Bam Lionheart started in striking, then moved into jiu-jitsu through an MMA lens rather than a pure grappling background — he picked up the mechanics fast enough that other students at his first few classes assumed he'd trained before. From there his path ran through gymnastics, wrestling, boxing, Muay Thai, Olympic weightlifting, climbing, and modern dance before it became what he now teaches as Primal Movement: a natural, functional movement system built on alignment, nervous-system patterning, and moving the way the human body was actually built to move.He's spent the last several years coaching coaches — past the stage of figuring it out for himself and into the stage of figuring it out for the people who are now figuring it out for others. He runs an online membership through Primal Movement with a monthly training program, and he lives mostly outdoors and mostly on the move, by his own count relocating around ten times in the last decade.This one covers a lot of ground: two competing schools of movement correction (training the ideal position vs. training for the compensation pattern someone will actually fall into under pressure), a neurotransmitter-based lens for reading how different clients respond to coaching, his case for barefoot shoes and how to transition into them, and a detour into light, grounding, and quantum health by way of Dr. Jack Cruz. He also talks about a friend who was pushed toward spinal fusion for a back issue and didn't want to hear the alternative — a story that sits underneath most of what he does: movement as something closer to medicine than fitness. His framing by the end: this was never really a fitness conversation, it's a health and wellness one.Full conversation below.Find Bam:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primal.bam/Website: https://primalmovement.orgYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@primalmovementQuality Values Podcast:Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcDYjJATsN-Nn0Fs5HLuIq5EIzDcA9tggMore episodes: https://jacobconlanshields.com/pages/podcast/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5xzOcAP2agwcVVAdu7vztc#QualityValues #PrimalMovement #FunctionalMovement #NaturalMovementChapters:0:00 Cold open1:28 Bam Lionheart joins the show2:07 Origin story: from MMA to primal movement5:06 Coaching the coaches12:22 Learning jiu-jitsu through a striker's eyes15:37 Case study: fixing a training partner's knee alignment under pressure16:51 Two schools of thought: the ideal position vs. the compensation pattern19:48 Blending both approaches20:54 Mixing systems, client by client21:18 A neurotransmitter lens for reading clients23:23 Learning styles, applied to strength and conditioning23:46 Alignment as the common thread27:31 How he actually assesses someone's alignment35:02 Barefoot shoes: philosophy, brands, and transitioning40:03 Grounding, charge, and quantum health40:34 Why natural movement just makes sense, evidence aside41:23 Living outdoors, and the pull toward nature46:27 Sunlight, light exposure, and all-cause mortality51:34 Dr. Jack Cruz and the pushback he gets54:39 A friend, a bad back, and a push toward spinal fusion56:12 Discovering Tim Ferriss and lifestyle design56:59 Building a business and a life around his own values59:26 What that lifestyle has actually been like1:00:30 Ten moves in ten years1:01:48 More than a movement guy: health and wellness1:03:35 On the word "quality," and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance1:05:13 Closing thoughts1:05:20 Where to find Bam
Kyle Mitri left Johannesburg at 25 and has been in Costa Rica ever since. He's kept roughly the same morning routine for 10 to 15 years: make the bed, glass of water, meditation, journal, a page or two of a book, stretch, coffee. He's a men's coach — one-on-one mentorship over three months, ending with a three-day in-person initiation in Costa Rica.The part of his work that's lasted longest is the weekly men's circle he co-leads with a friend. Seven years running in a town where almost everyone is transient. The format is deliberately simple — three words, three minutes, everyone checks in — because most of the men walking in are new to this and need to feel safe before they need to be challenged. His answer for what actually makes it work isn't the format at all. It's consistency: showing up on the week you don't feel like it, because you're not only showing up for yourself.The back half gets into stillness, and what it costs to get there. Kyle walks through his vision quest — four days alone with no food, no water, no phone, no one to talk to — including the part where he panicked on night one because he had no idea what to do with himself. Day three is where it broke open. He describes it as dropping into the pace of nature until he could notice things again. From there the conversation turns to fasting, plant medicine and how Costa Rica integrates it, why fire sits at the center of ceremony, and a masculine/feminine framework he sums up as the riverbank and the water.Fair warning that a stretch of this one covers fasting and ceremonial plant medicine, including claims about wounds healing mid-fast. That's Kyle's own experience, not medical guidance — dry fasting in particular carries real risk, so treat it as a story rather than a protocol.Full conversation below.Find Kyle:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kyle.mitri/Website: https://kylemitri.comThe Initiation (3-month program): https://kylemitri.com/the-initiation/Free course: https://kylemitri.com/free-course/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kyle.mitriQuality Values Podcast:Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcDYjJATsN-Nn0Fs5HLuIq5EIzDcA9tggMore episodes: https://jacobconlanshields.com/pages/podcast/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5xzOcAP2agwcVVAdu7vztc#QualityValues #MensWork #Stillness #CostaRicaChapters:0:00 Cold open0:55 Kyle Mitri joins the show1:47 The 100-day challenge and learning to speak to a camera4:29 A day in the life in the Costa Rican jungle8:12 Community, and acting as a steward for new arrivals10:25 What "commune" actually means14:10 Coffee, flat whites, and learning latte art16:50 Inside the weekly men's circle17:11 The format: three words, three minutes, "I'm in"21:32 Accountability, and keeping a circle alive for seven years25:05 Containers, structure, and weekly housekeeping25:43 The coaching business and the three-month initiation27:47 What draws him to men's work30:02 Consistency as the active ingredient33:17 Movement: compound lifting, yoga, and animal flow36:04 Tiger Brenda, boxing, and Nosara37:03 Why resistance training matters on a men's retreat38:46 Sitting with plant medicine responsibly42:41 Integration, and why Costa Rica holds it well44:18 Peyote: form, fire, and what it reflects back46:51 Why fire sits at the center of ceremony49:02 Fire and water, masculine and feminine50:48 Eastern philosophy as a bridge52:42 The riverbank and the water: leading in relationship56:30 Stillness, and the discomfort of doing nothing57:26 Four days alone: the vision quest1:00:16 Dropping into the pace of nature1:02:11 Fasting, and what surprised them both1:03:44 A fall, a wound, and what happened on day two1:05:22 Reliving an old knee surgery mid-fast1:06:54 Doctors, and what the body already knows1:07:41 Slowing down enough to be present1:08:42 Presence vs. alignment, and awareness across time1:12:54 Where to find Kyle
Zach Jungles is Neural Reboot — five or six different nervous-system reset systems he's learned and adapted, layered on a strength-and-conditioning background. The throughline across all of it is balance: getting the brain to accept sensory input properly again so one injury stops quietly causing the next three.This episode ties together a few threads from this show's past nervous-system-training conversations — Zach trained directly under Shawn Sherman in Square One, studied under Jarod Burton, and worked alongside Jared Slater in Charleston. We get into Square One's gait-based logic, Burton's "Neuro Target" system and the buried history of the ARP wave, and a wearable direct-current device called the Volta X (currently mid-rebrand) that Zach says has cut ACL and meniscus recovery timelines in half. From there we get into structured water, grounding, quantum biology, and a handful of very old, very strange experiments people are still arguing about. The idea he keeps coming back to, credited to Einstein: knowledge comes from experience, everything else is just information.Full conversation below.Find Zach:Instagram: https://instagram.com/neural_rebootMentioned in this episode:Jarod Burton (Train Efficiently): https://linktr.ee/TrainefficientNathan Siles (BioSpectral Systems): https://biospectralsystems.comQuality Values Podcast:Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcDYjJATsN-Nn0Fs5HLuIq5EIzDcA9tggMore episodes: https://jacobconlanshields.com/pages/podcast/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5xzOcAP2agwcVVAdu7vztc#QualityValues #NervousSystemTraining #SquareOneSystem #NeuralRebootChapters:0:00 Cold open1:34 Zach Jungles joins the show2:39 What "neural reboot" means2:59 Finding Square One and Shawn Sherman in South Dakota5:18 A scar, a scratch, and a woman who broke down crying6:21 The gait pattern behind Square One8:30 Finding Jared Slater and Jarod Burton12:09 Building "the pie": his neural reboot framework12:48 Layer one: quantum health, light, water, and magnetism15:16 Square One, Neuro Target, and the history of extreme isometrics17:56 Why "the right intention" isn't the issue19:32 What muscle testing "on" and "off" actually means20:24 Doctor Jay's results with Larry Fitzgerald and Adrian Peterson22:03 The four layers of the pie23:29 The seed crystal: how memory training led him here26:49 Balance as the North Star, according to 20 years of Cal Dietz28:44 How non-contact ACL injuries actually happen30:44 Where the passion comes from: no weekends, no relationships32:18 Football, injuries, and a light pole to the head34:06 Two years of doctors and PRP injections with no results35:04 Finding a $50 knee program that worked when nothing else did36:18 Realizing every injury traces back to imbalance38:32 Knowledge comes from experience, not information39:53 Reflexes vs. conscious control: reconciling the gap43:36 Balancing a pitcher and adding three miles an hour overnight47:36 Introducing the Volta X: direct current and The Body Electric50:36 Finding "hot spots" of electrical resistance52:41 Case studies: faster ACL and meniscus recoveries, in his telling54:37 Evan Lewis, Doctor Burton, and an upcoming device rebrand57:32 The night Doctor Burton tore his Achilles on a tennis court1:00:42 Recovering from a torn Achilles with no imaging, no surgery1:03:38 Structured water and the Edith Heuss / Marinovich lineage1:08:15 Nathan Siles, Gerald Pollack, and quantum biology in pro sports1:11:10 Nature as "the ultimate balancer"1:13:48 Structured water, gemstones, and a funnel1:14:54 Book recommendation: Living Water1:17:20 Book recommendation: The Wisdom of the Body1:19:12 What actually moves fluid through the body1:21:02 A chick-egg heart experiment: light and fluid flow1:22:36 Known unknowns, unknown unknowns, and staying in his lane1:29:56 Where the industry is headed1:30:18 Where to find Zach
Jared Slater tore his UCL pitching in college, right as COVID shut down every field, gym, and clinic he could have used to rehab it. He was stuck in California with a laptop, some bands, and a couple of weights in his garage, so he started treating himself — filming his own mechanics, adjusting his own program, digging through research at night. He doesn't call himself a strength coach anymore. He calls himself an athlete engineer, a term he picked up from Matt Rhea, because the box "strength coach" puts you in is too small for what the job actually is.He owns IHT Human Performance in North Charleston, South Carolina, where he trains athletes on both performance and rehab through a heavily neuro-based approach — muscle testing, treating the brain as the actual site of an injury rather than just the tissue, and getting people back on the field in a fraction of the usual timeline. He opened the gym about a year and a half ago, not long after losing his mother, partly to carry forward the work ethic she modeled for him.This one covers his theory of injury and recovery, built around voltage and charge in the body, several case studies he cites (a torn PCL he says was healthy in eight weeks, bulging discs resolved in four days), a theory connecting a run of 49ers tendon injuries to a nearby electrical substation, and his take on vibration, frequency, and why the people around you matter more than you'd think. Underneath the specifics there's a plainer idea running through all of it: be the best at whatever level you're actually at right now, before worrying about the next one.Full conversation below.Find Jared:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slater_hp/IHT Human Performance: https://ihthumanperformance.comIHT Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iht_performance/Quality Values Podcast:Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcDYjJATsN-Nn0Fs5HLuIq5EIzDcA9tggMore episodes: https://jacobconlanshields.com/pages/podcast/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5xzOcAP2agwcVVAdu7vztc#QualityValues #AthletePerformance #SportsRehab #StrengthAndConditioningChapters:0:00 Jared Slater joins the show2:11 What "athlete engineer" means, and why he dropped "strength coach"4:08 His own injury: a college pitching injury during COVID6:43 Why strength coaches make the best rehab professionals9:20 What's wrong with the physical therapy industry11:24 Operative vs. non-operative rehab, and training for sport instead of daily living16:36 Why no injury has one single cause19:10 The eye test, muscle testing, and "make it hurt"20:45 Why he believes the brain controls everything23:11 Charge, voltage, and hypertonic muscles: his theory of pain24:50 Case studies: fast recoveries from bulging discs, a torn PCL, and more28:23 Why elite rehab results are becoming more visible29:20 Bigger, faster athletes and bigger injuries31:02 A high school running back's hip, fixed in 20 minutes32:19 C.J. Stroud, the Texans, and mainstreaming neuro-based rehab33:00 The business case for getting million-dollar athletes back faster34:35 A theory connecting the 49ers, EMF, and tendon injuries39:17 Water, vibration, and muscle testing41:00 Frequency, energy, and surrounding yourself with the right people45:51 Building the best sports performance facility on the planet46:16 A rough home life, and losing his identity to injury48:10 Tommy John surgery and the choice that changed everything50:25 Turning discipline into a filter for every decision53:23 Being where your feet are58:23 Starting IHT Human Performance after his mother's death1:00:12 Lessons and mistakes from his first year in business1:01:47 Why he and his wife moved to Charleston1:03:33 Book recommendations1:11:55 Where to find Jared
Ezra Vancil got signed to a substantial recording deal as a teenager and has been making music ever since — he's in his fifties now, still touring, still putting out a record most years. Somewhere in his twenties and thirties he went through a genuinely dark stretch: substance abuse, felony charges, a divorce, and a rock bottom that included thoughts of suicide, until one night something in him finally said enough.He's an Americana singer-songwriter based in a forest in East Texas, known for house concerts where the between-song stories matter as much as the songs. His new project, a double album called Morning & Midnight, turned into a full poetry collection along the way — he sat down to finish the record and ended up with a book he never meant to write, due out on Audible and Kindle by the end of the year.Most of this conversation is about that rock-bottom period and what came after it: giving up on trying to be something and learning to just be what he already was. We also get into flow state (he describes it through a car accident that knocked him clean out of his vehicle), the three versions of himself he calls the flow-state writer, the craftsman, and the editor, why he stopped chasing what his art earns and started paying attention to what making it does to him, and the couple who wandered into one of his concerts to sign their divorce papers and left holding hands instead. His best line of the episode: he spent most of his life performing a persona, and the day he stopped, the wrong people and the wrong work just filtered themselves out on their own.Full conversation below.Find Ezra:Website: https://www.ezravancil.comInstagram: https://instagram.com/ezravancilSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/53DBJZYKrYOYUGz0co8XLQQuality Values Podcast:Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcDYjJATsN-Nn0Fs5HLuIq5EIzDcA9tggMore episodes: https://jacobconlanshields.com/pages/podcast/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5xzOcAP2agwcVVAdu7vztc#QualityValues #Songwriting #MentalHealth #CreativeProcessIf this episode brings anything up for you: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988 (US), available 24/7.Chapters:0:00 Cold open1:41 Ezra Vancil joins the show2:05 A poetry book that started as an album6:40 Finding a label between song and poem8:24 Spoken word, and keeping the rhythm unpredictable11:03 Flow state, the "clutch moment," and a car accident15:48 Building a life around flow state, in his 50s17:03 The editor, the craftsman, and the spark19:23 What actually counts as "writing"20:32 Untapped genius, and art that never gets finished22:07 Factory-line pop vs. music that resonates23:41 Not chasing Van Gogh: making art for his own sphere26:24 What creative work does to you, more than what it earns28:33 His writing routine, then and now32:55 Becoming the artist: songwriting at six, and a record deal as a teenager34:40 Graphic design and thirty-plus industry awards36:07 What "quality" means to him, and who he's writing for44:32 The Six-Figure Musician, and the couple who almost signed their divorce papers48:50 The song that came out of addiction, felonies, and his first divorce51:02 Vulnerability as the origin of anything valuable53:27 The catalyst: turning 40 and realizing he hadn't been living56:47 Rock bottom, and opening back up to something bigger1:00:36 Letting go of persona and ego1:03:21 Where to find Ezra