Because the moment you see another man pulling through hard

shit, you will trust him more whether you want it or not,

right? Like, this is, this is going to be true for every person on this

planet. Like, if they see that another being is being able to pull through

hard shit, there is more trust in that person. Welcome

to The King Within, a podcast for men who seem to have it all yet

feel like they're losing what matters most. I'm Mike Salemi, and I've been

there. Successful on paper but disconnected on the inside. This

isn't about grinding harder. It's about mastering your emotions,

leading with calm strength, and rebuilding trust at home. Each

week we dive into real stories and tools for becoming the man your family

runs towards, not away from, because you didn't build this life to

lose yourself in it. This is The King Within. Let's do the work.

Today I'm sitting down with my brother Marco Dinh, an executive

coach as well as a lifelong martial artist with nearly 3 decades

of training and a man who spent months living inside

monasteries. Marco bridges high-level business strategy

with somatic work, tantra, and nervous system regulation in a

way I haven't seen from most people. In this conversation, we go

deep into physicality and why most men have lost their connection to

it and what it's costing them in their confidence, their relationships,

and their ability to lead. Marco breaks down why the punch is

one of the most powerful contemplative practices a man can do. And

he guides a short practice you can do right now. It's one of the most

alive times I've felt in recording this show. If you're a man who wants to

reconnect with your physicality and build deeper self-trust,

this one's for you. Let's get into it. Okay,

we are on, Marco. Let's go.

Yeah, buddy. Well, first off, Marco, I have been so

pumped. We've been planning on doing a show I think the first time I asked

you was at least 6 months ago. And yeah, easily,

easily. So this is a long time coming. And over the last

18 months plus, maybe, yeah, maybe even more than that,

you and I have gotten to know each other much more deeply, both in Jon

Wineland's program. We've done our own men's group, me,

you, and 2 of our other brothers, Tyler and Justin. And throughout

that time, life happens. My life happens,

your life happens, the lives of the men. You have a daughter, I have a

son, you have a partner, I got a wife. There's so much life

movement, our businesses. And in that realm, one of the beautiful

things about being in a solid group of men,

especially men who inspire us— you're one of them—

it's so helpful and

supportive when a man's going through something that he has

another brother he can fully trust guide him.

You're a leader. I lead guys as well. And

there's been multiple experiences, from deaths of loved

ones to major challenges in relationships. You've

consistently been there for me. And I know I've shared this

with you on messages, and I want you to hear it, man, because

it is so nourishing. And I'm so grateful not only that our

paths cross, but I see a brother who's doing deep work

on himself, calling him forward, and really helping make me be

a better man. So truly, brother, thank you so much for being here and making

the time to dive in today.

So of the many topics we could go into,

uh, there's one that I woke up this morning extra inspired

to unpack with you, and that's the topic of physicality.

Now that can mean multiple things to, you know, anybody who hears that

word physicality. But I know you have such a deep background

in somatic work and martial arts

and tantra, so many practices of the body to connect

with your own physicality. So when you hear the word

physicality, can you give me like what arises in you?

How would you define it? Or what things speak to you when you're like,

Yes, this is how I connect with my physicality, or this is what it means

to me. So, I mean, I won't

forget it, and yet let me still start with

Mike. I'm absolutely honored to be here,

um, because for me as well, you are one of the men who

continued to sharpen me, to inspire me to

reach for greater heights, but also to trust in,

in greater vulnerability. Like a man who is like

powerful and who is like leading his family, who's

leading as a man, who's building his business, and

who shows me again and again that in the moments where I

doubt, that vulnerability is a power and a

strength. And so I'm grateful to be here.

And I'm especially grateful that you are by my

side. And I had so many moments where I was incredibly

challenged with life and I could reach out to you and you were there for

me, and sometimes with deep wisdom

and sometimes just as a brother who's listening and who's

supporting me. And so I really want to honor

to be here, but also you as a man. So that's important

to me. I really wanted to say that. Okay, so

physicality. I would say the first

thing which comes to mind when I think of physicality

is that, that beauty in

the interplay when two

men come together and, in lack of a

better term, get physical with one another, right? So when you

push one another and when you throw one another and

when you, when you not trying to overpower the other

person, but when you try to call out more

of the other by bringing your best, by

really trying and giving it your all. And so physicality for

me is a lot about this meeting of power and

this growing in power by being met

in terms of like when you come together with someone else and

When it's about my own, like, solo practice,

I would say physicality for me has multiple dimensions. Like, on the one hand, sure,

the dimension of just movement in general, like being able to move,

being able to move quickly, being able to move also gracefully.

Like, that's for me a powerful part, like dance, for example. I love to dance.

Um, and I love to dance in a way which also feels good

and where there's no particular structure to it. So movement is

definitely one, but I would say also

subtlety, funnily enough, is for me a part of physicality.

Like, how much can I feel and how much awareness

can I bring just from a punch, for example, right? So if I just

punch, right, like how much awareness can I bring into the motion

and how much can I feel while doing so? And so,

yeah, I would say physicality for me has, has multiple dimensions. Do

it. I mean, when I've been guided through—

you guided me on two sessions on

throwing a punch, and we spent over two hours

just on that, what you said was the most fundamental

movement. And I was like, just 30 seconds in, a

minute, I already knew. I was like, oh damn. All right, this is not a

classic instruction because, again, your ability to guide

people into the body, myself in this scenario, into the body to connect

with what you're just sharing right there, right there. So many

more subtle layers, the energetic layers, the felt layers,

tactile layers, really brought what

I've been instructed to in the past by, let's say, I mean, years ago,

like boxing coaches, just a very different

style. And I know it was largely influenced from what you shared. Like

every time that I've experienced, or almost every time, your instruction,

you go deeper in terms of where did you learn, or what was the tradition,

or how was it passed down. Like, there's, there's a richness in

which you guide. Can you bring up a bit, like, when did you

first get into either martial arts, or what you would say,

and why? Like, what was it like growing up that led you or

attracted you to physicality-type practices

like martial arts? So I started martial arts when I

was like, I think 5 or 6. Wow. And, and I

went there because my father was like practicing

karate when— and I don't even know whether he was still

practicing or whether he stopped before I started.

I can't remember anymore, but he was the one who put me in there.

And for the first years it was a mixture, like

sometimes it was really fun. But often I also just didn't

want to go. So when I was like 10 or 11 and we had,

like at one point I remember in the first karate school

I joined, which was Kyokushinkai Karate, we

had a dude coming from Japan and

he was like, he was tough as

fuck. Like I will never forget that we once went

to a freaking tournament. I wasn't even part of the freaking caterer

who would fight, but I was still there and supporting. And we

lost. Not that bad, but we lost.

So we came back from that tournament and literally the next

evening we would come together and he would stand there in front and he

would be like, if we

as a group

lose, It's the fault of the teacher.

And if you are

losing individually, there is also an

individual responsibility. And so he had us training.

And I mean, this is like 25 years ago, nearly

now. And I still remember that training because we literally

all walked out, none of us able to lift

our arms in any way. Like literally, we all left our stuff

in the dressing room because we were not able to properly

And so, yeah, so this was my beginning with martial arts. Then

after that, I've done like a variety of martial arts. Like I've practiced judo

and jiu-jitsu, for example, for quite some years. Taekwondo. I

did kickboxing for quite some years. And then the last

one I did was called ATK. It's a

German martial arts and like

people always look strangely at me when I say that, but for me, it's like

the like the, the violent version of

Krav Maga. You get— because Krav Maga isn't

violent enough. It was like, it was like, I literally, like, at

every time I went home, I had like blue bruises

all over, especially in the throat region, because the main thing you would

do is like to stop the other person by grabbing for the

throat. So that was like the key thing. Like, something comes from the front, sure,

if it's a kick, you need to block, But else you would stop the other

person over here, um, by going for this road.

Yeah. And so, yeah, that was, I would say, my main

martial journey. What do you think, you know, for

someone who, you know, I didn't grow up doing martial arts, right? I've

dabbled a little, very little bit of jiu-jitsu over the years. Uh,

I've been surrounded by martial artists, fighters, trained like the

conditioning for fighters quite frequently, but in terms of the actual

discipline of the skill. Like, I don't have much experience and was not raised in

that. Uh, both my parents are from a small town in Sicily. It just

wasn't in, you know, my upbringing. So if someone's

listening and they come from a similar upbringing than me— now, I had the gym.

The gym was where really my connection to, let's just say,

physicality was really birthed, in gymnastics especially at

a young age. But for someone who didn't grow up with martial arts, can

you walk— like, what do you think that did for you? From, you know,

especially in those years where guys, especially young men or

adolescents, are just figuring out their body? What do you think it

did for you? And I'd love to hear, like, what was the value in it,

not just from a physical standpoint, but anything else emotionally,

mentally, anything else that comes up?

I would say the first thing is mentally,

like Yes, there is a physical component to it, right? Like,

my favorite story, I didn't practice

for probably 6 or 7 years. And

then I visited my great uncle in

Vietnam because he was having a wedding there. And it was one day I

was out in Hanoi and then I saw a dude on

the street like shouting at a woman. And an old dude was like trying to

go between the two. And, and, and I was like, this

doesn't seem to be something like an old dude should be doing, right? So I

went between the two and the dude was like shouting at me in Vietnamese

and I am half Vietnamese, yet my Vietnamese is nearly

inexistent. And so I just like yelled stop at him and

he stopped because like I was slightly more

massive than how at that time and the average Vietnamese is

not that massive. So he was like, okay, I'm not messing with that strange looking

non-Vietnamese dude. And then at the evening, I

told my great uncle about that. And he was like, Marco, like, we're not in

Germany here. Like, this is Hanoi. Like, that dude could have like

stabbed you in the fraction of a second. And I was like,

no worries, my man. Like, I can take care of myself.

And the fun thing was like without me seeing it,

he grabbed a chopstick from the table.

And he wanted to show me how quickly, like, I could have been

stabbed, right? And so I turned around back to him. And in

that moment, he went with a chopstick for my neck and wanted to show me

like, Marcus, this is how quickly you could have died. I would say he got

like 30 centimeters. I have no idea how to translate that into your

unit measurement system until his head literally like

nearly smashed the table and his arm was locked behind his back,

right? So, and so this is, I would say, the physical component of like my

body memory, just knowing things from such a young age

that I don't need to think about or even like

continuously practice. Like I wouldn't win a tournament now, but I'm

confident in like the average street setting, for example,

not happily joining every fight, but, but I know if someone

suddenly comes, there is some degree of being able to protect

myself. And I would say that is the point I wanted to

make with mentality, like the ability

to just know to some degree, at

least I can protect myself and my partner.

Right. And at the same time, the also the

understanding that it's about still continuously honing the

craft. Right. Which is why I still like now, for example,

looking for a new dojo here in Frankfurt, for example, to rejoin

and to start again. Because for now, again, 2

and a half years, I haven't practiced much. Wow.

I mean, that example of being able to protect physically

today, at least through my experience, most guys associate, myself included

for a long time, protecting with financial protection.

And it's only been primarily in times of when I've been injured, like

my knee and certain things, when I haven't been able to do certain things. Like,

you know, I have this window right here. I always, you know, my son could

be on the sidewalk. I'm like, man, if something were to happen, like, could I

sprint after him? Like, does my body allow me the freedom

to do what's required? And if not, like,

one, there's fear that comes up inside of me, but then there's also a story

of, like, inadequacy as a man. Like, man, I should be able to do some

basic I should be able to do that

basic requirement or necessity in that moment. And if I can't,

Paul Chek would say, like, if you can't, you must. And we're not—

and I'm not saying, like— and I know he's not saying, like, you got to

be an elite. Like you were saying, if you were to enter a tournament, you

might not win, but your base level is there and it's

so automatic. There's a lot of guys that I imagine

listening that may have a fear of their own

physicality, of maybe it's the story of if I get

physical or if I train this, that I'm going to be violent or

aggressive. What's your perspective on like that

story right there, or violence or aggression? If I do this, then I'm going to

be a bad man or a violent man.

Hmm. So I can't, for example, logically speak for your

listeners, But I know that a lot of men I

meet rather start with the assumption

violence is bad. Or like violence is not needed in today's world,

right? So there is not even like for a lot of the ones

I meet, there's not even an openness to understand that there is

actually a no to it, like, right? Like an inner

contraction or an inner going against it. There's just like, no, violence is bad

and like you don't need it and it not necessary these days. But

I would say it is absolutely necessary, right? Like,

I love that, and I don't know where it's coming from, that quote, "Better be

a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war." And for me, like,

this is definitely one of those things I live by, that I prefer to

train hoping that I will never need it and that there is

never a reason, for example, to protect my partner on the street or to protect

my daughter on the street or to protect just anyone on the street, which I

would do. But I prefer to be prepared. And so

for any man who has, for example, the,

the depth, I would say, to see that there is some kind of

aversion or some kind of anxiety or fear around the

topic of violence or fighting, I really invite

him to take some time to get to know that

part in him that is resisting.

Right, that is resisting this, from my perspective, very

primal, not just male, but human

tendency to get to know our bodies, right, to get to know

our physicalities, to get to know our strengths, and to see what does

it allow me to do, not just with a barbell,

but against another human being in a safe container, in a

container which is supported, which is why it's important to find a good

gym. And I know a lot of people are not able to do that. So,

so it's good to like, you know, go to different gyms, to go to different

dojos, to find the one which works. But I would

recommend and suggest to everyone to try to find

some kind of sport, to find some kind of martial art, and

to at least develop an

understanding of what happens when two bodies meet

so that it's not understood or the first time

recognized when it's in a setting they don't want

or they don't have control over. Hmm.

When you're saying, Marco, like, try one out or try something out, find a

dojo, can you give some insight? Like, what is some criteria that goes through

your head in terms of what stands out with a

school, or what do you look for? What could they keep in mind as

they're— without having any context for

like white belt, white belt entering? What

comes up as like some things to evaluate as you're feeling into

a modality or a particular school? So

there are two components to that. On the one hand, in my experience,

it's still the trainer makes the experience.

If you have a great trainer and even if it's

not your sport, it will still be a cool experience. If you have

a shitty trainer and, and, or a shitty coach,

and, and even if you say, okay, I love that sport, it's gonna be challenging

to, to stick with it. Right. And so my recommendation would be

to, if for example, someone is interested and they don't

know about the different martial arts from karate to taekwondo to jiu-jitsu to

kickboxing to BJJ, to just have a look, right, at

first and just like watch a few YouTube videos and be like, okay, so what

are the, what are, what is the difference between them? And what are the dudes

actually doing there? And just seeing, okay, is there one which

speaks more to them, right? Like, is it more the discipline and the

more, like, I would say repetitive depth

of karate, or is it more the methodical

and I would say sometimes even surgical approach from BJJ?

And, and just seeing, you know, which of those actually fit you more.

And then, as said, the key point is to try out,

right? To go to a dojo or to go to a gym and just see

how is the trainer treating the new ones,

right? Like, is the trainer looking out for the new ones? Not in a way

of like constantly babysitting them, but seeing, well,

are we gentle with the new ones, right? Like, are we

especially careful with them? Why? Because injuries

easily happen when people are not prepared. And at the same time, how do you

feel in the group, right? Like, is it a group which welcomes newcomers and who's

like, hey, cool, you're new. Oh yeah, we need to pair up. No, it's not

like you are left out alone. Come here, like, join the group. Right.

And so I would say very human things like that are

crucial. And to just

also see, are you more pulled towards tradition?

Right. So more like classical martial arts, or are you more

pulled towards the sport, which, for example, is more common in

kickboxing or also quite some BJJ gyms I've seen

are more towards like which isn't bad, but more like

sports or performance or like fighting aspect, and not

so much about tradition and, and sometimes

even the philosophical aspect behind it. Interesting,

interesting. You know, as you were sharing that, one thought came up,

and it's, you know, a lot of the work that you and I do, it

like involves, you know, somatics. There's sounds to help

guys open, release, connect. And if

someone's watching a YouTube video, for example, I don't know, karate competition, like

you're going to hear them make loud sounds oftentimes

with, you know, as they're going through specific punches. Yeah.

Can you break like what's going on and is it just

a mental thing? Is there a physical component? But when you hear guys making like

in taekwondo or karate, these loud sounds and noises,

what's the purpose of that? Is there something deeper other than

whatever. I, I have no idea what I imagined it is. So break that down

for me. Um, so important, I can just give

my perspective and this perspective of the, like, different

traditions I've, I've practiced in, right? So I cannot speak for

all karatekas out there or all taekwondo kas out there, but

what, what I was taught is that it's on the one hand

another outward projection of your power

So instead of like holding the air, for example, in, in

that moment of like, and, or like trying to

gently push it out, right? You push out the power of

the punch, for example, right? It was like, huh.

And so we see this. Okay. That was a little louder than intended.

So you're supporting the punch, for example, or the

kick. With the sound, with the bringing out of the sound.

Right. And at the same time, for some people,

there's also a release of the

pressure. So you can also,

right, like, just with like, right, like, with this

shouting, you can release also pressure buildup in the system,

which also happens, right, throughout the performance or even in like just

the practice itself, right? When you practice your punching or your kicking,

tension can get stored in the system. And so this shouting

actually, for example, can help to release that, just as in the

somatic practices. Okay, that makes a lot of

sense. When I was just thinking, you shared with me— you're kind

of a little secret weapon of mine too. Like, I,

I reach out to you, I'm like, Marco, I got this retreat coming up, or

I got this thing, like Is there a practice you can help me with,

hone in, that I might be able to bring to the group to get them

to, in a safe way, especially me not being super trained in martial arts

or not trained in martial arts, can I bring something that can connect them to

that physicality? I just had this vision of one time when we were in a

circle and we're doing punches, and when we had

20 guys in a circle punching and making noises together, sounds

together, all at the same time, like It was like I even

just right now, I just got chills through my body. Like there's something so

felt and locking eyes with another man across from you that

really gave me and the guys the experience of fuck. Like, I didn't

even know that part of me was there. And it

felt so good to make a sound, to throw

a punch, to witness and see another man, to do it in

community. And even just I'm still getting chills. Like there

was a part of me that got unlocked in that. And I know

that was one of the things, one of the guys' favorite practices, because how

often, if you're not in any type of

martial art facility or gym, have it— like, when do we get to do that?

Or when do we allow our permission? Or are we going to look stupid?

So there's all those stories that come up. And the punch

though, the punch— when I've been instructed by you,

I was like, oh my gosh, like I knew there was, or I imagined there

was a lot to this. And I'm like, there's a lot. There's a

lot, a lot, a lot to this. And so what is it like? Tell me

about the punch, because I know one of the things I'm super grateful of and

excited is you're going to guide an actual practice, a short practice

for listeners and for me. But like, tell me about the punch.

Give me a little bit more context. So is there something

specific which you are curious about, or do you just want to go about

go on about punching. Yeah, I want you to go, bro. I

want you to light up and go. Okay. So I don't

know what I don't know. And that's, that's, I think that's another point. So

one of, one, I think it was an anthropological

paper I once had, which I don't know whether it's now the latest

of science or so, but I still loved it that there is the,

there was the hypothesis that one of the things

why humans started to stop walking on the

ground and why they became able to, or

one of the things, one of the reasons they did that is because when

they were walking with their hands on the ground,

they're able to walk and punch, right? So sure, a gorilla

can punch as well. Like he can run and punch through a lot more

walls than we can. And it's still like a powerful weapon.

Right, for humans to punch, especially with our knuckles. And so

for me, the punch is,

is a lot. Like, it's a practice we can hone

for decades. It's something which can root

you in every moment because it's, it allows you

to literally from a place of no

movement at all, right? So the moment where your hand rests here

or wherever it rests in your tradition, or even when it's just here,,

right? So there's a moment of nothingness, a

moment of just stillness. And from here, right, power

emerges and you push forward with that

power into or through whatever you want to push through, right? And then there's

again a moment of stillness, and then the next punch comes.

And the, the beauty of this

contemplation, stillness, pushing through

stillness, action, stillness, action. And at the same

time, being able to hone that continuously, right? Being able

to exert more force with less effort,

exert more force with less tension, exert

more force while feeling better doing so,

right? Like all of these things you can layer on top of one another,

which makes the punch for me one of the most beautiful,

practices one can do.

Wow. You had me practicing push-ups on

my knuckles, right? Which is actually like, if you're not

used to it, really painful, believe it or not, like on the first two

knuckles. And I was like, damn, I could do quite a bit of push-ups on

kettlebells, deficit push-ups. I can do all sorts of different types. But as soon as

you had me make a fist in a particular way and then go on those

first two knuckles, I first— I've got hardwood floors downstairs.

And so I started that. I was like, oh no, no, no, no, no. I

got to go to a yogi. I was like, this is humbling. You

just change one factor, right? One factor. And I've been

doing push-ups most of my life from, I don't know, 5

years old, lots of push-ups. And then just one little shift

and I was like, oh boy, this ain't happening. So I had to get

a thick, like a 3/4-inch thick yoga mat. And then now I'm getting

better. Yeah, but why did you have me practice that? What was the

purpose of that? Yeah, so the key point is,

and is that one of the injuries

which happens incredibly often, especially in street fights, is

that the people break their knuckles or the back of their

hand, for example, or their fingers, right? Because they don't know how to

punch in a way that they don't injure themselves. And

the bones which you can strengthen quite much, I'm not quite sure whether

one can see it on the

camera, are the two bones at the two knuckles just at your

index finger and your middle finger. Because especially when you punch

and hit, there is like, you can support them with a straight

line through your lower arm, right? And

so when you hit something, like the moment of

impact, there is a powerful protection behind it. Not like, for

example, your, the smaller, like the knuckle, for example, on the

little pinky finger or the ring finger. And so it's

on the one hand about protection, right? It's on the one hand about protection for

you. But on the other hand, it's if you are able to

exert all the force your body can generate at two

or just one point, this is going to be

fucking dangerous for whatever you meet, right? With that force, because

you accelerate a lot of, you generate a lot of force when you you hit

with your entire body. And so if all of that comes down to one point

and that point hits, there's a lot of power behind it, right? But to

be able to support that and not break the knuckles, we need

to strengthen them. And we need to, like, kind of, to

some degree, calcify the bones, right? We need to, like, again and

again, put pressure onto the bones so that they become

harder and harder and harder and harder until one point you're, you

know, able to like when I was a little boy, they had

us in the karate, like hit through these stones. I don't know whether you've ever

seen these movies or things, but this is one of the things you do,

right? So you hit through these stones and the way you don't break your fists

or your knuckles is because you've been practicing so many freaking

like knuckle pushups that the bones have just become so

hardened that you can push through quite a lot of

shit. Right. And, and to be able to do that in a

fight requires body memory, right? So it's not about

just practicing the punch. It's by having you making your

push-ups on your knuckles, I create in your body

memory, the, the, in, in your body, the memory of, okay, if he pushes

against any shit with his fist, I make sure,

if you do them properly, that there is a straight line

behind the knuckles with the lower arms. So the wrist

is protected, right? Because if you do the

push-ups properly, especially with the arms close to the body, then

there's always a straight line from your knuckle all the way to your elbow. So

your wrist is not going to break when you, for example, punch.

Something. Got it. Okay. That's the reason I have

you, um, tortured yourself with knuckle push-ups. And I'm very happy

to hear that you have been doing them. Um, that makes me very

happy. I've been doing those and with the punching series,

and this is a beautiful segue into the practice here in a minute or

two, but one of the things as I'm practicing the punch that you've

been guiding me through, I've been surprised at when you're

giving me feedback and I can feel it too. There's a lot

of tension, like unconscious

tension running through my body. So, You had mentioned

that relaxation, action, relaxation, action. Maybe

it'll just be proper just to go right into the practice. Are you open to

doing that? Does that feel— yeah, let's do that. That way anyone who's listening can,

can do it and have their own experience with it. So I'll let you take

it away. Beautiful. Okay, so for you and

the listener, get up, um, take a step

back, and, um, make sure that there's

roughly— that your feet are roughly 1.5 shoulder widths

apart. So it's like a broad stand, but it's not crazily broad.

And you bend your knees to a degree which is challenging,

but where you can hold the position for like roundabout

3 to 4 minutes. And we begin with

the hands just in front of the chest, the palms

pointing towards one another. And from here we inhale, and with

the inhalation we bend the knees. Our— the palm of

our hands push towards the ground and our fingers are

like claws. So really like as if we're ripping

something into the ground. And from there,

with the exhalation, the arms and the body rises up. So

the arms rise along the sides of the body as

if they're wings at our side with the exhalation. And

then with the next inhalation, our left hand comes in front of

the body.

Our right hand comes just above our waist, and

our left— the palm of our left hand now shows

just towards the right, and the back of our palm to

the back of our left hand to the left. So I'm just explaining for the

ones who are not watching the video. And this, so this is the end point

of the inhalation. And then with the exhalation, we punch

the left hand forward.

Beautiful. And then from here, we inhale again, the hands

return, again pushing with the palm of our hands all the way from the

top of our hand into the ground with the

inhalation. So there is like a pushing down through the bones of the body into

the floor with the inhalation. And then in the exhalation,

we hold that groundedness we just developed in the inhalation,

but we add spaciousness with the rising of our

arms. So we create a combination of spaciousness in our

awareness and the groundiness of the floor. And then with the next

inhalation, the left hand comes to the waist. The right

hand comes in front of the body. Again, the palm of the

right hand pointing towards the left, the back of the right hand

pointing towards the right. And then with the exhalation from here, again,

we punch.

Beautiful. And again, inhalation, pushing down with

the palms of the hand, the fingers as claws into

the ground, feeling how all of the bones push into the

floor in the inhalation. And then we again rise up with

the hands as wings, adding

spaciousness in our awareness to the

groundedness. Inhaling, bring the right hand just above the waist, the

left hand in front of the body, focusing our awareness on

one point in front of us. And from here,

exhaling, punching through whatever we focus our awareness.

On. And again, inhaling, palms of

the hands push down towards the floor, fingers as

claws, pushing with all the bones we have into the

floor. Exhaling, the arms rise as

wings, spaciousness in our awareness while holding the

groundedness. Inhaling, the left hand comes just above the

waist, The right hand comes in front of the body, focusing our awareness

on exactly one point

and punching through that point with the

exhalation. And once more, inhaling, pushing

through the palms of the hand, fingers as claws, the

entire body pushes into the floor with

inhalation. Exhalation, the arms rise as

wings. Spaciousness in the awareness, groundedness in the

body. Inhalation, the left hand comes in front of the

body, the right hand to the waist. And from here,

with the exhalations, pushing through

the focus point with a

punch. Beautiful. Then just allowing your legs

to ease, coming out of the posture. Allowing the hands

to ease.

Beautiful. And just taking a moment, closing our eyes, and just feel, okay,

what, what happened?

What happened with my awareness to the

dance between grounding,

spacious, focus, and

push? Which is a powerful reflection of how

life actually

unfolds, because we need the ground to be able

to just feel space and just be space and

have space. We need to focus our awareness at

certain points in time And in certain points in time, we also need to go

for whatever we want to go for.

And after that, returning,

grounding, opening our awareness,

focusing, going

for— my man, feel free to.

Return. Mm. How was it for

you? Oof. Okay.

So a few things stood out to me.

One, just the incredible amount of— I'll share the

higher-level themes and then I want to unpack some of this with you. The amount

of presence I felt in that moment, which felt

really good to be fully present in them. I wasn't thinking

about, I don't know, picking up Luca today. I wasn't thinking about the next

call. I was literally full presence, which was

just a gift. Like, there was a relaxation in that. Like, my mind, even

in this, like, I know we're recording a podcast right now

and I forgot about that. 'cause it literally felt like a coaching

session with you. So there was that, which was a

gift. There's also the gift in being

guided, like so much, especially, I mean,

if you're leading teams or you're leading a family or you're

leading groups, that role, it's

a specific energy. But to

allow myself to be led by someone else where I

just get to receive and turn off, even leading

this podcast, or ask— it's like, no, no, what a gift to

switch roles and allow myself to be the

student. Another theme that came up was just feeling with

the legs, like my legs were starting to shake, the

sensation of the legs, like, oh damn. And also I've been

training, so it felt good, like I felt increased

vitality, and I was reminded like how important it is for me and for

us men to be fucking vital and to

connect to that vitality. And then the last thing that I'll share, and

I don't recall exactly what you brought up at the end, but something

about going for it. Yeah, like it felt so

good and it felt like the opposite of passivity.

Like it felt like I was going for it and participating

in life. And when you said focus on that single point and punch

through, it's like, fucking go for it, Mike. Like, what? No, hold

back. Don't hold back. And so those in that— I

don't even know how long you went, but 3 minutes, 4, whatever it was.

A lot of lessons in that. So hearing that,

I'm curious what comes up for you. And because all those pieces felt

really valuable for

me. I would say especially the first

point feeds very much into the second, and I'm very

happy that you were able to tap into that. And I hope that

some of those who went along with the practice were able to drop into

that as well, because this feeling

of vitality, from my perspective, is

very much also like, sure, we can, you know, do all kinds of

exercises and do all kinds of like endurance, HRV, whatever training to

make ourselves feel more vital.

And deep presence, really being in

the moment and allowing ourselves to be

led, but actively led, not just

passively like, okay, now go to the left. Okay, I go to the left and

now go to the right. No, go to that. No, but like an active

being led is deeply nourishing from my

perspective for the masculine, um, in all of us, and is

a powerful contributor from my experience to vitality. And so that's why

I was like very happy when you like pulled that together in

that way.

Yeah, yeah, man. I mean, even in the work that we

do, I've realized how like all the patterns,

whether it's the patterns of reactivity, resentment,

whatever, become exponentially harder if our vitality

is. Low. Right? Would you agree with

that? Yeah, 100%. Like, if my vitality is low,

like, I'm so much more easily, you know, like, reactive

towards my partner. Like, if I had a very bad sleep and it's, I know,

in the middle of the night of the next day and I just want to

go to bed and my partner is like, Marco, do you have another

minute? It's like so much harder to be like

heart open and, and hear her and see her and not be like, I

just want to go to sleep, leave me alone. Um, so yeah,

100%, like, I'm absolutely with you, right? Yeah.

Okay, beautiful. I want to touch

on this theme of like, what's the cost

associated, or what's the consequences or the ripples

of someone who is not connected to their

physicality? I just brought up what I really felt was, is the opposite of

being passive. So what else comes up? Like, what are you seeing

in guys who haven't had martial arts or

not, but that connection to their physicality? What are some of the

costs associated with that? And why would someone, in addition to what we've already

shared, like, why would someone consider even— I mean, even if you just did

that practice, like, I don't want to jump too far ahead, but I'd love

to hear how would you program that if someone just listened to this and they

wanted to incorporate that as their physicality practice? What could that

look like? But let's start with the cost associated of if someone's not connected

to it. Yeah. So while you were— you can hear

I'm curious, Mark. You can hear the curiosity. I love that. I love that. So

while you were asking the question, my mind was already like, okay, so

what could be, you know, components? Because as

you, as you for example once shared, and I was very touched by that,

is that you very much enjoy when I guide or

teach that I bring different angles or different perspectives in

or different traditions. And it's just something which is

very close to my heart because I don't believe there is, for most

of the world, one answer. There are always

different perspectives, different traditions, and different ways to look at it. And regarding

the question of the cost, I would say across

life, right? So on a, on a just very simple

self-perspective, I don't think I've ever met a

man who was entirely

missing physicality and whom I've experienced

as someone with a high level of

agency, with a high level of feeling of, I shape the

world according to my

intentions, right? And so Like, do I see people

who are successful or men who are successful without like a lot

of like, I don't know, martial background also? Absolutely. But I've

seen a lot of men being

incredibly trusting in themselves and in their own ability

to shape the world with that background, right?

With some degree of background in physicality and

strong just in strong physicality practices, right? It's something I also see in

you, right? Do you have a strong martial background? Maybe not, but you are a

freaking former world champion and you've, you've put a lot

of work into training your physicality as well, right?

And so there's also like a strong, like, agency of like being

able to shape the world I see from you. And it's

something which, just as I said, that on the one hand connects very much, right,

to a business perspective, like how much Am I able

to push through with my business in times which

are tough? If I have

only been met by— I call

them like psychological challenges, right? Like moments where I

was like, oh, what should I do? What is going to happen? Yada, yada, yada.

But limited physical challenges, right? Where someone

was in front of me or something was in front of me,

I physically need to overcome. In order to push

through. Right. And so from my perspective, that very much shows

there. And in the area of relationship, if

I miss this, like my physicality,

my, my trust in my ability also like to

hold myself and someone else, right, to maybe

even contain someone else from like

not from a place of like holding my, like my partner, for example,

down when she doesn't want it, But being able to hold

her so tight in the moments where life is

crazy, right, and everything is just going wild in her life, and being

able to hold her and just knowing that I can hold her

from an inner place of strength and trust in

my physicality, that it literally calms her

nervous system just because I have that inner trust in

me, right? And so that's, that's,

for example, where it shows up. And just the other topic,

we, before we started to record, like, dabbled into

the whole topic of sexuality, right? If I miss

my own connection to physicality and I have

a partner who might be missing

that or might want that, how do I believe to

be able to bring that in? Right. And maybe my partner

doesn't express that. Maybe, maybe my partner never played

around with it. But if we never play around with it, we will never

know what kind of wealth of experiences we can find

in that playground. I love the

bridge. I love the bridges that you're making of— because part of it

touches on what you shared earlier around, at least my experience of it, of

going through the motions, right? Step left foot left, right

foot right, but bringing more mindfulness to the

movement and intentionality to the physicality practices.

I could really see how that

deeply can map over into sexual practices

and so much more, you know. And

it's interesting because when you're holding your partner I'm

making— I'm assuming right now, but when you're holding her in that

way, I don't think that she's saying he's an aggressive man or

feeling he's an aggressive man. Like, and he— it's just, um, I don't

even quite— can't really quite articulate, but there's a softness in it

too. And you talked about the trust in it. So many guys that

I work with in some way, shape, or form in the coaching

have echoed the sentiment I really want to learn how to trust

myself. And so part of what I'm hearing from you is

practices like what you guided and practices what this can provide a window

into is that self-trust. And I actually, I didn't share this with you, but

this was, um, this was

around, actually don't even recall, it's a few months ago, it was somewhere around, I

don't know if it was on one of the practices you had gave me, and

I I don't know if it was connected at the time, but I'd asked Lauren,

I was like, how important is it for you as a woman,

for you personally? And if I asked her, I was like, if you could speak

to your experience of the feminine or of women, how important is it

for you that I do hard shit? Like,

how important is it for you that I can challenge myself physically, that

I step into challenge? And I didn't, I didn't know honestly what

she was going to say. I made an assumption, but she was like, it's so

important. Now she's got— she's been doing martial arts since she was a young girl

and most all of her life, and, uh, up until, I don't know,

maybe like 10 years ago or so. But it was really interesting, not

only in what she shared, but more importantly how I felt her when she

shared it, because she's like, it's so important for

me that you challenge yourself. And I, I think she said more

or less like, I trust you more knowing that you can step

into that. And I was like, wow, okay. Like, that's

something I felt. It was something that's a part of me, and that's something that—

wow, I can do that. Like, it's not an ambiguous thing to me. It's

like, oh no, I, I— there's ways that I know how I can challenge myself

every single day. A practice like we just did, getting up at

4:30 in the morning and doing a practice every single day. Like, those

all things, I was like, wow. And it has the effect of

her trusting me more. Curious if your

experience of that, have you seen that, or any, any thoughts to add to

that? I would say what is commendable, though

it doesn't surprise me, is that your partner has

the degree of depth and,

and self-knowing of being able to see that.

Because from my perspective, it is something which is

relevant for actually any

feminine being, right? Which is— it's important, like, even

for the feminine in all of us men. Why? Because the moment

you see another man pulling through hard shit, you

will trust him more, whether you want it or not, right?

Like, this is, this is going to be true for every person on this planet.

Like, if they see that another being is being able to pull through hard shit,

there is more trust in that person. And so that

it's beautiful that your partner is able to articulate that because I wouldn't have—

I wouldn't bet that every

woman has the self-knowing, I would call

it depth in lack of a better term, of being able to say, oh

yeah, yeah, it is important to me because

it creates a feeling of trust in

me. Right. And I would say, yeah, this is

100% true. That the ability to pull through

hard stuff is forming

our own self-trust. It is a

contributor to, am I able to— if

something challenging is going to happen tomorrow or the day after or next week

or next month, do I trust myself to be able to pull through

it? Or if something challenging just arises, do

I trust myself to being able to go through that, and the

more often we jump into the

ice or get up at 4:30 or, you know, like

run up a freaking hill in like, I don't know how many seconds while our

lungs are bursting, like all of these things, right? Or,

or jump into a fight, like controlled fight, not the street

ones. All of these aspects support, from

my perspective, our path to

learning to trust ourselves 100%.

Yeah. Amen. I love hearing that, man. Marco, with the

practice you guided, how would you— if someone wanted to use just

that, that's relatively simple, but that

practice, what would you suggest? How could someone incorporate that into

their day? I would always recommend

to integrate that in the morning. So if they have

already a morning practice, to— my recommendation

would it, depending on the morning practice, like if the morning practice is, for example,

I don't know, 10 minutes of breathwork and 20 minutes of

meditation, my recommendation would probably to put

it after the meditation, just to make sure

that this grounding spaciousness,

focus pushing through, is exactly like

that flowing into the day. And depending on how they

meditate, the meditation might, not in a bad way, kind

of override to some degree what they cultivate in that

practice, right? So my recommendation would be to do the practice at the end so

that this grounded spaciousness and the focused

action is something which inspires and really

like colors the rest of the day. So, and from my perspective,

if they are able to just put aside

7.5, maybe 10 minutes for that, that can

already, on a cellular level, support this

integration of, okay, so at any kind of moment, I can take a

breath and I can stabilize. At every kind of moment, I can take a breath

and I can be stable and still have

awareness of what's actually happening around me. And I'm able to focus

and to pull through. There will be definitely a way. And if they don't

have a morning practice, they should get one. Yeah. As we close

off, I'd love to hear your perspective on morning practice. Why is

it so important? What has it done for you? Like, what— where do

you see the value? Because I know we hear, you know, morning routines and

stuff. So guys listening, you don't have one, create one for sure. But what's

the value in it for you? This is such an interesting

question because I would say, if I say now it's my everything, it sounds

a little wild. But now that you get me thinking about it, I

would say because what does it do for me? It, it helps me

to ground, right? And like make sure that I am

stable. My morning practice helps me to go deeper in my

exploration of consciousness with my meditations. My morning

practice allows me to challenge myself when I do some intense breathwork

or other intense practices. So I wake up in the morning and often

just part of my morning practice, there is something where I'm like, oh no, we're

not. And another part of me is like, yes, we're going to do that now.

And then after that, I'm like, okay, good that we did

it. And yet it also, like for me, for example, I also

do often part of my morning practice is also some degree of like shadow

or trauma work. Right. So it's also like my

morning practice also supporting me to become more of the

man I want to become, not just by overcoming challenges

or meditation or martial arts practices,

but also as part of my own self-work, right? Like working on my

patterns and working on all the shit which is there to integrate it

more. And so yeah, for me, like morning practices

is, is, is like a key contributor that I am

sure every day, latest by 7:30 or

8, I've done quite something to support

myself on the, on the man I want to

become. Hmm. I would totally agree with that. From my perspective, it's

the older that I'm getting. What's the

saying? Like something like, what gets

done first gets done. And I've

realized if the first thing in the morning is really the most

important single thing of the day to signify to my body, mind,

spirit that it was a win for me, whatever that means. It

means that like it's the one thing that if I did

would have a beneficial cascade or a ripple effect on every other aspect of

my life. And I've realized too, and that's why it was interesting

just witnessing you and feeling you when you said, you know, maybe it's my

everything, like it's that big. And I've realized it's

actually the only or one of the

few non-negotiables, like truly

non-negotiables, that has made every other aspect of my life

better. My ability to hold Lauren in moments of chaos, my ability to

hold myself in moments of collapse, my ability to show

up here with love and presence and

service to people listening, my ability to father

Luca. Everything in my life gets better,

more connected, more felt, more present, more loving, more

deep. You put the, put the adjective next to it, the

positive adjective. Yeah. And it's affected by the morning practice.

So I love hearing that. And as we close out, this has been such a

great conversation, man, so thank you. Is if you wanted to

leave listeners with anything to, uh, hit home on or

to reiterate, something that you want to leave them with uh, based

off anything that we talked about or outside, what could or what would that

be? I love the point with the morning practice. Like, from my

perspective, to understand the morning practice as a

key contributor to the path of the

man you want to become, or if that's not your wording, on the life you

want to lead. Like, if you want to lead a life

of intentionality or a life which is

rich, or if, if you want to live a life, lead a life

where, where you feel powerful, then your

morning practice is going to be the key contributor to that,

right? Like, if you want to have a life where you feel a

lot, then your morning practice might not be martial arts but more

like dance practice or subtle breathing or so.

And if you want to be more stable when children come

around or when the next project comes in, then the

morning practice where you stabilize yourself and, for example, do the practice

I guided earlier, then those will contribute to

that. And so, yeah, I love the point that we, that we ended on the,

on the morning practice because it's, from my

perspective, the key variable we can use

because there's not just one practice, right? Like, there are a gazillion practices you can

use, and you simply adjust them along your days and months

and weeks and years to support wherever

you see you now need.

Support. Hmm. Beautiful, man. Beautiful. Thank you, Marco, my brother. This

has been fantastic, man. I truly do appreciate you for all how

you support me and showing up today for me and the listeners, man. Thank you

so much. Thank you, Mike.

And One thing which is really important to me is

that whoever is listening, I'm absolutely

grateful to you because I have

so much trust and actually

admiration for Mike and his work. And so

being here and supporting him, but

also learning from him is something which has

absolutely elevated my life. And so I just

love what you do, brother. I love what you bring into the world. And

I'm really, really grateful that, that, that I can call you a brother in

my life because I know we will be growing together and I

know there will be again moments where I need you and I know that you

will be there. So thank you for that. You're

welcome, man. You're welcome. It's an honor, dude. Love you, brother. Have a beautiful

day. You too, my man.