5 reflections on training with a UFC fighter

read on: themovementmemo.com

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Welcome to The Movement Memo, a bi-weekly newsletter where I share actionable tips to help you live your best day ever, every day.

Today's Programming 

• Movement: All body chipper

• Quote: Mulally on becoming world-class

• Lesson: 5 reflections on training with a UFC fighter

• Opportunity:  Incredibly rare and historic wood for sale

• Optimization: My sleep optimization system 

Today's Movement 

Compete 10 rounds for time: 

• 10 benchpress (135/115 lbs)

• 10 deadlift (225/ 155 lbs)

• 10 strict press (95/75 lbs)

• 20 walking lunges (135/115 lbs)

Today's Quote

The ability to focus on the micro and macro levels separates the good from the great.

Great athletes, entrepreneurs, and performers can focus on an hourly, daily, and weekly level. 

But they are also able to sustain focus on a macro cadence. They set a visionary ten-year goal, don’t move the goalposts, and are disciplined to not stray off course.

World-class performers prioritize being directionally correct and maximizing the number of reps and sets they can perform in a given time to expedite their learning process.

Today's Lesson Learned

This week I traveled to Las Vegas to train with an elite MMA fighter Khalil Rountree, whose next bout will be on the Conor McGregor fight card.

When Khalil was 19 he was smoking two packs of cigarettes a day and eating his meals out of the gas station. He didn’t enter a ring until March of 2010, but 14 years later, he is mixing it up with the best fighters in the world.

I walked away with a newfound respect for the sport (and for elite performers in any field). And, I haven’t gotten one question out of my head: what does “going pro” look like in our proven field?

There is a reason elite performers become elite.

There is a reason professionals are pros.

Getting to the top 1% in your field doesn’t happen by accident.

For professional athletes, this means dialing in training, nutrition, sleep, and supplementation.

For entrepreneurs, this means knowing the numbers on your business, improving processes, and optimizing your schedule for high-level tasks.

I left Las Vegas with 5 key reflections from training with Khalil:

1. Optimize for time around high-performers (and be industry agnostic):

Every game has levels and there is always another level. No matter how good you are, there is always someone better.

The best in the world are constantly finding skills to learn and adding new elements to their game. Oftentimes these lessons are derived from exposure to master’s outside of their craft.

Being around high performers opens your mind to two possibilities: 


Option A: there is so much more I get to learn


Option B: how can I possibly compete with this person


If you can view the world through the lens of option A, your world will open up. 


2. I love getting to be around people who are world-class at what they do



World-class people are world-class for a reason. They’ve mastered the fundamentals and do them unconditionally well for a disproportionate amount of time. A lot of people look at successful people and think “how lucky” or “they must be so talented”.

Yes, there are 4 types of luck, (see Naval’s writing on this), and talent plays a part, but that doesn’t replace the necessity of work.

Becoming world-class at anything is a 10-year slog, at a minimum. However, we never see the 10 years before the success. In the world we live in, we only see success unfold in real time.

In The Creative Act, Rick Rubin talks about the idea “steal like an artist”. The concept is based on the belief that we shouldn’t just take inspiration from our heroes.

Rather we should find our hero’s heroes, study their craft, make our own insights, and draw our own conclusions.

This produces a more authentic, original, unique style.

3. Trying to become world-class means you are pushing limits (and constantly on the edge)

In sport, this means you’re constantly on the cusp of injury.


In entrepreneurship, this can mean you’re constantly on the cusp of going bankrupt.

(*though this doesn’t have to be the case; typically to play with the best in the world it does mean raising venture capital to generate rapid growth)

Rewards go hand in hand with risk. 


The best in the world take calculated risks based on exceptional talent, work capacity, and training.

But if we are just getting started, we can’t try to compete with professionals where they are today.

We have to go back to the beginning and compete with how they started.

4. No matter how good you are, we’re all human.

• The fundamental human problems haven’t changed for 1000’s of years. 


• The fundamental human emotions haven’t changed for 1000’s of years. 


No matter how “successful” someone appears, we all still struggle with the underlying desires, fears, and motivations. 


Some are just better at coping with them in high-pressure situations.


There is a common trait among the highest performers; they have the ability to focus that is unmatched when situations turn high pressure. 


For me, there has always been a difference between mental toughness and mental strength.

Being mentally strong means being able to perform, in the highest pressure situations, consistently, at or above your previous level, at the snap of the fingers.

Being mentally tough is all about grit; it’s about being able to pick yourself back up when things don’t go your way. It’s about what happens when sh*t hits the fan and life happens.

Being mentally strong isn’t about being able to perform once at an exceptional level, it’s about being able to do it consistently over and over again on command.

Being mentally tough is about how you respond to unforeseen contingencies.

Can you sustain inputs for a disproportionate amount to allow the compounding effects of your actions to take place?

The best in the world struggle with the same doubts, yet they find a way to consistently show up, put in the work, and perform.

5. Elite performers are elite because they have mastered the basics.


We all like to think there’s a magic pill. That some people just “get lucky”; it lets us cope with our own insecurities and create narratives that allow us to validate why we are unsuccessful. 


A Harsh Truth: there is no secret pill.

There is no “hack” or cheat code. To enter into the top 1% of performers, in any field, it takes sustained effort in a singular direction for an unfathomable amount of time. 


And it requires mastering the fundamentals. I think the easiest analogy to understand this is through sport. 


During the off-season, athletes (with their coaches), perform an analysis to understand what went well in the previous season, and what can be improved. Then they spend 1000’s of hours working to unlearn bad habits and train their body in new motor patterns

This is the reason they eventually become professionals.

So the question that I want to leave you with today, is the one that I am unable to get out of my head:

“What does going professional in your field look like?”

Today’s Opportunity:

I had a friend share an interesting opportunity to purchase a ton of incredibly rare and historic wood, and I wanted to share this with all of you. The wood for sale is the nearly extinct Longleaf Heart Pine, once one of Kentucky’s oldest Rickhouses (where they store bourbon barrels) and a National Landmark building. Arborists have examined the wood and were blown away by the quality and age - they’d never seen so many growth rings per inch ~55! This is a rare opportunity to turn such immense history into something new that has a rich story drawing attention regardless of use. 

The materials could be used for a hotel, development project, luxury homes, cabins, flooring (worth around $4.5M alone if manufactured for such), car garage, restaurant, bar, lodge, lounge, etc.

There are around 4,000 beams, tons of massive x beams, lots of bricks, old hardware, and various other materials included. The sale also includes the trademarked and USPTO-registered brand - The Rickhouse™, as it was branded to be used to construct a bourbon-themed hotel, which Hyatt expressed strong interest in acquiring if developed. Unfortunately, we are selling ASAP to fund other ventures and do not have time to pursue this. 

• Roughly 85,000 board feet:
• Small,12 Bundles of 60 5x6 (720 beams)
• Medium, 39 Bundles of 50 5x8 (1,950 beams)
• Large, 23 Bundles of 50 5x9 (1,250 beams)

More details, images, and a video on our site: https://www.therickhousedistillery.com

If you’re interested, please email: [email protected]

Today's Optimization

You know how it goes – late nights, early mornings, and coffee as a constant companion. That was my routine when I was trying to balance being an entrepreneur and training as a professional athlete… until I hit a wall. I was making progress in my business, but my health and personal life were spiraling.

Sleep became an afterthought, and I paid the price with my well-being, cognitive function, and performance. I remember waking up every day feeling more tired than when I went to bed, dreading the day ahead.’ Eventually, I reached my breaking point and I began diving into research and experimenting with every sleep hack imaginable. The breakthrough finally came when I realized that sleep wasn’t just a physical need but a cornerstone of success.

I transformed my environment, my habits, and my mindset. I started using NuCalm, made diet adjustments, started taking magnesium supplements, and temperature control became an integral part of my nightly routine. I was amazed at how these changes not only improved my sleep but also boosted my daily productivity and mood. Sleep was the last “element” of my health that I was able to crack, but if I was going back, I would start with these lessons to find balance and redefine my relationship with sleep.

I wanted to share these principles I learned (and tested over the past 10 years) with fellow entrepreneurs and hybrid athletes who might be struggling just like I was. So I put together my Ultimate Guide To Sleep Optimization (and share discounts on all of my favorite sleep companies)!

Know friends, training partners, or co-workers who would take value from weekly tips on a healthier lifestyle, enhanced accountability, and improved routines? Thanks for sharing!

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Publisher: Eric Hinman

Editor-in-chief: Bobby Ryan