Dr. Chad Woolner: This episode of the laser light show is brought to you by belfortlifestyle.com. It’s a really innovative concept on fitness developed by Vitor Belfort. To learn more about his gyms or potentially owning one, go to belfortlifestyle.com. Vitor Belfort is an incredibly inspiring individual who has also developed a nonprofit organization, Together for Them, designed to help fight against human and sex trafficking. Vitor’s sister went missing in 2004, which initiated his involvement in this cause. To learn more, go to together4them.org and find out the amazing things Vitor and his family are doing. We hope you enjoy this interview; it was amazing. What’s going on everybody, Dr. Chad Woolner here with Dr. Andrew Wells, and on today’s episode of the laser light show, we have with us a special guest Vitor Belfort, the MMA legend. So, we’re super excited to get to chat with him. We appreciate him taking time out of his schedule to be here with us. So let’s get to it.
Transcript
Speakers:
Dr. Andrew Wells
Dr. Chad Woolner
Vitor Belfort
Dr. Chad Woolner: Growing up in Portland, Oregon, I used to love going to laser light shows at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. They would put on these amazing light shows with incredible designs synced up to some of my favorite music from the Beatles to Pink Floyd to Jimi Hendrix and Metallica. They were awesome. Little did I know then that lasers would have such a profound effect on my life decades later. As a chiropractic physician, I have seen firsthand just how powerful laser therapy is at helping patients struggling with a wide range of health problems. As the leader in laser therapy, Erchonia has pioneered the field in obtaining 20 of the 23 total FDA clearances for therapeutic application of lasers. On this podcast, we’ll explore the science, technology, and physiology behind what makes these tools so powerful. Join me as we explore low-level laser therapy. I’m Dr. Chad Woolner, along with my good friend Dr. Andrew Wells, and welcome to the laser light show. All right, welcome to the show, everybody, and a huge welcome to Vitor. Vitor, thank you so much for being here with us. We appreciate it.
Vitor Belfort: It’s a pleasure. It’s a joy to be very excited so we can laser talk.
Dr. Chad Woolner: I’m excited about this personally. When Erchonia let us know that they were chatting with you and working with you and your son, I kinda gotta admit, I geeked out a little bit. I’ve been a huge fan of yours for a number of years. You’ve had an incredible career with UFC and MMA. And let me see if I have this correctly. Your a Carlson Gracie black belt, is that correct?
Vitor Belfort: Yes.
Dr. Chad Woolner: In Brazilian jiu-jitsu. So for those who are familiar with Brazilian jiu-jitsu, like in terms of lineage that’s like top of the heap in terms of Carlson, Hickson, Hélio, and all those names there, you’re at the top of the pile there, so that’s incredible. First off and so yeah, absolutely. And what years again did your career span in UFC? It was like mid-2000s.
Vitor Belfort: No, I started in 1996.
Dr. Chad Woolner: Okay.
Vitor Belfort: So yeah, it was when it was a tournament.
Dr. Chad Woolner: Okay.
Vitor Belfort: You have to win the tournament to become a champion, and they came up with the Super fights. So they had the super fights where the guy who won the tournament goes and fights the super fights, so that’s where the title came. So you would win the tournament, you get the model, and they started creating those super fights that today are the title fights. So it was right in the beginning of the UFC. I think it’s an omen state is where me and Joe Rogan, we made our debut the same day. Joe Rogan came as an announcer. It was incredible so many years ago; it’s like almost like, it’s hard to even grasp like, no Joe Rogan was there before Dana White was there. Right? Yeah. So it’s pretty cool. So we debuted on the same day. And it was awesome, was a great experience. I had to face one of the biggest fears of my life, like just fighting huge adults, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It’s funny. I was just going back, was very, very fearful.
Dr. Chad Woolner: Yeah.
Dr. Andrew Wells: I’m looking at your original fights, and these days go back to like you said the late ’90s. Like guys like Tank Abbott, Randy Couture. Like,
Vitor Belfort: Yeah.
Dr. Andrew Wells: How do you get in the ring and fight someone like that at that age? Wanderlei Silva, also a fellow Brazilian. That guy scares the crap out of me just being on TV.
Vitor Belfort: It’s true. It’s true. That’s part of it. Every time he gets here and if you don’t smile, you got to smile. Anybody that smiles? Never. That’s how a smile on your face is always beautiful.
Dr. Andrew Wells: That’s amazing. Right?
Dr. Chad Woolner: Yeah. So I started studying Brazilian jiu-jitsu about 10 years ago. And don’t let that timeframe fool you. I’m not great at it at all. I’ve been a blue belt for way too long. But I studied under Professor Keith Owen. I’m not sure if you know who he is. He passed away a little over a year ago. But he studied directly under Master Pedro Sauer, who studied directly under Rickson Gracie and Hélio Gracie. So I get excited whenever I hear names like the Gracies and Carlson Gracie and, of course, Vitor Belfort here. And so for those who have, to any degree, been involved in jiu-jitsu, your respect for not only jujitsu but MMA goes up immensely, just because you know how much technique and skill is involved in that whole process? And so maybe for those who are listening to this, tell us a little bit about what got you started in jiu-jitsu in the first place and kind of what led to you getting into UFC? I’d love to hear that myself.
Vitor Belfort: Yeah, so jiu-jitsu. It’s a martial art that was made by this Gracie family. So Carlos Gracie was Carlson’s father. Carlson. So the whole lineage is free. I know people don’t talk about it, but I mean, where I grew up. So Carlson Gracie was the son of Carlos, the creator of and then his brother was Hélio Gracie. Hélio learned from Carlos. Carlos, start sharing the martial arts and just bring it to the family. So as this thing started growing in thinking about… Carlson was the guy who saved the name because they opened up a gym. And on that gym, they had these two guys they went out the gym and they challenged the Gracies… Ivan Gomes. So Ivan Gomes is the guy that they’re one of the tougher opponents of Carlson Gracie. They say that fight was a draw. But they were massive guys very strong guys. And they learn under them. But both of them are trying to beat Hélio Gracie in a fight. Beat the crap out of Hélio Gracie. And he was the bigger guy but you know. And then Carlson Gracie was revenge. They say Carlson we need someone to avenge the fight … and then Carlson becomes the face, the guy of MMA, valid to mixed martial arts. So he was the front runner he was the guy who would defend the name of the family for somehow the Carlson and Hélio they fought Carlos died. Carlos you know they had a fighting over things you know like over housing… they bought with the money and that was my money. So it was just a fight. So Carlson was trying to train fighters to beat the Gracies. So Hélio Gracie and Hickson Gracie all this lineage comes from the Gracie come from Hélio Gracie. Even Gracie Baja, so everything comes from Hélio’s lineage. We have a lot of fighters you know, a lot even before that guys they fought they have many other guys and also that they fought in defending the jiu-jitsu name of Carlson and then Carlson is always challenging Hickson Gracie to fight his guys and they protect Hickson was the man so it was the whole fight long the day and I thought was very stupid and I would say Carlson I don’t know why you’re fighting against your own family but that was his goal you know his goal was to go out and win Lucha Libre and that came in challenging jiu-jitsu in Brazil, Carlson was the guy who trained fighters like Pablo Popovich, Murilo Bustamante and Wallid Ismael they fought on the same night against the guys so he was the guy that trained them. And so it was was everything was martial arts versus martial arts, which martial arts is more effective. So jiu-jitsu was something that they Gracie Jiu-Jitsu now becomes more. You know, it’s like when you start mixing things that are like mixed martial arts. When you start mixing arts. That’s when you have the mixed martial arts you mix before you don’t mix either your jiu-jitsu fighter you are Lucha Libre or Karate you have bought a kickboxing. That’s how people want to become knowing like my martial arts more effective. So that was the whole purpose of UFC is proving the martial arts and jiu-jitsu prove when you don’t know what I know, I have an advantage because jiu-jitsu give you the leverage that where the small guy can fight a bigger guy, but if he doesn’t know the art, but I’m used to knowing the art and Carlson used to say ‘Size matters.’ He said ‘size matters’ when he used to tell me Vitor when these guys started learning, you know, martial arts, you know, it’s easy to defeat a small guy, so he always knew that size matters. And I remember the size matter, and I’m gonna say, but I was starting to say “Carlson, I know size matters, but speed matters. The speed matters.” And my thing was our speed speed speeds the fast. You know, how can you get onboard fast? How can you get the clamp down fast? How can you pass the guard fast? So I was wanting to the speed game. So that’s what I was very successful in jujitsu because I started putting speed in my movement. And, and that’s how I achieved success. But also, I was smart enough to say, ‘man, no, I gotta mix martial arts, I have to put boxing.’ And I remember I was a very young guy … from Carlson, I was like, 16 you know, and I was beating all these adults, they used to do open hands in the gym, you know, you just open and just to do like no Gi, then you see, and a lot of people wanted to do that. And some people they didn’t want to do because it was crazy. Imagine you train your whole class with GI and then I finish the class. Okay, let’s see. So you take the gear, just the top of the GI and then you open hands and then you guys see that everybody’s hair was red and you know how to defend? Yes. And I used to be very successful because I knew boxing. So I used to hit everybody on the face, the body. And and Carlson saw that and said ‘My God, this kid’s gonna be amazing.’ And I was to do weights I used to looking to do other stuff. I came from different sports as well. So but I was very against this fight, this rivalry. I thought it was ridiculous. You know, this guy hate that guy. You know? I remember they have this rivalry between Gracie Baja and Carlson Gracie was so ridiculous and it become a time that I you know, I want to relate, I love you know, everybody I love the Gracie and I want to be related to Rick Hickson you know, I want to be so I wanted to learn from different people and but you could not learn that way you’re a traitor. If you do this if you train with a guy you’re a traitor. And I was doing myself and and I and I cannot accept that that culture that culture this we’re talking about adults. Adults, you know, with angry with and I’m gonna say with this, this is disgusting. We’re not going to grow, we’re not going to become successful if we divide. And that was the whole story no, that was the whole story. So I know it’s a lot of people don’t know that story, but that’s how the mixed martial arts jiu-jitsu, yeah, I know it is so big right now people don’t even know the story of jiu-jitsu. Some people know this, they know that. I know the real story. Because I lived, I lived with Carlson, I was the one who brought Carlson to America. I was the one who made his name famous in America, I was the guy that promises Carlson, I was 16 years old said promising your name is going to be known, because his whole thing was his name. They need to know that I’m Carlson Gracies. I defend the name of the family that I was the same person who knew that but don’t take away from the other guy. They doing a great business. And I think it’s so sad. Because imagine if the Gracie’s was together, imagine if Hickson and Carlson and then all these people they will be owning the UFC now along you know, with all these guys so but I mean where where this ends up, you know, as I said when you start bringing hate, you know, that was the thing for me it was Carlson had the hate on his heart towards you know, his uncle. And that was never resolved. Or somehow no one couldn’t help him to resolve this with him. It is a lot of ego and I was just doing a video right now that I’m going to be posting soon in my social media about ego. So ego stands for effort, you know, grit and obedience, that’s for me, when you feed your ego, you know, your ego centric, you know, you have greedy, and then the O, I’m trying to find the O because in obedience, it’s something that you obey the process, you obey effort and you obey greed. And when you start obeying, you know, you become egocentric, you became greedy, you start out during the process, it becomes becomes very contagious.
Dr. Andrew Wells: Vitor, do you think one of the things I find fascinating about you—and we’re talking about ego—is how you define that as effort, grit, and obedience? The thing that amazes me about you is you’re still fighting. I didn’t realize that because I don’t really follow martial arts very much now. Look, I was reading about you this week. Not only did you really start as the UFC started, even before like you mentioned before Joe Rogan was there. I don’t know of anyone else that started at that time period that’s still fighting. Like that’s incredible. You box, you had a match a month ago. Yep. I wanted to ask you in the interview, why are you still fighting? And I don’t mean that in a desperate or disrespectful way. I’m amazed by it, but what drives you to still be in a sport like this that requires so much physically and mentally and so much dedication and your version of ego?
Vitor Belfort: I love that question. Why doesn’t offend me at all? I say there is no stupid question. I teach my kids there is no stupid question. The “why” question is the most important question. And this “why” is important because we are defined by society. Society establishes things. Like, even then, a “why” is established? MMA is a young man’s sport, it’s true, an amazing young man’s sport. Boxing is not, you know, why MMA is a young man’s sport? Because we require so much joint movement, and joints get stiff as you get older and age. So I do a lot of mobility. I developed the Delta fitness lifestyle, my workout way because I see older people, they have a tendency to be stiff, they become very stiff. And that’s part of the journey, you know? If you have a car, you have to put oil and yeah, I call oil the annoying thing for me. That noise is very important. You have to have an anointing, and anointing is something that you stick. I love to be anointed by God because the anointing of God is something that you have to develop, you have to search, you have to smash that grape or the olives to create that oil. So that’s called effort and immune. So why I still fight is simple. I love competition. And I never had a chance to box, and I was doing a few. I had an offer from Muhammad Ali. I’m a lawyer to become a boxer when I was 20 years old. They offered me a $2 million contract to leave UFC, and back in the area, you have to fight two guys in the night to win $50,000. And it was very seductive, that country. But, you know, when I asked them, I said, “Will I be able to do UFC?” They say, “No, you have to quit UFC to become a boxer.” So I said no. And the problem with people in business and fighting, as I understand when you sign up to play for, let’s say, you play for the Miami Dolphins, you’re not allowed to play for any other team. But the Miami Dolphins player, he can become another thing if he’s not against his season, you know, if he’s not against, he can be kicking open a business, he can do all the business but not in football. So in fighting, I say I’m gonna box. Why I cannot do anything when I’m not boxing, you know why? And I think it’s ridiculous. And I understand that this contract to this facility thing, you know, it’s important, but if I’m not competing against you, why can I do something? So that’s the whole fight that fighters have now, and promoters are very smart. They lock them in a contract. They don’t want them to do things. But I mean, it’s pretty cool when you can do multiple things. Like you see, LeBron James is not just a basketball player. He does things, and I don’t agree with some things that he does, but I mean, he’s going to do it. And other guys, you may not agree with that guy, but I mean, he’s doing something else. So I could not do, and so now I’m pursuing something that I love. I love boxing. Boxing is, for me, it’s like a digit. I know a lot of people love Jiu-Jitsu, but for me, boxing is a martial art. So I was the guy who brought boxing to MMA. So I’m creating waves, of punches, of angles, and it’s just fascinating what you can do with two hands. And when you’re putting together combinations, like a number with two hands, one, two, you can do three, four. So everything I call everything’s odd and even. So we hear we have infinite numbers, you understand. So that one is jab, two is Robin Hood, it’s grace. So boxing is a map. It’s very fascinating if you love Jiu-Jitsu, and the last thing you can do at an older age, you can do as you age, as you become older, you know, you’re 70 to 80, you cannot put the GI, you can stand on the mat, you can feel the vibe, but you can never roll around. And it’s very painful in your joints when you start getting older. And it’s a lot, a lot so people get hurt a lot. Not just because of the tapping window, roll with the right people, but you’re not the same. So it’s hard. No, you cannot do this. And so I love fitness, I love wellness, I love well-being. So to answer your question is that I’m so fascinated with preparation. So the way I keep my battles simple, I am a body, I have a soul, and I have a spirit, I gotta change these three elements. So I’m never going to stop being a competitor. You know, I have three amazing kids. They are amazing competitors. So it’s if I’m, I’m a model for my kids. And I say, Can I push this envelope a little longer so my kids can start coming? See my fight. So my kids are coming to see me fight. So I’m fighting until my wife and my kids say Dad, it’s time to stop. So they love, and I feel good. So when my body cannot handle any more, I’m gonna and I know, maybe I have three more, maybe just one more, I don’t know. But I’m taking my last fight as my last fight. And I think my approach of life I’m taking this day as my last day, maybe tomorrow not come. So that’s my approach of life. And one thing that like to encourage people, you’re never too young to start something, and you’re never too old to start something. So when I say finish, finish something like we want to finish this race. And that’s some young people are finishing their racing or today you’re going to die. We know a lot of people are going to die today, and they die without doing their best. They’re dying without giving them. So for me, it’s feeling your ego is like you putting your effort all in. We have to put all in. You cannot make it non-negotiation, don’t try to make us discount, you know, cells. That’s the only pace you want to pay full price, effort, and then have your grip. You cannot negotiate with your grip. You have to not, not trying to make a discount, don’t have nothing on sale. It’s full price, and obedience comes with full practice, you know if you don’t obey the whole process. So it’s fun. It’s been a competition, feeling that nervous system, you know the parasympathetic and sympathetic, this kind of a conflict from each other is pretty cool, man.
Dr. Chad Woolner: I think that’s a perfect segue, what you just shared there with Erchonia lasers. I’m curious as to how, first off, you’ve connected with Erchonia. But second, how these lasers have played a role in helping you with your overall fitness and performance.
Vitor Belfort: I have a good friend of mine, I call him a family member of mine. He’s like a brother to me, Big Brothers, Dave. You know, Dave was always from Arizona; he has a huge, one of the best enemy teams. He helped set up all these camps for all the spiders you set up. I know a lot of people don’t even know who David is; David is a guy who provides the infrastructure behind the scenes. You don’t know what goes behind the scene, but he’s the guy who is really just to help him, but he’s putting his effort in. I admire people that are just putting their—they put your mouth where your money is. So he’s really not just putting he’s put his whole body there, you know, he’s helping. We have, can you see who’s fighting, you know, now for the title. So he’s very aware of putting this stuff and creating this longevity and healing. And he knows so much about the recovery system. So he says, “Victor, I have a laser for you, why don’t you use the laser?” So I started using this laser, and it’s pretty powerful. And like I said, everything that you have any tool that you have to add into your system. And I mean, I believe if you do your part, not just what I cannot credit to one thing is doing a lot of little things together, and they add together, they become a huge unity. The problem is when you start putting your hope on this, oh, take. No, no, you can’t, you gotta have this, plus that. Plus that plus, so it’s a lot of small elements together. That’s what makes who you are. And you see, look, my I have five, you know, five fingers in each chain. And then I have my wrist and then I have my forearm and then I have my, my biceps and then comes and goes to my neck. So my whole body, what’s the most important part of my body, every part is important. And that’s the realization of understanding. Doing a little, a lot, my little, and that’s my thing, you know, and if you do the laser one time, not gonna help you, but if you do it consistently if you’re part of the lifestyle, and actually I’m waiting for my laser here because I had a tour pack, I gotta, I hope my laser is on the way. I got to start my treatment.
Dr. Chad Woolner: That’s awesome. So in terms of what you’ve noticed, using the lasers, obviously you’re using them for helping with injuries and things like that. Have you noticed any improvement in terms of just performance? How else have you used the lasers?
Vitor Belfort: Like I said, you know, I think everything I do perform you know, ever drink whatever simple water, I think my body gets stronger and for everything that I do is just like I said, is 1% a day. Yeah, I don’t try. I don’t try, I don’t, I don’t get praised. The only thing that does 100% Is God decides everything you have to keep doing. I believe in consistency. You know, I believe in consistency. If you tell me that you’re going to do this for one week, you’re going to be good and goodness and knowing you like you know, I believe God can do it in one week. But I mean, unfortunately, it’s a process, you know, your healing happening. By process, you know, a process of little things. And of course, you know, lasers I feel like it’s part of my lifestyle. It’s part of what I do. When I’m injury. You know, I like to know they have multiple things to do but I mean, it is simple. I use the laser more for recovery, maybe you store a lot of things you can be done the laser so you’ve got to use it like I said if you do one time because you’re going to have the results. I’m sorry you’re not you got to do you got to do more than one time. Protocol to do and for everything ever protocols. I call him and call it joy endorsed AV to do this do this setting is so confusing but no I just have to follow the lead and just and that’s the thing. Just obey. Obey the process.
Dr. Chad Woolner: Yeah. Yeah, that’s a great way.
Dr. Andrew Wells: We’ve had the privilege now of interviewing several people that are professional athletes. We interviewed Henry sudo, Elijah Garcia who’s an up and coming boxer, all using lasers in their training in the recovery. And I think for especially for families like yours, Vitor, who know you have an active family, you have a son who’s a very talented football player, you’re in combat sports, you get kicked in the head, punched in the head.
Vitor Belfort: And again, I got a volleyball player and that track field. So my kids are amazing. My daughter is the fastest girl in Florida. Wow, she’s the fastest, going for my daughter. She’s the best Libero in the country. And my son is one of the best quarterbacks in the country. So I have these three amazing athletes. So then you ask me why I compete. I love to become an example in my house. You know, I love to do things in my house. They don’t eat sugar. I don’t eat, I don’t drink alcohol. I don’t smoke, drink nothing, nothing that changes my behavior. And I know the science Oh, this so this sub Yes. Now they say alcohol gives it an edge, small dose vs. They want to just make you sell more, more wine or more liquor. So just to understand, if you want to live longer, if you want to have a good life, stay with the earth, everything that is produced. And when I say Earth, I’m not saying things that you know, because sometimes art produces some bad stuff. You know, you’re not going to, I don’t believe we’ll, is going to make you perform better, which is going to make this flow. We’re going to give you more hunger, we’re going to give you more desire to crave for sweets. So Oh, but we, it is good to treat epilepsy. Okay, great. I don’t have epilepsy, I’m an athlete. And I see a lot of athletes are smoking and doing all this and become the advocate, oh, take your pain away. No, take your pain away, go to laser, go do massage, go do some therapy, go looking for some turmeric and some good things, they’re not going to change your mind. You’re playing with your person to take in symmetry. So I’m very in favor. That’s why I love music because that’s something that is not going to change my just gonna help healing where I’m hurt. So the problem with people they want to treat things, bringing something that will give you pleasure, you know, like alcohol give you a pleasure with you know, people live, Happy Hour go workout, go do a workout, go for a run. Nobody wants to sit down, produce dopamine by taking a sip and something. And now we see the interest is huge. We have liquids all the heavy every actor, every actor, every athlete, nothing they are they’re launching their own liquor. The killer is all heavy stuff. And I’m telling you just gonna mess up your whole system. And I mean, if you want to live longer.
Dr. Andrew Wells: Yeah, I think, I think Vitor, you’re bringing up a really good point. And when you look at your The really cool thing about your family is I think, number one, they’re all very talented people. But I think a lot of people will assume oh, they just have really good genes, you have Vitor who’s somehow some superhuman, he’s got this beautiful model wife, and somehow they just created these by accident, these superhuman children, but I want people to recognize and especially we have a lot of doctors that listen to this podcast, is that what you’re talking about, in the example that you’re leaving, leading with your kids about the choices they make and the lifestyle you guys lead? That it’s multifaceted? It? It’s mental, it’s spiritual, and it’s physical. And it’s very well rounded. And so here you have a guy who’s 46 years old, still competing at a high level, he has children who are competing at the top of their heap and in terms of athletics that wasn’t produced by accident. It wasn’t just lucky jeans it was effort and I love Have you written a book by the way on your on ego?
Vitor Belfort: No
Dr. Andrew Wells: You should.
Vitor Belfort: I really, because I have this thing called I’m doing like a course of setting up performance scores. Not just for athletes, but for businessmen for people in the industry. So I’m selling this, and we’re talking about the ego is like who you are. So what is ego? It’s just the personnel. And, and it’s funny, I was just sharing the So what is, you know? selfish, selfish when you want something so much for yourself that you want just for you. And what is being greedy is the same thing you want everything for you. So we live in a world today where people are very selfish, they’re very greedy. And they don’t understand the process of effort, grid. Obedience, you know, they’re egocentric, it’s everything about them, you know, me, me, me, me. So in this book, in this course, I’m going to talk about the flip of a ladder. The flip of a ladder is called the rear athletes. And I’m telling you, I discovered that when my wife said, “You’re so selfish,” I used to hear this every day from my wife, “You’re selfish, she’s so selfish,” right? Is this around you? You know, you don’t understand. This is one of the beginning of a marriage of selfishness, and I say great. How can I be no more self because the life of an athlete is selfish. And even I’m encouraging my wife to do a course for women’s athletes because a lot of guys are going through that stage right now. And Harry’s the who is going to know his wife, just a baby, you know, she’s pregnant again. And now we have a fight. You know, it’s, it’s, you know, and my wife says, it’s funny because you had a head coach, you had a mentor, coach, you had a nutrition coach, you had all types of coach, what about me? I mean, you how I’m your mom, your wife? What about me, I have your kids, we’ll see you going, how you think I feel when you go into the rain? I think your kids feel when you go into the rain. Can you know another side? We don’t have mental health coach, we don’t have multi. So she has to learn the hard way. And today, you know, and let’s say don’t just apply it. Let’s talk about, you know, the wife of a quarterback. Do you imagine what is going through her mind? You know, she’s there. You know, when they’re winning, everybody loves her. But when they’re losing when they’re picked, everybody hates her, they’re not just gonna talk about you, they’re gonna talk about her, she’s a slut, or there’s whatever it is, but you and your wife, your husband, the yelling in your husband. So this is how the kids mind? How’s the family deal with that? You know, the whole stage and just yelling? You ever thought about these kids? You know, and my wife makes me understand you say, “Okay, how can I be less selfish.” So I called the flip of a ladder is as the athlete. And every businessman This is not just for this golfer, businessman for people that have family, if you have a wife and kids and you haven’t had success in marriage, you’re gonna have to know how to flip one letter called the letter M. Me, me, me when the Me Me, Me Generation. Me means you have more than one kid. You know what, it’s me, me, me, me. So to me, it’s you flip the letter become we flip just one letter. And another thing, choose like the team that has no team has the wire but has n, you flip the team because we know. But when you have a W, you flip the W become me. And you have an AI personality, you have a person so you have just one person. So I have a whole system that I’m gonna go talk about this whole system, you know, to win. You know, I, you know, it’s a lot of subjects. But I mean, make you realize that, you know, and I had to be selfish. And when I was reading the Bible, I call the selfish love. What is it selfish love? selfish love, is I have to love me first to love you. That’s what Jesus said. So Jesus was very selfish, in a way. And I call the selfish love comes from God. So I told my wife, I say, “Honey, if you feel like I’m selfish, I’m going to turn his selfish way into something good. So I’m going to make a part of it. So we stopped being part of it is part of my cam, including her, including the kids, I explain them. I brought sponsors to say what about this? We should I should put my image on this no issue. So I make them part of it because he’s a businessman. And of course, has a limit right there. Of course, he’s not gonna be including them in everything. I’m not going to bring them to the ring with me. So but I mean, in a way, I think we all do have success. I can say how I measure success is another great question. How do I measure success? How fast how speed? Do I measure success? How is my internal life, how my internal self If I’m okay with it, so you see a lot of champions a lot of winners, they are they need to prove themselves more, you know, they, they need to show they have money they need to buy card and to show diamonds. So we have a crisis of identity today. For sure. You know, people have a very crisis of like, man, they didn’t know who they are. And now they come in with all types of oh, I’m this I’m that. I’m, I feel like I’m not again, you know, not respecting me, I’m a little kid me as alligator, we’re going to a time that people are so crazy about this? So for me, it’s simple. You know, you’re either you who are you know, people don’t know who they are they trying to become something they are not. And people are trying to create this as a rule or respect. Now, you know, no, you are boy, you got your boys read from your girl, you go through girls wrestling, I’m not gonna I’m not gonna have a big guy with figures a girl but he has a huge snake between his legs, he’s gonna go in the same bathroom, my daughter, no way. No way. So So we come into a point where people are very distinct with this identity crisis that we live in. So you have to be very selfish. First, you got to be selfish, and my selfish has to understand that it is including a lot of people, and they have time for everything. And I’m very specific in this house here with the sacrifice and other days. I was having fun with my wife. She was always kids training too much, you know, they need a break. I was just hearing you know, it was Go ahead. And she was giving a lecture for me, you know, no, this they need to do this. And I say, Honey, do you have a belt in your office? Do you have a metal Olympic mountain and you’re like, I need to know what you conquered. To have that kind of mentality. And I say, Honey, they’re not doing enough. They gotta do more. And that made me realize, I made her when I say Honey, I understand. I respect you what? What you know, but right now the one I know the grind, and you got to understand the grass to get bigger. And my wife bought into that when my wife bought into that now. She comes with that mentality. But also the love of a mother. Oh, no, the knee okay, they didn’t understand they have that touch. But um, I was before I got into the podcast, I was just with my son watching his throne session that I film yesterday and it was on him. It’s Coach coins coach, we talking? Why I’m like that because either I am always in one or loud. I cannot be between so it’s a lot of little things that have to be done properly. But, but we Okay, people, okay, oh, it’s okay. Will you be fine? No, you not be fine. I cannot admit I cannot accept that. And that’s the life of a fighter the life of an athlete, not just you’re not just winning inside the ring or the octagon or that feel the life of an athlete, it’s happening outside of that field. And I always like to measure my kid, let’s say, the way I measure a man, by their family, I want to meet their wife, I want to meet their kids because sometimes you’re very successful in their environment. You’re very successful in business, you, you you have so much money, but your kid doesn’t want to be a kid. We have one of the wealthy men on the planet. His son has AI has an identity problem. And his father somehow doesn’t want to be your son. He wants to be associated with his father. So for me it is the measure like I got the so sad. And then I said, you know, how can I help this father? How can I help this son? And I feel in my heart how can I help them? Because I know the promise is so easy to be fixed. But for them it is so hard because they don’t understand the principle that I’m for me, that’s my wealth. That’s my measure of wealth. You asked me Victor, you very rich, very rich, very rich because I have that narrowed down very strong in the house. So
Dr. Chad Woolner: You know, what’s inspiring to me? Well, as I hear you share your experiences and your insights here. Vitor is far too often we hear the common tale of whether it’s athletes or performers or musicians or actors and entertainers, right. And it’s the all too common tale with where they rise and they reach their kind of Pinnacle. And then unfortunately, there’s this kind of slow and steady decline that takes place because As of the selfishness that you talk about, because of the, you know them focusing on pleasure and all the different things that we know. And yet it seems that you’ve kind of seen that already. You recognize that at an early point. And it seems like your your life is still reaching this incredible trajectory because of the fact that you’re linking so much of your identity and your your perception of success and fulfillment in life, around family around service to others around all these incredibly meaningful things. I’m reminded as you’re talking there, a very wise man, a leader in my church years ago said no success can compensate for failure in the home. And no
Vitor Belfort: Success. Yeah, right down down. No success.
Dr. Chad Woolner: No success can compensate for failure in the home. And, and I just as you’re talking there about, like your involvement with your kids and this drive to continue to help them it’s very obvious that the motivation behind that is out of love is out of a desire to see them become the best versions of themselves. And so that’s just inspiring to me to hear you say that because I think other people will really resonate with that when people realize because for me, I can’t agree more that like, my greatest fulfillment and happiness in life comes from my relationships, first and foremost with my spouse and my kids, but relationships with others too, is is a huge part of what what drives me as well. And so it’s neat, it’s neat to hear that really, really incredible and
Vitor Belfort: We live in and that crisis of identity comes to a point where you know the wrong is right and the right is wrong. So and the problem is I was healing my friend was talking about who are the science teachers and because when you go to the school you will learn from the school MRI their teacher science, but who are the people that you learn from the people there aqueous people they don’t believe in God they don’t believe in exist so you’re learning something that can be a such a lie, but they then adapt to the society as Oh, now you’re learning the subject. I think sports are supposed to be great for, I mean, sports competition. i Oh, I’m not good at sport. Okay, go be a musician. Find something. So the problem with this, everything evolves, the only thing didn’t evolve was education. Education is the same so it’s so bad and you see all this billionaires creating their own schools because they don’t believe in the education system. And some millionaires put their school in a public school. They don’t care because the only thing good is money, so I’m very aware I’m not happy with the education system today. I’m not happy the way my kids are learning and I use sport as a lesson so the great teachers are great and colossal because they teach you failures, teach you know teach your grind, teacher dedication, determination. So I don’t believe in schools and now don’t get me wrong, technology makes people weak, make people lazy, and makes people fat. And I say it’s funny because before it’s great, we were talking about how technology is great. But if we can use technology to good but now using it like the example you’re in your house, you have the control. You don’t before you have to turn up, turn the TV on. And then you have a couch that the incline and you put so so everything should make you lazy don’t get up and then you have a Allbritton Nobody cooks anymore. So and then what to do you have a status so lazy and now don’t want to get rid of all this. You go to a supermarket. I don’t like to computer I don’t talk to computers. I don’t talk to Alexa. I don’t talk, you know, even I turned Alexa off because when I asked her to do something she does something totally different and say I don’t want to hear that. That’s not the music that was shut up. Like you know Alexa, we don’t play that kind of music in the house. And she can play me. She’s very mean so. So the fact that I’m very human and a lot of people, a lot people and I mean I know AI will take some jobs. One thing I have is the call critical thinking. I cannot do critical thinking and you can have my voice you can have my face you can have all but you cannot have my heart You cannot have my mind. So that is Nothing that you can subside. And I think today, AI is making us become robot. And you see kids, everybody’s on the phone, you go to social media, it’s ridiculous. So it’s such a pandemic, we gotta come the solution. And that’s why I want to teach my principles, my ego, I sort of feed your ego, because every day you wake up, you’re going to have to feed your ego, you’re either going to be greedy, or you’re going to have grit. You either you’re going to be, you know, full of yourself, you know, full of like it was sent you, or you’re going to embrace effort, you know, so you got to choose this thing, either you’re going to be obedient to all these things to the other thing, so obedience is something that you’re gonna be for good or for that you choose how you want to bake the process. So, to summarize, anything’s like how I measure success. It’s very important because I want to be successful, but how I measure success goes down to my roots. First, I go down to who I am. You know, what my faith is, what I believe? I believe in what God is in my mind. Oh, I believe in high power. I believe in meditation. That’s all BS. You believe in yourself. My God has a cross. My God has a way of living. My God went through what I call flesh. Because I don’t believe God has ever been in my flesh. He couldn’t tell me what to do. I don’t tell my kids what to do. I tell them to follow me. You know, do what I do not do what it says. So God for somehow has to become a person to go through my feelings, feeling angry, feeling hate, feeling betrayed. Feeling all this have to go through all that. So I can say okay, now, you guys follow me. So I might go. Cross has a way of living. My God has a name, Jesus, and why I’m not talking about religion. I’m not talking about a system that you do this, the sign of the cross your key, no, I’m not talking about that. I’m not talking about if I do a Lord’s prayer, if I keep doing my role by my sin, I’m going to be blessed. No, my God that I serve. He said, I’m going to give you problems. But my problem is going to be persistence, perseverance, and your perseverance is going to be faith. So I believe everything that the churches are selling to they all this motivation, oh, free from the depths not so why, you know, I believe you’re going to have to get problems, you need to have tribulation, you need to have because that’s the only way you’re going to see like when I build my muscles, I build my boss by what creating that, you know, intensity, you know, and I mean, inflammation is not bad for your body. That’s good, but what type of inflammation goes back to the laser. So I love the laser because the laser is like something so the reason has a light that goes inside is a very very, you know, so called the light you have to be the light we have to be the laser we have to be the let’s watch the requirements of God. Jesus said be the light of the word be the salt, the salt is another element this human I use a lot of salt in my in my healing process. I love salt. Salt is very important in bath with salt, you know, things like that, that scaling of muscles. So I think the measure of success of an athlete, the measure of success of a business owner, it’s wrong. They go to the bank and count how much I bought. I did this. I’m thirsty, okay, you are but when you die, you cannot take that thing with you my brother. You’re gonna go to hell, you’re gonna go to heaven. And you’re not going to go to to God and say, God, you know, I was a star at the core. I did this when I was NDP, you know, the press. So for me the measure of success or geach or Belfer. It’s my it’s my, my belief, my faith, my beliefs, my sister, my court. God is everything. God is not in the category of things God is first second or God is not my category of things. Either is everything or is nothing that for me that’s my thing. Either God is everything or is not and it’s hard for me to be everything so the second process is doing little noodle noodle is never good enough. Because that’s the way it is. And then in all the categories goes to my things that my beliefs you know, what are things that are that The most important things my thing. And when, and I made my and I did this homework with my kids. And I say give me I want five athletes that have an amazing marriage. I want five athletes that you think it’s relevant and you send me. I want to see them took so much time for them to find these five guys because they have a secondary third. And I’m understand, you know, but I mean, the problem is when you start making kids with different moms, it becomes a mess, it never becomes good, you can make it become good, especially if you have a little bit more money. Everybody says it’s fine, but emotionally never good. Emotion I’m talking about is never good. Emotion I’m talking about is never good. Emotion I’m talking about is never good. Emotion I’m talking about is never good. Emotion I’m talking about is never good. Emotion I’m talking about is never good. Emotion I’m talking about is never good. Emotion I’m talking about is never good. So you’re never going to be in a relationship, preparing to divorce. You never start a fight winning too quick. So my thing is, the problem of the world comes into relationships. People start friendships at the end right away because it’s all about what I have for me, what I have for me, and that’s, that’s basically, for me, the standard, why I keep fighting, why I keep doing business. And in a lot of business, I have to close I have to do this do the work because the people have the idea have the right people, I didn’t have the right people but doesn’t mean I’m not going to play it again, I’m not going to do it again, I’m not going to invest in somebody again. So that’s like buying a pack: your pack dies going by the pack because you have attachment with the pack. And in but what is the only one thing you can ever replace is you. You can ever replace you. And that’s why you’re back to identity. People don’t know who they are anymore. They’re just they’re just a piece of a marketing process that you buy what I want, you do what I want. So that’s kind of my, my, my literally my core values for you guys here.
Dr. Chad Woolner: Yeah, amazing.
Dr. Andrew Wells: You know, I think that so this is such a valuable message for people to hear, especially today, as we record this in 2023 Such an important message and it really I can speak for Erchonia saying we really appreciate you promoting lasers at the fact that you use them in your routine and, and I think that’s an important thing. And they’re happy to support you and your efforts. And I think will
Vitor Belfort: Be the light of the world and be the laser of the world. That’s a good that’s a good so be the laser. Because that’s what I chose, laser laser is a deep light that goes into the tissues and NMR that’s the process of the light that the light can do to you and of course, get the right laser. Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Andrew Wells: Yeah, for sure. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. This was a really amazing episode. And we really weren’t sure what direction this podcast would go in. But I’m so happy that it went in the direction that it did. And really appreciate your lessons that you’re teaching people in life and the way that you lead yourself and your family. I think that that is just a really powerful message. And yeah, thank you so much. And hopefully we started get an opportunity to have you on again sometimes if you start to use lasers more with your your family and yourself 100%
Vitor Belfort: In the present spot of my life I’m waiting for my laser to actually arrived. I’m gonna be posting some stuff on social media, what you can do with the laser, and I think is what I like to be meaning why you guys come to my gym to Belfort Lifestyle. And in talking about I think you guys are going to show the website over there. So what it is is like a one hour class, it’s one hour class, half the class in the back half the class on the floor, you know, I have a whole science behind it called the two to one ratio, two to one ratio, four to one ratio. And I’m not going to go into details here. I’m going to make you guys very curious about it. So it’s all we treat the body as I think the body’s like, you are you are the healing. You’re the healing art or you decide what you put in your body. What do you think when you drink in what do you eat? That’s my theory behind. I teach all my students, you know, if you don’t think you can do something because you think so many evil thoughts, or some crazy thoughts, but you don’t dwell on it. So I call it my diet. It’s like I have to exercise every day, at least an hour. So when I’m not training for five, I’m going to my gym every day to develop the whole project. The whole point ogham system so I would love you guys to come on one day and try.
Dr. Andrew Wells: We’d love that. That’d be amazing.
Dr. Chad Woolner: Yeah, that would be absolutely incredible.
Vitor Belfort: We’re gonna be doing something on that on the on the offering people online service as well so far.
Dr. Chad Woolner: Awesome. That’s amazing. And I understand that I didn’t want to end the episode without plugging this as well. You are involved in an organization to help support a fight against human trafficking. Is that correct?
Vitor Belfort: Yes, it. My sister was missing in 2004, three weeks before my title fight, this belt here. And since then, you know, we saw this human trafficking. It’s the largest trafficking in the world today. Because when you use cocaine, you have to buy it again. When you use weed, you have to buy again. Actually, we did not even have a drug. So, but when you eat a person, you can sell them every day. So as a 12-year-old kid, you only serve 25 guys a day. And we have tons of consumers and today Fortunately, we’re so glad to live in Florida because our governor DeSantis just put a few if you do something with a little kid, you get a death penalty. In California, oh my god, they tried to protect these pedophiles as much as they can. So I’m really in for protecting our children, but not just protecting the children. Now, and we’ve seen it with ethanol, I think this drone, you know, people are giving, and they give you to make you pass out, and they so they bring you to harvest your organs. So it’s so many things behind this human trafficking. And I think we also support. I think everyone should support that. And with all the social media with all the platforms that we have, no one gets missed. You know, no one should be missing today. So unfortunately, we are just trying to present, you know, that’s our and we’d like to bet on people they can do like other things as well trading these kids, these women’s and hope to educated people watch this evil behind the conscious society big.
Dr. Chad Woolner: Well, we certainly appreciate it. We’ll make sure to put links in the show notes. And yeah, it’s been an absolute pleasure and honor to get to chat with you, Vitor. My, my quote, among many quotes is do a little a lot rather than a lot a little. I like that a lot. So, and
Vitor Belfort: I read the quote that you said about, you know, success can be compensated
Dr. Chad Woolner: Finish for failure in the home. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Dr. Andrew Wells: So if you’re, I’m putting your ego, your ego on my wall in front of me here in front of my desk that’s going up this week.
Vitor Belfort: That’s awesome.
Dr. Andrew Wells: I’ll send you a picture of it. I love that, for sharing that.
Vitor Belfort: God Bless you guys. Take care. Yeah,
Dr. Chad Woolner: God bless you, too. Thank you, everybody, for listening. And we’ll chat with you guys on the next episode. Have a good one. Thanks for listening to the laser light show, be sure to subscribe and give us a review. If you’re interested in learning more about Erchonia lasers just head on over to Erchonia.com. There you’ll find a ton of useful resources including research news and links to upcoming live events, as well as our Erchonia community where you can access for free additional resources including advanced training and business tools. Again, thanks for listening and we will catch you on the next episode.
About The Guest(s):
Vitor Belfort, a notable MMA fighter, brings attention to the importance of unity in the martial arts community, emphasizing its importance to fostering growth, success and diversity in training. After years of being so hard on his body, Belfort turned to his friend, Dave, who introduced him to the world of laser treatment and its mass contribution to physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.
Summary:
Vitor Belfort addresses the crisis of identity in society where the impact of technology has cultivated blurred boundaries between what is considered right and wrong. Emphasizing the importance of critical thinking and health, Belfort stresses the importance of expanding one’s palate to find the best treatment for them.
Key Takeaways:
Vitor Belfort, a prominent MMA fighter, shares his experience with Low Level Laser Therapy in his strenuous profession.
Quotes:
“And of course, you know, lasers I feel like it’s part of my lifestyle. It’s part of what I do. When I’m injured. You know, I like to know they have multiple things to do but I mean, it is simple. I use the laser more for recovery, maybe you store a lot of things you can do with the laser so you’ve got to use it like I said if you do one time because you’re going to have the results.” -Vitor Belfort
“And that’s the realization of understanding. Doing a little, a lot, my little, and that’s my thing, you know, and if you do the laser one time, not gonna help you, but if you do it consistently if you’re part of the lifestyle, and actually I’m waiting for my laser here because I had a tour pack, I gotta, I hope my laser is on the way. I got to start my treatment.” -Vitor Belfort