Jocko Underground: You Are Accepting Too Much Weakness.

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Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jocko Willink?

  This is the Jocko Underground Podcast number 162, sitting here with EC Echo Charles. Let's get into it. Let's get some questions and provide some recommended courses of action.

• 0:14Jocko Willink?

  Let's go.

• 0:15Speaker 01

  First question. Jocko, three years ago, I switched my career from 15 years in the medical field to law enforcement. I started in corrections and in two years have just made our tactical team. I'm physically fit, I run and lift, I drink and eat great, but training with these younger guys is really showing my age. I'm not backing out of the fight, but it's painful getting up. My question is, is there anything that can help these 45-year-old joints, something to get me off the mat faster? Stop the cramping or just keep fighting through it like I have been?

• 0:58Jocko Willink?

  First of all, just straight up joint warfare, super krill, time war and creatine. Like I'm gonna go ahead and say that right there. So I've been taking those supplements all the time for a really long time. Joint warfare, super krill, time war, creatine. Awesome. I, I believe that it has a lot to do with the longevity of performance. So, and in that vein, what is eating and drinking great? Cause you say you're eating and drinking great. What does that mean? There are people that think they're eating and drinking great

• 1:40Jocko Willink?

  and they're not. Like maybe you're on a, maybe you're like a raw food guy, or maybe you're a vegan guy, or maybe you're a carnivore diet guy, or maybe you're a standard American diet guy, or maybe you're a low carb guy, or maybe you're a low fat guy, or you know, there's a bunch of ways you could be eating that you think is great. And maybe they're great for someone, maybe they're great for your trainer, maybe they're great for your wife or whatever, but there's lots of choices. You gotta kind of figure out what is good for you. Right? Because you could be thinking you're eating great and you're eating food that doesn't really help you feel good, doesn't help you perform, doesn't help you recover. Nothing like milk and greens, like those are really good. So I would start looking at your, like, what

• 2:25Jocko Willink?

  do you mean by eating great? Steak and potatoes? Cool. But maybe those potatoes you don't need, or maybe you're going too heavy with the steak, you know what I'm saying? So you really need to start to pay attention to what you're putting in your body, paying attention to the fuel. You have to. If you eat like junk, you're gonna feel like junk. But you, sometimes it's hard to know what junk is. And you might be missing some kind of nutrient in your system that you're just not getting. Maybe you're not getting the right fatty acids, maybe you're not getting the right protein. Like, there could be things that you're missing. Maybe you're not getting enough protein. Like, someone, if you're, you, you know, you're 200 pounder, you probably need 200 grams of protein a day. Are you getting that? You see what I'm saying?

• 3:10Jocko Willink?

  So it's really important that you, that you do a deep dive on what you're putting in your body. Another thing is just like stretch, stretching and mobility work, like that stuff is definitely, you don't need to do it when you're 20. But when you're, how old is this dude? 45? When you're 45, you gotta get it, gotta get it done. You gotta stretch. You gotta get that mobility activity going on. Uh, we have the expert over here on sleep and rest, Echo Charles, right? You gotta get the rest. If you're shortchanging your sleep, if you're not sleeping enough, you're gonna start to feel bad.

• 3:46Jocko Willink?

  Uh, what about the, you know, the whole freaking sauna, ice bath, jacuzzi, like recovery type stuff? Do you have access to any of that stuff? Can you get in the cold showers? Like, what could you, from that perspective? Are you walking? Like, there's so many little things to do, walking after you eat a meal. Uh, roadwork, you've been doing a lot of roadwork, Echo Charles, your version of roadwork. But, you know, maybe just a little bit more roadwork makes you feel better. Maybe you need a full rest day, a full rest day, where you don't do anything but eat steak. Rest and steak day.

• 4:27Jocko Willink?

  You see what I'm saying? So all those are kind of my initial sort of guesses or recommendations of things that you need to dial in. Here's the real deal. Go see a doctor.

• 4:42Jocko Willink?

  Uh, get your blood work done. See where you're at.

• 4:46Jocko Willink?

  See how that freaking gut microbiome activity is. See how that endocrine system is working. Cause you're 45 years old. I don't know what kind of life you lived. You were in a

• 4:58Jocko Willink?

  in the medical field, you know, I don't know what, you know, you don't know what's going on with your system. So get checked out. See what's really up with your health, health, right? You gotta get the blood work. And, and then once that blood work comes and you can say, oh, I've got too much of this. I don't have enough iron. I don't have enough vitamin D. What are you know, like there's a bunch of things that could be jamming you up. Never mind like actual hormonal problems that people run into.

• 5:27Jocko Willink?

  So I would go get that stuff checked out. And then I think what you really, what you probably need to do is you need to start dialing in. You need to start just dialing things in. You gotta start paying attention to everything. That's the reality. When I was 20 years old, freaking double extra cheese pizza for lunch and Wendy's for dinner, and I'm still going to go out there in the morning and get after it. And not even feel a damn thing bad.

• 5:59Jocko Willink?

  Dude, if I eat a freaking, if I ate a fast food right now, it's like you might as well come and hit me in the, in the, in the back of the head with a baseball bat. It feels, feel like junk. So you gotta start paying attention to everything. Cause people are getting it done at 45. People are getting it done at 50. People are getting it done at 55. People are getting it done at 60 and 65, dude. But it takes attention. It takes effort. It takes, it, it takes intelligence. And when I say intelligence, I'm not talking about you gotta be smart. I'm talking about the kind of intelligence that you get in the SEAL teams to go and conduct a mission. You gotta find out what is happening.

• 6:37Jocko Willink?

  You see what I'm saying? You need intel. You need to gather intel. Where's the, where are you going to gather intel from? Well, it's from, hell, maybe I need to check out how much food you're eating. Check out what your macros are. Cause you might be thinking you're eating great because you're eating, uh, you know, low fat diet, or you're, you're eating whole grains and you're only getting 80 grams of protein a day. No wonder you feel like ass. You know what I'm saying? You need some steak up in you.

• 7:09Jocko Willink?

  So,

• 7:11Jocko Willink?

  I think that's what you need intel. And the way you're going to get intel is by doing reconnaissance. And the way you do reconnaissance is by paying attention to what's happening. Paying attention to like, oh, well, what did I actually eat yesterday? Did I have a donut? Did I have two donuts? Did I eat it? That I eat? I was, I had a friend that was eating, um, uh, uh, uh, I guess it's like a green juice that you could buy. It's like some kind of juice and it looks like ultra healthy with the label. Yeah, hell yeah, the label. Bro, I, I picked it up. I, I looked at it. It was like, I want to say that, I want to say there was 62 grams of sugar. I think I know the one you're talking about.

• 7:55Jocko Willink?

  62 grams of sugar, bro. In a, in a, it was like this size, this side of a hydrate. It's like 16 ounces. And it was like two servings. Like, whatever.

• 8:07Jocko Willink?

  31 grams of sugar per serving. And so do you know what that does to your insulin system? When you gut bomb, when you drink, you drink 62 grams of sugar? It's freaking awful. I was like, bro, what are you doing? I was, I was in more indirect. I was like, dude, what are you getting out of that? Uh, you know, it's got, I think it's got the good greens in it. Okay, cool. Let me look at the label for a second. 62 grams of sugar. Stack 61 sugar cubes and eat them.

• 8:40Jocko Willink?

  So people, you know, and I'm, that's just, you gotta, you gotta use that intel. Gotta get the knowledge of what's going on so that you can act and you can react properly and get this stuff squared away. You're 45, there's some stuff going on. You, you, you just gotta be more active, dude. And when I say active, I'm not talking move more, I'm talking more actively engaged in making sure that shit is squared away.

• 9:07Jocko Willink?

  And that's what I missed. Did I miss anything?

• 9:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, I don't, I wouldn't say miss, but I'd say this is something that I think comes to you very naturally. To the point where we barely talked about it until recently. Um, but this is a bit, I, I believe, I firmly believe being someone who's over 45 years old is a big factor. And that is telling yourself that you're old, like, oh, I'm too old, or I'm old, these young guys and I'm the old guy, you know? And therefore, so telling yourself that. So.

• 9:35Jocko Willink?

  It's literally making an excuse.

• 9:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, but if the excuse goes deeper than just like, okay, that's it. I think it goes into your physiology as well. So it's like, it's gonna like.

• 9:44Jocko Willink?

  Getting some, some mind body connection.

• 9:47Speaker 01

  Trust me, I'm telling you, if you,

• 9:51Speaker 01

  how we put it, don't accept that, like for real, don't accept it. And it starts with like, okay, so you know, we've, I've known the guy and I'm sure everyone has who does jujitsu where it's like, the old guy's in there, he's good at jujitsu, but he keeps talking about how old he is, you know, where it's like, yeah, pretty good for an old guy. And this about the old guy and just how he's this old guy. So he's kind of like, he, he basically knocks down his standard of performance. Because yes, it is an excuse, but his whole body, his whole, everything is following. Yeah. And it's following that excuse pattern. So, so now when we're like, we go through, I don't know, some drill or some training or whatever. And yeah, you, you get sore from it.

• 10:32Speaker 01

  Now, instead of not, not accepting like, bro, I'm not accepting that I'm sore. I'm not gonna like start limping up the stairs. You know how like, okay, here's what I will. Consciously keep myself from doing and it's way easier now. You know, when you sit down for a long time, you get maybe you got some doms or whatever and go ahead. You know, you do that. And do I do it all the time? No, but I'm just saying if you can consciously be like not accepting, be like, nope, don't care powering through powering through powering through. You'd be surprised like how little it affects you when you get used to that, you know? Um, so anyway, that's like one of the, one of the versions of not accepting it. So if you do the opposite, if you start saying, hey, like I'm the old guy. Oh, like this whole body could use a, blah, blah, blah, this whole body, this I'm old, I'm 45, whatever.

• 11:17Speaker 01

  But that's a step in the wrong direction right there.

• 11:18Jocko Willink?

  Yeah. If you wake up and you're like, dude, I feel like a freaking animal today.

• 11:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:22Jocko Willink?

  Whose neck am I going to break training? Let's freaking go.

• 11:25Speaker 01

  All day. Don't care how old I am. Don't care. In fact, fucking good, good. I got more experience, blah, blah, blah. But yeah, if, if age is like this negative thing or whatever, and you consciously tell yourself that, I think that's a step in the wrong direction. And I think most people where, when they don't accept that, I think that they have a tendency to outperform everyone else at that age. So I've witnessed.

• 11:53Speaker 01

  Um, and experience too, though, because remember, you know, we talk about this with like lifting, for example, and, um, oh, there's a guy we train with, I forget his name. Anyways, he goes by Iron Man, but he, he said this as well, where it's like, when you, when you're lifting weights and stuff like that. And let's say you have a bad day of lifting and you're like over 40, you start to tell yourself, well, you know, I'm, hey, I had a good run. I'm older now. So now the next workout, you don't demand as much from yourself. So now you go a little bit less weight, you know, a little bit less, a little, a few, a little bit less sets, you know? I'm getting old. I don't have anymore. And guess what? That's okay. That's you accepting it.

• 12:30Jocko Willink?

  When you should be saying like, oh, I felt a little weak today. Need to deload.

• 12:33Speaker 01

  Yeah. Deload.

• 12:34Jocko Willink?

  Yep.

• 12:34Speaker 01

  Recover more, freaking really check my nutrition, like the whole thing, maybe even freaking work out this little kink right here. No problem. So I can get back in it and, and, and make up for my, my lack of performance. You see what I'm saying?

• 12:46Jocko Willink?

  So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground podcast. So if you want to continue to listen.

• 12:56Jocko Willink?

  Go to jockounderground.com and subscribe and we're doing this, we're doing this to mitigate our reliance on external platforms. So we are not subject to their control and we are doing this so that we can support the Jocko Podcast, which will remain as is free for all, as long as we can keep it that way. But we, but we are doing this so we don't have to be under the control of sponsors and we're doing it so we can give you more control, more interaction, more direct connections, better communications with us. And to do that, we are, we're building a website right now where we'll be able to utilize to strengthen

• 13:41Jocko Willink?

  this legion of troopers that are in the game with us. So, thank you. It's jockounderground.com. It costs $8.18 a month. And if you can't afford to support us, we can still support you. Just email [email protected] and we'll get you taken care of. Until then, we will see you mobilized underground.