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OneLegUpAlex Media Welcomes the Evolved Athlete, Brandon Day , Powered By PodMatch (recorded 3-12-26) · OneLegUpAlex Media

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, well with me today thanks to pom Match
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Power by pom Match is two time national champion Brandon
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Day and Brandon first of all, evolved athlete. You got
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: me hooked from the start, but then I see you
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: have an adaptation story to this athleticism, so so glad
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to welcome you. Now I understand you're from Carroll College,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: so let's start there. I mean, two time national champion,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: very own and have you on the show, and sometimes
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: very rare that we get a champion on my pod.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: So great to have you when we got back, Alex Media.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, good to be here, Alex, thanks for having me.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: So tell us your story. I mean maybe people are,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe selling a sports illustrated cover and one
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: of the backstory of that, so tell us about it all.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Sure. So I played college football in Helena, Montana, which
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: was my hometown. And in fact, the college that I
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: went to was a private Catholic institution that was smaller
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: than my high school. So there was like a thousand
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: kids in the whole school. The football team made up
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: like ten percent of the population, and we played in
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: the nai And I say all that to to kind
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: of highlight that you know, we were a small school,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: and the NAI didn't have a ton of uh, you know,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: big endowments and money, a lot of not a lot
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: of notoriety, you know, from that school. We weren't we
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: weren't Alabama, right, so we uh had a very dominant
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: run there for a while. My first national championship that
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: we won, I was a true freshman, and it was
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: the fourth in a row for the team, and then
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I got to play in two more. I won another
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: one with our team and lost our last one but
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: in seven after the game which was a total mud bowl,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: there was a photographer that took this great picture, sent
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: it out on the wire and Sports Illustrated ended up
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: picking it up. And a lot of reasons why it
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: ended up being on the cover, a lot of crazy
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: circumstances and wild things that kind of came together to
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: make that happen.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: But the outcome before this type, before this cover, I'm
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: sure Carol College wasn't really on the map as well.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: So did you feel like you were there to help
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: them put them on their map on the map? Is that?
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Is that what this did?
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I personally that was my you know, role,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: but perhaps the NAI world. We were pretty well known,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: you know, but that's a pretty small world in the
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: grand scheme of things. Like a lot of people on
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: the street, if you ask them what the NAI is,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: they wouldn't even know. But there's like one hundred and
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: twenty football teams across the country. They get lumped in
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: with like Division two with the NCAA. That's about the
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: level of competition that you could could compare them to.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it wasn't a huge deal, and it definitely
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: did like bring some bring some notoriety, I guess to
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Carol College, to Helena, Montana and maybe just just Montana
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: sports in general.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: So that was a really positive thing. That was pretty cool.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: I think I was at the time probably still maybe
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: one of four people from Montana to ever be on
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: the cover Sports Illustrated.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: Well, that's a pretty rare list then, so that's exclusive almost. Well,
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: let me ask you this, your coaches, your teammates, I mean,
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: when do you think about that cover?
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Do you think about all of them as well? Like,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: do you think about them a lot?
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Oh?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: The only reason that I was able to be on
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: the cover was because I had a solid team, right
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: that like got us to that championship and in a
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: coaching staff that was incredible, right, that was just a
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: blip in time of one. The crazy thing about the cover,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you've seen it, right, If you didn't, if
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: you didn't know who I am, you would never know
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: who I am, you know what I mean?
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: Like my head is back.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: You can't really tell very clearly who is in the picture.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: And I think that's a big reason why it was chosen,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: because it wasn't about one person. When I talked to
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: the editor of Sports Illustrated, he's like, this, we're gonna
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: choose your picture. Before that, he was like, it's between you.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: And Roger Clemens, so we'll let you know.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, okay, Roger Clemens.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: Cool.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: And it looks all muddy and it's two that seventh
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: picture of the year. But where was that taken? I
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: mean that the mud and all that, it looks pretty,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: uh sloppy football field.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Savannah, Tennessee is where the national championship was.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: And if you haven't.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Heard of Savannah, Tennessee, it's all right. It's also a
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: pretty small town, like an hour and a half south
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: of Memphis, close to the border of Georgia and it's
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: an old like old town that was run, you know,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: by a paper mill that had shut down years ago,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: and so a lot of people had left the town
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: and they had this the bid for this national championship
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: for ten years, so you know, that was the last year.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: But anyway, we were playing on their high school field
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: and it had rained for days, right, and the field
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: wasn't draining really well, so it ended up being a
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: big mud bowl, which was and I.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Didn't know any better that the jersey almost looked a
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: bit like the Colts blue. So I thought that was
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: almost like from the ninety eight the greatest game ever played,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: because that was pretty sloppy too back in the day.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: And that's pretty cool.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a white jersey, but because of all
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: that rain and mud and everything else, it kind of
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: like the purple kind of like tinted a little bit blue.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, definitely did. All right, Well, let's talk because
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: because I know you're all here to evolved athlete and
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: also the story of your your career, I mean, you
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: go to college, you're on the cover. Was the NFL
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: a possibility at that point?
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: I think early on it was in my mind as maybe.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: A possibility, but.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: I decided early on in my college career that I
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: wasn't going to pursue that for many reasons, one of
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: them being chronic pain. I was in pain all the time,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: you know, quote unquote bad knees, bad ankles, bad back,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. And and if I'm perfectly honest,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: the amount of work that that was going to require
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: to try to get even as slim as the chances
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: were to go and try and have a shot at
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: the NFL, I just wasn't really willing to do that,
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: to be perfectly honest.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: And so how we're able to play back it was
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: it like adrenaline ever game that got you through it
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: with the chronic pain or what.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Well, So the interesting thing about the chronic pain, like
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: the type of chronic pain that I have, and the
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: most prevalent type of chronic pain that I see and
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: work with with athletes, is that it's not it's not
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: something that is debilitating. It's like and oftentimes when you
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: do have that adrenaline and you kind of really get
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: into the zone right with a competition, then a lot
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: of times that pain would go away.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: Sure that then like after.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: The game, all the pain would come back, you know,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: in practices you'd be in pain and you kind of
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: just like play through that.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: So it's weird, and a lot of people make it
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: make make you know, okay, have a quartersone. But before
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the game, did he have this kind of chot? Did
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: that kind of shot?
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Did you take shots to deal with it or did
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: you just play naturally?
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: I didn't. The only time I ever did was when
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: I had turf toe really bad in high school and
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: I had actually didn't have a shot.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: But we did like.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Some some like topical stuff with like DMSO, which was
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: not advisable for anybody out there that's thinking about it.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: Don't do that, you know.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: You know, athletes at whatever level they want to be competitive,
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: you'll make some interesting choices sometimes that you're not thinking
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: too much about the long term consequences. And but I
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: was honestly really lucky Alex that I didn't need to
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: do a lot of that stuff. I could kind of
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: play through the pain and play at a high level
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: and then just like deal with it during the week
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: and then go out and play again. I never missed
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: a game due to injury. I rarely had to sit
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: out anytime due to like, because I never really had
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: any big injuries. It was all just like those nagging
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: aches and pains that were just annoying.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Right, And you feel like we're in a different generation here, Brandon.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: We're not the smallest inconvenience, but sometimes you know, a
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: lesser injury, could you know, knock someone out for weeks?
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: I don't really understand that, But where is that mentality?
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Like you played through it, but there are guys that
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: don't want to play through. What's the difference between generations here?
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Well, I think there is overall a generational difference. Some
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: of that has to do with awareness, especially around head injuries,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Like we played through head injuries that that should not
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: have been played through, Like that is that is way
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: too high of a risk and you're playing with fire.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Like I know way too much about the brain now
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: to ever think that was a good idea, But back
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: then we didn't know any different, so we just played
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: through it.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: So I know you do actually do this, You actually
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: run your evolved athlete through applied neurology. So maybe we
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: should get into that now that you mentioned the brain,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: because look, CTEs are so prevalent everywhere and I do
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: applaud these teams in the NFL for those concussion policies.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, you don't want a guy out there
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: a play later after you just got dinged in the head,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: you know like that. So I'm sure you're like, Okay,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: these policies are working, or could we do something different
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: when it comes to concussion.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: You know, we could we could do something different. It
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: it's like too early to tell, I think, until there's
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: a lot of really good data around the success or
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: otherwise of the policies right now. But I like the
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: way that they're going and they're way better than.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: They use Sory Sorry Sime, Sime, time sorry by that brand.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: All good, But there's also you know, the idea also
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: that you know, these are adult human beings that make
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: their own choices, so you can have that policy. But
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: you know, there it's it's it's interesting, like the line,
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: like where's the line where you are taking away their
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: their choice as well. You want to protect them, and
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: they want to protect themselves, but they also want to
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: protect their job and their family and all of that.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: So it's an interesting debate that could be had.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: But I do like their policies right now that they're
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: keeping people safe, especially in the early early stages, like
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: when you hit your head, if it's an if it's
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: nasty enough, like you really got to just take the
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: time to let your brain heal. Like Tua I can't
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: pronounce his last name, the Yeah topically quarterback for yeah,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: the quarterback for the Dolphins.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: A couple of years ago.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: When he had that big concussion and then he came
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: back like three weeks later, I was like, oh, that's
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: really risky.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Well look at Jackson dark and look we love here
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: in New York, right, I think he's gonna be a
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: very fire player for us. But yeah, he was in
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: the tenth one week and then back out there, and
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: it just we think. I believe Dabele was fired because
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: he didn't utilize Jackson properly, and probably the way you
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: use them led him to the concussion. I mean, that's
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: just what the contents.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: He also put himself in harm's way significantly on a
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: couple of.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: Those all the time season yep.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man, he got smacked on one third down.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: I remember towards the end of the season.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: I was like, dude, you can't like, that's a big
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: old linebacker coming at you and you're just putting yourself
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: right in harm's way. And he was out, he was
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: in the tent, but maybe he didn't have a decent
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: hit to the head. Maybe he was fine.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: He passed all the tests.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: That's the thing.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: It's an imperfect science still at this point. It's getting
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: better and better, but it's still not perfect.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: So, you know, I want I want to ask you
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: this because sometimes and nice and even people in regular life,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: when they have some kind of debilitating pain, they sort
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: of don't do anything about it. They just sort of
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: sit and say, well, maybe we'll get better, or you know,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: they complain more than they take action. So how were
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: you able to play through the was debilitating? Firstly? And
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I mean we talk about the adrenaline already, but there
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: had to be something more that helped you get through
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: that debilitation to play. I mean, that's pretty impressive that
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: through the pain you play.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, it wasn't quite debilitating, I'll say that, much
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: like I wasn't playing with a like torn acl you
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: know what I mean. It was just like nagging aches
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: and pains that were just annoying more than anything, and
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: they would kind of slow me down sometimes in practice,
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: like I'd limp around a little bit on my knee
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: until it was start to get warmed up. What I
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: know now is that a lot of those aches and
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: pains were coming from higher order systems, like my vestibular system,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: because my head was getting jostled around a lot, and
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: I was creating a situation where my brain was trying
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: to protect me with those aches and pains, saying like
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: slow down, stop what you're doing, or change it. But
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: the interesting thing about like the adrenaline thing that you're
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: mentioning is one thing that's really a big pain reliever,
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: especially for these types of aches and pains, is what's
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: called a flow state. And when you're like in the
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: zone and you're locked in, you actually get endorphins that
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: reduce pain. And I think for me that was a
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: big part of why I could play. When the competition
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: got higher, My pain would start to go away and
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: I could play at a higher level pain free. And
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: then as soon as you stop and you calm down,
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: you start to recover. Then the pain comes back because
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: the brain is like, Okay, by the way, you know,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: there's still something wrong here.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: You've got to fix it. So here's pain to let
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: you know.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: About it. Were you in the so at Queen's College,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: we had the finesse department, you know, finish your transaction,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I exercise science where you inserved those programs. So I
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: could tell you're very scientific minded. And I mean, do
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: you think all athletes are this way scientific minded or
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: do they say their bodies differently?
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: I don't think so.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: I think I think athletes run the gamut all the
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: way from like completely not scientific minded to totally buy
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: the book, like very precise and analytical.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: I sit somewhere in between.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: My master's degree is in kinesiology, and I really am
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: a big nerd for the brain and the nervous system
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: because it's changed so much for me. But I'm also
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: like an artist in many ways, and you know, a
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: very spiritual person as well.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: So I like to think that I'm a pretty good balance.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: But science has given me a lot, and it's helped
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: me a lot to figure out what's going on with
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: me and to help improve my fitness and exercise and
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: nutrition and all that.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: So, and you're also an entrepreneur because this is the brand,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: isn't it evolved? Athlete as your brand? So talk about
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: going from the college field and that Sports Illustrated article
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: to creating your own brand, and I always talk about, yeah, CEO.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: I love talking with CEOs because I find that your
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: story of leading a company and having one leg up
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: as a CEO will inspire others to have one leg up.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: So how did you get to become a CEO and entrepreneur?
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: It kind of came early on.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: I was endowed with a rebellious nature and my dad
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: is an entrepreneur, so it was kind of baked into
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: my DNA a little bit from the get go that
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: I wanted to kind of make my own way, and
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: the company and everything really came out of my own
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: journey for trying to heal my own chronic pain, figure
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: out what's going on with my brain, and make my
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: life better and also support my family.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: So I kind of like built from that. I started
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: helping other people and then it evolved from there.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: My original brand is called Odyssey Health because that's what
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: it felt like to me, was a big odyssey or
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: an epic journey to finding health. But now I really
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: look at everyone as an athlete, but from a brain
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: first perspective, and that's kind of the evolved nature of it, right.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: But again, I think like a lot.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: Of especially service based business where the brand is a
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: lot like really based on the personal story, like a
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: lot of other brands out there.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: I think that's what kind of you know, really gave the.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Brand its color and its shape as it's grown and
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: evolved over the years.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: And do you feel like this is a metaphor for
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: yourself that you've evolved I mean as an athlete, as
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: a person over the years. I mean, uh, you obviously
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: played through this, but then you evolve into this next phase.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: And I even see you. We're in the movies of
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the film industry over the years, so you're you're all
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: over the place.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: I am all over the place, but a good.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: All over the place. But you're you're evolved.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: It sounds to me though, like I know a gym
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: called the Evolution Gym, and I'm like, does he have
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: a gym with the evolved Athlete brand? Have you opened
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: a gym yet?
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: I don't. I don't. I I rent some space from
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: a friend. I see people in the gym occasionally. Most
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: of my work is online, to be honest, and I
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: just have like some equipment in my office here. The
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: cool thing about training the brain is you don't need
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: a ton of equipment. I still do like some heavy
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: weight training, and we get out on the field right
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: and we do all the strength and conditioning and that stuff.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: But the great thing about neurotraining is all you really
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: need is a brain and a body, and you can
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: do plenty with that. So it can be done anywhere,
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: it can be done online.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: It's great.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: I don't really have a lot of interest in opening
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: out traditional gym, like a brick and mortar thing, because
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: I want to be mobile personally, like I like to travel.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: I like to get the family out and do fun
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: stuff all around. So that requires my business and my
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: brand to be mobile as well.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: In your training, do you do you encourage people to
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: do at crosswords? I'm more intermed with all that to
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: keep the brain going.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I like anything that's going to stimulate the brain
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: to work. Just like your muscles, you got to work
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: your brain. There are a lot of other things that
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: we would do besides or before I go to that's
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: a very frontal lobe heavy.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: Exercise.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: In our work, we want to get the back of
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: the brain, like with some body movement, some breathing, some
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: inner ear head movements, and even some eye movements to
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: kind of like prime the brain.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: So it's ready to go after a task like that.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: And that's kind of the difference between you know, traditional
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: brain training, which is more cognitive work, and neurotraining, which
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: is actually more of using the body and these systems
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: that inform the brain about what's going on in the
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: world first and foremost, to get the whole brain integrated
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: so that you perform better at those cognitive tasks.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: I feel like athletes probably come to you because maybe
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: they've had a TBI through the football field or some
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: sport and then or even ct Do you work with
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: a lot of those kinds of athletes as well?
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I sure do.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: I tend to attract those kind of people because that's
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: who I am. Right, I was convinced I had CTE
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: at one point. I'm not convinced anymore, and my brain
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: is working better than it ever has. But those are
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: the kind of the people that tend to resonate with
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: the way that I do things and my story. So
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: I do end up working with quite quite a few
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: of those type of athletes. Yeah.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: One about working with the brain through movements and all that,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: I'm also thinking about, like the overactive brain the ADHD brain.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Do you work with them as well, and how do
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: you Is that about calming the brain at that point
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: a little bit?
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, it's about calming the brain and then getting
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: the whole brain integrated and working together. The ADHD D
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: brain is kind of a disconnected brain where it's like
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: I can focus on this one thing, but it's hard
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: to hold that focus because then a distraction comes in
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: and then I'm off and into another thing. In some ways,
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: it's it's a superpower, but only if you can harness
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: it by keeping the whole brain integrated.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: And so part of the interviewing for me is one
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: of the only times I can really focus because like
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: I'm just zoned in right now, you know what I mean.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: One hundred percent, And that's like a flow state, and
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: that's that's a superpower, right, But you got to maintain
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: that integration in other less stimulating activities too, which is
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: a little more challenging, but it's definitely not impossible. And
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: that's something that I that I help a lot of
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: people with.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you were a two time All American linebackers, so
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: talk about that experience bringing All American twice and then
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: in that position of linebacker. Obviously, you know you're gonna
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: go after the QB, You're gonna do all this stuff.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, what was that experience like and the physical
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: part of it, knowing what you were going through.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: I mean it again, like I really even that accolade,
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: that's kind of like personal. I only achieved that because
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: I had an incredible team, right. I had a defensive
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: line that took up all the blockers, so I was
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: free to just go tackle people, right, So a lot
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: of that has to do with like the team that
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: was around me. But I mean it's a lot of fun.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Like I would love to go back and chase around
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: some quarterbacks. Man, No, there's no better feeling than it's
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: a good sack on the quarterback.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Best linebacker out there right now, or defensive guy? I mean, well,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: who's the best defensive guy? I mean, we drafted up
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Dual Carter. We thought he was going to be the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: best lineman. He just he's not been one hundred percent.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: I don't know what's up with him. But I mean,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: for you, who's the best linebacker you're watching right now?
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: Fred Warner?
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, all the position as well as you do, probably,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: but I mean.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: He's a middle linebacker for San Francisco. He's hurt last
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: year he blew his achilles. I think it was his
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: achilles or his knee, I don't remember.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: But he's just just a freak athlete.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Who was your inspiration to get into football? I mean
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: everybody seems to have their inspirations or who is your guy?
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: It was actually Emmitt Smith.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: When I was a kid, he was the guy. I
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: wanted to be a running back just like him and
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: loved watching him. Barry Sanders was was up there too.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Loved watching those guys run.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they I mean Sanders was fun to watch, wasn't he.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: How was your and maybe people gonna do this and
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: maybe do this now with your dieting and all that
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: nutrition as well for an athlete, I mean, how was
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: nutrition and has it changed since the playing days?
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Honestly, nutrition was not a big focus for us back then. Again,
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: I didn't really know much about it. We were just
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: always trying to, like, you know, put on some weight,
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: get a little bigger, put on some muscle. So it's
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: kind of like eat whatever you want and and eat
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: more of it.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I only know, I'm only asking aus I know the
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: brain actually reacts to what you eat, right, I mean
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: there's some science there.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's hugely important. We just I just didn't
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: didn't know about it at that time or care to
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: look into it too much. But that hurt me, Like,
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, Like I could have been a
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: better player. I could have been a better had a
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: better working brain if I had been a little bit
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: more aware of the food that I was eating.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: You know, I was talking about the term brain fog,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: and I feel like you probably tackle this too, is
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: how we prevent brain fog. And I'm curious because that
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: six years ago we hit pandemic and I felt like,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: even though we were all inside, our brains were actually
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: able to focus a little more because we weren't really
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: moving around as much. Now that we're back out in
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: the world moving around every stressed again. So how do
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: you help people a eliminate the stress and be eliminate
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: the brain fog.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Well, kind of like the ADHD brain, you have to
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: get the brain connected, get the back survival brain kind
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: of calmed down, so you can connect the whole thing
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: and that'll clear things up for you. The nutrition is
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: a big part of that too, Like if your gut's
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: not healthy. Your brain's not healthy, and you're gonna be foggy.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: Those are my two big like starting points anybody that
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: has brain fog? Yeah?
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Hm, in your what did you learn your playing days
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: that you took into the you know, the entrepreneur spirit,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: the the where you're at now? Did you take any
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: lessons learned on the field and bring it into your
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: life now?
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: For sure?
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: And uh, I have to run after after this this
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: last question, but I really appreciate this one.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: Let me try to answer it.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: Well. The the biggest lesson I think is that you
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: don't have to push through pain, and that that means
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: all kinds of pain. By the way, pain is just
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: a signal, whether it's emotional pain, psychological, physical pain, it's
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: just a signal that something needs to change, and so
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: you should pay attention to it, that's all. But you
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: don't want to push through it, you don't want to
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: suppress it, you don't want to ignore it.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: You want to learn from it.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: And when you start to understand a little bit more
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: about how your body and especially your brain works to
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: send you these signals, and you start to open up
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: that dialogue with it a little bit, then you really
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: can start to become more in tune with your own
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: intuition right, and your own body and things really can
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: start to build momentum and change for the better your
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: entire life. If you can just understand this one principle
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: that pain is there to help you, right, and that
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: you can learn something from it. And if you can
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: figure out why your brain is giving you this signal
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: and then take that right action, everything can change well.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Brendan Day, Evolved Athlete, thanks for joining one like a
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: balx Media, I love it on Is the draft gets closer,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: we can maybe talk all bit who's the best class linebackers?
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: Love to to have you back on that'd be cool.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: I love that all right, brend Day, thanks again for
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: joining me.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: Thanks Alex