The Hard Way With Joe De Sena

Amy Culp, RD, CSSD, LD, CEDRD, tells us about getting the right nutrients in your day. "What are you hungry for? What's going to scratch that satisfaction piece of nutrition, while we're also scratching the nutrition side of filling your plate? So there's nutrition, and then there's satisfaction. And if you're never thinking about the satisfaction, and you're just eating chicken, broccoli, rice ev...

You've seen the iconic photo of the 1967 Boston Marathon race official attacking female registered racer Kathrine Switzer. She went on to become the first registered racer to complete the Boston Marathon and continues to believe in the power of running to change lives.   She and Joe De Sena, founder and CEO of Spartan, find they have a lot in common.    This episode of Spartan Up is brought to you...

Adam Alter, author of "Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked," Dr. Amishi Jha, author of "Peak Mind: Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention," and Nir Eyal, author of "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products" and "Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life," help us put down our phones in this episode. Joe asks Adam Alter, "Do...

Amy Culp Performance Nutrition RD, CSSD, LD says "I always tell people, the weight will take care of itself when you focus on your healthy habits, you focus on your fitness. So many people focus too much on the weight and on the scale," she is the President of the Collegiate & Professional Sports Dietetics Association, Director of Sports Performance Nutrition for the Texas Longhorns Athletic Depar...

Joe talks about a few of the big projects he and the team have been working on to spread the message of grit and resilience, drops in a superpowered sleep and focus tip from Andrew Huberman, and closes with a 2022 message to all of you. PLUS the first stories from behind the scenes of the new CNBC show "No Retreat" that premiere's this February. This episode of Spartan Up is brought to you by JUNK...

"I took notice to some of the other dads, and I saw that as soon as life, you know, quote unquote, life happens, they just stopped everything, aside from work and sitting down. Meaning they stopped being fit, they stopped trying to be strong. They stopped trying to develop themselves, not just physically, but mentally…They just let it go," says Zach Even Esh, founder of The Underground Strength Gy...

"Coach each other. You may not have a certification, but put that coaching hat on. Like, 'Hey, you want to go to class today with me?' My wife went to a cycle class this morning at 5:00 AM. She had a friend, she asked her, 'Do you want to go with me?' And it's really, really hard to say no to that," says Yancy Culp, co-host of the DEKA Series and Co-Creator of Spartan DEKA. Today Yancy and Jarod a...

Joe's Best podcast Lessons of 2021 Joe De Sena discusses 5 lessons from the 2021 Spartan Up season. You can ALWAYS come back from failure, friends who stand by you but tell you the hard truth really help. Human connection is critical, and shared struggle is the fastest way to build it. Save the fun for later, play the LONG game. Freedom is complicated.  Give some thought to what it means to you. M...

Joe - "You woke up one day and you were like, 'I'm done, I'm not going to the bar?'" Anders Varner - "Yeah, it was, like, pretty much exactly like that."  In this episode, we look back to some classic episodes to help you figure out your mission going into the new year and letting go of your negative lifestyle. In this episode you'll learn… Understand why you're doing what you're doing and that yo...

"The thing I think that's true, no matter where you live or who you are, most people in the fitness community are going to cheer for you and push you to be better because they're pushing themselves to be better," says April Lauren, who is on a journey to lose 200 lbs, and to live each day a little brighter than the day before. Today Yancy and Jarod talk with April Lauren about some advice she has...

Nutritional Psychiatry. Dr. Uma Naidoo, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, Professional Chef, and trained Nutrition Specialist, offers simple tips to help you stay on track.  She's the Director of Nutritional and Lifestyle Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and wrote the best seller "This Is Your Brain on Food." She joins Joe De Sena, founder & CEO of Spartan, on today's episode of the Spar...

"The thing about negative thoughts, though, is that they can become barriers to us moving forward and achieving the things that we want, when we listen to them. Negative thoughts are a bit, a little bit like seeds, right? We plant them in our brain. But if we attend to them, right? And if we water them through that attention, they will grow and they will spread. So we actually want to work on some...

"The trajectory of everything, everything that was going on in the world, my emotional state, that if I didn't put my foot down, that I was going to be someone on TV…someone on TV where they're so heavy that they're completely immobile. And I did not want that," says April Lauren, who is on a journey to lose 200 lbs, and to live each day a little brighter than the day before. Today Yancy and Jarod...

You can build your capacity for attention and focus, just like you build your muscles. Today's guest Dr. Amishi Jha is a professor of psychology at the University of Miami and is the Director of Contemplative Neuroscience for the Mindfulness Research and Practice Initiative, which she co-founded in 2010. Her work has been featured at NATO, the World Economic Forum, and The Pentagon. She joins Joe...

"Start grading yourself Sunday night. But know, your grade's going to be shxtty, a lot, if you set yourself up for failure," says Yancy Culp, co-host of the DEKA Series. Today Yancy and Jarod are going to tell you how to get back to your old regimen or begin completely fresh before the new year. In this episode, you'll learn: - How to overcome the slump you may already be in or that you may get in...

The Food Babe, Vani Hari, lived on soda, fast food, and processed food (the typical American diet.) It landed her in a hospital. That's when the research on food ingredients, additives, and chemicals that became "the Food Babe" began. Vani and Joe De Sena, founder and CEO of Spartan, share a passion for clean food, even when it has become socially difficult.   At the end of the interview, Vani sha...

Sleep is the platform that all good health sits upon, says Dr. Kirk Parsley. A Navy SEAL who became an MD "Doc Parsley" found that almost all the high-performing patients he worked with had sleep issues. The more he studied it, the more he found out about the importance of sleep for resilience and performance. Today he talks with Joe De Sena, Spartan founder, and CEO, who has always said "I'll sle...

"The nervous system in the body is very intelligent, and is based off of survival. Which means, it is going to find a way," says Dr. Emily Splichal, Functional Podiatrist & Human Movement Specialist. Spartan Up Endurance Series host, Johnny Waite, talks with Dr. Emily Splichal about how your feet can be the foundation of opportunity and how to keep them in top condition. In this episode you'll lea...

"You don't want it to just be challenging for the most capable person in your formation, because then you're going to crush everybody below them and they're gonna feel awful. And you don't want to just make it challenging for the less capable folks in your formation, because then you're not going to challenge the folks up high. You have to consistently work to identify how you can make the experie...

"But then after these events that you see as only having negative outcomes occur, after they happen, you can, oftentimes, look back and be like, 'Alright well that actually ended up being something that forced me to think about things in a completely different way, that challenged me and made me a lot better.' And that's how I view that now. Like, without the finger thing happening, I definitely d...

Joe - "What if your neighbor's kid started to see what--" "Then so be it. Right? I was cool with it. I mean, again, I wasn't chasing dollars, I was not trying to become famous, I was not trying to take over the world. I really just wanted to make a great product and share it with the world. And again, if it was one bottle or one million bottles, to me there is no difference, it was just doing some...

Greek scientist Apostolos Atsalakis, founder of PNOE, and athlete Alex Wisch join Joe De Sena, founder of Spartan, to talk about metabolism, zone workouts, and VO2 max. Apo is the co-founder of PNOĒ which adapts a breath analysis test that was known for over a century, to allow the mass adoption of metabolic analysis (RMR and VO2Max testing). He graduated from the University of Cambridge, joined Y...

"You can't run a race if you're not thinking about the type of food, the fuel you're putting in your body. And if you're a kid growing up in New York City, and you're going to school, you can't think about math if the stuff you're being fed is not good fuel," says Jeffrey Zurofsky, chef and entrepreneur.   This week's classic episode is about the benefits of eating well for your social, mental, an...

"There's some brutal optics, and you see the crappy things going on out there, and every now and then we're reminded that there's way way more good than there is bad," says Yancy Culp, co-host of the DEKA Series.   Today, Jarod, Yancy and Johnny Waite all get together to talk about what it means to be grateful and how caring for others will impact your life. In this episode, you'll learn: Importan...

"Someone took the hand you're complaining about and won with it" said John Henry. A Dominican-American entrepreneur and investor. Henry has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30, Inc 30 Under 30, Adweek Creative 100, The Root 100, and Ebony Power 100 lists. John Henry,  Cofounder and Co-CEO of Loop, and Joe De Sena, founder and CEO of Spartan, talk about what makes a win.  The hand?  The player? Th...