How Adam Restored His Health After Turning 50 | Adam S. | Better Man Podcast Ep. 102

Dean Pohlman: Hey guys it’s Dean. Welcome to the beta man podcast. Today is a member interview and I’m going to be talking with Adam S. So Adam thanks for being here.

Adam S: Thanks for having me. Dean. I am thrilled to be here. It’s, it’s a pleasure.

Dean Pohlman: Cool. And we will be popping your cherry pop. Your, That’s right. Cherry. Yes.

Adam S: That’s true, that’s true. Yeah. This is the first time I’ve ever been on. But before then, no one’s ever wanted to hear me talk. So this is this is interesting.

Dean Pohlman: Well, this is this is this is one where your story is popular. So we want to we want to get this one.

Adam S: All right.

Dean Pohlman: So my so my first question for you is what was your oh shit moment. What was. Oh when did you realize that okay, I’ve got to start taking care of myself differently than what I’m doing now.

Adam S: It was a little after my 50th birthday for years leading up to turning 50. I was making making it not out to not be a big deal. Oh, it’s just a number. It’s just a number. And the truth is, my father died when he was 49. So 50 was a giant number. And for many years I thought, well if I make it to 50 that’s the end of the line and I can just kind of give up and kind of just go coast until there’s not that much left after 50.

Adam S: But that’s not the truth. I got to 50 and I turned 50 in October. And for the next few months until about January, I kind of went off the rails. Ate a little more, blew up a little more. I was not happy at all. My wife wasn’t happy. They were. We had problems. That all stemmed from me really not being happy with myself.

Adam S: And it was in January. I started, deciding I’m going to get myself back into shape. I don’t like this anymore. I don’t like the way I feel. I certainly don’t like the way I look. And I was very concerned, having turned 50, I didn’t I spent my 40s trying to be 30 again. I like to say I would work out in bursts.

Adam S: It’s super intense and I would get myself hurt, and then I’d have to take weeks off being injured, and I would sit around, feel sorry for myself and eat and drink too much. And so I did a lot of research. I did a lot of reading, like, how can what can you do for injury prevention? What’s the best exercise is for a guy in his 50s to start, you know, improving flexibility.

Adam S: And that’s really where I wanted to be is I wanted to be flexible. I didn’t want to be like super jacked or anything. I want to be, I want to be. I want to get back to running is really what I wanted to do. And I looked all that up and all paths led to yoga. So I went online and I looked to Google Yoga for 50 year olds, and two sites came right up.

Adam S: Two plays came right up. One of them was Man Flow Yoga. The other one is is another, yoga fitness guy online. And he’s very good too. But, I really enjoyed the playlists. They were they were organized really well, like, for your knees, for your back, for your sexual health. All those things that, guys over 50 need.

Adam S: And I certainly needed help with all three of those. And, I started following the programs, and it just really helped keep me consistent, because there was a program, and I never had a program. I just exercised, and, that’s how I got into that was my oh shit moment. Turning 30, turning 50, and realizing that I still have a lot more life in front of me.

Adam S: Even though I have a lot of years behind me and I would like to enjoy them, and that that was my. Oh, shit.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. Well, it sounds like you had, had like, had a moment there where you real, where you didn’t think that there was much left you. It sounds like you’re like, I’m 50. I’m gonna die now. So I might as well just just. Yeah. You know, just eat as much as I want and, like. Yes, all this stuff up.

Dean Pohlman: And then you realized you weren’t going to die, and you’re like, okay. Oh, I’m just. Yeah.

Adam S: And I was in no hurry to die. I just thought that’s the way it was going to be. And I looked around and realized it does not have to be that way. I say, yeah, and I don’t have to live the rest of my life being miserable and unhappy either. I can, I can I have I’m the only one who can change that.

Adam S: And that moment came from, an interview I saw online years ago. A couple years ago, Robert Downey Jr, he, he just retired from the Marvel Universe. That’s. I’m a big fan, as you can see back. I get a little hand-painted Iron man. Yes. Yeah, that’s pretty cool. But he’s, he’s a guy who’s really turned his life around, and that I always found that was inspiring.

Adam S: 20 years ago, he was the punch line, and now he’s the king of Hollywood. But in the interview, the interviewer asked him, now you’ve retired from Marvel Universe. You know what? What’s your plans? And he said, well, I’m in the back nine now, so the game is different. At the time, I thought that meant he’s just going to coast on his Iron Man money and just make shitty movies the rest of his life doesn’t matter.

Adam S: That’s not what he meant. What he meant was, and I call this the back nine theory. This is the one I tell everybody that I follow now is if you play golf, you’re front nine is where you make all your mistakes. You three putt, you shank a ball in the woods, you fart around flirting with the cart girl or whatever.

Adam S: You’re not paying attention. Your game when you make your turn and you’re in the back nine, you’ve got nine holes to play the best damn game you can and fix your score. That’s what I realized. I’ve only got nine holes left. There’s there’s no more time to goof around. I want I want to be different. So I started, you know, really focusing on, my fitness and my health and mental yoga definitely was a part of that.

Adam S: Yeah. That was that’s what inspired me to go, you know, realizing that, you know, turning 50 was not the end of the line. There’s still a lot left for me. And, I wanted to be a better. I wanted to be better for me. I wanted to be better for my kids. And I want to be better for my wife in that order.

Adam S: In that. That’s why I am here today.

Dean Pohlman: That’s, That’s wonderful that you have such clarity over that. That you have that, understanding of your motivation, that sometimes, sometimes it’s really hard to get to that level.

Adam S: Yeah. It’s so interesting. It took it took, you know, years of my wife with she would, she would say something to me about, you know, your you really need to take better care of yourself. And of course, I would internalize that as being criticized and then go do the opposite. But it really was, revisiting that interview, about with, with Robert Downey Junior where he said, you know, I’m in the back nine.

Adam S: I thought about it more, was like, yeah, I, I don’t want to end like this. I don’t want to be dead of a heart attack mid 50s because I like fried food. No, no, no, I’m not doing that anymore. And I can tell change.

Dean Pohlman: How big did you get?

Adam S: I when I started, let’s see in how big was I originally I got, I was all the way up to almost 268 pounds. I think it my in my biggest. But that’s a long time.

Dean Pohlman: And how tall are you.

Adam S: Five, 959.

Dean Pohlman: So. Okay, that’s 200 pounds at five now. Yeah.

Adam S: Yeah I’m happy as well I don’t I’m not 260. When I started this round of weight I’d already lost a few pounds. Previous. I’ve always yo yoed my whole life, you know, gaining weight, losing weight. Biggest I ever was, was 260. The biggest I was before I started this round, which would be, let’s say before in January 2023.

Adam S: When I got serious, I was probably about 235 pounds when I started weighing myself. I was 232, but I know I didn’t weigh myself till February in 2023, so I, I’m certain I weighed about 235, close to 240, and now I weigh 170 pounds. Wow. So yeah, that’s, but it’s impressive. It over it. It didn’t happen overnight.

Adam S: And for years whenever I would want to lose weight. And this is why I yo yo routine is I would set a goal of a number and a date. So even leading up to this, we were going on a big cruise, a lifetime cruise of a lifetime to Alaska. I’ve never traveled everything. I decided I wanted to weigh 200 pounds to go on this cruise.

Adam S: I didn’t want to go with 240. I wanted to be a little slimmer. And before I went, I worked real hard. I followed man flow yoga. We’ll talk more about that later, but I really just started focusing on what I was eating and, my nutrition and fitness and really being committed to it. And when we time we got on the cruise, I weighed 198 pounds.

Adam S: It was we traveled for 12 days. We came home. I even worked out on the cruise. I downloaded, videos because I knew I wasn’t going to get service up there. I downloaded some videos in the app, did my workouts on the cruise ship, you know, and even watch what I ate on the cruise and came back. I only gained a pound over 12 days and that was also a second moment of clarity or ocean moment.

Adam S: I was like, wow, if I can maintain that, I can do this, I can go a little further. And so then my goal became not to hit a certain number, but to just continually, continuously be healthier. And that’s it was coming off that cruise was when I noticed I don’t it’s not about numbers. It’s about I want to live a healthy life.

Adam S: I don’t want to, you know, keep going. And so I just continued, I made little progressions and about I’d set little goals at 5 pound increments. I say, all right, let’s see what I look like at 190 pounds and, you know, go from there. And I just kept going and I, I liked the results. I liked how I looked, I liked another joke I used to tell is I’ve always wanted to wear clothes that were tight on purpose, and now they are, you know, and, I enjoy it.

Adam S: I enjoy being able to wear, a tight shirt and and show off, what what the work to wear. I put in a lot of work, so. Yeah, it’s a little narcissistic, but isn’t everyone at the gym really? I mean, isn’t that why we’re there to look better? That’s one of the reasons, right?

Dean Pohlman: It’s definitely one of the reasons that I’m. Yeah. So. So speaking of results. So I want to take you back to when you first got started. You’re about 232 pounds or 235 pounds. How long did it take for you to start noticing results? And what were those results?

Adam S: Depends on which metric you’re looking at. If the first result, one of them. One of the reasons I sought out yoga was, in my late 40s, I started developing issues in the bedroom. Like a lot of guys in their late 40s. And not ashamed to say it. I searched, you know, yoga for ed solutions because that was another, every time I would look up what to do about erectile dysfunction or having trouble getting started a lot all roads pointed to men should be doing yoga.

Adam S: And, I found your playlist that said, you know, the sexual wellness playlist. I started doing it three times a week and it was about a month. I started to see a result there. It was about about a month. I started to see I would, after the first month, I guess I lost like 5 or 6 pounds.

Adam S: It was noticeable, but not that noticeable to me because I, I see me every day. So the first metric where I noticed the increased fitness concentration workout was after about a month, I was able to, spontaneously perform well, I hope I guess it’s well, because my wife was happy. And, you know.

Dean Pohlman: Let’s get her on the podcast, and she’s asking.

Adam S: Me at the office right now, but she.

Dean Pohlman: We’ll get there.

Adam S: We’ll get better. I’m sure she’ll give me, a positive review.

Dean Pohlman: Just a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Is planning.

Adam S: It wasn’t my thumb, but still. Jesus.

Dean Pohlman: You’re one of those guys. All right. Good.

Adam S: Sorry. Sorry, about that, but, no, we had, we had a good, a good night and then followed up a couple days later, and it had been a long time since it had been twice in, a month, let alone a week. And so my wife said to me, all right, what are you doing different?

Adam S: And I told her I started doing yoga. And she was like, well, keep on doing yoga. And I didn’t just keep up, I doubled down. I just said, well, I do it six days a week instead of three. And, yeah, that’s when I started noticing those results. I started noticing more fitness results, really was around that time, the Strength Foundation challenge came out.

Adam S: They brought you in. They offered it for, like, 27 bucks or 27 bucks for six weeks. That’s cheaper than the gym. I’m going to try this, and I pay this. Joined up and I filed the strength Foundations course, and, about two weeks into it, after being completely sore because I was using muscles I didn’t even know I had, I started to notice that I could control muscles that I didn’t realize I had.

Adam S: I could, you know, I can I can flex my hips and my glutes that I never flex. If I be honest, this is the dumbest thing anybody’s ever said. But I didn’t even know men had a pelvic floor until you were like, you know, breathe in and out of your pelvic floor. I but I never paid attention to my pelvic floor, and now I can control it.

Adam S: I can, you know, I can control my core in ways that I never did before. And I can. When you start noticing your body and being able to control it, then another epiphany is I wanted to control what I was putting into it and I changed my nutrition. So it’s about after the Strength Foundation challenge. So let’s say from February to the end of April, it’s really when I start seeing real solid results.

Adam S: That’s when people start to say to me, wow, you’re starting to look, you’re really losing weight now. You’re really looking good, looking good, and, for a guy that always grew up fat, to hear compliments about how you look from people, it’s it does it does something for me. That was also a motivation. So, I liked getting compliments.

Adam S: I wanted more of them. So I worked out harder.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. That’s awesome. I mean, so when you’re first getting started with something, that’s that’s the initial difficult part, right? It’s it’s when you’re six months and you’re like, oh, this is working. It’s when you’re getting started, you don’t know if it’s going to work. So right when you decided that you were going to do okay, I found this, I found this this guy on YouTube, he has this yoga for easy video.

Dean Pohlman: His a sexual one, a challenge. I’m going to do it three times per week. How did you motivate yourself to do that? Three times per week until you started noticing results?

Adam S: My home life wasn’t very happy and I wanted it to be. And that was my motivator. But oh god, my automatic lights went off after stupid office. And there we go. More technical difficulties, this time with lightning. But, no, we weren’t very happy at home. And, you know, I wasn’t happy with how things would go.

Adam S: I felt a lot of a lot of blame and shame, and I didn’t like that anymore. So I started to, That’s what made me want to find it and made me want to do it. Wasn’t just so much that I missed, and I did. I missed physical intimacy, and I enjoyed it. But it also, my wife and I were drifting apart because I would I would find excuses to not go in the bedroom because I didn’t want to embarrass myself.

Adam S: And then, like that we were doing it for a few weeks. I did the program for a few weeks. I, we had a spontaneous night, and I just that’s why I kept doubling down on it. How did I notice it? So I would say, yeah, it was about a about three weeks to a month after doing it that I noticed the changes, from the program.

Adam S: Did I ask a question or did I ramble off?

Dean Pohlman: No. You did. You answered a question. Most people say like, oh, my back pain went away in two weeks. And your answer is, well, I got a boner again. So it’s cool. It’s it’s, you know, it’s a unique story. I mean, it’s it’s it’s, it’s not a unique story because we know that, you know, this happens. We know that people have said, you know, we have we have other testimonials.

Dean Pohlman: We have other people who have said like, oh, it is working. But I think this is the first conversation that I’ve had with someone one on one where they’re like, yeah.

Adam S: It helps with that. I mean, yeah, it’s pretty cool. I’m not going to be showing my, my friends when they ask you why yoga? That’s one of the reasons I give them, because I know my friends my age in my age group, they’re not talking about it, but they’re all in the same boat. You know, men, we don’t talk about it because it is embarrassing.

Adam S: And, you know, it took a lot for me to get to this point where I’m willing to sit here and just blurted out on a podcast to, all the listeners, yeah. But I’m not ashamed of it. It was. It was a problem. It’s a problem. A lot of guys, my age have. And, it’s fixable and I want them to fix it.

Adam S: And so I’m happy to talk about it. If it inspires one person to take up yoga and fix it, then I did my job here. So. Yeah.

Dean Pohlman: So when you. So as you’re doing, you know this you’re doing the workouts in general aspect. But especially as you’re getting started how did you deal with the initial, discouragement? So if you had a pose or like, oh, I have no idea how to do that, or oh, the guy on the screen looks like this certain way, and I can’t do that with my body or, you know, in those situations.

Dean Pohlman: Also, my belly gets in the way of doing this. How did you deal with that discouragement?

Adam S: Mostly laughing at myself. I’m going to be I would laugh it off and be like, well, I’ll get there someday. And it’s interesting because, so I, I’ve studied a couple of things online. One of them is yoga, the other one is I had years before, about a year before the pandemic hit, I took up woodworking and I studied that online and took courses.

Adam S: And, I’m not as proficient as the instructor, of course. So one day I was working on a project in my garage, and I kind of lost my temper and threw some stuff around the garage, was swearing at it, and I said something. My son happened to be in a garage at the time. He must have been about 11, and I said, okay, I he makes it look so easy.

Adam S: The guy on and on the computer. And my son Jacob said to me, well, you know, Luke Skywalker had to start somewhere to, you know, he, he had he was not he wasn’t good at the force the first time he tried to. You just need to learn. And I was like, out of the mouths of babes. And that just clicked with me.

Adam S: So that’s kind of what I still used when I was studying yoga. And I’d be like, yeah, course I can’t bend like this guy. First of all, he’s half my age. I don’t know if you are exactly right. Is it? He’s been doing it.

Dean Pohlman: I’m 35, so okay.

Adam S: Now a little closer to two thirds, two thirds my age. You’ve been doing it your whole life. Of course, I’m not going to be as proficient as you are. So, you know, I say it in a in the Facebook group all the time. You know, how you get to Carnegie Hall is practice, practice, practice. So I would just keep practicing and I would set I would laugh at it if I fell over, couldn’t do something.

Adam S: And I would say, one day I’m going to get that pose, I’m going to be able to do it. Maybe not as long or as deep as Dean is, but I’m going to be able to do that pose. And, that’s that’s how I dealt with it.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. Cool. That’s good motivation. Just for the record, I have to I have to mention this because I don’t want people thinking that I’ve been doing yoga since I was three. I also started relatively late. I started when I was 22, and I probably also went through the same thing that that you guys are going through. If you’re new where you’re like, wait, I supposed to be that flexible?

Dean Pohlman: Very slow process. Flexibility takes a lot of time. You can you can fix other things relatively quickly. You can build strength quick, relatively quickly. But flexibility mobility takes the longest if you’re looking at the different attributes, of, of, of, you know, of all these markers of fitness. So also what I like about your story, what you’ve already told is that you, you this kind of was a springboard for you to go into other things.

Dean Pohlman: So you thought, oh, well, if I’m going to be careful about, you know, what I’m doing with my body, I’m also going be careful about what I put into my body. You mentioned so you cleaned up diet?

Adam S: Yeah. I had oh, there was another boy. I also, I had some Gerd issues too, you know, a lot of acid reflux, things like that, and that really also, you know, start watching what you’re eating and how much you’re eating. That was really the big I was just I actually ate relatively healthy, but I ate a lot. And I just have figured out now and just eat what you need to.

Adam S: Yeah. So so you’re not starving all day and fuel your body. Make sure that you’re, you know, putting something good in there. Fruits and vegetables, protein. You know, I still eat ice cream. I still have fries. Just not all the time anymore. That was really the big. Yeah.

Dean Pohlman: So what else have you done? What else have you gotten into as a result of this? You know, your health and wellness journey that you haven’t talked about yet?

Adam S: I got back to running. I mentioned it earlier that I used to run a long, long time ago. I love running. It’s, my favorite exercise. I used to say. Now, second, after yoga of course, but, I started, yeah, I would walk, for cardio. And then I started adding sprints in a quarter mile here, a half mile there.

Adam S: And, now, I’m back to running five K’s again. I’m actually this coming Saturday, going to be an a relay for a triathlon. I’m doing the run at the end, which is nice. I’ve got back into running. I just, I find, I’m a little calmer because I’m happier with myself in general. What else run into, I do more things, with my wife and with my family.

Adam S: Things that I would opted out of a while ago. Did. Really? Really. You know, the fitness journey, the realizing that I. I’ve turned turning 50 isn’t the end of the line. Just has left me open to more possibilities, traveling more, wanting to be outdoors more, which is never really been my thing. But I love I love it now.

Adam S: And taking, you know, spending a date, beach or something. It’s just a lot more fun when you’re in better shape and wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dean Pohlman: It sounds like every aspect of your life is just gotten better as a result of you being healthier.

Adam S: It is a I’ve lived in Florida for 22 years now, and last year was the first year I felt comfortable enough taking my shirt off at the beach, and that’s huge for me. Huge. We have a pool in our house. I we used to swim in it with a t shirt because even in my own house, I wasn’t comfortable taking my shirt.

Adam S: Now I find any excuse to take my shirt, but my my my wife’s like, we put a shirt on. Yeah, they walk around the house shirtless all the time. It’s just. Yeah, I, I enjoy it and, it’s, it’s, you know, a yeah it’s Florida. It’s hot down here. And who want to work. So you’re in Texas. You know what it’s like, so I.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. No, it’s, Yeah, I refuse to, maybe it’s because I want to save on my electricity bill, but I just the people who have their AC at 65 during the summer, just why?

Adam S: That’s too cold. Yeah.

Dean Pohlman: Too cold. I, I turn it to, like, I turn it to 77 and. Yeah, like, sometimes that’s too hot for a shirt. So, you know, there you go.

Adam S: Yeah. We don’t need them.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. You don’t. So and you also start. So tell me what your weekly workout program looks like.

Adam S: All right. My weekly where I have it hanging on the wall. So I find I know everybody uses the app, but I’m old school. I have to write it out. And so I wrote out here, yeah, this is the yoga I’m going to do.

Dean Pohlman: Well, hey, what I, what I really like about this and if you’re listening you can’t see this. But he also you’ve also crossed out when you do a workout.

Adam S: Yes. Which yeah.

Dean Pohlman: Which is huge. That’s so helpful because then you see those unbroken streaks and you’re like, oh, I got to keep this going.

Adam S: The only thing I hate when I have an empty spot on my calendar, it just I.

Dean Pohlman: That’s that shame that we need in order to remember. Oh I got to do that next time.

Adam S: Right, right. So, my workouts are, Sunday is yoga, yoga, lift and cardio. So usually, usually I just started this month with this pattern, so, I do, cardio in the morning, and then I go back to the gym, and I will do, I will do my yoga, roll my mat out there, do yoga, and then lift weights and then Tuesday.

Adam S: Tuesday I went Monday and Tuesday will be, long yoga sessions. Wednesday will be a short one with a lift and then hopefully, a run later in the day, or at least a long walk. Thursdays. Another, yoga only, Fridays, yoga only. And Saturday I take a day off, so I vary them up. I do, I like to like this week I’m doing a couple the dynamic ones.

Adam S: Today I did, dynamic lunges. I go back, I find a lot of the old ones. I find the old videos pretty fun to do to. I did want to dynamic lunges for hips and core today, and I am like shaky legs, so I know it was a good one. So I really like the sessions that are about 45 minutes.

Adam S: For my 45 minutes for my longer ones. And then, if I’m going to lift, I do a 20 minute one, sometimes a 30 minute one, depending upon how my day is shaking out. But usually I keep them short when I’m doing a lift and I’ll do it right back to back. So I’ll do a 20 minute muscle or a 20 minute strong and then just, you know, roll my mat up, put it in a corner and then go right out to the other side of the gym and start lifting weights.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. So this is something I’m glad you do this. This is something that I recommend to a lot of people. And I think it’s a, it’s kind of a hidden strategy that people don’t know about. But when you do yoga before you go into weight training, and in particular, if you do it some way, you know that the way that we do it with man for yoga, where you’re you’re doing isometric strengthening, you’re getting all these muscles firing, you’re working deeper into functional range of motion.

Dean Pohlman: It means that you’re going to lift a lot better. So I’m just curious for you, can you talk about what you notice when you do yoga before weight lifting, as opposed to just going cold into weightlifting?

Adam S: Yeah, I try to keep, the muscle groups that I’m going to lift. I try to focus on that two with the other. So if it’s a back and bicep day, I’ll do, one of the like the 20 minute time. It’s strong for back. And I do notice I’m opened up. I’m more able to, lift more weights but do more pull ups.

Adam S: I’m, loosened and ready to go. Whereas if I try to do it the other way, if I lift weights first and then do yoga and it’s not happening and I try that a couple times, it works out much better to do my yoga first, get my body ready. You know, all the programs start with a little warm, a light warm up, get everything ready, and then they get it more intense.

Adam S: And then, but not so intense that I can’t lift my arms or that I’m burnt out or weightless. Yeah, I just find it. It accents each other. It gets me ready to go. Makes me again aware of my body. And then I go out and I can lift the weight, pay more attention to, Okay. Is my form correct?

Adam S: Am I am I am I really using my arm muscles here, or am I throwing my back into this, you know, and, things like that. And I would before I took up the yoga, before I knew more about how my body should feel. Yeah. I would cheat a little at the gym. I’m using momentum to throw the weights around and I don’t do that.

Adam S: And I know that more. Still, my body here, you know, I’m just moving these muscles now. And that is. That’s one of the benefits. And that’s one of the things I noticed. Gotcha.

Dean Pohlman: Cool. That’s good. I’m glad you’re doing it. So what’s the next thing for you with your fitness? What’s the next big initiative?

Adam S: I have two challenges that that I, I said I wanted to do. I’m back to running, so that’s good. My gym has, like, a little kind of ninja warrior section with monkey bars, and, yeah, it was it the salmon ladder and all that. And my goal is to be able to get across the monkey bars and back without falling.

Adam S: Haven’t been able to come anywhere near it yet. I still have trouble with, overhead upper body. You know, I’m doing lots of pull ups. I’m trying to get there. I’ve been able to get about four rungs before I fall off because my son does it, and comes back and laughs at me, but he’s 16, so we’re not talking to them.

Adam S: Yeah. Isn’t it is. But, he likes to pick, but that is one challenge I kind of gave myself. I’m like, I want to be able to do that. So there’s one and the other one. I have been talking about it for years, but since I’m going to say it on a podcast, it’s going to happen next year.

Adam S: By the end of next year, come back and revisit. I live in Florida and I don’t really know how to swim, and I would like to be. And I mean swim laps like my kids are on a swim team. They are phenomenal. These kids not not just me, but all these kids on the swim team, the way they they swim.

Adam S: Freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke, 200m and beyond. And I want to be able to do a little bit. I want to be able to swim those those laps, and I can’t do it. I’m good in your pool. Like, if you need me to, like, you know, come hang out in your pool and then like, swim to the side and get a drink.

Adam S: I can do that, but I can’t swim laps. And next I want to be able to do that. So that I think, is my next real fitness challenge. And you here heard it here first, Better Man podcast listeners. And I’m going to learn to swim for real good.

Dean Pohlman: I think it’s a solid goal. Solid life life life. Important goal.

Adam S: Yeah. Especially you live around all this water here in Florida. You probably should know how to swim.

Dean Pohlman: But yeah, I heard that your I heard that there’s, if you, if you can I heard that if it’s wet that there are alligators in at the. So.

Adam S: Yeah. You don’t swim in about that. Don’t swim in lakes, or little ponds in the area. Swimming pools. Yeah. You want to make sure there’s no gators, but people do swim in the lakes here. Yeah, I wouldn’t, but good luck with that, people. I’ll stick to.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, I, I like, you know, I’m in Austin, but we, I think gators get here every once in a while, like, they’re out there, but they’re not in Barton Springs or like, they’re so I have. No, they’re with.

Adam S: Yeah, they’re everywhere down here. They’re everywhere down here. But. And on the golf course there are two club drop. So if your ball goes near, Gator you get a two club drop and that’s it because we’re used to them here in Florida. So.

Dean Pohlman: All right, well, one problem. I don’t have to deal with problem. So, all right, rapid fire questions here. What do you think? There’s one habit. One. What do you think is one habit, belief or mindset that’s helped you the most with your overall health and wellness?

Adam S: The the back nine theory that I said earlier is the is the one thing is the one mindset that’s helped me to one habit is, I love sleep. I think we as a society don’t value sleep enough. We pride ourselves on, oh, I’m so tired and I didn’t get enough sleep and all that. Okay. If you’re going to work out hard, you got to recover.

Adam S: And your body only does that when you’re asleep. So I try to sleep at least seven hours a night, and, I there’s. Netflix will be there tomorrow. Turn it off. Go to bed, get some rest.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. I’ve considered, this morning I was driving to work, and I was thinking. I think I’m going to hide the TV cord so that my wife can’t turn on Netflix at night anymore.

Adam S: Does she have it on her phone now?

Dean Pohlman: No, I should, you know, she’s got Instagram on her phone, so, you know, yeah. But, you know, I’m not her coach. I’m her husband. So that’s not. That’s not for me. That’s not my role. All right. What is one thing that you do for your health that you believe is overlooked or undervalued? You just dance.

Dean Pohlman: Well, but if you haven’t. That was the sleep question. I should have this question I should ask. What are you? Sleep now. You have to come up with something else, which is fine.

Adam S: What’s the one thing that is undervalued? Another one that’s undervalued? I would say eating fruit is this snack instead of, you know, a bag of chips or a candy bar. So I used to sit here in my office, have a bag of what you call stress candy. And whenever I was mad or angry about work, I could eat.

Adam S: One of the guys who used to work for me always go up. Somebody is having a bad day. I see the stress candy wrappers around here. And, giving that up was actually surprisingly easy. And after the first couple of weeks, I just didn’t want candy anymore. So, I would say, yeah, that’s the one thing I would do for myself that I’d rather eat, a banana or an apple than a candy bar.

Dean Pohlman: So, yeah, I think that’s a good answer.

Adam S: I just like a candy bar once in a while, but, like. No, not every day.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. What’s the most stressful part of your day to day life?

Adam S: Don’t want to throw my children under the bus. That’s not very nice. I would say, you know, being a parent is stressful. Let’s be honest, there’s a.

Dean Pohlman: Lot of your kids.

Adam S: They’re older now. My son just turned 16. My daughter is is closing in on 12. But there’s, you know, as they get older, there’s different challenges with them. And, I love them dearly. They’re great kids. I don’t I’m not here. Throw them on a bus. But being a parent is probably the most stressful part of my day.

Dean Pohlman: It’s okay. I, I’ve I’ve spent half of the Better Man podcast episodes talking about how how stressful, parent parenting is. So welcome, welcome, welcome to the public facing, side of it.

Adam S: Right. And it’s it’s the best job I’ll ever have being a dad, but it’s also the hardest and the most stressful. And it’s the one you’re on 24, seven. So it never ends. As my mother, she still worries about me. So there you go. It never ends. Like smoke drip over.

Dean Pohlman: What is your best piece of advice for men who want to be healthier?

Adam S: Start now. Don’t wait. Don’t sit around and say, oh, I’ll wait till the first of the year, or, oh, I’ll make a New Year’s resolution. I’ll do this or. Yeah, I just, you know, after this event, I’ll start doing it now. Start now. You know, another one of my great motivators. Again, I’m 51 years old, so I grew up in the 80s and 90s.

Adam S: Arnold Schwarzenegger is a huge, huge influence for me. And, you know, he’s recently started a he has an email that goes out is upon the Pump club, the Pump Club in his daily pump email. So, that’s motivational. I know he’s got a team of people who helps them write it and earn it, but to get it something from Arnold that helps.

Adam S: But one of the things he said was start now, don’t wait. Last year at this time, it was last December. Not exactly this time. He challenged everybody to start get a one month jump on your New Year’s resolutions. Start now and I thought about it as a as I said in the Facebook group for man for yoga was, I went through the Yoga Beast challenge and I was going to start January 1st.

Adam S: Now instead, I started December 1st because Arnold said, you know, to start now. So and I completed the program. I’m an official yoga beast. I don’t know if I get like a card I can hand out to people or something that says I’m a beast.

Dean Pohlman: And we actually, I did a podcast recently and he was like, you need to call your man for like, a better name than man for yoga community. I was like, yeah, your yoga beast could. So you’re on to something with the yoga beast. Me?

Adam S: Yeah. Well, when you come out with the Yoga Beast shirts that put me down for one, so I’m definitely going to get done, but, yeah. So I would say start now. Don’t don’t wait. And every anything you do is better than doing nothing. So if all you’ve got time for is a ten minute walk, it beats sitting on the couch, get up and do something.

Adam S: That’s my advice to anybody that wants to get started.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, that’s great advice.

Adam S: And don’t let anybody tell you that what you’re that you should be doing something else or should be doing that you do whatever you’re doing is to improve yourself is better than not doing anything. So get on it. Start now.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. All right. Well, Adam, thank you for, for doing this. Thank you for being part of the man for yoga community and all that you do. And just trusting in man for yoga for your your very important needs and, and beyond.

Adam S: Well, thank you. Thank you for being there. And thank you for encouraging me. And, I’m glad I found man for yoga. I’m I’m I’m glad that the community is there, but another thing I love about the community, I’m going to plug it one more time is, I love that everybody’s cheering each other on. No matter where we are, no matter where we start.

Adam S: Like I used to fall over, you know, doing a one leg balance. I used to fall over all the time. And I would say I’m never going to get there. Everybody was there for me saying, just keep at it. Just keep at it. And I’m glad that I can be there for other people who are just starting.

Adam S: And so keep at it. It’s, it takes practice. Just keep doing it. Yeah, just keep at it and we’re all getting better every day. So that’s that’s the goal, right?

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. And Adam is very active in the, in the man for your community Facebook group. So if you guys see him in there, make sure to comment and say hi.

Adam S: Yep. Yeah. Say hi. I love to talk, as evidenced by this podcast.

Dean Pohlman: Great job. All right guys. Well, I hope, hope you got some great ideas from this. I know that I did. I’m looking forward to, I’m looking forward to do an intro. I’m going to record the intro right after this, and I’m going to say the things that I really like from this episode. But, again, Adam, thank you guys.

Dean Pohlman: Thank you for listening. Thanks for being part of this. I hope this inspires you to be a better man. And I’ll see you on the next episode.

[END]