Swim For Sexual Health: Dr. Jason Szobota, Masters Swimmer and Urologist, EP 218

We catch up with Masters Swimmer and Urologist Dr. Jason Szobota ( who swims for the Virginia Masters Swim Team and Coach Mark Kutz ) to get some on deck inspiration regarding how swimming helps our sexual health. You'll also learn some great tips on how to be a good parent of a young athlete, as Jason's son Nathan is one of the USA's top swimmers, but the Szobota parents' approach as swim parents might surprise you. How does a busy physician fit in his training? You'll get some ideas and insights that will be sure to help you find your MOJO. Tune in now....

Email us at HELLO@ChampionsMojo.com. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.

Transcript

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Welcome to the award-winning champions mojo, hosted by two world record holding athletes and health life and leadership coaches.

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Be inspired as you listen to conversations with champions and now your host, kelly Palace and Maria Parker.

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Hello friends, welcome to the champions mojo podcast.

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I am your host, kelly Palace, and, as usual, I am with my co-host, maria Parker.

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Hey Maria, hey Kelly, it's great to be with you here today.

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Yes, and Maria, this is a special edition of champions mojo from the pool deck and we have a great interview for you today.

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It's brief, it's short, but it's powerful.

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Yeah and we.

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I wasn't there, but I was able to listen to the interview and some great takeaways.

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Yep, we hope you'll stick around and catch the takeaways.

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And here we go.

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It's another on deck, inspiration from the series number two long course meet in Richmond, virginia, and I am with Jason Somboda, who is a longtime master swimmer and also a urologist and just happens to have a son who is on our national team for open water and his name is Nathan.

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But we're talking to Jason.

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Hello to you, jason.

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I am 45, almost 46.

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Hey, jason's 45, so how was your meet?

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It was good.

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It was my first real experience with long course meters.

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I've done more short course, so it was interesting.

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And how long have you been master swimming?

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I've really been swimming for just over a year with the group here.

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I have some swimming experience in the past, but really with Nova Masters it's been about a year and two months, three months.

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Wait, you swim for the great Mark Kutz.

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I do indeed.

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The man, the myth, the legend as we call him.

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Yes, yes.

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So what is your training schedule being a busy doctor?

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So Masters really fits in really well early morning, getting it done before the day starts.

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So I usually do four days a week Mondays and Tuesdays, wednesdays I take a little bit of a rest, and then Thursdays and Fridays I will do some cross training and other stuff.

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But I found swimming to be really the sweet spot.

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I did peak at your times through USMS database and you're pretty darn fast for just swimming for a year.

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What kind of goals do you set?

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And you know you're a 45 year old dad and doctor and what is master swimming.

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How does that fit into your life and what goals do you set to be fast?

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So I was a competitive athlete.

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I grew up as a competitive soccer player.

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It took a lot of toll on my joints, on my body, and so I've just channeled that competitive energy into the pool and just trying to literally go with the flow and learn stroke techniques.

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Mark will yell at me every now and then.

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He doesn't yell all the time, well, maybe he does but uh, he bellows and sings, yes, but nonetheless he refers to me as Doc.

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He'll say hey, doc, when you do your butterfly, you got to do it this way.

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Just a little technique things that I never really knew.

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So focusing on that and getting with the flow and learning more about distance swimming and maybe even eventually trunk some open water.

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So my goals are just to be healthy and continue to improve at the sport and just really enjoy it.

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Do you feel like you're competitive and you want to win?

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Yeah, I think, personality-wise, as a physician, you have to be a go-getter and you have to be competitive, and so I really enjoy that aspect of swimming.

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But I would say that what I really like about master's is if there's a more relaxed aspect to everything, so you're competitive but at the same time you just want to see people do well and enjoy it.

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So it's a really nice mix.

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Yeah, that is a nice mix, so a couple of questions that I really wanted to ask you.

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In general, we always like to do health and wellness topics, but anything from a urology perspective that's new or that we can make master's summers more healthy for our listeners?

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So I think when you look at some of the more recent trends and exercise, there's a lot of short burst exercise like HIIT type of workouts and those are really easy to fit into your day but we do miss some of the cardiovascular and metabolic benefits.

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So I think when you look at swimming as a mix or as an addition to other workouts, it's really helpful.

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It's great for your cardio, it's really good from a muscle endurance standpoint and maximum strength standpoint.

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So you still get a little bit of that HIIT aspect and some of those burst workouts, but it's just great and I always tell folks as a urologist, I talk to a lot of folks about sexual health and intimacy and the swimming fits that bill.

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You can do it forever, it keeps you healthy and lean, it burns good calories and it gives you good self-esteem and body image.

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So it's actually a really nice way to hit all the points in terms of exercise.

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Beautiful.

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And then the second to last question.

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So your son, nathan, is a top swimmer and we have a lot of parents that are master swimmers, that have kids that are swimmers.

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How does one get their kids into this great sport without putting pressure on them?

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You let them find their place.

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I grew up dabbling in different sports.

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My wife was a big competitive swimmer and what I found?

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That the best approach for us as a couple is good cop, bad cop, but essentially I always lean on, look, enjoy yourself, have a good time.

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Let the coaches coach the swimmer.

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We don't need to do that, so just making sure that they develop that passion, they find that competitive edge if they want to, and maybe they don't, and that's okay too.

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Awesome.

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Okay, the very last question we ask all of our champion's mojo guests is what goes through your mind, kind of emotionally, spiritually, when you dive in the water every day for workout.

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I love this time.

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Swimming is a solitary sport in some ways.

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It's not.

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We're very social and I get to meet a lot of people, but at the same time it's just that time where you turn off your brain.

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I'm often worried about my day to day and my schedule and are my patients doing well, and this is a time for me and to just take it out on the water and it's the best.

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I love that.

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Thanks, doc, appreciate your time.

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Thank you, Kelly.

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Stay tuned for the takeaways.

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Dr Jason Sabata.

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So he is a busy urologist and even though he's short and sweet, so many nuggets in there.

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My first takeaway and we're just going to do one each on this is you know, he's so busy he still makes time to swim and I love the phrase I can turn my brain off and that he found swimming to be both solitary and social.

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Yeah, he's talked about that a lot.

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I think that sort of surprised him.

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It was great time to be alone and also great time to Be with others.

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So that was good and my takeaway is he talked about kids and he said I think this is really good.

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He said let your kids find their sport and let the coaches coach.

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As parent, you don't have to be coach, don't push them.

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Yeah, I thought that was good advice because I think we can even me, as my kids are now middle-aged but remember trying to push them and help them and give them some advice and that you should just totally let the coaches coach and let the kids find their own way.

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Sport is for 99.99% of the kids in the country.

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Their sport is not going to be what makes them money and my husband, jim, always reminded me that their careers probably gonna be just using their mind and stuff, not doing this sport of Gymnastics or swimming or running or whatever it was that they were doing.

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So I like that.

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Let your kids find their sport they can enjoy and stay out of it.

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Yes, and certainly even with that laid-back, hands-off approach.

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His son is a very high level elite swimmer and probably will get a full scholarship or Make some money, but it works either way.

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Yeah, whether one is gonna try to be a professional or whether one's just having fun, I love that.

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Just let the coaches coach and just you be a parent's off right yeah.

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Love it All.

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Right, maria, another great one in the books.

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Love you.

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Love you, kelly Bye.

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Thank you for listening to the champions mojo podcast.

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