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Fitness enthusiasts, are you ready to train like a NASCAR driver? In this episode of The Breaking Boundaries Podcast, we're taking an in-depth look at the exercise and performance routines of one of the most beloved NASCAR drivers out there - Matt Guido DiBenedetto. If you've ever wondered what it takes to compete at the highest level of NASCAR racing, then this episode is for you. We'll uncover some of DiBenedetto's secrets to success, including his workout routines, strength training tips, and fitness strategies for staying in top form both on and off the track. With our confident, empowering tone, we'll guide you through the ins and outs of NASCAR racing, giving you exclusive insights into the world of motorsports fitness. From high-intensity cardio to muscle-building strength training, we'll show you how to take your workout to the next level and achieve peak performance like a true NASCAR pro. So whether you're a seasoned fitness enthusiast or just starting out, this episode is packed with practical advice, specific details, and expert tips to help you achieve your fitness goals. Don't miss out on this exciting opportunity to learn from one of the best in the business. Hit that play button, and let's get started!.
Matt's Instagram → https://saavedrafajardo.com/mattdracing
Hunter Molzen:
Hey everybody. I'm Hunter Molzen back with another episode of the Breaking Boundaries Podcast by saavedrafajardo today. He's an all-around great guy, man of family, man athlete, and we actually had this conversation once before, but it lost in the, so I'm excited to sit him again. Car driver at a high level, NASCAR a number of years, and he's doing the truck series now and conversation kinda already know this, demanding than most both for racing and fitness, weightlifting, all of that pretty seriously, which is part of the reason we got connected through Barbell apparel. And no, I'm excited to have the conversation and make for sitting down today, Matt.
Matt Dibenedetto:
Yeah, man, absolutely. Thanks for, for having me. We get round two, we get to two takes, .
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, yeah. No, it's fun. I mean, we had the conversation once before and, and I think that like it's been long enough now to where some of that's probably escaped my mind and we could have a little bit of the old and a little bit of new. So for people that dunno why don't you give a little bit of background about how you got into racing and let's talk a little bit about kind of like the long odds of, or even just kinda the remote chance that someone whose family didn't have a history in racing who wasn't connected to nascar, who didn't have like piles of money would be able to get into racing, come up as a kid and actually race the NASCAR Cup series.
Matt Dibenedetto:
Yeah, man, none of my family was involved in, in NASCAR or racing really at all. My dad liked cars and, you know, had a drag car once and stuff, but nothing, nothing much. So ultimately when I was five years old I had a four-wheeler and a dirt bike and I, that's all I did every day was just ride and tear up our beautiful property and made it into a dirt track . So that's and then, you know, my dad was actually big into baseball and so that was his passion and he was a coach for the scouting league for the Mets at a time, and he was my little league coach back then. And so at one of our little award ceremony deals, he brought me up and said, this is my, he called me his little Jeff Gordon. He said he likes baseball, but loves racing. And you know, when I was five years old, my dad my parents were in the living room and my dad passed by NASCAR and I made him go back to it and he's like, what the heck do you wanna watch that for ? And I made him go back to it and watch it every single week. I watched NASCAR every week, rode four wheelers and dirt bikes. And then fast forward to at our little baseball award ceremony thing when I was only six years old one of the kids on the team, they happened to race at a local dirt track called Psycho Land Speedway out in Chico, California. And when they heard that I loved racing, they were like, Hey, come check it out. We race out there every weekend. And so I went out there and checked it out and my parents asked me if that was something I wanted to do. And obviously the, the obvious answers right here, .
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, what a, like what a cool opportunity. I mean a both two have discovered something that you had a passion about so young, right? Like, I think that's kinda like a key line I see with a lot of people that reach high levels of performance, whatever given sport, is that they tend to connect with something at a really young age and realize that that's like something that gets 'em really excited that they love doing. But then also to have parents that were supportive of it, right? Cause like I'm sure a lot of parents would been like, you're not going to, that's, we don't have the resources, or it seems complicated, or we don't even know how to do it. But your parents seem pretty about letting do it. And I know that, you know again from our prior conversation that as you grew up and got really serious about it, but it did take like moving and some pretty serious significant sacrifices on their part to give you the opportunity. You, you had to turn it into a real career.
Matt Dibenedetto:
Yeah. So that's, we, that's the crazy part is we had no idea what we were up against and what kind of journey we were tackling when it got taken to a more a more serious level. So it started just for fun. So I started racing and we started winning and we ended up winning championships, you know, right, right away and having all this success. But really for us, it was just a family thing. We were just doing it for fun. We had no intentions of really much else. It was actually other people that we raced against and were out there that were saying, you know, Hey, Matt's really good. You guys need to pursue this and telling us to pursue this as a career. And really my family's like, oh, I guess, I don't know. And so, it was really from push from other people. I mean, they knew, they knew I was good at, good at driving in circles, but that's a lot to try and tackle something. You know, everybody has the dream of being a NASCAR driver or a, whether a football player or a pro golfer or whatever it is. But man, you know, to do anything at the professional level, it's, it's just, you know, unbelievable what it, what it takes and the time, the effort some, the funds, whatever it may be to get there. So we moved across country because we knew North Carolina is NASCAR country. And so we picked up, moved across country, started racing asphalt stuff out here. And man, it was a long journey. And, and the very, very short summary of it is, you know, we, my parents have done well for themselves, you know, made a good living, but not near to the degree of, you know, having like millions of dollars or seven figures to write checks and kind of pave the way. And, and racing is an expensive sport. So we were racing locally but it got a little bit beyond our means to where we were too stretched financially. And then we had to take a step back and, and really actually quit in 2007. And from then on, I was just kind of on my own and man, through an immense amount of, I mean, God really paving the way and making so many opportunities. And if I wasn't in this place at this time, you know, on so many different occasions, I still wouldn't be where I'm at today. And got just so fortunate and blessed along the way to, to really accomplish something with, with all the odds stacked against me because I didn't have that funding behind me. I didn't have, you know, major sponsorship behind me and things. And that's, you know, ultimately where now obviously I got so fortunate and got my opportunity to race I, I became a development driver for Joe Gibbs racing. So I'll summarize this a little bit. Became a development driver for Joe Gibbs racing. That opportunity got cut short cause it was when the economy sort of went downhill in 2008, 2009. And after 2010 I only got to run a few limited races. My opportunity got cut, cut really short there, and I had to take some opportunities from then on with lower funded small teams and just try and make a lot out of a little. And we did that often and they progressed me along until ultimately I got to run, starting the Cup series in 2015, ran in the Cup series from 2015 until 2021. And that, you know, through a course of a lot of escalation, just really, you know, made my career and got me on the map and, and NASCAR to a further level and really established me to where I've, you know, been around I feel like a long time. At this point it's all flown by like it's been, you know, one year, but I've been doing it for a while now. And so kind of where I was getting at is the interesting thing that I didn't expect is that nascar and this whole journey really helped me on a business front to get sort of my business mind together. And, and because understanding how the sport works, it does, you know, cost a lot. It's expensive, it costs, you know, our truck team, it costs, you know, 3 million to, to run for a year or if you're talking the Cup series, we're talking, you know, 20 million . So it's a lot of money that it takes to make these things go around. And all the employees we have, all the engineers and all the, just like an NFL team or anything, you know, it's, it's a lot behind the scenes that makes it happen. But ultimately we we're nothing without the partners that, that joined on board had come on board and get into the sport. And it's neat how the sports evolved over the years to where all the everybody really works together as one big family in nascar. So whenever we have a partner that comes into the sport, they, you know, and, and I'm very fortunate to have the platform that I have and, and knowing everybody in the sport, we can really, you know, integrate people into a whole realm of people, connections, companies and all otherwise that they, you know, may not have access to. So, it's kind of been wonderful on a business front. And then also getting to do what I love is, which is driving in circles for a living. I have a pretty cool job. .
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, definitely. And I think that the, so for people that don't know, like how many, you know, you raced the, the Cup series for, what, seven years?
Matt Dibenedetto:
Yeah, I think, oh, was it 2015 to 2021? Yep.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah. And so like the, the Cup series for, again, people that may not watch NASCAR is like the NASCAR you think of in your head when you think of nascar, right? The track with you, hundreds, thousands of people in the crowd, you know, Jeff Gordon, everything that's the Year cup how many people make it to the Cup Series and race it with basically like no massive amount of money or no background in racing from the, from a family perspective or something like that,
Matt Dibenedetto:
Man without one or the other. I, I feel like, I feel like I should it, it was kind of like winning the lottery two times in a row, . So unfortunately, I feel to have gotten to where I, you know, I have been with the odds stacked against me for sure. So yeah, I mean ultimately you really, you know, need to have some, some sort of funding behind you, some sponsorship or, you know, some partnerships or whatever it may be. On top of obviously having the driving ability as well. Sometimes there's, you know, sometimes there's many, there's many race car drivers out there that have so, so much talent but they may not get the opportunity, you know, they may not get to show their, the opportunity or they can only run at a really local level at a, you know, real low budget cuz they may not have the means and, you know, family may not have the means to get 'em just to that step where they need or whatever it is. So that's the tough part about racing. But it's and it's, it's, I think the tide is turning a little bit on that and they're really you know, the sport has just become more and more and more of a big family. And now it's cool because local racing is growing more than I've ever seen it in my entire life. Like many NASCAR drivers are getting really heavily behind local racing. Like Hickory Motor Speedway is a racetrack six minutes from my house I'm sitting in right now. And it's a very historic, legendary short track where Dale Earnhardt drove at, and Dale, Jared, and a bunch of famous guys, the people that may not even know much about NASCAR have heard their names. And so now NASCAR's getting really behind that local, more local level and they're also scouting, like dirt racing is growing a bunch and they're kind of scouting out, up and coming guys at more local levels. So it is sort of to, to combat kind of some of the, maybe the, I don't wanna say bad news, but the toughness nature of the sport. There are so many efforts now by the sport to, to sort of change that around and for more and more people to have opportunities now.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, no, that, that, it's awesome to see that happening. And I'm sure like now, right, you, you know, you're just a few years younger than me I suppose, but like we grew up, right, kind of like on the cusp of the development, the development of like YouTube, social media, things like that, that made being able to attract an audience or attract support, attract sponsors. Like, it, it's like easier now than it was before. All these tools kinda, if we had tried to start Barb Apparel, the pre social media era, it would've been, I don't wanna say impossible, but it would've been much harder, right? We would've to go out and find people like investors to write us money, but we did ourselves to make happen. We did. But these days, like I know other people that have started businesses or other like, you know, become music artists or athletes or things like that, they been able to leverage social presence or other like elbow grease type stuff like that make themselves known, opened up those doors. Something about your story that I don't want be glossed over is the fact that it, like, it wasn't easy for you, you've been doing since you were a kid. You had a lots, like a lot of probably when you're, you, the most of every little opportunity you had and going back and back and back until the doors opened up and you were able to, you know, race the Cup series and even when the, you know, your time in the Cup series ended, you pivoted to the truck series and like, it's always, you're always making most opportunity of you. That's another thing that it's rarely line completely straight, you know what I mean? Like, that's not kinda how it goes. Like all you can do is make sure that you do work hard and take advantage of every opportunity you have and don't, don't, don't slack and don’ts of yourself above any given opportunity works have way of working out. Like sometimes I sit back and it's fascinating to me, like the barbell apparel as a business is, I wanna say like pretty healthy and stable now, right? Like the Covid era kinda was, there was years when we started business in fourteen, years and years went by where every year we're like, we're gonna don's hard except not, would really play a very difficult game of balance balancing cash flow and making sure that you're profitable. And we were trying to grow the business with the money that we made and buy more inventory and buy more advertising and all this stuff. And it like down to the razor's edge for years at the time. But cause we just made the most of every chance we had it, it was like something would always happen, it would always work out. And it's continued to work out and now we're like, you know, coming up on 10 years of starting a business and in many ways there was a lot of luck. But also if you've been lucky for 10 years, was it luck? You know what I mean? Kinda similar to you, right? And so, it's interesting that you, that I have conversations with you, business owners or other athletes, commonality tends to be there.
Matt Dibenedetto:
Yep. Man. Exactly. It's, it's, you know, and, and, and I'm thankful that I yeah. Was so fortunate beyond what I can even comprehend so many times, you know, being where we are, just like you guys with all the hard work and starting a business, you know, all these things are relative. It's all relative. It's everyone has struggles in whatever journey that they're on. And it's never a, an easy, you know, paved out path. Life itself in this world is not easy. But you know what I, what I've, especially in my, you know, later years here in my kind of walk with the Lord and had a lot of life changed, it's, it's, you know, I'm, I'm so thankful and appreciative for, for the things I do and thankful for the struggles and the, the journey along the way kind of humbling me and getting me to be in the spot where I'm at now and to appreciate things more. But ultimately, you know, like in, in life in general, the, the plans that plans that the that, you know, God has for us is not to do something that we just don't like, or go and do a job nine to five every day that we just can't stand or we're miserable at. There's more, there's more to it than that. And so oftentimes through the through the pain is, is what nets the best results and biggest blessings on the other side.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah. And you know, I think that the, the other commonality I see in having conversations with high level individuals, athletes is that they're always striving for being the best they can be in the situation they're in. And always in a sense, striving for more. It's like, you know, it, it's rare. Like I have a lot of, and my hobbies, like I'm, I always want more, you know what I mean? Like, I always want be better, achieve more, reach another level. And it's like, there's no contentment to be there. I'm proud of what I've achieved and like I'm happy that it's there, but it's day complacent from other areas of my life. But there's this, this kinda like pocket of my life where I just have to, I have like this insatiable drive to do something more, you know what I mean? I have to do it.
Matt Dibenedetto:
Yeah. It's like, it's like working out. It reminds me of, yeah, when I you know, when I started when I was a kid and I was in high school and I lifting weights, I'm like, man, I wanna be able to bench just have, you know, a plate on each side, have one of them 40 fives on each side, you know, and then you do that or, and then you're like, then you get there and you're proud and you're like, all right, cool. Now what's next? All right, now I wanna get to 185 and then I, I really need to be able to bench with two plates on it. Or I need to, you know, I wanna squat or . I know I had a deadlift goal of, you know I wanted to be able to pull like 400 pounds. And with being smart, I'm very cautious and in what I do for workout stuff, for obvious reasons. I mean, my body would be, you know, intact and can't risk injury and what not. But either way, I remember then I, when I got to that, then I'm like, oh, I can do more than that. Then you pull like four, I pulled like four 40 solidly and easily over covid and stuff. And it's like, and sometimes we have to reflect on the big picture of like, man, think of that, that kid that if just a matter of years ago if I'd be like, oh yeah, man, one day you'll be able to lift this amount of weight or do this or hit these goals, you'd be super pumped. So yeah, like you said, you're always, always wanting more but appreciative on the path along the way and proud of the success and thankful for any of the success along the way no matter what. It's, whether it's racing or working out or any kinda life goals in general.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, no, and it's funny that you bring up the example of the weightlifting and the, and the lifting and stuff like, I mean, hey, you're, the weight's like staple training or anything. So it's, it's cool that you have that component and I'm sure it does like provide benefit. Like said, as long as you don't get injured, your body's more resilient. It's more sturdy, it's stable. We could about it of realizes, especially when you series pretty grueling like endurance space endeavor, like you're doing it for hours at a time, it's hot. You have to be laser focused the entire time. Like, it's not a, in all respects right, weightlift weightlifting so much and like it's become more clear as I've gotten older and learned these life lessons and done other things, but it's like, it's like a perfect allegory for how progress is achieved in almost anywhere in life, right? Cause it's like, if you want, if you could, if you were like an untrained kid, like I deadlift five pounds, the only way to get there is like two and increments at a time. Like maybe when you first start you can make bigger jumps cause you're making all those like, you know beginner gain and stuff. But everyone hits a wall eventually where those easy stop. And now it's all, it's step, step by step by step. And whether it's like racing or any other sport, I'm sure it's like you have to break it down to a lot of that kinda minutia to see where you can out the progress and, and like where the bottlenecks are, ability and where you can make those gains.
Matt Dibenedetto: Dude, it's crazy. Like how, how much I, I feel like I talk about it a lot of how much weight lifting or exercise or whatever it is, you know, that people may have their passion in and in exercise. But how much, how many life lessons come from it and how much it applies to all of life, how much it applies to my racing, just the focus, the dedication, the structure, you know, of it. Pushing through some of the hard work and the pain and where it gets better results on the other side, and all is super relative. I could even apply it you know, into my, to my spiritual journey as well. It's all facets of life. It, it's so much more important than just, you know, like, I wanna be strong and I wanna look good. You know, it's, it's our health. It's chipping away at, you know, cuz the, I guess the second law of thermodynamics is that basically, I'm paraphrasing here, but pretty much everything decays if left, you know, unattended, like a house that's left sitting for, you know, 10 years or 50 years or whatever over time is just gonna deteriorate and kind of, you know, our temporary bodies that we're in are the same way and they require structure and it requires discipline and it requires that chipping away, whether it's in our mind, whether it's in our, you know, in our workouts, our physical fitness, all that. It requires that discipline, that structure, it chipping away to always try and push back against that and, you know, take control of our health and those, those types of things in life. So, it really, I never would've thought that years ago I was just a gung-ho kid that just wanted to lift weights and I just wanted to be bigger and put on some muscle and things like that. I would've never realized until now, how many life lessons that working out has taught me and how much it applies. And has helped me in my life in general, cuz that discipline and stuff and that like, slow progression of chipping away and continuing to be, you know, persistent at it and not giving up, not quitting, not letting it, you know, be something that's broke and gets rid outta your life. How much it, it really, you know, is so big in your mental health and all facets of life. For, for me it's, it's, you know, very disciplinary and, and important to me.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah. No, and it's kinda like, weightlifting is kinda like a great equalizer in the sense that it'll teach everyone that lesson eventually, right? Like some people are, you know, freak, they're like super talented and they just get crazy strong and with just you and vinegar for a long time. But everyone hits that wall eventually. Like maybe for me was at four pounds and for you was at 50 and for another guy he might not hit that wall until like 50 or six pounds. Cause everyone's their own advantage. But like everyone that eventually some up and they don't have the they don't like that that kinda component of having to, or they, the resources help. Then some people like, I think the productive thrive, they're like, alright, like I know what has to be done now, right? It's like I gotta really dial it down and figure out like where I can, where I can dial everything in to continue to, to make performance gain, get stronger, get bigger, whatever it, again, you break down into everything work or your, you know other hobbies or athletic endeavors or whatever. It kinda applies across the board. I suppose like in in that, like do you find, did you find right, like as you, you were racing for so long that I'm sure that a lot of the progress kinda happened in the background, right? Like just by nature of getting older, growing up, racing the whole time. But did you ever find there was kinda like a, like a, an inflection point where you had to really step back and figure out where the bottlenecks were in your racing ability or something that was kinda holding you back to work past it?
Matt Dibenedetto:
Yeah, you know I've had a lot of, a lot of success along the way, but I've al I've also had a lot of heartbreaks, you know, in my career and, and along the way. And I would say in general, probably the most humbling times of my life ended up being the biggest blessings of my life because they, they really got me to in to look more inward versus looking outward. So I've had many of 'em, like I, right now I'm racing in the truck series, I was in the Cup series all those years. And when you're in the Cup series, you know, you just, people treat you like you're, you know, like you're some big celebrity and you're like, you, you just have all this attention and all this glamor and all this stuff, what that comes with racing in the big series and, and doing that at a professional level that sometimes it's easy to fall into the trap of forgetting to, to turn the mirror around on ourselves and always look inward at how we can be better, you know? And, and it's really easy for self-pride to, to sneak into the mix and, and try and, you know, sometimes think we're better than we are. Cause ultimately the second that we, the second we start thinking we know it all or man, I'm good or I can beat these guys on any day or whatever. There's, there's balance between having confidence but also that humility. And, and through a lot of, I mean many heartbreaks like finishing second at Bristol for me, when we've had that thing in the bag or now, you know, racing in the truck series going from truck or cup down to the truck series some of those humbling things actually ended up, you know, being, being major blessings cuz it helps. And, and Mike, just speaking to myself at least, it's really helped me to focus inward on how not, not outward on not, not on everybody, whatever everybody else is doing. Not on other people's problems or strengths or weaknesses, just solely flipping the mirror around on only to myself being like, all right, how can I be better? How can I be better at what do I, you know, at what I do for living? How can you know, what do I need to be listening to? What's life trying to speak to me for me to be better at my job? And kind of that so answering your question in a bit of a long-winded answer that yeah, there's so many bumps and bruises along the way and so many humbling times. Any athlete, anybody, even in work, it doesn't matter. It's all applicable just in life and whatever we do. That humility has been probably my, my saving grace is trying to focus on that focus inward on how to, how to just be better each and every day at what we do for a living and, and give it our all. Cause the second that we don't do that, it's just like the same, I can go back to it all times, just like the gym, the second you start slacking in the gym, you start losing some gains and losing progress. And it's the same, same type of mentality toward racing. The second we start, you know, I start going, I don't need to study that much for this week, and I've been to this racetrack, you know, 15 times, whatever, you know that nope, you already lost. The second you start you start trying to convince yourself of something like that. That's not true.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, for sure. Like you pride before the fall, right? Like, I know that I, I did power lifting for a number of years and you know, at least for me, pretty strong and that strength stuck with me for a long time after I lifting, transition other sports do maintenance on weightlift too. But I know like I was having like some issues with my, you know, with my posterior chain feeling just weak inc. Deadlift, see where I go. And like, I started like, you know, just plates felt easy added another set of plates, easy, two, five, easy 305 easy. And I just, I just kept doing it and it all felt easy and I, I got like cracked 400 pounds and I was like, that's probably good. Like, I should stop there so I don't hurt myself. And I, I know better than to do this kinda stuff, right? I really do like, and whatever. So I went through the rest of my workout, felt fine, and then like I woke up the next day and I could barely get outta bed. My body was just like crippled, like all stabilizer muscles that allowed that pulling normally safely and stuff were, were completely atrophied. Didn't remember how to do it. But the issue is like my brain remembered how to do it. The big muscles remembered how to do it, so weight off the floor and didn't feel that bad, but like all the fundamental stuff that by being in the repetitive habit doing it actually, you know what I mean? Like, that was all gone and like I was, you know, dumb and didn't really think that I, you know, it felt easy enough that I was like, I'm probably fine, I'm well below like my, my prior like and, and stuff. But it's still, I didn't do it the right way. And I paid the, and was injured for like three weeks and went, my physical therapist explained did why smarter retrospect deadlift, like probably warm up to like 225. That would've been fine. And then been like, hard cap, I'm not gonna add more than, you know, 15, 20 pounds a week period. And I still would've been back up to 400 pounds on like a month or two and it would've been fine and I wouldn't been injured for a month instead, you know what I mean? And so it's like just being prideful and not doing things the right way can really bite you if you don't put the discipline forth to, to do stuff how you know you need to do it.
Matt Dibenedetto:
Yep. That's, that's the hardest, the hardest thing for us, especially us men. We're not good at a couple things. One is displaying emotion or being vulnerable or in my case definitely swallowing pride, and chipping away at things. We just often are, are guilty just I think as, as men in general oftentimes of just wanting to cut right to the, the end goal or being like, I know how to do this, I got this. And then we're like, ah, shoot, crap, I paid the penalty now. Yeah.
Hunter Molzen:
Or it's kinda like, you know, you have to be mindful of your body and injuries cause right, you use your body for a living and if you're sitting there with like a herniated in the truck, like that's not gonna be great for your race performance. So I'm sure like sometimes you, you might even know in the gym, like, I, I can do this, but maybe I shouldn't do this. Right? And that's the other hard thing, like, like you said as a man or whatever is like, it's hard to know that you can do something and then choose not to do it cause it's not the smart thing to do, right? Or it's not the, it's not the beneficial thing to do for your training. It kinda like plays in that pride component. And like, I know like exercise for me is a great outlet for like aggression and all these things and it's like, so if I can lift the weight, I wanna lift the weight. And I know actually it's, it's a great little kinda metaphor, whatever you wanna call, it's that back yourself in the gym, which I love to do. I love to just like beat myself into complete like, you know, Smith and feel just like I left it all out there in the gym. But it's really counterproductive to do that cause you like, at least I negatively impact my recovery, my training the next day suffers my training day after that might even suffer as well. So it's really make a lot of, lot more progress. Like if I keep my training volume like under 90% of my max and I stop the session probably at like 90% of what I could do. Like I leave the tank on weight I'm using that takes me to hundred percent or even like 5% if you wanna call it. It really does just like, it, it, it's only gonna add this much extra to your training adaptation or whatever. But it'll just bury me for a day or two. But it's really hard to not do it cause it's like that's what you wanna do. You wanna feel like you just left it all out there
Matt Dibenedetto:
Yeah, exactly. I had, I had a couple things that really helped me along the way. I had my old crew chief in 2018. His name was Randy Cox. He was former army ranger and he was like big weightlifting guy and did kickboxing and a bunch of stuff, but very athletic. And he, he helped explain to me, you know, he's just like, Hey, it's like if you cut your hand, if you, if you just have a little micro tear or a paper cut or whatever, you just have a little minor tear, it'll grow back repair and then bam, you can, you know, you're good to go. It's like if you just obliterate and mutilate your hand and it's ripped open or shreds, it takes forever to recover and you just did more damage than, than harm in a certain sense to where now you're having to wait till you can even, you know, walk to do your next workout or leg day or whatever it is. And then back in, I forget what year it was, I think it was around I think it was 2017 maybe. I had a 17, it might have been 18, somewhere around that, that timeframe. I had, I was doing front squats and I decided, you know, so I, I've usually racing's been a, a saving grace to me where it's kept me a little bit more safe in the gym compared to doing what you know, me would want to do as be like, oh, I can do more. I got this. It's, it's kind of kept me from that. But in this one instance, this one day, it didn't, I was like, oh, I think I can slap a few more pounds on there and I don't know what I was doing for weight or like 300 or so, who the heck knows, but I'm trying to do a we were doing a single rep max front squat. And I went down to the bottom, went to come up and I heard and felt like a pop in my left hip flexor. And I tore it and it hurt and, and me, and, and actually in the moment I didn't really, I was like, oh man, that felt a little awkward. And then obviously after that I paid the penalty for the next matter of, oh man, more than weeks, just months. And, and it, it petrified me in a good way where it packed me down. Just that one instance I was like, Nope, no more. Not even gonna try. If I think that I have more in the tank, then that's good. I'll just leave it in the mental in the mental notes. And, and man, you know, a lot for me it took getting older and learning the hard way some in certain instances. And I'm looking back, just very thankful for racing in my career, making sure that I've always kind of, that's probably saved me more than anything from, cuz I just knew in the back of my head, while racing comes first, I can't hurt myself. But as I've gotten older and kind of learned from people that are much smarter than me just training in a smart manner, not always ablating myself, just training smart and having that mentality. I'll never forget what my crew chief said, that mentality of just chipping away at it, little micro terror and rebuild and just always making little progress. And, and if I'm back squatting, I don't, if sure if I have another rep or two in the tank maybe but my form might suffer a little, but I think I can stand it up. No, it's just not worth it. It doesn't matter. I'm not gaining anything from that. And, and watching even you know, some of these people that train like professional strongman, like Martins Licis and, and you know, I follow Eddie Hall and Thor and some of these guys and I watched some of their training when they're lifting and, and I'm like, oh, what the heck? Why did he rack it? He had, he had a couple more in the tank, you know, . But ultimately I'm like, hang on, maybe there's something to what these guys are doing. They, maybe they don't, they don't train as, as stupid as we think, you know, maybe they're pretty methodical. And they have a very well thought out, laid out plan by professionals of how to get to these crazy high goals that they're getting to. So anyways, that's the long-winded way of saying I'm appreciative for especially as I've gotten older for really focusing on taking care of my body and training in a, a smart manner.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah. Well, and, and really like I've, I've had some similar experiences with, with other like people that were mentors or you know, people I've sat down with to talk like this. And like really if you think about it, right, your ability to make progress is kind like the training volume you can incur and then the ability to recover from it. And it's like, remember I was talking with professional rock climb Vegas. He's like, don't get hurt man. Cause like, cause if you're hurt for a month or two, it's like it sets you way back and it really is like, if you can make so much progress in a year, right? And you have a catastrophic injury to now you can't train for or two months, months. Not only have you taken away percent of the time, training from the year is a big deal, right? But you also have to rebuild once you've gotten better. So it's more like half of the year is gone, half of the year training is gone now and like you're spending a quarter year just then your back, it's like accidents happen, things you didn't foresee happen. Like sometimes it's unavoidable, but when you do it to yourself cause you were being stupid, that's when it's really a bummer and that those are the ones you wanna avoid at all. You, you know, I should stop, I should stop right now. But demons head more, you can do it. And you're like, no, I should stop. I'm like, my form's crap. And that little things like, mm like grind out, but you need to stop, right? Cause it's like, that's when like everyone I've talked to that's had like a bad injury barring like the stuff, you know what I mean? It's always when they know they should stop, right? It's end of the day, it's the end of the session. There, they, they're like cold, they're not warmed up and that's when things break. And it's like they, everyone had that little voice that was like, maybe you shouldn't have done that. Or like, maybe you should stop now. But they just pushed a little bit too far and then things blow up and then, you know, they're not working out for three months because they're arm muscle or something. And I mean, sometimes you legitimately don't, don't see it coming. I had so aggressive was warm up like a dummy. And I had this like really kinda like flexibility intensive hip movement and like something in my outer hip just popped and like, it kinda felt fine. It didn't feel that bad dropped off. I like weird felt sore, finished my workout. But again, I woke up the next day and I couldn't barely walk my right leg. And luckily have a good buddy who's a PT here in Vegas. So I went to him, he got me doing like basically old rehab where I was like doing very, you know, rudimentary assisted movements. Isolating that heal luckily wasn't the end of the world. But it's like I know that I didn't have time to warm up properly. That leg wasn't warm, it wasn't stretched out how it needed to be to do the movement. I shoulda just skipped it. I was rushed. I still to get training and I should just skipped that movement that day. But, you know, just being not, you know, not listening to the smarter part of me and getting injured. So, so yeah, it really is like, you just gotta be intelligent about it. And like, like I said, kinda fortunately for you, you do have that greater thing keeping you dialed back in the sense of like, I gotta be healthy, I gotta race, my body's gotta be functioning. So if there's any question, like I definitely know that this over here, the racing is a priority to kinda like keep me in check.
Matt Dibenedetto:
Oh man, a hundred percent. I'm thankful racing has, has been my saving grace because I know I probably would've injured myself multiple times because I was so guilty of that mindset of like, I know I got more, but then luckily it would be the battle of that voice in my head that's like, you got more, but it's like you have, but this is your whole career so don't hurt yourself. Cause you can't drive the dang car if you don't. And it'll, and they, you know, missing one race can, can ruin our entire race season. You know, for, for us you miss one race, you can, that can be mean missing the playoffs, you know, just because you sacrificed a race worth of points from the driver point side and stuff. So ultimately I'm really thankful that I've had racing to keep probably the, the testosterone man side of me in check just a little bit of the, I've been weightlifting throughout the years and still made plenty of mistakes along the way. But learn from, you know, learn from them and learn from people that are, you know, much more intelligent in that realm than I am. And been fortunate to, you know, kind of dial it in over the years and now, now feel like I have a, you know, just a good structure and, and you know controversial in the workout world a little bit. You know, I, when I, I went into CrossFit obviously you mentioned CrossFit and you get such mixed reactions. I've been kind of on both sides of these things and it, but I'm glad that I did it for a little while cuz really taught me a lot. Cuz you, all you hear about is just everyone going to CrossFit and getting hurt. And then when I got to just understand, I wanted to just, you know, know what that whole realm of fitness was about and what all the hype was about and wanted to learn. You know, I kind of started becoming just more open-minded where I just wanted to know more about different forms of training. Whether it's, you know, I love watching the, you know, world's strong men. I enjoy that. I, I love watching power lifting. You know, it's CrossFit. I appreciate any forms of just fitness no matter, even if it's something I'm not interested in, like long distance spiking or whatever, I don't, I don't have any interest in it, but I appreciate 'em all more. But CrossFit, doing that kind of helped me to understand that, oh, it's not really the necessarily the workouts in some instances, in a lot of instances, it's more just the, the mindset of like, go until you're lying in the floor and puking. You know, and it's, and that's kinda where, where we, we can get in trouble easy. So luckily I, I did CrossFit but my, you know, kind of some of my prior experiences or failures or that one injury especially with my hip flex or those things really just kept me grounded to where I did it. And I'd go in and I just had to swallow all my pride and be like, oh, you know what looks like the women's weight was gonna be appropriate for me today, . And it's hard to swallow that pride and be like, I'm probably gonna be better, get a more functional workout doing that. And I had to separate that like, I had to treat it a little more like cardio and treat my muscle hypertrophy at weightlifting as my what I call my bro stuff. So I kept the physique and, and looks and, and also anyways, kinda, you know, through experiencing some different types of fitness over the years, it's, it's kind of given me a good balance.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, no, and I, I love CrossFit. I did it for a number of years and I, I don't need anymore. But like, I think it's awesome. But in many respects, right, like CrossFit itself, like the wads are the game, right? Like, it's like, that's like the game day. It's like the race, it's the football game, it's whatever analogy you wanna make, but that's the game. But the equivalent would be like if a wide receiver just played football games to train for being a wide receiver, right? Like playing the actual football game has a really high risk of injury. They're not, they're not, you know, you're not doing it very long. You're not doing it that often and, but there's a lot of training behind the scenes that prepares you for the game. And that's really, if you wanted to excel, CrossFit, how I would think about it, right? Like, like you're saying, like I know I wanna be good at CrossFit, so if I need to do my metcons to be able to like handle the volume, but that I would do that at a much lighter weight than I'm capable of handling. That way I can just focus on, like you said, going all out. But I know the weight's not heavy enough to hurt me. So like if I bury myself in terms of like, you know, metabolic conditioning, who cares, right? Like I'm, I'm at like 60% of my max, it's not be a big whatever, whatever percentage. Then stronger I do my controlled rested weightlifting. Yep. That way I can at the same time. But the problem is to make the classes, like everyone can come and do their thing and they don't have to do like training on the side. People basically just like put as much weight as they can on the bar and go all out. And then they, you blow into pieces, causes when you're out intelligent, begin kinda separate it and then pick and choose like, do you actually compete and see what you're capable of? Today is game day, so now the time where you gonna load up the bar you've prepared, let's what doing days week
Matt Dibenedetto:
And man, those CrossFit games athletes like Matt Frazier and Noah Olson and all these people, oh my gosh, the, the amount of training that goes into what they do is far, far beyond going in. And, you know, obviously doing an hour of, of your, you know, metcon and maybe a little weightlifting. Yeah. And you're outta there. I mean they're, they're training route routine and regimen is just absolutely unbelievable. I would never be able to come close to doing what they do. But, but yeah, and you can even look at those guys. I always tell people, I'm like, look, look at them. I can see, I know that they do like isolated, you know exercises as well. I know they do bench press and you know, like isolate buy stuff curls and they do like the, you know, working on the little stabilizer muscles and working on their rear belts and rotator, they, they're doing some of the, you know, the, they're doing a lot of that stuff mixed in with their programming one because they're physique wouldn't look that way by just straight up doing a, doing wads. You know, like that's some, they, they, they train incredibly intentional at what they do. So, I guess, I guess the moral of the story is anything at a professional level just takes an absolute absurd amount of, of efforts time and focus on what we on what we do. That's for sure. But I, but anyway, we kind of, I, I just had a passion for, I've always had a passion for, well, of course racing. And as you can tell, I can get off on a tangent talking about fitness stuff cuz I, I just love it and enjoy it. And I had a period of time where we were moving and we were busy and we had so much going on. We were, I mean, moving was the biggest part and I didn't really work out much, maybe a day or two a week, you know, just not much. Cuz we were so busy and man, that was probably one of the biggest eye openers for me cuz it, it really started deteriorating some of my daily mental health. Cause my, my regimen was all screwed up and I wasn't having that daily thing in that just was like, kind of kept me grounded and that I enjoyed and felt like I'm making progress and feeling good and looking good and all that. And man that really made me probably take it for not, not so much, not take it for granted as, as much as I used to. And just appreciating the ability that I, that God gives me the health to be able to do it and stuff. Cause man, it's, it's for some people, you know, it's so important to our, our lives and our health and our structure and that was a, that was a big eye opener for me.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, I can relate completely. Like I've had periods of time where business and other things have stacked up to be so busy that like, like you mentioned, maybe I'd only get two workouts in a week. It's, it's probably been more than a decade where I've gone like a full week without working out unless I was like traveling on vacation or something. But then I'm usually doing something active enough to at least like, kinda like get my energy out. But I would agree completely. Like if I don't, if I fall out of my workout routines, I start to kinda like, in many respects, just like, not like my life very much, like love my family and everything, but it's like, I'm like, this is not how I wanna live. I do my workouts every day. Its thing I look for terms of I'm doing, were about, about how, you know, people are, are meant for more than just like working or whatever. And like I would, I would act the same thing. Like I think thing and maybe not everyone's the same, maybe's out, genuinely working out. I would guess that most of being outta shape to where it just sucks cause you're not capable at all. And a place where their body was capable of like hard effort that everyone would like it. I mam. But the, if, if I were to list my priorities in life, it'd probably be like family, faith, fitness and then everything else is coming after like work, everything. Like work is a necessity. I do it, I enjoy it, but I definitely like fitness and working out more and it's, its highest in terms of priorities that are within myself, you know what I mean? Like faith and families outside of myself, that stuff that's like both like rewarding on an existential level and it's partially like my duty and my obligation. I, I feel compelled to, to be there. But the things that, in terms of things that I do just for myself, like, like work is so far below these other things, it's like I would do anything, like having been to a place where I'm only working out once or twice a week, I would do anything to not have that be the case. Even if it meant changing my career, changing the business like I have to do. It's just something have mental goes crap. I don't what I'm doing, don't myself don't, the way my days are taking shape and life kinda turns into this big meaningless blur that I just hate. You know what I mean?
Matt Dibenedetto:
Yep. A hundred percent. I've had to be in that spot where I was like, you know what? I'm putting off meetings and whatever. I don't care. I'm working out and this is a part of my day that I am not willing to give up and I'm not going to ever again cuz I do that. And then you start realizing that I start getting grumpy and then you start, then it's like, man, my clothes aren't fitting. Like they, or I'm starting to lose a little. Or you don't, you slack off on your eating game or whatever it is and then it just deteriorates your mental health starts specking your days, then it affects your work and your meetings and everything that falls underneath it. So Yeah, like you, like you said, I've and
Hunter Molzen:
The stuff above it, right? Like impact the way you, you interact with your family and all sorts other people, all sorts of stuff.
Matt Dibenedetto:
Yeah. Oh man. Even and everything in my, in my faith, my walk with the Lord, everything, it's like, it, it's all that discipline falls underneath it. Cuz if I'm grumpy because of one piece of my life that's really important that I'm neglecting, then it affects every single thing outwardly , you know, on top of that. So, I'm, I'm thankful man to have like-minded folks like yourself and kind of our and you know, to have that, that piece of, of stuff being, you know, a big part of my life and, and, and enjoying it. You know, it's, I, I think it's easy for what I, I see a lot and I understand is you know, in this world we live in, oftentimes we can be focused so much outward on what other people think and things like that. Or easy for that, that enemy we're fighting to kind of want to get in our head and want us to think that that, oh man, I'm, or feel, you know, like, down on ourselves or, oh my gosh, I'm so weak, or I'm just starting and I'm so outta shape. I can barely even be on the rower for one minute or whatever it is. But when we one, either get, get through that part of it. But, but two, just over the years, I've, I've as especially, you know, God's really helped me in, in enjoying and appreciating things and having the right mindset on stuff. It's like, no, when we have the mindset of just how, how encouraging it is to our lives and how much, you know chipping away at it is gonna bring us, you know, success and being better and feeling better and making every part of our life better and not worrying about, you know, outward stuff, but appreciating the, whether wherever we start, just starting somewhere and moving on from there. It's when we have the right mindset toward it, it's I mean, I've been guilty of it when if I lose a little strength or whatever, it's easy to get down, but it's like, nope, let's just chip away at it and get a little bit better and a little better and enjoy the process, you know, when you just enjoy the process. Yeah. and, and for me, it's hard for me. I, I'm an impatient person, so trying to have patience and enjoying the process and enjoying just the health and ability to do those things, it, it really, you know, turns into a, a blessing and it's like, it, it rejuvenates your day or breaks up your day or starts your day off, right. Depending on when you work out. I'm not, I'm not much of a first thing in the morning guy, but . But now I enjoy it.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah. No, and, and really it's like, I think that knowing what's important to you and where those priorities lie also kind of gives you the framework you need to be able to structure the other areas of your life. Like say, no, and you need to, or be happy with a certain amount of progress somewhere else, right? Cause like, you know, take barbell business example work. I could work 20 hours a day every day forever. And they're probably, I probably would never run outta work, but at a certain point I have, this is enough for today. I'm are important in my life. I have to get 'em done and go do your workout or go spend with family or whatever. It's, and I think that like, we could probably finish the conversation with maybe just a little bit of your perspective on like, you know, how you went through your life. You came into racing, you reached the pinnacle of your career, the NASCAR Cup series, like an achievement. Many people probably can't even relate to Harvard 20 get into Harvard or something. All your know, faith changed life and stuff that like, like I'm sure it was an amazing achievement, but at the end of the day, there are other things in life that matter more, right?
Matt Dibenedetto:
Yeah. You know, the, without diving too, too deep into it. Yeah, I mean, my racing journey and getting to the top and being in that position and all really, really saved my life and changed my life in ways that I did not expect whatsoever. Because, you know, you're young when I'm young, you know, you're just like, I wanna drive race cars and I want to have, you know, be famous or whatever it may be that we desire of this world. And sometimes when you get there it actually puts things in perspective because things can often, look, I'm gonna say this with a balance. So things can often look more glamorous from the outside looking in without, you know, seeing all the hard work or the frustrations or the heartaches or the hard work or the struggles and the trials and all the things that go along with it. Just like with, with anything that we, you know, work for having life in general. But for me, you know, I'm, I, I got to this point where I was feeling, you know, you feel kind of in a sense, you know, on top of the world, like, oh man, I'm here. Like all of these smokes I'm driving against Dale Jr. And Tony Stewart and all these guys when I first, you know, came into the Cup series. But ultimately, you know, in 2000 20 was when, you know, there was a lot of like personal struggles in my life that were that were really happening and bearing down on me and, you know, some family struggles and things with my wife and I, and all these things. You name it. Where from the outside looking in, it let me know my life looked perfect. It's like, oh, Matt drives a Lamborghini and he has cool cars and a big house, and stuff like that. But ultimately, I was actually the most broken that I had been in my life, just being totally honest. But fast forwarding to this day it led me into opening my heart to things I hadn't the past. And it led me to open it up to, to God and his story with a sense of humility and not a sense of pride. And just coming to understand, wanting to know some of the greater the greater purpose in life beyond the temporary. And ultimately like what are we doing here? What's the point of all this? There's gotta be more to life than all the just struggles and pain and the end of our story being that we just turned to dust and kind of ignoring this whole, you know, some of the stuff that we battled daily on a temporary basis. And, and anyways, fast forward to today. Yeah, I'm, I couldn't be happier and more thankful that some of the, the biggest struggles in my life actually led to the being the biggest saving grace in my life to where now, you know, just quick summarizing from that point to today. You know, I appreciate my job so much more. I appreciate what I do. I love what I do wherever I'm meant to be. Whether it's racing in trucks or racing in the Cup series or, or whatever it is, I just appreciate the journey a lot more and understanding the big picture in life you know, holding God here and everything else underneath it. And like we talked about with priorities in life, just, I really had to work on reprioritizing things in my life and I put things in perspective and yeah, I go, go through go through my daily life now with a, a piece that I didn't even know existed and a joy that I didn't even know existed. And all those things just from, you know, prior priorities and I guess, you know, maybe some of it's getting older and and when you start thinking about having kids and when life gets a little more real along the way, you start asking a little bit bigger questions and then bigger questions are the best thing in the world to ever ask with a sense of humility behind it. Cause it, it definitely has blessed my life far beyond what I deserve.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah. What an amazing story. And it's, you know, great to hear that perspective. And I think that it's, it's cool to hear people from different places and different careers, different paths, kinda reaching similar conclusions, right? And it's kinda, you know, that whatever it is you're pursuing, like you really do have to kinda like take everything in stride and enjoy the process. Cause you never know what what's gonna take shape or where you're gonna end up. And oftentimes, like, like you said, from the outside looking, right, the lamb the amazing, but oftentimes don't what's going on behind the scenes. And like when you get there, it's not as glamorous as anyone would think, right? Like, I, you know, I've interviewed MLB pitchers and stuff, and you think, oh, they play baseball for a living. That seems so awesome. That job is so frigging hard. You know what I mean? They play like games a year and then they're training in the off season and they're traveling in between the games. Brutal, brutal. It's a brutal job. It's, and like if you love it, you love it and it's awesome, but it's like nothing is as glamorous as, as it seems like it would be. Definitely nothing is easy. And so like, if you can't learn to have your priorities straight and to enjoy the journey and enjoy the process and kinda like be happy with where you're on day, then you're gonna miserable matter. So that's really kinda what you, or your career aspirations or whatever it may be achieve to reach a place like where you wake up every day, you're like, man, I love this. I get to, like, today I woke up, I took care of my kids for a little bit. I worked out, I did some work that I had to do in between, now I'm chatting, you'll, it's an awesome day. I can do that every day until I die and be totally happy, right? But it's like, you gotta figure out what it is that you enjoy and also not always be waiting for, for some achievement that you wanna achieve and think like, that'll be the thing. That'll be the thing that makes me happy. Cause it won't be right. It's not like once you get there, like you said, it's just like anything else, the human, the human mind is so capable of, of adapting. Kinda like you mentioned the big house, right? Or the Lamborghini, like I'm sure when you first buy, you're like, this is awesome. Maybe for a week, maybe for a month, but eventually it's just your car and eventually it's just your house. And it's, I never, I never walk through this house and think like, oh, what a, what a nice kitchen. It is a nice kitchen. It's a great kitchen. And I'll say like, if I leave for, like, if I'm gone for an extended period of time, like two months something, and I walk back into my front door, I'm like, oh, that's a really nice kitchen. But like, when you're living in, you don't even about it anymore. If I had to back first when I was square foot, tiny thing, anything that only thing my wife and I could afford, thankfully we could afford a house back then, but the mortgage was cheaper than rent would've been so crazy times, right? Like used to kinda like achieved the pinnacle of dream in the career and, and see that that perspective is still echoed when you've learned the appropriate lessons and come to a place where I would, I would say, that have a very healthy and welled perspective on life.
Matt Dibenedetto:
Yeah. Man, that's, that's darn. And, and I come into, you know, not trying to preach or, or talk too much like scripture and all that, but for me, just personally, my journey you know, in the book Proverbs, it's the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And coming to understand for me was I kept saying, I'm like, man, if life's about me, this is, this is a pretty kind of empty cause all, it just ends up being like, ah, when I get this, I'll be happy. And then you get it and then you're like, oh man, it's just temporary. And then it's like, well, when I get this Lamborghini, then I'll be happy. And then it's like, oh man, that was temporary too. . It's like, and got me to start you in life as temporary. It's like, oh, it's temporary. And it's like, life has to be about more than just me. And then when I realized life is about a lot more than me and it's a way bigger than me, and that's a good thing, you know, not a bad thing. So yeah, that's man, it's cool stuff. I enjoy being able to bounce some of this stuff back and forth and talk. It's just amazing how everything is. Stuff like working out, racing, whatever it is, whatever we do for a living, it's all, it's all it's all relative and no. And you know, and, and another thing just to finish on all that is like, I'm really thankful that I've been taught through this, like being, you know, coming up journey all the way to the racing and, you know, top of NASCAR and driving for one of the most famous teams I was driving for the wood brothers, you know, one of the most legendary teams in NASCAR and all that. And now being very, you know, have, having been had had an interesting couple years and being grounded a lot it's neat that I'm, I'm thankful to be able to share with people and, and see view that there is no, there is absolutely no one person that's, you know, role in life is more important or less important than another. It doesn't matter if you're you know, like I, I use my friend that's a, a car salesman. He you know, he's a, he is a very, you know, grounded man in his faith and everything, and he sells cars and each car he like programs to a particular radio station that's like a, you know, some, some Christian music or whatever. And he just, it just, he tries to do just a couple little things that just maybe drop a little seed and, and that's it without overstepping his boundaries with respect to the corporate world and everything, of course. But I always think about that. I'm like, man, you know, something like that, that may, people may just overlook and think is just like, oh, whatever, that, that could have planted thousands of seeds, you know, over the course of, of years, you know, or whether it's somebody that just is, you know it doesn't matter what role it is, if you work in a school and you affect kids in a certain way or you, you know, positively influence them, and that's what you do every day of your life. You know, like God's using us all for good no matter what no matter what it is, and no, no one thing, no one person is better or greater than another. And it's often easy in this world to look from the outside in and maybe think that someone's got it made or their life is so much better than mine or, and, and that's a trap that I would say that I've fallen in and we can all easily fall into. And, and I'm thankful to, to have a greater perspective on that now and to, to maybe share with people and to share with younger people and stuff. Like, don't fall into that track, you know, life's much bigger than someone's temporary stuff. And, and, but also with just appreciating the, the things that we do get to do in this temporary time here more.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah. No, and I mean, like, I, I guess the last thought I'll, I'll leave. I've like, careful how all that stuff that you do, kinda like a deeper look into some people's, like, right, some of these people's lives that, like historically people would've felt like, oh, they have it so easy. They must be so happy, their life must be so great. And you can see truthfully it's not, and like many times they might be miserable, average pressure, lack of satisfaction, whatever, it's not coming from come something else. And so, no, it's, I agree with you completely, man. It's been a, it's been a great conversation and I do think that it'll be, it'll be fun to, to have people listen to it and your perspective on fitness career, all man. So down with us today. Best of luck in the remainder your season, man. We look forward to staying in.
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In this episode, we take a closer look at the career of Daniel Vilhelm Carlson, an American football placekicker who currently plays for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). Born on January 23, 1995, Carlson made a name for himself during his time at Auburn, where he became the SEC's all-time leading scorer. In the 2018 NFL Draft, he was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the fifth round but was released during his rookie season. Carlson later joined the Raiders and has twice led the league in scoring, earning him the reputation as one of the top kickers in the NFL. As we explore his journey to success, we also take a look at his impressive accuracy on the field, currently ranking him as the third most accurate kicker in the league. Don't miss this exciting talk with one of football's rising stars! .
Daniel's Instagram → https://saavedrafajardo.com/danielcarlson38
Hunter:
Hey, everyone, I'm Hunter Molzen, with another episode of the Breaking Boundaries podcast by saavedrafajardo Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Daniel Carlson. He's an American football NFL place kicker. He plays for the Las Vegas Raiders, here in saavedrafajardo's home town of Vegas. He's one of the top three kickers in the league currently, and we're excited to kind of dive in. Get a little bit about his athletic background. How he came to play in the Fl. What makes him tick as a competitor? How he trains how he juggles being a professional athlete with his family life and more. Daniel. Great to have you here today and we're excited to talk. How are you?
Daniel:
Awesome, awesome. Thanks for having me on. Always like the opportunity. Check with like minded people you know who get the competitive aspect, especially once it's the off season, I won't get to have that quite as much. besides maybe playing some goal for something with buddies, but you know love, just talking about this kind of stuff. So honored to be here today.
Hunter:
Yeah, we're lucky to have you and we've been working with you for a while. I can't remember
Hunter:
how one of my team members Kyle originally got in contact with you, but I think like in our original kick starter for the Gens, that kind of like birth the Kcompany. by accident. A lot of people probably don't know that story that may be listening, But that is how Barbell Carroll came about. We had this idea
Hunter:
for something called Athletic jeans, which didn't exist at the time we launched a kick starter for it kind of went viral. Decided to make a full time business out of it, but in that original kick starter video we had a friend of ours like basically kicking a football in the Gens. He was a kicker for you and L. V, and I think it was like a really compelling image because like as a place kicker, you guys have like this crazy flexibility in your leg,
Hunter:
and the Gens didn't kind of bind it up at all, so he was able to do a full, you know, field goal kick or punt or whatever in the Gens,
Hunter:
kind of without skipping a bee. And so when we started working with you, I kind of immediately Connected the dots. Hey, this is probably a guy who's actually capable of getting the most performance our genes are capable of providing.
Daniel:
Yeah, now and then we. We actually went out one day and shot. I think it was two two years ago. Now shot some videos and tested out the Gens. and you know, had a good time with that just messing around on the field, and sure enough they worked. I think it was. I only kicked like five balls on the day. It was still. I think it's in season, so I probably shouldn't have been honestly kicking off site, but it is what it is, but we had a good time and I think it was a hundred percent of the day. so the jeans work for everybody.
Hunter:
Yeah, good luck to right. Yeah,
Hunter:
So you mentioned that you probably shouldn't have been kicking off site because it was in season. I suppose like that is kicking that intense. Like physically.
Daniel:
H, not not compared to the rest of football. Not compared to you know, But but it is. I guess the best comparison I would have is like a picture in baseball. Um, you know, physically, one throw might not be that intense. I mean you are, you're moving pretty fast. You're moving pretty aggressively, but like a guy is not going to get hurt off of one throat. Typically, but you know, like every picture in baseball has they have a certain pitch count. Hey, if you start getting a hundred throws in a game, the coach has to start pulling the guy back because it's like you know how many more can he go? Now? he's a little fatigued. Can his arm get hurt here? I think that's the best comparison with kicking, because you know, like pictures, we can't kick every day. We have to have off days in between practices or games or whatever it may be. You always have to be a little conscious of. Hey, Where how many have I kicked today? Where do I likes? Feel like Today? Um, And so it's It's that balance between. You know, I want to get as much work as I can and push myself as much as I can, but at the same time I have to be smart to know that he. if I, you know, weak something today, or if I'm too sore from today's work, I won't be able to get as quality work tomorrow or the next day. And so there's that balance between you. You want to grind it out as much as you can, but you have to be smart doing it as well.
Hunter:
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. and I suppose like to develop that ability to kick a football like you do like. Presumably you've been doing that you know the majority of your life,
Hunter:
but developing that that level of like, obviously the athletic ability, the power and everything, but also like, an extreme degree of flexibility. was the flexibility, something that just developed over time as you did it growing up. And is it
Hunter:
something that you
Hunter:
have to lie consciously warm up before you start kicking? Or can you just kind of like Fling your leg around like that on demand,
Daniel:
Yeah, Well, as I, I mean, I'm only twenty eight years old now, so I'm still young. but as I've gotten older, it's It's been my warm up routine, my stretch routine. My, you know, I roll out stretch of the band. I do, you know, kind of kinetic work out where I'm moving around a good bit. That's gotten longer and longer because one I'm doing at a higher level. Now where I have the time. I have the resources. I know I need to take care of my body In order to perform well and hopefully play this game for a long time. and so, when I first started kicking in high school, when I was fourteen, fifteen years old, I could just roll out of bed and kick. You can kick and kick and kick, and I'd be fine, but nowadays you know it's a little different. It's like I said, It's a little more about the quality of my work day, not the quantity, a lot of time. So being smart with my warm ups and and after working on the stretching because, I mean, I've never been a naturally flexible person. I mean, I remember. you remember those like Presidential fitness tests when you were like a kid and stuff,
Daniel:
it would always get me and everything else I was, you know, alter competitive as a kid and they would drive me crazy, So I remember, Like working that as a kid And then I grew up a soccer player and so like that was always something I had to work on. I was just as stiff Kid growing up, you know, tall, tall, lanky kid, but as I've gotten more and more into kicking, I realized like what a big part of that was for this sport.
Hunter:
Yeah, that's interesting and you've talked a lot about. kind of like how as you've gotten older, you have to spend more time warming up, and I think that most people who have been doing athletic since they were a younger at a lesson
Hunter:
into their adulthood would echo the same sentiment, and I kind of wonder right, like if you were to compare your ability to kick a football now to your ability to kick a football when you were a teen ager, like, I guess that you could kick a football substantially harder And further and more depintely as a twenty eight year old, right,
Daniel:
Yeah, I mean, I definitely think there's a certain amount of that. I do also think that like, I mean. I mean, a male's athletic prime usually is like twenty seven years old. Obviously it depends on what sport you're doing. Kickers have a lot of experience. So a
Daniel:
a lot of you know. That's why you can have kickers that go in. They're like forty. sometimes, Um, but I would say like I probably picked physically in college. I was lifting more and running more. I was. You know, the best athlete I've been. Um. but as far as fine tune mechanics of kicking, I'm better now than I ever was, And so because of my technique, I think I can kick it further, Could get obviously much more accurately, which is the main main thing in my job. Um, then I could. but yeah, I think you know, even at eighteen years old I could boom, kick off almost as good as I can now. but the consistency wasn't there and that's
Hunter:
Gotcha
Daniel:
That's the big thing that I think Has improved through the quality of raps and just the experience that comes along with that.
Hunter:
Yeah, because like, obviously, as you know, an athlete ages and likes, obviously you're still well within your prime, but people do talk about it like hay. It takes longer to warm up to prevent injury. Things like
Hunter:
that, you have to be
Hunter:
more mindful of recovery, and obviously some of that's just like physiological limitations, but
Hunter:
Part of me also wonders too. Is that as you develop more mastery in a given sport right, it's like you're you know, I'm sure when you go to like rip a field goal, practice your cakes now like it's so heavily Grained in your nervous system and the muscle memory and everything
Hunter:
is just so dialed in that it's like you can. you could tell your body to do it on command. Whereas you know, maybe ten years ago, you knew you weren't like that. you weren't quite as accurate.
Hunter:
And so it's like now. like. Kind of, no matter what I say, you took time off from kicking entirely, Like if you stepped back on to a field and kicked a football, like your brain is going to remember how to do that, And I often
Hunter:
like having this conversation with other people where Like, you know, I feel like you know, I spend all this time warming up now, and it's kind of like. Well, I think part of it is just the how things go as you you know are in a teen ager any more whatever, But I also think that like you, spend all this time acquiring talent and muscle memory and the
Hunter:
skill component and your brain remembers that stuff, even if
Hunter:
like, you haven't been training it all the time, and like you could force yourself to kind of like, just do it on demand. But if you have, if
Hunter:
you haven't been there from a training perspective, A really
Hunter:
easy way to just kind of hurt yourself.
Daniel:
yeah. and I think you know, like, especially, talk about like the warm up, like having a routine that allows you to fall back into that muscle memory in that Pa performance over and over again. I think that something that you know comes with age and maturity is realizing like I could, you know, I could probably roll out of bed, get a quick stretch and kick. Just find, for the most part, but you know whether my hamster Or something, you know just a little off. you know, that little minuscule, you know. difference between my normal game day, you know, feeling really lost, feeling really good. that muscle memory feeling You know, That's a big difference, especially as you get to a higher level. I mean, the difference between an n f l kicker and a college kicker is pretty minuscule really, but you know it's those little differences day in day out. make a big difference and so yeah, just making sure you know, as I continue to get older, very strict about my warm up routines, my routines that I practice so that I can kind of have a controlled um, quality work day. Whether it's fifty kicks, whether it's twenty kicks, whether it is, I'm taking advantage of each one of those, and you know, tweaking that muscle memory to exactly where I need it for game day later on.
Hunter:
Yeah, that's that makes a lot of sense and I think that every athlete like, obviously, you're competing it like you know world class professional level, but I think that any anyone that takes their athletic like least nominally seriously, would be smart to establish something similar like a routine they can go through to
Hunter:
get them back in that place of performance. also to assess readiness like maybe a certain
Hunter:
muscle is not feeling right or it needs to be stretched more Needs to be warmed up more that way When it's time to perform, you're kind of ready to ready to rumble. and I think that the interesting thing about like an athletic role like kicking is that it's kind of like so highly specialized that you're able to distill a lot. maybe more like Innumerable factors, like things you could talk about and say like this
Daniel:
Yeah,
Hunter:
is what I do. because you're doing this very one highly specialized
Hunter:
you mentioned that, maybe we're more all around athletic, Um during college when you were doing, Maybe like more all encompassing training.
Hunter:
And now it's like you get paid to kick a football in the NFL And that's what you have to do right. Like you have to make those field goals. The ball needs to go where you wanted to go. And so
Hunter:
it's totally fine that maybe sacrifice other domains of ath Icism to be very good at that one thing,
Daniel:
A hundred percent
Hunter:
that if we're looking at K, kind of the raw definition of athleticism being like so good at the one thing is like a very good definition of an athlete, right.
Hunter:
so like I think that school. but, I think it's an interesting way to look at athletic ability. We. We're able to kind of distill it down to the very essence of Like. What makes this very specialized thing fire? And so no, it'll be fun to talk more about that. But I suppose
Hunter:
you mentioned coming up that As a child you were a soccer player. At what point did you gravitate towards football?
Daniel:
Yes, So it wasn't until Verily the summer before high school that I was at church one day and the special teams coordinator for the high school I was at he came up to us. He was a family friend and he was like, Hey, we don't have a kicker, Um for a football team this year. I know you know you play soccer. Would you be interested? Interested in trying out and obviously I was like. You know, the fun, having friends on the football team and we were like. I mean, What is it? What is in it? Because obviously it was a very competitive soccer player That was kind of my, you know, goal play, professional stock, or play college sock, or all that good stuff, and basically is like All right, You show up on game day If you know if you're good at this, And when you know that's all we need you just show up on game. It was a two, a high school in Colorado, So like it wasn't It wasn't very serious football. Um, compared to you know, some big five, a big, big Texas high school or something like that, but we basically had an informal try out that day right after church, and I made a couple of pats on a high school field and they're like All right. That's good enough for us. We'll see you know Friday at the first game, Um, and it kind of developed from there because I was playing soccer and then literally, I just showed up on Fridays. Um, and then about two years later going into my junior year I was like Okay, I actually like. Really. I'm starting to enjoy this. You know, I worked on it a little more. just really the off season when I was playing as much socker. Um to you, Now see what I could do and started realizing I was a lot. You know better than that, I thought, And so once I really started putting that work in pretty quickly, I had a good junior year and then going into my senior year went to a kicking camp. And you know, I had to know I knew I was good for small town Colorado, but I didn't know how good I was and then went to a kicking camp and got ranked number one nationally. Just you know, had no idea Bout it, And so next day I'm on the phone with college coaches and you know we're talking about going to No today in Ohio State Auburn, You know all these different schools and so all of a sudden my life changed on a dime, almost where I'm having to decide like Okay, I know I've been, you know, really starting to gravitate towards football, but you know I wasn't quite ready to let go of socker yet, you know, because I was still talking to some small schools and socker, but you know one went. Start talking to these giant C schools. Uh, you know schools and football and you're talking like a D to school and soccer, You know, it starts making you think about it a little a little harder. You know, hey, I love soccer, but what a great opportunity I might have in this department as well.
Hunter:
Yeah, that's a crazy story. And so, I mean, I didn't actually know that coming into this conversation, but your trajectory into football was pretty fast. Like you you
Hunter:
from. Basically had you never really played football on a like. Maybe as a kid, you played
Daniel:
I played some backyard football with my brothers and friends, you know, played at recess, but I've never. you know. I still, to this day I have one rush, and football touched the ball with my hands, besides caking or punning. I did a little pun in college, but you know I've never done anything besides cake on the football field.
Hunter:
Yeah, that's I mean, and obviously, I'm sure the background and socker helped right because you have had
Hunter:
a lot of athleticism from that, but I suppose like, I guess, in your own perception, how much of your ability to just gravitate towards that was just like. I guess where do you think that that natural pplicivity came from? Is it like your family did stuff like this? Do you think it's genetic
Hunter:
or is it just something that clicked with you?
Daniel:
I mean, we always have this argument with football guys. If you know, like how much of it is talent. How much of it is. Just like you know, you're a vier. your product of your environment. You grew up playing sports, and I think you know that's the main thing is my dad was a college tennis player, played professionally a little bit. My mom was a really good high school athlete. And then you know my older brother played college and professional socker little brother, he is. He just finished college football at Auburn. He's going to be in the N f L. combine here soon, and hopefully you know, Hopefully he can make it to the next level. Um in the N f. L. But you know we grew up playing all sorts of sports. Um, but you know, I think really, for me it wasn't I wasn't just naturally talented. My older brother was playing soccer, and so I spent thousands and thousands of hours, thousands of thousands. socker shot. Where you know, shooting against him, competing against him And same with my little brother, And I think that you know, Enter and help us, you know, veer into kicking where it's a very similar technique. very similar muscles. You have very similar muscle memory. Um, you know, just some minor differences and so it was just a very easy transition for both of us where I think you know all that hard work, playing sock or especially shooting against my brother. You know, turning into Hey, we can use this for football and you know now you just got a fine tune. Ut. Basically
Hunter:
Yeah, I mean, so you were getting your reps in right? It was just with a different
Hunter:
Yeah, that's cool. And so and then obviously you started kicking a football. You realized you were good at it, and I guess like if you hadn't gone to that, you called it like a kick camp.
Daniel:
Yeah, kicking camp
Hunter:
Your life made a taking a completely different trajectory,
Daniel:
Hundred percent,
Hunter:
you would have never known that you were like him. You know,
Daniel:
Yeah,
Hunter:
one of the best high school kickers in the country at that stage.
Daniel:
Yeah, I mean, I remember showing up and like I said like I hadn't. I didn't really know what I was getting into. I knew I was going to kicking camp to kind of find out a little bit more about it. like you know how good I was nationally Because yeah, I was in a two way Colorado school where Yeah, like I was. I think I was all Stay like my sophomore year or something, but like once again it's to a football in Colorado like it's not. not many kids are getting recruited out of there. Unfortunately or anything like that. And so you had No. I had no idea where I stacked up and so I'm competing all of a sudden against guys. Oh, that kid has an offer from, or you know that kid, you know, and you re like, Oh man, these kids must be really really good. And then all of a sudden I realized like I can kind of hang with these kids And you know we had some competition I'm charging. and I remember the head guy was called Coals Kicking camp And he's still. He's still the biggest kind of college recruiting Uh coach And he, actually, he actually works for the Carolina Panthers now as a consultant for their kickers. But you know, he just knows this stuff and after one day he kind of pulled me aside and he's like, who are you? Where do you come from? And like you know what are your plans, and I was like. I mean, I'm just I'm just here for the ride like I'm figuring it out. He's like you know your lives are about to change, like he literally told me. He's like we're going to be on the phone tomorrow with whatever schools you want to go to, and like where To change your life And it was just really cool. Just like you know how quickly he was able to see that talent that was there at that point, and like you know, he was willing to be like. Hey, you know like I don't know you very well, but I want to get to know you because I want to go on this journey to help you, you know, go to college and hopefully pursue your dreams and football in the future.
Hunter:
Yeah, that's awesome. And so you ended up playing in college, and as you're playing in college, was the NFL. The goal, did you? I mean, this happened so quickly. Was your thinking
Daniel:
Yeah,
Hunter:
along those lines?
Daniel:
I mean, I think the first couple of years was just like. I just want to. I want to start. I want to play. I, n to do well And then so my first year I redshirted and I knew I was going to red shirt, And so that was kind of like it's first year. Just you know, Get a feel for it. We actually went to the national championship that year and it was just an awesome experience to kind of be in that environment at the highest, well, college ize level. And you know, Good day Experience that and then no, next year. Okay, And now it's like my time to do it. And so yeah, early on it's just like I just want to do well for the team. I want to do well personally, but like I wasn't thinking too much ahead, and then kind of the same thing where that second year playing I realized like, Oh, I'm pretty good. I got nominated for the kicker of the year award. Stuff like that, I realized like, Oh, maybe this journey can continue if I continue to put in the work. Continue to do what I'm doing. You know, maybe there is a future in this as well outside of just college. So I think yeah, Sophomore junior year, kind of similar with high school football Like that's when I started realizing like Hey, maybe this next level can be a goal. But when I showed up, you know I was just trying to have fun, you know, compete and do the best I could for the team. And then you know you can tack on those personal aspirations as well as you go. I think.
Hunter:
And obviously your college career culminated in you being drafted for the Viking, So I mean, obviously that had to be just an incredible feeling. right.
Daniel:
Yeah, I mean, I was the first kicker taken in that draft and twenty eighteen, And you know, obviously, I think we're going to get into it more later, but you know you're right in the highest of high. you know, Thought it was just so awesome to be drafted. You know, I had finished with a great college career. I just got married and so we're headed to Minnesota, To you know, somewhere I've never been before to play football. you know at the highest level. And what, what an awesome experience. And then you know I said, we'll talk about this next, but you know Week two of the season I get cut and so then all of a sudden you're like. You know now what you know, because I won the job in camp against that kicker. That was really solid. Um, and then week two we played at Green Bay. I missed three kicks and all of a sudden I was out of a job. And you know you're trying to figure out like All right, I made it to the n. f. l. but now I've been fired from the n F In two weeks And you know what? What's next? Um, and you know, S a great looking back. It was a great thing for me because I learned a lot about myself. You know how I handled adversity. Um, and you know, just kind of solidified in my own mind. Hey, I deserved to be in this league and you know I'm gonna continue to work and you know, find my spot, and you know that was four years ago now, five years ago now, and it's been an awesome ride since then where You know I've continued to, you know, try and become the best kicker I can.
Hunter:
Yeah, and I mean, I'm sure most people know, but spoiler alert. He ended up being, you know, one of the top three kickers in the league, so it all worked out great, but
Hunter:
Let's dive in a little bit into the dynamic there. Because it, you
Hunter:
got drafted into the Fl. you beat out of that kicker, and then in a week two you missed three kicks in your cup, so let's
Hunter:
let's talk about missing the three kicks to start, because I am interested, kind of like in the performance Under pressure, dynamics, right
Hunter:
soccer into high school. You're just doing it for fun. You're in college. You, you know, you just want to do the best you can. You have a great college career And now you're in the f. l. and now it's kind of like there's really no where else to go From here. You're in the n. f. l. and
Hunter:
now it's like you got to perform. So I suppose, What was the experience like coming from a place where kind of like the stakes were significantly lower to a place where basically the stakes couldn't be any higher.
Daniel:
Yeah, and I think at the time you know, it does feel more like a business. right when you get a, You know, there's money involved. There's agents of all. There's all these you know. outside things, other than just like you're just there with your friends playing football. You know like it is in high school in somewhat of what it feels like in college. But whereas, if all, there's just like you contract negotiations, it's more of an individual sport at times because all these guys have their own personal Aspirations, not just like. it's not a true team. Teams are switching year in and year out. I mean game to game. You know new guys are coming in. Guys are going to cut. And so you can definitely feel that as a rookie where, like you know, you show up with your rookie class and by the time camps are done, over half of them are gone. I mean, really, over half of the people at camp are gone. You show up to camp with usually like a ninety man roster and back then it was you got down to a fifty three man Active roster and so almost half the guys are, you know, caught on the streets trying to figure out what's next for them. So you know, I just overcame that after being drafted and you know then played my first game well, made one one kick. Um, and then we go to Green Bay, and I don't. I don't know if it was necessarily like feeling the difference in environment between this business type empire Men in the NFL where you're like the very performance basically, or what, But you know, because I do think I was really ignorant to a lot of that being a rookie, just like any other rookie, and sports is a lot of times. But yeah, just in the moment where, like after those three kicks and after a terrible game, I mean, Obviously, personally, I felt terrible about my performance, but I didn't at all think I was going to get cut. You know, I was kind of blindsided by that because I just And it quite understand you know how demanding that league can be at times, and so it helped me grow up, and you know, mature in this business a lot, but it wasn't actually fun at the time. but like I said, I think I learned from it and was able to turn that and to a lot of good going forward.
Hunter:
Yeah, and I mean, obviously you took the adversity like a champ and turned it into what has been an amazing career. But I guess so. After you were cut from the Vikings, what did you do? How did that impact you? What was kind of like the decision making process, And how did you end up playing for the Raiders?
Daniel:
Yeah, so like I said, For a few weeks there was basically my wife and I. We were in Minnesota, trying to figure out what's next, Like I said, You know, for me is a. I was like, twenty two years old, twenty twenty two years old. You know. S like what you know? Am I going to have another chance at the F. L? I don't know, really know how that works. A lot. of. Like I said, A lot of it was just ignorance. I didn't really know about being new to that. being a X soccer player kind of Drifting into it like I didn't know the ins and outs of how that was going to work out. So you know with my agent we figured out like Okay, We're going to work out with a couple of teams. Really, The first thing I did was go back to that high school kicking coach. That kind of gave me a shot into college and worked with him for a couple weeks. stayed at his house with his family And you know we just kind of took a step back and we're like All right. What do we need to technically fix so that You know we can go forward and you know, hopefully get another shot at this league and next time we do get a shot, you know, technically I'll be a little more sound. Um, and mentally, you know I can be a little more confident in that. And so we did that for a couple of weeks, And then you know I was on the road just trying out getting looks with different teams. Um, a lot of times it's with teams that already had a kicker and they're just you know, getting back up ready for. Um, you know, in case their kicker gets hurt, because you only have you now with the rest Spot. you only have one kicker on the roster. So if you're back up, you're at home. you're not. You know. you don't have a job with that. And so um, you know, teams are trying to get figured out. Hey, we need an emergency kicker. For whatever you know, someone gets hurt. Someone started doing whatever it may be like. We got to have a list ready. And so I worked out with a couple of teams and then the Raiders had an injury And so that's how I actually ended up working out with them. And you know, just impress the coaches Enough and you know a lot of it was. Hey, you know, Do you feel like you were able to bounce back from that one bad gang? Like where are mentally? Um, you know, I couldn't tell you what I said. You know, I think you know. I probably just told him it was a learning experience, but you know I still think I'm a good kicker and you know I'm ready to compute again and prove that to you and prove that to the league. Um, And so you know, Luckily I ended up signing week seven, I think with them and ended up having a great Rest of the rookie year with him. I missed one kick the rest of the season and you know it was an awesome, awesome experience to come into a new coaching staff. Rich Bisachio, as a special teams coach, who ended up being our Inter head coach last year and led us to playoffs, And you know, just an awesome awesome guy that took me under his wing and I think gave me a lot of wisdom and mentorship, kind of helped me along at the end of my rookie year, which, which helped me in the future a lot.
Hunter:
Yeah, I mean, what an awesome story. And like, I think there's a couple of cool things there right like I know, from the outside, looking in on any sort of impressive achievement athletics. You know, business, anything like that, people can tend to perceive a lot of luck in the equation. But any
Hunter:
when I really dive into someone's story, you tend to see. I mean, you dealt with plenty of adversity and maybe Even bad luck right. Like having a bad game
Hunter:
and then getting cut. Not so lucky right, but then
Hunter:
coming off the back of that and deciding that like Hey, I'm just going to do what I can control. Go work out with these teams. See what happens. You put yourself in the position where. Hey, like the Raiders, have an injury, and now you have the opportunity to show what you're made of and have another chance. And so
Hunter:
like, by being persistent by doing the work, you put yourself in the way of the opportunities that arise, and in a sense for manufacturing your own luck, which is Pretty
Hunter:
cool. Um, but I guess what would be interesting to ask is if you had that one kind of bad game with the Vikings, and your career has been amazing since then. Obviously you mentioned you worked with that kicking coach, stayed with his family, worked on some fundamentals. But was there anything else you think from a mind set perspective that you've done to help you be able to perform well under pressure. Or is it just kind of like you know, muscle memory Repetition. You've been there before.
Daniel:
Yeah, I think that 's kind of knew. After that there was a maturity level that I had to kind of get to where you know. I could you know now I know, like Hey, it's a performance based league like you can't. You can be, Have one bad game and you're gone all of a sudden. So like knowing that now, like I got to make sure I'm bringing my game every single day and just you know figuring out how to do that, I think everybody is different. Everybody's preparation. everybody's you know, like day and day outwork has to look different to hopefully get them to their A level every day. And so I think the next you know, even now I'm still learning. Hey, what do I need to do to set myself up to succeed? And you know we talked a little bit about muscle memory already, but you know figuring out my routine for practice for games, whether it be the warm up, whether the kicking Work itself, Whether you know on game day, what does my sideline routine look like? So that when I go in, for you know, and for maybe ten plays a game or so like, I need every one of those to be as perfect as I can Like. How do you do? What can I control? To you know, give myself the best opportunity to succeed each time I'm out there. And you know that's That's kind of the fun quest we're on because it's a. It's a physical thing. Obviously, that's that's part That, but just as much mental for a kicker. or you know, there's tons of other sports. that. Really, every sport is mental. but there's tons of others. you know, small skills where it's more mental. almost shooting a free throw. You know, there's tons of pitching. You know, there's just tons of sports that you know. You're kind of a quieter, controlled environment where all of a sudden you can let those thoughts you know kind of get out of control. and you know that's where You see guys like they cracked under pressure. whatever it may be, I don't think it's necessarily. There's necessarily a secret to it. I think it's just learning about yourself. How do I control my mind on the good things, and you know you know, stay on task. Stay locked in where you're not letting your mind float to those negative thoughts that are naturally going to pop up. If you're just you know, relaxing and they're like Okay, nine out of ten times. Maybe I can relax and you know the crowd doesn't bother me. Maybe this or the wind or the bad weather doesn't bother me. But one of those times if I have one of those thoughts pop up, you know, then all of a sudden I'm not focused on the right things and I can't succeed as well. So just learning little things about myself to help me lock in. Stay focused on the right things you know. S really changed my career, I think, and that's Ah. That's just coming from time. reputations, maturity, Um, and a lot of experience.
Hunter:
Yeah, I mean, that's great advice. focusing kind of like on what you can control, and
Hunter:
We joke about this, like in the office or whatever it's like. there's a lot of positions in football where like if you screw up it wouldn't It wouldn't be the end of the world right like there's There's other factors that
Daniel:
Yeah,
Hunter:
play that can impact your ability to catch the ball or throw the ball or
Hunter:
whatever. But it's like
Hunter:
as a place kicker like there's no one else. Really, There's like
Hunter:
ways, I feel like there is Immense contrast in Like, If you make a mistake and oftentimes like a field goal that could be the game right. So it's
Hunter:
like there's all this pressure on you. It's like, Um, I don't. I don't think that it's a job that a lot of people would really excel at or or enjoy just because of the immense amount of pressure that comes down.
Hunter:
And you mentioned that the know, the performance driven league for sure, and in many regards, because there's so few football games in the season, I, and
Hunter:
And, a lot of those game results can come down to a field goal. It kind of
Hunter:
makes sense right that it's like Hey, if you aren't going to make the goals then as the management,
Hunter:
the Afric coaching team like we got to make a decision because it could cost us our season or a record or whatever.
Hunter:
Like. Obviously you've risen above that and you perform phenomenally so I'm curious when your when the time comes and you're going to kick in a game? Do you perceive that much much differently than when you go to kick and practice? And what do you focus on when the time comes and you have to kick? Are you focusing on like
Hunter:
the movement itself, or is there something else that you kind of like use as your cues to make sure that you perform how you
Daniel:
I mean, that's a great question. So you know I could. I could go really in depth about this because it's yeah. Kind of that's the goal because you know practice kicks matter. Obviously because they're gonna. they're going to help success in the game kicks. But it's figuring it out. Hey, what do I need to do in those games? Kicks? What routine do I need to have? And basically what I've done is you know, there's a thing called key words And so it's like you know their little trigger If you're line enough for a free throw and you know you're just like Okay. Flick the risk. Whatever, it may be just one thing to get your mind to really lock in and focus on that. And so what I do with my kicking is right before. When I jog out on the field, Don't really think about anything. I'm just enjoying now joining the crowd, whatever, not really thinking about much. and then once I get to the spot where the holder is going to put the ball, and right before I take my steps back, that's what I say, My key words, and so like literally. At this point my crew, I probably said, said it hundreds of thousands of times to myself, but I say, see it, and I take three steps. One for each word, take a breath Through it, I take my steps to the side, and then I take another breath and I say, See it and through it, see it walk through. and then I kick the ball, and so basically I know where I've timed it up. I've timed up the breath, and so my mind, It kind of goes to a autopilot where a practice. it's the same kick is a game kick, because I say the same thing at practice that I do in a game and where my mind gets so focused more on what I'm trying to accomplish in the process, that I'm no longer worried about the result because I'm so focused in the process, which you know hopefully will make the result take care of itself. So then you know whether the result of the game winning kick or whether the result is a mean. Let's have a field goal in the first quarter. Not that there is such a thing, but you know you don't have to worry about the outside environment. You're just only focused on the process. and so yeah, to answer the question, the practice kicks are been exactly the same as a game kick because in the practice kick same way, I'm completely focused on the process on my keywords on what I'm trying to accomplish, And you know you gotta keep it small enough Where it's like I'm not thinking about fifty different swing thoughts like you know, if you golf for something you know, people are always trying to you know, get better at their golf swing. But when you think about a million different things, it's impossible to do well because your mind is occupied with too much. But if you think about one or two things and one or two things that you can hopefully control physically, and you know then you can kind of control that environment that process, and hopefully the results are controlled as well.
Hunter:
Yeah, like that's That's kind of like exactly the answer I would hope to hear, as you know, whatever you want to call me weak and warrior athlete myself or I think, for anyone else that wants to pursue mastery in any sort of like physical enterprise, that, like as someone who performs a basically the highest level you can in your given domain that it comes down to just focusing on, kind of like the process of the movement and the things Are perfectly within your control. And there's not some like magical resilience or immunity to pressure or whatever like. Instead
Daniel:
No,
Hunter:
you kind of like take that out of the equation and instead you're focusing on the repetitive movement, the repetitive aspects that you know. you've done the same in practice. You've done it a thousand times to do the same thing in the game. And the kick is just like any other kick and you're focusing on executing what you can and kind of like the result comes out of that, but you're not thinking about the result itself as you're undergoing
Daniel:
I mean, because yeah, I think like, I do think like personality and know, like I said, Each, each person maybe has their own secret formula, But you know, I think everybody can figure out what works for you, and you know I know I need to keep my mind really focused, my little brother. he's very different to me. he's you know social butterfly. You know, he's just all over the place sometimes and what he really needs to do is just kind of be relaxed when he's out there. He doesn't need to be overly focused. if he's overly focused. You know, that's just not himself. You know, there's kickers around the league that are just extremely confident. There's you know. there's tons of different personalities where you got to know. Like what works for you, and you know, try and utilize that to get the best results you can. And so I know for me like I have to really work on the confidence that the best way to do that is by preparation. and you know, practice And carrying that over to game day where it's like Okay. I know I've put in the work. I know, I've you know, kind of given myself these things to focus on so that I don't have to think about all the other things that you know you might want to worry about, but you know now I can hopefully just you know, lock in on a couple of things, rely on my preparation and then go play freely and you know how fun and hopefully succeeded.
Hunter:
Yeah, definitely, and I think that is a good call out that there's different personality types that may need different things as they go to perform. but I do think that the your story, specifically in the way you approach it is probably one of the more relatable because I guess that
Hunter:
for every lie, really hyper confident athlete that knows that they can perform. There's probably you know nine out of ten that are not that that could use
Hunter:
the control and the cue to focus on, especially as we drew, But like in your case, you're at a professional level, but as we drop out to like more of maybe what the listeners, the podcast or Barbel Parrels, customers, or whatever,
Hunter:
These are people that are not professionals. they don't necessarily have the confidence that they know they can do it. Because that's like why people
Hunter:
like me, or, or whatever, the Barbel par, customers or other people listen to this podcast. It's why we even engage in athletics to prove something to ourselves. So like, kind of like, Fundamentally by nature.
Hunter:
We almost like it. We're definitely not sure if we can. That's why We're doing
Hunter:
and so being able to break it down to something like that where it's like Okay, Like I had a podcast interview recently with a very highly accomplished ultra runner and he echoed something
Hunter:
similar to Like he was kind of like a natural talent. When it came to ultra running, he was doing things in his teenage years that, like as Ultra running has grown as a sport or more common, but in his teenage years it was unheard of for teen agers to be doing the stuff he was doing, and
Hunter:
so quickly for him became about like he was the best he was going to prove. he was the best he was going to win on. Unfortunately, when things fell apart, they fell apart hard because it's like in a you know hundred mile run. If you're off pace by mile fifty, you know you're not going to win through fifty miles
Hunter:
left to goe, it's not going to happen. And so, because the goal was to win, things would just spire out of control at that halfway point and have to run another fifty mile Is kind of like in this terrible state and have a horrible finish,
Hunter:
But by reframing the goal to being more process oriented like Hey, I'm just going to
Hunter:
what I've trained. Not only was he able to perform, but he was able to kind of overcome all of those terrible mental obstacles and turn it into something that was grueling into something that he really enjoyed. So I think that's really really cool.
Hunter:
and something that, like all of us, you know, mere mortals can apply to the stuff we
Daniel:
yeah, well, I think like you said it's It's more relatable
Daniel:
where like you know, no matter what you're doing, whether it's just lifting or you know whether you're weak, where you're? you? No kind of what you alluded to like, I don't. I wasn't. It wasn't just born with some magical formula like knowing how to kick the ball. I go out there confidently and like, I don't even have to work on it. Just it doesn't. It doesn't come easy. It's a lot of work and a lot of figuring out. Hey, what works for me and I think so, But I can find that they like you know, like I said, everybody's got a different personality already. S got different passions and you know, I think for me like I'm a very detail oriented focused person. I know those are good things about myself. But yeah, confidence comes. It's hard to be confident naturally for me and so I have to really work on that, and especially in this sport where games on the line, you're in front of a hundred thousand people plus millions watching like you don't want to go out there Confident in your abilities And so you know, just figuring out over these last few years on like Okay, what kind of preparation do I need? What kind of tools do I need to have, so that when I do go out for those pressure situations, Um, you know, I have the best chance to succeed and you know, on top of it, I don't want to go out there, dreading it. I want to go out there and enjoy it. And so that's kind of cool. I think I've come a long way. Now I'm going into my sixth And the f. l. Um, you know, and I'm enjoying it more than ever. Um, And you know, I love the competitive aspect of playing at the highest level, and you know, getting to continue to push myself And that's part of why I left kicking Because it is. sometimes it's an individual sport and Ou know, being kind of a perfection as mind set where U know. Like you said, A lot of it is just almost like me out there by myself, You know, And so that that's that's really special Where you know I, I get to kind of set the bar for myself and you know some days are frustrating because I'll miss two kicks in practice and I'll be, you know, pissed off, but you know, over all that's a good day. But like the goal is always to be perfect, and so just you know, Continue to strive. There's always just like I keep alluding to golf, because I think it's similar. You know. a similar swing. It's a similar mind, and it's a similar individual Sport where you know. Even if you shoot your best round ever, you can still shoot lower the next day. And so there's always a bar you can continue to reach after
Hunter:
Yeah, and I think that kind of one of the interesting things about your career. and probably what's helped shape this perspective you have is that you had such a rapid trajectory from kind of like a. You know, I don't want to say this the wrong way it sounds like. as a
Hunter:
soccer player you were pretty good. Like not world class
Hunter:
good soccer player. So you were. You were a pretty good soccer player and then rapidly transitioned into a world class kicker. And it was
Hunter:
Something that you have been doing since you were seven. It's something that like just kind of happened and people were like, Hey, you're really good
Hunter:
Oh, really, I'm good. And then you kind
Hunter:
of like took it to the highest level you could, But in many ways you really did have something to prove right because it's not something you
Hunter:
knew you could do is just something you kind of like found out that you
Hunter:
were good at, and I'd imagine a lot of times those athletes you encounter with kind of like that unbridled confidence. At least many of them that I know they've been doing this since they could walk. You know what I mean,
Hunter:
remember a time when they couldn't do this thing that they're good at, So it's like
Hunter:
if that's the background you come from, I'd imagine that. Yeah, like it's such a core part of you. You can't remember a time when you weren't
Hunter:
swimming or you know whatever else it was running.
Hunter:
but with you it's like you had to wrestle this aspect of athleticism and submission.
Hunter:
Um, you know, kind of like from fresh starting in high school and then coming
Hunter:
full circle to do it in the f. l. to figure out a Some that works for you, and like self admittedly, you said to come to a place where not only are you performing the best you have, but you're enjoying it more than ever. I
Daniel:
Yeah,
Hunter:
think that
Daniel:
yeah,
Hunter:
We could all learn a ton from that and thank you for sharing that. That's really cool.
Daniel:
Yeah, I think each day you've got to prove it to yourself and you know, just finish the work out before this like you know, like it's It's not always fun. but you do. you do need to know, Continue to strive to be the best version of whatever you want to be, And you know I think it's that's the fun. The journey is the fun part, because
Daniel:
You know, if I'm only looking forward to you knowing the championship, winning the superb, whatever it may be like, five years have gone by, I haven't won that yet. Obviously we have On that and so like then. Where's the joy in that? But you got to find the joy in the process and you know, I think that's what I've kind of been learning. and you know, hopefully for all the listeners, whatever you know, process and journey they're on, they're learning to find the joy in that journey of pushing themselves to be the best version of athlete, whatever business person, whatever it may be that they can be, And you know, An, I think if you're enjoying it, Gotta be more passionate about it and you push yourself in harder, so you know that that's something I've definitely learned along the way.
Hunter:
Yeah, and I think that part of like, Obviously, we're talking primarily about things that are physical in nature, but even outside of the physical realm, I think that for human beings in general, there is like a true joy that can only be known in pursuing, like the true mastery of something, whether it's a physical skill or maybe a more intelligent
Hunter:
based kill or whatever, But feeling like you've truly mastered something, or pushing towards that mastery is really like one of the most rewarding things I
Hunter:
think that you can experience, Especially if it's hard earned right, and usually mastery
Hunter:
in any form is quite hard earned. But it's
Hunter:
kind of like that. I don't know. It's like a biological trick right to make us
Daniel:
yeah, nothing you know. Nothing easy is always worth it like is it easy? It's not rewarding though, But like something you have to earn and really put hours, and you put your mind and your heart and your soul into it. You know, I think that's where you know. it's more satisfactory. It's more fulfilling at the end or along the journey, as you're battling it out with yourself with your competition With whatever obstacles are in the way. And that's you know. That's part of the fun in the journey.
Daniel:
Is that that that hard part of it?
Hunter:
Yeah, well, we've been chatting quite a while. We'll just ask you a couple more things than let you get back to your busy schedule. I know in our conversation before we started recording, you mentioned that you're a father of two. Obviously as a professional athlete with not only the in season demands of playing games, traveling practice, you have the off season demands of staying in shape and shoring up any weaknesses. Doing all the other stuff You have to do having podcasts like this. How
Hunter:
Do you? How do you juggle it all?
Daniel:
Yeah, I mean, I think figuring out what your priorities are, you know, and we've discussed this before you know. Obviously being a father, being a husband, you know, being you know, for me, faith based Christian, you know, those come before football. Don't get me wrong. I'm obsessed with football. You know, I wake up every day thinking about it, but You know that's not going to fulfill me. You know, if I am missing out on those other things, And so yeah, I've had to load. And as I've gone, how do I go into football each day and you know, turn into this ultra competitor, Ultra focus, you know, Ultra perfectionist Where you know, I'm kind of a. I'm not very relaxed. I'm not very fun to be around, necessarily in a lot of those environments. You know, I'm just so wanting to do well, and you know, be the best version of myself on the field that you know. I need to learn how to kind of turn that switch off when I come home and hang out With a two year old. You know, it's you know when I dress up as a princess with my two year old, you know I can't have the ultra focused ultra, Like perfection is mind that I can't be. You know, that kind of David Goggins, mentality of like I got to grant you know, like it's just you got to learn how to turn that off. And so that's something I'm continuing. Learn, you know when I'm coming home from work, but you know. Obviously that's the thing for me is You know gett hang with my kids, getting to hang about with my wit, And you know, enjoy all the fruits of. Um, you know, the labor that I get to put in on work. But you know what is it all for? if you're not going to enjoy, you know, coming home to your family and spending time with them and hanging out with them.
Hunter:
Yeah, what a great way to put it, And I think there's two things that I could unpack there. One would be for someone like you or for any man that's trying to perform at a high level in his career or his hobbies right. The
Hunter:
contrast that a family and young children provides is like much needed, right, like you need that
Hunter:
opportunity to come home and not have to be that kind of
Hunter:
competitive person
Hunter:
or the competitive machine you can turn off and like to be fed with your kid.
Hunter:
good reprieve, and I would bet that if you look at the science behind it right like the, there's probably like a great physiological component that happens where you can like,
Daniel:
Hundred percent,
Hunter:
get rid of all that cortisol, the adrenaline, and come down to
Hunter:
a level where you're just having fun. That's really enjoyable and like,
Daniel:
A hundred percent,
Hunter:
I don't know if I've ever mentioned it to the podcast people, but I have a three year old and a one year old, so I know this first hand. It's like a
Hunter:
a really rewarding experience. Um. You also mentioned that your faith in your family come above football And like, I'm not going to put words in your mouth, but I echo that, like with my, I'm thirty, about to be thirty four, and so with my life, I've probably achieved things in terms of business and career and monetary achievements, or whatever, That many
Hunter:
people younger, my younger self, for sure, Like when I was twenty something, I would have done anything to have, and now that
Hunter:
I have it and I have my family side by side, I would give all of it up in an instant for my family. That's a way more
Hunter:
fulfilling and way more important.
Hunter:
And yeah, so to hear you say the same thing as Nfl player, like literally, one of the hardest things and most unlikely things to happen to somebody that your family is more important than that, shows a lot about your character, which is great, but also, I think the thing that should be said and taken away for a lot of people is that like anyone can have that right, not everyone can be in the Fl, but
Hunter:
anyone, if they set their mind to it, can have an amazing
Hunter:
family. And so it's
Hunter:
I think, it's just cool that like, even though you're doing things that are like beyond so many people's wildest tree From a career standpoint that you self admittedly say that your family is the bigger priority in the more fulfilling and
Hunter:
Yeah, and I think that as someone with faith, Um, it helps orient you in. set your priorities right. Not that you have to have faith to do that, but it does help create a hierarchy to where you realize that like Hey, this career, like an Nfelcarear. is a great example. Like luckily is a kicker. You have probably one of the longest opportunities for an n. f l career out of most of the positions
Hunter:
that play. but for a lot of athletes, and especially in the NFL that career could be shockingly short. Right, You could be like
Daniel:
Yeah,
Hunter:
thirty years old and done. And so it's like,
Daniel:
the average. I was going to say, I think the average in the NFL, like career is like two, two years, maybe under
Daniel:
And so you know, if you're if you got all your eggs in that basket, that's It's a tough way to live your life. You know, I've seen a lot of guys that have achieved the highest level of athleticism, the highest level, you know. like monetary success, where you know in the world They have everything you could possibly want, but you know that they're completely unsatisfied There, you know. they're miserable.
Hunter:
Yeah, definitely wise words from a young person. but I suppose that being thrust into very challenging circumstances helps to develop wisdom beyond your years. Well, Daniel, it was great chatting with you today. I'm sure we'll have to do this again sometime soon just because you have so much to offer everyone in terms of your athletic career in your life as a family man. Just lots of awesome perspectives. But if any of our listeners want to follow along with your career, your life, your thoughts. Where should they find you at All? Good man, That's okay. That's okay. We'll hunt down the Instagram link too, and put it in the show notes. But other than that it was great. Chatting with you today will let you get back to your life and your family. Thank you for the time. Yeah, Likewise, yeah, thank you, everyone. good bye.
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You can also find our podcast at spotify, google podcasts, amazon music, stitcher or iheartradio.
Mat Kerekes is an American singer-songwriter best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Citizen, of which he is a founding member. He was born and grew up in Michigan, and before Citizen, he was the drummer of a metalcore band called The Sound of Glory at the age of 14. Kerekes is also a solo artist and a member of The Flats. He has released a self-titled LP in 2014 and a full solo studio album, Luna & The Wild Blue Everything in 2016. In addition to his music, Kerekes follows a straight edge lifestyle, advocates for animal rescues, and owns two pit bulls.
Mat's Instagram → https://saavedrafajardo.com/matkerekes/
Citizen IG → https://saavedrafajardo.com/citizentheband/
Citizen Twitter → https://saavedrafajardo.com/CitizenMi
Citizen Website → https://www.citizentheband.net
Hunter Molzen:
Hey everyone. I'm Hunter Molzen, one of the founders of saavedrafajardo. And we're here today with another episode of the Breaking Boundaries Podcast. I have the honor of chatting with Mat Kerekes today. He's the lead singer of a band called Citizen. People in my team introduced me to this band and I listen to them all the time when I'm working out, it's great music. If you need some some good music to listen to during the next training session, be sure to check them out on Spotify. It's Citizen, just like the word. But you guys, uh, you make some great music. It's awesome to have you here today Mat.
Mat Kerekes:
Thank you. I'm excited to be here. I love the brand. I love all the clothes and stuff. It's awesome.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah. And I think Kyle from my staff found you guys organically because he enjoyed the music and the notice that you were into fitness and, and we sent Matt some clothing for everyone listening and that's how we got introduced to him. But you're, you're a pretty fit guy. It looks like you spend a lot of time exercising, doing MMA, and kind of maintain that even with the demands of touring and all that.
Mat Kerekes:
Yeah, you know, fitness has always been a huge part of my life, you know, like most people. But I feel like it's kind of, you know, now I feel like working out and Muay Thai and stuff, which is what I primarily do, is like more mainstream than ever, which is great. But back when Citizen first started, it wasn't. And I was kind of like, you know, one of the few people that seemingly or front men, I guess, in a band that were very into it in my world of music, which would be like emo, alternative, you know, like that kind of vibe, you know, that was really into it. And...
Mat Kerekes:
Yeah, I wake up every day and I immediately go to the gym. It’s the first thing I do every single day. And then I do Muay Thai usually at around 6:30. I got it today in about three hours here. So yeah, big part of my life.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, no, I feel you. I mean, I read a little bit of the bio questions we sent you over before the interview and it was kind of a similar journey for me. Like I was not particularly athletically gifted when I was in like elementary school. Starting in middle school, I started getting into some sports. I did a lot of skateboarding and some other things, but I was pretty skinny. And so maybe, yeah, yeah, extreme sports. But I was like really skinny. I was like, I kind of grew all at once. So I was like 6'1" and 145 or 150 pounds and like on me, that's real thin. I have like a not a super small bone structure, but it was like sophomore year in high school or whatever I was like, man, I need to fix this. And so I started going to like a local Gold's gym and working out there. And I remember this is maybe back in 2005 or something, right before Instagram was really a thing, before Facebook was a thing, before fitness had all these outlets to get popularized. And I was like the one kid in the gym. It was me and like a bunch of older people and then like actual bodybuilders. Jay Cutler actually was at this gym often when I was working out, which was kind of cool. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. But I remember back then, I was one of the few young people that liked to work out back then. And it seems that as social media has advanced, it's gotten more popular. But like you said, I'm sure when you first started, I mean, especially in the touring world, you're kind of like forging that path alone and then it's become kind of more popular over the years.
Mat Kerekes:
Yeah, a bit, you know. So like I said, in my scene primarily, there's not many people at the time too into it. And then we started doing things like Warped Tour, where we would tour with a variety of different bands would be on the tour. And once you hang out with the metal bands and stuff, that's where all the weight lifters are, you know what I'm saying, and all that kind of stuff. So that was pretty cool to experience that. So that was 2013 we first did Warped Tour and we did it again 2015, but yeah when we first did Warped Tour was the first time I met a whole bunch of people on tour that were into the same things as I was and that was very cool, you know, and yeah, I'm just like you. I mean if you're 6'1 and you were 145 I could imagine because I'm only 5'9 and I weighed 145 my sophomore year and that's crazy, but I kind of got lost along the way. I don't remember what I was saying. Ha ha ha.
Hunter Molzen:
No, no, it's fine. We could circle it back. I mean, so yeah, it seems like you got back, you got into fitness during high school because of like similar reasons, right? You were skinny and you wanted to put on mass. So was your first introduction to fitness, was it more like lifting, just general weightlifting or?
Mat Kerekes:
Yeah, so I've I didn't play sports growing up. My brother was a very good athlete and still is. But I was like computer music guy growing up, you know, and but all my friends were the football players and the wrestlers. And so and everybody was small. And then we got into high school and around my sophomore year, I noticed all my friends were pretty jacked. And I was still a
noodle, you know, and I was like, Oh, man, I will, you know, I need to bulk up a little bit. I'm looking puny, you know, so that was pretty much insecurity is what made me start lifting because all my friends were so fit and pretty, pretty big and burly, you know, and I was just the scrawny little scrawny little wimp, you know, so I that's what made me hit the gym. And yeah.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, for sure. Like in many ways form follows function, right? So if a lot of your friends or your brother, whoever were doing athletics, like they'll build muscle just kind of like by the nature of their activity. But if you feel like I was similar, right? Like I liked skateboarding. I liked I was a musician too. Like I had dreams of being in a band at one point and then went after a little bit and realized I would not actually like the touring lifestyle or the demands that it would take to be successful. And so pivoted out of that. But I was kind of similar. Like I didn't really play sports. And I didn't like team sports and so I didn't really have this kind of hobby that would foster building muscle or physique or anything Like that and then I found weightlifting and I really liked that and I enjoyed kind of that I could do it alone I could measure progress it kind of like appeals to the inner nerd right like weightlifting It's like well, I can I can kind of like systematize this break it down. I can watch how my lifts go up I can see how my weight changes on the scale…
Mat Kerekes:
It's and if you're a musician too, weightlifting is perfect because if you're writing music I go to the gym and I'm just getting a pump on you know, and I'm listening to the demos or I'm listening to you know, it's like what you said like oh, I could do it alone. I don't like team sports I kind of I like that as well and that's a good point that I've actually never thought of is you could kind of like digest all your other hobbies within weightlifting, So that's kind of cool.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And, um, like you can't tell cause you're wearing this baggy shirt. It's the, it's the style right now. But, um, if, if people go look at your Instagram, like you've definitely aren't, you're not skinny anymore. You've put on some serious amounts of muscle mass and you managed to maintain that and be consistent with it. Um, while being a touring musician. So first off, I think it could relate really well to anyone that has strict demands on their time or, or maybe finds themselves challenged in terms of like a regimen to be able to get into the gym and adhere to like nutrition and sleep and lifting. You're able to do that while touring, which is probably one of the more physically demanding jobs in terms of like you're sleeping in a different place every night, you're up late because you're playing shows, and you still have to manage to eat well, sleep, and get to the gym. So why don't you tell us a little bit about what your touring schedule is typically like and then how you manage to squeeze fitness into all of that.
Mat Kerekes:
So when you're on tour, at least at like, you know, a lower level of touring, right? You know, we're not, we're not playing arenas and we don't get catering. You know what I'm saying? Like not yet. Yeah, of course. Of course. Right. One day we'll make it. No, but, um, you pretty much see you wake up and you eat at gas stations all day. You know, you go to pilots and flying J's and I found that in terms of eating, you know, eating. It's, it's hard because when you're just driving all the time, you want to be like, you want to feel happy and you're not happy or you're riding in. So like, what do you do? You stop at a gas station. Your first instinct is like, Oh, I want this Carmelo bar. Oh, I want this bag of Sour Patch, which I still to this day indulge in knowing I shouldn't. But you know, like it just being overall uncomfortable and you're not getting good sleep creates bad habits, so you gotta like, you gotta remember that, you know? And that's something I've been doing lately. So it's like, so if I go to the gas station, I just let on tour, all I do is count my protein. That's all I do. I noticed that if I just get like, I don't know, my body weight and a half and protein a day, like I usually just, I hold whatever physique I have at the time or whatever, you know, level of whatever. Pretty much my rules are just is it fried? Don't eat it. You know, is there sugar in it? I guess depends on how much you know, but don't eat it. So, you know, I go to gas stations, I opt for the “natural section”. So there's the pre-packaged hard boiled eggs and the Chobani yogurts and I do get bags of beef jerky though. So I'm pretty sure that it's really high in sodium right? I've heard conflicting things. Is sodium bad or is it good? I don't know, you know, like...
Hunter Molzen:
I think it depends on who you ask, but like some people, I think people in the more like traditional medical community might have less good things to say about it, but some people in the athletic space have a lot of really great things to say about it. So I don't know, not an expert, but I'm sure you're fine. And it's a great way to get protein for sure from a gas station. That's probably like one of my go-to snacks if I'm on the road to and need to get some protein. And it looks like, I mean, like that's worked well for you. If you're just monitoring protein, you're getting enough of that in to maintain your muscle mass and your body composition from what I've seen in your Instagram looks pretty good. So it's not like you're overeating either. Do you do anything specifically to make sure you're not overeating or is you just kind of think you have a good intuitive sense of how that comes together?
Mat Kerekes:
No, yeah, I just- I eat a lot of bullshit, you know what I'm saying then then I fall off but if I'm eating smart and I could I am fortunate to be able to indulge in food, very much so without getting… without putting on a lot of weight, you know, so It's just my personal experiences. I could eat, I Mean as long as I'm not like loading up on the carbs really, you know what I'm saying. carbs right so like it's this like I don't know but yeah I I just eat until I'm full and I try to eat not heavy things on the road specifically when I'm home I do like sweet potatoes and steak and you know stuff that I cook and which is actually kind of a new thing I notice as I get older like I can't get away. I used to be like a McDonald's Taco Bell guy. And I'd go crush two Big Macs after a workout. I'd crush a few McDoubles before a workout. And it's funny how I used to do that. And I would feel ready to go and really strong. And now I do that. And I'm like, I feel like I want to take a nap. And I feel horrible. I get heart palpitations. It's horrible.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah. Yeah. It's funny to hear. So you, so you're 28 saying like, as I get older, but I do think that like, there is a shift somewhere in your mid twenties, like maybe 26 or 27 was right when I was like, man, I can't just kind of like do whatever I want anymore. I have to be a little bit more intentional about this. And I don't know like how much of it is age versus kind of like the demands on your time as you get older and you're like less overall active, right? Cause like someday I'll spend a lot of time outdoors, right? And so like some days, If I’m outside from like 6 a.m. and sometimes I'll be out past dark, right? So I've been outside for like 12 hours and I've gotten, you know, I've basically been out walking or hiking 12 miles and done other physical activity and stuff like that. And just basically shredded calories all day long. I can come back and eat whatever I want and I'll feel fine because like my body just incinerates it, you know what I mean? But if I don't do that, like if I did one of those days and ate a bunch of Taco Bell or McDonald's, I'd feel fine. My body just needs the food, you know? Whatever food I can get it. But if I had like a normal work day where, you know, I wake up, I work out in my garage for an hour and then I set it to desk and do whatever else and I, something like that, I'd feel terrible. So obviously part of it's probably like biological age. But the other thing too is like when you're younger, you're a kid, you're kind of just, you don't have the demands of like a career or like a full blown adult. So like, at least for me, I filled that space with being like a lot of active stuff, right? Like I'd skateboard, I'd go hang out with friends, I'd do whatever. And so you are just kind of like. I mean like I remember when I was a kid I'd be so hungry after I get back from like a day of doing whatever, And that doesn't happen as an adult unless I've done something like purposefully active. So I think that plays into it a little bit as well And then like for you when you're at home, right? You say you wake up and you're working out in the morning and then doing muay thai at night Like that's pretty active schedule. Are you doing that like regularly during like every day during the week when you're at home?
Mat Kerekes:
Yes, every well I take two days off a week
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, so you're doing two a day, five days a week. That's a lot of exercise.
Mat Kerekes:
I guess that does make sense because I always feel Even if I'm eating like pretty okay, which once again is hard when you're at a gas station every day, but I feel the worst all the time, you know and if I do indulge maybe that has to do with sitting around because touring to touring isn't like it's funny because like people will be like all your tour like so awesome you're doing so many cool things. And it's like if you put a fucking GoPro on my head what you would see is me laying down in the van for like eight hours getting out loading in the gear doing a bodyweight workout and then I sit down and and then I wait to play. And then I load the gear back in back in the van repeat every day you know so I am doing a lot of sitting compared to what I do at home which you know, two a days, but it's um I do still try to work out on the road and I do I have an app called mad bars I don't know if you ever heard of mad bars but it's like uh it's like body weight workouts I just do usually on tour unless I can hit a gym but..
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, probably often don't have the time to go find a gym, drive there and you know, get your workout in, go back.
Mat Kerekes:
Yeah, yeah. Anything that's like, I mean, cause like, when you're driving or traveling or flying or whatever for hours and hours and hours, it's funny how like you're doing nothing, but you're still tired when you're done doing that. Like you're done, I'm done laying down in the van or done driving or done sitting in the airplane seat. And I get to my destination, I'm like, you know, like I'm like all tired from sitting. To be consistent, it's best to have everything accessible. So, like when I get to a venue or a hotel, you know. The last thing I want to do is getting an Uber and go to a gym or walk to a gym or, you know, like go get a lime scooter. You know, I just like, don't want to do that. You know, so the best thing for me personally and I feel like for a lot of people would be is to just bust out, have a plan to follow on your phone and just bust out the workout where you can like in your immediate area that I've noticed that's the best way to stay consistent. If I'm ever scoping out gyms on the road it lasts a few days and then I and then I fall off because it's just it's just annoying. You know, I'm just tired and so and I usually bring like a cooler or some sort maybe I just use like a suitcase, and I have a bunch of epic bars and a bunch of core powers, you know just with fiber gummies, of course, because if you drink a bunch of core powers, you don't have fiber you can't shit, right? So, let's eat the fiber gummies drink the core powers, I'm good You know what I'm saying? Because when you're traveling, that's hard too. Eating is hard. It's all hard. If you're not at home, you don't have the grocery store, it's very easy to indulge in things that are bad because you're uncomfortable and you're tired. Just everything. You just want quick reward. And how do you do that? Like junk food. And at least that's my personal experience.
Hunter Molzen:
No, I think there's a lot of interesting things to unpack there. I mean, it seems like whether you're doing this consciously or not, like you've basically been able to remove a lot of barriers to adhering to kind of like your fitness goals where you're traveling, right? And so it's like, even though you're stuck in a gas station, you'll grab protein bars, beef jerky, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, all like relatively high protein, low fat type of snacks that are still getting you like adequate intake as you have and then squeezing in body weight workouts where you can also again, helping you maintain the muscle mass that you have. And then when you're not on tour, you just hammer the gym. And that's probably where I'd guess you make most or all of your progress on your lifts and stuff like that. And then it's kind of like back to tour maintenance mode. And then you kind of go in these cycles. But I think that it's really good advice, whether you mean it to be advice or not for someone that does have to travel like that. It's like, you can make it work, right? It may not be ideal, and you may not be able to like pile on a bunch of extra muscle while you're touring or traveling or whatever but you can maintain what you have in pretty suboptimal conditions right like surviving on beef jerky and yogurt and doing some push-ups so I think that the fact that you're able to make that work is pretty cool.
Mat Kerekes:
I don't think you even under very bad conditions, like I don't even think you lose muscle until like a month. Like the feeling of being deplete, or I don't know if that's factual or not, two to four weeks somewhere on there. But the feeling of being depleted doesn't mean you actually have lost progress. You could be lacking electrolytes or whatever, dehydrated as fuck like every time I leave for tour I always feel pretty good and I feel pretty full and even if I am on my best behavior the whole tour I come home feeling very flat and depleted but after four or five days I'm like pretty much back to where I was see does that make sense I don't know.
Hunter Molzen:
No, for sure. I mean, I'd guess most of the depletion he feels probably nutrition related because you're basically just cramming yourself full of like protein and nothing else.
Mat Kerekes:
Very low carb on tour and that I feel like that that contributes a lot to it.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, I wonder if that's part of how you're able to keep like a pretty reasonable body composition to is like accidental cyclic dieting. Like here you're eating like a bunch of healthy carbs and stuff while you're at home working out hard. And then when you go on tour, you're basically doing like high protein low carb diets Just because that's your only option unless you want to be total, you know total just like basically junk food No, that's pretty interesting.
Mat Kerekes:
Yeah, it's worked for me personally and yeah, touring is, I mean, it's great because I love playing shows. I love playing shows and I love music because you know, that's the whole thing, right? But every other part of touring, I just, I muscle through it. I would much rather, I'm very, I like routine and you don't get that on tour. I mean, you have some sort of routine because you’re going to the same gas station every day, driving the same dip, but it's just, it's just, it's not a good routine, you know? I like, I like waking up and going to the gym, taking a shower, get on my computer, do whatever I want, go work out again, and you know, like, just, I don't know.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, for sure. Now, I think it's interesting, you know, when I was late high school or early college, maybe, and I was like, you know, maybe, maybe I want to take a shot at being a musician. I was in a band and everything. And I did some like, things that were similar to touring and realize like, I hate this, I don't want to do that. And it's like, it seems like it was.. it was like an indie rock band. If MySpace was still around, you can listen to the music, but it got all deleted in the purge. Like touring probably only becomes cool if you're like one of the mega bands, right? Like you're on private jets and in like five-star hotels, then it might not be so bad But below anything besides like the top highest here it's a big grind like it's a lot of driving and sitting around and Like you said not having any of your creature comforts and kind of like surviving off of whatever food you can find.
Mat Kerekes:
Yeah. And, you know, you just miss your family, just all, you know, all that kind of stuff, you know, so it's just. And, you know, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining by any means. I would much rather be on the road for a few months and then get to do whatever I want than be working at wherever, you know, personally. So, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, but, you know, just. Traveling is tiring.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And it's not so much a complaint, I think, as much as just like pointing out the realities of it. Like, yeah, it's awesome. You get to do something that's probably a lot of people's dreams, and you admittedly enjoy the cool parts of it, but it does have parts that a lot of people probably don't realize are not that fun. You mentioned missing your family. You got married recently. Does your wife come with you on tour or does she stay back at home?
Mat Kerekes:
No, so she is a nurse in the army. So she got stationed in Virginia and I moved out to Virginia with her. So she can't really travel because of the military. So yeah, we're out here right now. So I guess I miss my family all the time at this point, you know, but this is only we'll be back in we're from we I'm from Toledo, Ohio. So we'll be back in Toledo in a year and a half or so.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, so when you're on tour, she's, she's stationed. So you guys are apart when you're touring. Yeah. Yeah. So that adds to the challenge of it all, I'm sure.
Mat Kerekes:
Yes, yes. But yeah, she's not a musician. So I mean, well, I guess she dabbles in things, but, you know, she doesn't tour. So she, you know, even if she wasn't in the military, I don't think she'd really be on the road anyway. So so but yeah, I've been touring for like ten years at this point. So I'm, you know, numb to it. Yeah, I'm numb to it.
Hunter Molzen:
Used to it at this point. Yeah. I guess so we talked a little bit about how you eat and stuff when you're on tour and how you kind of like do the body weight stuff to maintain your fitness. How do you sleep when you're on tour? Because like obviously you're sleeping probably kind of wherever you can but.
Mat Kerekes:
Yeah, it's pretty bad on tour. It's just.. So we recently switched to this thing called a bandwagon, which is essentially a tour bus, an affordable tour bus, I guess you could say, right? Which it's still very expensive. So in my head, because I'm used to you play the show and then you drive till 1 or 2 AM. You get as much sleep as you can. You wake up at 8 AM and you know, you drive till 2 AM, but you don't go to sleep till 3:30 AM. So I'm used to not getting that much sleep and we recently made the transition to this bus bandwagon and It has bunks and stuff and I was really excited about it because now I can I could just play a show load out and go to sleep, you know and wake up whenever I want. But the things are so bumpy that I the whole time that I’m trying to sleep, I'm like 50% sleep. What's that called? I'm not in REM sleep. Is that what it is? I don't know. It's like where you're like conscious. I think I'm asleep right now. But then I wake up and oh my god, it's almost like, it's almost better to just go to the hotels. But sleeping on the road sucks because you just drive late and then you got to leave early.
That's what's affected the most. And I sing, right? So did you sing in your band?
Hunter Molzen:
I did, yeah. Yeah.
Mat Kerekes:
You did, cool. Yeah, so sleep's important for us, right? I mean, a bad night of sleep, I'll wake up and my voice will just, it'll be shot, you know? And so that's something I struggle with a lot on the road is that the lack of sleep really hurts my ability to sing, which is my one sole reason I'm on the road, right? So it sucks, you know? I had to take some, what's in, they sell, what's in Zequil? I started taking Zequil on my last tour because I literally, I couldn't sleep and I had no voice and I like had to have like something to help me out. And I started wearing earplugs actually…
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, face mask maybe. Yeah.
Mat Kerekes:
That kind of helped. Yeah, face masks, earplugs, and I've never done that before. That actually helped quite a bit. Yeah, yeah, but yeah.
Hunter Molzen:
That helps a lot, yeah. I've used those too when I travel. Unfortunately, I'm kind of a light sleeper, so I need it like dark and quiet, which is not always in your control. And it's like the earplugs and the sleep mask can help for sure. There are some other nutritional supplements that can really help with sleep too. We could chat about that more after the podcast, but I can completely relate. And then yeah, as far as recovering from singing, like yeah, if you don't, like people, you're using muscles and your vocal chords, And like there's soft tissue that basically has like micro damage that you need to sleep and recover. So I can imagine if you're not sleeping, it compounds in like a big issue. Like it's the same for me. I have two young kids now. I have a three year old and a one year old. And so like I'm not seeing or really doing much for music at all anymore, but I do do a lot for working out. And it's like, I have my training schedule and stuff like that. And I know that like, if I have a bad night's sleep, my training the next day is either going to suck or it's just not going to happen. I just won't have recovered, you know, so I can totally relate.
Mat Kerekes:
Yes. You know, as I get older, once again, you know, I value sleep so much more. It's just crazy to think about when I was 18 and I could just like pull it all nighter and then I'd go fucking rip an insane workout in the morning and you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't know, then go play a show in Toledo later that night, you know? It was just like, how, how? I couldn't, I couldn't even, if I get even 5 hours of sleep now I wake up and I'm like where am I?
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, youth is truly the best performance enhancing drug of all of them, right? I remember the same thing. Like, yeah, when I was 18 or whatever, I could do whatever I wanted. It didn't matter. But yeah, I mean, we've talked a lot about kind of like the challenges of touring and all that and your fitness. Let's talk about some of the good parts of your musical career. Cause obviously you've done something that a lot of people try and never achieve, which is to be able to make a living being a band and touring. You said you’ve been touring for 10 years, I guess, like, what was the year that you first felt like Citizen as a band was able to kind of like support you in its entirety? And you're like, okay, this is happening.
Mat Kerekes:
So we got the Warped Tour offer in 2013. And it was, we were, that year we released an album called Youth and I told everybody that I was gonna do Warped Tour and then I've done I'm gonna go to college. Because at that point I drained all of my savings. We're just on the road all the time. I was miserable on the road and losing just I was like I can't survive like this I just can't like I got to see and do some cool things I'm calling it, you know and then we did Warped Tour and it was great and after that work tour I got my first paycheck from Citizen you know and I was like huh maybe I could and granted it wasn't shit it was literally like maybe I can't $900-$1000 it was like something like that and I was like whoa yeah I'm saying I couldn't even believe it. I was just gone for eight weeks and made that you know it's like so I was like whoa like maybe this could be a thing you know so I was like okay you know like ride this out a little bit longer and thankfully things just worked out really well for us there's a there's a lot of bands that are way better than us and way more talented in every aspect you know I know like four chords I'm writing a song I wrote like 100 songs, they're all the same song. I'm not doing anything cool. Yeah, they're literally all the same song. So, and there's so many people that don't get that stroke of luck that we got. And I'm very thankful for that, you know, and I'm pretty happy I decided to, you know, to not be a quitter, right?
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah. Hey, you can do a lot with four chords, right? Like Blink-182 is one of the biggest bands ever with four chords. Yeah. But no, that's cool, man. So do you feel like you mentioned luck and that luck was obviously a component? I guess how much of your success do you attribute to the luck and how much do you attribute to the kind of hard work aspect? Because you mentioned that you know bands that are maybe more talented or better musicians, but the work is kind of like a component inside of your control too, right? Being able to tour and put up with the grind and put yourself kind of like in the way of success.
Mat Kerekes:
I mean, to an extent, like, yeah, like you have to tour and you have to put yourself out there. Like if you wanna do anything in art, I mean, you could be an oil painter, you have to put yourself out there. But the truth is like, some things just don't stick for whatever reason. And I have no idea, there's bands that I love that can't draw 20 people to a New York show. And it's like, why? They’re amazing. You know, I truly don't get it. There's bands that tour way more than Citizen has or ever had, and they don't do very well, and they're better than us. And it's like, I don't know why, you know? I think Citizen came up at a time where the internet was, Tumblr was a big thing at the time, when Citizen was first starting. And people on Tumblr loved us for whatever reason. You know, it was like emo was like a big thing on Tumblr. And we just, we caught a wave, luckily. And that wave carried us into other places, you know? And I do think a lot of it is luck, like I said. Like I said, a lot of bands do more, work way harder than us and don't have it as good. And there's bands that work less than us and have it way better. Like, I just don't, you know, like, I don't understand how it works. I legitimately don't. Being in a band is like very high highs and very low lows. It's a very, it's an emotional roller coaster. I mean,
you could play a show and you could feel awesome like oh man there you know it could be a sold out show and the crowd was awesome and they're singing every word and you just you just feel really good about yourself and then the next day you play and it's a quarter sold room and people are standing there with their fucking arms crossed acting like your dick's hanging out of your pants and you're like man I feel like such a loser right now like why do I think such a loser? I felt so cool last night, you know, like, it's just, you know, I don't understand. I don't understand how things work. And maybe luck is the wrong word. I don't know. But that's, that's just the way I feel.
Hunter Molzen:
No, I'm sure there is a component of luck and, and, uh, like part of it is there's just so much outside of your control if you want to be successful as a band or as a musician, right? Like you have to, you have to get introduced to the right people. You have to be able to kind of like intuit some of the things. Like I'm sure luck was part of it, but I'm sure also like you guys probably did some things like with Tumblr that you just kind of like, it maybe just made sense to you, but it was something that you did in your control. Right...
Mat Kerekes:
Well, we weren't even on Tumblr. It was just a, like we weren't personally on Tumblr. It was just people that were on Tumblr started sending us links and they were like, oh, this thing is viral right now. Or you're like, look at how many reposts it has. And we were like, oh, that's kind of cool. We just caught a wave and it worked out really well for us.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah. No, I mean, that's awesome. And also interesting. I think that was kind of like one of the things I realized too, when I was, you know, making my feeble attempts at musicianship was like, I knew guys in other bands that were wildly talented and all, and not getting success or they would have a little bit and then it would fall and then they'd have to go back and work. And then I was like, man, this just looks tough. Um, and it is tough, but the fact that you guys have been able to achieve a level of success is awesome. You mentioned that with the luck involved and with the hardships, if someone listening to this had aspirations or dreams of pursuing music as a career, what would you tell them?
Mat Kerekes:
I say do it. And I mean, the reality of anything, anything like anything involving the arts there's no promises. It's not getting a job, a stable job that's going to be there for a long time. I guess anything, I guess nothing makes promises, but something more stable. Like if you're going to take a risk, I just feel like you should just do it. I mean, like really, like what's the worst that's going to happen? You're going to fail, but you'll have cool experiences. And then you go get a job and like do whatever you want all the time. Like that's pretty cool. Or you go and you take the shot and maybe it works out. And then, you know, I don't know. I think that's really cool. And I encourage it when people are like, Mat I want to start a band, what do I do? I'm just like go tour. That's the first thing I'll say to anybody. Make friends and don't be a douchebag and go tour. And if it sticks, it sticks. That's awesome. If not, like you wrote some music that you love and you traveled and you saw a bunch of things and you made a bunch of friends. Now you got friends. Now you got friends everywhere. That's awesome. Got back home and have all these friends. It’s awesome, you know, like that's, that's one of my favorite, probably my favorite thing about touring is I just I know so many people and most of my closest friends, people I talk to every single day, I FaceTime every day, like they're not people from Toledo, you know, they're, they're people that I met on tour or that I met through the band, like the band, the band has given me so many relationships that I value so much. And that's the coolest part about being in a band. So I would never want to rob anybody of that experience. I think everybody should experience something like that.
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, for sure. It's better to live with like having tried and failed than the regret of never having tried at all, right? Like, uh, like, you know, I did enough with my musician stuff when I was younger that I'm totally comfortable with how that went. Like I tried, I realized I didn't like it. I'm good. I don't have to live wondering what would have happened. And if someone wanted to pursue it more than I did, obviously, I think you would be much better off like giving it a real shot and if it doesn't work out, like it doesn't work out, but like you said, you'll have the memories and the experience. And you’ll know that you tried, you know, and I think that's really good advice.
Mat Kerekes:
And wouldn't that, that would even apply to like you, like with your, with saavedrafajardo, right? Like that's like, that's a risk. Like you're gonna get to, you know how many people I know that started clothing companies that, it's not a clothing company anymore, cause nobody bought it. Like, you took a risk and now you're chilling in your seemingly very nice house with your kids. And you know, I think everybody, I feel like if you have an idea that you should just, you should just take a nice swing at it. And if you fail, there's no shame in failing. There's so many people that that don't even do that. So why not, right?
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah. And I mean, that's a that's an interesting comparison because like, saavedrafajardo was a wild risk to take and also involved a decent amount of luck. And I mean, business has ongoing risks, right? Like saavedrafajardo could still go out of business one day, who knows, knock on wood, hopefully it doesn't. But even if it did, like, I know that I've we've done the best we could have done. And I'm very proud of what we achieved, no matter what happens in the future. And I think that's like the best want to live your life. Don't wait till you know some unknown future date to pursue the things that are meaningful to you or that you want to try like try them now and like I said the worst that can happen is it doesn't work out but at least you tried and now you know.
Mat Kerekes:
Yeah, yeah, words to live by you know?
Hunter Molzen:
Yeah, for sure. No, it's awesome. I guess what do you guys have on the future plans for Citizen?
Mat Kerekes:
So we're doing, we just, a few months ago, we finished our last tour for the year and we're actually doing a new record in February is when we start recording. So there's that and next year is the 10th year for Youth. So we're thinking about doing a couple shows for that. So everything is just kinda, we have a very open year next year and we're kind of figuring out what to do and what we want to do and what feels good and you know, yeah, clean slate really, besides recording. That's 100% happening in February next year in LA.
Hunter Molzen:
Nice. That's awesome. I'm excited to hear the new music when it comes out. Well, Mat, thank you for taking the time to chat with us today. It's been a fun conversation. If our listeners want to follow along with you, obviously they can listen to Citizen on Spotify or Apple Music or wherever else people get music. I listen to it on Spotify, but where should they, if they want to follow you along personally, where should they do that at?
Mat Kerekes:
Ah, citizentheband is the Instagram. @citizenMI is the Twitter, even though I guess we're from Toledo. I grew up in Lambertville, Michigan, which is like right on the border of Ohio, where Toledo is, so I started Citizen, it was Michigan, but everybody is from Ohio, you know, but yeah.
Hunter Molzen:
Awesome, cool. Well, we'll be sure to follow along. Look forward to hearing the new music once it's released. But again, thank you for taking the time to chat today and we'll have to chat again soon.
Mat Kerekes:
Hell yeah. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Hunter Molzen:
Likewise.
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Get to know Corbin Burnes, the MLB pitcher who made history in 2021! Born in Bakersfield, California, Burnes played college baseball at Saint Mary's College before being drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2016. He quickly made a name for himself, being named the Brewers' minor league pitcher of the year in 2017 and making his major league debut in 2018. But it was in 2020 and 2021 that Burnes really shone, setting records and winning the National League Cy Young Award in 2021. Watch to learn more about Burnes' incredible career and achievements!
Instagram → https://saavedrafajardo.com/corbinburnes
Brewers: → https://saavedrafajardo.com/brewers
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A lifelong athlete and experienced coach, Alex Viada has competed in and coached a wide range of sports, including bodybuilding, ultra-running, triathlon, cycling, and powerlifting. He has also prepared individuals for selective military programs and is dedicated to continuing his research and education in the field. Through writing, course creation, speaking engagements, and weekly Q&As on Instagram, Alex aims to provide world-class coaching and exemplify the principles of "hybrid" coaching.
Instagram → https://saavedrafajardo.com/alex.viada/
Coaching IG: → https://saavedrafajardo.com/completehumanperformance/
Coaching Website → https://saavedrafajardo.com/
You can also find our podcast at spotify, google podcasts, amazon music, stitcher or iheartradio.
Nickademus, or Nick, is a renowned ultra-runner and coach. He started running at the age of 15 and quickly made a name for himself in the ultra-running world, becoming the youngest Badwater 135-mile foot-race finisher at 19 and winning the infamous Barkley Marathons. In 2015, he started coaching, incorporating both movement and psychological analysis in his training. After a heart surgery in 2018, he became aware of his codependent relationship with running and now uses his experience to help athletes cope with changes in their athletic careers. Nick holds multiple certifications, including CSCS, ACE and Running Analysis, and enjoys working with both experienced and new athletes, helping them develop a healthy relationship with sports and overcome obstacles to habit development.
Instagram → https://saavedrafajardo.com/ultrademus
Coaching IG: → https://saavedrafajardo.com/lightfootcoaching/
Coaching Website → https://saavedrafajardo.com/
You can also find our podcast at spotify, google podcasts, amazon music, stitcher or iheartradio.
Nathan Tsuji was born in Santa Cruz California and started gymnastics at the age of 3, and performing at age 8. Upon retiring from Collegiate gymnastics, he joined Cirque Du Soleil for creation of their new show, Under the Same Sky. Once the pandemic hit, he transitioned into competitive TV shows and social media with the goal of inspiring as many people as possible to live healthier happier lives through movement.
Instagram → https://saavedrafajardo.com/nathantsuji/
TikTok → https://saavedrafajardo.com/@nathantsuji
Download Nathan's app → https://saavedrafajardo.com/nathan-tsuji
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We sit down with business owner and physical therapist Dr. Ja'nae Brown. Dr. Brown graduated from the University of San Francisco with a Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise & Sports Science in 2002 and from Loma Linda University with a Doctorate Degree in Physical Therapy in 2005. She played basketball in high school and developed a love for sports and the human body. Her goal is to get her patients strong and teach them ways to manage injury. Dr. Brown is a specialist in Pilates, Concussion, ROCKTAPE, and a Certified Functional Strength Coach. She is married and has a daughter whom is a college student & swims for Willamette University. When she is not treating patients she enjoys exercising, going to courses/workshops, shopping, traveling to see her daughter swim and spending time with her husband.
Instagram: https://saavedrafajardo.com/physicaltherapysanpedro/
Facebook: https://saavedrafajardo.com/physicaltherapysanpedro/
Website: https://www.physicaltherapysanpedro.com/
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Meet Professional Strongman Nick Best. Nick has been competing in weightlifting for over 40 years. Based in Las Vegas, Nick is known as the “grandfather” of Strongman. As one of the sport’s oldest competitors, what he may lack in youth, he makes up for with wisdom and experience. As the elder statesmen of the group, Nick has a very strong passion for history. Nick was the Powerlifting champion of the world in the late 1990s, and he also owns the world’s record in the Shield Carry. We sit down with Zack Telander. Zack is a Youtube content creator, weightlifting coach and grappling strength coach. He played four years of division 1 lacrosse at the University of Vermont and was the strength and conditioning coach for the Texas A&M rugby team.
Instagram: https://saavedrafajardo.com/nickbeststrongman/
Youtube: https://saavedrafajardo.com/user/NickBestProStrongman
Linktree: https://saavedrafajardo.com/nickbeststrongman
Nick's Barbell gear: https://saavedrafajardo.com/collections/nick-best-x-barbell
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Instagram: https://saavedrafajardo.com/coach_zt/
Youtube: https://saavedrafajardo.com/channel/UC94_fvLx7abZgs9LIkM7jxw
Zach's Barbell gear: https://saavedrafajardo.com/collections/zack-telander-x-barbell
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Instagram: https://saavedrafajardo.com/nicksymmonds/
Youtube: https://saavedrafajardo.com/c/NickSymmonds800/
Nick's Barbell gear: https://saavedrafajardo.com/collections/nicksymmonds
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Instagram: https://saavedrafajardo.com/natan_levy/.
Youtube: https://saavedrafajardo.com/c/NatanLevy
Official UFC Official Site: https://saavedrafajardo.com/athlete/natan-levy
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