Ep6 Ryan Hamilton & Valerie Wong Hamilton - The Fittest Couple in Henderson: Why You Only Need 2 Workouts a Week

Ryan Hamilton  0:00  
A lot of times why we can only need to work out two days a week is because we're able to push the intensity a little bit harder. As long as you're safe and you just have to listen to your body, and you have to try to do what your goals are. If your goals are just overall health, all you need is two days a week. Everyone I talk to like, Oh, I got to go six days a week. I don't go six days a week. Why would you need to go six days a week? It just comes down to the intensity and then consistency.

Scott Groves  0:27  
Welcome to Henderson. HQ, this is the podcast where you get all the stories behind the businesses that make our community tick. Don't forget to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Hey. On today's podcast, I had the pleasure of sitting down with my friends and fitness trainers, Ryan Hamilton and Val Wong Hamilton, competitive jiu jitsu athletes, fighters, body builders, like they're doing all the things in the physical space. And we talked about the tough journey that Val came through with bulimia. We talked about why every woman should be more concerned about being strong than looking at the scale. We talked about all of the falsehoods that are out there with a number of times you have to work out why weightlifting is so important for men and women, and basically just how to make physical fitness fun. So hope you enjoyed the podcast. We also talked about a few things about building your business here in Henderson. So hope you enjoy Hey, ladies and gentlemen, it's Scott groves with the Henderson HQ Podcast. Today, we're interviewing two friends of mine that have become near and dear to my heart. Ryan and Val are I think we're gonna name this episode like the fittest couple in Henderson, because I think they are. And Ryan is the owner of New Era fitness, which he's become my personal trainer over the last year and helped me replace like, 10 pounds of fat with 10 pounds of muscle, which makes me feel good about myself and good about myself. And then val is an awesome jiu jitsu practitioner. Is the coach for both of my children, Gabriel and Alina, so she teaches the little kids and some of the older kids. And so I think we see the two of you probably like once every 12 hours, or something like that. Ryan's also a black belt jiu jitsu so he kicked my ass every morning, and then they kick my kid's ass in the afternoon. Then I work out with him and Ryan and Ryan kicks my ass again. So just wanted to have you two on to talk about the business of being in fitness, because I think there's a million ways to make money in fitness, but why don't we start there? Like, how did you two decide that, like, your your life work, was going to be in health and fitness? Oh, yeah. And by the way, Val's twice as loud as Ryan, so I could have just invited Val go for it.

Valerie Wong Hamilton  2:24  
Well, I got into MMA and jiu jitsu when I was 16. So, you know, five years down the road training, I'm like, 2122 you know, and I'm like, Okay, what am I gonna start doing with my life? And just kind of committed to Jiu Jitsu, and knew I always kind of wanted to work with kids too, so teaching kids class was a way to make money with it and still do what I loved. So yeah,

Scott Groves  2:47  
yeah. And shout out to my wife, who runs Apogee Henderson, which is a private school here in town. Val also does jiu jitsu classes there a couple times a week, and I think the girls are getting into it even more than the guys, because they have like a role model for that. So Ryan, what's what's your background? Because, well, I know your background, but you have a pretty crazy story about why you got into fitness and lifting weights.

Ryan Hamilton  3:06  
Yeah, when I was 1617, years old, I had, you know, lower back issues. I'm a skinny kid, and I didn't understand I played sports, and it made no sense why my lower back hurts so much. I'd be going to chiropractors. Have no success. And then I just remember one day watching a basketball game, it just completely locking up on me, and I was like, I gotta fix this, because what's gonna happen 10 years down the road if I'm 17 and already feel this bad, so at 17, why'd you have so much back pain? No, as far as I have kyphosis and scoliosis. So kyphosis is a hunchback, and scoliosis is that little twist in the spine. So my spine is all just jacked up, as can be. And so I had no idea what was wrong with it. No one could really tell me. And so I just hopped in, happened to hop into the weight room, and started just doing my best, just to get stronger everywhere. And it just happened to stance that my back pain started going away. I didn't know why I did a lot of things wrong, but then I just slowly got more and more away. And then I just would wake up one day and have lower back pain. I was like, this is pretty neat.

Scott Groves  4:12  
You kind of gloss over the fact that you had what is it called scoliosis and kyphosis. So you are a hunchback, yes. And also your spine makes like an S, yeah, basically. And did your parents know this when you were young? Like, was this a no problem

Ryan Hamilton  4:25  
or Well, apparently, as far as I know, my grandmother had it, my mother, on my mother's side, my mom didn't, because she was in drill team at the time, and they corrected her posture. And I could look back at pictures when I was a kid, and I just had terrible posture. And you could just, I could just see kids in this generation with phones following in the same footsteps that I had. I didn't even have a phone. I just had terrible posture, you know, and that's what it started. It started when I was like, you know, a kid from 678, years old, and never standing up straight for whatever reason, and then slowly, just twisted. And got more hunched and, yeah, so I should be like, an inch or two taller, but I'm not,

Scott Groves  5:04  
you know, yeah, Ryan, I have an ongoing debate whether he's 510 or whether he's five eight. So, but I guess if you have a hunchback, there's a good reason for that. So, so you were in like, crippling pain at 16 years old. Yeah. And did they recommend surgery? Did the did? Like, were you seeing a doctor or just, like, I'll start lifting weights and see if this fixes the

Ryan Hamilton  5:21  
problem. I had a chiropractor once a week, once a couple times a month, you know, and he was just saying that there's not much they can do. It's just my spine is twisted and, you know, I get there's surgery, but all surgery is, is putting a metal rod in my spine. And you want to put a metal rod in your spine, you ain't moving. You ain't doing anything. And so I have no idea what brought me into lifting weights, other than just being happenstance, being 17 and just wanting to be bigger, you know, stronger, you know, having testosterone going through me. And so I just started lifting weights. And it just happened that my lower back pain was just going away because I was doing so much I wanted to make sure I was even. So I did upper and lower body. I didn't, you know, just do upper body, and then the doing of the lower body was strengthening everything. I don't know how it happened. I do now, but, you know, at the time, I had no idea that it was responsible for, you know, curing my lower back pain. And ever since then, when I figured that out, I just spent, you know, years and years figuring out why that worked, and then how I can, you know, implement that to everyone else. Because as far as lower back pain concerns, it's it happens to everybody, you know.

Scott Groves  6:29  
So when I first started seeing you, you know, I sit at a computer eight hours a day, and then I'm hunched over in Jiu Jitsu, and then I'm always on my phone. So it's like, I probably have 1617, hours a day where I'm like, hunch over, which is horrible. And I was telling you, when I was telling you, I first started, I was like, Man, I got the shoulder pain. And we were trying to do like, a very simple exercise, like pressing exercise. My elbow was like an excruciating pain. I really thought I was on the path to like, oh, the right side of my body, there must be a pinched nerve, or whatever, bro, science I was coming up with. And I'm like, I'm gonna have to have surgery one day. And you're like, trust me, just give me six months. We'll pull, like your whole shoulders back, and it'll fix the pain. So I guess my question would be, do you think there's a lot of people that are in unnecessary pain that are probably going down that path of needing surgery, and they probably just need to even out their body

Ryan Hamilton  7:13  
with some fitness? Uh, heard me saying I've had multiple cases of like that. Um, I've had people where their shoulder was almost touching their neck, and they just thought it was normal life. I had a girl just last year who was getting ready for a wedding whose shoulder was so rolled forward, they had, they recommended surgery to pull it back, to get everything, to get her neck alignment right. Luckily, I was able to work with her a little bit, and it pulled everything back, and she's fine. Now, yeah, I've heard it all the time, you know, it's, we just get so one way, you know, day after day, hour after hour, we don't realize it. You know, it's not just like, you know, we wake up one day and we're all sudden in pain. We don't really have the pain signals until it's, you know, too late, you know, is so far gone that you have to completely go in the reverse for me, upper body wise to realize that it was because my pet got torn and it to recover, I had to let it pull forward, and it just led to incredible neck pain. And so I had horrible neck and shoulder blade pain. And then as I was rehabbing that and pulling that back, and pulling my whole posture back to normal, also nice, everything else started feeling better. My neck pain went away, and my shoulder blade pain blade pain went away. And then when I stopped, you know, completely focusing on rehab, all of a sudden I would get rolled forward a little bit more. And as then, you know, connecting the dots, I was like, Okay, we're not posturally strong. You know, we don't work these posture muscles. We are so rolled forward in daily life and everything that we do. And if you walk around and look at the normal person, you know their heads are down, whether it's in their phone or just looking down, you're going to see hunches and necks. We're going to see rolled shoulders. We're going to just see terrible posture everywhere we go, and that leads to pain. You know, eventually, if you roll forward enough, your back has to give, you know, something has to give. You can sit there and just deal with it and deal with it, and we're really good at that as humans, of just sitting there and dealing with pain, or we can be proactive with it and try to, you know, help yourself and get back to normal, you know, and strength and be stronger. The I tell this

Scott Groves  9:18  
story all the time because I think it's a funny story that when I first started working out with Ryan, he had me working out with Ryan, he had me using like, one little plastic band, which is, like, pretty, pretty degrading as a guy who, like, was in the army, and I used to box, and now I do Jiu Jitsu, and I'm like, I get this one little plastic band for an hour a day. And it was like, it was degrading to begin with, but then it was really degrading when I showed up early one day and you were in there with some belt around your waist doing like, 500 pounds of like, pounds of, like, deadlifts or squats or something, I don't know that machine that you have. How are you so strong? How long have you been lifting weights? Because everybody comments on it, and I know it's kind of like a trope Now, anytime somebody meets you, so like, how long have you been, like, just lifting with a purpose to get stronger?

Valerie Wong Hamilton  9:58  
Well, actually, when I. And I started dating he. That's how we actually met, was I wanted to start lifting. I had no clue where to start, and so he offered to start lifting with me. He's been my trainer for I mean, we've been together for 10 years, so for about 10 years now, and yeah, we just slowly start getting more knowledge, and we're slowly able to start, like, figuring out where I need to build muscle, especially, like as a girl, I was a very small girl, and I was doing MMA, so I was cutting to 115 but they weren't really cuts for me. So I was like, All right, well, I don't want to just, like, eat a bunch get fat, so I, like, cut weight that way. I want to, like, get strong and get muscle on me. So yeah, that was always my purpose was to, like, make myself bigger, stronger, support my joints, protect myself. And, like, my goal still is to, like, gain weight, so to speak. So like a lot of people, I think, get scared because they're like, oh, like, I'm gonna get big and bulky, and it's because, like, the number on the scale might increase when you're getting stronger, but like, it's because you're adding muscle, and, like, it's all good things, you know?

Scott Groves  11:04  
So what are some other misconceptions that women might have about starting to, like, lift weights, right? Because I know, even just talking to my wife, and we've had a lot of conversations about this because of Ryan, it's like, there is that fear of, like, well, I don't want to get too muscular, which, by the way, would be a long way away for most women, or they're scared of the scale. What are like, other misconceptions about why women should be lifting weights, or why they don't start or, you know, because when I think of like women workout, I think of like Tybo and pilates and stuff, where it's maybe, like more stretching and mobility, but not a lot of, like, power and strength. And then the first time I did jiu jitsu with you, I was like, Dude, this is like having an orangutan on my back. You're so fucking strong. Excuse my language. So what are some misconceptions about women, like, starting weightlifting and sticking

Valerie Wong Hamilton  11:44  
with it? Yeah, I think, like, women get worried, like, the one big thing is they're gonna get bulky. And it's like, you know, even if we put aside, like, your body can look how you want, like, bulky is an interesting word to use, but for like, muscular, but like, it's also like, it takes a very long time to get to that point. You're not gonna, like, do curls with like, five pound weights and all of a sudden you're gonna have like, giant biceps. Like, people work a long time to get there. So, like, you're not gonna get bulky by, like, starting strength training. And I also don't think, like, women realize how much they're already like, lifting on a day you're a mom, like, you're carrying a 30 pound kid, like walking through the store while carrying your purse and your groceries while, like pushing a car, like that's a sled push right there, while carrying weight, like you're already doing these movements, so like doing them safely in a gym is going to help protect you in everyday life. Yeah, so I think women definitely need it, and I definitely think women don't realize either how important it is for, like, hormone balance too. Like working out. Exerting yourself is really good for balancing out your hormones, like your cortisol levels. It's going to help you, like, stress relief throughout your day, like doing something really exertive. Yeah, you're gonna be tired for like that hour, but I promise you your whole rest of your day is gonna be, like, so much easier dealing with everything, I think, and then like, two lower body movements, like, if you're a mom, if you're a woman, it's uncomfortable sometimes for men to bring it up when it's lifting, but it's really good for, like, your pelvic muscles and your pelvic floor, and it's gonna keep you from having to get surgery like, 20 years down the road.

Scott Groves  13:23  
Yeah, you know, I had a processor that worked for me, lovely girl named Sarah, and she was coming to the tail end of, like, her second or third kid was a toddler and crippling shoulder pain, like just one of the hardest working girls I ever knew. And she would call so she'd be like, I have to take an hour off. I literally cannot raise my arm to type right now. And typing is not a particularly physically stressed and she couldn't figure it out, and her doctor couldn't figure it out or whatnot. I'm like, Sarah, you're like, 100 pounds soaking wet, and you've probably been carrying two or three kids for five years with one arm right like, Let me guess You always carry your kids with your right arm. She's like, Oh yeah, I'm basically doing like, a one armed curl with like a third of my body weight all the time. And so, you know, had she been lifting, or been a little bit like core strong prior to becoming a mom, or during those years when she was a mom, probably wouldn't have had crippling pain in her right shoulder.

Ryan Hamilton  14:12  
I mean, 90% of my clients are women, normal housewives. And so the things that I've seen, and not even like, throughout, like, my entire time I've been in fitness for 15 years, I've watched women nine months pregnant, hit, personal rest, personal best on deadlifts. You know, watching them deadlift 300 400 pounds and pregnant, pregnant, nine months pregnant, bar

Valerie Wong Hamilton  14:37  
goes like, right under their fake old pregnant belly. That's like, when they know they stop, they're like such okay

Ryan Hamilton  14:42  
with pregnancy. I mean, there you obviously have to be careful, you know for sure. But other than running where, because that takes a lot of blood flow, a lot of oxygen, women can still lift weights. Pregnant, and that far into pregnancy, I watched a girl go through an hour long workout as. Part an obstacle course workout that I put for the class. I altered it a little bit for her, so she had to run as much. Killed that workout. Literally gave birth the next day, and then holy went back into the gym under a week. We kicked her out because we're like you just gave birth a week ago. She came back again the next day, and we finally let her get back to work, because a lot of times when you are in shape, you bounce back so much better. Science has shown it. I've physically seen it with multiple different women. They give birth their first kid at young 20s. They don't do anything fitness wise, and they say that their postpartum, their comeback from that is months and months and months. And then I watched their second birth, and they've given, gotten into fitness. They're closer to 30 at this point, they give birth and they bounce back. The lady was back within a week, you know, like her first kid is she said it took her months, and Sherry, she had horrible postpartum. The next kid dealt with it, and she was back. And it's because you just take so much care of yourself physically, that it also helps hormonally. You know, I'm obviously not a woman. I can't speak for what they go through with all that stuff, but just physically watching it. You know, I watch women who I train now, who are some of the strongest people that I've seen. You know people that I train, they're training the stronger than most guys. And I have to tell every woman that comes into the gym that you are a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for. Stop picking up 10 pound weights. We are going to lift some heavy weight. I can't get you to look like me. I'm 200 plus pounds. I can't get her to be my size. She lifts as heavy as possible. We always lift heavy, and she is not near my size, and it's because I'm not. We can't it's all about food and things. It's not about lifting. Lifting is just to get her to muscle, to get her tone, to get her stronger. That's where we try to, I get across to women, it's, I can't make you look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. You know, that's never your goal is like, if I have you lift heavy, it's to make sure that we're stronger our joints, and the biggest thing is our bones, the bone health. Talk about, talk about the bone health a little

Scott Groves  17:03  
bit, because I think this is something that women don't think of when it comes to, like,

Ryan Hamilton  17:07  
anything weights, my word, if I can get anything into women that with lifting, yeah, the esthetic look is great, for sure. That's why we want to lift weights. But it's bone health. Because if we don't put stress on the bones every time, you know, for example, you do a curl that's putting, you know, stress on the muscles, putting stress on the tendon, and that's putting stress on the bone, and so has to hang on so it's pushing on the bone to be stronger and hang on to it. So you can imagine, if I don't do anything for 20 years there's been no stress on the bone. The bone gets weaker and weaker and weaker, and then all of a sudden, it just takes me a clipped it, and that's broken. But if you also, for the last 20 years, have been putting stress on the bone, it's stronger, you know, and now we can absorb these hits. The best example that I can give is I had a 72 year old client. His wife was 70. He was 612, 100 pounds. She was like five foot, 100 pounds. He'd been lifting weights with me for a year. She didn't they were walking. They had happened to fall. They both extended their hands out. She broke her wrist in like three different areas, and he, he just had a bruise on his hand, no breaks, and it's because a lot of has to do with his bones. Were just a little bit stronger, you know, they can absorb that impact because of that strength training, you know, and that's why I try to get across, especially to women, is we don't want to have, you know, this the stereotypical 80 year old broken hip. And how do we prevent that? It's we do. We can do our best by, you know, lifting weights, calcium and all that stuff can help. It's more like a band aid. You know, lifting weights has been the thing that's been proven to strengthen the bones. And they've been doing science with 70 year old women throwing them into power lifting like hey, lift some weights. And they've shown real progress. They stand taller, they move better, you know, I'll preach it, you know, to the day I die, that age at some point is just a number, you know, because you can age gracefully and age you know, there's a quality of life you know you can have if you just be strong. It's not lifting, it's not being at the gym 24 hours a day. It's not, I'm saying you don't need that time. All you need to do is just dedicate a little bit of time to yourself and your health, and it will make it years and years down the road so much better.

Scott Groves  19:22  
So it's so funny. When we first started working out, we were just chatting because we have an hour and I'm just crying. No, I'm just kidding. It's been a great workout. You were mentioning, like, yeah, I work with like 90% women about like half of them just want to be toned and have a bigger butt, and half of them are older, and we're trying to offset the reality of osteoporosis, right? So can lifting weights on that stress on the bone, can it like, slow down the effects of osteoporosis? Because I know, just from talking to some medical guys, I was actually talking to Justin, a doctor at our gym today. He's like, Oh yeah, man, once you fall and break your hip, it's a downward spiral from there, because then other parts of the body starts to shut down, and it just doesn't work. Cover. So can lifting the weights offset that degradation of bone quality for women,

Ryan Hamilton  20:05  
from what they've seen, from what the science has shown, that is our best bet. You know that they're starting to do more and more research, but the from the especially the data when I was in school, that they're showing, in particular, with women and menopause, is we watch both men and women, our calcium levels after we hit 30 start to go down, and so that's why we need to start taking calcium supplements. But as soon as women hit menopause, it just drops off a cliff, and they almost no longer absorb calcium correctly. So that's where they lead to a lot thinnering of bones quicker. So that is what they've been showing to try to combat that is straight training, because we're putting stress on the bone, and that has been shown to make incredible progress, you know, as far as, like, completely reversing it, I can't speak to that, but I think it's the best thing, as far as we know, as far as I know right now, science has shown that is the best way to start preventing that, or at least, you know, pushing it off later, later into life.

Scott Groves  21:02  
Yeah, so Val, I want to compare and contrast, like the athlete workout, right? Because, like, you're a competitive jiu jitsu practitioner still probably looking for an MMA fight, though, every girl is apparently scared to fight you, and I know, like, fitness is front and center for you, so your experience is gonna be different than mine, right? Like, lifting weights a couple times a week. So walk us through, like, what your actual workout schedule looks like, how many times you're working out. And then I want to contrast that with what Ryan has to say for just like your average dude, like me that has an office job, how often you actually have to be lifting so what's the pro version of working out with Ryan?

Valerie Wong Hamilton  21:37  
Let's see we do probably, like, especially if I have a tournament coming up, we'll do like three to four days a week of strength and conditioning. And then it varies like because I'm an athlete, sometimes, instead of just doing like heavy squats for reps, controlling the weights like he would have his like housewife clients do, because they're protecting themselves, I might do like heavy squats for explosive time or something, or hold static, and then an explosive up. So I do a lot of similar movements as like the everyday person would be, because again, we're protecting my joints. We're trying to put muscle on me. We just vary it a little bit, and then all of my strength and conditioning is to supplement my Jiu Jitsu, to protect me, to keep me healthy, so that I can cut weight. So, yeah, so I do about like two jiu jitsu practices a day. So my strength and conditioning is like,

Scott Groves  22:30  
so you're doing like, 12, 1314, jiu jitsu workouts a week, and then lifting weights another three or four days. Yeah, yeah. How many calories do you have to eat? Because you're, you're what like, All joking aside, you're five 535

Valerie Wong Hamilton  22:43  
pounds, something like that. 531, 25 okay,

Scott Groves  22:45  
and how many calories a day do you have to eat to, like, maintain that much workout?

Valerie Wong Hamilton  22:48  
Um, right now it's like 3000 the 3500

Scott Groves  22:53  
Okay, yeah, so that's the pro version. If you're watching this and you want to be a pro athlete, do what Val does. But what I was most shocked with with Ryan and I'm joking about crying at the workouts, because I don't think, and this is weird to say, I don't think we've done a single workout where I've been excruciatingly sore the next day. I've never had this experience where I'm like, Oh, I can't stand up off the toilet. My legs are wrecked. So, like, for just your average, I just want to work on getting a little bit healthier. Talk about, like, how much time needs to be spent in the gym lifting weights.

Ryan Hamilton  23:22  
Honestly, when it comes to weight training, it two days is all you need. If you enjoy it, then go four. But I hate it, by the way, so two, two, that's it. So you know, that's the science has shown. You know, again, unless you're a bodybuilder doing for specific esthetics, which, again, 99% of us aren't. 99% of us at the gym are just trying to, obviously look, look better, but just be healthier. You don't need to be putting in the time that they put in. And even science has been showing that they need to put in a little less time than they are. So it has a lot to do with less, less so much to do with the amount of time spent in the gym, and the intensity that spent in the gym is more important. And so again, if you we take example, women and lifting light, if, you know, if someone comes in and they lift, you know, something for 15 reps, and they just like, Yeah, I think that's good. We weren't pushing the intensity hard enough, and that's the problem. And so a lot of times why we can only need to work out two days a week is because we're able to push the intensity a little bit harder, as long as you're safe and then so when it comes down to it, we don't need to go for six days a week. I don't live six days a week. I go two days on, one day off, and then if I feel a little beat up, then I take another day off. And you just have to listen to your body, and you have to try to do what your goals are. If your goals are just overall health, all you need is two days a week. It's a full body workout, stimulate your muscles enough, and you're good to go. You know, if you have time or you enjoy it and you want to do stuff on the outside, great, and that can get you to your. Holds faster, but it's never needed. I tell people like, I see you twice a week at the most. The most I see people is two, if they're really feeling feisty, three days a week, you know. But that's that's really it. I don't see people four or five days a week. And when I see them, those two, three days, that's all they do. If they happen to do cardio on the outside, great, you know, but it's never needed. If it's whatever works in your schedule, it's such less is needed that people think, everyone I talk to, like, Oh, I gotta go six days a week, is like, I don't go six days a week. Why would you need to go six days a week? You know? Yeah, so it's like, I'm just telling you what I do to, you know? You can tell me what you want to look like, and it's not going to vary too far off from what I do and when I have you do. It's just comes down to the intensity and then consistency and when, fortunately, with fitness, when we don't see the results in the first two weeks, we get frustrated and we fall

Scott Groves  25:54  
off, you know? Well, I think especially if people believe that old, you know, Fitness magazine of like, Oh, I got to work out six days a week, and I got an alternate between upper body and lower body, five exactly, and I got to alternate between the back and the front, and then it's like, you just have analysis paralysis. You're like, What the hell am I supposed to do? So when we started working out, I was like, Oh, dude, is this gonna cost me an arm and a leg? And you were like, No, we need to see each other twice a week, Max. And and I had hit that point where I was doing jiu jitsu like five days a week, but I'm finally good enough where I know where I can be lazy, so I'm not, like, totally exerting myself 100% of the time. And I reached this plateau where I'm like, okay, unless I really want to dial in my diet, which we'll get to in a minute, I need to add something else. And my wife even comment on the other day. She's like, dude, whatever Ryan's doing is working because, like, your shoulders are getting larger, your arms are getting bigger, your stomach's looking small, like you just, like, esthetically better. And then I went did a DEXA scan, and the guy was like, man, your bone density is, like, off the chart. I'm like, Oh, cool. I've been lifting with this guy for like, a year. I've always done, like, some type of combat sport boxing or Jiu Jitsu. And he's like, Yeah, man. He's like, he's like, you're, you know, you still have some fat to lose. There's a little bit of red on the scan that. He's like, I'd really like to see you lose two pound, two pounds of visceral fat, and you're around your belly. He's like, but your bone density, you're great. You're never gonna fall and break your hip. And I'm like, awesome. Okay, we're doing something, right? So why do you think there is that perception that people are like, Oh, well, I get started. I gotta work out five days a week. I have to have this dialed in program. It's like, No, you can get a lot of results in two

Ryan Hamilton  27:16  
days a week. A lot of it comes down to what I've the first thing that I the first thing that I was introduced to when it came to weightlifting, and it's Arnold Schwarzenegger. You know, when everyone thinks about weightlifting, they think about being a bodybuilder, and they think about Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, for the most part. Now, the generation might change, but that's what I thought about. My first book that I read when it came to weightlifting was an Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bobby Knight, right? I don't know if it was that. It was that, it was just his. It showed his entire workout. But when he worked out, he worked out twice a day, three hours each, each session, two to three hours. And so he would do it was like chest in the morning back, and then he would come back and do legs and then arms the next day. And so it's like he did that, and he did five sets of every movement for 10 plus reps. And so he was doing 25 sets of body part. And so that's why he was spending two three hours in the gym.

Scott Groves  28:08  
Well, it's also why he was Mr. Universe, right?

Ryan Hamilton  28:11  
Again, you know, if you're trying to be that level, yes, you have to put in that time. And you know, that's what it comes down to. And when I tell people, it's, you know, unless you're trying to look for that. And again, majority of us aren't. You don't need to be doing that stuff. But that was all we were introduced to. And so now we with science, luckily, and research and all these studies coming out in the last few years, they found that it's even in bodybuilding. It's so much less about the amount of volume done, and then more about the intensity, and then the ability to recover. And so a lot of times with our combat athletes, or just people that are doing too much cardio on the outside, you're going to risk also burning muscle. And so you have to work run into that as well when it comes when you talk about diet more, when people go, Oh, I want to lose lose fat, I want to lose weight, and I'm just going to cut calories. And you know, I go, Well, we're going to burn muscle at that point too, and we don't want to do that. And so when you can overwork yourself, you know, by doing too much. And so a lot of times, I tell people, you don't need to go to the gym six days a week. We don't need to be doing the five sessions of lifting and 20 sessions of cardio or whatever people do. I go, there's a there's a minimum I need you to hit, but there's also a maximum I need you to not go over, because then we're gonna burn muscle. And if we burn muscle, what's the point? You know, because then you're shooting yourself in the foot.

Scott Groves  29:34  
Most important question about, does he really eat candy every day,

Valerie Wong Hamilton  29:37  
every single day? God, that pisses multiple times a day. That pisses me off so much, because when he's cutting weight, he still has candy, because

Scott Groves  29:46  
we've talked about this, and I'm like, I'm like, the hardest thing for me is dialing in the diet, right? Like, I measure Oreo consumption in rows. Like, I don't know how anybody has like, two Oreos and then quits. It just doesn't even, doesn't even seem plausible to me. And so when. You told me, like, No, you know, Ryan will help you with the protein stuff and help you get the diet on track, but he eats candy every day. I'm like, No, that's a marketing tool. He doesn't actually eat candy every day.

Valerie Wong Hamilton  30:09  
Do you eat candy every day? Every single day? Oh, my God,

Scott Groves  30:13  
trust me, if you were in studio, if you're listening to this on the on like iTunes or Spotify, you would not believe that these two people eat candy every day. So how do you work that in to where you're like, Okay, I can have some fun, but just can't overdo it like that. That doesn't even register in my brain

Valerie Wong Hamilton  30:29  
again, like I'm on the extreme end, I have a big amount of calories I have to hit, so I almost use junk food sometimes to hit those numbers. But it's also because I'm hitting my protein. As long as I'm hitting my protein, I'm focusing on what I need to get, then everything else is just filler for the numbers.

Scott Groves  30:49  
Yeah, right. We've talked about this a lot. Can you talk about, like, how much protein and why that's so important?

Ryan Hamilton  30:54  
Yeah. I mean, we have the base number, and it comes down to about one gram per pound of body weight is what we need. You can vary up and down a little bit per person and for what your actual goals are, but that's basically your basic what you're looking to do. And the main reason behind that, and it has less to do with like building muscle, and more about just preserving your muscle, you know. And so when we don't hit our protein goals, and we work out as hard as we can, and we're not seeing results, is because we're not building muscle, and we're shooting ourselves in the foot because you're you're not giving your body the resources that it needs to build that muscle, and that's what's responsible for holding on to that muscle and Building it is protein. Carbs are also very helpful for just being able to go through the workouts. You know, no everyone knows when they first start dieting, they start to feel fatigued, their workouts start crashing, and a lot of that has to do with because we're just cutting too much. So Ryan, I read

Scott Groves  31:54  
online that I'm supposed to do all keto and eat no carbs whatsoever,

Valerie Wong Hamilton  31:58  
and you can't eat after 6pm or those are double the calories. Yeah, you

Scott Groves  32:02  
have to drink this time. You have to do that. It's like, it's daunting, right? So when we started working together, after about five months, I finally started tracking my food with the sole goal of trying to get in, because I'm about 202 10 pounds, depending on the day, trying to get in 200 grams of protein, which is way harder than you would think.

Ryan Hamilton  32:19  
Why you don't realize protein is also responsible for keeping you full, and so when you eat it, all sudden, you're full, and then there's still a lot more to go. You know, four out like for the basic measurements, obviously, if you have a scale is better, but I always say, just use your fist, and the outline of your fist is about three to four ounces, and that's only about, you know, 18 to 22 grams. And so if you need 200 you gotta imagine you need, you know, 10 of those. And that's a lot of food right there. And so the first thing that people do when they first start, you know, quote, unquote, diet, and I hate the word, is, when they start training with me, is, you know, when I first have them hit their protein goals, all they talk about is I'm full, like I'm eating a lot. Are you sure this is a diet? And I go 100% it's a diet. We're just correctly turning your calories what we should be doing. And again, it's not all protein. It seems like you're almost completely keto when you first start, because that's all your focus is protein, but that, in turn, helps lower your calories. That's why keto and carnivore works initially, because, yes, you're full finally, yes, your muscles are finally getting fed with protein. But carbs are still helpful, and they're responsible for making your workouts go better, you know, for making your whole life, you know, your energy levels better, and so you can't just cut carbs out and lose weight initially, it's like, yeah, that's great. But weight loss and fat loss are, you know, two different things. Weight Loss incorporates muscle fat and water. Fat Loss is just fat loss. And you know, everyone I've talked to in fitness, they want fat loss. You know, when we're we don't want to lose just weight. We want to lose, you know, fat specifically, because we have excess body fat. And so when we just cut carbs out, and you see this big drop in the scale, you're like, oh, it's working. That's not, that's not what's happening. You didn't just drop 10 pounds overnight. I promise you know how it works. You know, the scale might say it best. So much more to do with water loss and stuff like that. And so I, do is, when I talk to people, when they first start eating, I go, can you eat like this? You know, in a month, for in five months, can you keep eating like this for a year from now? Can you see yourself eating like this? And they go, No, I was like, then, why are you starting now? If I can get I can show you the correct way to still enjoy life. Because at the end of the day, it's still life. You know, you got to enjoy life. We're not trying to be bodybuilders. We're not, you know, we don't need to have single percentage body fat. We just need to be healthy. You can enjoy life and enjoy food. You know, when she has to cut down her body fat, or her by her weight for competitions, or when I have to for competitions, that's a completely different animal. But we're still going to enjoy certain. Of things, like, like, I, when I did a bodybuilding show, I got into single percentage body fat the day, couple of the week of my competition, I was still having candy. Like, I made sure to always have that as part of my diet, because that's my treat to myself. But I can, I can figure out how to put it in there, and that's all you have to do. You know, it's crazy. When we first started, we were doing the math on your whiteboard, and you're like, all right, man, if you want to lose like, a pound, want to lose like, a pound a week, you got to eat about 2500 calories. And when I switched from eating more carbs and fats and sugars and shit to protein, I'd get to like, 1500 calories, I'd be like, how am I going to eat any more food? Because it's like, we don't have to have a lot of calories. We just have to have the right calories. And I have found I can't hit the protein goal unless I drink like, two protein shakes a day. Like, it's just it would be impossible for me to consume that much steak and chicken. And there was one day I called you. I'm like, Man, I'm like, I'm doing all the right things, but I'm fatigued. And you're like, Yeah, dummy, you did like, four workouts in the last 48 hours. Go have a piece of pizza or a beer or something with some carbs in it, because, like, you can't be, you can't be that strict, which I appreciate it, because then I had a piece of pizza and a beer. But where do you where do you fall? Val as far as, like, managing the weight and the calories and stuff, and then being able to be, like, all right, for your very specific competition goals, you can cut five or 10 pounds, I'm guessing, pretty quickly, easily. For competition, where, like, what's your like, weight tolerance for being like, okay, I can still feel physically good on a daily basis, but then I'm within like, striking distance of losing weight for competition.

Valerie Wong Hamilton  36:31  
I think, like, the nice thing is, I'm starting at a very good point, so I'm starting with quite a bit of muscle on me. Again, I have a huge amount of calories. And I think that's what, like, people also, like, don't realize, is when you start doing this, right? And like, if you're like me, and you're trying to put on weight, or you're getting more muscle, you get to, like, increase your calories a little bit because your body needs more fuel. And it's not like, oh, it's all gonna go straight to my stomach. It's all going to my body, my muscles. And so, um, I, when I cut, like, some people are starting at like 1200 calories, and they're like, ending at 800 since I'm starting at 35 my like, last week, I still think I have like 1200 calories, you know. So I still have 2000 2000 and I was cutting to 115 I had day of weigh ins. I was still having 2000 calories, you know. So, like, setting myself up in a good spot, like, made it so, like, it's funny because I complain. I was like, Oh no, I'm down to, like, 2500 calories, and I'm still having, like, a chocolate bar. I'm still having, like, yesterday, but I want two chocolate bars or something, you know. But, yeah, being able to, like, start in a good spot, taking care of my body, making sure it's like, fueled and fed and I'm not depriving it to start. Makes the cut so much easier. And I've done same day 115 when I did Medusa. And that was literally, like, I weighed in in the morning at 10 o'clock, competed at like, four o'clock, nice. Oh yeah.

Scott Groves  37:58  
Talk a little bit, maybe to the woman that's like, never really worked out. And maybe they're like, I had a ex girlfriend that called herself skinny fat. She's like, well, I'm skinny, but I'm not, like, in shape, right? And she would just, like, moderate her calories, and she was a little vain, and so she wanted to stay skinny. That's fine, but she wasn't like, into fitness at all. So maybe talk to the girl that's, like, intimidated, you know, maybe they have had the first or second kid, like Ryan's the least intimidating person I know, until you get him on the mat. He's like, super calm. You guys have the whole gym built out in your garage, which I don't know how many dollars worth of gym equipment you guys have in your garage, but I'm

Valerie Wong Hamilton  38:31  
guessing it's a whole lot.

Ryan Hamilton  38:34  
There's the there's the

Scott Groves  38:35  
frugal wife coming out. We're like, do we have to buy that sled? But talk a little bit about, like, to the woman that's, like, maybe intimidated to get started, right? Because, like, you walk into Ryan's gym and there is a lot of heavy weights in there, that was a little bit intimidating for me, as a guy who had lifted weights before. I imagine for a girl, that might be either a little bit of a turn off or just it might be scary. Yeah.

Valerie Wong Hamilton  38:55  
So I guess, to be very honest, the first even though I was, you know, an athlete trying to lift and, so to speak, trying to get, like, bigger and stronger for the first, like, three years of, like, my fitness, my sports journey. Four years I was actually bulimic, so I had an eating disorder. So like, as much as I was trying to lift and be a good athlete and like, get stronger, I was also like, ruining my body by not taking care of my diet. And it's because I was so focused on, like, the number on the scale, and, like, being tiny. And I was just like, Oh, if that number goes up, that means I'm getting bigger. Getting bigger is bad, you know? And so, um, I think, like, once I actually started like, Okay, I'm going to eat to fuel my body. And I want my body to be able to do cool things for me. I'm not just going to focus on how it looks. I want it to do good things for me and take care of myself. And then I started getting into like lifting seriously, and like taking care of my diet seriously. And then it just like it. Made me feel so strong, because, again, like, we don't think of ourselves as women. Like, yeah, we can. We all know, like, women can carry three kids, and we can push the stroller up the hill, and we can, like, take care of that, because that's what like moms and women do. But I don't think we think of ourselves as, like, going into a gym and lifting weight and moving it, and that makes me feel good, and that makes me feel strong. And so it kind of just like releases, I think, like a primal feeling maybe, or like a powerful feeling that I think women don't realize they have until they actually get in there and like, they're a lot stronger than they think. Like Ryan said he's had women like, who've started out as clients, and they're like, Okay, yeah, I want to build this, but I want to stay tiny. I don't want to get bulky. I don't want to get want to get big. And he puts a 300 pound hip thrust bar in front of them, and they're like, There's no way. And then they're repping out eight reps. And they're like, No way, I did that. And you see it. You see, like, the flood gates come out. And he's like, Yeah, we're gonna put more on. And they're like, Okay, like, maybe, maybe I could do it. And they do it for five more reps, and you just see, like, how powerful they feel. And they're like, oh, I can do these things. Like, why am I doubting myself? I'm strong in different ways.

Ryan Hamilton  41:10  
Yeah, yeah, you know. And when it comes down to it, it's, you know, the, you know, early or late. You know, 90s, early, 2000s when it was just skinny, skinny, skinny, you know, models and everything, and that's how women were trying to shape after and that was just pure cardio. There was no muscle tone. You know, we can look back at the we watch music videos from the, you know, early 2000s you just see there's just no muscle tone. They're just thin. And that's where we run into bone issues later on in life, because they're just moving and they're burning calories to stay thin, but they're not putting any stress on the bones. So we're not building the bones, but we're also not feeding our body correctly. So the bones are also getting fed correctly, you know, with protein, with all the strength training, and so it just goes hand in hand. When you want to be the in best shape and you want to age the best you can, strength training is the best way to age gracefully and to feel better. Because again, there's, you know, doctors and our science, they can make us live long. You know, you've said you can live to 80. You know, doctor can make you live to 80, but what's the quality at that point? Yeah, I want to, if you know, I want to make sure I've seen people at, you know, bodybuilding shows, but just in competition, 7080, years old, just really changing my mind and what aging is. And age can just be a number at some point, if you treat your body right, things can happen, for sure, but let's give ourselves the best percentage to, you know, age gracefully. Yeah, that's how I try

Scott Groves  42:44  
to do it. One thing that really helped me, like, focus on this, I go to a cardiologist down at UCLA, because there's not a guy in my family that has made it past 70, and I'm trying to buck that trend. Just, you know, there's a lot of reasons for that, obesity and smoking cigarettes and just not taking care of themselves. And my cardiologist said the same thing. He's like, with modern science, he's like, I'll get you to 80. You might be taking 17 different pills and having, you know, quadruple bypass, or he's like, unless you have, like, a widow maker heart attack, we'll get you to 80. But your quality of life from about 55 to 80 is going to depend solely on your diet and whether you stay physically active. And I was like, oh, okay, so yeah, I don't want to make it to 80. And being a walker pissing my pants, that doesn't sound fun at

Ryan Hamilton  43:24  
all. I mean, again, the scariest thing stat that I've seen is that the average American consumes 3200 calories a day and moves less than 20 minutes. And so we're just not moving at all. You know, as much as we need to correct what we eat. And my the funniest one that I always hear, it's when they talk about when they're kids, like, Man, when I was a kid, I could eat whatever I wanted. Now I never gained a pound, and I go well, as a kid, what else did you do? You know, you're active as a kid, you know, especially pre electronics. You know us, you we didn't have those electronics. We were out running around. We're at parks. We're just burning calories. And so in the same line, when you're out running around, burning calories, what else are you not doing? You're not eating. And so when you're a kid, you know, when you think about it, how often did you actually eat? Like, I don't really remember eating breakfast every day. You know, maybe, maybe I had some cereal. I maybe had lunch at school, but we're playing basketball or whatever, especially in elementary school. And then after school, then after school, I'm playing a sport or going and hanging out with friends, so I'd have dinner, so I didn't really snack at all. So like, I had maybe, you know, 1000 calories, yeah, so, and I burned, you know, 2000 of them. And so it's like, yeah, no wonder you couldn't gain weight as a kid. But as an adult, we've just completely flipped that. We just don't move and we just eat a lot.

Scott Groves  44:41  
It's so funny. There's been a few days where, like, at uh, at Karina school, Apogee, we really prioritize fitness, right? So it's like, there's not just 120 minute lunch break. They're doing lunch, and then they're doing, like, a jiu jitsu workout with you. Then they're super active, and then we go to two hours of Jiu Jitsu. And then there's been nights where, right after two hours of Jiu Jitsu, Alina has. An hour and a half of soccer, and Gabriel was running around the field playing football. So it's like, they've gotten in like, five or six hours of working out, and then we go to eat dinner, and I'm like, what'd you guys have for breakfast? They're like, nothing. And then I'm like, I'm cleaning out their lunch pail. And it's like, maybe they ate 10% of their food. And they're like, I'm like, What did you eat for lunch? Like, nothing. And I'm like, how did you burn probably 4000 calories a day and eat nothing? It's like, oh, that's why Gabriel's nine years old and just thin as a rail, right? It's like, that's the way it works. So talk a little bit, switching gears to people that are watching this, that are maybe business owners, or they're thinking about going to fitness, talk about the business of running a fitness business, right? Because, yeah, great. You have all this knowledge, you've got 15 years of practical experience, you've got certifications, you've got all this stuff, but until you have a client, great. It's just an idea. It's not really a business. Yeah, so how have you guys, other than you being advertisements for yourself and how you look physically, how have you guys built like the business?

Ryan Hamilton  45:55  
Basically, when we first moved out here, we were both competing. Then, how long you just moved to Henderson five years ago now? Yeah, I had gotten a job in another gym on the other side of town. I worked at gyms my whole life. I known that I was going to get into straight conditioning for the rest of my life. I knew I was going to eventually own that I was just into jiu jitsu and fighting and stuff like that at the time. So we're out here, and I was starting to stop competing as much. I was like, All right, so now I need to figure out how I want to run this. Do I want to open my own spot or just keep working at gyms? And then I just happened to know a couple people at that, and I they're like, if you open a spot, well will follow, and where your mouth just traveled. And so I just happened to, you know, leap of faith, really, more than anything, is when I opened it. And because, because I didn't want to stress too much with having to force it and the advertisement and the marketing, I was like, if I could just do it at home. That just takes the ease of it. I can charge a lot less for the people, and because my whole goal has always been just to help people more than anything. Like, as far as financially, I don't do a good job financially at it. I'm not the greatest person, business owner talk, because I'll give a lot, as much as I can for free. Because the main thing is, especially with the younger generation, like, I have clients bring their kids in, and that's fine with me, because if I can give the younger generation a goal, especially to lift weights and to be healthy, that's huge for me, you know, and especially, you know, the females, because, you know, watching her and her being such a role model for girls like I just hope that girls really see that being strong is great. You know, we don't want to just be thin. We want thin. We want to be strong. And so, you know, is word of mouth is really just carried my business. Because as far as marketing goes, and as far as advertisement and all that stuff, I'm very bad at it. And you know, I will give as much knowledge as mine as I can to anyone, if they just talk to me. And so, you know, it doesn't do well for my business, but it is at the same time. It's, you know, I'll take less, just to make sure, to try to help out as many people as I can.

Scott Groves  48:11  
I gotta make you blush, Val, because I really, I really do, think you're a role model for especially the girls at the gym and the girls at our school. It's, I mean, it comes through. It really does. And I know you teach the kids class and then you do a separate women's class. Can you talk a little about the women's class that you do at jiu jitsu that anybody can come, even if they're not a member of the gym, and why you started doing that?

Valerie Wong Hamilton  48:32  
Yeah, so I teach a women's class at our 10th Planet jiu jitsu studio, and I started it because one I just noticed that our nighttime class is lit. It's sweaty, gross boys, you know, it's a little intimidated. Yeah, a lot of competitors, it's a very intense room. But I know a lot of women who like wanted to start coming, wanted to start doing jujitsu, and same thing with weightlifting, they're just so intimidated to come into a gym to start it. Especially, like, at least with weightlifting, you can maybe, like, bring a friend, and you guys can, like, be in your own area. But in Jiu Jitsu, you're like, thrown in with people. So especially if it's a room full of boys, you get a little like, awkward or intimidated. Um, so I started the women's class because I just wanted to give them a space to, like, feel like they had a class for themselves. They were comfortable to come in. And I, you know, my goal is to hopefully get the women who are in my women's class, if they can, and they feel comfortable into the normal gym classes, so that they feel confident going in there, and then, yeah, I'm just a huge supporter of just women, little girls and jiu jitsu in martial arts. I think it's so beneficial for them, like, with their confidence, with, obviously, like, protecting themselves, but it just, like, kind of teaches them how powerful they are and how they can be so much better than boys. We have a

Scott Groves  49:52  
we have a girl that works out at the gym who's, I think she's 12 or 13. You'll know who I'm talking about, but I won't use her name, and her dad has told her, like. Hey, as soon as you can beat up one of the boys your size, you're allowed to go on dates, because I need to know when I send you the car with some kid that I don't know, that you can, like, defend yourself physically, that you have the confidence. And so what have you seen with women that get into Jiu Jitsu, as far as whether it's strength, confidence, maybe how it affects other parts of their

Valerie Wong Hamilton  50:19  
life? Yeah, definitely. And like, that's like, a great point you brought in too, is everyone thinks Jiu Jitsu, and whenever I do self defense seminars, everyone thinks it's for the stranger in the dark alley when you're walking to your car, and that's a very low percentage of the people who are attacking you. Unfortunately, it's when you're stuck in a car with someone, you're on a date with, when you're, you know, in your college dorm room, and you're already in a situation and so, like, that's a big thing that I think women slowly start to realize is, like, why they should start training is it's not just avoiding the dark alleys. It's not staying in the sunlight. A lot of times, like, you need it because you're already in close quarters with someone, and it's just really cool because, again, they don't think they're able to, like, fight against someone. You know, again, I'm small, and I'm not saying I could probably beat you up if we actually got in, like, a real physical fight, because you're a bigger guy than me. I don't

Scott Groves  51:15  
know. You've choked me out. You've choked me almost unconscious a few times. Like, maybe if I could punch you, it'd be different. But like, you could, you could definitely fend for yourself.

Valerie Wong Hamilton  51:24  
And that's it, is like I, and I think that's a big misconception with self defense, with jiu jitsu too, is like, yeah, if I can choke you out, we're both in a jiu jitsu exchange. Choking you out is very possible. If this was a real life like situation, me being able to fend you off, to fight for my life for a couple of minutes seconds is, like, a big game changer. And I think that's, like a big thing they realize, too, is like, oh, like, if I can be trouble, that's huge for me. Yeah. And then

Scott Groves  51:50  
weak men that are going to attack a girl, they don't want somebody who's going to fight back. They just, they just want to attack, like, they want to take victims, right? And so if even my daughter or somebody your size or whatnot, can fight back just for a few seconds. That might be enough to make them think twice about it, right?

Valerie Wong Hamilton  52:05  
Exactly. And that's what we tell women all the time, is like, you know, we have the different responses, fight, flight, freeze and appeasement, and if you can slowly start practicing getting out of your response. And you know, like, again, I'm gonna teach you 20 different moves in our jiu jitsu time together. You don't have to remember any of them, but if you remember to move, fight, kick, do something, not freeze up, you know, fight, whatever it is that your reaction is, like, that's all I want from you. I also think, like, it's really funny, because, you know, they come in, they're really scared when they're first drilling. Women are, like, really dainty with each other, and then when it's time to go live, oh man, the first, like, 20 seconds in, they're wrestling, they're going with each other. And I don't think like a lot of us, women, girls, we get to do that as kids, you know, boys, you guys see a mat, you guys see an open space. It doesn't matter where you are. They wrestle, they mess around with each other. But girls, like, we don't get to do that. So to like also let out that like primal energy is really fun

Ryan Hamilton  53:04  
again, when it comes to kids up until puberty, if a girl and a boy have been training the same time, girls are most likely gonna come out on top because, oh yeah, they're more puberty. The elves are killers. They're vicious. Yeah, they're vicious.

Valerie Wong Hamilton  53:16  
I think, I mean, Alina has done great in all the her tournaments when she goes against boys, right? Better than when she goes against

Scott Groves  53:22  
girls. Alina in tournaments has beat more boys than girls, yeah, because the girls are a little bit more technical, yeah, and the boys will try to bully her, and then as soon as they know she's gonna fight back, she just crushes them. At the last tournament, she made a little boy cry, which, to me, in the sport of it, I was like, Oh, I don't want to see a boy cry. And at the same time inside, I was like, Yes, I know that kid, like, never, like, you're a little girl that can make a little boy cry. I love this.

Ryan Hamilton  53:46  
No, again, yeah, up until puberty, like, if it's a girl versus boy, I was like, I'll take the girl nine times out of 10. You know, I bet you they're gonna win. I don't even know anything else, yeah, you know

Valerie Wong Hamilton  53:55  
that also why women's class is my favorite, getting to teach women compared to men. And again, it could be because I'm a woman, I could get seen different, but I can go through so many details with the women's class that I can't when I teach, like, adult men, oh yeah,

Scott Groves  54:07  
Dad's don't pay attention. They're like, I just want to crush people. Or women will actually pay attention to the deal. Yeah? 100% you know, I it would be unfair if I glossed over it, because you kind of just said it as like, Oh, hey, this is part of my life. You struggle with bulimia for three years, yeah, three or four years, yeah. And how did you work through that? Was, like, was this fitness journey part of it, or,

Valerie Wong Hamilton  54:29  
yeah, it was a big part of it. I kind of, like, mentioned earlier, I stopped. First thing I did was I stopped looking at the scale. I didn't weigh myself for quite a few months, maybe close to a year as I was, like, going through this, unless it was for specifically cutting weights for fights or anything. And then I just started, like, really, like, It's so cheesy, but, like, I looked at myself in the mirror, and I was like, Okay, what is it that I want to change about my body? Let's not focus on, like, the number. Let's not focus on, you know, whatever it is. What is it I want? I change about it. What do I want to see to make me happy with my body and also like I need to make sure I'm not screwing myself over for the future, like I I did. I was a in college, and I was a child development major, and one of the things we had to do was do research on eating disorders, because teenage girls develop eating disorders a lot. And I was like, Oh, this is really, you know, like, awkward, awkward, yeah. And I get stick, stuck with anorexia, but they talked about both. And then I saw a bunch of, like, pictures and videos of women who had been bulimic anorexic for a lot of their lives, and like how much damage they did to their bodies, teeth falling out your fingers, the skin on your fingers start to die. If you're constantly making yourself throw up because of the acid in your stomach, like you're literally, like, taking away muscle they their bones were breaking. They're in hospitals with IVs, you know? And I was like, Oh, I'm trying to be an athlete and, like, that's what I'm setting myself up for. That's not what I want to see when I look in the mirror. Like I'm just so stuck on this, like, scale, this number for some reason. Like, why? And so then, yeah, I started to look at my body as, like, I need to take care of it. It's like a machine for me. I have things I want it to do, and so I need to fuel it that way. And like, he was a big help. He was a huge help with forcing me to eat, like, awkward enough, like, I would eat a big meal. And instead of, like, letting me sneak away, he'd be like, All right, you're gonna sit here with me. We're gonna wait till your food digests, and you're not allowed to, like, you know, kind of go away and like, but else I started eating food. I started realizing I was craving food. I didn't realize how much my body, like, wanted to eat meals and like, it was awesome,

Scott Groves  56:52  
yeah, which is crazy, considering that, like, half of America is obese, and that was your experience, because she I'm gonna ask those of you right, because Val has these tendencies. To, like, overdo it, has it gone the other way at times where it's like, Hey, lady, you gotta because you're her jiu jitsu coach and her weightlifting coach and her dietitian, and you guys are, like, working in this together, and you're such a great partnership. Do you ever have to back her off a training of like, hey, maybe the addiction is going a little too far the other way all

Ryan Hamilton  57:21  
the time, yeah, yeah, no. And this is just from a personal because when we when I was training a lot more, and we train a lot together, you know, putting in six to eight hours a day training wasn't a big deal. And so I know what that felt like, and how red lining feels like, and what your body is when it's shutting down basically and doing too much. And so I know that when I could recognize the signs. And so since I'm not in there, I can physically pull her away. I'm just as stubborn as she is when it comes to that stuff. So if I was still going, we would both be running into these problems. But luckily, I took a step back, which can allow me now to take a step back for her. But yeah, when it comes down to that stuff, just the same thing with her food. If she's not getting enough food, her body's just gonna start shutting down. And it's because you're just doing too much work, and you're bot and you're burning at muscle, you're eventually you're just gonna shut down and get sick. And it comes along the same lines. You can't you can overdo things, just like you can underdo things. You know, as Americans, we're under doing our activity and overdoing our over consumption. Sometimes she just overdoes her activity, which, in turn, just like with kids, doesn't allow for enough consumption. If she was able to eat enough calories in her day, she can train three or four times a day because her body is going to be able to bounce back. Have enough food, we recover good enough for her. But it's the time in between practices isn't enough time for her to eat, and so she doesn't get enough calories, which doesn't get enough calories, then we run into problems. So that's what the things you have to realize. It comes along thing along the same line for when people want to lose weight, their first reaction is to cut calories, and I go, let's just try to move more. Because everyone says my metabolism is broken. Your metabolism is not broken. We're just not moving. You know, the more you move, the more you burn. And so I'm not telling you to go run a mile or go run a marathon. I'm just telling you to park farther away from the supermarket and go walk that far. You know, those little steps make a difference. The more we move just like her, the more she moves, the less time she has to eat, the less time you have to eat, the less calories you consume. So it just all comes hand in hand. You know, if we just move more, just like kids, we eat less. You know, our jobs sitting around behind a desk. As soon as I sit behind a desk, I immediately start to get snacky. And like, I again, have the luxury of what I do as a profession is I'm even when I'm, like, training people, I'm still, you know, drinking a protein shaker, like snacking on food. But like, it's not as bad as soon as I sit behind the desk to do the work that I have to do, also, I'm just starting to eat without realizing it, and that's what I'm. Sure can happen to when you're behind the desk eight hours a day. You know, I'm behind a desk one to two and I'm snacking

Scott Groves  1:00:05  
so, so writing your newsletter is not good for your calories, or chef exactly. I get your like, daily or every other day newsletter. It's really good. It's not it's not like, salesy. It's like, oh, this was a good tip. This is a fitness what's the newsletter? By the way, if people want to sign up, and we'll make sure we put that in the show

Ryan Hamilton  1:00:19  
notes. It's just on my website, the blog that I do every day, new era fitness and performance.com Yeah, just the blog entry about once every other day, or something like that, or every other every day, just little things that just go into, you know, there's not, we don't want again. Best thing you said is paralysis by analysis. I'm not trying to throw a bunch out. You added you guys. You know, there's 10,000 diets out there. But the also thing is, it's not a one size fit all. Thing, you know, we have to biggest thing we have to figure out is, what's your what I call is your Achilles heel. For me and her, it's candy. You know, we have to have candy in our diet. The more we say no, the more we're gonna fall off. And that's what happens a lot of times for people. So when I meet with people, same thing with you. I go, what's, what's our one thing that we just can't say no to Dr Pepper, exactly, because if we keep saying no to it, we're eventually going to fall off. And so for a lot of my clients, it's alcohol. And so I was like, we can have alcohol while we're still cutting that's fine, as long as you just do everything else, right? You know, we don't need to be perfect. We're not trying to be. We're humans. You know, it's 80. My goal for you is 8020, 80% we're doing great. 20% I don't really care what you do. Just don't be just don't go over the top with everything. Yeah, moderation is the key word and that stuff. But you know, when it comes down to anything, you can overwork yourself with with work with activity, and you can under work yourself with activity, obviously, as we're doing, you know, it's

Scott Groves  1:01:45  
crazy. One of the big tips that you gave me was like, because I eat on the road a lot, and then I'll eat out these very rich, high calorie meals with some rolls and a couple alcoholic beverages, and all of a sudden it's like, oh, I eat like, 2000 calories at dinner. I don't even know how I did that. And you gave me the tip. You're like, Hey, man, when you're on the road, just have a cooler full of protein shakes and some healthy snacks, which has been a game changer for me. And then you're like, when you're about ready to go out for one of those business dinners where, you know, there's going to be drinking and there's going to be five course meal, just have a big protein shake before you go. So I've been doing that, and it's so funny. About two months ago, a bunch of my boys were in town for this big mortgage conference. I'm like, Oh, this is the night we're going out. I'm gonna get blasted drunk. We're gonna eat all night, and then we're gonna end up at some pizzeria at four o'clock in the morning. And I did that. I had like, a giant protein shake before we went, and it's like, all of a sudden the bread wasn't appealing, and maybe it had two or three cocktails instead of nine or 10. And it's just like, you're full, like you can't you just can't have, you can't put more shit on your body. It's extended. Great tip. So carry around a case of protein, just wherever, wherever you're going. I want to finish on a couple ideas. When it comes to business, what's been the what's been the most frustrating part and what's been the most satisfying part of training people physically? For both of you, besides yelling at my kids,

Valerie Wong Hamilton  1:03:01  
I think, like, maybe it's not the most frustrating, but I think it's like, hard for both of us. I think this is what I get frustrated at Ryan for. Is like, charging is charging what you're worth, charging what the knowledge is worth. Because you're like, I understand it. It is very expensive, you know, not very expensive, but is an expense to put in to your health and everything, or put your kids in sports or to do private sessions. So I think it's hard for both of us to like, charge people, because we just want to like, I just want to help you. I just want to teach you. Let me just teach you the things I know. And then that's also just like, the most rewarding for me is like, I see a little kid, you know, like they do their little jiu jitsu move. They look at their parent, they're so proud of themselves. Or, you know, kids putting hard work in for tournaments, getting ready for things, and then they go out there and like, win or lose, they're just like, oh, I worked so hard for this. I was so excited. And you're just like, Oh, I'm proud of you, like, you had fun with the experience. Like, I'll

Scott Groves  1:03:58  
tell you, spending the money is worth it. That I found, because it's like that old saying, what is it? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I'm sure I screwed that up, but you know, now that I've been working out with you, it's like, I feel a little bit better, so I eat a little bit less junk food. If I eat a little bit less junk food, I eat at home more. If I drink a protein shake, I'm probably spending 10 or $20 less than I would have every time I go out to eat, right? And so all of a sudden, it's like, Yes, I am paying you a few $100 a month to work out with you, and I have saved that money on the crap that I used to stop and eat fast food. Or Now, when I go to Starbucks, I get an iced tea instead of an iced tea and a bagel. Or, you know, when I go out to dinner, I'm like, wait a minute, why was the sushi bill for my wife and I only 100 bucks instead of 200 bucks? It's like, well, we didn't get this appetizer, and we didn't drink this alcoholic beverage, and all of a sudden the money makes up for itself. So yes, I agree you should charge what you're worth.

Ryan Hamilton  1:04:47  
But you know, it's really interesting. You know, we're not parents yet ourselves, but you know almost all my clients are and you know you talk about everything that you do for your kids, you know, the sports, the money you put in for. The sports that they do, their education and stuff like that. And a lot of times, I had to say it's like, you know, a lot of things, you have to take care of yourself for your kids. You know your kids need you around as much as you know you want to take care of them financially, making sure that they're taken care of. And I understand that it's what happens if you're not around because you're not taking care of yourself, you know. Yeah, I lost my dad not too long ago. And I always tell people that I would have given up, you know, a few hours away from him as a kid, if I could still have him around now, because he, you know, he got overweight, you know, and caught, you know, disease and up dying early and young. And it's like, if you want to help your kids, they also need you around, you know. And so if you can do anything for your kids, just be healthy, you know, and be strong.

Scott Groves  1:05:43  
I try so hard not to judge, but I judge nothing to me, feels more inauthentic than when we're at soccer or we're at Jiu Jitsu or whatever, and we see a parent who I know is spending 15 or 20 grand a year on private lessons, traveling for tournaments, league uniform take pouring all of their energy into their kids health with I really respect, and then they're like, wildly obese. I'm like, no offense, man, but one, as a dad, you're not leading by example, and your kids are going to do what they say, what they see, not will you tell them? I can tell Gabriel to do Jiu Jitsu four hours a day if he doesn't see me going to jujitsu. He's not gonna do it. Like, that's how kids are you out? Yeah. And then, like, okay, great. So you got your kids private soccer lessons when they were 12, but you're dead by the time they're 22 what are we doing? Yeah, your finger line,

Ryan Hamilton  1:06:31  
yeah, that has a that's what I'm saying. You know, it's you want to do everything for your kids, and I totally appreciate that. But it's like, can you live for your kids, please? Like, can you do stuff to help your health. And the same line like I was just talking to a guy who he's 31 years old, has debilitating lower back pain. He's like, this is his life for me, right? I go, absolutely not. You know, technically, as men 28 to 30 twos are prime you should be feeling the best you ever felt. And he goes, all I want to do is be able to walk upstairs and pick up my seven year old daughter, and he's like, I just can't do that right now because so overweight. I go, that is 100% achievable. That is, you know, the that is the bare minimum you should be able to do. You know, you would want to be able to spend your time with your kids. You know, I got the benefit of my dad played sports with me when I was a kid. I can't imagine not having like, just seeing him in the stands, just sitting there, because he physically couldn't do it, right? You know, is a big deal to, you know, for as a parent, to be able to play with your kids. So I couldn't imagine not being able to because of physical it's one thing, you know, things happen. I get it, but because you physically have put yourself in a position not to be able to, you know, play and live for them.

Scott Groves  1:07:39  
So we've got women who want to be stronger. We've got women that want to overcome osteoporosis. We've got dads like me that waited like a moron till I was in my late 30s to have kids. So I have to stay physically fit, so I can stay stay active with them, and then, just for longevity, it sounds like you can pretty much cover everybody. So how do people get in touch with you? You can

Ryan Hamilton  1:08:00  
just go on my website, New Era fitness and performance.com. Is the best way to get a hold of me. Just send a message. But, yeah, you know, it's one of those things. I understand gyms, especially big gyms, are intimidating, and as you go to the gym, there's nothing more frustrating than not seeing progress. I've seen people show up at a gym for a year and look the exact same. And I get it, and I, you know, I have a story of a guy who is the same. He does Jiu Jitsu, and he tells me he does jiu jitsu six, seven sessions a week. He does cardio, another two or three sessions a week, and he kind of lifts weights, and he has looked the exact same for four years. And he's like, I can't lose body weight. I was like, I train a quarter the amount of you do. I go. I lift weights two days on one or two days off, and I go to jiu jitsu a couple times a week at the best, you know, as I don't do cardio if I unless I need to. And I go, what's wrong? Here I go, you know, I've changed and morphed my body because I've wanted to put on size. I was like, and you've looked the exact same. Something's wrong. You know, I understand, like we something is better than nothing, but like you also have to look at, if you're going to the gym and not seeing results, there's a problem, and the problem is what we're doing. And so, you know, as that's why I have a smaller studio. For that reason, it's, to me, it's less intimidating. You don't have to worry about other people looking at you, and if you want to bring other people with you too. So because misery loves company, that's all. That's what's allowed for. You know, working out in groups is what I always recommend. And so majority of my people have, you know, two to three people they work out with, because they could look at the other person and be like, is this tough? And they'll shake their head, yeah, it's tough. Cool. All right. I'm not the old little boy, yeah, because there's nothing more frustrating, like, oh, is this tough? Is how many I can't imagine because I'm just standing there, so I don't look like anything's tough, of course, because I have to show you it's not tough, right? But we really tell it's really easy to be an observer, exactly. So I always tell people, have other people with you, so that you can say, Okay, this sucks, and they'll agree with you. This sucks. We got. Right? So we're doing it together. We suffer together. We get better together, and you hold each other accountable. And, you know, it basically, we can just be consistent. Because the hardest thing, and the frustrating thing I've seen is people, they start, they're gung ho, six days a week, two weeks later, a month later, they're burnt out. It's like guys, you don't need to go six days a week, you know, just start with two. You know, we don't need to change your life. It's not going to, unfortunately happen overnight or over a week, you know, give yourself, you know, a couple weeks to a couple of months, because you didn't get to your overnight. So give yourself a chance to get there. But we're creatures that don't like that we want right

Scott Groves  1:10:35  
now, yeah, Amazon generation, exactly. Click a button, get it out. Val leave us on why every parent should bring their young daughter to 10th Planet kids class, or every mom should come to your Friday night women's only jiu jitsu class, even if they've never done anything physical before in

Valerie Wong Hamilton  1:10:51  
their life. You know, like, first thing is, it's gonna be so much fun. Your kid's gonna have so much fun. If you're a woman who's gonna come to my jiu jitsu class, you're gonna have so much fun. It's just a good time. You're gonna learn lots of life lessons or, like, whether it's like, just because things are hard and your kid has to push through it, but women need to learn Jiu Jitsu. It is the best self defense. It is the most useful in situations, so you won't

Scott Groves  1:11:17  
regret it. Perfect. Thanks, guys. Hey, it's Scott groves with the Henderson HQ podcast. I hope you got something out of that episode. If you enjoyed it, please don't forget to like, comment and subscribe to the podcast. It really helps the show grow. And by the way, if you are a business owner, or you know, a business owner who has an interesting product, service or just an interesting backstory. Please. Please get in touch with us. Email us at the Henderson hq@gmail.com we would love to interview you, because that's what this show is all about. It's about building community, supporting local, individually owned businesses, and just making Henderson a great place to live. And don't forget, go to Henderson hq.com, and make sure you sign up for our newsletter. We send out a once a week newsletter, no spam, about the most interesting local businesses, hot spots, restaurants, community events. Thanks for watching the show. Really appreciate you. You.