Ep. 03 - Bobby Nabeyama - 2021 GORUCK Bragg Double Heavy

Ryan Burns  00:12

Hey gang. Welcome to this episode of Under The Log the podcast full of interviews with folks who recently participated in GORUCK events. In today's episode, we talked to Bobby Nabeyama about his recent GORUCK brag double heavy. That's right, the King of All Rucks, twice.

Ryan Burns  00:37

Before we get started, I want to let you know that the Under The Log podcast is part of The Rucking Collective, a collection of sites devoted to the sport of rucking, you can show your support for this podcast by visiting one of our websites, ruckingchallenges.com. While you're there, why not sign up for this month's challenge? Better yet, grab one of them sweet monthly subscriptions. By signing up at ruckingchallenges.com. You help keep resources like this podcast alive. With that, here's our interview with Bobby Nabeyama.

Ryan Burns  01:18

All right, Bobby, man, Thanks a ton for coming on the show here today. I can't wait to hear about the Bragg double heavy that you just completed. But you know, before we before we jump into GORUCK and all that amazing stuff. Man, can you just take a little bit of time here, introduce yourself, let us know a little bit about you know, Bobby, who you are outside of GORUCK. Like, like, for example, you know, I follow you on Instagram. So I know that it's not just Bobby it's it's Dr. Bobby, let us know a little bit about you, man. 

Bobby Nabeyama  01:50

What's up? Um,

Bobby Nabeyama  01:51

anyway? Well, I'm a Doctor of Physical Therapy. So I'm a PT for the last 15 years. I'm lucky and fortunate enough that doing doing PT stuff and training people every day, in all walks of life, whether you're Rucker or you know, every day recreational fitness person.

Bobby Nabeyama  02:15

I'm helping you and I'm I'm not even working. So I'm that lucky.

Bobby Nabeyama  02:20

I'm also a dad, you know, trying to be number one dad in a world and.

Bobby Nabeyama  02:26

And still still still trying to be a good son at the same time. So that's that's that's me besides being a rocker. Yeah. GRT like, like everyone else.

Ryan Burns  02:36

Nice, man. Well, man, I'm gonna give you I'm gonna try and give you a run for that. Number one dad on Christmas. My mom, my eldest son had a custom patch made for me this this? I'm trying to see it. Oh, yeah. best dad ever. So Whoa, you know, little competition there for you, Bobby.

Bobby Nabeyama  02:57

All right, you're doing a good job. And you got a good sound if he's, if he's doing that.

Ryan Burns  03:02

Yeah. Awesome, man. So I totally want to circle back maybe towards the end of our time together about this. This physical therapy stuff and you as a trainer because you know we're we're out here doing go rocks. And you know, we've got we've got our heavy packs, we're slinging around sandbags. You know, we got 100 pound sandbags on our back. And I'd love to just get like your professional take on like what we can do to prepare our bodies for like injury prevention, like how we can best set ourselves up for success because like, once we're injured, we can't do we can't do nothing. So I'd love to circle back on that with you and get some of your thoughts.

Bobby Nabeyama  03:48

We got Ryan because I feel from our community. A bunch of hard working. gr T's ruckers Fitness freaks ultras, but we're always getting hurt, and there's no way we can get better. or train do what we love. If we're hurt. Yeah, if you're hurt, you're doing it wrong. So hopefully we'll come back to it. Yeah, absolutely.

Ryan Burns  04:15

But, uh, so obviously, we're here we're gonna talk about the brag double heavy. I'm just gonna assume that, you know, this wasn't your first event like you weren't like, Oh, what's this GORUCK thing? Oh, double heavy. Let's do that. So, like to tell me a little bit about how you got involved in GORUCK. And, and and, you know, events that you've done that sort of thing. Just give us a little background of your history there. Okay, so

Bobby Nabeyama  04:41

I've been dabbling in GORUCK. Since 2015. In and out, you know, just like everyone else, sometime you want to run and you back off and then you come back. I'm hoping to do this for life. I love it. I love it. And

Bobby Nabeyama  05:00

I remember in 2015 when I thought I was in shape and and then a couple colleagues a couple other GRT said, Bob, let's do this fitness thing this, this special forces things. I'm like, okay, whatever, so I ordered some ruck off of Amazon just like many others, I must spending two $300 on a book bag. When I could get a jansport or some Chinese made tactical that looks sick. Anyway, Amazon that and then pack some bricks I old school and within the first 30 minutes in the welcome party in this tough in New York City. Summer 2015. I got destroyed, I got destroyed. I was lucky to make it out of there. Um, but I fell in love. And even though I was smoked, I was destroyed, humbled, swearing that I was in shape. I was a whole different person after that. So I've been dabbling and rocking and

Bobby Nabeyama  06:05

GORUCK events ever since.

Ryan Burns  06:08

Nice. Nice. So I thought you were in shape. Thought you thought you're gonna be all good. Get completely smoked. So were you really like so many of us that when you got done you were you were like, Oh, that was good. I'm not gonna do that again. Or were you? Were you immediately like, sign me up for the next one? Yeah, no,

Bobby Nabeyama  06:27

there was no immediate there was definitely I remember discussions with with my boys, would you do it? And I said, I don't know. I don't know. Because I didn't know what it was like and and if you're getting destroyed the first hour? I mean, why would you go back? And only until ladder events with doing other things in my life did I realize how important it was. When I had other challenges, other urgent needs that were met, I went back and I thought about what the heck I did with my teammates. And I pulled through and I remember looking back and said, damn, okay, this is good for me. I'm gonna get tested, and I'm gonna get messed up. And but I think I could be better. I was

Ryan Burns  07:24

just gonna say, I love that. Like, I find myself doing that same thing where, you know, I mean, even just, you know, random stuff, like whether it's at work or around the house, you know, start getting tired. And it's like, Man, this this to do list is really long. And I don't want to do it. Like, there's something in me that like goes back to those long, dark heart events where it's like, dude, you you push through that, like, what the heck is this? Like, honey do list around the house man, like, get the work? itself? So it's so cool. Holly carries over like that. Absolutely.

Bobby Nabeyama  08:06

Yes. I remember I remember this stuff. And I'm like, I go to work. There's a shift, eight hour shift, 12 hour shift, whatever. 16 hours just big freakin deal. You know, I'm lucky I could do this stuff right? Now I love that I got I got honey do stuff like you set up a start using that. This is nothing in life. And and, and I'm grateful I can. I'm able to do stuff. Right. So it's taught me a lot of things, a lot of lessons in life.

Ryan Burns  08:39

So So leading up to you started in 2015. So you've been at this for a while. brag double heavy. I mean, first off, brag. It's the king of all rocks that that heavy is in our community here. Like people know how serious that event is. This year. They they upped it by saying no, we're gonna do the king of all rocks twice. Like, what? What makes you want to sign up for that event? Like there's plenty of stuff that you can do like, like when that popped up on the calendar as a double heavy what what may Bobby say, Oh, I'm there.

Bobby Nabeyama  09:20

Yeah, so like you said, you know, it's, you know, by itself. It's, it's the king. You know, it's gonna be epic. I was lucky enough to do it before a year ago. But I want I want to be I want to be tested. I want to I want to set myself

Bobby Nabeyama  09:41

in some state of adversity and see if I can pull through and maybe I just crawl and I pass barely. But what about if I could set myself up where I not just survive but thrive? I I destroy, you know, I want to be better I'm scared of failure, I'm scared of being average, I want to be more. And that's that's this quandary, right of, of trying to test yourself and being fearful of being less than having the struggle of, of whether you have security in yourself or your content to like, Nah, I'm not freaking content. You know, I'm, I want to be more because I'm scared of being less. Right It's It's weird, man but I swear, other people are doing stuff the same I hope I hope I'm not alone. I don't I don't believe them alone.

Ryan Burns  10:41

Yeah, yeah. just wanting to put yourself in that adversity to see if, if you're there, like, you know, to look at those events and say, Man, this, this is no joke. And and you know, you've you've put yourself through other events. You know, you've you've got other heavies under your belt. I mean, you've you've done the king of all rocks once. And to know that you've got that, but like, do I have what it takes to go to the to the next level? Like Like you said, to be better? Like to push harder? Cuz great. You did the king of all rocks? You did? You did the grip Bragg heavy. Alright, do it twice?

Bobby Nabeyama  11:22

Yes. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Can you and you know, there's a prize. Yeah. You swear there's a prize? And and can you make it? And if you make it, there's this sense of glory, there's these experiences that you can always go back to and, and, and I, and I have it, I have these memories, and I still have it. I look at pictures. And I think about what was going on in that picture. And I'm lucky. I have these memories. And I'm grateful man.

Ryan Burns  11:55

Yeah. So let's talk about the event itself a little bit. Um, obviously, from what I saw, y'all, you know, it looked like some beautiful weather you had up there. Talk Talk to me about like the the adversity of just kind of the weather and what y'all encountered. I think I think the first heavy was maybe a little bit worse, but just the it was all terrible. So talk a little bit about that.

Bobby Nabeyama  12:25

Yeah, I mean, any heavy sucks, right? And but what about if you're wet all the time? What about this, you're, it's raining and, and, and the first heavy? We're just wet from the start and there's no time to dry off. Right and, and, you know, in many of us had a really tough time doing that. And then on top of all the coldness, you're stressed out, you got all this PT stuff, you got sandbags, but it's

Bobby Nabeyama  13:02

I mean the weather and the cold and the wetness cannot be overstated and how the elements are another variable another freakin obstacle to beat. If you're not trying to beat the weather you're not you're not you're not prepared. So that was humbling

Ryan Burns  13:22

Well, I mean you're you're up in New York right so you're you're somewhat used to cold like was was this in any way different from what you experienced just like in your training leading up to it

Bobby Nabeyama  13:37

so I trained for the weather I you know, I run wet I run in a snow storms and everything like that. But the only issue is that it's it's so I'm trying to be prepared with the with the with the rag heavy. There's no time to dry off. So

14:00

you know, you trade it.

Bobby Nabeyama  14:01

I run out in a snowstorm. Yeah, I'm, I swear I'm okay. But I know. I get back home. I'm gonna dry off in a couple hours. But you're already hours in. You got 20 hours more. What are you going to do when you're still wet? Right. That's the question. That's what makes heavies or this past. Bragg heavy. So Epic's is so difficult. And it was a true test.

Ryan Burns  14:37

Yeah, so it's, it's it's raining and you know, miserable and cold. Like what was When was the first time they actually put you in water and like what's going through your head because I know whenever I do events, cold weather events, like there's just always that stress in the back of your head like are we going in the water Or not? So so like, I mean, you kind of know that you are especially at Bragg but like, What's going through your head when the first time they're like, Alright, there's water. Let's go.

Bobby Nabeyama  15:14

You gotta use I mean, we were in we thought we were in the first one the first heavy already we'll because I remember being wet already. And you're crawling around and everything i don't i don't think about being wet because the second heavy was even more wet. So this is closer my mind the brutality

Bobby Nabeyama  15:38

it was, I was already wet and cold. Yeah, so you get through the first heavy so you're screwed already you got no sleep, I run off. You know, I don't sleep I just jet off. I mean, you patch me and I jet because I know I gotta change my clothes and eat and reopen supplies. And then already two hours passes just like that anyways. So the for the second half, he comes and we're already in war with they just drop us some water. And then they they caused raise, create some freaking chaos and God is running in the water. And it just, it just freaks everybody out. And then a whole set of people just drop.

Bobby Nabeyama  16:25

You don't want to see a people's drop, because you already went through 24 hours with the with these people came back for the second. And you're already you're already in the beginning of a second heavy. And you're seeing people drop and it sucks. And you got to keep in your mind. Stay cool, stay cool. Don't let it demoralize you stay strong, even if you're the last one there. And this, you got to keep going. But the second one was pretty intense when you just drop it in water and just put DOD bombing in water. And it was so stressful and chaotic. And you're just trying to be cool. And I remember telling myself a couple times like Okay, see if you could smile, but then you're like, then you switches the next sec. And you say to yourself, What the hell are you doing? That you try to be strong? You say? Alright, be cool. Anyway, these are just mind games that are going in your mind going through your body in your mind of trying to stay with it and not and not just just not quit. Yeah.

Ryan Burns  17:45

Hey, gang, hope that you're diggin our chat with Bobby. We've got more right after this break. And by break, I mean the part of the show where I asked you to visit rucking challenges.com. And check out this month's challenge. If you're listening to this podcast, you obviously, like rucking, and you're probably looking for a challenge. Well, that is literally the name of the website. So pop over to RuckingChallenges.com dot com and sign up today. It's a great way to show your support for this podcast. With that, let's get back to our interview with Bobby.

Ryan Burns  18:21

Talk us through how you deal specifically with that, that mental battle. You know, you're like you said, you went through 24 hours of this, you go you reset your back end and all of a sudden you're like, Oh, yeah, this sucks. You know, you're right back in the water. There's chaos. People are dropping already. Like, like within the first couple hours of the second heavy. Like, what, what in your mind? Like, how do you how do you push through? How do you say, you know, okay, they're dropping. Just you? How do you do it? Bobby? Like what's going through your head to keep you from from quitting?

Bobby Nabeyama  19:04

We're, yeah, that's we're trying to figure that out. But I tell you, you got huge for me.

Bobby Nabeyama  19:13

I mean, you gotta live that you got to live that it's, it's, it's not forever. And I know. I mean, I wish I could describe it in words, but I'm gonna try but it you gotta say you gotta believe you got to live that. That. That pain is only temporary.

Bobby Nabeyama  19:35

And you got to really, really live believe that you're not gonna die. I mean, I don't. It's hard to explain. But every minute, I gotta tell myself, okay. Every oh my gosh, every 30 seconds. I'm alright. Um, all right, keep it going. And then of course The next minute you're like, Damn, this sucks. Damn, I'm struggling. But then the next minute you're you're saying to yourself, okay, I'm good. It's a frickin battle every minute. And and I'm someone who's not even just trying to survive. I'm freaking trying to be a savage. I'm trying to be the best. But I humbled myself and admit to say everyone to you that every minute sucks, because it's always a battle in your mind just to go, go a little more.

Ryan Burns  20:29

Let me just ask you this, like, like that, that? You know, telling yourself? Okay, this sucks. This sucks. Wait, no, I'm good. Like, you're, you're obviously not good. So So is it just? Is it just lying to yourself? Or, or is it like? Or is that I'm good. Does that come when it's like, oh, wait, wait a second, there's a little glimmer of hope somewhere in me like, or, you know, what? Is that that mental game that you're playing with yourself? Or is it? Or is it trying to recreate a reality? where like, No, no, I am good.

Bobby Nabeyama  21:08

Yes. So it's, it's a lot of all that self talk is so big. But if you have a history where that self talk leads to positive results, man, you could get your frickin unstoppable. Right. So so if I if I go through some self talk where I know, I know, I'm working like a madman and it I mean, a lot of pain and fatigue. But then I tell myself, okay, just get through, try to smile, right? Stay calm. And then I finally come through with that, you get, you get that glimmer of hope you get that sensation, like, oh, shoot, for two seconds, I feel good about myself. And that pushed you along in time. And you keep doing that over and over and over.

Ryan Burns  21:57

That's, that's really good. I've never really thought about like the the positive self talk that way in the sense of like, like you, you tell yourself, I'm good. You've got this. And in the moment, you're like, ah, I don't know, man, that doesn't sound true. But then you get on the other side. And that that validates the statement that

Bobby Nabeyama  22:22

validates it. Exactly. Exactly. This is the opposite of, of just pervasive, negative talk. Hmm. You know, it's just, it's just a lot more and it's not delusional. If it's validated by actual behaviors. You're good, you're good, keep going.

Ryan Burns  22:43

I'll go like that a lot. I like that a lot. Like that's super helpful. Because then the next time you hit that ever adversity and you say you got this than it is that call back to like, last time when everything sucked. And I said, You got this. You know what, you made it to the end. So it does reinforce that that hope of like, oh, okay, yeah, I can I can make it through this. Let's Let's do this. Let's go. Man. That's, that's really, you know, cuz I've used positive self talk and things like that in the gym and in events, but I never thought about it in the sense of that, like validating the experience and looking back on it. So that'll suit man, that's super helpful. I can't I can't wait to do some hard stuff now and test that out again.

Bobby Nabeyama  23:33

In a foolproof, but it's definitely I mean, it helps me.

Ryan Burns  23:38

What What would you say from the brag heavy event? Obviously, the whole thing was hard. The whole thing was was pain. Like, what were one or two, like really dark moments of adversity that you faced?

Bobby Nabeyama  23:55

Definitely one of them was when we when we were dive bombing in this in the early the second. Heavy, I mean that we that we just reference. I mean, I remember another one towards the end of the second when I was team leader and you know, and then Cadre Chu is looking at me in my face of me and my screw ups or the team sucking in so much pressure on me. Another highlight probably was like the very end when Cadre Jason McCarthy's like yelling at me and stuff and, and I got one of the one of the promo go ruck three point O's with a 45 plate in there for about five points. And I'm trying to get an overhead overhead press. And it's and I'm in my life. That's that should be fine. But I just wasn't good enough to hold it consistently and then squat. I mean, that's very stressful because it's humbling when you can't do something and you really want to do it. Everyone's looking at you and you got a little shame in you and spraying water on my face and Yellin. So that was some stress. Those are few. A few things. Definitely that that were that were stressful.

Ryan Burns  25:12

Yeah, those those moments. I never really know what to do with those moments where it's, you know, it's something like, you know, get the ruck overhead like I like watching selection. And and seeing the that last shark attack like those moments, I'm like, dude, how do you muster? Like, you physically can't put it over your head now yell and put it over your head, and you fail and like 1000 times, and then suddenly, you're able to get it over the head. Like, it sounds like you had one of those moments there at the end, where you're in the bottom of that squat. And it's like, get it up overhead. And I'm just like, man, how do you you just keep failing, but then somehow it happens like, like, how does Ah, like that is so like, I'm getting stressed out here. I'm getting stressed out over here just thinking about it, Bobby.

Bobby Nabeyama  26:04

You describing it, I'm getting these strange sensations in my head right now my body good and bad. So the the body is freakin amazing. The mind is amazing. And I watch vids of all the shark attacks. And I try to I try to feel what what the grts feeling. It's, it's amazing if you can, if you can get through, you

Ryan Burns  26:33

know, let's let's go ahead and take an opportunity. Now let's kind of circle back to that. Preparing the body I mean, obviously, you know, there's there's a high likelihood of injury and our chosen hobby. So like when you when you look out, specifically like you like how do you prepare your body to go through something like a 2448 hour event and come out on the other side, not just not just without injury, but like setting yourself up for success in that, like what's what's your professional advice to all US weirdos out there that are that are trying to get after all this stuff. This is

Bobby Nabeyama  27:22

this is I'm pretty passionate about this stuff. And you know, it's important to because I just don't like to see my fellow grts and rockers and runners always getting hurt. Number one, like we say that you just can't get hurt, you can't get hurt in training, you could get her in an actual event or race contest, that's when it might be worth it, but you never get injured. You that is the number one rule. You we have to prepare in a way that we perform to standards, whatever that may be. But in the same breath, we have to learn to become injury resistant. We have to become fatigue resistant. It's another way to train, it's another way to look at performing. I trained so that I will never get hurts. I live it. I breathe it. And that is not easy. Especially if one of the major tenants in our training is high volume. If you're not doing high volume, you're not setting you up for success. If you think your 20 minute wad is gonna help you in a three hour welcome party. You're doing it wrong. If you think that 20 minute walk three times a week is gonna help you at our 20 when they drop the deck of cards, or they drop that hero wad on you it's not so trained for volume train for long durations, train that you can resist fatigue and injury never get hurt.

Ryan Burns  29:12

Yeah, I was just gonna say so what is what does that look like practically? Because, you know, I'm, I'm a crossfitter so I'm right in there and those those 2030 minute wads all the time. So, so what does that look like? Does it mean you know, I should be going longer more often? Or or? You know, obviously I you know if I'm training for heavy 24 hours, like, like, what does that look like? Like how how many how often do I need to go really long?

Bobby Nabeyama  29:45

Good question. Of course. This is to the individual but in general. You should be going long as often as possible. That doesn't mean many hours. per day, but you have to build up tolerance in your body so that you're adapted for long durations. So if your body is only used to 2030 minutes worth of work, it just doesn't add up enough. So if we have to bring down the intensity for when we work out 60 to 60 minutes to 120 minutes. But we do it more often, that will build up cumulatively, so that you can, you can really resist fatigue, when you're tested during a tough or heavy and then you'll program where sometimes you both freakin intense, but intense, where you're maxing out on effort or weights or lows, you'll keep them pretty freakin brief. Meaning 20% intense intense workout should be about 30 to 20% of your total total weekly training. The other 80 70% that should be more low effort, low intensity, where you're just adapting to the pure volume and stimulus. Of course, everything is is is variable, but I'm trying to make things really simple and general.

Ryan Burns  31:31

Yeah, I mean, that's, that's, that's helpful. So I mean, like I said, I do CrossFit, but I'm also a CrossFit coach, and we preach intensity, you know, that that is the, you know, increase work capacity across broad time and modal domains. And we we measure work capacity through intensity. And so it's all it's, it's all about cramming it into that, that shorter duration. And so I think that's helpful for me to even think about, like, there's nothing, well, maybe we could argue that, but I don't, I don't see anything wrong with that approach to fitness. But when your goal is a 12, or 24, or 48 hour event, you need to adapt that training, like you said, to be able to handle that volume over a longer duration of time. And so finding, you know, I guess it comes down to goals, like What's your goal? Like? I mean, there's nothing wrong with being really great at high intensity interval training. But, but if you want to be able to survive that two hour welcome party, then you've got to be able to do work for two hours.

Bobby Nabeyama  32:55

Absolutely.

Ryan Burns  32:56

And if you don't, if you don't train that then then you're never, like you said at that point, your 20 minute wads not going to help you.

Bobby Nabeyama  33:03

Yes, Ron, you just you hit it. You hit it? Yeah, it depends on your goals you got, you have to train in mind of what those goals are. It's very analogous to runners, you got these ultra marathoners who are going to go zoo, you know, 50 k 50 miles. But that's different from training training to training for a blistering high intensity, all out redlining, five K. Right. It's just different. It's different. So where, Ryan, when you go to your brag, you ever done brag king of all rocks?

Ryan Burns  33:40

No, man, I have not done the king of all rocks. Like, that's the thing about doing these interviews, man, you start talking to people, and you're asking them what they're doing in there. And I'm like, crap, man, I haven't done any of this stuff. So yeah, Brett Bragg definitely needs to get done. And then, you know, everybody seems to be talking about the 911. html up in New York. So, you know, oh, man,

Bobby Nabeyama  34:10

it's very emotional. Oh, if you can make it, man, it's so emotional. And you'll get squashed during the heavy, just like everyone else. And it's one of those big events, right. So I don't know if you like small classes, or you like big classes. But that's a that's another, you know, another event where, where there's a bigger class.

Ryan Burns  34:35

Awesome, Bobby. Well, man, Thanks a ton for your time. Thanks for coming on the podcast. And I'm sure we'll talk again in the future and hopefully, man, our paths will cross and we'll get Under The Log together.

Bobby Nabeyama  34:46

I hope so. I want to thank you. I want I want you to you know, keep doing your thing. We need outlets like you like ruck doc beer and all your associated sites because there's there's more More to the rocker than a brand's. So keep doing your thing because because you're doing a great job. Awesome, thanks

Ryan Burns  35:09

a lot. Man talking to Bobby it makes me like want to go start training immediately for my next event. So I'll probably go do that now. But I just want to say thank you for listening to this episode of Under The Log where we talked to Bobby Nabil. If you'd like to see show notes or transcripts for the episode, or maybe some links to the stuff that we talked about, visit us on our website Under The log.com. While you're there, you can find links to all our social media profiles, and we would certainly love to connect with you online. And you know, if you haven't already subscribed to the podcast where you can get your podcasts from and if you're diggin the content, it'd be really cool if you'd leave us a positive rate. Well, that's it for me. We'll see you next time. Under The Log