Ep 1: From the Field to the Future w/ Dr. Tommy Rhee

Welcome to the Hightee podcast. Today we sit down with four remember of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers medical staff and Air Force veteran Tommy Rhee. His story starts with a deadly choice. Chail for the military. Lucky for us, he chose the military. Tune in today to hear his journey from confused high schooler to groundbreaking doctor. This is the Hightee podcast. Great. So let's start with our rapid fire. First, better recovery tool. Sleep or ice? Sleep. NFL sidelines or Navy aviation. Navy aviation. Favorite football team. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Oh Tampa Bay. Oh, so is that where you worked as a chiropractor? Yep. As well. You know, I was really hoping you would say Philadelphia Eagles, but oh, no, you guys in the Philly World. Let me tell you a story about that little city. That's a tough city. You go there as a visitor. Those fans will come after you in all angles and they don't have any type of like filter. They don't have it. Niners are the team here. So I don't think those fans are as obnoxious, but I will say that I've heard legends about the Philly fans for sure. Okay. One health trend you wish people would stop following. I think the new ones coming up as a Olympic thing. Vegas misconception about sportsmen. Same healing time for normal civilians. You had one hour to improve someone's health. Where would you start? Recovery. Okay. So that ends our rapid fire questioning. Do you mind giving our viewers just a quick introduction about yourself and your background? Yeah. So I'm a sports chiropractor started at UCLA and I get to see all the different kind of like sports. And because of that, you get to see the particular injuries. And so the neat thing with UCLA and being that high caliber in that college world, they go into the world of professional teams, the Olympics, the more that's a higher caliber as they go advance, you're going along and you're advancing with them. And the neat thing about that is you understand about how they take care of themselves based on their professional world. So that's how I got involved with the regenerative medicine. And the object is to recover faster. You can't to get back to square one. So then you can become that best and better person. So here I am going along with these players, these teams and then eventually I'm in Los Angeles and I moved to Tampa, Florida. And in Tampa, I'm attached to like these professional tennis players. It's about these athletes, how they want to recover faster. So then I got myself with the WWE working with those guys. And then eventually you get to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, work with those guys for a couple years. And then in between that, I'm working with Olympians, traveling with the world championships. And then the best thing about when you work with one athlete is that Nike gives you that type of like luxury of working with one person said team. So fun times, my athlete was Walter Dicks. We got two silver medals from the 100 200 world championships. So with that, I was thinking that there's got to be a better way of doing this whole regenerative medicine without that syringe that needle application. So I involved this whole industry that I want to move into a topical application. That's easier, friendlier and less risk factors. That's definitely super fascinating. So we do kind of want to pivot to before regenerative medicine kind of building the foundation. What would you say originally drew you into medicine and human performance as a whole? So my dad was a doctor, physicians in the family. So it's like one of those things that innate leads inside of me. Nothing's better than you're saving somebody's like their outlook and life. And then they give you that thank you very much and that warm feeling. So I saw that with my dad and his patients. I knew that path is what I want to go into. But the thing is that is that I'm an athlete. So I love working out play sports. So I knew that I want to have a variable of the sports, the doctor. And that's how those two marriage together. I wasn't going to be that athlete in the professional world. I said, all right, I'm going to be that six foot five. God, it plays defensive and you know, I'm only five. Nothing. So it's like I knew I wasn't going to be in that arena. So I take a next step and be that provider that works with those athletes. Right. That's definitely a great way to pivot. I would say if you can't go one way, you go another way just to be around the things that you love, which is definitely admirable. And a lot of teens can learn from that today. So I do want to talk about something you've spoken openly about having like ADHD and dyslexia and different learning abilities. How did that shape how you learned and approach success? You know, back in the 80s, you hear a little bit about that, but you were really diagnosed. You just knew that it was like overactivity child or you just didn't have that tension. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to stay up with class. I'm trying to be embarrassed because it's kind of funny when you have to read out loud, you're screwing up the word. You don't know what's going on. So you know, I need a focus, right? Focusing is really important now because of high school and then my lessons, you know, hormones, I got in trouble. That's why the military got involved after high school. And then, you know, it's one of those things that I had a choice between the bad world of the going to jail or some of that or go into the military. The military was the best option and it's straight me out because they have a fundamental, like a template that works with all kinds of like learning disabilities. So it gives you these stages, these micro victories. And then you collectively put this together and you say, all right, I can accomplish this. I can do that. So big key ingredient was the military. All right. That definitely is super inspiring to a lot of people. And I would say that the military is an admirable way to go. I think much better than jail in my personal opinion. I think a lot of people would share that. How did you pivot from the military to medicine? What was your path like coming out of the military and how did that work within your career? Well, I just knew that I was not going to write path in high school. So the military gave me that fork in the road that the good path. But once I got in the military and I started getting confidence and I started seeing my surroundings. I knew that this is not the path I want to go. I did great things in military. I did great missions and had a great time. But I knew my destiny wasn't going this way. It was about that fundamental thought of my dad being a doctor and that relationship. He had a patient and then me incorporating the medicine and the sports. And I said, I'm sticking in that. I found myself. And now I've got the access to go to college and become that person and not, you know, drop down that 1.5 GPA. You typically hear about these freshmen that have no directions or no type of source. So that's how I moved that path. Yeah. So what the military is there like a specific instance or moment that you really remember kind of shaped your trajectory. Yeah. I do remember that. So I like to talk. I like to have a good time. And I'm always like taking the humor and things but not being serious. So in my whole path from book and flight school, all that I'm always a goofy guy. So now I'm in the military. I'm getting in trouble. And I see that pattern going. And I remember this guy's name is Petty Officer Montgomery. I was in class being a typical guy and he looked at me. He goes, that mouth is going to make you or break you. And then he peaked. He peaked. He peaked. He hard. And then I realized, okay, this is the fork in the room. This is where I have to straighten out. So that's probably the one big thing I remember. I still remember that way. He looked at me and I said, uh-oh, I think I'm in trouble here. It's definitely a really great story. Actually, I wouldn't have thought that the military would have pushed you back into the real world being a high performer there. That's definitely a unique story, I would say. Okay. So in terms of the military and professional sports, what did that teach you about pressure? As far as the military, it taught you responsibility about your duties. Like I say in your aircraft, right? So there's four people in the aircraft. I'm responsible for the century information like the radar, ESM, the acoustics. So for on the mission, like we're hunting summer rains. So we drop off these sonoboies and then my job is interpret these signals that are coming from the sonoboies to see if it's a submarine and what pattern and what direction is going. So during this pattern, we're in this probably like maybe three square mile of like, you know, ocean area and we're only about 500 feet off the deck. But because we're in a small area and we're in a jet, we have to yank and bank a lot, right? I have to make these quick turns. We're trying to figure out where the submarine is going. So imagine me in a back of the aircraft, I got these two monitors. I'm holding them up like this and you're basically going in three G's like three times your body weight and you're kind of getting inverted, meaning you're upside down, you're getting twist and turn and you're doing this about maybe 45 minutes an hour. So I guess the only way to equate that is like take a roller coaster ride, take a book and try to read while you're doing this roller coaster ride for 45 minutes. It's tough, right? So you get that typical like that movie scenario where you know, you see those scenes where people will get tunnel vision or something. They're about to pass out and they get that small little circle that almost feels like you're going to pass out. That is true. It looks just like that. When you're about to, you know, when you lose not a blood from your head, you start getting that little, that little closing of the circle where you're about to pass out. So you have to quickly flex all your body, your muscles down your extremity, push that blood back to your head. So it's that concept flow back and forth. So I don't know the question you were asking. I'm going down the path here. So I got the question here. But so I guess I'm asking you about pressure, but I will say that that's a fascinating story to me. I think anyone would be glad to hear that and said so. Yeah. But let me tell you, when I was, this is like when I was 19, 2021, it was a mox, it was a best time because you're thinking about someone that have all this energy. And then it makes you focus on this concentrating. 'Cause you're at a. a pressure point of all that G-Force. You've got these type of aircraft and you got these mission and then you're a responsible for this part of duty. And because of your failure or your success, it's gonna be all on you. So you know that. So that's why I believe that because of the physical part of it and the mental part of it, it makes you concentrate better. And that's why I love what the military, it gives you those two type of pressure, the mental and the physical. - Yeah, so I would say that many students today I think that high achievement means fitting the traditional mode. So what could you say about the non-traditional path because obviously with the military and all these things, what advice do you have for those people who don't fit the traditional path? - Let me tell you, I was that person, right? So I was, I was that, I don't know because of my dyslexia, but I never thought that I was the group. I always thought I was over here, but I always had a solution. I think when it comes to dyslexia, we're very good at math. Math is like one of those universal languages that we don't, it's easy, right? There's always gonna be a product, but you can approach at different angles, right? You can do that. So that's why dyslexia guys like me, we can find any way to get the end product. So when you have a person and your student like that and you understand that, hey, there's gotta be better way or you think you're smarter than the professor, the teacher, well, apply yourself. See if you're really that person. Don't take the shortcut, I know how to do that and don't push, back it up, prove yourself. So when I get challenged and I think that I know something, well, apply it. So that's what's fun about this world. If you think you're that 5% to 2% or that's not in the crowd, and there's a lot of you guys out there that think that I don't need this class, I don't need this particular study period. Why am I learning about American history? I can do a different way of learning it. Go test yourself out. Go to college and apply yourself and see if you're that type of person. And then, you know, typically you're gonna turn into an entrepreneur a self starter. You're gonna have your own business because you're gonna see something different. You're gonna see a circle and you're gonna say, that circle is a normal circle. Let me make a square into a circle, but still a circle. You're gonna be very different. And that's what's fun about a person like me that there's a lot of students like that. That's gonna be like that. This is the best opportunity because when you're that different person, you are the leader. And when you become a leader, that's where the fun part starts. - Great. So moving more into insider advice about elite performance, that as you mentioned, you said you worked with ATLEAS at UCLA and at the NFL level. So what surprised you the most once you got behind the scenes? - All right, a big thing about ATLEAS, okay. You think about a big guy. Let's say he's like six, six, 300 pounds. You would think that he's very stiff and he's got the poor range of motion and no agility. No, far from the truth. They've got the most, they got great flexibility. They've got the flexibility where you're like, oh my gosh, like a ballerine dancer. They can really get their hamstring stretched out. They've got a great hip mobility where they can do a lot of rotation. When you look at the athletes, it's not just so much being big, but you have to be quick with your feet, right? It's all about foot movement. These guys are very loose in the hips. And when you come across these guys and they see a large person, looks perfectly like an NFL player. And then when you start getting your hands on them and you get their flexibility moving, you're seeing the range of motion. Right away, you can determine if this guy's gonna go far in their career or not. If they have poor range of motion, they're prone to injuries. They're gonna be prone to other problems and they're not gonna perform to that level that these other athletes in that high caliber are gonna have with that flexibility. So that's the biggest thing that I learned about this whole world of elite barge athletes. - Yeah, I think to be that strong and that agile in comparison to other people, it's just really unique to athletes for say in comparison to body builders or people who just go to the gym. So what do you think separates elite performers physically and what separates them mentally from regular people? - Well, I think physically, a lot of athletes are gifted. You're, I think everybody has a gift, right? You've ever seen those kind of kids that no matter what they do with the sport, they just excel and they don't work out. You hear about those stories like, "I don't need to work out, I'm gifted." Well, God, they'll carry you up to probably like a collegiate level. But to get to the higher level, the professionals or even all pro, that's where the mental comes in. The mental side's very important. And the mental of understanding about adversity or injury or something that may have a setback, you've got to be strong enough to go through that positively speaking in the mode of like getting back to normal. You're going to have every athlete goes to a setback. The problem is that some athletes don't react the way you should. They may think, no, I'm a pessimist, the why me or the other guy or the optimistic person. So mental is very crucial because when you look at that side, you got to be that person and be smart enough to understand, all right, this is a setback, a recovery, I'll get back, no big deal. And then when you have that kind of athlete with the physical side of it, now that you can get them to push harder and they can push themselves into a better performance, a better exercise routine, better training, now you're getting to that elite professional athlete. That's where you want to get to. And that's a lot of mental. And I think that's more 90% than what people think it's like physical. - Yeah, so recovery can be really hard. So following up on the mental aspect, do professional athletes think about recovery differently than the average person? - Oh yeah, recovery is very important. It all depends also on these athletes that have a training like a team, right? So you have some of these athletes will have like a physio person, a person like me, and another person maybe a dietician or a nutritionist. So there's a team involved with it and they all have to work together to make this athlete as peak performance. It's all about recovery. These athletes, when they work out, you're trying to do these microtrums onto your tendons, ligaments, muscles because you want it to break down so they rebuilds, recovers, and now it's bigger and stronger. You want a quick response. Now, if you have a poor team and then your group, your supporting group for this athlete is trying to speed it up. They want to say things like, okay, we have to get ready in six weeks and we want to be at this type of performance and the athlete is not ready and they push them through. Well, you're going in the world of overtraining. You don't want to overtrain an athlete because now you're actually breaking down the tissue and now allowing it to recover. Now you're having poor performance. Now, guess what? What happens to the athlete? He becomes that athlete that looks subpart in what he used to be. So it's very crucial about the recovery. - So going back to a regular person, what's something everyday people can borrow from high levels for recovery? - Now, when you talk about everyday person, you're talking about like someone that has like a weekend, warrior, mentality, whether I'm gonna work out this weekend or it all depends, like just degrees of it. So when you think about like a person just working out, it's same mindset. You want to work out and your objective is either cardiovascular, billed muscles. You have to have that same capacity of recovery. You want to think like I want to recover. Sometimes when these guys that are not the professional world, they're just the everyday person, they hear that terminology, no pain, no gain. Well, they're gonna say, I'm gonna push through. I'm gonna push through. Well, you have to identify that you might be breaking down tissue and not giving the ability to rebuild, right? Recovery. So that's where the danger becomes. So it's really the education component and the team that supporting group around that particular everyday person to understand what's going on. So I think the big thing is that if these guys can get into things like listening to the show, reading books, listening to podcasts, anything that gives them information to understand what the whole physiology of what a tissue goes through, it becomes easiest to understand why I need rest, why I need to recover, why I need to get the right type of information to our body to get that healing process. Yeah, rest is super important. Okay, so last question for this episode, what changed about your definition of health after working with elite performers? Biggest thing with health with elite athletes, I have to go back to recovery. When you start thinking about working out, recovery is not an ingredient. It wasn't even a piece of it. You just thought about working out, pushing, pushing, pushing. Well, once you start working with these athletes, once I started working with them, it's more about the recovery. Anybody can work out, but if you don't get the right recovery at the right time, you're basically your kind of productive. You're almost antagonizing your gains. So that's really important. So that's one thing I learned. Great, thank you so much. That's definitely a super interesting way to put it. It's about the outside of working out rather than the workout itself. It's everything but the workout essentially is the recovery. And that takes up the majority of your day, so it has to be important. Thank you so much for tuning in. In our next episode, we'll hear directly from Tommy about the science behind pain and recovery and what that really means for each individual athlete. This is The Highty Podcast. 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