Mark Bell's Power Project - Get Leaner Faster Using These Supplements and Training Protocols - Jake and Kiara Benson || MBPP Ep. 1061

Starting point is 00:00:00 Why are our bodies so resistant to getting like super lean? Approach is like, hey, I'm going to use like clenbuterol. You're going to eat less and you're going to move more. It's like all three of those things are going to add more oxidative stress. Is there a lot of cardio training in there? I'm almost never doing cardio for cardio sake. Every girl is like when they want to hop on an androgen, they're like, oh, I heard I should do antivirus. Well, let's do that.

Starting point is 00:00:23 I think you're really stepping over dollars to pick up pennies with that. What are some supplements that you guys feel are actually effective? Creatine monohydrate. Creatine's an awesome one. Good for everybody. What does the carnitine and choline do? We're kind of steering the body to want to utilize fatty acids more. I think it's really easy to get hyper-focused on the calories in, calories out.

Starting point is 00:00:42 If we're doing this right, there might not be a dramatic change on the scalp. Power Project family, we've had some amazing guests on this podcast, like Kurt Engel, Tom Segura, Andrew Hooperman, and we want to be able to have more amazing guests on this podcast, and you can help it grow by leaving us a quick rating and review on Spotify and iTunes. If you're listening to the podcast, just go ahead and give us a review, let us know how you dig it, and help the podcast grow

Starting point is 00:01:03 so we can keep growing with y'all and bring you amazing information. Enjoy the show. You're always making amazing food. A lot of times when I see your Instagram, I can't watch that and diet at the same time. Even though the stuff you're making is healthy. She's a pro at it. I know. The Ninja Creamy?

Starting point is 00:01:19 I eat so little that I really have to enjoy the food that I do eat. Yeah, it has to take you four hours to prepare it. Yeah. What's the deal with the Ninja Creamy? It seems like you got obsessed with that thing. Oh, I am obsessed with it. And do you have one? I do have one.

Starting point is 00:01:33 And I try to tell people about it. What's that? You probably understand why. Oh, no, I totally understand. The Ninja Creamy is amazing. Your Keto Pro makes the Creamy really good. Amazing. All my Keto recipes are using your Keto Pro, and it's just a game changer.

Starting point is 00:01:47 Were you able to eat ice cream all the way through your prep? I was. That's amazing. Yeah. I feel kind of guilty. Like, I don't even know the struggles of bodybuilding, really. Yeah, you don't know what people went through for years and years until the Ninja Creamies. When they were just mixing a tablespoon of water with protein powder and calling it pudding. Yeah. Metrex that would break your, uh, your blender. Literally really

Starting point is 00:02:10 your blender would be like pissed. Like you would go through blenders cause your blender would like start to smoke. It was so hard to mix that original like Metrex formula. It was wild. Yeah. I'm happy. I didn't have to see those days. You actually take like a little bit of coffee, do a little bit of your, do you use the chocolate Keto Pro? Yeah. And then a little bit of the True Nutrition coffee caramel macchiato. And some espresso powder. That's good.

Starting point is 00:02:35 You guys are like scientists over here. No, that's her. I just copied her. I'm like, what is this? She's like, well, I made it. I'm like, wow, it's good. Tell us a little bit about the creatine workout. Last time you were here, you guys talked about it a little bit.

Starting point is 00:02:47 We had Andy Triana, Superbrain. We had him on. We had Joe Sullivan on as well as yourself. And you guys dove into some of that. But I think it's worth reiterating. I think that sometimes these things take a long time for people to adopt. But that felt amazing, even though we didn't, we didn't work out that hard. We didn't work out very long, but it felt really good. Yeah. No, there's, there's a lot of cool

Starting point is 00:03:10 things about, uh, about creatine work and it depends on, you know, how you, how you want to utilize it. But I mean, like, uh, I, I think just about every athlete that I have has some kind of creatine work. Um, and like a lot of times you kind of use it as this kind of like anti-aging or like, um, keeping athleticism. Um, and like I was telling you about it, like with the effects of the brain, like the brain's going to use creatine, it's going to use glucose as it's like source of, um, you know, recycling ATP. And so whenever you're thinking, whenever I'm thinking about things inside of like an energy system or like with someone's workout, it's like they have ATP, they're going to use it.

Starting point is 00:03:50 Who is going to replace those phosphate bonds that get broken off the ATP? It's pretty simple. It's like you do something like use your brain, you use a muscle, phosphate bond is going to break off, provides the energy, calcium flies across into the neurons, it contracts, whatever. But who replaces that phosphate bond is pretty important. So we do a lot of creatine work, like what we just did, to just upregulate a whole... You're just basically pushing out a whole bunch of creatine kinase into your bloodstream. And by doing that, you upregulate the amount of creatine phosphate that you're able to store and the more creatine phosphate that you can store um you kind of get this like large bandwidth of creatine phosphates it's going to shorten the the amount that of glucose that you're going to need

Starting point is 00:04:35 until you start getting into the fatty acids too and that's going to lower the amount of oxidative stress um because really like the more you know glucose you're going to use, the more oxidative stress. If we can use more creatine, we're going to keep our brains. Like Andy Treonico, Superbrain, he always makes the joke like if you're doing creatine work in your 30s, then you're going to keep cognitive decline away in your 40s. Yeah, I just find that kind of work. I've been doing some stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:05:05 I've been doing some jumps and I've been doing some sprints and I've been doing more things that are a little bit similar to what we did today. But I just think that something I'm obsessed with is like, how do I give people these like short messages that they could easily go and do? And so a creatine workout for people that may have been confused by some of the biology that you went into, it's just explosive work. It's just some short bouts of explosive activity. And you could do this any which way you want. You could do this on a walk. I'll frequently do that on a walk. You might do some jumps or some bounds or some sprints.

Starting point is 00:05:42 The main thing is you just want a certain rest interval in between so that you're not getting yourself exhausted, right? Yeah, and you don't want it to be, so like we were mentioning before, so instead of two or three sets of 10 to 12, it's 10 or 12 sets of two to three, right? And you want the rest time to be long enough that you're not getting any kind of lactic buildup.

Starting point is 00:06:02 You don't want to be able to feel all that lactic acid buildingup. Like you don't want to be able to feel, you know, all that lactic acid building up. But you don't want it to be so long that it becomes, you know, oxidative too, where it's just, you start using fatty acids to replenish your ATP. How were you able to prep her for her show? Because like, that's probably really difficult to coach, you know, to coach just an athlete that you communicate with that you don't hardly know, but to coach your own wife, to coach somebody that's in your own home probably has its own challenges.

Starting point is 00:06:30 And then we hear a lot of times that when somebody is dieting for a show that the calories get taken away and they get to be moody and stuff like that. So how did some of that work out or not work out? I feel like we had a pretty good relationship. Really good dynamic. Yeah, like coach-athlete relationship. She was really good at just like, hey, this is the plan um I would come up with a plan this is why we're doing it and she was really good at adhering to it um so as far as that went I don't think we really had any kind of like issues there she was just so good at like hey like you have a reason for it um for whatever reason that was like just really trusted me pretty

Starting point is 00:07:03 blindly with it maybe it's like you know just working with all the athletes I did or whatever, but no, she just always trusted it. Always gave me good feedback on it, on how to adapt. And we always managed that pretty well. Do you think that women maybe follow coaching advice maybe a little differently than men? Yeah. So in my experience with, with working with men and women, women are easier. Women are definitely easier to work with. They're more – They follow what's written out. And they follow it very specifically.

Starting point is 00:07:32 And I always have check-ins for my athletes where it's like, hey, every week or every even day sometimes, I need you to fill these things in. Did you do this? Did you not do this? And here's a little journal entry. And all the women, they come in and there's like lots written up. They write a story for their journal entry. Yeah. And everything's filled in.

Starting point is 00:07:50 You can't get anything from them. Yeah. It's very meticulously filled out. Do those warmups that I've wrote down for you? Like you've been doing those and they're like silence. Yeah. You get nothing back. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:08:00 And then the men, you come into their sheet and it's like, shit. Text them, what's going on. Like, yeah, it's definitely different. So it's not always that way. Like there are some times where there's, you know, guys that are very, just very good at following the plan too and filling out all their stuff, giving good feedback. But it does seem to go that way sometimes. Why is our, why are our bodies so resistant to getting like super lean Sometimes it seems like you put someone on a plan and you just say, here, eat these calories, but it's not that simple. As you get closer to a show, there's a lot of adding in or taking out of certain things. And I don't know if we know why

Starting point is 00:08:42 all these things happen, but you'll hear some coaches say to take out cheese or fruit, or they have these different theories. I heard somebody recently saying a cold plunge could help someone kind of dial in that kind of hardness that they're looking for. If they're holding some water, I heard you kind of mentioning the creatine work works pretty good with bodybuilders, kind of get them that dry look. But what do you think is kind of behind some of this? You're trying to get lean, but there's like the body just doesn't want to respond to it sometimes. No, yeah. I think there's, I think there's could be a lot of varying factors in that. Like I think being able to manage somebody's just total accumulative oxidative stress at one point.2 really has a big effect of it. So for a lot of people, when their coach is trying to get them leaner,

Starting point is 00:09:31 the approach is like, hey, I'm going to use Clenbuterol, you're going to eat less, and you're going to move more. It's like all three of those things are going to add more oxidative stress. And you always have this balance of basically oxidative stress, right? And you always have this balance of basically like oxidative stress, like total accumulative stress, and then things to be able to manage that, which let's say is like antioxidants or whatever. If you start to tip that scale too far where you can't manage it, your brain is absolutely not going to, you know, it's not going to be as likely to fire neurotransmitters. You're not going to be able to replenish them. You're not going to, you know, it's not going to be as likely to fire neurotransmitters.

Starting point is 00:10:05 You're not going to be able to replenish them. You're not going to, you know, there's a lot of things that it will start to inhibit doing. And so a big part of that to me is like, hey, we got to be able to manage things. Like, yeah, it's like if you have three pounds of like fat to lose or whatever, or 10 pounds or whatever, it's great. But like, we have to do it in a way that's not going to cause so much oxidative stress that you cannot manage it or you're going to stop. Do you guys think that's one of the reasons why sometimes after a show someone has a pretty big rebound?

Starting point is 00:10:37 Yeah. I think that probably has a lot to do with it and just being so depleted and so hungry that psychologically they have to go binge eat to deal with that. Did you have any issues with that after your show? Or were you too aware of it maybe for it to mess with you? I think I worried about it so hard that I almost got myself out of it a little bit to an extent. I mean, I definitely dilly-dallied around a little too much after my show. But I don't think I let it get too out of control

Starting point is 00:11:06 because throughout my whole show, that was kind of my biggest stress is like, am I going to balloon up after this? I try to just view my show, I try to view the process as being like two weeks after my show. That's the actual finish line. And then giving myself that two-week buffer to kind of like re-regulate a little bit and be

Starting point is 00:11:26 very meticulous with my diet. So I think that helped a lot. Did you gain like a lot of weight or was there a certain weight that you were like, Hey, I don't want to go over this? Well, I just want to grow or I really want to be a lot bigger. I mean, I was on stage at about 160, not quite 160. And I really want to be on stage more conditioned than I was, but at 165. So when I see this, the number on the scale go up, I'm like, oh, hey, look at that. Right now I'm walking out around about 180. So 20 pounds above my stage weight. You ain't a lady unless you're 180, I heard.

Starting point is 00:11:59 I need to get that on a t-shirt. That's amazing. That's what I was saying. I heard. Yeah, you know, for myself, when I competed, it was like, hey, you know, I think it's reasonable to, at my body weight, you know, percentage of my body weight, I think it's okay for me to gain about 20 pounds. And so I was like a month from the show, it's okay if I'm about 20 pounds over. But like two months from the show, I want to be around 10 pounds over to kind of stabilize. And I was able to do that. But luckily, I had people around me that I can communicate with that already knew about these rebounds.

Starting point is 00:12:36 And they were like warning me of it. And they also said, you're a former fat guy. You were 330 pounds. You got to be more careful. So yeah, you got to be even more careful but to look at it uh from the gains perspective is actually kind of neat because you can say i mean as long as you don't get uh too carried away with that i'm here for the gains and you're eating french fries all the time mass moves mass did you change your training up a little bit too at that time? A little bit. I mean, the week after

Starting point is 00:13:07 the show training is kind of very boring and that's like the week I tend to want to push it the most, but that's where we're like kind of calming down, doing some recovery. And then about two weeks after the show, we can kind of gear up again. And then for me coming off of nationals in December, I really wanted to get into a powerlifting meet so we started changing training a little bit for that putting a little more emphasis on that alactic days and yeah we've been slowly decreasing volume on substrate days oh who's uh whose idea was it to like for you to get into bodybuilding did you guys like did it happen naturally were you lifting long before you guys met or you know i always think I wanted to do a bodybuilding show, but always money was an issue until the last couple of years.

Starting point is 00:13:49 And then with us moving to Vegas, you know what? It was Brianna. Brianna was like, I'm doing a show. Why don't you do a show? And you're like, you know what? Why don't I do a show? And she's like, do this show. And I was like, I'm going to do that show.

Starting point is 00:14:01 Yeah, and that's how we got into the Jay Cutler Desert Classic. Brianna literally picked that show yeah and that's how we got into the the jay cutler desert classic yeah riani literally picked that show out for me before that you had uh we had hired a coach for you too and you were kind of getting started on it yeah yep alex kiko yeah and did you have you been lifting weights for a long time yeah about uh oh like i'd say he's actually been coaching me our entire relationship so seven years. And I was lifting just little frou-frou workouts in the gym before that for a couple years, maybe one year, two years. I think what's cool about your transformation is there hasn't been a huge transformation in body weight, right? No.

Starting point is 00:14:40 In the last few years, because I've seen you post pictures. It's like, here I am at like 160 and here I am at 160. Yeah. Something like that or a couple pounds different. Like slowly gaining from 2017. But this last year has been pretty crazy because I got up to about 160 and then a really crazy body recomp. And I've stayed at 160 up until pretty much my show. So into my first show, the Jay Cutler Desert Classic,

Starting point is 00:15:06 I didn't lose any weight. I think on peak week, I maybe lost like four pounds. So to start prep at 160 and to enter peak week at 160, but like with some really dramatic body composition changes, it was really crazy. Were you guys like, when you look at the scale and you kind of see what's happening, is there concern about that? Because you're thinking like, oh, we need to lose weight? Or does the mirror tell the story basically? I never worry about the scale.

Starting point is 00:15:37 I don't ever worry about the scale. In fact, when the scale starts going down is when I get a little bit more stressed out. Granted, I haven't quite been lean enough. I've always kind of missed the mark on conditioning, but we're getting a little better with every show. I still hate to see the scale go down because I mean, I've had so much experience with it going up and just seeing some pretty dramatic changes. So that's the complete opposite of what most women would be saying, right? And men. Well, but I mean, especially like, you and men well but i mean especially like you know

Starting point is 00:16:06 women that are especially like if they're lifting their training they i want to see the scale go down like that's what everyone's like fixated on yeah did you always have this mindset or did something happen to where you kind of like altered and obviously you started lifting and eating for performance but even before that when you were lifting, did you have something happen where you started looking at the scale differently? So before bodybuilding, I've never been somebody who's hyper fixated on the number on the scale. But once bodybuilding prep started, I didn't have any expectations. I was just kind of following whatever he said to do. I didn't know what to expect.

Starting point is 00:16:42 And as the scale stopped, didn't change at all. But my body composition was obviously changing. I kind of really was excited about that. I was like, I'm gross. Because my whole career in lifting, I've been pretty scrawny. It has been pretty hard for me to put on weight. And then once I started coaching with bodybuilding with Jake, I just started putting on a lot of mass and I was very excited about that. So the number on the scale staying the same or going up, I was more excited about than anything. Was that what you were asking? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Starting point is 00:17:14 Yeah. And so like with that though, like what were you eating before when you were kind of like you said you were a little bit more scrawny versus, all right, the scale's going up and now I'm actually getting excited. So I wouldn't attribute it so much to just diet, but it was the harmony of diet mixed with some lifestyle habit changes and supplementation. And kind of just him working that out so they're all timed properly and really just kind of threw me into a really cool groove where I just started gaining muscle like crazy. I would let him talk more about that topic than me. Yeah. That's what I was going to actually follow up with Jake. Like what pitfalls do you see with most women that like want to get in shape, but then they do freak out about the scale and then they start looking at the calories because they read on online it's calories in calories out, but then they get to

Starting point is 00:18:04 you and maybe i don't know you tell them something like no actually focus on this and they might rebuttal like well wait a second but you're like no trust the system like what are some of those pitfalls yeah no that's a good question i think it's i think it's really easy to get hyper focused on the calories in calories out because i mean they are important and and there's you know it's very easy to say like hey weight's gonna go up or or weight's going to go down based on caloric intake. But there's so many factors that can determine what that food is going to do and how it's going to be utilized as well. It's like nutritional fates.

Starting point is 00:18:39 There's epigenetics. There's so many things that come into play. there's so many things that come into play. And if you can start to, if you can time them out and get this person into a nice flow, there's so much you can do with so little, like drugs or supplementation as well. So with those people, if it's like, let's say their goal is just to get lean, and they're like, hey, I want to add muscle and I want to lose fat, which is everybody, for the most part. It's like, hey,, Hey, this, like, if we're

Starting point is 00:19:05 doing this right, um, there might not be a dramatic change on the scale. Right. Cause there's like, even throughout a week, it's like, Hey, maybe we lost, you know, like a pound of fat, but maybe we added a little, like a little bit in glycogen retention, a little bit in actual myosin chains and, and a little bit of inflammation. It's like that doesn't really matter too much. And I think that's where a lot of bodybuilding preps go south as we get so focused on just calories in, calories out that we're not actually even sure if we're losing pure body fat or even mostly body fat anymore because it's just like, hey, move more, more steps, more calories burn. I'm going to take a drug that's going to, you know, increase my metabolic rate. And it's not really timed out to make sure we're just losing fat or putting ourselves in situations to maintain our, you know, our muscle too.

Starting point is 00:19:54 It seems to be really hard to just lose fat. It is. I mean, it's not. Like when you have a lot of body fat, maybe it's a lot easier as you get leaner. It's going to be more resistant for sure. I think for most people, you know, you take our buddy Josh Setledge here, or you take even myself with where I'm at. It's like, well, how much more fat are we really going to pull off? Like, and somebody like feeling fat or thinking that they look fatter than they want to be, their best option could be potentially just to gain some

Starting point is 00:20:26 muscle mass because it might be a little bit easier to be in a little bit of a caloric surplus and to have that calorie surplus and your other behaviors to encourage you to put more muscle mass on. It might be a little bit easier to give that little extra push as opposed to just kind of continually pulling on the string. I heard somebody describing trying to reduce your calories as trying to hold your breath underwater. And I thought like, that's a really good analogy. Yeah, I got to come up for some air sometimes. You got to come up for some air at some point. And then how are you going to breathe depending

Starting point is 00:21:00 on how long you've been down there for, right? You're going to breathe a lot. And kind of the same thing is going to happen with your food. If you restrict it way too much, you're going to have a tendency to rebound or overeat. Yeah. You're going to start to have a lot of debts that the brain is really going to want to pay off when you really start to build up those cravings. So in my opinion, like if you can always kind of manage this, like this person's biology where you're, you're handling their stress, the amount of oxidative stress they're building up and you can keep them in this, this, this nice groove and you're kind of paying off those debts correctly. You know, they, I really haven't had a situation where

Starting point is 00:21:32 we've gotten stuck where it's like, Hey, we just can't get this person leaner anymore. They feel like crap. Like I think every like bodybuilder we've worked with so far is like two weeks out and like, I feel like I should feel worse. Like, um, you know, and if you can always just kind of manage that and gauge where they're at and you're just kind of always looking under the hood, there's always something to do, you know? What kind of calories were you at as you got towards the competition? I don't know exactly because I'm on a meal plan, but I would estimate I never got below

Starting point is 00:22:00 1600. And then like where, any idea where you started maybe 2500 or something like that? No idea where I started. Yeah. We never actually like track calories, which might seem like really crazy for a bodybuilding prep, but I've never actually tracked calories for any of my, my bodybuilders. And especially at this level with like how well you were, you know, how well you've done. And I, sorry, I don't have internet, so I can't pull up pictures right now. But what were you eating though? Was it your typical, I'll say bodybuilder style stuff where it's carbs, lean chicken breast and stuff that makes you want to just hate life? No. In fact, I always got a lot of messages on Instagram like,

Starting point is 00:22:38 how are you eating that and bodybuilding bread? I'm like, who is your coach? Bodybuilding practice. Nice. I'm like, who is your coach? But yeah, as far as diet is concerned, we kind of take like, so I eat all my carbs right around my training window, pre, intra, and post. And then the rest of my day really kind of looks like a keto diet. Not for the purpose of like trying to get in ketosis, just for kind of managing inflammations and a bunch of other really cool stuff. And then also the performance you get from having all your carbs right around training. So I never felt depleted in training.

Starting point is 00:23:11 Always had a lot of food source for recovery and stuff like that. And that really works well for me. Yeah. Did you feel like the low carbs and the keto style diet around, so like away from training, did that just help you feel fuller and like feel fuller longer? Yes. Yeah. And it's really easy.

Starting point is 00:23:29 My body really craves fats. It does really well with fats. So eating in that style, like my digestion is great. I'm as satiated as I can be. I mean, I'm always kind of hungry no matter what season of life I'm in. But as far as satiation, it helps a lot more just not eating carbs outside of my training window. Always hungry, me too. Yeah, that's cool because, again, it kind of goes against what, like, you know,

Starting point is 00:23:56 you do a Google search on, like, bodybuilding diet, and we know what's going to come up, right? Chicken expiry against progress. Yes, yes. And then so when you hear somebody that's having so much success like no it's actually more keto style i just love that because it kind of throws a wrench into everything like okay now i have to go back and analyze and figure out what i'm doing wrong because i don't look as good as her like okay it's a cool it's a cool question that comes up you know yeah i love that you're probably wondering why am i wearing these glasses well it's because i'm being bathed

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Starting point is 00:25:35 And check out InterPromoCode Power Project to save 20% off your entire order. Again, that's emrtech.com, PromoCodePROJECT. Links in the description as well as the podcast show notes. What are you guys doing from a cardio perspective? Is there a lot of cardio training in there? Gosh, so minimal. Another comment I get from a lot of my bodybuilding peers at the gym I go to are like, why don't I ever see you doing cardio? I'm never doing a steady state cardio.

Starting point is 00:26:01 And I'm almost never doing cardio for cardio sake. A lot of it's like my warmup may look like a cardiovascular workout from the outside looking in, but it's really like it has a purpose and it's for a potentiation for the workout I'm doing that day. And the most cardio I really did in the deepest depths of prep was about two 400 meter sprints on an assault bike right thing, right in the morning. And that takes about five minutes and that's it. It's kind of like that eight minute run you're doing right now. It's like you're going to wake up. She'd have a little assault bike sprint and then that was it.

Starting point is 00:26:39 A hundred meter sprint takes on a bike takes six seconds or something. A 400 meter sprint. Oh, 400 meters. six seconds or something a 400 meter sprint oh 400 meters yeah it takes about uh oh gosh maybe 10 20 seconds yeah i think it was closer to 30 yeah 30 40 seconds i think that sounds right and then you'd have like a two minute rest and then do it again so and that's just to kind of like kickstart the day yeah manage blood glucose kind of get into a nice fatty acid. We're really working on PBO skills too, which is why we're doing the high fat meals with no carbs in the beginning and the end of the days and whatever. We really want to be able to pay off those debts with fat as much as possible.

Starting point is 00:27:17 Yeah. I think PBO is a good thing to talk about when we're talking about why some people can't get lean. The fuck is PBO? Lots of cellulose. Peanut butter on toastBO? Lots of syllables. Do you want peanut butter? Peanut butter on toast? Peanut butter oatmeal. There we go. Peanut butter oatmeal.

Starting point is 00:27:30 You're not doing peanut butter oatmeal? I haven't heard about this. That's why you're not getting lean enough. That's why you don't have the striated glutes. Wait, I want to do peanut butter oatmeal and get lean. It's parasympathetic beta oxidation. Oh, man. Lots of syllables.

Starting point is 00:27:43 Yeah. It's essentially just this ability to utilize fatty acids without relying on sympathetic ligands. So we're talking about you don't want to have to rely on something like epinephrine to be able to burn off body fat. We don't want to have to rely on caffeine, clan, Adderall, whatever to be able to put, you know, burn off body fat. We want to be able to do it in a very parasympathetic state while we're sleeping, while we're doing whatever. And then we're really not building up as much inflammatory responses and we get to keep burning fat. And any, like, is there a particular structure to the weights that's like assisting with muscle growth or like is it hypertrophy workout, strength workout? In bodybuilding prep? Yeah, for what you're doing. It's actually, there's a really cool combination of like a substrate type glycolytic workout and a lactic workout.

Starting point is 00:28:42 So for me, I really love that style of training because it breaks up the monotony of just going in and hitting four sets of 20 on every single thing, every single day. So I kind of have a day where I'm coming in and I'm hitting low weights, low rest, high reps, super sets on everything. And that's kind of like our glycolytic style of training. And then a day where it's a lactic development and that's kind of a higher weight higher rest low rep yeah so what we would do especially when she first got started is

Starting point is 00:29:14 we would do two glycolytic days back to back so we would have kind of that high rep low rest lots of kind of that typical hypertrophy thing two days back to back. We'd have a rest day and then we'd have an alactic day and a creatine day and maybe one more alactic day. So the two days back to back are to maybe deplete glycogen a little bit and then the next two days,

Starting point is 00:29:36 maybe she's burning a little bit more fat? Kind of, yeah. So those first two days, we're really trying to push out as much glucose synthase as we possibly could. So she'd usually look a little bit flatter and a little puffier. And then we'd use a little bit of supplementation on that rest day to be able to act upon all the crap that we did, all that post-training effects that we built up over those 48 hours. And we'd push it right into an alactic day. And that way we're kind of getting all the – and we kind of switched it up actually once we got into towards the end of prep there. But that way we were able to maintain all the glycogen storages. We were able to get a lot of that superficial tissue development by doing the heavy stuff.

Starting point is 00:30:17 So the way we set it up too is we barely used anything like Clin. We actually put it on those alactic days to kind of potentiate those days, have her be able to squeeze a little bit harder, you know, move a little bit harder. And then, yeah, it worked pretty well. And then we kind of switched it to a glycolic alactic rest, glycolic alactic, and then a creatine day. But what we're always trying to do is whenever you're doing like a workout, whatever it is, you're giving off, like when you do a training session, you're giving off very specific cytokines and very specific immune responses. And when you're done training, you're going to get the macrophages and all the other things to respond to it. That's where you get that inflammatory response. And that window is going to last anywhere from like 24 to 72 hours.

Starting point is 00:31:05 So you're always trying to feed it accordingly. It's like, here's the information we have. This is the damage it did. This is what occurred metabolically, whatever. Now, how can we potentiate that to the next day? Or do we need to recover from it the next day? So every workout was set up. So it was always a 72 hour window that was set up. So it was never like, like arms, back, legs or whatever. It was always like, Hey, if we do this, this is going to set up the next day and the next day. And it's always just this kind of continual epigenetic staircase we're trying to build. Yeah. And another cool thing that I experienced or didn't experience for that matter that I hear a lot of people talk about is like filling flat. Like there was not a single day in prep that I felt flat or

Starting point is 00:31:44 I just felt full all the time where i needed to i mean we intentionally had to make my upper body feel flat to fit more into wellness but like i was feeling really full where i needed to all the time so i didn't intentionally maybe uh like not train the upper body too hard kind of thing yeah not doing any like glycolytic work upper body she actually was benching really heavy all that, her whole prep. I was hitting all-time bench PRs two, three weeks out from bodybuilding show. It was really cool. Yeah, we just kept all of her upper body work very heavy and alactics.

Starting point is 00:32:18 It was always kind of creatine work. We're never doing any kind of- It's not going to slap on a lot of muscle mass or anything like that, but it's going to send a good signal to keep the muscle tissue and it's going to send a good signal to stay strong or to even, in this case, get stronger. Yeah. The thought process behind it was, hey, if we can make the superficial tissue very explosive and very strong, you kind of get a harder look to yourself. Like you kind of have this- Like a more mature looking muscle. And it makes you look a little leaner too. So even when we flatten it out a lot,

Starting point is 00:32:44 you know, for that wellness, like kind of disproportional look, it just looked very, very lean. How do you manage hormones? What are some things that maybe some people are missing or not paying attention to, especially when it comes to women? Because we don't have that many women on the show. And so like what are some things that you're maybe paying attention in prepping with her? A lot of it comes down to mood, right? And a lot of it comes down, again, I feel like I'm kind of repeating myself,

Starting point is 00:33:09 but to oxidative stress, right? If we have too much damage, too much of this stress that we don't have the capacity to manage, things are going to start to shut down. And so if we can always kind of keep that under process, we're always looking for things like mood, bloatiness, even things like libido and whatever. You're kind of keeping a check on all those things like, hey, is this coming down? Is that abnormal? Are you more irritable? Are you more, you know,

Starting point is 00:33:33 is your sleep worse? Whatever. It's like, hey, we're probably not quite managing this. Let's, you know, work on that. And so it's so individualized. I don't really have like a very specific answer, but this is where like, you know, glutathione really comes into play here, managing oxidative stress. You have, or even like, hey, maybe it's actually time to bump up fats a little bit right before you go to bed. Or maybe it's time to bump up fats in the morning or, you know, maybe it's time for more creatine or whatever. And you're always kind of just managing this. And when it comes to like, you know, like carnitine and choline and some of these other things that you might use that maybe some people haven't heard of before, but I'm sure people in the bodybuilding community have heard of all these different things. performance enhancing drugs before you end up maybe, I guess, ending up with some like results that maybe some aren't desired, you know, like if you, you know, I don't know if like a

Starting point is 00:34:33 female should take like testosterone and stuff like that. No, that's a really good question. So like for her, we used a total of like 10 milligrams of androgens per week. So we used very, very little and we actually managed all of her stuff with things like carn milligrams of androgens per week. So we use very, very little. And we actually managed all of her stuff with things like carnitine and glutathione and like insulin and growth hormone. Those are like kind of the staples. I always kind of joke that the staples are, we always use like growth hormone, insulin, max uptake, glutathione and carnitine. Like if you know how to use those. There's so many performance enhancers you can dabble in before even touching androgens.

Starting point is 00:35:08 And just get some really significant results. Really significant. She really morphed. She's done androgens before this last year, but we threw those in, learned how to really utilize them, and she just had this dramatic change. Yeah, I mean, I think most of the kind of go-to things are like Anivar, maybe Primobolan.

Starting point is 00:35:28 Maybe some people take some low amounts of like testosterone or something like that. But it sounds like, you know, from what you guys are saying, you can get a lot out of something like growth hormone, insulin, and some of these other things. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, the cool thing with growth hormone is you can use it as like a marathon runner, a bodybuilder, a jujitsu athlete, a power lifter, and you can get results from it with everything as long as you know how to use it. Yeah. As long as you know how to use it and when to use it and whatnot. That's kind of the tricky thing though, is like with those things, like you can't just

Starting point is 00:35:58 plug them in and they just work. Like if you go wake up at the middle of the night and take carnitine, it's not going to do what you want it to. But if you wake up in the middle of the night and you pin some PrimaBall and it's still going to work, it's going to do its thing. So if you can be very meticulous with how you're planning these things out, it's phenomenal what you can do. And then with insulin, you got to be really cautious, right? Because this could be something if you take too much of it, if you're not paying attention to the exact amount that you're supposed to take, you can end up in the hospital, right? Yeah. I mean, it's pretty simple, though.

Starting point is 00:36:26 It's like you have insulin syringes that are made for insulin. So when you pull it, it says like, if you pull and it says 20, that's 20 insulins. 20 insulins. Yeah, it's pretty simple. I mean, it is something you have to be wary of, especially for like, you know. And even if you overdose a little bit on insulin, I mean, you just, even the surplus of carbs. That's all they would do in the hospital anyways is give you an IV sugar water.

Starting point is 00:36:49 Yeah, we've had plenty of people in bodybuilding in Vegas who have made that mistake and accidentally. Call him at 2 a.m. Jake, help. I know. It's like random people. Random people. They'd be like, Jake won't know what to do. Yeah, you're going to be fine in the morning.

Starting point is 00:37:01 And they're like, I went to the hospital. I'm like, what did they do? Give you juice? And they're like, yeah. Like, do you feel fine? Yeah. That was some expensive juice you got there. Geez.

Starting point is 00:37:09 Yeah. I mean, like, definitely, I'm not saying don't be wary of it. For sure. Thank you. Yeah, read up on it. Yeah. Learn about it. It's not hard to find out.

Starting point is 00:37:18 But before you use something, like, just be aware of what it is. Like, if you're just going to be like, oh, cool, I'm going to get insulin. Like, don't. Like, just start. You know insulin, don't. Just start. I don't understand what President Biden was talking about recently. He was talking about lowering. I don't understand what he's talking about. Yeah, I don't think anybody understands that.

Starting point is 00:37:33 But he was talking about lowering the price of insulin. And I'm like, I got it from Walmart and Dixon for $35. It seems pretty inexpensive. Well, I mean, when you're using it for performance enhancing, you're using a lot less than when you're using it for diabetes. Yeah, they go through like a bottle a day. It can be very expensive. And also the Novalin R is... Like if you get regular, regular is very cheap.

Starting point is 00:37:51 But if you're getting like the Humalogs and the Lantos... That can be very expensive. It does get pretty expensive. Oh, they're getting the good shit. Yeah, unfortunately. They're always so damn lucky. Now I got to be diabetic. So when Anovar was mentioned, you kind of had a little eye roll.

Starting point is 00:38:06 I feel like Anovar is like the pumpkin spice latte of Androgyne. Like the most basic and every girl's like, Do they have that at Starbucks, Anovar? They don't, they should. Just kidding. But I feel like that's like every Androgyne, every girl is like when they want to hop on an Androgyne, they're like, oh, I heard I should do Anovar.

Starting point is 00:38:24 So let's do that. It's the one the coaches are pushing the most. I think it's kind of just like, I think you're really stepping over dollars to pick up pennies with that, honestly. There's better drugs. There's so many different drugs out there. And if you take 10 different people and you put them all on Anabar, it's silly. It's like, do you know what that does? And especially if your coach is like, hey, we're putting you on Anabar.

Starting point is 00:38:50 It doesn't matter when you take it. Just take it first thing in the morning or whatever. For like eight weeks every day. What? It makes no sense. It's a methylated drug. There's so many cool things about it that you could take advantage of by just timing it out right. What are some supplements that you guys feel are actually effective like you don't have to necessarily name a brand if you

Starting point is 00:39:08 want to you can but like uh essential amino acids um you mentioned max uptake i like your product a lot um i utilize that as well but are like what are some supplements that you guys feel um actually are a benefit um how does someone work it depends, I guess, what you want help with, right? Because you have something like, I don't know, like magnesium threonate or like magnesium glycinate or something. Like magnesium is pretty awesome. I really like the magnesium glycinate right now because you kind of got the glycine molecule with it.

Starting point is 00:39:38 It just kind of helps you cool your body down, calm down, opens up the chloride ion channels. So just kind of the antagon opens up the chloride ion channel so to see like kind of the antagonist to the calcium ion channels so kind of shuts you down make sure things aren't like firing upstairs when things are really crazy um there's like i don't know you could use like an ashwagandha to kind of help with like you know cortisol production you could help you could use like a like a saffron if you just kind of need a little kicker with your coffee or something like there are tons of stuff it just kind of need a little kicker with your coffee or something. There are tons of stuff.

Starting point is 00:40:05 It just kind of depends on what you want help with. Yeah, I've noticed that about you and Andy, Triana, that it's super specific to the person and probably super specific to their personality. So if someone's already real fiery and wired, they probably don't need the cup of coffee and the saffron. No. Girl, let's cool it off that stuff. And let's maybe go the other way.

Starting point is 00:40:29 Yeah, exactly. Yeah. There are some staples that are used for everybody because they kind of get utilized a lot. Like creatine monohydrate. Creatine's an awesome one. Good for everybody. Like five to 10 grams. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:40:39 Typical amount, whatever. Yeah. And like, it can be very different, like pre, intro or post too, depending on what you're trying to do. Like, let's say you're just getting into creatine work. Like we just did and you're like, yeah, I just want to, you know, like have as much creatine as I possibly can. It's like, well, maybe let's put it pre and you know, whatever. And, or maybe it's like, I'm trying to, you know, use this creatine day to potentiate a heavy squat I have tomorrow. It's okay. Maybe let's do that intro and make sure we don't deplete it and do a little post

Starting point is 00:41:04 to, you know, we'd make sure we're just kind of tapped off. But there's a, man, there's so many different supplements you can use, but it does all come down to like, if you want an athlete to perform at their best, whether it's bodybuilding, jiu-jitsu, powerlifting, whatever, you need them to be able to function really well. And so it's like, if there's somebody that's really up all the time and you know, like every time they eat, they're getting really bloaty, it's like, well, maybe we don't need the saffron, right? Maybe let's use a little ashwagandha and some meditation post-workout before you eat or whatever. It just totally depends on what you're trying to do. Yeah. It's just so fascinating how different everybody is and how different everybody

Starting point is 00:41:43 responds. What are some of your goals now? You did a bodybuilding show. You have a powerlifting meet coming up, right? Yeah. I'm like, oh, four, four weeks. Am I four weeks out? I think so. Oh, that's scary. Got nervous. Yeah. I just did my first 400 pound squat, which is kind of like, that was kind of like the powerlifting unicorn for me. And I benched 225 and I'm like, I got those. So now I feel like whatever happens at this meet, I'm going to I got those. So now I feel like whatever happens at this meet, I'm going to be happy, but it would be cool. This quality 420 bench 240 deadlift. I

Starting point is 00:42:10 don't really care about deadlift. It's my token lift, but anything over four would be cool, I guess. And, um, and then after that I have USA's in July. That's where I'm going to try to go for my pro card again. So those are the goals right now. Going for your pro card in bodybuilding. In bodybuilding. Yeah. Well, in wellness. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:42:29 Going back. I really like, I really like like the dichotomy of the two because it's fun to have a season to like focus on what your body can look like and then have a season to not really care so much about what your body looks like, but what your body can accomplish. And also like being strong kind of like blunts the uh the pain of being a little fatter in the off season so go ahead no i was just gonna ask like so what is wellness because like i'm familiar with it but i don't know exactly like what's the difference between that and like a i don't even know what else is like obviously i know bikini is like a

Starting point is 00:43:01 lot more like shredded look but like what is wellness? So I'd say that the difference between bikini and wellness is not really anything to do with conditioning. They just want you to be disproportionately big in your bottom half. So the wellness girls are typically- Yeah. Amen, right? Thank God for that division opening up. It's like the most followed. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:43:21 Yeah. By men. So it's definitely my favorite look. And also I like training legs the most. But when you're looking at, I mean, wellness is relatively new to the U.S. It's been in Brazil for a long time. So when you're looking at the amateur leagues for wellness, you are going to see less conditioning. It's getting better and better.

Starting point is 00:43:45 going to see less conditioning you are going to see less conditioning for wellness just because there's not as many women who are um as good in that division yet but when we're looking at the pro leagues shreddedness and conditioning is right there neck and neck with a bikini um but yeah you're just you're looking at being disproportionately big in your bottom half and kind of like your glute tines is like your money shot there. How do we get disproportionate glutes? What do we got to do around here? Talk to this magic science man over here. Sport the glutes.

Starting point is 00:44:14 I think that's it. Which is funny because I had such a hard time growing my upper body my entire lifting career and then once I decided to get into wellness where you need to have a small upper body, my upper body just started growing. So then we actually had to do some work to keep my upper body flat and not looking so big, which is cool. But also like, oh, man, I couldn't have this before. Just a lot of the basics, squats and deadlifts and stuff like that?

Starting point is 00:44:38 Yeah, there's a lot of specific isolation work too. So kind of the way that we would set it up is on those kind of glycolytic days, you know, the high reps, low rest, we would usually do with machine work because we don't want the limiting factor to be like, hey, I just can't maintain my technique during this extreme hypoxia. And we'd use things like squats and deads or like variations of them for the alactic days where it's like, hey, I just want to be able to push a lot of weight and just get really intense. And those are just things she enjoyed too. But yeah, a little bit of everything. I mean, we did everything from like jumps like you just saw to like med ball stuff to like the typical machine work you see bodybuilders do to like powerlifting stuff. She's kind of done

Starting point is 00:45:20 it all. Some of the things where there's less weight, it doesn't require the same amount. It doesn't cost the body the same amount, right? As like a squat or deadlift. So if you do like a glute bridge or you do, you know, a step up or some of these other exercises, there's not going to be nearly as strenuous probably on your whole system, right? Yeah. You don't really have to involve the motor cortex nearly as much. It's not nearly as a refined pathway that we're trying to recruit and whatnot. So it's just like suffer, just keep doing this single leg, whatever, or single motor pattern thing. Which I love that part. Bodybuilding training is probably my favorite style of training. Just that shut up and suffer type of training style. or type of training style? Yeah, very simple, but just focus on like,

Starting point is 00:46:07 this hurts and I'm just going to keep going kind of thing. If you're doing that with a squat, it gets messy quick. I did that Tom Platz challenge and it gets difficult very, very quickly. Yeah, you and Joe did that. That was wild. Yeah, I think that's probably the hardest thing I've ever trained for in my entire life. How many reps did you do again? It was like 500 pounds, right? 520 or something?

Starting point is 00:46:25 Yeah, the last training day I had, I did 500 for 20. And then the day of it was 525 for 18. So yeah, that was brutal. I weighed like 221, 222 at that time. So I was very light. It was brutal. Was it just horrible afterwards? Oh, man, yeah.

Starting point is 00:46:43 Because I remember I got to somewhere around rep 15 or 16, and you're just like, dude, I can't see anymore. And I can't breathe. And my diaphragm's too hypoxic to get a full breath. And so you're just like, okay. That sounds terrifying. And everything hurts, and you're just like, I'm just going to push. And technique gets ugly.

Starting point is 00:47:03 You can't see anything. You can't feel see anything. Yeah. You can't feel your feet. Yeah. When I did that 500 for 20, the goal was to get 20. And I got 20. And I was like, cool. And I'm like, how do I get this back in the rack? And I was trying to take a step forward, and nothing was working.

Starting point is 00:47:19 I was like, oh, my gosh. This is getting intense. Then you're like, oh, does he want to hold it on his back to feel it? I'm like no you can't say anything either get me out of here you can't talk

Starting point is 00:47:28 yeah you did that the day before you said no it was like two weeks before okay I was like holy shit okay got it

Starting point is 00:47:34 yeah but yeah it was a ton of fun it's actually something I might get into again at some point I want you to do it again I want you to try again because you were so close

Starting point is 00:47:41 yeah and there was some some like shitty circumstances. It was the middle of summer in Las Vegas and the AC was out the night before. So he was like... So there was just a bunch of stuff that kind of didn't set him up for the most success that day. And I really feel like he could do it.

Starting point is 00:47:55 So I want him to do it again or try it again. It's a fun one. How did you train for that? How did you train for that many reps like that? So I figured that the biggest thing that would keep me from getting it is basically like this, being able to have my technique, have this cognitive function while respirations and like, you know, the total liver and immune function are crazy high. So what I did, we actually had a little, have you seen a K-Box? Do you know what a K-Box is?

Starting point is 00:48:22 Yeah, it's like a- A little flywheel. A flywheel and you can attach a cable to it is? Yeah, it's like a little flywheel. A flywheel and you can attach a cable to it and do all kinds of different exercises with it, right? Yeah, so a big part of what I was doing was I would take a vest for the K-Box. I'd get on the assault bike and I was doing 1,000 meter sprints. And I'd immediately hop onto the K-Box with the high resistance and then squat for a minute and hop back on. And I would just work back and forth and back and forth. For those of you who've never used flywheel training,

Starting point is 00:48:49 like that will make you grow hair on your chest. One of the hardest contraptions I've ever been on. Yeah, that was like a big part of it. I still had like heavy squat days with it just because 525 pounds is still heavy enough that I had to like respect it, you know. And so I still had days where I was squatting up to like 700 or so and just kind of maintaining the strength and I just didn't want 500 to feel like it was light. Um, and then, uh, yeah, it was, it was pretty brutal. I think the first like couple of sessions I was like, cool, I'm going to come in and I'm going

Starting point is 00:49:18 to get on this assault bike and, and I get on the K box and I'm going to be able to do like all these sets. And I got through like four sets and was just like throwing up. And I was like, oh my gosh, like this is brutal. And then towards the end, I think I got through like 10 supersets of it. And I was like, okay, I feel as ready as I'm going to get for this. There's no shame in wanting to have great sex. And there's no shame for wanting your member to perform the way it should be. A lot of us sometimes have some issue with blood flow,

Starting point is 00:49:48 but that's where Joy Mode comes in. Let me read you these ingredients because it's not going to be very long. Vitamin C, L-citrulline, arginine nitrate, and panic skin sing. The cool thing about the ingredients in this is that they're all natural and that they're going to help you increase your blood flow, not just everywhere, so you could use this as a pre-workout. You will increase blood flow when it counts to where you need it. So if you know you're going to have a good time a little bit later, 60 minutes beforehand, put some Joy Mode in some water, drink it. And then when it comes time to perform, and you know what I mean by perform, you're going to be ready because you're going to be flowing. Joy Mode is going to help you do that. Andrew, how can they get it?

Starting point is 00:50:23 you're going to be flowing. Joy mode's going to help you do that. Andrew, how can they get it? Yes, that's over at usejoymode.com slash power project. And at checkout, enter promo code power project to save 20% off your entire order. Again, usejoymode.com slash power project, promo code power project, links in the description, as well as the podcast show notes. Does it make it a lot easier to do a lot of these things as a couple? Like, do you guys go to the gym at the these things as a couple like do you guys go to the gym at the same time and like do you help with help each other with meal prep or do you uh more like go your separate ways i think a lot of the stuff we do is pretty cohesive like we're we do pretty well like i was just telling her the other day like the things that i kind of like

Starting point is 00:51:01 suck at planning she's really good at and vice versa. And so we kind of, I'm always like, oh crap, I forgot this. Like with packing, he'll always remember drugs. I'll always remember clothes. But like if we're packing to go on like a trip to go train with somebody, he won't bring, yeah, he won't bring any training clothes, anything. And it's like a trip just to go train at a certain gym. So just for a little backstory on this one. So I started working with Dan Green

Starting point is 00:51:25 like two years ago, right? And like, I was all excited. I'm like, oh, cool. I'm going to go deadlift with Dan Green because he invited us out to his house and whatever. And we're like, oh, this is really cool. And then I get there and it's like,

Starting point is 00:51:35 I'm going to deadlift with Dan Green that night. And then I'm like, I forgot my workout clothes. All of them. All of them. And that's all he wears is workout clothes. I don't know how he forgot it. But you remember the drugs, right? I remember the drugs. It's important stuff. All of them. All of them. And that's all he wears is workout clothes. I don't know. He forgot it. But you remember the drugs, right?

Starting point is 00:51:46 I remember the drugs. It's important stuff. It's okay. Yeah, I mean, really the drugs are the important stuff because you can go buy new clothes. You can't buy new drugs.

Starting point is 00:51:54 I can't go buy like injectable ATP at like Lulu. Yeah. This is bullshit. And then me, like I'll bring all the drugs, but I won't bring a single syringe

Starting point is 00:52:02 or anything to like administer drugs with. Yeah. So it's worthless. Yeah. We do a pretty good job. It's like a match made in heaven to me. It is a match made in heaven. Really soulmates.

Starting point is 00:52:11 So romantic. You need some LSD, like got you. She's like, you should have. But I don't have LSD, but I don't have underwear. Yeah. She's like, I brought it. Like, is that liquid LSD or is that liquid Anivar? I'm like, don't worry.

Starting point is 00:52:24 Mislabeled. Don't touch it. I, is that liquid LSD or is that liquid Anivar? I'm like, don't worry. Mislabeled. Don't touch it. I have it organized. It's the one with the red cap. Play a little Russian roulette. I forgot. Take them both. We'll figure it out.

Starting point is 00:52:34 I'll take one. You take the other one. That went 30 minutes. Yeah, it'll work out. Yeah. Can you talk to us a little bit about Nectar? Because we've talked about it a bunch, but that stuff, you had said it's been reformulated. We've talked about it a bunch, but that stuff, you had said it's been reformulated. And so I'm really excited to hear about that because my initial experience with it wasn't like the most smoothest.

Starting point is 00:52:50 And it did work really well. But again, my experience was a little bit like bumpy. So can you tell us about the new stuff? Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah. So the first version of nectar we had was carnitine and choline. And it was a little spicy. It worked really well.

Starting point is 00:53:03 But when you injected, it was pretty spicy. That's what I meant too yeah and it would actually kind of like crystallize a little bit because we just try to fill it up with as much as we could try to saturate it and uh you know much choline was soluble and it wasn't that soluble so yeah and so like man if it ever got like any kind of cold or got shaken or whatever it would uh you know start to crystallize or whatever but we just uh we we reformulated it we reformulated it with ceta-choline too. So the ceta-choline is a very potent form of choline. So it's actually like, it's very potent.

Starting point is 00:53:31 And it's also much more water soluble as well. And then we were able to balance the pH with it really well and just kind of tied it all together. And, you know, after a couple rounds of trying to figure it out. And now it's really nice. It's really it's really easy injection it's really smooth it's yeah it's really nice now so for for people especially women who are not used to injecting a lot of volume it will the volume will still kind of feel uncomfortable it might feel like a little bit like a dead arm but you won't get the spiciness that you had with the choline it feels very similar to like glutathione i think it's even actually a little easier than glutathione now.

Starting point is 00:54:05 I disagree, but it is a lot easier than it used to be. Yeah, glutathione, I was just joking in the gym. Like that's the only thing I've ever injected where like it felt good. Like the actual like injection of it. That's how she feels sometimes. That's a little weird. It is weird, but it's, I mean, all this shit's weird. Yeah, that's true.

Starting point is 00:54:22 But it just, it felt like I would look forward to that. The nectar, I wouldn't felt like I would look forward to that. The nectar, I wouldn't, but I would do it anyway because it was a pre-training thing that I would like, just a ritual I got into. And so I started doing it. But when I ran out of that bottle, I was like, ah, finally. You know, where we used to get glutathione, it came already reconstituted and it kind of just felt like battery acid going in. Oh, man. And I really learned to love that battery acid filling because I associated it with youthfulness and healing. So I was like, oh, yeah. And I got to a point with the glutathione where I was like, dude, I'm not injecting

Starting point is 00:54:55 this. It feels like battery acid. And it comes already reconstituted. And it kind of smelled like battery acid, too. I just really liked that combination. Yeah. I was into it. That's actually a big reason. That's actually why we started

Starting point is 00:55:05 better through biology in the first place was the glutathione. Because I got so upset that it would always come already reconstituted and it's trash. By the time you get it, it already has yellow hues, which means it's already starting its degrading process. By the time you even get it. Which that part kind of sucks.

Starting point is 00:55:21 I was always like, man, someone should just life-alize this, kind of like growth hormone is. You went to school for making steroids, I was always like, man, someone should just like, life-alize this, you know, kind of like growth hormone is. You went to school for making steroids, right? Oh yeah, essentially, yeah. I'm just like, doctor steroids. Indirectly. You did learn a lot of this stuff in school though, right? Like chemistry, right?

Starting point is 00:55:33 Yeah, that's actually like, what got me into it was like, O-Chem, I had a really sick O-Chem professor and he just really encouraged me to. Yeah, he's a chemistry wizard. I took chemistry, like an entry-level chemistry class with him and I was like, wow, I feel really dumb because he could just like under like he could hear something once and it would just be like permanent in his brain yeah she would get upset because i kind of like be on my phone and like trying to do other things yeah he wouldn't take any notes she's like well

Starting point is 00:55:57 you didn't listen and and then i'm like i'm bored i already got it i got i got an a in the class and i tried really hard and he got like an a plus in the class and he was like minimal effort. He just would literally show up on test day and take the test. And I'm like, wouldn't that be nice? Everyone's got something. Probably injecting something to make them smart. Yeah, holding out on the rest of the class. Yeah, that's great.

Starting point is 00:56:21 But yeah, that's the glutathione. The glutathione was, I finally was just like, let's freeze dry it. What does the carnitine and choline do? So a couple of things. They have some pretty cool synergistic effects. And it kind of, you know, there's a lot of ways to look at that because we could look at it in a kind of creatine way that we were talking about where we're actually kind of shortening that glycolytic window.

Starting point is 00:56:42 But instead of opening up a creatine window, we're actually kind of opening up the fatty acid window where we're kind of steering the body to want to utilize fatty acids more. So we're injecting super. So we're going to have super levels of physiological levels of carnitine, and it's going to buy us this fatty acid production and beta oxidation. So that part, we're getting a lot of extra fatty acid, a lot of extra energy from it, relying on glucose a little less. And then the choline, like choline's just a, it will, especially with acetylcholine, it's going to quickly turn into acetylcholine. And

Starting point is 00:57:16 that's one of our main neurotransmitters in the brain, like a lot with this like executive, deep, critical thinking. That's all like choline's like the staple there. So our ability to like process things, make, you know, cognitive decisions. So by pairing them together, especially in sports like, you know, powerlifting, bodybuilding, jujitsu, martial arts, whatever, if you're getting less lactic, you're burning out, you know, not nearly as slow while also having this cognitive enhancement, all of a sudden you're just on a completely different level than everybody else. And even while you're training, like those sets where you're normally like,

Starting point is 00:57:49 ah, I just, I'm calling it here. Like you just kind of fly past that and all of a sudden you're on the next set and you're like, wow, I'm still feeling pretty good, you know? And you're still kind of like feeling pretty cognitive. And I'm sure you've had those training sessions where you're done. You're like, dude, I can't, I don't even know what my name is right now. I can't, I'm out. It kind of like avoids that.

Starting point is 00:58:06 We're going to lower the amount of stress that we get in the first place and cognitive enhancement is staying a lot higher. Even the ability to contract is going to be a lot higher as well because we start getting a lot of extra lactic acid or whatever in our tissue, and when that happens and they get hypoxic, we actually have a defense mechanism that doesn't allow us to contract as hard, which I'm sure you feel. So it's like, oh, I just can't get past this.

Starting point is 00:58:31 And by lowering that, we actually lower the threshold, right? Or sorry, higher the threshold. And now we can push past, get a couple extra reps. What about DADA? We were talking about that a little bit in the gym. Diisopropylene dichloracetate. It's pretty cool. Lots of syllables there. That's why we callloracetate. It's pretty cool. Lots of syllables there.

Starting point is 00:58:46 That's why we call it data. Yeah. It's pretty cool. So it's going to inhibit PDK. So basically, we're going to push things away from this glycolysis as well and move things straight into oxidative phosphorylation. So you can burn glucose with oxygen. You can burn it without oxygen. And so we're pushing the body to burn it with oxygen, which is also going to allow us to push past those where we normally would have had this

Starting point is 00:59:11 lactic threshold really pop up. Now we're not getting there. So, you know, like a lot of the times with like my combat athletes, we use a little bit of nectar and data together and it's pretty potent. All of a sudden they're like, wow, I'm clear, I'm functional, I'm recovering really quickly. And, you know, I'm like kind of have an edge on my opponent we didn't even have to use any kind of anabolics does some of that stuff sometimes maybe override do you think like what's inside the body naturally that uh prevents us from going there do you think like sometimes those natural things are are good and uh no that's. Maybe you should be a little cautious with how often we use these things? Are you saying be cautious with drugs? Yeah, maybe. That feels very anti-Mark.

Starting point is 00:59:53 I didn't know I was going to be on this kind of podcast. Yes and no. Because there are ways to utilize, and that's why it's getting used in cancer research so much, talking about data, is that it kind of, what's the right word to say? I don't want to say this wrong, makes us feel healthier than we are. Like, makes the body interpret what we should be doing already, which is why it's so useful. Like, a lot of people, if they were healthy, they would already be doing this in the first place. And now, but anytime we're talking about like hyper competition,

Starting point is 01:00:29 like we're going to push things maybe a little bit too far. So absolutely, like maybe we inject so much data and, you know, like maybe like DMG or something that you're like, wow, I can't feel anything and rip, you know, now something goes. But I mean, yes and no. it really just depends on how you're using it and how hyper competitive you're being. Cause like if you're using it for a temporary boost, absolutely. But if you're injecting like half a vial to try to beat up your training partner, then. You know, I know for myself, like I've, I've used like LSD,

Starting point is 01:00:59 like on a run, I've done mushrooms, I've done, I've done kratom and sometimes like, man, I could run all day on day on this. But then there is an after. There is the next day. Like, holy shit. I still have to live tomorrow. Yeah, my body really does feel it. It's just that in the moment, my body didn't feel it because I'm kind of numb to some of those things. With things

Starting point is 01:01:19 like carnitine and data, for the most part, that's what you're actually trying to do is avoid that next day feeling. You're not getting there because you're pushing so much oxidative stress down right but with things like let's say like kratom for example like we're gonna get a big glutamate rush and that kind of gives us that opiate like high right like that's the thing that feels like an opiate high as we get this massive glutamate rush and it feels good but that causes a lot of oxidative stress and that's going to cause hyper calcium post-synaptically and that's going to cause phospholife spaces to come intoative stress. And that's going to cause hypercalcium postsynaptically. And that's going to cause phospholiped spaces to come into the cell membrane.

Starting point is 01:01:48 And that's going to cause it to degrade. And now the mitochondria is not functioning and it's dead. Right now it actually starts the process of cell death. But if we avoid that from happening in the first place by using things like carnitine, data, whatever, we're not getting there. But if we use things like LSD and K I don't know, Kratom and whatever, which again, they can be awesome PEDs, really awesome. We've prescribed them all the time for different, especially on the events the day of where you're just looking for the extra kick.

Starting point is 01:02:16 That's going to make you feel things that it's going to hurt a little bit the next day. But you did that at a cost of a better competition. Right. Yeah, and one thing to note is the farther you want to step into the competitive realm of any sport, the farther you're going to step away from just being truly healthy. Yeah. Hyper, yeah. So you're going to have to prioritize those things as you go.

Starting point is 01:02:38 If you're going to be competitive in anything, if you really want to be the best you possibly can, you're going to get to a point where it's not healthy no matter how you do it anymore. There are ways to minimize that risk, but being hyper-competitive, I don't think anybody actually feels like they're doing something that's healthy. Being the best at literally anything is very strenuous. Video games, martial arts, literally anything.

Starting point is 01:03:03 You're pushing your body to do something it really doesn't want to do. What are some other cool things that maybe people don't know too much about? You mentioned DMG, like what's that one? Oh, we're actually coming out with a really sick product we're pretty pumped about. Yeah. Maybe a good time to talk about that. Yeah. So we're actually going to have an injectable creatine product. Hey now. Yeah. Everybody's wanted to inject creatine before, right? I thought it was really funny too,

Starting point is 01:03:27 like Andy and I, Superbrain, were joking about it because as a kid, you always were kind of like, oh, I'm just injecting creatine, you know, whatever. Now we're like, oh, we're actually making that product. Yeah, so Andy and I kind of developed this, but it's actually a creatine phosphate. So it's not just like creatine monohydrate. It's like typical creatine.

Starting point is 01:03:44 When you take it, it goes into your gut, you have the monohydrate part removed, then it has to be phosphorylated. It becomes creatine phosphate. Now it's usable. But this is going to be creatine phosphate mixed with DMG. It'll have a little bit of, it'll have a little bit of carnitine choline in there as well. It'll have a little bit of bicarbonate and all these things to kind of lower this lactic threshold and increase your power output so that's going to be a pretty cool one as well but other things other than that i mean like dmg is really cool dimethylglycine it's going to lower that lactic threshold as well like you know there's there's man there's so many cool things

Starting point is 01:04:23 out there dmg is a normal supplement too, right? Tri-methyl glycine. Yeah. It kind of makes it orally active. So it's a little bit, a little bit more orally active that way. Um, but yeah, there's, man, in every sport, every sport kind of has like, I feel like hidden gems that people are missing where like, if you learn to utilize them, they're pretty sick.

Starting point is 01:04:41 So what sport would this new product work best for? Man, like I, like the two that I can think of that I would really want to, I would use it for is like powerlifting and jujitsu. Cause I feel like in jujitsu, one of the biggest things that you can run into and Josh can like just wave at me and be like, no, get out of here. Is you're getting someone into a hold or someone gets you into a hold. You get to a point where you're like, I just can't grip anymore. I can't grip or I can't hold this anymore. You're kind of like losing that isometric strength because that respirations are high,

Starting point is 01:05:11 total body hypoxia is really high, and this is just going to allow you to sit there and just like squeeze. And the same with powerlifting. A lot of times in powerlifting, when you peak right, you're a little bit unhealthy, right? Like you shouldn't be able to go run a marathon or really even do like 50 lunges in a row, right? Like you're going for one rep max. And a lot of times a limiting factor becomes we're actually not in shape enough to recycle creatine. So this is going to kind of lower that threshold and allow us to like exhibit and show off the strength that we do have with, you know, kind of showing how and, you know, without actually having to be in that great of shape.

Starting point is 01:05:46 How close to an event does somebody need to administer some of these things, do you think? Oh, I would use this all the time. Well, I just meant like, is it 30 minutes before a match or two hours? Like for convenience purposes, could, take your shot at your house, you know, and not have to do it like in between rounds or in between matches or something like that? No, yeah. Yeah, I know, right? You're in the bathroom and like some other guy's like, oh, you too? Yeah, Jake Benson, like what's up?

Starting point is 01:06:19 Like I'm definitely going to get staffed from this one. Oh, God. Yeah. No, that's a good question. So things like nectar, like for example, where it's like carnitine, choline, those things don't just go away just by injecting it. Like that carnitine actually needs to be utilized, right? So if you do it like, let's say you have a competition and you're like, I'm going to be there in 30 minutes. Injecting it before you leave, totally fine. before you leave, totally fine. If you're doing more of like an ATP or maybe like a creatine or something, a little bit closer could be helpful, but it's just really depends on what you're

Starting point is 01:06:53 trying to do. For the most part, I'd say like 30 minutes before, like something like data, like you probably just inject the morning of and be fine. Like that's going to sit there for a little bit. But for the most part, like rule of thumb, I would say it's probably sit there for a little bit um but for the most part like rule of thumb i would say is probably like 30 minutes prior kind of the same time you'd want to take your caffeine and your pre-workout and start listening to your metallica and stuff like that so any uh drawbacks to um i'm sorry i didn't catch the name of the shot of creatine like the injectable creatine like any drawbacks of like taking like as you said i take it all the time um is there anything like bad like with like using it all the time or anything like that? You know, I think the biggest thing

Starting point is 01:07:28 that could happen there is like, and, um, and this is just hypothetical cause I don't, I don't know yet, but I think the biggest drawback would be like, I am squeezing so hard that I could tear something. Right. Like, it's like, is this, it's the same thing with like Trent. It's like, if I take too much Trent, I'm going to tear something. Cause I'm literally too strong or like, I can't deal with this post-synaptic calcium, you know? And that's really where most tears come from. Uh, I don't imagine that to happen. Like, I feel like you'd have to take quite a freaking bit of that to, to really get to that point. And you're not again, like using something like LSD or Kratom or something that's giving you this neurochemical excitation where it's allowing you to, you know, you actually have so much neurochemical activity

Starting point is 01:08:09 going on that you're like going crazy. It's not going to have anything to do with neurochemical, you know, like, well, it's not going to produce like more dopamine or like more norepi or more glutamate or something. So in that regard, I feel like it should be pretty safe. For the month of April, you're going to receive 25% off all Vivo Barefoot shoes. And Seema, can you tell us why these shoes are so great? For years on this podcast, we've been talking about the benefit of barefoot shoes. And these are the shoes I used to use back in like 2017, 2018, my old Metcons. They are flat, but they're not very wide and they're very stiff and they don't move. That's why we've been partnering with and we've been using Vivo Barefoot Shoes.

Starting point is 01:08:48 These are the Modest Strength Shoe because not only are they wide, I have wide-ass feet, and so do we here on the podcast, especially as our feet have gotten stronger, but they're flexible. So when you're doing certain movements, like let's say you're doing jumping or you're doing split squats or you're doing movements where your toes need to flex and move, your feet are able to do that and perform in this shoe, allowing them to get stronger over time. And obviously, they're flexible. So your foot's allowed to be a foot. And when you're doing all types of exercise, your feet will get stronger, improving your ability to move. Andrew, how can they get their hands on these? Yes. And for the month of Aprilil you're going to receive 25 off all of your vivo barefoot shoes that is a limited time deal for the month of april only so if you've been waiting for the perfect time to buy your vivo barefoot shoes now is that time head over to vivo barefoot.com

Starting point is 01:09:37 slash power project enter the code for april and receive 25 off your entire order link is in the description as well as the podcast show notes. All right. We were talking about drugs. We're always talking about drugs on this podcast. I know, right? Can't get away from my past, you know? Once a gangsta, always a gangsta, as they say.

Starting point is 01:10:00 You can take the kid out of Poughkeepsie, but you can't take something like, I don't know. It's funny. I was just telling Kiara on the way over here that I love, you made this post the other day that was like, Oh, I really like Kratom and some people like alcohol, but like,

Starting point is 01:10:12 why would you do life without drugs? And I was like, hell yeah, Mark. That would suck. Yeah. Who wants to just sit there in the middle? Yeah.

Starting point is 01:10:20 It's like sober. And just be able to say, I've never taken drugs. Like I feel, I hope you feel really good up there. It's really nice down here. Yeah, you missed out. When I was younger, I always felt like I was going to take steroids.

Starting point is 01:10:36 Even when I was 16, 17 years old, everybody thought I was on them anyway. But I just always thought, yeah, when I get a chance, I am going to take those. They seem amazing. That's how I was, too. I would read about it. I'd be so excited. I was on them anyway, but I just always thought like, yeah, when I get a chance, like I am going to take those. They seem amazing. That's how I would read about it. I'd be so excited. I was like, what? Puts on muscle. And like the articles I was reading, they were just saying like what they do.

Starting point is 01:10:55 They weren't really, and it did say side effects. It talked about side effects. And I was like, well, the benefit sounds way crazy compared to the side effects. The side effects don't seem like that big a deal. Tiny prints, like enlarged heart. Yeah, you never know. Maybe, maybe I will. More room to love, you know?

Starting point is 01:11:14 As a kid, you're like, why is that bad? It sounds like you're good. It's good. Well, and then like one of the books we have back here, it's like, it's got like the rating system of like androgenic to anabolic. And then like, as you're looking through, you see one that's like off the charts on both. You're like, holy shit. That's it. That's the one.

Starting point is 01:11:33 Yeah, Tren or whatever it was. Or I think there was like some, I forget which ones it were. I think it was like some oral forms of like a methyl testosterone or something. Oh, yeah. Just completely off the charts. But like no one ever messed with that one because it's like, I don't know, it just fucks up your body too much or too liver toxic or something like that. Yeah, probably hypertoxic.

Starting point is 01:11:53 Yeah. What is the deal with like Tren? Like why is it a thing? Like why is it so powerful, do you think? It's probably one of the few androgens that we have that pretty much all of its effects are above the neck. It's going to really hit the brain hard. So if I remember right, it actually is really going to kick off, really going to stimulate your olfactory nerve, which is actually your smelling nerve. And then by law of locality, just by it basically being really close,

Starting point is 01:12:25 it kind of hits your amygdala, really gets the amygdala going. Do other steroids do all this stuff to your brain? Some of them do in different ways. Not like trend does though. Changed your smell? Yeah, absolutely. Like, have you ever been on trend and be like, wow, I can't really smell anything anymore? I haven't really noticed that before, but I have noticed that, you know, when you take the shot, sometimes you can taste it.

Starting point is 01:12:45 Yeah. And sometimes you get that trend. You seem have noticed that when you take the shot, sometimes you can taste it. Yeah. And sometimes you get that trend. You seem like you like it. You're like, yeah. No, I'm really lit up. You're like, yeah. No, he's just not like that. God, I love that flavor.

Starting point is 01:12:53 Oh, the good old days. Oh, yeah. You're coughing. I had a friend tell me, oh, if you ever get the trend cough, he's like, you just ride it out, just cough. And that was the worst advice. The best advice is to try to block it and not cough at all. Dude, if you start coughing, it's over. Hypothetically, if you hypothetically start coughing.

Starting point is 01:13:09 Yeah, you're done. You're coughing for four or five minutes. It sucks. Yeah. I mean, hypothetically sucks. Don't try it. I've never tried it. But let's get back to what's good about it.

Starting point is 01:13:19 In my opinion, it's kind of like you're almost like changing operating systems, right? Because what it's going to do is it's going to light up your amygdala so hard that it's actually going to start changing the way that it interacts with your thalamus and your hypothalamus. And now it's just going to be, you know, it's kind of changing the way that you are going to view a lot of things, which I'm sure you've felt before. Like your peripheral outputs, the way that you're viewing the world now all becomes different. Your peripheral outputs, the way that you're viewing the world now all becomes different. And that's why you really shouldn't run it more than maybe two or three weeks at max. Because if you do that for too long, you can hypertrophy parts of your brain. Not the great parts to hypertrophy either. Yeah, so now it's like your hippocampus is starting to shrink a little bit.

Starting point is 01:14:02 Your amygdala is starting to grow. And now you're actually changing the whole dynamics of the way that your brain is and the way you think and the way that you view things. And all of a sudden, some people get really paranoid or some people, there's some random people that get really happy on it or whatever. But yeah, it's pretty crazy.

Starting point is 01:14:18 It's a potent drug. It makes you view everybody as being worthless. Look at how worthless and weak everybody is compared to me while i'm on trend i know i always felt like really great on it like so strong you're lean you're like oh this is great i'm awesome like weight feels lighter but yeah it's it's pretty potent it can permanently change the way that your brain is too what do you think it is about um performance enhancing drugs that makes you stronger? Like what's the mechanism of that? Obviously it can make you bigger, but like. Like what you're saying, like trend or something?

Starting point is 01:14:50 Like you were just trying to say. So like, so it always like what strength is, is really just like you have this, you have these like basically neuromuscular junctions and they're allowed to accept so much electricity and how much electricity they can accept is like how strong that contraction is going to be. And so what determines that is just going to be like basically this limbic system

Starting point is 01:15:10 can override a lot of stuff. So for example, with Trent, it's like, cool, I have this massive boost in my amygdala, which is part of the limbic system to the point that, you know, it's starting to view things as not as fearful as they would. And that's actually kind of how opiates can work for some people and make them feel temporarily stronger as well. Some people hate them, but some people actually feel like maybe create them for you, is that you're actually kind of lowering this defense mechanism. So normally when you view a 700-pound squat or something, and you're like, I'm going to need this much to be able to squat it, your brain's like, no, I'm not going to allow that much to occur. But you take an opiate and and you you know you're like i'm gonna need this much to be

Starting point is 01:15:45 able to squat it your brain's like no i'm not gonna allow that much to occur but you take an opiate and all of a sudden you're like no i'm not okay with this but i feel safe here but i feel okay you know and and trend's kind of working on that but from the other where it's just going to drive up so much electricity it's like yeah let's go and those defense mechanisms aren't really coming up to defend it anymore um so you're just allowing a lot more electricity to come into those neuromuscular junctions. Like, you know, with trend, a lot of people don't even get that much bigger on it. And if they do, it's just because all of a sudden they're starting to train hard, you know? But yeah.

Starting point is 01:16:13 When it comes to like peptides, I know we mentioned insulin and growth hormone. I don't know if people think of those as peptides, but I believe they're in the peptide category. Absolutely. What are some, like, because peptides are popping up all over the place. There's hundreds of them now. What are some peptides that you have had success with either using for yourself or with clients? Man, like, it's really hard to beat growth hormone, to be honest. And like we were saying, there's so much versatility with growth hormone. And like what we were saying earlier is like, if you do a specific kind of training session, like let's say Josh goes and does, you know, a jujitsu session that involves

Starting point is 01:16:49 so much of his motor cortex and so much of, you know, this part of the brain and whatever. And then like Kiara goes and does a bodybuilding session. They're both going to have, based on that training response that they have, those cells are going to start secreting these very hyper-specific proteins that are going to relay to the brain that this happened, right? It's like, okay, like I had, you know, this much of this protein, this much of this protein. That means we were this hypoxic. That means I got, you know, hypoxic here. This means there's damage here, whatever.

Starting point is 01:17:19 And then when we calm down, now we have the actual like response part of the immune system that comes and says, okay, now we got to clean this up. Are we going to do it to a super physiological level or whatever? And that's where growth hormone comes in. Growth hormone is really going to be able to play on that. So whether you did a bodybuilding session or whether you did a jujitsu session, you reap the benefits of it. You're going to adapt to whatever you're trying to adapt to better. So it's a really hard one to beat insulin's pretty awesome too like man insulin's like again you can use it for just about everybody you can kind of even use it as like a learning tool like you can use it to um prevent uh

Starting point is 01:17:57 uh muscle glycogen from depleting you can use it for changing nutritional fades you can use it for all sorts of things like where do you use insulin? Would you use it before a workout, after a workout? Maybe both. Where's best? Yeah. So you use a little bit of insulin pre-workout to prevent glycogen or to help glycogen retention. So we always do with Kiara, when we didn't want her to lose any of her tissue. She's like leaning out. We would use like usually about, correct me if I'm wrong, but one to two IU insulin pre-workout.

Starting point is 01:18:39 We'd do like as long as we could hold out to about 80 grams of carbs pre-workout and 300 milligrams of carnitine. Were you able to feel that? Were you able to feel insulin when you took it? You know, when I first started insulin, I felt a big difference, but I've used it for so long that I don't really feel it now. I think if I were to go, if I were to miss a couple of days and then get back, I'd be like, oh wow. Yeah. Cause it can feel pretty cool. Cause it can like, you know, you, you know exactly what it does, but it seems like it just helps you kind of hold on to some of those carbohydrates and maybe hold onto them in your muscle tissues. Yeah, absolutely. And then, you know, the same thing post, like you use it post. It's kind of funny because like post-workout, if you do a really hard session and cortisol is

Starting point is 01:19:14 high, let's say epinephrine is high, heart's beating, respirations are high, whatever, this is kind of like the optimal time to get fat, right? And so like the difference between, let's say you just finished a hard session and you're like still breathing hard, you're still drowning in sweat. And you're like, cool, I'm just like pumped. It's out. And I, you know, I'm still hyped up and whatever. That's going to have a very different nutritional fate than if you were to go put your feet up, take a breath, take two minutes to, you know, bring, bring all that down, use a little insulin for, you know, blood glucose, maybe use, I don't know, like,

Starting point is 01:19:45 you know, the meditation for. Maybe I shouldn't just like act like a total animal when I get home from here and just like, yeah, stuff and food in my face as I'm cooking. Maybe I should just sit down and relax and breathe and taste your food. That's key. Yeah. Not, not be on your phone. Like you see a lot of people, you know, but yeah, doing that, being like, you know, kind of having that period of mindfulness.

Starting point is 01:20:08 Like go put your feet up for like two minutes, do a little breath work, do some insulin, maybe a little ashwagandha and growth hormone. And now those nutritional fates are very different, right? And we didn't have to use anything like Anabar or D-ball or Primo or whatever. And now we're able to optimize, you know, pre-workout and post-workout. We didn't lose any, you know, glycogen or tissue or size there. And we got to optimize the nutritional feats post. And now we do a lot there. Yeah, that's what I was talking about earlier with some habitual and lifestyle changes that really made everything flow very well.

Starting point is 01:20:38 We're just simple things like that. Calming down and bringing my heart rate down before I eat my post-workout meal and stuff like that. Like that did all, that played a large role in my transformation over the last year. And intro workout, you guys were mentioning a little bit of carbohydrates, that's just in a drink or something like that? Yeah. Like some dense, like heavy carb, like we use carbolin and creatine and HydraA or EAAs or something like that. Yeah, I'll just kind of, to prevent that proteolysis, just like, you know, you don't want to break down your own muscle tissue to make glucose, right? That's like cortisol's big function is, like, if you wanted a really succinct definition for cortisol, just be like, it's making glucose out of non-glucose things, right?

Starting point is 01:21:22 Like, you don't want to break down your own amino acids, your own tissue just to provide, you know, glucose. It's like, here, here's some EAAs, like here's a little bit of carbolin, here's whatever. We're going to prevent breaking it down, you know, too, with a little insulin or a little bit of carnitine to bias the fatty acid metabolism as well. And all of a sudden, like, you know, if you can, if you really want to be lean, if you can preserve your muscle tissue first, like you look lean very, a lot quicker. When it comes to building muscle, a lot of people will start looking at like their testosterone levels and that sort of thing. Is that something that people should be focused on when it comes to like, I guess, trying to optimize or maybe even potentially get on PEDs and that sort of thing? Is testosterone like the first thing that they should be looking at? Oh yeah, definitely. No. Yes. You know, the way that I,

Starting point is 01:22:11 I personally view testosterone, I'm not saying this is right, but the way that I view it is, it's just a way to recycle presynaptic choline. And like outside of that, it's like, there's so many ways to, I think there's more benefit to looking at your A1C and your fasting blood glucose to optimize growth than it is your testosterone level. Unless your testosterone level is double-digit as a man or something, there's probably better ways to optimize it. to optimize it you know i i've continued to see my own bodybuilding athletes and powerlifting athletes put on a ton of tissue with like very very very normal like 600 level testosterone levels like they don't need to be crazy they don't need to be super physiological to be able to grow yeah and you see that with a lot of natural athletes i mean the guy that we just had on the show yesterday dre um now his testosterone was like 960 or something, just naturally.

Starting point is 01:23:06 It's great. You see it with a lot of natural athletes, they're able to build a lot of muscle tissue. And maybe that's because some of these athletes, maybe they have been more fortunate just to kind of naturally have their body optimized for glucose and things like that. Yeah, and maybe it's just their lifestyle that they live too, right? They just kind of intuitively had these skills or maybe just grew up in a certain way that it's like, you know, it's normal for them to just go out on walks or I've even found some athletes I've worked with that, you know, randomly they're like, Hey, I just ended up fasting today.

Starting point is 01:23:37 And I was like, Hmm, how come? Like, it just felt right. And it was the right thing to do. Like if I was there, it would be the thing that we would do. And so sometimes like their intuition and lifestyle plays a really big part of it. Like, you know, I've seen some athletes too where they eat like very, very slow, you know, and they're always lean. Like that definitely has a part of it, right? Like there are a lot of things like that that can play. But I think testosterone is kind of like, I think the pendulum has swung so far that testosterone is kind of getting to a point where it's like, everyone should be on testosterone, lots of it and whatever. And that's not necessarily bad either. But it's like, Hey, let's just understand what it's doing. Right. Cause you know, not everybody needs to have like 1500 plus level testosterone

Starting point is 01:24:17 just to be a human, you know? But it feels pretty good though. Yeah. And if you're taking it, cause you're like, Hey, I feel good at this, this level and that's fine too. Like that's its own reason. Right. And it's like if you're taking it because you're like, hey, I feel good at this level, that's fine too. Like that's its own reason, right? Yeah. But to say like I need to have X amount of testosterone to grow is, you know, you're not really looking at that the right way, I think. And does any of it change when it comes to women? I would kind of say the same thing.

Starting point is 01:24:44 say the same thing like kiara's testosterone levels have never been anything more than kind of average for women um outside of like really brief periods of where you know we kind of mess things up or whatever those are fun periods for a short time though if you get all aggressive yeah yeah um but yeah it's like you know any of the athletes i have whether it's hunter brie her whatever we've never had like super physiological levels of testosterone while i've worked with them. They've always been very normal people. You know, I'm sure they think they're on a ton of stuff, but man, you can like, if you really understand the process of how, what has to occur for muscle to rebuild at a super physiological level, it all really comes down to the immune system. You know, you have to have, like, if you have an immune system that's healthy, then you can damage things and it's

Starting point is 01:25:25 able to repair that to a super physiological level. But if your immune system, you're never really dealing with this total oxidative stress and not managing it and everything, you need to use anabolic steroids to force that to happen now. And if you don't have to be there, then you don't have to be there. And so then how do you like keep, you said, oxidative stress in check? This is where like glutathione is kind of like our, it's probably my favorite supplement period. What would you call that? Like if you can only take one supplement for the rest of your life? Probably growth or glutathione. I always debate between the two. Probably growth, but outside of those two would definitely be it. Because with glutathione with my athletes, I have them so pinned down.

Starting point is 01:26:11 I know their physiology so well that they're like, hey, I'm not digesting well. Hey, I've got a little acne. Or hey, my mood's a little blank. And I'm like, okay, we're starting to see their specific signs that they cannot manage this total total oxidative stress and you give them a little bit of glutathione things just turn around and manage and that's kind of the cool thing too is like you don't have to have glutathione be this like hey you're just going to take it once a week at this dose it's like it's a very variable thing it's like hey this week was very stressful we had a heavy lift they had travel they got sick it's cool it's kind of mess around with it but it's

Starting point is 01:26:43 kind of this like this tool you can use where it's like I can keep things where they need to be. But you don't want to use it so much too or then you don't get the adaptations you're actually looking for because it just kind of kills off everything. You could literally take it periodically too, right? You could take it kind of almost randomly, right? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, it has acute benefits for sure. Yeah, because that's kind of the way I take it. I take it maybe like every three weeks just to go through different phases with my running and my lifting. And that just like piles up and I start to feel kind of like sore and stiff.

Starting point is 01:27:14 And I'm like, oh, I'm starting to feel everything in like my back. And just all the work is like accumulating on me. And I'm just like, I'll just, I forgot about glutathione. Let me take a shot of that. Yeah, it's kind of, it's like your master antioxidant. It's, it's phenomenal. Um, but yeah, I mean, I have athletes that I've had take it like, you know, three days on one day off, um, for brief periods of time. Cause you know, stress was just really difficult. Then I've had people not use it for three weeks in a row, kind of like that. And it's like, okay,

Starting point is 01:27:41 now we need it. And you're always trying trying to like keep this response where they can manage um their training and adapt from it but not so much that they're actually creating damage and destroying things and that's kind of like one of those tools we can use to make sure we're kind of keeping things keeping things in check our bodybuilders are they uh starting to dive into utilizing things like Ozampic? Do you know? Because I'm just thinking in my head, it seems like that would make a lot of sense since it seems to be so difficult for some people to reduce their calories. Like semaglutide and that thing? Yeah.

Starting point is 01:28:20 I mean, they do, but I'm not a massive fan of it myself. I don't think that should be used for anybody that like lifts weights really, or kind of blunting the training response that we would get naturally. And what we have seen with things like Ozempic too, is that we almost get that like paralyzed stomach thing too. And we're starting to see people that just like bad side effects. Yeah. Now, if you're like a sedentary, like, you know know fairly obese person that just really can't control their cravings you don't have the ability to understand what's in your blood like you can't tell like i'm sure right now if you were like hyperglycemic you would know you can kind of feel it or if you have too many amino acids in your blood you would feel it too but i should probably

Starting point is 01:29:03 go on a walk or i should like maybe i should just kind of chill out for a second. Like you can kind of notice. And that's kind of what you get when you train is you're very aware of like, I feel, I'm hypo, you know? But I think a lot of the times with like, you know, sometimes when people get very obese or they just don't really have this ability to manage it, like not really know when they're truly hungry or when there's too much in their blood. And I think that's a really good time for something like Ozempic. What have you seen with, uh, BPC-157?

Starting point is 01:29:33 We hear so much about it. Have you had success with it or people that you work with? Yeah. Yeah. So like, maybe that's a good way to actually kind of talk about BPC is talking about like glutathione with it. Cause glutathione can kind of prevent a lot of things from getting there, from getting to the point where they tear and break down because

Starting point is 01:29:48 they're not getting, the cells are very healthy. Let's say you get to a point where you actually tear something. For those acute responses, BPC and TB500, those little healing peptides, they're pretty dang helpful. I think where they kind of get lost though is that people think they're just like healing recovery things. Recovery tools. And they're not recovery tools. They're not going to like, it's not something you should just take because you're in prep or something, you know? It's like that's more of something you do with like glutathione.

Starting point is 01:30:16 If something is acutely torn, that's where you use it. It's kind of like an ace card, though, and you want to save it as such. Yeah, like if you're already committed to this race or this fight or this powerlifting competition, that could be the difference between you making it to the platform and not making it. That's the one you should take it. Yeah, so if you end up banged up from competition or something like that, you got a slight something or other in your hip or your groin or something, that's where you would utilize it? Maybe. If it was actually after something occurred, I'd probably actually still go with growth hormone and glutathione and go down that route. And then actually using things like

Starting point is 01:30:56 with Kiara, she was saying after her show, training was kind of boring. And boring, it was because it was mostly creatine work, just a lot of creatine work because we don't want to put any more oxidative stress. The damage that you can get from competing itself is a lot. And not just because you stepped on stage or because you did something that you haven't done in training. Everyone's gone and lifted heavy or ran or whatever. But because it's an event that's important, something that you have anticipated is important. You're going to get a massive neurochemical rush, right? Like we've all been there on the platform when your name gets called or like, you know, on the mats or whatever, you get that rush of nerves, you're performing at a higher level. You're really tuned in. Um,

Starting point is 01:31:38 you're going to get all sorts of neurochemical secretions from it. And because of that, like there's so much oxidative stress that a lot of the bang up you feel from it is just from like, wow, I have so much oxidative stress and so much damage that, you know, I'm going to use a little growth hormone or a little glutathione to manage it on the flip side. And then my training sessions are going to be stuff that are not going to add that oxidative stress. Now, let's say you actually tore your hip or suffered an actual acute injury. Absolutely, like BPC, TB, that's a good time to use it. But that would be my two cents there. Can some of this oxidative stress, can it be offset by learning a skill set to

Starting point is 01:32:24 work on your breathing you mentioned meditation earlier what about like you know things like nasal breathing like will these things assist and help oh yeah absolutely because if you're sitting there like hyper ventilating um you're absolutely going to produce more neurochemical secretion like and you know you're going to get more glutamate you're going to get a little more more norepi you're going to get all these you know random things um if you're going to get more glutamate. You're going to get a little more norepi. You're going to get all these random things. If you're sitting there just very conscious of your breathing, doing meditations throughout the day, you're kind of keeping that at bay and not getting to a point where you're secreting way more than you can handle.

Starting point is 01:32:58 Yeah, because I found that that's a great practice for me. It's like just breathing, working on nasal breathing for a while now with my runs, uh, seems to have way different impact than, uh, if I'm out there just like really huffing and puffing. And some days, um, uh, some days the, the stress, uh, I can feel how much stress I have, um, versus other days, you know, some days I can go out and I can run and I could be at an 11-minute mile pace the whole time and I can run six or seven or eight miles and nasal breathe the whole time. Other times I try that exact same pace and can't even really go more than a mile until I start

Starting point is 01:33:38 having to breathe in the nose, out the mouth. And I'm like, man, what the hell is going on? Why am I still so out of shape? But it's not necessarily being out of shape. It's just the stress accumulates on certain days and other certain days, maybe not. Yeah. And just not prepared for it that day. Absolutely. Yeah. And that's kind of like peaking athletes in any sport. It's like, you got to make sure that that day that feels like you can run an 11 minute mile for six or seven miles is the day that they're competing. know, competing. And that's just kind of, you know, what makes it fun. And what I do with that usually is I usually just back off. Yeah. I mean, that's a lot of people, you know, they don't want to do that. But for me,

Starting point is 01:34:15 I guess things are different. Like I'm not competing in anything anymore. Just take more Kratom and try it again. Yeah. That's, that's always the answer is take more Kratom or, or inject something and then, and then go give it another go. Yeah. Sometimes, though, you're right. It's just like, hey, it's not there today. Instead, I'm going to do a walk or maybe a mild bike ride or something.

Starting point is 01:34:35 Or I'm going to go throw a med ball around and call it. Even when I was competing, I didn't mind doing that. I didn't mind because I was like, I'm going to be here tomorrow. I'm coming back tomorrow. So it's not that big a deal. What happens today? You know, today is important, but I can't, I can still salvage today. There's still a lot of work that I can do. That's going to be productive, but I can't do the work that I wanted to do. And that's fine. Yep. No, that's, I'm okay with my body. Like telling me like, don't fucking do this. I'm okay with it. Yeah, definitely.

Starting point is 01:35:07 That's a big thing. I feel like a lot of people don't really have the skill for it. It's like, hey, I'm doing this on this day. This is supposed to be what happens. And they force it to happen. And then they can really get themselves into some trouble, whether that's injury or then they get sick or then they get inflamed. And that starts a really bad cycle. But if you can, if you can just be aware enough to be, you know, maybe not egotistical enough to just step back and be like, you know what?

Starting point is 01:35:29 Today's not the day. That's okay. I'm going to come back tomorrow or the next day. Yeah. I mean, that's the way to go. That's longevity for you. Is there anything that you can take to help with like, we'll say like comp jitters, like day of competition, like you're kind of in your own head. And like, we talk about breathing techniques all the time, but I'm like literally actually something that you could take maybe pre, you know, before you get in the car and head to the, you know, head to the arena or whatever it may be. Is there anything that you can recommend? That's like, okay, this actually will calm you down. You mentioned Kratom, like anything like

Starting point is 01:36:01 that. No, that's a good question. I think a lot of that would depend on why the athlete was nervous in the first place. So let's say they're fearful of their opponent. They're fearful of the weight. They're fearful of like what other people think about them. And a lot of times you just have to actually kind of have them pull on that thread a little bit. It's like, why, why are we nervous? Why are we so jittery? Um, if you can actually put them through almost like a hypnotic meditation that way, Jandi Triana does really well. All of a sudden, they're kind of like, oh, I'm very aware of why I'm fearful. And you don't really need to take anything. I mean, there are things like Kratom.

Starting point is 01:36:36 There's Tyneptine that's kind of similar to that if you've ever tried that before too. And those things can kind of, in the same way that we were talking about earlier with Kratom or like an opiate or something, it makes you less fearful of a situation. So those things can do that. But I would always, before I even gave them that drug, like if we were going to use that drug, but hey, what are we fearful about? You know, like what's our worst case scenario? Are we scared of losing? Are we scared of the way, you know, this is? Or are we scared of the unknown?

Starting point is 01:37:04 Because whatever. So I've had athletes sometimes be very nervous about an event. And then we go there and it's like, okay, let's like, you know, we're on the mat, the field, the power, the gym, whatever, wherever we're competing. And we just kind of go through and you touch like, Hey, here's a barbell, like touch it, feel it. This is what it feels like. We're here. Like, you know, doing a lot of things just to kind of bring things to the front of the mind. And all of a sudden they're like, no, I'm good. Like I don't need it anymore. You know? Um, what are some things that you do, um, that are maybe like not so direct, uh, when it comes to like lifting, um, that's like a routine that you think assisted you to get in the shape that you were in, like sleep routines or like, you know, going out on walks?

Starting point is 01:37:48 Or is there anything other, you know, are there any other particulars you mentioned in meditation? Are there some other habits that you had that you think was really helpful? A nap or something like that? I don't know. Yeah, I wish I could have a nap. No naps for you. Yeah, that's a really good question.

Starting point is 01:38:03 So first thing in the morning, we wake up and we take our dogs for a walk. And that really helps. You get the sunshine. You just kind of enjoy nature, the dogs. And that's fasted. We do that nasal breathing. We're keeping our heart rate under 100. No talking. Don't talk to me. Mouth tape. This is my PBO time. Just kidding. It's really funny in the morning. I'm always like, I'm like a morning guy. So I'm like sitting there talking. I am not a morning guy.

Starting point is 01:38:32 My enthusiasm doesn't wake up till like 9 or 10 a.m. And his is up bright and early. Mine's like 5 a.m. I'm like, oh, here we go. Yeah. And then I'm bringing my heart rate down before any meal I have that has carbs in it. So within 10 to 20 beats of my resting heart rate. And meditations are post-workout. What's that look like? Yeah. For me, I actually just follow, there's an app called Balance. And I just follow a guided meditation on balance with my feet up, my eyes closed.

Starting point is 01:39:06 And I really enjoy that. Well, actually- Feet up like on a couch and you're on your back on the floor or something like that? Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. Actually, that's like the one thing I really have to like force myself to do because I don't want to like stop and slow down to do that. But when I do do that, it's really definitely, I feel the benefit of it. And a sleep routine. So every night at 7pm, I have an alarm that goes off and then I start my list of nighttime routines that looks like journaling my next day's priorities or mandatories. And then journaling some type of thought from the day or just from the week or something like that and then we do um um some rib tacking i mean when i'm living right i'm doing the rib tacking i normally kind of that's just like kind of flossing the ribs right type thing or yeah just kind of like doing some some breathing and some like rib adjustments and then i eat my last meal shower and then i'll either read or we'll watch like an anime or

Starting point is 01:40:04 something to just chill out. And yeah, so at 7am I plug my phone in. I plug my phone in outside of the bedroom. So we don't have any electronics in the room. I think that's huge. It's huge. I try to mention it as much as possible, but I still don't think people listen enough to that. It's a small thing that you can do. It doesn't cost you anything. It might take you some time to get used to, but. Yeah, I agree. I think the worst thing you can do is just be on bed and like scrolling through social media and then put it down and then try to go right to sleep.

Starting point is 01:40:34 It's not very healthy for your relationship either, I don't think. Oh, definitely agree with that. Or if you have kids or whatever, yeah. Definitely agree with that. Yeah. And I have an issue with social media too. I definitely have to watch myself when I'm with Jake to make sure we're having quality time rather than just me being engulfed in consuming social media content all day long. It's made designed for us to be addicted to it. So I don't think anybody would blame you for that. I'm part of that statistic for sure.

Starting point is 01:41:01 There's one other thing I was going to say. I can't remember. Oh, blue light blocking glasses. Yeah. So right when I get out of the shower, I have my blue light blocking glasses on for the rest of the night. And those are all really the habitual things I can think of. But all of those, they all kind of sound like by themselves. They don't sound like that groundbreaking, but really when you put them all together, it's made a big change for me. Yeah. And you do them often. I mean, we could sit here and like split hairs over certain things and say, oh, there's really, there's science that shows there's no difference. Your heart rate doesn't

Starting point is 01:41:35 matter in accordance to like you eating carbs or something like that. But we can all agree that it's valuable to take a moment in the day and just to stop and just to pause everything that you're doing. Yeah. Like, I don't think that's like in debate. And I don't think that anybody would disagree with just having a moment where you put everything on pause just to be with yourself, just to be with your own thoughts and you just relax. Be mindful.

Starting point is 01:42:00 Yeah. All right. Strength is never weakness. Weakness is never strength. Catch you guys later.

Mark Bell's Power Project - Get Leaner Faster Using These Supplements and Training Protocols - Jake and Kiara Benson || MBPP Ep. 1061

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