Latest / Brewsers / Brewsers #358- Dr. Heather Linden

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Brewsers #358- Dr. Heather Linden · Brewsers

0:20
Speaker 1: Welcome to Bruisers podcast about beer, coffee, booze and Bruisers.
0:23
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Rudy John and today we talked to
0:25
Speaker 1: doctor Heather Lindon. We talked about how she became a doctor,
0:29
Speaker 1: being at the UFCPI and so much more. I did
0:33
Speaker 1: this on location at the UFCPI when I was out
0:35
Speaker 1: in Vegas for WrestleMania, and she gave me a tour
0:37
Speaker 1: in that place. Absolutely incredible. The visuals you see on
0:41
Speaker 1: documentaries and everything do not do a justice you.
0:44
Speaker 2: If you get a.
0:44
Speaker 1: Chance, definitely go out and go out of your way
0:47
Speaker 1: while you're in Las Vegas to go check out the UFCPI.
0:50
Speaker 3: It is.
0:50
Speaker 2: It is absolutely amazing.
0:51
Speaker 1: But you don't hear from me, you want to hear
0:52
Speaker 1: from hert So, without further ado, here is doctor Heather Linden.
1:10
Speaker 1: I would like to welcome the show, doctor Heather Linden.
1:12
Speaker 1: How are you doing today?
1:13
Speaker 3: I'm doing great.
1:14
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, Thanks for having us. We are
1:16
Speaker 1: here at the Performance Institute. This place is massive, and
1:20
Speaker 1: you said you guys are out growing it.
1:21
Speaker 3: We are the expansion. I think in the last nine
1:24
Speaker 3: years that we've been here has just exponentially gone upward.
1:29
Speaker 3: The utilization has, like I would say, come tenfold from
1:32
Speaker 3: when we started. Initially, I would say this sport wasn't
1:35
Speaker 3: sure what to do with us when we were built.
1:37
Speaker 3: They're like, how do you incorporate fighting and performance? And
1:41
Speaker 3: I think we've definitely nailed that niche and have learned
1:44
Speaker 3: a lot not only from the athletes, but what we
1:46
Speaker 3: can do to help them, right.
1:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, considering you're helping long their career go longer hopefully yep.
1:52
Speaker 1: And like we were talking about before, make them smarter fighters.
1:55
Speaker 3: As well, exactly. And I think this sport has evolved, right.
1:59
Speaker 3: It used to be a lot more just more brutality,
2:02
Speaker 3: more like anything goes. And now they're realizing, like if
2:06
Speaker 3: they train smarter, better quality, that that's really carrying over.
2:10
Speaker 3: It's reducing injuries, it's making weight cuts easier using science.
2:14
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, not just trash bags in asana exactly.
2:17
Speaker 3: You know, having that scientific method behind it makes the
2:20
Speaker 3: lives of our athletes a lot easier. So I think
2:22
Speaker 3: they're finally getting that buy in, and we have seen
2:25
Speaker 3: the numbers of utilization just go drastically. When we started,
2:29
Speaker 3: there was six of us. Our entire performance team is
2:31
Speaker 3: close to eighty now that's amazing.
2:33
Speaker 1: And it's not just here Mexico, and it's also in Shanghai.
2:37
Speaker 1: It's right, yep.
2:38
Speaker 3: So we have three facilities Las Vegas, Mexico City, and Shanghai.
2:42
Speaker 3: I'm sure there'll be more expansions down the road as well,
2:45
Speaker 3: especially with us taking on boxing and BJJ and just
2:48
Speaker 3: the whole combat portfolio.
2:50
Speaker 1: Now, let's go all the way back in time. What
2:52
Speaker 1: is your earliest memory of sports?
2:54
Speaker 3: Booh? My earliest memory of sports for myself personally, yes,
2:58
Speaker 3: So I was a gymnast. I was a high level
3:00
Speaker 3: gymnast an equestrian, and then that turned into collegiate cheerleading.
3:06
Speaker 3: So I was always in sports. Even as a young kid,
3:08
Speaker 3: I was kind of a tomboy. I played soccer and
3:10
Speaker 3: baseball as well with the boys until I was told
3:12
Speaker 3: in middle school that I had to do softball, which
3:15
Speaker 3: did not excite me. So I was definitely an athlete
3:18
Speaker 3: my whole life, and I think that's why the pathway
3:21
Speaker 3: of doing physical therapy and helping athletes really, you know,
3:24
Speaker 3: just matched perfectly with my personality.
3:27
Speaker 1: I did hear that you were a cheerleader for the
3:29
Speaker 1: wrestling team in New Jersey.
3:30
Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh. Yes, So our wrestlers were exceptional in Jersey.
3:34
Speaker 3: I think we're really well known in the Northeast to
3:38
Speaker 3: have really good wrestling and our basketball team was horrible,
3:41
Speaker 3: so we you know, diverted and were asked to actually
3:46
Speaker 3: cheer on the wrestling mats. And that's what we did
3:48
Speaker 3: all throughout high school. So it's funny. I would have
3:51
Speaker 3: never thought, now, gosh, so many years later that I
3:55
Speaker 3: would be in combat sports.
3:57
Speaker 1: So you're dealing with wrestling again again.
3:59
Speaker 3: I can't get away. It follows me everywhere.
4:02
Speaker 1: Well, asking me from New Jersey, I have to ask
4:04
Speaker 1: Taylorham or.
4:06
Speaker 3: What is it?
4:07
Speaker 1: Pool? No, I have it written down here, m Taylor
4:12
Speaker 1: Ham or porkorl oh, what do you Carporrel? Okay Park
4:17
Speaker 1: because I know it's it's a decisive thing in New Jersey.
4:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, Porkrel all the way. Okay, it's so good.
4:22
Speaker 1: I've had it once. It's not bad. Yeah.
4:23
Speaker 3: I think we're like a little blinded by growing up
4:26
Speaker 3: with that. We just think it's like, you know, the
4:28
Speaker 3: bread and butter of everything, and then when we get away,
4:31
Speaker 3: we do realize maybe it wasn't as exceptional as we expected.
4:34
Speaker 1: Americans and you don't find it everywhere.
4:36
Speaker 3: You don't, which is nice. That is good. I think
4:39
Speaker 3: that's a good thing.
4:42
Speaker 1: Yes, well I had I had to ask that one.
4:43
Speaker 1: So I knew you were from New Jersey.
4:45
Speaker 3: Yep.
4:45
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, so you talk about how you were
4:48
Speaker 1: into sports and that's how you got into sports medicine.
4:50
Speaker 1: But how did the love of the medicine on this
4:52
Speaker 1: side of the sports aspect of it kind of grabbing?
4:55
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think because I had some injuries growing up,
4:58
Speaker 3: I always was really fascinated the medical world. To be honest,
5:01
Speaker 3: I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon initially, but then
5:05
Speaker 3: when I started talking to our ortho at Virginia Tech
5:07
Speaker 3: and our athletic trainers and pts, really I was like,
5:11
Speaker 3: I enjoy the human component. I love when you can
5:14
Speaker 3: see somebody, you know, maybe at their worst day, and
5:17
Speaker 3: figure out how to get them back into sport at
5:19
Speaker 3: their best day and compete at that best level. So
5:22
Speaker 3: I think that really when I started talking to people,
5:24
Speaker 3: they were like, as a physician, you get five or
5:25
Speaker 3: ten minutes with somebody, you don't actually get to understand
5:28
Speaker 3: who they are, what drives and motivates them, And that's
5:31
Speaker 3: when physical therapy really, you know, was like, Oh, that's
5:33
Speaker 3: kind of a mesh of both. You actually have these
5:36
Speaker 3: long term rehabs or you get to know the individual
5:38
Speaker 3: in front of you and you get to see them
5:40
Speaker 3: overcome all these obstacles into greatness. And I think that's
5:43
Speaker 3: something that I was like, Okay, that is by far
5:45
Speaker 3: definitely my calling and I completely diverted. Luckily I was
5:49
Speaker 3: pre med anyway, so it was really easy to go
5:50
Speaker 3: that physical therapy route.
5:52
Speaker 1: I always wonder that when people get into the medical
5:54
Speaker 1: it's like, how do you find that one group? Yeah,
5:57
Speaker 1: like the nurses or doctors or whatever it is.
5:59
Speaker 3: And I think what's also that people don't know is
6:01
Speaker 3: an or like an MD. When you do your residencies
6:04
Speaker 3: and stuff like, you can't always pick which route you
6:08
Speaker 3: go right because you have to match with the school.
6:10
Speaker 3: There's all this like matching that goes on. And it's like,
6:13
Speaker 3: let's say I wanted to go in orthopedics only and
6:15
Speaker 3: I didn't match with any schools, then what do you do? Right?
6:18
Speaker 3: And I was like, no, no, no, I do not
6:20
Speaker 3: want to go down that route. With all this year
6:22
Speaker 3: of schooling, I really want to influence and impact athletes
6:25
Speaker 3: and the only way you do so is to get
6:27
Speaker 3: quality time with them and build that trust. And that's
6:29
Speaker 3: what you could do in sports medicine.
6:30
Speaker 1: I mean, so many people do love that story of
6:33
Speaker 1: like how they got up to that greatness, but a
6:35
Speaker 1: lot of times they forget about the Yes, they might
6:38
Speaker 1: have an injury, but they have to fight back through
6:40
Speaker 1: that to get back and where they're gonna need to be.
6:42
Speaker 3: They really do, and injuries put such like a big
6:45
Speaker 3: obstacle in front of them. Right we know, even at
6:48
Speaker 3: the greatest level, not all athletes return back to that
6:51
Speaker 3: high level performance. We've seen that we're getting better medicine
6:54
Speaker 3: is amazing right now. The technology, the way we do
6:58
Speaker 3: surgery we get athletes back way faster, or the use
7:01
Speaker 3: of orthobiologics, you know, all of that kind of stuff
7:04
Speaker 3: really changes medicine now with athletes. But there are those
7:08
Speaker 3: obstacles that you know, surgery, surgery, and sometimes it doesn't
7:10
Speaker 3: always go as planned. You know, athletes are quickly sometimes
7:14
Speaker 3: like oh, just fix it, do surgery, but there are
7:16
Speaker 3: the cases where you get infections or something happens that
7:20
Speaker 3: they never are the same. So it is definitely rolling
7:22
Speaker 3: the dice and that's their career, so I wouldn't want
7:25
Speaker 3: to do that if I can avoid it. Yeah.
7:26
Speaker 1: I mean, as we saw recently the new UC light
7:29
Speaker 1: heavyweight champion towards ACL during the belt and so now
7:33
Speaker 1: he's probably got nine months to a year.
7:35
Speaker 3: Yep. I saw him today.
7:36
Speaker 1: How is he doing great?
7:38
Speaker 3: Okay, he's done great. Honestly. We got him in out.
7:41
Speaker 3: We had the surgery today, he started or yesterday, and
7:45
Speaker 3: we had rehab today, so we get them going really
7:48
Speaker 3: fast here. All of our athletes in rehab are seen
7:52
Speaker 3: twice a day, so two hours a day, five times
7:54
Speaker 3: a week, so ten rehab sessions. So he just decided
7:57
Speaker 3: to come here so he could start off on a
7:59
Speaker 3: good note and then we'll transfer it to his pet
8:02
Speaker 3: New Zealand in a few weeks.
8:03
Speaker 1: With that surgery, he can't fly for a while.
8:05
Speaker 3: Right, Honestly, it's it's pretty crazy. They can fly pretty soon.
8:08
Speaker 3: They can fly usually about five days after.
8:12
Speaker 1: Oh okay, which is nice.
8:13
Speaker 3: They just have to get on certain medications for blood
8:16
Speaker 3: clots and things like that if they are going to
8:17
Speaker 3: fly that soon. But we're going to keep them for
8:19
Speaker 3: a few weeks because we can capitalize on all the
8:22
Speaker 3: resources we have at the PI we can get him going,
8:26
Speaker 3: so we're excited to have him in town.
8:27
Speaker 1: I love that. Yeah, uh so you were part of
8:31
Speaker 1: the Olympics. How did you get into that?
8:35
Speaker 3: So I applied to do a volunteer rotation for a
8:40
Speaker 3: two week stint of non paid just being able to
8:43
Speaker 3: help the USA athletes out. I knew I wanted to
8:46
Speaker 3: get into sports, and honestly, when I first got out
8:48
Speaker 3: of school, I didn't realize it was so hard to
8:50
Speaker 3: get into sports. So I kind of put my head down,
8:53
Speaker 3: did all this continuing education, and then after I was
8:56
Speaker 3: five years I could apply for a volunteer position at
8:59
Speaker 3: the US olymp fifteen. And what that is is you
9:02
Speaker 3: come in for two weeks and they get to know you.
9:04
Speaker 3: You work help out the athletes where they, you know,
9:07
Speaker 3: don't have enough staff or maybe some other staff are
9:09
Speaker 3: away at a world championship, so you kind of help
9:12
Speaker 3: out there and then you do your two weeks and
9:14
Speaker 3: hopefully if an athlete is in your area afterwards, you're
9:17
Speaker 3: a good resource for them to use. And that was
9:19
Speaker 3: kind of my initial plan. But after my first week
9:24
Speaker 3: doing it, the boss called me into the office and
9:26
Speaker 3: asked if I would consider staying and taking a job
9:28
Speaker 3: that they had that was available. So I rerouted my
9:31
Speaker 3: whole life, pretty much called off my engagement, left my house,
9:36
Speaker 3: and started a career and I love it. I would
9:39
Speaker 3: not look back on it at all. It was the
9:43
Speaker 3: most amazing thing. I knew immediately after my first year
9:45
Speaker 3: that I would want to be in sports the rest
9:47
Speaker 3: of my life.
9:48
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Yeah, so you dealt with all the sports
9:51
Speaker 1: summer and yeahs and they kept growing and taking some
9:56
Speaker 1: away as well.
9:56
Speaker 3: They did, so it's pretty interesting. People don't realize this.
10:00
Speaker 3: After every Olympic Games, all the sports that you see
10:03
Speaker 3: on TV have to apply to be in the next one.
10:06
Speaker 3: So they have to write yeah, so they have to
10:09
Speaker 3: write like, this is why we should stay a sport,
10:12
Speaker 3: this is what's happening, and like why we think it's
10:15
Speaker 3: a metal potential, this is why people watch the sport.
10:17
Speaker 3: That's how we get new sports into the Olympics is
10:20
Speaker 3: there's this whole like application kind of process. Usually the
10:23
Speaker 3: ones that have been there for a while stay in
10:25
Speaker 3: pretty steady, but you know, as sports evolve, that's where
10:28
Speaker 3: you see some of these newer sports filter into the
10:30
Speaker 3: Olympic journey. Break answer exactly, so, I mean, I think
10:33
Speaker 3: everyone talks about that year they tried to kick wrestling out,
10:37
Speaker 3: but that's because you want to know why wrestling didn't
10:39
Speaker 3: submit the application because they were like, yes, and you
10:43
Speaker 3: know what the Olympic Journey said, Oh no, if you're
10:45
Speaker 3: not going to follow the rules, we're going to put
10:47
Speaker 3: you on the chopping blot. Wow. So really it was
10:50
Speaker 3: just that they weren't following what they should have been
10:52
Speaker 3: doing because they just thought we're the exception, and the
10:55
Speaker 3: Olympic Journey tried to show that that wasn't necessarily true,
10:58
Speaker 3: that you need to get your actually application process and
11:01
Speaker 3: to continue to be the sport they are chosen for
11:04
Speaker 3: the Olympic Games.
11:04
Speaker 1: Good and no, I had no idea about that.
11:06
Speaker 3: I know so many fun facts when you like live
11:09
Speaker 3: in this world of behind the scene in sports.
11:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what sport did you know nothing about? But
11:14
Speaker 1: you ended up being that's one of your favorite ones
11:17
Speaker 1: to watch?
11:17
Speaker 3: Oh I'm not sure it's say my favorite, but modern
11:19
Speaker 3: pentathlon I knew nothing about. Do you know anything about?
11:25
Speaker 3: Nobody does? But it is like, so you start off
11:28
Speaker 3: by fencing, then you go into swimming, then you go
11:32
Speaker 3: into running, then you go into running and shooting together,
11:37
Speaker 3: and then you go into a questria good Ford, good lord.
11:40
Speaker 3: Nobody really knows. It's not really televised much, but it
11:42
Speaker 3: is a sport. So that one I was like, I
11:44
Speaker 3: didn't even know what existed. Fencing I didn't know much about,
11:47
Speaker 3: and I did cover a lot of fencing, and that
11:49
Speaker 3: was really fun. Obviously I knew about swimming, gymnastics, and
11:52
Speaker 3: wrestling and boxing and all of those that I covered.
11:55
Speaker 3: You know, I think I didn't know a lot about
11:57
Speaker 3: speed skating, Bob's led some of those other sports that
12:02
Speaker 3: I think you know aren't as televised, right, I learned
12:06
Speaker 3: a lot from and I think really what it taught
12:08
Speaker 3: me is that how I practice medicine, I had to
12:11
Speaker 3: really have an individualized approach every athlete. Every sport is different, right,
12:15
Speaker 3: You can't put them in buckets like we try to do,
12:17
Speaker 3: because really every human is different. So you got to
12:20
Speaker 3: kind of figure out what their body needs, wants, and
12:23
Speaker 3: like what they need for to capitalize in their sport.
12:26
Speaker 1: Right, Like I heard you mentioned they do the same
12:29
Speaker 1: thing for quarterbacks they do for the tight ends, like yeah.
12:33
Speaker 3: And even in the quarterbackground. Right, Like we look at
12:36
Speaker 3: these athletes and we profile them, like all the quarterbacks
12:39
Speaker 3: get the same lift or the same testing, but like
12:42
Speaker 3: you might have one quarterback that's six four and you know,
12:46
Speaker 3: really full of muscle. You might have a leaner quarterback
12:49
Speaker 3: that might be shorter. So like we really have to
12:51
Speaker 3: look at each one as an individual and then program them,
12:54
Speaker 3: not in these buckets. So I always challenge that in
12:57
Speaker 3: other sports. We're really lucky here because it is indo
13:00
Speaker 3: visualized sport, so we get to like assess them in
13:03
Speaker 3: that way and then make the modifications. But I think
13:06
Speaker 3: in team sports we do a really bad job of
13:08
Speaker 3: not keeping that individualized approach.
13:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Now, you also went three
13:13
Speaker 1: different Olympics.
13:14
Speaker 3: It did.
13:15
Speaker 1: What is that atmosphere like for people who have never
13:17
Speaker 1: been to the.
13:17
Speaker 3: Olympics, it is the most amazing, brilliant team camaraderie. So
13:23
Speaker 3: you walk into an olymp I was at London, Rio
13:27
Speaker 3: and Social Olympics. I was housed in the village.
13:31
Speaker 1: So you have questions about.
13:32
Speaker 3: The villages, They're all true. No, So you walk in
13:37
Speaker 3: there and to see every building represented by a different
13:40
Speaker 3: country and it is you just take a step back
13:43
Speaker 3: and these are the best athletes around the entire world
13:47
Speaker 3: in one village. It's crazy. You've never seen so much
13:50
Speaker 3: athleticism in your life, and everybody is so excited for
13:54
Speaker 3: their own countries, but also with the camaraderie around the
13:57
Speaker 3: different countries and like just seeing really good Like I
14:01
Speaker 3: think that's something we don't get to see a lot
14:03
Speaker 3: of necessarily. So it's an environment like no other.
14:06
Speaker 1: It's a celebration of competition.
14:08
Speaker 3: It is.
14:08
Speaker 1: Yeah.
14:09
Speaker 3: You know. I had my boss at the Olympics once.
14:12
Speaker 3: We had a Chinese athlete that couldn't travel with their
14:16
Speaker 3: physical therapists and got hurt, and he was like, hey,
14:18
Speaker 3: how there can you help out? And I'm thinking to myself,
14:20
Speaker 3: like why would I help them? Like this is good
14:23
Speaker 3: for us, Like if he's injured, we win, Yeah, And
14:27
Speaker 3: he was like, that's not what this is about. This
14:29
Speaker 3: is about you don't want to win because someone is injured.
14:33
Speaker 3: You want to win because you're the best athletes on
14:35
Speaker 3: that day. Yeah. And when I started looking things that way,
14:38
Speaker 3: I still look at that with the UFC fighters, right,
14:41
Speaker 3: because I treat opponents every day and it's not about
14:45
Speaker 3: nothing I'm doing is performance enhancing. What I'm doing is
14:48
Speaker 3: just giving a healthy individual the best chance to compete
14:51
Speaker 3: on their best day and with that there's really no
14:54
Speaker 3: competitive advantage. And I have carried what I learned from
14:56
Speaker 3: that Olympic journey over to UFC and really like made
15:00
Speaker 3: sure the team stresses that so that there's like that
15:03
Speaker 3: trust with the athletes, not one or the other. It's like,
15:05
Speaker 3: let's get in that octagon and compete at the best capability, right.
15:09
Speaker 1: They want to show that they are they are the best. Yes, yep, no,
15:12
Speaker 1: I love that. So what is I'm not gonna ask
15:16
Speaker 1: any village questions other than what is the craziest thing
15:19
Speaker 1: that you have potentially have seen or heard inside said village?
15:24
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, well this is gonna sound really funny, but
15:28
Speaker 3: I was defined as the sex doctor in the London Olympics.
15:32
Speaker 3: Love it only because some of my young athletes were
15:36
Speaker 3: too scared to get condoms, so they would ask me
15:39
Speaker 3: to go get them for them.
15:40
Speaker 1: Did they provide them at one point?
15:41
Speaker 3: Oh, there's fishbowls all over, but you still have to
15:44
Speaker 3: be the person that walks over to the fishbowl and
15:46
Speaker 3: puts your hand in the big fish bowl and grab them.
15:49
Speaker 3: And I was like, okay, guys, I'm a medical human.
15:51
Speaker 3: I want you to be safe. Yeah, we have competitions.
15:54
Speaker 3: I don't need you guys get anything. We need to
15:57
Speaker 3: be smart here. So I would go over to the
16:00
Speaker 3: fish bowls and I provide a small fish bowl in
16:02
Speaker 3: our medical clinic where the guys would feel comfortable grabbing some.
16:05
Speaker 3: And then I was termed the sex doctor of the
16:08
Speaker 3: London Olympics, and I was like, great, I'm glad I
16:11
Speaker 3: have that reputation. But I'm like, I'm just looking out
16:13
Speaker 3: for the kids and making sure everone's healthy and stays
16:16
Speaker 3: healthy from a medical standpoint, and that's all I care
16:18
Speaker 3: about the Olympics exactly.
16:21
Speaker 1: Gosh. Also, how does McDonald's work. Well, oh my god.
16:26
Speaker 3: It's the best? Is it? Totally? Molly? It will change
16:30
Speaker 3: your life. So McDonald's like has strict rules and regulations
16:35
Speaker 3: when they come into the village. So every village has
16:37
Speaker 3: the McDonald's. Everything is completely organic, natural, cooked to deliver,
16:44
Speaker 3: so it's not like your fast food McDonald's. Right. So
16:47
Speaker 3: this is gonna sound bad. I probably shouldn't say it,
16:49
Speaker 3: but like when we were in Rio, some of the
16:52
Speaker 3: food maybe options were the best, but you could go
16:55
Speaker 3: to the McDonald's and I could get a salad that
16:58
Speaker 3: was completely freshly made, and I'd get grilled chicken on
17:01
Speaker 3: top of it that was freshly warm, cut up and sliced.
17:05
Speaker 3: And it all has to be like very high grade
17:07
Speaker 3: level because we're feeding Olympians, so it's not your typical McDonald's.
17:10
Speaker 1: That's what I kept imagining. I was like, why is
17:12
Speaker 1: McDonald's there. It's not helping them.
17:14
Speaker 3: No, But it's all really healthy foods, to be honest, So.
17:17
Speaker 1: It's stuff I won't see it McDonald's, yes.
17:19
Speaker 3: And like everything is cooked to order, so like even
17:22
Speaker 3: if you got a cheeseburger, it is like fresh on
17:24
Speaker 3: the grill, coming right to plate. So that's why McDonald
17:27
Speaker 3: is actually an athlete favorite, and sometimes it's staff favorite
17:30
Speaker 3: because sometimes when you're living in the village for a month,
17:33
Speaker 3: the food gets redundant. I didn't realize London Olympics had
17:37
Speaker 3: the best food court I've ever seen at Olympic Games.
17:40
Speaker 3: They chose to make stands of every country and culture,
17:43
Speaker 3: so you could walk in and if you were this country,
17:46
Speaker 3: they had your type of food, where Soshi was more
17:49
Speaker 3: Russian based food and Rio was more interesting I'm just
17:54
Speaker 3: gonna use that word, Okay, So we ended up like
17:57
Speaker 3: in both in Soshi and both in McDonald's more times
18:01
Speaker 3: than I would.
18:02
Speaker 1: Like to say? Are you upset? Snoop Dogg was not
18:06
Speaker 1: at the one do you rest?
18:07
Speaker 3: Yes? Gosh though, My first day at the job here
18:13
Speaker 3: in UFC was Snoop Dogg doing a concert that all
18:16
Speaker 3: of us were at. Oh there you go, and it
18:18
Speaker 3: was like just performed for us. So I did get
18:21
Speaker 3: to meet him. On my first day at UFC. We
18:24
Speaker 3: threw an athlete conference, bringing in like people to train
18:28
Speaker 3: them in media. We were introducing the PI, so they
18:32
Speaker 3: rented out the JW they flew in all the athletes.
18:36
Speaker 3: We had an entire weekend of getting to know them,
18:38
Speaker 3: them getting to know the PI. It was all like
18:41
Speaker 3: training for the athletes. I wish we could do it again.
18:44
Speaker 3: Our roster is just too big now to do that.
18:46
Speaker 3: It was so much fun. It was so all these
18:49
Speaker 3: fighters having a good time together. Yes, there were a
18:51
Speaker 3: few that ended up a little controversial with like wanting
18:54
Speaker 3: to fight each other, you know at what in a
18:56
Speaker 3: Snoop dog concert? Competitive people again, yes, but it was
19:00
Speaker 3: super fun. So I did get to meet Snoop Dogg
19:03
Speaker 3: and hear him play and all that stuff. But it
19:05
Speaker 3: was just after the Olympics.
19:06
Speaker 1: Love that well, speak of snoop. I wouldn't think about
19:08
Speaker 1: asking this question till right now. When it comes to rehabilitation,
19:13
Speaker 1: how does cannabis and CBD kind of go along with
19:17
Speaker 1: the muscles and recuperating and all that.
19:20
Speaker 3: So that's a great question because we get that a
19:22
Speaker 3: lot because I would say the Safi population does dabble
19:25
Speaker 3: a lot more into that whils.
19:26
Speaker 1: So we're seeing more. I mean even Lebron James put
19:30
Speaker 1: a million dollars yearly until we actually had his own company,
19:33
Speaker 1: and then CBD is also part of that.
19:35
Speaker 3: CBD has a great fling down. Yes, has some great
19:39
Speaker 3: healing qualities. We use it a lot in some of
19:41
Speaker 3: our creams for anti inflammatory qualities. When you start to
19:45
Speaker 3: pull in the THHC and stuff like that and that's different,
19:49
Speaker 3: that can slow down some of your healing. So especially
19:52
Speaker 3: with our rehabs, we try to get them off of
19:54
Speaker 3: that a little bit because we've just seen a little
19:57
Speaker 3: bit of a slower rehab. And it could also be
19:59
Speaker 3: the neural cognitive side, because think about when an injury happens,
20:03
Speaker 3: you miss that connection and if you're always a little
20:06
Speaker 3: bit foggy here that connection is going to be able
20:08
Speaker 3: to slow down, so rehab could be a little slower.
20:11
Speaker 3: So we try if it's like a postop to kind
20:14
Speaker 3: of get out of that. But we do use a
20:16
Speaker 3: lot of CBD for our creams and topicals for this
20:19
Speaker 3: athic population.
20:21
Speaker 1: Yeah. I talk about CBD with people and they think
20:23
Speaker 1: they go straight to the TC party.
20:24
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm like, no, no, no, there's some great you
20:26
Speaker 3: got to separate it. There's great qualities in CBD. You
20:30
Speaker 3: just the THHD side of it is where we see people,
20:32
Speaker 3: you know, smoking and doing that that can delay some
20:35
Speaker 3: of the healing qualities, right, Okay.
20:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't think about it until literally right now,
20:39
Speaker 1: which I must have know. So when was it that
20:42
Speaker 1: you got over to the UFC party?
20:44
Speaker 3: Yeah? So I got a call one day from a
20:47
Speaker 3: recruiter where I was at the Olympic Training Center saying,
20:50
Speaker 3: you know, would you be interested in running the medical
20:53
Speaker 3: department for UFC. And I specifically said I don't know.
20:57
Speaker 1: Anything about UFC, which is where can you do because
21:00
Speaker 1: you dealt with yeah, oh, and the guy was like,
21:02
Speaker 1: wait a minute.
21:03
Speaker 3: You worked with Olympic Boxing, Olympic wrestling, both male female,
21:09
Speaker 3: greco freestyle you worked with taekwondo judo and I was like, well, yeah,
21:13
Speaker 3: those are easy, and he's like, well take those together
21:16
Speaker 3: and that's our sport.
21:17
Speaker 1: It's mixed martial arts.
21:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I was like, okay, let's talk more. And
21:21
Speaker 3: then I think what really sold me on the job
21:24
Speaker 3: is this was a clean slate. They have never had
21:26
Speaker 3: any medical departments here, so really being able to develop.
21:30
Speaker 3: I think the things that I thought were really positive
21:33
Speaker 3: in the Olympic journey and things I thought we could
21:35
Speaker 3: do better for athletes would all be mine to choose.
21:37
Speaker 3: Like I got a clean paper to say, how would
21:40
Speaker 3: you run your ideal sports medicine facility? And that to
21:44
Speaker 3: me and I was like, what happens if you build
21:45
Speaker 3: this facility and nobody shows up? And they were like,
21:49
Speaker 3: build your brand And I'm like, what You're gonna let
21:53
Speaker 3: me have full rain on my brand in medicine. And
21:56
Speaker 3: I really like, I've always been a huge advocate for
21:59
Speaker 3: athletes models. I do think in a lot of sports
22:03
Speaker 3: we don't do the best for our athletes in the
22:05
Speaker 3: sense of like athletes are a number, especially in the
22:08
Speaker 3: US compared to other countries. I saw that with the Olympics,
22:11
Speaker 3: you know, and athlete's injured, we find someone else to
22:13
Speaker 3: replace it. Our population of so many choices of athletes
22:17
Speaker 3: and potential is just endless. So you know, I really
22:21
Speaker 3: wanted to build a sports medicine clinic where there was
22:23
Speaker 3: trust and you know, I think initially athletes thought, oh
22:26
Speaker 3: my god, they might pull me from a fight, and
22:28
Speaker 3: that mentality has completely swapped now where they're like, oh
22:31
Speaker 3: my god, Heather's team is going to try to save
22:33
Speaker 3: this fight. They are actually on our side. They're going
22:36
Speaker 3: to pull everything that they possibly can to help us.
22:39
Speaker 3: And that's really with the environment, because I think medicine
22:41
Speaker 3: sometimes gets that negativity of like, oh you're going to
22:44
Speaker 3: the doctor, Oh what's right with you? Yeah, as opposed
22:47
Speaker 3: to prevention and like looking at those tasks before being
22:52
Speaker 3: more prevented. I mean, I will say combat sports, you
22:54
Speaker 3: can't prevent anything. We now change over to mitigation because
22:59
Speaker 3: I mean it's a combat sports. The whole purpose is
23:00
Speaker 3: either to submit, to knock out, to injure your opponents. Yeah,
23:05
Speaker 3: so like now we look at how do we mitigate
23:07
Speaker 3: those risks and then you know, get them as healthy
23:09
Speaker 3: as possible so they can perform on the day that
23:11
Speaker 3: they worn't to.
23:12
Speaker 1: What was it like actually now because you were you
23:16
Speaker 1: weren't a fan ahead of time, and then you got
23:18
Speaker 1: into it, and then what if you kind of learned
23:21
Speaker 1: more about the sport that you've maybe become a fan
23:24
Speaker 1: of or you're actually more enjoyable about it.
23:25
Speaker 3: I would say I've learned so much about the sport
23:27
Speaker 3: from watching practices, understanding this athlete population. It's funny when
23:32
Speaker 3: I talk to athletes about like their fight I'll be like, oh, yeah,
23:35
Speaker 3: you know this opponent looks like they do and they're like, yeah,
23:37
Speaker 3: how there. You understand the sport so much better. I
23:40
Speaker 3: will say that has made it harder. Also because I
23:43
Speaker 3: know all the athletes, I know their families, and when
23:46
Speaker 3: you're backstage, nobody sees what happens backstage. Right, Everybody out
23:50
Speaker 3: in the audience loves the fight game, thinks it's all beautiful,
23:53
Speaker 3: so amazing. What happens when they get out of that
23:56
Speaker 3: post evaluation tent when I'm holding their hand and they're
23:58
Speaker 3: getting sutured up and they don't have anybody that's on
24:01
Speaker 3: their team or their side, right, That's who my team
24:04
Speaker 3: really tries to be. And for that that makes it
24:06
Speaker 3: harder to watch the fight, because when I'm in that
24:08
Speaker 3: medical evaluation ten after post fight, someone won and someone lost.
24:12
Speaker 3: So it's really hard to be happy with the person
24:14
Speaker 3: that want its sad with the person that lost, right,
24:17
Speaker 3: and you have to be both people. And then you
24:20
Speaker 3: step out of that and I we're the team, us
24:22
Speaker 3: and our aml team or the team that's calling them,
24:24
Speaker 3: what's your injuries? How can we help? What do we
24:27
Speaker 3: need to do? And nobody sees that side of the game, right,
24:30
Speaker 3: and that can be a really it's stressful, it's fun,
24:33
Speaker 3: it's adaptable, it's exciting. You know, it makes my job
24:37
Speaker 3: challenging for sure, but with not.
24:39
Speaker 1: Only their personalities but their managers, their team, and.
24:42
Speaker 3: Like an athlete will have a loss. I've had several
24:44
Speaker 3: times an athlete have a loss and the doctor's trying
24:47
Speaker 3: to do the evaluation and they're like, I'm fine, I'm fine,
24:50
Speaker 3: just let me go because they've just lost, right. They
24:52
Speaker 3: just know even their you know, their livelihood of their
24:55
Speaker 3: salary has changed. Right, everything in their mind is going disappointment, stressnxiety,
25:01
Speaker 3: and you know, so many times they're telling the doctors
25:03
Speaker 3: like I'm fine, just let me go, and I know
25:05
Speaker 3: they're not fine. But they'll walk out of that medicals
25:07
Speaker 3: if I stop them and say, they're like, okay, have
25:09
Speaker 3: tell me what I need. But we built that trust,
25:11
Speaker 3: right the team. My team has been here for nine years.
25:13
Speaker 3: I couldn't do it without my exceptional team that's behind
25:16
Speaker 3: me helping us at all these events and every day
25:19
Speaker 3: to day because we sit downstairs and we get a
25:22
Speaker 3: call upstairs someone's shoulders disclocated. Hey, someone broke this bone.
25:25
Speaker 3: Like we're constantly having to be ready for anything.
25:30
Speaker 1: What was it so you built the team?
25:32
Speaker 3: Did I did?
25:33
Speaker 1: What was that like for you? Because you saw what
25:36
Speaker 1: it was like for an Olympic level, Yeah, when you're
25:38
Speaker 1: doing it now for obviously the UFC, which is global
25:42
Speaker 1: as well. What was it like for you building a team,
25:44
Speaker 1: basically building your own Avengers team?
25:46
Speaker 3: It is you know it takes a certain personality. Yeah,
25:49
Speaker 3: I'm going to say I haven't always gotten it right.
25:52
Speaker 3: You know, this population is exceptionally hard to work with
25:56
Speaker 3: because they aren't going to be your textbook right when
25:59
Speaker 3: we look at these return to play timelines, or this
26:02
Speaker 3: person should have a peak torp to body weight, they
26:04
Speaker 3: should have a strength number of this. This is a
26:07
Speaker 3: sport that throws all of those norms out the window.
26:10
Speaker 3: So if my staff is very rigid, if my staff
26:12
Speaker 3: is very much like he's wrong, that's not gonna that's
26:15
Speaker 3: not gonna go anywhere. So I've had to really select
26:17
Speaker 3: the right people to be the right fit different personalities,
26:22
Speaker 3: both men and women, right, because we have different genders
26:25
Speaker 3: that maybe prefer a male or female, but also people
26:29
Speaker 3: that you know, can talk the talk, give them a
26:31
Speaker 3: little bit of push and crap back, but at the
26:34
Speaker 3: same time be really authentically you know, there for them
26:37
Speaker 3: and build that trust and rapport that's so needed in
26:39
Speaker 3: that medical space. So I think like it's been really
26:42
Speaker 3: fun to shape what the medical team looks like. The
26:45
Speaker 3: personalities are from all over the world. I have clinicians
26:48
Speaker 3: from Australia, clinicians from Spain, clinicians from Mexico, clinicians from US,
26:55
Speaker 3: you know, all over the world. So to bring all
26:57
Speaker 3: these great minds, you know, it's fun because we you know,
27:00
Speaker 3: poke at each other. We try to push, you know,
27:02
Speaker 3: to extreme levels, and we have to be take that
27:05
Speaker 3: medical hat where we normally say this is your timeline
27:08
Speaker 3: and have to be adapted and be like, okay, how
27:10
Speaker 3: do we get them there and lesser, how do we
27:12
Speaker 3: put a band aid on this to get through this
27:14
Speaker 3: fight and then deal with the bigger situation?
27:16
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, and then so you're also dealing with people
27:19
Speaker 1: that walk around at one weight and then they have
27:22
Speaker 1: to cut yep, and then literally twenty four hours later.
27:25
Speaker 3: For thirty six hours there having again, yes.
27:28
Speaker 1: Whether they're somewhere in the middle or somehow heavier than
27:31
Speaker 1: when they were walking around normally, that's a whole different pace.
27:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, we are the only sport that almost tries to
27:37
Speaker 3: kill you. And then how do you performed at your best? Right?
27:40
Speaker 1: Do you think that they're so that conversations has been
27:43
Speaker 1: around for so long. Is there a better way to
27:45
Speaker 1: weight cutting or getting people to a certain weight without.
27:50
Speaker 3: So all I can say is Charles Soule, who is
27:53
Speaker 3: our senior director, was a multi fighter. He is six something.
27:57
Speaker 3: He fought at one fifty five. He then went to
28:00
Speaker 3: UCLA did all these multiple degrees. He's brilliant. If you
28:05
Speaker 3: are not working with him on the UFC roster, you
28:07
Speaker 3: are missing out because he can exactly match exactly when
28:10
Speaker 3: you should do it, how you should do it, and
28:12
Speaker 3: what you should do it. So we have gone from
28:14
Speaker 3: the wild Wall West with weightcutting, which I think was
28:17
Speaker 3: very scary, very barbaric, to now completely scientific. This nutrition
28:22
Speaker 3: team that he has compiled, the whole team is so
28:26
Speaker 3: good at their jobs, so good at their jobs that
28:28
Speaker 3: you know weightcutting. Yes, to put things in perspective, our
28:31
Speaker 3: athletes coming in on that Sunday or Monday have about
28:34
Speaker 3: ten percent their body weight to lose, So one hundred
28:37
Speaker 3: and eighty five pound man is losing eighteen pounds in
28:40
Speaker 3: that week. Now, we typically like that Thursday night for
28:44
Speaker 3: them to be at about a four percent weightcut. That
28:46
Speaker 3: doesn't always happen sometimes we have to be adaptable as
28:48
Speaker 3: well there. But with that four percent weightcut, my team
28:51
Speaker 3: can make you make weight no problem. So it's changing
28:55
Speaker 3: the culture that it's not just you train for that fight.
28:59
Speaker 3: You're a year round into athlete. Now you are a
29:01
Speaker 3: professional athlete, and we shouldn't be doing a fat camp
29:04
Speaker 3: during your eight weeks of fight camp. It should be
29:07
Speaker 3: focused on technical skills and what you need to do
29:10
Speaker 3: to overcome your opponent. So I think the nutrition team
29:13
Speaker 3: here has done a great job teaching and educating the
29:15
Speaker 3: athletes that like, you need to look at this bigger
29:18
Speaker 3: and I think with that, we're seeing so many improvements.
29:22
Speaker 3: It's way less barbaric. I mean when you have guys
29:24
Speaker 3: calculating sweat rates and saying, Okay, you're gonna do one hour.
29:27
Speaker 3: You're gonna do this, Mummy, you're gonna lose two point
29:29
Speaker 3: three ounces of water. This is gonna bring you to
29:31
Speaker 3: this pound and then strategically rehydrate you exactly how your
29:36
Speaker 3: body needs so it doesn't get sick. Is amazing, and
29:39
Speaker 3: that's what they do.
29:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've seen on then Endeavor. They showed it recently.
29:43
Speaker 1: They're like they're checking in. This is what you guys
29:46
Speaker 1: take after you after you weigh in this hour, and
29:51
Speaker 1: then you do it at this hour and then like
29:53
Speaker 1: the amount of meals.
29:55
Speaker 3: It is so programmed out to specifics, like even because
29:59
Speaker 3: we forget that the we're pulling everything out of the
30:01
Speaker 3: GI system right, so when you put it back in,
30:04
Speaker 3: all even the good back to your bad back to
30:06
Speaker 3: her has been pulled out. So we have to do
30:07
Speaker 3: it strategically to really align the gut, make sure it
30:10
Speaker 3: doesn't go too fast otherwise they're going to vomit. And
30:13
Speaker 3: we really work together in medicine and nutrition to have
30:16
Speaker 3: a safe weightcut and then a safe rehydration, which is
30:19
Speaker 3: critical for them to perform. We also know people that
30:21
Speaker 3: don't have great weightcuts aren't performing as well. Right, and
30:25
Speaker 3: you've just done this long fight camp, You've invested all
30:28
Speaker 3: this money, paying coaches and your support staff. You've got
30:32
Speaker 3: to do things right. And I think we're finally getting
30:33
Speaker 3: there and making that. I think the statistics say something
30:36
Speaker 3: about that. We've dropped like weightcut misses since the PI
30:41
Speaker 3: from wherever it was to four percent. That's insane, which
30:44
Speaker 3: is insane, right, Yeah, I mean that's all of our
30:47
Speaker 3: nutrition team. They are exceptional.
30:49
Speaker 1: Now there is someone that is a very popular fighter
30:52
Speaker 1: who decides you need to get pretty fat in between
30:56
Speaker 1: a certain patty.
30:57
Speaker 3: Oh yes, yes, yes, he does it well. I will
31:07
Speaker 3: say this, he does do some yoyo bouncing back and
31:10
Speaker 3: forth with diet stuff. I will say that he is
31:14
Speaker 3: once he knows he's getting a fight, he is the
31:17
Speaker 3: most diligent and so strict by the book kind of
31:20
Speaker 3: a fight is nice, and he like is very good
31:27
Speaker 3: when he has a fight, all of a sudden, he
31:29
Speaker 3: hounds anything in. He's also still very young. As these
31:32
Speaker 3: athletes get older, Yeah, we are also seeing like with
31:37
Speaker 3: we're trying to study as much as we can. We're
31:39
Speaker 3: in institute, right, so we're also looking at you know,
31:42
Speaker 3: age changes, hormones and things like that, which is going
31:45
Speaker 3: to change your weight cut it could make it harder.
31:47
Speaker 3: We are also looking at that the recoverability after like
31:52
Speaker 3: maybe concussion or anything like that. There's a huge correlation
31:57
Speaker 3: from the brain to the gut. So like if someone
32:01
Speaker 3: we're trying to see does like people that have had
32:04
Speaker 3: more inflammatory markers in their brain then hold on to
32:08
Speaker 3: the gut, which changes HRV and recovery ability. So we're
32:12
Speaker 3: doing a study with UNLV and the Roof Center that's
32:14
Speaker 3: looking at biomarkers, inflammatory density, body composition, neurocognitive and pulling
32:22
Speaker 3: that all together to understand even more of the science.
32:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I mean on the other side of her,
32:27
Speaker 1: now we're seeing Alex morea WHO middleweight champion, light headhun champion.
32:32
Speaker 1: Now he's going for the heavyweight championship, and it's like, yes,
32:34
Speaker 1: he is getting older, but at the same time he's
32:37
Speaker 1: going he's going in the opposite direction as opposed. It's
32:39
Speaker 1: still trying to make.
32:40
Speaker 3: We're actually seeing I think more of that as well.
32:42
Speaker 3: We're seeing more athletes that you know, find where they
32:46
Speaker 3: need to settle and don't want to do the weight
32:47
Speaker 3: cuts as they get older.
32:48
Speaker 1: So they're just like a skeleton.
32:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, and she cuts a lot of weight. She cuts
32:54
Speaker 3: a lot of weight. I would say, unfortunately for her,
32:57
Speaker 3: we don't have the appropriate weight class for her because
33:00
Speaker 3: we just don't have the women pool of athletes right
33:04
Speaker 3: now to do anymore. But so she does have to cut.
33:07
Speaker 3: I mean, I also think that's going to unpack the
33:09
Speaker 3: longevity of her career and the capability. I think she's
33:12
Speaker 3: come out and spoken about that even recently that like,
33:15
Speaker 3: hey guys, I don't have so many more under my
33:17
Speaker 3: belt because of what especially, yeah, the next surgery and
33:20
Speaker 3: the weight cut being so complicated, like all of those
33:23
Speaker 3: factors have to play a role, and you know that
33:26
Speaker 3: determines the longevity of their careers.
33:28
Speaker 1: Now, I heard you talk before about I think it
33:32
Speaker 1: was a journal everyone brings in a study and you
33:36
Speaker 1: guys kind of talk about it. Yeah, so what did
33:38
Speaker 1: you call it?
33:38
Speaker 3: Them? So we do a journal club or a round table.
33:42
Speaker 3: We constantly are trying to evolve this sport.
33:47
Speaker 1: Medicine is continuing to grow obviously.
33:50
Speaker 3: I mean even in a conference I was in this year,
33:52
Speaker 3: and they're looking at these new cartilage plugs. They're looking
33:54
Speaker 3: at this patch that goes over a rotator cuff muscle.
33:58
Speaker 3: So the chances of retearing your rotator cuff muscle is
34:01
Speaker 3: extremely high afterwards and after surgery, even though you got
34:05
Speaker 3: just got it repaired. Now this patch, like the percentages
34:08
Speaker 3: go down like fifty to sixty percent, which is amazing.
34:11
Speaker 3: You know. So we are getting way better with technology
34:14
Speaker 3: and medicine, and because we have to continue to evolve,
34:17
Speaker 3: what my team does is we have staff at each
34:20
Speaker 3: facility that is in charge of our journal club. They
34:22
Speaker 3: bring case studies, they bring new journals out, and what
34:25
Speaker 3: we do is we all send those journals, we read them,
34:27
Speaker 3: and then we have good debates like what do we
34:29
Speaker 3: need to pull in, what are we missing? You know,
34:31
Speaker 3: where's the future going? And it's good conversations and people
34:35
Speaker 3: being able to challenge each other without being offended or
34:38
Speaker 3: egos and things, and that's really what sets up the
34:41
Speaker 3: best team in a sports bedson environment. The minute you
34:44
Speaker 3: have someone that can't tolerate like having any confrontation or
34:49
Speaker 3: like has the ego, it really doesn't work here. Because
34:52
Speaker 3: we really try to push those aside and try to
34:57
Speaker 3: we all want the same thing, so like it doesn't
34:59
Speaker 3: matter or if you came up with that, or if
35:01
Speaker 3: he came up with that, it's finding that middle ground
35:04
Speaker 3: and what's best for that athlete.
35:06
Speaker 1: Right now, you guys obviously thank you again for the tour.
35:09
Speaker 1: This place is absolutely incredible and you guys have the
35:12
Speaker 1: most up to date stuff here that is just yes, yep.
35:17
Speaker 1: What is something here that you guys are really kind
35:19
Speaker 1: of using that you're not seeing more in the mainstream
35:22
Speaker 1: because a lot of things like the hyperbaric chambers, the cryo,
35:27
Speaker 1: everybody does, but there's obviously some things that people don't
35:31
Speaker 1: have access to or don't have the money to. What
35:33
Speaker 1: do you see the next thing that probably is going
35:36
Speaker 1: to be more mainstream than.
35:38
Speaker 3: So, I think the first thing that we have that's
35:39
Speaker 3: so exceptional is we have something called a stratosphere. There's
35:42
Speaker 3: only like one of five in the entire world, and
35:45
Speaker 3: it is a hypobaric chamber. So it's a small gas
35:49
Speaker 3: chamber that we can like pull out.
35:51
Speaker 1: Sounds like the worst thing I.
35:52
Speaker 3: Know actually made say that. I mean, you're right, let
35:56
Speaker 3: me rewind that. So it's a hypoxic chamber. And what
36:00
Speaker 3: that chamber does is like you're going at altitude and training,
36:02
Speaker 3: but we utilize that a lot with recovery. If like
36:05
Speaker 3: we had an athlete that was the main event in Mexico,
36:09
Speaker 3: and this athlete was here Mexico's at altitude, so putting
36:13
Speaker 3: him in for recovery sessions every few days he got
36:17
Speaker 3: to Mexico, He's like, I didn't feel out of bread.
36:19
Speaker 3: So like, we use a lot of that created to
36:21
Speaker 3: create creativity, yeah, creative, but to make sure that they
36:25
Speaker 3: get what they need. We also use a lot of
36:28
Speaker 3: pairing of like orthobiologics, so a lot of stem cells
36:30
Speaker 3: that we are starting to get more mainstream, but we
36:33
Speaker 3: use a ton of stem cells with like modalities with
36:35
Speaker 3: like a shock wave or a post electromagnetic field to
36:39
Speaker 3: like double dip on the recovery of the athlete. We
36:42
Speaker 3: also do a lot of like wearables and trackables devices
36:47
Speaker 3: to really ensure that the athlete gets full recovery. Because
36:50
Speaker 3: we can sit here and say all the great things
36:51
Speaker 3: we can do medically, but let's go back to the basics, sleep, nutrition,
36:56
Speaker 3: all the things that we don't do that we know
36:58
Speaker 3: in our heads we should be doing. They make a
37:00
Speaker 3: huge difference on an athlete's performance and outcome. So those
37:04
Speaker 3: are even things we go back to. But I would
37:05
Speaker 3: say we do have all the fun bells and whistles.
37:08
Speaker 3: We have the technology to look at things, look at
37:11
Speaker 3: neurocognitive skills, look at every component of performance really easily
37:15
Speaker 3: and objectively. But I think all that stuff is getting
37:19
Speaker 3: more mainstream. I think we're seeing that, we're seeing that
37:23
Speaker 3: things that people are now trickling over into rehabs rather
37:27
Speaker 3: than just you know, we have our anti gravity treadmills,
37:31
Speaker 3: we have our you know, pole selectromagnetic field, and we're
37:34
Speaker 3: seeing more portable devices that can go on the road
37:36
Speaker 3: and at homes. Of course, you have the fads, the
37:39
Speaker 3: recovery fads that you're going to see right. You got
37:41
Speaker 3: the cold tubs right now, you have the hyperbarracks that
37:43
Speaker 3: are in everyone's house, and all that stuff is great.
37:46
Speaker 1: I mean you see cold tubs at target.
37:48
Speaker 3: Get yeah, I mean everyone has one in their backyard
37:50
Speaker 3: right now. If not, who what are we doing? Right?
37:53
Speaker 3: Not me? I'm not a cold person.
37:56
Speaker 1: A cold person sometimes be like, hey, are you taking
38:00
Speaker 1: cold sharers? I'm like, no, why would I do that?
38:01
Speaker 3: I know, but you know, what's interesting is they also
38:03
Speaker 3: just released a research article especially on women, is like
38:07
Speaker 3: cold tubs that are normally set up cold for males
38:09
Speaker 3: are not good for women. It's too cold. Our bodies
38:12
Speaker 3: are permanently different works. It's blankets everywhere, yes, yes, So
38:15
Speaker 3: like why are we trying to do those extreme cools.
38:18
Speaker 3: It's all just a mental game. But I mean I
38:20
Speaker 3: can do other mental things. Let me tell you, well,
38:22
Speaker 3: you don't need to get in a cold club here.
38:24
Speaker 1: Speaking of mental obviously, this is very physical sport, but
38:26
Speaker 1: it's very much a mental work as well. How do
38:29
Speaker 1: you kind of like to balance that with all these
38:32
Speaker 1: men and women coming through here because there's so much
38:35
Speaker 1: going on, like whether they got you know, their spouse
38:39
Speaker 1: or partners being you know, not okay with whatever's happening,
38:43
Speaker 1: or again weight cut is not the best thing, especially
38:45
Speaker 1: mentally or whatever it is, Like, how do you kind
38:48
Speaker 1: of and again they're having to get in a cage
38:50
Speaker 1: and prove that they're the best athlete.
38:51
Speaker 3: Well, thank gosh for our sports psychologists. Right, so we
38:54
Speaker 3: do have sports psychology on staff and athletes have free
38:57
Speaker 3: access to that, which is great. The others that we
39:00
Speaker 3: found to be really successful is having these team strategy
39:04
Speaker 3: meetings with the entire team right when an athlete is
39:07
Speaker 3: something's not going right, sitting them down with whoever their
39:10
Speaker 3: support system is right, because we know that's crucial. Who
39:13
Speaker 3: do they go home to after this hard day of
39:14
Speaker 3: training and stuff, bringing their support system in and all
39:18
Speaker 3: clearly defining you know, how can we work on each
39:21
Speaker 3: and every little small component So you know, people are
39:24
Speaker 3: really quick to judge of what went wrong, but people
39:26
Speaker 3: don't know all the factors that are going right, Like, hey.
39:29
Speaker 1: I just want to.
39:31
Speaker 3: Exactly. So we do a lot of like team strategy meetings,
39:34
Speaker 3: pulling in that team, pulling in sports psychology, pulling in
39:37
Speaker 3: and truly understanding. The other thing we're really good at
39:40
Speaker 3: is we do ground rounds every Monday, So every athlete
39:43
Speaker 3: that we have a touch point with, we discussed are
39:45
Speaker 3: we doing what we need to be doing, are we
39:47
Speaker 3: getting the results we need? And if not, what are
39:48
Speaker 3: we doing wrong? You know, you have to also be
39:51
Speaker 3: able to admit, like, hey, maybe this athlete isn't on
39:54
Speaker 3: the pro projectile that we would like to see and
39:57
Speaker 3: and you know, divert and figure out what that athlete's
40:00
Speaker 3: needs are. So I think you know understanding support systems,
40:03
Speaker 3: having that really good trust and foundation that we can
40:05
Speaker 3: like pull them into a meeting room and say, okay,
40:07
Speaker 3: give it to a straight We also do We just
40:10
Speaker 3: started this year doing like surveys with the athletes of
40:13
Speaker 3: like what do we do? How can we do better?
40:15
Speaker 3: What are we missing? Because we can't get better unless
40:18
Speaker 3: we know what we're missing. So I don't know what
40:20
Speaker 3: you don't know? Right, So one of our big KPIs
40:23
Speaker 3: this year is, you know, athlete feedback, athlete understanding, Like
40:27
Speaker 3: what clinician is are they saying, Wow, they understood me?
40:30
Speaker 3: Or help me? Which clinicians do we need to step up?
40:32
Speaker 3: What do we need to be doing that we are
40:34
Speaker 3: missing that we haven't been told right? And I think
40:36
Speaker 3: that's really exceptional when you can take a step back
40:38
Speaker 3: and get feedback from the people that you're servicing.
40:41
Speaker 1: Right now, you said that this place is you guys
40:44
Speaker 1: are out growing it.
40:45
Speaker 3: We are.
40:46
Speaker 1: What do you feel like because you've been here for
40:48
Speaker 1: almost ten years now, what do you feel like? I mean,
40:51
Speaker 1: hopefully you're here for another ten years. I hope, I
40:53
Speaker 1: mean unless something really I know, right, Yeah, what do
40:56
Speaker 1: you feel like the next ten years? For the PI
40:58
Speaker 1: time looks like yeah.
40:58
Speaker 3: I mean, I definitely think we out around the space
41:01
Speaker 3: because we are the utilization numbers are so high. But
41:05
Speaker 3: I really what I'd like to see, if it is
41:07
Speaker 3: my dream world, I would say, you know, a brain
41:10
Speaker 3: facility which all really high level neural cognitive stuff for
41:13
Speaker 3: this athlete population. We would love to have a pool,
41:17
Speaker 3: do some underwater swimming or stranging conditioning. We would love
41:20
Speaker 3: to do stuff like that. We do use our hydroworks.
41:22
Speaker 3: We have an underwater treadmill, and we can also do
41:24
Speaker 3: like little water holes and things like that. But a
41:27
Speaker 3: pool would be great. I would love to see. I
41:29
Speaker 3: have this brilliant idea. One day I'll get in front
41:31
Speaker 3: of data and tell them. But like a hotel on campus,
41:35
Speaker 3: because we could pull in long term rehabs have a
41:38
Speaker 3: place to stay. It could be utilized when there's a
41:40
Speaker 3: vents there. You could pull in like a sports hotel
41:44
Speaker 3: where there is recovery on every floor. You could do
41:46
Speaker 3: red and blue corners, you could do a chef thing
41:49
Speaker 3: on the bottom of a gym. Because think about even
41:51
Speaker 3: like an NFL team coming in town, where do they stay.
41:53
Speaker 3: They either stay way off sakes, they don't want them
41:55
Speaker 3: buy downtown or they have to like rent out a place.
41:59
Speaker 3: So you could have this a sports hotel has every
42:02
Speaker 3: need so they don't teams don't have to travel, teams
42:04
Speaker 3: would pay for it when we weren't using it. You
42:06
Speaker 3: could give athletes free rehab place to stay for six months.
42:10
Speaker 3: So that would be my brilliant idea. And then you
42:12
Speaker 3: pocket that in every major city and say it's a
42:14
Speaker 3: sport hotel. You I mean, find me the person that
42:17
Speaker 3: wants to build my dream nothing. Yeah, right, but no,
42:24
Speaker 3: I really think that this place is going to expand
42:26
Speaker 3: we're going to continue to evolve and you know, really
42:30
Speaker 3: influence what MMA in the combat sports world is. I
42:33
Speaker 3: see us with taking on boxing. It's so exciting because
42:36
Speaker 3: I came from the Olympic boxing to see all these
42:39
Speaker 3: guys where they are now, but now have a facility
42:41
Speaker 3: they can tap into which is not there. So I
42:44
Speaker 3: do see us being the method of all combat sports
42:46
Speaker 3: and continue to understand and really, you know, figure out
42:50
Speaker 3: what the sport is about. Right.
42:52
Speaker 1: I mean even in the early days, Randy Gutour was
42:54
Speaker 1: an outlier because he was in his forties winning a
42:57
Speaker 1: havyweight championship, right, But now you have people in their forties,
43:01
Speaker 1: still competing, competing, But if they're not the old person,
43:03
Speaker 1: they're literally just.
43:04
Speaker 3: A I mean, we see all sports their careers lasting longer.
43:08
Speaker 3: With recovery, metal, biologic themselves, all these things, we can
43:13
Speaker 3: prolong athletes, you know, careers. So it's going to be fun.
43:17
Speaker 3: It's gonna be fun.
43:18
Speaker 1: I'm excited for them. Now. You I have heard you
43:23
Speaker 1: say you work very crazy hours because athletes are twenty
43:26
Speaker 1: four to seven situation, what do you do for yourself
43:29
Speaker 1: when it comes to relaxation or just unwinding and unplugging
43:32
Speaker 1: from all of this.
43:34
Speaker 3: I haven't figured that out yet. When I find out,
43:38
Speaker 3: I mean I try. One of the really cool things
43:40
Speaker 3: and one of the parks of this job is we
43:42
Speaker 3: travel all over the world. If we're in a city
43:45
Speaker 3: that we've never been to, I try to come a
43:46
Speaker 3: day earlier, stay a day late, just to unwind and
43:49
Speaker 3: get to see the amazingness of the world. Right, So
43:53
Speaker 3: that's one thing. Travel is a huge component I love
43:55
Speaker 3: to do. But I mean, I think I do need
43:57
Speaker 3: to get some private stakes in a boo because Napolis
44:00
Speaker 3: has been my go to lately. Good wine, you.
44:04
Speaker 1: Know, organized very good wine as well.
44:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, they do. I've never been to organ it's definitely
44:09
Speaker 3: on my list, but yeah, I do try to, you know, unwind,
44:13
Speaker 3: hang out with my dogs, hang out of my house
44:14
Speaker 3: with my friends, and travel and then enjoy the travel
44:17
Speaker 3: I get to do with this company as well.
44:19
Speaker 1: Kind of dogs.
44:19
Speaker 3: You have a y Mariner and a Ozzie Doodle.
44:22
Speaker 1: Oh wow, okay, very nice.
44:24
Speaker 3: Yeah.
44:25
Speaker 1: Well, I have a segmentary show. They call it the
44:26
Speaker 1: five count says five random questions.
44:28
Speaker 3: Uh oh uh oh okay.
44:30
Speaker 1: Number one, what are you nerding out on right now?
44:34
Speaker 3: I'm nerding out on neurocognitive and concussion and brain stuff
44:39
Speaker 3: good and all the components that we're starting to actually
44:42
Speaker 3: finally understand, which has been really I think the evolution
44:46
Speaker 3: of brain health and concussion has been slow because we
44:49
Speaker 3: don't have a lot of answers, a lot of things
44:51
Speaker 3: we don't know. But I think we're starting to know things.
44:53
Speaker 3: We're looking at more of those like reflexes in the
44:56
Speaker 3: brain that connect, and I think that's my biggest passion
45:00
Speaker 3: right now is understanding more about that and building that
45:02
Speaker 3: out in this team.
45:03
Speaker 1: It is amazing if we know very little about the brain,
45:05
Speaker 1: but somehow we know almost everything else.
45:07
Speaker 3: But so it's so funny every every athlete warms up
45:09
Speaker 3: their body. Yeah, minimal athletes warm up their brain, but
45:13
Speaker 3: that actually makes the body work and function. So to me,
45:16
Speaker 3: I'm like, why are we doing this? There should be
45:18
Speaker 3: like reaction times, like you should warm up your brain
45:21
Speaker 3: like you should warm up your body.
45:22
Speaker 1: How do you how would you recommend athletes is not
45:25
Speaker 1: one of the five questions, How would you recommend athletes
45:27
Speaker 1: warm up their brain? Because I've never heard about this,
45:29
Speaker 1: but it makes a lot of sense.
45:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, So there's a lot of like different neuro there's
45:32
Speaker 3: different components of the brain, right, we know there's vision,
45:35
Speaker 3: we know there's auditory, we know there's processing. We know.
45:39
Speaker 3: So you would just take the main components of like
45:41
Speaker 3: where the brain effects performance and then hit a quick
45:44
Speaker 3: exercise and.
45:45
Speaker 2: All of that.
45:45
Speaker 3: Whether it might be strobe lights where it's gonna change
45:48
Speaker 3: vision and then you have to catch and think. It
45:50
Speaker 3: might be doing dual tasking where you are asked to
45:54
Speaker 3: look at something and then move at the same time.
45:57
Speaker 3: So there's so many different ways you could like make
45:59
Speaker 3: the it could be a brain game, it could be
46:01
Speaker 3: a puzzle, it could be like a reactionary time based thing. Yeah,
46:05
Speaker 3: so anything like that is really good. Like we are
46:08
Speaker 3: very quick to let the brain age, but we also
46:11
Speaker 3: know that the brain is really there's a lot of
46:13
Speaker 3: plasticity in it and adaptation, So like why we don't
46:17
Speaker 3: you know, when we start getting older, we're like, oh,
46:19
Speaker 3: my leg's hurt. The number one like here for like
46:23
Speaker 3: arthritis is exercise, like building muscles around it. So why
46:26
Speaker 3: don't we exercise their brains like they also are adaptable.
46:30
Speaker 3: So that's just my littole brant of nerdiness.
46:32
Speaker 1: I love that number two. If you owned a liquor company, brewery, winery,
46:37
Speaker 1: coffee shop, or dispensary, which one would you own? And
46:39
Speaker 1: what would the name be?
46:41
Speaker 3: Winery? And it would be the closer.
46:44
Speaker 1: Ooh that's a good one.
46:45
Speaker 3: I have been asked so many times in my life
46:48
Speaker 3: in sports to make an athlete for this game to
46:51
Speaker 3: happen or the fight to happen. Yeah, so I think
46:53
Speaker 3: I would be the closer and it would be a winery.
46:56
Speaker 1: Okay, I love that number three. What would your last
46:59
Speaker 1: mail be?
47:00
Speaker 3: Oh definitely steak wag your steak on a black rock
47:03
Speaker 3: with some sushi on the side.
47:05
Speaker 1: Done medium r Okay, who are what inspires you.
47:11
Speaker 3: I would say my parents are my biggest inspirations. They
47:16
Speaker 3: have always supported me from the moment when I was
47:18
Speaker 3: a spoiled brat getting a pony at five years old
47:21
Speaker 3: with a rhetoric.
47:22
Speaker 1: Quest and I was like, ooh.
47:23
Speaker 3: She got some so know. But the thing is, you
47:26
Speaker 3: know what's crazy is my parents were like, very middle class.
47:29
Speaker 3: I got this little five hundred dollars Shutland pony for Christmas.
47:32
Speaker 3: My parents were like, guess what, we know she's going
47:34
Speaker 3: to be trouble, Let's get her a pony. I had
47:36
Speaker 3: to get up at five am. I had to shovel shit,
47:39
Speaker 3: I had to clean stalls, get the horse ready before
47:42
Speaker 3: I even could go to school. Then I go to
47:44
Speaker 3: school and my parents are like, oh, no, you're not
47:45
Speaker 3: going to go play with your friends. You have a
47:47
Speaker 3: horse to take care. If you're gonna come home, you're
47:49
Speaker 3: gonna feed the horse, you're gonna ride the horse. You're
47:50
Speaker 3: gonna do what you need to and then if your
47:51
Speaker 3: friends are still playing, you can go. So really secretively
47:54
Speaker 3: they knew it would keep me out of trouble and
47:56
Speaker 3: maybe really like you know, focused on responsibility. So I
48:00
Speaker 3: think like they didn't realize or they realized this I
48:02
Speaker 3: was getting played. But that I would say, They've always said,
48:07
Speaker 3: you can do anything in the world, but it's going
48:08
Speaker 3: to take work to do so. And I think that's
48:10
Speaker 3: what I've done in my entire career.
48:11
Speaker 1: How long did you have that money for?
48:13
Speaker 3: I rode horses until I was eighteen. I was like
48:15
Speaker 3: top ten in the country. I was very good at
48:18
Speaker 3: riding horses. Wow, show jumping and all that kind of stuff.
48:21
Speaker 3: I loved it. I would break horses off the racetrack
48:23
Speaker 3: and teach them how to jump and flip them. Yeah.
48:26
Speaker 1: You know about injury as well.
48:27
Speaker 3: I do.
48:27
Speaker 1: Yeah. And number five, what would you tell your seventeen
48:30
Speaker 1: year old self my.
48:32
Speaker 3: Seventeen year old self, I would say, opportunity is always
48:38
Speaker 3: you know, at at like right at your grasp, if
48:42
Speaker 3: you continue to push and work hard. I think when
48:45
Speaker 3: I was seventeen, I always know I wanted to do
48:47
Speaker 3: sports in something medicine, and then when George were shut
48:50
Speaker 3: kind of in my face, I was like, God, this
48:51
Speaker 3: is going to be so hard. So I would have said, yeah,
48:54
Speaker 3: keep pushing and all the dreams that you wanted in
48:57
Speaker 3: your career will happen. I would also say to year
49:00
Speaker 3: old self. Maybe you could have focused a little more
49:02
Speaker 3: on your personal life, but I don't. I don't regret
49:05
Speaker 3: any of that.
49:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, look where you are right now. Yeah yeah, now
49:09
Speaker 1: people want to find out more about you. Obviously, the
49:11
Speaker 1: PI follow you guys online support anyway they can now
49:13
Speaker 1: be cause.
49:14
Speaker 3: They do so all of my like fun social media,
49:18
Speaker 3: Like are Heather Lindon really simple my first last name.
49:21
Speaker 3: You might be bored because it's like I should put
49:23
Speaker 3: fun content and all the things I get to do,
49:25
Speaker 3: But usually it's my personal life just traveling and seeing
49:28
Speaker 3: the world actually, but yeah, everything is a Heather Linden.
49:31
Speaker 1: Well Heather, Thank you, doctor Heather. Thank you so much
49:34
Speaker 1: for your time. Thank you again for this tour.
49:35
Speaker 3: This week is.
49:36
Speaker 1: Absolutely amazing great.
49:37
Speaker 3: I'm glad we can think it happened me too.
49:38
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you so much to doctor Heather for being
49:51
Speaker 1: on the show again. The UFCPI is doing amazing things.
49:54
Speaker 1: They're doing incredible things, and I love how state of
49:58
Speaker 1: the art they're working and definitely trying to make the
50:00
Speaker 1: athletes life not only better, but their careers longer. So again,
50:04
Speaker 1: thank you guys for what you do over the ufc
50:06
Speaker 1: p I, and thank you doctor Heather Linnen for being
50:08
Speaker 1: on the show. Definitely make sure to go follow them
50:10
Speaker 1: on social media, and obviously go follow us on social
50:13
Speaker 1: media at bruisers Pod.
50:14
Speaker 2: That is b R E W S E R S
50:16
Speaker 2: p O D on the Instagram, the threads and the Twitter.
50:19
Speaker 2: If you want to send us an email, it is
50:21
Speaker 2: Bruispod at gmail dot com. If you're gonna follow me directly,
50:23
Speaker 2: it is Roddy John. There is r O d I
50:25
Speaker 2: E j O N. Roddy John is the name on
50:28
Speaker 2: the Twitter and are untapped in case you want to
50:30
Speaker 2: find out when I'm drinking, maybe we gonna have a
50:31
Speaker 2: beer together. If you're gonna follow me on the threads
50:33
Speaker 2: or the Instagram, it is official Rodie John. So until
50:35
Speaker 2: next time, make sure to enjoy life, drink local, and
50:37
Speaker 2: cheers
51:00
Speaker 3: U