“There’s a very fine line between bodybuilding and just complete neglect of health," says Justin Mihaly. In this episode, Bodybuilder, Justin Mihaly dives into where his interest in bodybuilding stemmed from. By mapping out the toxic culture around body-building and mental health, Justin hones in on the benefits of bodybuilding principles that can be carried over into normal life. He touches base with the aesthetic conversation as it ties into the body positivity movement and why heavy lifting is important. From anger, to self-approval to wanting to make a difference through bodybuilding, Justin dives into some interesting perspectives and insights around bodybuilding culture on how its narrative transfers into normal life.
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What You Will Learn in This Interview with Justin Mihaly:
04:26 - Why bodybuilding?
08:31 - Downsides of Bodybuilding
18:27 - The aesthetic conversation - how Justin approaches the body positivity movement.
24:36 - Are there health benefits from Bodybuilding?
34:04 - Importance of lifting heavy
35:48 - Changing the narrative on heavy lifting will cause pain
39:05 - Transiting from bodybuilding to community work
41:55 - Learn more with Justin
To learn more about Justin Mihaly: and view full show notes, please visit the full website here: here: https://www.docjenfit.com/podcast/episode329
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Optimal Body Podcast.
[00:00:08] I'm Doc Jen.
[00:00:09] And I'm Dr. Dom.
[00:00:10] And we are doctors of physical therapy, bringing you the body tips and physical therapy pearls
[00:00:13] of wisdom to help you begin to understand your body, relieve your pains and restrictions,
[00:00:18] and answer your questions.
[00:00:19] Along with expert guests, our goal of the Optimal Body Podcast is really to help you
[00:00:24] discover what optimal means within your own body.
[00:00:27] Let's dive in with the community. We're gonna have a private channel
[00:01:42] that we get to talk into this time that is on my Instagram.
[00:01:46] So if you go to my Instagram stories of this course. This is the last week that you can use it as well. So please check down in the show notes, get into this course. Our guest for today's podcast is Justin Mahaley, who's an accomplished entrepreneur, podcaster and bodybuilder. As the host of the Grow or Die podcast, Justin has interviewed over a hundred successful founders and investors about topics like startup entrepreneurship
[00:03:02] growth, productivity, health and bodybuilding, and personal development. With over 2 million incredible conversation. So excited to pick your brain a little bit today. Yeah. Thank you guys so much for having me on. It's super cool that I had y'all on mine and we had an unbelievable conversation. And so it's fun to be able to value back to y'all. So I really look forward to this. Now we know you have, you know, quite a history of a successful body,
[00:04:21] being successful in bodybuilding.
[00:04:23] I can use work today.
[00:04:24] Yeah. culture and this part of the reason I moved down to Austin, Texas because I've just went into a mercs my life in this. Our value of the way that we see ourselves and the way that we push ourselves, it introduces us before anything else does. I very much so agree with your energy introduces you before your name does. Well, I feel the same way about our
[00:05:44] physique and people who are in good shape our favorite ones. Grapefruit used to be a seasonal flavor, but now it's around to stay. So if you're interested in getting Element and keeping yourself hydrated on that? Oh, God, I've been there. No, I'm in it. And let me tell you guys something. If you guys are listening to a bodybuilder and they're not capable of acknowledging the downside of the sports,
[00:08:23] it would be like listening to Patrick Mahomes after an NFL game. And he says that to look into my notes. I don't have to assess my emotional. I don't have to have any sort of spiritual relationship, whether that's religious or non-religious. So I got into this, because I don't know, I was completely traumatized from how poorly I performed in college sports. I went from being unbelievable in high school
[00:09:40] and nobody could touch me
[00:09:41] and I had a literal S on my chest
[00:09:44] because our high school was named Shawnee.
[00:09:47] And so we had an S that was very on the chest and there's so much and i gave my best and. I know something about body blue that is so beautiful you continue showing up and giving your best. It's amazing how it manifests into a stronger more capable physique now. Time the last point in this point together. We've got to be able to show up better for ourselves for mental well being for emotional well being i mean.
[00:12:04] very toxic relationships that can be happening there and that people can fall into. I too fell into for a moment.
[00:12:06] But yeah, that's kind of my belief system on where we need to go as a whole.
[00:12:11] I mean, I, I like that you relate it to a sports reference and what people can kind
[00:12:18] of understand because that is what this is.
[00:12:21] It's, it's a sport in a, I mentioned I was kind of bodybuilding to overcompensate for other things in my life. So, along with that, there was a ton of emotional immature, just so much emotional immaturity
[00:13:41] and anger problems and just not understanding
[00:13:44] how to control anything that was going on in my life.
[00:14:46] It's just a complete lack of emotional control, a complete lack of emotional of mental maturity.
[00:14:54] So I just continually identified that I don't really like how I handle this situation.
[00:14:56] I burned a lot of bridges. I lost a lot of friends because I didn't have the skill set equipped.
[00:15:00] You know, as men growing up, it's, you don't.
[00:16:04] If you want to be something, you immerse yourself within that. So if I tell you guys, I want to be a billionaire, well, you're probably not going to get there
[00:16:10] by hanging out with people that make $100,000 a year and $100,000 a year is incredible.
[00:16:15] But if I say I want to be a billionaire, you got to hang out with people who are billionaires,
[00:16:18] right?
[00:16:19] If you're grossly overweight to a placeated with what you said about the overcompensation in the bodybuilding space
[00:17:42] and how you felt like a lot of unless you're performing at the highest level and
[00:19:02] winning those competitions. So I'm going to kind of leave it open on what's your take Body positivity is not simply you allowing yourself to be the healthiest that you can possibly be. We have metrics for this. We understand how important VO2 max is for longevity. We understand how important glucose regulation is for diabetic control, for body fat control.
[00:20:21] We understand how important being strong is there is no greater source of longevity than for your human body so how in the hell are we going to celebrate positivity you slowly killing yourself you know it's absolutely fascinating i'm not sure if you guys have seen it. I'm currently reading i'm reading books lost connection and lost connection and talking about how loneliness.
[00:22:45] when people move their body be healthy now. The body burning space. Oh my gosh, you guys would be absolutely amazed what goes on with people. I mean, you'll be eight weeks post
[00:22:50] show. You look like an absolute you look like an avenger. Like you look like you just jumped
[00:22:55] out of a Marvel movie and these people are so lost and they're mental that they don't
[00:23:01] think they look good that they're crying that they're restricting their foods because And I feel like it's like that in all sport, everywhere. College football, like Dr. Don talks about being a college football locker room, there needs to be more mental health awareness in college football locker rooms as well. You can maintain a competitive edge while maintaining and improving your mental health.
[00:24:20] How do I know this?
[00:24:21] I've done it.
[00:24:23] And it's a very hard transition, but it's very possible.
[00:24:27] And we need more of the health benefits that you find from bodybuilding?
[00:25:40] Like what makes it healthier in terms of rather that is becoming part of a routine? You have high systemic blood glucose. Your pancreas is constantly releasing insulin. You have high insulin levels. In your neural connections, your neurotransmissions, they're going to be delayed, which literally means that if you are over that, you are not going to be as mentally capable
[00:27:03] in social relationships or manic relationships,
[00:27:05] communication in your workout put anywhere, I mean, the three of us are sitting on this call, but we can all flex our hamstrings right now just in whatever position we're in, we can flex our hamstrings. We can flex our biceps. We can call on our lats to do something. That level of intuition with your body, the things that come with it, you're able to auto-regulate your health everywhere. Well, there's not really anything that can teach that.
[00:28:22] Outside of a bodybuilding strength training
[00:28:26] and what you guys, a ribeye, my body doesn't love a ribeye. The high fattage doesn't digest well for me. So I'm going to get a fillet. Whereas most people are just going through life like, man, why do I feel so bad?
[00:29:43] And they don't have any answer that it's a hard thing to help people understand how to do building of bodybuilding as an advocate. I would add one quick point in here, Dr. Dom.
[00:32:21] So we're talking about the rib eye.
[00:32:23] We're talking about the fillet.
[00:32:26] People might find this interesting.
[00:32:27] I know I volunteer. Yeah, also that because we'll be able to survive for months. Beyond that, I think one of the benefits that I want to ask about is strength training in general. You know, a lot The more muscle literature we have, the greater strength output we have, the more capable human beings we are. You're able to pick up your child when they fall down. You're able to carry the groceries up the steps and not have your back hurt or your knees or your hip hurt. When you have pains and your joints, it is because your muscles are not able to support
[00:35:04] what you are asking hire a trainer. I highly recommend that you want to make sure
[00:36:22] that you're moving appropriately
[00:36:24] through different movement patterns
[00:36:26] and trying to guess it for yourself And within that, I think, is taking the guesswork out, you're taking the frustration away from protocol. If you remove guesswork and you have a plan to get you from point A to point B without as many distractions or unknown variables as possible, then your odds of success
[00:37:41] are quite high.
[00:37:42] So research a lot yourself.
[00:37:45] But if you have the wanting to make a little pivot into working with people more in the community.
[00:39:00] Now I know bodybuilding and training bodybuilders
[00:39:03] is always gonna hold a huge part in your heart,
[00:39:05] a huge space in your heart.
[00:39:07] But can you talk a little bit about into a place where they don't have to rely on Adderall anymore because we teach them what their brain is doing, how it's working, where the downfalls are, and we're able to help them rewire those places, supplement those places, change their lifestyle around. So these places are not just going to be crushes for us, they're going to be strengths for us.
[00:40:20] So we have a community-based approach to fitness, episode out after you're done with this one. Hey, shoot me a DM and you're going to see the staff that I have with Team Mahaly. You're going to see everything that we're doing. You can reach out to any of them at any time as well. We're always here to help, so however we can provide value to you truly, we mean it.
[00:41:43] So I would love to chat with you guys further on Instagram.
[00:41:46] Perfect.
[00:41:47] Definitely not.
[00:41:48] Thanks for that.