SS 128 – ROMWOD and Goat Yoga

In today’s episode, Grant and Heavey are joined by Julian as they discuss a variety of topics. First, they evaluate the latest devices that desire to follow the footsteps of Uber and Keurig. Find out if they’ve meet such standards in the “keurigification” of things. Second, they share their insights into the idea of ROMWOD as well as their personal experiences. Lastly, they’re sharing some recommendations on how you can explore scotch and other spirits without breaking the bank.

 

[03:45] Juicero

 

Juicero is a health conscious product that makes it easy to get juice at home. The idea is it sits on your kitchen counter and you buy replacement bags of cut up vegetables and fruits. Each bag costs $5-$7. You put it into the device and it takes two to three minutes to squish the bag and make fresh juice.

 

Heavey attests to the fact how super messy juicing can be. So although this may seem silly, it actually takes one step out of the process.

 

Price: Initial Offering is at $700 and it has been lowered down to $400.

 

The Juicero has $120 million of investment capital and the reason it’s making all this buzz is it’s now available to everybody. People are now starting to get the bags and realized if you take a bag and put a hole in it and squeeze it in your hands, you get the same exact juice for free.

 

[05:43] PicoBrew

 

PicoBrew is a device that has gotten famous where you can make your own beer at home. They recently came out with an add-on called the PicoStill where you can take the brew from PicoBrew and throw it in your still to distill it into whiskey. Whiskey is just distilled beer.

 

Grant was excited about it until he found you still have to have a license to distill liquor. You can brew beer but once you get over your certain alcohol limit or any distilling, you then have to have a license otherwise you’re making moonshine. Grant thinks though that is an awesome use of the “keurigification” of things.

 

[07:55] What is ROMWOD?

 

ROMWOD is a yin yoga-based program designed for crossfitters to cool down and recover from training and to increase their range of motion and strength in the positions that we commonly use when we’re in training or in sport.

 

Although designed by crossfitters for crossfitters, Julian has seen this used by people from all walks of life. It’s basically a program for increasing your everyday range of motion in an efficient way.

 

The program started around three years ago and Julian has been doing ROMWOD consistently for almost a year and a half now.

 

[10:40] A Different Type of Yoga

 

There is a variety of yoga practices. In fact, Julian has done goat yoga. It seems totally made-up but it’s actually real and fun. Julian has limited experiences with yoga outside doing ROMWOD and has only been to 2 or 3 other yoga studios in his life.

 

Recently, Julian has done hot yoga, another cool practice which is a more intense experience. He finds it similar to a level 1 workout. It practices balance and flexibility.

 

Julian’s experience of doing ROMWOD is intended to be a recovery protocol so it’s meant to be done either in the morning or after your workout and at night when you’re calming and cooling down for the day. The biggest benefit Julian got from it is building the “warrior” mentality in terms of finding calmness, inner peace, and being able to relax while recovering, opening up his joints and stretching his muscles, as opposed to a really intense workout where you’re sore the next day.

 

[14:25] When to Do ROMWOD

 

As mentioned on their website, they don’t recommend doing it right after training when the body is warm while the program is designed to be done when the body is cool.

 

By after workout, Julian meant not doing it right after finishing workout but doing it before bed. He further says he’s not getting as much out of it as when he’s doing it first thing in the morning or when he’s a little bit tighter and his core temperature is not as high. He tends to do it in the morning just to get the blood flowing and getting sun which is a good start of his day. Doing it before bed can work as well.

 

[16:12] The Warrior Mentality

 

A voice over accompanying each ROMWOD session will sometimes have you follow along with counted breathing. Sometimes there are alternate nostril breathing where you plug one nostril and breathe through the other alternately. When Julian started doing it in a 3-5 minute hold of a position he was really tight and his range of motion was very limited, it was very uncomfortable.

 

Julian recalls doing a ROMWOD session where he experienced a lot of discomfort and got stressed about how uncomfortable he was in a certain position. He has progressed from this as he learned how to find his inner breath and relax, separating his mind from his body. Some days he can relax while other days he can’t still his mind so he finds it challenging at times. But there is definitely a mental aspect to increasing your range of motion. It’s not always just sitting in the positions in stretching.

 

[18:24] Physical Progress

 

Julian has seen both progress in the mental aspect as well as the mobility aspect. He began doing it after realizing he needed better range of motion to get stronger and be better at crossfit and be more comfortable in life. The mental aspect of it just came up as a result of him doing it. But in the year and a half that he’s been doing it consistently, at the worse, he would do it once a week. On average, he does it 4-5 times. Doing this with some consistency, he has seen huge increase in his range of motion and flexibility.

 

[20:20] The Saddle Pose

 

Grant has been doing ROMWOD now for three days now. The first pose was the saddle pose and he couldn’t even get to the starting position of it.

 

Julian was very tight when he started doing this. When he started doing ROMWOD, he clearly remembers doing the saddle pose and he could turn the top of his feet to the floor but that was about it. He couldn’t even sit up straight entirely. He considers it as one of the most unpleasant things he has ever tried to do.

 

[23:00] ROMWOD’s User Interface and Paths

 

As a new user, Grant found the layout of the site as not being super clear on where to start and where to go. He later on found out about the welcome series part of it that shows what each movement really is and how this can be modified as needed. But he simply clicked play and found it real hard. And now that he saw the Welcome part, he did it and saw how it was going to help get into it a little more. Ultimately, Grant thinks their website is not well-designed for new people to get in and feel instantly comfortable with it. But seeing the options, he now thinks it’s more valuable because of so much content put together for you.

 

Every single workout that you’re doing each day has a list of the movements under it with a video attached to each of them. There are paths that allow you to develop a certain set of skills and one of them is the Welcome as well as the standing straddle to get you closer to being able to do the splits. There is also the Open Series path where each day, they’re getting you ready for that week. They basically released a ROMWOD for each open workout so you can do it before you do the workout and get your body open and ready to do whatever that workout has.

 

[27:35] Their Personal Experiences

 

Grant says the ROMWOD doesn’t feel strenuous. They can be challenging, especially mentally, when it’s uncomfortable, but they’re not making you sweat or shake or anything like some of those other types of yoga. It’s sort of a passive, relaxing kind of stretch. It’s almost what Grant has wished yoga to feel like.

 

Julian thinks ROMWOD is cool since everyday is like 15-20 minutes so there is no excuse why you can’t wake up and do it.

 

[29:09] Places and Accessories for ROMWOD

 

You can typically do it anywhere. Julian has a yoga mat and two yoga blocks and a band he uses for arm stretching positions. But these aren’t necessary to do it. You can just do it in your backyard.

 

The only thing important probably is a yoga mat since in a lot of these positions, you’d be on your knees or you’re on the ground. So using a yoga mat helps make things feel comfortable.

 

Also, if you don’t have bands or blocks, you can use a towel or weights like a dumbbell respectively.

 

[30:08] Free Trial

 

ROMWOD offers a 7-day free trial which you can cancel anytime. Grant is impressed with the pricing because if you decide to keep doing it, it only costs $7-$8 a month and you get new material all the time plus access to all materials that have been put out before. They also have an affiliate program.

 

Heavey will check back in on this in three months to see if Grant is already doing the side splits or if he canceled his account. Similarly, Grant is actually wondering if he could actually do the saddle and get his feet down three months from now.

 

Grant thinks ROMWOD is totally worth it. If you’re not doing any other stretching, he can’t imagine any better alternative to get into it easily without making it a crazy thing.

 

[32:20] Flaviar and Exploring Different Spirits

 

Another listener also raised a question about Flavier. It’s a company that offers two options. First is a membership and then you get tastings every quarter and another one is you can go online and buy bottles of unique whiskeys and other spirits. The listener is actually asking for strategies or recommendations for someone interested in exploring different spirits without breaking a bank.

 

Scotch is expensive and this is one of the reasons it’s less popular than the other spirits. It’s basically hard to get into. There is this membership club that makes it seem like a great way to try other things. But Grant has tried a couple and looked into Flavier. The problem is they’re all way overpriced and they don’t get creative with the bottles they share.

 

[34:00] Here’s a Fun Experience!

 

Grant recommends that you find some like-minded friends that want to try getting into it and do a taste test as a group. If you have a group of whiskey friends where once a month, one person is in charge of doing some research and getting a nice bottle and sharing it. You are then making this an event that you look forward to and you put on the calendar. This is the greatest way to do it, split a bottle.

 

Heavey’s first experience in trying nice scotch was from this very concept where he met with his friends from his old job. They all passed them around and tried them out. Just the experience of it was so much fun. People do this with beer clubs and the scotch thing is not a thing and it should be, as Heavey puts this.

 

Grant recommends you find a couple of guys who are interested and that will show up once a month and just bring one bottle and really get into it. Then if you have leftovers of that bottle, everyone brings a flask and split it to take home. It’s an opportunity for people who really want to get into it and don’t want to spend a whole ton of money but want to try things.

 

Lastly, Heavey has another idea where you can commit to this each month on Instagram featuring a scotch you think is interesting then anybody out there who wants to form this group can pick up the scotch you recommend.

 

Links:

Juicero

PicoBrew

ROMWOD

Check out #goatyoga on Instagram

Flaviar