Mere Mortals

Share on social media:

Lessons from a week spent doing nothing but handstands and not using technology

In Episode #450 of 'Meanderings' Juan & I discuss: the handstand retreat of Miguel Sant'ana, seeing toucans & capybaras, learning my weaknesses and strengths all over again, being free of the constant negative news, the huac tuah girl meme, taking time off to recuperate/rejuvenate and why Juan is actually a running Wolverine.

Huge thanks to Petar, McIntosh, myself & Cole McCormick for supporting the show. We really appreciate your contribution!

Chat with Miguel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJLfH5t58v8

Timeline:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:02:23) The Travel
(00:07:51) The People
(00:12:28) The Training Routine
(00:18:58) The Experience
(00:31:01) The Learnings
(00:44:04) Taking time off
(00:49:27) Boostagram Lounge
(00:59:41) Mike Mentzer
(01:01:12) Retreating from bad news
(01:08:12) Deliberately not checking your phone
(01:18:35) Squawkers & wolverine
(01:21:21) V4V: Time/Talent/Treasure

Connect with Mere Mortals:
Website: https://www.meremortalspodcast.com/
Discord: https://discord.gg/jjfq9eGReU
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/meremortalspod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meremortalspodcast/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@meremortalspodcast

Value 4 Value Support:
Boostagram: https://www.meremortalspodcast.com/support
Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/meremortalspodcast

[00:00:06] Kyrin Down:

Welcome everyone to another episode of the mere mortals meanderings. You've got Kyrin here for episode 450.  

[00:00:14] Juan Granados:

Oh, he and you got Juan on the other side.  

[00:00:16] Kyrin Down:

Yep. And so we're we're kind of back to normal   normalcy   slight slightly. I'm back in Londrina here in Brazil. 1 is still in Australia and Brisbane.   And Cold Brisbane. Me and cold Brisbane. And it's, it's actually nice and warm here. And this is a, an episode where we we kinda just go free form in a way, although I do have quite a few notes because it it's been two and a half weeks since we've chatted. So,   I'm sure Juan's got a couple of things to to talk about as well, but I've definitely got, like, a a big   spiel monologue to to go to at the start about,   my my interesting maybe you would even say life altering   changes that are that have been Oh, okay. Okay. We   a little teaser there.  

And yeah. So we're live here on the, well, in Brazilian time, 22nd.   So it'd be the 23rd in Australia.   We'll we'll be doing this roughly.   I don't know,   weekly.   We'll just be doing this weekly at some time, and we'll we'll try and try and make it happen with maybe a week missed here or there whilst,   especially I'm I'm traveling,   maybe even seeing a t Pain concert. Who knows? Who knows?   So  

[00:01:25] Juan Granados:

I guess, like, the big news for for me, up 1, I suppose, is do you wanna give us some quick news, an update on yourself, what what you've been doing the last week before we we dive into my my stuff? Well, I was gonna say you're probably gonna be the much more varied one. I'd probably say ever since getting back from Japan and the last time we'd had a lot of podcasts conversation, at least the ones that conversational between us. And it's just been a lot more,   I think I'd say in comparison, more mundane,   more tidying up of the house,   finding new adventures and new milestones.  

Yeah. But, like, the new goes much more so, I guess, like, the call outs is, like, the the milestones,   that have been sort of coming through from,   my daughter. So, you know, experiencing some new things around there. And, honestly, that's taken, like, a lot of time and being with her in good ways. So I think that's been a predominant factor of it.   Yeah. Look, I'll I'll hold some of the other items of conversation to a little bit later as well. But I think we'll I wanna kick off on here. I wanna hear what's been happening in your side of the world. Beautiful. Alright. So I'm gonna focus mostly on the the handstand retreat  

[00:02:28] Kyrin Down:

itself for the the first half of this, then we'll do the boostograms, and then we'll go into maybe some more technology,   retreating from technology   afterwards, which you know, you can add a bit more input into. So let's just jump into it, man. So the travel, I've I've split this up into different sections. I've got, like, the travel, the people, the routine, the experience, and the learnings.   So we'll start off the travel.   So if you see on your screen now, it shows,   how how we actually traveled, where to from from Londrina.   So to even just get to this hence, and I should   start off, I went to a handstand retreat, with Miguel Santana from   conversation. I think it was 33 that I had him on. He was the one who really spoke a long time   ago. Yeah. Yeah.  

In December of 2020   is when I met met this guy for the first time.   And he blew me away with his handstands. And that that was the first time where I went, oh, shit. I really wanna do a one arm handstand that is gangster.   And just through, you know, basically miraculous timing and a big shout out to to Lucas to for organizing this somewhat as well. He there was miraculous timing for him.   We both kinda got invited to to join his retreat and,   and and do, like, basically handstands from   Monday to Saturday   with a a day off in between on the Thursday,   of would still be there, but just not handstanding.  

And, yeah, just just learning from from one of the best. So,   it worked out perfectly because I arrived on the 6th June,   and we needed to be there on   9th. So,   I basically had, like, one day here in Londrina, and then we did this massive trek from London Drina to Patos Jimenez. And his his farm is just outside of Patos Jimenez.   So basically,   13 hour   ride, we split it over 2 days.   We   took a   slight detour, I guess, into, Votuporanga,   which is   a relatively small city. You know, still, like, 100,000 people or something like in,   or which region is that in? I think that might be in   Sao Paulo, the state of Sao Paulo.  

And then   we from there, Lucas had a friend there. So we stayed overnight at this, this friend's place. And then we drove from there. So that was like a 5 hour, 5 and a half hour drive. And then the next one was like a 7,   7 and a half hour drive the next day, to,   Patos Jimenez and and Miguel's farm. I thought after this and then on the return, we basically did the same thing. Stopped off in Voto Porangra for a night and then then drove to Londrina.   And from this whole thing, I was like, you know what? I actually I didn't mind this. I thought road trips were were kind of fun. This was, I used to think I hated road trips. And then what I realized was   I forgot I wasn't the one driving.  

Lucas was driving the entire time. So I basically just got to kick it and chat shit, whereas he had to actually focus on the road and, you know, do the   the, if you've ever traveled   north of Brisbane   past,   Bundaberg,   you know, the kind of roads there will will have, like, it's just one lane each way. And so there's a lot of, like, overtaking   gnarliness that that goes on, man.   I I think there were I can't tell if they were close calls or not, but I don't remember them being this dangerous in Australia when,   I or other people were overtaking on some of the roads here. So,   couple of couple of people were   like, had no patience for getting stuck behind a truck or a b double. They they were just they're gonna go around no matter what. Yeah. That will go on. They'll go on no matter what.  

So, yeah, start off really well. Just getting in there. And, it finally enough,   when we stayed at, Lucas's friend's place, so I kinda had, you know, it was like a little bit of minor celebrity going on because I was the the gringo. So, you know, I was like, oh, we'll invite some friends. And so I met,   Lucas,   his friend Gabriel. He's a kind of movement guy. He's got a   think it's a studio and a online   workshop called In motion. He actually gave me a shirt. So I'll definitely wrap that one day. And   so I met some of his friends. I end up meeting his parents,   his girlfriend's parents, and doing like a barbecue with them.  

And, you know, other random people who are like, oh, let's meet the gringo. And then unfortunately, it's like that I'm probably disappointed them because I'm not I'm not out there. You know? I'm not ridiculous. I'm not I'm not super full of energy or anything. You you were actually you were just as quiet gringo. Oh, come on. Come on. You live up to the expectations. Yeah. Yeah. They're they're like poking me. Come on, Gringo, do something.   So so that was that was the travel. And then adding on top of that, of course, the   30 to whatever 30 hours of of plane flying I did to, to get there. So,   on on, you know, couple of days beforehand. So   I think after that, we arrived on a Sunday evening, and we were both just kind of a bit worn out, just a bit like, oh,   no, no, no feeling the best, you know exactly what you want coming into   a week worth of just pure handstands   and   and training, but we'll we'll get onto that shortly.  

The the next one, the people. So it wasn't just us there. There was,   numerous other people. I've got a little photo of your screen now. So obviously,   Gringo, Kyron, the widest guy of the bunch,   right in   front. Miguel is on the very left hand side of this photo.   And then we have   David, the I guess like other gringo. And I was honestly like I saw a photo of him before   before we arrived, and I was slightly concerned because I'm like, this dude is sporting leopard hair. You can't see it in the photo, but he's got leopard hair going on. And I was just like, oh,   leopard hair, man. That's pretty far out there.  



[00:08:32] Juan Granados:

I don't know what this guy's gonna be like. Karen, I was like, what does he get himself into? What type of individuals are gonna be here? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.  

[00:08:40] Kyrin Down:

And, man, he is an absolute   shit talker. Good Lord. The   Boca Berca, if, I think I said that a couple of weeks ago.   He he is a masterful shit talker.   But thankfully, he's also super humble and and really self deprecating as well. So he's an awesome guy. I actually connected with him really, kind of really deep, deeply. And, we're probably gonna meet up in LA because that's where he's actually residing at the, at the moment. Venice Beach 1. I'm gonna go Oh, wow. Yeah. He's got he's got, like, a he manages a a hotel there,   a hostel. I think it's called Stay Open.  

It's like a pod.   It's called like a pod hotel because I don't think they use the word hostel in America. But, he's right. He's I I think it's   a 100, 200 meters away from Muscle Beach.   It's it's right right there.  

[00:09:32] Juan Granados:

So if you don't get yourself some videos and photos at Muscle Beach Boys, man, that'll be 100%,  

[00:09:38] Kyrin Down:

man. I gotta work on dude, I gotta work on my muscle ups   for for Muscle Beach, man. For Muscle Beach. That's true. Yeah.   So Dave was there.   Second from the left is Lauda. This is the Uruguayan   yoga teacher.   She she's pretty good.   And she's I think she's been hand standing for 2 or 3 years now.   And she's basically   at at kind of my level of one arms, which   is   amazing for her and depressing for me because I'm like, fuck.   I've I've I've   more more on the realizations I had,   coming towards the end. But Laura, she's, Uruguayan, so she spoke Spanish, but,   decent Portuguese as well.  

On the very right hand side, it was, Yana, the Russian who lives in New York.   And she's   she does yoga as well but had very little handstand experience. So so she was basically coming coming for   just just to learn how to handstand in general. So she was using the wall a whole lot.   And I was also using everyone was using the wall a lot.   We had Miguel. I already talked about him. And then, mini Miguel, Lucas,   who's the the second from the right.   And then, of course, big bombadom,   myself right right in the middle.   So it was really good group. It was really good group of people,   that got on well with everyone.  

Absolutely no problems. So   especially when you're spending a week with kind of unknown people, it's always like, yeah.   Oh, this let's see how this goes. But, yeah, it was,   it was great. That that aspect was great.  

[00:11:20] Juan Granados:

The I think having the people as well makes it can can make or break it, especially when you go to things and you go to events or taking activities and you're on your own,   obviously, probably   less needed even if there's a few a few people, but you're not interacting with them because it's more the what you're doing, the activity, what you're seeing around you, you got that more focus. But when you're there in part to also interact and connect to people, yeah, you really want them to be good. So sound like the the the right people for the for the for the event.  

[00:11:49] Kyrin Down:

Yeah. Because we we're only handstanding   what of our waking hours were we're only doing that for about a third of them. So,   you know, that's 2 thirds spending it with with other people. And especially I had no.   The other thing I forgot to mention was I decided to take a break from technology. It wasn't actually from technology. It was just turning off my phone and, and, and computer and not using that. But   the the, you know, I had nothing else to distract myself with other than talking with people. So I definitely definitely was very grateful that they were they were all awesome.   Let's jump into the training routine. So,   I guess like all the the routine for the whole trip. So basically it went   7 AM was breakfast,   8:30 to 11:30   AM was the first session, and you can see the photo of the the studio we're in.  

So we'd go up there. It was big space, wooden floors, nice walls, though. Perfect.   So we'd do 3 hours there, then we'd have a lunch at 12   midday.   Bit of rest and relaxation until 2:30, then I'd go from 2:30 to 4:30 is the 2nd session. And then dinner was at 7 PM, and that was basically our days. So it ended up being about 5 hours of handstands a day,   which  

[00:13:10] Juan Granados:

And Carl's dream.  

[00:13:14] Kyrin Down:

Yeah.   It wasn't not not exactly. When when I saw the schedule, I was like, oof, morning sessions. You know, I'm not a fan of morning sessions. Oh, yeah. That's true.   And then I'm like, oh, okay. Well, you know, I promised myself I'd be,   whilst traveling   that I would   get into the spirit of eating as normal people eat. So I'm looking at and going, damn, that's 3 meals a day. Am I actually gonna do this?   I did not end up eating breakfast   any day. I'd it just did not appeal to me at all. And I'd usually wake up a bit later than everyone else.   So I was waking up at kind of like 7:30.  

And   but I I was eating lunch 1. I was eating lunch revelation.  

[00:13:58] Juan Granados:

That's unbelievable.  

[00:13:59] Kyrin Down:

It's a yeah. Did you Yeah. This is the most shocking thing in the trip.  

[00:14:03] Juan Granados:

Did you find,   any different with you eating lunch towards your training?  

[00:14:10] Kyrin Down:

Not as much as I thought I would. Not as much as I thought I would.   I'm not   it's so hard to tell because   the I couldn't control the variable of, you know, it's it's not like I was just doing my normal routine and then only adding the variable of of lunch. It was okay. No. I'm also training for 3 hours in the morning   beforehand.   What I found was I ate a lot. I had I had, I think, a decent sized lunch every day.   And   I think I was burning through enough extra calories that it kinda made sense to be doing that as well. Okay.   So   I and in terms of performance, in terms of feeling better, in terms of having more   energy up up in the air. I have no idea. No idea. Cool. But, I'm not not not noticeable  

[00:15:00] Juan Granados:

enough. Not noticeable enough.  

[00:15:02] Kyrin Down:

Yeah. For sure. So   the probably one of the other surprising things was so like I said, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we trained. Thursday, we had off. And then Friday, Saturday, we were in this kind of training routine.   And   I was surprised   that everyone came through unscathed.   No wrist injuries.   No   Miguel was the only one who actually had a fall of any of, because he was doing one arm work on a mini cane, which is is like, if you fall from that badly, you fall badly.   And so he's the only one who had anything that was even close to like a woah moment.   I came into all of this with, like,   pain in my left wrist,   pain in my, like, right vertebra. So I was going,   dude,   5 hours a day. I don't know how I'm gonna handle this.  

Probably, it was a bit of the adrenaline,   as well as   really decent warm up periods that   got into it. So it typically be a warm up, would do some AB related work   before we trained, and then we'd get into   just drilling drills, drills, drills, drills on the wall.   And a little bit on the freestanding, but most mostly on the wall. And Miguel would kind of give us specialized things because obviously we're we're at different levels and needed different things. So,   for myself, you know, I I was the most flexible of the bunch,   but   very   surprisingly weak in the shoulders. I didn't didn't realize that I'll get onto that soon.  

David's really strong, like he can bust out muscle ups, front levers,   like he's more of a calisthenic guy.   Obviously, being on,   Muscle Beach and Venice Venice Beach   makes sense. But his hands but his hand stands kind of like closed. He needs to open up up his shoulders, but he's got the strength.   So, you you know, if he just gets a little bit more better line, he'll be busting out handstand push ups like it's nothing else.   Lucas and louder like loudest probably got louder being Laura. She's probably got the best   form out of all of us because she's been training with Miguel for a year or so. So her line is just   boom, just   dead straight, man. It's a,   a beautiful looking handstand   with   amazing technique and her technique is  

[00:17:33] Juan Granados:

it shows that she's been training with them for. Yeah. I was going to say it's interesting what you develop   when like, depending on the person that you're either emulating or being trained upon, like, you know, with with, with Miguel,   I guess it might be, like, the form and the efficiency.   But if you've chosen someone who may be by default was, I don't know, just, like, a really strong person, let's just say, so could get away with doing whichever way they wanted to.   Then you just probably like to get the efficiency, but just muscle it all the way up.   Like heaven forbid, if I ever taught anyone how to how to hand send you just be that would be the Please don't. That would be the dodgy looking thing, but man, I'd just be like, yeah. Yeah. You know, just grip the ground as hard as you possibly can. Just hold yourself up there.  



[00:18:16] Kyrin Down:

Yeah. But you guys got a bit more nuances.   No.   So,   you know, because   I I think it was a good group because   generally   Lucas, Lauda,   Laura, and and and myself were were all   at at roughly the same level fingertips.   We could do very similar drills, which allowed him to give kind of a bit more specialized attention to to David and to, to Yana.   And   he's not in the chat. It was in a separate group chat we've got, and he was just like, get my banana bend out of   there.   So,   he does have a bit of banana bend, but he's working on it. So that's that's good.   So let's jump me on to the experience   in general.  

Mhmm. Man,   a whole lot of stuff got jammed into here. So I'm I'm just gonna try and give some of the the highlights.   1, we're essentially living like lords, man. This this place is ridiculous.   It's it's like it's like a mansion and just not the kind of in the middle of nowhere. You know, it's dirt roads leading out to it. When we're getting there, you just like ridiculous scenery.   It's in a valley,   you know, on the on a hill. So you just got this amazing views.   The place itself is just spectacular. It's a really, really, really nice place.   So, you know, I was living as a lord. There was no cooking. There was no cleaning. There's no worries. I just   I could just wake up.  

Yeah. Eat, handstand,   chill out,   hands eat, hands   like it was essentially it was pure focus.   It was all it was a holiday. It was definitely a holiday in   in   a certain   respect.   And I think that was kind of the same for everyone else because, you know, they were coming from LA, from New York, from Uruguay, Luke's from Brazil.   I guess me from Australia, technically. So,   yeah, it was   just   paying for that that experience of   being pampered in a way was was really cool.   I ate cool cool things like which is   everyone was saying, like, this is the place you need to eat it in Minas Gerais. It's got the best best food for that. And, you know, we're getting home cooked meals from his mom and dad who who live there and from,   a couple of people that they get they bring in to, like, help help out with cooking and cleaning.  

Mhmm. So, you know, got to eat just   just kind of authentic Brazilian food.   And it was that was really fun.   I shot a handgun.  

[00:20:56] Juan Granados:

Didn't think I'd be. No. He he he. Okay.   Yeah. That was you say that?  

[00:21:00] Kyrin Down:

That was a revolver with 8 bullets in it. I can't remember the,   the details of it.   Bullets are expensive, then. And how much do you think a bullet would cost in Brazil?   Per bullet? Like a a handgun. Yeah. Per bullet.  

[00:21:17] Juan Granados:

Gee, I would have said it like, damn 40¢ Australian or something.  

[00:21:21] Kyrin Down:

Yeah. No. I think I think you say it was saying it was about $2   US a bullet.  

[00:21:27] Juan Granados:

Wow. That's that's way more expensive than I thought.  

[00:21:30] Kyrin Down:

Yeah. Yeah. Me too. Me too. So   I think I think he said to less US. If it was 2, you'd be pretty close. That'd be 60¢ Australian, but I'm pretty sure he was saying in in US dollars.   So,   I did that.   That was just just randomly. Yeah.   We that was just like a shooting target on the bench. He's like, oh, my mom was shooting. Do you guys wanna go out? So yes.  

[00:21:55] Juan Granados:

Now did she did she hit?  

[00:21:58] Kyrin Down:

Yes. So what?   He didn't give us much explanation other than   well, I I I missed probably the safety thing as well. All I knew was, like, I'm not gonna point this at anyone, obviously, and I'm gonna be very careful holding it.   So it was, like, you know, the kind of grasp   good grasp over onto yourself with your your fingers to lock it in. And   I just it took I I think I had, like, 4 or 5 shots or something until I really realized, like, oh, you need to line up the site with the other side. I was just   just shooting. So so I kept on shooting over.   And so when I lined it up properly, then he had, like, this wood block there, and I I nailed it with the,   he had kind of there was, like,   it was, like, practice bullets and then, like, a real bullet.  

And the real bullet was the one with kind of lead on the the tip, which, you know, the type that kills people sort of deal. I think the others would have hurt and probably kill you as well. But,   Yeah.   So I did I did I did hit the target one. You'll you'll be proud of me.   Necessary training for me going to the US. Who knows? Who knows what's gonna happen, man? I might have to,   might have to bust out.  

[00:23:08] Juan Granados:

Get an Uzi. Go and do if you're in Vegas, you're going to do the, like, the flamethrower Uzi. Oh, yeah. Not the, like,  

[00:23:14] Kyrin Down:

desert shooting.   Maybe. Might need I mean, the stories David was telling me of of LA,   of, you know, just the ridiculous fights that go on there between, like, homeless pit. It's,   I I can't tell if I'm looking forward to it or I'm I'm gonna be shocked at at what I find there. Because the stories he was telling me made me go, this doesn't sound like a first world country. You know?   This doesn't this doesn't sound like an amazing place to be, but it's the it's the good and the bad, I guess.   Mhmm. Moving on. I saw comets, satellites, and maybe even a UFO.   So,   the Milky Way as well. There was one night.  

Unfortunately, it was it was like a half moon. So it was still   it was still a lot of glare and light from the moon, but the Milky Way was on the other side of the sky. So we've got a decent a decent showing. So it's it's always really fun seeing that.   I drank a midday   Thursday beer in a hole in the wall bar. So that was on a on the Thursday we went into   Pat's Jimenez.   Luke, Miguel showed us his his family home where he came from his origin story, which was pretty cool. You can kind of see it,   in the top right of that photo where it says 2017 home retreat,   which he just did in the garage. And he was teaching, you know, a random bunch of Brazilians.  

And   yeah, we just just kind of hung out in the city center for a bit, which was pretty fun. I   I did achieve something.   I achieved. I think I can confidently say I've I achieved a version of the middle splits.   Because   a lot of the practice was   when we're doing it would be just just middle split training getting getting your legs open.   Because it's it's very, very useful.   And,   you know, I've done a lot of that over the years, and I was I was always probably,   I don't know,   10, 10 ish centimeters off of what I would confidently say is a middle split.   And   because we just did 5 days of brutal   middle split training on one of the days,   we're just hanging out and then we're, like, pressing up against the wall and then, like, we're getting, you know, the classic   gymnastic routine, cheerleading,   girls getting their legs ripped open   by the, you know, the the coach. So we we were doing that. We were, like,   pressing on each other's legs and and really getting down. And, yeah, one of those days, I I I got everything down, man. I got everything down. Now it was in a   in the version   where I'll try and do this on the on the camera,   where your your hips are, are turned over. So   I can't do this with my imagine this is your hips. They're they're like turning over.  

So it's like tucking your tailbone if you're if you're trying to imagine what that feels like.   So I can do that version. The version where it's which I believe is called inline splits, which is where so the version I'm talking about is where your your toes are essentially facing forward the same way as as as your kind of, torso is facing if your torso   is upright. The other version is where you you tilt those legs open, so it ends up with your feet pointing up to the sky.   That's the version I I still have a little bit of trouble with and can't say that I've fully got,   but, I did that. So that was a that was a win, unexpected win.  

I toasted marshmallows over an open fire. I got kind of burnt from the fire as well. Just just in like the sunburn y type of way. I was I'd I'd get out of the pool and I'd be kinda cold, so I'd go too close to it. And I don't know. I like fire. Fire is fire is really fun. Thinking in in another life, I would be a pyromaniac.   Just just   it's just cool. Fire calls you.   Yeah. Yeah. It's my element. I'd be a firebender for sure.   Yeah. Despite the bald head, and you might think, oh, Avatar Aang, Avatar Karyn, but no. Definitely   a firebender.  

Made a new really good friend. David David is a really, really cool person.   Made great memories. Got great photos.   I saw some fucking toucans, man. That was Whee. That's cool.   And that I'd I never realized that I really wanted to see toucans, but every day, I was excited to   just see if I could find any. Because they would they would just kinda fly across the sky, not   not too far from Miguel's house. Sometimes they'd be, you know, 100 meters away. Sometimes they'd be maybe 30 or 50 meters. Sure. And they've got a very distinct flying style. They'll kind of flap 5 times and then just coast.   So you you can pick them out from other birds.  

I   I was surprised by how small they were. I thought they were   I thought they'd be, like, I don't know, 50 centimeters or something. Giant eagle or something.   Well, there were eagles there as well. But, yeah, I just thought they were a big bird. In the photos, I just always assume, like, damn, that toucan beak looks really big. Like, that's probably the the beak itself would probably be,   you know, 20, 30 centimeters. But now that that they're tiny little things about the less than the size of a human head.   So,   yeah, that was that was kinda surprising. I also saw some capybaras   prior to that in Watupuranga.  

And those are a rodent. And so I figured, like, oh, a rodent, that'd be the size of, like, you know, a small dog.   No, man. Those things are gigantic.  

[00:28:42] Juan Granados:

Yeah. Like a big big man. They're huge. They get up to, like, 80, 90 kilos. They're Yeah. They're big they're big boys.  

[00:28:48] Kyrin Down:

Oh, yeah.   I could have seen a rattlesnake. We arrived a day too late. If I'd got there,   if I'd got there a bit earlier, I could have seen a rattlesnake, but,   unfortunately not. And there was Macaws as well. I didn't see them because I'm not getting up at 5 AM to to go see Macaws. That's Wow. That's the best time to get up to go see Macaws.   Yeah. You would have loved it there, man. David was getting up   at sub 5 AM every day and doing a training before the training. He's he's an animal. Like,   a absolute beast.   And then, yeah, just saw a lot of the interior of the Brazil, kind of the real deal stuff. You know, it's it's kind of it's like Australia. You know, you if you wanna see Australia travel from from Brisbane up to to MacKay or MacKay   inland. And you'll see Australia. A lot of it's boring. You know, a lot of a lot of here was really boring as well. But on these type of road trips, you do get to get a feel of  

[00:29:45] Juan Granados:

the interior of the country. What what it Yeah. Like what it really is. Yeah. Like what it really is to live in amongst Brazil and,   you know, like when you you say, if you go to Australia and you go to Sydney,   Melbourne,   Brisbane,   you get a I get a picture of, like, where most of   the individuals live in Australia. But yeah, as you say, if you go further up north or inland or anywhere else, something like oh, yeah, that is is actual   more general Australia.  

[00:30:11] Kyrin Down:

It's it's the small things, man.   Passing a b double on the road and feeling the the wind of it pushing your car and kind of shaking   it. That that's that's Australia. That's that's driving on, you know, authentic interior   Australian roads.   And and, you know, you got you got the same thing here in Brazil. So, yeah, getting getting those.   Yeah. Just moments like that, man. They're really fun. And then, yep, just know, a whole bunch of new friends. If I go to New York now, I've got a friend. If I go to Uruguay, I've got a friend.   I'm going to Venice Beach. Miguel's in Hong Kong. If I ever go to Hong Kong, you know, I'm   sure I'd be happy to to, like, meet up with me for a day or something. So, yeah, it's   a great experience in terms of the   the,   yeah, just the experience of it. It was it was really, really fun.  



[00:31:01] Juan Granados:

So what you look overall overall though, what you got from it? Learning. What would you got from it? Yeah. Learnings.  

[00:31:07] Kyrin Down:

Alright. So I've got a little sheet here. So this I've got a whole bunch of different learnings. This is the just   particular   what I learned about my own handstanding   and   particularly my weak areas. But it was also interesting to note, okay, you know, for example, in hip flexibility, I'm way better than Miguel, and that's not necessary.   It's probably a bit due to training and because I've done a lot of yoga, but also just his body is built different than mine and him getting hip flexibility   sucks. So   even though I can do middle splits and he   a version of middle splits and he can do a version, the the other version,   you know, there's a difference in that. But weakest areas back bending, I've I've   this is just general back bending flexibility,   strength in the open shoulder position. So this being   within a backbend. So really   coming through like that and doing a handstand where you're they're called Mexican handstands. They're very impressive.  

I've I've only trained it once and I didn't like it. So   it's no surprise.   Endurance holds against the wall.   Rubbish. I was absolutely rubbish with that which is getting into kind of shoulder strength as well. Dish holds   a classic,   ab drill, and then just needing to record more more video and do more form checks   and   not eating enough protein and calories in general. I think I think I came to the conclusion like, I probably need to get a bit stronger band. I'm not as strong as   I'd probably like slash need to be to  

[00:32:41] Juan Granados:

to achieve what I've learned. Is that is that just to focus on the shoulders? Or is there anywhere else that is actually needed?  

[00:32:48] Kyrin Down:

I mean,   if you look at Miguel's back, for example, he's got a he's got a pretty thick back and his his back is built in a way.   If I can jump back to one of these photos, maybe,   I can't you can't see in in that one.   But you can see, especially when he's like lined up next to Lucas or on a side on angle, you see, like, he's just got a lot of muscles kind of like in the interior and and upper   upper section.   And I'm I'm guessing   he doesn't do much calisthenics stuff. Although, you know, he was busting out   90 degree push ups, which the 3 of them with a weight vest on, which is just absurd,   absurd strength. So,   yeah, it's like, did he   did he get strong from doing handstands   or did he get strong and then that helped out his handstands? I'm   leaning more towards, like, he just did so many handstands that he got strong, but   I think   some particular   adjacent shoulder strength type things would would probably help me out a bit. Yeah. Okay. And and same with the back bending, like   doing   bridge pose   a lot more, for example, or doing it at all because I haven't been doing it,   that that would really help   all the other stuff.  

Maybe I can go through another day, but it's it's not super, super important.   I did have another list here, though, that I I wrote for myself on my,   journal. Sorry. I had this up before, and then I, I did a restart of the computer just to  

[00:34:23] Juan Granados:

make sure that things would would be going over. No. No. It's okay. Well, I was gonna say I was gonna say, do you wanna do you wanna leave those learnings, those more personal learnings so that and after the, boost room?  

[00:34:32] Kyrin Down:

No, I'll get them done real quick. I'll get them done real quick. So the   is better to just do all these right now.   So,   yeah, I guess one was   I'm about where I thought I was   with my one arm handstands. I wasn't   I wasn't thinking like, oh, I'm I'm really, really close. So I I think I acknowledged, like, yeah, I've still got a lot to go.   But,   yeah. Yeah. Like,   probably,   I was looking for the right word for this. Lazy isn't the correct one. I think careless. I've been careless with my personal training and preparation.   Think,   and that includes the whole gamut of   stretching,   of sleeping,   of experimenting with routines of,   actual,   you know, using the wall   form checks,   all of that. I think   it's kind of lighted a fire under my ass to to train harder, eat better, work on my weak points.  

And it was a bit disappointing that I had more weak points than I thought I did. That was kinda like, fuck   shit. I need to I need to work. I need a work a bit more to if I if I wanna get a a one arm handstand,   I probably need to be doing kinda morning sessions again. Not necessarily handstand training, but   those adjacent things that I I need to work on. So kind of like, you know, some of the ads, ab stuff, some of the endurance stuff.   Yeah. So that that was   a bit   like fuck.  

[00:36:05] Juan Granados:

And your eyes are open that you need to actually   try a little bit harder. Correct. Correct.  

[00:36:11] Kyrin Down:

I realized I can do more than I thought doing a double session, starting off with intense stretching, ab workouts,   I would have thought would have just been counterproductive.   I thought my wrists   would have really been complaining after   5 days. And   look, I think I've got a little bit of a hangover of   I kind of push through a couple of things, which   if I'd done another full week of that, I'm not sure I'd be   I'm not sure I'd   I I would be able to complete it all. I think I'd be having some wrist issues and and kinda like upper back issues,   in in this neck area. So,   yeah, but it it did make me go, I can do more than I thought. They kind of broke me out of that. Oh, you know, I just train in the afternoon sort of thing. It's like, no. You can train in the mornings if you want to, man. You just you just don't want to. Choosing not to. It's like,   yeah, choosing not to. And then it's like, well, do you want how badly do you want this thing? And,   that was   very I got to see Miguel once again,   doing his thing in front of me and just going, holy shit.  

Wow.   That is so so damn cool. So impressive. So strong.   Just   just personally, I want to be able to do that thing.   And,   you know, he   he for him, it's different because it's part of a work and job.   So and and, you know, helps   helps his lifestyle. Although he he himself was saying, like, you don't need to be the best hand balancer to be the best teacher either. And I kind of agree with that. I don't think you need to be the best,   you know, the very best.   You don't need to be messy to be able to teach   to coach a football team, for example. So, yeah, I   I kind of agree with that.  

But yeah, just seeing him doing his thing in practice, even just seeing David and and even Laura and and and, hell, even Yana. Every everyone there impressed me with how much they could do and   the strengths that they had.   And obviously, they have weaknesses, but I definitely prefer focusing on the strengths.   So   that that was really great.   Yep. Eating the midday meal, recovery, performance, I probably need to look into that more.   Than the probably, like, the 2 oh, and and Miguel is   earned everything that he's got, man. That dude works so hard. And it's not just on the small things of   being a good teacher. It's being a great host,   having the skills to, you know, create really great video   and and photos   of conveying,  

[00:38:55] Juan Granados:

you know, just every everything. You could tell that there's you could tell there was,   proof in the pudding. Just a lot of retreats.  

[00:39:02] Kyrin Down:

Yeah. He'd done a lot of retreats. He knew what he was doing. Now that was really impressive. Just just the whole the whole gamut of that.   And then probably 2 of the bigger ones was,   you know, I've always said,   I'm not materialistic.   I'm rather minimalist.   I prefer to pay for experiences, but I've never really paid for   a whole chunk of money for a very short intense experience before.   This one, you know, just kind of lined up that way. And then and,   that's that's how it yeah. It just occurred.   And   I wasn't expecting   it. And after it, I went,   that was worth it. That was definitely worth the money.  

And   it was even enough worth it that I would potentially seek out that experience again because,   you know, I was coming to Brazil anyway. So that kind of almost saved half of the amount of the cost just because airfares, I was gonna be here. But, yeah, I think in the future, I'd I'd look at going into, like, a handstand factory retreat in Turkey and going,   you know, that that might be worth it. That might be  

[00:40:10] Juan Granados:

it's opened my eyes to to that sort of thing. So Yeah. Okay. So you I was gonna say, so you would be you would be open to doing, like, again, a handstand retreat, not Absolutely. I was like I was like, I don't know if you meant like that or, like, other, you know, beyond any Even even just experiences in general, it it kind of has opened my eyes to being gone. Okay. You know what?  

[00:40:30] Kyrin Down:

Chucking a couple of grand on something that is short and intense.   Normally, not up my alley, but, you know, maybe   this this this this one was obviously worth it. So,   Yeah.   Potentially potentially   more more things like that in the future.   And then   probably one of the bigger ones was,   as we were driving home from it, Lucas and I were chatting. And,   you know, you're on a car ride for 7 hours. You you got a lot of time to talk 12 hours, I guess, because it's over 2 days.   And   what I realized from that was, you know,   half half of this sheet here,   was was suggestions from him of, I said, you know, list for me the things I really suck at, the things I'm okay at, and the things I'm I'm really strong at.  

And I filled in half of them, but he filled in half of them as well. And,   you know, particularly the ones which,   you know, there's things you dislike and then there's things you really dislike.   I really dislike recording video of myself. I just find it time consuming, man. And, you know, this is one of the reasons it's time consuming is because I'm a crappy phone. Thank you, Juan,   with the   burnt screen. So the you know, you can see   the the the number pad in it all the time. And it takes ages to cut videos to   it's basically out of space all the time.  

And I saw Louder, she had a decent phone and she would record, cut it all within   check out a firm form all within,   you know, 30 seconds. So then she still also had time to rest before our next set.   And seeing her do that made me go, maybe I'd   maybe it's not the filming. It's the problem. It's the it's the phone itself. But   yeah, just spending that time with Lucas and getting   what would you call it authentic,   honest,   raw feedback from someone who knows you really well, who you spend a lot of time with who you know, you're comfortable enough   knowing that   criticism that they give you is not   directed at you or it's you know, it's it's done in the spirit of wanting to help you.  

Lucas, for example,   Miguel, on the very last day told him, like, hey, Lucas, man, your gordenos,   your little your little love handles,   you need to get rid of a man. You need to lose a couple of k's. And Lucas went What a genius. Fuck. I got I got to do it. I got to do it. And, you know, he's already implemented that and is working on it. So that's that's amazing.   I want to do that more with the people I love in my life. And   the thing about the road trip made me realize   it was the atmosphere of the road trip that allowed that to happen as well,   end of the retreat.  

So,   you know, I kind of had this for a while with my brother and dad in the casino that's kind of changed a little bit.   With you doing it on the podcast. I think that's been really helpful.   And yeah, I'm just trying to think of other ways that I could,   you know, force someone to come into a car with me for 5 hours so we can have   a nice authentic raw chat.   And then but obviously doing that in a way which is fun for both of us. So, yeah, it's given given me a lot to think about, man. But a lot of things. No. That's good. Good. Well, I mean, part of the reason for you going off and,  

[00:44:01] Juan Granados:

taking the time away, right, was kind of a   a reset   gives you a lot of time to just think right with yourself. Obviously, with other people, but there's you know, when you put away the phone and you're not really thinking about what else is happening, you end up finding a lot of space to just   think, right, which is a big thing. Did you in the end overall, did you find that it was a reset that you needed, or is there other reasons beyond that that you're like?  

[00:44:25] Kyrin Down:

No. I I didn't. I've I I didn't think about my much at all, which was great. It was nice to just have, like, a week of of that not on my on my mind.   The   and and it just added to the,   Yeah. I guess, like, kinda new new starting point. Feels like, alright. Fresh   fresh   way to approach, look at life,   and,   just honestly some fresh energy. It it   normally a thing like that would drain me of energy, but I feel like I got a lot of energy from that. So that that was really good. That was   definitely worth it in the   everything was worth it. Yeah. It was it was great. It was great experience.  



[00:45:10] Juan Granados:

No. It's awesome. And it sounds good. So so I was going through some of my notes. Right? And I think we might just leave the boostgrams here till till the end. But, one of the key things, I mean Do it in the middle, man. This is this is the middle, man. Yeah. Oh, god. This is the middle. Let's do it now. Well, well, I I won't It won't take us long, man. Okay. Cool. Good. Well, let let's do the let's do the boostgram.   No. Let me let me just talk to this this piece of kinetic connects. So in short, because of the things that have been happening of last few weeks for me, one of the most interesting things was   finding   clarity of mind and, you know, so that I took away   a week to go do something else, but there was 2 occasions.  

It was the   I don't remember correctly. It was last Wednesday. It went for quite a long run. But then because of that long run, I absolutely messed up my legs, not from soreness, but from rubbing together.   Well, not from dwell. It was interesting because I actually ate correctly,   did everything correctly.   You   know problems   and it wasn't that I was sore it was it was in fact that I'd rubbed my legs together so much that they'd like peeled off all the skin of the inside of my legs, man. They were so bad. Are so funny, man. Yeah. It's just ridiculous. It's not like normal injuries, man. It's not normal injuries. So   yesterday,   rather than rather than doing the normal run I would do with Manshield,   I actually just walked,   walked a little bit earlier and I walked through like the rest of the time. So it's like 70 minutes overall just walking, and for a large part, I decided, you know what? I'm not gonna listen to a podcast. I'll   listen to some music,   or nothing at all for a little while, and just that 70 minutes of   pretty clear   thinking   was just it it progressed a hell of a lot of things that were on my mind around what am I doing from a podcast perspective, what am I doing from a couple of work perspectives, what does the future look like from, business ventures and other things. And, you know, that that was just 70 minutes, so I could imagine,   you know, do that extrapolate it over a whole week.  

Obviously, you're doing   focused, intense work, but then you get a lot of downtime   to talk and think and be   which I think is crucial. Right? So that was kind of a big learning I I kinda came out from the last couple of weeks is, you know, finding more time to just   solitude even away from,   shutter to think this, but even away from gym because just a normal when in my gym setting, I'll be focused on lifting.   But when I can go and do something like walking for whatever half an hour, it I find myself really creatively thinking in really good ways.   So I wouldn't I wouldn't at the sky, man. I've got I need to do more staring at the sky, and I did a whole bunch of that. That was great. Yeah. Yeah. And and look, and it wouldn't be so this doesn't equate to   how I need to do meditating more because it's not that. It's I just need time to creatively think and stare into space, basically.  

And obviously for me, if I'm walking and listening to music, that's usually a pretty good substitute or usage for that. So no. No. No. So that's awesome. I'm I'm glad to hear him, man. I'm glad to,   you know, kinda work that exactly with what you wanted. Sounds like you got renewed energy as well, which is always a good thing. And, look, for people listening at home, the honestly, you don't even have to take a week. You can be as short as take the day. Like, even 70 minutes for me, that little walk, that that reset me in a way that I hadn't for a little while. So, like, I'd been sick for a bit. I hadn't been oh, training was good, but not phenomenal. And it made me recognize, oh, like, you know, I could change this. I could do this. Is this way that I could be doing this? I could subtract this. In any case, you can find, you know, shorter amounts of time that help   you realize what maybe you should be doing, shouldn't be doing, how to tackle life, etcetera.  



[00:48:50] Kyrin Down:

Yeah. I feel it's also I was mentioning I was making a whole bunch of bad decisions   when, you know, after mom passed in that last month.   I've I feel like that period's over.   I think I've gotten through that   unscathed. Fingers crossed. I don't know. Still still up in the air, I guess, slightly. But,   no. I think the I think the decision making of,   yeah. Just just getting some time away and and being able to just process things a little bit. Just just time, man. Just time, but in a,   how would you call it, just in a new environment? Just just does help sometimes.  

[00:49:26] Juan Granados:

Oh, no. I did.   Alright. Let's jump into the bit screen lounge. Let's let's talk through these these items. I think I've I've got it right here. I'm gonna start from the 18th June.  

[00:49:35] Kyrin Down:

So there should be 6, I think.  

[00:49:39] Juan Granados:

Yeah. Yes. Correct. Yep. Brilliant.   Yeah. So let's kick off.   Now, by the way, just quickly. So Vistagrams, again, it's a chance for you to send through,   Satochis directly to us. You can attach a message, with that as well, which is what we're gonna be reading out now. Vistagram Lands a chance to just   really shout out to people who are supporting us and sending it through a message, and it's gonna be easily the best way for you to communicate with us and and for us to, while not have a direct conversation 1 to 1, it's it's a good way to reach us very, very much directly. And, of course, it supports us here in the podcast to continue doing what we're doing. So Absolutely. We got Peter. He sends to a row of ducks 2,222   SATS on YouTube fountain. He says, if you got if you got 60% downtime at your job, and I claim you don't really like your job, I have an endless amount of things I can learn, fix, create, improve at work. Endless. Then again, I love my job. The paycheck itself is a nice side benefit.  

So my comment on that is, yeah, my comment on that, if you have if you have that much downtime,   because you're not   wanting to pursue other things, I'd say maybe you don't not not you don't like I wanna say that you don't like your job. I just say you're bored with your job.   Because if you're not if you're connected and engaged, you will find other things to to do, whether even that's just conversing with people, talking to people.   But love to hear, Peter's   very much connected with his job in any case.   And based on his note, honestly, there's probably there's probably a lot of people who would be beyond 60% and be like, Yeah, I don't really like my job. So I think there's there's some truth in that.  



[00:51:12] Kyrin Down:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. A lot of a lot.  

[00:51:18] Juan Granados:

11. Next one. I've gone from you.   Yeah. Yeah. Kindly more focused. Give me more platitudes.   I was a good mix of quotes and how they apply to you personally. Please do this again. Is this the monthly one?  

[00:51:30] Kyrin Down:

Yeah. This is the one that you did. I I greatly enjoyed that, man. That was a good a great episode.  

[00:51:36] Juan Granados:

Good. Good. So this is the for people who are tuning in home. That was a week. Well, obviously, currently, it was a filler   upside. But yeah, it was it was good fun. It was that I've been thinking about doing that for a while. So it was nice to   get the the push to be like, oh, actually, no. I have to put something together for that. It was really nice. So,   I do this again. It was a just like a monthly summary of the things that I've learned and things that I understand. And  

[00:51:59] Kyrin Down:

I already do this. I get to already notes that I have. And it was just much more of okay, just exposing it, putting it together so yeah I was initially I thought oh man this just gonna be a a re a rehearse of the the monthly goals it's just gonna be the same thing but now is is is different in   in the quality and   the,   what? Oh, what's that?   There's a there's a brilliant term I wanna use right now, but it's escaping in my mind. No. No. The brilliant terms gone. It was it should be in, you should know this one because it was in Zen and the out of out of motorcycle   maintenance.  

It's kinda like quality, but, a little bit different.  

[00:52:39] Juan Granados:

Yeah. I I kinda know what you're intending. You're not? Thinking like Qualia, but no. It's not that. Qualia. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Qualia? Yeah. I think it's Oh. I think it's okay. It's like this this like,  

[00:52:48] Kyrin Down:

it's a it's like a property which is   not   easily   defined. I know I'm butchering this, but you doing it by yourself gave it a different   quality that was   I don't feel quality is the right word for it. But, in any case, it was it was good. Different different is good.  

[00:53:06] Juan Granados:

Good. Good. Thank you, sir. So that was those Carrington through that that boost. We got Cole McCormick. He sent a row of ducks 2,200 and 22 sets sent using fountain. He says   the best image AI is mid journey hands down. Yes. I'd agree. They have personalization options and on aesthetics and 3 d objects, video is coming in the year. I would put all shitty Hollywood movies in the same camp as generative movies. People know when something is good. Audiences aren't stupid. There must be intent and a focus and story. People feel these things intelligence   does not tell stories.  

Intuition   does.   They look midjourney,   midjourney for sure,   is I think a really good one. And I was actually talking to a lot of work colleagues about AI because a lot of   images get sent around now in the workplace and in another area as well, and all generative AI created images.   And, man, I   by seeing some of the progress of just what's to come and and that in, like, the video space,   we're not we are not far off   being able to go and say, hey, I wanna create   this video that I wanna watch and it sort of generating something that at least you wanna listen to or play around with. I think the I'm actually telling you a story of to someone at at work that I've done this a couple of months ago with the cockpunch stories that Tim Ferriss had produced.   And   I think after the last episode of episode 13,   I created my own like little side story for 1 of the nfts that I held   and I thought and I was talking to him I went you know you could just go from that. Like, it just generated a story. You've crafted it in whatever way you wanted it to.  

It wouldn't like, how far away are we for them to just feed that into some other AI that then transforms it into a video or like a storyline?   Probably not not long, man. Probably not long at all. So,   honestly, yeah, I almost start putting shitty Hollywood movies at the same camp as generative movies. Like, it's we're now at that level. We're now at that level. Thank you very much, McIntosh.  

[00:55:05] Kyrin Down:

I'm sorry, Cole. I've got yeah. I've got some,   I don't know, rambling thoughts on on   I had a dream. I had a dream the other day, and   I went, man, this would be an awesome dream if I could   transform this into a movie.   And I went, well, okay. Well, you know, could AI help help me do this?   And I just, you know,   from my playing around with it, I just don't   I don't see how it has the capabilities to to capture everything that I want, But I could I could definitely see perhaps   the the steps to get there are perhaps getting there where it's like, okay, maybe I draw a little storyboard   for it to have, like, a basis of, you know, this is the capture points that I want.  

And then it can create something that is very, very similar to it. So,   but yeah. Yeah. We'll we'll do that another day. Do that another day. I could fill a whole other podcast.  

[00:56:04] Juan Granados:

I've got 2 from Makadoshia.   So first one's 2,222   SATSEND using fountain   says,   Be glad you don't live here. The presidential election cycle is 2 is like 2 years now. Seems never ending.   And then   he said, oh, he said the same comment, but with another 1,111  

[00:56:22] Kyrin Down:

sets that you do, Clinton. I was gonna I was gonna ask you. Yeah. I think it's double on me. Dosh. Yeah. Oh, dude.   I'll I'll talk about I'll talk about my technology break,   shortly, but that that plays right. I'm I'm  

[00:56:35] Juan Granados:

also, I'm super, super, super glad that in Australia, the politics and   the, I guess, inflammatory conversations isn't as great as the US.  

[00:56:44] Kyrin Down:

I'm so happy.   Because that would be the other day. We're just saying like,   you know, in the US, like, they've they've got the,   you know, the they're so outlandish. The the the we just don't have much controversy on and on our leaders. And if if, you know, I'm sure there's some Australian who would say, oh, man. But don't you know that, this politician here over did this, but it's like, yeah, but it's they're not. I don't know. Yeah. It's it's it's a blessing. It's I've I've never   never will I ever say this again, but Australian politics are the best.  

[00:57:19] Juan Granados:

No. I don't know, man. I I like the,  

[00:57:22] Kyrin Down:

the You like the drama?  

[00:57:23] Juan Granados:

No. No. No. I I like some of the,   videos you get to see of like the Iranian politics or Italy politics and they're having Yeah.   Punching each other. 1 of them ran Oh, yeah. One of them ran away with the, like, the signed paperwork.   Phenomenal.  

[00:57:38] Kyrin Down:

I heard yeah. I heard something about that. That would make for great viewing.  

[00:57:42] Juan Granados:

You know, if Alicia's Charlie of albo got into, like, a fight, man, that'd be awesome.   Thank you very much, sir, Macintosh.   Peter, another one one is the reason Japan is banning tourists from some places 2,222   sets using fountain look perhaps Oh, yeah. Perhaps. Perhaps. I didn't go I wasn't even close to that location   where kind of just making media. It was a I think it was a 711 or a food mart. And then over the top, you could see,   Mount Fuji, like, really   crystal clear. And it started Yeah. And they started putting up some fences. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So no, Peter, I wasn't there, but perhaps I was,   in other places where maybe they decided, nah, they're more Colombians.  

Yeah. Specifically, I mean, not even people, just Colombians. Exactly. Just no more Colombians.   And the last one here.   Oh, we got one more do we? Yeah, we got one more. We got one more. It actually came through at 4:48 in the morning.   Breezy time from Peter. He said, congrats on straddler   on on straddler. Oh, yes. Yes. Yep. Stoller. Just catch Stoller.   Ah, there you go. Just catching up on past episodes. Nothing insightful to add, add, but I realized that I missed you guys' banter. My buddy convinced me to watch Arnold's nemesis, Mike Mentzer, videos from back in the day, talk about recovery days. Very unique approach training. I'm going down this history of bodybuilding rabbit hole, and it's surprisingly   fascinating. That's another 2,202,021,022,000,222   sets using content.  



[00:59:07] Kyrin Down:

Keep watching, Peter. Keep listening, Peter, because you're gonna you're gonna hear history in the making. I go to Muscle Beach. I go to Muscle Beach. History's gonna get made, man.  

[00:59:16] Juan Granados:

It's gonna you probably Arnold's gonna walk by or something like that. You're gonna show him your you're gonna show him this, straddle, and it's gonna all come together.  

[00:59:25] Kyrin Down:

No. He'll just be like, who's this twig on the beach?   Just Arnold Schwarzenegger making  

[00:59:30] Juan Granados:

fun of me. And now and for and for folks who  

[00:59:33] Kyrin Down:

Papa Arnold Schwarzenegger   like I've taken protein man I'm doing it I'm doing it. And he's like  

[00:59:39] Juan Granados:

shut up. It'll take more. The the nemesis as well that,  

[00:59:43] Kyrin Down:

peter's mentioning there mike mincer. I've never heard of that guy.  

[00:59:47] Juan Granados:

Mike   Mentzer, the only reason that I know him is he's known for, getting like really, really, really, really, really, really shredded   to the point I don't. I can't remember if that's because why he died.   I'm pretty sure it's the right guy. But, yeah, if you if you look up pictures of him, he looks like he's just straight skin. Oh, no. No. Apologies.   Had the the wrong guy.   But no. So, yes, I do know the guy from I just pulled up an image. Do you know the guy, but I I miss miss   miss,  

[01:00:17] Kyrin Down:

I thought his nemesis thinking about was another guy. Louie Fringman? Nemesis was a, yeah, like, he was like an Italian guy, right, or or a Greek guy or something like that. Yeah. The Louie Ferenga, the the Hulk the Hulk guy from Yeah. Back in the day. That's yeah.   Yeah. Okay. Alright. Well, Arnold's a contentious guy. He's got a lot of nemesis.   When you're when you're the top dog, everyone's your nemesis. They all they all want a piece of you.   Yeah.  

[01:00:42] Juan Granados:

Nope. Thank you very much, Peter. Thank you very much.   Cole, thank you very much. Macintosh, thank you very much. Who's  

[01:00:49] Kyrin Down:

who's joining in and just goes like, oh, I wanna send a boost in. The probably easiest explanation you'll find is on mere mortalspodcast.com/support.   And I've got a bit of an explainer there of how you can do that, why you would want to to do that, and what it means to us. So that that's the place to go. But yeah.   Thank you, Cole, Macintosh,   Peter, and myself.  

[01:01:12] Juan Granados:

Okay. What do we got, Karen? What's your yeah. The call that they wanna talk about? Yeah. This this one shouldn't take too long.  

[01:01:19] Kyrin Down:

So, you know, the I had to give the title something and the more appropriate title would have been   retreating   from   text based or other forms of communication   other than   in real life person to person.   But that's not gonna be a very catchy title or will it fit. So   I was I was using a whole lot of technology. I was using,   you know, light switches. I was using showers. I was, you know,   come on at the I've   the the sense I was using it for was I was using it.   I was   deliberately   taking time away and only getting information in via,   talking with people.  

And,   even that I didn't do fully perfectly because one night they had the TV on and they were, he was playing a video about,   figures, how to get a figure handstand. So I watched that with with with the group.   What I kind of noticed   after that,   it felt normal. Just felt normal at the time. Was kinda frustrating a a couple of times because David and I, like, our meme game is   bang on. When he when I reference an obscure video, which I will never be able to find once again, AI disappointing. I can't I still can't find the videos that I want typing it into anywhere.   No matter how specific I get about the description, how how fuck are you gonna create a   wonderful master pool masterpiece if you can't even find what already exists?  

Unbelievable.   But no need. I've got David AI because any   video that I have referenced in that trip of, like, oh, you know, obscure monkey meme or   a photo of those guys who were on top of a wind turbine   and the and it caught fire. And so there, you see a photo of them, like, kinda hugging hugging each other because they are gonna have to choose between   dying in the fire or or falling off of or jump deliberately jumping off the wind turbine.   I've, you know, I've referenced that and he's like, oh, yeah. I know that. Yep.   You know, it's David. I I don't I don't need anyone else. All I need to hang around him, and he will get all of my references.  

So   so it was frustrating, though,   having a couple of these in the back of my mind and wanting to, you know, just whip out my phone and, you know, enjoy in the video or the photo or whatever it was, but but not being able to do that.   The the real thing I noticed though was kind of coming back to to technology. So once again, I'm not the most popular people. So I think I had maybe   4 messages on WhatsApp   and,   1 or 2 emails   that were non   spam related or non   essential that actually needed addressing.   But other than that,   not not too much.  

The main thing I noticed was when I came back, I'm like, alright.   I'll get start listening to some podcasts again and,   and maybe some videos on YouTube kind of just get back into my normal routine   And the Internet was actually out here. And, I was using the Internet on my phone, but it only had like 100, 200 megabytes a day   sort of thing. And   I I'm not gonna buy a plan here in Brazil because it's I'm only here for another month. So it was kinda limiting me to to podcast because the audio is is a lot, you know, doesn't use as much bandwidth.   And   I and I had to be very deliberate about the ones that I listened to. So I was like, oh, okay. Well, I'll I'll listen to, you know, this one. Do I really wanna listen to this   one? Yeah. Not so much. Because, you know, I don't know if,   your Spotify is the same, but you're probably subscribed to, you know, 10, 15, 20 podcasts or something. And there's there's too much. You're not gonna get through all of it.  

And   what I noticed was I went, man, I'm just avoiding   like the plague, the really depressing   sounding titles or   the ones which are just   kind of click baity,   you know, trying to   things that   are are like a problem and will make me feel bad or something like that is is what I noticed. So I was going like,   here's 1. We spend more on debt than war.   And,   that's from rabbit hole recap. And I'm just going like,   I don't wanna listen to that, man. I don't I don't wanna that I I can tell from the title, and it's all it's in all caps as well that I'm not gonna I'm   not gonna enjoy whatever they're they're gonna talk about here. It's just gonna be like a problem.  

And, man, going on to YouTube when I had access to that as well,   if you   I I never noticed it before, but I I kind of deliberately just went to like the subscriptions tab and went, okay. Let's look at this person. Let's look at this person. Let's look at this person.   Go to Jordan Peterson, for example. I don't really listen to his stuff anymore. But if you look at his his videos, man, and the thumbnails,   to stand against the gates of hell, God, Marxism, and the fall of the West. Okay.   What else have we got here? The health crisis is manufactured.   The food pyramid is a scam. Red meat and your health. Sugar cravings. And it's just like, Jesus Christ, man. Like, it's all just there's just so much negativity.  

And   did I miss out on anything from my week away? I could have had a whole way. There's a whole week of bad news just waiting for me,   after it. And   I deliberately did not do that. Did deliberately did not partake in it.   And I missed a whole week of it.   And I just feel   good. And nothing happened. Nothing bad happened. You know, the world didn't fall to pieces.   And,   honestly, it made me go, fuck.   I'm even though I feel like I've   I felt like I'd got my   consumption to, like, a decent level of of   things that are useful and and interesting and helpful. And I went, damn. I've still got way too much shit in here, which is just gonna make me miserable   probably in a slight small degree,   just daily, just hidden me, pinging me. And I don't need that, man. I don't need that. I I need I need, like, positivity   of of people   face to face.  

And even if they're talking about their problems, like it's usually   it's usually like this kind of solvable type of thing and,   you know, I   guess, complainers. There's people who are perpetual complainers, and you you do wanna try and avoid them.   But there was none of them for that week. So that that was my main learning, man. I was just like, damn it. I I missed a whole bunch of bad news, and it didn't affect me at all.   I should probably try and miss more bad news.  

[01:08:10] Juan Granados:

Yeah. Look at that. Have you have you,  

[01:08:13] Kyrin Down:

like, turned off your phone   or not deliberately not consumed information   for   a period of time?  

[01:08:22] Juan Granados:

Well, depends on what the period of time is. Right? Like, I don't think it's been for definitely actually, well, while I was in Japan, there was definitely a big period where I wasn't checking any any news or any at least for me, any work things. So that all of that was kinda separate, but also using   social media ads. So it's still a connection into the world or seeing what's going on. Although in a more micro sense, I tend to do this a lot when it's a particularly   good day to do a lot of business or a lot of things I'm doing day to day. So as an example,   I think it was I think it was on Wednesday. Yeah. It was on Wednesday where   I got to   run-in the morning. The day was really quite full on.  

Sorry. I'll I'll go no. Better example. Friday. Friday before that, Friday before that was similarly got a good training session really wasn't checking into with much.   I went into the day really quite   effortful day with a lot of different   work things. And then I decided to take half day off, and which I just went went down with the family,   got fish and chips, chilled out at the farm, relax on the grass, played kicking the ball. One thing that, I don't know how much you've seen before, but,   my daughter now, Vienna, she,   kicks the ball quite well now. Like, she enjoy like, she'll bring you the ball, and she'll kick it back and forth to you. So, yeah, so we played, like, kicking the footy back and forth for, like, a while. And I don't think I checked my like, I don't think I checked socials.  

Probably I would have checked it maybe like a 4 in the morning. And then the lot like the next time I checked anything was probably   6 PM at night or something like that. And it felt good again, like nothing was missing this anything.   I was, you know, living in the I was in the world. I wasn't trying to observe the world. I wasn't trying to find out about the world. I was just in the world that was around me. So it was a good thing. So and I could see how, like, more extended periods that could be fun.  

[01:10:19] Kyrin Down:

Yeah. Yeah. It's and I guess the question, maybe this is another topic for for another day was, you know,   if you if you went out onto the farm and you just stayed out there and you just deliberately avoided,   you know, information of this sort,   you know, deliberately did not have Internet out there. So you can only have Internet, you know, if you if you go down your driveway and and   then you get cell reception or something,   how how benefit you know, how much bad news do you need to get into your life? Because, you know, bad news is sometimes a a Kickstarter. Oh, shit. World War 2 is breaking out. You know? Oh, shit. Russia looks like it's about to invade Ukraine.   And I'm and I'm I'm on the farm in Ukraine.  

It's not it's not the best place to be, you know.   I'm at the borders.   Yeah. So   so, you know, there's there's some   but but then again, you know, would you find that out anyway from the farmers down the road who tell you these things? Maybe. Maybe. So,   yeah. Just it did it did just get me thinking, like, I I can personally reduce   this down even more. I can cut more things out.   I   the the scrolling   type behaviors,   I'm I'll still probably go back to it at some point because, you know, every now and then, it is fun to scroll on Instagram and just get, like, a whole batch of new memes coming in.   Mhmm. But I went on to to 9 gag   and   have the there was a video of there which was kicking off, which was of a girl. And,   it's it's the   Chua. Do you know that one? I do know. Haktua.  

Haktua. Haktua.   If type in, what is it, h u   a c t u a or something like that. Yeah. You'd be you'd be hard pressed you'd be hard pressed to not not have heard about this. Yeah. I'm I'm not I'm not gonna explain that in in detail, but it's   that that's the kind of thing where it's like, that's a funny video. I like that. She you know? Mhmm. She seems like a cool person. I'm glad I came across that.   And then it would be, like,   just some other random shit about Muslims   in in Sweden or Europe. And it's like, fuck, man. I   don't care about this. This is just negative news. I don't nothing. This is not helpful.  

So   yeah. I don't know. I don't know.   Gary v talks about how, like, his algorithms are just full of happiness and and good things because he deliberately   tries to do that.   I suppose I'll I'll I'll give that more of a shot and just try and cut out more. And, like,   any any bad crap, any negative type things, I'm I'm thinking, like,   that they can they can wait   at least for at least for a while.  

[01:13:14] Juan Granados:

Well, they can wait until they can wait until hopefully it's like, you know, if it's really bad. Yeah, exactly. Like if it's really urgent, then then someone will tell you about it generally, Right? If it's really, really urgent, like, you'll you'll hear it from all in just one place.   But I mean, I I I agree with that. I think for last part, I probably consume a lot more things in a day to day basis, but I equally,   you know, I I both want and have found myself starting to   not check-in with videos or podcasts which are deliberately let's just say,   gonna be   like debate   or   going to be challenging ideas, but only if like, I would definitely check one out if it's, if it's, I think, generally gonna be towards,   like, I'm gonna find some info insights or learnings when it's debates over maybe topics that I don't, there's no real need for me to be like really in-depth skilled or knowledgeable about and like, why why would I even go check that this similar to what you're saying though, like, I still have Jordan Peterson, like, subscribed.  

But I'm like, I don't know if I'm ever gonna listen to any of his episodes that are coming out because you're right. Like, I'm not not interested. There's a lot of   there's a lot of reality  

[01:14:26] Kyrin Down:

but depressive nature to the conversations. And I'm like, you know what? I'm not I don't need to go through that. The only the only reason I'd listen to him again now is if he has a guest that I like, and then   and then it might be worth it because he's not he's not the worst interviewer, but,   I'm I'm certainly not going to his content for him again. And I was I was just thinking of a hypothetical in my mind.   Kairan,   you know, if if you if you don't have this is what this is what anyone who disagrees me sounds like, Kyren.   If if if you don't have social media, if you're not consuming some of this information, like,   you're gonna you're gonna get rex, mate. COVID.  

You know? COVID came that you know, if you didn't know about COVID, you're fucked. Well, it's like, well, I had social media then. And   go back to what it was, like, episode 10 or something, which we did on COVID.   We we had plenty of information,   and you can see our predictions.   And we were well  

[01:15:30] Juan Granados:

unwell off  

[01:15:31] Kyrin Down:

of the magnitude of what actually happened and the insanity that engulfed the world.   So   having having more information did not help then. And,   like I said, I I and I'll I'll repeat this for for a long time to come.   One of the things I'm most happy about was that I   did not get into any COVID   related,   subjects or debates. I did not look into,   you know, the spread ability of the diseases. I did not become a   micro,   what would you go, germologist or whatever,   Talking about half lives, talking about,   the protective   measures, how effective they are, policy, any of that sort of shit. I   vaccines, none of my   deliberately avoided everything. And   I maintain to this day that that was   a huge   brain,   a huge potential brain suck of just stupid knowledge and workings and   crap, which I thankfully avoided. So,   yeah, I'm   I'm I'm kinda happy with myself for for that. And yeah, honestly probably probably can do that a bit more with with smaller related things as well. Yeah. I I just think in in general, right, that's I'd probably say that there's there's a level of influence that we allow  

[01:16:57] Juan Granados:

other things in the world to act upon us that, honestly,   we don't need to allow as much. Like, there's   But a lot of us and you know, we're not   immune to this, but   we kind of allow a lot more of the actions and externalities for the world to control what we do what we're doing.   And I think the balance is wrong. I think you should for a large part be internally controlled, sure have external reasons.   But   when you've got a, you know, something squawking away, like an alarm somewhere about,   as we mentioned, X countries doing this,   You know, in large part, the other is things to be concerned about.  

But to you as an individual, it does it does it help to, you know, be up to date with everything that's happening and all the historical nature of it.   You know, I debate that perhaps it isn't, it isn't for   for your own sanity, for your own   healthy thinking and for, you know, what you can get out of the world and the happiness and being in a good mood as opposed to just always being a baby downer because, you know, this person did that or this country's not doing   this. It's kind of depressing, and it it kind of spreads as well too when you talk to people who are very much like that. You, a,   don't wanna interact with them, or b, kind of brings you down. It kind of goes like, ah, shit. The world's more of a terrible place, but, you know, in reality, overall, if you actually looked at it all on holistically.  

It's up. It's actually a much better place than, you know, 100 of years ago.   We'd have more wars, more fights, more more droughts, more   impoverished people. And that's not the case today. So I think, you know, if you if you allow   the info that comes through that's quite negative, then you're also at   the you're also now looking at all the rest of the good stuff that's been happening as well.  

[01:18:35] Kyrin Down:

Absolutely, man. Absolutely squawkers. But you know, we've got Yappers already, but I think there's some squawkers out there that need to need to avoid. Some squawkers.  

[01:18:44] Juan Granados:

Yeah. I was gonna say, go to shut them up, but no. Don't. You just let them let them squawk somewhere else. Just not squawk around you.  

[01:18:50] Kyrin Down:

Yeah. Squawk is like the Macaws, man. Just don't get up at 5 AM. You're gonna avoid it.  

[01:18:55] Juan Granados:

I don't yeah. I've, I haven't I haven't moved my alarm. Agree with that advice. I haven't I haven't moved my alarm of 4:15 AM now for since Japan.   Yeah. It's just been 4:15 AM every day.  

[01:19:07] Kyrin Down:

That's big boy times right there. Big boy time. Absolutely.  

[01:19:10] Juan Granados:

We're gonna have to wrap it up here, folks. And I'll go for a little bit. But, yeah, Karen, thanks for sharing, obviously, the the big, big sessions obviously has been be happening over the handset stuff. I think, I didn't get into a lot of the other so from those walks, by the way, I came to quite a good,   pieces of,   revelation of what I wanna do,   from my different things that are coming from the podcast perspective. I was able to I think I talked to you about this way. That for next week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was talking about my annual goals and that I wasn't sure what they were gonna look like. Dude, one single walk changed all that. Completely helped me cement exactly what I wanted.   Yeah. It was really good. Like, I was really, really good, so I was able to write them all down and map. So a lot to tune in to the next episode. I think we'll have a lot of that, but this was much more of a catch up. Let's listen in to, you know, what's been happening in the in the lives of the be immortals,   and then we're gonna get off from there by the way as well. And I hope this starts happening more from a mere mortals perspective than anything else, but I   little little note I was at the run on Saturday, which I walked right.  

It's a place called the SOSUS run. So for those of you out of prison, and I'm walking I walked, walked walked back. I saw my our friend, Menchel,   and,   he was talking to some people. I went over to them, just say hello, blah blah blah. I was wearing now I was wearing a shirt, a jumper, and a jacket. Right? All all 3 of them. It was cold morning,   and I shake hands and I go, hey. Your name is this this chairs or whatever. I'm on 1. They look at me, dude. They look at me dead in the eyes, and they go, oh my god.   You're that guy. I went, what? They're like, you're the jack could be dangerous man   it I thought they were gonna say something about like the podcast because they they both pulled out their phone They'd be like, oh, you're 1. And I was like, oh, man. It's gonna be podcast. Like, this is so cool. And they go, no. No. You're the jacked Wolverine guy that runs here. And I was like, damn, the jacked wolverine guy.  

So, you know, I want to be Wolverine. I want to get that. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.   I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe maybe the hairy chest. Maybe that's where they're getting it from. But I think but I went, you know,   I kind of want more of those moments, but from a podcast perspective, that would be really fun. So in any case, you'll see you'll see some good stuff coming over the next few months once again.   We're gonna leave it there.   Karen, thank you very much, man for the time and for the mere mortal lights at home for listening in. Really have appreciated we have once again, go call out if you wanna support us, mere mortals,   podcast.com forward slash support. You can go see how you can do that. Time, talent, treasure.  

Time. Spend some time with us. Share the time that you're listening to the podcast with others. Yeah. Talent. Come join us live. We've we've got the,  

[01:21:46] Kyrin Down:

I'll I'll create them shortly, but the, you know, I see Lucas, Patricia. I know David was tuning in as well on on our live   livestream here, which we do on YouTube and as well as on the podcasting app. So if you just look out for, you know, go to our channel on YouTube, you'll you'll generally see there's a scheduled post,   coming up in the future. So love it if you can come and join us as well.  

[01:22:08] Juan Granados:

Correct. Talent, obviously, you have you can send us through suggestions, thoughts. I Give you some bad news. To be doing.   Give us some good news. Give us some good news, and treasure, which is once again sending through a boost to gram or sending through some, streaming, some satoshis,   over to our way. I need to share well, with Karen, I'll have to talk to you offline about the Bitcoin,   ETF here in Australia. That's something that's very recently come up. But, yeah, tentatively, and here I'll be throwing up that conversation with Jeff you from monochrome hopefully next week. So you've already done on the lookout for that. Yep. Already done it already done. Beautiful.   Yep. So that was that was good fun. It was good fun, but there was a whole lot of stuff around that, but I'm gonna leave that for a later conversation.  



[01:22:51] Kyrin Down:

Cool. Learnings learnings and implementation  

[01:22:53] Juan Granados:

of more implementation of of our learnings and and what the and what your goals maybe your revelation was from, Yeah. I think we do that. I think we do that from next, in the next week. Alright. We've got monthly goals next week as well, man. Oh. Oh, that'll be a good one. That'll be a good one. Spicy. I'm I'm ready to go. Alright. Memorial life, thank you very much for tuning in. Be well wherever you are in the world. Stay positive. Thank you listening to the bad stuff. That's it. Good stuff.