The Hard Way With Joe De Sena

At age 70 she tried her first Spartan Race. At seventy two years old, 16.7 miles, five thousand feet of climbing at nearly two miles above sea level, she crossed the Lake Tahoe Spartan Race Championship finish line. For Marla Sweeney, this was the twenty third time in almost as many months of crossing that line. She started this endeavor while still managing pain from a head on car accident. Is th...

Want to find your purpose? Go outside! That's the sage advice from Steve Lulek, wilderness survival expert and adventure guide. Are we meant to live the bulk of our lives cloistered in cubicles, driving in steel boxes and staring at screens? How can we reverse these cultural norms in order to reconnect to the outdoors and ourselves in the process? This week Joe and Steve explore our true natures. ...

Just move! That's the bottom line for these three members of Oscar Mike and Operation Enduring Warrior, both organizations designed to get wounded veterans on the move! "Oscar Mike" means "on the move" in military parlance. These three adaptive Spartans, Jonathan Lopez, Noah Currier, and Earl Granville, have sought out the race as a way of eradicating any perception that they are victims. They are...

From house arrest to the NFL pro bowl in seven years, retired 49er Brian Jennings transformed his life in dramatic fashion. Then, after thirteen years of football success, like all star athletes, he was forced to start over again. As Jenning describes, "athletes are the only people that die twice." With a podcast, as an inspirational speaker, and through his work with veterans he has proved himsel...

Manufacturing socks in a small town in Vermont, especially in the 80s and 90s when most companies were sending this work offshore, is hardly your standard business plan. Still, as of 2016, Darn Tough Socks was a 40 million dollar business. The name "Darn Tough" is a brilliant pun. The socks, like the CEO, are resilient (carrying a lifetime guaranty,) and relentlessly and thoroughly vetted and impr...

Why do you work out? Why don't you? How do you think about how much you eat? Mind Pump podcast host Sal Di Stefano challenges a lot of hardened conventions in the fitness world. He discovered the route he took to health as an insecure teenager was leading to disaster, but fortunately he had an epiphany when he reached adulthood that lead to paradigm shifts he describes in this episode. Lessons: 1....

Katrin Davidsdottir, two-time CrossFit world champion Icelandic born, is happiest when she is working. She loves work - whether making progress or failing then moving forward again. How has she achieved so much so young? The attitude and the mindset that nurtured throughout her life. Kristin's secret may be that she has no secret at all. Her methods are straightforward and that they work so well i...

Have you seen the iconic photos of Iceland's Blue Lagoon? On the way back from the Spartan Ultra World Championship we found Grimur Saemundsen, the doctor, and entrepreneur who founded the Icelandic spa visited by more than half of the country's tourists. Use his exceptional business success story as a parable to guide your own success. The indigo tint of the water comes from naturally therapeutic...

What would you pay for a 10x improvement to everything in your life?  One small change to improve your health, your relationships, your career.  Ruari Fairbarns has found that ONE simple thing, and now he's sharing it with us! What would you pay for a 10x improvement to everything in your life?  One small change to improve your health, your relationships, your career.  Ruari Fairbarns has found th...

Has fear been a problem in your life? Do you use terms like "overcome" or "suppress" in your relationship with fear? pioneering extreme skier Kristen Ulmer talks with guest host Amelia Boon about learning to love fear. They teach you a new way to relate to your own fear. Embrace it. If you want to live a full life of creativity, vitality, adventure, and success, it's what you must do. Most people...

There are no valid excuses for staying on the couch, all 52 Spartan Up guests of 2017 agree. The panel is on site in Iceland for the Spartan Ultra & Agoge 007 on the cusp of  winter solstice, in the midst of a brutal storm, and in imminent peril from an active volcano. In other words, the perfect race scenario and an ideal backdrop for the theme of this week's episode: no excuses.  Which 2017 podc...

What is the secret to longevity? For many athletes, their sports tenure ends, through injury or burnout, earlier than they hope. Through decades Mark Sisson participated in hundreds of endurance challenges including ultras and Ironmans. What helped him avoid that fate? What compelled him to switch from these grueling tests to sports like stand up paddling and ultimate frisbee? Known for his paleo...

Underground strength coach Zach Even-Esh has a unique distinction, the only guest to be interviewed three times in Spartan Up! During the insane weekend that in Pittsfield, Vermont (birthplace of Spartan Race,) that contained the Spartan Wrestling Camp, Spartan Agoge and a series of Podcasts, Col. Nye made time to check in with with Spartan up regular Zach Even-Esh. Meanwhile the Summer Agoge clas...

Bruce Lee's legacy was so powerful that it lives on through his daughter, Shannon, and the foundation named for him. He passed when she was just four, but his legend reverberates through books, writings, students, fans and of course films. We've all heard the famous quote "Be like water, my friend…" but do you know the story behind it? It arose at an epiphanic time in his life when he was not very...

To climb Everest wasn't quite enough for climber and documentarian Jimmy Chin. He had to ski it. Even the sherpas urged him not to do it. Despite the appearance of being a free spirit who may have lost control, this is far from who Chin really is. By his own description, he is someone who grew up being very disciplined. His life is about managing risk. What was his biggest risk? It was not encount...

https://www.spartan.com/170 The story begins at age 5, he remembers the garbage man got to the best toy in the dumpster before he could get to it. He didn't understand until he was an adult how that moment formed him. Today Chris practices what he calls "venture philanthropy." He's left the world of finance and embraced his mission in life, his true "why." Stay tuned to the end to hear the take aw...

If Jack Lalanne is the godfather of modern fitness, Elaine "Lala" Lalanne is the Queen! Jack Lalanne revolutionized the way we work out and inspired a generation to embrace fitness and good diet.  At 90 his widow, Lala, is still at it - riding skateboards and earning her breakfast with a daily workout. She's living proof that their lifelong passion for a fit lifestyle pays off! Lala shares time-ho...

Successful but searching, entrepreneur Phil Randazzo renewed his purpose by helping veterans transition into successful civilian careers through a foundation that eventually became American Dream U. It fulfills two sets of needs: veterans need assistance transitioning into civilian life and the work world needs the unique skill set and drive that these veterans possess. Randazzo and Joe discuss wh...

Attacked by a Grizzly bear, twice, Todd Orr survived a modern day version of The Revenant. He not only lived through dual brutal attacks from a grizzly mother, but was conscientious enough attempt writing a warning note to hunters before driving himself to the emergency room. The extent of his injuries made this impossible. His survival was not due solely to luck, but to forethought and preparatio...

When Georgina Pazcoguin witnessed the second tower fall on 9/11, it codified her commitment to her ballet, something she had been practicing since preschool. Her mother urged her to quit and come home, but she doubled down knowing that the world needed the art that she could contribute to heal. In this episode, she describes the dedication and physical hardship it takes to make it into the New Yor...

Win battles through trust, good stories, and building relationships - this is the surprising and refreshing approach of this paradigm shifting green beret, Scott Mann. He introduced "rooftop leadership" in Afghanistan to a skeptical  NATO crowd, but his courage to live it and its subsequent success changed minds. In this episode, Mann shows us his methods and how to work them at in all of our chal...

What can a member of the Royal Family teach us about grit? Does a privileged background make it tougher to acquire the passion to succeed? Peter Phillips, eldest grandchild of Queen Elizabeth, was brought up to make sure he didn't take his good fortune for granted. As you'll learn in this episode, there were several strategies to ensure that he would be a team player who had the tools to DIY. They...

Interviewed during labor, Rose Wetzel proves her mettle! We've always said Spartan women are tough, maybe tougher than the men. How many would be able to maintain composure and be interviewed for a podcast between painful contraction? We are so grateful that Rose did! Rose is an accomplished athlete known for her success in American Ninja Warrior and in Spartan Race and now for her composure, stre...

Two hundred fractures before the age of 18 from a rare bone disease involuntarily made Sean Stephenson an expert in navigating through pain and adversity. But, he insists, it wasn't the disability that made him a better person, but the choices he made despite it. He is an advocate of working on all aspects of the self, everyday. In this episode, Stephenson talks about how to distinguish good pain...

To be your best, get still. In this episode Onnit wellness company founder, Aubrey Marcus, explains why this is not a paradox. Nor, he says, is it contradictory to say that to optimize yourself and your mission you need to focus on others, or to overcome obstacles you need to seek them out. Marcus will guide you through the contrasts in life to highlight your warrior spirit. He is tooled by the ex...