The Fourth Quarter Podcast
Living the last quarter of your life with intention around health, fitness, nutrition and joy! Learning from others and tuning in to hear live one on one coaching that educates, inspires and motivates you to move!
The Fourth Quarter Podcast
EP016: Connecting Generations Through Movement and Nature!
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Your future health is not built in one big makeover. It is built in the tiny choices you repeat when no one is watching, like taking a walk instead of picking up your phone, or doing recovery work before pain forces you to.
We sit down with Ryan Fontillis, a dad, husband, and kinesiology-trained health-minded guy who accidentally turns a practical parenting problem into a fast-growing community: the East Bay Toddler Ruck Club. What starts as carrying a child in a backpack to get a nap and a workout becomes a multi-family movement habit that brings parents, kids, and even grandparents into nature together. Along the way, we talk about why modern life makes stillness too easy, how outdoor exercise supports both physical fitness and mental health, and why “keep moving” is the most consistent longevity advice we keep hearing.
Ryan also shares his work with Teen Esteem, speaking to students about bullying, pressure, mental health, nicotine, fentanyl, and high-risk choices. We dig into the brain chemistry behind screen addiction, dopamine, and why real-world habits can help restore balance. Then we shift into a powerful recovery segment, including sauna, cold plunge, meditation, physical therapy, stretching, and chiropractic care as a practical blueprint for active recovery and healthy aging, especially if you want to stay strong into your 60s, 70s, and beyond.
If this conversation lights a fire, subscribe, share the episode with a friend who needs momentum, and leave us a review so more people in the fourth quarter can find it. What is one habit you will start this week to help your 80-year-old self?
Wake up, wake up, and listen up. Welcome to the fourth quarter podcast with your hosts, Doug Talmud, and Ed Emia. Tune in as we dive into living your best life in the fourth quarter of your life. Hear from health and lifestyle experts, inspirational stories, learn simple steps to keep you motivated or to help get you started. Finally, join us as we coach others live on air who want to begin a healthy lifestyle or just might be stuck and need a breakthrough. Remember, it's never too late to decide to be great. Momentum keeps you motivated, so take a deep breath. Leave it and let's go. Welcome back to the fourth quarter podcast. We've got an exciting guest today. Ted, I'm gonna let you do what you do and introduce him. But before you do, Ted, man, oh man, I am just getting awesome feedback from our last week's guest, Liz. On episode 15, if you haven't listened to it, I even when I posted it up on social media, I think I said something like, This episode is gonna change you. So if you haven't listened to it, go back and listen to Liz, episode 15. The title of the episode is How Movements with Meaning Turn Grief into Gratitude. It is just an epic story, lots of grit, lots of determination, no stop, no quit. The girl is a beast. It was a pleasure getting to know her on that level on the interview last week. And uh and again, I'm excited to get to know our guest this week as well. So, Ted, what's what's coming up? And then go ahead and introduce our guest after that.
Why Generations Need Each Other
SPEAKER_01Yeah, first of all, just going back to Liz's story. Man, I mean, I've listened to it a couple times, and her story about the triathlon that she did, the Iron Man, the guy putting the metal around her, is that's a cool spot. What an emotional story. That was pretty cool. Coming up next week, we have a guest, Kevin Hall, who is a nutritionist and supplement expert. Had listeners ask us about things like peptides and GLP ones. Sorry. We got you. And we we actually talked to Kevin last night, just a ton of information. Can't wait to get him on next week. Yeah. And then in the near future, we're going to have Gus Fernandez, who is in the senior care field, and he'll be talking about long-term care, senior care options, senior living communities, that type of thing, which is very important to all of those of us in the fourth quarter. Those are those are upcoming guests. And today we have Ryan Fontillis on, among other things, father, husband, my son-in-law. Uh he was a kinesiology and exercise science major in college, works in the pharmaceutical and biologics industry. But more important, as we've had guests on during the podcast, one of the things that keeps coming up is the connections between generations. Back in the day, I remember when my mom was growing up, she lived in an apartment in San Francisco, and I think there were three generations in the house, and that was very common there. That isn't as much the case now. So connecting the generations is so important. And Ryan has been involved in starting a couple of groups or being involved with groups that are connecting the generations. So we want to have him on today to discuss that. And then later on in the show, we're going to have a special guest come on and discuss some things about recovery and what they do to help themselves recover after workouts and that type of thing. So with that being said, welcome to the show, Ryan. Welcome, Ryan.
SPEAKER_04It's all right. Yeah, if you know, this is an audio show, so you unfortunately our guests can't see Ryan, but Ryan's he's a pretty thick dude and he's a youngster. So, you know, really, Ted, I, you know, he's on, but he's on the fourth quarter, and we're gonna try to some extrapolate some wisdom from this young man on on how you know some of the things he does can benefit us as we as we age. But Ryan, real quick, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you?
SPEAKER_02Uh 37.
SPEAKER_0437. Okay. So as a 30, so I'm just a curious. When I meet people and I try to get to know them, I get real curious, especially if there's a topic. And at 37 years old, do you think about your 80-year-old self? And if you do, what do you do? How do you live today that benefits that 80-year-old self?
SPEAKER_02I don't daily think about my 80-year-old self. I think I started to a little bit more once my kids got here.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02Because interestingly enough, and this is maybe a little bit of a personal story, uh, my one good thing that I've learned about my 80-year-old self potentially is that I might be a little bit more cared for than I originally thought, because everybody continues to tell me that as a girl dad, my girls are gonna be by my bedside far more than if I had these these sons that I once dreamed of. So I'm starting to think about that guy a little bit more now as a as a two-time girl dad. But you know, I honestly I'm I'm kind of trying to live for today. So I guess you could say that some of the things that we'll go into later, I don't always think about the long term as much as I do today and the passions that I have today, because some of the passions that I've involved myself in take on a bit of risk, right? And maybe don't take into account my eight-year-old self and you know the ability to walk properly every day. So uh that's a really deep answer to your question that I I I think I waver off of living for today and then living uh for the best of myself down the road.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, I I remember being 37 and and uh I and I never thought about my 80-year-old. I didn't even think about my 38-year-old self, to be honest. It was it was in the moment. But as I am approaching 60, which I'll be on the 16th of this month, people who are older, they certainly look back at their younger self and say, what the hell was I thinking? And so, you know, if I can plant that seed or give you a little bit of wisdom, uh it's a it's a great thing to nurture and nourish as you start entering a new decade because you're getting coming up on your 40-year decade and it's a great time, it's a great season. You're gonna be stronger, more fit, more wise, and and a lot of good things. But sometimes we still have that 20-year-old mindset where I can crush this and I can do all this, and you can and you will, but they'll just plant that seed on you, Ryan. But Ted, did you have a question?
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, I mean, I think I think that balancing act is still there with us, even in the fourth quarter. Is oh yeah, you know, we we want to be healthy and and continue to be healthy moving forward. You never know what's in store. So you have to live for the day as well. And it's it's much more in focus when there aren't 60 years or 50 years in front of you, right? You know, you you don't know how many years you have. And so yeah, that that is something that I think we deal with at any point in our life is that that balancing act between now and the future.
How The Toddler Ruck Club Started
SPEAKER_04Very cool. So, Ted, you mentioned something about starting, uh, Ryan, you started a a ruck club. Tell us a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so it kind of started out of necessity. Ted's daughter, my wife, Katie, works often on weekends, and I would be solely responsible during the day for the care of our, I would say, around one year old daughter, so about three years ago. And I found myself in this position. My personality lends itself to not not being stir crazy in the house. So I I had these I wanted the child needed to get down for a nap. I needed to get a workout in, and I prefer to do that outside. So I found myself in this position where I started using this backpack carrier for long walks and then challenging myself for some of these uphill hikes that we have access to in the East Bay. And I thought it was hilarious. Well, one, it was super very helpful that Riley would fall asleep in the backpack pretty much instantly. And she was using a binky at the time, so I always knew she was asleep when the the binky fell out of her mouth and hit me in the shoulder or fell on the ground. But I thought it was funny because she was out cold and I would take videos of us walking up the hill. And so I'd posted them, you know, on my Instagram story, and and I got a lot of feedback from people that, hey, this would be, you know, something people would be interested in. And I took a poll on Instagram. I think I got like 10 votes. So the poll was, would you be interested in a toddler rug club? I think I got the the responses were yes or hell no. I think I got like one hell no and probably ten yeses, and I said, All right, well, let's give this a shot. So I just put out uh feelers to my friends. I invited probably two handfuls of people to come to Alibo for a hike. And we had six people that first hike that was about I want to say three miles long.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02Honestly, one of our longer ones. I've had some feedback since then that we should scale it back, three at most. But yeah, we've been a group now, parent meetup group, the East Bay Todd the Rut Club for 15 months, I think.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02And we've grown from you know six families to as many as 40 families at a time.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, hiking anywhere from pretty much like Oakland to Sinnol.
SPEAKER_04So you guys try you guys travel around and find different spots and and go rucking.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. We we're trying, we we have to obviously look out for the weather. Right. So that we've been very fortunate. We haven't reschedule any hikes or cancel any hikes, but we've taken into account kind of what the weather may look like, whether we go shady or flat, right uphill. Yeah, families seem to enjoy it. We get I think our youngest well, actually I I know definitively now our youngest participant was our newborn daughter last week who participated in the hike at just over three weeks old.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_02That's in the stroller with her mom. We've had grandparents come that have been upwards of 65. So we careful. 68. I don't think you're the oldest one out there, Ted. I think we've had somebody else that was Yeah, there it's it's been great.
SPEAKER_01There have been some grandparents out there, and and what's fun about this, and you know, just to give a plug to it, you know, first of all, Ryan has really promoted it. They go to the farmers market in Danville once a month, and I think in Alamo once a month, and have the backpacks there, and people stop by and check them out. It it's just a fun deal because first of all, you're getting the the parents out there for some exercise, right? They're there with their kids. The kids are in the backpacks a lot, but now I see as they're getting a little bit older, the kids are out, they want to be out there hiking, and it just lets them be a part of nature and and experience that exercise and being outside. You know, they'll they'll do their hike, they'll have a picnic or they'll go for pizza afterwards, and it's just a fun family time together, family and friends, becoming new friends, making new friends. So, you know, it's really, really a nice setup. And again, just connecting the generations. You have, you know, my granddaughters out there, my daughter, myself, you know, so it's it's fun that we we can all be out there and you know, I I like to think that I'm setting an example for them that they they see us out there and this is something they can be doing into their older years. Right.
SPEAKER_04Which is w massive and huge. I was telling Ted earlier that you know we live in a society today where we are inundated with screens, and it really takes a conscious effort to get outside and move. It's so it's too damn easy nowadays just to have a screen and be entertained and never and not move for hours. You know, people find themselves scrolling on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok for, you know, oh let me just check something. Next thing you know, two hours pass by, like, oh shoot. And so what you're doing, Ryan, is really awesome to you know make that part of their lifestyle and something that they're that's their comfortable, that's their norm. And that man, keep doing that and keep growing that community. And if you you can find a way to branch it out and get it into other states and other homes, you know, patent that stuff, man, or license it or do something, but get it get it going. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_01Well, I actually speaking of that, one of his college buddies has just started uh another uh chapter, if you will, of the Ruck Club. Up in where's that?
SPEAKER_02And yeah, he he called me a couple months ago and he was like, I love what you're doing. Tell me more about it. And I was like, you know, I gave him the old spiel I just gave you guys, and yeah, up in Placer County, he started a group called Mother Ruckers.
SPEAKER_04Oh, okay. I've heard of them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention, you know, it started off as guys, a couple of guys carrying kids on their backs, but it has now turned into at its on its face, just a community of families, all ages and abilities that strollers, backpacks, walkers, everybody's welcome. So, you know, I I didn't even start hiking. I remember my first hike was when I was 25 years old and I lived in Walnut Creek with my buddy Steven, who lived up in Humboldt, and he took me on my first hike, and I was like, this is miserable. Why do people do this? And I and and now I'm like 10 years into doing this, having gone to all these national parks and kind of changed my own lifestyle and found it enjoyable. And you know, that's kind of what we're hoping to encourage is yes, we can get off the screens, but there is a a lot of benefits to nature that are therapeutic on top of exercise and all that.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. I think the Japanese have they they coined that there's a term called nature bathing, where it actually you are bathing a lot of toxicity off of you and bringing in a lot of just the good natural feelings and vibes and stuff like that. There's a lot of science behind it. Uh if you haven't heard of it, check it out, look it up. It's cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. You know, and well when we were growing up, and most of our audience, you you probably can't appreciate this as much, Ryan. But we would just we'd leave the house in the morning, and our parents might not see us for you know 12 hours. Right. We we'd be gone, we'd be out down by the river, railroad tracks on our bikes, we'd come home to eat every now and then or go to a friend's house to eat. Just a whole different thing. I know with with my daughters, I couldn't imagine not knowing where they were every minute of the day. But we would do that, and you know, you'd you'd come in the house when the streetlights went on. That was our our sign to to come in. Very different now with television was around. I don't want to make myself sound too old. You're old with television. Is that a copy of television was just coming out though? That that's how old it is. I mean, I remember when the television was still black and white, and we had we had three channels, sometimes a fourth. And I'm really dating myself, but but I'm sure our audience can appreciate this. You had the rabbit ears, those like these little metal things and had tin foil on them. You move them around to make sure the TV came in a little clearer, but I digress. I mean, we just it was just a matter of being outside, it was just something we did all the time. And now it's it's changed. You know, sports are all organized now. You don't have kids just outside and meeting up with the friends in the neighborhood and hanging out and playing ball. And right.
Teen Esteem And Tough Conversations
SPEAKER_04And it's not a bad thing, it's not a it's not a it's not always a bad thing, but it it is funny though if a kid has gone out of the house for 12 hours, you're calling the police, or you know, that's a missing child up report nowadays, though, or a kidnapping or something. Hey, but Ryan, tell us a little bit about uh so you do this other thing called Teen Esteem. That's a cool little uh, you know, I looked into that a little bit, and that's a that's a cool thing, man. Break that open, unpack that. How did that start? What is it?
SPEAKER_02Right around COVID, I had a friend I kind of rekindled with after high school reach out to me. And at the time I was putting out some content on social media in regards to like anti-bullying, and he saw it and he said that's that's good stuff, and I think you should get involved with this group called Teen Esteam. Teen Esteam is a nonprofit that started in Danville, I want to say like 30, just over 30 years ago, maybe 35 years ago. And the goal of the organization is to talk to as many kids, anywhere from like third grade, I think is the youngest, up to ninth grade. Is actually I've spoken to some high school seniors as well, so all the way through pretty much K through 12. And we talk to the kids kind of about choices, a lot of different things, mental health, substance abuse, a lot of things they're gonna see in high school, a lot of the high-risk choices, and we kind of are able to talk about our experiences in life and what colors are our decisions now as adults, right? You know, are the things that we've been through. So through that organization that I've been involved with for like five years now, any time I can make to impact a room of these kids, I try to treat that room as if like my daughter or one of my daughter's friends is in that room to be able to have the impact. It's hard sometimes because you know they are attention spans are are low and these are sensitive topics, so they don't always want to hear everything we have to say. But my goal when I walk in a room with these kids is I usually can as I start speaking, I start to pick up on like who's putting their head down, who's locked in. And as we go over the different topics, you can see what's resonating with them.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02And my hope is to kind of bring some of those heads up. And you know, maybe this topic doesn't apply to you, but this topic does. And some of the topics that we go over, like, you know, fentanyl as an example, right? It's it really comes down to one choice whether or not, you know, they make a high-risk choice that's going to affect our future or not give them a future, right? So there are some pretty pretty sensitive topics we go over, but I but the goal is can we can we positively affect the the rest of their choices on their path? Because sometimes they'll get off track, but we can always get them back on track.
SPEAKER_04Right. Very cool, man. That's awesome stuff. After you guys leave, is is it a day-long program or half a day, or how how does that work?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's either one day for 90 minutes or two days for two 45 minute periods. That first period, we kind of introduce ourselves, we go over media, we go over mental health pressure, right, and we talk uh usually end it with this analogy that compares cups to value. And talk about how people at different points in their life feel as if they don't have as much value. We end that day, we usually come back, and with the second day we talk more about some really high risk choices like nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, prescription drugs. We talk about the physical progression line, which is basically uh an intro into sex ed.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02And we talk about other sensitive topics like sexual assault, sexual abuse. Yeah, just kind of make them aware of of all the stuff that's out there.
SPEAKER_04That's awesome. And does the school have something for after you guys leave for them to kind of unpack it a little even a little bit more or to keep the con the discussion going?
SPEAKER_02Generally, it's in their health class. So their health class times it appropriate to their modules that they're going through. Right, right. Our topics generally complement the things that they're gonna talk about in that class. Uh they get a survey afterwards where they let us know how they're doing, but also or have a section where they can fill in their how if they need help.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's uh it's anonymous unless they need help. We get as speakers when we leave a school after being there for a couple days in a week, we get a report back of like, you know, basically satisfaction level, which doesn't mean as much to me as you know, like if it's 96 or 90 percent found this helpful. Because you're not gonna get get everybody. But what matters to me the most is going down, and I think two things stick out for me the number of kids. Kids that say report that they want to look into stop stopping using nicotine products. Cause that's that's a that's a tough one that I've personally dealt with in my teen years and then into adult life. And then secondly, the number of kids that report that they need assistance in mental health. Like that's that's another bridge that took me about six years to cross without the help of the speaker of my class to be able to do that. So those two things, when I see that metric on their surveys, I say, all right, we mission accomplished.
SPEAKER_04Very cool. So you're opening doors and building bridges for these kids. That that's uh that's and that's this, Ted, right? This is the whole generational thing, right? When you bring in, I mean, Ryan's 37 now and you're going back, reaching back down and and helping be lending the hand and pulling people forward. That's freaking awesome stuff, man. Really cool. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, uh just to just to jump back to the ruck club real quick, and we'll get back to Tina Steam as well. But uh what what's happened with that is not only are they having the family hikes, but now they are doing dad's hikes and mom's strolls with the strollers on just the areas, the the paths around here. So it's it's ever expanding, and it's it's it's really building a great community. Really a cool thing to see it continue to expand the way that that it is. And hopefully, like uh what happened with this friend, there'll be other other areas, other people that will start these up and and do something similar. It's it's just so important to have our kids out there and having them active. I mean, we see that we see that now with with us as we get older, that we want to be out there, we want to be experiencing nature and and staying active, keep moving. I played golf with with a friend that I hadn't seen in a while on Friday. We talked about the podcast, we were kind of going over it, and he said, So if you had to sum up what all your guests have said over you know the period you've been doing this, what would be the one thing that is the most important that continues to come up? And I mean, without hesitation, it was moving. Movement, yeah. That's what I was thinking in my brain as you were asking that. Yeah, I mean, we've had so many different guests on from different areas, whether you know it's an inspirational guest, someone like Betty that's 82, or chiropractors, the chiropractors. You know, the the message just keeps coming out time and time again is just you've got to move. And it doesn't matter what age you are, and it's great to see three-week-old babies out there moving with their parents, and that's just something that will be ingrained in their nature as they they move forward. So I think it's important through the generations to keep that message going out there.
SPEAKER_02One one parallel I can give you between the the two, the the Ruck Club and Tina Steam. One topic that we go over in day one is media. And I talk about how I'm a part of the generation. The iPhone came out when I was a senior in high school. So all of the generations before us didn't have the supercomputer in their hand to take attention away from the real world constantly.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02Um, and then I talk about we we talked about all the different tools that we use, how they feel about them, the apps, you know, the platforms, what they find helpful, what they don't like so much. And when we get into the not so helpful stuff, they talk about addiction, they talk about it taking time away, you know, from the real world. And one thing I focus on a lot is if you had to like create a timeline of human beings in our brains, and and then put on that timeline how long social media and the iPhone's been out, it's like so small. Like our brain is not equipped to handle all the information that our phone can deliver us in real time. So I I I tell them this because what we really break it down to is that our bodies get this massive amount of dopamine every single day. And it's it feels good when we see things we like, when we see things that's entertaining, that when we post something that a lot of people like and comment on, you'll post this podcast and it's gonna get a lot of positive feedback. You know, that that feels good. But at a certain point, there are other neurotransmitters in our brain that we talk about that are that are equally as important that you don't get from being on a phone, like serotonin. So when we talk about what they can do when they're they've been on their phone too long and they don't feel so good, they've been dead death scrolling, we talk about serotonin and ways you can find get serotonin. We talk about talking with family and friends, going for walks, playing sports that aren't as competitive, just play.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02That's those types of movement and the outdoor component of it, smelling the roses, literally or figuratively, allows us to have more of a balance of the chemicals, both serotonin and dopamine in our brain.
SPEAKER_04Excellent, excellent points.
SPEAKER_01That's great. I I I think uh speaking of that, you when we were going through COVID six years ago, that was critical. And you you saw how people, some people just hunkered down in their house, didn't do anything, got very stagnant, television, computers, that type of thing. And a lot of them had real issues with depression. And others, myself included, uh I just, you know, you went out and walked every day, got out there and got in the fresh air. And, you know, it helps helped get you through a time that none of us had ever experienced before, what what we were going through with COVID. So, you know, I could see the benefits to that. How just being outside and moving is so important to your mental health as well as your physical health. Right.
Phones Dopamine And Real Life Serotonin
SPEAKER_04Very cool. Very cool. So, Ted, are you going to introduce our our is there a special guest or something we have coming on today, too? There is. We uh not that Ryan isn't special. I mean, he is special, though.
SPEAKER_01We want to speak a little bit about uh recovery and what we can do to recover. And so we have a special guest on today who is out of Pleasanton, California.
SPEAKER_04I'm doing good.
SPEAKER_02How are you guys?
SPEAKER_04Tell us about this, Ryan. Tell us about the big Fonz. Where's he from?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I think we might have scared half of your audience off of the uh podcast.
SPEAKER_04Hey, if it didn't scare him, it woke him up, and that's what we're here to do, man. It's time to wake up.
Meet Big Fonz And Pro Wrestling Path
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there we go. Oh, I was gonna say that was a throwback too. That was Big Fonz's first walkout song. And I got some feedback and changed it. By the way, I changed my outfit. You guys didn't see it, but Big Fonz is here now. Yeah, I actually got some feedback because Big Fonz started out as what we call a heel in the wrestling business.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02A bad guy. And once I turned babyface, which has since now stuck, I am the immortal good guy, similar to John Cena. I was told that I needed to change my music to something a little bit more uplifting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So let's let's back up a little bit. Tell us how you got involved in in wrestling and where how that started and what the story is behind it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so let's see. Young Fawns was an athlete growing up, had aspirations of being a professional baseball player. Fortunately, that did not work out. But as an adult, medium-sized Fawns often found himself challenging himself in different sports endeavors, whether that was intramural or after college, I got involved in challenging himself physically in things like Spartan Race and Tough Mutter. And then it all kind of came to a head in 20 late 2019. Found myself injured in a walking boot with a really bad ankle injury that I had been taking a lot of medication and pushing through all training. And when I was shut down, I went to a podiatrist who basically told me that I needed to find something different if I was gonna keep keep active because I have the it's kind of embarrassing, but it's the truth. I have probably the flattest feet I have ever seen in a human being in person. And as a result, biomechanically, I'm disadvantaged to running long distances. So that was a wake-up call. COVID hit. I was in my garage one day, looking myself in the mirror, had just been married for about three months at that point and got shut down athletically. You know, it's funny, I was at the time too looking for something entertaining on l on TV. And I don't know if you guys remember during COVID at the time, there was no sports, right? They had shut down all the sports leagues, right? Unless you wanted to watch baseball in Korea at two in the morning, there was nothing you know to watch other than the Michael Jordan documentary and and 2 a.m. baseball. So I said to myself, all right, well, maybe we'll watch old wrestling, because I was a big wrestling fan growing up, professional wrestling. And found myself in my garage with some adjustable hundred-pound dumbbells and wrestling, and a week later I found myself watching more wrestling and doing my physical therapy for my ankle with more weights in my garage, and then the entire garage was weights, and that's you know, I was really finding myself in shelter and place growing, my weight, you know, was improving, my my strength was improving, my ankle was improving. Honestly, was so bored out of my mind. I just came up with this idea that like watching enough Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock and Hulk Hogan, like maybe maybe this is something I'm supposed to do. And it's even like at the time it sounded so crazy to say out loud, and I kept it personal, didn't which is unusual for me because usually I'll just tell everybody how I feel all the time. I think it was like a month before I said anything to anybody that hey, I'm 32, I work a full-time sales job, and I'd like to train to become a professional wrestler.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_02And yeah, so I I still remember the the first time I mentioned it, I I kind of uh mentioned it to my mom and my wife, and if I have to be honest, their response was less than ideal for me personally. They they thought I was foolish, they thought I was wasn't serious, which generally when I say something I'm pretty serious. And it was it it was a bit discouraging at the time, and so did some soul searching and did some on did some social media research. And and if you're not familiar with professional wrestling, probably take it a step back. So pro wrestling obviously started off many, many years ago in these small territories on the independent wrestling scene before Hulk Hogan, before WWF, before WWE. It was these little territories that were all all over the place. And that was actually something I didn't understand before I got into the business. And when I looked to find out how I could get involved with the business, I found that there were little shows at bingo halls and parking lots at car dealerships at festivals, and that's where you start.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_02I looked into a couple local promotions here in the Bay Area where I live. One of them was attached to Brett the Hitman Hart, who's a legend in WWF, who I knew pretty well from watching WWF growing up. Sent a few messages, inquiries, didn't hear back from anybody for about two weeks, and then I got an email saying, Yeah, come by our school. We're gonna actually just reopen. Again, unusual for me. When I decide I want to do something, I feel like I usually just go sign up and do it. This is about six months into this idea that I was gonna go check out a wrestling school. I get in my car, I pull up at this garage. So imagine you're going to your auto shop, like they roll, they roll up the garage, I go inside, and there's a pro wrestling ring, which is I think it's like 16 feet by 16 feet, jammed into this garage. That's probably that's probably 20 feet by 20 feet. There's literally like just enough room to walk by, and I see what looks to be mostly like I don't know, people from ages 16 to like 25. And I look my head in and I say, nope, not today. And I drove right off. I was like stupid. I was like, this is so stupid. What am I doing? And I drove off. Yeah. So that was I don't probably like that was probably about May of 2020. Fast forward about six weeks, and I'm at Fitness 19 in Danville, which is where I was going to at the time, the gym. Somebody actually taps me on the shoulder and they say to me, Hey, did I steal your bench? And my response was, No, no, you didn't steal my bench. But the gal I I saw there, she was wearing a mask for a professional wrestling company. I could see through her mask, and I could, I was like, hey, I know who you are. You're Bailey from WWE. What are you what are you doing here in Danville, California? Interestingly enough, she was there for a family thing. But the the part of the connection about this was she actually trained and started at the pro wrestling school that I pull up to and left. So I kind of told her, like, yeah, I've been looking into this. Is it crazy? And she was she was almost the opposite of these other voices in my head that were kind of causing me to have some doubt in myself. And she said, no, you should go for it. And I was like, all right. And that was enough. And the next next week, so June of 2020, I'm or sorry, June of this is actually 2021 now. June of 2021, I am in a pro wrestling school with people 10 years, 15 years younger than me. I guess the rest is history at that point.
SPEAKER_04Wow. And so you've you you get in the ring now as a wrestler, and and you're doing all the stuff, and you got your your intro music, your name, all that stuff. And when when's the last time you've competed? And because you know, you're a dad, you got two new baby girls. Well, one's brand new, and the other one's, you know, you said four. It's like, do you are you competing now? And when you got something coming up, what's going on?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the timing for starting the pro wrestling career probably couldn't have been worse. I I started training in June of 21, and then I found out, or we found out we were pregnant in October of 21. At that point, I was already, you know, the the wheel, the the ship had left. You know, I was gonna do this. I was on the fast track to wrestling my first match in five months. Yeah, I was at a certain point, things kind of took off for me, and I was wrestling five times a month, getting on the plane while working a full-time job, getting on planes, flying out to wrestle, flying back. Sometimes the schedule was so tight I was changing on the plane or getting back on the plane, not having enough time to change after the show. So things were tight, life was crazy. And then right around the time our daughter was like, I guess around the time I started the ruck club, one and a half, you know, I realized I had to kind of slow down a little bit and really take some of eggs out of this basket and put it in this basket and figure out what truly was gonna make me happy. And to answer your your question, what makes me happy is being a pro wrestler. I think a lot of my colleagues, peers, what you may call them, my my friends and family in the pro wrestling industry, and rightfully so. Like it is the dream to become a professional wrestler and to be on TV and to wrestle for the WWE. For me, I derive the most pride from being and doing the things that I idolized these guys doing when I was young.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02And if I if I do that in a bingo hall or on a soccer field, it it doesn't matter to me. I mean, of course, I would love to be on TV if they if the opportunity presented itself. But that's the whole lifestyle change, you know? Right. Um so for me, I wrestle now a couple times. I'd say I wrestle about 10-15 times a year for a couple of companies locally. My goal is to inspire other kids who may, you know, want to not not necessarily to be a professional wrestler, but the message I hope comes through is like you can do anything at any point in this journey that you want to do. If you work hard, if you're you're consistent, if you dedicate yourself to it, if you have passion. And that's that's really what I want my daughters to see, you know, is you know, you don't have to be in this box. You can choose to do and take risks. And at the end of the day, you got to do what's gonna make you happy.
Recovery Tools Sauna Cold Plunge PT
SPEAKER_04Right. Good for you, man. That's awesome. So as a as an active pro wrestler now, uh, we're gonna we're gonna get to the recovery part here. Is I mean, I see, you know, I've seen a few shows, and you guys go at it, man. I mean, you get banged up. How is that? How has that been on your body? And uh what do you do to recover? And and again, I'm gonna circle back to the the uh first question I asked you was like, do you ever think about your 80-year-old self when you're you know doing that stuff?
SPEAKER_02It is a combat sport, and it I liken it to athletic dancing mixed with stunt work, right? So we we take care of ourselves, we learn how to take our bumps properly so that we take impact where will allow us to be able to walk when we're 80. But at the but I mean, still, if if you go through a 20-minute match and you take you know 10 bumps, it's gonna feel like you you were in a car wreck the day before. Um so I learned pretty quickly that it wouldn't this wouldn't be possible to be a dad, to be a full-time employee, to be a professional wrestler if I didn't take precise care of myself. And it's only gonna get harder as I get older. So yeah, there's a lot. I would I would consider myself an addict when it comes to self-care, to recovery, to mindfulness. I feel like to be able to perform, to speak in front of people, to be sharp so that you don't slip up and make that mistake that will cause you to be in a wheelchair when you're 80. You know, I expect myself and those that I'm in the ring with to come with that same level of care. And how can I tell somebody to like take care of yourself, you know, be strong enough, be mentally focused enough if I don't do it myself.
SPEAKER_04Right, right.
SPEAKER_01So, what are what are some of the things you do to recover, active recovery? Cold plunge, things like that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so every I have a pretty pretty steady routine. I'll walk, I'll walk you through my current routine, my daily today's routine actually. I wake up, I start the sauna generally around like 5:30. It warms up in my garage. Around six o'clock, I'm in the sauna. I start with a 10 minute, 10-minute meditation on the calm app in the first 10 minutes on the sauna, followed by another 10 minutes of just hanging out in the sauna. So 20 minutes sauna with a 10 minute meditation stacking habits to start the day, followed by three minutes in the cold plunge, which is also next to the sauna in my garage, the cold to hot. Seems to do wonders for both my head and my body.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_02Um and then I come back to the sauna warm back up. After that, I am fortunate enough through my health insurance to have a physical therapist that I see virtually. He prescribed me some exercise, resistance ban work, stretching that I do on a yoga mat next to all of these tools to start the day. So that I there's kind of some new methodology that's that differs from some of the old methodology of just resting your injuries. There's a lot of confidence building, a lot of challenging, you know, the muscle and the phase in which we're so we feel confident we can make the movements. So that's was the second part of my rest and recovery day was challenging the muscle of my ankle. Like, hey, we're gonna do these things so we can feel confident with the rest of the day. Finished that up, dropped my daughter off at school, got in the car, and now I'm talking to you guys sitting in the parking lot of my chiropractor, who I see probably four times a month, just for all these nagging things that come up.
SPEAKER_04Damn, that's awesome, man. I love I love your mindfulness. I love that it's beyond just the physical. But yes, movement is medicine, and the the mindset now around recovery is you know, that the the key word in front of that is active recovery, you know, keeping things moving, building that confidence up and treating those things, those nagging things on a consistent basis. Great plan, Ryan. Really awesome plan. And that's how awesome is it that you have sauna and coal plunge in your garage, man. Those the the heat and cold is awesome. I do that uh maybe like once or twice a week myself, but I have to go to a place to go do it. But I do I do like three rounds of it, and it's it does wonders for your mind and your your body. It's just it's it's I love it.
SPEAKER_01Right. And tying that into our audience, I mean, I think it's important that you know we're we're pushing them to move, but that recovery afterwards, the stretching, the balance, that type of thing is is so important as we get older to push our bodies a little bit, keep them moving, but then to also take care of them and and recover properly. Right.
SPEAKER_02That's a good point. I think I spent a lot of time in my younger years taking the stretching for granted, getting bigger and stronger and faster. And in addition to all those things, I I do see an assisted stretching therapist twice a month. It definitely works wonders to be able to undo both for my mind and my body, a lot of the tension that gets built up. That Doug, that's great that you go you go to a place. I have friends also that that go to a place. I had to trade, and and this is actually a good thing to bring up. I traded the garage gym for the recovery. I felt like I needed, I was like, I can go to a gym, but I can't can I can't access this recovery devices as often as I'd like to. That was the trade-off was going to the gym rather than working out of my garage and trading it for the recovery.
SPEAKER_04I love that. And man, you just gave me my the light bulbs came off in my head, brother. I'm like, oh yeah, because I got a bunch of equipment you know, I need to, I'm gonna need to trade some things out. That's what's gonna happen. Because then especially as you get in your fourth quarter, recovery, recovery, you know, my mindset is still there's a lot of things I can still do that I did when I was 40, even 35. But just because I can do them, I was telling Ted doesn't mean I should. I because the problem is I don't recover like I used to when I was 35 and 40 years old. You know, I can still crush the heck out of a lot of things, but man, I pay for it. And a lot of times that you know brings on injury as well because I'm not recovering fast enough like I did back in the day. So I I my focus is on recovery, recovery, recovery a lot. So great. I like that mindset. I'm gonna have to trade some gym equipment in the garage for cold plunge and a sauna. That sounds real good.
SPEAKER_02The 80-year-old self.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_02I think for me, one lesson connecting these generations that I learned that has kind of probably somewhere deep down motivated me to take more care of myself is you know, my grandfather who was my father figure, he didn't make it to well, I guess he made it to his fourth quarter, but his fourth quarter he was living through and none of us knew it. You know, he passed away short of 70 with having had two heart attacks and been diabetic, never really took care of himself. For me, I look now at the choices I make to be the father that he was to me, and I want to be around as long as possible. I don't blame him because you know he you know, he was a he was an old school Texan, he was raised on chicken fried steak, and he and he drove and and he drove an ice cream truck and he ate ice cream with peanut butter like every night.
SPEAKER_04Wow. And that's a dream job right there, man. That's a dream lifestyle. No, I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, it never occurred to me until later, you know, until I was an exercise physiology major to understand how much, you know, detriment he did to himself. And I think you know, he was he was the the beacon of love to to someone like me, and that's what I want to be for my kids long term, right? But short term, this stuff, this these recovery tools, I I'd be remiss if I didn't mention like for me it's it's it's really a mental thing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02My wife and I work very hard. We now have two children constantly in the community. I would say most people I know consider me to be the busiest person they know and ask me how I do it, and ask me if I sleep. And I sleep really well. I get six to eight hours every night. I want to be as present as possible and patient as possible. So the the recovery tools that we just mentioned, I probably cycle in and out of them three times during the day. I am fortunate to have them in my garage in the morning to start the day after my workout. And sometimes when I'm short on patience, like after a t-ball practice where I'm exhausted and I'm like, I need a break before I go in and be husband and dad, so I can be the best version of myself.
Song Pick And Closing Takeaways
SPEAKER_04Oh, I love that. That's awesome. Great mindset, great plan, great strategy, and great to have those tools accessible like that. And you know, that comes from choices, right? That what our priorities are. And I'm just glad to hear that you are thoughtful about that and practicing all that stuff. That that will serve you long. That will definitely get you into your 80s and get you in there very healthy. So keep doing what you're doing, brother. Keep doing what you're doing. I think we're gonna shift over to the part of the show where Ted picks out a song that I don't know what it is. The guest doesn't know what it is, and he he kind of thinks about what the episode's gonna be about, and then the song should fit the episode as or as close to as possible. And then you and I, Ryan, will just do a comment on that, and then we will end this podcast. And you know, thank you for coming on and sharing your wisdom, your life, your passion. It's real beautiful, brother. Appreciate you.
SPEAKER_02Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_04Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So, you know, I was I was kind of torn which way I was gonna go with the song this week. You know, I could have gone the wrestling route, could have gone something from Mother's Day, which is we airing just prior to that. But I actually heard this song that my daughter played on social media a couple of weeks ago. And you know, the lyrics extend through throughout generations, and you know, it's about appreciating your time, you know, no matter what age, that this is the beginning. Doesn't matter, you know, what age you are, this is the beginning of right now and of your future. So you have to appreciate every every second and to be here and and now and giving is the is the present. So this song is called Living Living is the lesson.
SPEAKER_02I love that song.
SPEAKER_04I love that. That was it. So what did it bring to you? Where's where did it hit you in your mind and your heart? Tell me how you feel about that song.
SPEAKER_02It reminded me, I think the thing I had to tell my family that really put them over to allow me to to blossom at at halfway, you know, in midway in my life, make this change to be a pro wrestler. I told them I felt like it it's I don't I I don't feel alive enough. I told them, and I think that hit them somewhere that like there was a part of me, a part of my personality that I wasn't able to express every single day. And as a pro wrestler now, as a public speaker through pro wrestling, all this stuff has come to me because of this crazy chance that I took to live for for now, take some risks and to grow as to my full personal potential. So I and I still remember I said to my mom, I never feel more alive than when I'm in that ring. And that's actually what pro you know that's why it's so hard for some of these guys to quit when they should quit. Because it's like a drug. They it's that vitality that they have when they're in front of a crowd and they're affecting people's feelings. So I feel so alive when I'm in there.
SPEAKER_04I love that. I don't feel alive enough. That's what he said, and and that's what he had to bring to the family to cross that threshold. And I think that statement can go, you remind me of a story. Uh you you've we've all heard of Kentucky Fried Chicken, right? Well, you're like, Well, what the hell has I got to do with this song? Well, that it's not the it's not the franchise, it's the the man who started Colonel Sanders. He was, I think, 67 or 68, and he was retiring and didn't know what to do, but he didn't he didn't say these words, but through his story, he didn't feel alive. And he said, What do I know how to do? And he for some reason he knew how to cook fried chicken really well, and it just started in his kitchen serving family and friends, and it just grew from there. And so, you know, to take your point and your passion and and what you just shared, to say that that, you know, you might be in your fourth quarter right now and have struggled your whole life and and not feeling alive. Well, you make a decision. That's just a mindset. Make a decision, take a chance, surround yourself with positive people, people who are gonna encourage you and and and push you a little bit too. And get off the couch, go for a walk. It doesn't have to be, you know, a whole ultra marathon or anything like that, but just walk around the block one time, breathe in, get let that nature bathing soothe your soul and refresh your mind, and you'll never know where you're gonna end up, man. Just keep walking the walk. So, Ryan, thank you for sharing what you shared. I appreciate you sharing your heart on the end right here. That was really beautiful. It was awesome having you on and learning a little bit more about you. I'm excited about our listeners getting to know you as well. Ted, is there anything you want to share before we wrap this up? No, I think we're good. All right, Ryan, any last comments before we head out?
SPEAKER_02No, I appreciate you guys coming on here and I appreciate you you allowing me to share my heart because and and that song, because I had forgotten until you played that song that that was uh that was how I feel about pro wrestling, and that's why I keep doing it.
SPEAKER_04Right on, brother. Living isn't yeah, living, living, living is the lesson. Living is the lesson. Living is the lesson. Very good. All right then. Well then I'm gonna just wrap up and do like I always do and say God bless and peace out. If you like what you heard, be sure to subscribe, follow, share an episode. If you want to leave a comment, go to the show notes. There's a text link there. We will receive an anonymous text from you with any comments or suggestions. Thanks again for tuning in, and most importantly, keep on coming back.