Miesha Tate - Lessons From a UFC Champ

Hey everybody, welcome to the Future of Fitness, a top-rated fitness industry podcast for over three years and running. I am your host, Eric Malzone, and I have the absolute pleasure of talking to entrepreneurs, innovators, and cutting-edge technology experts within the extremely fast-paced industries of fitness, wellness, and health sciences. Please stop by futurefitness.co to subscribe and learn more. Hey friends, I couldn't be more proud and excited to announce that today's episode is powered by workout, the ultimate tool for modern fitness professionals just like you. There is one thing that fires me up. It's elevating the personal training and coaching industry. For that, the Workout app is an absolute game changer. No more promoting top brands without compensation or dealing with confusing social media links. In just a few clicks, Workout's user-friendly app lets top trainers and coaches curate and share the world's most sought-after fitness brands like HyperIce, Vega, and more. Product lines covering everything from fitness equipment to supplements and apparel. Save time and boost your earnings with generous commissions and bonuses every time your client purchases the products you already endorse. Do not wait. Maximize your income and streamline your business with store by workout. Discover more at workout.com. That's w-r-k-o-t.com. Just one-o. W-R-K-O-U-T. Go get it. All right, we are live. Misha Tate, welcome to the Future of Fitness.

Hey, thanks, Eric. Appreciate you having me today.

This is really this I'm uh I'm been looking forward to this for so long now since we booked it. And uh I can already tell from our conversation prior to recording here, it's gonna be a lot of fun. I mean you're you got a great vibe to you. Um you know, you're you're very open, you're very passionate driven about what what you're doing now and everything you probably I would imagine done your whole life. So there's so I have so many questions for you, Misha. You know, to go on this. I just hope uh I was asking my wife last night too. I was like, hey, I'm interviewing Misha Tay, like what questions? And she's like, of course, well, you know, stuff like has she ever knocked out a guy? And I'm like, uh well, maybe we'll get to that. And maybe we will, just as a teaser down the line here.

But uh, I hope I have so many answers for you.

Uh so let's start with this, Misha. As always on the show, I like to hear your backstory in your own words. How'd you how'd you get to be where you are now?

Well, I started with wrestling in high school. I said I think that's a point where you could definitely say, okay, this was definitely a solid trajectory deciding moment in my life. And I went out for wrestling on an all-male wrestling team, and I wrestled for four years. And by the time I got to my senior year, there were other women wrestling throughout the state on male wrestling teams. There was enough of us to kind of create a round robin tournament, which means it's like there's just four people in the in the bracket. You all wrestle each other, and who wins wins um, you know, that tournament. Um, but they put it alongside the men's state wrestling, which was amazing. So we wrestled during their breaks, and that was kind of the change and shift that there were enough women to actually host our own tournament. So um being part of that change also let me know that perception can be changed, right? Because when I joined the wrestling team, they were anything but welcoming. They did not want me there. Um, it was my best friend and I at the time. Her name was Sharon. Um, they tried to get us to quit. I mean, they made it really hard on us. They didn't teach us anything, they put us in with the best wrestlers. It was all about let's just get these these ladies out of here because they don't belong. Like women in wrestling don't go together. And that was clearly the messaging. But by sticking it out all four years, I ended up winning the coaches award my senior year. It's given out to one athlete who kind of embodies what you would want to see. Not necessarily the best wrestler, because I certainly wasn't. I definitely lost way more matches than I ever won. But I showed up and I worked hard, and that taught me a lot about how people will change the way that they view you if you just show up consistently every day and you work hard and you don't segregate yourself, right? That was the big thing, too, is I just didn't refuse to look at myself as any different. So I was just one of the guys, and I just showed up to work as hard as I could. And um, yes, there are physical differences, but that was okay with me. It wasn't about winning as much as it was about showing up and learning and um feeding this very hungry part of myself, which I think transitions perfectly into stepping into college. I went to Central Washington University. They had just cut the men's wrestling program there, which is so sad. They've been doing that to colleges ever since. But they dropped the men's wrestling program. So there were all these guys that happened to be former wrestlers, and if they left for another school or if if they stayed there, they were looking for something to do. So they created this mixed martial arts club program. And a friend of mine, Rosalia, who did karate, was like, Misha, you should come and check this out. And I was like, no, thanks. I don't think so. Does not sound like the thing for me at all. Um, and she was really persistent about it. She's like, come on, you're gonna love it. Like all these guys are former wrestlers, and you know, you'll fit right in. And I was like, fine. So I went and I started learning on my first day how to choke people. So if you could imagine, um, that piques my interest. So from that point on, I started learning martial arts, and I said, okay, well, you know, jujitsu, that's the submission aspect of adding on to wrestling. I said, okay, well, this is something I could wrap my head around. Um, but I was like, I don't want to learn anything about punching. There's no way I'm ever gonna fight anybody. That's just not for me. Um, three weeks later, I went to my first live MMA event. It was an amateur fight card in Yakima, Washington. And I'm watching like blood, sweat, and tears, and heart and soul and passion just pour out for like hours. And I was just, I had a visceral reaction to watching those fights. I mean, I was just in it. And there were no women on the fight card, by the way. And I am sitting in these the bleachers as the crowd is being released for the night, the fights are over, and I'm just taking it all in because I'm really blown away. And the intercom starts, they start to make an announcement that in through in about another three weeks there would be an all-female fight card. And if there were any women in the audience who were interested, to please come down and sign up.

Nice.

So, what do you think I did? Yeah, you already know. I went down and I signed up, having no real idea of what I was getting myself into, just feeling the pump from this. I mean, if you've ever watched MMA, I think most people can understand that that you get kind of you get some kind of reaction. And if you're an athlete or a competitor, a lot of times that reaction is kind of like you really feel like you're a part of that moment, and it it's it's just motivating. I don't know what to say about it, but it's but it's motivating. And I was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Like I wanted to be a part of that, and I said, Well, if they can do it, why can't I? That's kind of been my my MO my whole career. And so yeah, three weeks later I had my first fight and pretty much hooked from that moment. And it's also so funny how little we know about each other, like about ourselves. Let me say that again. It's also so funny how little we know about ourselves sometimes because I for sure thought there was not a violent bone in my body. I had never been in a fight before, besides one time in third grade, and he started it. Uh, I ended it, I finished it, but he started it. And that's it. Like I was always the person to walk away. I'm very calm, I don't lose my cool very easily. So I just thought that fighting was the opposite of me. But it's it's that wasn't true, you know. Um, I'm a fighter, whether it comes to being a mother, whether it comes to being an entrepreneur, whether it comes to um the way that I prepare to go to sleep at night. You know, I'm just competitive and I will actively pursue or fight for what I believe in and what draws um that feeling out of me that feels like I'm living my purpose. So a big part of that for me was being a fighter. Well, I still am actively fighting in the UFC many years later. And um, that's kind of it in a nutshell.

Yeah, and I would imagine you you've probably inspired, gosh, hundreds of thousands of people, especially women along the way. I mean, when I hear that story, there's a couple little points that I'd like to unpack a little bit. Um the first one is uh when you're wrestling in high school and you felt you didn't feel welcome, right, by the guys on the team. What do you think that was? I mean, if you had to theorize, was it like uh they couldn't like talk the same way, they couldn't act the same way, or they just didn't like, you know, having to wrestle women or the possibility of losing to a female was probably too grave. What do you think drove that attitude?

Well, I think it was a little bit of all of the above, but to be honest, I think it was a bit of machoism in the sense that she's so stupid that she doesn't even know she doesn't belong here. Like, it was just like that. Like, she is so dumb, like we're obviously gonna have to point it out to her. Like, does she not know this is not for her? Like, women don't wrestle, they can't handle it, they're not tough enough. Like, this is way tougher. Like, she just, you know, gonna come in here and be a girl, and we don't want that. That is not part of what this atmosphere is about. It's not about crying, it's not about hugging, it's not about, you know, nurturing. Like, and I think, you know, I'm kind of taking my own perception of what I feel like it was, you know. Of course, I think I would have to ask the guys to get a true, honest answer in that. But that was kind of the culture and the vibe was that this is a place where men are made and it's does not involve women in any way, shape, or form. That we're not cut out for it, we're not tough enough. So it was just a matter of them in their minds showing me that and also showing me the door. But by sh by showing up every single day and and and taking the ass kickings and never giving up and never quitting, I think it actually worked in reverse with their mindset. I think that they started to understand, like, oh, it started to show them, like, well, maybe she's not stupid after all. Like, maybe she's, you know, like maybe girls can do this, you know. Um, maybe she is cool. Maybe she is kind of like one of the dudes. Maybe we're not so different after all. And I think that was where the shift started to come into places that they realized that I'm not an alien. Like I'm a human being and I can show up and work hard just the same as anybody else.

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. I mean, I can speak for myself and probably most of my friends and most of the guys I know and just say that we're idiots at that age. I mean, we're really not that bright until like maybe mid-20s is when we kind of fully develop as you know, our brains. So that makes a lot of sense. Uh the other thing I want to point, kind of nibble out with that story too, is you know, you saw that that first UFC fight, right? What well I remember actually.

Well, it was an amateur fight. So it was a just it wasn't even the UFC. I don't even think I was familiar with the UFC. My dad swears that him and I had watched some UFC events before, but that just goes to show how invested I was in watching the UFC, because I don't remember it. I the first time I remember martial arts, mixed martial arts watching that form of competition was at a small amateur event in Yakima, Washington. If I had seen um MMA prior to that, if I had seen the UFC, I don't recall it. So I may have been there and just completely disinterested in what what whatever was on the TV. You know, I was probably doing something else, cooking with my mom or something, you know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So you're I guess the first, the first MMA fight. I I remember the one that I saw was actually 2007. It was with my um what was soon to be my my first business partner. He was, and this is back like, you know, these are being done, I think it was at the um the pyramid in long in Long Beach, um, where they were being done like somewhere in Mexico, right? It was just very it wasn't professionalized at all. And I I did I got pumped. I remember I'm like, yeah, maybe I can do that. But you actually went and signed up for it. When you signed up for it, what went through your head there? Was it like, I'm super excited, and then oh shit, what did I just do? Like what walk us through that that emotional point in time.

It was I'm super pumped. Um I've signed up and made this official, so I better get training now. Like I knew that I needed to get as much as I could figured out in the next three weeks, but I was very serious about it. I was very dedicated and wanting to take place and be a part of that energy that was there that night because it was very vibrant, it was very beautiful, it was completely the opposite of what I thought it was gonna be. You know, at that time, mind you, this is um 2005. So that is the time when MMA was still trying to even get recognized as an actual sport, as opposed to human cockfighting and you know, barbarians, toothless, uneducated people getting into a cage. Like, what is this, you know? So um I certainly didn't have a very broad perspective on what fighting really was either. It was just I thought it, I was certain it wasn't for me. Then I showed up that night and I was like, this is not at all what I thought it was, and I'm attracted to it, so I'm just gonna go for it. And I thought, what's the worst that can happen? Yeah. What is the worst that can happen? And I encourage everybody to take that mindset a little bit more often to get out of the comfort zone and do something risky because you never know what you're gonna learn about yourself. You never know what you're gonna learn about yourself unless you do something a little out of your comfort zone or a lot. Like that was way out of my comfort zone, and but I was attracted to it, you know?

Yeah, and so that that's a really good segue. Because one of the things I want to talk about is is the training, you know, and how in your quick math here, 18 years now that you've been in the sport, how has the training evolved? You know, and we can get into I want to talk generally speaking first, you know, with with how it's evolved, because I'm sure as you know, as there's two things that tend to drive progress in sports, right? It's uh prestige, right, and money. And both of those things have come in droves when you look at at MMA as a sport. And you know, so maybe we could speak about it generally, and then I want to get into you know the the female aspect and the specifics of that training and and all that. But let's start generally. How how has it evolved in your experience so far over the last 18 years?

Well, generally speaking, it's evolved I mean, let me paint you a picture. When I first started, these guys would train in garages, basements, gyms if they were lucky enough to get a hold of something like that. But there was no money in the sport, meaning there was no education in the sport, and it was very taboo. So these guys a lot of times would just show up five or six days out of the week, fight each other on concrete floors, and that was how they prepared for fights. There was no focus on being an athlete. I mean, it just was whoever's the toughest king that week, you know, king of the mat kind of thing. So now I look at it and I say, this is so much more recognized as a real legitimate sport, and there are is research and things accessible to us that never was accessible for the majority of my career, mind you. Even when I finally got into the UFC and, you know, I became a world champion, there were still a lot of things that were not available to me at that time, or if they were, I would have had to go out of my way to find these things. And I just didn't even know at that point that they existed. So it wasn't marketed to us. There wasn't really a way for us to understand. And this is even as of 2016. I still feel like because it's a relatively new sport, it was a little behind the curve. But now the UFC's really come around and I mean, we have everything from um our meals we can get delivered each day for us. Uh, we can get, you know, free physical therapy, personal training. Um, we get, you know, our DEXA scans, our body mass index, all these things are accessible to us, even mental coaching, you know, which is another huge aspect of what we do. So much goes into being an athlete when it comes to the mindset, but I think particularly so when you're getting hit in the face.

Oh yeah.

Uh, you know, there's just a there's a there's a rawness, there's a realness to being a fighter and gloving up and going to hand-to-hand combat with another well-trained athlete. And you know, the objective is to dismantle the other person. That that is the objective. It's not to win a game. You know, it's a lot of times feels like you're fighting for your livelihood.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, dismantling that's uh that's just a powerful way to put it, you know.

Uh yeah, and it's a powerful sport. You know, if you can turn the lights out on someone, if you can kick them in the head and knock them out, you won. You've dismantled them. If it takes 20 calf kicks before they can't walk on that leg until you can get them to where you want them and finish that fight, um you it may you know take that time and effort to figure out how to basically, as I mentioned, dismantle the opponent. It's like playing chess with our bodies. It's very strategic.

Yeah, it's uh it's amazing to me. And as I've I've talked, I've got to talk to some very intelligent people in the coaching space that work in and around UFC uh Duncan, uh Joel Jameson does a lot of the energy system training. I know he's worked a lot, he's a good friend, and just seeing how how the complexities of that have come into, you know, it's become very scientific, right? And just how many modalities and how many skill sets you all have to know to be competitive at that level. I mean, I was telling you beforehand, I look at it like I I one thing I know well is CrossFit. And there's so many different skills between gymnastics and Olympic weightlifting and you know, endurance training and all these different things that have to be pieced together to become a champion, right? And then the mindset is like the cherry on top. Um the only difference is those joke is that CrossFitters don't get hit in the face, which is a big difference, right? It's a big difference. But there's a lot of similarities there. Uh, you know, like when you look at like the specialties of it, you know, how like when you were okay, let me put this way. When you were training for your championship, how many coaches diff did you have like on a given week, you know, um, not maybe the the few weeks leading up to the race, but like during the heavy training part of it, how many different sessions, what would what did a week look like for you?

Well, it would be training twice a day, around two hours each session, Monday through Friday, and usually once on Saturdays. Um, and then as far as how many coaches, so this has been something that's been evolving for me, but you know, it would be it would have been a head coach, a another coach, mostly instruction-based. And then if you were lucky enough, maybe a strength and conditioning coach that was going to be specific about you know your strength and conditioning. But the problem is, and sometimes then you'd have a s a specific coach in striking and a specific coach in jujitsu and a specific coach for wrestling. Um and like with many things, right? Business in general, if the inner communication is not good, somebody pays the price, right? And a lot of times it's the athlete in this situation because striking coach says, oh, I get her on Tuesdays, I'm gonna crush her. Wednesday, oh, wrestling coach, oh, I'm you know, it's that once a week with me, she's gonna remember this practice, you know. Thursday, sparring comes around, you're just you're devastated, you know, and then and you still feel like, oh, uh a lot of times the misconception is I must not be in shape because I'm I need to work harder, right? I need to put more into it. And every practice you're going there and it's just absolutely crushing you. I mean, there's such a way more intelligent way to do it now, but in truth, I didn't know that um even up through 2016. So a lot of times there's no communication between the boxing coach and the wrestling coach and the strength and conditioning coach and the the other coaches, where everybody just wants to leave their mark and make sure that they are like pushing you to your your max. But if you're doing that every single session two hours a day, twice a day, what do you have left? Come fight time. When a lot of times that's what you see is when fighters gas out in a fight, I would be hard pressed to pick anything other than overtraining as the reason. Because people don't prepare to fight somebody and know somebody is gonna come in and try to take their head off. It would be hard pressed to understand somebody under-preparing for that, like somebody being lazy about that. I mean, could you imagine if you knew someone was gonna come to your house in a month and try to kick your ass? Like, don't you feel like you'd be like, Oh my, I better get ready. Like, nobody doesn't get ready for something like that. A lot of times it's that they're so anxious and so nervous and they lack guidance and communication between the coaches that they're just so focused on digging, they don't realize they're digging such a hole that they don't even have the light anymore. You know, they're just so far. Down the depletion hole that they haven't given enough back to themselves.

Hey friends, if you have not yet heard of Matabolic, it is my honor to introduce you. Matabolic is the premier barbell-free strength and conditioning franchise on the market. Truly an industry disruptor. I've had the pleasure of knowing their founders for a few years now. Their passion, expertise, and authenticity bleed through the organization, from leadership to franchisee, all the way to the training floor. I was honored to be part of their first annual franchise conference, and I can say the experience was simply different. Culture, camaraderie, and excitement were palpable. The energy was contagious. The brand is definitely an outlier in a world where variety is celebrated and cardio is considered king. Matabolic cuts through the noise with a structured approach to strength-tripping interval training. It is the perfect group fitness program for the everyday go-getter looking to age athletically. Now, it's important to note, Matabolic does not speak average. Instead, they cater to the high achiever that demands excellence and craves accountability. From the training floor to the franchise partner experience to the team behind the brand, you will not find a franchising opportunity more refreshing than Matabolic. If I was looking to open another gym, this is where I bet my money.com. That's M-A-D A-B-O-L-I-C. Yeah, I mean it's it's kind of just too many cooks in the kitchen, right? It's almost like now I would imagine that a really good head coach or primary coach, whatever it may be, almost has to be like a project management role, right?

Ideally, yes. And even that is still becoming a learning process, I think. I think there are some coaches out there who do it well. Um, but the coaches that do the best really lean on the athlete because not every head coach can afford to be uh managing every single person on the team to where they really understand everything that's going on. So a lot of times when you get your head coach, they're still managing five, six, 10, 20 people to different degrees. But if they're a head coach of the gym, you know, if you've got 30, 40, 50 guys in a room, you know, they're gonna kind of be hands-on with everyone to a degree. And they might have their specific people that they work with that they get paid more to work with and be in their corner per se. But that's where I feel like it's important for the fighter to have input. It's really, really important to remember that as athletes, and I'll speak just as fighters because that's what I am. I wouldn't speak outside of my knowledge base, but I do feel like there's a commonality in the sense sometimes athletes, fighters forget that we are ultimately the boss. Everyone that we bring onto our team, we hire, we pay to give us a service. So that doesn't mean that they get to rule us. It means that they get to support us, right? And it's really common. I see it all the time, still to this day, where fighters have coaches who are just, you know, harder, harder, harder, more, more, more. Give it, you know, everything that you've got. And they just think the more that they can drive that athlete into the ground, the better that they're gonna perform because they think that they're training their mental toughness. And in part, I will say that there is a mental toughness that comes when you have you have driven until the wheels are coming off. You just feel like there's nothing that can stop you. Like if you're still moving and the wheels haven't come off, you're still able to do it, nobody can stop you. So there's a mental part of it, I understand, but that is burning the candle at both ends and the middle, right? You just crack that thing open and you're now you've lit the wick from the center points, too. That will only last for so long, right? You we're gonna you're you're gonna be great for a very short amount of time because that is not sustainable. So I look at it and I say, hold on, there's a better way to do this, right? Athletes need to focus on their recovery just as much, if not more, as they focus on the time that they spend in the gym. So when I have a recovery day, for example, it's not just like lounging around my house and doing Netflix. It's a work day. I wake up, I get into my hyperbaric chamber, I do yoga, maybe just for some like movement. I will use my red light, I will plan out my my sleep hygiene for the rest of the week, I'll meal prep, I'll do all the things that I need to do to make sure that my working time is supported by my recovery time. And if we are not foundationally recovering, whether you're an athlete or you're just a regular person, recovery is really, really important. And all too often I find that humans in general, we miss that. Because we just think, well, if we can have it to give, we should give it. Not always true, because again, how long can you do that for? You know, do you want to perform well for a short amount of time, or do you want to perform well for a long time? That's all it's all about the recovery.

Yeah, and that's I'm so glad you brought that up because that was actually gonna be the next direction I wanted to chat with you about is the technology aspect of training nowadays. I mean, I get to talk to a lot of really interesting technology, you know, um companies and and people in that space who are leading the way. And I would imagine there's got to be a strong role for your training when it comes to like training load management, athlete management, like taking all this data, you know, the recovery data and looking at it, and then coming up with not just, you know, um things that are actionable, but actually putting that into play in real time.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's why I encourage fighters to be their own CEO, like be their own boss. Be, you know, show up and if coach says, okay, we're going hard to say, hey, hang on, I just got smashed the last four days, and it's not that I don't want to work hard, because at this point, right, I I feel like you got to know your athlete too. And you gotta know yourself. Like if you're showing up and you're working hard every day, you have to be accountable in what you have to give that day and communicate that effectively, but not be afraid to do it. Not be afraid to say, oh, this is gonna make me look weak, or coach is gonna think that I don't want to work hard. No. Do you want to have the best performance on fight day or not? And I'm learning this still. I'm still I'm, you know, I'm well into my second chapter of fighting. I retired for five years thinking I was never coming back to fighting because I was that athlete who was burning the candle at both ends and the middle. And I did become a world champion, and everybody thinks that's how it has to be done, you know. But I came crashing down after that, and it was bad. I mean, it was really bad. And I thought, I'm done. I'm so burnt out, I'm so done with this. It I had a bitter taste in my mouth, and I retired for five years, met my fiance, had two kids, and was like, I want to fight again. I feel like a more complete person. I came back, I won my first fight back, and then I'm still trying to figure it out because I'm totally different than I was in that first time. Like, how do I balance everything that I think that I need? Because I'm just a work in progress, right? But what I'm discovering, especially after my last fight, my last fight I didn't win. And I had to say, why? Well, I put a lot on my plate. You know, I was like, I'm a go-getter. I like to just go out there and conquer, conquer. So I decided at 35 years old that I was going to drop a weight class for the first time in my life as a mother of two and a business owner and all these other things that I have on my plate that I didn't have on my plate before, and still not fully understanding the recovery and wellness aspect as well as I feel like I do now. So I'm talking about this because I've learned the hard way. Because I'm really understanding what is making me feel better and what is making me feel worse. And when I was still taking on too much and not putting enough back in the cup. So it's like I'm pouring the water in, but how big is the hole in the bottom of the cup? That's what it really comes down to, right? How big is the hole? Is the whole bottom of the cup cut out? Because then it doesn't matter how much water you pour in it, you're never gonna have any left at the end of the day. And if it's a pinhole, okay, well then how do we keep it in balance there, right? Keep that progressive flow so the cup's never overflowing, but the cup is never empty. That's where I'm really at right now, and I feel like I'm getting that grasp on it. So I'm very excited for my next fight. It's June 3rd, and I'm trying to take what I didn't do well in my last fight, which I think was more emotional and hormonal and mental fatigue because I built a Ferrari engine of a body. I mean, I was in top 1% shape in the world. I had to be. Incredible. I mean, I worked my ass off that entire camp, but the bottom of the cup was like the hole was getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I just wasn't able to keep up with the expectation and output. Burning the candle at both ends and the middle again. So I said, I've got to change something this camp because I didn't even get out of first gear in that fight. I just wasn't able to like perform, and it was mental, emotional, hormonal, those things I'm figuring out again. But it wasn't physical. I definitely, you know, was in great shape. But there's more to just being in great shape when you want to deliver as an athlete because the body follows the mind. So where was my head at? That's what I had to ask myself.

Yeah. And that's you know, that brings up a nice uh you know direction that we would talk because I know you have a lot to offer. Um, I mean, you have a lot to offer in general. There's amazing insights just for life and support that you've already provided, but especially in how the female trains. And you know, as you and I were discussing um previously to recording, is that you know, I've talked to a lot of people uh who are in the the femtech space that and you know, obviously people are attracted to that space because it's a huge market. You know, from a capitalist standpoint, it's a huge market. It's 51% of the planet. And but it's it's embarrassing how little research clinically we've done on the female physiology in comparison to male. I mean, every basically everything we know about the human physiology at this point, the large majority is all based on men.

Right.

Right? But you know, you were talking about hormones and emotions and all the things that went into training. So what what can you what insights can you glean so far as why there's significant differences in in male and female training and um what people can focus on differently to be to improve?

Well, I will say that almost everything that I had done up until more very recently was based off of a male model with some small exceptions. Okay, that I I do think that men understand in general, like, oh, when you're on your cycle, okay, maybe it's not a time to go as hard. Or you know, it's just kind of become like a more normal thing that women are in the gym and taking that into account when she doesn't feel well in that sense. But as far as the science goes, I'm with you, Eric, there's just not a lot there. And and partially it's because women are much more challenging to study because we change so much. So, in talking to Dr. Mindy Pelz, I did a podcast with her on the Resetter Podcast, and we talked a lot about the female body. She specializes in hormones of the female body. So, and through fasting, that's a big part of her messaging. So I've adapted fasting into my lifestyle, but according to my hormones. So instead of doing it based off of a male model, I'm actually for the first time in my life saying, okay, well, how can I do this for a female? Because when our hormones are dysregulated, did you know 80% of autoimmune diseases occur in women?

I had no idea.

80%.

That's that's not a stat you hear often. And I hear a lot of stats.

Yeah. Oh, 80%. And, you know, there are a lot of theories out there as to why that is. You know, some of it we could certainly, I believe, could be because women tend to be more traumatized and objectified as children and women growing up, right? We have to deal with more of like sexualization, you know, childhood trauma, these kinds of things. Women tend to be victims much more often than men. So let's set the trauma to the side. There's a part of that I think that is important to acknowledge, but hormonally, this is where it gets really interesting and where I do think we're able to understand a little bit more on a science level. So, for example, men operate primarily on a 24-hour hormone cycle. And you guys get testosterone every 15 minutes. Women operate on a 28-day hormone cycle, means that no day is really the same for us. And we get testosterone once a month. So we're very fundamentally different in our hormones. And when women operate outside of their hormonal benefit, we notice major detriment, massive detriment to the female hormone and therefore psychology, right? We start to feel bad. So we do become more emotional. So I'm sure, you know, every, you know, it's it's a common joke, right? That women are emotional and that it's this, and you know, we hear I hear it all the time. But but in truth, I think it's because we're also not supported in feeling good. When we feel good, we're great. Like we can do so many things and we serve so many people. So, how do we do that? How do I do that as an as an athlete? Well, part of it is understanding my hormones, right? So if I'm different than you, I can't fast the same as you, right? So how I've basically done this is is um involved my coaches together collaboratively to understand according to the 28-day hormone cycle that I'm on, when I should be training in what way. And then on my own, I'm intermittently fasting when I can, according to my cycle. So if you would like, I could break down a little bit of what that looks like. Oh yeah. Yeah. So so guys can go on a um a week schedule, and then every day they can have it be kind of repetitive. For women, we need to look at this as like a month-long schedule. And so when we're in phase one, which is the bleed, that's cycle one. We have estrogen high and progesterone is dropping down. So our estrogen is coming up high. It's also a really beautiful hormone that loves a lot of cardio, likes to be able to push the cardio. So, granted, you're not dealing with too many symptoms. For me, that's usually done like in the first day or two, and then I feel great. Um, and we can really push our cardio. Then we move into a testosterone phase. So that one time a month that I was talking about where we get testosterone, that might be a great time for us to hit the weights hard. Because any other time that we're in there lifting weights, it's not that we're not getting gains. It's just that we're not gonna maximize it. So it's an uphill battle, right? So I push the weight lifting during that part of the phase in the middle. And then we get into a point where progesterone becomes prevalent. And this is a very sensitive time for women. It's not a time when you want to pick a fight with your wife. It's not a time when you want to ask her to take on a big project. It's not a time when she wants to be stressed out because of work, because these things all work against our hormones. And I think it's important for men to understand this too, because I promise you, we'll have a better relationship with the females in your life if you can understand that she is meant to have these changes because women birthed every single person on this planet. It is how we're meant to function. And we are like incredibly powerful, loving beings if we can operate inside of this hormonal balance and change that we're meant to go through. So when progesterone is high, it is a chill the fuck out week. It's like calm down, let's not stress out a little, let's not conquer the world. Not this week. That was last week, right? That was the week when we were, you know, testosterone. That's like, ooh, that's when the sex drive goes up, you know, that's when the wife is feeling like she's motivated, she's doing everything, she's just got it this week. And then we transition into that, that, that progesterone phase, and it's like, okay, now we're gonna bounce that out. We need a little, little, we need a little downtime. We need to calm down a little bit, we need to deload this week, right? And then we move back into cycle phase one. I kind of simplified that a little bit. There is some changes where estrogen and progesterone come in and they kind of phase in and out um throughout the cycle. But generally speaking, that's kind of what it looks like. So for me, phase one, I'm pushing cardio. Phase two into phase three, I'm with lifting weights and I'm, you know, taking advantage of the fact that I finally have testosterone available to me and usually doing a little more ass kicking inside the gym that week as well. And then what's really important, hear me out on this. When progesterone is here, the week before the cycle begins, it is very important that women dial it back inside the gym, inside the responsibilities, inside the DLO, that stress. Because if we don't do that, here's where it gets really problematic. We can lose our cycles. And when we lose our cycles, it's a sign of dysfunction, hormonal dysregulation inside the body, which just makes us feel awful. It makes you feel like you are stuck inside inside of a body that you don't that you don't want to be with sometimes. It's it can make you feel like you're just crazy, like you're not able to control and regulate your own emotions, which is a very disheartening feeling. Um, and you know, we hear about this female athletes losing their cycles a lot. This happens a lot in fighting. And you know what happens when they go into fight week a lot of times, it's a deload week, right? So because they have not deloaded for eight, 10, 12 weeks, it's just been go, go, go, go, go. They never allow progesterone to be present. Cortisol is like the arch nemesis of progesterone. So cortisol is high. If stress is high, progesterone's going down. And long story short, they will start their psycho fight week, regardless of when it should have been, because that becomes a D-load week in the physical aspect. So then now they're cutting weight at the worst time and and fighting and performing at, you know, the worst time when progesterone is high. It just makes it hard for females to deliver the best uh version of themselves because it's not a hormone that wants to promote cutting weight, like pulling water out of your body. No thanks. And it's definitely not a hormone that's gonna want you to go out there and be strong and explosive and get into a fist fight with somebody. It's like a chill out, eat chocolate, and watch Netflix kind of hormone, you know? So understanding that is really important. It's not just important for the female athlete. I mean, I think it's crucial for the female athlete, but it's really important that women understand this. And I also feel like it's really important that men understand this so that you could just get a grasp on how to support the women in your life so that everything works synergistically. Like, isn't that way better when we all function together well? We can all play nice. Um, it's yeah, it is, right? It is, Misha. It is. So I think understanding what women go through in that sense um makes a big difference.

So, questions as a guy. Um women kind of have probably, you know, uh, you've been in your body your whole life, right? Some in intuition as to how the cycles are going. You have some insights, right? We're clueless over here. Like we have no idea what's going on from the outside. Like, is there do you have any tools or anything that you use to track everything, you know, uh objectively? Yes. Right? Uh or like, okay.

Okay, so there's an app called Fitter Woman, F-I-T-R, that I share with my male trainer, actually, and we collaborate together to create the workouts that make sense for my body, what is going through hormonally. I would suggest that every single female athlete use this app because it's one of the best tools that we have available with the limited resources and research that we have. So, yes, lean on your intuition, but understand we do know when certain hormones are present. And we should lean into those so that we can be hormonally regulated, so we can feel the best and deliver the best. Uh, if we're working against our hormones, not only do we cause a lot of problems, you know, emotionally and mentally, but physically we're not gonna be able to perform as well either. Um, and then if you want just my little to, you know, cherry on the top at home. Um, if you want to encourage your wife maybe to be able to say it without saying it, let you know, buy buy some different colored candles. You know what's progesterone week? Have her light the blue candle. When it's phase one, cycle is initiated, have her light the pink candle. You know what I mean? You come home like, okay, honey, you realize, okay, blue candle, chill out. Like, let's not bombard the wife with all the issues we need to let's give her a little time to support her hormones in this. And then, you know, maybe once she's if she's having a good day, let's light a white candle, you know, like whatever your method of communication, but sometimes say less but communicate more is really effective, right? It just kind of lets you know, clues you in. Doesn't mean you have to have a whole big conversation about it. But um, this is where I'm at right now, honey. Love you, leave me the fuck alone, right?

So flip flipping brilliant. And uh what I suggest to guys uh as you're listening to this is maybe just slide this podcast over, you know, to your or listen to it with your partner. And I think it'd be really valuable. I mean, I know uh my wife's gonna listen to this one for sure, and we'll have a nice little conversation about it. Or maybe won't. Maybe there'll just be one day, they'll just be candles on our kitchen counter.

I hope that men can find as much value in this as the women do because we all coexist together, right? Anyone who has a female in their life that they love or wish that they could uh even in you know the work environment, just to understand this, I think is is really important and it's imperative if we want to move forward. And be able to support our women, right? 51% of the world. Um, it just feels good. And it feels good to be supported. Like the woman in your life will absolutely appreciate that kind of support. And one more shout-out, I would love to give to uh Minnie Peltz is fast like a girl. Pass that book along, whether it's on Audible or you buy the book for your wife. I just think that there is so much power in understanding the female hormones. And all of that stuff applies to you guys too, except you have no rules and timelines. You're just able to do all of it whenever you want to. Women have to play by a little bit more of a timeline. Of course, it's a little more difficult for us, but it's worth it.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, it it uh drives my wife bananas that you know, we'll come home. Like we were in Brazil for two weeks, right? And we both came home significantly heavier due to like 30 hours of plane travel, food, salt, more beer than usual, and like carbs. Four days later, I was like, I did some interim fasting and some basic cardio and you know, try to sleep eight hours a night, and I was kind of normal.

And uh and let me guess, yeah, she's looking at you like she wants to stab you in your eye, like how in the hell, you know, and that can be challenging for women, but it's like if we have the support from men, it's like honey, you're it's okay, you'll get there in your own timeline. We don't need to compare each other. We're different. Her body was designed to make and support life, and and you know, it's it's okay. Like to support her in feeling okay, that it's gonna take her longer, I think is is really great. Um, so I think if we can all understand that and give a little roo space for you know appreciating the female body, then you know, more power to us.

Right on. I love it. Let's talk about you as an entrepreneur and business person. I mean, you you have uh Desert Moon wellness, right? You have a great partnership with uh the good people at at Mode Method. Um I mean you're kind of lining up this whole um, I guess, wellness enterprise uh based on your experience, your insights, your influence. So give us give us some some yeah, give us some details about that.

Well, basically in a nutshell, I have been breaking people for 18 years, and I feel like I've got to balance it out by trying to fix people now. So that's where I'm at. I'm making that transition and I'm I'm trying to add balance to my life. And you know, I think I've always been a healer, I've always been somebody who loves and nurtured nurtures. I had this nickname Mama Misha since well before I had kids because my house has always been a revolving door. I always have fighters living with me, staying with me, always trying to help people out. And why? Because it feels good. It's a really selfish thing to do, honestly. Like to help people just feels good. So as I'm learning these things, I want to continue to be a voice and use the platform that I've made as a fighter, but also bring in this other aspect that is more female friendly and performance-friendly because life really is just one big performance. So, how well do we want to do it? Like, do you want to suck at it or do you want to enjoy it? And like, how do you want to do it really well for a short amount of time, or do you want to actually have a good quality of life for the amount of time that you're alive? We get one go-around. So I look at this and say we could be doing it a lot better. You know, the fact that nearly 70% of the US population is on one prescription medication and near and over 50% are on two, we are not doing it right. We are missing the mark by a long shot. So there are a lot of things out there that are free that we can be doing to help us live a better quality of life. Like, wouldn't it be nice to be able to sleep better at night so you can wake up in the morning and not hate the fact that you have to wake up? Like, what an awful problem to have. Like that you don't enjoy living a life. Like, I it's so sad to me that some people wake up with that. The the first thing that they think when their alarm clock goes off is dread. That is not the way that life was meant to be lived. I just cannot buy into that. I can't subscribe to it. So, what are we doing wrong? You know, what are we doing wrong? Or what can we do to live within the realm that we are but mitigate some of those problems? So you mentioned mode and method. I love them because they the HRV Plus is a supplement that is going to help you with your HRV. If you aren't familiar with what that is, you might want to Google it, but it's just a great measurement of telling you like how your stress load is and how ready you are to manage, uh, to take on stress or to manage stress. So we use it as, you know, fundamentally, religiously as athletes. It's a marker for just about every way that we choose to perform or how we indication of how we can perform. But I think as regular people, it's very great information as well. So, anyways, mode and method is a supplement that I take before I go to sleep and it helps me get restorative sleep. Um, it has uh it goes in with our endocannabinoid receptors and helps us to um basically get that restoration so that we can do better and have better HRV, essentially. Um, and that you know, again, it comes back to what what is the opposite of of of go is stop. So sleep is where you need, if you want to have a strong green light, you gotta have a strong red light, right? You gotta stop and you gotta be really good at that, really good at sleeping, really good at recovery. So that when you wake up, the first thought isn't, oh my God, I don't want to get out of bed today. It's I feel good. Maybe you woke up five minutes before your alarm went off and you're like, I don't even need to hear it today. Like I'm ready to go. That is my goal. I want people to perform life well. So you know, there's so many things that we could do. I mean, three deep breaths. Can anybody just focus for three deep breaths? Like that is proven to take your fight or flight nervous system and put it back into a parasympathetic state and relax you. Three deep breaths. That is powerful. One deep breath is powerful. Maybe it's a mindful shower, maybe it's 30 minutes out in the sun. Like, what can you realistically do? I think anybody can take one deep breath when they're feeling stressed out. It's free. Oxygen is free. Um, you know, sleeping better. Can you limit blue light at night? Can you turn your phone off 30 minutes before you go so what can you do? Can you wait 10 minutes before you pick up your phone in the morning so that your brain actually can thrive in that brainwave state that you're in? If you learn about the way that the brain works, you know, you're you're robbing yourself of some creativity of your day if you don't, if you pick up your phone in that first 10 minutes of your day, because then you're just getting inundated, right? And the brain goes straight into bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. No wonder it sucks. Like you don't want to do today. All right. Give yourself 10 minutes. Can you wake up? Can you brush your teeth? Can you take a breath? Can you look outside for crying out loud? Like how many people wake up every day, they don't even look outside before they go about their day, right? These things are progress when progressively making us sick when you add all of it together, and we didn't even touch on nutrition, right? But it's all of these things when we miss the mark on so many things consistently, we pay for it in one way, because you're gonna pay for it regardless. You know, if you if if you're spending it now, you know, you're gonna you're gonna pay for it later, however you look at it. Um, there's always something or someone gonna pay the price. And if it's you and your body and your health, there's gonna be a day when you wake up and you might not like what that looks like. You know, when you're when you when you're talking to an oncologist or when you are um, you know, you randomly die of a heart attack. Like, you know, this sounds extreme, but this is happening. These things are happening. You know, I just watched a video of a of a 12-year-old kid who had to save his entire bus um from wrecking because the bus driver had uh cardio cardiac arrest like on the bus. Like he, you know, I mean, these things are happening. So there's just a better way to do it. And I want to continue to share as much as I can with all the great, wonderful resources and people and you know, longevity labs and you being a great voice for that, and what I'm learning from all these amazing people. I've been an athlete my entire life. My body's been my business. I've been a biohacker before I knew what biohacking even was. I didn't even know that was a term that existed, but I've been trying to figure out how to do it better for a very long time. And I'm getting better at doing it better. So I want to keep sharing that.

Yeah, right on. Well, you you've definitely earned yourself a platform. You know, uh I don't think there's any shortcuts in the way you've done things, you know, from the hard work you put in and the influence that you have. And I think, you know, all the stuff that you've talked about today, especially with the the female physiology and training, is not really talked about. It's not not even close to enough. And you know, with the um, you know, I think that the continued growth of female athletics and sport and competition, I think it's it's something that's really important to talk about. And you know, even just uh gosh, got if if people put candles in their color candles in their kitchen, I think we we've we've won a huge win here, Misha. I think that's really big. So uh you know, just kind of wrap it up. If uh what do you this is a question I always like to ask um of my guests, just in the spirit of collaboration, but what do you need right now? Like who do you want to hear from, you know, as far as a business or entrepreneur or coaches, like uh if if you want to connect or get help, what what can we do for you?

Oh gosh, that is a certain load of question. There's so many people out there that I just adore and I I look up to, you know. Um, I think I'd really like to connect with Element. And I I don't think that is too far out of my realm. We didn't talk a lot about nutrition, but when you're fasting, if you decide to take up a laughing fasting lifestyle, please, please, please don't forget your minerals and electrolytes. Um, and Element is a great brand. I have zero affiliation with them. I just really like their product. Um, I also like Ultima, but Element is just delicious and it's easy and it's it's uh like per pack, so it's a little easier to take with me to the gym. You have it?

I'm pointing at boxes behind me. Yeah. Uh oh yeah. Yeah, I'm I'm an affiliate partner and I know Rob well. So we can we can make that happen because there we go.

See, I think a lot of people I know Mindy knows Rob as well, and I just haven't done that yet, and I should move on it because I'm a huge advocate for um, you know, salt gets a lot of bad rap. And I even heard you mention earlier about salt and water retention. So I've been reading this book called The Salt, um, the salt fix. And I don't actually think that salt holds water in your body. I think it's more carbs and sugars. You know, salt has been portrayed as a bad guy back by the the when sugar was making its mark on the industry and it's very addictive. And I I um I think a lot of people think salt is bad. I I disagree. I think salt is essential. Um, as long as you're drinking a lot of water, plenty of water, um, it's really hard to overdo good salts um because your body can filter them out with ease, you know, and it doesn't cause like these big hormoned um things like sugar does. It's not addictive like sugar does. And we naturally kind of have a ugly that's enough. We have a a natural built-in response to too much salt. So it's it's easy for us to say, oh, that was enough. Whereas sugar is the opposite, right? It has that, oh, we want um more of that. Uh it's it becomes an addictive substance. So, anyways, salt and electrolytes, very, very, very important if uh you are looking, especially if you're looking to do fasting, but you know, it's it's it's important for muscle contraction, cogn cognition. Oh, yeah. If you want to have less brain fog, eat salt. If you're feeling lethargic um and you've been on a low sodium diet, a low salt diet, chances are like look into it. Um there's still a lot of misinformation out there, and a lot of our doctors, even with good intentions, our medical system isn't always built built to have full understanding. You still have to understand where things come from and are funded and you know who are passing what regulations. Like when you really start to understand that, you know, when salt was but sugar became the good guy and fat and salt became the bad guy. I think we're really starting to understand that wasn't the truth, but we already have a huge problem now. Sugar's in everything that we consume, it's really hard to get away from. So, anyways, um, yay for salt.

Yeah.

And uh Misha, if if you want, if our listeners want to go somewhere to learn more online, is there any particular place you want them to go? Instagram, website, uh, email, you name it. What where would you like them to go?

I like to always shout out the grams. So my primary Instagram is Misha Tate, M-I-E, I'm for E except after C, also applies to Misha. Um and then I just launched a page called Mama Misha. That's M-A-M-M-A Misha. Um, and that for me is the start of this wellness and performance trends. I really want to have messaging there that's more than just about me as the fighter, but it's going to encompass these things like a talk about for women, but for people in general. If you want to do life better, if you want to perform at life better, that is going to be a place where I'm going to share more of those concepts. So people are also welcome to follow me there. I haven't really promoted it very big yet because um I'm still working on it, right? I'm a work in progress, but these things are near and dear to my heart, so I know I'm moving in the right direction.

Yeah, awesome. And you got a fight coming up. You got a lot of stuff going on. Yeah. I think that's uh it's it's okay. Well, Misha, thank you so much for coming on. This has been a lot of fun, and you know, I learned a lot. I still have a lot more questions for you that got unasked. Uh, but maybe we can get you back on in a year or so we could talk about it.

I'm so long-winded. We can always do this again.

Okay, great. Great. Well, thank you so much. Really appreciate your time. Ladies and gentlemen, Misha Tate.

Thank you.

Hey, wait, don't leave yet. This is your host, Eric Malzone, and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Future of Minute. If you did, I'm gonna ask you to do three simple things. It takes under five minutes and it goes such a long way. We really appreciate it. Number one, please subscribe to our show wherever you listen to it. iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, whatever it may be. Number two, please leave us a favorable review. Number three, share. Put it on social media, talk about it to your friends, send it in a text message, whatever it may be. Please share this episode because I put a lot of work into it. I want to make sure that as many people are getting value out of it as possible. Lastly, if you'd like to learn more or get in touch with me, simply go to the future of fitness.co. You can subscribe to our newsletter there, or you can simply get in touch with me, as I love to hear from our listeners. So thank you so much. This is Eric Malzone, and this is the future of fitness. Have a great day.