How to Create a Diverse Movement Diet

< Full Episode

Transcript: How to Create a Diverse Movement Diet

Season 8, Episode 21  | August 6, 2024

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Welcome to Life Time Talks, the podcast that’s aimed at helping you achieve your health, fitness, and life goals. I’m Jamie Martin, editor-in-chief of Experience Life, Life Time’s whole life health and fitness magazine. And I’m David Freeman, director of Alpha, one of Life Time’s signature group training programs.

We’re all in different places along our health and fitness journey, but no matter what we’re working toward, there are some essential things we can do to keep moving in the direction of a healthy purpose-driven life.

In each episode, we break down various elements of healthy living, including fitness and nutrition, mindset and community, and health issues. We’ll also share real, inspiring stories of transformation.

And we’ll be talking to experts from Life Time and beyond who share their insights and knowledge so you’ll have the tools and information you need to take charge of your next steps. Here we go.

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Alright, welcome back to another episode of Life Time Talks. I’m David Freeman. And I’m Jamie Martin. And in today’s episode, we explore the inspiring journey of a true champion. From humble beginnings in swimming to the heights of Olympic success, we’ll be diving into the mindset and strategies behind reaching peak potential, staying mentally tough, and balancing the roles of husband, father, and mentor to aspiring swimmers. Be ready to be motivated and inspired by a remarkable story of dedication to success with our special guest that Jamie’s now about to introduce.

Yes, we are so excited. We have Ryan Lochte with us. Ryan is an American competition swimmer and 12 time Olympic medalist. He is the second most decorated swimmer in Olympic history, which is measured by total number of medals. Ryan’s seven individual Olympic medals ranked second in history in men’s swimming and is tied for second among all Olympic swimmers. He currently holds the record in the 200 meter individual medley, both long and short courses. And as part of the American teams also holds the world records in the 4 x 200 meter freestyle long course and the 4 x 100 meter freestyle mixed relay. Ryan has won a total of 90 medals in major international competitions spanning the Olympics, the world championships, Pan American games and Pan Pacific championships, including six Olympic gold medals and 39 world championship titles. He specializes in the backstroke and individual medley and is also a freestyle and butterfly swimmer, and he has noted for the speed and distance he attains while kicking underwater. Ryan is now coaching aspiring swimmers through his legendary swim camps and — it was pretty exciting for the team here at Life Time — he is hosting swim clinics at Life Time club locations across the country. Ryan, that is quite the bio. Welcome to Life Time Talks. Thanks for coming on with us.

Yes, thank you. Thank you for that introduction. I mean, man, I’ve been swimming for a very long time, guess.

 

Well, the cool part is, I mean, we do a bio, we give an overview and a lot of people may think they know you and your story because of what might have been plastered out there in the media. But let’s start at the beginning. How did you get into swimming and what is it about the sport that you connected to?

I grew up in upstate New York. Both my parents were swim coaches. So, you know, when you’re growing up, you always go follow your dad’s workday. So, like I pretty much was born on the pool deck around water. And my love for the water like happened when I was three years old. I was coming in from outside in the winter and I had my snow suit on and I fell in the deep end and my dad saw me. He was coaching, he rushed over, like pulled me out of the water, like frantic, like, my gosh, are you all right? All right. I started crying. He went to go get a towel. And as soon as he turned around, like I went and jumped back in the water. And he turned around because he heard the splash and he saw me like giggling, laughing because like I was floating from the snow soup. And he was like, he just left me there. And that’s where my passion and my love for the water started when I was three years old.

That’s awesome.

Early beginnings, early beginnings, which is so important. We know that from like early in life, learning to swim is a really important skill. So, I mean, you got, you know, like you said, right in the deep end. So we want to talk to you a little bit about this idea of peak potential. Many listeners of this podcast and members of Life Time, they’re invested in their health and wellness. They’re striving to reach their own peak potential in their health and fitness efforts. And we’re curious, from your point of view, as someone who’s really been at all levels in the sport, what has the experience been like for you on the world’s biggest stage working to get there? And then once you’ve achieved that level of achievement, what’s that like?

Basically, I’ll tell you back when I was eight years old, I was watching the 1992 Olympic Games for swimming and I was watching a US American swimmer, Pablo Morales. He won the 100 meter butterfly and I remember watching him on how he won — he congratulated the other swimmers like good sportsmanship and then he walked around the pool deck like after his race, like signing autographs, taking pictures with the fans. I was like, you know what? That is the coolest thing. I want to be just like him. So that’s when my aspirations for being an Olympian started at the age of eight. Growing up, I was not that good. So I didn’t think it was really realistic until my freshman year of college. I guess you could say I was a late bloomer. So basically, it was like, I don’t even know, eight years old from when I was 24, like 16 years of just solid work. Day in, day out. And then finally, my dreams came true. Like my dreams were to get an individual gold medal at the Olympics and break a world record at the same time. And it finally happened in 2008 Olympics in my 200-meter backstroke. And it’s something that I will cherish for the rest of my life. And it’s like, I just remember when the star spangled battle was being played and the flag was being raised at the Olympics. I was just crying. Just because of all that hard work that I did, like busting my butt, beating my body up every day and just trying to like overcome all these obstacles that I had throughout life like, and it finally coming true, it was just like, wow, this was all worth it.

Well, I mean, that’s even interesting to kind of hear you say, you know, the time frame of when you put in all the work. My wife, selfishly, I’m going to plug her also an Olympian for track and field. And it’s the mindset of an athlete of putting their body through all the different things that you just said you put yourself through. And it’s crazy to me because as we all know, and if we don’t know, making the U.S. Olympic team is one of the hardest things to do. And in your first Olympics, which was in 2004 in Athens, you won gold and silver. In the following Olympic games you competed in, continued to medal, you just mentioned all the hard work and dedication you saw paying off, but yet you describe yourself as not being satisfied during that time and wanting more. So, can you talk a little bit about that mindset and that drive factor?

So, I have like a kind of like a cheat code for myself. So, every year at the end of our season, we have a big championship meet, whether it be the Olympics at the end of the summer, it’d be the Olympics, world championships, Pan Pacific games or whatever. At the end of the season, I would, no matter what, if I broke five world records or got all these gold medals, no matter what, after that season’s over, I would immediately put myself at the very bottom. I didn’t win anything. I didn’t break any world records. Because that means that next year I have to bust my butt every day to get back up to the top. So I always, I train my mind mentally being like you don’t have anything. You’re at the bottom and you want to if you want to be great, you want to be at the top, you’re going to have to bust your ass and you’re going to have to outwork everyone. And I did this every year no matter what the outcome was every year. So basically, I was a lion. I had a lion mentality every day of my life in swimming because I was just hungry. I wanted to become better. I wanted to keep moving forward and keep bettering myself in and out of the pool. And I think that was like, that’s what really helped me was that little cheat code that I had.

Just to piggyback on top of that. So, so Ryan, I love the cheat code. How much of a factor is it having a coach or surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals to make sure you kind of humble yourself and at the same time keep that fire going? How critical of a role is that?

So I don’t think I’m a celebrity. I just I am a person like everyone else that does a sport that I’m good at. That’s it. Getting recognized, I sign autographs, and like I love it. So, I don’t let that kind of stuff get to my head, like as far as I’m concerned, I’m just a normal person. So in that sense. And then I surround myself with positive people. I think that’s like, because negativity is so contagious. So throughout my whole life, even if it was my family members, like if they’re negative, I’m walking away. Because it’s so contagious and it’s so bad, especially in this world now, like we need positive stuff all the time. And so I surround myself with positive reinforcement. So my coaches, they had to be supportive, but they had to be a hard ass, like they had to put me, like, if I’m not doing it, they had to put me down and be like, look, you’re messing up. Like basically, excuse my French, get your shit on track. And I just surrounded myself with positive people that really believed in me when others didn’t.

I mean, that just kind of, it’s a mindset all the way through and it’s a mental toughness, which I know you’ve described as being a muscle in and of itself, you know. You’ve also said like your career has been filled with as many mistakes as it has victories. But what really sets people apart is like taking those lessons, learning from them and moving on better. You say you’re always sharpening the sword, not dropping it. That’s a great analogy. And I just love to have you talk about that a little bit, because it seems like I love the lion analogy. I’m always from the bottom. I’m hungry. But how do you keep that consistency as you’re working and facing challenges day-to-day?

Basically, like a lot of things like I’ve been to the bottom of the barrel. I’ve been in the darkest holes possible and getting out was probably the hardest thing to do. But one of the biggest things that I’ve learned in life, like everyone in life, you’re going to get knocked down. There’s no if and buts about it. Like you’re going to get knocked down, but it’s not how you get knocked down. It’s how you get up and keep moving forward. And I think that’s the biggest thing throughout. I’ve been injured. Like I broke by me like five times, like break dancing, skateboarding, like all this thing outside of swimming. I’ve always had hurdles and obstacles throughout my life, but there were just bumps in the road. As long as you stay the path, you can overcome anything and like learn from your mistakes. So, like if I miss a wall or if I got dead last in a race, like I learned from my mistakes and make sure that doesn’t happen again. So you never should dwell on the past. You should learn from the past and just keep moving forward. And that’s what I try to do, especially with these swim clinics that I’m doing with Life Time, with all these kids, because it’s not about us, it’s about the younger generation. And I’m trying to help out the younger generation as much as I can. And teaching these kids that, look, this is a sport, that’s it. Like you, wait, live life, have fun. And in life, you’re gonna get knocked down, but learn from it and keep moving forward and try to better yourself every day. If you try to better yourself every day, you can’t ask for anything else.

I love that you said that. Just knowing that you now have the opportunity to impact future generations and keeping the fun within the sport. I would be remiss to say that when you look at the parallels of sports and how it now relates to real life, going through adversity, getting knocked down, so on and so forth, I’m curious now, how do you create that transitional flow, if you will, for as these individuals that you’re mentoring are growing, they’re gonna go through a lot of those stages. And let’s say they don’t get to the point of becoming an Olympian, but they now have these foundational elements that can now go into everyday life and set them up for success. So, can you speak a little bit about keeping it fun? But also setting them up for being good young men and women.

So, well first, keep it at fun. think I’ve kept it fun way too much, I think. I think as you guys all know. But I do these talks and these motivational talks and I live by three, I develop three kind of rules or three guidelines throughout my entire life that like, that can relate to everyone and everyone could use these. Like number one, listen to your coach. you can like, so when I’m talking to other people other than swimmers, like I’m like, listen to your coach. If it’s like a realtor, listen to your broker or like someone like that, because they’re there to help you. They’re not there to hurt you. Like listen to them. And when I say like, listen to them, like actually listen to them and make the changes. If they give you a suggestion, make those changes because they want the best for you. The second one, make sure you guys set short-term and long-term goals. Like when I was eight years old, I had that long term goal of going to the Olympics, getting an individual gold medal. So every day that I woke up, I had a purpose. I mean, anyone can go to the swimming pool and swim up and down a pool all day, every day. Like anyone can do that. But if you go to the swimming pool and you’re doing something with a purpose, now you’re doing something great. And it’s going to turn into something great. And then you have that short-term goal. So, for me, in my practice every day, I had a short-term goal, whether it was making sure I did five dolphin kicks off every wall or making sure like I did a better streamline off the walls. Or it wasn’t even about me, sometimes I’d come into practice and I’d be like, you know what? Today, if I see my teammate like having a bad day, I’m like, I’m going to go cheer, cheer them up because if they’re happy, the whole team’s happy and the whole dynamic of the team, if you’re happy and you’re having a good time, that energy and the performance level is gonna go skyrocketing. So I try to influence that. So you have those short-term goals because all those short-term goals, they’re gonna add up to something big. And then the third one, the most important one is to have fun. And that’s what I definitely do because it goes back to being positive and negative. Like I don’t want negativity, so like if something is bad going on, like I’ll talk about it and get it out and just keep moving forward. And just try to stay positive as much as possible, especially now when I have kids, like I just want to be the best dad that I can be and just be so playful dad, I guess.

I think we can all relate to that. David and I are both parents as well. And it’s really, like, it gives us a reason to show up as our best selves every day, you know, and no matter what we’re doing, whether it’s at work or at home, how do we show up and demonstrate? I love that you’re saying like having the fun, but it’s also like showing what passion can look like and what success can look like, too, at the same time. So, a lot of people would say, hey, you’ve made this achievement. You’ve hit the ceiling on this. But, you’ve talked about how you’ve also pushed past that ceiling and having the mindset that there is really no such thing. You can keep pushing and going forward. So, talk a little bit about that. Have you ever felt like this is my peak or is there always a next thing for you?

No, there is no peak. That means there is no peak because there’s always something. There’s always something better or something more that you can get. So that’s why in my swimming career, I was never satisfied with a world record or a gold medal because I was like, you know what? I could go faster. I could get more gold medals because you know what? I’m a person that loves pain. Like when I’m working out, I, can outwork anyone in this entire world in the swimming pool. Like you would have to seriously drag me out of the pool on my last breath before I give up. And that pain I love. And once you can feel that pain, you can overcome pretty much anything because a lot of people are not willing to go to that state. And I loved it. But once you go to it once, like you can keep going over it. And that means you’re pushing your body to new limits. In everyone, there’s something always left. My head coach, my coach that coached me in college, he was like one of my first years there. He was like, no matter what in life, like you always have something left inside you. You just have to deep down inside you and find it. But once you find it, it’s going to be hell. But once you find it, it’s gonna come easier and easier and that’s what’s gonna separate you from everyone else. So, once I was able to find that, was like, man, I could do this on a daily basis. So, like then I started loving pain. I loved like beating my body up and loved like just pushing my body and my mind to limits that I never thought or anyone else thought I could do.

 

It reminds me, David, of our previous guest we had on her name was Courtney DeWalter. She’s a long-distance endurance runner, hundreds of miles at a time. And she talked a lot about the pain cave and what it was like to get there and then kind of be in there, not fight against it, but learn from it and use it to kind of go to that next phase. I love that, like hearing how you did that for yourself, it was always kind of you working with yourself to go to that next level.

Yes. Like everyone is going to be training at the same level, especially like for my swimming career, like, and in practice, everyone, if we start fatiguing, everyone’s going to be fatiguing at the same point. Like, I use that as energy. was like, I just dig down deep. was like, if we’re in the same boat, like there’s something left. I know there is. I find it. And then all of a sudden, like I’ll hit a wall and I’ll blast off it in front of everyone by like five yards and I’ll just keep going and going. Then people are like, what the hell just happened? Like, find it, you got to find it in yourself. And everyone has it. And it doesn’t even have to be sports related. Like, it like everyone has something inside of them, they just have to dig down deep and find it. If you really want something, you can get it.

Yeah, that great factor. You got to go through the darkness to appreciate the light. And then I think it’s the quote by Nelson Mandela — “it’s always impossible until somebody does it.” And the beautiful part of what you just said, it’s going to that dark place, even when no one’s looking, putting in those reps where nobody’s around. So then when it’s game day or whatever it may be and it’s in the light, everybody’s in awe, but they didn’t see all those things that you did in the dark. So I mean, that is beautiful. And to your point goes back to that cheat code, do the little things right. And then when the big moments happen, it’s not a surprise to you. Everybody else is shocked, but you already know what you did to get there. So that’s, that’s dope. I love it. Love it.

Yeah. That seems like, like, when I broke the world record in my IM back in 2011, I knew I was going to break the world record because the two years before that, when everyone was like leaving swim practice, I stayed 30 minutes later than everyone else. They were about to shut off the lights and I was still in the pool working on my underwater kicks or working on my flip turns, like everything I was doing, everything I could do possible to outsmart and out train my other competitors. And that’s what you have to do in life. Like you, you can’t be complacent. Like you have to be uncomfortable. If you’re uncomfortable, like that is what is really going to excel you and like reach your full potential. Because if you’re just complacent and like just like it’s easy, you’re not pushing yourself.

We’ve heard that you said you’re not defined by swimming, that swimming is a sport that you did that you were good at and you had fun doing it, but it doesn’t define you. So, our question to you is, how do you separate who you are from what you did and how would you define Ryan?

Ooh, ooh. So, I had two different lifestyles. I had a swimmer. So when I was at the pool deck, you didn’t want to excuse my French because like I, cuss sometimes. You don’t want to fuck with me when I’m on pool deck. Like I’m a beast, I’m a lion and I’ll eat you. But when I’m done with that practice and I’m out, I’m back to the Daytona beach surfer kid that goes with the flow and loves to have fun, like goes out, parties, goes to movies, hangs out with friends, skateboarding, basketball, like you name it. Like, so I had two different lifestyles because I did so much, I put so much energy into my sport that I needed an escape. So, my escape was like not even thinking about swimming. Like some people, when they go after they’re like, after they play their sport or do their races, whatever, they go back and like look up YouTube videos of their sport and like stuff like that. And I just couldn’t because I would be fried. And I think that’s why I was able to swim and outlast almost all my competitors by years. I was 37 going into my last Olympic trials and that’s unheard of for guys. But I was having fun doing it because I had that two different lifestyles that I was able to separate that really helped me out.

Well, that actually leads us into this next kind of area we want to talk about, the next chapter in your life and career. And first, we want to talk a little bit about, because it kind of counters a little, like, what’s it like being a dad and a father and a husband? And how has that changed your life since that, like, you know, when you were the swimmer and the Daytona beacher?

I was a free spirit. I didn’t have anyone to really worry about except myself when I was, like, single and I was just swimming like for myself. So I had like, I was carefree. But the hardest thing in my entire life was being able to train at the highest level in sports and still come home and be a super dad and a husband. And it was the hardest thing. And I mean, I failed at it, not failed at the husband and dad part, but I failed at the swimming part because I started, I noticed like once my son was born, my first kid, like I was like, gold medals, world records, that was awesome. But this is freaking 10 times better. Like I would give up everything if I could just have like four kids. Like this is what I was put on this earth for, not to swim, to be a bad ass dad and a bad ass husband. I just like, I’m going to start like tearing up because every time I like think of them, it’s just I’m blessed. I’m the happiest person in the world.

Yeah, I love that. And definitely, definitely. know both myself and Jamie can relate to being able to be around family and how it’s such a key element within our lives and core values that we hold within it. You also have an opportunity that you’re currently taking advantage of and pouring into a lot of aspiring swimmers and being able to give back to the community and to be able to host legendary like swim camps and swim clinics within Life Time. So, what is about coaching, teaching, and then also championing swimmers that you’re passionate about?

I love, so anything that I do now that I’m done swimming on like competitive swimming, anything I do now is all for to help other people. I’m a people pleaser. And I’m a big kid myself, so it’s really easy to relate to these younger kids and I like the sport that I loved and that I did most of my life, like I can give back now. I was blessed with the ability to go to the Olympics, get these world records and gold medals. And now I have, I’m blessed that I can give back. I can give back younger generation and make these younger kids better than what they are now. And honestly, like it’s, it’s everything. Like I obsessed with doing swim clinics, especially with Life Time because we’ll get into that probably later, but Life Time, I didn’t really know about it until I started doing these tour and amazing facility has everything. It’s like the best and being able to do these swim clinics with them and like teach these kids to become a better of themselves. Like it’s, it’s everything. And I’m just, I guess you could just say, like, I’m just very blessed that I have the ability to do this now and just to help out other people. And it’s not even just kids, all ages. Because, you know, swimming is the second leading cause of death of drowning in the world. So like, and it could be stopped just by someone teaching other people.

To that end, mean, obviously you’ve mentioned Life Time. We want to talk a little bit about what these clinics are like. So if somebody is, let’s say they’re near one of the Life Times where these clinics are taking place, how long do they last? What do they entail? What skills will you help these people build when you’re working with them?

So we basically, so it’s about a three, it depends on how many kids we have. So it’s usually three hours long. It’s usually about 40 minutes of first of us talking about the strokes, the foundation, what makes a perfect stroke. And then we, then I get in the water. Like, this is the part I love. Like I get in the water with the kids and I demonstrate the drills that I’ve done throughout my swimming career that could help these kids. And I show them and then I let them do it. So I’m in the water hands on helping each kid on like perfecting their strokes. And then I teach them like secrets that I’ve learned that no one else knows in the sport of swimming. Keys to underwaters, starts, turns, you name it, anything about the sport of swimming. Like I’m teaching these kids and I’m in the water with them doing that. And then afterwards we do question and answers, and we go into the depths of mental health. One of my biggest things for me that changed my swimming career was nutrition and they can ask me anything like they’re kids. They asked me, well, what’s your favorite pizza or like things like that. But like it’s all fun. It’s like we’re having a good time and like we do races like I’ll let them race me sometimes. We have a competition in the water. So it’s like it’s really fun. And then my favorite part is signing autographs and taking pictures. I bring American flag caps that I gift each kid and I sign them. If they want like anything they want signed, I’ll be more than happy. Take pictures with them. I love that. So yeah, that’s basically the gist of how a swim clinic runs. But I want to turn this into more than just a clinic. I want to turn this into an event at where kids are going to remember this. I mean, so far, everyone’s said like, this is the most amazing thing. Like, I can’t believe like I got so much out of this. I was like, wow, that’s awesome. Sweet. And I see the difference in these kids because we actually did this. Like I was at a swim meet and in between prelims and finals, I did a swim clinic with a couple of kids. They bettered their time by like five or 10 seconds. Things they were like, I just did what you said. And I was like, what? I was like, I might be onto something here. I was like, I was like, but like that brought tears to my eyes because like I’m helping reach their dreams, reach their goal. And I think that’s freaking awesome.

Super fulfilling. So, let’s pour right back into these kids that are listening right now. What advice or guidance would you give aspiring swimmers who are either looking to take up this sport or improve their current abilities in this sport?

You have to out, you have to think outside the box. Cause you have to start, if you want to be the best in whatever you do in life, you can’t just do the normal thing. You have to think outside the box and you have to do more. You have to have sacrifices. Like when I stayed 30 minutes later after practice, like that was a sacrifice. Like I didn’t just go straight to dinner or hang out with my friends. Like I stayed to perfect my craft and that’s what these kids need to learn. Also, the biggest thing, the biggest life lesson that I’ve learned through my whole swimming journey is when you get knocked down or you have those bumps in the road, it’s not how you got knocked down, it’s how you get up and keep moving forward. I tell these kids, never dwell, because these kids, they’re thinking like, and this is what leads into mental health, they start thinking that, I didn’t do a best time and then they start crying. I’m like, why are you crying? It’s just swimming. Like, and I want these kids to think like, it’s just a sport. Like you all, you can learn from your mistakes that happened and you can try to fix them for it. So it doesn’t happen later on, but don’t dwell on the past. You got to keep moving forward. And I think that’s what like life is all about. You got to keep moving forward and bettering yourself every day. Stay that path, no one’s going to mess you up.

I just saw the new movie that’s out right now, Inside Out 2 the other night and they mental health. just started watching that for like 20 minutes and then, like I was streaming it on my computer and I was watching it at 20 minutes, I was like, really like this. But then like the kids started crying so I had to go tend to them.

Well, you need to finish it because you know, and David, have you seen it already too? I just did a post. I did a post on it and it’s talking about regulating emotions on Tuesday. So yes. So I need to go back and check that one out. But I just think the whole role of anxiety and mental health is worth talking about because we do, there’s a lot of pressures on kids today and you know what are the beliefs that those anxieties create? How can we help them manage those emotions and to have mental health be a component of these clinics and these events that you’re doing, Ryan, I think is so critical for the up-and-coming generation. They’re dealing with this in such a unique way. So, thank you for doing that and incorporating that.

I mean, and that’s why like my clinics are fun. Because I want to drill this in these kids’ heads that swimming is fun. Life is fun. You can have ups and downs, of course, but if you learn from the downs, your ups are gonna be way more upper. And so like, that’s why I want these kids to have fun. Swimming is swimming, it’s fun. And that’s what life is all about. You gotta enjoy it. You gotta enjoy this journey that you’re on because trust me, the end… Oh my gosh, it’s it’s everything.

So we’re in an Olympic year, a summer Olympic year right now. And I want to know, like, what is that like for you? No longer being a competitive swimmer, but to see, you know, fellow athletes, fellow swimmers out there like working towards this this ultimate goal of the Olympics. Will you be there to cheer people on and how do you support the current U.S. swim team and other athletes who are going to be over there in Paris this year?

It brings back a lot of memories, you know, of my very first Olympics that I made and just the excitement, the atmosphere of the crowd, like at Olympic trials is just, and like dreams coming true. You see so many dreams coming true for these kids that it’s just mind blowing. Like they’re crying because they’ve put so much dedication and sacrifice into their work that it’s paying off and that’s so rewarding. And I just get those feelings like when I was watching, I’m watching Olympic trials and I’m just watching it. And one of my good friends, he’s like my little son, cause I’m so old. They call me big daddy. He’s on the U.S. Olympic team and I, he just had a kid. So I saw him after he made the Olympic team, he rushed over and hugged his child. And I was just like, I remember that. Like I’m like this, like it just like, oh my gosh. It’s just amazing. Like dreams are coming true for these kids and I think USA is going to do some damage this summer. I hope so. And I hope I’m going to be there. I’m going to try, I’m trying to do some commentating out there and just cheer on USA.

Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, you and David both. David’s going to be over there cheering on the track and field. You’ll be over there may be cheering on the pool.

That is one thing I have not done. All my Olympics I’ve been to, I have not been to, I want to see the 100-meter sprint track and field. That’s what I need to do. I need to see it. Yeah. It’s been since 2004 since an American has won a gold medal in the 100 or 200. Cause it’s been Jamaica. I think you had Italy last one. So we, we got some work to do and I think we got a good chance this year for sure.

Well, I can’t wait. I can’t wait.

Well, before we get to our final, David has his mic drop moment for you here. Is there anything else you would want to share with our listeners or just pass along to anybody who, no matter what their sport is, but they’re trying to achieve a higher potential or move towards that next thing? Any final message you’d want to give to them?

As far as like the fitness wise, if you’re if you’re not signed up with Life Time, you’re making a big mistake. That’s all I got to say, because. So I just got, I’ll tell you a quick story. I just got in a huge car accident about a couple months ago. I broke my femur. It was like life or death. Like I was on the way to pick up my kids from school. So luckily, they weren’t in the car with me, but it set me back. And I went to our first clinic with Life Time. I saw one of the like massage guys there and the stretchers and afterwards, like I was on crutches afterwards. I threw down the crutches and I was walking normal. was like, what the heck? was like, this place is the best. Food is amazing. They have everything you want. So yeah, if you want to better your lifestyle, you better sign up for Life Time ASAP.

Oh my gosh, we might have to just cut that clip out. It might be our next advertisement. Aright, David, over to you.

Alright, Ryan, here we go. At the end of every episode, we do a mic drop moment. You ready for this?

Oh geez. Yep.

It’s pretty, it should be. It should be easy. I don’t know. But all right. What were in your ears during your pre -race warm up? What were you tuned into? What were you listening to? What was your song of choice? Sky’s the Limit by Lil Wayne on his dedication album. Oh yeah, I know that one. Classic.

I never I never listened to music right before my race. OK. Always like on the way, from to the venue from the Olympic Village to the pool, I would be listening to it. But then after that, I got I can’t be like too zoned in. I got to be like, hey guys, what’s up? Like, that song on repeat gets me fired up. And once I listen to that song, everyone just watch out.

Nice. Nice.

Well, Ryan, we are just so grateful you took the time to talk with us both about your career about your what you’re doing with Life Time with our swim clinics. We want people to follow you. You’re @ryanlochte on Instagram and Facebook. You have your website Lochteforever.com. Is there anywhere else you would want to point people? No, those three handles, my website, that’s where you can sign up for the swim clinics.

And who knows? It might be coming near you guys.

So. I know. Well, I’m in Minnesota. I think I saw that you might be in Minnesota coming up soon.

Yes, we will. So, you got to come out. You got to check it out for yourself.

Absolutely. I’m looking forward to it. David’s in Texas. I don’t know if you’re headed there.

Where in Texas? Because I’m coming next, I’m going to Cyprus.

1. So, you’re gonna be in Houston

Houston. Yes. And then I think one in near I think Frisco. I think it’s near for come on.

Yeah, let’s make it happen.

I’ll let you I’ll let you guys know for sure. But yeah, absolutely.

We can’t wait. Well, hopefully we’ll meet you in person. We hope to see you at these clinics and encourage other people to look it up. If you’re near a Life Time that’s offering one of these, be sure to take advantage of it. So, Ryan, thank you again for coming on Life Time Talks. Have a great rest of the day.

Yes. Thank you guys for having me. Bye guys.

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Thanks for joining us for this episode. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on our conversation today and how you approach this aspect of healthy living in your own life. What works for you? Where do you run into challenges? Where do you need help? And if you have topics for future episodes, you can share those with us too. Email us lttalks@lt.life or reach out to us on Instagram @lifetime.life, @jamiemartinel, or @freezy30 and use the hashtag #LifeTimeTalks.

You can also learn more about the podcast at experiencelife.lifetime.life/podcast.

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Thanks for listening. We’ll talk to you next time on Life Time Talks.

Life Time Talks is a production of Life Time Healthy Way of Life. It is produced by Molly Kopischke and Sara Ellingsworth with audio engineering by Peter Perkins, video production and editing by Kevin Dixon, sound and video consulting by Coy Larson, and support from George Norman and the rest of the team at Life Time Motion. A big thank you to everyone who helps create each episode and provides feedback.

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