Coach Marcos: The Impact of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on Wellness and Personal Growth

Have you ever wondered how martial arts could positively impact your physical, emotional, and mental wellness? Join us as we invite my friend, Marcos, a full-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach, on the show who unravels his life journey and how Jiu-Jitsu has played a pivotal role in it. From his childhood years spent in the gym with his father and uncle to his current role as a professor, we take a deep dive into his story that's entwined with the art of Jiu-Jitsu. We explore the origins of the martial art from Japan, shedding light on how it differs from its more modern predecessor, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Our discussion leads us to the physical and spiritual aspects of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and how it's helped Marcos shape his life. We focus on his journey with fighting and martial arts, particularly since Marcos achieved his black belt. We discuss his post-college journey when he decided to commit fully to Jiu-Jitsu. We also touch upon the challenges of starting Jiu-Jitsu later in life and the extra effort it requires. 

The conversation rounds up with an exploration of the significance of community in the world of Jiu-Jitsu and how it's been a driving force in Marcos's journey. We discuss the importance of understanding and controlling our primal energy for a balanced life. We emphasize the need to align with a martial arts or fitness center that matches your personal goals, and how pivotal the role of community is in a fruitful Jiu-Jitsu journey. Tune in to our enlightening conversation with Marcos and discover how Jiu-Jitsu can pave the way for a healthier, more balanced life.

Chapters

• 0:08 Exploring Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Its Impact
• 7:53 Becoming a Jiu-Jitsu Professor
• 17:33 Jiu Jitsu for Wellness
• 27:43 The Problem With Comfort and Stagnation
• 32:52 The Impact of Community in Jiu-Jitsu
• 43:04 Jiu-Jitsu and Personal Growth
• 55:18 Finding the Right Fitness Environment

Transcript

Jon: 0:08

Yo yo, welcome back to the Feel Free podcast, the only podcast that'll tell you to chase your dreams and call you out on all your bullshit, myself included. It's been a while since I did that little introduction. Thought it'd be best to get back down to business and do it. Got a good episode today. Got my buddy Marcos here to talk about his wellness practice with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and how that has impacted his life. Got a crazy story coming up on how he pretty much became a full-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach, how fighting has impacted his wellness on a physical, emotional and mental plane. So you want to stick around. This is a damn good episode. Next week I got my buddy Brandon coming by to talk about his journey with sobriety, music, writing some books. Honestly, he's doing some fucking sick ass work. Don't miss that. He's coming out in a week or two. So, without further ado, stick around. Got the episode coming up. So what is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?

Marcos: 1:14

Yeah, so, man, that's a load of question. So it is a martial art that is heavily rooted in grappling, which is there's no punches or kicks, there's no striking, it's all grabs and holds and body manipulation, so turning and folding and twisting the body while on the ground in order to control someone physically, and then the end or the result is a submission, right where I'm able to effectively manipulate a part of you until you give up, right, so I bend your arm backwards or I hyper-extend your elbow or I apply a choke of some sort that causes the other person to give up or ultimately pass out or die eventually. But it was heavily rooted back in Japan. It was like a pass down from the samurai. They were the ones who developed this kind of art form, and then it kind of grew and migrated into Brazil, india-japan, and then the guys who kind of took hold of it in Brazil kind of made it like this huge thing. They basically developed a lot more, kind of perfected it, and they have the art what's called Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Marcos: 2:39

So it's kind of its own facet that's branched off from Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, which is a lot more abrasive and brutal, whereas Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has kind of transformed now more into kind of like a sport but, like we had said earlier, it's still very heavily infighting to control people. So it's a very lot like wrestling and judo in the sense that it's like throws and takedowns and ways of holding people on the ground. So that's like the main. Those are like the main three when it comes to grappling arts, whereas the other side you have the striking like kickboxing and boxing and taekwondo and karate. So very, very little grabbing or holding, whereas the other side of it is completely just that there's no punches or kicks.

Jon: 3:26

Okay, yeah, I had no idea that it started in Japan, which is sad of me to say, because I'm very big on Japanese culture.

Marcos: 3:35

Yeah, it's translated as the gentle art, right, but it's not very gentle at times. A lot of times it's not very gentle.

Jon: 3:45

Yeah, I can see that too. When did you start with this journey for Jujutsu, or martial arts in general, I should say.

Marcos: 3:54

Yeah, I mean I was juggle about it because I say I was genetically predisposed to fighting. My parents were really young when they had me, so like they were still in high school when I was in my mom's stomach. So my dad wrestled all four years in high school. He graduated, he joined the Marine Corps, he started wrestling and then like the late nineties, when MMA started kind of catching hold a little bit, that's when him and my uncle started training. So I was like six or seven at the time and I'd started wrestling pretty young, when I was about four years old, and then we kind of migrated into fighting, which brought along Jujutsu and some striking stuff, and so I first kind of got into that world.

Marcos: 4:40

I was like eight or so and then we started training at the gym that we train at now actually the gym that I teach at when I was going into my freshman year in high school. So it was a huge part of my development growing up. It was a huge part of what we did. I did play football, I did play baseball, but wrestling was kind of like my main sport. And then eventually I kind of left wrestling and kind of focused more on Jujutsu. So yeah, I didn't really have the choice. My dad and my uncle I was raised in the gym, they fought, they trained, so it was kind of like a pretty natural path for me.

Jon: 5:15

Yeah, I was going to ask why you started, but it was obviously because you had role models around you who were already in it. Right, yeah?

Marcos: 5:23

And they're both, both my dad and my uncle still train, they still. They don't actively compete, but they're still on the mats, even almost into their fifties. So yeah it again.

Jon: 5:36

Like I said, I didn't really have a choice, yeah, but I think that's a sometimes it's nice that way, though. You know you found pretty much the love of your life in a passion like this, and it was already kind of given to you at a very young age, so that's a huge blessing.

Marcos: 5:51

No, 100%, and that's actually a lot of why I've, you know, devoted my life to teaching and doing jiu-jitsu and, you know, leaving a lot of things behind so that I could pursue. This is because of what it did for me as a kid, as a really young kid, you know, growing up, learning how to, you know, navigate the world, and, you know, be a man, I guess, as you would like. You got to know how to defend yourself. And so, you know, because that was such a big part of my life, I feel the need to give that to other people and to create a space and to have an environment where people you know can start even younger than me and take this thing with them for the rest of their life, and, you know, whether they want to be a champion or they just want to do it as a personal practice. Like it's something that ultimately shifted my life and you know, I wanted to be that and offer that to other people.

Marcos: 6:49

And it's crazy now too, because I see, you know, entire families.

Marcos: 6:52

You know the mom, the dad, the brother, the sister all doing jiu-jitsu.

Marcos: 6:56

Now, you know, like, start off with the son who just wanted to do it, then the son got the sister, and then they got the parents and like and so you can see, like you know, generational effects where it's like okay, like you know, now you're going to grow up and you're going to teach your son jiu-jitsu and you know he's going to teach his son jiu-jitsu and we're all going to be able to train together. So that's something that like it's a very hidden part of it that a lot of people don't see, but it's a big part of my family, right. It's like you know what we do on major holidays we go and we train and, you know, hang out and beat each other up and that will that'll be. That'll continue on. You know, when I eventually have children of my own someday and you know a wife and you know my siblings have their own children they're all going to train and wrestle. So it's like it'll just be something that continues to grow from now until forever.

Jon: 7:50

That's a nice tradition to have too, and it's it's healthy for you. Like you said, it helped you navigate the world and I think, other than just being like a physical wellness thing, it's also a spiritual wellness thing, you know.

Marcos: 8:02

That's where we're set, man, because that's all connected right, like if your body or mind or your soul, like it's all intertwined and you know you have to do things that bring it all together, that force you to use all of it Right. You know, there are a lot of mindless things or a lot of things where it's just like just body or just your brain or whatever you know, but it's like when you can make everything work together like that, there's something that happens there, and Jiu-Jitsu is definitely one of those things where it's like it forces you into like everything's got to be working at this time, because you can't, you can't really leave a piece of that out, you know.

Jon: 8:39

Right, so are you considered a master now.

Marcos: 8:48

I am a black man there you go so technically a professor of Jiu-Jitsu, I don't become a master. I want to say not exactly sure, but it's a certain degree I believe five or six degrees in, then you become a master. That's when they call you master.

Jon: 9:05

So they just call you professor now, which takes just professor or coach.

Marcos: 9:09

Yeah, like it was been coached for a very long time. But once you become a black belt then you're technically a professor. So I'm still kind of getting used to that a little bit.

Jon: 9:19

So first degree.

Marcos: 9:20

Definitely takes some getting used to.

Jon: 9:21

Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's a sign of endearment, for sure, at such a young age it's very impressive, though, too.

Marcos: 9:27

Right, and it's so like there are people in the gym that are older than me. You know that call me professor now, and so it's. You know, I mean it's even then like it's always been kind of a head trip just being in a position to influence people of all ages, right, even people who are older than you. There are people who are older than you that look up to you now because of it, so it's trippy.

Jon: 9:50

Yeah, I mean it's not from a place of pride, though.

Marcos: 9:53

You've definitely put in the work and, like you said, you're out here to like help people too, so it's a, it's a very wholesome experience between you and the student, so right, and you know I've called a lot of people, uh, professor, that you know that I couldn't beat in a fight, you know, like in college, whereas I'm, like you know, most black belts, like you know, I'll call your professor because he could probably beat me up. So you know I've done it plenty of times before.

Jon: 10:17

So when did you start teaching people?

Marcos: 10:21

So about 20, 2015, 2016,. I was a blue belt at the time, which is, you know, still pretty early on in your career, but you know there's there's five belts, so it's white, blue, purple, brown, black. So you get your first. You forget your first promotion, your blue belt, usually within the first couple of years or so. You know, first within your first year or two, and then you're able to, you know, kind of teach basics and kids classes and stuff. And so I worked at, uh, it was called the UFC gym and so I was working as a, as a salesperson, first and then eventually made my way over to the training side. But there were kind of like a splice where it's like, okay, we have, like, you know, weights and we have cardio machines and you know, turf and stuff, but we also offer boxing and kickboxing and even jujitsu classes. So, like you know, really regular, anybody could kind of sign up and be a member and then you could just attend the classes. So that's kind of where I got.

Marcos: 11:22

My start was like teaching and, you know, helping out in the kids classes and helping some of the older upper belts who were there already. You know kind of like run the class and stuff and you know, that's kind of where I got my my itch. I mean, I've been coaching you know different kinds of sports and stuff for a long time but, um, man, teaching jujitsu has always just been uh, everything always makes, has always made sense there. So it's kind of where I like to stay, but yeah, it's so. It's been about almost eight years now, seven years now, of teaching you know Brazilian jujitsu, and so, yeah, man, it's, it's crazy to say that.

Jon: 12:01

Yeah, it's a. It's a long time, but that's awesome, um, so that was kind of in college, though, right.

Marcos: 12:09

Yeah, yeah. So towards the end of college, right, I was, uh, subosa, graduated 2015, ended up graduating in 20, middle of 2016. So I did a couple of victory laps there, um, but at that time I was, you know, yeah, so I was working, you know, and finishing school and then eventually graduating and I, you know, kind of stuck with it and tried to, like you know, make it work the whole time. So, pretty much since then.

Jon: 12:36

So, yeah, man, so I had already asked you this, but I kind of want to get the low down on it. You are now a full time professor, right? Yep, ah, wait, did you do after college? What made you chase this dream full time, instead of taking the route that everyone normally takes outside of college?

Marcos: 13:03

So I did actually take the route that everybody did outside of college. I was trying to find a really good job. I was all over the place trying to find I wasn't going to use my degree. I was contemplating it because I got a degree in criminal law and justice, so I thought about either going to a grad school or going to be a police officer or sales. To me, the way that I was going to get it done was selling stuff. I worked for a couple different companies. I did some side-in jobs. I worked for a very small it was like a fitness supply company. It was like a small business. I got the job on Craigslist. I was doing door-to-door sales. It was rough. Then I got a job from a girl that I knew in college. I started working for Tesla and so I worked for them for two years and so eventually selling them, and so I was making really good money at the time.

Marcos: 14:09

But I just hated my life. I hated staring out a computer screen. I hated talking to rich dudes about luxury cars. I wanted to off myself. So it was one of those things where I was like dude, you just got to do something about it. You got to go freaking, burn the bridges and just go figure it out. And so that was April 2019. So I'm floundering, trying to figure it out, and still working as a personal trainer, and then the pandemic hits.

Marcos: 14:45

So, less than a year after quitting my full-time job, the world goes crazy, and so Jiu-Jitsu was deemed illegal pretty much for the first couple of two years, because no contact, and it was crazy. But yeah, you couldn't train, you couldn't do anything, you couldn't even meet together. So I was like, imagine trying to meet up with people, to breathe in each other's faces and be really, really close to people and sweating on them. It was illegal, man. So there was a lot of speak easy type stuff, man. Like the prohibition days. People were papering their windows and bringing people in through the back door, locking the front door and checking out the windows and making sure nobody was seeing that we were gathering. It was some 1920s prohibition stuff, man. It was wild. It's for the love of the game, though, man, and that's the thing is.

Marcos: 15:51

I made it through that very slowly soon after I tried it, starting my own Jiu-Jitsu program out of a Taekwondo school. A good friend of mine who I had introduced to Jiu-Jitsu was the owner of a school. So we started running our own program. But it's like man, we couldn't do advertising. We couldn't advertise and tell people, hey, we're doing this thing because we didn't know like there's people coming out and giving out $2,500 tickets or whatever, all the kinds of rumors that were going on of horror stories of schools getting busted and stuff. So it was like you weren't really sure, like well, can we do this, can we not? And so, yeah, it was a lot of uncertainty in those times for a lot of people, obviously, but definitely in the Jiu-Jitsu community. Like I rocked the Jiu-Jitsu community very hard.

Jon: 16:44

Yeah, I can imagine I mean even just your personal story too losing the full-time job 2019 and then deciding to chase your passion, which gets the clamps put on them because of the pandemic, and I bet you were dealing with a lot of doubts during that time as well. Like well, I mean we were down in the whole world at that point.

Marcos: 17:08

Right, right, nobody knew anything. That was what it was. It's like, okay, does this help, does this not help? You know, masks, no masks. Shots, no shots. You know it was, nobody knew anything and everybody knew everything at the same time. So it's like, well, this is this, and no one had any real proof or whatever. So, yeah, it was like it was.

Marcos: 17:33

You know, it made me very anti-COVID because it was like, man, like that almost cost me my livelihood, like it cost me every dollar that I had made up into that point. Like you know, I'd sold a bunch of stock just to like keep myself afloat and keep my bills paid. And, like you know, I didn't go on unemployment. You know, I got a job at Aldi friggin, you know, working at Aldi just so I could like make this thing happen. And yeah, man, it's. I've done a few more jobs since then to try and just continue to make this thing happen. And you know, I still haven't haven't made it yet. But yeah, man, like you said, like it's worth it. Man, there's, there's, there's literally nothing else that that I would rather be doing. You know so.

Jon: 18:21

I mean, I mean traditional way yeah. For you to come on here and say that you were selling Teslas and you had it made and then to say that you wanted to off yourself so you started chasing your dreams. Like that's honestly, that's like the whole point of this fucking podcast, man, like I appreciate that. I appreciate that so much. It's badass.

Marcos: 18:38

Yeah, and that's why I wanted to come on man, cause, like one, I love supporting my friends, right, I love supporting their projects, the things that you know, like you're not making any money off of this yet, right, like you're, you're having to come home and and dig into these trenches and and be here and you know, set up stuff and whatever apps and editing and like all of that stuff you know goes into whatever it is that you want to do. So being able to, to see my friends like hey, you know, do this, and wanting to, to, to create something like that, that that makes me happy. Cause it's like man, I can go and encourage them and tell them like man, you need to be doing this, like you know, or, even if you don't make any money off of it, like you need to be making something, creating something you know, building something like, even if it's just to keep yourself seeing from your regular everyday life, you know I don't encourage everybody to, just like fricking, burn all the bridges, cause dude.

Jon: 19:32

I've burned all the bridges Like there's no, there's no going back.

Marcos: 19:36

I don't encourage everyone to do it. But, like you know, most people, I'll definitely say like, yeah, you should. You should be doing some something of that, Like, because it's just working for the man dude, it's just not. It's just not it, man. Like, I think our whole generation was kind of bamboozled into believing that, you know, everything would be all right if you just did did all the things that you were supposed to do, right, Quote unquote. And you know a lot of people are finding out that that's just not the case. Some people are finding out that it is right. Some people are doing great, Some people that we know are doing awesome. Yeah, Right, I know some people that vibe with that Right.

Marcos: 20:15

Yeah, I mean they like the security and the and the you know the continuity, right, like the ability to plan and the ability to like it's. It's a luxury that we don't get as entrepreneurs or, you know, contractors.

Jon: 20:30

Right, right, yeah, so I actually. So I run a bookkeeping business with my mom, so it's really just myself, it used to be my cousin and her, so just three employees. You could say it's corporate, it's, you know, it's not. It's pretty relaxed and stuff, but like we have to come in and do all the work and stuff you know.

Jon: 20:52

Right, I don't know if I could survive in like a corporate America job. It just wouldn't vibe with me. You know, I've always worked family businesses or done like odd jobs or like manual labor and stuff like that, for whatever reason you know.

Marcos: 21:07

And it's it's gotten even worse man Cause, like you know, even a company like Tesla. You know they're based out of Palo Alto, california, which is, like you know, northern California, is like the PC capital of the world. You know Silicon Valley, so it's like it was just like seeing some of the stuff that went on there is just like bro, this is ridiculous. Like yeah.

Marcos: 21:27

And not not in a not in a bad way, like. But it's just like for my own personal, like the way that I operate, like I just can't do it man.

Jon: 21:36

I mean it's. It's when the corporate, or when your job or your career or when certain institutions in your life are are asking you to be something that you can't, it becomes draining on your soul. Is the problem. You know um and so, with that being said, it's funny because in 2019, I got sober in May of 2019. So you quit your job April 2019, I got sober 2019, and then we hit the trenches and hit the trenches in 2020.

Jon: 22:09

So, um, I wanted to ask I mean, you've kind of talked about it this whole time but why is Jiu Jitsu, why is martial arts, why is MMA? Why is this so important to your wellness journey?

Marcos: 22:28

Yeah, I, um, that's how you. I haven't found anything better yet. I think that's what it is, because if there was something better, that's what I would be doing. For me it's just again doing things that make your brain and your body and your spirit kind of work together. Fighting is visceral.

Marcos: 22:57

There's something inside of us as humans, innately, that requires conflict. It requires us to go up against things that cause us to react and change and grow. We need that form of friction in our life and so a lot of people they try to avoid it, they try to go away from it. We get comfy shoes and comfy couches, and beds that feel like clouds, and sheets that are air conditioned. We want as much comfort as possible and you can go very, very long periods of time without getting any form of discomfort, especially now in the days that we live, and so something things like jiu-jitsu and fighting and rock climbing those are like my big three right now you don't have any choice but to be uncomfortable. You don't get the option, and so you're going there and you're faced with adversity physical adversity, mental adversity.

Marcos: 24:05

You got your own body working for you, or against you in certain cases, and it causes you to remove yourself from everything that's going on and it causes you to be really only in this exact moment. I have to watch where my hands are at. I got to watch where your hands are at. I got to watch where your weight is leaning. I got to make sure, you know, like there's so many things that I have to be worried about that I can't think about. You know, my crushing credit card day or the fight that I had with my wife, or whatever, like you can't think about, you just cannot, like, you cannot process those things and do this thing at the same time. And so when you're able to focus in on those activities that require so much brain power and so much physical exertion like even if you just did that for 30 minutes, right, like you when you remove yourself and you go back to normal life, none of that stuff really matters as much anymore. Obviously, the problems are still there Right.

Marcos: 25:02

But like your body is more equipped to deal with the stress that you come across in everyday life.

Marcos: 25:09

Because you're putting yourself under so much stress, like recreationally, like you're practicing, being under really, really bad conditions and working your way through them through technique or persistence or perseverance, and you know, when you come out of the end of it and you're like, oh man, not only are you like chemically, like straightened out, but like you're you can see more clear and your body's like man it's, it's, it's just like any other workout, right, but it just creates so much focus and time that can't think of anything else.

Marcos: 25:45

And for me, like, whether it be running or weightlifting, like it just doesn't offer that, like I like doing those things occasionally but it's and it's good to feel to. You know, hit some, some PRs or get a good pump, or you know. You know maybe get a little runner's high or whatever, but there's just nothing like getting slammed around, for you know 30 minutes to an hour and you know throwing people on their head and just sitting and enjoying life after that, you know. So it's like I don't know if I answered the question fully, but, like, again, the reason why that's important is because I can get that results, and I've yet to find something that will get that result better. That's kind of like the whole the whole spiel.

Jon: 26:28

But I think that's a very I think that's a very subjective view of of wellness, which is why I asked it, because you know, however my guests answer it, they usually just go into detail about why the hell it's so important to their life.

Jon: 26:43

You know, and I thought it was interesting that you'd mentioned like you can't think about all the shit you're stressing about in normal life.

Jon: 26:52

You got to deal with, you know, kind of pushing yourself to the limit and almost like using instincts like an animal, and then afterwards, when you're done with all that, I feel like it's like you said, it's a lot easier to deal with all the crap that you're dealing with, you know, because you've already put yourself under all that stress. And I do that with basketball. So normally, if I'm not hurt, I'm usually playing three to five times a week, you know, and when you're playing fives, five on five, there's no time for me to think about going grocery shopping later and do and do meal preps or like paying bills and shit. You know, like in that moment it is visceral. I like that word that you used, it's nice, and I thought it was interesting that you mentioned comfort a lot in a couple of times, because I have talked about that a couple of times on the podcast. I think that, where we are in, what is it 2023,? I think we have a problem.

Jon: 27:50

I think we have a problem with comfort, you know.

Marcos: 27:53

Yeah, it's a drug man, like you know, and it could be. It could affect every area of your life, right? If you allow yourself to become too comfortable in any situation, whether it be a relationship or a job, or you know, it's like one thing to hate your life and want to leave your job. It's another thing for it to be so comfortable and so cush that it's just like you don't want to do anything else, you don't want to go outside, you don't want to go out of bounds, you don't want to work late, you don't want to do that Like everything's taken care of, right. So it's like. You know, is that a bad thing? No, it's not a bad thing, of course not. It's good to be comfortable and, you know, have nice chairs and good furniture and stuff. But it's like, you know, it's like that.

Marcos: 28:35

Have you ever saw that Disney movie Wally? Yeah, where it's like takes place in the future and they got the dudes like floating around on, like basically recliners and they like fall out. That's where we're headed, man is. Because it's just like oh, we got chairs that lean back, that hold your hands up and massage your fingers and like, and it's good, it's good stuff, but it's like, if you get caught up doing that for too long and you don't get off that couch and you don't, you know, do some pushups or move around or something, or something, it's all going to catch up to you Something, yeah.

Jon: 29:09

And it literally can't go wrong. And I have been there even in my sobriety. I thought that I was going to have everything fixed and answered. And you know I've been sober for four years now and I hit ruts.

Jon: 29:20

You know I hit stuff where I'm not staying up on my working out or like my going out and stuff, because you know there's always this comfort to fall back on right. And I notice internally and you know we're not going to like generalize everybody out here because, like we were saying earlier, we have some friends who do really good in the corporate jobs everything's laid out. You know, some people just want things taken care of and I think that's great. You know, some people want to be comfortable all the time and don't want to be uncomfortable. I get that. But as humans, as conscious animals, I do believe that there's something inside of us that wants to be pushed to that limit. You know, and I see red flags in my life now because I've trained myself, if I'm too comfortable for like even a couple of weeks, I'm like I got to fucking do something, I got to go run, I got to go hoop.

Jon: 30:12

I got to do something, you know because I've been sitting on this couch, feeling a certain way, for too long, you know.

Marcos: 30:19

Right, and it can be that in itself could be de-abilitating, right. It's just like and I see it all the time because it was me right, like you know, I always tell people who trained your jiu-jitsu, like when they first start out, like have a plan right. Like two days a week in cement, come hell or high water, these are the two days I'm going to be in training. Because what happens is they see the schedule and they say, okay, I have class seven days a week, I'll just go whenever I can. You know, you start off good, maybe you do three days.

Marcos: 30:50

Then you feel a little sore, so you take a day off and then you come for another day and then you're like, oh, I got the kids, they got this and we had soccer practice, so I skipped that day and then I was supposed to go this day and then one skipping one day turns into skipping a week and skipping three weeks and just skipping a month, and now you have to face the music and go to class and all these dudes have been working out for the past month and you haven't been. So it's like now you got to walk through the door and get what's coming to you. So it's the same way, right, like as long as you're just like ah, you know, we're just da-da-da-da-da. One week turns into two weeks, three weeks A month. You haven't gone to the gym Now, you're just making donations, you know.

Jon: 31:34

So it's like it's how quickly it happens, man?

Marcos: 31:38

You're just making donations to LA Fitness. Appreciate it. Thank you for your donation, I'll see you next month?

Jon: 31:44

Shit, I've done that before, yeah.

Marcos: 31:46

I've been there, I know how it goes, man, I know how it goes.

Marcos: 31:49

I think most people in this country have been there honestly, yeah, and it's like I said, and that's what again why I'm such a huge advocate for Jiu-Jitsu, especially when it comes to health and fitness, is because when you come in and you take your class, like we run your warm-ups, we tell you what we're doing at first, then we tell you what we're doing second, then we do our drill, then we do our rolls, and then you're done an hour and hour and 15 minutes and you're in and out and whereas, like you know, if you're responsible for your own fitness or whatever and you've done it a million times, I'll go to export. I'm going to do legs today and you do a couple bicep curls, take a couple selfies, check out some chicks and you've been there for three hours and you've done half your workout.

Jon: 32:33

Right.

Marcos: 32:34

And it's just like well, I haven't got any results. Well, you know, look at how you're spending your time, you know. So it's like with something like Jiu-Jitsu, you come in, get your ass kicked for an hour and then you leave and FU will see you tomorrow. You know, that's how it goes.

Jon: 32:52

We talked a lot about like the individual and how this has affected you and how this affects people who do go and use it. But one thing that just kind of came to mind was you mentioned people go to the gyms that do the regular workouts, and I'm one of those people. I do my solo stuff, but then when I hoop I'm obviously playing with a bunch of people. There's a community aspect to this Jiu-Jitsu thing. Not even just the professor and the student, but everybody there is there to learn and to grow.

Marcos: 33:25

How has?

Jon: 33:26

that affected you.

Marcos: 33:29

Well, I mean, yeah, I always say, you know, jiu-jitsu it's a personal journey that's practiced in a group setting and you can't practice it without at least one other person you know. So you have to, at the very least, say hello to the guy in front of you, like you at least got to shake his hand before you try to rip his head off. Like that forces you into communication, it forces you into interaction and that's where you get such a very where a lot of people call Jiu-Jitsu a cult, because people become so obsessed with this, because it's like I go there, I see all the homies you know. I see the dudes who started around the same time that I did. I see all the dudes that have been helping me out, that have, you know, been there for years before. I see the dudes who work in the same field that I work in or, you know, they have the same amount of kids that I have. So it's like I'm automatically placed into a place where it's like I know all these dudes and, like you said, like it's not, it's and it's not everywhere. It's not every single sport, no-transcript. Everyone has their own reasons for being there. Yes, everybody has their own right, but we're all looking to do this one thing and that's mastery.

Marcos: 34:51

So when you have that environment, it's very encouraging, it's very uplifting and it's very collaborative. And of course, dude, I love. You know I can't lift with other people. I can only lift by myself, like because I have to, like do my numbers, do my sets like do my rest time, like I don't want to talk, like I have headphones in, like leave me alone. But you can't do that in a jiu-jitsu gym, like you can't wear headphones and just model through your workout without talking to anybody, like it just doesn't work that way, you know. And so, yeah, community is the word right Is where it becomes. It's like, you know, we obviously have our own language and our own way that we talk about things and our own memes and our own you know, different jokes and stuff, like. So you become, like you know, part of the subculture, right?

Marcos: 35:40

So that's kind of what draws people in too, especially, you know people who don't have that anywhere, like they don't, maybe they don't have a family, or maybe they don't have friends or maybe they don't have, you know, constructive people in their lives. So they go to a gym where you know everyone's working out, everyone's training, everyone's trying to get better, and you just get mixed in with those guys and then you know, you guys get promoted together. Man, we started when we were white belts, now we're blue belts, now we're brown belts, now we're black belts, and we've known each other for damn near 15 years now, right, so whoa, and so that's kind of again it's a hidden thing that a lot of people don't think about at the front end, but you kind of find it out later on, as you continue on through the art, right when it's like it becomes tighter and tighter knit. And the community itself, you know, even across the world, really isn't that big, you know Like. So everybody knows everybody's somewhere along the line.

Jon: 36:38

Yeah, it becomes more than just an individual journey at that point, because you're doing it with people and I think you know, with the rise of technology and everything that we have been dealing with, and especially what happened with COVID, it kind of gave everybody the wrong impression that we're alone, you know, or we're more alone than we make ourselves believe and now we're trying to get our footing with coming back into community options like this.

Jon: 37:07

You know, or you know, it's not always just a text message or a message online. Sometimes you just need to go out and be around people. You know, even, like you said, even if you're gonna reach some sort of goal, especially like a physical goal, like that, you know, I never understood when people came to play fives on the basketball court with their AirPods in, like, literally like five on five. I'm like, and I'd have one kid on my team and I look at him and I'm like, how, how do you do this?

Marcos: 37:38

What could you be listening? To right now. What is it like? What gets you in the mode to play such a? Yeah? I mean there's a lot of talking and a lot of things that go on Right. I don't get that either. I've never understood that.

Jon: 37:51

We usually lose those games too, and I don't say anything after. I'm not that guy. I'm not gonna say something you know, but I'm just saying there's some correlation here. Right, right right.

Marcos: 38:02

There's some correlation, maybe not be the same thing, but no, yeah, absolutely, man. And so, yeah, I think that you know that's why Jiu-Jitsu has become so popular now in a lot of different spaces, you know, in the first responder space and the mental health space. You know military, you know really every just everyday people, and addicts especially. You know, because it's like when you become sober, when you remove yourself from certain environments, that need or that desire to be a part of something doesn't go away, and that's when people relapses because they don't have things to put in those places where there was once things that sat.

Marcos: 38:48

And so, you know, when you give your, I tell people I've had a lot of addictions in my life with Jiu-Jitsu's, by far the most constructive. But that's just because of what it offers, it's just because of the all-encompassing aspect of it. It's not because there's magic or there's something that somebody knows that nobody else knows, but it's the whole package. And if you allow yourself to kind of be involved, then it kind of pulls you in and gets you, you know, kind of acclimates you the way that you should be right. And so it takes a lot of place, whereas where people would use or go party on a Friday night.

Marcos: 39:28

They go sweat it out on a mat for two hours and then you know you're so exhausted you can't even go out you know, just go home and go to sleep and you create that, you know pattern, time over time and you know, before you know it, you're you know X amount of your sober or you know you don't have those desires anymore because you're just not in that headspace anymore, you know.

Jon: 39:50

Right, you're more in tune to the healthy side of your body, your mind and your soul, you know.

Marcos: 39:57

Yeah, and again it starts to like it's like Jiu-Jitsu starts to like suck everything up, like in your life, and like that's what becomes the center, because it's like, okay, well, I can't eat honey buns and monster energy drinks for breakfast anymore, you know, I gotta like maybe eat some oatmeal or maybe eat some whatever, some eggs or something, because I gotta go train and I'm not trying to throw up on the mat, right? So then yeah, and then. So then what happens? You go and you get exhausted and you wanna eat something good after. You don't wanna go to McDonald's and ruin the workout that you just had and you've exerted so much energy that you just go home and you kinda go to sleep.

Marcos: 40:33

Or you know, you see all the stuff that makes its way in. You know the recovery stuff and the ice exposure, the cold exposure, like all of that stuff kind of like seeps its way into Jiu-Jitsu. And then you start to learn okay, I'm gonna start doing yoga or start weightlifting or start running because I want my Jiu-Jitsu to improve, and so then you just start picking up more things along the way, but it's all centered around like I just wanna get good at Jiu-Jitsu which is like again, you know it's call it what it is, whatever it is good or bad, but you know it's constructive and it brings about other constructive things you know.

Jon: 41:13

Why do you think that people struggle with finding something like that in life? Though, like you found it, I have basketball. I'd like to say my brother has running. You know, I know, like my one buddy used to be. Well, you know I'm Chris. Megan Beard used to be really into martial arts. He was taking martial arts for like two years, but not. A lot of people have something like this. Why do you think it's difficult for people to go and try new things as we get older, to find that thing you know?

Marcos: 41:55

I think that the older we get, the more set in our ways we become, right, and just like we had talked about earlier, it was like seeking comfort and seeking softness and comfortability is nice, right, soft blankets and warm sheets like those are great, right. But it's like, but going out and humbling yourself and, you know, breaking your body down and sweating and grunting and, you know, failing, it's just not very appealing, right? It's not appealing to me. I still hate it, you know, but that's my whole life.

Marcos: 42:30

It's like, and I now have to deal with people who hate it too, like you know, and try to encourage people to continue in their journey and to continue training into, but at the end of the day, dude, it's fucking hard, like, and it's only the hard stuff that's really worth it, in my opinion. Like you know, people like video games and I don't wanna knock anybody else's, whatever, right but it's like there's just certain things that just they're just not gonna break you down and force you to grow again, and plenty of people are okay with that, like they don't care to have that stuff in their life. And so, you know, it's hard, dude, it's really hard to start Jiu-Jitsu in your 30s or your 40s, because you also have other insecurities. Like you know, I'm a grown ass man and I'm gonna go get physically dominated by another grown ass man.

Marcos: 43:20

Like you know, they have families and careers, yeah, Like you know, like a mortgage, it's a pride thing though.

Marcos: 43:27

Yeah, absolutely, and you know it's. But it's hard, dude. It's hard to put on that white belt man. It's hard to go into a room full of killers and be brand new and to not know everything. And you know, we come further and further away from that the older that we get. I think you know, like we want orthopedic shoes and we want, you know, like, the stuff that's gonna like. You know that we didn't prepare for when we were younger, so it's like well, now, now you gotta pay the piper. You know, now you gotta do the little bit of extra stuff. And you know it's hard, man, it's a lot of people just don't care to do it.

Jon: 44:07

It is. It is very humbling to do new experiences, and not even just like physical ones, just to like go out and like meet new people and do new things, cause you know, college made it very easy for you to just like go do things, meet people and all that crap.

Marcos: 44:26

Oh yeah.

Jon: 44:27

Then we get in our late 20s and early 30s and then it's like if you don't go to the bars, you're not meeting new people. If you're not a part of something like Jiu Jitsu or a gym, like playing basketball, you're not meeting new people and you're not getting in shape. And they just like shove our phones in our face and they go look at this screen.

Marcos: 44:46

You know, look at this screen look at this bright screen so pretty.

Jon: 44:49

Yeah, it's so pretty, you know, pretty and funny screen. And for people like us and I know a lot of people in my life are the same way there's a red flashing light. That usually comes with too much comfort, you know, and I know that as I get older it doesn't mean I can't break those limits, it just makes it a little bit more difficult, you know.

Marcos: 45:14

Yeah, requires a little more. More effort planning a little more more. Yeah, a little more elbow grease. Yeah and yeah, man, it's, it's, yeah, I mean it. For me, it's like one of those things where it's like when I haven't trained or I haven't worked out, like I start going like.

Marcos: 45:31

Cuckoo, yeah, yeah like really like, really anxious and like really snappy, and it's just like man, I got to go do so. I got to like let this out, like and Again, yeah, like you said, man, not everybody has that and it's unfortunate because it what what ends up happening is. It ends up, like I said, it's it's fighting, is Inherent in your body and it's like you need that. It's something, and if you don't, then it just like oozes out of your eyeball, falls out of your ears, like that's when you got like dudes who like catcalls or like or like overly aggressive with women or women who like are very Catty and like they gossip and they like want to like. You know, like it in manifests itself in negative forms that it just like Like, literally like ooze out of your pores, like you, like you just drink a bunch of vodka the night before, you know, and you can like smell it like Ruminating off of you, like it's the same thing.

Marcos: 46:31

You don't get rid of that, like that's just bad energy yeah just Like oozes out and you can't, and at that point you can't stop it and you don't. You may not know what's gonna happen, you don't know what's gonna come out of your mouth, and so it's like for me, I just got to have that constant like Releasing that dump and release, because it's not.

Jon: 46:53

If not I'm, I'll put hands on somebody out here it's, it's getting control of your energy, you know. Right, because we all have we all have that primal energy. Like we've said before, we're still animals, you know.

Marcos: 47:07

It exists, it does exist, can't, can't, say it doesn't like.

Jon: 47:12

No matter how Sophisticated we get as a society or as people, you can't deny that those things right, and before I had taken health more Seriously, I used to, you know, smoke a lot of weed or I used to drink, or I used to eat very unhealthy food, because these were things that would take that, that energy I had, and it would just like shove it really deep down, yes, to press it, you know. And then, you know, you know, eight years goes by and finally the you know, the lid blows off the top and I'm like I have to, I have to do something and Gotta make a change.

Jon: 47:46

Yeah and it started with taking my health seriously. You know, physical, mental and emotional finding something like that and it looks like you have taken this journey to also help other people find that as well, and that is. That is a beautiful thing, man, honestly.

Marcos: 48:06

Yeah, it's a Like I said, I don't know if I'll do it for the rest of my life. I think I'll always teach jiu-jitsu or some form of martial arts, just as a as a general practice. But yeah, man, I, like I said, I've never wanted to do anything else more than this right now, and it's because of I believe that the world just needs it, man. I believe that the world needs to know how to fight and if, if everyone in the world know jiu-jitsu, the world would be a better place. You know, that's like. I firmly, wholeheartedly believe that, and that's just why I do what I do, man, because I believe that kids need this. You know, wives need this, women need this to defend themselves, men need this so they can learn what it's like you know to, to grow in a skill and be humble. And you know, I believe that, whatever cool I don't know who who says it's really overused now that, like, was it hard times create Strong men, and strong men create good times and good times create weak man.

Jon: 49:10

Yeah, it's just a cycle, yeah.

Marcos: 49:12

I believe that I don't know who said it, it's really overused now, but I believe that we're in hard times and through these hard times, great meant, great, strong men will be created. Right, and you know, things are very dark right now in the world and they may get darker, but that's what creates and spurs on men like myself, men like the men in my family, to Help other people on this path and say, okay, you know, you don't have to succumb to the darkness, right, it doesn't. Oh, there's not the way that it has to be.

Marcos: 49:46

And those small movements, those small efforts, right, is what Starts to move the needle in the other direction right and starts to create strong men that are gonna continue our society, and hopefully not, you know, blow it up or lose it in a fight, you know, like you know, that's all that we can hope for. So, yeah, man, I think we're in a bad time right now, but I think that it's created a lot of opportunity for some strong men to to arise.

Jon: 50:15

I Totally believe that. I think this is a this is an important time of reflection for everybody, and not and not even just saying men, but women in general, people in general, you know, like people in general, man you know we only speak really for men because I'm not a woman. I can't speak right what it is to be a woman so do you teach women though in class, though right, oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah.

Marcos: 50:39

There's in, I would say, in the lap jujitsu for women, really grappling for women in general, has grown more in the last 10 years than it has since its inception and More in the last five years than it has in the last 10. It's growing like Tremendously and I I love it. I absolutely Love that. That's a thing, right, because, again, I think that women need to do more than men, just because of the again, the way the world that we live in, and you know, women need to be equipped with the, the ability to, to, to make things happen right, to create and protect themselves in certain situations, and so the fact that they're now getting, you know, kind of carving out their own little section of the market, like it's, it's incredible, it's great to see, you know little girls three years old, four years old, learning how to defend themselves and you know handle themselves in a physical situation. Because, again, like I've, I've seen what it does for little boys, right, being a little boy growing up in that environment, and it's like everybody needs this. It's not just boys who need this course, you know, and it's not, but you know there's a lot of things that they're battling.

Marcos: 51:54

I mean women battle a lot right, like even societal pressures of like, you know, women aren't allowed to get dirty or be sweaty or to to be rough, you know would be strong or be strong, yeah for sure you know they got to be this, this little dainty, you know spring flower, and it's, it's not the case, you know, and the empowerment that comes with you know, moving your body and getting a strong body and learning how to, you know, dismantle another human being, like the empowerment that comes through that is Unmatched and in a lot of other spaces, and again I I'm super grateful that, I'm super glad women are starting to kind of make their way in and starting to Carve out their own little piece of it because, it's, like man, they need those spaces just as much as men do right, yeah, and I think I think that also helps the men in there too.

Jon: 52:50

I think they both help each other by being in there together, you know yeah so it's not always so, because they try, and I say they. I'm like. You know the world tries to split us up all the time instead of us just realizing that we're all in it together. You know, and you've used the word humility and humbling experience like getting thrown around, toss around and all that stuff, and I think everybody going through a very humbling experience is good and is important to grow into the people that we're supposed to be.

Jon: 53:20

So I think that's even better, that we're all doing it together.

Marcos: 53:23

Yeah, 1000% man. And it's like, and you know, yeah, bringing the world together and being able to interact with people of all sizes and shapes is good for you, but I believe also just like the camaraderie that comes with. You know, it's different when it's a bunch of dudes hanging out and then there's girls involved, like when it's just dudes. Like everybody can relax and everyone can say what they want to say and they don't want to. They don't have to feel like they got to put on a show.

Marcos: 53:55

And the same goes with, you know, when you're in an environment of just fighters, or just men or just women fighters, like you know, you don't got to worry about what your hair looks like, you don't got to worry about what your shirt looks like, like to just go in and train and just freaking, do your thing without having to bother you or look at you weird or whatever. Like it's priceless dude. And people need that again, everywhere they need it, they require it, they can't go without it and plenty of people do, man, they go deprived of these spaces and these places where they can express themselves freely. And you know, jiu Jitsu provides that man.

Jon: 54:39

Absolutely Now are there. Is there any tips for anybody out there who might be interested in trying out Jiu Jitsu or a martial arts in general? Or any tips for people who just need to be uncomfortable? How to start? I should say yeah.

Marcos: 54:56

Yeah, I mean first things first is shop around, man, because it's not, it's not a one size fits all approach. Different gyms have different vibes. You know different, different goals. You know there are gyms where they they focus heavily on competition or they focus heavily on fitness or they focus on one kind of facet of it. So, you know, if you're interested in in really, you know, getting involved, I would shop around and say, okay, I'm going to go try a class at each one of these gyms, you know, and I'm going to talk to the ownership and the management and the instructor, and the ownership and the management and the instructors and you know, and the people there, and you know, you know, do I see people that look like me? Do I see people who are friendly? Do I see people who care that I'm there? Or they just, you know, they roll their eyes because I'm a new guy.

Marcos: 55:45

You know, like, shop around and see where you can find yourself fitting in, because you're going to have to spend a lot of time there, right, if you want to be really good and you want to really sink your teeth into this thing, you better be willing to spend Friday nights there, saturday mornings, monday mornings, thursday afternoons, like you got to be willing to be there and spend time there.

Marcos: 56:08

So if you don't like it or you know you feel everyone's kind of different than you, or they're all younger and you're kind of older and it's, like, you know, not really fitting for you, then you know, go find somewhere else and go somewhere that works. You know, because you're the one who's got to do it, you're the one who's got to spend the time and your money and you got to go. You know, and then do the activity itself, which is not always the most fun thing to do. I mean, it's a lot of fun, of course, but you know, coming up learning how to do it like it's not always the most fun. But yeah, so that's the thing is like just shop around, like it's not everything is a one size fits all approach.

Marcos: 56:46

You know the first place you go to may not be the place for you, or it will be, or you'll go and you'll try it and you know everyone's going to be able to do it. You know you'll try it and you know everyone will be really cool. And you know you meet some friends first day and instructors are funny, or you know he's got some cool skills, you know. So it's like you know and you're there and then just show up, man, just walk through the door. For the second half, the people who need some uncomfortability, like you know, they want to make a change, they want to get fit, they want to be more confident, they want to stop eating junk, so much like. Then you got to put yourself in an environment that's set up for you to win Export. You know, LA fitness, weightlifting, getting a personal trainer those things are great, those things are steps, but they're not always going to be able to to be that there for you. So it's like you have to have someone else there to pick you up, to like, kind of like, spray along and like, and for me, for someone like yourself would be your instructor and be me. You know we have conversations, or we talk or we chop it up, or just, you know, I can help you along the way, Okay, Help you with different positions or things like that, Like. And then you start to grow and like, oh, okay, Like, and you just, you know, go off the races, Like.

Marcos: 58:07

It's some people, some people don't need the, they just need the permission. They go and they do it and then boom, they're hooked and they just want to grow and they want to learn and they want to. You know, they want to get better and you know some other people. They got to shop around, they got to get comfortable a little bit, you know, and but you know, just got to show up, that's it.

Jon: 58:27

I think, showing up and, like you said, shopping around, I think, trying to find a martial arts that's or not even just a martial arts, but just something that's good for everybody, you know. But I think you have to be uncomfortable and try a bunch of things. First, you got to walk into some places that you haven't walked into, see some people that you haven't fucking seen ever in your life.

Jon: 58:47

You got to be uncomfortable, and if you didn't, if you don't like it, you walk out of there and you don't even have to see anybody ever again.

Marcos: 58:53

you know you got to just exactly.

Jon: 58:56

You got to just keep rocking new, new experiences, get a good sweat on and, you know, try and make the changes in your life that everybody knows they can innately make deep down, you know.

Marcos: 59:10

And it's, it's hard man. It's easier said than done.

Jon: 59:12

but it is Honestly, I mean it took. You know, we said that 2019 was the year for both of us. It's like you don't have everything figured out ever really, and I know people that have changed their lives in their mid to late thirties and even forties, you know, but Absolutely, if you know that, if you know that you can, you got to take that first step and be really uncomfortable. But I promise, after you take a couple really uncomfortable steps, they'll get more comfortable after that, for sure.

Marcos: 59:40

That's right. It's definitely the hardest part.

Jon: 59:43

For sure that first couple steps, I'd say the first one, right. Yeah, really, I think we hit a lot of good points. I think this was a damn good conversation. Honestly, what do?

Marcos: 59:55

you think? Absolutely, man. I appreciate you having me on Go chat.

Jon: 59:59

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I'll be dropping links to everything Kind of keep you posted and drop links to you Collaborate on all this good stuff Probably going to go up in a couple of days. I'll let you know when that happens and everything. Yeah, man, I appreciate you coming out, though, and honestly I'll be looking forward to having you on again so we can talk more wellness. I think this was a great fucking conversation, would love to do it again.

Marcos: 1:00:27

Yeah, you're welcome.

Jon: 1:00:29

Thanks, absolutely Thanks, for everybody coming out Sticking around for the episode. Y'all have a good rest of your day, night or week and peace out Peace.

Marcos: 1:00:39

Peace out.