Warrior Philosopher Tyson Unveils the Reality of Martial Arts and Fitness Expectations

Ever found yourself pivoting from one passion to another, only to discover it was where you belonged all along? That's exactly what happened to Tyson, the tattoo-adorned warrior philosopher whose story from competitive swimming to teaching Brazilian jiu-jitsu and kickboxing unfurls in our 22nd episode. Tyson shares his transition into the fitness world, from a massage therapist to a kettlebell course maestro, and how martial arts became his true calling.

Selecting the perfect martial arts gym can be as nuanced as the disciplines themselves – a subject Tyson and I tackle with gusto. From addressing parents in search of the right fit for their kids to individuals aligning martial arts with fitness aspirations, we shed light on the importance of environment and authenticity within these spaces. We even get into the nitty-gritty of how martial arts training evolves from a grueling workout to a more technical skill set as one advances, offering an insider glimpse into the journey from novice to proficiency.

There's a hearty mix of humor and expertise as we discuss the rise of Brazilian jiu-jitsu's popularity, the sometimes comedic misunderstandings in fitness retail, and the curious tale of BJJ's hashtag ban on TikTok. Plus, we send off our friend Liam with playful farewells and ponder why sometimes, names can feel downright silly. So, if you're ready for gym stories that pack a punch and insights that hit the mark, grab your gi and tune in to one of our most engaging episodes yet.

You can find more Tyson
https://www.tiktok.com/@thewarriorphilosopher?lang=en
https://ironsidemartialarts.ca/

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You can find us on social media here:
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the podcast for our guest.
Today We've got Oakley.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oakley say hi, she's a little bashful.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
A little bashful, but in addition to Oakley, we've
also got Tyson, who is alsoknown as the warrior philosopher
, here, and he's literally rightbeside me.
So at any point in time, youknow, liam will give him the
signal and he'll put me intosome sort of chokehold and
they'll do the rest of thepodcast.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
without me, it will be very confusing for the
listeners.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
They'll just hear all my girls, you're like grunting.
I'm like yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
This podcast took a turn.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Right.
Well, you got a drama, allright.
So tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
Well, where to start?
How about the tattoos?
Because I mean, look at thosetattoos.
Well, yeah, I thought thelisteners, but hey well.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
I started collecting them when I was just barely
allowed to.
I think I got my first one onlike the day after my deep
birthday and started to collectthem ever since.
That's a while I my day job isteaching martial arts.
I teach Brazilian jiu-jitsu andkickboxing, started training
when I was 15 years old.
Well, for martial arts I was aswimmer for that for 10 years.

(01:15):
That was my first competitivesport was swimming and I'm also.
I went to school for massagetherapy but became a statistic
in that pretty quickly.
I worked for about two years inthat industry and then moved on
to the strength condition.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
What you're saying is you found more of a passion and
massaging people with yourfists, exactly yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
I wouldn't.
Yeah, it's.
It's a different kind ofdepotment, but the yeah.
I moved on to the strengthconditioning industry.
I worked as a kettlebellinstructor for a long time.
I teach certification coursesfor the Gatsur organizations.
I teach kettlebell andstructure certification courses
and I teach lifting andprogramming for personal trainer
certifications, and so, yeah,I've I've just been kind of

(02:00):
doing a little bit of everythingfor yeah, everything.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
now you jack of all well, a jack of all punches
anyway.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
So you say you've been to like a gym or two, like
in your life.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
I did a gym or two, then been kicked out of a gym or
two.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, so it was a fitness.
Do you have a story, Well?

Speaker 3 (02:19):
not a plate of fitness.
So you know, alberta, oh geez,I remember the old World Health
Club back in the day, but it's,it's.
It's funny because nowadays yousee things like kettlebells and
chains and all that kind ofstuff.
Dude, there's just, it's justubiquitous that you see in every
single gym.
But there was a time when I was, you know, getting kicked out

(02:41):
of gyms for bringing in thethings like kettlebells and
chains to train with.
It was funny I got.
I got a blacklisted at a WorldHealth Club once, which I didn't
know was a thing, but yeah, itwould actually pop up with a
little note.
Whatever I signed up, my littlekey tag thing saying basically
check me for outside equipmentbefore allowing me in.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Hey, I think, it would show you we're on someone
else.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
No, that's it.
Well, I that that seems to bewhat they were worried about,
because they would say, well,you know, we're not covered by
insurance because our personaltrainers don't know how to use
this stuff or something theyjust said be a lie.
But you know, being being youngand aggressive, I'd always just
kind of shot back like well,you got a punching bag upstairs,

(03:24):
like where's your certifiedboxing coach?
It's way more likely that somekid is going to break his hand
hitting the punching bag.
Then one of my chains is goingto, you know, fly to my hand or
at somebody's neck all of asudden At least not unless it's
on purpose.
Yeah, so it's a lot of thisstuff now it's.
It's kind of funny Just goinginto a gym and seeing
kettlebells there, because, yeah, I was one of those people

(03:46):
getting checked out for bringinga kettlebells a long time ago.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
I'm definitely curious what got you into
martial arts?
Because about a year ago myselfI joined a Muay Thai kickboxing
gym.
They also do BJJ, brazilian JiuJitsu, but I haven't gotten
into that just short on time.
But I really enjoy the MuayThai, not just like the you know
, the athletic, the you know getthe exercise in, but also just

(04:10):
kind of a mental like I don'tknow, it's just kind of it's
it's funny because it'saggressive but also very
peaceful in a way.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
And I.
You made it so daddy can'tlearn BJJ.
Well, let's make sure you don'tforget the last J on that?
I don't think that's beenmisconstrued.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, it's.
It's close enough that BJJ isactually a banned hashtag on
TikTok.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Is it yeah?

Speaker 3 (04:38):
You have to write out the whole thing Brazilian.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Jiu Jitsu you have to get.
That is amazing.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
Yeah, it's a.
Well, what got me into itoriginally was that I was a
swimmer for 10 years, as Imentioned, and swimming is one
of those sports where there it's, it's been around for so long
and it's such a relativelyspeaking accessible sports that

(05:03):
it's a.
It's a huge Olympic sport insome countries like Australia.
It's a huge spectator sportthere.
So, because it's been around solong, because Canada actually
has a pretty rich history ofswimming, with very high level
pools and a lot of the majorcities and stuff like that, so
it's one of those sports where,if you show potential for being
any good at it, they basicallywant to start training you like

(05:26):
a professional athlete.
I show you into a freezing lakeand say swim to the other side
Like it's kind of like dancingor gymnastics, like you know how
a 13 year old trains is reallynot that different from about 20
year old trains, it's just so.
It's one of those sports where,if you start to lose your
passion for it at all, you quitLike there's no, there's no like

(05:48):
I kind of like it.
But I, you know, I just do itbecause I'm used to it, because
by the time I was 13, I was inthe pool probably 25 hours a
week.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
At least until it became ice, and then yeah, yeah,
yeah.
Like hockey yeah, Swimming.
Swimming is important in Canadabecause it's what we do when
the ice melts Exactly yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Not that I got the same respect as the hockey
players, but but yeah, it's,it's a.
It's a really tough schedule.
It'd be, you know, three, five,three, eight practices weeks
back after school for anotherpractice.
Prices are Friday, prices areSaturday morning, plus running,
plus weightlifting.
So I had I had enough of it bythe time I was about 15.

(06:33):
I did very well in swimming,but I just had enough.
I was ready for somethingdifferent and I sought to myself
when I quit swimming that I'dbe excited to have all this free
time.
And I really enjoyed it forabout a week, just doing nothing
all the time.
But then I realized that I justwasn't wired for that.
I had this 25 hour wholeblasted in my life all of a

(06:55):
sudden and I needed to fill withsomething.
And at the time, when I was 15,I thought I was going to go the
police or military route I had.
I had kind of a boyhood dreambeing a task force.
So I started doing KichiruJujutsu and Kiyokushin Karate,

(07:18):
which was I.
Kichiru Jujutsu.
I was taught by a policeofficer, so there's a lot of
police officers and militaryguys who were in the class with
me, so that I felt like that wasa good fit and the Kiyokushin
Karate was just kind of a sidething and I trained up both of
those for four years, basicallyjust completely replaced the

(07:38):
swimming schedule with trainingall day and martial arts.
By the time I was in the waterto kicking on land, yeah, and
this was.
And this was when the UFC wasgetting really popular, like the
like.
The first season of theultimate fighter reality show
was getting going around thattime and I was.
I had been trained for fouryears and I was just kind of

(07:59):
getting out of that mentality ofI want to go to the police
military route and gettingreally excited about competing
more in martial arts.
So that's when I switched toMuay Thai, brazilian Jujutsu,
started taking MMA moreseriously, had a couple of MMA
fights started, coaching and therest of history.
I just never stopped doing it.
So I it started as just areplacement for swimming, as

(08:24):
something to do and somethingthat I thought would fit well
with my future career, and thenI just fell in love with it,
just never stopped.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
You know, it's great, like every other guest we we've
.
Well, when we started havingthem do their own introductions
because before that we weredoing really, really terrible
introductions we got comments.
We were like we need betterintroductions, people, everybody
else, that they never know whatto say, and so it's like just
10 seconds, I don't know this.

(08:52):
And then we got you just boomthere, it all is there, you go.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Got.
The one thing I got from thatwas Canadian.
Canada has a military.
I was pretty sure they justlike apologized for things and
everyone's like oh, that's cool.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
Like you're Canada, Like what do we do?
You have to be one of the mostelite task force in the world.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
We get.
We get that a lot because wemaster passive aggression so
well that people forget thatwe're pretty good at active
aggression too.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
That's the art of war , the art of passive.
Passive aggression is way moreeffective.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
Well, and while it's, we've it's.
You know the Canada's militaryis small by American standards,
because that's always small bystandard, but it's.
It is very much kind of asimilar situation to Taiwan,
where it's sort of anasymmetrical warfare approach,
like, because the military issmall.
We have a very high focus onquality.

(09:45):
So, like you know, our militaryis small, which is how many
people are in it and what thebudget is and all that.
But you know each individualpart of it is warrants class
when you compare apples toapples with the same type of
units elsewhere, like Joy.
Task Force two is an A leveloperation that ever since World

(10:06):
War One, the Canadians havealways been in it and we've
represented very well.
So it's what it is.
It is kind of funny because wedo have that reputation is like,
oh, you know they, they justkind of tag along with wherever
the US goes, which to a certainextent is true because, come on,
canada, you're lagging by,let's go, let's go.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
We're going to Vietnam again.
Yes, again, let's go, yeah it's.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
you know for which?
For the?
For some of us is a littleuncomfortable how tight at the
hip we are to the United Statesenergy and military interests,
but it is what it is.
We share the longest activeborder in the world we have.
We're both of each other'snumber one trading partners.
A lot of people are actuallysurprised by that, because it

(10:53):
seems obvious that we are thenumber one, that the US is the
number one trading partner forus.
Right, a lot of people don'tknow that we are actually.
The US is number one tradingpartner to.
The US trades more with Canadathat it doesn't shy yeah, a lot
of marine stuff.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
They learned from JTF to.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Hmm, I mean, I know we have Team America World
Police though, so like that's, Imean that makes up for some of.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
America, oh, yeah, oh it's like that I'm watching you
.
I watched Team America likewhat's every like two or three
years.
I saw the premiere of it whenit's show here.
And it's one of my best likemovie theater memories of all
time, because my face muscleswere physically sore.

(11:41):
So I left the theater and everysingle person in the theater was
, was the same way.
We, just everyone in thetheater never stopped laughing
the entire movie because you,you just sort of be getting over
something funny that had justhappened and sort of winding
down, and then something elsehilarious would happen, and they
would just they.
You know, hans Bricks would beon the screen saying we'll like

(12:04):
you, or write that and we willmake it.
We'll write you a very stoneletter telling you how angry we
are.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
You want to find out about that movie.
There's actually like TrayParker and Matt Stone.
When the executives you know,like the producers were asking
for, like you know, updates onit, they sent them just like the
very beginning clip of themovie.
And if you've ever seen thebeginning of the movie, it looks
horrible, like it's supposed tolook horrible, and it zooms out
and it is where it actually is.
But they just sent them thefirst clip and one of the

(12:32):
executives apparently stood upand said they fucked us like
they were so mad.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
That sounds exactly like what Tray Parker.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Exactly what I love those two dudes.
It's great.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
I love them so much.
Contest, episode 50.
We're just going to have aspecial event viewing of
everybody.
You know we'll get everybodyinto a room together.
We'll have a special viewing ofit.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Oh, God, team America , please, I'm in.

Speaker 3 (12:59):
So if you had told me that South Park bigger, longer
and uncut would still berelevant pop culture Touchstone
in 2024.
And so incredibly relatable toeverything that's going on.
If you told me when that cameout that, yeah, like 30ish years
from now, there's.

(13:20):
You know you're still going tobe able to watch this movie and
see the and you know, have chefasking the general have you ever
heard of the EmancipationProclamation?

Speaker 2 (13:28):
I don't listen to it.
Oh yeah, I know that movie.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
It's like quite well possibly still be something
we're thinking about in 2024.
And it's like no, no, we're inmany ways going backwards.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
I like this podcast shifted from like forget
nutrition and like exercise.
What do you guys think ofmovies?
And like South Park, I feellike hey, it's our podcast.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
We can do what we want to OK people.
Look hard enough, you couldfind connections in anything.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
And so where do we even go from here?
We'll fight our way back, if Iso.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
You train young people, children, yes, well, you
turn those started my classesstarted five years old, five
years old.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
Oh, ok, so I'll be a few more years, a few more years
?

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, no, I would love to know, like just kind of
for people, because I wasinterested in, like you know,
muay Thai and martial arts but Ididn't really know where to
start Like, I was just kind oflike looking up places around
here like gyms, so, like youknow, maybe if you could give
people just kind of like what toexpect, what to look for, what
to you know, just like you know,a few like tips on kind of like

(14:37):
getting started until, likemartial arts, because anybody
listening I highly recommendlooking into it.
It's not like a lot of peoplethink you show up and you
immediately just start fightingpeople.
So I've been close to that, soyou know, like I definitely
recommend it and I'd love to getjust some tips for people, like
you know it's interested in it.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Yeah, absolutely OK.
So, as you said, proximity isthe number one thing that's
going to attract people to amartial arts gym.
A lot of people who areinvolved in it, like I am, would
like to think that people aredoing more research and like
have more specific kind of boxesthey want to tick with the

(15:15):
place they're going to.
But the reality is it's like agym, it's like a school, it's
like a gym, it's like a grocerystore.
Most people who are interestedin martial arts just Google
martial arts and just go withthe one closest to them.
So there's a.
There's a couple of things tocover there.
Number one would be people'smotivation for starting martial
arts, because a lot of peoplestart martial arts as a form of

(15:39):
exercise.
This is not a bad thing, butthere are things you should know
if you're considering a martialart just because, like, you
don't like going to the gym, youdon't like running, you don't
like running on treadmill, youdon't like saying you're really
glad because I've literally hadpeople asking me what I think
about martial arts as a form ofexercise, yeah, and that's, and
it's great that people aregetting creative with their

(16:02):
fitness goals.
Like, well, I, you know if theyhave the self-awareness to know,
well, I'm just not going to goto a gym and lift weights and
run on a treadmill or use anelliptical or bike or something
like that for an hour or threetimes a week.
I'm just not.
So they're trying to findcreative solutions to something
that's going to get me activeand working out on a regular
basis, but that sort of makes meforget I'm working out.

(16:23):
Right, that's it.
It's something interesting.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
They get to have fun with.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
Yeah, Something I've been, something that's
interesting to pursue.
That is also a workout, Right?
So for a lot of people thatmight be martial arts, it might
be, you know.
Just maybe we just stickoutside the gym a little bit and
get outside do some crosscountry skiing, whatever it is.
So if you are thinking ofjoining a gym or joining a
martial arts for fitness, thereare several major considerations

(16:48):
.
Number one is that the focus ofthe gym where you are thinking
of joining or is it a secondarysort of consequence of the
training, Because every singlemartial arts website like people

(17:08):
talk about like what chat GPTis good for and what it's not
good for Writing martial artsmarketing copy will be the
easiest job for chat GPT of alltime.
Because it's all, because everysingle one of them says the
exact same thing.
Every single one says it'sgoing to be an amazing workout,
You're going to learn disciplineand structure and self control
and self defense.
So you're going to.
You're going to be great.

(17:29):
People.
Like half of martial arts clubsare doing about half of those
things Like A there's a lot ofmartial arts that are not a
great workout.
B there are a lot of martialarts clubs that are toxic as
fuck.
This is this an explicitpodcast.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Oh yeah, oh Liam, Sweet, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
Sorry, I just realized I dropped it at the
bottom.
We can stop that kind of OK.
So there are a lot of gyms thatare super toxic, not at all
welcoming.
There's a lot of gyms who teachkids classes to help pay the
bills but don't really liketeaching kids and don't know how
to teach kids because it is avery different skill from
teaching adults, like teachingpeople who don't have a fully

(18:13):
developed prefrontal cortexversus teaching people that do
very different experience, verydifferent skill set.
So, and I've always said that,if you don't like teaching kids
martial arts, you can't fake it.
It's impossible to fake it.
The kids, the kids know theparents might not know, but the
kids know that if you just tryto teach kids the way you teach

(18:34):
adults, it's not going to work.
So you can't go by the websitebecause every single one of them
is going to say it's amazingworkout, ok.
But there there's a spectrumfrom the sort of you know,
nairau, 30 minute hit places,which are workouts that are

(18:54):
vaguely martial arts themed,right.
That's on this side where thethe, the central focus, is
giving you a good workout.
You're not really learningmartial arts, you're not doing
anything.
Competitive, yeah, and I don'tsay that as a bad thing.
Right, there's.
There's no said there's no suchthing as a bad goal for, yeah,
for joining a martial arts gym.
If all you want is the workout,and the martial arts thing is

(19:17):
just kind of a secondaryconsequence, might make things a
little more interesting that'stotally fine.
It's just like any other kindof training.
There's no such thing as a badgoal or a bad training method.
There are training methods thatdon't align with the goals
you're looking to achieve, andwhat's the do?

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Well, there's.
So there is a bad trainingmethod.
It's called V shred.
So what would you say?

Speaker 2 (19:39):
for people who are getting into it for, like,
exercise purposes, would you say.
Do you have like a form ofmartial arts that you maybe
you'd recommend over the others,or they may stay away from?

Speaker 3 (19:48):
it.
It can come down to fitnessgoals because, like I was saying
that there's a spectrum ofthose gyms that are sort of a
workout that's vaguely martialarts themed Okay.
And then over here you havepeople who are teaching martial
arts and the martial arts,learning the martial art, is the
central focus and they don'tand it like whether or not you

(20:09):
get a workout from it is nottheir main concern.
It's not that front of mind.
Like, if you want to learnBrazilian jiu-jitsu and you want
to be really good at Brazilianjiu-jitsu, there will be some
Brazilian jiu-jitsu classeswhere it's really heavy
technically and there's lots ofinformation, but the class
wasn't a great workout.
And then there's also thecomponent where the better you

(20:32):
get at Brazilian jiu-jitsu, themore efficiently you can play
the game of Brazilian jiu-jitsu,so the better you get at it.
the worst of a workout.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
So, starting off, you're always going to get a
good workout in because you justsuck yes 100, 100%.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
And then there's clubs in between, like for me,
I've been training for 21 yearsand coaching for most of that,
and I've experimented with theidea of having sort of like
workout classes for martialartists in and amongst the
martial arts classes.
And they always died,especially when it came to the

(21:09):
adults over time, because a lotof the adults that were signing
up weren't looking to get amartial arts experience and then
go to a workout class too.
They were joining the martialarts class to get the workout.
So the only people who werereally attracted to the idea of
doing a workout and then onanother martial arts class,

(21:30):
which is also kind of a workout,were the young, competitive
fighters.
So if you are marketing tofighters, it's not going to be
hard to convince them that yeah,you're going to do your
jiu-jitsu classes and you'regoing to do your Muay Thai
classes, you're going to do yourboxing classes, you're going to
do your wrestling classes andthose will be a workout, but

(21:50):
that's not the central focus.
You also have your strength andconditioning to do.
You also have your road workand your weightlifting.
It's not going to be hard toconvince them.
But if you're marketing towardpeople who have families or are
looking to train a couple oftimes a week.
They're not going to get up anyearlier in the morning because
they're already getting up atsix with their baby and they
just want something they coulddo a couple of times a week.

(22:12):
That is a good workout and isinteresting.
So my classes are mainly forteaching people martial arts.
That's my main focus rightTeaching self-defense, teaching
martial arts.
But I'm also conscious of thefact that a lot of people are
signing up to get a workout.
So it's always on my mind.

(22:35):
It's not the main focus, butmost of my classes are going to
be a mix of things that arephysically demanding by design
and also kind of slower, moretechnical classes, kind of mixed
in.
So I don't market my martialarts classes as this is a 30
minute hit workout, because ifpeople come in expecting that

(22:58):
they're going to be, they'regoing to notice how much sitting
around talking we do, right andI.
But I also I also recognizethat just training a jujitsu,
especially at first, is hard andit's, and a lot of people are
kind of surprised at how hard itcan be, depending on what kind
of martial arts experiencesthey've had.

(23:19):
So what I would recommend is forpeople to not just go by the
website but go by, like, try outat least a few places and maybe
even just watch a class first,especially if you want to sign
your kids up there.
You need to.
You need to watch the classwith your, with your kids, to

(23:43):
see not just how the instructortreats the brand new people that
they're trying to market theclass to, but also how they
treat the kids that have beentraining there for five years.
Right, because you know that'sthe kid that's.
That's how they're going toeventually treat your kid, right
, every, every teacher is goingto be the.
Every teacher is going to tryto put their best foot forward
with somebody who's just walkingin as considering joining.

(24:06):
So you can't really gauge whatthe long term experience is
going to be based on the firstfew classes.
So I always recommend trying outa few places, having you know,
but trying a few classes, maybeeven watching the class first
and not even trying yourself.
Look not just at their website,but also the kinds of videos
they post, right, because youknow their social media will

(24:30):
give you a glimpse into what'smost important for it.
Right, if you're looking to geta good workout, then you can
find martial arts gyms where 99%of the videos they post are
like transformation videos Lookwhat amazing shape this person
got into, look how much weightyou can lose, look how strong
you can get.
And then there's some placeswhere all they post is like

(24:52):
people standing on the podiumgetting medals Right, or like,
oh, this you know we, you knowwe have the.
We have the youngest yellowbelt world champion, like it's.
What they post on social mediais what's most important to most
of the time.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Would it be beneficial to go like talk to
them in person and just ask them, say like, hey, I'm a dad, I
don't have much time, I'm onlylooking for this.
Or would the instructors mostlikely just try and lead them
into joining anyway and kind oftell them what they want?
Like, is it beneficial to likeask them just certain questions
or whatever?

Speaker 1 (25:22):
I imagine it probably depends on the integrity of the
instructor.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
Absolutely, because, like I say, all of the websites
say the same thing, right,generally speaking.
But I don't think it's a badthing to go in and talk to them
because you know, even ifthey're trying to fool you, the
way that they try to fool youwill say, it will taste, you
tell you something about them,right, right, like I've, I've

(25:47):
had to turn away students thatwere you know, for instance,
like I, I have students whocompete and I I've had students
who are very successful incompetition, but Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu competition is not mycentral focus.
At my dojo I teach a lot ofself defense stuff.
I teach a lot of third partyprotection material for police

(26:11):
and for police and security andstuff like that.
So so I've had to turn awaystudents that were like, yeah,
like we're thinking of switchingand like they want to know,
like, how often are you running?
How often are you runningsummer camps for competitors?
How often are you teaching?
How often are you doing justcompetition training?
How much are you doing?
No-gi, how much are you doing?

(26:33):
And once I start to get thefeeling that, oh, like they want
to hit every tournament, theywant to go to the San Diego Open
, they want me to travel tocoach them and stuff like that.
They want to be a worldchampion someday.
I have to tell them it's likelook, I can teach you Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu and if you want tocompete, I can help you with
that.
I have experience.
I have expertise, but it's it'snot my main focus.

(26:56):
So the kind of people who aregoing to be attracted to train
with me are probably not goingto be the same kind of people
who are attracted to a supercompetitive school where
everybody's there just to go totournaments and win medals.
They don't care aboutself-defense, they don't care
about anything else, right?
So even within the same martialart, you can have a range of

(27:18):
different goals that you canachieve by training there.
And if you're lucky, they'll beupfront, honest about that,
because it's not like it makesmy life easier as an instructor
to have a bunch of people on themats who I know I'm not meeting
their expectations, right?
Like who wants to deal withparents who are like, yeah,
you've been, you've beenteaching self-defense for a few

(27:38):
classes now.
I just I noticed that youhaven't really been doing much
sports training.
Like, I don't want to have thatconversation over and over
again, right, right, that's notworth 140 bucks a month to me to
have that kind of headachewhere I'm just constantly,
constantly wondering if everyoneon the mats is actually getting
what they pay for Right.
So in the long term I think it'sbetter for the instructor to

(28:00):
just kind of attract thepersonalities that want to do
what I want to do with myclasses and if you'd be happier
somewhere else, go somewhereelse.
There's lots of gyms and you'llbe happier there.
I'll be happier that.
You know I set you to theplaces I actually can achieve
your goals for you.
But so that's one thing.
You have to go deeper.
They're just reading thewebsite and you have to go

(28:23):
deeper than just whatever placeis closest to you.
That's the first thing.
The other thing is what kind ofmartial arts are going to help
you to achieve the particularfitness goal that you're looking
to achieve?
Because you know the thing thatmost, the thing that most often
gets people into fitness ingeneral not just martial arts or

(28:45):
fitness is weight control.
Weight control is some kindright.
Whether they want to loseweight or just not gain weight
like weight control is thenumber one sort of motivation
for people to start a fitnessprogram.
Pretty much always, always hasbeen as long as we've been
measuring that kind of thing,and once they, once they start

(29:07):
doing something for losingweight, they'll often stay in
fitness for other reasons.
I don't know how many peoplehave, like you know, joined a,
joined a CrossFit gym, thinkingthey just want to lose weight
and then just fall in love with,like, trying to get a better
frantime, trying to get a betterdeadlift, like lots of people
do.
That they come for one reasonand then they stay for another.
But if you are looking to getinto a martial art for fitness

(29:36):
and your main goal is weightloss, it's going to become a
more sort of complicateddecision and it sucks, because
you never wanted to swaysomebody from doing something.
That's active, right.
But you also want to helppeople to be realistic about
what kind of choices they canmake that are going to help them
to achieve their goals.
Because exercise, thermalgenesis, like what you're like,

(30:00):
what you're actually like, whatcalories you're burning while
you're training, is a very smallpercentage of the total
calories you're burningthroughout a day.
Yeah, you run, you can run 10Kand burn off like one Mars bar,
right.
So so the thinking about whatkind of workout is going like,
what kind of martial art isgoing to help you achieve your
goals?
There's not too many martialarts out there that are going to

(30:22):
give you the kind of fitnessregimen, just built into the
martial art integrals of themartial arts training, without
doing anything else, that'sactually going to be most
beneficial for weight control,which is building muscle, right,
if you, because you knowexercise, throw a Genesis built.
You know, birds are very smallpercentage of the calories per
day that you burn.
Most of it is burned by justyour, your basal metabolic rate,

(30:46):
just the, just the low, the lowintensity activities that
you're doing throughout the day,and that's governed primarily
by how much muscle mass you have, like what your body
composition is.
The more muscle mass you have,the more calories you burn at
rest or while doing lowintensity activities.
So, like was there, somebodywants to train for weight
control and they're focused onoh, I burned this many calories

(31:08):
on the elliptical today, right,doing a aerobic exercise.
Well, aerobic exercise isfantastic, you should do it, but
it's, you know, aerobicexercise without changing
anything else doesn't really geta help to lose weight or
control weight all that much.
So you know, basically, ifsomebody asks me how they should
train to lose weight.
I basically so train like abodybuilder and go for short,

(31:30):
frequent walks Like there's andthere's not, and there's not
really a whole lot of martialarts where the training modality
of the martial art is like thatJiu-Jitsu is close, because
Jiu-Jitsu you're actually movinga load, you're, you're, you're
moving an exterior load withintensity, you're training your

(31:51):
adiabatic energy systems.
But something like you knowboxing or kickboxing, which is
very aerobically intensive, oryou're not really moving an
exterior load, you're, basicallyyou're, you're mostly moving
your own body.
It's very aerobically taxingand you're not going to burn as
many calories as you think doingit, and it's not the kind of
thing that's likely to make ahuge difference in how much, how

(32:14):
many calories you're burning atrest, because it's not the best
way to build muscle mass.
So I never want to discouragepeople from doing something
active.
Well, they weren't doingsomething active before because
it will help, yeah.
But you know, if people arethinking, well, I'm going to do
everything, exactly what I'mdoing now, but then I'm going to

(32:37):
go and do kickboxing for anhour twice a week and it's going
to make me, it's going to makeme lose weight like crazy, it's
probably not.
You're going to have to combinethat with other life choices
and probably other kinds oftraining to actually achieve
those kinds of goals.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
I do want to make an argument for, for for working
out, for for weight loss,because, yes, it's 100% true,
the calories you burn at thevery minimal.
But there's a couple of thingsI definitely find when people
start working out, it justencourages them inherently just
to make better like diet choices.
You're like okay, I went to thegym today, I did something.
Maybe, instead of getting thebucket of Popeyes chicken that I
normally get, I might actuallypick something healthier.

(33:16):
Just because I did that, like Idon't know, there's something
about just starting like kind ofa health fitness journey, that
just the momentum happens, theball starts rolling and you're
like okay now I'm going to dosomething.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
I'm saying is that I'm not going to lose weight for
punching Liam in the face, butit might inspire me to eat, to
go then eat a banana, becauseyou would do so.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
So and also on top of that, I find when people start
like going to the gym, one ofthe main reasons they kind of
they they end up losing weightis just because they're kind of
out of the house as well.
Because when you're at home andthere's just nothing going,

(33:57):
I'll tell you like if I'm justlike binge watching a show or
whatever, I'll just you knowchips or whatever you know I'm
eating, I can plow through thateasy.
So when you're just out of thehouse, you're not snacking,
you're not doing anything thatyou're actually, you're doing
something.
You know, for me at least,exercise suppresses my appetite.
I'm not like on a you know,working out, lifting weights on
a treadmill, like I cannot waitto eat a whole cake.

(34:18):
That's what I want right now isjust a full on cream cheese
frosting, because that's thebest frosting.
I don't care what you say.
You're wrong if you sayanything otherwise.
And then you know, I'm not, I'mnot snacking, I'm actually
somewhere else, so I those arethe two things I find help, even
more than just the calories youburn.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
Yeah, absolutely, you're, you're 100% correct
about that.
That's actually something elsethat's that's great to mention
is that when you become active,there are there are so many sort
of secondary branches oflifestyle choices that usually
go along with that.
Because if you eat like crap allthe time and then you try to

(34:56):
train a jujitsu for days or fourdays a week, your body is going
to rebel against that.
You're going to you're going tobe like, if you like jujitsu
and you want to keep doingjujitsu and you want to get
better at jujitsu, absolutelyit's going to give you something
.
It's going to give yousomething to inspire you to make
those other choices.
Because when you drink morewater, when you, when you you

(35:17):
know address injuries, when youget more sleep, when you eat
better quality food, you feelthat difference when you go to
jujitsu.
So, like if you, if you havethat sort of anchor in your life
or it's like I like this, Iwant to do better at this, I
don't want to have to take fourdays to recover after doing a
jujitsu class it's definitelygoing to be a source of

(35:40):
inspiration for for every, forall those other little choices
that you can make.
Also, being around other likeminded people.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
Yeah, Because yes.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
Because if you're, if you're sitting around the house
, you're not hanging out withanybody.
If you're going to jujitsu,you're going to be hanging out
with a lot of people and,statistically speaking, most of
them either joined for the samereason you did, so they're in a
similar kind of situation to you, so you can, you can bond over
that and even if it's not an,even if it's not an actively
acknowledged thing, sort of holdeach other accountable, or

(36:13):
you're going to run into a lotof people who you know also lift
weights, also, run also, youknow, go skiing also.
So you're going to be aroundlike minded people who, once
again, it's just like sort ofosmosis you hang around you talk
about how important communityis, several times Like what did

(36:33):
you do this week?

Speaker 2 (36:33):
I'm training for like a 5k.
Oh, that sounds interesting.
Maybe I'll do that as well,like you know that sort of thing
.
Just you're around people whoare interested in being
physically active and hopefullyother healthy choices as well.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
So I think that's one of the best reasons to go.
Yeah, for sure, and I meanthat's ultimately when people go
to a gym.
I think the community, likewhen people go to a gym and
actually stay at the gym andstart training there regularly,
community has a lot to do withthat and I actually I really
miss that about going to the gym.

(37:06):
There's not many things I missabout having to go to a gym, but
I train alone or just with myson sort of puttering around
with me most of the time.
I don't have training partnersthat I train with full time.
I train in my basements ortrain at my dojo.
I got two gyms but I'm usuallytraining alone and the training

(37:29):
is the same.
But I do miss, like you know,saying hi to a couple people or
it's.
Most of my best friends wereeither dojo friends or gym
friends and I've been lucky tokeep those friends into my 30s.
But like if I had to makefriends from scratch now, where
the hell would I find them?

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Right here.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
Oh no, don't find friends on TikTok.
It might go well, but it'llprobably go terribly.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
Well, if you've got a million followers, you got a
million friends, right?

Speaker 2 (38:05):
I guess that's exactly how.
That's what I tell myself to goto sleep every thousand friends
and 800,000 haters.
Most of them are haters, butyou know what they also help.
So thanks, haters.

Speaker 3 (38:18):
Well it's they help, but they help us a little less
be Canadian and not be able toactually box right.
I think so, which is alwayshilarious to me whenever
somebody's like you're a paidgovernment shield.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Oh, the page is so funny.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
Yeah, we're going to sign up for that.
Have I been missing out onsomething?

Speaker 2 (38:34):
Yeah, I love the paid .
I love it so great.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
Yeah, yeah, it's not as simple a choice as just join
a martial art and get intoamazing shape.
Because, right, not all martialarts are created equal in terms
of how good a work up they are.
And if it's not the main focusof the class then you might find
it a little bit disappointing,right?
Because and part of that isjust again, people sort of mixed

(39:04):
expectations around exercise ingeneral, because a lot of
people, like when I teach mycourses I talk about this a lot
because I teach things likenonlinear periodization stuff
like that, where you're nottrying to actually kill yourself
every workout.
The program is supposed to buildto a peak and kind of build
that long term momentum, whereasa lot of that and in Europe and

(39:28):
Asia it seems like a lot lessof a problem.
If you tell somebody in Asiathat their trainer tells them,
yeah, you're going to do fivesets of five at 70 percent, it's
not going to be hard, but we'rebuilding towards something,
they kind of understand thatbetter.
That's just my anecdotalexperience anyway.
But in North America peopleseem to have this idea that if
they're not dragging themselvesthrough a pool of sweat and

(39:49):
blood and vomit at the end ofthe workout, that they didn't
achieve anything.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
I feel like that's because that's what they've been
taught, right.
When you watch something likean infomercial for insanity, x
plus reaming, and you're like ohGod, and then it starts off and
they're just dying and throwingup and they're sweating
everywhere and they're like thisis what it takes to lose weight
, I mean I guess I'm going topurchase it, do it once and then
give up.
I mean, if that's what I haveto do, Well it's.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
I mean, and a lot of people will they have this kind
of well, if it's worth doing,it's worth overdoing, right,
like if they don't have abackground in fitness or they
don't happen to have a trainer,if they haven't actually hired a
trainer.
I think a lot of people arejust like well, I don't know how

(40:37):
much is enough, but I know thatif I do too much, that I'm
definitely doing enough.
They don't see that point ofdiminishing return.
And surely, if I'm working outfor 90 minutes a day after doing
nothing but sitting on a couchfor five years, I'm going to
lose weight, yeah, and they'renot wrong, but it's.

(41:00):
I think it takes for a lot ofpeople some trial and error to
get to that place where theyunderstand that a program that
is sustainable and consistent isway better than one that is,
you know, get some super highhighs and super low lows.
I would say, like you do yourP90X for a month and then you'll

(41:22):
train for another two years.
Yeah, and then you feel badabout it.
Figure, it was you, not theP90X.
So you go back to the P90X, doit for another month, so it's oh
, it's just like, you know,weight loss programs where
they're like.
The entire process is designedfor people to lose a lot of
weight really quickly, stop theprogram, then gain the weight

(41:43):
back and do it over again.
So this, and it takes just longenough.
It's very scientificallydeveloped.
It takes just long enough forthem to fall off, the fall off,
the fall off and gain all theweight back.
That they don't connect it tothe unsustainability of the
program.
They were on.
Yeah, they connected to.
Well, when I was on the programI was great, yeah, and now that

(42:05):
it's just me without theprogram, I failed again.
Yeah, Right, they've beenvictim blaming.
Yay, it's hard for them to makethat connection.
It's like, well, if I just goback to the program, then I'll
be fine again.
Right, I'm the one I can'ttrust.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
What if we took an abusive relationship and made it
into a fitness program?
I like what you're thinking.
We could make money off that.
I would encourage anybody who'sinto, who's interested in like
martial arts to, you know,understand that the possibly
losing weight in the out ofy'all that's great.
But to focus on just like themental aspect of it for a second
, for me that's that's myfavorite part.

(42:41):
You go there one, you're justtalking to people, it's just fun
, you just chatting.
Exercise is great for yourmental health in general.
And there's just something Ithink just about martial arts
like I said kind of at thebeginning it's it is this
physical and sort of aggressivein a way, but also sort of
peaceful and relaxing thing thatI I has this good combination
for me, at least that's how I'veexperienced it and I really

(43:03):
enjoy it.
So I would encourage anyone toat least try it.
Go to a place, watch a class,try a class whatever, something
like that.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
Definitely watch the class, definitely look, like I
say, look at social media, seewhat's important to them.
Because I'm, I'm, I'm glad thatI could be the one to tell
whoever's listening to this thatthere is nothing inherent to
martial arts that will make youa better person by training at

(43:33):
it.
Yeah, and there, like, ifsomebody like there, there are
lots of terrible people in themartial arts community.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
Oh sure.

Speaker 3 (43:42):
And they were, and they were terrible people before
and then they got a black beltto Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and now
they're just a tougher, moreconfident, more dangerous,
terrible person and and and andI, like I've seen you know,
without naming names, I've seenlots and lots of people, lots of
examples, in the Jiu Jitsucommunity, the MMA community,

(44:04):
where I just I, I look at themand I listen to them and I see
what they post on social mediaand I see the values that they
have, that they're not eventrying to hide, and I'm just
like people sign their kids upto train with this guy, right,
like this.
It's.
It's dumbfounding to me thatyou know people can say the

(44:25):
things they do and do the thingsthey do and you know hate the
people they hate and still havenot only students but like kids
being signed up to train withthem.
So, like, definitely watch aclass, definitely.
Like, look at their socialmedia, see what's important to
them.
Try out a few classes, try morethan one.
Like, try three, try threeclasses.

(44:48):
It's three different places.
Before you try, before youactually sign up for one,
they're not all the same.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
All the websites will look the same, yeah, right, but
they're not everything, I think, I guys if you're listening, I
think all the websites mightlook the same I think they might
all be chat GBT generated.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
Come find discipline and lose weight and better
yourself.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
Yeah, I mean the, the .
Yeah, there's definitely some,there's definitely some
resentment built up there, likeyou know, when it comes to just
the self-defense aspect of it.
Because there's, becausethere's a, there's a, there's a.
There's a totally differentapproach for teaching
self-defense versus teachingmartial arts to say, go to

(45:32):
tournaments and win medals, likewhat I'm teaching Brazilian
jiu-jitsu for self-defense,where I am teaching Brazilian
jiu-jitsu techniques this, this,it's the same macro techniques.
So the bones of the martial artare the same, the, you know the
basic positioning and leverageand control positions and

(45:53):
distance management, and thetraining methods are very kind
of similar.
But when you teach them incontext for going to a
tournament or a cage fight or aBrazilian jiu-jitsu tournament
or or something like that, whereyou are fighting somebody else
who is also a trained fighterand there are rules and referees

(46:14):
and safety gear and andeverything else, and then you
start training Brazilianjiu-jitsu in context for
self-defense, where we aretaking into account multiple
attackers, weapons, verbalde-escalation, concrete walls,
like there.
There are so many things aboutteaching Brazilian jiu-jitsu in

(46:35):
context for self-defense thatjust training Brazilian
jiu-jitsu for sport jiu-jitsulike just going to tournaments
and winning medals I will stillbet on somebody who does nothing
but sport jiu-jitsu 99% of thetime, for sure, but if you're
going to advertise that youtrain people for self-defense

(46:56):
but then never actually teachself-defense in context, taking
into account any of these things, you shouldn't have it on your
website.
Right and it's.
It's not a bad thing, becauseBrazilian jiu-jitsu the sport is
is exploded in popularity.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
Like when I train, I mean I'm really bad, Holy shit.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
I mean, MMA has been popular for a while now and that
was definitely sort of thegateway drug for the sport
Brazilian jiu-jitsu because alot of people liked the idea of
being an MMA fighter but didn'tlike the idea of getting punched
in the face.
Okay, Start competing injiu-jitsu.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
This is for you Wait why?

Speaker 2 (47:29):
Because nobody else says just me, okay, that's fine.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
But you know, the back of the day, when I started
training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu,the the communities of MMA and
Brazilian jiu-jitsu especiallyhere in Canada where we're
lagging behind the United Statescommunity development MMA and
Brazilian jiu-jitsu werebasically synonymous.
Like this, like if you went toa Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament
in 2004, 90% of all the peoplethey are competing in Brazilian

(47:57):
jiu-jitsu, the sport.
You're also MMA fighters.
Like it was just another thingthat was wet with being an MMA
fighter.
Just now you can go to atournament in Blackfaults.
Blackfaults and Red Deer arekind of the two main sort of
tournament cities for Alberta,because it's it's a decent
enough drive for Alberta for anEdmonton and Calgary to attract

(48:18):
people in both.
But I mean you can go to aBrazilian jiu-jitsu tournament
where there's like 1200 peoplesigned up for it and very, very
few of them have ever had an MMAfight or ever will have an MMA
fight, like, like, whereas youknow the 2004 is like you would
hear that there was a tournamenthappening in Lethbridge and

(48:39):
drive five and a half hours toLethbridge to have two matches
and then drive back home on thesame day Like there was nothing
and where there was something,it was all MMA fighters.
Now the sport of Brazilianjiu-jitsu itself has exploded.
So it's it's hugely popular andthere are a lot of clubs who
are focusing 100% on competitivesport jiu-jitsu.

(49:02):
And when people sign their kidsup there, they're just looking
at it as another sport, right,they're not really thinking of
it as a as a combative martialarts.
They're thinking well, he triedsoccer and like it.
He tried hockey, he didn't likeit.
We're going to try jiu-jitsu.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
Right, I didn't like it.
Jitak, get out of Canada.
I don't.
I don't play hockey as a kid.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
I'm sorry, son.
Do you have your Canadiancitizenship card?
Can you just hand that overreal quick for anything?

Speaker 3 (49:26):
You know how often I get asked if I'm a real Canadian
or a real American.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Are you a real Canadian, though, right now?
One of those fake Canadiansthat just walk around all the
time?

Speaker 3 (49:36):
Yeah, I'm one of those.
I'm one of those fake Albertansthat saw the wind turbines on
my drive here and was actuallyhappy about it.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
I don't see either of your heads bobbing up and down
when you talk, so I'm prettysure you're not actually
Canadian?

Speaker 3 (49:54):
Hey, buddy, I'm not so funny guy.
I'm not so guy friend.
It's well, it's funny becausewe don't even hear the Canadian
accent when we're talking toeach other, it's only when you
go to like California they'relike seriously, I mean like.
It's like.
Oh, I guess I do say a Like, Imean it just comes out, I don't

(50:14):
even think about it, yeah.
But yeah, it's one of thosethings where it's like, if
you're, if you're you know, ifyou're not teaching self-defense
, I'm not saying that's a badthing, but if you're not
teaching it, don't say thatthat's a benefit, because there
are going to be, because there'sgoing to be people like and
what?
I debate this with people, as Ihave many times, you know.

(50:36):
We'll get to a point in theconversation where they're like
okay, fine, like we don't teachself-defense, but there's all
these other benefits.
And I'm like, okay, yeah, butyou're admitting that to me now
because I have an education andexpertise and a background and a
frame of reference where youcan't bullshit me.
You're admitting that to me nowin our one-on-one conversation.

(51:00):
When somebody comes in and isasking to sign up at your gym,
are you telling them that youdon't really teach self-defense?
No, I don't think so.
You're admitting it to me, butit's still on your side, it's
still on your website.
It's that you're still using itto market to people one-on-one
when they come in.
So that means that somebodycould walk in who's actually
dealing with a very serioussituation, right?

(51:21):
They want to train in Brazilianjiu-jitsu, not because they
want to go to a tournament andwin medals, but because they
have an X.
Their word is going to comeback and beat them up because
they just got into jail.
That's why they're training ina martial art.
Yeah Well, and fool and takingadvantage of those people,
whether you know you're doing itor not, I don't think is

(51:42):
acceptable.
So it's not just about money.
It's also about just being agood person and not taking
advantage of people who don'thave the background, don't have
the expertise, don't have thebullshit meter to understand who
they're talking to and how theymight not be getting out of
this, what they think they'regetting out of it.
It's going to be real worldconsequences for that.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
I think the single most important thing I
personally think you said inregards to the self-defense was
the verbal de-escalation whichnobody who's training for
tournaments.
They're not going to train that.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
No, we're both here.
We both signed waivers, we bothknow we're going to get into
fights, although I would totallywatch that.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
I would 100% watch a Brazilian jujitsu match where
the goal is to verbally disarmthe other person and get them to
step down.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
They just think it a little podium.
I'm not going to watch it.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
I'm not going to lie, I would 100% watch that.

Speaker 3 (52:38):
That would be good for a YouTube gag, to have
somebody sign up for a martialarts tournament or something
like that.
And then, all of a sudden, oneof these 20 sets goes well, dude
, you're just trying to punch me.
Hold on, we are not on the samewave.
What did I do?

Speaker 2 (52:55):
Let's start over.
What's your name?
Where do you come from?

Speaker 1 (52:59):
Yeah, we can handle this.
Let's workshop up what's goingon in your life.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
That's making you so angry.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
And how can I help you?
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do,whatever it was.

Speaker 3 (53:10):
But it's one of those things where, if you only ever
trained at a place where theytaught sport Brazilian jujitsu
or boxing or anything else andsomebody asks you, well, are you
learning self-defense?
It probably wouldn't even occurto you that you had spent no
time thinking about verbalde-escalation in your training

(53:34):
for boxing, because why wouldyou?
Right?
But it's one of those thingswhere it seems obvious once
you're told.
But it's not something that theaverage person without a
background would even thinkabout.
But it's like arguably the mostimportant part of the training.
Yeah, like I remember when Iwas seven and I first started
training and I first triedkarate when I was seven, and I

(53:55):
remember the self-defense aspectof the training that I got in
that class when I was seven,when they were like OK,
self-defense time.
They throw a punch at you.
You go blah, blah, blah.
It's like, well, look at backat that now.
You know what I know.
It's like well, it's kind ofturning the movie on in the
middle, isn't it Like why is theguy punching me?
We're just fast-forwardingright to the part where he's
punching me.

(54:16):
That's the self-defensetraining.
It's like how many people arejust walking up and punching you
in the face, that you thinkthis is applicable self-defense
training.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
How many Steven Seagal movies have you watched?
The?

Speaker 3 (54:26):
chat right now that there was no other way to handle
this but for or?
Here's another good example.
How about talking aboutproportionality and your
self-defense response?
Right, because Canada'scriminal code it's a little
different in the wild west, downwhere you are, but that's on a

(54:50):
state-by-state basis.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
Listen, we have freedom down here.
If I have the freedom to punchwhoever I want, okay.

Speaker 3 (54:56):
Yeah, that is my freedom.
It's like Jimbo and Ned say,well, it's coming right for us,
it's coming right for us.
So as you yell, it's comingright for us.
You punch whoever you want,it's great.
But you know what I'm teachinglittle kids, right?
I'm teaching the techniquesthat I'm talking about.

(55:18):
How well, just because theyshove you doesn't mean that you
get to just throw them on theconcrete and break boats.
That's not a reasonableresponse.
You're going to be the one whogets in trouble for that.
Right, because Canada's criminalcode section 33, I think it is
the deals with self-defensespecifically actually lays out a
bunch of criteria that will beconsidered by the judge that's

(55:42):
handling your case, and a lot ofthe criteria are all about kind
of what options you had andwhen you had them.
Right, and essentially, if youdefend yourself physically and
self-defense, even if theyattacked you first, you still
have to be able to make a casethat any reasonable person in
your position would have donewhat you did.

(56:04):
So if somebody throws a punchat me and I, you know, sweep the
punch, close the distance, takethat out of the ground and hold
them down, at that point I'm nolonger under threat.
So if I start dropping elbowson the guy now, I'm going to get

(56:24):
I could potentially get in alot of trouble for that?
Because what option?
Because I had the option not tohurt this guy anymore after
that point and I made the choiceto hurt him.
So that conversation is notgoing to happen in boxing, it's
not going to happen incompetition.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu, right, it'swhere you know, like I'll look

(56:45):
at some self-defense trainingvideos and it's like, oh yeah,
the, the, the defense to likepush on the shoulder is like
palm heel, strike to the face,throw on the car.
It's like that could literallykill someone.
If I do, if I do also to guardon somebody and throw them on
the ground and they don't knowhow to break, fall, they don't
know what I'm doing, and theyhit their head on the concrete,
they could literally notfiguratively die from that.

(57:07):
So you have to teach martialarts.
If you're teaching forself-defense, especially if
you're teaching to tacticalpopulations police, fire, police
, soldiers, security you have tomix the physical techniques
that you're teaching with their,with their use of force,
parameters that they have tooperate Right.

(57:28):
You know how many?
How many guys have you heardthat were, you know, worked as
bouncers and bragged about howmany fights they got into as
bouncers and how awesome theyare.
Like you're, you're braggingabout being bad at your job.
It's true.
Who brags about being bad attheir job?

Speaker 2 (57:45):
That is also the American way, in case you
haven't heard.

Speaker 3 (57:50):
If you're, if you work security or personal
protection or you're a bouncer,whatever it is, and you're
getting into fights all the time, that's you being bad at your
job.
Your job is to cool thetemperature down, to make sure
everyone's having fun, to makesure everybody is safe, even the
person you're kicking out ofthe bar.

(58:11):
It's your job to make sure thatthey're safe.
So you know, when you talkabout like use of force, well,
if you're training in boxing orMuay Thai to go and have ring
fights, there's no use of force.
Conversation there, right,we're not, we're not bringing up
the Canadian criminal code.
So, like I say, I don't, Idon't care.

(58:33):
If a gym doesn't want to teachself-defense, it's not your area
of expertise, you don't.
You don't like teaching it, youdon't want to teach it, fine,
take it off the website.
Take it off the site, right.
Like there there's, there's a.
There's no harm in that,there's no shame in that.
There is harm and shame in intrying to advertise yourself as

(58:54):
something you're not Right,right.
So they think for personaltraining, they think for
nutrition.
Like, there's lots of personaltrainers who are not qualified
to teach an off season footballplayer, right, how to get, how
to get themselves ready for nextseason, or you know a AAA
hockey player who needs to.
You can use to gain size andand and be able to be higher

(59:16):
performance to be able to moveto the next level contact,
whatever it is.
There's a lot of personaltrainers who are very well
equipped to handle a certainkind of clientele not great, not
well equipped to handle adifferent kind of clientele but
when there's money on the line,how many of them are actually
going to have the integrity tosay, look, this isn't my area of
expertise?
I would rather refer you tothis person who specializes in

(59:37):
this sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
I will say I kind of have to get back to getting
Oakley so my wife can finish upher job because you know she
works from home.
So I kind of I hear her inthere and I got, I got, I got, I
got to take care of her.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
Kind of got, got to get.
Yeah, I got, I got to get her.
I mean, well, the biggest thingI got from this is similar to
what we say about cardio, inthat don't do it just for weight
loss.
Look at it as a way to becomeactive, whether that is the way
to become healthy, and do it ina form that you enjoy.

Speaker 3 (01:00:11):
Yes, yeah, the best, the best form of training is the
one you'll do.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Right and don't pay attention to their websites.
Yeah, I was in the.

Speaker 3 (01:00:19):
I was in the I think you take from this, it's go
watch Sal Fart.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
Okay, and then second thing don't pay attention to
the website of the Marshal Arts.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Student knows Jim's.

Speaker 3 (01:00:31):
I used to make that mistake.
I was like I started working atfitness retail around the same
time that I was really gettinggoing as a kettlebell instructor
, and when I first startedselling fitness equipment to
people, I thought my job was totry to convince every single
person that came in the doorthat they should be training
with kettlebells.
And I, you know, as I, as Igrew up more and matured and

(01:00:51):
developed more empathy, I Istarted understanding okay, what
they like is what they're goingto do.

Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
Yeah, when you all you have is a hammer, everything
else is a nail.
That's one of my favoritequotes.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
All right, well, pretty soon Amber's going to
come in and throw Oakley at yourhead.
Yeah, april, yeah, april andOakley.
April, not Amber.
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
I got the A right.
It's close enough.
Whatever, I don't care.
Listen, Liam wasn't popular inthe past and I was everything
from Leo to Leon to Neil.
It didn't matter.
Names are stupid.
It's all just a fabricationthat we've come up with.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
It's okay, next time I'll call her Amanda or
something.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Yeah, there you go.
Just every time it's a new name.

Speaker 3 (01:01:35):
Lots of people should take away from this.
Watch South Park and names arestupid.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
And names are dumb.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Names are stupid.
There we come.

Speaker 3 (01:01:42):
Names are stupid.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
There's a lot of people who just thought so Not
take.
I don't like names, goodbye.

Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
Everyone should get numbers and barcodes.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Oh, there we go.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
But if you guys want to talk like Canadian politics
or something, you stay on andtell people about that, Because
I'm sure you've got just hoursof material from stuff that I've
heard that's going on there.
But for me, this American iswhat?
Wait Cartman's, screw you guysand go home.

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
So now that Liam has absolutely ditched us, where can
everyone else find you?
Screw, liam, liam's got a lotto find you.
He's not going to get to hearthis.
Where can everyone else findyou?

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
Well, I'm really only on TikTok.
We're Canadian, we can'tmonetize, we don't get shit from
TikTok, so it's like.
But I started my TikTok as justkind of a creative outlet
somewhere to talk about politicsand philosophy and social
commentary and stuff like thatwe're, instead of just dumping

(01:02:45):
it all on my wife every time shetries.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
She tries hard.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
But when I start talking about Dwight
Eisenhower's breakmanshippolicies, it's just not
something she tends to beinterested in.
So I started as an outlet.
I never saw myself having230,000 followers, so it's been
a weird ride for me.
But you can find me on TikTokat the Warrior Philosopher all
on word, not the WarriorPhilosopher One.

(01:03:13):
I have my first stake, theAppreciator account.
Congratulations.
Now I know I've arrived.
It's probably in America that'sactually making money off of it
.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
Yeah, that's what they do.
They're just like skier contentand they monetize it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
Yeah, so if you've got a friend request from the
Warrior Philosopher One, justknow that that's not me.

Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
I guess their Depois.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
I've never seen before Like we're standing here
honoring their Hehheldays andlook at that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
Come on, that's a cool idea.
Nice, there we go.
Maybe they'll make the tripFantastic.
All right, liam's not allowed.
No, liam's allowed.
You have to put that sign onyour door.
No, no, liam's allowed Like anyLiam or just him.
I don't know.
I don't know.
We open it up to all of them.
I don't have to find out hislast name or maybe his number

(01:04:21):
and bar date.
Yeah, the number.
We got rid of names.
That's right Number.
And bar code Damn.

Speaker 3 (01:04:26):
We should have thought this through before we
abolished.
But before we abolished names,we should have thought of some
of the implications for it.
Yeah, we also should havestamped up.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
Oh well, it's okay, he's tagged.
Yeah, yep.