In this episode, Pat and CJ are joined by the President of the University of Badassery, Joe Ortiz. Joe is a former Navy SEAL Team Six member who served 20+ years in the elite Special Operations Aviation Corps. He's been in the military for over 20 years and has been through a lot in that time. Joe talks about some of the most difficult surgeries he's ever had to go through and how he managed to get back on his feet. He also talks about how he's managed to stay in shape when he's getting older, and what it takes to stay on top of your game when you're getting into your 40's and 50's. This episode is a must-listen for anyone who wants to get in shape and keep it going into their 50's and beyond. Enjoy and spread the word to your friends and family about this podcast! -The Badass Boys -Pat and CJ Cheers, Cheers! -Jon & Pat - The Badass Buddies - Cheers Jon & CJ - Thank you for listening and supporting the podcast, we really appreciate it. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you re listening. We really appreciate the support we get our content. We re looking out for quality content. -Your feedback is appreciated. Jon and CJ thank you for all the love and support. Pat & CJ are always appreciative of all the support. Love ya. -Jon and Pat Thank you, Jon & CJos -PSA - Pat and CJ Thanks Jon and Cj <3 Jon & Pat & C# - P.A. . - (Thank you so much Jon & P.B. (and the Badassiness & the rest of the crew at The Bad Assery Podcast -P. :D - -JON & C.O. (A.M. ) CHEERS! -JOD & P (P.E. & R. ( ) (AJ) -R. (S. (CJ) and P. (R.S. ) -A. (P) (C. (M. (J) & A.J. (B) & B. (D) -B. (F)
00:01:11.000I run into guys all the time during my full-time training gig where I'm training guys on the range who say...
00:01:19.000I'm 38 or 40 or whatever, and I'm getting old.
00:01:22.000I'm like, bro, let me tell you something.
00:01:24.000This is something somebody told me when I was 30. And I've got affirmation of this from guys like you who've stayed fit their entire lives.
00:01:36.000The fittest of a man's age is around like 44 or 45. That's when you could be on the top of your game.
00:03:00.000It's related to static line jumping, where you pass the static line off to a jumpmaster, he secures it, and the static line, at the end of the static line, deploys your parachute.
00:03:10.000So it's like, you know, it's like rookie jumping.
00:03:34.000Discectomy, L5-S1. Just kind of an amalgamation of helo crashes and vehicle crashes and stuff like that.
00:03:44.000If people don't know what that means, it means your discs, they trim a little piece of it so it doesn't go against your nerve.
00:03:50.000Yeah, and it was a massive herniation, so they were able to take the big chunk out and then do that trim up as well, which is, that's the easiest surgery I ever had.
00:04:51.000What happens is they take that graft and they put it in there, and then instead of that being your new ligament, your body has to replace that with tissue.
00:06:31.000And thankfully, I've been to riding schools, like even the Gary Sinek motocross school, so I was up high, elbows up high, so I flew like Superman.
00:06:42.000I didn't get all tangled up in a bike.
00:06:44.000But, I mean, I sailed for 20 yards, 60 feet.
00:09:21.000And when I go to these places, I used to...
00:09:26.000Like go to a law fitness or something, you know, like an LA fitness after work.
00:09:30.000But I got tired of that, you know, just walking through, trying to navigate my way through an endless maze of bench presses, watching guys do concentration curls in the mirror.
00:09:40.000So I started range workouts where I'll plan it during the day and it became a thing where like fit guys in the class are watching me.
00:09:49.000I'm going, hey, bro, what's the workout after training?
00:10:28.000So they're like, all right, we want to do a Pat Mac workout after range day.
00:10:32.000And, you know, kudos to those guys because that shit, that's hard.
00:10:35.000You know, when you're on the range all day working your ass off, and especially in the blazing hot sun, and guys hang out to do a workout with me, like bad...
00:12:57.000So they're in this sagittal world doing bench press and concentration curls.
00:13:04.000Out of the three planes of motion, I would say that transverse is most important.
00:13:09.000Additionally, when we work out, I would also argue with confidence that it's the plane of motion that is most neglected, that transverse plane.
00:13:20.000I like to tell guys that in the transverse plane lives life-saving and ass-kicking.
00:13:26.000There are four reasons why we should exercise.
00:15:12.000If that's your job, there's three types of people who should work out in concentration, like doing a curl or something, a concentration curl.
00:16:14.000They try to do it with two arms, but with two arms, it balances out, and then it's really just a grip and a leg exercise with a little bit of lats and traps.
00:16:21.000But really what you want to do is one 100-pounder on one hand.
00:19:08.000And in order to do that, I can't be, you know, I can't have tweaks in my neck and my back.
00:19:15.000There's a bunch of guys who do these, they do these workout competitions called Train to Hunt.
00:19:23.000And it's mostly for bow hunters where they have all these physical challenges.
00:19:29.000Like you do a bunch of stuff with sandbags.
00:19:31.000And the idea is to jack your heart rate up.
00:19:34.000And then when you have to execute a shot, you've got to be in enough physical condition so you can bring your heart rate down pretty rapidly.
00:19:41.000And it's all timed and they're competing.
00:19:55.000Yeah, they're all very, very tough shots, rifle, pistol, and prior to that, I'm pushing a truck, pulling it, climbing a fast rope, running with a sandbag.
00:20:08.000I call it shot impossible almost, where that heart rate is slamming in your throat, and now you've got to go into respiratory pause and take these 50...
00:22:38.000I throw that kettlebell up left hand first and pull the pistol up and I'm looking at the target and I am shaking like a dog shitting sand spurs.
00:23:28.000Once again, something that people don't work on in the gym, stabilization.
00:23:33.000Balance stabilization, proprioception, kinesthetic awareness, because it ain't sexy, and they're not building peaks on biceps and cutting their abs.
00:23:45.000So we do a lot of rubber band work, holding it isometric, and And watch everything freaking shake.
00:26:58.000It's just such a smart thing to think of if you really want to train the way you train and really want to think about tactical situations and real-world application.
00:27:09.000It's such a great way to go about doing it, and it looks exciting and fun.
00:27:13.000I mean, I haven't done it, but I'm sure it's fun.
00:31:22.000I've been very fortunate that I have good health, but I've seen many examples.
00:31:26.000And I've also been very fortunate that I never got out of shape.
00:31:29.000I just kept working out my whole life.
00:31:31.000But I've seen people that are fat as fuck, 350 pounds, just barely can get around, and then they decide, I'm going to take control of my fucking health, and then they just do it.
00:31:42.000And even if you just got to walk around the block, even if you walk up flights of stairs, even if you just do a push-up, even if you do a sit-up, just do something, man.
00:33:50.000It recognizes that we all perform differently.
00:33:52.000Performance is measured by doing what we can with what we have, blah, blah, blah.
00:33:56.000So it gives them permission to work within their capability level, not mine.
00:34:02.000So you don't need to replicate what I'm doing, bro.
00:34:04.000We're going to do these same movements, but I'm going to scale this to you, to your needs.
00:34:10.000And the other thing is, I don't want you to be incapacitated.
00:34:15.000I don't want you to work out so hard that you're not able to move for the next three days.
00:34:20.000I have another rule is that you could work out as hard as you want in the gym, but when you walk out that door that says exit, you've got to be ready to kick somebody's ass.
00:34:30.000I mean, I don't like to work out to the point of being incapacitated.
00:40:27.000When you were talking about those Parkinson's folks, when they come into your gym and they do that, do they experience any benefit in terms of their function?
00:48:08.000At that point in time, you know, getting laid off, the depression, the booze, and I was able to rediscover me and rebrand and pretty much start from scratch.
00:48:23.000I mean, I had to start life all over again when I was 48 years old.
00:49:20.000Your life can go down a series of bad roads, and you find yourself in a bad relationship or a bad job, a bad situation in life, and it's very, very difficult at that moment to have faith and confidence that you can readjust, reconsider, and reengage.
00:50:37.000Tomorrow's gonna be another good day, and then I'm gonna force myself into another good day, and the next thing you know, I've got some momentum.
00:50:42.000You got some momentum, you could change everything.
00:50:45.000I've felt, many times in my life, I've felt like I could slip the wrong way, and I just, I see it.
00:50:51.000I see the dark hole, and I go, fuck that, and just go the other way.
00:50:55.000The problem is, when people fall into that dark hole, they think that that defines them, but it doesn't.
00:51:10.000It's one of the beautiful things about your Instagram page and many, many other Instagram pages.
00:51:15.000Is that you can take, if you curate your feed correctly and you don't follow a bunch of knuckleheads, you can go to your Instagram or to whatever social media platform you like and you can go and check out a lot of cool shit.
00:52:36.000But when we do, all we need to make sure is that it doesn't become a recurring theme, that we learn from the past, prepare for the future, perform, and live in the present.
00:53:48.000Just the fact that I am a human being, you know, that are strands of DNA wrapped in protein thrown in with some amino acids, it's mind-blowing that I'm, you know...
00:57:03.000They've just given up the primal stuff.
00:57:07.000They're fat, dumb, lazy, happy button pushers, flaccid and complacent, and just walking around in 45-degree syndrome.
00:57:16.000I'm on that bus today to go to the rental car place from LAX, and everybody's on the phone, which there's times you could be in the white, but I look around and I go, well, looks like I'm on security right now.
00:57:30.000Because nobody else is going to see this or that happen.
00:57:34.000Yeah, there's a ton of people that are just staring at their phone all day long and not paying attention to their surroundings at all.
00:57:39.000It's not that you need to all the time.
01:02:41.000I travel with two big cases because I have a gun case and a gear case.
01:02:49.000You become a travel pro, but it still sucks.
01:02:51.000You get up early, drive an hour to the airport, wait an hour to get your plane, take that plane to this And then, you know, another plane to this place, get in your rental car, go to your hotel, check in.
01:03:03.000It's gotta be a pain in the ass to travel with the guns, too, right?
01:03:04.000Yeah, well, only because it's different in every airport.
01:03:07.000Yeah, in Alaska, they're used to guns.
01:06:21.000So, you know, I like to fire people up, but I like to get it in return.
01:06:25.000Do you find a lot of guys that are also retiring from the military, they want to talk to you about this because they're trying to figure out their path?
01:06:32.000A couple of them have hit me up, and I am, man, open arms.
01:06:36.000I'm like, let me show you whatever you want to know, because I have figured this out.
01:06:55.000Every guy that I know that's either been spec ops, SEAL, whatever they've been, when they retire, it's one of the hardest moments of their life.
01:07:02.000It's so hard for them to find some purpose.
01:07:06.000And it's hard for them to find roots just to really feel like they belong again.
01:07:21.000You're doing something bigger than yourself.
01:07:24.000And so, yeah, because you want, once again, if you just find, let's say, a J-O-B, where you're working, and maybe even working for the man, there's no meaning there.
01:07:40.000You're not a part of something bigger than yourself.
01:07:44.000So I always tell guys, hey, whenever you get out, whenever you separate, especially if you've got, you know, 20 plus years, and that's a long time, you are going to be adversely affected no matter how badass you are upstairs.
01:08:06.000But if you find something, and it could be working for a charity, whatever.
01:08:10.000If you find something where you could, with impunity, go to sleep and look forward to the next day, where you say, man, tomorrow's going to be freaking awesome.
01:08:22.000I can't wait because I got this project pending and I'm going to help so many people.
01:08:31.000Then, if you could do that, I mean, find that instead of just, you know, getting stuck in a rut, you know, instead of accepting mediocrity.
01:08:42.000But, because that meaning, purposefulness, and selfless, doing something selfless, and being a part of something bigger than yourself is freaking huge.
01:08:54.000Do they prepare you at all when you're getting ready to retire?
01:11:36.000North and Southing my head as I was driving down I-95 listening to that book.
01:11:42.000So, it's safe to say that you went through this period post-military where you were really just trying to find yourself again, but then you caught it.
01:17:46.000So it's a good supplement for those who have the book because I do all the classroom with the whiteboard stuff.
01:17:54.000You know, you break the work week down, power day, strength, race, speed, and quickness, hypertrophy, skills, and then talk about, you know, eccentric, concentric, isometric, transverse, sagittal, frontal.
01:18:45.000So the class would basically just encompass what's in the book in a one day period.
01:18:52.000And now it's more like tangible because people aren't touching it, feeling it, seeing it, you know, these certain exercises versus seeing a picture of it.
01:19:00.000But there's a lot of good information in that book, and then I supplement both my YouTube channel and the IG with all these other little snippets.
01:24:18.000You know rolling some more because I'm bigger here so it'll be good for him because I'm bigger and stronger than he is so and then it'll be good for me too.
01:24:28.000I used to do a lot of fight training especially a boxing and kickboxing a little tentative on getting punched in the face anymore.
01:24:50.000A lot of people say that it's a disease, but then I talk to a physiologist and they say, well, what it is is pressure on your discs because you're lifting a lot of weights or you're involved in something that presses down on you and then your discs degenerate.
01:25:03.000It's not like a disease is causing your discs to go away.
01:26:55.000If you could do that every day for a few minutes, you know, that, the inversion table, all those things, you can keep all that stuff healthy.
01:27:40.000I've been doing fight stuff for a long, long time.
01:27:44.000And I've been fortunate that there's always somebody better looking out for me and say, hey, let's work this or work that or just tweaking, just making those tweaks.
01:27:56.000Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you.
01:29:41.000It's interesting that you combine those things, though, that you have this gym where there's all this martial arts stuff and then the tactical stuff.
01:31:55.000Yeah, because you've got weight, you've got terrain, you've got the situation may dictate to strip this and add that, and then where are you going to put it, and Do you bring satellite phone or anything when you do it?
01:36:53.000Plus, I like teaching stuff, so I'll have guys who I can teach like orienteering and, you know, field craft, you know, making a fire with sticks and that kind of thing.
01:37:02.000The right way to maybe to prep and cook a trout, you know, Do you bring a rod with you?
01:37:54.000The places I go, one of them, I will lose cell phone coverage an hour before I hit the end of the dirt road.
01:38:04.000And then you stop the car, you're at the end of the road, now you're already in, you're just at the edge of the wilderness area, deep into a national forest.
01:38:57.000It's the most horrific and just terrifying terrain.
01:39:03.000I mean, especially if you're, you know, If your objective is to move from point A to point B and not just an out and back, let me see how far I can go.
01:39:12.000No, when you got somebody picking you up at point B and you have to be there, oh man, it is a freaking smoker.
01:39:20.000Yeah, I've never been to the Frank Church, but my friend Ryan Callahan was living up there for a long time.
01:39:33.000Yeah, the grand scale things, it's not that far.
01:39:38.000But when you have these wilderness areas, like, I don't know, let's say it's 500 million square acres or whatever it is, that's also encompassed By national parks and stuff.
01:39:52.000And, you know, national parks will have dirt roads in them, and they'll have little scatterings of population here and there.
01:39:59.000But those wilderness areas, there's nothing in those.
01:40:34.000Even if you got that beacon, you know, Forest Service and stuff, they're probably busy servicing, you know, Grandma broke a leg trying to take a picture of a bison in this national park.
01:40:46.000Coming into that wilderness area, you know, there's no HLZs there and stuff like that.
01:40:53.000So, man, I love that element of danger, especially since I retired.
01:40:58.000You know, I want to be cold, tired, hungry, and maybe a little scared.