Mark Bell's Power Project - MBPP EP. 714 - Discord Q&A: New Focus On Mobility, Make Fitness Welcoming, Bulking & More

Episode Date: April 12, 2022

Our first ever Discord Q&A featuring questions from the members of the Power Project Discord Community. Make sure you sign up below to be a part of the next one! Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the new Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw Special perks for our listeners below! ➢https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/powerproject Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off Vivo Barefoot shoes! ➢https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off site wide including Within You supplements! ➢https://mindbullet.com/ Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://eatlegendary.com Use Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://bubsnaturals.com Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% of your next order! ➢https://verticaldiet.com/ Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% off your first order! ➢https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order at Vuori! ➢https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro at 8 Sleep! ➢https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS at Marek Health! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150 Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #Discord #LiveQandA #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

Pat Broderick, family, how's it going? Now, on this podcast, we talk a lot about getting your lab work done. That's why we've partnered with Merrick Health. They're a telehealth network, and they're owned by Derek from More Plates, More Dates. But the amazing thing about Merrick is that when they get your labs done, they have a client care coordinator go over those labs with you. Now, a lot of you, when you guys are looking at labs and looking at your testosterone, cholesterol, et cetera, what Merrick Health does is they don't immediately throw a needle at you, okay?

They can help you figure out what type of things you need to do in terms of your nutrition, potentially what you need to do through your supplementation. And if you're someone who potentially has hormonal issues, whether you're advanced in age or you do have very low testosterone, Merrick will put you on a protocol that is specific to you and that helps you out with your current levels. The problem with a lot of these other telehealth networks is that when they do HRT for individuals, they give everybody the same exact thing and that can actually damage you and not be beneficial.

That's why Merrick Health is the way to go. And Andrew, how do they go about it? Yes, that's over at merrickhealth.com. That's M-A-R-R-E-K health.com. And let's say you just want to get your testosterone checked or maybe you want to get your testosterone, your estrogen, and a couple of other things. Uh, load all those labs into your cart and at checkout enter promo code power project 10 to save 10% off all those labs. But let's say you're not sure where to start. Head over to Merrick health.com slash power project and get the power project panel. That's going to cover everything you need to know, including a consultation with a client care coordinator.

That comes free with that. And use promo code POWERPROJECT to save $101 off of that entire bundle. Again, MerrickHealth.com. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Or hit record and hit record. There's definitely the generational thing there um if there was eddie murphy movie out me the whole family watched it but then like uh norbit and then um what was the other one where he was like he looked exactly like the oh hold on what is give me a

second there's a movie where he was like a super like he was like super nerdy but then he looked exactly like a really cool big-time actor that just happened to be eddie murphy what was it called steve urkel no no no i'm confused oh my gosh i'm gonna look it up really quick yeah i'm lost eddie murphy bra blew my mind when i was a kid see i was too young for that yeah same well same here okay well yeah that was a good i shouldn't have watched it when i watched it i saw too young for that yeah same well same here okay well yeah that was a good i shouldn't have watched it when i watched it i saw that i saw that when i was a teenager on youtube it was great it was great so many curse words oh yeah so much of that going on makes you super happy when you're a kid yeah it's like south park like oh yeah when you see south park as a kid

you're like you know it's just like it's just like everything's funny and a lot of parents like didn't realize that that's what was going on with that show and it was just so cheaply done but it was so good oh my god i love it i'm gonna damn it kenny say damn it kenny you died again or something oh oh my god they killed kenny oh my god they killed kenny he dies in every episode right every episode south park is still going isn't it damn good shit the golden child was such a good movie the golden child the how's the golden golden child harlem knights when he's like golden child he's like can we put please have the knife so the movie i was referencing was called bow finger oh you guys watch that i don't think i remember oh my god a bunch of actors um martin short they're basically trying to fake a movie because this guy looks exactly like the

big time actor but they're not telling anybody that it's him super good my favorite thing is when eddie murphy acts white okay i don't fucking care what anybody says that shit's funny he does a good voice he does like mr rogers and shit like that it's it's fucking unbelievable so does dave chapelle his white face and dave chapelle his his white face and he did the white face and dave chapelle chef's kiss that was amazing what are people people nowadays gonna act like that's not like a thing like it's a thing it's a thing well they did the uh the wife swap thing yeah yeah yeah oh my god and and i think the black one was like what the fuck are these kids talking to me like this Right? So the kid was like trying to act super hard to the black dad. And the black dad's like, really?

You want to see what it's like? And then, you know, he takes him to the hood. And then he's like, G-U-N-E. Or he's like, G-U-N-E. And then he's like, get out the car. Yeah. Oh, man. That's going to be cool.

We have Dave Chappelle on the show next week. Yeah. Thanks, Andrew, for setting that up. No problem, dude. Yeah. Andrew, like, he's able to get to everybody. The A-listers. He's getting into the A-list. So my short stint in community college, Woodland Community College, I thought it was worthless,

but I actually did make some pretty solid connections, one in particular. And this is the plug. This guy knows everybody. So yeah, it worked out. Talking about Charlie Zamora? Talking about my boy Charlie Zamora? this is like the plug this guy knows everybody so yeah it worked out like talking about charlie zamora talking about my boy charlie zamora we are essentially neighbors at this point but yeah i think there's something we should real quick tell the people before we get to the q a but we are going to so so we've been talking about a lot of stuff on the channel that um is going to be and can be or is triggering to youtube like the

fat phobia stuff uh the fat acceptance stuff um stuff as it pertains to intersexual dynamics and all of that youtube uh start youtube quite literally shadow ban certain channels for talking about these things too often i've seen it you can barely talk about shaving your nuts these days seriously i mean come on seriously you can't talk about that no i mean you can but it's like a gray area that's a yeah and you probably have a lot of grays on that but what i was gonna say was uh we're going to be actually starting a patreon channel right where you got late and it's not it's not here yet but there are things that we want to talk about. But we literally – if we talk about it on YouTube, it could mess us up like it did with Dr. B last year during the big C. You can tell them what I'm talking about.

Yeah, yeah. During the two-year time span that everybody went through where we had a lot of weird shit going on in the world. We had a bunch of people on, a bunch of guests on that said stuff that kind of went against a lot of the general narrative that was out there from mass media. And a lot of our stuff got banned. Yeah. And not only did some of our stuff get banned and taken down,

YouTube put us into the shadow realm. So one day, we're getting the channels growing. We're getting great views. some of our stuff get banned and taken down uh youtube put us into the shadow realm so like one day we're like getting the channels growing we're getting great views the next day we're literally barely scraping 400 500 views on a podcast or a video and we're like what's going on and it was right after we did a podcast with a certain person that well the overlords didn't like so there's a lot of things we want to talk about but we know that it's not not the safest for us here to talk about it because we were enjoying the growth that you guys are helping us gain. Like we've been gaining subs. And just to be totally transparent. I mean, we do make money off of the YouTube views. We have sponsors and things like that. And if a

video gets canceled, that's hurtful to us. If a video gets banned or we get banned or we get thrown into YouTube jail, it sucks. It throws off our momentum. It throws off a lot of the stuff we're working for. Obviously, everyone wants more money, so there's no reason to lie about that. Of course. Making more money is great. But we do want to reach more people. We want to be able to have a message that gets to more people.

We think the people that are listening to that, listening to this, would agree. Like, oh, fuck, it'd be great if more people heard about how healthy it is to go for a walk. Or it's a good idea to pay attention to your sleep. Or it's a good idea to maybe pay attention to how much porn you're watching. Or just some of the various things that we talk about other than just getting jacked and tanned on the show. Yeah, and in regards to the like you know like yeah we do make money off of like views and stuff but it's not as simple as like some people will say like oh you're greedy or whatever you're you know it's a money grab or whatever but it's

like it's we're not just like hitting record publishing something and then just like raking in all the cash there's a lot that goes into this. So like, it kind of works that way for me. Well, yeah, I mean, we're, we're not there yet. We're not,

we're not quite at the Mark Bell level yet, but what I was going to say, I just mean, cause you guys are working hard. So exactly. So like when we had Dr. B on Dr. Butter.

Yeah. I mean, I remember I was publishing like, fuck dude, like 25 different things on social media every single day. And we can see the trajectory of all our views and downloads going straight through the roof. And then that hit and I was doing the same amount of work and we were going backwards. So it's like we were putting a lot of the same, if not more effort and getting significantly less. That stuff, I mean, whatever. We don't have to talk about like, oh, it costs a lot of money, but it costs a lot of the same, if not more effort and getting significantly less that stuff. I mean,

whatever it isn't, we don't have to talk about like, Oh, it costs a lot of money, but it costs a lot of time, costs a lot of energy. And then now we have a bigger team now. So it's like,

these are things that we just can't, you know, it's a team of six now. I don't know what happened. We blinked. And then all of a sudden, here it was. You put your penis in the wrong spot.

Crazy things happen. People multiply. Yeah. Right. right it looks like never saw it coming we got we got our first victim i mean first person that we could chat with oh really oh yeah yeah let's see so i just literally just drag him and then throw him in the thing right is this the internet yeah this is the internet oh let's see what happens that's wild the way, guys, if we haven't mentioned, things are busting on Discord. We got like 400 people in our Discord and we're doing a Q&A with the members from there. So if you want to hop in on what we're going to be doing in terms of Discord

exclusive content in the future, click the link in the description and join Discord. Whoever, Komali 36 from Dallas, Texas. I need you to unmute yourself yourself i don't know how that shit works oh we're gonna hear his voice yeah we should hear this person's voice wow what is this hey there he is

what's up dude what you got um i guess so i wanted to ask you guys um mark andrew and in sema uh since implementing more mobility work and seeing the impacts of that what are some perspectives y'all have had to reinterpret that you may have held before? Andrew, go ahead, buddy. Oh, sure thing. Well, let's see. So, I mean, if you're familiar with my story, I've always been like the, I've considered myself to be the skinny guy, always been the smallest one in the room, especially amongst these monsters.

So my goal was always like, I just need to get big, whatever it takes, get big, even do PDs, whatever it takes. Um, but I never ever once, you know, even came close to acknowledging like my back pain or my lack of mobility, but I'm like, I don't want to get more bendy. I just want to get more jacked. I'll do whatever it takes. I just want to, you know, bench squat dead and do bicep curls. And then what's happening now, though, is I've knotted myself up so much and I have yet to accomplish a damn thing. So I haven't really had a crazy physique. Your physique got better. Don't sell yourself short. Thank you for that. Don't do that.

But what I'm saying, though, is I've been so tied to whatever I have had or have obtained where I'm like, I can't even turn back now. I can't, I can't go and start like stretching because if soon as I put down the weights, I'm going to lose my whatever muscle I do have. And then it'll be too late. But like Mark has clowned on dudes that are like 300 pounds that can squat

like, you know, three fifths, whatever, four or five. It's like, bro, like it's not that impressive.

You, you'll be fine if you let go for a little bit and what's happening now is like i'm feeling better and the handful of workouts that i have done since working on mobility have gone so much better and it's like my physique right now has not withered away um i you know a thing that we talk about on this podcast that we got from alpha m was like you should always strive to have a bicep vein. And that's one thing I've always, you know, made sure I, I've always made sure I held onto that, at least on my left side, because my left side just kind of protrudes a little bit better, but now I hold onto it on

both biceps. So I have a bicep vein on both sides. Um, so now that, again, so going back to the whole, like the actual main question is like, I'm able to do a lot more, even though I thought I would be doing less and I'm, I just have a lot more capacity to be able to lift better right now. And so that's just in the long run, that's going to be so much better. And I'm just like, I'm upset that I waited this long to actually address these things but now that i have i just feel like i don't know over the next 10 years it's gonna just be i mean a hundred times better than the previous 20 yeah you know he mentioned uh reinterpretation and for me

reinterpretation is massive when you're not in pain anymore you get yourself out of pain i'll still get stiff here and there i don't know if that's like a genetic thing inside of me or if that's like just the way it is from all the years of lifting. But when I am either walking for too long, standing for too long, sitting for too long, doing anything for too long, my body gets – it used to get very stiff. And now it's less and less. Uh, it used to get very stiff and now it's less and less. So I'm excited to kind of see, uh, what will happen over the next couple months or even we, or even years. Um, but I think when you, I don't think that people truly understand how much pain is holding them back.

It really is a, uh, even if you're like, oh yeah, I got a little bit of this in my knee or something. even if you're like, oh yeah, I got a little bit of this in my knee or something, it, it, uh, it massively impacts every single move that you make during the day. For me, I want to move more and more and more. And as I got deeper into this and as I've been working on my mobility, um, you're starting to see me run. There's been days where I ran, uh, you know, uh, twice in the same day. There's been days where I've ran lifted and ran again and it's like i'm just like out of my mind because i'm like this feels so good and i'm excited for andrew because i think something like a 300 pound deadlift or something like that these these

weights that may have been challenging to you before where you had to really work hard to get up to those weights i think that it won't be long, maybe within the next six months or so, where 225, 275 is on the bar, and you could just walk over there and be like, yeah, I'll give it a go. You won't even really, you won't think about it. You won't have to kind of prep yourself a lot for it.

I'm not saying that you'll get it without any work. I'm just saying that I think you're going to gain a lot of access to those things and have a lot of confidence. And so that's been the biggest thing for me is it's increased my, uh, like physical confidence in, in what I can do and how I can move. Yeah. And, uh, for me, man, I played soccer since I was young. And then I started focusing on like bodybuilding and powerlifting when I was in my early twenties. And as I got bigger, I started focusing on like bodybuilding and powerlifting when I was in my early 20s. And as I got bigger, I started noticing like I don't move as well as I used to. So, I mean, I invested in like getting the supple leopard and doing all of that stuff, doing a lot of mobilizing and stretching.

And as I did that, one thing I noticed is like, wow, I don't need a warm up. Just like you were saying, like Andrew could be able to walk into the gym and just do things. That's what happened with me. I was able to, instead of spending 30 minutes trying to warm my body up, I just felt good enough to walk into the gym and do what I needed to do. And then as I started jujitsu, it's movement-based. I just wanted to be able to use my body in the way I wanted to use it. And moving well is a big aspect of that. So with all of us here, Mark's doing some running and he's doing a bunch of things in the gym. Andrew's doing go to work and doing stuff in the gym. I'm doing jujitsu and stuff in the gym. But as we continue

to progress, if you're someone listening and you're just, you're, you're focusing on powerlifting, that doesn't mean that you still can't add in things to move better and it won't detract from your training. Even something, if you, if you do it low enough, something like running, you know, if, if that's a difficulty for you, you can implement that slowly. And it's, if you do it low enough, something like running, you know, if that's a difficulty for you, you can implement that slowly. And it's, trust me, it's, if you do it and it's not like too crazy, too fast, you ease yourself into it, it won't take away much from your strength and you'll feel better over time. Like Mark, you probably have a lot of insight on that. Oh, I feel, I feel fucking awesome. One other thing I think that goes along with this is

that like stretching is a skillset, you know? So I think people think I'm just going to bend down and reach towards my toes and I'm going to stretch and that will stretch my lower back. That'll stretch my behind my knees, you know, stretch my hamstrings a little bit. And that's going to be healthy for my lower back because I'm going to gain more range of motion. Well, that could technically be the case, but real stretching doesn't work that way in my opinion. I think that you have to be very conscious of what it is that you're doing and I think that you need to flex through it. I had Graham Tuttle, the barefoot sprinter,

check out some of his work on Instagram. I had him working on me the other day and he's working on my shins and you guys saw the first time that he touched my leg i'd like nearly died i think andrew was there and it was just like it almost made me sick to my stomach why just because there was so much pain there and he's and his point was look there shouldn't be this much pain here like okay it's normal that there is pain because I'm digging into your shin. Like, of course, there's going to be some pain. But much like if I was just to get down on my knees, which for some people, even being down, like for people that are over the age of like 30, sometimes just being down on their

knees on the ground really hurts their knees really bad. A lot of people will be like, I'm not even going to get on my knees. Fuck that. It's because, like, and why is that? From the time you're a kid, you can crawl on your knees and you can beat your knees up. And of course, when you're a baby, you have more fat and stuff like that. So I'm not talking about just that, but your tissues are hardening. Your tissues aren't, they're not supple. They don't feel great. And so what I've learned in this short stint of messing around with some mobility and some stretching is that if I'm to try to stretch

my groin and just try to put my foot out to the side, that's not just me putting my foot out to the side on a bench. Like that doesn't, that might do something, especially if you're very, very tight. But what's really going to be a factor is to move around, to move through it, to pulse in certain ranges, to flex, to flex my inner thigh against the whatever it was I put my foot up on. Then to contract and try to bring the hip up and to really try to relax into it. So Graham told me the other day, he's like, use the same vigor that you do when you lift, when you stretch. And I was just like, he didn't mean, he didn't mean to tense up. So don't get it twisted on that part. He meant like, dude, what's the intention when

you're trying to lift as heavy as possible? Like, what are you trying to do? What are you trying to unleash? He's like that part of your mind? He's like, tap into that shit. And I started doing it. I was like, oh, fuck. I'm like, I can see it now. I can't fully feel it, but I can see it. I understand it a lot better now. I can flex one muscle to get me in a slightly better position.

So I think for a lot of people, when they first start stretching, they're not going to feel a lot of that stuff. They're not going to understand a lot of that stuff. And that's stuff I never understood. And Seema's been talking about stretching. I have other people have been talking about it. I've taken yoga classes. I've gone to jujitsu, but I never really gave any of those things

like a real chance because I did them. And I'm like, I don't see shit from that, you know? And I was very closed off to it but you think about it like my body's tight right so how's my mind my mind's tight like I'm gonna you tell me to do something I'm gonna be like nope I got it like I'm tight I'm fucking not not allowing anything in you know and so my reinterpretation is motherfucker just open up like what what's the worst that's going to happen? Just open up.

Expose yourself to some of these things. It might look weird. It might look silly. But who in the fuck cares? It's going to probably, well, not even probably, it's going to make you better. Sick. Dude, thanks a lot for that question, dude. Appreciate it.

And thanks for being part of the Discord, too. It caught me a little off guard. I thought I may have joined in too late to be a part of the Discord too. It caught me a little off guard. I thought I may have joined in too late to be a part of the podcast. No, dude, thank you. So something I'd like to throw out. Yes, sir. Resonated with me with what Mark said, if you guys allow me to. Yes.

In terms of what you said with pain, that made a lot of sense to me. I personally, personally like go to resonated with me and i hired a go-to coach so shout out to jake naderman i think and uh it helped me like the other day i just went on a six mile hike like i've never done that before and no pain yeah it felt good and good shit dude i went on a long walk like three mile walk just through downtown dallas and i was like oh like no pain like fatigue and a muscle on the side of my leg i hadn't felt before but i just want to move and i mean thank you guys for being open-minded enough to have them on your

podcast it's been an awesome journey that's outstanding thank you so much. Cool, man. Thanks. Peace. I want to add in that our boy Russell, we were just talking to him in the gym, and he has so much great stuff to add to some of the conversation that we talked about with fat phobia, being fat phobic and stuff like that. being fat phobic and stuff like that. And I think before Nsema kind of walked into the gym he mentioned some things that are hurtful and they're things that like when I say these things I know that they're hurtful

and I don't really necessarily say these things publicly but I certainly will think these things but I'm going to think these things through more often because of what he said. I didn't really again again, I recognize how they can be hurtful, but I think when we put people into a category and then we say something derogatory, it's hard for anyone to interpret it any other way. And so his point was what Russell was sharing with me. Russell weighs over 450 pounds. He's somebody that we helped come down

from over 500 pounds. And he's still working on it. He's walking, riding his bike, swimming, squatting, squatting. He's doing all kinds of stuff in there. He's working very hard, obviously adhering to a nutrition plan and stuff like that as well.

He said that he's heard many times where Joe Rogan talks aboute rogan talks about fat people and talks about fat people getting covid and fat people this fat people that and he'll say fat fuck he'll say fat and lazy joe rogan like i don't i'm not like buddies with him he is in my phone but like i don't like know him know him i'm not around him a lot he seemed like a reasonable person i think some people would could argue one way or the other and he seems very he seems fairly kind you know so i think you know pointing out to individuals like that or starting to get in

conversations like this and communicating to people that are really heavy and having hear it from their side you know, because Russell's not in this whole, like, he's not all tied up in this like, uh, fat acceptance stuff, but he's also not into fat shaming. You know, he's, he's in the middle. He like being excessively heavy is not a great idea. Um, you might not fit into certain things. You might not fit in, in, uh, an airplane seat. You might not fit into the seat at the doctor's office, but it also might not fit into certain things. You might not fit in an airplane seat. You might not fit into the seat at the doctor's office. But it also might not fit into your lifestyle to live to 50 years old, right? So you have to try to – you have to have a reasonable outtake on this.

And I think for myself, when he told me that, I was like, I could clean my language up a little bit. I could be a little more sensitive because I say – I throw around the word fat. I've been saying it a lot. We call each other fat as powerlifters. We make a lot of fun, and that's fine amongst the people that are kind of in on those little jokes. But I do say that on the internet here and there, and I'm like, you know what? I need to be – I don't want people to be hurt by my message. Now, I'm also not going to be a pansy and like dance around everything

all the time either. But look, if I'm saying something that truly hurts somebody, then I fucked up. That's not my intent. So I would like to improve my speech better. And that's why we're talking about these things so we can say stuff better. So we're not just, because I don't want to just flare you up. I don't want to just flare you up and then you're pissed at me and then we're going back and forth that way. I want to have a conversation where we can talk about it openly and where we can learn and grow together and learn and continue to have everybody move forward. I understand that and I agree. And we're probably going to get to another question real quick.

Yeah, we've got somebody ready to go. I want to add interpretation matters. I want to add interpretation matters. And like when somebody is listening to something, I would say this would probably be just like I try to do this too when I listen to things that may be somewhat annoying to me. Just within context, some things are just jokes. You know what I mean? Like Rogan is a comedian. A lot of people that say certain things are comedians.

So, you know, if something hurts you that a comic says or somebody says in jest remember this individual is not trying to hurt you some things are literally said as jokes and we still should be able to take jokes as jokes i'm done i'll shut up and like that thanks for putting it that way because that was my thing was just like we got to remember he's still a comedian he's gonna say some shit yeah and go from there so we got, I'm going to say it's new dog. 56 has just joined the room. So we got to ask you to unmute yourself, sir or ma'am. There we go.

What's up, dude? Hey, what's up? Yeah. So I just had kind of one question, um, mainly kind of my relationship with my wife as far as fitness goes.

I grew up playing sports, and so fitness has always just been a part of my life, whereas she grew up not really being involved in sports and never really had a good relationship, you could say, with fitness. So I guess my main question is is what are some good ways to encourage, um, but also slowly get them, get someone involved in fitness, um, without doing too much at a time. So, you know, knee issues or back issues may not arise, you know, just kind of as they're getting used to it and getting their body ready. New dog.

Welcome to discord. Thank you for checking us out. Um, so with this particular question, I would just like to ask you a question back. Is there anything that you used to do that's an activity that could be construed as any form of fitness or something that burns calories, whether it's like riding your bike, going on a walk, going on a hike? Is there anything like that from your past that you enjoy? like that from your past that you enjoy? For me, I do like going on walks.

That's the one thing that my wife and I are able to do, kind of get her out of the house is going on walks with the kids. I've tried to get some swimming involved as well. So I think for anybody listening, if you can find something nostalgic that you used to like, as long as you can still do it, um, you know, it's not something that you, you're, you know, you're not connected to any longer. Um, but it could be like walking, it could be playing volleyball, it could be playing basketball. Um, what I would encourage people to do is to explore stuff. You know, first of all, explore some of the things that you used to do. Then secondly, explore some things that you haven't done in a while. I don't see anything wrong with,

you don't need to be a football player to chuck a football around. If you have children, you have nieces, nephews, people like that in your family, maybe you can throw a baseball around. Maybe you can, these are all little activities you might need to be careful because maybe you're so far away from fitness that it hurts to throw a ball or swing a bat or swing a golf club like

there are things but getting sunlight i think is probably the easiest thing for people to gravitate towards and then how do we get that i think that's through some walking some sort of outdoor activity again basketball comes to mind. I'm not asking anyone to go play a pickup game of basketball because I think doing that out of nowhere might not be in your best interest, but to go outside and shoot some hoops. And I think if you have a kid, if you have a child in the house or somebody that's close to you, say, hey, we want to go shoot some hoops. Like they're not normally going to say no. Hey, you want to go outside and play a game and throw around a ball? Like most kids are totally down for that.

So those kinds of things I think is a good place to start. And then when it comes to like stuff like the gym and things like that, that's where things I think are, you're going to see people kind of more separated on stuff like that. It's not as common for people to be super pumped about. But what I would say again, use your resources. Who's in your phone? Who's somebody you know? Who's someone that lives close by?

Who's somebody in your family that's kind of into fitness? Maybe you know a personal trainer. That's a friend. Usually we know somebody. Oh, yeah, so-and-so. That's a friend. Maybe you know, like, usually we know somebody. Oh, yeah, so-and-so, they own a gym. You know what? I think that guy's gym is full of a bunch of crazy lunatic fitness people that do CrossFit and do all these crazy things. But I'm going to ask him if people like me that don't have a big fitness background, if they could, you know, hit up a workout.

And then you're going to find out that all these things that you thought previously are just completely false. So those are two places I would start is one with getting outside, trying to get some sort of sunlight via like a walk or some sort of game. And then the second thing is like, who do you know that participates in some form of fitness that you think that you can manage and get involved in. Yeah. And I think the biggest thing is walking. Like, I mean, me and my girl love going on long walks and taking walks because we talk about things.

I find out certain things about her. It leads to us learning and doing more stuff. So walking is a big thing. But secondly, figuring out what type of stuff she's interested in, because, I mean, she might not be interested in the gym, but she might like a lot of people like community based activities that don't necessarily feel like it's stressful that feels like they're having fun with other people could be something like hot yoga a lot of people like pole fitness like literally it's it's when people think about pole fitness they're like oh it's strippers or whatever but there there are there are places where they have classes it's not the worst thing no there are places where they have classes where a woman can do stuff on poles liras it's it men do it too but it's primarily women but again it's community based right and if i know anything like we know anything like women love community aspects more than men in

terms of fitness so like it might be a good idea to ask her things that she's interested in even things like like we always talk about having less barriers to entry right so rather than having to go to the gym what could you potentially get for the house that could aid in that? That's why a lot of people like Peloton because with Peloton, you know, you can get on a bike or you can get on a treadmill and they have different pieces of equipment and you can take classes with other people and be on leaderboards and do things with other people. And both of you guys could do that in the home. So trying to figure out a way so that fitness isn't something that's work because once she gets going, she'll probably start to enjoy it more.

She'll like the changes she's seeing in her body and the way she feels, and that will encourage more. But what are the easiest things that can be done that can make it fun? I really like what you're saying there because to play off that a bit is like why not just see what the other person is interested in? Like this guy, new dog, he mentioned that he likes walking. to play off that a bit is like, why not just see what the other person's interested in? Like, like this guy, a new dog, he mentioned that he likes walking. Okay. There's one thing for him. What does your wife like to do? Maybe she likes, I think this guy mentioned swimming as well. So now he's got two things that he likes. Like what one or two things does she enjoy? Maybe she likes yoga. And maybe you would just say, all right, I'm going to leave my baggage about what I think about yoga behind. And I'm going to go with my wife to a couple of yoga classes. Now you have

something that you're intertwined with that you do together. For my wife and I, we found that like, we don't really work out great together. We do everything. We do so many things together. That's like the one area when I try to coach her or something, she just gets quiet and I don't know what's going on. And then she looks like she wants to kill me so we don't do that we don't we don't do that anymore but could we work out together and kind of turn it into a little bit of competition via like pushing the sled or the tank or something like that yeah I'm sure that we could or could I just bite the bullet and say you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna attempt to go swim like it's not gonna go great probably but I'm gonna attempt to go swimming with you know what, I'm going to, I'm going to attempt to go swim. Like, it's not going to go great probably, but I'm going to attempt to go swimming with you today.

Yeah. And I'll just like echo everything they said, but also like, um, habit stacking. So like maybe fine. I don't know. I'm just throwing an example out there. Like, let's just say she likes photography. Well, like you guys just go for like a, a photo walk, right? You just go park midtown and then you end up just like, hey, let's go capture some images of each other or some buildings or something. So like kind of mixing in something that she's really into. I mean, sometimes you might need to like try really hard.

Like, oh, she goes every second Saturday to go get her nails done. It's like, well, shit, maybe we can go get your nails done and then go walk around and then eat lunch together. Like just small things like that. Cause sometimes, you know, whether it be like the Peloton or something like even those barriers to

entry might be a little bit too steep in the very beginning, especially if she has like a, we talked about this on the previous like fat phobia episode where it's like there might be just a lot of like traumatic memories when it comes to moving around and fitness. So maybe there's just like a little block there so the second you even mention that it's some form of exercise she's already shut off so let's just not even call it exercise like hey like babe we're gonna go for a walk after you get your nails done or we're gonna go eat lunch and then we're gonna go walk to go get ice cream it's it's a net like negative or you know you're

gonna end up with more calories than you're putting out, but you're still getting active and you're moving. You're getting the sunlight, you're hanging out and you're both smiling. I think ask questions to each other too. Like I asked my wife about swimming all the time. I don't, I don't still don't know anything about it really, but she'll say, oh, we did these intervals today and we did this on this like four minute thing. And I don't have a good reference of what that means so i'm like how does that compare to some of the other people and so she might be like oh i i was behind this guy i was slightly ahead of this person and i just i just ask questions and then she doesn't really ask questions about my lifting and i really thought about that before

she doesn't care fuck she doesn't listen anyway that bad example, that might have been a bad one. No, just try to get involved in what each other is doing is all I'm saying. I think it's a really good thing to be aware of what each other is up to and what the goals are, what you're trying to achieve. There you go. Thanks a lot, dude, for the question. We really appreciate you joining us on the old Discord. She does have that really buff guy who teaches her how to swim. That was a couple really good thoughts. Appreciate it.

All right, we'll catch you later, man. Thank you. They're little speedos. Mushroom tips popping. Some guys fill them out better than others. That's okay. But it's cold, right? It can't be that impressive. It's cold, but when you have a big dick, it doesn't matter. That's what I was going to say. But it's cold, right? So it's like, I mean, it can't be that impressive. It's cold, but when you have a big dick, it doesn't matter.

That's what I was going to say. Unless it's big plus cold. Like just a hammer hanging down there. Just a hog. Jesus Christ. I got to get over to some of these swim classes. Do the sock method. Check out these hogs.

I mean, protect my wife, you know, like. Like Will Smith. Protect your wife. Yeah, there you go. Keep my wife's name out know, like. Like Will Smith. Yeah. Protect your wife. Yeah. There you go. Keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth. Stand my ground. You guys want somebody else? Dude, this nitro's hitting me.

Nice. Shout out to my boy, Tate Fletcher. And Sam, I got a question for you. Here we go. And Andrew. Uh-oh. If you were cast in movies and you're pretty jacked and you get fucking killed right away every time how would you start like would you train differently because my boy tate like he's

he looks great he's tall he's intimidating like he knows how to fight and you get killed by an average looking dude all the time it's like he but he gets he gets like smoked a lot of times he did fight denzel washington pretty good a movie, and that was good. But I knew Denzel was going to win that shit. Yeah. What was that part that Denzel played? The something-ater? I don't remember.

It's a really good fucking movie series. I think there is one and two. I mean, you're already doing jujitsu and stuff. Does Tate do jujitsu? I think he's been doing it for years. Is Tate white? Yes. Is he straight?

Mm-hmm. That's our problem. If you're a straight white male, you're going to get fucked up in these movies. Let me tell you that. You're fucked either way. The Academy bans Will Smith for 10 years. Wow. Ooh.

Big Willie. And that sucks because that was his first Oscar for best actor. And he's been at this for a minute. He's been at this for a minute. That's unfortunate. Jada put that witchcraft over him, man. She put that witchcraft over him. That devil pussy.

I was just going to say devil pussy. Undefeated. Jada Pinkett Shakur. Pitchfork. Shakur. Pat cool pat roger family how's it going we talk about sleep all the time on this podcast that's why we partnered with eight sleep mattresses now this mattress is the tesla of sleep it's tesla of beds its technology tracks your heart rate your heart rate variability it changes its own temperature based off the way you sleep so that you get better sleep every single night it is quite literally literally insane. Check them out. Andrew,

how do they get it? Yes. And before I do that, I wanted to let you guys know that you can actually set the bed to wake you up silently. I know that sounds weird, but actually the bed starts vibrating around your head and it doesn't wake up the entire household the way my phone used to do back in the day. So now I just kind of have the bed wake me up silently and it's amazing. You guys got to head over to 8sleep.com slash power project. That's E I G H T sleep.com slash power project. When you guys go there, you'll see a banner across the top saying that you're going to receive $150 off automatically. So again, that's eight sleep.com slash power project to receive $150 off your pod pro cover or your pod pro cover and mattress combo links to them down in the description,

as well as the podcast show notes. Let's get back to the podcast. All right, here we go. Let's see. What do we got? We got Shibley. One four seven is in the house.

What's up, man? Hey, hey, hey. Thanks for adding me to the call guys. Yeah, no problem.

Thanks for being here. No, no, of course, man. I've been a long time fan of Mark Mark, yourself, and then Seema. So, glad to be on. Fantastic.

What you got? Nice, guys. Okay. So, it's a bit of a long question, but hopefully it's all right. So, the question is, with respect to training, so it's widely accepted that deloads and periodization is of major benefit when you're planning out your training program. loads and periodization is of major benefit when you're planning out your training program but a few years ago i heard ben pokulski talk about taking the same approach to your diet especially when you're bulking so he mentioned that if you're bulking you should periodically go into quite a hard mini cut example but then i'm just throwing arbitrary numbers but say three

to four weeks you're bulking at like three thousand three thousand five hundred calories and then you follow that with a week of a drastic slash in your calories, so say about 2,000 or something. And you try and maintain your training the best way you can. I think he rationalized it in a few ways. So number one, you can maintain a relatively lean physique while you're bulking. Number two, it would allow you to maybe be a bit more liberal with your calories during your three, four weeks of that intense bulk, so that maybe you can gain more muscle during your long-term bulk

and then number three the main one he had said was maybe to to stop your metabolism from slowing down and maybe adapting to this diet um so my ideas are just what are your thoughts on this um do you feel like it would be beneficial for those above factors i'm just a bit worried that you'd be making a bunch of progress and then sort of undoing the workout necessarily by cutting it that that drastically that intensely the calories i know a common mistake for a lot of people who train is that they flip-flop as soon as they stop you know they stop seeing their abs and they start getting a bit of body fat they start panicking and they cut their calories and they never really make any progress um so i'm in question just what do you think of that sort of cyclical bulking and cutting approach do you think it would be a benefit or do

you think it's better to just stick to bulk mode and then cut mode if you know what i mean i'm gonna let my boy and sema take this one away because he's big and he's fucking lean. Okay. So yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Dog, if you choose to go that of cyclical bulking, um, it's not a bad idea to do that as long as you keep performance at the head of mind. So what happens when people and most guys go on bulks is that they want to see the scale or the weight on the scale go up. Um, and they want to see that happen pretty quickly. So let's say 3000, 4,000 calories is the metric that you're using. Some individuals see the scale go up, and they want to see that happen pretty quickly. So let's say 3,000, 4,000 calories is the metric that you're using. Some individuals see the scale go up very quickly, right? And they look at that as a metric of, oh, things are going well, but you might actually be

putting on a lot of unnecessary body fat at the same time. So number one, you need to make sure that you're not just progressing and seeing weight on the scale and thinking that's progress. not just progressing and seeing weight on the scale and thinking that's progress. That's why, to be perfectly honest, I'm not a big fan of bulking. I'm a fan of like gaining, let's say, focusing on performance, making sure that your performance week to week, month to month, you're getting stronger, right? And making sure that you slowly see the scale go up. But in context of gain, I don't think personally, I'm not a big fan of that. But his rationalization in terms of periodizing that, if you want to do that, it makes sense. Because if you keep eating 3,000 or 4,000 calories, your metabolism is going to get used to that.

And over time, you may just start eating more and more and more. So taking one week and slashing, it's a good idea. It's not going, you're not going to lose all your progress. You may feel a little bit weaker in the gym that week since you're not taking as many calories, but it'll allow you to do another three to four weeks of that quote unquote bulk. Again, though, I think that bulking for most people that do bulking, it's not as strategic as what Ben is talking about.

When most guys do it, they're like, I want to see the scale weight go up. Since they're getting heavier, they're maybe moving a bit more in the gym. And it gives them an excuse to have a dirtier diet or to just eat more crap in the whole premise of, oh, I'm bulking, bro. So instead, my suggestion would be a more moderate approach, maybe a little bit above maintenance. So 10%, 15% calories above maintenance while focusing on increasing your training volume over time. And if your focus is muscle gain, of course, and slowly seeing strength gain over time, because you probably will get to the same destination, but you won't see as much of a

drastic rise. And then secondly, when you do plan on losing body fat, the cut won't be as drastic. What you tend to see is guys go on dedicated bulks. They gain a lot of weight. They gain some strength and they gain some muscle. And then their cutting period is they spend quite a bit of time cutting because they put on so much body fat. So that would be my suggestion there. There's nothing wrong with his approach, but if you do take that approach, make sure that you're not just taking in so many calories in the name of bulking, but you're also putting on a lot of unnecessary body fat. I would also take into consideration the fact that Ben Pekulski was a longtime professional bodybuilder who took things to you know, to the nth degree.

Like, it just, the guy's an animal. You know, the guy's an absolute savage. And so if I'm thinking about someone that has like a nine to five or they have a job and they're not a bodybuilder and they don't have time to like lay it all out on the line every single time, have five awesome training sessions a week, then I would really, you know, the bulk these guys have these guys have things dialed in so well you know ben pokulski's looking at his leg every day he's looking at his legs every day he's looking at his calves oh shit i lost a calf

vein like i i need to maybe uh have my energy increase a little bit my output or i need to you know pull back on the overall calories that I'm taking in. So I agree with Nsema. I don't really, I'm not a huge proponent of like a big, a big time bulk. However, when somebody does come to me and they say, Hey, I want to get stronger on this lift or I'd love to have a bigger back. Somebody says they want to have a bigger back. The question isn't about pull-ups necessarily. The, the necessarily. The answer isn't necessarily bent over rows. Usually where I start is like, hey, how's your diet? Like, how are you eating right now? And if they're like, I'm on a keto diet and, you know, I take in 1600 calories, I'm like, okay, it's going to be very difficult for you to grow your

back the way that you're talking about on a 1,600-calorie-a-day diet. So I think the reasonable approach is the best one, even if we were just to lay it out to you and we were to say, hey, you know what? Tomorrow I'm going and I'm going to eat 8,000 calories a day for the next eight weeks because I'm going to bulk. And I just got done with a cut. You would kind of think in your head, hmm, that's interesting. Like, okay, he's going to gain like 10 pounds in like a week. It's going to get bloated. And then over a period of time, I might be kind of, I don't know, I might be gaining more body fat.

And so while that technique, some of it seems like it works, and I like the fact that he's got a distraction thrown in there somewhere to kind of help mitigate some of the fat gain that you might get. And Lane Norton's been talking about this lately with these diet sprints that you might do, three weeks this way, three weeks that way, and so forth. I think those can be effective methods. But what I worry about for your average person that's not a high-level bodybuilder, I just think you're putting yourself, you're digging a deep ditch if you gain good amounts of body fat. And so I would just be, you don't need to be scared of it, but I'd be very cautious of it and be very mindful of it. And the big thing also, dude, is like, again, my suggestion, you can take the Ben approach and you sound reasonable enough that even if you're taking Ben's approach, you're not going too crazy with it, but muscle gain takes time.

enough that even if you're taking Ben's approach, you're not going too crazy with it, but muscle gain takes time. So a lot of guys are like, Ooh, my bicep isn't growing or I'm doing this program and my, my hamstrings are lagging. No, it might not be your hamstrings are lagging. It could be that you just need more time for your hamstrings to grow. And it takes time for new, it takes time for your body to create new tissue. Don't try to rush that process by, by driving the weight on the scale up because i see it all the time i have friends that have like that have been like i want to get to 200 pounds i want to get to 220 they get there i look at them like you really didn't put on that much muscle bro you put on a lot of fat to get to 220 and you're going to look almost the same when you cut back down so the the

the moderate approach is going to make sure you don't put on too much body fat and you gain muscle at a consistent pace and you get to the same end goal, but you're not over, you know, you're not too, you don't have too much body fat on you. And Seema, would you say like if somebody is able to get their protein requirement in and they have some of their micronutrients dialed in because they're eating, you know, good amounts of food and they have enough fat in their system to where it's not negatively impacting their hormones and they have enough carbohydrates to where they're still getting good pumps from their workout, we probably don't need an extra giant abundance of calories to achieve bigger arms, a bigger back,

and to be stronger. I don't believe so. I agree with you there. I don't think you need to be in a 700-calorie surplus. The thing is, the reason why bulking is so popular is, number one, that has been the way of growing that has been put forward in bodybuilding forever. That's what everybody does. That's what everybody talks about. That's what's popular. and it still hasn't died away because what does dedicated bulking get you? It gets you to see yourself in the mirror getting bigger, right? Even though you don't maybe notice all the body fat you're accumulating at the same time, and you see that number on the scale go up week by week by week. So it gives you this idea of progress, even though it may not be true progress.

You're putting on some muscle, but you're also putting on unnecessary body fat. What I'm talking about isn't as sexy because you won't see the scale go up as often. You might see the scale weight go up maybe every two weeks, depending on how much you weigh, right? And you're not going to notice that, but you will be gaining muscle while not gaining too much body fat. So yeah, I agree with you. If you eat, if you're eating enough, you're in a slight surplus, you're getting enough fat and enough

carbohydrates to fuel performance, you're going to grow. But the thing is, is like, do you want to do the approach that gives you a little bit of a pleasure and dopamine because you see the scale go up and you're looking a little bit bigger and fitting shirts a little bit tighter? Or do you want to take the more moderate approach and not put on as much body fat over time? I choose a moderate approach. I'd also say that the guys that have never really accumulated much body fat look a lot better. Oh, yeah. Like, I don't think Arnold really ever accumulated much body fat. I don't think he was, he might have said he was going to like bulk and maybe he ate more food and did heavier movements

for a while. Then maybe when the show came around, he did higher reps and maybe ate a little bit less carbohydrate or something like that. But I think that's most of the old school guys utilize a lot of techniques like that. The bulking stuff has come on a lot more recently and you just, I hate to bring the performance enhancing drugs thing always into the picture, but it's a huge factor. When you start taking enormous amounts of testosterone, you start taking insulin and growth hormone. I mean, we just, it's not to discredit any of those people. They have great information and they, but it does make a big difference. So there's just a lot of factors that you got to keep in mind. And I think for a natural guy, I think it's harder for them to

ramp up. Boom. I'm on all these drugs that are going to assist with the bulk. And now I'm just going to take all these drugs that are going to slam the body fat down, going back and forth between the two things. And it's like, they could just boom. They're on clenbuterol. They're on a thyroid medication. They're on growth hormone, but for the bulk, they're on all these other agents that are going to allow them to hold water, to be full. And really, they won't even look fat. They'll just look big.

You'll be like, holy fuck, man. What happened? You look crazy. And then when they lean out, they'll look crazy in a different way. Their shoulders are popping. You could see definition in the traps and striations in the shoulders. Even when the motherfucker's in a hoodie, you're like, what the hell is going on here? Yeah, it's a good look.

It's so rare for the natural guy to get that look unless they're on the pro level. And this is the thing, what I'm about to say. So there are going to be some comments like, he's on drugs anyway, so fuck him. But I'm going to say this. You've heard that before. It's in every youtube comment section of every podcast we make he's nigerian everybody cut him some slack um but but the thing is is like a lot of pro bodybuilder a lot of training methods a lot of training methods and a lot of nutrition protocols uh like dedicated bulking and super extremely high volume training.

Those natural guys do that stuff and they don't reap the same rewards because you don't have the recovery that a guy that's using certain things gets. You don't have the ability to gain size like a certain guy that's using things gets. And they can do things excessively, including cuts within bodybuilding and cutting for bodybuilding shows. Guys in the NPC are doing six to eight week cuts. Guys that are natural are doing 20 to 24 week cuts. My cut when I was competing was 42 weeks. When I competed in bodybuilding,

I did like an eight week prep. For me to go from 265 down to 229 in my last show, it took me 42 weeks of cutting, right? So what I'm saying here is like, if you don't use anything, you need to give yourself a moderate approach or you're going to put on excessive amounts of body fat. And it may not seem sexy,

but give yourself the time to do this because you'll benefit in the long run. Okay, okay. Would I be able to ask a follow-up question? Absolutely. Yeah, go for it. Okay. So thank you very much for that.

So yes, I totally agree with everything you've said. Love to hear that. And I'm on the same wave as that. So I've been training eight, nine years. I'm by no means an expert, but I think I'm past the phase of extreme bulking and seeing these great benefits, for example. So I do have a relatively lean physique throughout the year.

But what you say with like Leon Norton with these like sprint diets, that's something that I've seen become more prominent. Like Eugene Tao, I'm sure you've heard of him as well. He did this recently where he did like two weeks, three weeks where he cut himself down to 1,000, 1,500 calories. well we're getting this recently when he did like two weeks three weeks where he cut himself down to you know 1000 1500 calories so for me it's more that i'm not concerned about the extreme bulking side of it but more concerned about the extreme cutting side of it like you've said a lifetime

natty will take needs a long time to to cut i'm the same the leanest i've ever been it took me what 16 weeks to get to that stage um so my my feeling is is a one week intense cut like this number one is it going to be of that much benefit and number two am I going to lose that much muscle you said I am able to maintain quite a good intensity of my training because um even with low calories because it happens with work like I just started working as a doctor at the moment so it's a lot a lot of on calls a lot of time i'm able to get my training in i miss calories a lot um but yeah so my main concern is not mainly with the bulking side but mainly with

that extreme sort of cut because that used to be so looked down upon like uh you shouldn't be trying to cut so off there should be a long term whereas as you, as you said, Lynn Norton, Eugene Tao, Ben Pekulski, I'm hearing it come out more and more. They're talking about these sort of mini drastic cuts. But you don't think that I'd lose that much muscle? Is that what I'm hearing from you guys? Oh, I, you know, if you're only doing a cut for like a week,

I would doubt that you would lose hardly any muscle. There shouldn't be a huge problem with that. I guess it would depend on how big of a calorie restriction we're talking about. But you're talking about going from how many calories to how many calories? I mean, let's say I'm bulking at like 3,200 or so and then cut it down to like 1,900, 2,000. I don't know if that would be too drastic. No, I might have something different to say, but

I don't think, I don't see a scenario where that would be problematic. I also want to say, like, out of respect for Ben Pekulski, I have never achieved any of the shit that that guy achieved. Like I said earlier, he's a fucking monster. So sometimes when I give advice, what frustrates me when somebody comments about it, I'm like, they never tried it. comments about it. I'm like, they never tried it. So I would encourage you to give this a try and see what you think of it because I've never had a giant surplus of calories and then cut the calories out for a week and then went back to a bulk. Like it might have some really interesting effects and it might really be powerful. So I just want to throw that out there. I've never actually tried it. And two things.

For anybody who's wondering about bulking from a male perspective, you can let yourself get up to maybe anywhere between 15 to 18. If you get up to 15 to 18% body fat, that's where you should cap your bulk and not keep bulking. Start trying to slow it down or stay there for a while. Secondly, to answer your question, that's fine, dude. You're not going to lose any muscle as long as you keep your protein on an adequate level. So gram-per-pound lean body mass or a bit more. I'm a proponent of extra protein. Some people are like, I can't eat that much and that's perfectly okay. But a gram-per-pound lean body mass,

keep that at least. Secondly, if you're still doing resistance training and you're keeping those muscle groups activated and you're training those muscle groups, they will not atrophy or disappear because you're continuing to work them. Thing you need to be careful about is the post after you do that quick sprint cut, whether it's a week or two weeks of very low calories, don't just bring your calories way back up to 32, 3300 or more. Because what tends to happen with some individuals is that you'll bring those calories down. Okay. Your neat might go down a little bit because you're eating a little bit less. So that means you're moving around less. You're without you realizing it, you're doing less work. So you will actually, because the calories lower, you're going to drop body fat.

But if you bring those calories up immediately and your neat might've stayed where it was, you might be a little bit loose with your calories since you went on a two-week crash, right? And you eat some extra calories, like back to 3,500, 4,000, you might put on some unnecessary body fat. performance and keep your movement where it usually is and you'll be perfectly fine. Muscle loss is the last thing you need to worry about as long as you keep protein and you keep those stimulated by exercising. It's not like you're about to not exercise for two weeks. You're not, if you don't exercise, that's where you're fucked because like you're not using those muscles anymore. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you so much for the question. Appreciate it. No, no problem. Thank you so much for the answers. And guys, I've a big long time fan in sema since you showed up on a collab on the online coach like six years ago as an professor mark as well you've been one of the ogs like of youtube and then it's been great to see andrew about as well since you just started this podcast so long time fan uh just much love from

the uk man thanks a lot appreciate you to all the followers and everyone else. Thank you, homie. Cool. Thank you. Cool. We got one more from, I'm going to say it's Tariq or maybe it's Tariq, but

How do you spell it? T-A-R-I-Q. Oh, yeah. Tariq. Tariq. Yeah, okay. But before that, like you've mentioned

this before in the past when it comes to bulking or even cutting, being in a 10% surplus or deficit as somebody who, I mean, I think you said that as somebody who doesn't track, how do you yourself, like, how do you know if you're going to be in a deficit or surplus by 10%? Okay. So that's the thing you, if you're somebody that doesn't track, you don't know what 10% is,

but the things, if you're bulking without tracking, you keep attention to metrics. You pay attention to, you should have a scale as in like a body scale, right? Number one, you make sure you're eating enough protein, you make sure you're eating enough fat and you make sure you have enough carbohydrates to feel good in each workout. If you're going into workouts and you're feeling drained and tired and your performance is shit, you're not eating enough food to fuel your performance. Secondly, you want to look at the scale. What do you see each day?

There's going to be some variance with salt, with if you had some extra sodium the day before because you maybe ate some pho or something, you might gain a few pounds or whatever. But you look at the weekly averages and just make sure that you see the sale go slowly going up by say maybe about one percent per week one percent per week or a little bit a little bit less than that if you see that happening on average over time you're good and your performance is good then you're in a good place but the big things you need to pay attention to is do i feel again ideally you're also getting adequate sleep

because if you're not getting adequate sleep, you're going to feel like shit. So this intuitive thing won't work for you. But if you're getting adequate sleep and you're eating, do your workouts feel good in the gym? Are you progressing there? Is the scale slowly going up? It's not going up too fast, not going up too slow. Those are going to be the metrics you can use in your good.

You can also do measurements of different body parts. Your waist area, if you see specifically the waist for men and for women, it's usually like the hips, but you, you will like maybe take measurements of your waist each week. If your waist measurements are going up way too fast each week, tone things down. Cause for most men, that's where most body fat accumulation happens first. Some men is different, but most men on average, it's going to be in the belly area. And if you're intuitively bulking, which you can do, you've got to keep track of a few different things, and your waist measurements are going up too fast,

that probably means the scale is going up too fast too, lower your carbohydrate intake potentially and maybe pay attention to your fat intake. But those are some things you need to keep in mind if you're trying to do this without tracking on a scale. Got it. Cool. Let's bring in Lord Tariq. Oh, it's Tariq, but I added the Lord thing because of the rapper.

There we go. Yeah. What's up, man? You're in the house. What you got? Hello. Hey, Andrew. How's it going?

What's up? Can you hear me okay? Sensual voice. I like it. Jesus. Thank you. Appreciate it. Make me wet.

Yeah. You're giving Nsema a run for his money for the most smoothest voice. I need to take that off of my ears right now. It's like, oh, too much, man. Jesus. Jesus, man, you're making me blush, dude. What's up, dude? Not much.

It's been a hectic day, but really cool to get to actually talk to you guys. It's kind of strange cause I've listened to you guys so much, uh, especially during the pandemic and all the working from home, but yeah, super cool. Um, as far as questions go, sorry, I wasn't too sure how this was supposed to go. Can I just ask any general question or absolutely anything there's something in all right um i think i have a few but first one i'll start with is do you guys have any tips on bulking and like any foods in particular that might be helpful for um not being too satiated i, and being able to eat more food within a day.

Yeah. So I think Stan Efferding does a great job of encouraging people to get their full spectrum of macro and micronutrients. I think that's something that the vertical diet does well. So if you've never looked into that before, Stan's like one of the few guys that is really encouraging people to eat more a lot of times because people just – they're so scared. Everyone's so scared to like gain body fat. But Stan has a – he has meals that you can purchase, the vertical diet meals. But he also has something that he made up, which is like – it's called Monster Mash, and it's a form of beef and rice, sometimes beef, rice, potatoes, and peppers and stuff like that. But it's mainly beef and rice and bone broth. The bone broth

makes it easier to consume. And rice in general kind of makes things a little easier to eat. Even if you just had like chicken breast, which can be very difficult to eat. If you had chicken breast and rice and some some teriyaki sauce, that would go down a lot easier. What I would also suggest is without allowing yourself to gain too much weight and to get heavy too fast, I would suggest switching your meat to fattier cuts would be the easiest thing, I think, right off the bat so um getting chicken thighs

getting uh beef uh eating some bacon some whole eggs things of that nature i think are probably the probably the fastest and easiest way and then in addition to that you can get something like heavy whipping cream maybe you can get get into eating some like peanut butter here and there. But again, it's like you probably want to be cautious that you're not packing on too much weight too quickly. And the things that are going to be the most satiating are going to normally be the leaner cuts of meat. They're just going to be hard. They're going to be difficult to eat. So try to find fattier stuff, things that can go down a little easier. Like it's easier to eat a giant ribeye as opposed to eating, uh, you know, a really lean piece of steak. That's the same amount of ounces is going to be that much harder to get down. So

those are some of my suggestions. Yeah. Oh, go ahead. I was going to say in regards to like bulking, like the call just before you was all about bulking. So definitely go, definitely go back and check that one out too, but go ahead and Zima. Yeah. Um, so just to make it, just make it easier. Stan is also a performance, a proponent of juices. Like he's a proponent of like orange juice, et cetera, to get some extra calories in. If you find that you're, you're eating real food, right. But you still can't get into the amount of calories you feel you need to actually progress. Juice can be beneficial in that, but just don't let that go too crazy because the calories from that can add up and you might, you could take in too many calories. Protein shakes can also make it easier, like within you or what all of any protein shake

can make it easier to get into the adequate amount of protein that you need. Because again, no matter how much you weigh, if you're trying to eat 200, some guys have problems getting in 200 and 220, 30 grams of protein. Protein shakes can be super beneficial for that. You can also add – what's the carbohydrate powder called? Dextrose. Dextrose, yeah. Dextrose. You can use that as something pre-workout, some dextrose and some whey inside of a shake to help get those extra calories in.

If you're a guy who has a hard problem getting the amount of food you need to get in, but just don't overdo it. It's very easy to go too far. I almost forgot. I think we both forgot. You're going to have to ditch your snacks. Not that snacks are bad because snacks can bump up your overall calories, but you want to do it.

And Seema says meals at meals. You want to make the meal meaningful. Make sure that meal has macro and micronutrients that you feel you really need. If you fill yourself up like midday with something that just isn't towards your goals, it's not like a throwaway day or anything. It didn't ruin everything, but it would make it really hard to get back on track with that eating schedule. So if you eat like a giant burrito or if you had a snack midday, it's going to be tough to be hungry when you're supposed to be hungry

for what you're supposed to be hungry for. Absolutely. Oddly enough, that's actually one of the things that helped me just be able to have an appetite period was just stop eating snacks throughout the fucking day. Just eat meals at meals. But one thing I want to ask you guys really really quick like does anybody like if they're trying to quote bulk do they have to do like the olive oil thing where they spread like more cooking oil on shit or is that like just mainly for like you can do a little bit of that

and some butter and stuff like that but like i just don't do a bunch of – whether you're dieting and trying to get leaner or whether you're bulking, I would like for people to do their best to navigate all of that without doing a lot of stuff that they don't enjoy. If you don't want to put olive oil on your dressing or on your salad or cook with it and stuff like that, then don't do it. Like there's other ways to go about doing this. And I think we already gave some suggestions towards that. One last thing I'm going to mention for everyone that's like thinking about and wanting to bulk is bulking isn't bad. It's just how you do it. Don't set up a lot of bad habits when you're bulking

because those are going to be bad habits that are going to be hard to lose, not just when you're cutting, but then when you're actually trying to maintain a lean physique. Don't lie to yourself and be like, I'm bulking. And then you binge. Yeah. Snacking all day, binging, those things while you're bulking, you're going to excuse, but those become ingrained habits. Now, when you're trying to cut, number one, cutting is harder because you're used to eating all these highly palatable foods all day. You're used to binging. You're used to eating processed foods since you were bulking so cutting that out is going to be a difficult habit to break for you and then when you get to a physique that you're happy with it's going to be arduous to try to maintain it because now since you're used to just eating crap all the time you're like it's impossible to stay lean without you know without feeling like shit and that's not true it's just try to have good bulking habits so that you have

good cutting habits and so that you have good maintenance habits yeah i like it three you got anything else for us yeah kind of on that as far as um how much weight is too much or like how many calories to add in or how to tell if i'm adding in too much food? How would I go about figuring out how much is too much? Because just within a day, I feel like if I weigh myself in the morning, I might be typically on the smaller side, so typically about 160. And then at night, I might be like 165. So how would I know if I'm putting on too much weight too quickly I think a reasonable thing is to increase the amount of food that you're eating for a few days but just by a little bit and to weigh yourself and to check in to look at the scale and or to look in the mirror and kind

of see you know what's going on with your body this is a this is a low estimate and this would be for somebody that's not moving around a whole lot, but it's just even nice numbers to work with. I think people just multiply your body weight by about 10. They usually say to multiply your body weight by like 12 or 13, but not a bad idea just to multiply it by 10 just because you already know that number. It's so easy to do. And then you can increase your calories by 250, 300, and see if you're putting on the kind of weight that you want. And if you're not putting on weight, if you're losing weight or you're just staying the same, continue to increase the calories a little bit.

And over time, you'll be able to learn exactly what calories to land on. Kind of the last thing on that is like protein is a little bit of a protein is a little bit of a flat kind of macronutrient where it doesn't maybe need to be as closely tracked. The energy sources that we have are a little bit more from fat and carbohydrates. So that might be something that you want to pay attention to. If you're going to raise something up, like I think protein should probably always be around one gram per pound of body weight. You can fluctuate that a little bit, but the carbs and the fats are going to be where you're going to get your bulk. And some people find the one gram per pound too much, but figure out what works for you there. And the second thing I'll say is it's a good idea to think of seven-day averages. So I don't really

care what you weigh at night. Pay attention to what you weigh every morning. And what you should do is add those weights up and divide it by seven every seven days. And look at your weekly averages rather than what you weigh on a single day. Because I mean, we said this on a prior call, but you may have eaten something that day that just had way more sodium. So you're holding water one morning or you started taking some creatine zero like actual creatine so you're actually holding extra water for a certain period of time but if you take seven day averages meaning you're weighing yourself in the morning don't give a fuck about what you weigh at night just weigh yourself in the morning every week keep track of that seven day average and is that average trending up slowly over time maybe by a percent or a little

bit less than a percent each week of your total body weight. Cool. Or actually a little bit less than a percent of your body weight. But is it going up over time? Cool. Because this is the thing. I can weigh seven pounds more tomorrow depending on what I ate today. Literally, like I can do that. And then my weight will trend down to where it usually is within a two to three day period. That's why longer day averages are important rather than the minute weight that you had one day. The shifting daily doesn't matter. It's the shifting weekly that you want to pay attention to that can give you a better idea of how much you should eat.

Okay. Well, thank you so much. That provides a lot of like insight and a little bit more of a guideline to go down. I have one more question. If you had time for it go for it um i was actually curious about what you guys think or what type of impact you guys think anime comic books and like the physiques that we end up seeing in those things and the motivation they kind of give us has had on the fitness industry and will

possibly continue to have also side question are you guys watching any animes right now i am not watching anime at the moment at least that i'm aware of um i'll poke into my daughter's room and she's watching like my hero academia yeah um i i just thought it was funny because like they have like a like a jacked like steroid looking all might captain america looking all might yeah so i'm like i'm like oh that dude's sick and is he a bad guy like he's a good guy he's a good guy okay cool like yeah he seems pretty cool um other than that i used to watch, what was the drifting one? Initial D. Initial D, like a motherfucker.

I watched that a lot back in the day. That was it. But, yep. And then you got the rest in SEMA. Okay. So, Dog, yeah. I mean, you can count the number. You can see the amount of lifters who are like, Dragon Ball Z inspired me to lift. You know what I mean?

You see that in the fitness industry a lot. And even myself, like, I wanted a physique like goku he was a fucking badass so yeah um i think it has a massive effect on especially the millennial kids and since anime is becoming something hit when i was younger you were a fucking nerd if you watched anime or read manga but nowadays yeah you know what i mean nowadays it's cool if you're into anime which is dope i i dig that um but yeah man i think it's overall positive currently am i watching anything i don't have time right now but i'd like some suggestions from you so if you think i should get into anything later i just finished reading um attack on titan because i couldn't wait for the i couldn't wait for all of it to come out. But dog, yeah. Anime, manga, all that shit. I think it's positive for the Vizie community.

Because for nerds like us, nerds like me, we're not nerds anymore. We're now the cool kids. The nerd acceptance is nice now. Nerd acceptance. Well, everyone's a nerd. Because everyone's got a computer in their pocket, right? So, I mean, you kind of like, you're not up to date on shit if you're not a little nerdy. Like, you don't know how to make an Instagram post. Or you don't know what's going on on TikTok, or you don't know what's going on on Discord.

I was going to say, Mark, you're on Discord, you nerd. Then you're, oh, yeah, you're old as fuck, right? I didn't really grow up with any of that, but, like, superheroes and all that kind of stuff, like, obviously it's had a huge impact. Not necessarily on me, because I think superheroes are fake news, but it's had a lot of impact on a lot of other people. Rocky is like a superhero. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Didn't seem so bad. That's a true story, bro. Yeah. What did our homie say, Tariq? Aren't wrestlers kind of considered superheroes in a little bit of a way? Absolutely.

Absolutely. They were impacted probably by superheroes. Yeah. Which impacted me indirectly. But Tariq, suggestions, man? Quick suggestions before we go to the next one? Suggestions. One I think you might like is Jujutsu Kaisen.

I've already caught up. I already watched all of them a while ago. Yeah. That's a good one. Obvious Choice, Demon Slayer. I watched it already. It's absolutely insane. Yeah. Anyway, guys guys you should watch that by the way they're good anime which one's the one that i've never seen any of which is which one's the one that mark is actually in oh the mustache

yeah the mustache come on dude the guy he beats the shot of his like 17 year old son or something like that oh that's invincible oh baki oh well baki's the martial arts i think they were talking about invincible you know have you ever watched invincible on amazon prime oh yeah what's mark's character's name um what is his name dude i've totally forgotten now somebody come on he was him for halloween yeah fuck uh well yeah i'm drawing a blank well we'll have it on the screen. Something man. All I remember is One Punch Man. Omni-Man. Omni-Man.

God. Okay, cool. But yeah, Jujutsu Kaisen. That was a good one. Hey, Tariq, it was nice meeting you, man. Thanks for coming on. Yeah, thanks for being a part of our first Discord Q&A. Yeah, thanks so much for you guys doing this and having me on.

And again, thank you so much for the podcast. You've introduced me to so many people that have provided a lot of uh benefit to my life along with you guys of course so thank you so much for that yeah have a great rest of your day thanks a bunch man bye cool that was a q a show guys was it i think so did we record it um i don't know owen's got that we'll be fine it's in the cloud owen left a long time it's in the cloud i have no idea how people are Did we record it? I don't know. Owen's got that. We'll be fine. It's in the cloud. Owen left a long time ago. It's in the cloud, yeah.

I have no idea how people are going to listen to this, though, because it was on Discord. So I think you need... They got to double click. You need an NFT in order to gain access to it. See, it's not a click and then another click. It's a click, click. That's the difference. Right, because you have to double click.

You can't click and then click. You got click click people don't understand it you got to be quick yeah take us on out of here andrew thank you everybody for checking out today's episode and thank you everybody that was a part of today's episode if you guys want to be a part of the episode just like they were make sure you guys check the link down below to our discord because we're going to be doing this a lot more and we're having a lot of fun over there on discord even though i can't figure out how to download torrents yet but eventually i'll figure it out and then we'll be having a lot more fun there uh subscribe to the youtube channel if you guys are not subscribed already and turn on all those bell notifications

follow the podcast at mb power project on tiktok instagram twitter my instagram tiktok and twitter on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter. My Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter is at IamAndrewZ. And Seema, where are you at? Join the party on Reddit and make sure, because we're going to have a Patreon soon, like we mentioned at the beginning of the episode. We want to be able to talk openly about things without getting dinged. So Patreon's where we're going to be able to do

that freely without any type of censorship. So check us out there soon. All right? And Seema my ending on Instagram and YouTube. I didn't see my yin and yang on TikTok and Twitter. Mark. I'm at Mark Smiley Bell. Strength is never weakness. Weakness never strength.

Catch you guys later. Bye. Yay. Our first discord.