Episode 170
Ep. 170: Respiratory Muscle Training device the Breather and Blank Labels, Big Dreams: The Rise of Blanks Nutrition
In this episode:
On the medical mailbag we look at respiratory muscle training and the Breather device. Do you need to inhale hard to pump up your diaphragm to get more power to the pedals? Plus Michael Arashita joins us today to dive into the wild world of triathlons and nutrition, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. With a background that screams “overachiever” — think pre-med biochemistry and an MBA in healthcare — he’s transitioned from pro triathlete to the mastermind behind Blanks Nutrition, a company that’s literally taking the labels off traditional sports nutrition.
Segments:
[12:41]- Medical Mailbag: The Breather
[33:56]- Interview: Michael Arishita
Links
Transcript
Had a pre med background in biochemistry and then I have a MBA which was actually in healthcare administration but still appropriate enough to understand business administration side of stuff.
Speaker A:And then eight years of pro triathlon racing, I've seen all the inside of the industry.
Speaker A:I was sponsored by science and sport for three, two or three years so I've seen that side of it.
Speaker A:And then just being in the industry, seeing sport nutrition, seeing the way the sport was moving, all that ways of stuff.
Speaker A:So it seems like it was this almost like a no brainer at that point.
Speaker B:Hello and welcome once again to the Tridog Podcast.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:Coming to you as always from beautiful sunny Denver, Colorado.
Speaker B:That voice you heard at the top of the program is my guest today, Michael Arashida.
Speaker B:He is a professional triathlete and the founder and owner of Blanks Nutrition.
Speaker B:You may be familiar with Blanks.
Speaker B:They are a growing nutrition product that are well known by the fact that their label is completely blank, but the contents inside are quite exciting.
Speaker B:So Michael is going to join me and talk to me about his career as a short course athlete transitioning into the long course of triathlon and about about how he developed Blanks as a nutrition company to compete with some of the big boys and how he's doing and where he sees things moving from where he is now.
Speaker B:I had a great monologue planned for you today, but of course the triathlon world came to a screeching halt just a couple of days ago with the announcement by Ironman CEO Scott LaRue that the Ironman World Championships would be coming back together again and no longer be a two day race separated by a basically half the planet, no longer split between Kona and somewhere else.
Speaker B:Nice.
Speaker B: rs from now, or at least from: Speaker B:Now there's some good, there's some bad.
Speaker B:I'm sure you've heard many people pontificating and having a lot of clutching of pearls, a lot of gnashing of teet.
Speaker B:I'm not going to do any of that.
Speaker B:I'll give you a couple of my thoughts on this.
Speaker B:I think that there's definitely some good to this.
Speaker B:I definitely think that there's maybe not so good to this as well.
Speaker B:At the end of the day, this is what the athletes apparently wanted.
Speaker B:Ironman did surveys and the athletes who have recently participated in the split events told Ironman in a fairly large majority, and this included a majority of women participants, that, you know what?
Speaker B:We're not interested in having the race split.
Speaker B:We're not interested in going to Nice.
Speaker B:We're not interested in going anywhere but Kona.
Speaker B:And so let's bring the race back together as a single day event.
Speaker B:And so that's what Ironman did.
Speaker B:I don't know if this is going to be the final chapter in this whole story, but let's just take a look at what we're getting.
Speaker B:I think that there are definitely some good things here.
Speaker B:I know personally, I've done the event both ways.
Speaker B: I did it in: Speaker B:I loved being out on the course with friends of mine who were women and being able to see them as the day went on.
Speaker B:I think that having men and women race together is a really nice experience.
Speaker B:So in that sense, it's great.
Speaker B:We'll talk about the negatives of having the men and women race together also in just a second.
Speaker B:The Kona mystique, of course, is the allure of the island.
Speaker B: o the beginning of Ironman in: Speaker B:You just can't get past that.
Speaker B:And it would appear that that really was the death knell for the race being in Nice over the last couple of times that the women raced in Nice.
Speaker B:The Ironman Corporation to pretty much give slots away in order to fill up the race.
Speaker B:They just could not get women to go there.
Speaker B:Men would go, but not nearly as quickly and not as many as would go to the race in Kona.
Speaker B:So you could see the writing in the wall for the last couple of times that the race was held outside of Kona for each gender, that this was going to be a hard sell.
Speaker B:And the other thing, of course, is that this is going to put to rest the interminable grousing and the interminable debate that has gone on since the race was split two.
Speaker B:We can now put that to rest, however, because triathletes are so good not just at swim, bike and run, but also at complaining.
Speaker B:We also know that all of the things that athletes complained about before the race was split into, well, they're all going to be coming back because no matter what Ironman does to try and mitigate the Problems that existed before the race was split in two.
Speaker B:Well, those problems are still there and there's only so much that they can do.
Speaker B:Honestly, these problems are pretty tough to deal with.
Speaker B:So what are those issues?
Speaker B:Well, the women pros aren't going to get their day anymore and I think that's really unfortunate.
Speaker B:They deserve their own day.
Speaker B:They deserve their time in the spotlight.
Speaker B:I remember how Chelsea Sodaro waxed so incredibly eloquently about how women had taken this huge step forward and it was really a big important thing that they were now getting the spotlight on their own.
Speaker B:That's gone and I don't know if it's gone permanently, but it's gone at least for the foreseeable future.
Speaker B:And I think that's really sad and pretty unfortunate.
Speaker B:Are they going to make efforts to try and keep the age group men out of the way of the pro women?
Speaker B:I don't know that you can already.
Speaker B:The age group start is really, really long.
Speaker B: When I was there in: Speaker B:I think it was probably around 8:30 in the morning or something.
Speaker B:Now keep in mind, everybody's got to be in transition to get their bike set up and out of transition by something like 5:30 or 5:45 in the morning.
Speaker B:So I was there at the same time as everybody else and I had to then sit around and wait because I couldn't go back to where I was staying because everything in Kona is really far apart.
Speaker B:And so I ended up having to sit around for hours before I actually got to start my race.
Speaker B:That is going to be like significantly worse if they're going to have to delay the men significantly to make sure that they stay out of the way of the pro women.
Speaker B:So I don't know.
Speaker B:I don't know what Ironman can do here and I don't know if there's anything they can really do and I don't know how they're going to do anything that isn't going to significantly adversely impact the age group athletes that are there drafting.
Speaker B:Drafting in the Kona course is notoriously a problem and will be significantly worse if Ironman actually follows through with increasing the field.
Speaker B:2,500 athletes on the Kona course is just an absolute draft fest and it's not hard to understand why.
Speaker B:Most of these athletes are competing at a very similar level.
Speaker B:So they're swimming the same, they're getting out of the water in a group.
Speaker B:They are then on the bike biking very similarly.
Speaker B:And so you end up with these large packs, usually of men, because most of the athletes are men, but the men will group up together and they will just move together as one along the course.
Speaker B:And it's just not clean racing.
Speaker B:And therefore, is that really what you want in a World Championship?
Speaker B:Kona selects for a very specific kind of athlete.
Speaker B:Again, this is another not so good thing about returning the race to Kona.
Speaker B:So are you really choosing a world champion every year, or are you choosing just the person who's best able to compete in that environment?
Speaker B:We know that there's been some phenomenal Ironman professionals and age groupers over the years who just have not been able to deal with the heat and humidity and therefore have not been recognized as world champions.
Speaker B:Does that take away from their career?
Speaker B:Does that take away from their potential of being some of the best triathletes who have ever competed?
Speaker B:It does, because they haven't won the big race.
Speaker B:But then is that their fault?
Speaker B:No, I think it's just the reality that not everybody can compete in the Kona heat and humidity.
Speaker B:A rotating race, similar to what we see with the 70.3 World Championships, would be a really, probably better way of truly identifying the best athletes in our sport.
Speaker B:Similar to the way the UCI moves around the Cycling World Championship.
Speaker B:One year it's a really hilly course, one year it's a big climbing course, and one year it's a flat course.
Speaker B:So you get to choose or you get to select among the different kinds of cyclists.
Speaker B:You'll get a sprinter, you'll get a puncher, you'll get a climber.
Speaker B:And depending on what kind of course it is, you can select or at least give different kinds of cyclists an opportunity.
Speaker B:Well, with the World Championship of Ironman always being in the same place, you're not really giving different kinds of athletes that opportunity.
Speaker B:And I honestly, personally think that's kind of unfortunate.
Speaker B:All of these things taken together are reasons why I think we haven't seen or heard the last of this story.
Speaker B: returning the race to Kona in: Speaker B:I wonder if a few years from now, because of the issues related to the community in Kona, not really loving having the race there because of all of the things I just mentioned, because of hopefully increasing female participation in our sport, and therefore are clamoring for more and more female slots in our sport, maybe, just maybe, there will be a return to this idea that we need to have separate days.
Speaker B:One day for the women, one day for the men.
Speaker B:And maybe Kona just isn't the place to have the World Championship now.
Speaker B:I don't think this is going to happen overnight.
Speaker B:I don't think it's going to happen in the next 10 years.
Speaker B:But maybe, just maybe, it will come back and happen once again.
Speaker B:We'll see.
Speaker B:I don't know for sure.
Speaker B:Well, what do you think?
Speaker B:I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Speaker B:I hope that you will drop me a line either by email@tridocloud.com or you can drop your thoughts into the private Facebook group on that platform.
Speaker B:If you're not a member already have a search for TryDoc podcast on Facebook.
Speaker B:Answer the three easy questions, I'll gain you admittance and I would love to hear your thoughts, your feelings, your comments on this titanic question that has really shaken the triathlon world this week.
Speaker B: destination for: Speaker B: onship when it was in Nice in: Speaker B:A great location, really, I think a fantastic course.
Speaker B: as to be able to qualify for: Speaker B: urning in rapid succession in: Speaker B:I really like that the 70.3 worlds rotate and move to a different location, a different continent every year.
Speaker B:But I understand the contractual obligations that Ironman has and and that's really why the race is going back to Nice as frequently as it is.
Speaker B: We can hope that either: Speaker B:Time will tell on the show.
Speaker B:Today I am going to be joined as always by my friend and colleague Juliet Hockman for the Medical Mailbag segment where we are going to answer a listener question about a respiratory muscle training device called the Breather.
Speaker B:Now, quite a while ago, at a pretty early episode in this podcast history, I reviewed a device called the Aerofit, a device that's still out there that does pretty much the same thing, trains your respiratory muscles.
Speaker B:But the Breather claims to have been around a lot longer, claims to be the number one respiratory muscle training device and it was brought to our attention as something that this particular listener wanted to know about.
Speaker B:And so we took another look at the literature, and we are going to bring you our insights as to whether or not this is something you should consider as part of your training regimen or if it's something you can pass on.
Speaker B:And then after that, we will get to the interview with Michael Arashida.
Speaker B:Right now, though, let's get to the medical mailbag.
Speaker B:Thanks for being here, Juliet.
Speaker B:I feel like it's been a little while.
Speaker B:It has, because it has been.
Speaker C:You've been off gallivanting around Asia.
Speaker B:Yeah, it was not hard, I have to say.
Speaker B:It was a lot of fun.
Speaker B:But alas, all good things come to an end.
Speaker B:But there are good things waiting at that end.
Speaker B:And I'm back here to do the medical mailbag with my friend.
Speaker C:I'm glad to have you back, because who else picks up the phone and calls me spontaneously because he has something random to tell me or wants to see me or bounce an idea off of me?
Speaker C:So I love it.
Speaker C:You're one of the last people on earth who actually picks up the phone and calls rather than sending you.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:More people need to do that.
Speaker B:Because I love.
Speaker B:I tell my daughter sometimes I'm like, you know that thing you're holding in your hand, it actually transmits voice.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's wonderful that way.
Speaker B:Anyways, it's good to be back.
Speaker B:It's good to be having another medical mailbag.
Speaker B:And it's really good that we've got another listener question that we can answer.
Speaker B:So who are we answering?
Speaker B:What are we talking about?
Speaker C:All right, I know.
Speaker C:I'm looking forward to this.
Speaker C:Shout out to Brett Musco, who is one of our listeners.
Speaker C:Thank you very much, Brett, for sending this in.
Speaker C:He is interested in this product called the Breather, which has actually been around for quite some time.
Speaker C: It's been around since: Speaker C: reather has been around since: Speaker C:Yes, number one, exactly.
Speaker C:It's always number one.
Speaker C:And it claims that it can train your respiratory muscles to be more effective.
Speaker C:So why is this important?
Speaker C:Is this possible that you can actually train your respiratory muscles to be more effective?
Speaker C:And why would this be benefit to the normal Joe on the street or the endurance athlete like most of our audience is?
Speaker C:Tell us about the Breather.
Speaker B:All right, let's tackle this in A few different steps first.
Speaker B:What is it?
Speaker B:Then we'll talk about what it supposedly does and we'll talk about why you would need to do this or think you would need to do this.
Speaker B:And then we'll talk about what the science actually shows as to whether or not it does what it claims.
Speaker B:So what is it?
Speaker B:The breather is a device that basically you breathe through and you inhale through.
Speaker B:And it basically just has a resistance valve.
Speaker B:So it's just applying resistance so that when you take a breath in, it forces you to do a lot more work in order to do that.
Speaker B:It's a little plastic device.
Speaker B:It has a means of increasing or decreasing the resistance by turning the cap.
Speaker B:It looks like you and I were looking on the website.
Speaker C:It looks like a rattle.
Speaker B:Like a baby rattle?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And basically what it is, it's sort of this long stem.
Speaker B:You have a mouthpiece at the end.
Speaker B:You put your mouth over it and then you breathe through it.
Speaker B:And it must have a one way valve.
Speaker B:I'm not sure how it doesn't obstruct exhalation.
Speaker B:It seems to be primarily just for inhalation.
Speaker B:O Some time ago I reviewed a device called the G02, which was a expiratory valve.
Speaker B:So that was something that actually forced you to use your respiratory muscles to blow out.
Speaker B:This is something like the Aerofit.
Speaker B:It's meant to train your inspiratory muscles by doing resistance work.
Speaker B:So that's all it is.
Speaker B:It's a fairly straightforward device.
Speaker B:Just imagine taking a big breath through a straw.
Speaker B:That's essential.
Speaker C:I was about to say I could go down to Dairy Queen and get a straw.
Speaker C:I want to buy hands and money for this.
Speaker B:Breathing through a straw is really difficult.
Speaker B:This is presumably a little less difficult and you have the ability to make it less or more difficult depending on how much work you want to do.
Speaker B:Okay, so that's the device.
Speaker B:It costs $60, $80 if you want a case.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker B:The case is $20?
Speaker B:I don't know why you would ever want this without a case.
Speaker B:Because it goes in your mouth.
Speaker B:After all, you probably want to keep it in a case.
Speaker B:So let's say it's 80 bucks.
Speaker B:It's pretty small, pretty portable, like we said, about size of a baby rattle.
Speaker B:Fits in the pocket and you can carry it around.
Speaker B:They claim that they are the number one respiratory muscle training device.
Speaker B:I will tell you they.
Speaker B:To their credit, the website lists a lot of science, which is great.
Speaker B:I always love when they do.
Speaker B:But Nina Takshima, the intern who was tasked with looking at this product.
Speaker B:She did a lot of digging and actually read those papers, and not one of them actually referred to this specific product.
Speaker B:Okay, that was entertaining.
Speaker B:A little bit of a red flag for sure.
Speaker B:But that being said, they all did at least refer to and evaluate the idea of respiratory muscle training.
Speaker B:Okay, why.
Speaker B:Why would we ever think that we need to train our respiratory muscles?
Speaker B:Now, breathing is something that I think we all take for granted.
Speaker B:We generally, as athletes, the only time we actually are conscious of our breathing is when we are really gasping in the middle of a hard interval or towards the end of a race where we're really pushing for that end and we are going anaerobic and we just can't get enough air.
Speaker B:But most of the time, certainly when we're at rest, when we're sleeping, we don't give any thought to it.
Speaker B:And yet what you are probably not aware of is that breathing actually is a source of a lot of caloric expenditure because we need to do a lot of muscular work to breathe.
Speaker B:And you may wonder, why is this?
Speaker B:So why don't we just open up our mouths and face into the wind and let our lungs just fill up that way?
Speaker C:As I say, oxygen is like toilet paper.
Speaker C:You don't know you're missing it until it's all gone.
Speaker B:There you go.
Speaker B:Could you spare a square?
Speaker B:Okay, so you can't just face into the wind.
Speaker B:You need to be able to get air, ambient air, or the oxygen within the air specifically into your lungs.
Speaker B:So you need to get it from the atmosphere into your lungs.
Speaker B:And the way you do that is by creating a pressure differential.
Speaker B:So our chest is an enclosed space.
Speaker B:We have our compliant lungs within there.
Speaker B:Our lungs are connected to the atmosphere through tubes.
Speaker B:Basically our trachea down to our bronchus and into the small airways into the lungs.
Speaker B:So think of it as you've got two expandable balloons within this firm cage.
Speaker B:If you then make the cage larger so you contract the diaphragm, the diaphragm goes from a curved structure to a flat structure, so it enlarges the volume of the chest.
Speaker B:You contract your intercostal muscles so your ribs go from a diagonal lie to a more horizontal lie.
Speaker B:And as a result, the chest cavity becomes much larger.
Speaker B:Now, if your mouth was closed when you took a big breath in, you would feel this tightness in your chest because your lungs can't expand.
Speaker B:But as soon as you open your mouth, you will feel like air rushing and your lungs will just completely fill.
Speaker B:The reason for that is because nature, in the words of the great Spock from Star Trek, nature abhors a vacuum.
Speaker B:And so what you've done is you've created a vacuum in your chest by enlarging the space, you've created a negative pressure, and so you've created a pressure gradient.
Speaker B:Positive pressure likes to fill negative space.
Speaker B:So pressure goes from the atmosphere down into your chest.
Speaker B:The lungs expand, and that's how oxygen goes from one place to the other.
Speaker B:Now, we don't have to use our muscles most of the time to breathe out, because breathing out happens when we allow those respiratory muscles to relax.
Speaker B:The diaphragm just automatically returns to its normal position.
Speaker B:The ribs will recoil just through elasticity, and so the lungs will then be compressed and exhalation will occur just passively.
Speaker B:The one time that's not so is in cases where there is collapse of the small airways or bronchoconstriction.
Speaker B:So if you have a patient or a person who has lung disease in the form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, they have obstruction of the small airways, and so they actually have to force exhalation, and then much more commonly, asthma.
Speaker B:With asthma, you have bronchoconstriction, you get air trapping, and the only way to force the air out is to really force with muscles.
Speaker B:Okay, the idea here behind these devices is with people who have lung disease, wouldn't it be great to train their respiratory muscles to overcome their stiff chest wall, their stiff lungs, their lung diseases?
Speaker B:And in fact, that's where this came from.
Speaker B:These kinds of devices were developed for people who have lung diseases.
Speaker B:Copd, chf, chronic fibrosis, all these different problems.
Speaker B:And if you give them these respiratory muscle trainers, they can actually train their diaphragms, train their intercostal muscles to be stronger, and improve their overall respiratory mechanics.
Speaker B:That so often happens.
Speaker B:Just like we've seen with glucose monitors, just like we've seen with a lot of other sensors.
Speaker B:Somebody came up with the idea we need to expand our market.
Speaker B:There's only so many people who have these lung problems, smoking as much.
Speaker B:They're not getting as sick with their lungs.
Speaker B:So we need to find a new market.
Speaker B:Hey, who does a lot of breathing?
Speaker B:You know, who gets, like, air hunger?
Speaker B:Athletes.
Speaker B:Let's see if we can't find a way to generate a market for this device with athletes.
Speaker B:And so they came up with this idea, maybe athletes, if they train their respiratory muscles, they'll find that they have improved aerobic capacity, improved ability to oxygenate their blood, and therefore be able to perform better.
Speaker B:It sounds like a fantastic idea, but when we looked at the science back at the time that I reviewed the aerofit, turns out, not so much.
Speaker B:And there's a couple of reasons why.
Speaker B:Number one, when you are training for endurance sport, what are you doing?
Speaker B:You're doing a lot of heavy breathing already tasking your respiratory muscles very significantly.
Speaker B:So when you're out there running, when you're out there biking, when you're out there swimming, you're already giving your respiratory muscles a pretty significant stress and training them to be able to handle the load.
Speaker B:Still, these device makers thought to themselves, if we could make your respiratory muscles even stronger, maybe they'll need less to do less work.
Speaker B:There'll be big, robust diaphragm, big, robust intercostal muscles, and so you'll be able to send more blood flow to your working muscles.
Speaker B:All kinds of thoughts to this.
Speaker B:One of the things that I thought was particularly interesting, one of the theories behind why this could work, and this ties in with some other interesting research that's coming.
Speaker B:Rpe, you're very familiar.
Speaker B:We talked about it when we talked coaching.
Speaker B:I can't remember if we had this conversation, Juliet, but do you know how people feel, rpe or how they come up with it?
Speaker B:Like a lot of theories.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:I've never asked my athletes.
Speaker C:I, for me, I, for me as an athlete, RPE obviously is probably a combination of respiratory distress.
Speaker C:Oh, my God.
Speaker C:I'm breathing really hard, feeling like my heart rate is just slamming into my chest.
Speaker C:And depending on what type of effort it was, muscular fatigue.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And there is some recent research that suggests that there.
Speaker B:Nobody knows why we feel short of breath when we do.
Speaker B:It's really interesting.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Shortness of breath is a feeling.
Speaker B:We all know it.
Speaker B:It's a very strong, primal sort of sensation.
Speaker B:And yet the pathways, nobody's really sure where it comes from.
Speaker B:Does it start in the lungs?
Speaker B:Does it start in the brain?
Speaker B:Does it start when our blood suddenly demonstrates some hypoxia or something?
Speaker B:Nobody knows.
Speaker B:And there is some suggestion that there may be a reflex between stretch receptors in the lungs and something going on in the brain.
Speaker B:Anyways, this sort of pathway is felt to be very integral in rpe and these respiratory centers, this respiratory reflex seems to be tied in very dramatically into rpe.
Speaker B:And that, to me, is particularly interesting.
Speaker B:And when you do some of this respiratory muscle training, there is some theoretical science to suggest that you can mitigate the amount of respiratory stressing at the same level before and after, which is kind of interesting.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:If the Science were to bear it out.
Speaker B:But as we'll see, doesn't always bear it out.
Speaker B:It does.
Speaker B:There does seem to be some benefit for people with certain kinds of pulmonary diseases.
Speaker B:But what about in athletes?
Speaker B:A bunch of studies we found, and there was one study, one study that sometimes I've talked about this before.
Speaker B:If you see results that are like, they sound too good to be true, they probably are.
Speaker B:So there was a result that looked at army recruits using the breather fit and had them army recruits when they go in.
Speaker B:And my athlete Justin, who's been a frequent contributor to Questions here, he'll, he'll be able to confirm this.
Speaker B:They have to do some kind of two mile run right when they get in and then they do their training and then they have to do the two mile run again, apparently using the re.
Speaker B:The breather.
Speaker B:If they use the breather, they can improve their run time over those who don't use the breather by 39 seconds.
Speaker B:Wow, that's crazy.
Speaker C:That is crazy.
Speaker B:Yeah, so I, I felt like that sounded probably too good to be true.
Speaker B:And then there was like a study that showed that rowers could improve 5,000 meter row speed and distance in a six minute test.
Speaker B:That's, that's your general right?
Speaker B:Six minutes is the 5K.
Speaker C:Those have got to be guys.
Speaker C:That 5K.
Speaker C:Yeah, that would be to Ukraine.
Speaker B:But you know, I think it's separate.
Speaker B:It was 5,000 meter row speed and distance in a six meter minute test.
Speaker B:I don't think they were rolling 5,000 meters in six minutes.
Speaker B:But I remember it's got to be.
Speaker C:On, it's got to be on an ergometer because otherwise you have, you can't hold things constant.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So this is when you told me.
Speaker B:When you told me how long a race is.
Speaker C:It's 2K outside.
Speaker C:It's 2K outside.
Speaker C:But you tend to test at 5K.
Speaker B:And how long is that?
Speaker B:2K outside?
Speaker C:Oh, that's not six minutes.
Speaker B:Yeah, six minutes.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Okay, that's what I thought.
Speaker B:Six minute test.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And then there was some suggestion that soccer players.
Speaker B:There's like a whole range of studies.
Speaker B: k, this study comes from like: Speaker B:So this was older studies.
Speaker B:And one of the problems with the study is that the protocols were all over the place using different devices, not really very well controlled.
Speaker B:So it wasn't really clear.
Speaker B:But more recent studies have unfortunately not found such great results.
Speaker B:More recent studies have looked at cyclists, swimmers, runners, even special forces and showed no effects whatsoever.
Speaker B:There was one study that looked at some cyclists and found maybe some trend with improvements in time trials, time to Exhauster and a VO2 Max, but nothing statistically or clinically significant.
Speaker B:There was nothing in swimmers, nothing in rowers, nothing in runners.
Speaker B: There was a study in: Speaker B:These were all studies that were done after the studies.
Speaker B:From that first one I looked at this was the effectiveness of respiratory muscle training in athletes.
Speaker B: studies from: Speaker B:No statistically significant results in lung function of sports such as swimming, cycling, rowing, basketball, track and field were observed when comparing outcomes between respiratory muscle training and control.
Speaker B:So really nothing particularly interesting.
Speaker B:One of the things that kept coming up was one device was being looked at more than anything else.
Speaker B:It's a device called the Power Breathe.
Speaker B:We looked at this.
Speaker B:It's a much more unwieldy device than the very small and portable portable breather, but doesn't seem to do anything particularly different.
Speaker B:But that one kept coming up over and over again, including in all the studies on the site for the breather.
Speaker C:Even though the breather is the first and number one thing.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker B:Well, I will say that the Power Breathe is significantly more expensive, so that probably has something to do with it.
Speaker C:Now, why do you think that there is no sort of proof positive that this device is effective in athletes, is it?
Speaker C:Because the people for whom it has shown to be effective, their baseline is so low, whereas with athletes, the margin by which they can improve is probably much tighter.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think when we look at athletes, if we look at respiratory function in sedentary people versus athletes, we know that their respiratory mechanics are significantly improved.
Speaker B:You look at tidal volume, if you look at forced vital capacities, if you looked at all of the different respiratory mechanics, just by virtue of doing endurance sport, your respiratory mechanics improve.
Speaker B:So you don't need to be using these trainers in order to benefit.
Speaker B:Just doing the exercise gives you the benefit.
Speaker B:Layering on these RMT devices, respiratory muscle trainers don't seem to add anything because you're already getting the benefits just from doing the exercise.
Speaker B:Some of the studies seem to suggest that in sedentary people, in people with lung disease and people who are just starting out in athletics, they may get a small bump, but it goes away as long as you continue to do exercise, as long as you continue to do things.
Speaker B:Now, Nina went to great lengths to point out, look, this isn't going to hurt and it's not that expensive in the grand scheme of things.
Speaker B:And if people believe that they're going to get some benefit out of this, I certainly wouldn't stop them from wanting to use it or using it.
Speaker B:But there's no good evidence to suggest it's gonna be of any help whatsoever.
Speaker B:Like so many other things we've talked about, this is not something you're putting into your body.
Speaker B:I feel much less strongly about something like this.
Speaker B:It's a pretty inexpensive device, and, you know, I.
Speaker B:I could certainly imagine psychologically someone getting some benefit out of this, out of thinking, oh, I can breathe more easily, so this is going to make me run better.
Speaker B:Sure, I could believe that could have a psychological impact, but the studies are pretty clear and across the board, it doesn't help.
Speaker B:But again, not going to hurt.
Speaker B:Not that expensive.
Speaker B:So if someone out there is using it and feeling like it gives them benefit, by all means, I don't have a problem with it.
Speaker C:Or you can just save your straw from the blizzard you get at Dairy Queen.
Speaker C:The next time you go and breathe in and out through the straw, I.
Speaker B:Will say, don't breathe out through it, just breathe in through it.
Speaker B:I think this device is okay to breathe out through, and you don't want to breathe out through a straw because it will have so much resistance when you breathe out.
Speaker B:You won't be able to empty your lungs.
Speaker B:You're going to end up retaining carbon dioxide.
Speaker B:You'll hyperinflate your lungs.
Speaker B:It's a mess.
Speaker B:So we don't want to.
Speaker C:That's how I feel when I use a snorkel, but that's a totally different topic.
Speaker C:It's just a big straw when you think about it.
Speaker C:All right, so bottom line is yet another supposed performance enhancer, which won't hurt you, but do you really want to spend your time and money utilizing this when there's really nothing that shows that is going to help you become a better athlete?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:As always, no shortcuts.
Speaker B:No, you're gonna have to put in the work.
Speaker B:And listen, putting in the work is training your respiratory muscles.
Speaker B:So two for one here, you're doing that hard work to gain your endurance, to get up, to be a better athlete.
Speaker B:And at the time, you are building up that diaphragm, building muscles to be big, beefy.
Speaker B:They're gonna.
Speaker B:You're gonna be.
Speaker B:You're gonna be.
Speaker C:We all want big, beefy diaphragm muscle.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:Yeah, There you go.
Speaker B:I think we've.
Speaker B:We've answered that one.
Speaker B:And Brent, thank you for submitting that question.
Speaker B:If you have a question you would like to answer or you would like to have answered then I hope that you will send it in.
Speaker B:You could email me@tridocloud.com you could drop it into the private Facebook group.
Speaker B:You can search for the Tridoc podcast on Facebook, answer the three easy questions.
Speaker B:I'll grant you admittance and we would love to have you along for the conversation.
Speaker B:You can ask any questions you have for the medical mailbag there.
Speaker B:And of course there's always the option of going to my website, trydocoaching.com and click the contact button and submit your questions that way.
Speaker B:So many ways to reach out, right?
Speaker B:So many ways.
Speaker C:Juliet, I always feel like we should end.
Speaker C:We should end this segment.
Speaker C:Did you ever watch Click and Clack the Tapit Brothers?
Speaker B:You know, of course I didn't watch them.
Speaker B:I listened to them.
Speaker C:You listened to them?
Speaker C:One of the early pot.
Speaker C:They weren't a podcast before anyway.
Speaker C:They would always end say and saying they've wasted another perfectly good half an hour listening.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Our chauffeur is I Ivan drop them off.
Speaker C:I'm sorry Keely Cheatham and how.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And hey, would you buzz off and yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:Those are great.
Speaker B:We'll have to come up with some of those for ourselves.
Speaker B:All right Juliet, thanks so much for being here.
Speaker B:I look forward to another question to answer in a couple weeks time.
Speaker B:Until then, I will talk to you soon.
Speaker B:I will talk to you on the phone.
Speaker C:Good.
Speaker C:Looking forward to it.
Speaker C:Thank.
Speaker B:My guest on the program today is Michael Arashida.
Speaker B: ael is a pro triathlete since: Speaker B:He for the first several years of his career was on the world triathlon circuit.
Speaker B:He has over the last couple of years transitioned to the long course racing on the Ironman circuit.
Speaker B:He did his first full distance Ironman last year.
Speaker B:Before all of that he was more of a studious person in a pre med track.
Speaker B:Actually went on and wrote his MCAT a couple of years ago but took a little bit of a detour that he's going to tell us all about.
Speaker B:He has launched his own sports nutrition company that you have probably heard of called Blanks that we are going to talk about and we are going to hear all about what makes Michael tick.
Speaker B:Michael, welcome to the Tridoc podcast.
Speaker B:It's a pleasure to have you here.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:Thank you very much.
Speaker A:It's good to be on here.
Speaker A:I appreciate the patience.
Speaker A:I know it's been a couple of crazy weeks but glad we were able to make it work.
Speaker A:Happy to be here now.
Speaker B:So yeah, I understand busy.
Speaker B:So I am more, more than happy to be patient and wait for people to have a break in their schedule.
Speaker B:It's all good.
Speaker B:So tell me Michael, what got you into multi sport?
Speaker B:What's your history and what brought you into the world of triathlon?
Speaker A:Yeah, totally.
Speaker A:I grew up in San Antonio, Texas during the peak San Antonio spurs era of NBA basketball.
Speaker A:Basketball was actually always my first passion.
Speaker A:All growing up, all through middle school, kind of high school and everything was what my favorite sport was in terms of everything.
Speaker A:I was never quite made it to the level that I, you know, kind of thing.
Speaker A:So I started running, was always better at running.
Speaker A:I was sort of shifted my gears into more kind of track and field and cross country in high school and then a similar pathway.
Speaker A:Then in college I started doing triathlons.
Speaker A:Found out I was a lot better at triathlon than track.
Speaker A:And then yeah, I learned to swim at 18 pretty much and then did my first triathlon on my sister's borrowed road bike.
Speaker A:And then yeah, started triathlon a little bit accidentally just from a friend of mine who was a runner and then said, you should try triathlon.
Speaker A:I was like, sure, why not?
Speaker A:You got nothing else to do, started doing triathlon, needed to learn how to swim and yeah, that's absolutely.
Speaker A:Then through college, really I have a pretty hyper, hyper focused obsession kind of personality.
Speaker A:So when it was basketball and it was running and then when it was triathlon, so through college that became my big focus.
Speaker A:And then my senior year of college, I got a, got a pro card right before graduating and I said, you know what, I'm going to take the leap of faith on this and see what happens.
Speaker A:And just started doing that and then with the goal of only doing four years or so.
Speaker A:And then eight years later I'm still here doing, doing that.
Speaker A:But I've had many other side quests along the way of pro triathlon and talk to where we're at now.
Speaker A:So didn't quite have the plans originally but like where we're at now.
Speaker B:So that's a story that's just going to annoy the heck out of all my listeners because most of us came to the sport when somebody said, oh, you should try triathlon.
Speaker B:But very few of us are then able to just become a pro and certainly very few of us are able to start swimming as an adult and then and become a pro.
Speaker B:So you had to have some background in swimming.
Speaker B:Come on.
Speaker B:Or if you didn't clearly You've got the aerobic engine that helps you.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think it's a mix of both.
Speaker A:I'm pretty.
Speaker A:I certainly have a lot of strong opinions on swimming and swim stroke and I wanted.
Speaker A:I've been coaching triathlon because I, when I first graduated college started doing that.
Speaker A:So I've always had strong opinions on how to develop swim stroke and everything.
Speaker A:But by all means, like growing up in San Antonio, Texas would be 100 degree summers.
Speaker A:So you would be spending all summer vacation at the neighborhood swimming pool.
Speaker A:So it always be playing different swimming games and stuff.
Speaker A:And kind of growing up was familiar with swimming and stuff.
Speaker A:You'd go to the lake and that kind of stuff and you can hold your breath underwater the longest, just how many flips you can do.
Speaker A:But just general.
Speaker A:I think water awareness went a long way at a young age.
Speaker A:And then, I mean by all means, when I started swimming in college, it was a rough.
Speaker A:I was side choking my head up and then had to learn how to do everything.
Speaker A:But I've had a lot of really incredible swim coaches over the years for sure that just were incredible with advanced technique development and everything.
Speaker A:But like my freshman year of college I had an Achilles injury that I couldn't run or bike for 15 weeks.
Speaker A:So all I did was swim like 40,000 yards a week.
Speaker A:Whatever you're doing, if you're swimming 40, you're better at swimming.
Speaker A:And then evolved from there, got a coach and really grinded swimming for the first six years of triathlon because it was always the limiter.
Speaker A:And now I think it's probably my strength at this point.
Speaker B:Yeah, well you, you've just emphasized, I think what's so important, right.
Speaker B:The fact that you could really dedicate a huge amount of time to it and focused on what was your limiter and make.
Speaker B:And that's really huge.
Speaker B:And I had to return to the idea that you played basketball and then found running was something you were good at.
Speaker B:It's so much easier to run when you're not dribbling the ball, isn't it?
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:Isn't it?
Speaker B:So when you broke onto the short course scene, what was the adjustment like to become a pro on the world triathlon scene?
Speaker B:Was it overwhelming?
Speaker B:Was it something you just naturally fit into?
Speaker B:How did it go?
Speaker A:It was brutal.
Speaker A:It was both incredibly challenging, it was humbling.
Speaker A:And it was also one of the most fulfilling and exciting parts of my entire life is an incredible.
Speaker A:Especially now doing more long course.
Speaker A:It's mostly domestic racing and then you.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's much different It's a much more kind of relaxed, like you have more control over what races you go to and just the travel is way easier and everything.
Speaker A:But yeah, during those early kind of short course races you're going all over the world.
Speaker A:I think I've raced in like 30 different countries and stuff.
Speaker A:And you're chasing coins, you're doing Continental Cups to get to the World cup level, to get to the next level and everything.
Speaker A:And it's a constant game of playing these races and everything.
Speaker A:And there can only be.
Speaker A:There's only two or three world triathlon events in the US So it's a lot of traveling to us, to Canada and then South America, Europe, Asia, everywhere and stuff.
Speaker A:And in trying to.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's a lot of racing but you make a.
Speaker A:I made so many friends around the world and everything and that's been one of the coolest parts now is in this next phase of life, like just still connecting with a lot of triathletes that I met six years ago and everything.
Speaker A:And there is even a track rate right now with Flagstaff.
Speaker A: and I haven't seen him since: Speaker A:We've linked it up and everything.
Speaker A:So it is cool.
Speaker A:Just there's something special about sport and something special about a pursuit like that that's so difficult and so all encompassing that you kind of have this bond with everyone.
Speaker A:You'll be in a bike pack together racing and you're racing against each other, but you're also working together and then you're yelling at each other and everything and you're trying to beat the other guy.
Speaker A:And then after the race everyone's friends, everyone's.
Speaker A:Yeah, you bonded to some degree with sharing.
Speaker B:You're sharing some comment you're going to have and you're going to have to help me and my listeners because forgive my ignorance, but there's so many levels of the professional circuit, the wtcs, that is the World Triathlon core.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's the highest.
Speaker B:That's the highest one.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:This is the national teams and then.
Speaker A:There'S World cup racing and then Continental cup racing.
Speaker A:So three tiers of four course triathlon.
Speaker B:So were you racing, representing Team usa, vying for Olympic spot?
Speaker A:That was always the dream.
Speaker A:That was always the dream.
Speaker A: ing and that was back in like: Speaker A: ere not quite as good or even: Speaker A:But yeah, I think.
Speaker B:But that, that was always the dream.
Speaker A:That was the North Star.
Speaker A:Yeah that was always.
Speaker A:That's kind of everyone.
Speaker A:And then you realize actually I don't think I'm quite gonna make it to that level.
Speaker A:And then you go to long course is the usual progression or you retire kind of one or the other.
Speaker A:But a lot of kind of guys go to long course depending on what you still love.
Speaker A:The SP thing that has been.
Speaker A:It's quite different the transition everything.
Speaker A:But I still.
Speaker A:I'm having a blast doing long course racing and everything.
Speaker A:It's a big life pivot all over the place.
Speaker A:But yeah really enjoying kind of the change of everything.
Speaker A:And it's fun now especially being in long course now and a bunch of more of kind of short course guys are going along course and yeah so it's.
Speaker A:It is fun just seeing people you've raced for years and stuff but you know, different.
Speaker B:What are.
Speaker B:What are the sort of main differences you find going from short course?
Speaker B:Obviously the distance is longer but.
Speaker B:But we're seeing such a huge move of so many short course racers moving into long course specifically at the 70.3 distance.
Speaker B:And so it's really changed.
Speaker B:I think it's dramatically changed.
Speaker B:What 70.3 racing at least at the pro level looks like it's quite amazing.
Speaker B:It's leaked into the full distance yet and I don't know if it ever will because the full distance is just such another animal.
Speaker B:But for you as a short course guy, when you moved up to the 70.3, what were some of the things you noticed about it in terms of how different or maybe how much the same it was?
Speaker A:Yeah, no, totally.
Speaker A:The biggest thing has been obviously the swim and the bike.
Speaker A:The swim is substantially easier in long course which is nice.
Speaker A:Just the swimming short course is not just so much harder.
Speaker A:It's so aggressive.
Speaker A:I mean you're fighting, you're just.
Speaker A:It.
Speaker A:It's a gauntlet in there.
Speaker A:And I was always something that I struggled with in short course racing versus in long course racing.
Speaker A:The swim's a lot more and some of the higher level races are certainly you still get some of that battle but isn't it's not relentless the same way.
Speaker A:Especially in the Ironman frankly with all the short course guys going to 70.3.
Speaker A:I'm just trying to go straight to long.
Speaker A:Chris, just focus on the poll because it is like what you're saying.
Speaker A:The 70.3 scene is flooded with the top store course guys now coming after.
Speaker A:After the Olympics especially now, it's a lot more there and they're doing T 170.3.
Speaker A:So I'm like, let's just focus on the Iron Man.
Speaker A:But yeah, the Iron man serum is definitely a lot more relaxed.
Speaker A:It's a lot more just you get in there and do your own thing and focus on your stroke and maybe you find some drafting feet.
Speaker A:But it's not this.
Speaker A:This battle where you're constantly.
Speaker A:There's 20 people all around you, you're getting hit, you're getting dunked, you can't breathe.
Speaker A:And it's just much different.
Speaker A:Swimming experience in short course racing.
Speaker A:And then the bike is time.
Speaker A:Trial biking has definitely been the part that I'm having the toughest time transitioning into is just how hard.
Speaker A:Like the long course guys have always been so good at riding a TT bike.
Speaker A:Just relentless.
Speaker A:They'll put their head down to ride 350 watts indefinitely.
Speaker A:And I've always preferred the short, punchy stuff.
Speaker A:Like I always liked racing the super sprint races.
Speaker A:The really short, high explosive stuff was always my specialty in short course like the relays.
Speaker A:The super league kind of major league triathlon kind of series stuff was always where I thrived in short course.
Speaker A:Which has been ironic that I'm trying to do the Ironman actually.
Speaker A:But the bikes are definitely the toughest kind of transition is just how these diesels can just go, yeah, but it's fun.
Speaker A:It's fun to try to do something new and be learning like a newbie in different ways.
Speaker B:Yeah, sure.
Speaker B:And has the nutrition been.
Speaker B:I know we're gonna talk about blanks in a bit.
Speaker B:Has managing nutrition, that's a whole other thing for long course.
Speaker B:So has that been at all a challenge?
Speaker A:Oh, totally.
Speaker A:And that's actually probably where I think that is the biggest jump.
Speaker A:Especially for like most short course to long course athletes.
Speaker A:That's the biggest thing is certainly nutrition.
Speaker A:And that was something that I was really trying to work on a bunch even in short course racing.
Speaker A:And then really honestly put a lot of focus and effort into that.
Speaker A:Honestly probably should have led off with that.
Speaker A:That was probably much more.
Speaker A:But did.
Speaker A:The nutrition side of long course is huge.
Speaker A:It's just we're seeing more and more research on just like how many carbs per hour can you handle how much sodium hydration.
Speaker A:Like just being such a longer event is a way more critical piece.
Speaker A:So that's actually one of the parts I think I've done quite well in.
Speaker A:That's something I got a lot of confidence in.
Speaker A:Was just really trying to approach the long course nutrition side of stuff.
Speaker A:And that's also inadvertently how I stumbled upon just starting a sport nutrition company cause I was already making my own stuff for a good while before that and then starting to of think about these different ideas and everything was yeah.
Speaker A:How I stumbled upon.
Speaker A:I was making nutrition for my friends and everything did turn into how I also ended up being in the position of starting this company too.
Speaker B:And had you run a marathon before Ironman?
Speaker A:No, no, my first one was at Challenger off.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:Yeah, that was a fun experience too.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:How did it go?
Speaker A:He's pretty.
Speaker A:I was pretty good for about 20 miles and then I, I blew up pretty bad.
Speaker A:But I did go through 10k thinking I was going to break 2:30 in the marathon and then I definitely like paid for that price a lot.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Impulse control has never been my specialty, especially in an Ironman.
Speaker A:I, I went through half marathon in 1:15 and 10k and like 33 something thinking I'm gonna run under 230.
Speaker A:I said that's crazy.
Speaker A:Just run like 235 and then I end up running like 3:15 because I stopped at an aid station for 45 minutes thinking of my time being finished because I was definitely overcooked it and hit the wall bad at about like mile 18 or so and then walked for about an hour and then shuffled in at 5 minutes per k the last bit.
Speaker A:But I'm learning, I'm figuring it out so that's lessons learned.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:A lot of us would be pretty happy with 315 for a marathon if we had to, even if we walked for a big part of it.
Speaker B:But I could totally understand how that's not what you're capable of.
Speaker B:So yes, I get it.
Speaker B:What other races have you done?
Speaker A:I did.
Speaker A:I went to 70.3 worlds this past December in Tapo, New Zealand, which that was one of the coolest experiences.
Speaker A:My racing career was definitely.
Speaker A:It was the first world champs team I'd made.
Speaker A:I never made a world champs team in short course racing.
Speaker A:Didn't make a U23s or senior worlds team.
Speaker A:So certainly making 70.3 worlds was pretty special.
Speaker A:Going out there was cool.
Speaker A:The race was pretty tough, but it was a cool experience and I really enjoyed it.
Speaker B:And then that's got felt by the way.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:The race was, the race was pretty tough, but it was a good experience.
Speaker A:Yeah, racing in December's tough.
Speaker A:It was so late in the season you realize I'm like, oh man, I've been, I'm done.
Speaker A:I need to call it a season.
Speaker A:But it New Zealand was incredible.
Speaker A:So yeah, it was a pretty cool spot.
Speaker B:And no, yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker B:So tell us about blanks.
Speaker B:Tell us where it came from.
Speaker B:You mentioned that you were busy making nutrition for friends and things like that.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:What led from making nutrition for friends to suddenly making it for anybody who wanted to buy it?
Speaker A:Totally.
Speaker A:I probably have a short, medium and long answer depending on how long we got time for.
Speaker A:Yeah, totally.
Speaker A:It's been really.
Speaker A:Obviously that's a question I get asked a bunch is like how did you get to here?
Speaker A:And when I really think about it, it truly does feel like it's been almost every phase of my life.
Speaker A:All coining these different pieces all kind of coming to this point kind of background with a professional background.
Speaker A:I had a pre med background in biochemistry and then I have a MBA which was actually in healthcare administration but still appropriate enough to understand business administration side of stuff.
Speaker A:And then eight years of pro triathlon racing.
Speaker A:I've seen all the inside of the industry.
Speaker A:I was sponsored by science and sport for three, two or three years.
Speaker A:So I've seen that side of it.
Speaker A:And then just being in the industry, seeing sport nutrition being the way the sport was moving, all that ways of stuff.
Speaker A:So it seems like it was this almost like a no brainer at that point when I had been making my own sports drink for a couple years at that point and starting off simple.
Speaker A:I think a lot of people have been frustrated with just like the price of sport nutrition was like this.
Speaker A:I can just make something close enough with basic ingredients and that kind of concept and everything.
Speaker A:And then also just also I was like I was coaching triathletes for a long period of time and acknowledging also like how different and unique athletes are are.
Speaker A:It's what works for me doesn't necessarily work for you.
Speaker A:What works for someone.
Speaker A:Some people are really salty sweaters.
Speaker A:Some people are high volume sweaters.
Speaker A:Some people can burn carbs at 150 grams of carbs per hour.
Speaker A:Some people can't handle more than 50.
Speaker A:But just.
Speaker A:And some people like some preference.
Speaker A:Some people like unflavored.
Speaker A:Some people like flavors in their sport nutrition.
Speaker A:Like just truly acknowledging the uniqueness of athletes not just in the way that they train, the way that they race, the way that they are as people as the way that they should be from a kind of metabolic standpoint.
Speaker A:So acknowledging kind of the individuality of athletes but realizing their was this void in the industry that could be improved.
Speaker A:And then it was asking that question and then also asking this Question of the cost side of that sports tradition has been so expensive.
Speaker A:And I think that's also largely in part just from like marketing and just you.
Speaker A:The cost of ingredients are not nearly as crazy as they, I think should be.
Speaker A:And we're selling for half the price of some of the competitors.
Speaker A:And we can run a business that way, I'm just realizing.
Speaker A:But we're not funding these massive Nike sub 2 projects and these crazy marketing initiatives.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And I think it just takes a lot of like from the business model standpoint was asking these questions of can we do this in a more sustainable way and have lower costs, make it customizable?
Speaker A:And breaking down like the supply chain side of it, the breaking down the supplier side of it.
Speaker A:And that was like the.
Speaker A:The continual steps.
Speaker A:I think I even skipped along there.
Speaker A:But it was even actually like the original thought came from less.
Speaker A: d then the plan was to finish: Speaker A: ed to start medical school in: Speaker A: n I finished my MBA in May of: Speaker A:And then I was in this.
Speaker A:I'm in my victory lap now.
Speaker A:Let's enjoy this last bit of triathlon.
Speaker A:It was kind of like getting ready to transition out.
Speaker A:And then in that meantime, I was thinking, what if there was like some fun business, like, you finish your MBA and then naturally you're like, let's start a business.
Speaker A:What kind of business works then?
Speaker A:And I remember one of the just quotes from a professor was this, like, don't try to create a solution to something that doesn't exist.
Speaker A:Find a problem that hasn't been solved.
Speaker A:And a problem that people don't realize is a problem basically.
Speaker A:Because if it was a problem that everyone knew about, thermo would fix it.
Speaker A:Asking that question and getting the wheels turning in that way.
Speaker A:And really the first problem that it came to was like the single use gel waste, like on trails and roads and everything.
Speaker A: ce and sport and whatever the: Speaker A:And at the same point of time, during COVID I built out this camper van that was all solar powered and had a inline water filter composting toilet.
Speaker A:Like, it was this like super environmentally sustainable triathlon mechamobile.
Speaker A:It was awesome.
Speaker A:And it was crazy because at this point in time, I'm sponsored by SAS and do like 150 gels a month.
Speaker A:And there's a little trash can.
Speaker A:It's just stacked to the brim with gels all the time.
Speaker A:There's like this.
Speaker A:Huh.
Speaker A:There's some kind of lack of congruency here and whatnot.
Speaker A:And it was always this drove me crazy.
Speaker A:Like, like trained in some of the most beautiful places in the world, have done some of the most incredible races.
Speaker A:And then I remember just like always seem like Joe Rappers on rail or like a lake front or something like that.
Speaker A:So wrong on so many levels and no one acknowledging this is like wrong.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:I mean, it's also.
Speaker A:It's a crash form that's unique to like us.
Speaker A:Like, that's like our industry.
Speaker A:Those are our peers, our competitors, our friends, ourselves, you know what I mean?
Speaker A:But there's never been like an alternative.
Speaker A:There was actually like that point and I was using gel living, like I was crushing gels at that point in time.
Speaker A:But it was actually like in that point of more apparent of this like living in the van kind of stuff, that was this.
Speaker A:Huh.
Speaker A:This is like, this is.
Speaker A:There's something missing here.
Speaker A:So after that it was when I got dropped by a sciences board.
Speaker A:Ultimately I started just making my own sport tradition because I had been used to getting it for free so that I didn't want to buy it.
Speaker A:So I was like, I'm not going to spend that much money on sport nutrition.
Speaker A:So I was making it for another two years prior to that.
Speaker A:And then when I came back down to asking that question of what's a problem that people don't realize it's a problem.
Speaker A:And I had that kind of like, refreshing moment of like, what about like, gels?
Speaker A:And it was like, I remember my epiphany of like gels, we could do something better than that.
Speaker A:And it rebuilt on for there is how do you build a better product?
Speaker A:And gels, like athletes are want performance.
Speaker A:Athletes want to be the best athlete they want to be.
Speaker A:And we want to provide that for athletes.
Speaker A:And so you can't be a compromise in performance.
Speaker A:There also can't be a compromise in cost or convenience.
Speaker A:There's all these kind of like ways that you can't really just say stop doing this.
Speaker A:Or like even.
Speaker A:You can't even just create a sustainable, like an environmentally sustainable solution and expect people to like, just do that just out of the environmental angle.
Speaker A:You have to also create a like, performance standpoint, a cost benefit analysis, a preference, a uniqueness.
Speaker A:There has to be more novelty to it.
Speaker A:So that's when actually this idea of like a Powder based, reusable, like a gel came from was actually the original idea for Blanks was this like I wonder if I could make a gel that would be a different kind of gel.
Speaker A:And got the wheels turning from there.
Speaker A:And I was coming off the mcat, I was coming off of so much biochemistry that I was like, surely like gels are not as complicated as that.
Speaker A:Many started making gels just with kind of different gelling agents, different, like all kinds of different stuff.
Speaker A:Some of those original gels were so bad, but there was like started thinking about it that way and ultimately got this idea of can you create a, like a powder based gel that's half the cost and it's customizable and then.
Speaker A:And is it sustainable?
Speaker A:So like you have to create it from the other angle and it's almost like, like prank.
Speaker A:It's also environmentally sustainable but the people who wouldn't actually like care are still going to be happy because it's a kind of a make a superior alternative.
Speaker A:And then we started getting like supplier quotes.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's cheaper and everything.
Speaker A:Like it has to be cheaper.
Speaker A:It has to be.
Speaker A:And then it's like the customizable side came from the whole like coaching side and acknowledging the uniqueness of athletes, knowing like what had worked for me, what had worked for other athletes and seeing that and then also just like a preference thing, like just seeing how much strong opinions people have on like nutrition that tastes good, nutrition that where they want unflavored or they want a lot of flavor.
Speaker A:They want truly acknowledging like the uniqueness of athletes from a metabolic standpoint and just like an individuality standpoint was where that kind of came to.
Speaker A:So then ultimately the thought of launching gels is a little too novel.
Speaker A:So decided to open up, wait a year before actually coming back to the gels.
Speaker A:So just last year launched a sports drink and then some recovery mixes and electrolyte drinks and stuff, all customizable and everything.
Speaker A:And then February 1st of just a couple weeks ago, launched the gel which was really special.
Speaker A:And it was just seeing kind of the feedback from everyone, the excitement we're getting like just people from all around the world every week asking like, we ship to here, we ship to here, we ship to here.
Speaker A:And we're like, ah, we're working on it.
Speaker A:So it's been a crazy couple weeks since the gel launch and it's frankly been a crazy 16 months since kind of this idea.
Speaker A:Like 16 months ago.
Speaker A:I was like literally living in my van just scheming up some just ideas Oh, I wonder if this like dream and then it's truly become a like, like a reality and it's like something.
Speaker A:It, like it exists now.
Speaker A:We have eight people working here now and they're all like some of our best friends and we're all athletes and it is, it's a, it's truly the most incredible kind of feeling to not just create something, but to do it with some of your best friends and create kind of value for each other and then to provide like a need in the industry that like the feedback we're getting from people is just incredible.
Speaker A:Like people are just psyched.
Speaker A:Like we've had emails and somewhere that qualified for Kona and I never thought I'd qualify for Kona again because I didn't blow up in a marathon this time.
Speaker A:And I've been using blank since here.
Speaker A:It's just, that's what it's about.
Speaker A:I got the most fundamental level, like a bit an athlete who's just wanted to nothing more than to fill your sport dreams.
Speaker A:And like we're providing that.
Speaker A:We're creating these unique kind of drinks and everything.
Speaker A:And yeah, it's been incredible.
Speaker A:We got all the plans in the world, but really just trying to also just be present and enjoy the.
Speaker A:How special this has been.
Speaker A:And yeah, so the idea of like it's blanks because yeah, like your names would be like Michael Sportsterson, that kind of idea and then you create it.
Speaker A:So that's the long.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The only thing is you did an mba, which means you must have covered marketing and advertising.
Speaker B:And it seems like your product is violating your packaging, is violating all of the tenets of marketing and advertising.
Speaker B:It's just like you said, it's blank, it's white with, with very basic font of black on white.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:It just seems like it's not memorable.
Speaker B:It doesn't.
Speaker B:It's not splashy.
Speaker B:It running counter to everything in triathlon and maybe because of that you stick out and you're exactly as you are.
Speaker B:I think it's great.
Speaker B:I think it's terrific.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:I have to admit I have not tried it myself.
Speaker B:And part of the problem there, part of the problem there is, I think, you know, triathlon nutrition is, as you said, individual.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I tell my athletes cast about until you find something that works for you and then stick with it, Stick with it.
Speaker B:And I've been in the sport for a really long time, found something that works for me and I've just stuck with it.
Speaker B:And that's not to say that it's the best thing.
Speaker B:It's just that it's something that has worked for me.
Speaker B:But I'm very intrigued by Blanks because it's definitely the price is right and the packaging I got.
Speaker B:I can't argue with packaging.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:Yeah, good for you.
Speaker B:I'm really excited that this is something that you're obviously very passionate about.
Speaker B:As you said, it ties into everything you're doing, everything where you've come from and I think it's great that you're having the kind of success that you are.
Speaker B:So good for you.
Speaker B:Congratulations.
Speaker A:Thank you very much.
Speaker B:What's the future hold for Michael?
Speaker B:What's the future hold for Blanks that are.
Speaker A:Million dollar question right now, isn't it?
Speaker A:Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker A:And I think that kind of the reality is I don't really know that I'm trying to almost focus on that a little bit less, like have loose ideas of what kind of life I want to live, who I want to be and then very much like businesses largely in part follows parallels with a lot of that.
Speaker A:And I don't know, I'd say even just like with my own history of like my life, it's all the hard plans that I had often didn't work out the way that I hope they would.
Speaker A:Wanted to go to.
Speaker A:I wanted to go to the Olympics, I wanted to go to medical school.
Speaker A:And then it was, you know what?
Speaker A:Actually now you're doing something that I never would have thought of that is actually beautiful in its own way and it's right.
Speaker A:Like it makes sense and it feels right and everything and just trusting that feeling in a lot of ways.
Speaker A:And who knows how long blanks last.
Speaker A:Maybe it's a five year project, maybe it's a.
Speaker A:Maybe it's the rest of my life and I don't really know and nor am I really trying to be set on that kind of.
Speaker A:My big thing is just not closing any doors.
Speaker A:So even just like general structuring, we're not in a way where we don't have any VC funding.
Speaker A:We're not having anyone coming like breathing down our backs of saying you need to sell this thing in five years to get our investment back.
Speaker A:There's none of that kind of stuff which I think is unique to a lot of sport interesting companies.
Speaker A:A lot of just startups are coming from that.
Speaker A:So there's more pressure to operate in a certain way.
Speaker A:And the beauty of this has been that bootstrapped it from my own savings and I sold my van and whatnot and it's now we're in a position where, you know what, we can chart our own course here and can do the do things the way that we want to do things and do things the way that we feel are right.
Speaker A:And it's.
Speaker A:Who knows.
Speaker A:I mean most startups fail and I certainly believe in this and I bet everything on this, but I don't really know what it looks like in that and Kaiva's.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's been a.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's been a wild few, wild long period of time, honestly.
Speaker A:But the past kind of year has been crazy.
Speaker B:Sometimes having too much of a rigid plan is not fun and having the ability to break trail and go wherever the compass takes you or go wherever the trail leads is okay.
Speaker A:Totally.
Speaker B:Do you have any race plans for this year?
Speaker A:Yeah, I am racing Oceanside 70.3 in less than two weeks which and then I'm racing Ironman Texas in about five weeks.
Speaker B:Stellar fields.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I am planning on racing the Iron Pro series this year and the goal would be to do St.
Speaker A:George 70.3 and then Ironman Lake Placid and then depending on if I get world champ slots or not, I'll figure out the back half of the year.
Speaker A:But yeah, I'm very much like I'm hoping to still race that I still.
Speaker A:My training has been not great the past three months since tao just with how busy the business has been and getting stuff in place.
Speaker A:But it's.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'm grateful to be able to continue to race and race at the highest level of Ironman is special and just adjusting expectations and trying to do it felt joy and the love of sport and it's.
Speaker A:I'm very grateful that I still can race and it hasn't been this you need to retire to work on this business otherwise and it's definitely compromised.
Speaker A:Like it's a good thing to be doing both.
Speaker A:It's helpful to be in the industry and seeing what is happening at the tip of the or what are people all that and again it's how we got here has been from connections and friends from years and stuff.
Speaker A:So let's stay there and being involved with that still.
Speaker A:So yeah, very much hoping to still be racing and just hope want to do it all.
Speaker B:So yeah, that's amazing Mike and I think it's a great story.
Speaker B:I can't thank you enough for coming on and sharing it with me and my listeners today.
Speaker B:Michael Arashida is a professional triathlete.
Speaker B:He was originally on the short course circuit.
Speaker B:He transitioned to long course last year.
Speaker B:You can look forward to seeing him out there on the Ironman Pro series.
Speaker B:And if you want to find his product blanks, I will have the link to the website in the show notes.
Speaker B:Do you want to give a call out to your website site just quick?
Speaker A:Yeah, it's blanksportsnutrition.com so two S's and we're yeah on Instagram, I'm Swimmin Mike Run on Instagram and yeah happy to answer any nutrition questions whenever but we could turn this into a forever podcast if you're talking nutrition forever.
Speaker A:But yeah, really appreciate it.
Speaker A:Thank you very much.
Speaker A:Thanks for everyone who listened.
Speaker A:I hope it was entertaining or anything.
Speaker A:But yeah, thank you very much everyone.
Speaker A:So yeah, thanks.
Speaker B:All right, take care Mike.
Speaker D:I wanna broadcast every everything in stereo.
Speaker D:What's up everybody?
Speaker D:My name is Joe Wilson and I'm a proud supporter of the Tridar Podcast.
Speaker D:The Tri Dark Podcast is produced and edited by Jeff Sankoff, one of my good friends, along with his amazing interns Cosette Rhodes and Nina Takashima.
Speaker D:You can find the show notes for everything discussed on the show today as well as the archives of previous episode@www.triodocpodcast.com.
Speaker D:do you have any questions about any of the issues discussed on this episode or do you have a question for consideration to be answered on a future episode?
Speaker D:Send Jeff an email@triodocloud.com if you are interested in coaching services.
Speaker D:You should really reach out to jeff@tridocoaching.com or lifesportcoaching.com where you can find a lot of information information about Jeff and the services that he provides.
Speaker D:You can also follow Jeff on the Tridog Podcast Facebook page, Tridog Coaching on Instagram and the TriDarch YouTube channel.
Speaker D:And don't forget to join the Tridog Podcast private Facebook group.
Speaker D:Search for it and request to join today.
Speaker D:If you enjoy this podcast, I hope you would consider leaving a rating interview as it helps the show as well as subscribe to the show whenever you download it.
Speaker D:And of course there's also always the option of becoming a supporter@patreon.com drydockpodcast the music heard at the beginning and the end of the show is radio by empty hours and is used with permission.
Speaker D:This song and many others like it can be found at www.reverbnation.com where I hope that you will visit and give a small independent fans a chance at Tridark Podcast will be back soon with another medical question and answer it in another interview with someone in the world of multisport until then train hard, train healthy.
