Pedal My Way

Mukund
Hi, welcome to pedalmyway.com this is Mukund and Rob. If you’re a fan of the show, Please remember to subscribe to this podcast and follow the website paddlemyway.com. Also follow at paddle, my way on Instagram to let me know of your cycling and fitness goals. 

Rob, I know the last time we spoke was a few weeks ago, before we were about to embark on our own trips, right?

Rob
Yeah, it’s been. It’s been a few weeks, hasn’t it? You just got back from Costa Rica and. We’re just sort of. Talking about how we managed to maintain our fitness as we were travelling around and I know you went to South America with your family and that was, you know was quite a a big trip. I was wondering, you know what the planning steps were for that and how you made sure that you had the right equipment for. For the trip.

Mukund
Yes, Rob, actually, yes, we did. We did go to Costa Rica. It was an amazing trip. I had actually written. About it you. Know we had two different spots in terms of mountains and the sea. During a week there it was, it was a very busy week, but. We had a blast. So part of the reason we had a blast was because we did a lot of relevant activities, meaning we did. You know, zip lining, we did, waterfall grappling and stuff like that in the hills and in the sea. We did a lot of kayaking, swimming and those types of activities. So we did location specific activities. So which kind of made it more memorable.

Rob
Yeah, especially like the the the kayaking images that you showed me and the you fall on the. Blog like that looks. Really interesting how the water goes, connects right to the sea. Right. You’re right at the sea edge when you’re on the kayak.

Mukund
Yeah, the resort was facing the Pacific Ocean. So and we took a river near the. And roll on it till we hit the sea. I mean, I have never seen anything like it. You can actually see the waves from the river and yeah, I mean my what I’m describing does not do justice. Even the pictures don’t. So no, I really would I really suggest, you know, at least once go to Costa Rica. I experienced this because, you know, that’s kind of something I was. I really liked about the place. Yeah, I mean.

Rob
It’s it’s it. Looks unbelievable. And as with like you’re saying with with. Any kind of trip like that, it’s. It’s really hard to sort of like bring home to people near you what that experience is like and and and what, how that can sort of like transform who you are. When you go through. And experience something like that.

Mukund
We we had a blast and to come back to your original original point on, you know, staying fit while traveling. Which actually I was thinking about while in Costa Rica. How could I have planned this so before going there right? Just my experience in this trip we had planned on packing light because it was a summer season. The weather is tropical so we don’t really require any heavy clothing. So it’s 365 days. Literally of like 8085 plus degree weather since we had planned on doing some activities, we packed accordingly. For example, we knew we were going to hit the beach. So we packed some light water shoes, which drains water easily. For example, we pack a lot of swimwear. And the moisture wicking T-shirts in case you know you do end up sweating, you know you don’t want to be soggy the whole day. And also. You know, having common things like running shoes that we wore shoes going in, so there’s no really like, you know, we’ve been packing formal shoes obviously with this not a kind of business meeting on the. Thing, so those things. Helped and also I had my cameras with me, you know, waterproof because obviously I was going to go in the water like phone in a waterproof case for example. So those helped. Clothing, footwear, you know, other accessories, everything would really help. So that got me into thinking as to you know how we can, you know, write something about in a post. What I mean is right. So if you are traveling. On business, right, if it’s an overnight meeting, I do not know how much of A time you would have for to stick with your workout routines. For example, if it’s a business meeting, you might want to take an you might want to pack an overnight or. Tag with just one set of clothes, because you’ll you’ll be back the next day back home. But if you’re on a longer trip, like what we did for a week with family, then it’s a more informal, more relaxed environment where you have the capacity to pack more items, more fitness equipment with you for lack of a better word. Obviously I’m not taking a pack like sands and sandbags and weights with you, but you know, at least the shoes. Shorts. T-shirts. You know, like water bottles. You know, you can take them with you to plan. And the other thing is how long you know you and what you want to do, you know, not not everybody wants to work out during vacation, which is fine. But you know, if you have a, you know, if you have a beach, if you’re going by the beach, you know, you can walk along the shore for example, or have a quick run in the morning running by the beach. Actually, I have done. And it’s an amazing experience with with, you know, running. The water and also if you have a pool nearby, it’s an amazing experience to, you know, to actually amazing activity to have a couple of laps before you before you can with the day. You know, there are lots of options you can plan on depending on where you’re going, what you’re doing and. And the other thing is, if nothing else, you can at least go for a walk or a run, right? Because you know you by walking, you’re going for a local walk. You know, you get to see the neighborhood. Maybe you like a restaurant. You can stop by, have dinner, snack. That’s gives you a good idea or a good experience knowing the area as well. You know if you go by, you know, looking around by yourself.

Rob
Did you plan your? Your sort of exercise. Routines before you went, did you know what kind of activities you’re going to be doing before you got to Costa Rica?

Mukund
Actually, I didn’t know what activities we were doing, but we knew where we would be. For example, the first leg of our vacation, we were in a hill. Resort so in Hill Resort, if you know there was no, there was no swimming pool because it was chilly. Not not not chilly for us raw. But you know, for the chili, for the local population because it won’t go past 6065 degrees Fahrenheit, right, so about about. What is it? 2025 Celsius.

Rob
Bit less than that. Yeah, but yeah, about 15. I think, but yeah.

Mukund
It’s not chilly by any by any measure, but it’s chilly to get into a pool unless it’s heated and and stuff like that. We didn’t think about doing that. We didn’t even have pools in the first resort, but we had a lot of activities outside. We did zip lining. You know, it’s one of the must dos in Costa Rica. Zip lining over the tree canopy. And the other thing we did was since it was in the mountains, we had access to a lot of waterfalls. So we went to a few of them. And one of them, we did a rappelling down the waterfall, right. We didn’t plan on these activities, but we took part in them because they were offered by the resort. We didn’t want to pre plan anything. We just wanted to see how the result was before we started to to take part in any activities because I didn’t know what to expect is the first time there.

Rob
Yeah, that’s sometimes a good way to do it. Isn’t it like you? You really don’t? And like it’s, it is important to to make sure that you plan on staying healthy while you’re away. But it’s also important to be in the moment and to sort of experience local culture and and see what that can add to your workout routine as well, rather than bringing your workout routine to the country, you can sort of adapt your workout routine to what’s going on in the.

Mukund
Right, right.

Rob
In the local area and sort of. Maybe you’ll discover a new activity like you said, like the zip lining and the repelling down the waterfall. It’s probably not something you get to do a whole lot. So I’m sure that was a fantastic experience for you.

Mukund
Actually, I didn’t even have. I didn’t even think of working or I thought it was going to be my week off. Kind of a thing. Like there’s no activity. But. But I was traveling to a new country. My workout routine is not must do everyday kind of a thing. So I’m not going to go there and do like 10 laps of, you know, my workout of the day or something.

Rob
All right.

Mukund
Like that, right? Yeah. But we did do a lot of hiking, which I actually do, carrying sandbags, which I’ve talked to you about earlier in one of the previous episodes. So we did a lot of hiking to the waterfall. Rappelling down. You know, this was literally like a like a like a thin waterfall running down the side of a hill. And you slide down on a rope next to it. So. So this is not something that I have ever done. I do not know if I can replicate it, but the first time was amazing.

Rob
Yeah, it would be, yeah. I would imagine it be quite hard to replicate that kind of experience when it’s not a tropical country like you. Just you don’t get many waterfalls. At least we know where. We’re close to where I am, but. Yeah, I mean that kind of thing too is something where. There’s there’s. There’s also a a safety. Proponent to it right, a safety component to to that kind of thing. You’ve. Got to think about. Both enjoying the experience, but also like what kind of instruction you’re getting from the people. That do they have like a? Group of instructors. Or did you just sort of go up? To a like a one-on-one. Sort of service.

Mukund
So it was actually 3 guides just for each activity. So so we we were as a group like 7 guests, right? One other family plus my family.

Rob
OK.

Mukund
7 people and they had three guides, 2 at. The top for. The waterfall thing, there’s one guide in the bottom controlling the rope that you’re going to be descending with. And there are two people on top, slowly easing you into the rope so that you can control yourself coming down. So how it works is you they put you in a safety harness.

Rob
Right.

Mukund
4 the safety harness has, you know, the wheels and the pulleys and levers all around your tight your hip. And you’re like in a, you know, in a not a body. So. But you know what I’m saying? The safety harness you wear around you. So that one helps you control yourself. So the how it works is you kind of slowly lower, lower yourself down with the rope. Right. You control yourself how you’re going. They guide you on the slippery parts of it because I mean it’s. First time you know, I mean, I’m not a professional mountain climber or, you know, Rappler, if that’s, if that’s the word. So I needed some help in terms of how to come down and it looks like. It’s a lot of fitness goes against intuition because more the physics of it you have to be perpendicular to the hill and not. And we tend to be parallel to the hill because our psychologically we think upright is the better way to control yourself. But in that particular situation being perpendicular to the hill.

Mukund
Or the face of the waterfall is the way you control yourself because of how your feet comes in contact with the rock.

Rob
Right. So you’re saying, yeah, you are facing the top of the the mountain and your feet were on. The rock pushing you down.

Mukund
Exactly, yes, yes, you should be like, at least, if not a 90 degree, to the to to the hill. You should never be less than 45 degrees.

Rob
What kind of what muscles do you are you using when you’re peeling down? Is it mostly a lot of wrist? And I I guess maybe. The forearm and biceps.

Mukund
Exactly. So how it works is on the top they have a pulley that that feeds the rope through. The rope is free in the bottom where the other guy is holding it and the rope winds around you through the safety harness so that you lower yourself, you use your right arm. If you are a right-handed person.

Rob
OK.

Mukund
Which you kind of break the fall. You slowly kind of, you know, release the ropes with your right hand while you hold yourself with your left hand. Right. So it’s like a multiple movement at once. So it it takes.

Rob
OK.

Mukund
Time. So I was scared in the beginning because I’ve never done something like this and dangling hundred 150 feet up in the air is kind of, you know, not terrifying, but kind of, you know, it gets you a little nervous, but but at the end of it, you know. Some people did fail on. Honestly, I’m not going to talk about their fitness experience with this, but it requires a little bit of upper body strength. Just because you only have one hand to control your entire weight while coming down.

Rob
Yeah, that’s that’s what I was thinking about. Like if, if if you’re holding with one arm and sort of like pushing down with another, you really have to depend on that one arm to. To to both hold you and and build momentum.

Mukund
Correct. And they say that you have to, like, jump off the hill. You lower yourself and when your feet hits the wall again, you stop. So you keep doing like, I must have done at least 4050 jumps mini jumps and there there are some parts where it was really, really slippery. So I mean they kind of help me guide where to put the feet and everything.

Rob
OK.

Mukund
So that you know that I don’t hit my knees or my head into the wall, but that’s what unfortunately happened to one other guest. So he was paddled to the wall and his knees was crapped. His. He had, like, scratches on his arms. By the time he came down.

Rob
Who is who is next?

Mukund
So yeah, and they had like 2 ropes. Around each each. Each person we we came down one at a time, so the one so that you can control yourself the other for situations like this when you lose control the guides can lower you down without you. You taking part in the activity so. So that’s what happened to this other person who lost control. So they had to lower them down slowly. But he, but if you lose your balance, it’s not hard to regain it. But unless you have some sort of control over your body in terms of, you know, like, I mean, I’m being honest. If we can do pull-ups, push-ups, and those basic moments, you should be OK. But if you go in with very little physical activity, I’m not going to say it’s impossible, but it’s going to be a little hard. Just because you’re not used to to lifting your own body weight. If if you know what I’m saying.

Rob
You have to have some sort of. Yeah. You have to have some sort of basic framework for fitness to be able to sort of. Start out repelling and then once you get used to it, you can sort of build your understanding of the activity overtime. So yeah, I’d imagine for someone that doesn’t do a lot of activities maybe they should start out doing some indoor rock climbing or some sort of like more. Like you said, doing, push-ups, doing some sort of. Bar exercises just to build their upper body strength before they start doing an activity. That you know.

Mukund
Yeah, it doesn’t even have to be an indoor Rockwall practice kind of thing, but basics, this is the basics that you can you can use your own body weight to build yourself up, right? So even if you go to a professional gym. You need to be able to do the basic ways, which is pull-ups, push-ups and squats, right? So everything is body weights, right? You pull up your body weight, push up your body weight, and then squat your body weight, right? That that’s about it. So knowing how much how you can manipulate your body and in terms of getting used to your own weight. Goes a long way in your overall fitness, so you can have a benchmark on how much you can lift and how much you can push yourself to.

Rob
That’s a good point, because then you can get sort of, like you said, a benchmark and you can get a framework for moving, moving forward and. What your potential is after that.

Mukund
Exactly. Especially for these types of activities you would need. I mean I believe because since I’ve been kind of, you know, doing self fitness for for long. Time now it will never, never let me down. When it came to these odd activities, because I’m, I say this odd because I never done this before and I don’t know how many times I’ll do it in my life. But the once or twice that I do end up doing it, I am having fun while doing it it. So I am coming more from that angle rather than anything else. In terms of me able to do what I want to do, when I want to. Do it rather than saying, hey, I want to sit this out. You know, I can’t really lift myself up kind of thing. There’s nothing wrong in not doing it. But if people are want to do it right, they will have to kind of, you know, come to the realization of what they’re capable of. And not capable of. Yeah. And and and.

Rob
A lot of the time. The the difference between people that get really good at these activities and people that don’t is just trying it and seeing what you’re capable of in the in the 1st place. It’s really just just try and get and seeing whether you like it or not. If you don’t enjoy it, you don’t have to do it again. You know, you try it and see what works and you know, as long as you’re following the guides and what they say, then you can sort of build from there and build your experience.

Mukund
Exactly. It’s like, you know, a person who has never lifted weights. They do like a very heavy dead lift, and the next day they can’t move because their back is gone kind of a thing. Right. So I wanted to do these things. I’m I’m not. I’m not, you know, specifically saying about what I did in Costa Rica. But in general, if I want to do an activity. I want to do it and come out of it with very less. Bad after effects. Doesn’t make sense. Like you know, I don’t want to, you know, for example, you know. I’m just. I’m just make something up if I want to lift a heavy stone over my head and throw it down, I don’t want the next date to. Be in shoulder pain, for example, right?

Rob
Yeah. And that’s like you said, it’s. It’s it’s all about. The preparation and and what you put into it at that time, the research of it and also listening to people that know what they’re talking about and and following their their advice before you do. It a lot, others a lot of the time. I know for myself like I if I discover something or I want to try something, I can sort of. I’ll, I’ll go. Straight into it without doing doing as much research as I should, and sometimes like that, that’s just. A you don’t get. As much of A workout from it, you don’t get the benefits of the workout and be you could injure yourself anyway, so really you’ve. Got just got to. Sort of. Take your time and enjoy the experience. And then prepare as much as possible, and then once you’ve done that, then you can sort of. Go into it with a bit more information than you the than you went than you had at the start and I think that’s a good way to do it.

Mukund
Right. And and not a lot of the people I saw in the resort did. This particular activity maybe not in the day that we were there, but you know, we just saw by the way, we went in offseason, so there are not a lot of. People to begin with.

Mukund
And even with the people I went, all of us went through it, all of meaning. My wife, my son and I. We were OK. The other family, two of them kind of, you know. Did not get much out of it, like how the others did right again.

Rob
I would imagine. Though that you you and your family is pretty active anyway, right? Like you, you know, I know. You obviously do a lot of training, a lot of fitness stuff, and I’m sure your family does too, so it’s probably maybe they they didn’t do as much preparation or training beforehand.

Mukund
I mean, I don’t want to say anything bad about their physical capabilities, but from at least what I saw, a lot of coordination is needed and that coordination together coordination. You must be really cognizant of your own self. If it’s heart, kind of. Explain this without coming off as rude or anything, but I’m trying my best to. Kind of, you know.

Rob
Yeah, I know, but.

Mukund
Say that if if you’re in a situation like that, right rowing and everything is straightforward. You know what you’re doing but something. Like this you might have to understand how your body moves, the limitations of your body, and that you might not know if you have not been physically active. For some time.

Rob
Exactly. It’s it’s reading your body signals, knowing what positions you can take without hurting yourself and and and positioning your body.

Mukund
Exactly right.

Rob
In a way where you. Know what each sensation means when you feel a sensation, and if, especially if you’re in a new experience, like you’re repelling down a waterfall, you’ve really got to pay attention to your body and and what each knock on your feet is and what you’re seeing and and what that means. And some of your sensation of. Your body, so yeah. There’s certainly a lot to think about when you’re doing that kind of thing and maybe. You know you’re getting to that experience. You should really like I said we should. We should really put in some more preparation before you. Start signing up for that. Kind of activity.

Mukund
I am a proponent of physical fitness, mind, body and spirit. Kind of a thing, because especially in today’s environment, it doesn’t really help not being physically active just because we have a lot of things to slow us down and to. Kind of your own. I think.

Rob
Part of the problem is. For a lot of people, is there’s. A lot of. That a lot of things distracting you from being physically active, so it’s very easy, especially as you get older to sort of allow yourself to sort of not do these activities and not keep up with your physical exercise and physical health. And and the the the challenge is always sort of. When you have to get back into it after a few years, it’s it’s not as easy. So yeah, I would definitely with you on the fact that you gotta. Be a. Proponent of not just regular exercise, but even just small things every day can. Just you know. I mean, you can gain a lot from just doing small things every day, just even just lifting weights every day or.

Mukund
Right, right.

Rob
Just push-ups. Push-ups. At. Home like just, just keeping your body moving. And then when you need to do something that like is a new experience, then you, you know, your body’s ready for it and you are in a have a good foundation for for whatever you want to achieve.

Mukund
Right, right. Yeah, you are absolutely right. So kind of going back to your original question, how did we plan for this? We didn’t plan anything specific for these activities, but we did carry a pair of sneakers, each of us, we carried a quick drying clothing. We carried what is it like accessories like I mentioned to your cameras. No pros whatever. But that, that, that’s about it. We also didn’t go crazy and plan for each and every possibility, but good pair of running shoes or you know like like a trainers or or you know whatever you do for your regular workout, you know and a good pair of work workout clothes that allows the movement to do any activity you want even one or two pairs of that for a vacation that we took or for. A week long, whatever you think would go a long way in terms of, you know, for a quick run, quick jog, walk to your through the neighborhood, see what else. There, that also kind of enhances your overall experience.

Rob
Exactly. And I I was just about to say that it sort of ties in with experience in the Community itself and experiencing the local area like you just you can you can integrate your exercise routine with with your your your travel quite easily when you were planning the trip. Was this something that you had planned with your entire family in mind? Do you did your son have any activities he wanted to try or was there any sort of? It sounded like it’s like a pretty kid friendly resort.

Mukund
And the most of the places we went to are family friendly in terms of planning. I also asked my wife and my son to. Active clothing and active, you know, like shoes. Enough socks, you know, enough swim shoes. My son loves swimming. I’m sure he’ll get into a pool if given he’ll live in the water. So you know. So he had like, 5 pairs of swim shorts and the swim shirts he wears. So I mean, just whatever activity you like, just plan accordingly. And also what is in the destination? I did some basic research, I was 100% sure there’s going to be a pool via by the beach which there was in the hills. I’m sure there was going to be walking running trails which there was. So just kind of what’s there in the destination. I didn’t look for a gym per say or a work. Our area we also did, you know what the resorts offered in terms of activities. They had free yoga in the morning, for example, one one day we did that like it was an outside kind of in a gazebo, it was beautiful.

Mukund
So those types of things we did take part in kept myself active. Yeah. Yeah. So planning this is what we did. And I travel on business as well and I don’t do this for business because mostly a day or two day trip. And I’m sure I’ll be OK if I don’t go for CrossFit workout for two days, I think I should. Be OK, but I do.

Rob
You don’t need to workout for every 45 minutes.

Mukund
Every 45 minutes. Yes, I need to do my maximum push-ups. But I do take a pair of of running shoes. If nothing, I just go for a walk. If you know if the weather is nice. If the where I’m going. It’s nice even at least around the hotel.

Rob
Yeah, it’s interesting. That you, you. You still mentioned the time period like 2448 hours is interesting because it’s everyone has their exercise routine that they they do, whether they do it every few days or on a weekly basis, but it’s usually. Really, you can usually. Go. I’m speaking about someone who’s entering his 40s now. I can usually go about a week without exercising before I have to exercise again or my body gets into that rhythm of not doing a lot if I’m just sitting at a computer. If I’m just working, you can sort of get dragged down into into that and you don’t feel as good as you do when you. Are in a rhythm of working out, so I like to if I if it’s been a few days I I probably out I would the most I would go was about 72 hours, maybe three days without a workout and then I’d get back into it. Whether it’s a run or I’m playing soccer or badminton or whatever, I’m I’m doing. It’s one of those things too, where? Injury prevention is another thing, right? So. We’ve got a. As we get older, we’ve got to think about how long we can go before we get back into our workout. And if we do go back into a workout after a long time, how do we do? That without injuring ourselves. That, that’s always the thing for me is that if I’ve not worked out in a week or two, you know, your body’s a bit stiffer. Maybe you know your, your ligaments, your tendons. If you’ve been sitting down and your your. Your legs are stiffer, you can’t go back into a full spread straight. That way you can’t go back into the probably the longer distance friend that you want. To do. So yeah, another consideration that you know people probably think about is. How do we? Planned for a trip where we’re going to get some exercise and. Make sure we. We don’t have to maximise our workout routine, but also just sort of keep it at a level, though we don’t close ourselves any injuries and we try to get back into it as we as we move back as we go back home and we. We try to. Reintegrate ourselves into our work, our route.

Mukund
Right. Like like you said, right, the extended periods of time, if I mean it, it happens right. Life happens. So you know if you do like a week, two weeks you have to go for an emergency somewhere, a family emergency, you’re not able to work out how do you go back into it. It all depends on feel. I think ego should not play a role. Meaning the day before you left, you’re able to lift. £500 the day you come back you should be able to lift. 500 or more. It’s not realistic and it degrades as you age older, as you and I know, rob, I’m also. In my 40s, so.

Rob
Yeah, sadly. But we both know that feeling of. Oh, what? Right. I’m in my 40s now. Look at my body. What happened here?

Mukund
So it’s it’s always, it’s prudent to kind of, you know, slowly ease into it. Just so that you can come back and do it right, I would rather lift light than and not get any injuries than succumb to my ego, lift heavy and be out for like a week to week, right?

Rob
That’s exactly what I was thinking too, is that it’s it’s really staging your routines and sort of like staggering them from. Intensity levels, right? So light to medium to heavy and what that means and whether you’ve done you, you can’t go from zero to 60. When you, even though you want it, the problem is we got no our in our heads. We are still 21 years old in our heads. We’re still like I can lift that I can do, I can run 30K. It doesn’t really matter, I’ll do it. But you know our bodies are what they are. There are the biology exists unfortunately. And you know it’s.

Mukund
The other day I was thinking maybe I should turn into a. CrossFit pro. They have a 40 plus age group and then the next day I was knocked down back to reality when I was doing a workout and I was and then. I was out. Of breath in 10 minutes. So like you know what? What was they thinking, you know?

Rob
That could be that could. Be like a very specific niche of CrossFit where you know the the trainer helps people feel better by being out of shape himself.

Mukund
Actually, yeah. You beat the trainer, so you’ll feel good.

Rob
Not exactly like the psychological boost you get from seeing a train out of breath. If you’re still going, I think it’s worth it. People will pay a lot of money for that. I think you had a pretty good business.

Mukund
Yeah, actually I should. It’s like it’s like the. Guy who it’s. It’s his business and I’m sure you have seen this where the guy advertised himself. As a thug where you can hire to beat up in front of your girlfriend, right. Something something like that.

Rob
Yes, yes, exactly. Exactly. The guy who just loves terrible working out and but is also a gym pro and then everyone else feels bad by looking at it. This is a genius idea.

Mukund
It has a it has a comedy sitcom or movie written. All over it. By the way, Rob, So what do you do like, I know you were also travelling, right, so. What do you do your?

Rob
Yes, we did. We I traveled with my family too, with my wife and my my mum and dad and my sister and her kids, so it was quite a group of us in terms of the workout. We I didn’t to be honest. We I didn’t do a lot of running while I was there. There was some. Mass up there, but it was in the sort of Canadian college country. So it’s a lot of dirt paths, a lot of trails. We were in the forest. It was beautiful. We’re pretty close to, you know, one of the 40 million lakes we have up here. So we were, you know, we were about like about 50 feet from the water, which was nice, but so. What we we tried to do my wife. And I while. We were there. We tried. To help like our our. Dog is we’re trying to help our dog. Went to swim. So we’ve gone into the water with the dog, but. Obviously the issue with. Being in the water with a. Wild animal, which my dog is. Is that they cling on to you to be alive because they have no idea why. You’re putting them in the. So we had Speaking of. Like lifting weights, I had a. 60 pound dog attached to my leg. Trying to pull me down. Because I I. Were in the water together so. We were sort of. He eventually figured out how to swim and. He he’s was really good at it after a while, but the first time we went into the water. My wife and. I she was on one end, on one side of him, and I was on the other, and he sort of he dipped his paw. In and then put. His other three paws in and then all of a sudden he like. Started freaking out because yeah, I guess he wasn’t used to the sensation of the water. And then he sort. Of jumped on me but yeah, he. He got used. To it in the end and now. He’s a better summer than I am. Which is which is. Just how dogs are right like they can. Pick pick things up within about a minute. Whereas think you’re.

Mukund
I never knew.

Rob
Swimming a little bit longer.

Mukund
I never knew dogs could not swim. When you said that you had to to teach him. I didn’t know that was possible.

Rob
Yeah, it’s more about basically just taking him to the water and making sure he doesn’t freak out. We didn’t do like, when I say teaching, that’s a very. Grandiose term for what we did, we didn’t do a lot of teaching. We it’s not like we we we did any swimming and showed him. How to? Do it and like you know, taught him. Anything really, he. Just sort of scrambled around for a bit and then we we swam and then he, you know, we we swam out and then he swam towards us. He figured out he could swim by swimming towards us.

Mukund
OK so. So it kind of unlocked the talent. Is it what?

Rob

Well, it’s almost like. They don’t. They they can do these things naturally, like digging and all these things, but they don’t realize that they can do these things. And it’s like unlocking A capability. Like you said, it’s just. Sort of like. A. A hidden thing that they have that they all of a sudden realize that they can do without understanding, that why they’re doing it or what the purpose is. They just know. This is different than the usual day-to-day thing like I’m also, I’m in the water, but I don’t know why and now I can do this thing. We are, we have a a 60 pound lab who is pretty gentle overall. But like I said, he gets a bit nervous about things and was nervous in the water at first, but yeah, that was one of the activities we did. We swam a bit in the water. Obviously we took him on a lot of walks, all of walking trails around there and. We didn’t do anything like repelling down Waterfall officially because that sounds amazing, but I had a dog repelling. On me? Does that count?

Mukund
Yes, it does, definitely. And you’re able to lift them up so there you. Did weightlifting as well.

Rob
Did weight lifting and repelling. I was just I was just the wall. Rather than the person actually doing the.

Mukund
So how is the weather there?

Rob
Sort of about 3 hours north of Toronto, so it was pretty chilly. It was probably about 15 Celsius. What is that like? 6570 ish Fahrenheit. Wow, I think if my math is correct, it’s something like that. Anyway, it wasn’t cold, but you know, you could wear a T-shirt outside, but it wasn’t warm by any stretch of the imagination.

Mukund
Oh wow.

Rob
No, it was fine for us. I don’t particularly like the heat. It gets pretty humid up here in the in Toronto, so I don’t. I don’t like the heat too much, so I was pretty happy. To get away to the, they call it cottage country here in Canada, where it’s sort of a little bit cooler and you buy the water. You know, there’s lots of leaks up there. Lots. Of things to do and. No, it was really nice. It was it. Was a good a good. Another thing that I think about too with these kind of exercise discussions that we have is the psychological element of just getting out in nature and doing something. Often that’s the difference, right for a lot of people, it’s just being outside and being away from our devices and our all these alerts that we’re getting. I just, I switched off my phone. For the most part, my laptop and it was maybe five days I was doing something outside, so it was yeah, it.

Mukund
And then a couple of work calls I had to take and I had no signal there. I even though I did have international roaming in the hills, I got no signal other than at the resort and say so, yeah, I mean, for talking about the psychologically psychological aspect of it, right. So I work out outside mostly especially till fall. Till the weather gets cold. Yeah, I just work out work outside the. Garage in in in in my house I have a. At the gym home gym. So I just take all my sandbags outside on the driveway and I just workout. I love the breeze. I love the heat, the humidity, the sunlight, you name it. So I like working outside and for a week we were in Costa Rica, so all the activities are obviously outside. We were not. We were just in the room just to sleep and just relax. That’s about it. We were outside most of the time.

Rob
Costa Rica. My God. Like the the rainforest, the ocean. Like you’ve got. I mean, that’s got to be spectacular. I’ve never been there myself, but seeing your pictures, I’ve gotta go there.

Mukund
And I think you and I talked about it a little earlier at the Blue Zone, right? So I didn’t know this like when I was there, that least the area where the beach was located, it’s in the Blue Zone. And right now there’s a Netflix show talking about the exact same thing which I experienced last week. So from what I understand right and I started reading about it like in Costa Rica itself because they mentioned it, there are 5 zones in. The in the world. In an island in Japan, one in Italy, one in Greece, I think Southern California and Costa Rica. This is where the people live the longest. That they attribute the reason to be their overall lifestyle. What I mean what they mean is what they eat, which is mostly vegetarian food, vegetables. There are lots of physical activity, low stress physical activity. They have a good social structure like your family. You know, you get along with everybody, a strong culture. And the reason to get out in the morning, right? Like a purpose. In life, so it’s kind of low stress.

Mukund
And an easy way of living. They believe this kind of calms the body and mind. So which kind of helps you live longer? Right. It’s it’s controversial as well. I mean, I’m not, I’m not a proponent of Blue Zone or against it, but you know, but this is just something I experienced and talking about it. Right. So the resort I I don’t think I mentioned this to you. Getting to the resort I have written about it in the blog post actually is a journey by itself, right? For about more than an hour, hour and a half. It took us. 20 minutes to go 2 kilometers.

Mukund
The roads are so bad. It was all gravelly roads. It’s not the packed gravel truck roads, it’s more like loose dirt, gravel roads and it’s in the hills, so going up and down I am. No one say it’s a challenge because I mean we we made it, but it was not for the.

Mukund
Kind of heart. It shows what they are trying to do. So when I talk to them about it, I asked them why is the road so bad? It’s supposed to be a big destination. They’re like, well, we don’t want it commercialized as much as what you guys have in the US, which makes sense. It’s a beautiful thing, right? I mean, you know, I’m not overselling it when I say it, but it’s an amazing part of the world where it’s all nature. It’s all trees, forests and sea. That’s all you see. And they don’t want to over commercialize. That that goes. And when they mentioned the Blue Zone and their way of living and all those things, when you think about it like holistically right, it makes sense, right?

Rob
Do you think that ties into the to the mindset of the population? In terms of. What is your? What is your goal in life and and how do you achieve that goal? And if your goal is you know I wanna have a. Family. I wanna you know. Help my loved ones do things and then be part of the community. It’s going to be different than a lot of people’s goal. You know, just very generally, I know everyone’s an individual, but very generally in North America, a lot of that like our goals are business. How do we make money? How do we do this? What’s our next thing? Who messaged me? How can I respond to them? When do I respond to them? It’s been a week since I answered by e-mail. You know, there’s all these competing interests, and it’s interesting when you go to a. Community like that. You you it’s sort of. That you don’t see, uhm, or even really hear about any other way of living when you’re in North America. You you just look at you. Just think of this is the only way. To exist.

Mukund
Imagine, imagine Toronto. It’s by the lake, right? So imagine. The development not being there, I know it’s hard to imagine that. Buy a big. Tourist attraction and the area not being developed at all. It’s all and no one say huts, but you know, like no commercial development at all, right. Any tourist destination, the US is or over commercialized, right? To I was expecting something that at least the basic infrastructure to be in place, the rest of the country, the hills, the paved roads, smooth roads, we had no issues, but especially when it came to the. Beach, we did. There was it’s active. The place did not exist, right? People were like 30 years behind. But that’s not the case. They on purpose left it the way it was or way. This just because to only filter out people who really want to come there to come there, right?

Rob
Right. It’s interesting how we talk about, you know, advanced and sort of first world and Third World. But what we’re doing is putting our our spin on what what world the world is.

Mukund
Yeah, yeah. Justified.

Rob
What is advanced to what isn’t like? They don’t look at at North America like New Jersey.

Mukund
From from our view.

Rob
Toronto has not advanced at all because we’re focusing on the wrong things.

Mukund
Exactly, exactly. That’s what I was thinking. I was like. There’s money to be made, but then I took a step back. Be like maybe that’s not their priority. Maybe their priority is not money. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I mean they. I mean, they do have. I mean we we paid. A lot to go. There, but for them to not get any money from that from commercial development and over commercialization of that. That should something I respected, because anywhere else in the world that would not be the case. So. So I really had respect for the way they are being environmentally conscious and being and having the right priorities. I’m saying right because that’s personal to me. Another person hearing this might not be like why, you know, they are idiots for not doing this kind of a thing, right. So it’s it’s it’s personal to me. Kind of get the message that they’re trying to put out.

Rob
Yeah, either way. Like it’s yeah, whether you. Are a proponent. Of, you know, big development and building condos everywhere and you know, selling these places as a place that everyone should go to or whether, you know, you focus on the environmental part of it. It’s it’s definitely an interesting topic. The Blue Zone topic because it’s we we all want to be healthier and live. Longer and the the the you know, if we we there are scientists going what what is longevity and what what causes longevity and it seems to be it’s a combination of stress factors sort of oxidation oxidative stress on the body as well as on the on the brain and also. Day-to-day living family, whether you live close to family and this kind of thing or what are your connections to the to the surrounding area that I mean this is not although it’s a a newish topic, right it’s not it’s not a it’s a scientific topic. It’s not it’s not a debate debating topic. They have done studies about this.

Mukund
Correct. You’re right. And and yesterday or something I was hearing on the radio that somebody was trying to prevent an onset of Alzheimer’s or dementia or something in, in New York by using the formula for blue. Known they’re debating about how it’s possible or not. I don’t know the specifics of it. I should do more research into it, but that’s something I found very interesting because I just came from a Blue Zone talking about this exact thing, and they’re trying to alleviate an existing problem by using the concepts of the Blue Zone Blue Zone.

Rob
It’s and. This is a. This is a whole. Minefield of of different topics but you you mentioned Alzheimer’s there. There are studies and I know this for sure because I’ve read them that show that a lot of. The vast majority of Alzheimer’s diagnosis are in the Western world, where it’s more developed than in in other countries where they, they they are focused on agricultural a a way of living rather than sort of a city way of life.

Mukund
Yes, I’ve heard that too. You’re right.

Rob
These are the the the studies show that these these not how would you frame it? I guess diseases of the brain like, you know these sort of. These neuro degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Are connected, at least in in scenes like that are connected to our way of life in the Western world and and and to some aspect of it. Obviously they haven’t figured it out yet, because if they had, it would be headlines everywhere. But the studies show that the the numbers are far higher in in the the Western world than they are everywhere else, and whether that’s. A way of life, who knows? But it’s really interesting to me that, you know, we’re talking about blue zones and about the way of life and. Although it’s partly to do with the fact that medical research is catching up with symptoms, and maybe perhaps people in other parts of the world don’t have the technology to diagnose these conditions, but a lot of it is also to do. With the fact. That our lifestyles are changing pretty rapidly. In terms of like civilization. Rapidly, you know, it was long ago, before we, you know, we all used to live on farms. And we just, you know, get up at 5:00 and plant some crops and then, you know, hang out. With our families. For rest of the day, like only. Last 100 years we’ve been working 9:00 to. Five and you?

Mukund
Exactly right.

Rob
Know Factory way of living and you know computers in the last 30 years. So it’s really interesting to me how these things impact our way of life and our obviously our health and and what we can do to to adapt a ourselves to, to the technology and also the way we live to to improve. Doing that.

Mukund
Right. Of course. Yeah. I mean, we are I think even evolving much faster than nature intended. I was, I don’t know if you know this book. It’s called sapiens. It’s uh.

Rob
Right.

Mukund
I started, I started reading it and one statement it says that we think we are the apex predator, we are not. Just because. For example, Lion and Tiger are the apex predators right in certain environments. Our ancestors survived those things where our strength were in numbers. As individuals, we are we are weaklings, at least in open nature against other animals.

Mukund
We have evolved so quickly that nature cannot function with our rate of progression because we are evolving. We are interacting with nature every day and we’re destroying it. Right. Because that directly relates to our rate of. Expansion of rate of evolution.

Rob
Yeah, I think I read that about a few years ago now. So I’m just trying to think a lot of it was to do with. As you were saying, evolution and what our current society looks like and how how we have adapted to our current society. And I think in general. I’m not sure we are on a positive track right now in terms of our interaction with the environment and our understanding of a ourselves and. B. Of what? All this technology is doing to our brains.

Mukund
I agree with you. I have nothing to counter that with. I mean, I think we are a little too late to save us, save it for our kids and our kids. Kids. Honestly, we can’t leave it to to them. My son asks me hundreds of questions every day as to why they’re cutting down the trees. Why? You know, why there’s wildfires. But that’s a much heavier, much bigger topic than than what can be covered in a fitness podcast.

Rob
Let’s solve it today. Yeah, no. No, I know. And it’s it’s one of those things where it’s interesting and exciting to talk about these things because. They are interesting and exciting topics and I think they’re just so there’s so many things that you can go into in terms of what? Cause cause this does tie into fitness too. A little bit is as we were talking about back 100 years ago, 150 years ago, people were way healthier than they are now. Our diets were better, we got exercise all the time because we had to.

Mukund
Oh yeah, yeah.

Rob
And of course, you know a lot of things are worse, you know.

Mukund
Even 40 years ago, you don’t even have to go back hundred years, even 4050 years ago, before World War One, everything was kind of, you know, good, rather better than what it was. I mean, they will talk about lead piping and everything. But you know, overall kind of a holistic view. I think it was world was much better, much healthier, much stronger back then.

Rob
Diseases are worse. It’s really getting it’s. It’s in everything that we’re talking about. We’re just talking about sort of balance, right? We’re trying to figure out like how we can balance the good of technology with, like, the downsides of it, how we. Can balance improving our own fitness with every other obligation that we have in our lives. So yeah, these are really interesting topics to get into. Another thing that I’ve been thinking about is injuries and how to prevent them, and I think that would be a good. I think that’s a good topic for. The next next. One because you know we we talk about getting older and how that how that impacts us and and how we plan for a our exercise routine. So I’ve gotta.

Mukund
Want to talk about the technique?

Rob
So I’ve got a few questions about that I’m hoping you. Can answer them.

Mukund
Yeah, sure. Actually, even I have been. I mean, I’m getting older too. I’m trying. To see. Strengthen myself as I get older without without running my joints and ankles and shoulders and everything.

Rob
It’s all about balance. Yeah, absolutely.

Mukund
So I mean, yeah, we can talk about that that actually that’s a good topic, Rob. So and you also kind of you know bring in what you think from your you play a lot of soccer so that has its own specific injuries that you must be aware of but.

Rob
100% yeah, it’s it’s one of those things that. You gotta be aware of every single small thing that you’re feeling and you got to respond to us. So yeah, I’d like to. Let’s, let’s get into that next time.

Mukund
Cheryl once again, great talking to you. You know, welcome back. And now I’m back to the grind after our vacation, respective vacations. So I will talk to you next week.

Rob
Yes. Welcome back to North America, man.

Mukund
Thanks rob.

Rob
Alright bye for now.