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Hungry Warrior Academy – a conversation with endurance athlete JD Tremblay
14 Plays6 days ago
We are all hungry for more in life – we just don’t know what more is
JD Tremblay is an extreme athlete, military veteran, and founder of the Hungry Warrior Academy, which supports outwardly successful men to achieve their true potential.
He is also the author of Hunger For More in Life: Conquer Mental Struggles, Defy Limitations, and Discover Purpose Through Epic Achievements
In this episode of the Abeceder health and wellbeing podcast Fit For My Age JD describes to host Michael Millward his own personal journey and how he combined lessons learnt from military service, education as an engineer and participation in endurance sports to define what the more he wanted from life was, and to then creating the Hungry Warrior Academy.
They discuss
- The extreme sports that JD has been involved in
- Lessons learnt about age and athletic performance
- The difference between having potential and fulfilling that potential
- The importance of defining clearly what sort of man you want to be
- Ensuring that every aspect of life is in harmony
- Using the E.P.I.C. acronym to define harmony
- Using the B.R.A.I.N. acronym to define the journey to harmony
Find out more about JD Tremblay and Michael at Abeceder.co.uk.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:05
Speaker
Made on Zencastr. Because Zencastr makes every stage of the podcast production and distribution processes so easy. There is a link in the description.
Introducing JD Tremblay and His Work
00:00:16
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Fit for My Age, the health and wellbeing podcast from Abysida, where we don't tell you what to think, but we do hope to make you think.
00:00:27
Speaker
I am Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abysida. to Today, JD Tremblay, who is probably the fittest person we have ever had on Fit For My Age.
00:00:39
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And I will be discussing how JD helps leaders and athletes build discipline, mental resilience and longevity through structured root cause strategies that connect training, recovery and health habits.
Travel Planning with Ultimate Travel Club
00:00:53
Speaker
JD is from Montreal in Quebec, Canada, the province and city that I have visited. If I get the chance to go again, i will be sure to make all of my travel arrangements with the Ultimate Travel Club.
00:01:05
Speaker
That is because as a member of the Ultimate Travel Club, I can travel at trade prices on flights, hotels, trains, holidays, and so many more travel related purchases.
00:01:16
Speaker
You'll find a link with a built-in membership discount so that you can also become a member of the Ultimate Travel Club and just like me, travel at trade prices. Now that I have paid some bills, it is time to make an episode of Fit For My Age that will be well worth listening to, liking, downloading and subscribing to.
00:01:35
Speaker
And one that will also be well worth telling your friends, family and work colleagues about. Hello, JD. Hello, Michael. Glad to be here. How are you doing? I'm doing amazing. Brilliant.
Discipline and Military Influence
00:01:47
Speaker
Please could we start by you telling me a little bit about your history and how you got involved in fitness?
00:01:53
Speaker
Yes, I was a child that played outdoor. I saw it as a punishment to not be able to play video games. I did not grow up with a lot of luxury.
00:02:07
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I did not enjoy it at the time, but now I see it as a blessing. I played a lot of sports, basketball and volleyball, mixed martial arts, ah soccer.
00:02:19
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At the age of 17, I joined the military. served for over a decade. I thought that I would learn a lot about discipline. I was wrong because the military does not give you discipline. It's not kit-issued.
00:02:36
Speaker
It's not because you join the military that they will open your brain. and put a chip in there, place discipline into you. What they give you is a structure. They give you a system that you can follow.
From Weightlifting to Triathlons
00:02:50
Speaker
If you use it properly, you get to be rewarded with some discipline. i did not partake in much sports while in the military other than playing hockey,
00:03:05
Speaker
I was doing a lot of weightlifting when I was in the military, but it was not about triathlon until the end of my career where I was pushed more towards these cardiovascular activities.
00:03:21
Speaker
And that's when I discovered I truly enjoyed the triathlon. So that's that's how all of my life essentially started. And that's how I got into the triathlon. You've done more than just triathlons. You've done the really big extreme triathlons as well, though, haven't you?
00:03:40
Speaker
Correct. When I left the military, I went to university and became an integrated engineer. and i specialize in biomedical.
00:03:52
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In university, I decided to complete an Ironman. And I finished my first Ironman while studying at the university.
00:04:03
Speaker
I learned a lot about mathematics and systems and how to break down complex ways of understanding certain concepts that are quite easy to understand, but we just have to put them into systems so that everybody can understand them.
00:04:19
Speaker
Then, and using facts and logics and mathematics, Then after I went to an institute to become a certified naturopathic practitioner, and I learned a lot about human anatomy, nutrition.
00:04:34
Speaker
While I was studying, I came across the EPICDECA. And the EPICDECA the longest race that I've done.
00:04:45
Speaker
and I did it in when I was 36 years old.
Defying Age with Healthy Habits
00:04:50
Speaker
So that's that's not a young age to start in those events. And the Epic Decca is 10 Ironman in 10 days on all six Hawaiian islands. So now I'm one of three people to have completed that event. Nice. Were you the oldest person competing? I was the youngest, actually.
00:05:07
Speaker
yeah youngest? That is a surprise. Which, which amazing and that you're bringing this up because a lot of people would say that we are getting worse over the while we age.
00:05:23
Speaker
And although there is some form of truth to it, they are right on the sense that if you did not take care of the machine that God gave you, then definitely you will not age gracefully.
00:05:40
Speaker
But From what I've seen, a lot of those ultra endurance athletes are older. For example, in the same year that I did the Epic Deca, I was also one of the athletes at the Ultraman World Championships.
00:05:59
Speaker
an Ultraman is double the distance of an Ironman over the span of three days with cutoffs of 12 hours. For anybody that does not know much about it, it's ah an extremely long triathlon, swimming, biking, and running.
00:06:17
Speaker
Yes. So one, two, three, four on the podium. We're all above the age of 50, which again, just proves that it's not with age that,
00:06:28
Speaker
you get worse. What happened is that the body does not recover as fast. Your system is slowing down. It's not because your systems are slowing down that you need to essentially decrease your output considerably.
00:06:47
Speaker
If you are performing the right actions to keep yourself healthy, then you can live a much longer life. And this comes from just doing the basics.
00:06:59
Speaker
This is so interesting because as you get older, you're thinking like what society tells you, you're you're going to be capable of less. But what you're saying is that the evidence of these Ironman and extreme sports actually suggests that you should be able to do exactly the same as you did when you were younger, but you just do it in a different way.
00:07:20
Speaker
Expectation that you will decline in fitness and in health is not one that is automatic. it's a It's something that we decide upon because of what society expects rather than what the human body is capable of.
00:07:35
Speaker
Correct. You're right. What we have to look at is human physiology. And it says that your body will get worse over the age, which is true because recovery gets much slower. your testosterone level decreases.
00:07:54
Speaker
Your digestion becomes slower. So everything is pointing out to be slower. But let's say that you are driving NASCAR and you took care of that vehicle and you have a car that is functioning well.
00:08:14
Speaker
Over the years, you're going to be changing some parts. Yes. But if you take care of it, that car will last much longer than if. And it would be right to say that if you don't take care of it or don't take well care of it that car will age and become worse over the years and you'll have to scrap it.
00:08:36
Speaker
Now eventually everybody is going to be scrapped. I'm not saying you will live forever. What I'm saying is that that car that we're talking about or your systems, by using an analogy, your vehicle,
00:08:51
Speaker
your vessel will last much longer, even though the parts or some of the parts are becoming much more used and their functions are decreasing. So you're you're you can live a longer life because you're taking care of that vessel and the data can prove it.
The Hungry Warrior Academy
00:09:15
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And even if we go even further with with even just me, i am going to be 40...
00:09:21
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And I am racing the best in the world at the Trail Half Marathon World Championship. I expect to be doing quite well. I don't know exactly what my positioning will be.
00:09:34
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But again, it's just to show that I am still able to compete at that level because i took care of my body over the years. So it was not a one-time deal where I just ate a magic pill and I became all healthy.
00:09:48
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It's a series of events. It's a structure. It's a system that I followed. Yes. I was just going to say that although this learning over, know, since you're 17 and I think probably even before then,
00:10:01
Speaker
has led you to create the Hungry Warrior Academy. So what is the Hungry Warrior Academy? Yes, great question, Michael. The Hungry Warrior Academy, we guide men to optimize their performance physically, mentally, and spiritually to achieve that clarity and discipline and that high performance that they are seeking in their life.
00:10:26
Speaker
holistic type of training then you're not just focused on fitness or on strength it's also about your psychology and also spiritually as well why is it that men need this sort of thing Well, those guys oftentimes have the discipline and other aspects of their life and understand that they are not at their full potential. And for me, for years, I was told by people... You have a lot of potential.
00:10:59
Speaker
You have so much potential. Now looking back, i I don't like the way that they just said you have so much potential, but did not know how to frame it to improve my life, which is sad because had I known what is my full potential or how can I achieve that next level and that stage of my life, then I would have been much better off.
00:11:29
Speaker
But for these guys, sometimes they're executives and they're not in line with maybe their community. yeah Maybe they're elite athletes and they want this level of structure.
The EPIC Model Explained
00:11:41
Speaker
So our pillars and our foundation are based on the acronym EPIC. which E stands for eternal restoration. You must believe in something that is of a higher power than yourself to control all of these variables that you're unable to.
00:11:58
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P is the physical temple, which is your mind and your body to be in alignment with your goals. I as identity. so what do people say about you if they never met you?
00:12:13
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and then your community. The mortal... is to understand your yourself and then to give back into other parts of your life as well, to build something that makes you part of a community.
00:12:26
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You've got to be sound about yourself. You've got to have a very clear image of what it means to be you as an individual, as a man. Yes, what is that purpose in your life? And then we work out what is that purpose and how can it align with those foundational blocks and that they might not be in equal in of themselves, but that they are in equilibrium based on what you want to achieve.
00:12:58
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And then we walk them through our DECA system and other ways that we can get a approach that provides more results for them. You started off by saying that the military wasn't about discipline.
00:13:13
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It was about getting a system, a structured way of living, which then gives you the discipline if you choose to have it. So sticking with the structure, with the system, gives you the discipline.
00:13:26
Speaker
That sort of philosophy, system, is what you've transferred into the Hungry Warrior Academy, isn't it? It's about having a system that will work for you. All you need to do is to start with the end in mind.
00:13:39
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What is it that you want to have as the way in which you want to live? And then what the Hungry Warrior Academy will do is give you a system to help you achieve that, whilst also being someone who contributes into the wider society as well.
00:13:56
Speaker
Exactly, because it's not always about willpower and motivation. Sometimes it has to do with your systems and the way that you are fueling your body. For example, a lot of people are being told, have a nice shake in the morning.
00:14:12
Speaker
That shake, although might be healthy to some degree, if it's not utilized in the right way, might be hurting your entire day. So let's take yeah someone who is waking up in the morning and going to work, but not going to the gym. So not utilizing quick energy or not. He doesn't have a demand for quick energy.
00:14:40
Speaker
That person wakes up in the morning, which most people wake up with a high cortisol level. Cortisol, which is the stress hormone. So you're highly stressed in the morning because you're getting ready for the day. And that's just the natural way that the body gets to be for most people.
00:15:00
Speaker
For some people, it's a bit lower, but for the majority, it's quite high. and then... You drink your shake. It's all healthy items that you're going to be putting in.
00:15:14
Speaker
But if you're taking in too much carbohydrate, what happened is that all of a sudden now you have an insulin rush. So now you're not even able to function because...
00:15:25
Speaker
Insulin is high. Cortisol is high. And now you're demanding your body, please do not be anxious. Now, you can do a lot of meditation and a lot of breath work and listen to podcasts. But if you're not doing all of the right key element at the right time and regulating that energy throughout your day,
00:15:49
Speaker
dan your body is going to react based on what you're fueling. it So sometimes understanding that physical tempo is key.
00:16:00
Speaker
Because you have the timing, you have what to eat, what to feed your mind. So that's why the analogy acronym that we use is BRAIN, which is, again, the acronym is for blood chemistry, which has a lot into it. We have recovery, attention, inflammation, and also the nervous system.
00:16:21
Speaker
So that BRAIN acronym, people can even take them and and use it to their own advantage. But again, it's about being doing actions that you will get those results. A lot of people, if they're honest with themselves, will say that their diet is a habit.
00:16:40
Speaker
They eat the same things at the same time every day. And when you look at research from sandwich shops, for example, people go and eat the same sandwich.
00:16:51
Speaker
every day or they'll have a particular type of sandwich on a monday then another one on a tuesday and the following week it's always the same but you're saying we should be deciding what we're going to eat on the basis of what it is we are going to do after we have eaten so if we're going to eat a lot of carbs we've got to then be doing something that is very active because that's quick energy and we need to use those carbs in order to avoid that insulin spike exactly The way I could resume it, and which is exactly what you said, is eat for a purpose. It all comes down to the messages, the information, how well have we educated ourselves, yeah I suppose, on how we should live or how we could live or what we need to do in order to fulfill our lifestyle aspirations.
00:17:42
Speaker
We will, I suppose, look at our career and think, well, if I want to end up in that job, I've got to have these jobs on the way to that job. and I've got to get these qualifications, this type of experience.
00:17:55
Speaker
But apart from going to the gym, want to have a defined body, so we'll go to the gym. But actually, the effectiveness of the time you spend in the gym is improved if you've eaten the right things before you go to
Client Success and Fit at the Academy
00:18:08
Speaker
the gym. Exactly.
00:18:09
Speaker
What sort of levels of engagement and success are you seeing from people who embark upon the Hungry Warrior Academy process? What we want is people to achieve their results. So we'll be able to see it either in the initial consult,
00:18:25
Speaker
where people can book online at hungrywarrioracademy.com. And if we are not the right fit, we can refer them out to other practitioners.
00:18:37
Speaker
We always have a referral program for other practitioners that they can reach out to us and be on our list in the event that we have those clients that... we cannot cater to. The idea is that we want people to succeed.
00:18:54
Speaker
We are a health center. We're there for their success and making sure that they achieve it. It's it's worth more than money. You have somebody who appears very motivated, but you work out that they're not ready for Hungry Warrior Academy. What sort of things would make you lead you to make that decision about someone?
00:19:15
Speaker
To not be part of Hungry Warrior Academy? Yeah, but someone to not be part of Hungry Warrior Academy, what would be the factors? Well, we have a process. i mean There are certain types, for example... One is being disrespectful to individuals. We understand that you have achieved a lot in your life.
00:19:35
Speaker
We had a guy who, again, really wealthy family, and they showed up on the call and they did not want to listen to the coach. Well, we said there's just no way that we can...
00:19:50
Speaker
help you. and there are a lot, a lot of coaches out there that are hurting for money and they want your money as much as possible. So for us, i I don't care about your money. I really don't. I really don't. If we have zero client in the entire year, it's fine because that means people are getting their results from some thing else And that means that we are not on point. And that means we have to upgrade our skills.
00:20:20
Speaker
We are doing well as an organization. So I would prefer having nobody as a client than having someone who's disrespectful to our staff.
00:20:31
Speaker
we have individuals who are not going to do the work. So we give clear tasks. If, let's say, they pass the initial stage, we exchange funds, and then after one week, you have not completed the work, then we get rid of you, and then we do either a full refund or we give you part part money because you're not going to do the work. So Why why would I waste my time on you? There are so many people right now that are waiting to have these types of treatment and are are willing for it. so The way I can reframe all of what I just said is by selection of special forces.
Client Selection Process at the Academy
00:21:15
Speaker
You see, special forces are not extremely fit guys that are going to pass the selection.
00:21:22
Speaker
It's not the extremely smart guys that are going to pass selection. What what selection shows is if you have the heart for the success and for that result.
00:21:35
Speaker
So that's why I'm saying that the best clients are the individuals who want that success. And I would say that the majority of people right now don't want to be successful.
00:21:50
Speaker
They're voicing to all their family, their virtue signaling by saying, I want to be successful. But I can tell you they really don't because their action are showing otherwise. Yes. So we will decide based on your action.
00:22:07
Speaker
not just your words. So this is what would disqualify someone from coming to any of our training or sessions. To give you an idea of how how far we are, with we have a cohort starting with a mastermind coach that is an ex-Navy SEAL.
00:22:28
Speaker
So for people that want to learn about the mindset of a tier one operator and be in the same zoom room as this elite special force and get to their next level. Now, these guys...
00:22:45
Speaker
they don't want to waste their time and I don't want to waste their time either. I don't want to waste anybody's time. So I would rather have zero person showing up to the mastermind than having a group of individuals that are not going to be doing the work that we are demanding of them.
00:23:03
Speaker
Our system works. We achieve amazing results and all the coaches that work with for us, Or even for me as a therapist, I am demanding on myself the highest standard.
00:23:18
Speaker
There's nothing like the like like what we're doing out there. Because most of the retreats are about yelling and using profanity at men because they think that's the military way.
00:23:33
Speaker
There's one way of getting results. We just choose a different approach. Nobody's going to be yelled at. No profanity is going to be used against you or at those centers.
00:23:46
Speaker
We use a completely different approach. We use facts, logic, data to bring you awareness about all of your systems. And we have machines to prove it.
00:23:59
Speaker
And so... There is nothing like this out there. We know we are at the top of our game. We hold a high standard to ourselves. Therefore, we want the highest standard for you.
00:24:11
Speaker
What you see as being the future in terms of growing awareness of the sorts of things that you're doing and this connection between masculinity and the systems that help people be
Community and Values in Training
00:24:26
Speaker
masculine? You see, the impression that I'm getting is that What you're doing is helping men who want to, to reach their full potential.
00:24:35
Speaker
But because of the EPIC model, the C in the EPIC model is community. And you've outlined people coming along and being disrespectful to other people.
00:24:46
Speaker
but the thing that is really interesting is that it's almost as if what you're saying is yes you can become successful you can reach your full potential and part of that the reason for doing that is to to reach your full potential to be the best that you could possibly be to have the systems in place that will give you the discipline to achieve that but because of the c in the epic model community there's also this What I think is is at least 25% of it is giving back, being supportive of other people, people who are less fortunate, less well-off, less physically able than yourself. I get that.
00:25:29
Speaker
your impression that that's a big part of it. There's a noise around the world about what masculinity should be. And you can listen to all of this noise. What I would say about especially the Cian community is There is a famous person that once said that you are the sum of the individuals that that you hang out with. And so, yes.
00:26:00
Speaker
ah If you hang out or even if you get too much noise from individuals who all they seek is our worldly um luxuries, and then you will radiate that type of frequency in your life. Now, these values might not align with what you want to achieve.
00:26:24
Speaker
And so that's why we connect those guys with courageous, humble, focused, knowledgeable man to create these sort of connections to get you to your next stage. Because if you look at world successful individuals that have all of these qualities. They are focused. They have a ah lot of ah wealth of knowledge. They are humble and they are courageous. So we are to act like men, as the Bible would say. And these men, they are not perfect. We don't tell ourselves that we are.
00:27:08
Speaker
We make a lot of mistakes, we learn from them, and then we are able to adjust our aim to another goal based on these sets of values. So again, one of our things that we tell our men that go through some of our training is definitely to pick your values before your goals.
00:27:32
Speaker
Because you can pick whatever goal you want, But if you have your values that are not in line with those goals prior to, then you will end up just stumbling along the way into certain types of behaviors that were not conducive to your ultimate growth and your full potential. J.D., it sounds absolutely fascinating.
00:27:58
Speaker
And unfortunately, we don't have time to learn more. But where can people go to get more information? We have one website, hungrywarrioracademy.com. If you want to reach out to me directly, we have a team for it, but I also look at all those messages. they can Okay, we'll put all of the links in the description. But for today, JD, it has been fascinating. i really enjoyed our conversation, and I wish you the best of luck with the Hungry Warrior Academy. Thank you very much.
00:28:28
Speaker
Thank you, Michael. I am Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abbasida, And in this episode of Fit for My Age, I have been having a conversation with J.D. Tremblay, the founder of Hungry Warrior Academy.
00:28:42
Speaker
You can find out more about both of us by using the links in the description. I'm sure you will have enjoyed listening to this episode of Fit for My Age as much as J.D. and I have enjoyed making it. So please give it a like and download it so you can listen anytime, anywhere.
00:28:58
Speaker
To make sure you don't miss out on future episodes of Fit for My Age, please subscribe. You will probably also want to tell your friends, family and work colleagues about Fit For My Age as well.
00:29:09
Speaker
Remember, the aim of all the podcasts produced by Abbasida is not to tell you what to think, but we do hope to have made you think. Until the next episode of Fit For My Age, thank you for listening and goodbye.