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As a note to listeners, this podcast does contain explicit language. 

 

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• What makes movement “mindful” and why it’s important 
• The essential role that recovery plays in fitness
• How to adjust your daily routine to optimize your fitness program

Most fitness programs only emphasize getting stronger, faster, or leaner – and while he agrees that all those things are great, Performance Coach Cristian Plascencia is more interested in unlocking the full potential of the body. How does he accomplish that, if it isn’t by lifting the heaviest things in the gym? Through mindful movement.

“Move with a little bit more intention and efficiency,” Plascencia says, explaining that moving your body the way it’s designed to move will get you closer to optimal fitness than constant intense and grueling workouts. Athletes can adopt a mindful movement philosophy by adjusting their everyday behaviors such as what time they go to bed, and incorporating warm-ups and recovery into their workout regimes.

Plascencia especially emphasizes the importance of recovery. “Whatever your fitness goals are, you stimulate [the body] and then adapt,” Plascencia explains, and if you skip out on a cool down and recovery period, you take away the opportunity for your body to adapt or “rebound” from the stimulation accomplished during a workout. He encourages incorporating recovery into your workouts, and internalizing that “you can take a day off and not feel like you’re losing something.” 

Understanding your “why” is also very important in fitness, and it doesn’t have to be that you’re training for a marathon or trying to lose a certain amount of weight. In fact, Plascencia’s top fitness tips are all about connecting your movement with purpose: slowing down and taking the time to connect your body and your mind during your workouts, and incorporate some sort of movement (and hydration!) into your morning routine. 

Listen to the full episode to hear about the exciting innovations happening in the Austin fitness industry (14:06-17:32), specific recovery modalities and their efficacy, and how you can manipulate your psychology to create mindful movement out of your innate desire to compete and succeed. If you learned something new, make sure that you like, subscribe, and check out more Balanced Badassery episodes!

Host: Alli Waddell

Guest: Cristian Plascencia

Transcript:

this is a founding media podcast if welcome to the balance badassery podcast your weekly fix of wellness wisdom I’m your host Allie would L. on this episode we’re talking to Christian Placencia who raise their rates he is a factual stretch therapist on it Jim performance coach an educator as well as the CEO of the durable athlete this guy likes to move and he moves really well as you’ll hear us talk about we dive into why it’s important to reassess your fitness routine and why recovery is so important for your little body so here we go here’s my conversation with Christian yeah yeah yeah bad Azz brigade alley would dell here for a balanced badassery today we’re gonna talk about one of the pillars wellness which is my favorite pillar that is movement and I have my boy Christian Plascencia yes my gosh that was the hardest part of the whole podcast on to talk about all things movement how to live so you feel like a athlete inside even if you’re not an athlete in the real world and how to not fuck of your body so that you can do it for a long long time because you only get one meat suit so you better take care of it

hello and once you introduce yourself to the best brigade yes yes first of all thank you for having me Ali yeah so you basically put out there my name is Christian Placencia originally from Salinas California which is like the central coast did my undergrad out in like southern California sharealike Ventura county thought I was going to do physical therapy I thought I was going to become a physical therapist since I was like the age of twelve which is really really funny that’s interesting I have I have interesting mom on the personal exemption limits but yes I just that was a some I just figured I want to do for like my whole life and then I got to a senior in college and relies on I met John wolf yeah then then everybody’s life changes after they’ve got you got on the werewolf it is never this day is there really hasn’t been the same since I met him no but doubt that was a huge turning point and I wanted to go more like the strength conditioning trainer out OB so yeah I’d applied to grad school I got into school East Tennessee state and I also got in to the university of Texas at Austin and so I decided I think Austin Texas would be a better choice than no offense to anyone if they’re from Johnsonville city Tennessee I believe there is what’s called something like that

yeah I was a little bit awesome Zulu had been better so I decided to come out here and while out was also happening John had given me like internship position something that was just kind of I didn’t know were on it was I don’t know what the on academy was nobody really did at that point now it was like what two thousand and fifteen is when I came out here and yes I’ve been working on it for like the last three and a half years of it had the pleasure of working along side you know a lot of great people a lot of great teachers mentors even just like the new batch of on it trainers that are now coming in like Natalie like Joshua just an amazing amazing team to be around I’ve also had just the opportunity to work with even people that we bring in by like like Mike Fitch like FRC and Dr J. a subpoena doctor mark changes the list goes on you know you mean so yeah basically been on awesome for like the last three and a half years and challenges hit a month scholarship softly that’s awesome so what is your regarding movement what’s your kind of general philosophy when it comes to kind of talking to people about movement incorporating more movement you know kind of training for life in general yeah definitely will you know I feel like a lot of times whenever I would go into the gym and work out and just finished for myself again perform at John wolf a lot of it was like a lot of let’s get bigger let’s get stronger let’s give faster which is all awesome and is still needed

but John really expose me to take a different perspective towards like movement in towards like fitness in general right and and kind of seeing like how well do you move in a different capacity right so it’s like we all know how to do Scott we all know how to do a press pool whatever but when given a different perspective and given a different lands and having you do it in a different manner tweaking little variables there becomes a whole different monster your body your body adapts very specifically right to like that the demands you place on it and so being able to move with a little bit more of an intention behind like the C. out what’s a good name is like a good layman’s term to kind of use would be to move with more efficiency your body was made to move a specific way and so if you’re able to basically unlock the potential of that you’re able to move more efficiently if not right we all have competition will have little things going on body and one more night I guess a tune to those things right now I’m mindful of those things and they will continue to kind of pack on an impact on each other and that’s one weird injuries are weird things happen in our bodies I don’t end up feeling too well yeah you kind of develop these chronic ways of just living your kind of daily function and that’s one thing that I love that you say is like pay attention to the small things that you’re doing every day they’re feeling uncomfortable and like start to unpack those

because so many people he he’s still a very young man but but he’s also an athlete and so we’re always kind of dealing with some most of us are always especially if you push yourself athletically there’s always a little something somewhere yeah that’s like not Feelin a hundred percent and then as you get older those things kind of become larger and kind of in your face a little more and I really think that’s a wave your body communicating to you like are you paying attention are you really taking over there and so I like that you have this kind of mindful philosophy when it comes to movement and we were discussing we started is that so many people you kind of become an adult and you’re like you work out because you know there’s nothing that says you have to work out with which you should everybody should be moving their bodies I mean if you’re not in your city and most the time there’s all kinds of other stuff yeah but they’re not really taking a mindful approach you know some people are training for something so you’ll have you know whatever marathoners or their athletes or their you know they still play tennis or whatever but then a lot of people just go to the gym because they they think they’re supposed to go to the gym yeah so how do you start to talk to kind of normal people that come in and start working with you about like how do you get to a why how do you kind of understand and try to help people like stink more thoroughly about their kind of fitness and wellness Virginians

well I think you know the biggest part or the the biggest I guess road block right with people coming into a general population Jim is the mindset is like again let me sweat more than we burn more so I can go and eat more drink more right I mean it’s kind of for the most part yeah a big generalizations now but it is right and that’s fine like there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that but knowing that people have that mindset going into the gym also knowing that we are very competitive right at heart so you know you say oh well what’s this intentional like movement like what what do you mean by that and say well we’re going to challenge you to move so like a lines like a squat like a press like poor gonna challenge you in all these ways that your body is going to be set to a different starting position and is going to make you work in a different position something that you’re not used to so then you’re gonna have like that in your kind of I guess I go back and forth with yourself kind of just around like why is this sucks I’ve done a pusher before you know I’m done loaded walks I’ve done it once before why does is launch second why can’t I hold it for ten seconds you know what I mean so that’s kind of like the the tricky wherever trainer right and to kind of get you special again on it where I work at and and we have tons of other trainers who who understand like this little like play on it but the psychology of his we’re all kind of looking for like some type of challenge right

thank you to kind of mention people are still going into the gym maybe as a follow up because they were once an athlete right and played a sport maybe in college maybe not but we have like this inner desire to want to compete and want to win right and succeed in so it’s like yeah let’s let’s put the let’s put the the perspective a little bit differently and they make you look at it this exercise from this point of view and then let me make you work there you’re not gonna like I know you’re probably not going to be as successful as you would like you’re going to keep going at it with your best and yeah you know with each rep and next thing you know you know after forty five minute class maybe on paper it wouldn’t look like a great work out you know like a killer workout but that’s the that’s the simplicity of it I shit you not that is what happens every time you look at it on the border like Z. that bad if you like everything you like why is this so bad and being an athlete and then finally finding the facility where I feel like and can I’ve never been a class person because as an athlete and a trainer you’re like I don’t need to go to class the only place in Austin that I go to classes because I’m like oh will legitimately everybody is gonna it like that it’s I’m not number one I’m not going to hurt myself unless I’m in a war on which sometimes Sam thank you one for your class damn people that have to compete with and then but everybody’s real smart and mindful and so that’s the other part that you really bring in is that you

really work on the warm up in the decompression part and I think that that slowly I do think that recovery is going to be this next wave of wellness that we’re seeing you know we’re seen infrared sauna please pop up or seen you know the ice cold has come into it and yes I understand I’m a bubble and people think it’s weird that I have an ice tub in the back of my house but that shit is legit I love that so you talk to people about what what is this kind of wave of like recovery that people are starting to hear about and why is that so important to really to really start to incorporate and how would somebody do that if they’re just kinda normal you know everyday people early on well I think it’s making a big splash just you know the I think a little bit of it right like that the cryo is awesome the the sauna is awesome though dry needling that all the all the stuff that you can do everything from passive to active right there’s some fashion stretch there be with time yeah yeah I had to plug in they’re awesome but it’s like there’s all these modalities and so like from a business perspective it’s kinda see right yeah exactly like isn’t there a spot maybe maybe I’m wrong it’s collector store where it’s got like the cryo it’s got this on it it’s got like the bubble bath is got like everything that you can possibly think of recovery wise

like the normative boots like everything is there I think a little bit a little bit of it is business but you know when it when I think again if you package it the right way right which in our classes like you mentioned we do that the warm ups and we do the cool downs like if you’re smart enough about it you can really make like your everyday program like a recovery and their strength program because in the gym part process right in order for us to get whatever your goals are bigger faster stronger leaner and whatever it is you stimulate the new data right and so that a dat portion I think a lot of us kind of skip over it I think we just stimulate stimulate stimulate simply and next thing you know there’s no chance for a rebound no chance to come back stronger because we’re just not gonna shut down every time so I think maybe people realizing Hey you know what like like out we were talking about before like I could take on an off day and not feel like I’m losing something you know I’m not losing any ground as a matter of fact I’m probably align myself to recover right to a better capacity and allow myself to keep going so if my my warm ups are thorough and I’m making sure each joint is moving how a drug should move and then I go in and I work out the amount of time was a negative forces but the amount of negative compression and forces that you put like on your spine your low back you need things that may be a can you like that’s not there anymore not to the level that it used to be and then you work out and you get done and then instead of just getting in your car and leaving like you take the time to not only you know allow tissues to be a little bit more like link then right because a lot of stuff we do is very compressions like let’s lengthen tissues and then that’s also starting corporate the breath which starts to bring down the whole autonomic nervous system which then gives the muscles and everything else to kind of start to release a little bit more tension

and so there’s like this this affected bone right there there’s recovery you’re allowing your body to adapt so again I think that’s what the I think that’s if you if you do it the right way for you program it the right way or look at it do the right lands and start to maybe realize your warm ups in your cooldowns are effective and have this service bigger purpose I think people can start to realize that Hey it’s just some I could do with it with what I’m already doing on a daily basis maybe add ten more minutes yeah I mean and really for most people you don’t really have to work out that well it’s not like you need to be lifting heavy for an hour I mean the total if you are you’re probably I mean unless your body builder in your very specific you’re probably doing it wrong I mean you don’t really need to be lifting that I mean being that intense for that long it’s you’re not getting any extra gains on it and so one of the things that are so important about the warm up is like that is by the time you get into your set you’re actually gonna go first round like you’re going to be actually able to function as opposed to take three rounds soon to get ready to go thirty minutes in I finally feel like I’m ready

yes a lot of us do and I’m not used to be the same I did my whole life like probably two years we’re all alone yeah yeah it’s just the slow processes yeah what is some things that are that you’ve seen coming around and kind of the the movement physical side of the industry that you’re getting really excited and interested in you know for the most part are you I’m sorry I want to make sure I understand this yes it would it might seem like movement wise and yellow yeah well I just think that there’s again I think the biggest thing in fitness is understanding like your perspective in understanding your context and understanding like your why so with more or you know with more people come out like Francesco right in front even just someone like primal create opposing the waiting to move like you’re allowing for L. like Lima savage Eastick like they’re all different expressions of very similar principles are very similar like theories you know him yeah and it’s cool to be able to see those different types of applications and then I understand that I understand the why behind each one of them right so like why would I want to do something like primal you know some that primal does as opposed to another cat about a guy right and so it’s very very cool to see like a again we all have a pass we’ll have past experiences that we bring with us right we all have I used to be a basketball player Francesco or maybe soccer could be completely wrong today but like you know what I mean like we all kind of come from like there’s different background and so I think that what that allows us to do is have like a different lens into apply similar principle or like similar principles you know I mean in the end result is similar but different and unique to each one of our own you know

I mean and specifically Austin Texas specifically like the army academy the only jam like it is been a hub for people like you for people get like ten KM for people like myself Natalie John Walsh Shane like all these I mean there’s a reason like Mike Fitch wants to come down and hang out like his like we can have a loss of like there’s just so much good vibes around this area and a lot of good things happening in the fitness industry industries so I feel yeah that’s awesome I think it’s in one of the things I love the you head on and I think it’s important for people understand is although there’s so many different ways to be healthy and fit in to move well and that’s one of the things I love about on it but love what you just said is like you can look at these different philosophies and they’re all based on very functional you know research backs ways to like take care of your body but they’re all different then soon and none of them are better than other ones and none of them are like you could do animal flow for six months and like be Killin it and move like Mike senselessly who doesn’t want to move like that guy is unbelievable and then go and do you know prime Oles kettlebell stuff and get supers you know it’s a program that in a way where you and I think people get stuck in B.

like this is what I have yeah I’ve signed on for wait list and does do lift weights for the rest of my life and I’m like is that even serving you anymore are you right do you like going to the gym yeah I mean my other thing is like if you don’t like going to the gym maybe take some time off to dance by do son yes all the insane yeah whatever you want you know finding that joy again and that’s one thing that on it really gave me is like me and when you’ve been training for almost twenty years like at some point you’re like dude I was just bored right right right you know you gotta go change it up in the way you change it up is having fun and like experimenting with different stuff yeah I couldn’t agree more yeah I couldn’t agree more so what are some of the things that you think that kind of every person can implement in their life regarding movement that could really help them moving kind of get to know their know their body yeah definitely what think of one one big difference would be to slow down and that was one thing that I learned right off the bat like I was just talking to Natalie about this the other day like when I first started this like movement mobility type of practice I guess you want to call it it was at John John was Jim in Salinas California

right was right before I came out here to Texas and I would spend like about an hour warming up now granted I don’t I don’t spend an hour to warm up today right but I was going to like this process of like trying to create that connection with my body my brain right and I realize like off the right off the bat like my biggest tendency was were wanting to move spike quickly impasse and like wasn’t taking the time to like breed and move you know connecting the two right there so I think that could be a really big thing already because it’s a huge shift arrive for someone was just a like CJ right yeah huge huge powerlifter strong strange guy right to lift a lot of weight to get him to like all the way shift and only do like animal flow would be a huge shift right so it’s like baby steps so how about you know so free in like that context it’s like Hey let’s maybe less in the way a little bit but like let’s move slower through things and like let’s see if maybe we could feel a little bit more because there is no right or wrong

right it’s not like a or are you feeling just exactly in your left hip at this junction no then you’re not doing it right now it’s like did you feel more through there do you feel more things moving you feel more things engaging in I think that that would help people start S. S. because you don’t have to stop doing your kettle bells are your your one thing that you’re really attached to you know yeah another thing to watch I think you know I do this every single day is is is having like a little morning routine right and and that morning routine can be I mean it reading walking jogging whatever make walking your dog whatever it may be but for me it’s well right away hydrates and drink a lot of water and then I moved from much water so now that I got this I believe in the house for last year in the suburban area it tells me how many ounces of water that I get in your job yes I each morning I will be thirty five ounces in that bullet Cup and sometimes sometimes I’m I go in for like another quarter glass but for the most part like that’ll be the start drinking lease after that and then I get on the ground they start moving and I’ll move on the ground for probably ten minutes ten fifteen minutes depending on it was a big lifting down might take like twenty thirty you know just kind of depending I feel that day but when I try to tell people is that you don’t need you don’t need like in our practice right

like doing it five minutes here two minutes you’re too many tier two and tier like it all adds up you know especially in the beginning any type of experience our conditioning to that is going to have like a great great effect you know positive effect so those those would be probably like the two most simple as things that you know people can kind of try to implement or try to change and see some type of like positive difference or change yeah I think incorporating some kind of movement to your morning practice yeah is huge and really well a for a lot of people like walking like just getting outside and walking is really great for you and now we both have a really great morning practice short videos of just like moving through your body receptacle shoulder circles in some cat cow and it is amazing if you can just incorporate five minutes I love that you say you can kind of break it up like I you know for my clients that have that sit at desks all day like you need to have a desk mobility routine you’re going to be sitting there set a timer to in every twenty thirty minutes you’re doing some I mean right out your back standing up moving around because that whole stagnant sitting thing there is no point of no the mostly sitting is the new smoking so yes I was it has guns so we’re going to go into some rapid fire questions are you ready let’s do it okay what is your favorite thing to eat Pizza Hut pays where they can either actually I don’t even like Jesus is my favorite really I don’t like cheese what kind of bees a delay

I’ve become very fond of like a huge vegetarian pizza bridges adds like prosciutto that lovely ladies blood means young with some songs that were never you know real which is nothing wrong with that vegan but like I mean I mean what kind of what pizza do you like in us so I’ve only had it like twice no one of them all at once briefly before falling in a damages going down and V. at three one three glue is very good yeah really good there you go yes yeah by my favorite you right there what is something that you believe that most people think you’re crazy for thinking that the Lakers will win a chance single that we start to see and then I have to believe it on the stand by for the rest of life is going specially this year especially these okay final question what is one thing that you would tell you Tate tell your younger self and you can tell me how old he is and what’s one thing that your ninety year old self would tell you today dang so what is the address to the first one first so you said it well what I tell my younger self to be patient just be patient and timing I would say timing is everything right like when you when you know you know I know that’s kind of where you wanted to hurry well no I just feel like and again tying into the workout moving really fast have an intense you’d go fast like again the way I was grew I grew up at toys I thought I knew what I wanted to do so it’s like I’m always on like this path the more photos feel like I’m on this I grow to go somewhere and get some more and I feel like I’ve tried to implement as much as I can to just be patient and let things happen when it’s when they’re supposed to happen organically transmitters yeah exactly exactly is not no not he’s also working on by no way perfect vision and probably won’t be affected so but then what would I tell what went a vice with your nine year old self give you today with man good thing you were patient hopefully yeah I mean I feel like it’s probably going to have to be along those lines and also just to there is one thing and it’s not because my parents had nothing to do say my parents are back a little yeah they’re awesome and I wouldn’t change anything about him but my dad brought this quote to me the day was it’s where Catalani butcher this right but basically it’s your parents fault for raising the way they did it’s your fault for staying for staying basically that

yeah yeah I know I wish that up completely but ultimately like it’s so super easy to be like well that was the way I was raised out without that’s what I’ve been used to that’s the norm for me that’s who I am and so whoever around me just gonna have to change but rather to I feel like this there’s some value in being able to be like you know what like I know the ways I’ve been raised and I’m aware of my I’m intentional about my my my actions and I want to make sure that the ones that I decided you were the are there the promises I made to myself or making changes that I’m actually making those changes and not just living in a passive lifestyle I guess yeah taking personal responsibility I one hundred percent possibility because you and the last man hi everybody well Christian thank you so much for coming on the podcast is there any thing that you didn’t get to say on the podcast you would like to share I don’t I don’t think so rather than I love basketball and the Lakers will probably win the championship and that’s really about it yet just I couldn’t be happier to see it to be on here and be able to kind of spread the message of moving with intention moving with intention yeah everybody can do it all yeah bye guys are you moving yet thank you Christian for sharing your bad ass wisdom with us on the pod the bell as bad as our team includes me alley what they’ll producer Mariah Goss that’s our audio engineer Jake Wallace and thank you to everyone at phony media for your continued support did you know you can watch video cast of all my interviews and see me and my guess on the YouTube make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel the links are in the show notes you can follow me on social media apps alley what Dale A. L. L. I. W. E. D. D. E. L. L. thanks for listening