Joey: Today on talking plant protein I have my longtime friend, Brian Kent performance coach, author, dad, former division one athlete. You got a lot of titles, man.

Brian Kent: That was a long time ago. But thank you for putting those years behind me.

Joey: Once an athlete, always an athlete.

Brian Kent: Of course.

Joey: What is it that you do on a daily basis, man?

Brian Kent: Generally, I work with clients. I'm in year 17 of the job.

Joey: 17.

Brian Kent: When we knew each other, I was still young in my career, as were you.

Joey: Yes, I was very young.

Brian Kent: But I usually worked with any types of clients from elderly to kids to teams to athletes. So anyone across the board, if they're motivated to get better, I will help them.

Joey: Have you trained people that are plant-based athletes? Did you notice any difference in maybe their movement patterns or their recovery? What do you notice the main difference in our plant-based athlete is?

Brian Kent: Any plant-based athlete is going to be extremely aware of what goes into their body and how it affects them. And I've noticed that that type of mentality could also lead toward other methods of recovery or healing, whether it be recovery boots or energy healing with Reiki or any kind of maybe alternative practice-

Joey: Right.

Brian Kent: ... that maybe is not as mainstream, but it is equally effective.

Joey: So working with somebody that's strictly vegan, and they're living mainly off of plants, what do you notice in them?

Brian Kent: I think they are more aware of the less inflammation in their bodies. Sometimes people wake up and their joints hurt. Like their back hurts, their neck, their wrist, or fingers are tight. Plus with our sedentary-

Joey: Posture.

Brian Kent: ... computer based lifestyle with crappy posture.

Joey: Right.

Brian Kent: When that becomes normal, you don't realize that you're in pain because it's the norm. Then all of a sudden you make some interesting dietary shifts and you look up, you're like, "Oh, my hands don't hurt." Like, "My neck isn't in pain." Like, "What's different?" So that level of awareness is definitely more prevalent in people that are in the vegan world or in the plant-based world.

Joey: That makes sense. More plants, better for your body, less inflammation, better movement. Yeah. Somebody that's eating predominantly a plant-based diet, do you feel like their recovery is going to be much better? Their performance? Do you notice anything different?

Brian Kent: Absolutely. You mentioned the KFC diet. As a baseball player myself, it wasn't uncommon to have two hot dogs, fries, a pop, and maybe a milkshake in between games, if a doubleheader.

Joey: That's nasty.

Brian Kent: Which, as a catcher, I'm down there in my crouch. Like, my stomach's not feeling good. Right? And umpire is definitely not a fan of my stomach gurgling and all the things that are coming out of me.

Joey: This is gold.

Brian Kent: So all that does come back to our nutrition and how it affects our performance. And we can choose to eat for recovery, or we can choose to eat for dysfunction.

Joey: Yeah, that's right. I mean, because people think about, "I just need to eat to eat." But if we eat to nourish our bodies and specifically, if we're taking in the quality phytonutrients and the plants and then the fruits, and then we're having good carbohydrates as well on top of the plant-based protein, I think that's only going to fuel us. You're going to kick my butt, huh?

Brian Kent: We're going to get some work in.

Joey: All right, Brian. So we're going to get a workout in here. And this is a great workout for anybody that's plant-based. And what I did beforehand was I had some coconut water and I had a little bit of Ladder Protein, which is plant-based just to kind of get me ready for this.

Brian Kent: Sure. Hydrated and satiated.

Joey: I'm hydrated. I'm satiated. And coconut water, we were talking about this ahead of time. Why do you like coconut water for somebody that's working out outside, especially?

Brian Kent: You're going to be sweating more and the coconut water is known to have more electrolytes without much sugar or much extra crap in it.

Joey: Yeah.

Brian Kent: So we can keep it clean, keep you sweaty and keep you hydrated and feeling good.

Joey: That's good. I like that. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a lot of people fail to do is a proper warmup. They just kind of go right into a run, go right into a sport, go right into lifting. Why is it important to warm up, especially for somebody that's plant-based?

Brian Kent: Unless you're a high school athlete and the bus just shows up to the game, you got to go. Like we don't get off the bus and go, we got to make sure that we prepare ourselves. Like we're a pre-game warmup. So everybody should be prepped mentally, physically, ready to go, a little sweat going, nervous system prepared and we're ready to rock and roll.

Joey: Okay. So I got my nutrition on point. Now we got to get the warmup, right?

Brian Kent: Let's go.

Joey: Brian, BKSTRENGTH, man. I appreciate you.

Brian Kent: Joey, it's always a pleasure training, getting sweaty with you.

Joey: I like you watching me get sweaty.

Brian Kent: I couldn't have a better way to start my day.

Male: It's toasty.