238: Alex Brooker and Mike Guadango on The Power of Belief, Placebo Effects in Training-Rehab and Becoming Your Own Coaching Superhero

Our guests today are Mike Guadango and Alex Brooker. Mike and Alex (“Brooker”) met when Alex interned for Mike at DeFranco’s gym a decade ago, and they now have a podcast together, “The Mike and Brooker Show”, in addition to their coaching careers. Alex is the owner and operator of Pathfinder, a private training service focused on performance psychology and physical preparation for professional athletes. In addition to traditional schooling, Alex is now pursuing his PhD in Self-Hypnosis at the University of Bern. Mike is currently a Coach, Writer & Owner at Freak Strength. He has been mentored by coaching greats such as Buddy Morris and James Smith, and started his career working at DeFranco’s gym. Mike has coached levels of athletes from many different professional sports to Olympic medalists to pre-pubescent athletes, as well as consulting for high caliber athletes and coaches worldwide. As an ever-optimistic individual, it’s important for me to have conversations with those who have a different way of looking at what actually works in the world of sports performance. In the coaching world, it is extremely easy to have worked with an athlete who has achieved a high result, and then rationalize the factors that led to their success. It is very easy for us all as coaches to think of our own training as highly optimal, but a question to ask is how often and effectively we truly challenge our reasoning? In looking at training closely, it is helpful to fully understand the power of belief, as well as placebo effects in not only training, but also pain science and rehabilitation. Understanding human adaptation to training and rehab stimulus requires, not only an understanding of the body, but also of the mind. In today’s podcast, Mike and Alex “Brooker” talk about how they have evolved themselves as coaches, moving into the realms of hypnosis/mental training, acupuncture and rehabilitation. We spend a lot of time chatting about the power of belief and the ability of the mind to supercede a “poor” training program, and how the fundamentals of adaptation style can be seen in rudimentary rehab. Finally, Mike, Brooker and I spend some time discussing some training points such as play, competition in training, and training transfer. This was a fun show with speakers of 3 clearly diverse viewpoints, which always makes for great discussion. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage. Head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly for 15% off of your purchase! Timestamps and Main Points 6:15 Mike and Brooker’s moves into more alternative forms of human performance, and a philosophy of when to move on from hair splitting in strength training methods 15:00 Thoughts on a system that prioritizes play and autonomy as a substantial shift in a positive direction towards the sports performance industry 32:30 Thoughts on whether or not gym training should carry mental, emotional and physical elements of what is required of a person in their sport 46:25 How and why our interventions in strength, performance or pain reduction actually work, and how much we really know about these mechanisms 55:55 How Mike and Brooker diverted from the traditional routes of strength, performance and data in athlete performance training 1:05:30 More on Mike and Brooker’s “skill stacking” in their human performance pursuits 1:13:10 Mike and Brooker’s use of high-transference exercises to athletic performance 1:15:30 In 10-15 years, where do Mike and Brooker picture themselves “Even if there is a difference between the two (exercises), and transferability, how much of a difference is it really?” “15% of who you are as an athlete, you actually have some type of control over” “The more high talented people you work with, the room to improve them in the gym gets smaller, but the room to F them up gets higher” “If we are in a sport, it seems the person who can assess the situation and execute on it as quickly as possible is the one who wins. How can you do that without playing games and being in certain situations?” “If the games are not (helping athletes better understand positions they are supposed to be in) then you are just spinning your wheels” “If you can make these guys feel good in the workout, you can yield a positive adaptation later on” “Competition breeds success, as long as it doesn’t make these kids crumble, I’m all for it” “I don’t think intensity during training is necessary” “Placebo works, when people know they are taking a placebo, it still works” “As times goes on, I get really careful with what I believe in” Brooker “I’ve seen guys get better doing horrible shit, things that should hurt them… if you believe (it is going to help you) who am I to doubt you” “I have guys that, when I work on them, they feel better. I have people who, when I work on them, they don’t get better no matter what I do, I don’t think they want to get better” “It’s not unusual for people to get prescribed anti-depressants for back pain… and they work” “When you tell an athlete “you should go and talk to someone (like a therapist)”, half of the time they don’t. They are talking to you for a reason” “If I get a kid going from throwing 88 to 94mph, that’s nearly a 10% increase. A 10% increase where they throw close to 100 times in a single game. The connective and soft tissue associate with these movements, this is not sustainable, these guys are going to get hurt” About Alex Brooker Alex Brooker is the owner and operator of Pathfinder; a private training service focused on performance psychology and physical preparation for professional athletes. Brooker received his Bachelors from Loughborough University, his Masters in High Performance Sport from Australia and is now pursuing his PhD in Self-Hypnosis at the University of Bern. Born and bred in the UK, Brooker now resides at the foothills of the Swiss Alps with his family and famous wolf. Brooker is the co-host of the Mike & Brooker Show and a wannabe adventurer / explorer. About Mike Guadango During his preparation for college baseball where he received multiple All-America honors and set numerous school records, Mike decided that he wanted to enter the world of physical preparation for sport. He began training people part-time while in college, then full-time the day he graduated. From there he had crossed paths with two incredible world renowned coaches that became mentors and life long friends: Buddy Morris – Arizona Cardinals head strength coach and James Smith – world class sport consultant. After working with them, Mike’s whole approach to training and learning had changed. He reconstructed his program and outlook on the training process. Mike went on to be the Director of Sports Performance at a world-renowned facility where he proceeded to train professional, collegiate and high school athletes. From there, Mike started up his own facility – Freak Strength. Mike is currently a Coach, Writer & Owner at Freak Strength and has been coaching for over 10 years. He has coached levels of athletes from NFL, MLB, NBA, MLL, Rugby League, Rugby Union and Olympic medalists to pre-pubescent athletes. He has also consulted for high caliber athletes and coaches worldwide. He has worked with 10+ NFL Super bowl Champs, 10+ All-Pro/Pro-bowl selections, 5+ College National Champions, 10+ Division 1a All-Americans, 20+ Collegiate All-Americans & players from every Division 1 conference.