Physical Fitness and Self-Defense: Engaging with Aaron Cobb on Muscle Control, Ground Fighting, and Nutrition for Concealed Carriers

Hi, welcome to the Arm Guardian Podcast season one, episode nine. Today will be our last episode of guest episode of 2023. And our guest today will be Aaron Cobb from Beasel Defense out of Dearborn, michigan. Aaron is a USCCA instructor and today we'll be discussing physical fitness and the concealed carrier and what they need to do and some considerations so that you're able to defend yourself in those situations. So sit down, enjoy today's episode. Hi, welcome to the Arm Guardian Podcast. Today we're going to be talking with Aaron Cobb, beasel Defense from the Detroit area, and he's going to be talking about physical fitness with us and the concealed carrier and some things that you can do to kind of help stay in shape, be able to stay in the fight if you were needed to get into a prolonged fight. So, without any further ado, aaron, how are you doing today?

I'm doing great, brian, thank you, thanks for having me on.

Thank you for coming and talking on this topic. It's one that I've. Every now and then I'll get asked in the class about physical fitness, but it's not my number one. I'm not the certified trainer, although I've been in a lot of physical fitness stuff in form of military and law enforcement. But it's something that a lot of concealed carriers kind of take for granted. They think I don't really need to do a whole lot. But they don't if they haven't been in the physical fight where they're fighting for their life, basically it's they don't recognize how much it takes to stay involved in the fight. But before we jump into the topic, why don't you tell us a little bit about Aaron Cobb and what he does?

Okay, as mentioned, this is diesel defense. It is a firearms training company. I also do teach mass shooter training, countering the mass shooter threat, and I also do security training. So I cover kind of legal aspect of security work and then I created a security firearms class. I'm still in the security field. I'm a security contractor, so I do high threat security, usually for people with a whole lot of money, and I do I transport prisoners for the US Marshals. I'm a contractor and then I also do security assessments on schools around the state of Michigan to help them get grant to improve the schools, whether it be cameras, getting vulnerable glass replaced, that kind of stuff. So those, those assessments help them get the money they need to make those changes. If it's not covered by a bond or a millage, and that's pretty much it, it's pretty much it. Just try to help people become, you know, their own first responder is the main thing.

Okay, turn off the air conditioner for the background noise.

No problem.

Okay, so someone that is getting into self concealed carry what are some things? Are someone that maybe has been involved in concealed carry but hasn't really given physical fitness much of a thought. What part does physical fitness play in the ability to fire your firearm and to stay in the fight? If you want to take that into different topics, there are two different segments. What's your thoughts on that?

Well, my thoughts are that physical fitness is of the utmost importance, right, you know? I think that in the in the two way community, at least observation there's too much reliance on a firearm. You know. The thought is you know, if anything happens, I have my firearm. And there's a gentleman and I can't remember his last name, but his first name is Tim and he has a company called IDS and he talks about being a not being a gun fighter, being a fighter with a gun right. And we teach the use of force continuum. We teach that, you know, you only want to use the minimum amount of force necessary to stop a threat. And somebody who relies solely on their firearm, where they're going all the way to 10 right, they're like okay, if something happens, I'm going to use my firearm. But there may be other things you can do. You know, based on your, your level of fitness. If you're not physically fit, you may have to use force to protect yourself, whereas in the same situation, if you were more physically fit, you might have been able to buy yourself some time to get away, fall for help, that kind of thing. So it's very, very important, and it's not only a two way community. I mean when I was a corrections officer, I mean I worked with people who were out of shape and and I you know I used to I told people I would be afraid to come inside of a prison if I was not in shape. So it's, it's definitely something that's overlooked kind of by everybody. But I want and what I try to get my students to understand is that, you know, this is, this is a tool and this is part of the solution. But the other part of that is being hard to kill, and being hard to kill is being in and as best physical shape as you can be.

Right, yeah, that's good. I know that the physical fitness part of it just being able to handle the gun and the recoil you don't have to be overly fit, muscled up or anything like that, but you've got to have well-toned muscles. Especially if you're involved in a situation, your heart rate's going to be already elevated and you're going to start expending that oxygen that's supposed to be going to the muscles to help control the firearm. And we've all have done several different things. You know talking about adrenaline. You know the ice bucket, putting your hands in the ice bucket to try to manipulate the weapon. You know holding the gun out and if you're, oh, don't have enough oxygen and you're not, don't have enough muscle tone or the conditioning, you start that shake and everything and that's going to affect where your rounds go, where, if you're going to be affected in that potential gunfight, and it's just something that I think that a lot of people don't really practice too much, like we talked about. So, yeah, I think this is at least some sort of basic conditioning and then also the ability maintaining your flexibility, because you have to be flexible in a, you know, in your shooting stance, and then if you have to turn and engage or run. You've got to have that flexibility to be able to move quickly. You don't want to be like an old man that's been out of shape and oh, oh, I got to go. And it's just something that I think a lot of people just take for granted. They don't condition themselves like they should. Yeah, sure.

And to your point. You know it's something that most people just don't think about. You know, if somebody's never been in a fight, they don't know, and so what I tell people is I say hey, listen, if you walk up a flight of stairs and you're out of breath, think about being in a fight, because that's going to be way more aggressive than you simply going upstairs to, you know, to the second level of your house or the second level of a business. And so the good thing is, though, like you mentioned the ice bucket training and stuff like that you can train, you can increase your VO2 max, and what VO2 max is is your body's ability to utilize oxygen, which, if you're out of shape, it decreases, but the good thing is, you can improve that. So one recommendation that I always have for people is, if you don't do any exercise, if you have a job, when you sit at a desk, and then you typically go home and sit on the couch, you know, just start walking, start walking after dinner, and then, as you become more conditioned, you can always increase the intensity by either walking faster or walking up hills, things like that. Walking with a backpack put a little weight in your back, which is a whole another thing. I'm in the rucking too, but that's separate. That might be another conversation, but little things, you know. That's the other thing. I think people think, oh man, I have to go become a gym rat. No, you don't. You just have to be able to do the basic things, such as go up a flight of stairs. If you're on the floor, be able to get down on the floor and off the floor. Because I think the other thing is we romanticize gunfights. We think, oh, if I'm gonna be in a gunfight, I'm gonna be in that perfect isosceles or I'm gonna be in that perfect weaver. No, you might. I tell my students all the time you might have to shoot sitting up in your bed, you might have to shoot from your car, or you may be trying to run away and fall right. Now you're on the ground on your weak side. Now you have to try to get a firearm out and engage the threat. So it's just thinking of all these eventualities and then working a basic routine around that, and you don't need any equipment for that.

Yeah, and it doesn't take a whole lot to think outside the box to get into a moderate fitness or into shape. Just think about if you work in an office building, take the stairs instead of the elevator. You go grocery shopping and you come home, load up, load your arms up with the bags and carry that extra weight instead of taking just a couple and making multiple trips. But you use that to kind of help tone the muscles or condition the muscles. A lot of things, you just think outside the box. Your lawn work, you got a riding mower and your mowing, I push mower, I push mower and every now and then use the push mower Different things like that to maintain your. That would be your cardiovascular for the most part. But it just doesn't take a whole lot to pick up, bag, move it and just back and forth whether it's groceries, trash, bag trash, whenever you take it to the trash can, picking it up and dropping it in the dumpster, the can. So a lot of things we can do outside the box. I think without that special equipment Got a lot of things around the house Take a shower, dry off with the towel, use your towel to kind of tense up your muscles and relax. That'll help build up some of your muscle fitness. It's not like you're picking up weights or using resistance bands, but you are to a point with that towel just kind of tensing up, building that tension there and then releasing it. A lot of things around the house that we kind of play off that we can use to help aid our business.

But I think that the key is just kind of doing a self-assessment of where you're at. If you don't have any ailments, if you don't have any issues, any disabilities, you can do calisthenics, like we kind of talked about off camera is jumping jacks, running in place, push-ups, sit-ups I mean they're very basic. You can do that in your living room floor, right. And then what I would say is if there are people listening who are like I'd love to do all that, but I have some sort of a disability, then that's where maybe an occupational therapist would help or a good personal trainer. There's back when I was in that's one thing I forgot to mention in my intro. There I was a certified personal trainer for 12 years. But having a competent personal trainer who can make a program just for you and they should be if you're dealing with a trainer, there should never be what we call a cookie cutter program, and there's plenty of cookie cutter programs out there. You can just go on YouTube and type in full body exercise and you'll see a zillion of them. You might even find one of my old ones out there. But the key is getting a plan that's specific for you. If you're dealing with a certain issue and explaining to that professional, saying, hey, I'm not trying to be a bodybuilder, I'm not trying to run a marathon, I just wanna be functionally fit and this is what I'm, these are my limitations, and they will be able to create a program specifically for you to help you be able to do that.

What are the things that you want to do before without someone that's looking to get into, trying to better themselves or get into a little bit better condition? We talked a little bit about the, you know, just getting out, walking, taking steps, things like that. If they were wanting to get into, you know, extend that a little bit. And we use body weight exercises. But what are you, you know, as far as resistance bands, would you say resistant bands are great, especially if you're doing like a home gym where you can't have the weight pounding on the floor because you live in an upstairs apartment or something. What are your thoughts? Or what are some exercises that you think fashion for a concealed carrier might work?

Sure, yeah, but exercise bands are an excellent tool. They're small, they're compact. You can get different sizes to have the different resistance whether it's lighter resistance, the thinner bands are lighter, the thicker bands are heavier resistance. So those are absolutely a great tool. You can travel with them. I'll throw them in a suitcase If you do travel for work. You know, have them in a hotel room, that kind of thing. And then the other thing, kind of along the same line but gives you a little more versatility, is like something like a TRX band, something like that. Yeah, there you go there you go, yeah, yeah, and those are perfect. And then you know, when it comes to designing a plan for yourself, you just a plan doesn't have to be that you know, detailed. There's some movements that, as humans, we need to be able to do, and those are squat, lunge, hinge right, twist and then push and pull with the arms. That's it. All these exercise programs that you see online on TV, you know that they are all based on those. Those are the bare minimum movements. So what is a squat? Well, you know me and my bodybuilding. Hey, I'd go to the gym and put as much weight on my back as I could and I'd squat with it. But guess what you can do? An air squat. What we call an air squat was zero weight, right, you can do that in your living room and you just do a couple sets to failure, to fatigue, and that works just as well. You know, I've got a buddy that's a football coach and he will often have his guys do step-ups on the bleachers out of the football field, as opposed to squatting. Now they do, you know, 50 reps at a time, but it's the same thing. It's the exact same thing, so you know. So again, don't get too far on the woods. Keep it simple and say to yourself okay, I need to be able to do these basic things. Now, when it comes to cardio conditioning, which is actually going to, I feel, be more important for you in a fight I mean, all you got to do is look at a UFC fight and those guys can fight three, five rounds and don't even break a sweat usually, and that's because our cardio is insane. I get tired looking at it. But being able to have that cardio fitness because the whole goal is you're hoping that if the person attacking you might be out of shape and you're in shape, well, you just even the playing field, as long as they don't get their hands on your firearm, right. So so, yeah, so there's that. And then you know if you are dealing let's let's talk about somebody who might be wheelchair bound, right. So they are obviously going to be limited to upper body exercise and using resistance bands as an example. You know you get secure one end of a resistance band on a door or in a door and then you know, do lice up, curls, do rows, that kind of thing? You know, by locking the wheelchair in place and getting the resistance that way, I mean those bands are honestly. I mean you're unlimited with those bands. You can do so much.

Yeah, yeah, that's good. And talking about the cardio and we mentioned it briefly is if you got into a situation where your attacker was within arms reach, or either your lack of situational awareness or you being caught at the you know them approaching and you're either can't get to your weapon or you don't have any other means of self-protection. That basically ground fighting. But you know a lot of people don't realize if they get in an actual, true fight where you're having to fight off an attacker that you're you'll burn off, you'll get to the point where you're going to fatigue and it's going to be fairly quickly, regardless of how fit you are. You know, just because you're fit you're not going to be able to endure a 15 minute fight, more than likely in a self-defense situation. There's an incident that I think kind of brings to point. That happened here, not too far from us, over in Woodbine, georgia, where the I don't want to get into the. There's some some play in things going on with it, but if you watch the dash cam footage you know the guys resistant to the officer. Yeah, that they've got a different agenda. The officer is going in dealing with the violation of the law, but no, again, put it in that you know you lost situational awareness. You walk around a corner, there's a guy right there. They see this person becoming very aggressive with the officer and attacking them. Unfortunately, the guy is the officer ends up shooting the person. But afterward you see that officer who is in looks to be in fairly decent shape, standing over his patrol car on the hood, huffing and puffing because he's no expense all that energy fatigue those muscles in that short fight that he had. So just because you know, like you mentioned, the got the gun, that's all I'm going to need. Or I got pepper spray and stuff, anything like that. Just be prepared for that Ground fight. Basically and I'm a advocate of I think everybody should at some point take some sort of ground fighting, if they're able to some sort of martial arts or ground fighting class. Just to be aware of that energy that is expensed and how quickly. You know don't depend on your physical fitness or the weapon or anything, but be aware of what it's going to take and how long you're actually going to last in a situation.

Yeah, I agree. And you know, one of the things I kind of was considering at one point was, you know, either taking like Jiu Jitsu, that kind of stuff and I did play around with Krav Maga and even if you take Krav Maga for a month, it's well worth the money, because at the end of every well, I shouldn't say the end, but the last portion of every class there's maybe four or five of you and one of you is being attacked, and so everybody is attacking you and so you're full on fighting for 90 seconds. I mean, you're getting your butt kicked for 90 seconds and even though it's a controlled environment you know, obviously these people aren't trying to really kill you it will really wake you up and say, holy cow, I felt like I was in great shape and so I started going to that. And you know, you're just drenched and you're still getting that adrenaline dump because even though you know your life's not in danger, you still have a task to complete. When that, when that timer goes off, you have to react. And you know. But again, there's those, some of those systems. You know it takes you a couple of years to get really good at them. So here out here in Metro Detroit there's a guy that puts on integrative defense strategies is what it's called, and it's it is fight based, but it's a concealed cherry combat class. And so a scenario like, say, you and I were partners, we would have cert pistols on us in holsters concealed I've broken three holsters, by the way, so you quickly find out which holsters are worth the money and which aren't. But. But the instructor might put me and you facing each other on our knees and say, okay, your job is to get each other's pistol, so, and you know, we're not really using any. I mean, they teach us some techniques and all that, but they don't get in the woods on it because you don't have years to become masters. Right, you got an hour, and so I encourage that. Anybody listening, if there's anything like that around you, or even a crowd of my God and it seems like the same people are gravitated there's a lot of concealed carriers and crowd of my God classes there's a lot of concealed carries, obviously there in the combat concealed class, and it gives you that reality check, but it also gives you that, that confidence to begin to gain that confidence. But I tell you to say this that even with that, I still walked out of there and said you know what I need to run. I need to run some more because I was getting out of breath pretty quick and again that lactic acid system that the cells use for energy, I mean, unless you can dominate your opponent in about 15 to 30 seconds, you will have to resort to using your firearm. Because other than that, you know, it's game over. And I've seen some of the same dash cam footage that you mentioned. There was one where the in the officer was very obviously out of shape but the kid got the best of them and because of that, the officer you know a kid mounted the officer on his back on the ground. The officer had no choice but to you know, to use his firearm, otherwise he wouldn't have made it out of there. So you know, I can't stress enough that by improving your physical fitness it just gives you that edge, gives you that chance that maybe you don't have to use your firearm if you can buy just a split second to get out of being mounted or to get away. I don't know. Can you hear that traffic out there?

Hopefully you can't, Occasionally I'll hear it.

Yeah, I live right on Ford Road. I'm in Dearborn, right the home of Ford Motor Company, and it seems like everybody that owns a charger or a challenger lives in this neighborhood. So yeah, yeah, I can't stress that enough. And again, people don't have to spend a ton of money on gym memberships and all this kind of stuff. Just start, simple, evaluate where you're at physically and say, okay, what can I do to be just a little bit better? You know you walk after dinner every night, something like that.

Okay, then, something I didn't include in our free questions, but it just kind of hit me and if you're not real sure or don't feel comfortable, just let me know. But part of the physical fitness I think is also learning the proper diet to feed your muscle system, because carbs are quick for that quick energy, but then you also need a balance of protein and other things. Do you subscribe or do you have any suggestions on dietary dear for physical fitness?

Yeah, absolutely. I was certified in that too. They went together with the, so yeah. So what I tell people is part of being in shape is not being overweight. Right, let's say you, let's start there. So let's say somebody that's listening to this they're overweight, they're doing the huffing and puffing, going up and down the stairs, but they're a concealed carrier and they want to get in shape and they want to eat better. The thing is is processed food overall, but especially processed carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are an energy source and, believe it or not, dietary fat is an energy source as well. But the body loves carbs and so tell people is start switching out your processed carbs for natural carbs. So, instead of having a Snickers bar, have an apple. The body knows what to do with sugar, even though excess sugar will get us in trouble. The mitochondria in the cell recognize sugar and every cell in the body can use it for energy. Versus artificial sweeteners, highly processed sweeteners the body doesn't know what that is, so the body will store it as fat. And then, when it comes to protein, should be the basis for everything. They should be getting in at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight. I don't care if you're 15 years old or 95 years old. That should be the basis. In fact, the older you are, the more protein becomes very valuable to help with muscle wasting and that kind of stuff. And then dietary fat. So when it comes to fat and when it comes to fat and sugar, what I told people broadly is think of a sea salt. If you're gonna have a high carbohydrate and I said sugar and sugars are carbs If you're gonna have a high carbohydrate meal, then fat should be low. And then vice versa, if you're gonna have a high fat meal, let's say you're gonna have a nice juicy, thick brisket with a lot of fat on it. Marble, really good. That's a meal where you would want to avoid having bread or potatoes or anything with it. So that way it's just a way to keep it simple Protein should be across the board one gram at least one gram per pound of body weight. And then carbs and fat. Just think of a sea salt. And if you think of what is ice cream, ice cream is sugar and fat and it's awesome, but it gets us in trouble, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so just making those subtle changes, and as a former bodybuilder and a personal trainer and nutrition coach, I have literally tried every diet out there. The other thing is not to be dogmatic, Like there's people that are dogmatic about veganism or about whatever, but it's like everything is in phases. You'll find that if you cut out all processed foods, you're gonna see a change in your body. What is that gonna get you to the end? No, maybe somewhere through that journey you say okay, I think what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna cut carbs for 30 days and then I'm gonna do like a carnivore, a keto style diet, and then you might see some results. But if you're somebody who is doing a lot of cardio running, biking you need those carbohydrates, you have to have them. You have to have good carbs.

Yeah, and then I know, with the exercise and even with your regular diet stuff especially important if you're exercising or if you're sweating a lot maintain that water intake because that water will help regulate the body and the electrolyte system to keep you from getting dehydrated and keeps the system regulated.

Sure, sure. So you definitely wanna make sure your water intake. Even if you're sedentary, you should be having eight cups of water a day, and then that's adjusted up for exercise or heat. Let's say you don't exercise but, like about, the heat index is 130. Well, you're gonna wanna have some more water that day, right, but then also throw in electrolytes. You got the chewable electrolytes and you got the powders that you dissolve in water, because you can actually flush If you drink just water. Let's say it's an excessively hot day, let's say it's 100 degrees, and you're doing yard work or whatever and you're drinking a ton of water. You can actually flush out a lot of minerals if you drink strictly water. So that's why you wanna make sure you have an electrolyte drink in there as well. So what I'll do is, if I'm gonna go for a run let's say it's a longer run, like a three or a five mile run I'll definitely have a glass of electrolytes before I go out on that run. And if I'm gonna be out longer, when I'm in CrossFit and stuff, I'll have an electrolyte drink with me. But water's key, but don't forget about those electrolytes, okay all right, and David, do you wanna answer? Yeah.

I think so Good good.

Good, good, oh, david's just gonna hang out, huh.

You ain't gonna say nothing.

Yeah, he is.

Y'all been covering it pretty good. Yeah, since he didn't get any questions to me, I kinda threw him together and I said, well, we'll go with this. But yeah, I think for a short episode here, I really appreciate your input and you're talking to us about it. I think it's something that we often overlook in firearms training itself. Self-defense is we focus so much on the firearm situational awareness. Maybe we do do some Crop Macabre Grigging, jiu Jitsu or whatever, but we don't maybe step up our physical fitness regime quite as much as we should overall, and I think that this was a good beginning point. Like you said, it's a good idea to find you a gym, if you can, to get you a personal trainer to help you formulate that optimal fitness that you're wanting to attain, and but just maintaining the stretches, the things that you can do around the house to maintain your current fitness without, you know, affecting or degrading any to where you're talking about losing muscle or losing bone mass and things like that. Because if you sit all the time like a daytime job or like I do with driving, you may not have a whole lot of physical fitness and if you're not doing something physically fit, you know you risk muscle loss, bone losing, some bone mass, and absolutely it's. You've got to be active to maintain our body. Our body's designed to be active, so yes, and I think real quick.

I think, if, as long as people have a holistic view of this thing where they're like, okay, I'm getting some strength training, whether that be body weight, resistance bands, gym, whatever, getting some cardio, and for some people cardio may just simply be walking Right, for some people that cardio has to be something that gets their heart rate up. And then the food right, the food kind of cutting out some of the sweets and stuff. And you know I can feel your pain on the sitting thing because some of the security details that I do, you know, like right now, sitting in front of a mansion from somebody that's well to do, but they're worried about people coming to their house. I'm sitting in my vehicle in their driveway for 12 hours. There's no exercise going on, right. So you know so kind of what I do to make up if I'm working a couple of those 12 hours, just back to back. I make it a point on my days off to work out at least once, if not twice. But you know, I think it's simple. Just think of taking baby steps. Personal trainer may not be feasible for some people. There are a ton of information out there on the internet. What I would say is if they do seek someone on the internet, just check their credentials. Make sure that they are credentialed by a reputable source such as the International Sports Sciences or ACE, the American Council on Exercise, and there's a few others, not just some guy that's making a video, right? But yeah, yeah, I think if you just start at the very basic level, you know that you're going in the right direction.

Well, I appreciate you coming on and talking about this with us, aaron, and I think maybe we might head you back later for some dive in deeper or something with about this topic. And I know Trampas, he recommended me to you and said well, hey, aaron does not fit this articles on the magazine and reach out to him, and I'm glad that he gave that connection to us. So if somebody wanted to get in contact with you, how would they go about contacting you if they had some questions?

Oh sure, the name of my business again is Diesel Defense. I can be contacted on Instagram, also Facebook, or my website is wwwmichigancplprocom. Yeah, those couple of ways they can reach out.

Okay, we appreciate it. But one thing we're asking all of our guests although I forgot to ask Sarah about it the other day whenever I got her on what is your getaway or what do you do for relaxation away from your normal everyday work life? What do you do to find relaxation or to get back into that? That's easy.

That's exercise. You know I like to get outside, though I found that I get keys when I'm on the trail. So if I'm trail running or mountain biking, a lot of times I won't wear earbuds or anything, just to hear nature, especially in the winter, believe it or not. You know you hear the trees kind of creak in and you see some deer. So, yeah, it's exercise perfectly outside.

Okay, all right.

Yeah.

Well, we appreciate that. So again thank you, and for anybody that has any questions, feel free to reach out to Erin or, if you want to contact us, we'll get you in touch with Erin or someone locally If you're in the Southeast Georgia area. We'll just see what we can do to try to help out. But thanks again, erin, and hope you have a wonderful evening sir.

Thanks.

Brian.

Thanks, dave, see you guys, Thank you.

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