Watch the full interview below or listen to the full episode on your iPhone HERE.
Stu: This week I’m excited to welcome Rodrigo Perez to the podcast. Rodrigo is a performance specialist whose movement, methodology, holistic longevity and wellness approach has helped countless athletes improve the way they move. In this episode, we discuss the importance of mobility if we want to live without aches and pains as we age. We talk about the movements we shouldn’t be doing if we have lower back problems, the length of time we should spend each day on mobility and so much more. Over to Rodrigo…
Audio Version
Some questions asked during this episode:
-
How should we move if we want to live a long and pain-free life?
-
What exercises shouldn’t we be doing if we have lower back problems?
-
How long should we spend on daily mobility?
Get more of Rodrigo Perez:
- https://www.instagram.com/holisticprohealth
- https://holisticph.com/holistica-academy/
- https://www.youtube.com/@holisticprohealthperformance
- https://holisticph.com/events/events-art-of-longevity-sumba-2024/
If you enjoyed this, then we think you’ll enjoy this interview
Katy Bowman: Why Exercise & Movement Are Two Very Different Things
Keegan Smith: Desk bound All Day? Why a Standing Desk Might Not Be the Answer. Try This Instead…
Aaron Alexander – An Introduction To The Align Method
The views expressed on this podcast are the personal views of the host and guest speakers and not the views of Bega Cheese Limited or 180 Nutrition Pty Ltd. In addition, the views expressed should not be taken or relied upon as medical advice. Listeners should speak to their doctor to obtain medical advice.
Disclaimer: The transcript below has not been proofread and some words may be mis-transcribed.
Full Transcript
Stu
(00:03)
Hey, this is Stu from 180 Nutrition, and welcome to another episode of The Health Sessions. It’s here that we connect with the world’s best experts in health, wellness, and human performance in an attempt to cut through the confusion around what it actually takes to achieve a long-lasting health. Now, I’m sure that’s something that we all strive to have. I certainly do.
(00:23)
Before we get into the show today, you might not know that we make products too. That’s right. We are into whole food nutrition and have a range of superfoods and natural supplements to help support your day. If you are curious what I find out more, just jump over to our website that is 180nutrition.com.au and take a look. Okay, back to the show.
(00:44)
This week I’m excited to welcome Rodrigo Perez to the podcast. Rodrigo is a performance specialist whose movement, methodology and holistic longevity and wellness approach has helped countless athletes improve the way they move. In this episode, we discuss the importance of mobility if we want to live without aches and pains as we age. We talk about the movements we shouldn’t be doing if we have lower back problems, the length of time we should spend each day on mobility and so much more. Over to Rodrigo.
(01:18)
Hey guys, this is Stu from 180 Nutrition and I am delighted to welcome Rodrigo Perez to the podcast. Rodrigo, how are you?
Rodrigo
(01:25)
Very good. Yourself, Stu?
Stu
(01:27)
Excellent. It’s funny because we met many, many years ago when Guy was involved in the business and I know that he was a good friend of yours. I have been seeing your messages on social media continually for so long and I thought I’ve got to catch up with you because I can see what you’re doing really aligns with a lot of the stuff that our audience is really, really interested in. So, first up, for all of our listeners then that may not be familiar with you or your work, I’d love it if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself please.
Rodrigo
(02:05)
My name is Rodrigo. I’ve been living in Australia for the last 22 years. Been coaching for 26 years. So I am Spanish, half Brazilian. Mom, is a purely Spanish person, and grew up in Brazil probably half of my life was there, and moved to Australia, was a coach there as well. Finished university there. Then exercise science and I am exercise physiologist. Moved to Australia and had a big goal to first learn English. The funny thing is just know learning the Aussie language. So I still chat with you because I was three years in Australia and I went to London. Over there I had a manager there, and then one of the gymnasiums I was working there as a swim coach. They turned to me and they said, “Where you learned your English?” I say, “Well, in Australia.” They say, “No, you learned Australian language mate.”
Stu
(03:14)
Right, exactly right.
Rodrigo
(03:16)
[inaudible 00:03:16] slow and clear. I say, “Okay, cool.” Yeah. So as I go to work, what I love, that’s very interest because when I moved to here I had so many opportunities to change career. I could work in mining, I could work in hospitality, I could be working any kind of different business now, but I had this in mind. So if I decided to leave it for good in Australia, I would love to continue what I studied. Then for me is I have so much background with fitness. Not to a lot in the sports, but for reasons. One of the big reasons was health. So a lot of problems I had on my health was as a young kid. Be a little obese kid and had to learn how to swim and learning to breathe and had to control my emotions for life. There’s a lot of bullying around.
(04:28)
So all these things just turned to my mind and how I could treat myself and how to improve it. I was learning with my journey in life. So, my experience. That took me to know more about the body and doing what I was doing back to Brazil here in Australia. Studying more, always looking to big courses, how I could learn the big courses, how I could go in Japan and US, Europe, learn all different kind of courses. For me, it’s very interesting the way I learn and I’m so quick to digest, understand on the bottom of the maths. Now if you have a maths, you have the solution down the bottom, I’m pretty quick on that way. Then I could see the big picture for everyone’s a long-term in part exercise, body stability, body strength, spine stability, nervous system. So, the many years work in different types of fitness.
(05:34)
I don’t like talking much about fitness, I like to talk about health. I think at the end of the day it’s exercise, eat, sleep, hydrate, it’s about health now, for sure. Okay, you need to get fit for this, you need to get a fit for that, you need to compete, you need to get fit. But end of the day, fitness can be totally different what is healthy. But if you get to a point, if you are healthy, your fitness is going to be very high. That’s why started to going deep into more what I could make it a bit more efficient what I was doing and more efficient exercise for my clients, how they can improve in their way. Now, how they move better or how they think sharp, how they could step up and things what they love to do. Many, many years I saw it’s way more behind than just lift weights.
(06:42)
So everyone, okay, I need to be healthy, we’re going to need lift weights. Yeah, okay. But it’s a lot of behind there now. It’s come along on how is the nervous system? What is the pathway of the nervous system? How’s your mind working to connect your body, upper body, lower body, your core? How’s your arms moving? How you sense signs for your fingers and your toes, your leg? Which kind of muscle can switch on? It’s all the awareness involved.
(07:16)
Many years I assess all different kind of people. I saw a lot of things happening now. A lot missing on a human being, as a modern human generation by generation is being changed. Kids don’t play more on the street anymore. Kids don’t play soccer outside anymore. Everything starts to be dangerous still. Like you coming from England, you know how things always change around there, like I’m coming from Brazil suburbs. But I’ve been here 23 years and I see all these things change for sure. To be in Australia, we are blessed, okay, we are a really, really good spot. Now we play we can, if you not in the middle of the city or the suburbs, west suburbs, you are just close to the beach, you can still run in the sun, you can go for a ride bike. You yourself, you’re in Byron Bay, how many things you have close by or all the kids can have around?
(08:23)
But as a generation going and the parents sometimes we get lazy to educate the kids to create all these pathways of the nervous system. Now they can get a bit more mobile or more efficient with the movements or be more connected with their own body. Sometimes it’s not just play sport that makes you that. It’s a lot more behind that. What’s first things first?
(08:49)
With that I realized, okay, I need to educate my clientele a bit different. Now in my concept, why should I load someone if that person doesn’t know how to move properly? Why should I load someone if they can’t even squat 90 degree or even below the 90 degree? Why I should give a heavy weight for someone doing a bent row if they don’t even know how to engage their scapula or if they don’t know how to retract the scapula. How they can keep the cervical stable, how they can keep the thoracic stable. That’s what people in the long term create a lot of dysfunction, because they don’t have this awareness or they’re not connecting to. But they don’t understand what it is. Okay, what means connect? I move, I walk, I jump. Yeah, but said movements, your body’s not supple.
Stu
(09:47)
That’s right. I recently read a book, another health book. I read these books all the time, no doubt, same as you. But it was talking about the whole health as a series of pillars. Obviously the big ones were nutrition and movement. But one in there that was kind of interesting for me, and I hadn’t heard of it being spoken about in a lot of detail previously, was stability. They were saying that stability is absolutely key and it is core for everything that you do, and especially as we age because our stability declines. As you mentioned before, it’s all very well going into the gym and just lifting weights, just doing these tried and tested movements and then maybe smashing ourselves in a high intensity class and then getting in a sauna and stuff like that. But if you don’t understand the fundamentals of what you’re actually doing and working on the framework of stability and movement and flexibility and mobility, then we’re missing the point.
(10:53)
I think that will start to catch up on you as we age. I’m now 51 and I’m realizing that I probably need to do a lot of work on my mobility, my flexibility and my stability to try and make myself more robust as I age. So my question to you is how should we be thinking about movement then today if we essentially want to live a long but pain-free life? Because so many people have got a bad back or my shoulders or my hips. Of course you go to the gym and you’ve just got machines and weights and classes and stuff like that. But that’s where I see that you think so differently and I can see that you’re working and training and living with everybody from the weekend warrior to the elite athlete in whatever given sport. So, what do you say to those people that are just going to the gym doing the same old workout every single day but perhaps not feeling their best and unsure where to even start.
Rodrigo
(11:56)
First, it’s not sustainability over there. No doubt that it’s not sustainability. If I’m doing this high intensity training every single day, it’s not lot of sustainability there. Even some bodybuilders when they get in their fifties they keep the muscle up, but to be honest they all suffer with the back pain. Cervical, thoracic, lower back. Don’t have one or two bony discs, they have four or five, six. So bodybuilding is probably suffering a lot. Olympic lift is the same, powerlifts would be the same too. But it’s majority of people when we talk about this just gym, gym, gym, gym.
(12:46)
Big thing when I talk about efficiency, we’re going to talk more. It is good you mentioned about nutrition because that’s other part I went very holistic and deep to make all these nerves or the nervous system work properly. I had to go towards to nutrition as well. Because sometimes what you eat can really upset your nerves, can really upset the pathway of nerves, so the information don’t cross over at the same way. The pain is your background of food, how bad you can eat, how much inflammation you have in the body, how much your gut can bloated all the time. But we can go more deep in after there.
(13:26)
Back to your question, definitely as you mentioned to you I’m getting 50, I need to look into stability, mobility and stretch. Yes, it is big I would say when you’re over 35 is a big one. 35, 40, 45, 50, 60. But the more people I assess, the more clients I’m getting into, I see the problem is not only the age. This problem is coming to the young age as well. Even the high elite athletes, sometimes they before to see me, they’ve been spending so much time doing heavy weights. Squats, deadlifts, bench press. Now, that’s the three big ones a lot of people believe.
(14:16)
You increase the power, increase the strength. But that’s all, doesn’t mean they make people supple, it doesn’t mean it’s going to teaching my athletes get a new skill or make their level going to the next step. Even putting parts all I’m work functionally, so the functional training. But a lot of people has this concept of a functional training doing a circuit, four or five, 10 exercises. Okay, five exercises. You do squats here, you do lunges over there, you do this slam ball and in front of you you’re doing swings and doing battle ropes. We made 30 seconds each you change or you’re doing one minute, you have two minutes rest, it’s a circuit, you change. Well, you got all the movement patterns there but you shouldn’t work the real movement what you need to. You don’t teach your body to have new skills.
(15:16)
Then when we work in mobility, mobility, people have tennis to think about is a stretch but it’s not really stretch, it’s a combination of the muscle flow together with the joints. It’s an open a bit more area into the joints. So we create more range of motion across there. But sometimes you don’t need to stretch all the time, you probably need strength. So you need to strengthen your body in different areas that you haven’t ever been. So squats to 90 degree, can you go in to down deep squats? But when you’re going down deep squats, first, can you maintain a good posture? What you mean, can I keep my spine up and right from the cervical way down to the coccyx? When you’re down there, can you hold there for one minute? Are you strong? Can you lift from there? So these little things is like we have small muscles around these areas. They don’t be working properly, now they need to be worked, they need to get strong in that area.
(16:26)
Part of mobility not sometimes just sit and just move the joints. You need to flow. Why? Because in each work in a myofascia, so all the myofascia release across, all these links we have in the body, so it’s links and myofascia we have across the body. So they have to create more movement, they have to get a bit more elastic around there. Then we start to create more mobility, because otherwise, as you say, after you’re 50, 55, you start getting slow. Your body don’t move that supple anymore because you just lean your work which is doing squats. I just like deadlifts. But your body don’t be moving different ways. So for people going gym every day, definitely is no sustainability there.
(17:14)
They should look into work in different parts. Not only heavy weights, not only strength, but getting parts of stability, working stability it starts to strengthen your body. You work more the nervous system [inaudible 00:17:27] and you go to the mobility as well. Big thing, what my view is, inside of the media today we all have to be careful. We have these massive gymnastics, beautiful mobility, they’re going deep or they’re bringing the leg up at the head. But you’re probably not able to do that. A lot of the people not able to do that. People like them, they probably took them 10, 20 years to do it. They’re being trained since they’re five, six years old. So they educate their body to be there but they have to understand their clients or who watch them are not able to.
Stu
(18:10)
So would the guys then, well everybody then, that is attending a gym, a normal regular gym and lifting the weights, maybe doing the circuit, should they be thinking about incorporating things like yoga and Pilates into their week? Or are there other ways to work on your stability and mobility outside of those two? They’re the most common ones/ everybody at the gym, they’ve probably got classes to do things but still unknown I think from their perspective.
Rodrigo
(18:37)
All right, so if we have to use that to make a schedule for the week, definitely. I would say don’t spend too much time in the weights. Probably two, three days a week on the weights. The other days definitely going to Pilates or going to yoga. Also, stability work, you can do a lot in the gym. Like my programs, you can do a lot of single leg deadlifts, single leg pulls, single leg push. There’s all different ways whether we can do it at the gym and be part of the weight training, but a lot increased stability and getting strong as well. First because when we work stability, we need to work a lot of the mind, we have to think to do it. As we think we have to do it and we switch my nervous system, engage more muscles so we can burn away more energy doing that way than just lift heavy. Like down on the bench, let’s do it. But you don’t switch your glutes, you don’t switch your core. But do work in stability, you can do it.
(19:42)
But if Monday through Friday, let’s say I would have some week Tuesday, Thursday do we heavy weights, going big patterns there. Monday, Wednesday and Friday I would do some yoga in the morning, Pilates in the afternoon for the other days. Mix up with the cardio routines. That’s the other thing, you shouldn’t be doing long distances, long cardio every single day. So, I call them micro cardio. So, high intensity training, how people do it while they can get off. I would say doing 10 to 15 minutes high intensity but sprints. You can do a minimum two to up to four times a week after your workout, you can do it straight away. One day a week you go for the big cardio. So, that’s when talk about zone two.
Stu
(20:36)
How long do you think that we should spend say each day on mobility? If we decided that maybe Monday and Thursday are going to be our weight training days and we’re going to go for maybe a Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday to work on that mobility and flexibility component, it would be 30 minutes? Or do we need a lot longer to really push the levers in those areas?
Rodrigo
(21:01)
I would say if you have time, when the programs are built, I’m going to launch next year, they should do be doing every day. If you have time. Now maybe some days you’re okay I’m just going to surf or I’m just going for a run today, I should spend at least 20 to 30 minutes and a good routine of mobility. So if you spend this 20 to 30 minutes, you can go up to 45 minutes if you are a big lover of mobility. At least four days a week, I would say, minimum.
Stu
(21:35)
Do we need any specialist equipment for that or could we do that literally in front of the TV watching Netflix?
Rodrigo
(21:40)
Definitely.
Stu
(21:42)
Yeah. Great.
Rodrigo
(21:42)
I love to do mine on my veranda every morning, as I call the morning routine. So we move and get the morning glory out there. So move all the parts of the body as a mobility. So loosening up the neck, thoracic, hips, spine, move the spine, scapulas, ankles, and all toes. I would say between 20 and 30 minutes if you can do every day as soon as you get up, that helps you. One thing when we talk about cortisol levels, can really up upset you in the morning, can wake up very tight. That’s one reason I like doing the mobility in the morning because if you get up in the morning you can stressed for the day before your body be dehydrated, you be so stressful, your cortisol is too high, you can’t sleep. When you get up, cortisol hits pretty high straight away and that’s why you can feel pretty stiff. You should spend a little bit of time into mobility every day. Also, mobility, it’s like any kind of sport I see mobility is sport if you want to get it better, improve and loosen, you need to practice every day.
Stu
(23:00)
Yeah. No, that’s good advice. So thinking about those people that are really focused still on the traditional weight training components. So perhaps they’ve been told that they’ve got to go in and they’ve got to use all of the big muscles, the compound muscles. So they may be doing deadlift, they might be doing squats, but they have lower back problems. So little twinges here and there, maybe they’ve got tight hamstrings so they can’t really get down properly. Are there any exercises that we flatly just shouldn’t be doing, we shouldn’t touch if we do have any sort of lower back issue at all?
Rodrigo
(23:43)
Yeah, definitely. When you talk about these problems, two movements you shouldn’t be doing, depends on how bad it is. If you have acute pain, first, don’t bend forward. Second, don’t twist the body. So if you have to bend, you should squat, and if you have to twist you should turn no. So turn your body whole body, no just twist. No, because you have the sacral and we have the S1, L5 on the top. If you twist on the top, the body don’t have been made that you twist on the top of the L5, S1. That’s when we put a lot of pressure there and really irritate the disc over there. That’s probably the most common disc problem people have when they have lower back pain. So, definitely avoid deadlifts in the beginning. Definitely avoid I would say squats, you can do it, but depend on which range.
(24:44)
It’s depending on how bad it is, but I’m big believer you can do squats on the wall with a Swiss ball giving supports for there. If you’re able to do a single leg deadlift as well with using Swiss ball as a support, you can teach the body the little hinge without loading. But heavy deadlifts you should avoid, definitely, on the straight bar should give it a break and wait for the body to get fully healed before coming back.
(25:21)
But you still need to move your body to a hip hinge. It’s a movement pattern, we need to have the hinge there and it’s one part of the lower back pain. People can get very tight around that it cannot hinge as much anymore. Or even putting your back extension is really hard because all the psoas muscles may be getting inflamed there, they can tighten up there. The core doesn’t be working properly. As you say, tight hamstring, gluteus switch off. So we need to recruit all these muscles back. So it’s not exercise we can build, it’s to have the feeling.
Stu
(26:05)
Yeah, it’s interesting because I know that a lot of those movements people will say just… One second.
Rodrigo
(26:17)
Hi there, can pick it up? I’m just in a meeting now. Thank you. I’m back. My apologies.
Stu
(26:30)
All good. No, that’s excellent. So I was just thinking that especially with a lot of these movements that we are told are very important, these big compound movements that people will often do in the gym regardless of whether they’re lifting kettlebells, do they use them or dumbbells or barbells, they’re always told to engage their core or engage their glutes. Oftentimes it’s very hard to actually know what it feels like. Engage your glutes, and I’ll say, “Well how do I engage my glutes? I’ve got no idea. Do I squeeze my bum? What am I supposed to do?” What tips could you provide to ensure that at least if we’re going in and doing these movements, we’re going to be as safe as we can and we are engaging the right muscles? Because it’s such a mystery to me to try and engage a set of muscles that I really don’t know anything about and I don’t know how to engage them. I don’t know if I’m engaging them. I don’t know, perhaps I’m setting myself up for potential injury by just not doing the right thing.
Rodrigo
(27:43)
Definitely it’s set up with the movements, a specific exercise you can do to teach your body to engage these muscles. Sometimes engage your muscles doesn’t mean squeeze the glutes. Okay, your muscles have to switch on when you apply movement and you often say, I’m a runner, I’m going to the gym to just strengthen my muscle but switch on my muscles, teach my body to switch on, because when I’m going to run and I don’t have to think, they will switch on and support me to my sport. So, that’s a big thing. That’s what I’m talking about before, I’m never going to load someone if the person doesn’t know how to move properly. Means if the nervous system doesn’t know how to talk with your muscles, if you don’t have this awareness in the muscles. So, it’s pretty hard to get in the positions to do it.
(28:41)
We talk about the core, we have two different types of core. We have embrace the core that’s more out. That’s why they showing these days have a lot of sports to do movements. But core, when you’re doing the body building and it’s a lot of isometric training. It can be two different ones because sometimes creates this stress on the core or really switch on the core very hard, very hard to lift as well. But you need to know how this core can specifically switch on, brace to make that happen. So that’s a big opinion and definitely we need to go towards neuromuscular training. So when we talk about neuromuscular training, that’s when probably mobility is like neuromuscular training, how body have to move in set areas to switch on more and stay more. That’s when we go into the component called motor control.
(29:42)
Everyone loves to to do faster. No one likes to do a little bit slow and stand about the movement or work, be more centric face to educate the body. The big thing is when we start with light weights, and depends on how many reps you’re doing. If you’re going doing heavy, say 80%, if doing kettlebells, if you don’t doing too many reps, if you’re doing one or two reps or maybe doing 10 sets, if you want to work harder, but at least you are teaching your body mastering the movement, you educate the muscles and switch on a bit more.
Stu
(30:29)
Now I know that it’s great to watch videos online. Goal state would be to book a class or a session or a consultation block with somebody like yourself that can literally guide you through all of those movements so you can get an understanding. It’s so hard to try and read about these things and then put it into practice. Now you’ve got a number of different programs, the Holistica Academy I’m particularly interested in understanding more about. Then I see workshops and retreats. So you’re doing a whole heap of stuff. If I really wanted to work on my movement, stability, mobility, flexibility, all of those things, would the Holistica Academy be a pathway to be able to actually understand all these things from an online perspective?
Rodrigo
(31:17)
Yes. Holistica Academy would be the best. So over there we have all the programs we put over there, people can assess everything. We have a program that’s called the Reset program. That’s when we talk about the net neuromuscular work. How to embrace the core, how each movement should do it. That’s what you should do in the morning together with your mobility work now. So we have a program that’s called Morning Routine, what you should do in the morning. So we have a routine with me between seven minutes up to 25 minutes or 30 minutes, how we going through together sequence of mobility. So this two programs, if you engage in one video of each in the morning, use it there, do it for 30 days and let me know how you’re going. I bet you’re going to feel way better towards to do your weight training. If you’re going surfing, if you’re going running or jiu-jitsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, swimming, you’re going to feel your body way more engaged there.
(32:26)
I build some parts with body weight strength as well so people can get a bit more smart what to do for legs or upper body, bands and kettlebells. We have a breathing pathway, so what people can learn how to breathe, how they can activate more of the diaphragm. That’s a big problem for everyone. A lot of people don’t know how they switch on the diaphragm, how they can create more stability, use the diaphragm. Diaphragm is a big one because as you talk about deadlifts, running, squats, we talk about the pelvic floor. How I can create more stability in my pelvic floor so I don’t create damage, and diaphragm is one of the big ones. So yeah, I suggest go into my Holistica Academy now you have a lot of stuff there. Then every month we launch a new thing there.
Stu
(33:19)
Okay, fantastic. For our listeners that wanted to dive into that today, where would be the best URL to take them?
Rodrigo
(33:28)
All right, so if anyone would like to know a little bit more, a lot of tips every single day, definitely go to my Instagram. It’s called Holistic Pro Health on Instagram. Holistic Pro Health. You guys can jump on my website. It’s called HolisticPH.com. Anyone, if you’d like to send me a message, you can send me to an Instagram. Can take you one or two days to answer, but at the moment I’m still answering all the message as I can. Otherwise, we have some free training and a YouTube channel, it’s called Holistic Pro Health, you should also can jump in there. The retreats is pretty nice. So the retreat usually is a 10 days full experience between mobility, movement, stability, surfing, hiking, meditation with Tom Carroll. That’s a very good experience. Next one will be on the 27th of April to the 6th of May 2024 in Sumba. Stu, you’re more than welcome to come. Man, you should come, beautiful there. Guys, I have a big surprise for next year, so I’m just working on this big project.
Stu
(34:47)
Fantastic.
Rodrigo
(34:48)
Yeah, so I have the new project coming.
Stu
(34:51)
Well, I’ll put all of the links to everything that you’ve said in the show notes, but I’m keen to dive into, you mentioned nutrition right at the start of the conversation and how you thought that was super important. Just in terms of one of the pillars that can really move the dial to decrease inflammation, to give you more energy, to allow you to sleep better. When all of those things are in place, then life generally is going in the right direction.
(35:19)
So what are your thoughts given the fact that again, it’s so confusing, everyone is pushing low-carb and keto. Then we’ve got everything from vegan all the way through to carnivore and everything in between. Intermittent fasting. A lot of these particular diets that could be trending or fad diets are going in and out of popularity. Keto was huge a couple of years ago and then people were saying maybe it’s not so good long-term, intermittent keto perhaps, maybe we need to reintroduce carbohydrates. Some people are saying that carbohydrates are not a good idea. Where do you sit in this big world of confusion in nutrition? Because I know that you’re putting it into practice, so I’m keen to hear what the experts think.
Rodrigo
(36:13)
That’s pretty cool you say there’s a confusion there. I think it is a confusion, it’s marketing. It’s ego, it’s immediate, I’m the best. So at the end of the day it’s too many things and we have just simplify. Also, what is the sustainability behind it? The more you talk about keto, carnivore, vegan, vegetarian, what’s the sustainability behind all that? But what you are missing what are you not between carbs, no carbs. Yeah, we did carbs. I think it depends on which carbs we have. A lot of places in the world, I think the big problem is coming a lot of pasta, pizza, breads, white rice. I think that’s a big problem in that area and a lot of sugar as well. So, all these turn into sugar. I think that’s a big problem for a lot of people. When you talk about dairy as well, could be a big problem because all the quality milk we get and what people get from the shop is sometimes I know these guys, they talk in the media as one is vegan and other plant-based and carnivore, get raw milk.
(37:42)
But sometimes you have to see how is the reality of everyone around. If you want to be a good educator, you need to see what’s the good sustainability for everyone. How you [inaudible 00:37:54] your supplements to help people and healthy and that’s why need to understand what I need to. What is my stage, what I should cut off, what upsets my body. Today I know what upsets my body. I know what I want eat too. My every year I try, when I get between probably April to August, it’s the months I start to get close to the winter, I try a little bit piece everything. I persist every year with then to see what’s going on and I know what I have to cut off. I know what I cannot eat all the time or maybe just once a month, things what can upset my gut or make me put a lot of fat around my waist or really can upset my cholesterol, things like that.
(38:43)
So when we talk about the exercise healing process, diet is so important. It’s way more important than a proper treatment. A treatment definitely helps relieve, improve. But treatment at the end of the day, it’s like a band-aid. You just put a band-aid on the top, doesn’t mean that’s a full heal. Your body can really create these bad habits just leaving from treatment, I have pain, I do this, my treatment. Feeling better, next week feeling pain again, doing treatment. So persist with something, it’s not sustainability, it’s not full healing. [inaudible 00:39:34] correct. So when we talk about the pillars of someone in rehabilitation or build back, nutrition is a big one. Nutrition, lifestyle, sleeping pattern, hydration, food. Yeah, a lot of food creates the inflammation in the gut, can stop all the pathway of the nerves, all the information can’t cross your body, or let the area can heal properly.
Stu
(40:05)
So what would you say then to people that are concerned about carbohydrates? Because I know that this is the big one in sports and performance. Carbohydrate is thought to be the most important source of fuel for athletic performance. Irrespective of whether you are a top tier athlete or a weekend warrior, somebody like myself that just likes to go to the gym two or three times a week. We are bombarded and told that low-carb, low-carb, low-carb, no carb. You mentioned that it’s important to consume carbohydrates. So what do you personally do?
Rodrigo
(40:44)
Okay, first my main carbohydrate comes from fruit and veggies. Veggies, sweet potato. Let’s say I don’t eat a lot of salads, sometimes. I’m the kind of person, I don’t like to be just one thing I to be able, I’m big believer more Mediterranean diets and paleo diets. So these two diets, I think they have a lot of sustainability there. But a lot of my grains, sometimes my veggies, I do have meat. So why? If you ask me, I’m O positive, that’s my blood type. It needs a lot of meat. I try don’t eat a lot of meat, I try to bring some white meat as well. I do prefer have white meat at nighttime. I can sleep away better. I prefer have fish, I prefer have eggs or sometimes even tofu. Saying all that, it’s not something I have all the time, like tofu, tempeh, I don’t have all the time. Maybe once a month, maybe twice a month. But often I have in between chicken, fish. That’s what I try to have at night times.
(42:05)
All the fatty meats I try to have during the day, 2:00, probably 3:00 in the afternoon, maybe let’s say probably. But I try getting a lot of quinoa. Sometimes, I would say maybe three times a month I probably have some rice, between white rice and brown rice or black rice. White rice, just if you haven’t any Japanese restaurants, like my partner’s a Japanese Brazilian, we educate our daughter with a lot of Japanese foodstuff. She loves sashimi. She really can be very carnivore. Sashimi is a meat, that’s her, and fruit. So I do myself on that area. I know for me, I cannot eat a lot of dairy. The only dairy I can have is a goat milk or goat cheese because the casein, it is two different types of casein. Casein one, casein type two. Casein type one, it’s a lot of very inflammatory. Type two, it’s not much inflammatory. It’s a bit more mellow. I love goat cheese, pretty yummy. I try to get it a little bit more fat so I eat probably one avocado day I would say.
(43:31)
So my diet is being pretty much balanced between, I would say around 60% between fats and protein and 40% carbs. But my carbs just way more between a lot of foods. I love red papaya, I probably eat one a day. I like sweet potatoes, I like to make mashed potatoes with sweet potato. So I thought to blend my plate like this. Sometimes, probably a couple of times in a month I had a piece of gluten-free bread, very high quality bread. I can have one or two pieces off of that, but it’s not often. People sometimes think I’m carnivore, but I’m not. That’s what I’m saying. I’m way towards more a paleo and Mediterranean diet. I have some olives sometimes because they high in fats. Probably are doing a very small bowl salad when I eat salad. I like to put some olives there because I want more fats, I want to have more protein and olives can give you that for me. But yeah, that’s how I work a little bit my own nutrition.
Stu
(44:53)
Well that’s good to hear. So we’re coming up on time, but I’m keen just to dive in again to your personal habits a little bit more just on the final question. It’s about your personal non-negotiable habits that you do each and every day that allow you to absolutely win the day, to crush the day. It doesn’t have to be movement related, it could be sunlight or gratitude, journaling, sauna, ice, sleep routines, whatever it is. What are those things that you just do on automatic pilot every day, just because you know that they make you feel fantastic?
Rodrigo
(45:34)
Smile.
Stu
(45:35)
Yeah, no one’s said that. No one has ever said that. No one has ever said that.
Rodrigo
(45:43)
It’s a big thing, get up and smile. I think it’s a big clock there. I think your day starts there.
(45:48)
So your alarm ring, even if you [inaudible 00:45:50] it, let’s go surf or let’s go to do the weights or let’s jump on the ice bar. No, it’s just smile, turn around, stand up from bed, glass of water, toilet, movement, read, meditation, I’m done. But the first thing I cannot miss, it definitely is my big smile. I think will just make your day. If you get up, straightaway in your mind, I have to do this. Have that meeting, because people have [inaudible 00:46:26] there. How many times you got up in the morning and say, “I cannot forget about this guy. I cannot forget about this meeting.”?
Stu
(46:34)
That’s right. Every day, that’s it. Well we get up, we switch on our phones. Then before you know it, the phone’s in charge.
Rodrigo
(46:39)
Yes it is. So, for me it is just turn in my bed, whatever happened, I just put a smile on my face. Now that’s just a little habit, simple, because we have to train the mind and this mind helps a lot. You have to train the nervous system as well. As soon as you’re doing that, you keep a big churning and beautiful longevity energy around you as soon as you get up. Whatever happen after this smile, the smile will come back because the gratitude is there. So it gives you this smile, already is a gratitude for your day for what you have.
Stu
(47:19)
That’s brilliant. No, it’s good. Great to hear. No one has ever said that and it makes so much sense. It is.
Rodrigo
(47:25)
It is. Remember I said to you, when I study and look into what’s behind efficiency for all day, efficiency for performance in the athletes or be efficient to make a coffee. How many people get out bed? So cranky soon as they put in the coffee outside, oh it smells, now I’m happy because I have my coffee. It’s not like that. It’s just addiction though. Sometimes you need to be yourself without this addiction.
Stu
(48:05)
It is an addiction.
Rodrigo
(48:09)
But my coffee, I have it after I’m doing everything, I don’t touch the jug, I don’t touch the machine, I don’t touch nothing. Get up, big smile, I’m still in bed on my pillow. Look in the side. Every now and then, my little one jump in the bed, probably 3:00 in the morning, 4:00 she jump in middle. Sometimes I get up and look at the side, her fingers straight away in my nose or my mouth, I look and just laughing. I say, “Little one.”
Stu
(48:37)
That’s right.
Rodrigo
(48:40)
I turn around. Just because sometimes you put it to yourself. Things like that can really upset you, if you get up and go, “I’ve got this problem here, this shit there, when am I going to do it?” Your day start from that. If you have this in your mind, your day, you’ll be hard for yourself to dealing if you’re stressed.
Stu
(49:02)
Definitely.
Rodrigo
(49:04)
That’s a big point. Doesn’t matter if you’re meditate or not. You know what I mean? For sure meditation helps you to solve dealing with problems way better. But it’s all about how you get up in the morning, how you put yourself out there.
Stu
(49:20)
That’s brilliant. Very good advice. Very good advice indeed. No, that’s fantastic. Well, Rodrigo, we’re there. We’ve finished.
Rodrigo
(49:32)
There’s one point for you. Don’t forget it guys, a big surprise. So next year we launch my first book.
Stu
(49:42)
My word.
Rodrigo
(49:44)
They’re going to say, what’s the title? It’s a big surprise. Everything, what we spoke today is going to have that plus everything, even people going to the gym every day or how’s it doing, how you schedule everything. Pretty excited.
Stu
(50:03)
Well, promise me then that when the book is ready and the book is launched, that you’ll come back on the podcast and we can talk about it because I’m very, very keen to dig into that. I’ve spoken to a lot of people that have launched books and they’ve said it is a labor of love. It’s something that has commanded so much time and they’ve poured all their energy and passion into it. I’d love to talk more about that for sure.
Rodrigo
(50:26)
I tell you what, even for me, I learned Portuguese but now everything in English, I tell you, it was an adventure. It was a massive adventure, a massive journey.
Stu
(50:38)
Oh my word. That’s fantastic. I’m so excited for you. I can’t wait.
Rodrigo
(50:42)
One thing that people say, “Oh you here now? I know it’s a lot.” I say, “Yes.” But you know what? They built something, a little bit extra love in their heart and maybe I’m really looking for the next [inaudible 00:50:55] for that first one.
Stu
(50:57)
Around what date will we be looking at seeing that on the shelves and in the stores?
Rodrigo
(51:02)
We are looking to end of March we start to press sales. So say 1st of April and May be able to start to buy.
Stu
(51:15)
Fantastic. Great. Well I’m going to lock you in the diary then for that time. I want to talk more about that. Very excited. Fantastic. Rodrigo, it has been a pleasure to dig into some of your knowledge and wisdom today. So, thank you so much. All of the links that we’ve spoken about, we’ll put in the show notes and then our listeners will be able to follow you and dial into your message and connect with you on those platforms. But certainly for me, thank you so much. I really enjoyed the conversation.
Rodrigo
(51:43)
Thanks Stu, was pretty cool.
Stu
(51:45)
Fantastic.
Rodrigo
(51:45)
Thanks for talking with me.
Stu
(51:46)
Thank you mate. Bye-Bye.
Rodrigo
(51:46)
See you.
