SHAWN STEVENSON: Welcome to the Model Health Show. This is fitness and nutrition expert Shawn Stevenson, and I'm so grateful for you tuning in with me today. This conversation, this interview, is one of my favorite interviews of all time, and you're going to see why we're gonna be talking about what it really means to be athletic, and it is a paradigm changer. Athleticism is deeply tied to our livelihood, to our performance in all areas of our lives. And of course, when looking at the connection between our athleticism and our longevity, right? And our special guest is going to summarize this in a way that was surprising to me, but it made perfect sense.

And we're also gonna be talking about something that we think robs us of our athleticism and our desire to move into play. And that's going through an injury and pain. And we're gonna be talking about what it really means. How do injuries actually occur? So whether this is in professional sports, which is where our special guest is coaching and training at, or this is our everyday activities and the things that we want to do as far as getting out and playing and exploring and living life, why do injuries actually occur?

And so you're gonna get some powerful insight into that as well. And most importantly, we're gonna be talking about training. We're gonna be talking about the five most important, most powerful forms of exercise for us to integrate into our lives on a regular basis. And I'm telling you, you're not going to expect what they are, but again, they're gonna make perfect complete sense. So this is absolutely filled to the brim with incredible insights and incredible energy. So I'm so excited to share this with you today. Coach Mike G has worked with some of the best in the game, including NBA champions like Fred Van Fleet, Anthony Davis, Rajan, Rondo, and Drew Holiday, and rising superstars like Jalen Green and Jabari Smith, Jr.

His resume spans the NBA, the NFL, and even interprofessional tennis. With his work with number one ranked tennis Champion Victoria as Rinka Mike Guevara, better known as Coach Mike G is a world-class performance coach, entrepreneur, and speaker known for transforming high level athletes through science-based training and elite level mentorship.

Coach Mike G brings a unique combination of grit, education, and innovation to the game. He's the founder and owner of GBG Hoops. A leading mobile training platform built to help hoopers move like athletes, think like leaders, and live like champions from youth athletes to NBA superstars. Thousands of athletes rely on his GBG performing to build strength, enhance mobility, sharpen recovery, and sustain elite level durability. His signature motto, greatness breeds greatness, drives every rep set in session. Let's dive in this conversation with the one and only coach Mike G.

Mike G, thank you so much for coming to hang out with me, man. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Mr. Model health. I am exasperated to be here. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. Yeah. Listen.

MIKE GUEVARA: I am ecstatic. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Listen, I can't even begin to tell you the impact you've had on my life already.

MIKE GUEVARA: Wow. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And we're gonna get into that, of course, the impact of my son. And I'm just excited for what the future holds. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Mm-hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And with your expertise, with your experience, with your insights, I want to ask you to kick things off. What does it really mean to be athletic? 

MIKE GUEVARA: That's a wonderful question that I love to debate about 'cause there's no right answer, right? Everyone has their own depiction of how to define athleticism. But for me, being in the space, the training space, the performance space for almost 20 years now, which is insane to even say out loud. Athleticism is a representation of adaptability in real time during any movement problem.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Mm-hmm. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Being able to find solutions and being able to adapt to your environment, your dynamically random moving environment. So an an example of that would be a basketball player who's extremely coordinated on the floor that may trying to go left, gets cut off, gets trapped, can split the defense and finish at the rim, that adaptability. And then the physical nuance and ability to do that with their body. So it's a combination of the, let's use a car analogy. The race car is a high performance vehicle. Like this is the top of the top type vehicle that you can drive in with four wheels. But then what about the driver?

SHAWN STEVENSON: Mm-hmm. 

MIKE GUEVARA: It's both of them. It's, it's the, the coordination and the brain aspect to be able to manipulate your body and find solutions, but it's also the ability to do so with your, with your physical attribute as well. So 

SHAWN STEVENSON: I love that. 

MIKE GUEVARA: That's my definition of athleticism. The brain component is heavy.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. Oh man, that's so powerful. This leads me to ask you, is this potentially how injuries happen? Because let's just take a sprained ankle for example. You know, somebody might, and you know, their side of their shoe completely touches the ground on a sprained ankle. Yeah. They might go down for a second, but sometimes they just pop up. Walk it off. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And for some other people, or maybe for that athlete at another time, they might be out for four weeks.

MIKE GUEVARA: Mm-hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: So can you talk about that and that relationship to, you know, athleticism and maybe that brain body combination? My bottom line question is how do injuries actually occur?

MIKE GUEVARA: The first image that comes to mind with this question is very, somewhat recent, which was last season when Kyrie tore his ACL. So if you study that play, because I'm enamored with following these Instagram pages that actually go over how people get injured. I forget the name of the gentleman who has a beautiful page, an example of that, but he's someone I really go to whenever I see a major injury and he broke it down quite eloquently. So before he actually plants to go up and finish the layup or whatever he was trying to do, he gets hit. So that physical contact kind of throws a monkey wrench into the motor programming that he was planning to do. We all have these preprogrammed attempts to create movement and sometimes when that's disrupted through physical contact that that motor program is thrown off milliseconds and now my timing to accept the floor is thrown off completely.

And now I don't perhaps create that very minimal knee bend that I need to absorb the force of the deceleration to rebound off the floor and go back up and finish the ball. Instead of him creating that micro bend in his knee to create, to accept deceleration, he hyperextends because of that physical contact, splitting the defense is actually what he did and completely disrupted his pre-plan of whatever strategy he was trying to have and finishing the basketball. So in essence, there are moments of physical contact that disrupt our coordination and whatever solution we've, we're providing for the movement strategy. Can we help that? Can we train for that? That's an answer that I think a lot of us are still trying to, to, to answer in terms of how do we even replicate that in training.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Unplanned physical contact safely so that we can learn how to adapt and still create these movement strategies to perform. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Right. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Don't know if there's an answer to that, but if soon as someone answers that, they're gonna, you know, change the game of training. But then what about like the non-contact situations? What about the situations where they're completely by themselves and all of a sudden, boom, a knee dives in, or an ankle sprains or what have you? I definitely think that there are multiple variables that go into that. And one being fatigued. What are the main constraints that athletes, except as a part of their space and their movement, adaptability, that can or cannot be controlled?

And I think fatigue is a huge scapegoat as to why injury happens, because when I'm fatigued, I don't potentially know or understand the space around me as well as I do when I'm fresh. And when I'm out there competing, I'm not thinking about that. What am I thinking about? I gotta get this ball in the basket. I gotta get around this defender. I gotta, whatever the, the, the problem is I have to find a solution to it. And I'm not thinking about am I in the right base? Am I performing the right movement? No, no, no. I'm just trying to get the job done. And with fatigue, sometimes our body doesn't respond the way we thought it would or what, or, or the way we're used to.

And then injuries can occur there. So I definitely think that based off of the type of injury, whether it's contact, non-contact, fatigue related late in the game, early in the game how about the fact that a lot of these athletes are playing more games than ever? From youth to pros, you know, that residual compounded effect fatigue that we don't necessarily feel, you know, and there are ways now with technology to measure that and then making those actionable steps to create strategy. But definitely feel in a, in a very long way, way of saying the brain is connected to all of these types of injuries regardless. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Right. And that's the part that unfortunately, well now it's changing. Athletes don't really think about that. The brain and nervous system aspect of it, because it's just like my body, I've done, I'm physically capable of doing this movement. Why did my Achilles not respond the way that I expected in that movement? Like I'm physically capable. And so starting to break it down into, think about these, and by the way, we're gonna talk about training today for everybody.

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And including athletes.

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Really, we wanna remind everybody that there's an athlete in everyone.

MIKE GUEVARA: Athlete for life. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: You know, and also injury prevention. Because that would be my next step in what I'd be interested in. When you see this in, you know, increase in injuries and non-contact injuries, specifically in the NBA in the last, you know, decade or so. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And you know, there's a reason for that. Things, it's physics, like there's causality. Everything has a cause we might not have figured out all the pieces yet.

MIKE GUEVARA: Correct.

SHAWN STEVENSON: But somebody like yourself has a pretty good database and a hypothesis of what those things are. And so have we covered all the bases as far as like what could be contributing to the increase in non-contact injuries?

MIKE GUEVARA: Not necessarily. You know, a lot of people would look at nutrition. I think nutrition is a big contributor to how well our tissues repair themselves from game to game training session to training session practice to practice. We, as you know, as far as, as long as I've known about model health, show yourself and been in the training space, have been preaching the importance of how essentially we are what we eat.

You know what I mean? If, if you're going to perform like a Ferrari, you should be putting the highest grade of fuel into your engine, so to speak, with the car analogy once again. So I don't know if our athletes are buying into that because the problem with the nutrition piece is there's no immediate consequence.

And also, when we're young and our bodies are so robust and just the tissue turnover rate is so high, we can eat whatever we want and still look amazing, feel amazing, and perform at a really high level. But as we age, even to beyond your 22, 20 3-year-old athlete, that's when those things start to pop up. And even then, it's hard to have a conversation with that athlete because those are just controllables that unfortunately, someone like myself cannot have a huge impact on.

I can break it down for you in your language. I can explain it to you. I can offer you solutions. I can, but at the end of the day, you're gonna make the choices that you make. And I'm not there to hover. All I can do is just help you make informed decisions. Well, you know, the science, you, I've explained it to you. You've confirmed that you understand Now at this point, it's, it's a choice. Will you make the right choice? So I think nutrition is a huge one. I mean Kate Shanahan, I believe is the, is the doc. You, you know this author. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: She helped Kobe after his Achilles rupture. And she's, I think, the huge push behind bone broth and how important bone broth is in the glyco amino glycans and how it helps with the Achilles and all the connective tissue. But even that, the brand behind Kobe and how that, how, how he gives her credit is not enough. So I don't know. I don't know what to, what to do or say at that point. It's just like, all right, well hey, you know, I can't prove that this is gonna help you feel better because there's no immediate consequence or improvement. But all I can tell you is this, I've been doing this for a long time. You, you trust me in the weight room. So just trust me here. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: And.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And thank you for that. Shout out as well on the timeline piece because again, especially if athletes, which we're seeing now extended careers.

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes.

SHAWN STEVENSON: That are remarkable.

MIKE GUEVARA:  Yes. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Those athletes, part of their training is their nutrition. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Mm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Part of their training is their sleep habits. Right. It's like baked in.

MIKE GUEVARA: Correct.

SHAWN STEVENSON: They've got a system for that because Yeah, like you said, you can get a quote, get away with a lot of stuff when you're younger. You know, some of these incredible athletes, they're eating like a couple bags of candy.

MIKE GUEVARA: DK met Kat. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: He's a specimen. 

MIKE GUEVARA: I mean, he's like 5% body fat. He's 220, 6'3", runs four, three, which is really fast if you don't know how fast that is. And he proclaims that He eats over a pound of candy a day, which our era, dk Metcalf is Chad Ochocinco. Mm. And salute to Chad. He's done amazing things. But what I, what I challenge people about when they bring him up, I say, but how long did he do it at a high level? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Oh yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA:  Longevity. Now, no, no shade towards Ochocinco. He's one of my favorite receivers along with his MDA and that whole crew. But Longevity, that's what, that's the name of the game, right? So like, how long can you be at a high level? How long can you play at a Pro Bowl All-star level. And I think the diet is something that's starting to come to the forefront, but it's not an easy conversation to have with an 18-year-old kid. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: You know what I'm saying? So we.. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: But we changing the culture, you know, by the way. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Gonna change the culture. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Ochocinco was like, kind of like. Terry Cruz character on the longest yard, like pulling the, the McDonald's hamburger out his pants.

MIKE GUEVARA: Literally, McDonalds.

SHAWN STEVENSON: You knows outta the yards. This is my, this is my pre-game.

MIKE GUEVARA: This is my superpower. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: You gotta callous your insides. 

MIKE GUEVARA: You know, and he literally, that's what he said. That was the quote. He's like, you guys over there eating healthy? I'm over here eating McDonald's, but watch me on Sundays. And I'm like, knowing what I know now. Yeah, you did it for about two, three years. You did it, you did a great job for about four years. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: I think that a lot of people get into training or take, start taking their training more seriously after they get injured. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Can you.. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Sorry for you on that one. Go ahead. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Talk about that perspective when it comes to like, getting into training and maybe a more enlightened approach when it comes to training.

MIKE GUEVARA: Absolutely. So being the demographic that I'm speaking to, obviously I know not everyone is a pro athlete or even perhaps. I play competitive sport, but there are a lot of gems in this store that I'm gonna share with you because these are the, the people that we watch on a day in and day out admire them. I'm championing them, revere them because of what they do on the, on the TV screen, whether it be football, basketball, soccer, doesn't matter at the highest level. Getting an inside look or track of like, what do they do to do that at a high level for a long time? So the name of the athlete that I'm gonna talk about, his name is Drew Holiday.

And for those who may not know who he is, he's been touted as one of the best two-way basketball players of our, of the last 15 years. He's, he's, to give you perspective, he's one of the only humans, humans to win an NBA champion and follow it up in the same summer with a gold medal. He's done that twice.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Mm. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Very special athlete. Human being, family's great, but I started working with him when he was 19 years old, and let's fast forward eight years later, he's gone through some injuries. He's missed a lot of games. He's starting to be labeled as injury prone. So he and I start working full-time together.

We start correcting diet, sleep, start wearing the whoop, you know, no financial affiliation with them, but sleep tracker and starts to pay attention to the things that are off the court besides lifting weights. And we're having a conversation amidst all these changes. And he's like, Mike, I can't lie to you. When I was 19, 20, 21 years old working with you every summer, sometimes I wouldn't even sleep and come to train. I'd be out with my brothers, you know. Making music, dancing, like just doing wholesome family activities, but not getting a shuteye asleep and come and work with you. And you're over here trying to yell at me to lift more and jump higher and run faster, which I do because I'm able to.

But given the perspective of like now I've gone through the negative aspect of experiencing injury and being out and having this label and this scrutiny placed on me, now I get it. And to your point, why does it have to take a major injury or example of doing the wrong things and not believing before I have to actually start paying attention? And it's like there, there's countless examples of this. Before you learn from somebody else's mistakes, listen to your vets, listen to the people that are trying to explain this to you. Players that are literally saying, Hey, you know, make sure that you clean your diet up, make sure, you know, I remember I was there, but it takes for you to experience that yourself, for you to lock in. And he admitted that to me and I was just like, you know what, drew, sometimes, you know, we have to experience these things for ourselves. And that's the ultimate catalyst to change. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Mm-hmm. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Honestly, it worked out for him three $100 million deals later. I think he's pretty happy that that happened to him. You know what I mean? But short story, shorter that's just like the perfect example of what you just mentioned. Like it doesn't have to be this cataclysmic situation that happens to you before you start to take investment into the things off the training floor court.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So that's a great story. That's a great, I had no idea.

MIKE GUEVARA: Yep. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: You know, that's so powerful, man. And for him it's really just putting, putting the pieces together. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Mm-hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: You know, and for a lot of people, you know, the training isn't the issue. Know what I mean?

MIKE GUEVARA: Correct.

SHAWN STEVENSON: They're not afraid of doing the work. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Correct. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And it's just having the perspective that this is only a part of the equation. Like your, your recovery, all these other things, it really helps the everything to stick. And you know, but the reality is for a lot of people, and this is your, this is a quote that you said, you said, don't wait to get hurt to start training train so you don't get hurt. 

MIKE GUEVARA: That part. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Right. And a lot of what you do, I believe, is helping to put stressors on the body so that they're more resilient in the conditions that they face in their sport. And with this being said, a lot of people are really, that are listening right now. They want to be more, more resilient. Maybe they're afraid of getting an injury down the line or, you know, maybe it's just a a the clock is ticking on when something's gonna happen. So we're encouraging everybody to start training right now.

MIKE GUEVARA: Right now. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And so with this being said, I've got you here. Let's dig into some training. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Let's do it. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: All right. So gyms, when you say train so you don't get hurt, where do we start? Like what do we need to start doing? 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah, so shameless plug, I have a training app that is a basketball centric focused app. It's for basketball athletes. However, it's not just for pros. It's not just for high level elite basketball players. We have a huge market that are, we call 'em pickup legends. So a pickup legend might be somebody like yourself, you know, still getting to it. Not as a main source of exercise or revenue or anything like that, but just simply because you love basketball and you want to keep up with Braden.

But the problem with these types of weekend warrior profiles is that they think that the sport itself, or the competition itself, let's say it's a weekend game that you play every weekend, is the, is enough to create the adaptation. And that's where we get hurt. You know? Because at the end of the day when when we start to compete, we forget about the training wheels, we forget about our sore toe or sore ankle or sore knee. We know that we gotta get past, I gotta get past Shawn, and then I gotta try and dunk on him or lay it up or hit him or whatever. And. Sometimes we don't. Our tissues are like, whoa, whoa, whoa. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Right, right. Lemme say something, because our body, we have to qualify ourselves to do certain things. Right? 

MIKE GUEVARA: Facts. Yes. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And part of that, and just again, to, to reiterate the app, I do use the app myself, and I've integrated the exercises that my son uses. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Mm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: In my own training. Every time I train, I'm using something I got from you from.

MIKE GUEVARA: Oh my goodness.

SHAWN STEVENSON: From the app. All right. Now, with this being said, one of the things that I was not doing enough of that the, the GBG app helped me to really cement was the isometrics. They were like.

MIKE GUEVARA: Talk to 'em.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Every now and then, every couple of weeks, I'd throw some isometrics in there. Now, every training session I'm doing the isometrics. It's added into my training. Talk about isometrics and why that's so valuable.

MIKE GUEVARA: Isometrics to define what the word basically means is tension or load with zero joint motion or zero joint action. So it's literally holds, isometrics are holds. And the problem with isometrics is they're not sexy, they're boring. They're, it's, it's almost a jab to the ego if, if you care, right? Because ego's all about, you know, what you value, right? But if you care about, if someone is looking at you, people may look at you and say, you're not doing anything. You're literally not moving. But if I put you on a wall and make you do a single, single leg wall, sit for 45 seconds, which is a good amount of time, I guarantee if you've never done that before, you're either going to slide down and stop or be shaken like a leaf, which I'm sure you've experienced.

And I think the reason why isometrics are so valuable is they're safe. So anybody that is functional enough to walk into the gym. Can do an isometric that's from the age of five years old all the way to 95. If you are able to walk into the gym, I can guarantee you can do an isometric hold. And the most quintessential iso that I think we all can relate to is the wall sit. It was basically discipline for whenever we messed up in gym class, if gym class even exists anymore. But anytime you messed up in gym class or anytime you made a mistake on in practice, all right, everybody get on the wall. Let's do a wall sit. And basically you're sitting in a 90 degree angle at your knee and hip, and it's a major quad load with no joint action. And the reason why this is very beneficial is it's been known to mitigate pain. 

So let's say that you walk into the gym with sore knees for whatever reason. It could be the game you just played. It could be maybe you had a heavy squat day. It could be because you were sitting from a long flight. Whatever the case is, your knees are cranky. For some reason, when you do a 45 second wall sit for three to four sets, that pain goes away, which means what? Now your training session is more productive. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Mm. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Now you're not worried about moving through ranges of motion with knee pain. You're confident, you're able to load up and you're able to train hard. So as a basketball player, coach, performance coach, or just anyone who exists in movement space, this is a valuable tool to literally remove pain from a situation. So that's why that's, that's a huge reason of why I stand by. So, and then also there's a lot of research being done. Shout out to Keith Barr, Dr. Keith Barr outta UC Davis.

He's put forth a lot of science facts objective data that says that if you do isometrics, you can repair tendon. In the space of basketball and in the, the, the, the, the world of hoops. Anyone that's ever played a season, you, your knees are not happy. Your achilles tendon, which we see a lot of ruptures, ruptures from, you know, now we can start to reinforce the collagen network within these tendons that are gonna make you more robust and perhaps take away the risk of injury.

Nothing is foolproof, nothing is guaranteed to not or to prevent you from getting hurt, but we're trying to do as much as we can to make you as robust as possible. So that's why ISOs, which is heavy in the the GBG hoops app is such a huge presence in our exercise library. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. Fire, fire.

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SHAWN STEVENSON: I could reiterate on, you know, not being sexy because mm-hmm. What I was doing, what I still do, by the way was a rear, rear foot elevated jumps. Right? So I'm like doing jumps with rotation with the deceleration. Yeah. All these other things that are more explosive. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Mm-hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Because I just feel athletic. Athletic, you know, and these inputs, I see how they translate. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And so with that being said, doing that rear foot elevated split squat iso that I learned from you. Right. And having that input and seeing, for example, like my, my son, the first time he did it, he wish he was shake it. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Shake it like a.. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Because you don't think it's gonna be that difficult. But no, as you just mentioned, this is getting these inputs. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Without this kind of like focus specifically on the muscles capability to do stuff.

MIKE GUEVARA: Correct.

SHAWN STEVENSON: You're getting inputs for the tendons. And the ligaments. And this is, it's safe. That's the thing too. It's safe, and it's, anybody can do it at some level. There are many people, I'm sure can't even do a rear foot elevated split squat, but they can do an iso they can hold onto something.

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes, sir. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And just be able to hold position and get so much benefit. 

MIKE GUEVARA: So much benefit. And you took the words outta my, my brain is, it's extremely safe and effective. So, you know, just the culture of, of training, whether you're a parent or if it, you're training yourself as an adult, you want to pick up heavy weight, and that's just the culture of what it is. And, and that's starting to change because the functionality of movement and, and living in the, the gym is becoming more, how does it adapt to what I need or do is starting to take the forefront. But nonetheless, we wanna lift heavy. It feels innately good as a man.

I pick up heavy things still, but why do I want to put that same mindset on a 9-year-old kid, a 12-year-old kid? How about this? An 18-year-old rookie in the NBA who can't hold a rear foot elevated isometric for one minute. They can't, why am I gonna load this pattern? So it's just ripping down all the ego and really trying to get people to understand like, look, this, we're not professional weightlifters.

We're not, if you're competing in, in some sort of strong man competition or this is what you sport is to look good different. I'm not talking to you. You do need to lift these weights and, you know, be strategic about it. But if you're an athlete, if you are an adult that wants to be more a active with their children, not have back pain. When you go to pick your kid up every, every time they're crawling into a mess or whatever it is, this is for you because it's easy, it's safe and it works. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. Alright. So my personal testimony from my 14-year-old son who's a serious hooper after two weeks of training and following the workouts that you put together for us. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes, sir.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Hit the words that came out of his mouth were, I just feel more bouncy. I just feel more bouncy, which is like gold for a hooper to feel like that, you know? And he credits you. He's just like, you know, I've been, and also, of course, you gave him some advice with, you know, getting in the, the protein intake, which he's done like 95% of the time. Man, the compliance has been amazing 'cause of who you are and your communication style, man. It's just, it's just been really special to see. One of the other things that I noticed immediately on the app was that you had a lot of your athletes and we're talking, we got some championship athletes on here. Rajan Rondo. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes, sir. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And they're training barefoot. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes, sir. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Can you talk about why you have your athletes training barefoot? 

MIKE GUEVARA: I love to give flowers to people who deserve the credit because, you know, I'm not here by myself. Every, there's been so many hands on me that have molded me and influenced me, including my wife. I just want to make, take this time, she's right here behind the camera. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Shout out. Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Her name is, Hadaya Turner. She's amazing. She's the brains and everything behind GB tubes. But the gentleman that has introduced me to the Barefoot Ideology, his name is Scott Mitchell. Scott Mitchell is basically my mentor when I started 15 to 18 years ago. And he no longer is in the coaching space no more. He is actually a teacher, you know, he, he traded in his whistle for, you know, a little bit more of what speaks to him, which is teaching kids. And I respect that so much 'cause I love teaching kids. Shout out to Braden too for being 95% compliant. And he's the one that had the five finger style shoes way back when and to the average 25, 26-year-old. You're like. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: What are those? 

MIKE GUEVARA: What are those? And you know, I'm a Jordan Guy. I, I love Jordans. I never had enough money to buy 'em when I was younger. And now I got a little paper, so I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna wear some Jordans in the training space. And it's just like, you know, you vibe with your athletes too. Like, they see what's on your feet and now it's a conversation and you're, you're cool. But he's the one that put me on to the sensory richness of your palm, the palms of your hands, and the bottoms of your feet. And how we can lose that sense of proprioception, which is another word of just being able to know where you're at in space in real time.

Which has a huge effect on athleticism, on balance, on stability, on the ability to prevent injury, injurious movements from happening 'cause we have such awareness of the floor and where we're at in space. Right. Well, if you don't create those connections on a daily basis, they start to go away. If you don't use it, you lose it. So being barefoot was just another way for me to add a little bit of an edge to my training. And I would explain it the same way to you as it's like, look, you're closer to the floor, you're more connected to the floor. You know where your foot is and space. It's gonna help you with your balance, your stability, your ability to load different areas of the feet.

Your feet are gonna be stronger, your whole body will be stronger. I guarantee it'll translate to everything that you feel. And then also foot pressure. It's not talked about a lot. Like where is the load in my foot? Is it in my heel, my midfoot, my forefoot, my toes? And the four regions of the foot. It'll drastically change where the force goes up the chain. Why aren't we talking about this? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Mm-hmm. Right? 

MIKE GUEVARA: If I put you in the rear foot elevator iso, but have you four foot loaded, your ankle complex will now take stress if I have you heal loaded and no region is better than the other, but if I have you heel loaded, you will be more glute loaded. See what I'm saying? So like I think that that nuance alone in itself is very valuable to the training space, right? The training practice so that you know where you're at on the foot. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: So that's kind of where that came from. Scott Mitchell is the one that introduced that to me, influenced me in a huge and major way. And you know, when I played college football, we were in weightlifting shoes with a small heel lift. Not even thinking about where my foot is in space. Not even thinking about where anything is in space, just pick the damn weight up. But obviously as we get more, understanding of like what training is, what, what purpose does training do for you, for me as an athlete, as a human. That's, that's really where the value is. So yeah, that's how I came to be. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Incredible. 

MIKE GUEVARA: In the barefoot space. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Incredible. Again, just ahead of the curve, your access and, you know, our, the bottoms of our feet, man. Hundreds of thousands of nerve endings, just hundreds of just there to pick up data. 

MIKE GUEVARA: That's it.

SHAWN STEVENSON: About our movement and ground contact. And it just makes you think like, what if KD was training barefoot back in the day?

MIKE GUEVARA: Facts.

SHAWN STEVENSON: What if Kobe was training barefoot back in day? 

MIKE GUEVARA: Which he is now? Yeah. I just want y'all to know that. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: I saw LeBron had the five finger shoes on too, and he's notorious for having the worst feet, you know? Right. But it's just, again, it's a cultural shift and, you know, we will never know about the past, but we can see moving into the future. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Mm-hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Getting athletes to have basically that data. Not being muted from the ground contact. 

MIKE GUEVARA: That's such a good way to put it. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Right. Having that, having that access and that data to be able to, again, when your foot hits the ground, is sending data to what, what your knee's doing, your ankle, your back, the list goes on and on. And it's muted by the shoes that we're wearing.

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes sir.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And so what if we start to train that and over time, and I don't know if you've had this experience as well, but like wearing you know, zero drop shoes or five digit shoes I start to really experience my feet differently when I put other shoes on.

MIKE GUEVARA: Can I please exp talk about that? My feet are growing. It's it, and it's not a literal gain in, you know, length or whatever, but it's literally like, because my feet are expanding and I'm receiving force all the time in these wide toe box five digit types of footwear. My feet expand and now size 10 don't fit no more. I have to go up to 10 and a half. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Incredible. 

MIKE GUEVARA: That's and 'cause my tissue is adapting, like my foot is adapting.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Exactly.

MIKE GUEVARA: Everything is adapting to like the forces I'm implying through this footwear. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: What if the whole time, like your jeans were expecting you to do this and then.. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Bro, I'm not supposed to be five foot eight. What you talking? You know what I mean? Like that's real. That's a real idea that comes up. You know what I mean? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: So, so powerful. 

MIKE GUEVARA: So powerful. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Wow. So again, we, we live and we learn, but you know, just again, going to the app and seeing we've got different ways of training, training structures, different exercises.

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: You know, athletes have shoes on in some things other times and it's just kind of taken the opportunity to train barefoot. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Mm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: How would you advise somebody to start to implement some barefoot training? 'cause we don't want to go zero to to hero overnight, I would imagine. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah. So sometimes, you know, we get really excited when we see the LeBron Post, or we see the Mike G Post and we want to just jump straight into that. Well, again, what is a sneaker? What is a shoe? A basketball shoe, a weightlifting shoe. It's a, it's a buffer of force between your foot and whatever activity that you're doing. You know, if you try to run in bare feet, you immediately adopt a different gate. If you try to run heel toe without shoes, there's gonna be a lot of disruption in the system.

You're not, it's not gonna feel good at all, nor efficient, and your brain innately knows that you are gonna be more forefoot dominant. Well being more forefoot dominant means that your feet, your Achilles, all the muscles in the lower leg have to be ready for that repetitive five to eight times body weight that you're putting onto it with every step of your run. So, in short, in a simpler way of putting it is if you're going to take away the buffer that a normal sneaker would give you, you have to be very cognizant of how you create the new load into your foot with the barefoot training or the five digit footwear training or the, or the zero drop training, because now you don't have that cushion.

You don't have that really comfortable buffer that. Absorbs force from when you play basketball, from when you jump, from when you run sprint, whatever activity it is. So wearing the sneakers.. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Which can mask inefficient movement. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Correct. Amongst other things. Right. The, the thing about athletes is they, they compensate and they're really good at that. So getting out of the shoe and being barefoot or in these minimal minimalist footwear, we have to be very cognizant of how we introduce load. And even simply walking five minutes a day on a treadmill is a really good way to introduce those new loads or forces. Closed chain exercise basically. In other, in other words, when your feet are connected to the ground and you perform an exercise squat, Romania deadlift, rear foot elevated split squat, you get the picture squat to press your feet are supported by the floor.

Maybe that's a safer way to introduce this type of floor because there's no impact. There's no impact load, and the impact load is what causes the danger zone. That's when tissue starts to get a little bit overworked and over stress, and then you, you know, you, you have a strain or a sprain of some sort.

So I think closed chain lifting or exercise is totally okay, but when you start to in incorporate impact, that's when we have to be very, very weary of it and aware that, Hey, let's do five minutes of walking this week, every day. Let's improve that to 10 minutes. The second week, let's maybe start to do a walk, jog the third week and then kind of go based off of how you feel and then grade it out accordingly. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Amazing, amazing. So with this being said, this is just what humans were doing all right. Prior to this innovation with these, you know, with the very especially like the thicker, more like maximalist shoes that we have now, but the world is different. So we gotta keep that in context too, the environment. Right. So we're concrete and hardwood floors. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Sure. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Are very different than grass and just kind of na natural environment. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Sure. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And so, you know, one of the things, so number one, super quick sidebar question with doing isometrics barefoot be like a very easy on-ramp, for example.

MIKE GUEVARA: Very much so, because again, if, if I'm doing an isometric, usually my feet will be connected to a stable. Surface SA stable environment, which means that there's no impact load. So I definitely think if you're navigating the gym and you're training and you're not doing any jumping, running, hopping, skipping, walking, or long duration walking, 'cause you gotta walk from station to station, then I think you're in a good space.

I think this is a very safe space to be in, to train barefoot. Now, some of the people who are against this minimalist footwear are gonna say, well, if your foot is operating in a way that's unhealthy for the kinetic chain going up. For instance, if you have over pronating feet and now you're taking your shoes away, that kind of give you a little bit of arch support.

Now you're just feeding a problem. That's a whole nother conversation. And I don't know how to qualify who, you know, from a vast general standpoint, who should be able to step into this footwear or not, or this world, but from a very global perspective. All right, your feet are somewhat normal, whatever that even means. Closed chain, isometric work, I think is a really good way to start because now you're gonna start to understand foot pressure and feel foot pressure. Where, where's my body weight at? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: That's one of the things that you, and, and some of his workouts was specifically when you mentioned foot dysfunction, right?

MIKE GUEVARA: Mm-hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Where it's like it's turning in or whatever the case might be. Train your feet. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Right. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: So you have some exercises, like there's one where we have that, the small ball and we're pushing down with the big toe. Correct. Isometric, can you talk about that one a little bit? 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah. So just to set it up so you guys can see at home in your, in your mind's eye, imagine you're barefoot and you have perhaps the density of a tennis ball or maybe even a little bit more forgiving, a little bit more squishy. And basically you place that tennis ball underneath your standing on two feet. You place. On one side, the tennis ball underneath the big toe. So now think about the big toe being bent back. So there's a little bit of a stretch perhaps in your big toe joint or maybe even in, in even underneath the bottom of the foot because your bent toe is kind of being bent backwards or extended, is how we would call it in the training space.

But then I ask you to press and smash the ball with the big toe. So what are we doing? We're lengthening the tissue responsible for extending the big toe and we're contracting at length. And what that does is it's an isometric because it's a no movement action, but there's still tension. And that strengthens all of the tissue required to create the big toe smash at length. And the beauty behind that is you could potentially lift your arch, you can definitely strengthen the big toe flex motion. And there's a lot of science that says that it, the best jumpers in the world have really strong big toes. A lot of people don't know that. And we don't innately, we don't particularly train big toe.

There's no big toe day. And I know that those jumpers don't train their big toe, you know, but through the landscape of their lifestyle, maybe they were barefoot a lot, maybe they played outside a lot barefoot. Maybe they played basketball a lot, barefoot. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Maybe how they compensated. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Maybe how they compensated. For some reason, their big toes are really strong and they jump really high. So that's like an easy, you know, bar like here you wanna jump higher, get your big toes strong. It's in the science and that's a really easy way to visualize how to do. So just get a squishy ball. Maybe a tennis ball. Put it underneath your big toe, bend it back, and then press down for 45 seconds. Big toe smash. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Amazing. Oh, that's so good. All right. So one of the things that I've done outside of isometrics barefoot is proactively, and this was just a little while ago, but now I'm just doing it more consistently, is doing a little bit of jumping, like basically jump rope. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Sure. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Barefoot, but like on a soft surface. So whether this is grass outside, dirt grass or like on a carpet, but just getting that input and it's, so, it was, so the first time I did it, it was so, like, it just felt kind of wrong, but then it quickly felt like this is so Right. Yeah. And just, I don't know. I can't explain it. Yeah. It's just, taking your shoes off and being able to train and get these inputs.

MIKE GUEVARA: A hundred percent. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Stuff just starts turning on. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yep. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: You know, and so I've been doing that, but, and it's, that's something that anybody can do, just kind of, again, qualify yourself, make sure that you're comfortable and you can do that kind of thing on a forgiving surface. Just a little bit of hopping up and down. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Mm-hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: But a regression potentially, but then it's like a galactic progression might be a trampoline. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: What do you think about like a mini trampoline? 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah, so let me just speak on jump rope. Jump rope is probably one of the most underrated things that you can do for athleticism. That's my shit. And I don't know why it's not championed as such because it's easy, it's cheap. Like a jump rope is not expensive. Might, may, I mean, it's one of these actions that you can focus something focus your mind on something else. So like, it kind of makes the time go by quicker. You can put a cool model held show, podcast on featuring Mike G and just get your jumps in.

But as it relates to just life, not just sport, not just athlete especially like our older population, I don't even know like what would be qualified as such, but like as we get older, we stop running, we stop sprinting, we stop jumping, and something as safe as a jump rope, which is, you know, maximum three to seven inches off the ground, which is not a lot of force or load, but helps you so much with being elastic.

And elastic just basically means the ability to create force quickly. How does that imply to my livelihood as an older person? Maybe I trip and fall on a, on a curb, but I'm able to catch myself. 'cause I have that elasticity to, to move quick and respond. And my brain's used to like gravity, perturbation or, or center a mass perturbation and then boom, I'm able, I'm aware, you know, all this plays a huge role into fall prevention. So, you know, I just would challenge people out there just keep jump roping, keep jumping, keep doing these, these fundamental things that we did throughout our childhood years into teenage. And then for some reason, you know, life hits us in the face and we stop doing these things, but they're so important.

And you don't even need a jump rope. You can put your hands on your hips akimbo style and act like there's a jump rope coming underneath you on a yoga mat. That's too hard. Double up your yoga mat. You know what I'm saying? Like for the fact that you do a barefoot is very impressive. 'Cause missing is a lesson. But if you don't want to, you know, hit yourself, put your hands on your hips and jump around for a minute. You know, what about the idea that the lymphatic drainage that happens from the rebounding And, and for those who don't know what that is, you have a limp system that's basically like the waste management part of your, your body.

It clears you all of the bad stuff, but there's no true circulation to it. The only thing that gets it to drain and move is movement and rebounding, which segues perfectly into the, the, the trampoline. So the trampoline is beautiful because. I think it's, I think you're right about like the spectrum of like, it could be baseline, but it also can be very, very high level because there are the like, like imagine Jane Fonda back in the seventies, the mini trampoline fitness class that she would have and there's like a handlebar there and she's running her whole class. But what a lot of people don't realize is that it's very low impact even though you're jumping and your muscles have to produce a lot of energy to create and absorb force. So what does that do that keeps you extremely healthy in your joints based off the fact that there's not a lot of joint load, but your muscles are getting a great stimuli.

Your heart obviously is getting a great stimuli. And then once again, the lymphatic drainage, and I don't, can't quote like the year or the actual study, but NASA is deemed five minutes of trampoline, rebounding a day is one of the most healthiest things you can do for fitness. And ever since I heard that, i've used the mini trampoline in our training with NBA athletes on a weekly basis. True story, I'm helping Fred Van Ley rehabilitate his ACL. He ruptured his ACL in September. We use the mini trampoline as a force reintroduction tool to help him gain Rene Gate. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: So it's just another, you know, way to get from point A to point B, even with a high level athlete rehabbing an injury.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Are you about that snack life? The paradigm of snacks have changed dramatically in recent years. I grew up my snacks, animal crackers, little Capri sun, maybe some random candy from my grandma's purse. You know, she's got the butter scotches and peppermints in there. All right. Of course we got little, little chips, little cookie. Listen, that's all fine and dandy, but our paradigm of eating candy has really messed us up. And so trying to get healthier, I started having granola bars right at granola bars as a kid as well. Super sweetened with a picture of a guy with a wig on, you know, looked like one of the founding fathers on the box, you know what I'm talking about.

But trying to get healthier, you know, I switch over, I do the granola, healthier, lower sugar, or low fat paradigm of these cereal bars, but still really missing the point. And then today we had all these innovations in these newly invented chemical complexes to try to trick our bodies with fake fats or fake sugars, and we end up with a ultra process conglomeration of a new kind. What about something real? What about utilizing the paradigm of a food bar, something on the go, but with all real food ingredients? And that's what we have with the Paleo Valley Superfood bars. Not only does it have over eight organic superfoods and collagen rich, 100% grass fed bone broth protein, there are no added sugars or sugar alcohols.

They come in a variety of flavors, including red velvet, lemon meringue, apple cinnamon, and what I have right here, dark chocolate chip. These are the only food bars that we keep here, the studio for our team and our guests. And I keep these at home for my family and I travel with these as well. Huge fan of the Paleo Valley Superfood bars. And right now you get access to 15% off their Amazing Superfood bars when you go to paleovalley.com/model. That's P-A-L-E-O-V-A-L-L-E y.com/model for 15% off their phenomenal superfood bars, plus all of their other incredible snacks and superfood, whole food based supplements. So much more. Head over there, check 'em out. paleovalley.com/model and now back to the show.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Amazing. Amazing, sir. And I would imagine too, his brain, his nervous system is just like it, it's gonna be like, oh, this is okay for you to do facts, you know, you can start to get this input and then that can translate to more comfortability. 

MIKE GUEVARA: When you run.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Because I'm scared to run right now. It hurts. Yeah. Like, ah, I don't know if I can do it, but I get on this trampoline, I got a handlebar or something to support my balance with, so it's not, it's not a balance drill. And now I'm getting these inputs at the joint angles of running gate over and over and over, and as long as I want, again, that can be a huge confidence builder, not let alone just tissue alone, you know? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Amazing. Just thinking about the action of jumping on a trampoline. You know, I think about the times we went to these trampoline parks. Mm-hmm. And you know, I'm playing basketball with my sons or you know, just kind of growing up if somebody, if by chance somebody had a trampoline Oh man. Like one of the friends, like it's the most epic thing. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Epic. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And so it's getting me thinking about the value of fun being in your workouts. So is that something that you are intentional about with the athletes as you're training? 

MIKE GUEVARA: I think the idea of play is such an important component of training, especially when you're working with athletes because that's what they do. They play, I mean, if you think about it and it's bare, you know, components of what sport is, it's play. It's a child's pastime. And. Why don't we use that as a supercharged moment to get people in the right frame of mind to challenge themselves in what's about to happen. For instance, if you walk into my gym, Mr. Model Health and I can read your body language, like as we get good at training, we get really good at reading body language too, because it matters and your body language is not the same. It's a little tight. You are a little less talkative, you're less a little less smiley. Clearly, something has happened in your day that makes you not who you normally are.

Well, immediately I can do one of two things. We can talk about it, which I try not to do that as much unless that's what they want. Or b, I can totally remove you from the mental space that you came in with. And that's through play. That's through game gamification. So competition drills that involve as less risk as possible. 'cause you know, we use a lot of gamification during warmups. Catching games, tag games, games, small sided games, things that require you to leave the space that you came in with is a really good way to set the mind frame to train hard. Because if we don't change your mindset from what you just came from, that training session may not be as effective as you had wanted it to be.

And I think that that's why you show up. You show up because you wanna walk out feeling way better than when you walked in. And that's my mission every time I work with someone is. Hey, you feel amazing and you feel like you've accomplished something and you feel like you got better. So we use games to do that. We use movement games and movement challenges to, to, to create that mind frame. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. Amazing. I love it, man. And it's so obvious, but.. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Sometimes we look at trainings just like, i'm not gonna say punishment, but sometimes

MIKE GUEVARA: Sure.

SHAWN STEVENSON: That's the perspective. For some people it is maybe sometimes in our lives, and so to initiate and to find the fun 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yep.

SHAWN STEVENSON: In everything that we do, it just, it's a capacity that's there all the time, but we, we tend to mute it. So thank you for sharing that. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Heck yeah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And you know, obviously, again, I cannot stress enough the value of the GBG app. I cannot stress it enough. Everybody needs this app, especially if you're an athlete. Especially if you have a kid who's an athlete. It is priceless. Priceless.

MIKE GUEVARA: Thank you. Thank you.

SHAWN STEVENSON: With that being said, and we'll put the links for everybody of course, to get access. But with that being said you know, just the perspective of all of us being a, a life athlete mm-hmm. You know, and being the best that we possibly can. I know it's incredibly difficult to boil it down to like, maybe five specific things that everybody should be doing, but 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: If I had, you know, just like you had no choice, you gotta give five exercises or things for us to focus on. To be more athletic. Yeah, to be more resilient. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Can you gimme that five?

MIKE GUEVARA: Well, I'm gonna give you the five, but I'm going to preface my five with saying whoever's in front of me, that five changes. Okay. But that doesn't help anyone here. So that being said, five exercises. Five movements that anybody could benefit from in their journey of movement, wellness, staying athletics, stand strong access agency. I wanna do what I want, when I want, how I want. Not everyone has that. If a killer is chasing me, a dog is chasing me. Not everyone can sprint away. That is the definition of fit to me. God forbid I gotta fight to defend my family. I like my chances. I'm not a fighter, but I like my chances against a regular person. Now everyone takes MMA these days, so I don't know about it now. But. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: You don't know what somebody knows. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Bro. But, but. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Grab your nuts, pull 'em over your ears. It's like, what? How do I get it? 

MIKE GUEVARA: Whoa, whoa. But I'm fit enough to like, yeah, do what I need to do. I think I'm fit enough to run away and grab my wife. I think short story, shorter five level change. Level change. So it's not, it's, it's, it's actually an arduous task for people to change levels whenever they want. And you kind of talked about it like going, you know, reaching down and picking your kid up. That's not some, so like people avoid picking their kid up because they don't want a level change because it's so difficult and so hard or painful.

And no, the only person that, that, that gets the short end of the stick is the kid. Like, pick the kid up. You know what I mean? So like, I have a kid, I'm a new father. He's about to be 17 months. My wife gave me a beautiful baby boy. And, you know, I, I've been posting as of late this new, you know, mode new dad bod because what's the, what's the dad bod? What's the typical dad bod? And I'm just like, nah, f that. We're ain't no dad bod here. I'm 41 years old. I'm gonna be able to play basketball with Kaji, his name is Kaji when he's 12, which would put me at a healthy 53. Please believe he still won't be able to beat me. So being able to level change with him, making it a task for me on a daily basis to pick him up, to get down with him and play with him and crawl with him.

Like, he's not crawling anymore. He's walking around, running around. So he's kind of completely. You know, got rid of that pattern, but I crawl with him to show him, Hey, we can still do this because there's so much financial, physical benefit financial too, if he becomes a, a pro athlete, right. But, but point being is not a lot of people can get on the floor and get back up. So I think finding the mode of what can get you to level change jujitsu, right? Like this is one of these beautiful practices that a lot of people are starting to partake into their movement practice is jujitsu. Lots of level change, being able to get down and use your, compress your joints and get long, compress your joints and get long, I think that's super important.

SHAWN STEVENSON: What's a practical exercise for level change? 

MIKE GUEVARA: I mean, the easiest, most fundamental direction that you're gonna go to is squat. And, and a lot of people have championed the phrase the idea of squatting for five minutes straight, like being able to hold a squat for five minutes, whether that's back supported, whether that's in your own, you know, in your own body weight, whether that's holding something, but getting down into the bottom of a deep squat is, is the quintessential way of level change. And then getting back up and getting back down and getting back up. So anyone can do. It's free.

SHAWN STEVENSON: I love that. I love that you put this the labeling is level change. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: There's so much in there.

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Instead of just do this exercise. 

MIKE GUEVARA: No, no, no, no, no, no. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: It's the thinking. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: I see what you're doing, man.

MIKE GUEVARA: For sure. Because it is, when I say squat, everyone's like, ah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Tell me something I already knew. You know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. No, no, no. It's not about just squatting, but like, that is the, the, the exercise. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And that's life. 

MIKE GUEVARA: You know. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: That translates everywhere. 

MIKE GUEVARA: But there's things like animal flow and, and, and, and primal fitness and like these primal movement patterns that get you on the hands and feet and getting getting very comfortable with being on the floor and then being able to get back up. They make it really cool and fun and exciting to level change. That's essentially what it is. And then it's a dance. So there's a lot of research that talks about how as we age, things that make you move and think at the same time is really freaking good for you. What's the best one? Dancing. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Mm-hmm.

MIKE GUEVARA: Dancing. Dancing's. Like, you know, you learn a new dance, you're moving and you're thinking, you're like 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2. Like, you're trying to figure it out, but you're moving. So. Paddle sports or racket sports, pickleball, tennis. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: So is that number two? Dancing? 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah. Let's put that, let's say, what are the activities that we can do that create some sort of heart rate response, but that also require your brain thinking, dancing, learning, learning a new sport that's to your level. But that's ours. And when I say ours, my wife and I, we love to dance and I'm not to, what's the word? Ashamed or afraid to look crazy. And I think she appreciates that to a certain extent. However, I am very aware of what benefit that brings to my brain, to my health, to everything, and also to my relationship.

So I think if you're aging with your partner and you're looking to stay healthy and athletic. And have a healthy brain. Dancing is definitely one of those things. A third would be some sort of heavy strength training for the lower body. And the reason, and again, flowers to this amazing young lady, oh man, I feel really bad 'cause I don't know her full name. But there's a, there's a woman on, on, on the circuit right now and she's talking about how heavy strength training for the lower body is especially good for the brain as we age. And we're talking upwards towards 70 to 80% max, max effort. So that's where it gets a little hairy for people who don't engage in the heavy strength training or weight training is 'cause how do I even know what 80% is? How heavy is that? What does that even mean? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: So you talking about Stacey Sims by chance?

MIKE GUEVARA: No. Louisa. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Oh, Louisa Nicola. She's been right here. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Louisa Nicola. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Right here in that chair. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Shout out to Louisa Nicola. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: You know who, she hit me up just a couple weeks ago and she was just like, when she came on the Model Health Show.

MIKE GUEVARA: Okay.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Life's changed. 

MIKE GUEVARA: She's amazing. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: She blown up out here. She's so grateful. I see the talent. Thus, you're here right now, man. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Bro. Like, again, flowers, everyone deserves them. If, if, if they're contributing and she's doing it in a major way. But she talked about how, and, you know, I knew weight, you know, heavy strength training has. Longevity benefits has athleticism, benefits, has a lot of benefits. Like we gotta learn how to weight train heavy. But how do I know how to do so? How do I do it safe? How do I even know what heavy feels like for the regular person? For the person that doesn't engage in this activity? So shout out to Corey Schlesinger, who is an amazing strength coach, performance director of the Detroit Pistons.

But he talks about machines and how machines are starting to get back into performance training. Well, why it's not functional, because we can load locally really, really heavy safely, and it doesn't take a lot of coordination or skill because squatting with a barbell on your back requires skill. It's an Olympic sport. Literally. So how do I regress the input? Still provide the input, but in a safe and acceptable fashion for anybody. A leg press. And what I would say, and this is me just off the top of the, you know, frame of mind, just experiment with how heavy, heavy feels get into a leg press. Avoid fully extending your knees, keep a little bit of knee flexion, okay?

Don't lock your knees out after every rep and just keep playing with how heavy you can go for five reps. And once you start to fail, then that probably means that you're pretty heavy. Back up three or four stacks and there's your working weight. And I literally just made that up off the top of my head. But I think that's just a really safe way to load the lower body with heavy strength training and get all those benefits. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Phenomenal. Alright, so number one, we got level change. Number two, we've got movement that requires thinking. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Mm-hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Dancing, being a great example. Number three, heavy strength training. 

MIKE GUEVARA: For the lower body.

SHAWN STEVENSON: For the lower body specifically. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Gimme four. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Four, isometrics. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Boom. Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: That maybe number one, because of the, the benefits that it has from a tissue, local tissue adaptation. Your ankle hurts. Hold a calf, raise four sets. One minute. I'm very, very sure as a regular, not, not, not performing athlete, but like as a mother of three, as a father of two that loves to play pickup. You do that. I think over time it's gonna start to feel better. Your knee hurts. Hold a single leg wall, sit for 45 seconds. Three sets, four sets. I think you're gonna start to feel a benefit and a difference in the way you move and operate in space. Upper body holding a elevated pushup. I think you're gonna start to feel your shoulders less pinchy when you go overhead.

How about hanging? There's a lot of. There's a lot of people talking about the benefits of hanging and being able to hold your body weight for a minute. That's an isometric for grip strength for shoulder health. Being able to hold your body weight overhead like this does a lot for the shoulder joint. Huge benefits. These are all isometrics. They require very little skill, if any. They're very safe and they're extremely effective. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Hmm, incredible. What's five? 

MIKE GUEVARA: Five would have to be, I think my mind goes immediately to game, to play. So, all right, pretty difficult to apply this to a general aspect standpoint because people get hurt during games. People get hurt during sport. People feel a little insecure about participating in sport because they aren't athletic in their opinion, but it doesn't have to be traditional sport. It doesn't have to be slow pitch softball, volleyball, men's league basketball, flag football, which is very dangerous. My wife still won't let me play to this day, which is one of my favorite things to do in life.

Bowling. I've never seen anyone get hurt bowling. Maybe they have, I'm sure it's happened, but bowling is a extremely physical sport. You know what I mean? You have this heavy mass, it's very asymmetrical, but it's active. And maybe we're not bowling two to three times a week. We're bowling once a week. It's active. It's competitive. Your mind isn't focused on training. Your mind is focused on the game, knocking the pins down and talking shit, and talking shit to whoever it is. My wife, she beat me and I was not trying to let her. It's the ultimate equalizer sport as well. Women can beat you. Women can beat men.

Tennis. Your athleticism is equalized because the skill overcomes the ability to move first. The skill of hitting a tennis ball and rallying has nothing to do with athleticism at first. Once you get really good at hitting the tennis ball, now it's like, all right, I'm gonna move you and then I'm gonna hit a winner different. Hadaya. My wife, she can beat me in tennis. I think I'm more athletic than her, but for some reason she can hit that ball a little bit better than I can. See what I'm saying. So like, and that's fun. That ain't fun for me, but that's fun for her. And she's not thinking about, this is a great workout.

This is, she's thinking about, I'm beating my husband in a sport and that fuels my heart. You know what I'm saying? So, and we're sharing that moment, you know what I mean? We're sharing community, we're sharing an activity together that does help us feel more fit and healthy, but it's not about that. Yeah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: This is fantastic, man. I love this. Every one of these. Yes, yes. Yes. The play one, I mean, this one is priceless. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Spike Ball. You heard of this game? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Spike Ball? Of course. Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: You know, play, go play. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Is..

MIKE GUEVARA: Stop being grown up and play. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Our genes expect us to play, man.

MIKE GUEVARA: Let's play.

SHAWN STEVENSON: You know, but it's just like our culture man is like, this is what accelerates the aging process. You know, we, we don't stop playing because we get old. We get old because we stop playing as the quote says, thanks. And, you know, in, in our culture, of course, and coming from where, from where I come from very early on, you play too much. Stop playing.

MIKE GUEVARA:  Stop playing.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Don't play with me. You know, and all these iterations of like, play is bad, right? And I need to be more serious. And then, you know, the reality is of course, like we, we keep perspective on this, but you know, my mother-in-law, who I know, she's listening right now, you know, she's the one who introduced me to this idea that, you know, but seriousness is a sickness. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Mm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And we start taking everything so seriously and it, we become more rigid. We become more rigid in our thinking. Our bodies start to reflect our perspective of life. And so we have a right to play. Our genes expect us to play. If you look at the animal kingdom, that's how you learn everything. It's through play. That's how kids learn through play. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yep. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: So you're just gonna stop learning because you are whatever age.

MIKE GUEVARA: Right.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And the cool thing is, no matter how old you are, where you are in your story, you can start to add in some play right now.

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes sir.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And start to get those benefits. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah. Like be a, you know, I consider myself a culture changer because our culture, the western culture defines especially for men, like that serious approach to life, you know, discipline, go out and take care of business. Go, go get the money, go, you know, whatever, whatever it is. That, and, you know, my dad was that like that. And there were benefits which have created a lot of discipline within me and has given me tools to operate in a high level. But then there are drawbacks. Like we, we didn't really share too many moments like, you know, that, that I feel like I'm going to share with Kaji forever. So let's change that culture. Like, let's keep playing. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Let's with everyone, like anyone's welcome, you know what I mean? And then like that competition itch that I get, you know, I'll, I'll approach that with certain venues. So I'm not gonna be hecka competitive with a bunch of kids, obviously, but I'm still gonna go play, like, you can ask my wife, she, the, I don't go hang out with the adults. If there's a bunch of kids I go play with the kids. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, yeah. Same. 

MIKE GUEVARA: And I get true joy outta that. Yeah. But if, if I'm playing you one-on-one, I'm gonna get that competitive thing going and we're gonna go at it, but we'll still be able to, you know, be cool after, you know.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, for sure. For sure. This same thing, you know what go kick the ball around. Whether it's that, whether it's, you know, the kids are playing basketball, you know, and it's just, again, it's a circulation of real energy. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Mm-hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Our relationships, our connections matter so much. And actually, this is, I want to ask you about this in closing and how important it is for you. You know, you have your wife here with you.

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And you've mentioned her several times. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: How impactful is it on. Your health, how you show up every day and you know, your vision for your life and what you're creating. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yeah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: How impactful is your relationships? 

MIKE GUEVARA: Oh, I mean, she's my partner in everything. Like when I wake up every morning to attack my day, there's, you know, she's heavily a part of that routine because, you know, she's asleep with, with kaji. But my brain immediately goes at how can I make her day a little easier, a little bit better, a little bit more functional, so that she can continue to do what makes her happy and do what she does for us. So when you have something like that, and like my history with her in terms of like, we're married, obviously we have a romance, we have a beautiful marriage, but we also have a company together. Like literally, if it wasn't for her, this doesn't exist. She designed this logo. The app doesn't exist.

Like the amount of credit that she deserves that she'll never truly realize in this setting. Well maybe she will, but just right now is, I can't put it in words. So that's just like a perspective of how much impact that it has had on me. And then obviously she gave me my son, which now my perspective on the world has completely changed. I'll be honest with you, we live in West Hollywood, which is borderline Hollywood in between La Brea and Highland. So it's not the best area to raise a child. But when we bought that house, we didn't have a kid and it was the best neighborhood on the planet. And all of a sudden I have a baby and I'm like, ah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Perspective.

MIKE GUEVARA: I don't know. I. You know what I mean? Like, everything looks different to me now and not in the right direction. So this, this relationship, you know, I, you know, legacy is a corny way of just saying like, yeah, you know, I wanna do everything for my kid. But it's true. Like, you, you don't know what that truly means until you have that. And he's a boy and he has my last name and I want him to be better than me. And I try to do anything and everything I can every single day to put him in that position. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: See what I'm saying? So like, you know, and that's just my inner circle, my immediate circle. But then I have coaches, I have friends, I have mentors, I have peers, Corey, Ramsey, Nigel with Kansas that have helped me in my journey of life that I call on when I feel vulnerable.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: And ask them questions. I hope I can add you to that list and, 'cause you're such a accomplished individual in so many ways that I've modeled my speaking after how you approach your podcast. You don't know that I've been listening to you for 13, 14 years now, and I'm on the show, but like, you don't know that the way you speak has had an influence on me, let alone the information that you deliver. All that to be said, like, you know, you are the, the, the, the average of the five people around you, man. And then that's such a huge part of how I walk every single day. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Bro, this is everything. You know I, I just gotta say this, you know, it's such a blessing, you know, your relationship and your son and for him to grow up knowing that, you know, you're the only man that he's ever gonna have in his life that you want him to be better than you. You know, that's priceless. 

MIKE GUEVARA: The only man, that's, that's a real way to put it. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. Yeah. 

MIKE GUEVARA: That's so real. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And that's, that's the mark of a really good human being and a great dad. So, you know, I appreciate you so much for coming on and sharing your incredible wisdom.

MIKE GUEVARA: Thank you. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: We gonna do so much more of this, man. Oh man. 

MIKE GUEVARA: I'm gonna be a part of Braden's life for a while, so you better get used to me. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: I appreciate it, man. You're a blessing. And, and again, can you share? 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: The GBG app Yes. Where people can get access? Yeah. Get more information, get more into your world.

MIKE GUEVARA: Okay. So, GBG hoops.com. Very simple. That's our website. You can access the app, whether you're iOS or Android. We're on both stores. iOS store and Google Play Store. Just type in GBG hoops and then follow our channels. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, GBG.hoops, and you'll find free information, free exercise, videos, education, and then obviously if you want the next level, you get the app.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. Priceless. I'm talking priceless stuff. The quality of everything is phenomenal. It is just super helpful, man. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Thank you. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: You know? And thank you for putting in the work to create it, you know? Because sir, because I know, I know. It takes a lot. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Yes, sir. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And so you are seen, you're acknowledged, you're appreciated. And I can't wait to see what you do next. Man. I'm gonna be right there. 

MIKE GUEVARA: Next mountain. Let's climb it. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: All right. My man, the one and only coach Mike G. Everybody, 

MIKE GUEVARA: GBG. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Thank you so much for tuning into this episode today. I hope that you got a lot of value out of this and enjoyed this interview as much as I did. If you did, please share this out with the people that you care about. Share this out with the young athletes that you know and that you care about, or. Parents who have young athletes, you know, your friends who have kids who are wanting to perform at a high level to improve their strength and their durability.

And regardless of the sport, what Coach Mike G teaches. And again, he has a specialty and he's renowned for his work in the field of basketball and NBA athletes, but he's worked with athletes. From pretty much every professional sport domain. And again, we're talking tennis athletes, NFL. And so so much of what he teaches translates into just better movement, more durability, and better performance.

So it's invaluable. Definitely check out his GBG app. I have the app. I utilize this app along with my young son who's 14. And getting so much value out of it is incredible. It's just like, it's priceless. And outside of that, sharing your voice and sharing this empowering information, we can make good health go viral. We can make elite performance and integrity go viral. And this is one of the things that really jumps out about Coach Mike G. So share this on your social media platform. Take a screenshot of this episode, tag me. I'm at Shawn model. And make sure to tag Coach Mike G as well. He's at GBG hoops. On Instagram.

Okay, GBG hoops on ig. I know that it would absolutely make his day fill his heart to see that love, so please make sure to share it out as well. And listen, we are just getting warmed up. We've got some incredible masterclasses and world leading, changing guests coming your way very, very soon. So make sure to stay tuned. Take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon.