Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 415: Muscle Obsession, ICE Fitness Test, Japan Vs. America + More

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

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Welcome in, everybody, to another episode of the Progressive Overload Project. As always, I'm your host, Danny Matranga, joined by host Matt Lekoko and Holden King. Today we're talking sports, nutrition, fitness, politics, and culture, starting with fitness. We're going to talk a little bit about the protein trend, the focus on muscle growth, and just the kind of return of an emphasis on physique and hugeness and men and just kind of what all that means what that's all about. We'll talk about high rocks and the trend of kind of endurance workouts going away from CrossFit and towards this new trend that is high rocks. We'll talk about the ice fitness test following up on something from a few episodes ago, just some recent

reporting on this that I think is rather interesting. We'll talk about nutrition as I head to Japan soon. We're going to talk about some of the differences between the food system here and there we will also talk a little bit about fittest presidents and least fit presidents we'll go over some of the like fitness capabilities and accomplishments of the presidents that i thought were kind of cool because some of them were actually kind of jacked and kind of physically fit which i found to be rather fun and rather cool we'll talk about sports we'll all take a guess at we'll share which sport we are the worst at and which sport if we had to go pro we would go pro or attempt to go pro-in.

We'll talk about steroid use and young men, why everybody is using a certain language on the internet again, and the stock market, and why it just continues to just rip, rip, rip. But we'll start with fitness, as always, and I just kind of wanted to check in with you guys. Have you noticed the emphasis on just being jacked and muscular has kind of gone from like,

hey, I'm stoked. Everybody's talking about building muscle and strength. feel like oh my god people are too focused on muscle and muscularity yeah are you guys are you referring to like some of those videos where those guys are like holding the handle doing like the lap pull down for like maximum like scientific muscle growth and like in emphasis and that because like kind of in a way yes it's okay i think it's the result of that that more people want to get jacked i just think it's not cool when people think that they're better than you because they're more well yeah don't get douchebag if you're going to get jacked or be jacked i guess be still a

chill person. I think you're both kind of in the right direction. Like, no, people are pursuing it because they want moral superiority. And people are taking weird, never before used methods of getting there. Like, I don't care about training to build

strength or be good at this movement. I actually want to do this really strange movement that's only for hypertrophy of this one muscle. That's fine. I just think, like, culturally, we are over-prioritizing muscle, especially men. for health and like it is clearly something that has uh you know we're at the end of the episode

i put in the notes that we would talk about young men using steroids we'll just talk about it now there's more young men using steroids than ever there's more women using steroids than ever there is a focus on being big and jacked and muscular and normally i'd say that's good but i think it's like over the top it seems like it's really like masking like some glaring insecurities individuals might have it's like hey check out check me out now um which is that's kind of like bum me out because i feel like you know we shouldn't need that in the space just to get noticed i want to be like as big and jacked as possible but i'm not hold that you're not a douche back yeah and also i'm not skipping cardio okay because i think

there's not a big enough emphasis on that i mean totally heart health needs is a muscle is like i don't know what's more important now i used to think that it was more important to be jacked and strong but now i feel like it's just as if not more important to be fit vascularly you know and danny i think that you're going we're going somewhere else and where you're trying to take this right now and i get it but yeah i mean i don't know if you guys understand what i'm saying which is just like do you guys not notice a cultural fixation on muscle that was never fucking there before yeah because you spent the last 10 years of your life trying to get jacked now everybody in your fucking life is trying to get jacked yeah i have noticed every young man in

the world is obsessed with hypertrophy and half of the dudes in the gym are taking steroids now, not 10% fucking half. Damn. Like, I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but it really seems like I'm in public all the time. And I'm like,

wow, that guy's using a lot of steroids. And like normally you used to only see guys like that at the gym. And like whenever you go to the Olympia, everybody's on juice. But now it's like, dude, I see a tremendous amount of TRT use.

I see a massive focus on muscle everywhere all the time. And I think it is, maybe an insecurity thing but it's never been this way people never pursued muscle and size the way they are right now yes with this yeah steroid use is at an all-time high for sure and a fixation on how higher testosterone is it has to be like I hate that because you know and it's not like any healthier to just have super high testosterone if anything it can be harder on your body and it's not actually healthier we might even see more instances of like you know heart disease and you know heart attacks and people like actually tons of bodybuilders

there's countless young bodybuilders who die every year because of probably fucking abusing anabolic steroids but it's way too terrified right now and yeah it's not necessary guys if your testosterone's 400 that's okay that's a normal fucking range and you wanting to bring it up to a thousand isn't going to do anything for you except temporarily make you a little bigger maybe get a little have a little bit more energy but at the end of the day like it is hard on the body you have a potential to become more infertile as you get older right there's a big a big um push for having uh you know elite sperm and like more sperm and like all this weird shit that's happening you know used to fucking care about their test now you're obsessed with your test

nobody used to care about their sperm now men are talking about their sperm there is like this very you couldn't get a girl pregnant girl yeah we've all saladena we've all seen that ridiculous this video of Paul Saladino talking to another man about the superiority of his sperm. That's not fucking normal dude. I've never in my life said something like that to another

man because normal people do not walk around with the superiority complex of I have the best fucking cum in here. My fucking I'm super nut. Look at me. You see this alpha com? I have the supreme come. You want to see? I'll show it you, bro. I'll show you. Like, what

the fuck is wrong with you? Right. Yeah. Like, that is so not normal but it is it has become normal and it's like this male insecurity crisis masculinity crisis whatever you've called it whatever you want to call it has turned into like an over

obsession with the physical elements of masculinity and it's made like it has made being jacked seem less cool to me totally well they've like ruined it right like I don't know if they've ruined it but I definitely I well not entirely because we're not stopping doing it, right? But I can empathize more with every person who ever called me a meathead.

I can empathize more with every person who said bodybuilding is kind of stupid and like douchey. And like, it's like really focused on like, what, like, is that functional? Like, what are you going to do with that? Like, and I'd be like, what do you mean? I'm nothing. Oh, I just get Jack. What's a dysfunctional about that? As I watch an entire generation of young men obsess over it because that's the status they can get.

Um, I see like the, I see it how I used to fixate on it. and I've maybe matured a little bit through it. I'm like, damn, to Holden's point, like, aerobic fitness matters too, strength matters, tissue resilience matters, like muscle fucking size. Mobility to a certain extent of, like wanting to have a 12-inch waist,

like, okay, buddy. Yeah, I hate that shit. Because we're missing the point on what it means to be healthy and what it means to, like, go do something and show up for yourself and do things that are hard and, you know, stick with something and be consistent. And most of these men are going to, are going to fade out.

And who knows how long they're actually going to be consistent with it. I want to see more people exercising and more people taking on fitness as something that is good for your mental and good for your physical and not just something that you just, you know, it's a, you know, dick measuring contest, you know. And involving your, you're putting, having your whole life revolve around it, right? Like, how many people's entire personality is getting big or being more than, more than there should be? People who probably aren't like, you know, great father figures, people who might not be involved in their family, people who might not.

Yeah. I mean, I see that show all the time. And I'm just like, man, how is that guy? Like, I mean, I don't know. Women are guilty of this, too. There are a plethora of women whose entire personality is the pursuit of visible fitness. Like looking like a competitive bodybuilder. And I'm just like, okay.

Why? I get why. As more people do it, the why seems to be. increasingly clear and increasingly disappointing to me, which is it makes you feel like you're better than other people or it fills something inside of you. And I'm just like, I watch it from somebody who does this professional and I go, that is not going to bring you the happiness that you think it is going to bring you. I can almost promise you that because I've seen this for a long time. This is kind of, yeah, this is just stuff that I typically

just turn, turn my head and just focus on my, on me and my shit. It was like, you know okay if you want to you know you want to do that and you want to live your life that way that's totally on you and you're gonna you're gonna figure it out you know um and you're gonna find where your priorities really lie in life what really matters and that's kind of where i'm at i'm at this point where as i was just saying before it's just like hey if if everyone just like didn't give like minded their own fucking business more so like we'd be in a better place right like no way this is happening without comparison culture it's so there do How many young men have C-bum as their lock screen?

Not to say that's bad, but like, you're never going to look like him, Bucco. I hate to fucking break it. There's only like 20 people who have ever existed who, when they take exactly those drugs and they do an incredibly arduous training protocol

over many years will achieve that physique. You're probably shortening your lifespan doing this stuff. You know? Have you guys have heard this, right? You don't want the car. You don't want the Ferrari. You want to be treated the way the guy who drives the Ferrari gets treated. Right.

Yeah, I've heard it. I think that, do you really want that physique and everything that goes into it and all the health ramifications? Or do you just want the adoration and the masculinity that you think comes with it? I think that's a good point. It's sad. It's really sad, to be honest, that people really feel that way. And they're so insecure and whatever they've been exposed to. I would imagine that the only reason C-Bum got to C-Bum is because he found.

something in bodybuilding that was greater than masculinity and like if you're like if i just look like him i would feel completely i fucking doubt it you take all those drugs you can do all those workouts you'll never look like him and you'll probably also never find the happiness right and see him like he's so emblematic of like he didn't do it for all the reasons other people are fucking doing and clearly it shows that you can have the greatest physique in the world and quite literally be like the the hercules like i got the thing that all of these young men are after i made it to the top of the mountain and i'm stepping away because i've found that there's satisfaction to be had in these other areas like having children or having a family or running a business

and all those things are great but when the greatest bodybuilder of the generation steps away and i don't know enough about them to know exactly why there's plenty of reasons to do so probably health is one of them but like when somebody steps away and it's still very happy and fulfilled and obviously incredibly fit i think it's i i i just think it shows there's clearly more to life than being jacked which i is probably what i should have said to start like i feel like there's more to life than being jacked and it seems like the totality of the genie like a generation of young men disagrees with me well they'd also disagree though i think it's just an age thing could be i could be definitely like cared a lot more about my physique and my training

when I was like younger but now that like a little older matured more like yeah I still like my fitness I know how important it is for me in like long term health and in good aging which is like well that's why we do this totally that's why we well our our mindset has like shift around what why essentially we do it right but yeah that's a good question ask yourself thing Dan I do think that's right as well but also having like just that age on your side when just not knowing that much and not experiencing much like you're in college what do you know other than like an exam and lift yeah and that party maybe don't like there is an immaturity to it that you probably grow out of it but i saw this guy like on instagram was making a video about

how he put his 16 year old son on testosterone and he was giving all the reasons that he did it and i was just like i think i saw that one this is actually these are the kind of dads i was talking too far by the way i was like these are the kind of dads i was talking way too far yeah that's weird when you're like parent is advocating for for a young kid to like enter that lifestyle It's like that dude who had his same thing with his daughters on stage. Oh, my God. Remember that? That was very weird.

They, like, these 10, 12 girls, it was like, show them your abs, show me abs. And it's like they were obviously uncomfortable. They seemed like it. It was just like, he's like sexualizing his fucking daughters. Yeah, and this guy is juiced out of his mind and he represents, you know, he's all of the worst elements of masculinity. All of them. praying on other men and shit all of them and there's a lot of men who pay for this guy's course like tens of thousands of dollars and these guys are still you know they're looking for the same

thing this hole that they have that they can't fill and there's no closer yeah and the same thing goes with like the obsession with money and and and is similar and and it's good to work hard it's good to make money obviously like financial stress is a real fucking thing and you know i hope that you're able to pay your bills and and and do those things that make you feel like you're, you know, not on the brink of just losing it all. But, you know, Jim Carrey said, I'm going to bring this up again. I wish everyone could experience being a billionaire because they'd realize how it doesn't really make you that happy.

Yeah. Like, yeah, financial stuff is going to bring some happiness. But really, I don't know the fucking answer. But I do know that, like, I'm content with where I'm at, with my physique, with my financial stuff. But I'm all about just like self-improvement. Like, and that's a big reason why I like to go to the gym and, and, you know, just try to push because i want to be better i want to improve i want to put myself through something

hard because i also know how the how that plays on your psyche you deal with hard shit in life you know and that's that's my 34 year old take on it i think that's good i don't think that's far off at all but i think it's right on the money i just see like it's very focused on and fetishized and people and young people are pursuing it and idolizing muscle as if it's going to solve things for them and deliver to them things that whether it's money or cars or all the other status things men have chased it's like i do not know if you will find what you want on the other side of that but i see everybody is now looking to it while in this crisis of masculinity and it is kind of a and this crisis of mental health yeah i mean i'm kind of i'm not like sitting there like man

i'm really worried but when i think about it and i think about what these young men are exposed to with social media, you know, and everything else. I'm just like, where are they going to be in 10, 20 years? Yeah. Like, are they going to be another person with a... We all knew people when we started lifting who were using steroids at a very young age aggressively, and you'd be like, dude, there's actually, like, a kid in my high school on steroids.

I think there's, like, one kid in high school. You'd be like, bro, he takes stuff. Like, what? Yeah, dude, he takes stuff. Like, grantee? No. Take steroids. Or, like, there'd be a, like, young...

guy who was too young, 90% of those guys don't even lift anymore. I swear to God, in the weirdest way. It's like you go all in on it, hella fast, hella early, get this crazy physique on steroids. And a lot of times it comes with some complications or some challenges or you learn that, this isn't really all that. And these guys don't end up committing to this lifestyle of bodybuilding for the rest of their life. It was just a chapter.

Right. And I don't know if, like, maybe you don't want to be a professional bodybuilder. Maybe you don't want to take the steroids for the rest of your life. I don't know. Maybe you just want to be jacked and get what comes with that today, but you're not entirely aware of the... Well, there's something to be said about getting on something like that and putting the needle, using the needle.

And then for a lot of people, it can be a life sentence, right? I've talked about that a lot in the last decade on just being in fitness. I know you've said that a lot. Once you're in the game, you sat to stay in it. I can see that, you know? It's like you don't look like you used to. Totally. You know, you don't feel the same when you're off.

and like, look, you want to naturally produce testosterone. Do you guys fall all that one guy who cooks stuff and he got a motorcycle crash recently? He cooks like macro-friendly foods. That's not the flexible dieting lifestyle guy? No, it's not that guy. It's, um, I don't know his Instagram, but he had a ton of controversy for a really long time. Okay. Because he was like selling AI cookbooks or something that a, that Chad GPT wrote.

And he got, and he's like literally like yelling at. people on the internet making videos. He's like, I'm a fucking millionaire. And like, this is my car, like this and that. And then everybody was just like, all right, that's kind of douchey. But he got in a motorcycle accident and was, like, posting his cash app. And people were like, uh, no, we don't need a name him. We don't need to name him.

Asking like for handouts basically. Like, oh, I can't work right now. And people were like, well, you were kind of rude about being a millionaire all the time. So maybe you got this one. Totally. Well, I saw video. of him like today and his fucking size

after this trip to the hospital is substantially reduced because it appears like he has had to stop taking things. It looks to me, I'm going to be I really don't want to sound judgmental because this individual's

gone through a lot and I'm not body shaming. It looks to me like the man genuinely didn't develop a ton of muscle before he ever started using because he looks to be not an untrained but like very small you don't lose muscle that fast and you've done it naturally can you from on that side of the camera

find a visual of like a video from today and then like are we talking like the size drop off of the rock it was it was considerable and I was just like wow maybe the totality of the physique was just coming from that and like yeah I bet you this person is not even 30 years old yeah I mean I guess there's a there's a claim for yeah and like there's a claim for like steroids doing the majority of the work.

Unfortunately, so, but like... So, yeah, that's today. Bodybuilding. And I was just like that looks like me when I was in high school. Yeah. Like literally. Okay. No, I don't know what he, what it was prior. The thing I hate about bodybuilding and professional bodybuilding and stuff is it's just muddied the water

so much in fitness. Of what a good physique looks like. And how to get it. Oh, what a natural... And what to eat and how to eat and all the diets and all the fucking bullshit and how to burn fat better and all the things. Okay. Yeah. I'm seeing quite a lot of size drop off. So I get told I look like shit all the time almost every day.

Really? Yeah, I'm small. You look like shit. You don't even lift all the time, all the time. People, especially when I talk about non-fitness things, like if I say something that They just instantly go for your physique. Of course. If I say something like political that can't be rebuked with logic, somebody will come

on and be like, shut the fuck up and just stick to personal training. You don't even look like you lift, pussy. And I'll be like, okay, yes, you're right. The like profile picture of mine where my arm. are crossed and like my elbows are the only part of my skin you can see in the frame other than my face like you literally see my neck head and elbows and I don't look big I'm not even that big like genuinely I'm probably below average height and frame but I'm pretty certain I don't look like shit no and it is crazy how many people think I look like shit they look

like shit and everybody who is not a professional bodybuilder with heavy edited photo lighting just looks like shit and it's crazy bro i'm like you don't do you even know what these guys look like when they're not on gear they look like shit too yeah you're your what bodybuilding did a lot of bad things i think the number one is it made everybody think anyone who's not on steroids looks like shit well then what social media also offers is like the highlight tape the a plus reels because you're only going to post what someone like what people what you want someone to see These guys only post when they're competitive shape. 100%.

Yeah, exactly. They might not look like that in real life at the time they post it. It might not look like that five minutes later. Yeah, it's tough. You can considerably change your physique with just like not getting on steroids and just doing a normal amount of strength training and weight lifting. And really, like, in one year, like you could build a substantial amount of muscle. And you're still going to look at other people on the internet and be like, what the fuck?

Yeah. Be disappointed because you're, you're going to be disappointed because you're, going to continue to compare yourself to fake shit yes dude for sure stop doing that shit and really just like like soak in what what the uh what lifting and exercise does does for you be process oriented not so much outcome oriented exactly exactly the reason that we've been doing this shit for what a cumulative of like 40 years yeah a long time i mean you know i just that that's the biggest reason because it's like well the the what this gives me beyond the flesh oh my god so so much more and it's just like and i have clients who come in and they want to lose

you know if you're someone who wants to lose body fat that same thing too it's like oh you're comparing yourself to this person on the internet who says they lost you know whatever how much weight and you know just a few months because they did this and you're not able to achieve it because we're what is that saying we're we're missing the forest among the trees for the trees here because if you actually like focus on the other things oh my god i showed up to the gym oh my god i've been here for like more like three times this week i feel oh i'm making progress on my strength oh my god i'm losing weight now because you stop focusing so much on like the next diet or the next you know quick fix and we're so after that quick fix with with everything with

whether it's getting bigger or getting smaller and i just like i hate that because it's not getting you anywhere really and it's keeping you frustrated well i thought that was like kind of just good round up of the state of the pursuit of muscle and it being super present one thing i do want to touch on before we pivot to nutrition. I thought this was hilarious. It is the phrase, athletically allergic. Okay,

I read this in the Atlantic regarding some of the ICE fitness testing. Never heard that. So a lot of people have recently attempted to join ice because of the signing bonus. And I guess they like what they're doing, which is an interesting choice for me at this point in time. But let's just say that it is,

not going well for the people in charge of actually staffing these positions because a huge percentage of these recruits are considerably athletically allergic candidates. They had been showing up to the academy and had misrepresented their physical condition on application forms. The email directed leaders at Icefield offices to conduct preliminary exams with recruits before us even sending them to the academy. We all know that self-certification method has failed. Ralph Ferguson and an operations manager wrote.

So the test is like 15 push-ups, like 32 sit-ups and one-and-a-half miles in 14 minutes. You can. I know the running part is probably a mile in 12 minutes. I think it's a little bit like more than that. That's like I always pretty quick. Like I know I have like a little dog with like the legs, but I could do like a 20 minute. A 20 minute. And that's kind of like going a little bit.

Okay, so you could walk the first fucking half mile and then run a fucking eight-minute mile. You could definitely be able to do the 15 push-ups. And I'm sorry, you're in ICE. You should be able to those at least non-consequentially. Why is the bar set so low? We probably do need to have like considerably higher fitness tests for law enforcement. Where's Heg-Seth? Anyone who's going to, he can do this.

Where is Heg-Seth with this? He can do this, but he's not in charge of ice. Well, he should have an opinion on it. I think he definitely has an opinion on it. I can tell you that. Anyone is supposed to be a public servant. should be fit. Just watch it, Mitch McConnell.

Bro. Why would we both go there? Sorry, Mitch. We got to get these old people out of there, man. We need more young people. Now, that is someone who should be on TRT. Mitch McConnell. He probably benefit the most.

Dude, do you be president. Just horny and jacked in there, occasionally stroking out. Oh, man, how could you make fun of Mitch McConnell? He's a terrible person. What are you fucking kidding me? um anyway these ice agents yeah no they're uh that's pretty sad and um i don't have any empathy for those guys considering they want to go and do this job you know i just think it's you want to you want to go and round up all these people who've been paying taxes and you even want to go

to the courthouse just to do it weird people who are trying weird choice to get citizenship it's just like go find another fucking job but on top of that you pussy's and wearing fucking mask the whole time. Like, you wouldn't wear a mask during COVID because you can't breathe. But, like, that old person forget to take their mask off in the car, you pussy liberal.

What do you like this fucking dictator, Joe Biden? Trump's president. Whatever. Take that mask off. Dictatorship, 1984. It's like literally just like, oh, fuck. I look my mask on from Costco. Every time, they're like, oh my God, there's people driving with their

masks on in the car alone. Tierney. Have you guys seen, like, the videos of this kind of like athletically allergic ice officers like showing up like I watched this one video in like Chicago where this like the guy on the e-bike was like man fuck Trump and then like

10 ice officers run after him and he just cooks him in this e-bike like not even close there is that one of them all getting out of the back of the truck at the same time and that one guy has to they piled in like clown yes he gets down like hella slow and he like holds on to the side You're like, bro, you do not need a hold on to the side of the truck.

No, he does, because his knee-up buckle. We're like, I got a bad meat. I cooked it on the fucking 19-minute mile. That guy's retirement dried up, so he had to go back to work. Dude, I mean, it's definitely the $50,000 bonus. Like, that's a huge. Dude, isn't it like 100K, like annual salary, too? I'm not sure.

But we're going to talk a little bit about the nutrition variations between the United States and Japan. I'm going to Japan. But when you guys listen to this, I'll be in Japan. Matt went to Japan last year. And I think one of the things that Japan is famous for is their food and the fact that the people there are not really obese. And I think there's a million reasons why that would be, but I think one of them is the food selection and the convenience and access to healthy food in Japan has always been there. And it hasn't really been happening here, even with the quote.

unquote maha stuff so if you were not going to japan but wanted to eat the way or or try to maximize and learn from the way they eat we'll start with matt like there's so many quick things you can get there but like what are the things that they have there that we don't have here i think the one that immediately stands out uh at 7-11 so it's like the only thing that's open 24 hours a day really but food quality there is like insane definitely makes you look at the American 7-Eleven's a little different. Bro. But they had, they had the food quality in American 7-Eleven.

That tells me all I need to know about the fuck-ups we have here. It's crazy. I know it sounds, but like I literally had like four smoothies a day here. And you would go to like the freezer section. They'd have like in a plastic cup, you know, with the lid on it, various different like smoothie mixes with diced frozen fruit. You'd pay for it. You'd go spin it at one of the machines and you'd walk out with a fully drinkable

smoothie. And I'm just like, I don't think this probably. takes that much money to do to literally put in every single convenience store. It's like our 7-11 sell bananas and quest bars and we're like, oh my God, they have a healthy option. Yeah, I don't know. That was one of it too, but like the portion sizes

were never too massive. They were always like, and like this is going to sound like TVD, but I think it speaks or TMI, excuse me, with the food quality, but like I ate my heart out there and I only like went like, took shit like three times in 11 days.

I don't know. Is that That's good, though. No, no, no. I think it speaks to the reabsorption, kind of. The nutrients, of nutrients. Okay. Because it's a weight product, right? No, the food nutrients.

Like, through the digestive process and stuff like that, because I immediately got home and- I reabsorbed that one day. Not like, not the she reabsorbing the shit, the nutrients. I feel there's something to be said about the travel. It was the food quality. The travel, the food quality. Well, maybe I just didn't want to use the bedaes.

Your circadian rhythm. I would be shooting all the time. I went to Thailand once, man. And I think I pooped like twice in a week. Dude. Okay. So, it's the flight.

And it was dire. Yes. Yes. The flight. Mine was not. Mine were all. They actually have something like travelers gut. Yeah.

It's a thing. All right. Well, maybe that's what it was. Maybe it was placebo. That was just an observation I had. Because I ate like literally everything I possibly could over there. Because like it's the best place in the world to get food.

Making your own smoothies. We could never do that. here because we are the fucking most like wasteful like we don't give a fuck about anybody else we want to clean up after us pretty clean too a 7-11 with a clean self-serving smoothie bar like that's a fucking problem in october like on the street of japan like they were they had that shit spig and man literally everywhere i went i went like five different places within japan but like everywhere was the same clean as hell the other thing that i have noticed is you can buy food

everywhere that is loaded with protein and vegetables. Like, so many of the cuisines are built around protein and vegetables. And here, it's fried food. It's cheese. Pop-Tarts with protein. That's what we get. That's what we get.

Do you think they do Pop-Tarts with protein? No shot. In Japan. They barely had a chip selection there, bro. I'm interested if they have a high-protein market. I'm very interested. if when I go there, they're going to have high protein products. If the Japanese are, like, also on the high protein trend. I don't, I'm trying to remember, and I don't think it was there.

The way their cities formulate with, like, the walking, how much walking in there? You definitely do the last, yes, so much, it's not even close. Like, they have, they probably walk 10 times while we walk. And they have effective public transportation, so car ownership rates are way down, and they, like, move by walking and train, a lot of people. If you think about the eating establishments there, too, like, every many, it's it's not a super lengthy you know like huge four page menu it's usually like a meat source and a veggie source like whether it's fish chicken beef you know um but point is is it like automatically

includes protein so like i don't think the high protein other food scene is really that yeah because you're getting protein with yeah they're like why are we sell this here we sell it at this store well is it like is it like the fattier meats mostly like is a lot of pork and and chorizo a lot of beef like waggoos huge over there yeah it's a tons of beef so much beef and i was like all chicken it was like beef and fish heart crazy neck yes and like breast wow like i even saw liver king to japan coming soon i've seen this guy i follow i can't remember his name but he's a vegan guy and um he was in japan and he was eating like a tofu bar that he got it like the gas station and it just looked like i'm

not i'm not i actually don't dislike tofu that much it tastes out it's like all right it's whatever i do kind of like the fact that it's like pure protein and it's like not super flavorful right and like you could just pound some tofu but he was like i was like i was like fuck dude who like in their right mind would buy a ultra processed like hellasweet protein bar that you're just like oof man like i personally don't love him when you could have like this really tasty looking sesame uh uh like it looks wonderful it had vegetables in it too but it was like a tofu veggie sesame bar and it looked delicious. You probably got it in a 7-11 too.

Yes, he was standing in a 7-11 when he was eating it. But I was like, whoa, that's badass. Like, that's smart. And, like, they sell actual chicken breast in these gas stations. Wow. Like, oh, you want protein or do you want a protein bar, bro? Because we got you either way. But in America, like, you'll never be safe eating, like, refrigerated gas station chicken.

But here, we're so up on our food. safety and freshness you can just grab that with impunity when i think when i think gas station when i go and do a gas station to get something to snack on which i will sometimes actually sure quick and i don't really really talk about what i go for but what i see is just like pizza yes those like fried chicken that's what i was going to talk about the tequitos and the hot dogs like that does not exist in japan the um what are those called that we actually had one here we've got slurpees a lot of slurpees always right you got to eat at the McDonald's at least once and it's like man how many people who you know not just work in construction but you mainly early in the morning they're all going to these gas stations and coming out of there with like a slim gym a monster and a bag of chips yes people eat like this every day that's all they and if we could just like even just at the gas stations that would be like an amazing health improvement i saw this especially for those individuals that are like in infrastructure kind of they do construction they self-fix like

roads and all that stuff. People who eat in food deserts. Long hours. Yes. And they buy a lot of their food and they have to be convenient. So they start there. You're going to fix that whole like. Well,

7-11 U.S. is, I guess, trying to emulate their success with their Japanese stores. Oh, that's good. I don't know how they're going to do it. I saw a story on this. But like, I genuinely believe if you replaced, they call these stores in Japan,

Konbini. Konbini wa. And so if you replaced all, of the food desert gas stations in America with Japanese Konbini, I wonder if it would make a difference because people would have so much to choose from there that was health promoting, whereas in our gas stations, it's way less than 10%. That would be pretty badass. I'm excited to check it out.

I just think a lot of why our country's health is so much worse than theirs is because they truly understand food and prioritize it and interesting. Interestingly, they have like an obesity tax. I'm not even kidding. No way. Do you look it up on chat GPT, but they have some type of a way in which through your employer, I think you can actually have a penalty for excessive weight. I'm not even kidding.

We'll look it up because I don't want to misspeak. But speaking of excessive weight, I wanted to play a little game of who are the fittest presidents and who are the least fit presidents. And I was wondering if anybody wanted to. admit a potentially fit president or a president they can think of as fit. We'll do unfit, not mentally unfit or unfit to lead. Oh, okay. Like, physically fit people after we, you know, you had just said,

I think you should need to be fit to be in office. And then I said Mitch McConnell would be sick on steroids. Well, I think you need to be fit to be like an ice agent. Yeah, and you probably should have to have. If you're dealing with these dangerous criminals, you should be in fucking good shape, right? Like, what's going to say that? Criminal's not going to kick your ass. For sure.

But I do think. They are getting their ass fucking kicked. They are definitely. And they're really, yeah, exercising a... They're exercising force. That's it. And there's, yeah, I don't know where they're taking these people necessarily, but there's no due process.

And they're not, there's no warrants. And again, they're pussies because they've asked themselves. And they don't show their face anyway. I have three presidents who I think were physically quite fit. And four, three, if you exclude FDR, because he has. had a legitimate disease who were not super fit. But I thought I would start out with Abraham Lincoln because I just heard this story and I thought this was badass.

So do you guys know what Abraham Lincoln's sport was? He was extremely good at this. Cricket? No. Nice. I mean, it's hard not to think he could have been a basketball player, but I don't think it was invented back then. I don't know what basketball existed then.

It was in the early 19-19. But one thing I know is if it did exist, it wasn't. fun to watch for reasons that are pretty obvious. Yes. What was it, golf? Was he a killer golfer? No, dude, he was a wrestler. I guess A. Lincoln was a motherfucker of a wrestler. That's cool. He's also the only president with a patent. And he's like, if you look at the jobs he did before he was president, he had like a ton of normal ass jobs, like before he became a lawyer, a trial lawyer. But one of them was working in some capacity on the railways. And so he got like

hella strong with an axe. Just slinging that sledge. So there's this story where he goes up to this group of union soldiers and they're all young bucks and they're like, oh my God, this, President Lincoln. And President Lincoln would fraternize with the soldiers during the Civil War. And it was like a thing of legend. Because you'd be like,

President Lincoln came to our battalion. No, he did not. Yes, he did. You know, like he would do that. The country was small enough in the day. and he held up a seven-pound axe, which is actually like a pretty decent-sized sledge on your axe. And he held it at the edge of the axe long ways, perfectly straight.

And he talked to these guys. He was like, can anybody, any one of you come up and hold this axe? I guess none of them could do it. So Abe Lincoln had like mythical strength. So he's like Thor. Very fit, very badass, very fit. Like badass wrestler. Pretty cool.

pretty cool um honorable mention though actually not not on my top three uh joe biden no he could ride a bicycle kind of that guy could run man you see that video dude no joe biden did not make the list of joe biden you're a good man was it washington wasn't he like decent with an accent no i didn't pick george washington he seems pretty fit uh theater roosevelt yes dude okay that was on the list that you had yeah i or roosevelt was an absolute hog. I want somebody to put into chat, GPT, Theodore Roosevelt, athletic accomplishments. So, one, he was a bodybuilder at Harvard.

He actively worked on building his muscles. That's cool. Two, boxer. Sick. Big horseback riding guy. Pretty sure he loved walking and walked like every day all the time. Matt, did you get anything about his accomplishment? Yeah, born with actually severe asthma.

I knew that. And he believed that he could beat the asthma. Boxing road. He beat the asthma. Yes. That asthma? He defeated it. Before there were drugs for it, he defeated asthma by becoming fit.

Yeah, so it's training and sports at Harvard, boxing, rock, hiking, riding, weight training, cowboy and ranch life, military with the rough riders, Spanish-American War. Apparently, martial arts and fitness, Wally was president. Yes. Judo, Brown belt. Yes, yes. And he survived being shot. Oh, Explorer and Naturalist. He was an African safari and a South American expeditioner.

He loved to travel on horseback. I think Trump never talks about this guy in the conversation of best president ever. In my opinion, Fidore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln are the best Republican presidents the country's ever had. Very cool. Very cool, badass guys. However, a lot of people don't know this. Gerald Ford played college football at Michigan. Whoa.

That's fucking hog. Power 5 school Really cool That's badass So personally because I love football That puts you way up at the top If you played college ball I don't know if he was good

Can we get some Gerald Ford stats up in here Like I don't know And then for the third one I just picked Obama Because he had a slick jumper And he was never fat And I guess he lifted Have you seen him on like the paddle board He was big he's big on exercise

He lifts a lot And like I think he He was like one of the regular users Of the White House gym There is a White House gym. There's also a Senate gym. He definitely made a member, though, with what's going on with the East Wing. He did.

We can't talk about him with that because he made some changes. Oh, yeah. He put lines, a basketball hoop on the tennis court. That's crazy. Gerald Ford was a two-way player. Oh, my fucking God. Center. Modern truck.

And linebacker. Whoa. All right. Okay. Interesting. So they went 8 and 0 one year, and then 7-0 and 1. Okay, so he's a winner. No, no.

Certified. Well, one year they went like one in seven. Do we have any tackle or interception statistics? Because he won't have any stats as a, as a fucking center. Yeah, yeah. 19 snaps per game. I'm going to see like the tackle. But that's impressive.

So for, I think so. You don't see that a lot. I like, from what I've heard, I think Roosevelt, man, takes the cake, bro. Not even close. Yeah, right. Least fit president is definitely William Hous. Howard Taft. Is that the guy who, like, died in like a month?

No, no, no. He is the guy that they, look this up. Somebody looked this up. Look up Howard Taft bathtub story. So the legend has it that this guy was so fat. They had to take like the White House apart and put in a new bathtub for him. Oh, my God. Extra large.

Yeah. So these were not super good for Howard Taft. Tell me how this guy convinced a bunch of non-fat people to vote for him. I think back. in the day being fat was like very aristocratic no for sure but in america it was well i mean this dude was president and i think like the 1800s dude apparently it's like no more of 1909 to 1913 so this is before the great depression i think i don't think you were judged as heavily for being fat i think it was seen more as a sign of opulence oh wow i think it's more of a myth uh there

so there's not too many credible records i fucking knew that was too good to be But it said, however, the White House did install an enormous custom-built bathtub after he became president in 1909. So they built something. What are you talking about? I guess for you guys, like listening, the story is that he got stuck. Okay, yeah, they had to get him out. In a bathtub and they had to get him out. But it did result in them getting a bigger custom-sized tub for a very large man.

So, like, maybe there is some merit to it. I think that is true. It said it was seven, almost eight feet. Jesus Christ. eight feet and almost four feet wide some people want to see the lincoln bedroom i want to see the taft bathtub i do i want to take a bath in it the eight foot taft bathtub okay matt was right one of the least fit presidents has to be william henry harrison um only because i know he was like the shortest president yeah he died from his inauguration speech he didn't wear a jacket so he got pneumonia oh my god

that's that's pretty bad that's pretty bad of course that wasn't a day where like the medical advances like wearing what they are so like if that happened today he totally would have been fine but oh yeah it still did happen president back then he'd be like toast big time he wouldn't have made 40 yeah he wouldn't have had those insulin shots he's he's he's he's he's he's on my list not actually because of the like obvious body composition stuff more just because of the not because of the nussie either because of the just the reporting on his diet is so fucking the whole areas have please please please be like can ask it to pull up reported like uh eating behaviors for him some of the stuff that i've read of like the doctors in the white house being

like we try to sneak cauliflower into his mashed potatoes oh yeah it's like impossible it's like feeding a too impossible to get this guy to do anything other than golf and eat anything other than like fast food and steak all right so trump is known for known to favor fast food as a staple yeah for example his order at big mac if you were interested in trying it yourself large fried diet cook uh is two big macs two fish fillet uh and a small chocolate shake

small shake please yeah a ballin four sandwiches and a small shake okay this this is where like we need to impeach the man for this alone he likes a well done steak fuck out of here I heard that I've heard that I've heard of here but like the reporting but yeah 12 cans

diet coke a day I think you mentioned limited vegetables I guess he has I guess he's like a scratch golfer. He's pretty good. Well, he dedicates like a billion hours a week to it. So you better be somewhat good. I know. I think it should be...

I know I cannot drive him to be a president. They also say he drinks very little water. Next president has a reliance on soda. Nice. Well, there's some, you know, hydration in there. There's some water infiltrated in there. Soda's 90% water, okay? Yeah.

It's fine. Yeah. So just fast food, large portions and mostly comfort food. Sadly, if you ask chat GPT, the least fit presidents or it gives you Franklin Delano Roosevelt because he was paralyzed. I was like, well, that's not really fair. He had disabilities.

Does it also have like JFK on that list after the great shot? Come on, you, it's too soon. We have to deal with his shitty nephew. So, on the topic of sports, what do you guys think? I thought this was a good question. What sport

are you the worst at? And then if you had to go pro in one sport, but you only had a year to do it what sport would you want to go pro in i have an answer to the pro sport one and i don't what are you starting with the the pro sport one or the i don't have my answer for worse sport yet so there's so many sports oh yeah i'll go i can start the american sports i think the sport what are you going to do pakistani cricket no no normal sports like normal shit normal like football baseball basketball any sport that like isn't weird you know like don't tell me oh it be

super bad at bob sledding shut the fuck i think i'd be bad at tennis right now okay okay um because tennis is so hard i just don't play it and i have no feel it's so hard for and it is hard it's really a tough sport just the agility required the cutting the the touch touch with the racket and all the all the moves all the hits all the yeah um if i were to go pro in a sport it would be obviously baseball i think that would be and football and basketball and any other sport you can think of. Yeah. All of them.

No, but really baseball, because, I mean, I'm left-handed. Yes. I throw a baseball like 90 miles per hour. So I'll take. No lie. It takes like 98 now.

But if I practiced for a few years and I was like 20, could probably do it. Oh, yeah, for sure. Could probably do it. Yeah. Same with football, I think. Yeah.

You have the size. Like, be a tight end, you know, or defensive end. You have soft hands, bro. Yeah. Pause.

I've thrown you. balls bro you can't handle it's so easy to catch your balls man yeah dude i got a catchable balls i throw some catchable balls right at you uh matt what do you have i fucking sucks because you guys are actually very athletic yeah you can just pick the sports you've already been very good at which is what i was hoping you wouldn't do but it does make sense i'm gonna pick i'm gonna pick a little something more obscure just because it still pisses me off to this day because i do consider myself to be very athletic and can pick up things quickly but like wakeboarding or like water sports.

I've been behind a boat like five different times and literally still never even as managed to stand up. Dude, like God damn board. Like other people are ripping it. I was like, I just want to stand up. Meanwhile,

like I love to snowboard. I've snowboarded some awesome spots. And I feel like I'm pretty good at ripping it down the mountain. Dude, water sports I suck at. Yeah. So many concussions. Terrible.

Oh, few at least. I mean, the obvious one to go pro and would be baseball just because of my past playing experience. And I damn near made it. like they're played in college and i think it's just the easiest one i think um but ping pong if you wanted to like pick an obscure one i'll smoke anyone in ping pong i don't know i think i beat you

ping pong i don't remember the last time i've lost olden oh boy ping well we're going to have a pink i don't need that little red one okay i would hate to do ultramarathoning oh i don't even know if that counts as a sport because it seems like like an extreme version of an all ready existing sport how about sports you can make millions bro i don't even want to do it okay okay a sport well when we play baseball at the studio i always feel like there's no way i could ever do this because i can't hit the fuck in 90 mile an hour cheese balls you guys are throwing at me like this must be impossible to do in real life when there's nine people out there who are going to catch it when you do hit it eight people so that seems pretty much impossible you guys

no i fucking cannot stand golfing so there's absolutely somewhat like there is absolutely no fucking way in hell i'd ever be like fuck this i could never be a pro golfer it would i would kill myself one whole day is what you just decided for you have one year to become a pga level golfer or you're going to die i'd be like okay kill me right now that's shit i'd say the same I'd rather die than spend a year trying to do this. I spend 364 days What is funny is I think I could do the long

drive, but only at a very low level because the good players are really tall, because it's all about the whip. I like hitting that, but that's really the only fun part. I would say it's probably, oh man, it's got to be golf. It totally has to be golf.

It's totally golf. Well, you can't. You can't get to be pro. I would need to knock 50 plus strokes off my golf game. And you'd have to be able to play golf. for four hours. The exciting thing about that, though, is that's 50 less swings.

So I'm out of there, 50% faster. Yeah. You can, you can have 50 less strokes by playing, like, you know, 10 less holes. By not being good. Yeah. Yeah. I was trying to 71 on the front night. Yeah, so, and the sport that I could go pro in in one year by dedicating myself to it

would absolutely be bodybuilding because if you've just taken enough steroids and you're short and have a small weight. No, I don't know how hard it could possibly be. How dare you? How dare you say that? Well, I don't know. There's some fucking kid who lifted for three months and looks

better than all of us on the internet. I know you could do that considering your physique, considering your waist and considering you've been lifting naturally for there is a show somewhere and I specifically pick bodybuilding because it is the easiest sport to become a pro in,

because it is subjective. And there is enough shows that if you just find the one pro qualifier where you're the best genetically gifted conditioned person, I think you could squeeze it out. And I honestly think if I took steroids for a year, I could gain 30 pounds of muscle. I really believe that. And you have 30 pounds of muscle would look like...

I could go pro and women. Bikini. So yeah, I can definitely do it. I know you could, man. Dude, uh, yeah. I'd be the best women's bikini Olympia. The world has ever seen, except for Iris Kyle. She was incredible.

You got the shoulders, dog. Yeah, but like, honestly, I... Dorito chip, dog. Dorito chip, doughrito chip, protein packs. But that, I think, honestly, if you guys wanted to go prone bodybuilding in a year, you probably could too, because you have a good base and leanness and condition her heart and that just seemed like the one that I would pick if it was a I hate to say this real sport

that I had to go pro in like one of the big four oh my god oh man I would want to you know what I get to you in kicker yeah I was gonna dude no assistant fitness coach me if you if you started playing football put me in the slot you could probably be like 5-9-20-10-pound running back. Look at Ladd-McConkey. I could do that.

It is possible. Tarich Cohen played in the NFL. Yes, yes, but he's way more athletic than I ever was. And obviously, so was Ladd-Maconkey. He started at an age far sooner. But I only have a year, guys. I have a year. I am not getting twitched up like that in a year. Yeah, okay. Yeah, you know what? I am going to, for 364 days, train for a fight, and then on the 365th day, reassign my gender, it'd be the shit out of the long to go pro. And there's the bronze medal in the Olympics. I couldn't beat another man in a fight in a year if there's no way,

unless he was, like, less athletic for a bigger pussy version of me. If I'm fighting somebody else who's already a pro, I'm probably going to lose. I would never send me that. I would say, like, that would be my one thing. I'd be like, just like golf. It's just like golf. I'm going to do the one thing as fucking hard as I can. If this works, I'm sad.

If it doesn't work, I'm cooked. And then you're going to wake up. Let's see how this goes. Spinning head kick. Bro, like, so I dabbled in a little bit of moitai and, yeah, I realized really quickly that this is not for me. And this is not something that I want to keep doing. I got into boxing in a really young age. And, yeah, I had a mointai fight with, like, an actual full contact.

And I was doing pretty good until I wasn't. it's hard and I'm literally like oh I'm talking to the guy I'm doing the way and so I'm like yeah I just do this for a hobby man he's like you do this for a hobby you understand these guys are going to kill you and actually like I you know I actually I actually held my own for about two minutes and it's brutal man these guys just spend their whole lives I look at someone like wanting to pick a fight with anybody I could not go pro And fighting.

I'm definitely going to get knocked. I actually have this video on my phone of you, like a few weeks after, like explaining what the fight was like in the break room at 24-hour fitness. It's so funny. You're literally like, I was like this. And then he's, uh-huh, huh, huh, and then you're like bouncing all over the room and you're looking like your day just punches. Bro, that's hilarious.

If you could do it. Oh, shit. I have to have video somewhere, dude. It's one. of the best of ever. Yeah, that was when we had, there was a thing called half contact where you, like,

wear head gear and chin guards. And, like, I was, you do smoker rounds, like two minute rounds. I crushed that. I had a really good time doing that. But when it came down to the real deal,

man, I was facing a guy the same height and the same size as me with more experience. And he was black. But that doesn't have anything to do with him. But he was more muscular than I was. And he kicked my ass.

Oh, shit. Okay, that's hilarious. Guys, we're going to wrap it. right there. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed the episode, be sure to follow on Apple and Spotify, leave a five-star rating and review. Follow me, follow the guys, follow the show, and we'll catch you on the next one.