Dean Pohlman: Hey guys, it’s Dean. Welcome back to the Better Man podcast. Today’s episode is a member interview and I’m going to be talking with Rich be from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a dad. He’s a grandpa. He’s a 73 year old guy who’s now doing both man for yoga, lifting weights, doing the best he can to be as healthy as possible, and trying to make guys in their 40s feel old.
Dean Pohlman: So rich, thanks for joining me on, on this episode and talking Free.
Richard B: My pleasure.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. So, so rich, you started doing mental yoga probably back in 20 2019. Maybe.
Richard B: Yeah. Just around that time pre-pandemic.
Dean Pohlman: Pre-pandemic. Right. Actually, you were here. The, you were here for the, the be the better you retreat. Yeah. Right before the pandemic started, which was an exciting time because everyone was flying back home and were like, wait, something’s happening? And then, yeah, the world shut down for a year. So, you know, interesting time. So what caused you to start looking for something like Mantle yoga?
Dean Pohlman: And did you have, you know, an oh shit moment where you realized that you weren’t where you wanted to be with your fitness and you wanted to change things?
Richard B: Well, yeah, I actually there were a couple of, of oh, shit moments for me, coming from different areas. One area is, is pain. When I still worked, I’m retired now. When I still worked, I, I started to develop hip pain, really strong hip pain. In fact, it was so strong, I thought it was kidney stones, which, visited me some years ago.
Richard B: But it wasn’t that, long story short, I was pretty much out of alignment. I did some drum healing to get rid of the pain. Some ten stuff went into and did a couple rounds of PT, which reminded me that what I was doing in PT was very yoga like I had done yoga all my life.
Richard B: But with that, when my pet ended, I thought, well, shit, this, it’s working. So I jumped into yoga big time. Started doing a lot, joined a studio here in Pittsburgh at some point. I was doing three days a week. But earlier on with the studio, I, I jumped into a, hot yoga class, and I was.
Richard B: It was great. Unique experience, 95 degrees, sweating. And so I went on to Google to find a pair of shorts that I could wear and sweat in because I didn’t like my basketball shorts. So I typed in, yoga shorts for men. And you came up.
Dean Pohlman: Oh, that. I didn’t know we had that search, so I didn’t know we had that search term nailed down. That’s cool.
Richard B: Yeah. And I thought, well, who is this guy? Is he he’s wearing the shorts I’m supposed to buy or something. Anyhow, it was a strange way to to trip on you. And I remember thinking, oh, well, yeah, he’s doing the poses. I know those poses, but he’s talking during the poses, and he’s. His approach during the poses is very, very different.
Richard B: Long story short, that was my orientation to man flow yoga. And, I can or I was bit immediately because I just really loved, being able to hear direction, that was aimed towards muscle activation as opposed to passive stretching. And it really that was like for me, it was like the dawn of a different I always say, this is not your father’s yoga, a different kind of muscle activation yoga.
Richard B: And, I kind of never went back from that point. I still continued with my studio stuff. The pandemic came, so I was no longer there. I did pick up, a studio class. I guess, about two years ago. But, for me, yoga is man flow yoga. Muscle activation is the only way to go. I love being able to hear direction.
Richard B: All along. I know some guys complain. Well, Dean goes on and on and talks and talks. I thrive on that. It just it’s a style that works very, very good for me. You know, most of the time now, I don’t even I don’t necessarily have to look at the screen. It’s, you know, I just listen and I know exactly what to do because your direction is very specific, and, it’s that.
Richard B: Go ahead.
Dean Pohlman: I was gonna say, well, let’s. I appreciate that. Thank you for that. By the way. I’d like to go back to when you first got started. So you start doing mental yoga. So you’ve been doing yoga for years and years, and years. And now you’re getting. So you had your dry needling for your hip. You did some PT, and now you’re thinking, okay, now I really have to be consistent with this.
Dean Pohlman: Otherwise this pain is going to come back. So you look for the shorts you found me on for yoga. What happened then? Did you, did you did you go to the, the website and you started using the workouts there? Did you try out some of the routines on YouTube?
Richard B: YouTube? It was all about that. That’s that’s kind of like where I found you on YouTube. So I started doing that on a, pretty regular basis, because at that point there were, you know, a significant number of, your workouts that were already on YouTube. What I yeah, what I found doing myself doing is that when I would do a studio based, routine, I would then come home and, like, the next day, say, well, let me go out there and see if this if this man flow yoga guy, how he approaches that particular set of poses.
Richard B: And so that kind of early on was kind of a compare and contrast. And that kind of cemented it for me because I would do it the studio way, then I would do it. The man flow yoga way, and I would better understand what I’m doing. I would know what muscles I’m supposed to be activating. And actually, that was the beginning of just feeling better.
Richard B: I mean, when I went to yoga, that was not mantle yoga. I’d always feel good, but the mantle of yoga, it was just different. I just noticed that, everything was easier. I could walk easier, I could I could squat down to see something on the bottom shelf in a store. I could last longer. I had more stamina.
Richard B: And, I just felt better throughout the day.
Dean Pohlman: How long do you think it took you to notice that? Improvements?
Richard B: I would say, you know, within 3 or 4 sessions, I started to feel better.
Dean Pohlman: Oh, wow.
Richard B: And when I, I felt and if I come back and do a session over again and it turned out to be even a little easier, I thought, well, shit, this is this is kicking in. So it it for me, it came it came very quick. And, that’s, you know, it’s the reason I’m still here, Dean, because I could be having a bad day.
Richard B: I could be having a bad week, a bad month, and I can jump into a routine. And I always, always, always feel better afterwards. Some days more than others. But I can always feel the physiological impact of doing, a routine. And and also, it’s, it’s mental as well. So, you know, it’s, I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid.
Richard B: What can I say? It works for me. It worked from the beginning. It continues to work, and there’s no reason for me not to continue with it. It just makes me feel better.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. So when you were you were first getting started. What was the routine for you? Did you do it? Did you have a set time that you did it every day? Were you doing it like three times a week or what was the what was the routine that enabled you to be as consistent as you want it to be?
Richard B: Well, I guess at the front end, I was doing it maybe once or twice a week. And then, kicked up to more than that, depending upon my schedule. I, you know, I, one of my foibles is, is that I’m not real. Very well scheduled. So I started picking up more routines as, as I had time for them in particular, I started to search through the routines, and then I started to pick things and think, oh, well, I was doing this in the studio class and that was troublesome.
Richard B: Let me find the Man Flow yoga, session that covers that particular thing, whether it’s bending or stretching or, you know, side plank, whatever it is. So I kind of did a pick and choose. I wasn’t as as scheduled as perhaps I wanted to be, but pretty much I was doing at least two, sometimes three on good weeks, four times a week.
Dean Pohlman: And so did you feel, you know, did you feel naturally motivated to do that or did you have to, did you have to force yourself to do it sometimes. What. So a lot of people when they get started with a routine just in general they start exercising, you know, they get in front of the screen or they say, okay, it’s time to do my workout.
Dean Pohlman: I don’t really want to workout today. So what enabled you to to be consistent?
Richard B: Well, you know, certainly, I’ve got that. There are days when I’m in the car driving to the gym thinking I don’t want to go to the gym. And and there, of course, is that phenomena when you do your workout and you’re, you’re on cloud nine, and that’s how it is with yoga there. Certainly there were times when, I don’t think I really want to do this.
Richard B: My heart’s not in it. But my experience in doing these sessions is that I always feel better afterwards, even if my mindset at the front end is, I don’t know if I really want to be here. There are times when you know, you’re counting to ten and it’s it’s way past ten. And I’m walking to the screen saying, come on down.
Richard B: I know it’s.
Dean Pohlman: Not. It’s not 10s. It’s just I was counting to ten. It’s, it’s, it’s a different metric that nobody but me understands.
Richard B: No, no, I understand it. But it took me a long while to understand that because I stopped looking at my clock. But but as I said, I hate to sound repetitive, but it’s like it always at the end of it. I always say I’m glad I did it. So, I did that.
Dean Pohlman: Did you? Did that happen within the first few times of doing it? Did it take you a while to, you know, learn that or recognize that you were going to feel better after every time you did it? Or was it like right away, or how long do you think that? Well.
Richard B: You know, I guess it’s all relative. What is right away for me, certainly within the first month, I realized on those days when I didn’t feel like doing it, I would say to myself, come on, do it. You know, you’re going to feel better. You know, you’ve done it, you know, four times in the last two weeks.
Richard B: Why why are you hesitating? So I knew there would be an, a strong, pretty much immediate impact. And it just got stronger as I got better at it. The impact was became greater depending upon, how often I did it and the difficulty of the particular poses. But, you know, what can I say? I’ve never been let down.
Richard B: There have been days when I go to the gym and it’s fortunately, it’s not frequently when I work out and, okay, I feel good, but not real good. That’s not the case with or yoga. It just works. Knock on wood, it works every time. For me, it works every time.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. So my next question would be, you know, I talk about the differences between mindful yoga and traditional yoga all the time, but rather than hearing it for me, you know, from you, what differences do you notice between, you know, the yoga that you do with the studio versus the the workouts that you do with with Mantle yoga?
Richard B: Well, my studio stuff, as I said, it’s it it’s fun. It’s it’s, men only class. It’s kind of social. It’s a little spiritual. You know, it’s it’s very cheap. And the sky does it, because he really believes in it. But I’m increasingly uncomfortable with it because, I just don’t like the direction. I mean, I in certain poses, I’m thinking to myself, this should be happening.
Richard B: I, you know, I think to myself, I should be getting really big here. I can hear Dean saying, stretch, but he’s not pushing that. He just doesn’t have that knowledge. And I, I find myself adapting when I’m in that class. As to the methods that you have taught me. And, and then that, you know, I feel better about it, but, increasingly, I’m just less and less comfortable with that traditional spiritual, very yin like approach because it doesn’t have the physiological impact that man flow.
Richard B: Yoga does. It doesn’t, it’s not the it’s not the workout. It’s more of a relaxation thing than a workout.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That’s, that’s been my my my experience. There’s a lot of different types of yoga. You know, some of them are really intense, and then plenty of classes where it’s a super intense class, but, Yeah. Anyway, well, thanks for sharing that. So you started doing mental yoga back in 2019. And then I’m curious from there, did your interest in your health and wellness grow and do other areas as a result of that?
Dean Pohlman: You started noticing, you know, oh, I’m feeling stronger. I’m feeling more able to do everyday tasks. My hips feel better, you know. Did is there how did that progress naturally into you looking into other areas of wellness?
Richard B: It did there. You know, I said earlier that one of the reasons that I got into Manolo Yoga was this pain thing, but, another thing was, my daughter got married, and I just decided, that I had put on too much weight, and I didn’t like how I looked. And so I decided that I wanted to improve my diet.
Dean Pohlman: How much did you weigh at that point?
Richard B: I, I, I topped out at 201. I’m right now I’m like 172.
Dean Pohlman: How tall are you?
Richard B: I’m 59. So at 201, it was way too many pounds for this frame. And I and I knew that so, I just decided I wanted to change my diet, so I pretty radically changed my diet. Try to eat closer to the ground. And really, at that time, you had a lot of stuff out there about diet.
Richard B: And I can remember watching your your podcast about, the stuff that you made in the morning and what you ate and what you didn’t eat. And I found that that was pretty much in concert with where I was headed. For me, it was sugar and, white flour. And so those were my biggies that I had to deal with.
Richard B: And then eventually I went on to intermittent fasting, and, I dropped the weight and, not all at once. I just never look back. And I that was a biggie for me. That was a biggie. Losing the weight. I just felt so much better. And, of course, that that occurred at the same time that I was increasingly doing more yoga routines.
Richard B: And back then, I was actually still in the, studio a little bit before the pandemic, and I was doing hot yoga where I was sweating like mad, and it all just made me feel so much better than I thought I would ever feel at my age. You know, I just felt like I. I don’t feel my age.
Richard B: I feel so much better. Why did it take me so long to figure out that that being active and eating right would, would have such tremendous payback?
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. So, I want to get quick. I’m just curious for for my purposes, I want to get clear on the timeline. So you started addressing your nutrition in early 2020 or.
Richard B: Yeah, I would say, even in, in even slightly before that, because I can remember watching your videos on, meal prep and that type of stuff even before I came down to Austin for, B the better, you know? Two and that was right before the pandemic. So I had started and I had some success and the weight started to come off.
Richard B: I wasn’t in the gym at that point in time. And I just, I just kept pushing because the wedding was coming up, and I wanted to get rid of those pounds. I just wanted them to feel and look different. So.
Dean Pohlman: You had to. You had a deadline.
Richard B: I had a deadline. And that really helped. At that point, I was beyond the the pain issue, that motivation. So I didn’t have that to worry about. But I was motivated by I do not want to be 202 pounds. This is ridiculous. You know, and I avoided mirrors. I was still working at that point in time. I remember a friend of mine said, hey, Rich, what are you eating?
Richard B: You, you got a great muffin top. Oh, nice. That was it was a zinger. This is a buddy of mine, and I just thought. Yeah, you know what? So that that was a motivator. I slowly started to lose the weight. It didn’t come off at once, but what were the.
Dean Pohlman: Some of the what were some of the initial things that you did that helped get you on to a healthier, healthier. I don’t like to call it diet. Healthier eating guidelines for yourself.
Richard B: I kept track of what I was eating and the impact. And,
Dean Pohlman: How did you do that? Did you have a notebook or did you just mentally keep track of it?
Richard B: I mentally keep track of it. I would keep notes, you know? I, I’m a three by five card person like you are, and I would just jot these things down. I remember the first time I was on, watching the two with the dog on the couch, and I just decided, excuse me. I had just eaten some white bread.
Richard B: So sorry. No. And I, I thought to myself, I went like this and thought, what’s the deal? Looked at my watch. I’m lying down. My heart rate is like 109 lying down. And I thought, what, what, what’s going on here? So I played around with that. And this is still true white bread. If I eat it, will.
Richard B: It does crazy things to me and it makes me tired and it increases my heart rate. Which is it? Just like crazy. I would never have known that if I hadn’t gone on this. As you say, diet. I never considered it a diet. I wanted it to be a new way to eat for the rest of my life.
Richard B: So it was those kinds of experiences that that gave me that pretty quick feedback. And the same with sugar. Sugar would drive my heart rate up and it would make me tired. And sometimes it would throw me into needing a nap in the middle of the day. So that kind of feedback really, really let me know that I was on the right track and helped me stay with it, because there would be times when I would, I would want to eat sugar and I would say, well, remember last time you ate four donuts in one sitting?
Richard B: XYZ happened. Yeah, that feedback loop really helped me tremendously. Okay. And still does.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah, that’s great advice. And so eventually you also got into weightlifting.
Richard B: Yes, yes. And that’s interesting. You know, I’d always been somebody that would go to the gym kind of casually, not seriously. Never, never weight lifted. In fact, at be the better you number two. Which was, you know, 20, 20, I’ll remember that, one of our sessions was at, Jesse’s place.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. Central athlete.
Richard B: Central athlete. I can remember going up there. I remember one of the things that somebody said immediately was. Hey, guys, I guess everybody here has had experience with X, with lift, with this, that and whatever. Right. Raise your hand. And I was the only person in that group that did not raise their hand. I had never I had never weight lifted free weights.
Richard B: So that kind of stuck in my brain. And so when you put together the central athlete, remote weight training, I jumped on that. I wasn’t sure that would work ultimately, because the idea of a trainer hundreds of miles away from me, but it it did help. It got me into the gym. It got me.
Richard B: I had to face my issues with being uncomfortable in the gym. Because I’m not an ex athlete. I’m not a gym rat. So I had to get comfortable with, feeling an a not so positive about being in the gym, that feeling looking out there and saying, well, Christ, everybody knows what they’re doing except me. My coach was really good.
Richard B: I got to say, in the end, it kind of worked, but it made me realize that I needed an in-person trainer. And so after about a year and a half of that, I jumped into a local gym and, hired a trainer. And that that took me up to the next level that that really pushed me.
Richard B: And and so now it’s like, I can’t wait to bench press. I can’t wait, to see if I can add another 10 pounds. I love doing squats. The, the Bulgarian list. I mean, I know all of that, and it’s part of what I want to do. And it it it’s just like yoga. It has a very strong personal physiological and mental impact and I.
Richard B: To me it’s like it’s, it’s my other pillar I got mantle of yoga and I’ve got lifting and yeah I did.
Dean Pohlman: What did you notice in terms of improvements or benefits as a result of doing, adding the lifting to your workout routine?
Richard B: This is going to sound like it’s scripted. It’s not. It’s like I realize lifting helps me with yoga, and yoga helps me with lifting. It’s like they work so closely together. I, I, I can still feel the connection with them if I’ve done a couple of good yoga sessions in a row. That maybe I haven’t been to the gym for 4 or 5 days.
Richard B: Once I go in, I. It’s that that muscle activation in the gym feels easier because of what I’ve done at home with Mantle of Yoga and vice versa. I you know, I can remember at one point in time, after doing a significant amount of work, upper body work, because I’m weak with upper body, after doing a significant amount of work with my trainer and upper body, I realized that, side planks, which are still my nemesis, where were doable for the first time.
Richard B: Who knew all of a sudden? I remember one day talking back to the screen saying, oh, shit. Look, I’m up here, side plank. I’m up here. And I know that that was a result of of the upper body stuff that I was doing with my trainer in the gym. So to me, they are they are so interconnected.
Richard B: You’re. I just think you’re doing a disservice to yourself if you do one without the other.
Dean Pohlman: So what were some of the the mindsets that you had to change regarding resistance training that you were able to change once you got in the gym and got more comfortable?
Richard B: Well, I got to take I got to take my hat off to my trainer. He and I are on a pause right now. But he, like you, is. It’s very instructive, you know, minute by minute. You know, there’s no substitute to having somebody that’s standing three feet away from you who will say, okay, straighten your back up or, pull your elbows in, you’re flaring your elbows.
Richard B: That is critical for me. The I guess it’s form, proper form and technique. I feel like you give me that in your sessions, because you’re constantly talking. You should be feeling this here. And if you’re doing this, move your legs back. You know, it’s always that immediate feedback loop. I’m getting that from my trainer in the gym.
Richard B: It’s the same kind of feedback. It’s immediate. It’s always there. So I’m completely focused. I’m not wandering. I’m always thinking about what’s happening and trying to improve that. And that’s, it’s been very important in, in, in yoga as well as in lifting that, having somebody very close to me, seeing exactly what I’m doing and, critiquing and helping me improve.
Dean Pohlman: So, they haven’t talked about this at all yet, but I’m curious for you how has. No, you did mention that you do you know, you do your Wednesday night yoga class and that’s more of a community thing for you in terms of your overall health and wellness. But how has community been helpful to to you on your fitness journey and how so.
Richard B: Community in general.
Dean Pohlman: Community in general, community. It could be our community just in community in general. How is that helped?
Richard B: It’s huge. It’s huge. And and I don’t use that term loosely. You know, I have been fortunate, I just decided as I grew older that I was not comfortable.
Richard B: With the relationships in my life with other men. Because relationships I had established when I was younger. Yeah. This happens. I hope it doesn’t happen to you or others. But as you grow older, those relationships, they they go away, people move. You know, my experience was that, some guys, they go into second marriages, my relationships kind of fell apart.
Richard B: And at one point in time, I just decided I didn’t like that anymore. So I decided I wanted to try to enlarge the community, that I was in. And, so a couple of things happened. I’m going to be open and honest. Mental health is really important to me. I’ve had some rough times. My therapist decided at one point in time, he said, I got a couple clients who I think, you would be interested in talking to.
Richard B: Long story short, we created a men’s group. And so we meet, once a month for two hours in a men’s, group. These guys are now good friends. We meet socially. It’s fantastic. It’s it it’s really great. Then, of course, there’s the man flow yoga community. And now I’m in engage. And I’m. I’m blown away.
Richard B: Really? This community is phenomenal. This community would be worth the price of membership alone. That’s how I feel about podcasts as well, that your podcasts are amazing. I would pay just to hear the podcast, but the community is, you can’t underestimate the impact of this community. And maybe it’s just my experience being older, but these guys are so open and so attentive and they’re they share and they buck up people.
Richard B: It’s all kind of guys. It’s you know, it does tend to be slightly older. It’s guys that are in great shape. It’s guys that maybe have too many pounds on their frame. You know, it’s, it’s it’s straight guys, it’s gay guys. It’s all kinds of guys that are just so willing to talk about their personal experiences.
Richard B: Up front, the man flow yoga community is it’s phenomenal. It’s a phenomenal community. I can’t say enough good things about it. I might be feeling down. I might be feeling a little depressed, and I’ll just jump in and I’ll read and I’ll go backwards. I’ll look at engage and, I think to myself, boy, these these guys are they’re really talking about important things in their life, and they’re bucking up other people.
Richard B: It’s, I don’t know, pal. What else can I say? I’m I’m just blown away about the community. It’s it’s so important. It’s so important.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. It’s pretty. It’s been pretty cool to see that all that, that community and, for it to go also from. Yes, there’s, you know, there’s a lot of conversations about fitness and there’s, workout accountability. But there are also people who are sharing like, hey, I’m just having a really tough time right now with work and with family and, trying to get my own needs met with working out.
Dean Pohlman: And, yeah, to see the people jump in and, you know, give their support. It’s, it’s really cool, to see that that community that we’ve developed, which is only developed thanks to the people who are in it, you know.
Richard B: Well, yeah, it’s it’s an it’s an organic thing, but, but you knew what you’re doing, pal. You knew what you were doing. You know, I think about, Patrick and Josh, they come out as as the engage coaches. They come at it from slightly different perspectives, but I really enjoy jumping in on those sessions. Both of them, they complement each other.
Richard B: And then the podcast, I mean, I, I am I continue to just be amazed at how open, you are about your personal experiences as, as you interview these, folks on podcasts. And they’ll talk about something and then you’ll stop and you’ll say, well, in my own experience, dot, dot dot that, I just have to thank you that that’s so helpful to me because so many times you talk about something in, in the way that is just exactly the way I’m experiencing.
Richard B: And, and it’s so helpful. I, you know, I think, I think Marissa is a saint, man, because you you talk about a lot of personal things. Just know that that is so, so helpful. You get those podcast guys to talk about things that I can, you know, I can I can be listening to it, and I’m talking to myself, I think saying I don’t believe he said that.
Richard B: That is so true. That’s my experience as well. I’m rambling here. But I just can’t say enough about community at my age to be able to interact on a meaningful basis with men my age and younger who are going through some of the same stuff. I’m going through same successes, same failures. It’s, I’m privileged really to have the experience.
Dean Pohlman: I think, that’s something that the betterment podcast has taught me, starting that, you know, with that in 2020, I think has taught me that there is an incredible power to sharing your experience and then realizing that there are other people who are going through the same thing, you know, and it’s such a basic concept, but it’s something that has been, you know, it’s been transformative.
Dean Pohlman: So, all right, well, I want to move on to our last question before our rapid fire section, and this is what’s the next thing for you and your fitness? What’s your next? What’s your next bag, your big hairy audacious goal or what’s the the next level for you?
Richard B: Well, I mentioned earlier, you know, in terms of lifting upper body is is where I’m weak. I, I stopped meeting with my trainer at the gym, although I’m still going to the gym. I’m on my own because I just got into a very busy time period this summer. So, I’ve got a couple projects that are going to wrap up, shortly.
Richard B: And so I want to get back into training. So I want to concentrate more, on meeting with my gym trainer and addressing upper body, issues, because I’m finding that while I can still do side planks, I’m going backwards versus side planks, because, I need to get back into, upper body strength. Here’s here’s a goal of mine.
Richard B: I know it sounds maybe sounds crazy. Yoga push ups. I think maybe at my best, I’ve done 7 or 8 of them. I cannot do push ups. I don’t know why, but that there’s a goal I want to be able to do 15 or 20 yoga push ups or regular push ups. I want to be able to follow along.
Richard B: In one of your sessions where you say, okay, we’re going to go down and hover an inch off the ground, hold it, hold it. Okay. Come back up. Those are three men difficult for me. So that’s that’s one of my goals. When I can get to the point where I can do that, I’m going to be a happy camper because, you know, I’m a cyclist.
Richard B: I still cycle a lot. So, lower body stuff. I’m. I’m pretty good at that. I can squat until the cows come in. Not that it’s easy, but body wise, that’s my strength. It’s. It’s upper body. Where I lack. And so my my goal is to get back with the trainer and concentrate on that, and then also go back into man flow yoga sessions.
Richard B: Well, they’re, you know, they’re, 5 or 6 that are out there that focus on upper body strength, bullet bulletproof your shoulders is one of them. There’s 4 or 5 that I’ve done over the years that have been tricky, and I want to get back into those, and I just want to kill them. I want to crush them.
Richard B: I want to do them, you know, 2 or 3 times a week.
Dean Pohlman: All right. So I would go, okay, so what do you think is, rapid fire questions here. So what do you think is one habit, belief or mindset that has helped you the most with your overall health and wellness?
Richard B: Habit?
Dean Pohlman: Habit, belief or mindset?
Richard B: Well, I would say you have to you have to be willing to push yourself and do it when you don’t want to do it. You have to know that on the other side of that routine or that gym time, whatever, that there’s going to be a payoff because you can’t be weak about it. Because if you’re weak, you have a tendency just to forget you.
Richard B: I think you how can I summarize this? You have to believe in the things that you’ve chosen to do are going to be beneficial to you, and that once you do them, you’re going to know that you’re going to feel that in your bones, in your muscles. And more than that, it’s going to be, at least for me.
Richard B: It’s a mindset. It makes me feel better, mentally. You just have to be willing to push. And I say that because I can’t say I was always like that. I was I was weak with exercise and even, man, even yoga. I would say, I don’t feel like doing it today. I’ll do two more tomorrow. Now I’m more willing to push myself, but more willing to get on the mat even though I feel crappy and say, okay, Dean, what do you got for me today?
Richard B: All right, so here’s that. Here’s this new Monday thing. But I know once I started that five minutes into it, I’m going to say to myself, I can’t believe you thought about maybe not doing this because the payback is immediate. So you just you got to push. You have to push.
Dean Pohlman: What’s one thing you do for your health that you believe is often overlooked or undervalued?
Richard B: For my health.
Richard B: Well, I have to say, I’m lucky I’ve got a young guy your age who’s my therapist, and he’s really helped me a lot. The men’s group that we’ve put together has helped me a lot. I just think, being able to interact with with men and talk about things that are real and be open and vulnerable, and not be embarrassed about that.
Richard B: It’s like, you know, it’s great. I mean, I, I love my men’s group because, you know, we can get together and we can talk about football and we can talk about, sports stats and all that kind of stuff. But these are guys are willing to say, this really bummed me out. This really upset me.
Richard B: This situation really threw me for a loop. This made me feel inadequate, to be with other guys that, are willing to do that. It just it makes you feel so much better that you’re not alone. And so that’s been critically important for me. In fact, I have initiated some new friendships with, with guys where I’ve just said, after a while.
Richard B: Not when you first meet them. Look, here’s who I am. This is what I do. And and those relationships have been, very strong. And they, they followed in the mold of the other ones I’ve had. And, it’s just great. It’s just great when you when you’re older, you can’t you can’t underestimate the impact of having good, solid relationships with with other guys.
Richard B: Yeah. They’re very important. Yeah. They help keep me on track. They help me keep me sane.
Dean Pohlman: What is the most stressful part of your day to day life?
Richard B: I am a caregiver for my wife. My wife has a neurological issue, which, it presents like Ms.. It’s not Ms.. But it’s something like that. So, I spend a lot of time taking care of my wife. She, can’t really walk on her own. She’s in a powered wheelchair some of the time. And so, that consumes a lot of my time.
Richard B: I mean, I’m I’m taking care of her. I’m running my house. I’m shopping, I’m cooking. I’m doing laundry. I’m cutting the grass. I’m. I’m doing everything. And I’m trying to get to the gym and get on the mat in between that. And it’s, it’s, it’s difficult. It’s a it’s a real challenge for me. But.
Richard B: Yeah, it’s something I have to do and something I want to do, and I’m. I’m finding a way to deal with it. In fact, as I speak, I’ve got people in my house that are finishing up installing a, a half bath on the first floor of my 120 year old house, which didn’t have a bathroom on the first floor, which will greatly help my wife.
Richard B: So she doesn’t have to walk up steps, and so I don’t have to deal with a portable toilet, to be honest with you.
Dean Pohlman: Well, that’s nice of you to put a bath and instead of, you know, just doing a, a short term outhouse fix instead. That would be inhumane.
Richard B: Well, I’ve been doing the the the short term thing. I’ve been, okay, two and a half years. I’ve been doing it for two and a half years, and I’m literally I’m within days of that being done, and I’m excited about that. And my wife, I’m excited for my wife. She she’s having a rough time and she deserves all the support I can give her.
Dean Pohlman: What is your best piece of advice for men who want to be healthier?
Richard B: You have to push yourself.
Richard B: And you have to look at all the pieces. Exercise is critical, but no less critical than what you eat. And again, I don’t like the diet word either. And then and then the other thing is it’s up here and in here. It’s those relationships you you have to have those relationships, I think where you’ve got people that you can go to and talk with and relate, you need that sense of community.
Richard B: I just think those three pieces are critically important. I mean, they’re important for me. I can’t say one is more important than the other. They’re so important to have them all. I don’t know that I would have, I don’t know if I would stay with exercise if it weren’t for the community. The man flute community is phenomenal.
Richard B: I just love seeing the pictures of these guys in the videos. You know, I look at Joe, who’s a real star, and say, okay, he’s a he’s another overachiever, but it’s just so nice to see him showing the pictures of what he can do. And then there are other guys that are struggling and they’re willing to show pictures that is so helpful that everybody is willing to be open and honest about where they are with their with their fitness.
Richard B: So again, exercise, which includes lifting and yoga and, and diet and community, they’re, they’re so important. I think they just all work together for me.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. Well, I think what’s cool about the community, what’s interesting to me is that, you know, the guys who are posting a lot, they don’t see themselves as, you know, fitness gurus. And the reason why they continue to share things is because they have people who reach out to them and say, like, hey, you’re helping me to do my workouts.
Dean Pohlman: You’re inspiring me to to be consistent. And they kind of take that as like, me. Really? You think that I’m inspiring you? So and then it also gives them motivation to keep going. It gives them motivation to when they don’t feel like doing the workouts, like, oh, I’ve got these guys who are counting on me to inspire them.
Dean Pohlman: So I got to keep doing it. So, it’s, it’s interesting because the guys who you think are like the experts and like, they’ve been doing this their whole lives, they haven’t. They’re just they’re just guys, like guys like everyone else who got started at one point, so.
Richard B: Well, you put it so well. Everybody in this community is so humble. They don’t realize I think, the impact they’re having, they’re so willing to share that nobody takes a look. This is. This is how you really have to do it. No one is. Look, I’m doing it just as good as Dean. Approach. Everybody is. Here’s where I’m at.
Richard B: Two weeks ago, I couldn’t do X. Look what I can do now. I found that ABC helps me. It’s like everybody is taking on the mantle of being a a helper without really knowing it. I’m pretty much just saying what you just said. It’s it’s again, it’s the strength of the community, people willing to share. They it helps everybody else to hear their journeys.
Richard B: And the journeys are different for everybody. But, yeah, I mean, I pick up stuff from from you. I pick it up from Jesse. I pick up stuff from Richard, I pick up stuff from the from, Josh. And everybody is willing to offer something that, in the end, is helpful. It’s not like one person, is it?
Dean Pohlman: And these are. And these are our team members, by the way. He’s he’s name dropping our team members who are also active in the community.
Richard B: They’re they’re amazing. I mean, you know, and to have met these team members is so impactful to me. I mean, Jesse is just he’s just a phenomenal guy. He’s so inspiring to me. And what he does and his approach. And to have met him in, in Austin, his impact is, is strong. It really is.
Richard B: The community is just so important. I, I just love jumping on in the morning and seeing what somebody has put up and, and like, Travis’s ease of use. I mean, I just got to take my hat off to Travis’s. He is. He’s just he’s killing it. He’s just push and push and push, and he’s, He’s inspirational.
Richard B: That’s what it is. That’s the word inspirational. Truly.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. All right. Well, Mitch, I want to thank you again for coming on. I appreciate you sharing all of that. I’m grateful for all the contributions that you’ve made to, to the man for your community and engage and and everything else. So, Yeah. Thank you.
Richard B: Thank you. I can’t thank you enough, pal. You and your crew are just amazing. And, all I can say is, keep doing what you’re doing, man. I appreciate it so much.
Dean Pohlman: We will. All right, guys, thank you for tuning in to this episode. And I hope it inspires you to be a better man. I will see you on the next one.
[END]
