Episode 51 - Reclaiming Body: Treat Yourself Like Somebody You Are Responsible For Helping

Preston and Michael return in Episode 50 to discuss the importance of taking care of yourself so you have the ability to take care of others, including ways to get stronger that are focused on body weight and multiple sets throughout the day (pull-ups, push-ups, etc).  Give the Walk-by-five a try - push-ups or pull-ups!

Episode Transcript

Michael (00:00):
welcome to episode 51 of the Reclaiming Man podcast.
Michael Beckwith here thisevening and with me through
Marco Polo is Preston theSouthern Canuck Gordomsky.
We're on Reclaiming Body thisweek and reviewing the year to
date in the context of JordanPeterson's second rule found in

(00:23):
his 12 rules for life andantidote to chaos.
I just had finished his secondbook which is called Beyond
Chaos, it's 12 More Rules forLife, and he describes that
throughout both of these books,walking the fine line between
both order and chaos in ourlives, and how challenging that

(00:44):
can be, but what are some of thekey strategies or rules that we
should live by in order tomaintain that balance between
order and chaos.
And so tonight wanted to give aquick quote from his second
rule, which is treat yourselflike someone you are responsible
for helping.
And so he starts off this witha.

(01:08):
bit of data.
It says imagine that 100 peopleare prescribed a drug.
Consider what happens next.
One third of them won't fill theprescription.
Half of the remaining 67 willfill it, but won't take the
medication correctly.
They'll miss doses.
They'll quit taking it early.
They might not even take it atall, which leaves a very small
fraction of the people who, whenthey are given help in a, doctor

(01:33):
setting or in a medicalsituation, there's only one out
of six people who actually willtake care of themselves the way
that they're prescribed to do sohe goes on to contrast that with
taking care of others and how weare much more.
Predisposed to ensure that ourdogs or our children or our
spouses are taking theirmedications versus us ourselves.

(01:56):
And so just thinking about thepast couple months as we've all
battled through sickness in thefamily, sickness personally, and
coming to the realization that Ithink I certainly fall into the
the broader percentage of folkswho don't treat themselves as
well or take care of themselvesas well as I should.

(02:18):
And I was more focused on maybetaking care of the family and
feeling the pressures of being aprovider and being strong and
pushing through things.
recognizing that there areconstraints and limits and
that's what I wanted to talk alittle bit about this week and
so curious to see Preston howyou might think about that

(02:41):
second rule that he has treatingyourself like someone you are
responsible for helping so Iwill kick it over to you and
then can chime in with someadditional thoughts here but
we'll keep this podcastrelatively short and succinct
And look forward to this onewith you, Preston.

Preston (03:01):
Hey, what's going on, Michael?
Good morning, good afternoon,good night to whoever's
listening to us abroad orwherever.
I'm just on my way to a littlequick Saturday overtime work
shift for the old FedExCorporation.
You know what?
I've never heard of, I've neverheard that quote before,

(03:21):
Michael.
What was it?
Take care of yourself as if youwere taking care of someone
else.
I might not have that exactlythe way you read it, but it's so
simple, yet when you read it, Iwas like, man yeah, that's so
true.
When we Like you mentioned withour children, like we make sure

(03:45):
they are eating correctly.
That doesn't mean, we don'thave, a peanut butter cup once
in a while or treats in thataspect.
When we, when I make thembreakfast, it's like my son
would like to have six pieces ofFrench toast, he would eat them,
but it's like, no, you get twoand if you're, still hungry,

(04:07):
that's what we have bacon andeggs for, and you got to eat
that.
They have to eat some of that.
Anyways, cause it's like, if youjust have a bunch of sugary
bread for breakfast, you'regoing to go off the walls and be
hungry in an hour.
And so we look out for them or Ilook out for them in that
regard, yet I'm not always thebest with myself with, I'm a

(04:30):
very bad like sugar head.
I think I've mentioned that onthis podcast before, I think
early on because Scott's wifeKelly had heard it and made me
like homemade kind of peanutbutter alternatives with dates
and dark chocolate.
But it's like we know how totake care of other people so
easily yet We will fall short oftaking care of ourselves And I

(04:52):
think to just remind us if youwrite that quote down if you're
listening to this episode Youknow write that quote on a
sticky note And put it on your Idon't know if you sit at a
computer every day or maybe ifyou have a commute to work I
should take my own advice andactually fucking do that put it
on your you know, your dashboardin your car So when you look at

(05:15):
your speedometer You see thatquote and it's like, all right,
today's going to be the day thatI take care of myself much more
because if you can't, if youdon't take care of yourself,
then you won't be able to takecare of the others that you need
to take care of.
It's all simple stuff that wetalk about on here that for one

(05:38):
reason or the other we strugglewith on a daily, weekly, monthly
basis to enact 100 percent allthe time.
And I think that's part of thisjourney for you guys listening.
To understand that while youmight be listening and thinking

(05:59):
like, oh man, these guys reallyhave their shit together.
Or maybe you're not, maybe maybeyou're on episode 51 and it's
fuck these guys.
Still haven't got it figuredout.
We're just, we're going throughlife trying to help each other
out, push each other forward,pull each other up and these
conversations are ones that wehave with each other and that's

(06:19):
what's so fun about sharing themwith y'all.
So that being said I know we hadtalked about you getting a pull
up bar, Michael.
The other day not on podcastjust on our own Marco Polo And I
had got a new one about a weekago because i've been I don't

(06:39):
know.
Maybe the last two three weeks,I think My wife has been working
on Getting really good at pullups.
She can't do one yet.
But like her progress is comingSo like getting she's killing
it.
It's so interesting the way ifyou've never done a pull up
before they're so Much harderthan you think if you haven't

(07:02):
done one or don't have thestrength to do one, because,
especially a men versus womenthing, like just the way we're
designed differently, like ourwingspan and our shoulders, like
our sort of natural musclegrowth.
But by all means let themcompete against, let us compete
against women in sports.
That's, nothing unfair aboutthat But she's been on this

(07:22):
journey to do a pull up and soshe's, I.
Remember the guy who she'sfollowing, but she's doing these
kind of certain exercises andthen hanging on a pull up bar
and Using resistance bands tohelp her do a pull up My point
is that we have it set up in ourhallway right now the pull up
bar where I used to have it inThe garage and I would set it up

(07:43):
if I felt like doing some butsince it's always been there and
it's always set up I try andI've been trying to just do a
few when I walk by it whetherit's one whether it's two I try
to do five and I was gettinglike really good at it and like
I was able to do 10 in a row andlike the ones where like you,

(08:03):
pardon me, where I'm trying todo the dead hang with no
momentum with your legs, likeswinging up where you're just
pulling up.
I'm motioning this stuff whileI'm on an audio podcast.
But and so we got a new pull upbar cause that one we had was I
think about 10 years old.
So the foam on the grips, whichit was all gone, it was like
gaff taped and just, we needed anew one.

(08:24):
And this new one had a, has amuch wider cause there's like
the chin up section, like theClose together handles for doing
chin ups, then the kind of widefor doing pull ups and this one
has like almost an even widersection.
And so I got on it and rightaway it was harder, but since
I'd been doing them, I had the,I guess strength to just muscle

(08:48):
through it, but I like pulledsomething in my shoulder while
doing that a few times and it'slike, now I can't, I tried to do
some last night and I can't pullmyself up anymore cause there's,
I don't know if it's somethingtorn or bruised or what in my
shoulder a certain way.
So I gotta do something else.
And we talked yesterday, you andI just, I think together about

(09:09):
the, sometimes you take, foursteps forward, but then it's two
steps back or a step back orfive steps back.
And it's like you just have toknow just don't give up, keep
going.
And I'll get back to that pullup bar.
Maybe I'll just do some hanging,or I can still do pushups, so
I'll just maybe double down onthose.

(09:30):
But anyway, that's what I'mthinking about that era.
I really do like that Pope, my.

Michael (09:36):
Going in reverse order, but when you're talking about
pull ups, I was laughing becauseAs soon as I got up this
morning, I was out in my garageand I was like, I'm going to do
five pull ups.
And then I mentally made thecommitment, but now I'm verbally
making the commitment to youPreston and our listeners as
well to what I am now going tocall the walk by five.

(09:56):
So every time I walk by, I gottado five, keep it simple.
And I'm still planning onincorporating it into my workout
more with dead hangs and justdifferent variations on the pull
up.
You can do This is somethingthat, that might help you,
Preston.
So you were talking about howyour one shoulder was feeling
more.
a bit more sore by transitioningor transferring some of the
weight to your biceps instead ofyour shoulders.

(10:19):
What you can do is actually havereverse grip pull ups.
So one palm is facing towardyou, the other is facing away
from you and the palm that'sfacing towards you is going to
be more of a bicep activatedpull up as long as you're
keeping your hands closertogether, a little bit, maybe a
little bit outside of shoulderwidth or shoulder width apart.

(10:41):
That's one thing for you to try,certainly, Preston, and
definitely in the same boat ofwanting to use that as just a
consistent part of the workoutgoing forward to number one,
get, just get my heart rate up,get more of a, an upper body
approach to my shoulders inaddition to the rucking.
And I'm thinking between thecore body weight exercises that

(11:06):
I want to be doing, whichinclude I do, numerous different
abdominal core muscle workoutslike sit ups and I guess from a
sit up, I do sit ups, I do legraises, I do the crunches, I do
what's called hello dollies,bicycle kicks crazy Ivans, the
Russian twist, whatever peopleare calling that.

(11:26):
Those are the general coreworkouts I do with also the
gosh, what are they called?
Planks.
Escaped me for a second.
Glad I can edit that one out andmake it look like an idiot For
planks, those are also great todo with the rucksack on your
back because it makes itdramatically harder But then
push ups, squats pull ups, thoseare the types of bodyweight

(11:50):
workouts or with the rucksackthat I'm going to be doing and
Keeping it really simple in thatregard also have a kettlebell
and that's going to be more ofmy lifting routine outside of
running and rucking.
Those are the things I'm goingto be starting to reinforce and
formalize in more of a scheduledapproach to my workout regimen.

(12:13):
My wife has actually encouragedme to do it fewer times per week
as far as like the workout.
Not fully bought into that yet,so I will, however, alternate
between what I'm doing to makeit a little bit less intensity.
But good on you for doing that,and I think it'll be something
that we can, I know Scott hasbeen working on pull ups, so

(12:34):
he'll be all in on that piece.

Preston (12:36):
when you mentioned the walk by five concept, you're
like if I walk by my pull upbar, I'm gonna do five pull ups.
To all y'all listening, I, that,that's kinda what I've been
doing with my pull up bar toowhich is, I think, what I was
talking about as far as how Ikinda got a lot better at them.
But I've also been doing thatfor years at work where I have

(12:58):
these timers on my watchthroughout the day To where
Because if you all don't know Iwork at FedEx right now and we
have these service commitmentsthroughout the day for Packages
like 10 30 is one 10 30 a.
m.
Noon is another one 3 p.
m.
Used to be one and 5 p.
m.

(13:18):
It's this drop box time.
So like at those four timesthroughout the day I have an
alarm on my phone That or mywatch or my phone right now That
goes off and when it goes off Ijust I do 25 pushups.
Sometimes it's 10, like Istarted doing it years ago where
I would do at the time, I couldonly do five pushups at a time.

(13:42):
So it was five.
And then by the end of the day,I've done 20 pushups.
There was a time last year, Ithink where I was doing 50 every
time and I would do, so that waslike 10, 30, 12 to six.
Anyway, I was doing 50 at onepoint where now I'm just doing
25 and it's just.

(14:04):
By the end of the day, I'veincorporated just some of that
body weight exercise into aroutine that just takes About 30
seconds every few hours and it'ssuper easy.
You can do that with all kindsof stuff like that, like body
squats, push ups.
I guess maybe just those twowithout having a pull up bar,

(14:24):
but that are really easy to justincorporate and then by the end
of the day, you've had somestuff done that's made you
stronger and more resilient.
So that's my little add to thatidea you said about The Walk by
Dude 5.
It's a great idea.

Michael (14:39):
So back to the quote and the comment about taking
care of yourself, which Idefinitely think pull ups are
very applicable.
But, the Jordan Peterson quoteand talking about treating
yourself like you are somebodyyou are responsible for helping.
Great idea, Preston, withregards to putting it on a post
it note and putting it in your,or putting it in your phone, on

(14:59):
the background of your phone.
One of the things that we havehad Lucy doing lately is a diet
journal, not that she needs tolose weight, but we're really
trying to see what kind ofnutrients and and healthy food
are you putting into your body.
And making sure that she'sdrinking enough water, the
reason being she's had thesemigraines chronically over the
past year, which is just a hugebummer, missed a bunch of school
and things like that.

(15:20):
But I for a while have beendoing a hundred ounces of water
and I haven't been journalingand I've been using a nap on my
phone just a reminder for thecheckbox on that, which is
great, but I haven't been doingthe food journaling.
So that was one of the thingsthat I feel convicted by or just
a perfect example.
I'm saying, Hey, Lucy, youshould do this.
But then I'm not doing it withher and, I think in that case,

(15:42):
it's just so much better to leadby example and do it together
and get.
More reinforcement for the habitfor yourself more accountability
for yourself, and I knew that Ineed it you know, I should be
taking care of myself better asevidenced by Me not being as
healthy for the first six sevenweeks of the year and impress

(16:04):
them to your comment aboutPeople think we've got together.
I'm pretty sure they realizeit's the exact opposite We
recognize we don't have it alltogether and we're on the path
of progress and the path tomastery In many areas in our
life, but certainly nowhereclose and yeah, so that led me
to really integrity and justpracticing the things that we're

(16:26):
talking about on here and one ofthe key tenants or the last
tenant of the slight edgeprinciples is to practice this
with integrity, practice theslight edge, knowing that
there's an incremental growth.
And yes, there are some stepbacks and corrections and, You
have to build up some support inthe terms of technical analysis
before you can move up again andgrow and reach new all time

(16:48):
highs.
And the integrity piece here is,with the journal, you're writing
things down and you're keepingtrack of it.
You're keeping yourselfcommitted to other people,
hopefully taking it to, somesort of doctor.
Somebody who has more knowledgethan you, so they can help you
analyze that data and say, okay,what are these patterns and what
needs to change?

(17:09):
What can we, what new patternscan we create?
And so I think those are thethings that really stand out to
me about this quote.
The last couple of things I'llsay so Ed Milette has a great
podcast on this.
I believe it's just called PutYourself First.
And it's one of those thingswhere you say it and you're
like, oh, that sounds reallyselfish.
Or that sounds really.

(17:30):
Not egotistical, butnarcissistic?
Is that the word?
I don't Yeah, just, always beingfocused on yourself.
It's, that's not exactly whatwe're saying here, but what
we're saying and what Ed and mylead is saying is put yourself
first where required, especiallyin the case of your health and
the case of being able to takecare of people.
He uses The situation in anairplane, if for whatever
reason, I pray to God I'm neverin the situation, if the plane

(17:53):
is starting to go down and theoxygen masks come out for
whatever reason, you're supposedto put yours on first so that
you can help others.
And I think very similarly, Ifwe're not taking care of
ourselves and thinking aboutourselves first, in many ways,
we can't take care of people,period.
And we won't have the strengthor the energy to do so.
And I really just wanted to callout that was a great podcast.

(18:18):
So for me anyways, in closing,just want to express my
gratitude for everyone who'slistening and we're closing in
on that year mark of By the timethis one goes out, it will have
been really close to one weekaway from a year that we put it
out.
It feels great, honestly.
It feels good to have persistedand persevered and know that

(18:41):
it's going to persist andpersevere.
And it's not something that Iwill discontinue.
The gratitude that I have foryou guys is hard to put into
words but just also want toexpress it for the source of
wisdom for this one, JordanPeterson and the books that he's
written.
If you haven't read 12 Rules forLife, wow, if you haven't read

(19:03):
12 Rules for Life, An Antidoteto Chaos by Jordan Peterson,
pick it up, it's a great book,it's huge, but read one rule at
a time, that's the guidance thatI have because they're really
dense reading Man, every timeI'm reading it, it's just so
motivational and it's So selfevident when you read, you're

(19:25):
like, Oh my gosh, this is, thisis, it's true.
And he just has a good way ofarticulating it.
I feel, although his sentencesare much more complex and in
some cases and challenging toread.
So thankful for that.
Of course, grateful for you,Preston and Scott and this
podcast.
The mastermind that we formedto, to help us rise above

(19:45):
ourselves and to tap into, agreater level of energy that we
have together.
And yeah, so check out thatstuff, check out Ed Milet, check
out 12 Rules for Life.
And Preston, let me know if youhave anything in closing here,
otherwise I will cut that littlesnippet out and say thanks so
much for joining us on episode51 of Reclaiming Man.

(20:06):
Hope you all have a great day.
Have a great day, a great week,and remember to continue on 1
percent better.

Preston (20:18):
Great talking to you too, buddy.
Love you.
Love you, Scott.
Maybe we'll get Scott forepisode so episode 52, which is
next, which will be our,technical one year anniversary.
Take care, everybody.