The Hard Way With Joe De Sena

Today, we're going to clear up a misconception about muscle and metabolism. It's become common knowledge that muscle burns so many more calories than fat. If you put on more muscle, the story goes, more calories just burn along with it. So increase your muscle mass! Right? In this episode of Spartan Health we're gonna' look into that… WHAT WE TALK ABOUT While it's true that muscle does burn more c...

Kevin Gillotti talks with Kirk Dewindt, a personal trainer (PT), a collegiate All-American in track , a handsomely popular " The Bachelorette" contestant, and a strong & respected member of the Spartan Pro Team about common injuries amongst endurance athletes.   LESSONS: Overuse & repetitive injuries are most common Work on hip stabilization Wear a properly fit shoe For grip, improve your holds by...

We all go through times in our life where we second guess ourselves. The way to get out of that phase is to do the work. The work will remind you what you're capable of. The mere fact that you're doing the work will help you put "points on the board" and build confidence again. LESSONS: Get out of your normal environment and demonstrate your expertise. Staying in your same environment builds compl...

Feelings can be powerful and even more so when they create discomfort. Anxiety, worry, and concern are three feeling states that can initiate a way of thinking that can very quickly create a barrier to you moving forward with whatever task is at hand. How you feel today is not necessarily a marker of how you will feel in the future but we can sometimes fall into the mind trap of believing this to...

Angel Sanz is humble, hilarious and always smiling mastermind and Country Manager of Spartan Spain whose up each day by 3:30 am. Sport has always been an integral part of his life, from playing basketball at University of Houston to teaching physicality and obstacle racing as a perfect analogy for entrepreneurship. Sport is what drives his pedagogy in education, with how he interacts with his fami...

The complex, flashy, super sexy solution rarely survives substantial contact with any situation less than the ideal it was created for. It's safe to say that 'The Basics' are just that, basic. The reasonable extension of this conversation then suggests also timeless. Let's look at the lever, wedge, wheel… half of humankind's inventions wouldn't work without these simple machines. There's a saying...

When things run well, we often assume, they run regularly. From the pistons in a car to the daily changes in the tide, we often expect that processes run optimally when they progress or move forward in the same or a uniform way. Or if they change, the change is gradual and moves slowly from phase to phase – like the seasons or the way the sun rises and sets. One important body function is an excep...

This week Kevin talks with 2015 Spartan Race World Champion, and all around prolific badass multisports racer Robert Killian, about what it takes to be and stay on top of such a demanding sport like OCR. LESSONS: Being prepared puts you in the best possible situation & can reduce pressure Motivating others can motivate you to be better The importance of sleep, mobility and nutrition Grit, determin...

Inspired by former Navy SEAL & 1 of the world's best CrossFit competitors, Josh Bridges. Josh constantly talks about #PayTheMan - meaning, you gotta earn it! If you want something, you gotta EARN it. You don't deserve anything. You get what you Earn! LESSONS: Most successful people will tell you that the majority of their victories and success stories are on the other side of hard work, aka Paying...

The future can be scary for some of us. It's normal to be uncomfortable with the unknown and uncertain. But future tripping, the act of making your way into the future and tripping over what exists, is not an effective way of handling your worries. This kind of thinking can easily create more worry and concern for what lays ahead. Though it may be hard, working to stay in the present and remain fo...

A former Celtics NBA player, Chris Herren speaks honestly and openly about his addictions and his path to recovery. Whether dealing with addiction, or the day to day problems of life, Herren advocates doing things the hard way. He believes kids need to learn to deal head-on with the real and difficult emotions life can bring, this will reduce the temptation to mask and avoid them with drugs and al...

I often find myself giving other's opinions, especially a stranger's, more value over what I find valuable or purposeful. In this episode I introduce and toss around a few thought processes that help me defeat falling into that trap.   Who has authority over how we feel? Who lends the ultimate approval on what it is that fills us with purpose or value? Is it your 'why' or is it someone else's 'why...

The link between intermittent fasting and good health has been noticed for a while. Intermittent fasting means going about 8 to 12 hours without food but in some cases a bit longer. And recent studies have begun to make clear the connection between fasting and longevity, a finding that is creating a lot of buzz. What we talk about: There are some obvious reasons that connect fasting to good health...

Kevin Gillotti talks with 40+ masters athlete, SGX coach, commentator & hella legit OCR racer Kevin Donahue about staying injury free over a long & demanding Spartan Race season and career.   TAKE AWAY POINTS: Genetics plays a role, tap into that knowledge of self Using your lower body to your advantage, even on overhead head obstacles Take some risks & try new techniques Don't eat candy, it's bad...

Zach Even-Esh, Joe DeSena and Brian Chontosh talk about building teams. The best teams, companies & work environments come from a place where the leaders invest in their team. Taking great care of your team inspires them to want to be a bigger & better part of the team!   LESSONS: Don't hold others back on your team. Help them win. When your team wins, you win, even if they leave for another team!...

Sometimes when we encounter struggle or a challenge we transform what might be best identified as a small problem into a catastrophe. You know the phrase, "turning a molehill into a mountain." So that's an actual psychological phenomenon called, Catastrophizing. This way of thinking can get you into trouble, however, because not all problems are catastrophes. In order to remain balanced and ground...

Rebekah and her son were spectating at the finish line of the Boston in Marathon in 2013 when those two fateful bombs exploded. She may have lost part of her leg- but 68 operations later, she has gained a whole new insight on "counting her blessings, not her problems." Instead of being defined by this one event she has used it as a catalyst to make PTSD training available for children all over the...

This week we welcome Brian "Tosh" Chontosh to the Spartan Up family! He'll be here every Monday with Spartan Stand. What are you capable of right here, right now; not a question, a statement. What you could have done if, what you might be able to do if, if you had time to prepare, or under whatever cute circumstance you require to succeed is of zero interest.   A readiness mindset consists of two...

We all know that it's important to pay attention to our daily food intake. But many people don't know this important fact: the number of calories your body retains is not only affected by how much you eat but also by when you eat. What we Talk About: In this podcast, we're going to look at the impact of the body's daily cycles – it's circadian rhythms (or "CR") – on supporting the maintenance of h...

This week I talk with the tiny, but fiercely mighty, Faye Stenning about staying fit & race prepping in a dense city habitat like the overwhelming & chaotic life of a NYC city dweller. TAKE AWAY POINTS: Be creative in your training options and use the environment you have Commuting to trails, finding groups, pick your times, just do what you have to do Surround yourself with like minded people It...

Zach brings on special guest & fellow Spartan Podcaster, Tosh, to discuss why you should NOT feel bad while standing up for Excellence! Sometimes we start to feel bad when our friends and family tell us, Hey, you've changed! That's right, you are changing for the better and there is Nothing wrong with that!   LESSONS: • Do not conform to the norms of "good enough", even when people close to you tr...

Emotional reasoning is a negative thinking pattern that can best be described as the process of turning feeling into fact. We cannot control how we feel but we can control what we do with these feelings and when we turn our feelings into fact we can find ourselves in a made up reality. Being aware of when you engage in emotional reasoning can help you shift out of this way of thinking and bring yo...

In that moment when you think your life will end, will you have regrets? During his second Afghanistan deployment Green beret Kevin Flike was shot in the abdomen, what did he think in those touch and go moments? Kevin says "an experience is worth nothing unless you share it," now he shares the story of his own recovery and his experiences going from highly competent soldier to a man who needed hel...

There are a million ways you can be tempted to squeeze a few more minutes or hours out of your day, but if you want to stay healthy, you should remember one thing: you can't cheat sleep. If you do, you may throw off what's called - your circadian rhythm. Circadian Rhythm is also called your sleep/wake cycle and it's the physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24- hour or daily cycle...

This week I talk strategies for overcoming pre-race jitters and nervousness with Kenneth Yee. When you travel all of the way from Malaysia for a first time visit to a country, a lot is at stake because a lot has been expended. So the last thing you need is to be dealing with energy robbing nervousness on top of all of the other moving pieces associated with racing.   TAKE AWAY POINTS: Ask for advi...