Sevan Matossian (00:00):
Stoked to have you dude.
Nathaniel Nolan (00:02):
Yeah. Excited to be on the show.
Sevan Matossian (00:05):
Bam. Were they, once we go live up until we go live, like there’s all this shit that I send the link to the right place, which I didn’t this morning. <laugh> I sent it to someone else. They’re all. Okay. I’ll come on in 10 minutes. I’m like, oh, sorry, Derek. You’re the wrong person.
Nathaniel Nolan (00:22):
Dang.
Sevan Matossian (00:23):
And then I got a text from you. You’re like, yo, where’s the link. And then I send it what a goofball. I am
Nathaniel Nolan (00:30):
Well earlier there than it is here. So I figured you guys might be,
Sevan Matossian (00:35):
I, I did have the dog vomit in the middle of the night. Other than that, it was a perfect night. I was up at four. O’clock cleaning up a little vomit, little dog vomit,
Nathaniel Nolan (00:45):
Always fun.
Sevan Matossian (00:47):
Yeah. Do you have a, do you have a dog? I don’t see a dog in your, um, Instagram.
Nathaniel Nolan (00:52):
No, no dogs. I have a cat, um,
Sevan Matossian (00:54):
And a girlfriend
Nathaniel Nolan (00:55):
And a girlfriend. Yep.
Sevan Matossian (00:57):
One of these do cats throw up in the middle of the night. Do you hear that? Like you’re sleeping.
Nathaniel Nolan (01:03):
<laugh> uh, if she does, I don’t catch it until the morning. So,
Sevan Matossian (01:09):
Uh, you ever, uh, when you’re dreaming, do you ever dream you’re on all four now you ever have a dream? Like, like you’re like just cruising through the mall on all four.
Nathaniel Nolan (01:18):
Uh, you know what? I don’t actually like ever remember my dream, so maybe, um, but, uh, I do get a lot of people commenting that, that they dream like that all the time. Uh, personally, I don’t.
Sevan Matossian (01:30):
Oh. How about, have you ever tried any stuff that you haven’t told anyone about? Like when you’re on all fours tried like to pee on a fire hydrant or anything crazy like that?
Nathaniel Nolan (01:36):
Nothing remotely dog related at
Sevan Matossian (01:39):
All? No. No. Uh, you never tried, you never tried eating out of a bowl on the ground?
Nathaniel Nolan (01:44):
Uh, Nope. Nope, no more than anyone else. Uh, you know, living just a normal BI life
Sevan Matossian (01:49):
Or, or like my kids, people under two do that shit <laugh>
Nathaniel Nolan (01:53):
Yeah. Yeah. Uh, that a lot of nieces and nephews, I see them doing that stuff, but, um, Nope, not,
Sevan Matossian (02:01):
I, I think that there’s nothing, um, more valuable in life than, than experimenting, like with, with, with your, with your body, like the guys who do the raw meat stuff, uh, people who do the, the breath holding, um, just any kind of experimentation with your body. I mean, I mean, within reason, obviously lighting yourself on fire seems not, not like when you come back from, but I think what you’re doing is so amazing.
Nathaniel Nolan (02:28):
Oh, thanks. Yeah, no, I’m a big fan of that stuff too. I’m a big fan of, um, you know, seeing anybody that’s tries try something that’s sort of outside the, outside the norm and, uh, and actually gives it an honest effort because you know, it lets us all get a little sneak peek into what that kinda lifestyle would be like. So I’m, I’m totally on board for anybody trying anything wacky that might, you know, yield some interesting results.
Sevan Matossian (02:52):
Um, for those of you who don’t know Nathaniel Nolan, did I pronounce it? All right. That’s right. Yeah. Nathaniel Nolan has been experimenting for nearly a year. Um, spending time on all fours. What would you call that that’s like is quad dedal, is that
Nathaniel Nolan (03:06):
No, um, it’s not really quad dedal it’s I call it an all fours practice. Uh, okay. Cause I it’s, it’s sort of a umbrella term that captures all of my physical disciplines that incorporate using all four lens, which is most of them just kind of reason. I came up with a concept in the first place.
Sevan Matossian (03:27):
Uh, and I, and I love that, but by the way, we’re gonna open that door right there. There’s something, um, there’s a, uh, but first I wanna show something that I saw on 60 minutes from 2018 from Australia. Have you seen that piece about the, the, the, the family that’s on all for?
Nathaniel Nolan (03:41):
Yeah. I’ve been tagged in that a few times.
Sevan Matossian (03:44):
Uh, there’s a scientist and I use that term very loosely who says the dumbest thing I’ve ever well, not ever fucking heard. I’ve I’ve heard two years of absolute stupidity from people now, but that’s I wanna, I wanna play this. And this is what sets people, um, like Nathaniel, uh, just completely away from just regular intelligent people. Nathaniel’s like real intelligence. And this is, this is taught. This is taught intelligence where I’m about to show you guys here. This is, so this is, uh, this is, this is, this is, uh, pretty pathetic. Okay. I want you to, I want you to hear this. Uh, I dunno if he’s, I think they say he’s a German scientist, check this out.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
German scientists. Think the answer lies in the family’s DNA.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
I think this is very novel because it has never been described before that people are able to walk on therefore. So
Sevan Matossian (04:34):
He didn’t even know people were able to walk on all four. He never thought of maybe like taking a suit off, throwing on a pair of shorts and walk on all four,
Nathaniel Nolan (04:43):
Right? Yeah. I
Sevan Matossian (04:44):
Mean, I mean, it’s, this is just, and you’re just like, Hey, I’m gonna do it
Nathaniel Nolan (04:49):
Right. I mean, I think that we are capable of a lot more than people give themselves credit for. Um, you can do pretty much anything you want, but I mean, something like that. I mean, people are already doing it. People do it all the time. They’re you, you go to a CrossFit class, you’re gonna be doing some bear crawl. You, uh, you know,
Sevan Matossian (05:06):
You have a kid. If you have a healthy child, they’re gonna be crawling everywhere.
Nathaniel Nolan (05:09):
Exactly. I mean, it’s, it’s really straightforward. So honestly, the, the thing that I’ve been the most surprised by is people’s confusion with, uh, the fact that people can do this. They’re like, whoa, you can do this. And it’s like, I bet you, you have already done it before I guarantee it.
Sevan Matossian (05:24):
It’s it’s so, um, you know, there’s this thing people will argue about whether man has willpower or not, or whether there’s a God or not. And it’s fascinating to me that people just don’t take the experimentation up on themselves. You can just lie down on the ground and, and, and, and try to use your will on yourself. Try not to, uh, start with trying to do nothing. Don’t scratch. Don’t respond to any sensation. Don’t move. See if you can impose your will on yourself and stay perfectly still that. How about that? How about try to just do nothing and lie down and die and see what’s on the other side. You, we never have to argue about anything. You can just do shit. This guy didn’t know. He spent the time to say that sentence, but he won’t just get down on all four and just give it a whirl. It’s
Nathaniel Nolan (06:06):
It’s easily verifiable.
Sevan Matossian (06:08):
Yeah. Very, very, he can have a few buddies do it. He can be like, Hey, am I really doing it? As I got into you, I’ve started dabbling in it a little bit. Not a lot, but, but, but, but a little bit. Um, and I feel like, uh, there’s an obsessive compulsive component to it where like, Hey, did I BR if I stop and get on my knees, did I break the, like, if I’m trying to go a minute straight or two minutes straights and I in my knees touch, that’s fine. Right. Or not fine.
Nathaniel Nolan (06:34):
In my opinion, that’s perfectly fine. So the whole thing with mile force practice is that it’s not any one position. It’s not any specific movement. So the rules that you set for yourself whenever you’re creating your own all force practice, or your name, movement practice, uh, it’s, it’s, uh, it’s totally up to you. And so you can, you can set some really, uh, difficult parameters for yourself. But for me, it’s just showing up every day and, and putting my hands on the floor. Um, and actually what my all force practice is, is it’s an intuitive, um, way to modulate intensity. Um, that’s basically it. So if I show up and I’m able to do handstands and bear crawl and, and that stuff, that day, that’s perfectly fine. If my wrists were too sore or I’m too tired, then you know, I’m gonna lower the bar quite a bit.
Sevan Matossian (07:21):
Uh, gimme an example or tell me why an all four practice, um, aligns so well with that statement, you just said, it’s an intuitive way to modulate intensity. And then on top of that, I, I start, when I heard about nose breathing like a year and a half ago, I started doing all my workouts, like 99% of workouts with nose breathing to kind of help me do that. I think, I mean, in the back of my mind, it was to sandbag, right? Like, oh, I can just go everything slower. Right. But is that the same thing, nose breathing and walking on all fours in terms of, in terms of fitting under this idea of an intuitive way to modulate intensity?
Nathaniel Nolan (08:00):
Uh, well, I, I’m not really sure I’m not done, you know, the, the nasal breathing I’ve seen, you know, some videos come out about that. Um, so I’m not really sure if they’re in the kinda the same realm. Um, it’s more about for me, it’s just giving yourself the option to be able to do, um, lower intensity work as well. So it’s giving you the full gambit of zero to full body weight or full body weight plus, um, and everything in between. So it’s not limiting yourself to specific progressions for a calisthenics practice. It’s not limiting yourself to gymnastics movements. It’s not limiting yourself to the movements that show up in my jujitsu practice. It’s, it’s everything. Um, and so when I show up, if I, uh, need to lower the intensity, I can, if I wanna increase the intensity I can. Um, but I’m not going to show up and say, this is exactly what I’m gonna do. That’s where I’ve gotten into trouble in the past. I feel like that’s where a lot of people end up with pain. That’s where a lot of people end up with chronic injury is that they decide what they’re gonna do before they know what they’re capable of doing.
Sevan Matossian (08:57):
Okay. So what I’m hearing is you’re gonna do, you, you, you plan on doing 10 minutes and, and that might be the first rule, but within that, you’re not gonna make any like seriously hardcore rules. You’re not like, okay, today I’m gonna go, I’m gonna try something crazy. I’m gonna go up and down a flight of stairs on all for 10 minutes, as many rounds as I can. You wouldn’t do that. You would just kind of feel it, do one and kind of assess
Nathaniel Nolan (09:21):
Exactly. That’s how I, that’s how I approach my training. That’s how I approach the coaching that I do for all of my clients, um, is everything is, is intuitive as possible because especially, um, as, from a coach’s perspective, I can only, um, give you insight and, um, and instruction to a certain degree, um, based off of how you feel a lot of that has to come from yourself because I can’t feel your body. So, um, whenever I’m coaching people, I always let them know like, you know, whatever you, whatever you feel is appropriate is probably what’s appropriate and, and being able to make calls and, and, uh, and decisions based off of that, that, that ties into your knowledge base. So that’s where I come in as that resource. But, um, whenever I show up for my training, I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna already have that picked out in my head because I don’t know, I don’t know what my body’s gonna be able to perform. Like, but the more you do it, the, the better idea you have of what that is. And the, the more you can trust that intuition.
Sevan Matossian (10:21):
Um, but outside of that training would, do you still do stuff like, okay, I’m gonna go out and run a, a, a 400 today. And I’d like to beat my time, my previous time from last week. Do you do that? Or,
Nathaniel Nolan (10:33):
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I still have metrics, I still have goals and, um, I still do programming. Um, but it’s all, it all takes a backseat to, um, being able to listen to my body and being able to, uh, pivot on a moment’s notice. And so that’s what my L force practice is, is that it gives me that ability to be like, all right, well, I had the idea of doing one, our handstand training today, but, uh, maybe I’m not feeling it for some reason, and maybe my shoulder’s not feeling strong enough. Maybe I’m feeling instability in my wrists and my elbows. Um, and so today it’s gonna be something else it’s gonna be handstand training, or maybe it’s gonna be plant training, or maybe it’s just gonna be, you know, bear crawl. It’s gonna be something else. Uh, that helps me to get exposure to a similar position or something similar. Um, but I’m not putting that, that, um, responsibility to complete said programming, uh, because that’s how you end up injured is, is putting yourself into a situation where you don’t meet the prerequisites on that day for that task. And then you end up getting hurt. So, yeah,
Nathaniel Nolan (11:39):
A has been my guide since the very beginning. So I let that be sort of the, what, the thing that dictates what I’m gonna be doing for the day.
Sevan Matossian (11:47):
What do you mean pain is your guide to avoid it?
Nathaniel Nolan (11:49):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I, I don’t, I don’t really feel like I’m, uh, I’m, I’m not a, like a pro athlete. I’m not somebody that’s making my money off of performance. Um, and so I don’t have to feel pain, uh, on a daily basis to be able to do my job. Um, I used to think that I had to do that, um, coaching Cal clinics, being a personal trainer. Um, I used to think that, you know, you just had to kind of tough it out and it would go away or you could, um, kind of work around it. But, uh, but now I’ve realized that if you’re feeling pain, that’s information, that’s your body letting you know something’s wrong there something’s not right. Uh, whether that means that the intensity’s too high, the range is too much, or it’s a combination of the two. Uh, but something needs to be changed on the spot, not the next session. Um,
Sevan Matossian (12:39):
How old are you Nathaniel?
Nathaniel Nolan (12:41):
I’m 31.
Sevan Matossian (12:42):
And, and, uh, and where are you
Nathaniel Nolan (12:44):
Indiana? I’m in car.
Sevan Matossian (12:47):
In, in Carmel, Indiana. Yeah. Have you ever been to Carmel, California?
Nathaniel Nolan (12:51):
I have not. I’ve never been to the, uh, I think, um, Denver’s probably about as far west of it as I’ve ever
Sevan Matossian (12:57):
Been. Oh, no shit. Yep. Wow. Do you have a car?
Nathaniel Nolan (13:01):
Yeah. Oh yeah.
Sevan Matossian (13:04):
<laugh> uh, I wanna, I wanna show a little video for those of you, um, who haven’t seen, uh, what he’s doing. Um, Nathaniel has, have you crossed a million on TikTok?
Nathaniel Nolan (13:14):
Not quite I’m at like nine 80, something like that.
Sevan Matossian (13:17):
Yeah. When, when I looked, you were at nine 80 and, uh, and I found him through Instagram. Uh, this is, I’m gonna show you guys this video here. Uh, your movement is crazy beautiful and, and it, and it’s hypnotic and it’s, it’s so cool. How far it’s come? It’s, it’s,
Nathaniel Nolan (13:34):
Uh, been 292 of walking on all fours every day. Here’s me pretending to be Ziegler monster for a second, except I don’t know anything about posing, even though it was pretty hot today, I really wanted to do my training outside. I started off with a slow trot, trying my best to be fluid and intentional with my movements. I did that for several laps, one, so nice. It felt pretty good, but I knew my strides could be longer. I slowly started lengthening my strides, which looked a little
Sevan Matossian (13:59):
Chop this crazy,
Nathaniel Nolan (14:00):
But then I started staggering my hands. And by the end, it was feeling a lot smoother. I’ll definitely be working on running a lot more this summer. Now, go get some XP.
Sevan Matossian (14:09):
Uh, and when you say, go get some XP, that is your, um, talk for, Hey, go have a life experience,
Nathaniel Nolan (14:16):
Right.
Sevan Matossian (14:16):
Go have, that’s kind of your motto.
Nathaniel Nolan (14:18):
Exactly.
Sevan Matossian (14:19):
Uh, tell me how that, um, and, and I like this, cuz this is all going along the line of, by the way, when you say you’re not a professional athlete, I do wanna say I, I, I, you are a, um, what I would call a top tier hu hu human being. You, you never, you never walk into a Starbucks and they’re like, oh, that dude’s fitter than me. Like, like, like if that place catches on fire, you could be in and out of there 300 times, um, before your average latte drinker, uh, gets out. Right. Um,
Nathaniel Nolan (14:50):
Um, that as a professional athlete. But I, I do appreciate that.
Sevan Matossian (14:53):
Yeah. And how much do you weigh?
Nathaniel Nolan (14:56):
Um, I, I hover somewhere around like 1 50, 1 60.
Sevan Matossian (15:00):
Oh, you’re that big? Holy shit. And how tall are you?
Nathaniel Nolan (15:04):
Like five. Seven.
Sevan Matossian (15:05):
Okay. Okay. And some of the photos I’m like, oh, no one did you know, I want this guy can do this because he so felt like I was guessing maybe you were like way, way lighter. Like I had, I had no idea. Wow. So you’re, you’re solid.
Nathaniel Nolan (15:21):
<laugh> I guess.
Sevan Matossian (15:22):
Yeah. Yeah. What’s the most you ever weighed in your life?
Nathaniel Nolan (15:26):
Uh, it’s really been about that for my whole adult life. So I, um, my wife fluctuates, you know, five to 10 pounds on any given day, but, um, it’s been that pretty much since, you know, a year or two after high school started, you know, training and been kind of hovering around that since then.
Sevan Matossian (15:43):
There’s this, um, there’s this, uh, idea out there of just grind, like just grind, grind, grind, and I’ve always been a huge fan of that. And then there’s this other side that’s slowly coming up. Hey, don’t always grind, stop, enjoy life, enjoy the journey. And there’s this kind. I, I I’ve always had this tug of war between the two, because for me, life really is about grinding. Like just get out there and fucking get it. Yeah. Stop fucking around. But I heard you explain it in this interview that I think is what I’ve been trying to say. And, and may, maybe you can talk about a little bit, um, you were doing an interview, you were doing a podcast and you explained to the guy, Hey, I’m sitting on the floor right now.
Nathaniel Nolan (16:20):
And I am.
Sevan Matossian (16:21):
Yeah, because this aligns with my goals for other things I want to do in my life. So it, you’re doing two things at once. Right now you’re doing a podcast and sharing your journey, but you’re also working on your, uh, conditioning. Yeah. And that’s kind, and that’s kind of what I, what I think of as grinding is like not wasting any time being, being efficient. Go ahead. Sorry.
Nathaniel Nolan (16:46):
Yeah, no, I mean, that, that ties into my tagline getting XP. Um, and it comes from a background in, you know, being a nerd gaming and, um, whenever you’re playing games, you know, you’ve got this limited amount of time to be able to do stuff. So you really wanna kinda line up all of the ways that you can be, uh, progressing your character, progressing your game. Um, and,
Sevan Matossian (17:09):
Uh, oh, battery, oh, someone called you.
Nathaniel Nolan (17:12):
Oh, I
Sevan Matossian (17:13):
See. Your girlfriend wants to know where you are. You’re late to pick her up.
Nathaniel Nolan (17:17):
Uh, yeah. But, um, there, there’s sort of this, this, uh, zeitgeist where people see, uh, training and life, or even if it’s just completing things and then you’re in living your life as these two separate things. And they’re not, they’re, they’re one thing you’re doing both all the time. Um, whether you realize it or not. And so a lot of people think, okay, well, I don’t have time to train. I’ve gotta live a life. Or I don’t have time to live a life. I’ve got to train. Um, and no matter which thing you land on doing, you are already doing the other thing right now. You, like you said, I’m, I’m training. I’m, you know, living my life. I’m, you know, getting my message out there. I’m kind of, um, explaining what I’m doing, but I’m also getting some exposure conditioning, uh, whether or not you realize that you’re also doing that as well.
Nathaniel Nolan (18:07):
So right now you’re in knee flexion, hip flexion, uh, you know, you’re sitting in a chair, you are conditioning yourself to be good at that position. Everybody is constantly conditioning themselves to be good at the thing that they’re doing. Um, so you’re getting exposure to that. So whether you are intentionally doing it or not, you are training. And so if you can kind of align what you’re doing with what you want to be doing, then you’ll start to see results without having to set aside a ton of time to be doing that. Right now, we are grinding. Um, but what do you wanna be spending that experience on what do you want, what do you want that experience to be? Um, and instead of having to set aside time to do that separately, marry that with the things that you wanna be doing with your life,
Sevan Matossian (18:54):
N there’s never homeostasis,
Nathaniel Nolan (18:57):
Right. Or there’s constant homeostasis, like, uh, you know, everything’s a balance. So, um, although things are constantly changing, I’m still constantly trying to have balance in this moment, in my life as well.
Sevan Matossian (19:10):
Right? Yeah. I like that. No, no matter what you’re doing, you’re conditioning yourself to do that thing.
Nathaniel Nolan (19:16):
Exactly.
Sevan Matossian (19:18):
Uh, if, if you’re complaining, you’re conditioning yourself to be a complainer.
Nathaniel Nolan (19:21):
Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, it’s, it’s just having that realization that you’re already training. You’re already doing it. A lot of people are just training for things that they don’t give a shit about. Like they don’t care to be good at the thing that they’re getting better at, which is sitting in a chair or having a negative attitude or, uh, or having, um, limited range of motion is a really common one. So go people going through periods of inactivity, you’re really conditioning yourself to have limited ranges of motion. So, um, you’re lowering your mobility and that is, that’s something that’s happening in the background. So you’re not staying the same. You are getting better and better at having low mobility. Um, and, and once you can start to change what you, um, what you are doing on a daily basis to be more aligned with your goals, then you’ll realize that you have a, basically an infinite amount of time to train. It’s this sort of this invisible layer that sits on top of the time, uh, that you recognize throughout the day,
Sevan Matossian (20:24):
What’s that, um, ven diagram gonna look like, like to get into this mindset. Like you have to have some amount of awareness and then, and then some amount of give a shitness. Right. And, and maybe, maybe, maybe there’s a third one too, but you have to, you have to give a shit.
Nathaniel Nolan (20:41):
I think everybody,
Sevan Matossian (20:41):
Or do you just have to have awareness? Sorry, go ahead.
Nathaniel Nolan (20:44):
Yeah, no, I, I think everybody gives a shit. I think everybody wants to a better version of themselves, whether they admit it or not. Um, and if they don’t admit it, then, then it’s just them sort of, uh, I think, um, like being frustrated and kind of missing the point. And so they kind of give up, but I think if everybody realized that you’re already changing, you’re already making changes to yourself. It doesn’t seem so intimidating then to make a small alteration. So that those changes are something that you’re actually, uh, proud of something that you actually want to happen.
Sevan Matossian (21:20):
Uh, there is this, um, I, I, I think, I think words conduct so, so much of what we, we do and I’m, and I feel surrounded by people who, um, are, are witnessing a world that doesn’t give a shit about words and the accuracy of words. They don’t realize the value of words. And, and that basically, we’re all just manipulating each other with words. And so, and people are being manipulated themselves by words, they manipulate them. They, they allow it to happen to themselves. And it’s kind of, it’s interesting to me that they allow it. And I’m trying to tie that in with the fact that, um, you’re suggesting that people do wanna be better versions of themselves. And I like that, um, in your field, I would say that the, so you had some, you had some wrist issues, right? Yeah. I would say the vast majority of people who wanted to address those, um, uh, wrist issues, would’ve done one of two things.
Sevan Matossian (22:13):
They would’ve gone to, um, a physician and gotten some sort of, uh, surgery. I think that’s like, like the, one of the dumber things that, that like, that’s the dumb camp. Not that there aren’t some smart people and some solutions in that direction, but I think usually that’s the dumb camp, right? They’re looking for a solution outside of themselves. Then there’s this other group that, um, thinks they’re smart. This is like me. They would start addressing their nutrition, but you’ve done something like you, you you’re like you you’ve done something completely else. Right. Which makes me think you’re like wily coyote, super genius. Like, oh yeah, shit of course is of course it’s that way, the way Nathaniel’s doing it.
Nathaniel Nolan (22:52):
I, I do feel like it is sort of an of course, uh, situation, because to me, it seems after having this realization, it seemed pretty obvious. And it wasn’t until I started my all fours practice and could sort of run that experiment, uh, that I really got to see the efficacy of that. And, and so, uh, like you said, there’s multiple ways to approach any, any problem. So you’ve got, you know, let’s just take risk pain. For example, somebody gets, uh, surgery, which might be, you know, the answer or addressing your diet. Maybe that’s the answer. Um, but for me, it was, I knew that, and it seemed really obvious, um, that if I wanted to be able to bear all of my weight on my hands, right. I should be spending some amount of time bearing my weight on my hands with like under a lower intensity.
Nathaniel Nolan (23:41):
But that’s just not how a lot of people approach training. They don’t walk in and they don’t start on step one. Right. You walk into a gym, you try, you try some heavy stuff. And then if it’s too heavy, you kind of work your way back from there. Um, so I was like, okay, I need to start to change this ratio. And, and the way that I try to explain it to people, especially my, my clients, when I’m first getting them started on it is, uh, imagine, okay, we’ve all been sick, laid up in bed for a few days. Right. And you’ve walked your entire life. I’m guessing. And I don’t know you that well, but I’m guessing you’ve been walking your whole life. So we you’ve been laid up in bed for, for three or four days, and you’ve barely done any walking, you get up and go to the bathroom and it’s difficult, right. It’s diff not to go to the bathroom, but it’s difficult to walk there. It’s difficult to, to move your body. Like it’s, it’s achy, it’s sore. Maybe you’re tripping, uh, you know,
Sevan Matossian (24:30):
Become more conscious of yourself walking. Like you’ve never been that conscious of walking since you’ve been a baby.
Nathaniel Nolan (24:35):
Yeah. Or, you know, or you get out of bed and it’s been two or three days since you got out bed and you get a cramp. You, you, you strain a muscle. Uh, all of those things are really, really common. And that’s just after a few days of not doing something that you done entire life, right. Something that you’re well conditioned for, well practiced at. So if I wanted to then, uh, go and try to do that exact same thing, but with my hands, with my upper body. Um, and I, and instead of having done it my entire life, I’ve not done it my entire life. What, what, what can I expect the results to be? Right. What am I expecting there? Um, and so I knew that
Sevan Matossian (25:11):
Strain and breakage
Nathaniel Nolan (25:12):
Exactly I needed to
Sevan Matossian (25:14):
You, haven’t done a plank in, in your entire life, but you go into a gym and someone says, get into a handstand and you have your entire body weight on your wrist, but you, but may you haven’t done a plan. Wow. It’s so I’m getting it right. I’m following you, right.
Nathaniel Nolan (25:27):
Yeah, exactly. So, you know, and I realized that I was like, how much? And I, at this point having this sort of aha moment, I was like, okay, I already have a calisthenics practice. I already have a jujitsu practice. I already, uh, am trying all of these high intensity things that I’m really interested in. And I don’t wanna give those things up, but the amount of time that I’m spending on my hands overall in a day or a week is, is very minimal, uh, in comparison to the amount of time that I’m not doing that. Right. So I was like, I need to start to change that ratio a lot. And I can’t do it by spending more time in a handstand because my wrists are my, uh, I’m in pain. So how, how am I gonna do it? And I, I gotta start at zero.
Nathaniel Nolan (26:12):
I gotta start at the absolute smallest step possible and start to accumulate time exposure, experience, um, doing that thing. And then over time as that ratio starts to shift, hopefully, and this was my, my idea when I first started it, I’ll be able to acclimate to that position. And that’s what happened. Um, and I think that if you start off as a kid, as an athlete, as a gymnast, um, you take that for granted. Maybe you spend a lot of time, like in the gym, you spend a lot of time, uh, being coached and groomed. So you spend a lot of time in those positions, but you have people that like me didn’t start any of this high intensity body weight stuff until, you know, twenties, um, and some people in their thirties or forties, and then they are wondering why they’re in pain. And it’s, it’s, it’s obvious, but it’s not like it’s obvious to me now from this perspective, it’s not to them. And so that’s where I’m trying to sort of bridge that knowledge gap of like this, isn’t some complex solution that, uh, requires like a tons of programming. And bulletproofing it, it just requires you spending more time doing the thing that you wanna be good at.
Sevan Matossian (27:31):
Um, I don’t remember crawling as a child. The only time I remember crawling is in college. Um, and it’s like one in the morning and, and my bag of weed’s empty and I’m like crawling around on all four looking for like some crumbs of weed in the carpet, or like behind the couch and shit. Yeah. I don’t even smoke weed anymore. So I’ve even lost that stimulus.
Nathaniel Nolan (27:51):
Right. Um, but also, um, I mean, are you doing handstands? Are you doing, uh, advanced are, and, and it’s not even just handstands. I don’t wanna get too focused on the, the really far in spectrum stuff like advanced calisthenics. I get people coming to me like in the comment sections of my videos every single day. They’re like, I can’t even do pushups. So like what, what, what do I do there? And it’s the same exact answer. You go your entire life without putting weight on your hands. And then you put, I mean, even a pushup is 60% of your body weight. You go from 0%.
Sevan Matossian (28:28):
Oh, sorry. I never thought of it like that 60%. Okay. Go on. Sorry.
Nathaniel Nolan (28:33):
So you’re jumping from zero to 60%. Well, there’s a lot of percentages in between zero and 60, right? So that’s a big jump. So of course you’re gonna probably experience some risk pain, especially if you have mobility issues, if you, um, if you already are not meeting those prerequisites. Um, and so you can address that same thing, but you gotta start back at zero and you also need to accumulate a lot more exposure than what you’re gonna get in a se, uh, five sets of 10.
Sevan Matossian (29:04):
Um, what is the, for, for the people who are listening? What, what would be a, uh, a 30 day prescription? I know which one you use, but for, and I think a lot of people who are probably listening, they have some sort of daily regiment already, I would guess the vast majority, but for someone who wanted to partake, who wanted to experiment, and for those of you who are like, why would I wanna do that? We’ll get into that. You really have to go to his Instagram and see all the benefits that are, that have, are that he’s receiving. Um, and we’ll get into some of them from this practice, from spending some time on your, on, on all four. Um, but what is the prescription? C can you tell us?
Nathaniel Nolan (29:44):
Yeah, uh,
Sevan Matossian (29:45):
A 30 day, like, Hey, I wanna see what this guy Nathaniel’s talking about.
Nathaniel Nolan (29:48):
So it could look a number of different ways. Here’s what I always start people off with. And it’s not a month. It’s a week. Okay. Do a plank every single day for a week for one minute, start there.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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