Gabe Salinas on Performance, Habits, and Coaching
“I’d love for people to come in forever, but my understanding is I know this, like they’re going to get busy or they’re going to move, they’re going to go college or whatever. So I want to give them all the tools that I possibly can for them to succeed outside of here. ”
GABE SALINAS
Gabe Salinas is the owner of the Sports Performance Facility, The Sports Lab, a former professional MMA Fighter, and a speaker on the topic of performance in various facets.
Gabe has helped Professional Athletes to Weekend Warriors and everything I'm between to achieving their peak athletic performance. As someone who desires to learn and improve daily, Gabe stays on the cutting edge of the research on Human Performance in hopes of helping both his athletes and himself.
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Show Notes
[00:05:47] Where did the interest in movement begin?
[00:07:04] Were there any coaches or mentors to help guide him early on?
[00:07:49] MMA Early On
[00:10:54] Using the gym as a place to fail
[00:12:38] What makes a high performer?
[00:14:24] Motivation only gets you so far
[00:18:07] Recommendation for the average person
[00:20:27] Getting into the body
[00:23:35] Is it better to specialize or generalize?
The Talent Code by Dan Coyle
Range by David Epstein
“So basically, what happens is when you look at these kids, and if you have a tennis player, for example, a soccer player doesn't matter.
And they start at five years old and, and all they do is play tennis for their entire life. They're going to be better than the kid, sorry. And the kid who plays baseball and soccer and volleyball and tennis and all those other sports up until I believe 16 or seven. Yep. And then when they hit 16 or 17, that kid tends to specialize it around 1415 that kid will start to overtake them, and then their ceiling is a lot higher to the kids that specialize.
Sorry. Generalize. Tend to be the ones who are on Olympic teams and go professionally and so on and so forth. And one of, there are a lot of reasons behind it—burnout and injuries and so on and stuff. And one of the big ones is the kid who played multiple sports not only avoided the burnout and the injuries and all that but most importantly, they developed this incredibly big bank of movements, right?
Multilateral development. They learned how to throw a ball, and they moved through it. Try to. Backpedal, and they learn how to throw side, arm, and throw, and catch. And they learned how to start and stop, and they learned how to do so many different things, so many different ways that when they go and play their specialized sport, they can play it at a much higher level.
The data is just overwhelming. Yeah, it's a really important piece.“
[00:28:19] How did Gabe's training evolve?
[00:31:04] Being a fighter doesn't mean you are aggressive
[00:33:45] Why did Gabe stop pursuing MMA?
“I kind of reached that, and I was like, okay, this is pretty close to my ceiling. My ceiling is a little bit higher if I keep training, but I'm certain. Sadly, I'm not going to be number one in the world. Right. And if I'm not going to be able to be number one in the world, unfortunately in this sport, that means I'm not going to have a career right. If I'm number 40 or 20 in the world, in the NFL, I'm going to make $20 million or $10 million a year, no problem.
I can live with that. Realistically, if you're number 20 in the world in almost anything, you're going to be fine. Right? In MMA, it doesn't really work like that.“
[00:39:50] Not wrapping his identity as a fighter too tightly
[00:42:58] What were Gabe's other interests?
“I always tell people that I'm infinitely curious. Yeah. And it's true. I am and I really appreciate other people who are infinitely curious as well cause it's rare.”
[00:44:39] How do you filter information?
[00:48:28] Good Coaching or Teaching
[00:49:24] The Diet Wars
[00:52:33] Diet Recommendations to his athletes?
[01:00:05] View on supplementation
[01:01:31] The Three Big Pieces
“I think the most important thing that it comes down to is like if we're talking about high performance or just regular weight loss and everything in between, the three big pieces are nutrition, hydration, and rest.”
[01:03:33] Getting Recovery Right
[01:04:24] Overestimating the good and underestimating the bad
Precision Nutrition
“There's a research study, and when, when people estimate their green vegetable consumption, it was something like three servings more than it actually was. Now on the flip side, when they estimate their French fry and cookie consumption, it was like two or three servings less than what it actually was.”
[01:07:33] Breathing work
[01:09:42] Back to sleep data
[01:12:34] Why We Sleep
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
Sleep is your superpower | TED Talk
[01:14:13] Alcohol and Athletes
“So here's what I've learned with elite athletes. And this is a little bit different. The elite athletes have the ability to be very black and white in their training in their period, and their relaxation period is a skill.
So what I mean by that is I've rarely seen. They're out there. There aren't tons of elite athletes who are partying, getting hammered during the season. Yeah. And there aren't tons of elite athletes who are partying and getting hammered a month or two prior to the season. But in that month or so, the fall season ends before I start training again.”
[01:18:23] Where does the discipline come from?
[01:19:48] Having a reason to get in shape
[01:24:10] Giving someone all the tools to be self-sufficient
“I’d love for people to come in forever, but my understanding is I know this, like they’re going to get busy or they’re going to move, they’re going to go college or whatever. So I want to give them all the tools that I possibly can for them to succeed outside of here.”
[01:25:47] Recommended Books
Malcolm Gladwell (Any book) - Outliers
The Go-Giver by Bob Burg
Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
How to Argue and Win Every Time by Gerry Spence
So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport
[01:27:21] Advice to someone entering the "real" world or starting on a new path
“Probably the biggest thing going out of your way to increase, this is from Cal Newport to increase what he calls career capital. Like I said my grandfather taught me that if I'm constantly learning and constantly improving, good things are going to tend to happen.”
