PM: I am just curious how did you get started in Strength and Conditioning and how did you get started at Quinnipiac?

BP: I knew I wanted to be a strength and conditioning coach when I was a senior at High School. I attended the University of Connecticut and volunteered and gained experience during my undergraduate career in the varsity weight room. This led to a graduate assistant position there and then an opportunity opened up at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester MA. I was there for 4.5 years and then had the unique opportunity to start a strength and conditioning program from scratch at Quinnipiac University. I’ve been here since 2008 and it’s been a great journey so far.

PM: You have such a positive attitude, open mind, and are always seeking to learn. I am curious what helped mold/develop this in yourself?

BP: I believe my parents pushing me to become better and never being satisfied with my current grades, or status helped develop this quality. I didn’t appreciate it when I was younger but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized how important it is to have your passion drive your motivation and my passion is to improve and gain a greater understand of health and performance so I can better help the student-athletes that I work with daily.

PM: How did you first get introduced to Be Activated/RPR? What was your 'aha' moment with the system?

BP: A friend of mine, Steve Volek, shared the system with me and first opened my eyes to it. I started to implement bits and pieces with my student athletes and starting seeing some incredible changes, namely how quickly we could create firing pattern changes to improve performance. That was my “aha” moment and soon realized I needed to learn more. I become RPR level 1 certified in November of 2016 and just recently received my level 2.​

PM: Sometimes the results with Be Activated/RPR can seem almost too good to be true. Did you have any doubts/skepticism about any aspects of this system.

BP: I actually didn’t have any doubts because we saw the changes daily and with a number of athletes. We were fortunate enough to experiment and be able to have a large sample size instantly, so we could really see the power in the system.

PM: How has incorporating Be Activated/RPR into your program change how you run it and coach?

BP: It’s given me a greater appreciation of movement quality, firing patterns and ensuring that our athletes are ready to go for whatever it is we ask of them. It’s given me another set of lenses to view movement and performance. This has made me a better coach because my toolbox has dramatically improved.

PM: You are in a unique position to answer this since you train so many NCAA D1 athletes. What would be your biggest piece of advice to a young athlete who has aspirations in competing in his/her sport at the NCAA D1 level?​

BP: My biggest advice is to be the hardest working person you can be. This means on the field of play and off the field. You cannot choose when you want to be disciplined and work hard. It has to be part of your fabric and something that you do all the time.

If you are as hyped and inspired by this interview as I am and would like to learn more about Brijesh, make sure to follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and check out his interview on the Useful Coach Podcast, where he delves more deeply into his philosophies about coaching,a dn applying the Be Activated/RPR system.

If you have no idea what Be Activated/RPR watch the video above, and try the self activation sequence. The results speak for themselves! Be Activated/RPR is a great tool, but it is just that a tool. In the interview above we can see why Brijesh was able to use this tool so well, and achieve such great results. All true success, starts from the inside out, and how you come to your work/sport/ or school every day. Are you always giving your best? How you do anything is how you do everything. 

​If you can't sustain it's not worth it, 

Pavan Mehat

​PM: May you please elaborate some more on your story about how you got interested in studying the therapeutic role of our microbiota in our health? You briefly mention it in the book, but I think the shift your research has taken from understanding the biological mechanisms of pathological bacteria (ex. salmonella) to understanding the complex but mostly beneficial relationship the many bacteria in our gut have with our own health is fascinating . 
 
BF: We were working on diarrhea, and had a lab retreat on Galiano, and during a brain storming session someone started asking 'what about all those other microbes in the gut?".  This was really early days, so we came home and designed some experiments to see if enteric pathogens, and the rest is history.
 
PM: You state in the book that one of the primary dietary assaults on our microbiota is excess refined sugar which feed the 'bad' bacteria. However, sometimes you briefly mention in your book about avoiding dietary fat. It is now known that Ancel Keys's work linking saturated fatty acids (SFA) with poor health outcomes was inherently flawed and the data was manipulated to strengthen the desired relationship. However, there is increasing research coming out showing that there really is no association between SFA and negative health outcomes. Recently there was a meta analysis in the BMJ (see article here) showing no reliable association between SFA and all cause mortality or CVD mortality, and the incidence of CHD, ischemic stroke, and type 2 Diabetes. However, there is a positive relationship between all the aforementioned events and the consumption of trans fat. I am not very well versed with the literature examining dietary consumption and the microbiota, but is their relationship between fat consumption and the microbiota's health similar to what is found in other fields (such as the BMJ meta analysis above)?
 
BF: I don't know this field well.  Read "the big fat surprise" if you really want to get the scoop on fats and carbs.  My take on it is that fats are not the problem (Americans have cut 12% of their fat from their diet, yet look at what has happened), and it is the simple carbs (white flour, white sugar) that are predigested, get absorbed in the small intestine, thereby starving the microbes lower down.
 
PM: You mention the benefits of probiotics throughout the book. However, as you mentioned, there is a huge market and therefore a lot of selection. Are there any specific pointers or things you would recommend someone look out for when picking a probiotic? I imagine like most unregulated industries, there are some really good products and some really bad products. 
 
BF: Go to "letthemeatdirt.com" and click on "probiotics". (Here is the link if you want to go check it out now)  There is a link to a meta study that lists all the probiotics that have been tested in western medicine standards (double blind, placebo, controls…), and rates the strength of evidence and references.  A few (post antibiotic diarrhea for example) actually work.
 
PM: All the evidence surrounding the microbiota seems to point towards a "critical" period early in life for its optimal development. Unfortunately, all of us have very little control to our antimicrobial exposure, access to outdoors, and diet during this period in our lives. Therefore, if someone felt like their microbiota was lacking, would you still recommend someone follow the core principles in your book you laid out to optimize the development of the microbiota in children? 
 
BF: Yes, varied diet low on red meat, such as mediterranean, and don't be scared of getting dirty.
 
PM: You recommended the "5210" diet (5 servings of vegetables and/or fruit, two hours or less of screen time, one hour of physical activity, and zero sweetened drinks) for children, but I’m sure most adults would benefit from this diet as well. As a full fledged academic, do you have any advice to reducing screen time? I do my best to minimize screen time but as a medical student, I find I am spending much more time on the screens than I would like. Is it less avoiding screen time, and consciously making time to spend outdoors? 
 
BF: I wish, as we are all glued to our screen.  Schedule exercise time, and screen free time, and stick to it.  Read a book, go for a run…
 
PM: What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to an up and coming academic?

BF: Work hard and play hard.  Publish as much as possible.  And enjoy the ride.

B. Brett Finlay, PhD, is professor of microbiology at the University of British Columbia and a world leader in how bacterial infections work. He has been studying microbes for over thirty years and has published over four hundred and fifty articles. Also a founder of the biotech companies Inimex, Vedanta, and Microbiome Insights, Brett is Officer of the Order of Canada—the highest Canadian civilian recognition. He lives in Vancouver, BC, with his wife, who is a paediatrician, and has two grown-up kids. If you are interested in learning more about what research is going on check here. If you want to learn more about Let Them Eat Dirt make sure to check out their website, facebook page, and twitter.
 
 
Let Them Eat Dirt was one of the most enjoyable books I have read recently. I devoured it in two days. One of the challenges with writing such a book is to make it accessible to a general audience without simplifying and losing the essence of the science. The authors of this book did the perfect job of walking on this fine line. If you are interested in what YOU can do to take control of your health by taking care of your gut microbiota, then this book is for you!
 
If you can’t sustain it’s not worth it,
 
Pavan Mehat 

​This post contains affiliate links. Click here to read my affiliate policy.

I am nearing the end of my first year of medical school, which seems as if it has gone by in a flash. However, earlier in the semester, I had got a nasty bout of the flu. I think it was exacerbated by the heavy workload, and lack of sleep. I was not feeling very well and was not in the state of mind to study so I took the opportunity and space to think, and reflect. While I was doing so, I came across Oli Doyle's excellent book Mindfulness Plain and Simple.

​I have always been fascinated with the power of the human mind and therefore I began exploring meditation/mindfulness quite early in my life as a means to improve my performance. However, I soon realized that they were many other benefits I did not expect. I have read countless books regarding meditation/mindfulness from authors such as the Dali Lama, Swami Rama, and Eckart Tolle. While their work is insightful and filled with wisdom, I found it difficult at times to apply what they said in my own life. That is why I appreciated Oli Doyle's book so much. It inspired me to restart my meditation practice which was something I leaned on heavily during my undergraduate and graduate studies but I let slip when I began medical school. 

As I delved deeper into meditation/mindfulness, I became increasingly cynical and despondent by the slew of "gurus" who had the "solution" to all of life's ills. They would claim that you could enjoy everlasting peace and happiness BUT only if you signed up for their next course. Once you did, there was always another technique, retreat, etc. to go on or learn.

Initially as I devoured through these books (and thankfully I was able to loan a lot of them from the Boston Public Library), I became excited at the potential to reach this "enlightened" state in which all my problems would be insignificant and that I would no longer feel "negative" emotions or pain. However, I soon realized that no matter how many books I read about this topic that would not occur. It was one of the biggest mistakes I made once I began this journey - something Oli Doyle does an excellent job discussing in his book. This book does a wonderful job of bringing these concepts back to earth in an easy to understand format. ​This is a quote directly from the back cover from his book:

I have the privilege of sharing my interview with author Oli Doyle below:

PM: What got you interested in learning more about mindfulness and integrating it into your life? 

OD: I first got interested in meditation because life was going well, but I still wasn't happy. I tried everything I could find to relieve that suffering, but nothing else worked. 

PM: What motivated you to write your excellent book, Mindfulness Plain and Simple? My first introduction to mindfulness-based practices was Echkart Tolle's book The Power of Now. I loved his book, but I found it hard to apply it in my life. However, I really enjoyed and appreciated your book for its practicality and pragmatism. I was able to apply the ideas in your book right away to my own life. 

OD: The book came out of my own confusion when I was learning to meditate. When I discovered how simple it actually is, I wanted to make it quicker for others to learn, and I wanted to create something that would not alienate those who don't see themselves as 'spiritual '. 

PM: One of the biggest struggles I have with integrating a mindfulness-based practice is to maintain that state of present moment attention while studying at school, playing sports, or spending time with friends. Would you have any advice to help transfer that state of presence one may experience when alone or while meditating into the activities of daily life? 

OD: Welcome to the human race! In Zen, they do a mix of sitting and walking meditation to create a bridge between quiet awareness and active awareness, which I see as very skillful. Do some of your practice on the bus, in the car, during breaks at work and you can build that bridge too. 

Also, I wrote The Mindful Living Series for just that purpose; to help turn life into mindfulness practice. 

PM: Conflict is almost guaranteed to occur sometime in one's life. Whether it's avoiding conflict at all costs or being overly confrontational, it is an area that we all struggle with dealing. How would you recommend someone mindfully approach conflict? 

OD: Watch your reactions (internal and external) closely. Listen to others fully, and allow them time and space to talk. And mostly, use conflict to learn more about yourself and to find the beliefs that are hiding within. 

My books 'Mindful Relationships' and 'Mindfulness at Work ' have lots of conflict related practices too. 

PM: For myself personally, meditation and mindfulness have played a huge role in allowing me to not only be more effective in every facet of my life, but also enjoy it more. Further, there continues to be more and more research elucidating the physiological and psychological benefits of meditation and mindfulness. However, there seems to still be some resistance from clinicians/high level athletes or working professionals to integrate this into their life for various reasons. Including, "I don't have time" or "Meditation is new age nonsense" or "I am already calm and do not need to meditate." What would you say to an individual or individual(s) who would say this about mindfulness/meditation. 

OD: I wouldn't. Everyone has their own journey and their stories are none of my business. 

PM:What is the biggest piece of advice you would give to a young person who feels overwhelmed, and feels like everything is out of control? It may seem mindfulness may be the last thing that they need to start incorporating into their life. How would you coach them on beginning to integrate mindfulness into their life (without belittling their emotions)?
​
OD: If they asked me, I would show them the skills, if not, I would just listen. Everyone has the same wisdom. 

As you can tell from this interview Oli does a masterful job of taking the complexities of mindfulness and presenting it in a manner that appeases our mind's clever questions without losing it's true essence. Oli is someone who embodies what he teaches with a goal to spread the message and benefits of mindfulness instead of hoarding and keeping his message to himself. There are many tidbits that I have already started to apply in my own life!  

In 2003, Oli Doyle sat down in the lounge room of a share house in Bendigo, Australia and tried to meditate. He tried to quiet his mind. He failed miserably. Armed with nothing but stubbornness, ignorance, and a long standing refusal to read the manual, Oli blundered along the meditative path until he finally realized: you just have to pay attention to what’s happening now. After smacking himself in the back of the head several times for not grasping this earlier, Oli set to work, training himself to be present. What followed was a transformation that was both ordinary and incredible. Stress mostly vanished, anxiety disappeared and life became steadily more enjoyable. This journey continues today. Once Oli figured out how to meditate, he was struck by two things: the simplicity of the practice, and the complicated nature of much of the teachings. If you would like to learn more about Oli Doyle or check out some of his other books, make sure to check out his Website, Twitter, and Facebook page. 

If you have not begun a meditation/mindfulness practice before, make sure to check out my video above where I provide a brief introduction to meditation. However, meditation/mindfulness is NOT something that needs to be rigorously studied but something that must be experienced and practiced. So get started! :) Please leave a comment about the most important take-away from this interview and any positive experiences you may have had with meditation/mindfulness. 

If you can't sustain it's not worth it, 

Pavan Mehat
​

This is the fifth part of my Pyramid of Successful Movement series (Read More: Pain-Free, Strength/Power, Skill, Conditioning). In this series, I will discuss each of the fundamentals in order of increasing complexity. At the end I will give a hypothetical case study and address the movement program design for this individual if he were my client. The next post in this series will be a hypothetical case study. 

Mental Clarity
​
If you have made it to this level, serious congratulations are in order! You are either an elite athlete looking for that competitive edge to take your game to the next level or you are a fitness enthusiast that is seeking to become the best you can be. As you progress and gain competency at your craft, the mechanics of what you do become less important because everyone at your level will be proficient in them. The mental side therefore becomes increasingly important because that is where the greatest variability occurs. To continue making progress, you need to optimize your mental approach to what you are doing.

Typically, the term “mental toughness” is thrown around to describe an athlete or person who has understood how to master their psychology to produce remarkable results. However, I am not a big fan of that term. I prefer mental clarity because it does not imply a resistance and single minded focus, the hallmark of the fight or flight response. Instead, elite performance is characterized by an expansive intake of sensory information, which is the reason things seem to slow down and decision-making seems so effortless. You are simply more aware of your surroundings and pick up on cues that predict events much earlier than usual.

​Think back to the last time that you were in a peak performance state. During my best performance at Boston University where I was competing in the last event of the meet, I was filled with this inner calm despite all the attention being directed towards me. Usually, I am quite self conscious but that day I was in the ‘zone’. All the noise and crowd was there but it just did not matter. To perform at your best the goal is NOT to quiet the mind to suppress thoughts of doubt and negativity, but instead be aware of as much as possible, resist nothing, and clearly focus on your goal at hand.

Being able to consistently enter this state of mental clarity is what separates the great from good athletes. How do you train yourself to enter this state? Meditation. Check out my video above for some meditation and breathing techniques that you can use right now. Make sure to subscribe to my Youtube channel so you do not miss out on future content!
​
If you can’t sustain it, it’s not worth it.

Pavan Mehat

Pain is both a blessing and a curse. It provides an absolutely essential role in ensuring our survival. However, when the processes that control pain become disregulated, it can be the source of the most intense suffering a human can experience. Pain itself is not the problem, but once it transitions to chronic pain, it becomes no longer useful. Check out the video below to better understand chronic pain.

Chronic pain can be a result of a many things. It can be caused by poor mechanics (aka musculoskeletal pain), traumatic injury, or pathology. While the vast majority of chronic pain is musculoskeletal or caused by a traumatic event, it is essential to understand the tell tale signs that point to pathological pain. 

Recently in school, during our hematology week, we learned about a bone cancer called multiple myeloma. One of the classic ways it presents is with the patient coming into the clinic complaining of back pain that is not responding to physio/massage/acupuncture etc. 

The point in sharing this clinical pearl is not to petrify you and have you think it will be bone cancer anytime you experience pain. I shared this clinical gem to help you understand that one of the many early signs of serious pathology in the human body can seem to mimic musculoskeletal pain. However, pain caused by serious illness versus a mechanical problem usually is accompanied with other more worrying symptoms. These include: unaccounted weight loss or gain, change in bladder or bowel function, or new night sweats, dizziness, fever, vomiting, or nausea. Pain accompanied by any of these symptoms means that you should visit a licensed physician ASAP. 

I have any athlete that I work with see a doctor about their pain before I Be Activate  them. As one of my clinical preceptors taught me, even if a diagnosis is unlikely (ex. bone cancer causing back pain), if the consequences of missing that diagnosis is dire, it is essential you do due diligence in ruling it out. This does NOT always mean do imaging or more tests. However, the take home message is that if you are in doubt, see a doctor! 

I am a huge advocate for establishing a paradigm of self responsibility in the health care system. Yet, this does not mean being a "hero" and not seeking out any help if you need it. It does not make you weak or mean you are to blame if you need help in any way from a health care practitioner. But when we do interact with the healthcare system, we should aim to take an active role in the process. It is our health at the end of the day. Without our health nothing else works. 

​If you can’t sustain it, it’s not worth it. 

Pavan Mehat

I was watching the NBA three point contest during all-star weekend and it got me thinking. What is the 'secret’ to being a great shooter? Is it the follow-through? Is it having the ball on your fingertips? Is it having perfect alignment of your shoulders, elbow or wrists? Is it having the ‘perfect’ 45 degree arc to your shot? Is it the newest shooting development tool? Any ‘shooting coach’ or ‘professional basketball skills trainer’ will have you get lost in the minutiae of shooting.

However, Kenny ‘the Jet’ Smith infused some timeless wisdom during his hilarious broadcast of the competition filled with relentless trash talking and playful banter. He was explaining why him and Shaq predicted that Nick Young, aka Swaggy P, would come last in the three point competition. He said (I am paraphrasing based off my memory), “Nick young is a scorer and mainly hits three’s off the dribble and on the move in games. He has too much movement and variability”. Later on when commenting on Klay Thompson’s legendary shooting performance, he mentioned, “The key to great shooting is consistency. Thompson is so on balance and there is little extra movement”.

Let me repeat that again, CONSISTENCY is the key to being a great shooter. Do not get me wrong, optimizing your shooting mechanics will most definitely give you the best possible chance to be the best shooter you can be. However, if you are not consistently shooting in a particular way, it does not matter how ‘perfect’ your mechanics are! The reason focusing on mechanics is so important is because it limits the amount of extraneous movements, and therefore gives you the best chance of having a consistent shooting stroke.

Even though the mechanics and form of shooting is important, the current obsession on shooting mechanics tends to be to the detriment of many athletes. Even world class shooters like Steve Nash, Klay Thompson, and Stephen Curry will have shooting flaws according to ‘shooting coaches’. No one mentions the shooters whose shooting form may look quite great, but they are poor shooters.

This obsession on optimizing shooting mechanics and markers of shooting excellence (eg. angle of shot) tends to be especially detrimental to older and more experienced athletes. As long as you are consistent, you can still be a great shooter even if you have glaring flaws in your form (look at Reggie Miller’s shooting stroke!). Further, remaking your form at a latter stage in your career can be an extensive and frustrating process that many more experienced athletes will not be able to successfully make.

I know first hand because when I was in grade 9, despite having good feel and being quite a good player relative to my peers, my jump shoot was quite poor. In retrospect, it was more likely due to mental blocks and me not putting up enough shots, but I did have flaws in my shooting stroke.

While the results of my transformation have been extremely rewarding (see proof here), the process was quite frustrating. Paradoxically, at first you become worse at shooting because you need to develop new neural networks to get this technique to feel natural. The old adage, “it gets worse before it gets better,” is absolutely true. However, I can tell you this is an extremely difficult transition to go through. Only the most disciplined and dedicated athletes can successfully change their shooting form. This is because it is too easy to ‘cheat’ and revert to a previous form to get short term gains (ex. Winning a game of pick-up or a shooting contest) in deference to long term gains. This breaks the cardinal rule of excellent shooting, consistency. If you are constantly waffling between different variations of your shooting form, at very best, you will be a streaky shooter.

Right on que, during the contest, Nick Young perfectly displayed why he is such a streaky shooter, and why Shaq and Kenny had predicted him to come last. His follow-through seemed to change dramatically throughout his 25 shots. The problem is NOT a ‘flaw’ in his shooting mechanics, but inconsistency in his shooting. Nick Young has tremendous talent and a great shooting touch, so he is able to compensate for his inconsistency and can be a lethal offensive weapon when he is ‘feeling it.’ However, due to the inconsistencies in his shot, he will never be a dead-eye shooter like Klay or Steph.

​This whole discussion reminds me of an interesting story about an amazing basketball player I got the opportunity to compete at many times during my high school career, Phil Scrubb. Phil Scrubb was not the most heralded player from my class (2010), but despite that he did receive some tepid interest from some NCAA D1 schools. Most notably a UCLA scout made an appearance at Argyle Secondary school during a local basketball tournament. Supposedly, UCLA quickly lost interest because of Phil's unorthodox shooting stroke and his unwillingness to change it.

Was this a good move by UCLA? In my opinion it was pure stupidity as I am 100% confident that Phil would have been a much bigger help to UCLA basketball than Steve Alford’s son. Phil had a legendary career at Carleton University and parlayed that into a promising career on Canada’s Sr. National team and playing professionally in Europe. However, this story epitomizes our obsession over shooting form. Funnily enough, Lonzo Ball, the current face of UCLA basketball, has an extremely unique shooting form. Yet, despite him being a seemingly can’t miss prospect, his shooting form is one of the first topics of discussion when scouts are predicting how well he will transition to the next level.

So if having the ‘perfect’ form is not the key to shooting success then what is? Repetition is, but there is an important caveat. You can’t just lazily go to the park and just ‘shoot around.’ When you are refining your shooting, you must be locked in and focused.

This is known as deliberate practice. If you are mindlessly shooting, you need to stop. One of the best shooters that coached me, Kevin Shaw, always reinforced that when he was working out and focusing on his skills he would never spend more than 45 minutes. He needed high intensity and focus to refine him taking game shots at game speed, and so that he could take the same shot every time. His ability to maintain the focus needed to be great was not sustainable for hours on hours. Simply, if you want to be a great shooter, you need to put the time and energy to mastering your craft.


Listen to what NBA 2017 3 Pt-Champion Eric Gordon has to say about shooting:

If you can’t sustain it, it’s not worth it.

Pavan Mehat

PM: British Columbia (BC) has had some great players come out that have gone on to star in the NCAA, and even the NBA (Rob Sacre and Kelly Olynk). However, the vast majority of these athletes are very tall (>6’10) or are freakishly athletic wings (6’4-6’7). What allowed you as an “undersized” guard to not only survive but thrive at the collegiate and professional level?

TK: What I believe has allowed me to compete at every level I think is my skill level. Every time I stepped onto the court, I knew I was the most skilled player there. This was at every level I played. When you can step onto the court and know you are the most skilled player there no matter what, it gives you the confidence to play against anyone. Secondly, my competitiveness. I have never played against anyone who was more competitive than me.
​
PM: During your high school career, the North Shore had one of the strongest basketball contingents probably ever. There were a few division 1 players, a handful of high level CIS players in the 3 years you played varsity at Handsworth. What intangible(s) do you think allowed you to separate from the pack and have the career you did?

TK: Well again, my competitiveness. I was just a lot more competitive than everyone else. Then my dedication to the game. There were three kinds of kids growing up, kids who thought they worked hard but didn't, kids who worked hard, and those who were obsessive and dedicated every minute of every day to the sport. I was the third one. I can probably count on one hand how many kids were like me in the whole province at the time I was in high school.