Soccer and Pre and Post Workout Prep: Podcast Episode 4

Mukund
Welcome to pedalnavy.com. This is Mukund andrabi. If you’re a fan of the show, Please remember to subscribe to this podcast and follow the website paddlemyway.com. Also follow at paddle, my way on Instagram to let me know of your cycling. And fitness goals. So, Rob, this week, let’s kind of talk about how we got into fitness.

Rob
Let’s do.

Mukund
It you want to go, I mean, how did you start running playing soccer?

Rob
Yeah. In terms of playing soccer, I’ve I’m from the UK originally. So basically we are for about three or four years old encouraged to take a ball wherever we go and play football. As I would say. So, yeah, I’ve been playing soccer for about. I don’t know. 2530 years. You wouldn’t know it from watching me play, but I’ve been playing for a long time and it is probably. One of you know up there with uh. The most important things in my life right now, sadly enough. Like I I enjoy playing. Yeah, I enjoy watching it. It’s one of my favorite sports, so I’m quite fortunate in that I have something like that that I enjoy doing. And yeah, I play it. Probably once a week, once said to my work schedule and I watch it way too often.

Mukund
So I’m sure I’m sure you watched the World Cup. Or is it a? Trick question they.

Rob
Definitely did watch the the recent World Cup in Qatar. Yeah, I. You know, it’s it’s so funny when because the women’s World Cup right now and in in North America, the games are on at about 3:00 in the morning, like in the. And so everyone sort of has to.

Mukund
Right.

Rob
Figure out like, oh, you know, Argentina are playing Chile at 3:00 AM and I have work the next day. Am I going to stay up and watch or get up early and watch it? So that is the length to which people become obsessed with this kind of sport. Is it just interrupts every part of your day and work schedule? So, yeah. Uhm, I didn’t uh. I didn’t watch too much of the Qatar World Cup in in was it was January, which was a weird one because usually during the summer for North American viewers and European viewers. But.

Mukund
Right.

Rob
No, I did. I watched a lot of the England games, which I didn’t. I watched the obviously the final, the final, by the way. I don’t know if are you into soccer at all.

Mukund
Yes, I like soccer, yes.

Rob
The final was probably one of the best ever games to get finals. It was the one of the best ever football matches that has ever played and played.

Mukund
MHM, MHM.

Rob
Uh, and I’m not a big Leo Messi fan, so uh, I was I was sort of OK with him winning the World Cup, but it mostly just enjoyed watching that match like France and the Argentina were. Obviously the they were the two favourites for the for the tournament anyway, so anyway it was. Probably one of the best games I’ve ever seen, and it’s the kind of thing where even though I’m, you know, 40 years old now you’re watching that kind of game and you’re taken back to when you were a kid and you’re playing when. You’re like 7. Or 8 right and you’re just there and chasing.

Mukund
I know you’re saying.

Rob
A ball around like an idiot. Attending your Leo Messi even though you’re a four year old dude sitting at a computer.

Mukund

And then I think he’s close to close to 40, right. He’s like, 36. If I’m not missing.

Rob
Yeah, he’s about 3536, which is why he’s now playing in the MLS in the States and dominating there.

Mukund
And he won the last winning goal as well. I mean, he he he scored the last winning goal of his first. Match last week I think.

Rob
Yeah, I saw they scored the. He scored a free kick for Miami, one of his first games. I think he’s probably his first actual game for them, and yeah, he’s he’s probably going to break all kinds of records in the states for goals scored. People embarrassed playing against it. He’s going to break a lot of records, but yeah, it’s. It’s one of those things where. From when you watch or get into a sport from that age, there’s really no getting away from it. It’s sort of ingrained and it’s it’s sort of like, oh, I have to, you know, I have to eat food. I have to drink water. I have to. Go to. The bathroom I have to watch the Premier League this weekend because it’s just an automated thing. Now it’s a process that my. Body goes through.

Mukund
So. So let me ask you this. I know we started talking about our fitness and how we started in our respective fitness, you know, hobbies. But talking about soccer for a minute, right. So. Messi and Ronaldo, right? Yeah. So I’m not going to ask you who you favor, but the question I have is.

Rob
The answer is Ronaldo, but go on.

Mukund
Oh, is it? Yeah. OK, well, why is that?

Rob
Just because he played for my team, which is Manchester United.

Mukund
Ah, OK. But he left on bad terms. From what I understand. Is that correct?

Rob
Yeah, let’s not get into the history of United right now because this could be a 17 hour podcast and none. None of us would sleep for the next couple of days. There’s been a lot going wrong with Manchester United in the last couple of years, chief among which is the players they tried to buy. They brought back Ronaldo at 36 years years old and expected.

Mukund
OK, no.

Rob
Him to be. Be the 18 19 year old Ronaldo and he was never that we all age. Even even robots like Messi and Ronaldo. You know the part, the parts sort of fail and you know they’ve replaced them a little bit. They’re not. They’re not robots officially, but.

Mukund

Right. Wear and tear.

Rob
Yeah, United brought him back when he was 36 years old and he was he was a little bit too, too old to be playing in the Premier League cause it’s a it’s a fast game and he was playing against 22 year olds that were about, you know, two or three seconds faster than him when he got the ball and that, you know, makes all the difference in. That kind. Of that kind. Of environment. So yeah, big Rinaldo fan. He played for you. He said yes, he definitely left on bad terms and he has a huge ego. Like any you know. World leading sports person they all have, you know, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Ronaldo, Messi. They all have that.

Mukund
Right.

Rob
Innate thing where they’re the. Best of what they do so they have a huge ego with it. But yeah, huge fan of another.

Mukund
So actually the question I was going to ask was in terms of US. Soccer what we call soccer football. Spread right. Ronaldo was actually going back a decade or more. Beckham was brought in. To increase soccer presence in. The US, yes. It didn’t work as intended. Maybe a little more familiarity with the game in general, but not to the extent of how prevalent it is in Europe. Messi, I think, has been also been brought under a similar. Kind of a plan. To kind of make soccer big in. The US. Yes, but what? What do you think? I know that you know. So you know this more than I do what I thought.

Rob
Yeah, I mean, obviously the US being the Mecca capitalism it is, you know, that there’s always the idea of you bring a you bring, uh, a character, a Mickey Mouse to the to the tournament. And you you make him this the focal point of your all your advertising. And you. It it brings in fans and of course it does, and of course what you want is, uh, young kids following the sport and which I’m sure a lot of them will do now with Messi and a a few of the other bigger players that are now playing in the states. And of course, Beckham now owns or as a part owner. Of Miami, who brought messy to MLS. So.

Mukund
I have to read. I have to read up on that. I don’t know that interesting.

Rob
Interesting. Yeah, he he bought a big steak in the Miami soccer club. Uh, trying to think of the name of the IT doesn’t really matter, but yeah, the Miami team, he brought up a big stake in them he owns. I think he owns about 3040% of them right now with a couple of other pretty famous people. So he was part of the reason why Messi was brought over in, in the as well as the fact that.

Mukund
Is it inter Miami?

Rob
Yeah, into Miami. That’s right into Miami is the is the name of the the team and uh yeah, he, he and the the sponsors brought Messi over because obviously Miami has a big Hispanic population and you know, we’ve got a lot of Spanish speakers and obviously Messi being Argentina, Argentinian has a huge.

Mukund
Right.

Rob
Spanish following. So it sort of makes sense to to bring someone like that in as it did when Beckham came. And and played in the states. He and of course, Wayne Rooney after him. And before Messi came over and did well in the states, there’s been. A few like that where? The the strange thing is they probably make more money in the states than they would. If they were playing in. One of the I would call the the so-called bigger leagues around around Europe because they wouldn’t be, I mean Messi obviously made a lot of money. He was in France, he was a team called Paris. Azuma, and that’s where he joined. Into Miami from and he was making. A lot of. Money there, but I. I don’t know the exact amounts, but I believe he’s been paid about $60 million a year. Plus, sponsorship money from into Miami. I think that’s just because they know they can make the money back on him. And the same thing happened back when he came over. He was given a huge contract because they know these guys bring fans with them and they can make. A lot of money. It would be nice if a lot of that money went down into the youth training for these teams. I just don’t think it will, just the way the American sports teams are designed. A lot of it goes. The money goes. From the players up rather than from the players down at the so-called grassroots level, as as you might think. So I’d rather the. I would hope Beckham and Co, Miami would use some of the money that they’re getting. I know they’re spending a lot of money, but they’re going to get a lot of money too. When Messi come with Messi coming, use that some of that money to to sort of build the culture around the team and sort of like build youth teams and build training centers and things like that. Because soccer is is going to be a. It’s it’s always growing in the states. It’s always sort of at that. Level of. It’s it’s never quite broken out in the same way as the NBA and the NFL, and the Major League Baseball. Just because I think the other leagues are so far ahead in terms of what the, the culture and the history of the game that I don’t think a lot of the American teams they want to spend the money that they would have to spend to compete and B. Want to spend the the amount of time it would take to compete with those with the? European teams and now some of the. Uh other teams around? The globe. So yeah, I think. It will be interesting to see what impact Messi has. Well, he we know. He’s going to. Score a lot of goals and he’s going to win a lot of games from there. I mean, they’ll probably win the uh, they’ll probably win. The league and they’ll. Do well overall and they’ll probably play. You know, they’ll play tournaments in South America, I’d imagine after they they’ll probably get into. Various other tournaments based on their success in. The Major League. But it would be interesting to see how messy gets on in terms of building the reputation of Sarco in the states, which I think ultimately he’s built, he’s been brought over to do like he’s he’s been brought over to as you originally asked as I went on this 15 minute rounds about football.

Mukund
Right.

Rob
He’s been brought over and as Beckham was to improve the profile of soccer in the states, I just don’t think I think the problem with the states market, the US market in general for sports is that. You even golf is huge in the state. You have such a. A small uh area of focus to to sort of like wedge and other sports in. I don’t think you’re going to do it very easily. And I think the US market is not built for something like soccer which again like I said, it’s going to take time and you know some games. And in a tie and some games are low scoring, most games are low scoring, so those kinds of things which you it takes a generation to sort of. To sort of filter that through and I think it may get there in a decade, 15 years, but I don’t think Messi himself is. Going to make that he’s going to make.

Mukund
Yeah. It’s like too hard for one person to make a change, right? Generational change.

Rob
Yeah, it’s gotta be a, it’s. Got to be a cultural shift, right? It’s. Got to be. It’s gonna be an appreciation of what the sport is. The sport is not basketball, where it’s end to end and it’s constant action. It’s not hockey where it’s like, you know, brutal fights and like again, like crazy speed all the time. It’s there is a different. It’s just a different kind of sport. There’s a different element. There’s different elements to it.

Mukund
Right.

Rob
And uh. There is a different if you’ve grown up with it, you can sort of. I think you can see it in a different way. You can sort of appreciate the the the. The technique and the technical ability of these players that you might not.

Mukund
The nuances of each player and all those things, right?

Rob
Be able to.

Mukund
The relationship.

Rob
Yeah, exactly. It’s like I don’t watch the NFL right, so. I don’t really know. I know Tom Brady was a good player, but all I saw was that he could throw a ball and catch a ball. I don’t know the importance of various techniques involved in the NFL, so I don’t know whether what what he did that was great. It’s I. I’m sure people can look at Leo Lionel Messi and see that, you know, he puts. The ball in the net but. You know these little movements that he makes that make all the difference is the reason why he puts the. Ball and that you might not appreciate.

Mukund
Right, right. Yeah, you’re right. So all those things matter. And the bigger message of him bringing or bringing him in. To reinvigorate the US soccer scene, it’s a it’s a wait and see. Kind of a thing. I don’t know how long he is in contract. But I’m assuming it’s for a couple of years.

Rob
I think until they run out of money.

Mukund
Oh, is it? There’s no time limit for.

Rob
Us be a bit facetious about that. I think they’re just. They’re just gonna give keep giving him money and he’ll he’ll just keep playing football. Either they run out of money or he is too old. He gets into, you know, once he gets to like 70 years old, I think it’s. Gonna be difficult for him to play.

Mukund
Yeah, yeah. And going back to your point about having money to train the younger generation, that’s the key key thing because my messy, however big he is, he’s just one person need a an army of players to kind of make it to the nationals, make it international, which the US has been suffering, at least the men’s side. Women’s has been taking it. Till this year, unfortunately. Yeah, right. So.

Rob
But yeah, you, you. Bring a good point about the women’s game. It’s so interesting to see the dichotomy between the men’s game and the women’s game. In the states, and I think that’s literally just because as I was saying before, but the the, the other leagues, there is no women’s well, there may be like a women’s Hockey League, but it’s never going to be as big as the NHR certainly won’t be in in the next few decades. There is the, obviously the WNBA. But that’s not as big as the NBA. I don’t think there’s a women’s Baseball League.

Mukund
Is that is? Yes, there is, yeah.

Rob
But again, like it’s it’s one of those things where.

Mukund
Actually, it’s women’s softball, not baseball. It’s some.

Rob
Right, that’s what I, yeah. So you know there, there are sports, but there’s not a huge market for women’s sports. So the women’s soccer team in the states has had money filtered through, has had sponsorship and probably. In terms of sponsorship, they’re probably making the most of any women’s international team simply because they have that market there. People want to watch the sport. The men’s team are not very good and the women’s team have had a lot of support because there’s not as many women’s leagues, women’s different sports. So it’s it’s good to see.

Mukund
Right. Right.

Rob
The idea that. Like I just imagine it like. So you see young girls out there going like, OK. This this is the sport that I enjoy and I wanted and they’ve had, you know, they’ve had generations of women, female soccer players like Mia Han, who was a soccer player in the 90s, was a.

Mukund
Right.

Rob
One of the the major players and I. Think you know they’ve got? Uh, obviously, quite a few now that are. Widely popular and well known, and I don’t think you’re gonna get that. I don’t think. I think most people would know more. Women’s US. Soccer players than they would the the men’s team in the states.

Mukund
Right. Yeah, you’re right. I I don’t because I don’t follow soccer as much as you do, but I kind of follow the overall what’s happening. I try to kind of, you know, follow that and my knowledge to you is from from those readings, those clippings, you know what you would news snippets. So going back to our initial. Or what do you call it? The initial idea of fitness, right? So soccer running around is essential. You have to run in soccer, obviously. Right, yes. And in our last conversation.

Rob
Your teammates get very upset. With you if you don’t.

Mukund
I’m sorry.

Rob
Your teammates get very. Upset with you?

Mukund
So my son’s favorite position is being the goalkeeper because you don’t have to. Run around that much.

Rob
You’re smart. You’re sound smart. I get it.

Mukund
But yeah, going back to our, you know, to the theme of this of this episode at least is in terms of running in terms of at least for you. Right. So and you also mentioned that in the last podcast in terms of the hydration podcast where fueling yourself keeping. Hydrated is critical, fun soccer, especially since you are more focused on the game than anything else, right? This is the other side of of that same situation, right? How do you train for that? Because it’s a lot of sprinting, a lot of running. Maybe you know when you when you have position of the ball, you need to make it to the other goalpost. So, you know, do you? Do you have a specific running training regimen, or do you just pick everything up on the field?

Rob
The most important thing for me, at least when I’m just about either planning to play football or you know the game, is starting in the next few minutes, is making sure that I’ve stretched properly and stretched my muscle, my leg muscles, hamstring, you know, like you, you’ve got, you’ve got to make sure that. Your muscles are warm enough that you are able to not overtax them straight away when you cause. Oftentimes when the game starts, you’ve got to start sprinting immediately, right? It’s very few times where. You have to go into a Sprint straight away, and oftentimes that happens in soccer where you know the ball is in your area and you’ve got to go Sprint for it and you’ve got. Maybe a a second or two in which you have to react and. Your body if. You’re not warmed up if you don’t stretch and you’re trying to react within a second to a ball coming towards you or or in your general area, and you try to Sprint for it. You you know you’re not going to be. It’s not going to go well. Because you’re going to be. If you haven’t stretched, your muscles are going to be tensed up, they’re going to be unable to respond in the right way, and you’re probably going to move it in in the wrong direction or like something like a ligament can go and can bend. And you can, you can. You can damage your. Muscles in your ligaments and those sort. Of small parts of your knee and ankle that are critical for like, especially like a turning radius in socket like these small. Bones that are in your in your legs and the small ankle ligaments and things like that that are critical foot turning. You know if you.

Mukund
Right.

Rob
Haven’t stretched and you haven’t warmed up? You can really damage those small parts of your leg and you know, obviously if if you tear a ligament or you strain a ligament that can, you know, prevent you from playing for at least a few months.

Mukund
Right, right. Of course.

Rob
Yeah, sorry.

Mukund
And I was just going. I was just agreeing with you in terms. Of stretching because as a new runner, right. I remember when I started running as part of my fitness kind of a thing, I didn’t stretch as much because I was thinking running the process of running itself would stretch me. But. Little did I know that that led me to my ankle pain and shin splints.

Rob
Shin explained said the worst. Yeah, absolutely.

Mukund
So I started stretching before and my son asked me, why can’t he just run because he’s still nimble and he’s still like, you know, you can bend them, you know, 180 degree, 360 degrees, he’ll be. Right. I told him well, wait for another another 20-30 years. You will know, right? So and.

Rob
Yeah, yeah, it’s around. Once you hit 35, I found myself. Once I hit 35, I could really feel it. After I went running.

Mukund
Right. And without and most and what I say is, most of the people that I have seen who have come to me for training tips or anything I say, even if you don’t work out right, just stretch because the body in in, especially in today’s environment. There’s not much of A flexible movement that people, even 50 years ago did right in terms of. The basic human functional movement, right, which is like. These these exercises are are. Car are like the functional movements. Picking something from the floor. It’s similar to deadlift, right? And you sitting on a couch or chair. It’s similar to doing a squat movement, right? And then you kind of, you know.

Mukund
Putting something in a top shelf that’s more like a clean movement, right? So people don’t do these things anymore, at least not with the frequency that you should do that you should be doing to keep yourself flexible and more functional. So stretching is even more important, especially for high impact sports like running, right, because. Not only do you. It’s a cardio workout, but your leg muscles and your back muscles have to be In Sync for you to carry on that motion of moving the legs and everything right, though the body stretching is crucial, which you know which you play. I’m sure every weekend or whenever we get the free time you are fine-tuned to it, but you still need. Those types of stretching, those types of you know, adjustments before every game, even though you play played like, you know, quite quite frequently.

Rob
I know for for soccer especially it’s it’s usually the hamstring muscles, the calf muscles that get tacked when you’re playing and you know you’re running constantly. So usually it’s just a matter of making sure that. That all though that muscle and all that connective tissue is warmed up and ready, and also another thing that I’ve got to mention is what I do after I play is I do sort of a warm down where I’ll I’ll jog a. Little bit on the. Pitch, because the opposite can happen too, where you know you’ve you’ve. You’ve played a game and you’ve got. Muscles that have been through, they’ve been working hard for however long you play an hour, an hour and a half, depending on day. After the game, it’s it’s going to be very painful. You’re going to need to stretch. Stretch again, because if you sit down straight away or you know you do something where you’re stationary after running around for half an hour or 45. Minutes or an hour, whatever it is. Uhm, I found that for myself. It can it. It might not be doing any damage, but it does feel exceptionally painful if I don’t warm down afterwards. I don’t know if myself if the warm down is beneficial, I assume it is because you’re basically it’s sort of like. In a car. Where you sort of like have to come to a stop. You don’t come to a stop straight away because it would damage all the parts and the. The brakes and. That’s like you’ve got to take it. You’ve got to decelerate and you’ve got to sort of make sure that your body is in. The ideal condition to then do something more relaxing afterwards, like you can’t go into the next relaxing thing with a with 10 step hamstrings and 10 step calf muscles because it would. Any sort of movement after? That could cause potential damage to the connective tissue.

Mukund
Right. So you’re bringing up a good point. So in terms of breaking it down, right, since you are a more frequent runner than I am, what do you do for warm? Up and cool down. Can you list two or three points which you think even I should? I should keep in mind.

Rob
I guess the. The the the most important thing is to. Stretch out the hamstrings when you’re first about to go for a run like you’ve got to sort of. I’d like to sort of like. Put points out my legs and get my my legs as far away from my body as possible and sort of like stretch them to make to the to the point where you’re sort of. You might not be doing like the splits or anything, but you’re you’re sort of like spreading your leg your your legs individually. Uh so that you can sort of like uh. Prepare to. Put pressure on the hamstring muscles. When you when you run and you’ve also got to make sure that you do sort of like that, it’s like a. Lift your knees a little bit and sort of like test out what it feels like like lift. Your needs to get ready to. If you’re going for like a. A longer run. You’re going to be raising your knees as you as you run and sort of like making sure that you maintain that momentum and maintain that sort of like cadence of of. Your your rather than sprinting. You’re gonna maintain sort of a steady rhythm. So your knees are going to be an important part of that and cause you, you know, you’re raising them and bringing them down, raising them, bringing them down constantly for about what? Whatever you’re running. If it was 5K, maybe like that’s 25 minutes, half an hour or 10K, it’s like an hour. So you’ve got to make sure that your knees are prepared to take on that extra stretch. And that. That’s generally how I start, is I’ll stretch my hamstrings and I’ll push up my knees a little bit and make sure that there’s no strain, sort of aches and pains that I feel before I run because obviously that would change. Things would probably change my decision to run if I felt anything at that point. In the warm up period.

Mukund
Right.

Rob
And then obviously when you’re. Doing the sport, whether it’s running or soccer and you know, if you do feel any sort of twinge. You do, especially when it’s the knee. The knee is one of those things where any sort of strange feeling, whether it’s sort of like sometimes you’re sort of walking up stairs and you’ll feel your your knee sort of goes a little bit weak because you, you know, you placed it down in a strange way and you don’t get the, you don’t get your leg underneath you for whatever reason. The knee is always one of those things that I watch out for because there’s so many different things that can go wrong with it and you know it’s it’s very difficult to to deal with the knee problem in terms of afterwards. It’s always better to prepare for contacting it.

Mukund
Right. And so.

Rob
Yeah. So to answer that question, I just sort of make sure I’m stretching and make sure I make sure stretch all the key muscles and watch out for anything on my on my run or when I’m playing soccer.

Mukund
Nice. And how and what do you do to cool down? I think I think you didn’t answer that right. Like you don’t kind of stop.

Rob
Yeah, it’s really just about making sure that you keep you don’t go from a hot state to a freezing cold state is how right, but you don’t go from 60 to 0 in a second. I just basically if I’m running, I might go for like a 10 minute walk.

Mukund
Right, right.

Rob
I might do a little bit of stretching again, like stretch my hamstrings a little bit. The knee less so. I don’t stretch my knees like do the knee exercises afterwards just because.

Mukund
It’s too much stress.

Rob
Uh, yeah. It’s once you’ve been on a run, I don’t. And it’s been an impact, obviously the the impact damage can can it can be damaging for your knee. Anyway, I try not to. Too much like overstress that that muscle at that time. So I just sort of do a walk. I’ll sort of pay attention to any sort of pains that I have in my hamstrings at that point. I’ll sort of 1 exercise that I don’t think I have mentioned yet is I’ll sort of flex my feet around. I’ll sort of like flex my ankle muscles a little bit as I found that especially if you’re running in the city and you’re stepping off the curb on and off the curbs. All the time. That can be damaging to your ankles, or at least painful to your ankles. I don’t know whether there’s actual damage taking place, but you know you. Are sort of. The up and down motion and sort of like flexing your foot at different angles can sometimes you might. Cause a little bit of. A, A ligament strain or something like that. So I do like to sort of flex my feet a little bit after I run and make sure that. My muscles are and my ligaments and all that sort of connective tissue in the ankles and the knees is. Of performing as it should.

Mukund
Right. So when I run. My back tightens up.

Rob
Really. OK.

Mukund
So I try to do back stretches before you know as much as possible within it includes, you know, coming down all the way with your knees slightly bent, trying to touch the floor with your hands. A floor in front of you lunges. And also I do the seated. Chest to knees, kind of a movement where you have a light PVC pipe behind your neck and then you kind of do. This you bend at the hips, you try to to come, you have your knees spread apart when you’re sitting on the bench. I have a PVC pipe across my neck holding it with my hands. The back of my. Neck and I tried to bring my chest as low as possible to level with my knees so that I see that stretches my.

Mukund
Quads my stretches, my hamstrings and my lower back this entire leg and lower back. I feel the stretch. I try to do that before and after because I lift heavy weights so that kind of helps me especially for dead lifts. Kind of a moment where you are in a contracted position. The back is in a contracted position for a long time. So you need to stretch those out. So I have a similar pane when I run, so these are the things I watch out for. I mean it’s personal for everybody, so, but this is something I watch out for and people don’t take the lower back seriously enough. So you know and that’s. I’m not saying running is the leading is the cause for back pain, but it aggravates it if you don’t take care of it proactively. Right. So because your power, if you drive your legs, it comes from your lower back and your glutes. So right, so you need to stretch those muscles out before. I mean, I’m just adding into, you know, what to watch out for what? What you’re kind of saying.

Rob
Yeah. No, that absolutely makes sense. I hadn’t thought about you mentioned strength training. It’s it’s so strange how? Obviously, technique plays a part, but we don’t really think about the amount of stress or placing on our spine and our lower back when we’re lifting weights and doing that level of training, do you? Was this something that you’ve always done in terms of making, like preparing your back if you are going to do strength training or is this something you’ve you’ve learned over time or how did you pick that up?

Mukund
No, this is overtime. I mean as you know, as stubborn and as ego, you know, as much egos you have, you don’t want to learn something new. You think you’re the master. Of your domain but. But I got but I got injured. Injured, meaning a lot in the sense that I was a hospital. But I, you know, I had to take some days off training just because of the wrong posture. Right I had written. About posture on one of the blog posts actually. So that’s actually from. In my personal experience where it not back is one of my weaker areas, it is for most of the people they want. They won’t accept to that, but it is for. Me my lower back just because I am a tall guy. I need to pay more attention to the weights that I carry on my upper body, right? So when I’m lifting deadlifts, there’s a longer distance I need to go. For the weights to touch the floor and come back up right? I’m not saying it’s easier for shorter people, but it’s a personal experience for longer people. It takes longer and then the more you know the physics of it and you know, the more stress it places on the lower back because you hinge at.

Rob
Right, that that makes perfect sense because you you know you like you said, you got a further to go if you’re taller and also you’re stretching that that part of the back that a shorter person wouldn’t necessarily be stretching.

Mukund
Exactly so and also for running again. You know the lower part you hinge at the hips that you power through your lower back and your glutes for. So that has to be which forms the core, the lower back and the front of your of your body is the core. So that has to be strong for you to power through a run. So a lot of people don’t. Loosen up or don’t. Kind of, you know, pay attention to those things. They only say legs, right? They only do they do a couple of squats before a run, for example. Or like you said, you know, the stretches which is important, but also the back stretches should also be. Included in that warm up and cool down and like you even after run I go for like a 5 minute walk just to cool down, you know, just have the blood flowing get my heart rate back to normal. And I also don’t just stop. Abruptly and get into a shower. That’s like a cool down period, right? So I have to plan for that like maybe 5-10 minutes, you know, like like the the back switches I told you, I do that as well after after actually every workout. Yeah. So I mean it just adds on to your points as to, you know, before and after a run.

Rob
Kind of a thing. Yeah. It’s I. I would. I would imagine that regardless of the the type of exercise you do, you’re basically the basic parts of your body. We’re talking about the back muscles, the leg muscles. These are all a lot of the weight bearing muscles that are impacted by by by any sort of sport so.

Mukund
Right.

Rob
I would also imagine that part of the. Cooldown period is to ensure and then you mentioned the heart there. That was something that I hadn’t thought. About but you’re right. Obviously the heart muscle. It brings blood flow to all your other muscles and you have to sort of make sure that. You’re not. Tense within your body like you can be your muscles can be tense, but if you if you you feel anxious and this kind of thing too afterwards because you’ve got this adrenaline from your sport, I think oftentimes I’ll walk afterwards helps unwind my brain and my heart muscle as well as my leg, leg muscles too, right? I’m sure it’s the same.

Mukund
Right, right. It it kind of resets you back, you got a good workout, but now the body has to come back to equilibrium. At least that’s what I think. So having a calmer it’s like, what do you call it, like a gradual ramp up. You know, your maximum effort and then a gradual cool down. Right, like a like a like like a bell curve. You know, I have. I have that in mind whenever I workout. I mean there are instances where I jump in without proper warm up and I feel it immediately or the. Next day, and also if I don’t stretch after a workout again, I feel it right. I mean, this happens, but the more you stretch before and after, the more you can take care of yourself or the body takes care of itself. In these off days, right? When you jump into workout without warm. Up so the body kind of, you know, knows. OK, you know what? Today is OK. I have the energy or you know the muscle memory to go through this workout. But let’s not do this every day. Kind of a thing.

Rob
That’s exactly right. I mean, of course the body isn’t built to do our current lifestyles of, you know, sitting at our computers or our phones anyway. So we we’re sort of I think we’re throwing a lot at our bodies if we go from. Myself, I know I I I work for my computer. I’ll sit at my computer for 10 hours a day and then you know, to to go from that to trying to do a 5K or A10K can be quite difficult for on your body so. Warming up and making sure that you get that transition time between sitting down using your brain to do things, and then bringing your body into action. Just planning that is absolutely critical. And yeah, so important.

Mukund
So we talked about warm up time or rather warm up period cool down what to do hydration. I think the next week we can try to include more on what do you think Rob strength or something different.

Rob
Yeah, I’d like to. I’d like to get more into that. Because you mentioned strength training there, I think that’s going to be important too. I think we should talk about. The different considerations for different kinds of strength training, because obviously there’s different kinds, there’s different, you’re building up different muscles in your body. So let’s look at strength training and strength training equipment next week I. Think that’s a good idea?

Mukund
Sure, rob. I mean like how you can talk about for hours about soccer. I think I can talk about same thing for hours, but I’ll try.

Rob
Eventually, eventually, we’re just gonna have, like, a a soccer and Strength training podcast. It’s just gonna be me waffling on about Leo Messi for like 9.

Mukund
To kind of.

Rob
You know it’s.

Mukund
And and I’ll bring my I’ll bring my beer with me and you can have yours when I talk about, you know, strength training. So we can exchange stories.

Rob
Well, dude, you’ll need. You’ll need coffee. If I get into all this stuff. Never mind beer. If you got beer, you’ll fall asleep within 5 minutes. And meet up.

Mukund
So what? What do you have planned for the weekend, Rob?

Rob
Uh, right. Now it’s uh, I’m not sure if it is in the states, but it’s a long weekend here. So we get Monday. Off, so I’m very excited about that.

Mukund
What’s the occasion Monday? What’s the occasion on Monday?

Rob
In Canada, it’s called the civic holiday. It’s basically where the government workers decide we are going to shut things down for a day. So yeah, so, you know, everyone gets the day off. I don’t know really the reason behind it, but it’s called a civic holiday. And it means I get an extra 24 hours to relax, so I’m all. Happy about that.

Mukund
And the weather is supposed to be nice, I guess.

Rob
Yeah, it’s been pretty, uh, pretty humid up here near Toronto. It’s probably been about 3035 Celsius. What is that like 98? I don’t know. I don’t do the US conversion.

Mukund
35 yeah, I mean. I have to do the conversion, so yeah.

Rob
Yeah, eventually. I’m just gonna have something. An app on my phone that does it, and then I’ll just be able to. Talk fluently about Fahrenheit.

Mukund
38 is hot. It’s 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Rob
Yeah, it’s very.

Mukund
Hot wow. It’s milder. Here we have we have about. Upper 70s, lower 80s Fahrenheit this week.

Rob
That’s that’s freezing. That’s freezing. Freezing cold.

Mukund
Well, we still have a few months to get that and we do get some freezing weather, so.

Rob
Yeah, let’s not talk about Wednesday. I’ll get depressed again, OK? Yeah. No, but no big plans. How about you got?

Mukund
I know, so let’s not.

Rob
Big plans for the weekend.

Mukund
This weekend, this since the week has been good with less rain this weekend, it’s supposed to be beautiful, so I’m planning on a bigger bike ride. So we’ll have some, hopefully some nice pictures videos that I can share with, you know, on on, on YouTube. Thought of taking my son along and my riding buddy I go with who? Lives near my house so. So some gravel drive or something we haven’t planned anything. We just see what we feel like the night before, and then we just go for the next day.

Rob
That’s the best way to do it. Excellent.

Mukund
So that’s what I’m planning on.

Rob
Sounds good, man. Excellent. I look forward to reading and seeing that sounds good.

Mukund
Yeah, I’ll share with you too. So that’s about it, I guess, right for this week.

Rob
Sounds good to me. That’s good talking to you, dude.

Mukund
You too, rob. Have a nice weekend.

Rob
You too. Bye.