Men’s Health at Midlife – The Breakthrough to Being Stronger, Sharper, Unstoppable

Men’s Health at Midlife – The Breakthrough to Being Stronger, Sharper, Unstoppable

Ep127: Men’s Health at Midlife – The Breakthrough to Being Stronger, Sharper, Unstoppable

Pat: [00:00:00] If you are planned and organized and are following a plan that you know works, it’s just like anything else in life, it becomes way easier. You’re optimized for time, you’re optimized for efficiency, and you get results that you want without putting in a whole bunch of effort.

Kwadwo: When you

Pat: do have

Kwadwo: someone your age younger that, that, that passes or, or that has a significant injury.

That’s, that’s life threatening or they, they lose their life. It, it reminds you of all the stupid shit that you are worried about

Pat: is nothing. You could do all the protein, you could be on the best strength program in the world, but if you’re sleeping only five hours a night, it’s not gonna happen.

Kwadwo: I see you at the gym your first time.

I’m sure Pat’s the same. You, you look like you don’t belong. I’m, I’m giving you props. I’m giving you love ’cause you’ve showed up. Yeah, that’s, that, that’s what matters, man.[00:01:00]

Eric: Alright. Welcome to the Living Richly Podcast everyone. We’re so glad, uh, that you’ve joined us today for this super important conversation on Men’s Health at midlife. Uh, I tell you, midlife gets a really bad rap, right? It’s uh, we call it a crisis. We call it being over the hill. We call it slowing down. Uh, today we’re calling bullshit on all of it.

Uh, I believe midlife can actually be one of the most energizing, purposeful seasons, uh, in a man’s life. And, uh, in studio, uh, well, well not in studio. We’re kind of doing this remote this time ’cause we couldn’t coordinate studio. Uh, but I got two great friends here and two men that I respect. Highly, uh, and I’m so glad that I was able to get them for this conversation.

First, we’ve got Dr. Cujo, Kira Ment. He’s head of the clinical care department at the Ottawa Hospital. He’s author of unap Unapologetic Leadership and his latest book, pre Prevention Over Prescription, and [00:02:00] he’s a frontline intensive care physician turned wellness innovator who’s on a mission to keep you out of the ICU Cujo.

So good to have you here, brother.

Kwadwo: You know, I’m happy to be here. You know what we’re gonna represent? It’s gonna be episode number one. I’m feeling with the pat in the mix too. Like winning. That’s correct. It’s all winning. Yes, sir. All winning.

Eric: All winning. So good. And next up we’ve got Pat Woodcock, a k, a Elite coach.

Former pro football wide receiver with the NFL and CFL Gray Cup champ and record setter, and now a high performance health coach helping high achieving men reboot their bodies and mindset. He’s lived elite sport and now coaches elite transformation and also happens to be the fitness coach that got my ass back in shape.

Uh, pat, so great to have you on the call. Yes, sir. Eric, it’s great to be here man. Quadro, good to meet you. Nice to meet you too, brother. Yes, sir. So good, so good. I said I, I consider you both friends. Uh, we’ve had the opportunity to connect over the last, uh, [00:03:00] year. Uh, you guys have participated in the foundry, uh, uh, Quadro.

This is your, uh, second, uh, appearance on the, on the podcast. And Pat, this is your first, but certainly won’t be the last. Uh, but, but let’s start here today when we talk about myths about man at midlife, the whole midlife crisis bullshit, um, how would you respond to that? What’s one myth you would want to bust?

Kwadwo: Who’s going first?

Eric: Well, you

Kwadwo: go, you, you started, yeah, go ahead. I mean. I’ll be honest with you, Eric, there’s probably more, I’m less optimistic than you are in terms of the midlife set. I think there’s a lot of upsides. I think, I think maybe one of the myths is that the, the quote unquote crisis is as significant as we dramatize it on television or on media.

I don’t necessarily think it’s as dramatic. As a, as a [00:04:00] change, but it’s not, it’s not butterflies and rainbows and unicorns, if that makes sense. I, I do think there’s some, there’s some nuance to how you approach it and I mean, I look back what I’m going through over the last few years from, uh. Wellness perspective, like a mental health from a physical aspect.

Things are changing from finding purpose that a lot has changed. And so maybe to be a little bit on the devil side, I think this is, uh, something you have to be proactive in approaching. ’cause if you come at it and you get blindsided with a lot of this stuff, I think it’s gonna affect you more. But there’s certainly things I would change if I knew.

This was gonna be the, if I knew what I knew now I, I, I would approach things differently. When I was younger, for sure.

Eric: Yeah, a hundred percent. And I agree with you, the, there is [00:05:00] in many ways a crisis. I mean, part of why we started the foundry, part of why I’m so passionate about, uh, helping men at midlife is that the stats don’t lie, right?

The suicide rates are through the roof. Uh, guys are reaching this stage of life often with no plan, no purpose, no mission, um, and they just let themselves go in all kinds of ways, mentally, emotionally, physically. And so then I think the typical midlife crisis becomes their reality. Um, and, uh, my, my hope is that today’s conversation and those that are listening in on it, uh, we may help shift their mindset a little bit, uh, about the possibilities in the midst of, uh, the stuff that you just talked about.

Pat, what about you? What’s a, what’s a myth you would want to bust?

Pat: Yeah, I think you guys kind of hit on it a little bit. I think the biggest myth for me is that there’s nothing you can do about it. You kind of hit 40 or 45 or 50 and like, this is it. I’m gonna feel crappy. I’m going to have no direction.

I’m gonna feel lonely. I’m going to not be able to exercise or do all the things. And you just think, well, this is where I am [00:06:00] now and I’ll just have to live with it until I die. Um, and I think that’s. That’s so many guys just don’t, um, either take the time or nobody’s ever kind of given them an idea that there is stuff you can do to make it better.

It’s not gonna be like you worry when you were 25. It’s never gonna be that good, but it can be better than where you are now. You don’t have to be resigned to feeling like shit every day and not having direction when you wake up in the morning and all that kind of stuff, and just kind of floating through life.

There’s stuff you can do to improve your health, to improve your drive, your motivation, your relationships, like all those things. Can still be improved even though you’re 40, 45, 50 years old?

Eric: Yeah. Or or in my case, 54.

Pat: Yeah,

Eric: exactly. I think I’m the oldest one on the

Kwadwo: call. Okay. I’m happy about that. Can I ask one thing as I was looking at Pat, actually I, that does come to mind is at least from a strength perspective, I know we’re getting into the weeds about some things, but.

In some [00:07:00] ways I’ve been able to get stronger as I get older, depending on how you define strength or what area of the body we’re talking about. But that’s one part that I think is a pretty strong MIT that you, you’re gonna not get as strong as you age, or you’re gonna lose a bunch of muscle mass and.

From, at least from a maintenance, I’ve been able to been okay from that perspective, but in some ways, I’m stronger than I’ve ever been before in my life. And so this is another one that I think to encourage our, our midlife men there, that this, this aspect of life can be maintained more than more than you probably think.

Eric: A hundred percent. Yeah. I love, yeah, I love that. I mean, uh, wasn’t that long ago. I think, uh, as of the today’s recording date, I know this, we record these and then release them, uh, in the future. But as of today’s recording date, I, this is week 16, uh, of working with Pat. Since I hired Pat as my fitness coach, I had kind of let, uh, business become the priority and I [00:08:00] was putting myself in the backseat in terms of priorities and uh, uh, in, uh, 16 weeks.

I’ve lost about 25 pounds. Um, I put on a bunch of muscle mass. I’m in the best shape of my life. Uh, in many ways I feel stronger than I ever have. To, to, to your point. Uh, and I think this is the, this is the myth, uh, or one of the major myths is that. We can’t shift things if we find ourselves in a place where we’re not happy, we’re not content with our health and how we’re feeling that somehow that’s our lot, but there’s so much that we can do, uh, to shift that reality.

Um, I’m curious, when you think midlife health, what’s the first story or image that comes to mind for you guys? And I’m gonna throw this one Pat’s way first.

Pat: Uh, in terms of myself or just in terms Just overall, yeah. Myself. Yeah. So, I mean, for me it’s tough because I obviously come from, you know, a high performance background.

So for me, every day is like a reminder of the things that I can’t do anymore, right? I can’t, I can’t sprint as fast, even though I can still sprint. I can’t sprint as fast, I can’t do the [00:09:00] things. Um, my warmups are longer than my workouts some days. Um, but you know, it, the, the reality is, um, you know, I think it’s.

It’s getting better now that I’ve, you know, over the last several years as I’ve kind of come up with, with what works for guys our age a little bit better. I’m, I’m getting better every year now. I’m not getting, you know, I’m not gonna be the 25-year-old wide receiver anymore, but I’m getting better than I was sort of at 40 and 41.

Uh, I feel better. I’m move better. I am feeling stronger. You know, there’s a lot of things that. Um, you know, I’ve been able to just do better with more knowledge and more intention with what I’m doing, right? There’s so many, so many different things that we do in life that are just kind of automatic and you don’t even think about it.

But when you can make decisions with intention, whether it’s how you train, how you, uh, sleep, how you eat, all those things, when you actually have intention behind it, then it makes it that much easier to, to have progress and to feel good about what you’re doing.

Eric: Yeah, [00:10:00] absolutely. I love that. What about you, Cujo?

Kwadwo: I mean, to be honest with you, in terms of image, I gotta say we’re the unicorns, I think. And in, in my case, I’m the, the white unicorn. You guys are black unicorns. Anyway, the, uh, I like, I look around guys our age, we’re not, there’s not many of us that are in shape. And, and so number one, kudos to all y’all.

And number two. We need part of the, what, what I feel like we need is to start a movement. Like if you start feeling good, looking good, all the, so many things come together. You, if you get stronger, if you get more energy, get more confidence. Like you, you coach leaders. I, I, I’m quote unquote leader. I sit in these boardrooms and senior management tables.

You come looking. [00:11:00] Like, you, you belong. Like you come feeling fit and have that presence. It’s influential. Mm. And I, I think there needs to be a little bit more pride out there for the middle aged guy that say like, we could take some agency and not look, have that beer belly ass, uh, moving slowly. Uh, frigging sugar drinks, nine beers post hockey.

Like, I think there needs to be a little bit of agency and ownership. And, and my thing is, I’ve thought about this a lot, like a lot of ways of, like, when I think about my kids, the, the best way to teach them isn’t what we’re saying. It’s by modeling. And, and I, I’ve thought about this a lot ’cause not just for the physical help, but mental everything, right?

And so in our house. You exercise, you eat well, that’s the norm, and that’s gonna translate into their lives. That’s gonna translate [00:12:00] into their kids’ lives. So I think to the dads out there. This is not, I’m not trying to shame y’all, actually call whatever you want. I, I don’t really care. Whatever motivates you.

Yeah. There should be some shame there a little bit. Yeah. Like, let’s, it doesn’t, you don’t have to be throwing down like a, a 400 pound back squat, but just be at the gym. Like, I’ll tell you this. You see, I see you at the gym your first time. I’m sure Pat’s the same. You, you look like you don’t belong. I’m, I’m giving you props.

Yeah. I’m giving you love. ’cause you showed up. Yeah. That’s, that, that’s what matters, man. Like you’re, you’re putting in the, the time you’re put, you’re the, the win is the, is a process you’re showing up. And so I think this is, needs to be more the norm for the, for us middle aged. Sorry, I’m going off on a little bit of a rant because it’s, I think we got, we got a lot of work to do from that perspective.

Eric: It’s, it’s, it’s a worthy, uh, right. [00:13:00] I think it’s so important that we. See the possibilities here. I know, I’ve seen it just in the foundry. It was a couple of foundry dinners back, uh, was the first time I showed up and I had shed all this weight and you know, the arms are looking cut and I’m feeling good, right.

But I, I, I just showed up to host the night like I normally did. And a bunch of the guys that know me were like, holy shit. Like what happened to you? Right. Um, and you know that after that dinner, at least three of them started going to the gym. I talked to them at the last dinner and they’re still going to the gym.

Um, who’s the guy on Instagram? Get to the fucking gym. Have you seen that guy? That’s all he ever says. It’s, it’s quite funny. Um, I’m curious though, I mean, you guys are coming at this very different, uh, walk of life. I mean, Quadro as a ICU doc and Pat as an elite coach for, uh, elite leaders. Um, what finally gets men to wake the fuck up and start taking their health seriously?

Pat: You know, I, I think from what I’ve seen, [00:14:00] it’s, it’s, it’s very individual, just like so many other things in life. Um, there’s no one, uh, determining factor. Uh, I’ve had guys who have had medical scares and like, my stuff is through the roof and I need to get back in shape where I’m going to die. Mm-hmm. Uh, I’ve had some that, um, you know, my kids are getting to a certain age and they see how I look and how I move, and I don’t like that.

I want to be better for them. Um, there’s some that have. Uh, had relationships end and they’re trying to get back out in the world and they’re like, I can’t present myself like this anymore. Uh, so there’s, I think there’s a combination. I, and I’ve had guys who, I’ve had guys who have said, I’m getting a big promotion at work and I can’t walk into the boardroom looking like I do now.

And so, I mean, those, those things are all different factors because I mean, we’re all individuals. Everybody’s got different priorities in life, different things that matter the most to them. Um, and so it’s, it’s not a one size fits all answer to that, I don’t think. Um, but I think it, it eventually comes down to, with whatever is important to him, he looks in the mirror and says, I’m not the man I need to [00:15:00] be to go be that guy and I need to make a change.

Eric: Love that Quadro, I mean, you, you experience, when you meet people for the first time, it’s often in a crisis in the ICU. So what, what, what have you seen like in terms of people having a, a big scare with their health and doing something about it or doing just enough to get past the scare and back to things like they used to be?

Kwadwo: I mean, if I’m being honest. And I hope I’m not being too pessimistic. The, the most of the time that I see it, at least at work, it’s not enough to scare them. Like it’s not enough to, like, it’s not powerful enough to move the needle for them to get to the gym and so forth, because those habits have been so ingrained by the time, like I’ll be, a lot of people hang on to my literal, everything I say literally.

So I’m just gonna be, uh, as. Not specific as possible, but, but [00:16:00] if you land in the ICU, typically the, the, the horse is out of the barn. Like a lot of people, not everyone, their exceptions, absolutely. But by the time they come, unfortunately, the, they’ve had a lifestyle for a very long time. They’ve already had their heart attacks, their strokes, they’ve had their multiple infections.

Sometimes they’re, it’s a wake up call for their loved one. And, but unfortunately I don’t get those stories like we, uh, because we are, we work only a week at a time. And, and so every, every once in a while you’ll see that sometimes the nurses or the staff see what’s happening within the ICU, and that could be pivotal for them.

But the number one thing at a high level that I see is that people just tie it to a purpose, like a purpose greater than themselves. So as Pat alluded to, maybe it’s. Represent for their kids or their grandkids or, or their job or their family. But I, I think really tying that, that why that purpose mm-hmm.

When they, they’re really, it’s clear to them [00:17:00] often is enough fuel for them to, to, to move the needle.

Eric: Yeah. I, I couldn’t agree more. I mean, I think fear and shame can trigger initial action. Isn’t good fuel to go long distance, right? Uh, you have to shift from fear and shame into some kind of purpose or goal or why, uh, why this matters, why this is important.

Um, and, uh, I think you said it really, really well. Um, uh, pat, as a coach, what’s the most common excuse you must hear? Uh, you must hear it all. You’ve probably heard it all up from men in their forties and fifties, and how do you help them

Pat: move past it? Uh, most common is probably time. Uh, and, and you know, I deal with, with guys who are busy, uh, guys who are, you know, busy with work and busy with families and all that kind of stuff, uh, which I a hundred percent get.

It’s not easy. Um, and I think it’s trying to convince them that, um. When you’re [00:18:00] organized and you have a plan, just like anything else in life, everything moves much smoother, right? If you’re disorganized at work and you don’t know what you’re doing on that project, then yeah, it, you’ve got too much time and you’re scrambling and you’re making stuff up and you’re not efficient.

But when you have a plan to follow and you’ve got, you know, uh, coordination and you’ve got accountability built in, and then everything’s kind of in place for you to do, it’s like 45 minutes, four times a week. It’s not really that long and maybe an hour and a half of food prep, which you’re doing already.

You’re just doing it inefficiently. So. If you are planned and organized and are following a plan that you know works, it’s just like anything else in life, it becomes way easier. You’re optimized for time, you’re optimized for efficiency, and you get results that you want without putting in a whole bunch of effort.

Wait, so it’s the, the time issue comes in when you’re trying to make up a workout on the spot, or it comes to five 30 and you don’t know what you’re going to eat for dinner and you’re trying to make something up on the spot. Those are the things that that create. A lack of time to actually [00:19:00] do it well and do it efficiently and get results with it.

But when you have a plan, it’s really not that hard and at a certain point you have to decide what your priorities are, right? You’ve got an hour to go to the gym, you just need to turn off the tv, or you’ve got an hour to go to the gym. You just need to not play golf three times a week and only play like once or twice a week or whatever the case is, right?

If you wanna play golf, that’s awesome, but make your priorities. You can’t play golf three times a week and still get to the gym three times a week, so you gotta prioritize what’s important to you. I

Eric: love that. And, and let’s stop calling, playing golf with six beers before the on the front nine. Exercise.

Exercise. Yeah. I walked though. I walked though. Yeah, exactly. Uh, I mean, that’s part of what I love about your program. Uh, I’ve been an avid fitness enthusiast for a long time. Like I said, I’d let, uh, that slip to the background, uh, over the last 12 months or so. Business got really busy and I started believing my own bullshit.

Right? The business needs me right now. This is just a season. I’ll get through it, I’ll get back to it. And what I found [00:20:00] is I was beginning to struggle more and more with exactly what you talked about. Not having a plan, not having a system. Um, even though I’ve got a gym in my basement that would rival most small gyms here in the city, I literally should sell, uh, memberships to this damn thing.

Yes, I wasn’t using it. Uh, effectively, and, uh, you’re, you, you gave me structure. You gave me a system, you gave me a plan. And here’s what I don’t, you know, uh, I I wanna say to business leaders that are listening, especially the men that are listening to this particular episode, think of the energy you put into planning and building systems for your business.

Hundred percent. Uh, how about doing that for your goddamn life? Like, uh, you are the most important asset in your business. And, and yet we approach our health with such, um. Disregard. Yeah. Uh, right. We, we just kind of we’re winging it, uh, at best, uh, or ignoring it at worst, and we pay a real price for that.

But I, I tell people all the time, my plan, live long and strong, man, you’re gonna have to drag me out of life and I’m [00:21:00] gonna go out kicking and screaming when I do. Uh, and I plan on living. Most people don’t think I’m 54 when I tell them I’m 54. They say, you don’t look 54. I said, it’s ’cause I’m fighting it with every fiber in my being.

Pat: For sure. Yeah. And, and just to, just to go back to your point there where you, where you prioritized business and fell off track for a bit. That’s reality like that, that that’s gonna happen. We’re we’re gonna have periods where business has to take a priority over other things. We’re gonna have seasons where family has to take priority over other things, whether it’s a week at a time or a month at a time, whatever that looks like.

But when you still have that plan, or the knowledge and intentionality of what you want to do with fitness and health and that kind of stuff, it makes it that much easier to come back to what you were doing prior to whatever that season is. And I tell guys all the time, the expectation is not that you’re never gonna miss a workout or you’re never gonna have an off meal because those things are gonna happen.

That’s, that’s life when you have responsibilities, right? None of us are trying to be professional athletes anymore or step on [00:22:00] stage. So this is not the number one priority. There’s gonna be times where we miss, but the key is to not allow that to snowball and become a full 12 months of not doing anything right?

You work hard for your month and whatever, and you fit in and work out where you can, and when that season of business or family illness or whatever it is, passes you get right back on track and kind of make fitness a more of a priority again.

Eric: Yeah, I love that. I, it’s the, it’s almost, uh, also DD defining what d what is good enough.

And, uh, I, I always hesitate when I say that ’cause I’m not a good enough kind of guy. I’m always like, there’s more, there’s more available. I can do more. Right? But I’m learning that this good enough. Like do I have to be running at 110% on everything all the time? Uh, that’s actually not sustainable. And so, uh, if I can be, uh, hitting it.

80, you know, 70 to 80% of the time. Right? Uh, then that’s a pretty damn good, uh, uh, uh, uh, hit rate. Uh, that’s gonna keep me where I want to be. There are [00:23:00] seasons. I may be able to hit it at 110, but I think we lie to ourselves, especially high achievers. That we can, we can be achieving at those levels all the time on all fronts.

Yes. It’s just actually not a, a reality. Um, Cujo, I’m curious, uh, uh, in your book, uh, prevention Over Prescription, I mean a great book, uh, and I know you just released that recently and you’ve been, uh, on a number of podcasts being interviewed and it’s getting lots of great traction. What would you say are a couple of the key takeaways that every man in midlife should know that, that you talk about in your book?

Kwadwo: Thanks for the love, first of all, I just wanna piggyback a little bit of what Pat was saying about the time issue. Um, so my, my, this is more pat to wheelhouse, but my bias as we age is like consistency trumps intensity. So like if you, those. Times you go to the gym and it’s like, this is a shitty workout.

Like I still think that’s way better than you not show, than [00:24:00] you not showing up in, in general. So I’m all about like consistency. So I have a rule for myself. I do some form of exercise daily like that by making it a rule. It’s, it’s a non-negotiable. So that could mean a five minute hit. High intensity interval training.

I just do kettle, kettle, uh, Tabata kettlebell, uh, swing workout. And it’s not the, I didn’t burn the most calories. I didn’t do it, but it, it’s effective and it gets my, me in a bright state of mind, it, it feels, I feel like I accomplished something. ’cause my process game was on point. So I just wanna emphasize that.

As, as a, a major thing. And to answer your question about the big takeaways for men midlife, I, I’m gonna focus on like their physical health. Probably two things that every, everybody knows, but I’m gonna just reinforce. Uh, so I’m a big 80 20 fan. So, uh, what’s the, what’s the lever that you [00:25:00] could manipulate that’s gonna give you the biggest bang for your buck?

Hmm. By far, if everyone had adequate protein intake. Everything gets better. Everything gets better. I’m telling you, you’re putting on more lean muscle. You are going to be stronger. Your blood sugar regulation’s better. You’re gonna be fuller. You’re gonna crave less food, your energy’s gonna be better. You literally burn.

More calories, uh, to by eating protein, 15% of that, the, of the, the calories, uh, will be used for digestion. Like if, I’m sure you guys have had meat sweats, you go to the one of the Brazilian restaurants, that’s your body try. That’s your digest body. Trying to digest that 20 ounce ribeye that you just threw down, you know what I’m saying?

Like that’s a magic of, of, of protein. And so most people. Literally it was on, was I walked a kid to school and uh, and one of, uh, someone [00:26:00] was asking me about their loved one and, and talking about, oh, they’re doing all the right things. I’m like, what’d they eat for breakfast? Uh, there are two, three eggs.

I’m like, how many, how much protein do you, actually, I’ll put you on the spot, Eric. How many do you think, how many, uh, grams of protein you think are on three eggs max?

Eric: It’s, it’s about 15 to 18 grams of protein. Is it in about six grams per day? Yeah. I think an extra large egg will have up to se

Kwadwo: seven grams.

Yeah. I’m like this, it was a 200 pound individual. I’m like, you are, no, nowhere close to the meeting Your protein goals of 0.7 I, I say e like you’ll see different recommendations, but 0.7 to one gram per ideal body weight. So I’m, I’m 2 0 5. I aim for about 140 something to 200 grams of protein in a day.

That’s not easy. And this is the other thing too. It is like people like, oh, okay, I’m gonna eat as much. You know, it’s gonna be no problem. No, it’s work and it’s, you’re gonna feel bloated depending on what you’re [00:27:00] eating. It’s gonna be hard, but the results are unca like it’s without question, if you just did one move today and increase your protein intake.

You would be, you would have some benefit. So that’s number one. And number two, I know Pat would agree with this big time, actually I’ll one or two, uh, I’ll choose. You could choose between either increasing your step count, which helps with sleep and associated with longevity. But everybody should be pushing weight.

Everybody should be doing some form of resistance training. And my bias. As an ICU doc, people don’t realize it’s actually hard to die in 2025. Like you, you got all the machines that do all the things, but what people end up, why they die is ’cause of frailty. ’cause their quality of life afterwards is, if they survive, is not aligning with their values.

And what the, the, the difference maker is people with ha that have lean muscle. The people that have put in the work [00:28:00] they get through, they’re more likely to get through. And they have, and they also have the mental fortitude to, to rehabilitate because they go to the gym on a regular basis, even when they don’t feel like it.

So if I had to choose two things, to be honest with you, it would be amp up that protein intake and do some form of resistance training. ’cause even, even if you. Don’t do that much cardio. You could add a cardio component to your resistance training. I was given the example of kettlebell swings, like that’s gonna improve your VO two max, uh, as, as well as put on your lean muscle.

So yeah, that would be my two major ones. Two and a half would be increase your step count.

Eric: Yeah. Well it’s interesting ’cause um, uh, I, I, I see Pat shaking his head in the affirmative to everything you’re saying. ’cause it’s, it’s the very essence of the, uh, of the program that you put me on pat, the, the, the resistance training, lots of weight training, uh, lots of walking.

I’m walking now probably, uh, on average, uh, four or five kilometers a day. Um, [00:29:00] and not only am I getting the step count in, uh, I have a dog too. So I, I combine, uh, you know, walking him, but, but. What I tell you is, listen, if you do have a dog, you think you don’t have time to exercise, you gotta walk your dog, right?

Like you can’t, or else he’s gonna end up. As fat as your ass. Like yeah, so walk the dog. But don’t go out for a casual stroll. Like if you’re going out with your, um, your significant other for a casual stroll. That’s one thing. If you’re going out for a walk, just pick up the pace mat. Like just do a brisk walk and watch.

I mean, it’s part of why the pound started melting off. It’s a big reason my VO two max is now north of 37. Um, right. That’s up. Like two points in, in the last like couple of months. Um, and, and the weight training and the protein. I, I heard that first from you Quadro. And I, it was a reminder ’cause I knew of this.

I, I, uh, I had embraced that in the past and I had moved away from it and Pat’s got me on macros rights where I’m, I’m, I’m measuring stuff. And, uh, I tell you like, uh, even with now, with the day [00:30:00] the, the, the excuse the days for excuses, like are becoming, it’s becoming a lot harder to make excuses because now.

Pat provides me my mat, here’s what you should be aiming for on a daily basis. Workout day, non-workout day, and fuck, I just take that shit into chat, GPT, and I said, here’s what I’m gonna have. Break it down for me. I’m gonna be eating at this restaurant. I think I’m gonna have this menu item. Does it fit?

And, and then we just build it out. Um, and, and so it’s like having a personal nutrition expert, uh, at my side. Uh, but it’s on my phone. Uh, so again, there’s, there’s few excuses now. We really have to examine what is the, what are the lies we’re telling ourselves to stay outta shape and to stay in the kind of current condition, uh, that we’re in.

Pat, I, I hope I didn’t steal any of your thunder, ’cause I want to hear you add your, uh, here I am. I’m, I’m talking about your program.

Pat: Yeah, yeah. No, no. It’s, it’s all good. I mean, it’s, uh, it’s good to hear it from you instead of from me all the time, so, you know, a different voice to, to say the same thing. Uh, it, sometimes it, it helps, right?

[00:31:00] Just like when you’re, you know, you’re dealing with your kids. You can tell ’em things a thousand times, but if a, a TA coach comes and tells ’em the same thing, then they’re gonna listen. Right? Um, but I guess my two and a half to, to quote Joe’s, I, I absolutely a hundred agree, a hundred percent agree with the protein and the workouts.

Uh, my two and a half would be sleep. Uh, I think there’s so many guys that do not prioritize sleep, uh, and think that they can still get by on, you know, five hours. I need to, I need to work late, I need to wake up early. I need to never miss my workout ’cause I’m waking up early to go. Um, and I think. It’s obviously multifactorial how bad that is for you.

Um, but there’s, you know, there’s multiple ways that sleep is going to, um, just make your life better. Uh, obviously when we sleep, that’s when the hormones are doing their work. So, you know, you know, Eric is like, part of what we’re doing in my program is we’re trying to manipulate the hormones and make them work a little bit better.

And when you’re more insulin sensitive and you’re taking in more protein in your training, you know, that gives your body an opportunity to produce more testosterone, more growth hormone, those type of [00:32:00] things. But if you’re not sleeping, it can’t do that. ’cause it doesn’t happen during the workout. It happens when you’re sleeping and recovering at night.

So if you’re not doing that, you’re not getting a bang for your buck. And so many of us. Part of the situation that we’re in is because our lifestyle has caused that drastic decrease in the hormones. The hormones are gonna go down. There’s no question about that, but it doesn’t have to be as drastic as it is.

If you deal with stress better, if you go to bed at night, if you do the weight training and the. Protein and all those kind of things. So that’s a big one. And obviously another one too. Like when you’re not getting enough sleep, it affects your hunger hormones and your, uh, satiety hormones. So you wake up in the morning and you’re starving, and you can’t, you can’t get full, you know, your body just craves the wrong foods.

Eric: You

Pat: know that from, you know, you wake up after a night out and you just crave all the wrong foods, right? And so you’re, you’re just setting yourself up for failure because you wake up your, your hormones haven’t done the positive things, and now your hormones are making you do negative [00:33:00] things. So, you know, sleep is a, is a, is a big.

At at worst, two and a half to, you know, I think it needs to be kind of, there needs to be kind of a, a, a, I think it needs to be three instead of just two. To be honest with you, I think we need to have some training, some nutrition, and we need to have them sleep in there too, to, to really make it all work.

’cause the reality is you could do all the protein, you could be on the best strength program in the world, but if you’re sleeping only five hours a night. It’s not gonna happen.

Eric: Right. You’re gonna, you’re gonna be limiting yourself. I know. One of the things that you really helped me understand, uh, so the, I’ve been, uh, again, a fitness enthusiast for years, for a long time.

And, uh, prior to kind of letting it take a backseat when I was working out more regularly, uh, I was doing like, you know, I was doing like arm day and I was doing like chest day, then shoulder day. Then I was like, well skip leg day, uh, and back to arm day, that kind of thing. Right. Um, uh, and you helped me understand that actually for, uh, men at midlife.

Those types of workouts are not as effective unless you’re training to be like a bodybuilder or something. [00:34:00] Um, that for overall health, can you, can you help, help our listeners understand the whole body workout versus the focus workouts?

Pat: Yeah, so again, it’s, it’s individualized obviously, so it depends where you’re at, right?

If you’re, if you’re already in shape and you’re, you know, you’re not training to improve health necessarily or to lose weight, you’re training to just build muscles, then cool. A bodybuilding split can work where you do a specific body part and you just trash that body part on a particular day. But in terms of.

Overall health and in terms of hormone manipulation that we talked about. And in terms of burning Mo the most calories and getting the most metabolic bang for your buck from your workouts, it’s much, much more effective to train the full body together or at, at worst case, train upper body. Lower body. So you’re doing all your legs on one day, all your upper body on another day.

Uh, because the reality is if you go do an arm day and you’re just working biceps, triceps, and maybe shoulders. Those are very small muscles. They have very, very small metabolic requirements. Um, so you’re gonna, you know, maybe pump up that muscle a little bit, but you’re not getting a lot of bang for your buck when it comes [00:35:00] to overall fitness and health.

So if you’re continuing to do that, you know, bodybuilding split that you got when you were 25 out of the muscle magazine, you know, you know, it might work for you in terms of getting big arms, but it’s not gonna do anything for your fat loss and your belly and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, important for guys to understand that just going to the gym.

Isn’t necessarily enough. Like yes, it’s great that you’re going and it’s certainly better than nothing, but in terms of, again, being efficient with your time and getting the most bang for your buck, you’re much more, uh, effective to train the full body together. Um, and, and obviously do that in a way that you’re not trashed for the next workout, so that you can get multiple full body workouts in during the week.

Eric: Yeah. And again, what what I loved about, uh, what I love about the approach is it’s, you don’t have to work out every day. I think movement every day is important. Yes.

Pat: Yeah.

Eric: And often with a lot of my clients, they get hung up on, we start talking about exercise, we start talking about getting fit. And, and for, for a lot of folks that carries baggage, those terms [00:36:00] carry baggage.

I say, okay, forget about exercise. Forget about. Fitness, can we just talk about movement? Yeah. Like get off your ass and do something every day. Even if it’s for 10 minutes, start somewhere. And that’s where it leads me to my next question, and I’d love to hear, and maybe we’ll start with you. Cujo is like, what’s one small but powerful fitness habit?

A guy at midlife can start today without like feeling a need to overhaul his whole life. That’s a very good question actually.

Kwadwo: I, huh. I might change my answer, but the one that comes front of mind is the, I mean, it was walking that, which we talked about, but I, I really like the exercise snacks concept. So you are watching, I’ll do this with my boys.

Like, we’re watching the Oilers dominate the halves last night. So, uh, and they. Every TV [00:37:00] timeout, you do 10 pushups or you do air squads. I mean, we don’t do this every time we watch tv. We have a active lifestyle. But if it’s a Sunday football day where we we’re doing like it’s lazy day, like every first, now let’s do three burpees.

Let’s do some kind of activity and. I really like this one because some of the literature shows that it’s, it’s could be just as effective as, as sustained walking. Uh, so it gets the blood going. It, it, it just creates a healthy habit too. So I think intervening on a regular. You’re, you’re at work, you got all these zoom meetings every 30 minutes, you, you do five air squads or you I like having, I don’t have one right now, but a kettlebell or, or, or, or some kind of.

Dumbbell beside the desk. If I know I’m having a lazy day and just at, at some interval, just [00:38:00] do some goblet squats or, or something. And I, I think once again, it’s maybe you’re not burning the most calories, but you’re getting that habit. You’re, you’re, you’re, it’s becoming culture and, and, and so I think that would be probably the, the, the one thing that comes to mind in terms of creating that habit.

Eric: Love that. Pat, what would you, what, what, what would be yours?

Pat: Yeah, I mean, I think Quado really hit it like he said it before actually. And that would just do something every day. Doesn’t have to be a full workout. And I think, you know, with the guys that we deal with the most, um, in terms of the high performers.

Most of them have the idea that, well, if I’m not all in, that I’m all out. Right? Everything has to be 110%. Like there is no right. I can’t, I can’t have an 80% workout or a 50% workout or just pick up a kettlebell for five minutes, right? If I didn’t get my workout in, then it’s a wasted day. And, and so I think just some movement [00:39:00] every single day, um, for, for the reasons that he mentioned.

And I’ll, I’ll give you one more reason I think is that. When you make it that habit and a guy says, no matter what, I’m gonna do something every day, even when I’m super busy, or it’s a lazy day. Then he starts to view himself as a fitness guy, right? He’s not just doing a workout anymore. Now. He’s like, no, no, this is part of my life.

Every day I do something, I’m a fitness guy. And that translates into, okay, well if I’m a fitness guy, well then I need to eat better. And if I’m a fitness guy, well then I need to not drink every night. And if I’m a fitness guy, then I need to go to bed at night. And just those subtle mind shift mindset shifts, it becomes now.

I’m not an outof shape guy who’s following a workout program to try to get better. I’m a fitness guy and this is what I do with my life and that that makes a big difference in terms of getting guys to stick to it and have it be sustainable in the rest of your life. Basically.

Kwadwo: It’s your identity now.

Pat: Exactly. Exactly. This is, this is [00:40:00] who I am. Right. The same way, like I would never smoke a cigarette ’cause I’m not a smoker. I know for sure I’m not a smoker, but some people say I am a smoker, and so they can’t avoid picking up a cigarette. Well, you want to be the guy who’s, I’m a fitness guy, so I can’t avoid doing something every day.

Eric: Yeah, I, I love that. I mean, as a coach, I, I coach my leaders all the time that when you’re trying to make any significant change in your life, you have to go to the belief level. You have to address your core belief around that issue, because the most you can achieve if you don’t address the underlying belief.

Is behavior modification that snaps back to your habits in a heartbeat, right? Because we cannot act contrary to our core beliefs for any length of time. Yes. Uh, right. Who, what we believe translates into what we do. So I love that I’m a fitness guy. Uh, so there, if I believe that, um, then all of a sudden things shift.

Gentlemen, let me, let me introduce a [00:41:00] framework that you may have heard me talk about, but in the living richly nation and, and the, the framework that I created around this, it was part of my own transformation journey a few years ago. Um, I turned to the four elements of nature. You can actually see the symbols on my wall behind me here.

The four elements of nature, fire, water, uh, air or wind and earth. And, uh, the four, almost quickly, fire speaks of your emotional life, your passions, your heart, um, water speaks of your mind. Your mindset, your thought life, um, uh, all of that. Um, wind speaks of spirit. So spirituality, whatever that means to you, connecting to something beyond yourself.

And often, uh, quadro, that could be purpose, that could be your why. Uh, for some people it’s, it’s some kind of spirituality, but it doesn’t have to be. And finally, earth is your body. It’s the frame. You carry all that shit in. And we, uh, I’m on a mission to help, uh, men and women live a more, a richer life.

Like to really. Not settle for status quo. And we use that model to say, what’s your heart like? [00:42:00] What’s your mindset like, what’s your spirituality like, where’s your body at? But when it comes to the body, it carries everything. If it’s hard to actually, um, live richly in any of those other areas, if you’re feeling like shit, I’m curious what you guys think about that.

Kwadwo: I mean, you hear that this is cheesy, but everyone has a million problems until you have a health problem, there’s only one problem. And it’s, it’s so fucking true. Like I, I, I have a gift, a blessing I should say, of working in the field that I do because it allows you to put things into perspective at times, and I’m not always good at this, but, but when you do have someone your age younger, that that.

That passes or, or that has a significant injury that’s, that’s life threatening or they, they lose their life. It, it reminds you of all this stupid shit [00:43:00] that you are worried about is nothing. It really is nothing like I, and, and I don’t want to come across like I’m, I’m, uh, I don’t circum to this as well.

I, you know, I, I was at Quebec City yesterday giving a talk and I was super anxious about it. It was a talk I’d never given before and then it reminded myself that it’s, it’s my brother’s birthday today. My, it’s soon about two years since my mom passed. And I’m like, what am I really worried about? This, there’s nothing, right?

Like we, what we saw where mom go through and as a family and, and I just said like, she, she would be so happy just knowing that I would, I’m on stage talking about whatever I’m talking about and, and so just every once in a while knowing that the, that life is so precious that. You can’t take these things for granted, but [00:44:00] it is a hundred percent.

If you don’t got your health, I mean, you all know it. You’ve, you’ve seen a loved one go through it. You’ve, we we’re, if you’re middle aged, you can’t be, not have had some form of a loss. So I think that’s just an important reminder that, you know, that meeting that, that Janice. That Zoom meeting that you decided to come late to because you wanted to get to that extra five minutes of workout time or whatever.

Yeah, man. That’s okay. Give yourself the green light. Give yourself permission to take care of yourself because you only, you only got one body, dog. And, uh, yeah. And, and, and if you, if you don’t have your health, you, what do you what you like? You, there’s so much you don’t have. So yeah. Anyways, I agree a hundred percent.

Yeah. Yep. Love that. Pat?

Pat: Yeah. AB absolutely. I mean, uh, I mean, I don’t think there’s any other way to put it better than, than what Quo just did. But you know, if you, [00:45:00] uh, you know, it’s really hard to have a positive mindset. So a positive water, if you wake up every morning with no energy and feeling like crap and unhappy with what you look in the mirror, like, it’s really hard to then go through the day with a positive mindset and attack all the things that you wanna do.

Um, and then on the, you know, mindset and body, those kind of drive. Everything else. Right? And it’s, it’s hard to be passionate about the things that you wanna be passionate about when you feel unpassionate about yourself. And, and so, you know, I really think, obviously they’re all tied together, but it, the, the body I think can just have so much effect on everything else.

When it gets better, you feel better, you look better, you perform better, you carry yourself better. Um, all, although it just allows you to be fully, you. Right. It allows you to fully express whatever’s in your heart, whatever’s in your head, uh, without, without hesitation, without anxiety, without, you know what I mean?

Like when you’re confident and you feel great and you have that energy and that clarity, then it just allows you to, to perform at your very [00:46:00] best for, for yourself, for your business, for your family. It just, it just gives you an opportunity to be your most authentic and true self.

Eric: Yeah, I love that. I mean, the mind body connection, right?

We, uh, we, it’s been talked about a lot more, but there is so much truth that these things are interlinked. And when I think of a lot, uh, my own journey and a lot of leaders that I’ve spoken to often when they took the step to do something about improving their health. And they started to see their body respond, right?

The weight started to come off, the strength started to return. Their energy levels are coming up, they’re feeling stronger in the bedroom and the boardroom, right? Like they start to see these changes. Um, all of a sudden it opens up possibilities at the mindset level and other. If I can do this right, if I can make this shift.

Fuck, I can change anything, right? Um, and now not everyone takes it that far. Some just do the health thing and don’t go beyond. And that’s where we say health alone. Like that’s an important aspect. But there’s these other dimensions that, uh, you ought to be [00:47:00] exploring because to, to live a full life, we’ve been given all this gear and it’s shame to see it go unused, right?

Untapped right? So, uh, so, so live to it fully. I couldn’t agree more Cujo when you said, you know, like, uh, so my dad passed away 66 years old. He was diagnosed with, um, advanced, uh, third stage three advanced lung cancer. Never smoked a day in his life, and, uh, was sick for over a year. Thought he had a bad cold.

But my dad had this philosophy. He didn’t like doctors. He wouldn’t go to the doctor. And so by the time he finally went. Um, right, the diagnosis. He was too far along and, uh, two and a half years later he passed, uh, 66. That’s only 12 years from now for me. Um, and I know what that’s done for me is I don’t mess around.

I know a lot of guys, uh, from a medical perspective often hesitate to do what’s necessary when talking a lot about getting fit. But let’s, can, can we just zero in on that issue for a quick sec? ’cause I know our time is almost up. Uh, my, my family [00:48:00] doctor when I went to see him recently, ’cause there was something not quite right and I didn’t wanna mess with it.

I was, I’m not a hypochondriac by any stretch. Ask anybody who knows me, I just don’t mess around. If it’s not right, I’m gonna go see my doc and find out. And, uh, he said, he said, Eric, most guys by the time your age, who come to me, when they finally come to me, it’s too late. And you referred to that earlier, uh, what would you say, uh, and specifically from Quadra, what would you say to men who are hesitant?

To reach out for help when they sense something’s not quite right in their body. I

Kwadwo: mean, just, just look at your circle. Look at your circle that you, your circle of influence. You have a family, typically you have a partner, you, you a leader in your community. You have a lot of people that depend on you. So imagine your outfit, account what, what, what that looks like and.

We talked prevention over prescription. Part of prevention is skin shit addressed [00:49:00] early. Like I saw this during the pandemic when like that was another factor. ’cause people were too afraid to come into the hospital, which was, we won’t talk about, but, um, they come as too late. There’s, the cancer that was would’ve been treatable is now no longer curable.

And because of that delay. And their, their, their life is, is shortened. And so just think about the big picture. Think about the, the people that are dependent on you think it would picture your funeral dog. Like, just picture your funeral and just say, are you ready for this? And, uh, ev we’ve just seen too many folks our age that ignore, ignore, ignore this problem.

And, and I, and, and I think. One thing thing is that all of us are fairly intuitive. We’re all fairly intuitive. Like we know if something’s like, you know, it’s, this is bothering me, it is not quite right. [00:50:00] And sometimes we know like, this ain’t right. Like I think we all have that kind of instinct. And I think just listening to that.

That voice, if it’s there, it’s there for a reason. And I’ll tell you, uh, some of my colleagues probably think I’m a little voodoo for saying this, but like my intuition even clinically. It’s directly impacted patient’s lives for sure. Like you, something’s not right here, something’s off, and you intervene based on that.

Like, so I, I, I think at a, at a personal level, we all have that capacity and, and, uh, it’s just something that you can’t ignore. I know we’re up against it, but one thing, just as an example in, in the palliative care setting, I can’t count how many patients have told me despite looking, okay. They’ll say, you know what?

I think I’m gonna die tonight or I’m gonna, uh, like I’m gonna die, like I’m dying soon. And I would say 90% of the time they’re on point. [00:51:00] Even if you look at, wow, you look at them and they’re like, they’re fine. Or whatever. It’s the spookiest thing. You’ll just be like, yeah, I think I’m like, I’m gonna die tonight.

Call my call Lisa or whatever. And I tell the kids, like the trainees when they, when, when someone tells you that. Take it very seriously. Call Lisa, call Shena, whatever. Whoever they’re asking for get there because it’s, they’re often, they’re seeing something we’re not seeing.

Eric: Yeah, a hundred percent. Uh, gentlemen, last two questions.

Rapid fire, right? So we’re gonna do this really, really quick lightning round. Uh, what does living richly look like for you in this season of your life? And we’re gonna go to Pat first.

Pat: Oh, great question. Um, you know, I think there’s, there’s multiple factors, right? You talked about the four elements. So, I mean, obviously, you know, we’ve talked a lot about physicality and so I want to continue to be strong and healthy and able to do all the things that I wanna do with my kids and travel with my wife and, and all those great things.

Um. I want to be mentally as [00:52:00] strong as I can possibly be, uh, in terms of, uh, not just, you know, mentally strong and grind through stuff, but like happy and joy and gratitude and making sure that I’m in the right place mentally to be the father and the husband that I need to be. Um, and then I think, um, other than that, I think those are the two main things in terms of.

Just where I wanna be right now. Physically healthy, mentally healthy, and able to be the man that I want to be and the fa the man that, that, that people need around me. Love that. Kaja, what about you?

Kwadwo: Everything Pat said, but maybe a little bit more on the connection side. I think. I think, um, we didn’t hit on this much, but I think.

Midlife guys don’t know how to make friends anymore. They, they rely too much on their spouse at times for to be their everything and any, anything. And I think one of my [00:53:00] w what living richly would be a little bit more, uh, more connection, just making sure that it’s outside the, the walls of

Eric: the house sometimes.

I love that. I, uh, my situation a month, about a year ago at this time was that I was exactly in that spot, Cujo, and I made a commitment to go into the business of making friends. Um, and in the last 12 months I’ve met. Some incredible guys, two of which are on this call today. So I’m very, very grateful for that.

Uh, last lightning round, really quick. You’re sitting eyeball to eyeball with one of our male listeners right now. He’s a leader. He’s busy. He’s not taking his health seriously. What is your advice to him in this moment? What would you say to him? Looking right in the eyes.

Pat: Just take the first step, whatever it’s gonna be.

Make a decision today that you’re going to do something. You can figure it out after that, but make a decision today. Look yourself in the mirror and say, today is the day that I start [00:54:00] getting better, getting healthier, getting fitter for whatever your reason is, commit to yourself to go do it and figure it out as you go.

Right on Cujo,

Kwadwo: everything Pat said, except for I, I have faith in you. You got this. This is a lot of, a lot of chips against the wall. I get my expressions mixed up all the time. Have a fence

that’s a new one.

Chips and diesel. So, um, no, it’s, you got this man, like, collectively, individually, whatever it might be. We, we got you. But you, you, you have that agency, you have that capacity.

Eric: Where is the best place for people to find you online? Uh, and, and Pat, I’m gonna ask you this same question next. Where should we point people, uh, so they can find out more about what you’re doing, even get your book?

Kwadwo: Oh, thanks for this, uh, [00:55:00] once again, Eric. So, Dr. quadro.ca has all our. Contents of the links to the books, so Unapologetic Leadership and Prevention Over Prescription. Our podcast is over there. Supplement Company, guided Nutrition. If you’re looking for high quality protein, social media, Aqua at KWD cst. Uh, we’re everywhere.

Ig, Facebook, Instagram. I said that Instagram already. Uh, YouTube, uh, TikTok and um, I think that is all the place. But thank you so much for the opportunity.

Eric: So great to have you. And Pat, where can folks find you?

Pat: Yeah. Uh, so the website is, uh, the elite man method.com. Uh, and then social media wise, I am at Elite Coach on Instagram, uh, Facebook and LinkedIn is just my name, pat Woodcock.

Uh, I’m pretty active on all the social medias and, uh, uh, happy to answer questions and, uh, and obviously share knowledge as we go.

Eric: Right on. [00:56:00] Gentlemen, thank you so much for being on the show today. As always, I knew this was gonna be a rich conversation, and of course it was. So thank you for taking the time outta your busy schedules, uh, to speak to the nation and nation.

Thanks for hanging out with us today. Uh, if this, uh, episode hit home, make sure to like, share and subscribe and get the word out so other, uh, men and women can, can hear about this. And if you are a male leader in your forties or higher, uh, you want to visit. Foundry for men.com. That’s the word foundry number four men.com to find out more about what we’re doing with the foundry in terms of bringing, uh, ma men together, uh, to do more than just build business, but build great lives.

And, uh, if you are also trying to build a great business, make sure to visit my coaching website, rhapsody strategies.com where we’re, we’re helping leaders, uh, build great teams, great organizations. And again, focus on a life that they can be proud of. So folks, thank you so much again for joining us.

Quadro Pat, thank you again. Uh, [00:57:00] and until next time, get out there and live your best life.