal or maybe eat somewhatever, some eggs or something
, because I gotta go train andI'm not trying to throw up on
(40:19):
the mat, right?
So then yeah, and then.
So then what happens?
You go and you get exhaustedand you wanna eat something good
after.
You don't wanna go toMcDonald's and ruin the workout
that you just had and you'veexerted so much energy that you
just go home and you kinda go tosleep.
Or you know, you see all thestuff that makes its way in.
You know the recovery stuff andthe ice exposure, the cold
exposure, like all of that stuffkind of like seeps its way into
(40:43):
Jiu-Jitsu.
And then you start to learnokay, I'm gonna start doing yoga
or start weightlifting or startrunning because I want my
Jiu-Jitsu to improve, and sothen you just start picking up
more things along the way, butit's all centered around like I
just wanna get good at Jiu-Jitsuwhich is like again, you know
it's call it what it is,whatever it is good or bad, but
(41:04):
you know it's constructive andit brings about other
constructive things you know.
Jon (41:13):
Why do you think that people struggle with finding
something like that in life?
Though, like you found it, Ihave basketball.
I'd like to say my brother hasrunning.
You know, I know, like my onebuddy used to be.
Well, you know I'm Chris.
Megan Beard used to be reallyinto martial arts.
(41:33):
He was taking martial arts forlike two years, but not.
A lot of people have somethinglike this.
Why do you think it's difficultfor people to go and try new
things as we get older, to findthat thing you know?
Marcos (41:55):
I think that the older we get, the more set in our ways
we become, right, and just likewe had talked about earlier, it
was like seeking comfort andseeking softness and
comfortability is nice, right,soft blankets and warm sheets
like those are great, right.
But it's like, but going outand humbling yourself and, you
(42:18):
know, breaking your body downand sweating and grunting and,
you know, failing, it's just notvery appealing, right?
It's not appealing to me.
I still hate it, you know, butthat's my whole life.
It's like, and I now have todeal with people who hate it too
, like you know, and try toencourage people to continue in
their journey and to continuetraining into, but at the end of
(42:39):
the day, dude, it's fuckinghard, like, and it's only the
hard stuff that's really worthit, in my opinion.
Like you know, people likevideo games and I don't wanna
knock anybody else's, whatever,right but it's like there's just
certain things that justthey're just not gonna break you
down and force you to growagain, and plenty of people are
(43:00):
okay with that, like they don'tcare to have that stuff in their
life.
And so, you know, it's hard,dude, it's really hard to start
Jiu-Jitsu in your 30s or your40s, because you also have other
insecurities.
Like you know, I'm a grown assman and I'm gonna go get
physically dominated by anothergrown ass man.
(43:20):
Like you know, they havefamilies and careers, yeah, Like
you know, like a mortgage, it'sa pride thing though.
Yeah, absolutely, and you knowit's.
But it's hard, dude.
It's hard to put on that whitebelt man.
It's hard to go into a roomfull of killers and be brand new
and to not know everything.
And you know, we come furtherand further away from that the
(43:44):
older that we get.
I think you know, like we wantorthopedic shoes and we want,
you know, like, the stuff that'sgonna like.
You know that we didn't preparefor when we were younger, so
it's like well, now, now yougotta pay the piper.
You know, now you gotta do thelittle bit of extra stuff.
And you know it's hard, man,it's a lot of people just don't
(44:06):
care to do it.
Jon (44:07):
It is.
It is very humbling to do newexperiences, and not even just
like physical ones, just to likego out and like meet new people
and do new things, cause youknow, college made it very easy
for you to just like go dothings, meet people and all that
crap.
Marcos (44:26):
Oh yeah.
Jon (44:27):
Then we get in our late 20s and early 30s and then it's
like if you don't go to the bars, you're not meeting new people.
If you're not a part ofsomething like Jiu Jitsu or a
gym, like playing basketball,you're not meeting new people
and you're not getting in shape.
And they just like shove ourphones in our face and they go
look at this screen.
Marcos (44:46):
You know, look at this screen look at this bright
screen so pretty.
Jon (44:49):
Yeah, it's so pretty, you know, pretty and funny screen.
And for people like us and Iknow a lot of people in my life
are the same way there's a redflashing light.
That usually comes with toomuch comfort, you know, and I
know that as I get older itdoesn't mean I can't break those
limits, it just makes it alittle bit more difficult, you
(45:13):
know.
Marcos (45:14):
Yeah, requires a little more.
More effort planning a littlemore more.
Yeah, a little more elbowgrease.
Yeah and yeah, man, it's, it's,yeah, I mean it.
For me, it's like one of thosethings where it's like when I
haven't trained or I haven'tworked out, like I start going
like.
Cuckoo, yeah, yeah like reallylike, really anxious and like
(45:35):
really snappy, and it's justlike man, I got to go do so.
I got to like let this out,like and Again, yeah, like you
said, man, not everybody hasthat and it's unfortunate
because it what what ends uphappening is.
It ends up, like I said, it'sit's fighting, is Inherent in
your body and it's like you needthat.
(45:57):
It's something, and if youdon't, then it just like oozes
out of your eyeball, falls outof your ears, like that's when
you got like dudes who likecatcalls or like or like overly
aggressive with women or womenwho like are very Catty and like
they gossip and they like wantto like.
You know, like it in manifestsitself in negative forms that it
(46:20):
just like Like, literally likeooze out of your pores, like you
, like you just drink a bunch ofvodka the night before, you
know, and you can like smell itlike Ruminating off of you, like
it's the same thing.
You don't get rid of that, likethat's just bad energy yeah just
Like oozes out and you can't,and at that point you can't stop
(46:42):
it and you don't.
You may not know what's gonnahappen, you don't know what's
gonna come out of your mouth,and so it's like for me, I just
got to have that constant likeReleasing that dump and release,
because it's not.
Jon (46:53):
If not I'm, I'll put hands on somebody out here it's, it's
getting control of your energy,you know.
Right, because we all have weall have that primal energy.
Like we've said before, we'restill animals, you know.
Marcos (47:07):
It exists, it does exist , can't, can't, say it doesn't
like.
Jon (47:12):
No matter how Sophisticated we get as a society or as
people, you can't deny thatthose things right, and before I
had taken health more Seriously, I used to, you know, smoke a
lot of weed or I used to drink,or I used to eat very unhealthy
food, because these were thingsthat would take that, that
energy I had, and it would justlike shove it really deep down,
(47:34):
yes, to press it, you know.
And then, you know, you know,eight years goes by and finally
the you know, the lid blows offthe top and I'm like I have to,
I have to do something and Gottamake a change.
Yeah and it started with takingmy health seriously.
You know, physical, mental andemotional finding something like
that and it looks like you havetaken this journey to also help
(47:58):
other people find that as well,and that is.
That is a beautiful thing, man,honestly.
Marcos (48:06):
Yeah, it's a Like I said , I don't know if I'll do it for
the rest of my life.
I think I'll always teachjiu-jitsu or some form of
martial arts, just as a as ageneral practice.
But yeah, man, I, like I said,I've never wanted to do anything
else more than this right now,and it's because of I believe
(48:28):
that the world just needs it,man.
I believe that the world needsto know how to fight and if, if
everyone in the world knowjiu-jitsu, the world would be a
better place.
You know, that's like.
I firmly, wholeheartedlybelieve that, and that's just
why I do what I do, man, becauseI believe that kids need this.
You know, wives need this,women need this to defend
(48:49):
themselves, men need this sothey can learn what it's like
you know to, to grow in a skilland be humble.
And you know, I believe that,whatever cool I don't know who
who says it's really overusednow that, like, was it hard
times create Strong men, andstrong men create good times and
good times create weak man.
Jon (49:10):
Yeah, it's just a cycle, yeah.
Marcos (49:12):
I believe that I don't know who said it, it's really
overused now, but I believe thatwe're in hard times and through
these hard times, great meant,great, strong men will be
created.
Right, and you know, things arevery dark right now in the
world and they may get darker,but that's what creates and
(49:32):
spurs on men like myself, menlike the men in my family, to
Help other people on this pathand say, okay, you know, you
don't have to succumb to thedarkness, right, it doesn't.
Oh, there's not the way that ithas to be.
And those small movements, thosesmall efforts, right, is what
Starts to move the needle in theother direction right and
(49:55):
starts to create strong men thatare gonna continue our society,
and hopefully not, you know,blow it up or lose it in a fight
, you know, like you know,that's all that we can hope for.
So, yeah, man, I think we're ina bad time right now, but I
think that it's created a lot ofopportunity for some strong men
to to arise.
Jon (50:15):
I Totally believe that.
I think this is a this is animportant time of reflection for
everybody, and not and not evenjust saying men, but women in
general, people in general, youknow, like people in general,
man you know we only speakreally for men because I'm not a
woman.
I can't speak right what it isto be a woman so do you teach
(50:36):
women though in class, thoughright, oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
Marcos (50:39):
There's in, I would say, in the lap jujitsu for women,
really grappling for women ingeneral, has grown more in the
last 10 years than it has sinceits inception and More in the
last five years than it has inthe last 10.
It's growing like Tremendouslyand I I love it.
(51:02):
I absolutely Love that.
That's a thing, right, because,again, I think that women need
to do more than men, justbecause of the again, the way
the world that we live in, andyou know, women need to be
equipped with the, the abilityto, to, to make things happen
right, to create and protectthemselves in certain situations
, and so the fact that they'renow getting, you know, kind of
(51:25):
carving out their own littlesection of the market, like it's
, it's incredible, it's great tosee, you know little girls
three years old, four years old,learning how to defend
themselves and you know handlethemselves in a physical
situation.
Because, again, like I've, I'veseen what it does for little
boys, right, being a little boygrowing up in that environment,
(51:47):
and it's like everybody needsthis.
It's not just boys who needthis course, you know, and it's
not, but you know there's a lotof things that they're battling.
I mean women battle a lot right,like even societal pressures of
like, you know, women aren'tallowed to get dirty or be
sweaty or to to be rough, youknow would be strong or be
(52:07):
strong, yeah for sure you knowthey got to be this, this little
dainty, you know spring flower,and it's, it's not the case,
you know, and the empowermentthat comes with you know, moving
your body and getting a strongbody and learning how to, you
know, dismantle another humanbeing, like the empowerment that
comes through that is Unmatchedand in a lot of other spaces,
(52:31):
and again I I'm super gratefulthat, I'm super glad women are
starting to kind of make theirway in and starting to Carve out
their own little piece of itbecause, it's, like man, they
need those spaces just as muchas men do right, yeah, and I
think I think that also helpsthe men in there too.
Jon (52:50):
I think they both help each other by being in there
together, you know yeah so it'snot always so, because they try,
and I say they.
I'm like.
You know the world tries tosplit us up all the time instead
of us just realizing that we'reall in it together.
You know, and you've used theword humility and humbling
experience like getting thrownaround, toss around and all that
(53:11):
stuff, and I think everybodygoing through a very humbling
experience is good and isimportant to grow into the
people that we're supposed to be.
So I think that's even better,that we're all doing it together
.
Marcos (53:23):
Yeah, 1000% man.
And it's like, and you know,yeah, bringing the world
together and being able tointeract with people of all
sizes and shapes is good for you, but I believe also just like
the camaraderie that comes with.
You know, it's different whenit's a bunch of dudes hanging
out and then there's girlsinvolved, like when it's just
(53:46):
dudes.
Like everybody can relax andeveryone can say what they want
to say and they don't want to.
They don't have to feel likethey got to put on a show.
And the same goes with, you know, when you're in an environment
of just fighters, or just men orjust women fighters, like you
know, you don't got to worryabout what your hair looks like,
you don't got to worry aboutwhat your shirt looks like, like
(54:08):
to just go in and train andjust freaking, do your thing
without having to bother you orlook at you weird or whatever.
Like it's priceless dude.
And people need that again,everywhere they need it, they
require it, they can't gowithout it and plenty of people
do, man, they go deprived ofthese spaces and these places
(54:33):
where they can expressthemselves freely.
And you know, jiu Jitsuprovides that man.
Jon (54:39):
Absolutely Now are there.
Is there any tips for anybodyout there who might be
interested in trying out JiuJitsu or a martial arts in
general?
Or any tips for people who justneed to be uncomfortable?
How to start?
I should say yeah.
Marcos (54:56):
Yeah, I mean first things first is shop around, man
, because it's not, it's not aone size fits all approach.
Different gyms have differentvibes.
You know different, differentgoals.
You know there are gyms wherethey they focus heavily on
competition or they focusheavily on fitness or they focus
on one kind of facet of it.
So, you know, if you'reinterested in in really, you
(55:21):
know, getting involved, I wouldshop around and say, okay, I'm
going to go try a class at eachone of these gyms, you know, and
I'm going to talk to theownership and the management and
the instructor, and theownership and the management and
the instructors and you know,and the people there, and you
know, you know, do I see peoplethat look like me?
Do I see people who arefriendly?
Do I see people who care thatI'm there?
(55:42):
Or they just, you know, theyroll their eyes because I'm a
new guy.
You know, like, shop around andsee where you can find yourself
fitting in, because you're goingto have to spend a lot of time
there, right, if you want to bereally good and you want to
really sink your teeth into thisthing, you better be willing to
spend Friday nights there,saturday mornings, monday
mornings, thursday afternoons,like you got to be willing to be
(56:06):
there and spend time there.
So if you don't like it or youknow you feel everyone's kind of
different than you, or they'reall younger and you're kind of
older and it's, like, you know,not really fitting for you, then
you know, go find somewhereelse and go somewhere that works
.
You know, because you're theone who's got to do it, you're
the one who's got to spend thetime and your money and you got
(56:27):
to go.
You know, and then do theactivity itself, which is not
always the most fun thing to do.
I mean, it's a lot of fun, ofcourse, but you know, coming up
learning how to do it like it'snot always the most fun.
But yeah, so that's the thingis like just shop around, like
it's not everything is a onesize fits all approach.
You know the first place you goto may not be the place for you,
(56:49):
or it will be, or you'll go andyou'll try it and you know
everyone's going to be able todo it.
You know you'll try it and youknow everyone will be really
cool.
And you know you meet somefriends first day and
instructors are funny, or youknow he's got some cool skills,
you know.
So it's like you know andyou're there and then just show
up, man, just walk through thedoor.
For the second half, the peoplewho need some uncomfortability,
like you know, they want tomake a change, they want to get
(57:13):
fit, they want to be moreconfident, they want to stop
eating junk, so much like.
Then you got to put yourself inan environment that's set up
for you to win Export.
You know, LA fitness,weightlifting, getting a
personal trainer those thingsare great, those things are
steps, but they're not alwaysgoing to be able to to be that
(57:37):
there for you.
So it's like you have to havesomeone else there to pick you
up, to like, kind of like, sprayalong and like, and for me, for
someone like yourself would beyour instructor and be me.
You know we have conversations,or we talk or we chop it up, or
just, you know, I can help youalong the way, Okay, Help you
(57:57):
with different positions orthings like that, Like.
And then you start to grow andlike, oh, okay, Like, and you
just, you know, go off the races, Like.
It's some people, some peopledon't need the, they just need
the permission.
They go and they do it and thenboom, they're hooked and they
just want to grow and they wantto learn and they want to.
You know, they want to getbetter and you know some other
(58:18):
people.
They got to shop around, theygot to get comfortable a little
bit, you know, and but you know,just got to show up, that's it.
Jon (58:27):
I think, showing up and, like you said, shopping around,
I think, trying to find amartial arts that's or not even
just a martial arts, but justsomething that's good for
everybody, you know.
But I think you have to beuncomfortable and try a bunch of
things.
First, you got to walk intosome places that you haven't
walked into, see some peoplethat you haven't fucking seen
ever in your life.
You got to be uncomfortable, andif you didn't, if you don't
(58:49):
like it, you walk out of thereand you don't even have to see
anybody ever again.
Marcos (58:53):
you know you got to just exactly.
Jon (58:56):
You got to just keep rocking new, new experiences,
get a good sweat on and, youknow, try and make the changes
in your life that everybodyknows they can innately make
deep down, you know.
Marcos (59:10):
And it's, it's hard man.
It's easier said than done.
Jon (59:12):
but it is Honestly, I mean it took.
You know, we said that 2019 wasthe year for both of us.
It's like you don't haveeverything figured out ever
really, and I know people thathave changed their lives in
their mid to late thirties andeven forties, you know, but
Absolutely, if you know that, ifyou know that you can, you got
to take that first step and bereally uncomfortable.
(59:34):
But I promise, after you take acouple really uncomfortable
steps, they'll get morecomfortable after that, for sure
.
Marcos (59:40):
That's right.
It's definitely the hardestpart.
Jon (59:43):
For sure that first couple steps, I'd say the first one,
right.
Yeah, really, I think we hit alot of good points.
I think this was a damn goodconversation.
Honestly, what do?
Marcos (59:55):
you think?
Absolutely, man.
I appreciate you having me onGo chat.
Jon (59:59):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I'll be dropping links toeverything Kind of keep you
posted and drop links to youCollaborate on all this good
stuff Probably going to go up ina couple of days.
I'll let you know when thathappens and everything.
Yeah, man, I appreciate youcoming out, though, and honestly
(01:00:20):
I'll be looking forward tohaving you on again so we can
talk more wellness.
I think this was a greatfucking conversation, would love
to do it again.
Marcos (01:00:27):
Yeah, you're welcome.
Jon (01:00:29):
Thanks, absolutely Thanks, for everybody coming out
Sticking around for the episode.
Y'all have a good rest of yourday, night or week and peace out
Peace.
Marcos (01:00:39):
Peace out.
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