Mark Bell's Power Project - What Changes to Expect After Years of Working Out || MBPP EP. 1003

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

In episode 1003, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza talk about what you can expect after years of working out and give you a guide on how to do it correctly.   Buy Hard Ketones using code: MARKBELL get free shipping: https://shop.ketoneaid.com/collections/all/products/hard-ketones     Official Power Project Website: https://powerproject.live Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw   Special perks for our listeners below! ➢ https://Peluva.com/PowerProject Code POWERPROJECT15 to save 15% off Peluva Shoes!   ➢https://drinkag1.com/powerproject Receive a year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 & 5 Travel Packs!   ➢ https://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!   ➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off all gear and apparel!   ➢ https://mindbullet.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off Mind Bullet!   ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save up to 25% off your Build a Box   ➢ https://hostagetape.com/powerproject to receive a year supply of Hostage Tape and Nose Strips for less than $1 a night!   ➢ https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!!   ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM   ➢ https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/powerproject to save 15% off Vivo Barefoot shoes!   ➢ https://vuori.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/PowerProject to receive 10% off our Panel, Check Up Panel or any custom panel!   ➢ Piedmontese Beef: https://www.CPBeef.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://www.PowerProject.live ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject   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   #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast #markbellspowerproject

You have to enjoy training. You have to enjoy kind of like how it makes you feel. You have to enjoy the small progress you make over time because it's going to take you a while. And that's just a reality that you got to be used to. Where do you want to get better? Why do you want to get better? I think having an intent of your workout for me

has always been really helpful. No matter how long it takes, it's still good for anybody to build that habit. But you don't build the habit by going so fucking hard that you can't repeat it again tomorrow. So I think trying to really lower your expectations or maybe just change some of your interpretation of your expectations. Maybe your expectations shouldn't always be through the roof. Maybe you can kind of toggle them and adjust them in accordance to what's realistic for you for that particular day. 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 so we can keep growing with y'all and bring you amazing information. Enjoy the show. All right, I'm going to crack open some of these hard ketones from KetoAid. I got a ginger mule.

You guys have some too. You're doing the smaller one first? Yep. I want you guys to know this is not a sponsor. For some reason, whenever we pull something up, someone's like, I bet they paid you. No, they didn't actually. The government pays us. I like the flavor of this.

I think it tastes good, but we'll see what you guys think. I don't know. Okay. I'm not always a good barometer. When you smell it, you feel like there's alcohol in it. That's good. You're right. And it literally says no vodka. I think it says no vodka because it smells kind feel like there's alcohol in it. That's good. And it literally says no vodka.

I think it says no vodka because it smells kind of like it's vodka. Okay, but if it smells like vodka, why would you drink it if there's no vodka in there? We'll see how I feel in 30 minutes because, like you said, you get a buzz from this, right? Yeah, these ketones are supposed to hit a little bit. I don't know the science behind it, but we'll have the guy on that runs the company. But basically, these ketones that are in here are supposed to be a little bit more relaxing. They're supposed to be something that kind of calms you down, soothes you a little bit. And my experience with it, I've had like four or five of these, and I've gotten a little – definitely felt like a buzz from it for sure.

But even like two or three on an empty stomach, I was able to feel pretty good. All right. Well, it's 11 a.m. somewhere, so I'll give it a shot. Alcohol converts in the liver to a toxin called acetylhyde. Acetyldehyde, whatever. Ketohol converts into the liver to ketones, a molecule in the body mixed naturally during fasting that promotes longevity. Alcohol makes you hungry.

Ketones suppress appetite. Goodbye munchies or drunchies. This is nice. Yeah, maybe it's an alternative. I don't know. I just think it's great to explore and it's great to try some different things. I also sit here on the table. I have like some of the regular ketones.

These are great for fasting. I've been utilizing them more recently because I'm dropping some more weight for running and it's been feeling like it's giving me some good energy, so. Power Project family, if you're trying to increase your muscle mass, if you're trying to lose body fat,

if you're trying to stick to a nutrition plan, if you're trying to get fit, pretty much if there's anything you're trying to do for your health, we know that sleep is the biggest determining factor to help you get from point A to nutrition plan. If you're trying to get fit, pretty much if there's anything you're trying to do for your health, we know that sleep is the biggest determining factor to help you get from point A to point B. That's why we've been sleeping on 8C mattresses for probably more than two years now. And the main reason is the technology behind the Pod Pro. Now, the Pod Pro is like the Tesla of beds. It will change its temperature based off of how you're sleeping during the night.

And if you have a partner that's sleeping on the other side, they could have their own temperature settings. We all sleep hot here. And I used to wake up in a puddle of my own sweat. That doesn't happen anymore because of the Eight Sleep mattress. And I've been getting the best sleep of my life. Now, if you don't want to replace your mattress, you can just get the Pod Pro cover and you can put that over your current mattress to get all the benefits of Eight Sleep. But if you also need to replace your old nasty mattress, you can get the Pod Pro cover and the Eight Sleep mattress. Andrew, how can they get it? Yes, you guys got to head over to eightsleep.com slash power project and you guys will automatically receive $150 off of your order.

Again, eightsleep.com slash power project. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. There we go. You know, it's funny. I got a homie, Lawrence. And whenever we talk, like every time we ever talk about alcohol, he's like, you know, funny. I drink just so I can get fucking drunk. I have homies who are just like, yeah, like if I drink, I'm looking to get drunk.

It's not even that they like, they don't love alcohol. They just want to get fucking wasted. You know what I mean? It's just like, damn. I think some people don't love alcohol. You just want to get fucking wasted. You know what I mean? It's just like, damn. I think some people don't admit that, but most people will drink not only until they get a buzz going, but they go beyond that. You know, if you're around some of the people I'm around,

they can drink. And it's like, ah, you already had like two or three, and that's a really good spot to be in. You know? But then it's like, oh, they're going for two or three more. Not sure what happened there. I don't know another species that can match the tolerance of the middle-aged white woman. Right? The middle-aged wine-loving white woman is a different breed of alcohol drinker.

Seriously. They can drink that shit all day they can drink wine like it's fucking you know what was like the hardest thing one of the hardest things i've ever done is i traveled with uh my brother-in-law and sister-in-law to new orleans and all we did was drink and eat and i was alcohol and eat yeah i was dying because like we did it we did like day drinking oh ah and i was just like i had i had to go back to the hotel i needed a fucking nap I was dying because like we did it, we did like day drinking. Oh, ah. And I was just like, I had, I had to go back to the hotel. I needed a fucking nap.

That was way harder than any training session I've ever done. Way harder than anything I've ever tried. That, I mean, that day literally was like, I've never been so fatigued and wiped out. And then the next two or three days I was fucked just from that one day. And I think I gained like 12, 15 pounds. Yep. I mean, I was was like i was swollen up it all went to my face you don't know what's that about day drinking day drinking just like makes you feel like unless you like it because again some people like it that's why they do it so day drinking is one thing but day and night drinking is rough like you do it in a day and then you gotta like reboot and fucking do it again that's the best way oh my god i can't think of a better way my brother-in-law's a champ at that shit he's so

good i used to hang around people that just weren't sober period like perpetually wake up and it's just like they're still hung over so you gotta you know take care of it but like no you're just like you're already so belligerent that you don't like you're not even you anymore. And they're just like, no, we're going back to the bar. Like, what? Like, this is crazy. A couple of days ago when I was working on the bottles for my brother-in-law's new company, one of the guys, he was drinking the entire day. And the guy's working.

The guy's working hard. He's like in his 60s. And he's like, all right, right boys like i'm done for the day like he went from 8 a.m until fucking i don't know 6 p.m or something he worked the whole day and he was working his face off and he grabs like a six-pack and he hops in his truck i was like he i just watched him drink all day and now he's hopping in his car and he was going to like work. He was going to like another job. Oh, my gosh.

I was just like, holy shit. This is amazing. That's a man. How does he do it? I don't know. But this. I don't get how you know. Seriously.

I want you to just think about how you guys would feel real quick if you did that. Like, fuck the tolerance. I think it's just that tolerance, man. You're just used to feeling like that. so it doesn't even feel like shit anymore. Yes, that's what I was going to say. It's like almost the equivalent of when you don't work out and you work out way too hard. The next day, your whole body hurts. And that's exactly what a hangover would feel like right now.

Yeah. Like, at least for me, it would. I think they nailed the name on this because this does remind me of, like, school parties where everybody would have like the uh hard lemonades yeah it's kind of yeah that's what it really tastes like that and it's like bringing back some not memories or anything but like the the taste and the feel and yeah so what i'm getting at is you guys might not see me for a little while the smell of shitty weed oh yeah yeah worrying if the cops are gonna show up The smell of shitty weed. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Worrying if the cops are going to show up. 5-0, 5-0. Beer run. Kind of like a White Claw. It tastes like that. It tastes like hard seltzer. Yeah.

It tastes like hard seltzer. Definitely worth mentioning, these don't have any carbs in them or a very, very low amount of carbohydrates in them. Maybe like two or three grams or something like that. And again, no alcohol. That's the new secret macronutrient. Keto Hall. 11.5 grams per serving. And no caffeine.

No caffeine. Whoa. He makes all kinds of stuff. It's worth checking out his website. He makes keto seltzers and all kinds of shit. You should definitely check it out. One of the things he makes is called snake water, and that's pretty interesting. It's not these kind of ketones.

It's ketones that give you more energy more like in this ke1 thing here and uh it's mixed mixed with some nootropics sick my kind of dig feels good i dig it already anyway i was mentioning bloated faces and we need to talk about christian guzman and what is happening with this guy i know he's in a bulk but man i mean that is a check out some of the videos and some of the pictures and then even the comments. The comments are getting mean. I want to say, Kristen's a super nice dude, too. Amazing guy.

He is an amazing human. He's done a lot for the community. But this is a different type of transformation. I think he's trying to become an IFBB pro in men's physique. And if you're trying to become an IFBB pro in men's physique, you gotta do some different shit you gotta commit yeah you gotta commit all the way so he's gotten on the gear and uh then you also have to commit to the food and so you're gonna go through a phase where you're probably gonna you're probably gonna look a little bulky now we're pulling up like the worst video this is like this video he made as a joke right all right but um

but he like damn i think it's just so different from him because we're used to seeing him so lean so dialed in looking like a goddamn supermodel half the time yeah and then now he just looks like a sweaty bodybuilder i i think that when he cuts down like like you'll see, you know, you'll see the Christian that you've been used to seeing in the past or more of that. But right now, maybe it's just like, you know, gear. I'm not saying this from experience. I'm asking you, like gear makes you hungrier, correct? Oh, yeah. And it makes you it definitely makes you bloated for sure.

Right. definitely makes you bloated for sure right so and someone who's like hasn't taken stuff before if he's still eating a lot of food and now he's taking some gear like that could lead to some bloating yeah mark this is gonna be this is gonna sound really weird but do you think that like uh i i know there's more ifbb pro shows than something like uh the arnold or olympia or something like that but because he stayed natural for so long do you think he maybe waited too long to pull that card out and maybe he missed like the wave of like i mean i don't even know how old he is he's younger than me but like you know what i mean like yeah the health healthy joints healthy system healthy everything to

now pull it out to maybe get like that last little, there's a gear window. Yes. I genuinely think there's a gear window. Well, uh, one thing he has going for him is this guy is still really young. Yeah.

I know. I was like, as I'm saying, I'm like, shit, like he's only like, he's been the limelight for a long time, but I think he's like 30 years old.

I'll check. And if he's any older than that, he's still like early thirties. Yeah. Christian Guzman has killed it for a really long time in business and in fitness. And he runs that huge ass bodybuilding show every year. Summer shredding. He's been doing just fucking phenomenal stuff with all that stuff.

But no, I don't think he chose to dive into that too late. dive into that too late i do think that i do think that when you're younger uh that is the time to uh like go full blast on maybe how much damage you're gonna do to your body that's yeah whether it was in any sport he doesn't mean 17 though let's see let's practice this guy this doesn't mean i'm 21 nah chill, chill. But yeah. I'm just kind of talking about any sport, though, too, like how hard you're going to go in soccer or how hard you're going to go in your sport. You're right. There's I mean, there's young people like if you look at stuff like track and shit like that. I mean, these people that are doing like 400 and 800 meters. I mean, these people are just annihilating themselves.

But a lot of them are really young. I mean, these people are just annihilating themselves, but a lot of them are really young. And we're starting to see younger and younger people in a bunch of different sports just crushing it, just killing it. And so I think that there's something you can learn when you're younger that you just – I think you may pay a bigger price when you're older, guess is what i'm trying to say and it kind of sound like that's some of what you're alluding to like uh maybe his liver and kidneys and stuff like he's just an older man and so maybe taking them when you're a little and again he's only 30 years old yeah he is i checked he's only 30 he's not fucking 30 not old but uh potentially if he would have went on when he was like 23 or 25 but then look at at Sam Sulek, who's making a lot of waves. Then people are bashing him because he's way too young to be doing that stuff, according to people. It's very interesting to see.

We just did that episode the other day about the UK steroid epidemic, as they call it. But it's very interesting to see how gear affects people differently because you'll see some guy hop on right like uh let's even use pete rubich as an example because pete like he was on a lot of stuff uh but it didn't ever seem like he looked i don't know he didn't look it didn't affect the way he looked in too negatively a way our boy kenny is on some stuff he's not on anything crazy but he just became a bigger version of himself it kind of like looks like it affected him the way sam sulik is affected to his neck it went to his neck and his face but like he still has kenny's still a ravishing handsome dude and then some people it could just blow the fuck out of you and give you some acne and maybe some

gyno it's just like it's you don't know what's going to happen to you yeah different people will turn that amount of testosterone into estrogen you know kind of differently and then also i wonder if i wonder how much the diet matters you know i think like ronnie coleman would get absolutely enormous in between shows and he was always big even when he was leaned out there's some shots of our boy pete rubish congratulations to him man for switching over from power lifting to running but also uh coming off of stuff um that i don't know if i don't know if people understand how like courageous and bold that is that's that's a really uh awesome thing that's something i haven't done so my hat goes off to him tons of respect uh for him to be

able to do that because that wouldn't be an easy thing to uh to figure out is it something you haven't done it's not something you're gonna like i've heard you say you're gonna be on something for the rest of your life so it's not something you really plan on doing right i don't know you never know never know yeah i might i mean i might try to just come off for a little while to kind of see what happens. Why not? I mean, I'm, I am getting lighter anyway, and I'm, I'm right at the weight that I was when I was a kid. So this was kind of the weight I kind of cruise around at anyway. So that's crazy. I don't know.

It'd be a really interesting challenge to see if I could hold on to. I know that I would lose, you know, I would lose stuff. I would lose some of the v lose stuff i would lose uh some of the vascularity and some of the leanness or something but uh yeah i don't know might pose a good might pose a good challenge but also uh again and i don't really view myself as being old but i am in an age range where some people do choose to go on trT. And so maybe at this point, because I've taken stuff for so long, maybe I need the TRT. But I don't really know. I haven't tried.

So I'd have to come off for like probably almost two years to really know. Wow. You know what I mean? Because like coming off for like six months, it's like that's not really enough time. A year is starting to get into about the right amount of time, but then you need another six months or year to see if you can balance out your own hormones your own way. Since you were, you know, since I was on previously for so long, I got to, I'd have to give myself a really good opportunity to really try it. You know what I mean? It wouldn't be. And then at that point, that would put me at, you know, close to 50 years old, which isn't bad because maybe I rejoin up with my true love steroids

when I'm 60. You know, it's really cool, kind of like the time span you put that because like, if somebody, if somebody on gear,

I don't think most people would look at it in that way. Most people would be like, okay, I'm going to come off for a few months, see how I do. Come off for a few months, things aren't where they want it to be. Okay, let's go back on. Obviously, I'm supposed to be on. But you know that if you do choose to do that, that's going to be a potentially two-year time span to give your body the time. And that's something to think about.

That's really cool. Yeah, I could be over-ex exaggerating that by a little bit but i think i'm i think i'm fairly close to uh kind of the right the right number and yeah it would be interesting to try i mean i don't i'm not as attached to all of that as i was anyway yeah so that that part of me is dying off and diminishing all the time anyway i don't't care about like what I lift. I'm not overly concerned. I had a great workout the other day. I benched 185 for multiple sets and multiple reps. Didn't care. It felt good. And I was like, OK, feels good. You know, let's add weight. And I was like, no, this feels good. Stay right here. Like there's no reason for you to add any weight. This feels perfect. So a lot of the, you know, heavier weights and just being heavier and bulkier. I never really cared that much about being like big necessarily. I did love lifting the heavy weights though.

The thing is though, it's like when you're lifting heavy weights, it was in the context of like, this is my sport. You were getting ready to go on a platform and compete. So you had to, right? At this point, though, it's like you're running. You don't get me. Like, I'm assuming you still want to maintain muscle. You still want to be big. So you're lifting to maintain that and to potentially like improve it in different ways.

But you don't have to put four plates on the bar when you're benching to do that. Right. That's, that's, that's something, that's something to understand right there. Let's see if we can bring up this clip.

I found this pretty interesting because, uh, you know, a lot of people in fitness, they get real big and real jacked. And then we take pictures and with good lighting and so forth. And, um,

people are always kind of like sharing their best. And this guy is saying he's been training for 10 years and uh i just thought it was like real authentic and i think uh maybe having people uh give information like this and talk this way gives people a much more accurate depiction of what's real and what uh can maybe expected. Like if somebody is not already starting out with good genetics or a background in sports, maybe they don't have any relationship to fitness. Maybe they're just kind of like coming off the couch and getting into the gym. It takes a long time to be able to get some good results.

It takes a long time to get headed in the right direction. So let's see if we can play this video. I've been training for over a decade now, and this is what I look like under good lighting and with a pump. And this is what I look like day to day in normal lighting without a good pump. And some people have messaged me saying that I don't even look like I lift. Ouch. I mean, I know that I don't have the most impressive physique, but to say that I look like I don't even lift is just so cruel. All jokes aside, the truth is that social

media has skewed your perception of what a healthy and muscular physique looks like. Fitness influencers share their absolute best, not their day-to-day. And often they edit their pictures and use performance-enhancing drugs without being honest about it. Anyways, so normal people, like yourself, become disillusioned when you bust your ass in the gym for a whole year and you still don't look like the liver king the truth is that transforming your physique takes a long ass time instead of focusing so much on what you want your body to look like and being disappointed when it inevitably doesn't actively focus on celebrating the progress that you're making i promise you you'll be a lot

happier and you'll enjoy the process for more helpful health and fitness content like this make sure to give me a follow yeah dr joey. Joey Munoz, I'm digging his stuff. Yeah, the guy looks like he's in great shape, but I think that... His big back. Yeah. Saw those lats. Yeah, I think a lot of times, you know, people are just starting to get used to seeing like bodybuilders and powerlifters and people that are, I don't know, just on a mission, right? People that are kind of like full-time fitness people.

And, you know, what's the average dude look like that does get into some strength training and does take care of themselves? Probably start to look like that guy, which I think the guy looks awesome. He does look great. And he's been at it for a while. One thing that he mentioned towards the end there is like, you got to, it's repetitive, but you have to enjoy training. You have to enjoy kind of like how it makes you feel. You have to enjoy the small progress you make over time, because especially if you don't

plan on going on PEDs to get yourself bigger, stronger, which again, I don't think if like, I don't think most people should even think about doing. It's going to take you a while. And that's just a reality that you got to be used to. Along with that, it's going to be much harder for you mentally if you start as adult. Because when you start as an adult, you're just so aware of how behind you are,

even though you're not really behind. Whenever you get started, it's just great that you're fucking getting started because you're becoming a healthier, stronger individual. But now you're just really behind. Whenever you get started, it's just great that you're fucking getting started because you're becoming a healthier, stronger individual. But now you're just constantly comparing yourself to people who have been at this for a decade or two. Or like he said, some people are on PEDs. And it's like you can't be,

it's just hard to compare yourself to that. Yeah, I think having some goals, having some intention with what it is that you're doing, like where do you want to get better? Why do you want to get better? Do you want to get better for other people? Because that's an interesting one. You want to get lean to be able to post a good picture on social media. That's an interesting thing to explore. An interesting thing to think about. I think having an intent of your workout for me has always been really helpful because then I was trying to increase my squat, then I could say, okay, well, this good morning exercise is going to help with squat. And then these following exercises are going to help with the squat in some different ways, these hamstring exercises, and just made everything make more sense. And I felt in those moments, I felt like I was really, truly lifting for the goal of improving my squat.

I was lifting for myself to get better against the weights. It wasn't against an opponent. It wasn't necessarily against somebody else. It wasn't against anyone I was trying to compare myself to. Another thing too, though, that I think is kind of rough, because what he did say there is some people are on PEDs. Some people have been doing it for a very very long time but the thing is is like the nature of how you lift is going to also affect your outcomes

because many people lift like athletes lift they approach their sleep they approach their nutrition they approach their habits they approach their workouts with intensity of an athlete not of somebody who's just trying to get a bit bigger and trying to look good Because it helps you build your confidence and I want to look better to girls There's a difference between training like an athlete with intention and intensity and purpose and consistency Versus training because it makes you feel good and that's not a bad thing but you can't expect the progress and you can't expect the results of an athlete if you're not training like one and you're not training one like one for a long time because just because you train like an

athlete for a year doesn't mean you're going to get the results you're looking for many of these people who do look really good and they haven't been on peds many of them haven't been doing that for just a year many of them been doing that for like a right? And then they have these really good physiques. And then if you say that that skews the reality, no, that doesn't skew the reality of what's possible for people. It just skews the reality of what's possible over a long period of time for someone who trains like an athlete. But most people don't train like an athlete for a long time. Maybe they'll do that for a week here, a month here. time maybe they'll do that for a week here a month here then they'll back off and go back to their old habits and then get back on the train and maybe just kind of have half like average type

of intensity and there's nothing wrong with average intensity it can get you great results from a health standpoint 100% great for longevity 100% physique will improve you'll look better but you won't maybe have the best physique or or you won't have the best physique even for yourself because you could potentially go a little bit harder i think it's a one of these situations where that you get in where it's like well how much pain are you willing to take you know how much uh like i know pain and suffering like those are really like drastic words when you think about the different pain and suffering people actually went through in the world over the years. And we're just talking about fucking lifting some weights and eating some protein here and there.

It's not that big of a deal. However, you're going to have to like work hard and depending on what the goal is uh the work might be more and more challenging you know if you're trying to become a pro bodybuilder or you're trying to become a purple belt in jujitsu or something and you're trying to do it then you start to put a time frame on it it's like, now we're talking about your likelihood that you're going to get injured is really high. The likelihood that you're going to have some major setbacks are really high. If you're like, oh, I'm going to get into jujitsu.

I want to see what it's like. I want to build some confidence with it. I'm going to go two or three times a week. And if I'm able to progress to some different belts, that would be cool. if I'm able to progress to some different belts that would be cool and seems like a black belt would be like really really intense and crazy to ever truly figure out but if I can make it past white belt that would be pretty cool I can make it to blue and then maybe I don't know some point be in contention to do something further than that then that would be amazing but I'm just going to kind of leave it here that's much different than somebody that has a fire under their ass that's excited to go in there and

maybe try to compete on a world level or something like that. Dude, it's like comparing, you know, because he mentioned something. He used the phrase like, you know, you're skewing your reality of what's possible for us normal people, right? And when he says normal people, he means someone who's training, you know, with a light intensity and training to feel good and training kind of consistently. You can't necessarily compare yourself and compare your results to somebody who this is, this is their priority. Like they don't do certain things so that they can train. They'd rather with rather than going out and maybe hanging out with friends or going out and doing certain things. I'm not calling these things sacrifices either. Cause some people say I sacrifice. I'm not calling these things.

They don't care about balance. They don't. Cause the thing is, is this is their balance. They're not sacrificing anything. This is what they want to do every single day. And they'd rather do this than do things that most people would consider fun, like going out to dinner with their girlfriend or going out on the weekends with their friends. They'd rather be training. Hanging out and enjoying yourself to them would feel like they're doing nothing. And they would feel like they're doing nothing.

And they would feel like they're not making progress. And they'd have the same anxiety over doing that that somebody else might get if you say, hey, let's go for a three-mile run. That's how that would feel for me. Yeah, I would much rather be at your gym. That's why I was able to describe it that way. Exactly. I'm like, man, I got to get the fuck out of here. You get it. My HRV, I got to fucking get my sleep.

I got this tomorrow tomorrow i got that tomorrow but with that being said some people would say oh you're fucking obsessed there's no balance there no it's like i think if for some for people it's what you want to do but also i think that you don't have to do everything those types of people do you can take aspects of what they're doing and apply it to yourself just like whenever people talk talk about guys like Michael Hurd or people who are very elite at those things, you don't have to take every single thing that they do and apply it to your life. But you can take aspects of the way they train and aspects of what they do, their form, their habits, and you can add those into your life and then see some improvement. Because there's the other side of this where some people talk about like

the unrealistic expectations and like oh these people uh uh they're doing things that normal people don't do and they use that as it's somewhat of like a negative towards someone being too good at something right or it's like oh that's that's unrealistic setting unrealistic expectations for youth blah blah like no i think that instead of looking at like that look at it looks like what a few things can i take from this guy or this girl that can help my training have some of that because you're not going to do everything what they're doing it's if it's not what you enjoy and it's not like your life then don't first off don't even expect those, but don't expect to bite off everything that they're doing. The guy that we used in the post,

the video that we just showed, that guy was a doctor. Yeah. According to his, at least Instagram handles, Dr. Joey Munoz. What's his bio say? What's he a doctor? I don't know. I didn't check. So, you know, for one person, becoming a doctor is much easier than another person. Oh yeah. And, uh, maybe in this guy's case, maybe he had to put his whole life on pause to go after that

doctorate or maybe he didn't. Maybe he was doing that simultaneously while doing some other stuff. Uh, it's kind of like, it reminds me of the difference between like a Peyton Manning and like a brett farve brett farve was always messing around on the sidelines brett farve notoriously had issues with alcohol and painkillers and peyton manning seemed to be like i'm laser focused on this shit i i doubt peyton manning was ever celebrating with teammates or anything like that out past like a certain hour because he wanted to get his sleep and all that kind of stuff. And even just thinking of people that I know, thinking of the difference between Mike O'Hearn and Mike Ryan, Mike Ryan seems to

like, he has some fun. He lives life a different way. He's a single guy. He's been a single guy for a long time. They're both mid-50s. They both look amazing. They're both jacked. They're both super strong. Both guys are athletic and stuff like that. That's how the coconut oil that we saw at Mike Ryan's house.

Yeah, right in his bathroom. Why do you have all this coconut oil here? Mm-hmm. Yeah, lubricant? I don't know what's going on with this. But one guy is like, you know, they're both devoted. They're both way, way into it. But they do it differently.

And so it's even hard to say, even within the confines of, you know, trying to say that because like somebody that gets outside of that, like normal looking person thing, they might've just got there just because it was easier for them for any number of reasons. Maybe their background, maybe their genetics, maybe a combination of the two, maybe they just made it kind of look easy and they got super jacked off of that. And then someone say, that's unrealistic physique. I think all of us can think back, remembering when you're, if you remember when you were in school, there was always some kid that was

like super lean in like fifth, sixth grade or something. You're like, this kid's like shredded. They're like, what's the deal with this guy guy and it wasn't really necessarily big or anything but just like lean and you're like what the fuck is this so for some people it's just for that person to have a six-pack um all they got to do is like jump up on a pull-up bar and do some like leg raises and they probably are already partially there now they need to develop a body and get a little bit bigger maybe and that's about it yeah so we or you guys have been talking about like maybe uh controlling some of the expectations like you're not gonna look like uh this full-time influencer if you're working an eight to five job you can't expect to have the same results in the same amount of time but what are some healthy

expectations people should be kind of focused on i think think some, I think that first of all, I think you, I think you can, I think you can do anything, you know, you, you, you're going to be able to do anything within the means of like your genetics and, and not just your genetics, but your background. So you'll have some limitations, you're just not 7'4". Like there's just certain things. It might be possible that you never throw a football 60 yards. It's possible that you never dunk a basketball.

There's definitely these possibilities. But for the most part, everyone should be able to have a lean and healthy body in my opinion. And again, this might be harder for one person versus another. But some expectations are just improvement. There's no reason why you can't improve on where you're at now, on every single thing that you're doing in your life, not just your lifting, not just your health, but you should be able to improve on all markers of everything that you're doing,

not necessarily all at once, but if you turn your concentration and your energy towards something, you should be able to improve upon it. So if you're like, ah, man, you know, I kind of got like,

I don't know where this happened or how this happened, but I got a little bit of a gut. This isn't good. And like my shoulders look like shit. There's no reason why you can't turn some of that around in a fairly short period of time. I think three to six months, you should be able to start to notice some progress.

Maybe you're starting to lose a little bit of body fat. For most people, if they simply, without even really gaining muscle, if they just simply lost body fat, people would notice, people would recognize and people would go, yo, what are you doing? Doing something different? I'm not encouraging people just to like not eat, but for a lot of people, if they can figure out a way to be on a diet that controls their calories, that allows them to still be kind of happy-ish throughout each day with their food,

I think that would be a really good start. And then if you're able to get some lifting in, able to lift a couple times a week, I think within a year, you're going to be able to put on some good amount of muscle. How much? It's kind of hard to say, but if you've never lifted before, I think five pounds is like super reasonable. And it's also super reasonable to, uh, lose 10 to 20 pounds in that timeframe. I mean, imagine yourself right now, just think of yourself right now. If you had five more pounds of muscle and 10 to 20 less pounds of body fat, like that would be huge, 10 to 20 less pounds of body fat. Like that would be huge.

It'd be huge progress. No matter, uh, even if you're 300 pounds, like that is a, that is a major, uh, transformation. Imagine if you're able to do that,

uh, year after year. And if you're someone who's trying to gain size and look better, I think really, if you're, if you are newer to the gym, if, if you haven't been lifting for a very long time and you're not familiar with doing things

in the gym i think that you need to have like a routine that's set up because you don't like you'll do things that you that feel good right but then there's a lot of things that are left on the table that you just don't attack because like they don't feel good but they they it's not it doesn't feel good for you to do that so you kind of just avoid that you do the things that feel good you kind of go a little bit more intense one day and not as intense another day. And you need to have something set up where you can just work on that consistently. Because if you're trying to get those types of results, you have to be attacking this with the level of organization and intensity. And most people, if they don't have something that they can follow

and that's set up in that way, especially newer folks, they're going to just kind of do what feels good. And that'll get you some results and you'll feel okay. But then you'll look at yourself after six months or a year, like, damn, I really haven't gained much of anything. Or it's like, well, my arms are kind of bigger, but everything else is kind of normal. And you're like, why? Well, it's because you just maybe been working arms three times a week and you've been half-assing everything else in the gym because you haven't really done something consistently. So if you're wondering why you're not getting the results you want muscularly, yeah, you can say your genetics and all that. But there's also an aspect of you are not organizing your lifting. and all that. But there's also an aspect of you are not organizing your lifting. And I think the way that we lift now, we'll go into the gym and do what we need to do. But we've also done so many

different lifts that we can go into the gym and attack things well, because we have an understanding of how to lift. And that's not something I think like you, anybody can do that. But if you're looking for results, that's not something you should do in the beginning. I think also, as you're mentioning, you know, some organization. If you write stuff down, you'll be surprised and shocked at how much progress you can make. So the progress in the mirror and on the scale, it might be frustrating, might be annoying. I think most people have the most trouble with food and not necessarily that people have trouble getting themselves to the gym but people really struggle

with food but if you're writing down the exercises that you're doing you're writing down that you did three sets of 12 incline dumbbell uh 40 pounds and the next week you're able to use 45 pounds for a set or two that's that's huge progress and that's motivating and you're like shit man i i might be able to use the 50s next time or i might be able to do more reps or something and next time maybe you do the 45s and you end up doing three sets of 15 i'm that's that's tremendous progress going from 12 reps to 15 reps and with more weight. And if you track that progress and you track your measurements of strength, I mean, some of this, like I always like to say that a lot of this is art and not necessarily a science. But here's where the science comes in.

You need things that you can test. And then you need to test them and observe them over and over and over again. And if you went in the gym and you did your incline presses and you went from 40 pounds to 50 pounds, you fucking got stronger. You have literal scientific proof. You can circle it and show it to everybody. You can take a picture of it. You know for a fact that the work that you're doing is having you head in the right direction. You do the same thing with the scale.

You can do the same thing with looking at yourself in the mirror or some photos or something like that. But the photos and the scale, it's just, it ends up being a little bit tougher for people to navigate and negotiate that. And it would just probably take someone a little bit longer to get used to that.

But the scale and the photos will get better from you having improvements in your performance in the gym and if you're not writing some of that down it might be hard to really track that if you don't have an organized schedule setup routine then you don't really know you're like i don't i'm not really not really sure. I'm not really sure how much stronger I got because I used that machine one week and I used that other machine another week and I used that other thing another time. And you might not even be sure of what's working,

what muscles and stuff. So those are all things to pay attention to. I got stronger on this machine from week one to week four. Think about the benefits that people get from writing down their food finally and finally seeing what they're eating every single day. And then, wow, okay, let me stop eating this and let me stop eating this.

Oh shit, I lost this many pounds from just not drinking soda. It's the same type of idea because when you're near to nutrition and then you start paying attention to what you're actually doing in terms of nutrition, you can take things out and put things in. When you're near to exercising and then you start paying attention to what you're actually doing in terms of nutrition, you can take things out and put things in. When you're newer to exercising and then you can actually write down

and pay attention to what you're doing in the gym, then you're actually, oh, wow, I can start increasing my weight here or I can add these movements in. I haven't been working my calves ever, and I've been wondering why I've had such small calves for three years. Oh, they don't grow. No, you just don't fucking work them or you work them once every two weeks, right? So it's one of those things where it's like start having some organization when it comes to your exercise or

you're going to be that person that looks almost the same a decade from now. Not almost the same. You look a little bit bigger a decade from now, but you could have gotten way more results if you were more organized. I mean, even if they do look the same, that's still a huge win, right? Because people are usually gaining weight anyways. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, that's a whole nother side topic. But Mark, you had mentioned like, you know, the diet being really difficult. What's something that people can start doing, like implementing right away? Because I just know when it comes to like, oh, I'm going on a diet, starts Monday uh they're gonna you know eat like a rabbit as they say there's nothing but salads and they're just gonna cut way back on calories and maybe they're cutting back on the wrong

calories or in consuming the wrong ones but like where what can people like kind of switch things over to when it comes to like oh mark said eat a little bit less all right here's what we're going to do you know i think it's a really interesting question because sometimes there are people that can figure out a way just to eat less and to cut out some sugar. But most people need like a stronger challenge. You know, if I was to tell you that lifting weights twice a week would be really beneficial to you and I'd love to see you start doing that, most people probably wouldn't take you up on it because it's like not enough. It's almost like I need to like – not everybody, but a lot of people. That's the way their mind works.

I would have to say, hey, man, I dare you to like start lifting every day and see what it does to you. You'd be like, fuck yeah. You might go take on that because that sounds like a tangible challenge. If I told you don't shop when you're hungry, if I told you don't stuff yourself when you are consuming a meal and it's a bigger meal, maybe leave enough room to where if you needed to or wanted to, you could jog around the block. You know, there's a lot of things you could do that like that would be just these tiny little changes. It's you like eating, you know, five less scoops of your food for that day with these some of these particular meals but again those challenges are like they're not hard enough sometimes for some people so there's a group

of people that you can say hey man you know check your liquids that you're having your sodas your juices and so forth and check the calorie content of some of those things if those things have calories in them it's not a great idea to drink them. And if you are drinking them, maybe it's something you have after a workout, you have some orange juice or something like that. Not a huge deal. If you are going to have calories in a drink, maybe it's only in a protein shake, things like that. And you start to give them these kind of small details. You know, know, if you go, uh, and you want to get a sandwich, maybe try to use half the bread. Like you don't have to use all the bread. Maybe you don't get cheese, mayo, and bacon. It's like, well, that that's just, you just added so

many calories by choosing all three of those things. Maybe when you go to Chipotle, uh, maybe you don't get sour cream,acamole and cheese like i know that combination is dope and it tastes really good but maybe you try to cut back on one of those and replace some of that with some chicken or something like that so there's kind of like these small changes that you can mention to people and some people will boom they'll they'll take that and they'll they'll come back to you in four weeks and they'll be like dude i've lost like 10 pounds i can't believe it just by doing i cut out soda i started paying a little bit more attention to how much you know overall food i was eating um you know instead of eating you know a full sandwich i was able to manipulate it so i mean if you get a sandwich from subway or even like starbucks or something

like that you can usually get away with using half the amount of bread for a sandwich. And the sandwich is fine. It's still a sandwich. It's still really good. So there's a lot of things you can do like that. And then on the other side of it, you know, probably the easiest thing that I love to try to tell people is just see if you can just cut out processed foods know cut out some carbohydrates from your diet if I was just to try to leave everybody with a quick diet suggestion it would be eat a gram per pound of body weight in terms of your protein every day and then see if you can just really, really cut back on the amount of processed carbohydrates that you eat.

Fruit and stuff like that, it's fair game, but ditch the rest of it. And for those of you who are trying to gain muscle, because there's a lot of people who are trying to lose body fat and get smaller, but those of you trying to gain muscle, still get that protein in like Mark mentioned. But when you're eating carbohydrates,

try to get in rice, potatoes. Try to just get in carbohydrates that will help you out and that aren't processed carbs because you can overeat processed carbs. Then if you're someone who has a really hard time gaining, the weight on the scale just doesn't seem to be going up and you've been training like three months, barely has really gone up maybe having some processed carbohydrates in your diet is going to help you get that weight a little bit faster doesn't mean you should be going crazy with the cereal like you see some people do it or crazy with rice krispy treats but adding some stuff in here and there just to help you get in some few extra calories if you find it difficult might not be the worst idea there's also like a vertical meal, like Stan

Efferding's vertical diet has individuals like, you know, he'll have people make monster mash, which allows you just get in a lot of carbohydrates very quickly and very easily since you're using broth at the same time. That can be helpful for people who are struggling to get bigger and gain weight. Yeah. So my, I got my question cause I was helping out a buddy of mine and you know, I'm like, okay, he wants to lose body fat. And, OK, tell me everything you're eating. And he's telling me and I'm like, wow, he doesn't eat that much. But not much of it was coming from like in the form of protein.

So like skips breakfast, usually just a coffee desk job. So lunch would be like I guess I'll say like a keto-ish snack. So like a salami and cheese or that sort of thing. And then go home and have like a carb heavy pasta meal or something. And so in my head, I'm like, yeah, there's nowhere I would tell him to necessarily eat less. So what I told him was just like, whenever you incorporate some form of protein whether it be from a snack or your dinner like just double that and that that was my suggestion to him hopefully it works out but like it was just really it was tricky to be like holy shit like how am i going to tell somebody to eat less when they already don't eat much at all like it was really just like processed foods for the most

part they don't move much because they're always tired and i'm like well shit you're tired because you don't really eat anything it was it was really difficult for me to like give a solid recommendation on eating less i had to tell him to actually eat a little bit more of course information i get from you mark but like is this person skinny fat yeah yeah yeah yeah definitely you're not eating enough protein you're not going to gain muscle, right? You're eating minimal food. So you have a now slow metabolism while eating low calories.

So if you're now trying to lose fat, the only thing that logically would make sense to you is to eat less food. But if you increase your protein intake and maybe almost keep everything the same for a little bit, you might see the scale go up a little bit and then it'll start dropping down. And you might see the scale go up a little bit because you'll be starting to gain a little bit of muscle right so it's like it makes sense that the person's skinny fat yeah yeah and i just wanted to bring that up because you know that is what youtube fitness would say right you search how do i lose fat gain muscle or whatever it may be and it's always eat less move more and i'm like well this person doesn't do either like Like, you know what I mean? Like it's so hard for this person.

But to get them and other people to understand what you just said and seem, I think, is very important. And it gets missed a lot. I saw this really funny clip from Joe Rogan, and it was with Joey Diaz. And Joey Diaz was explaining like some diet that he was trying. And I think he was actually explaining Weight Watchers. And he was saying like how he did start to eat better he's like i started eating better and like i wasn't making any progress and he's like and i actually started to gain a little bit of weight so i was like you know what the hell's going on here so he said he kind of looked it up and um he didn't really pay attention to like the information that well.

And it said to eat bananas. So he was eating smoothies. Right. And so he basically started looking at the information more and it was like, Oh, bananas are a freebie on Weight Watchers because fruit is a freebie on Weight Watchers. It doesn't count as a point.

They use like this point system and the, and their protein doesn't count as a point. They use this point system. And their protein doesn't count as a point. They actually have some pretty cool I think they have some pretty cool information, actually. But then he was recognizing, like, shit, man, I made a mistake with eating all those

bananas in a blender. So he just switched it over and he was able to lose a little bit of weight from that. I think this is the clip. I'm and he was able to lose a little bit of weight I think this is the clip I'm pretty sure according to at least a little bit of a description he's so funny let me explain something to you eating a banana and putting a banana as a blender it's two different things when you blend a banana it's eight points when you eat a banana, it's eight points. When you eat a banana, it's who gots. Who gots. How does that be?

Because when you eat fruit and when you drink fruit, it's two different things. That's why all these fat people, you see them going, I don't eat breakfast. I drink a smoothie. You're killing yourself. He's the best. I don't know if that's where we want to get our diet advice from necessarily, but he brings up a good point. And I wouldn't say it's necessarily like two totally different things,

but when you, when you blend like an apple, a banana, you add some liquid and maybe some juice or whatever, you're going to be able to get way more calories in and it'll fiddle. Then if you might be able to use that to your advantage, like trying to gain weight. Exactly. But you know, for someone who's trying to drop like eating that apple and banana might be

a better idea because it'll actually satiate you you know whereas blended you can make it really most people don't just blend an apple and banana yeah right heck no it's like you you add some fun in it right and ends up being like 400 500 calories just gulped down at least right especially if you go to the jamba juice you're looking at like close to a thousand yeah jamba juice they had sherbert they had a lot of sugar in their shit like it's like after like even one of the large jamba shakes usually you don't really feel full no and you just drank 800 calories yeah those things taste good it's a milkshake with a banana. Does your friend lift? So he's, again, like I said, he is like the person you talk to, whatever they're explaining about their day.

As he's talking, he starts yawning. Like, oh, I'm so tired. Like, you need to just get out and move and walk and that sort of thing. and walk and that sort of thing um doesn't have too much support from you know the spouse but uh you know it's just have the culture needs to change and then the habits need to change um it's the um your typical person that's like oh i gotta make dinner uh whatever money's tight let me just go to the drive-through it's like okay. Like there's a lot of things that need to be changed. But like I said, it was just in conversation of like, oh, how do I maybe switch these things around?

Like, well, tell me, like if they're being 100% honest, you know, like they're not eating much, they might be for all I know at work, you know, eating the donuts that are there or whatever it may be. So it's, you know, like I said, a lot to unpack, but it was just like a more general question for you guys because i think there's a lot of people that are kind of stuck in that that mode of like why already you know if i cut back less food like what am i going to be

eating or if so and so cuts back less food like they're going to be eating almost nothing at that point if they understand right they're gonna be like they already have a little protein i tell them to eat less then they're gonna have like zero protein probably the worst question you can ask somebody is uh when somebody's asking you a question and then you put it back on them and you say well what are you doing about that it's usually like the worst question because they're usually not really doing things that are productive for that. Like they're not working on it really. Like, oh, man, my shoulder hurts and, you know, I can't move my arm this way.

And you're like, well, how long has it been that way? And they're like, oh, it's been that way for, I don't know, about two years. And you're like, well, what have you done? And sometimes they're like, well, I've tried everything. Or they'll start to get defensive and say, well, I hung from a pull-up bar a little bit. I tried some of this. Um, I was trying, you know, to do some dips or some pushups or, but they didn't really try it for like long enough to get any, to get anywhere. Um, and because the, because they have pain, it's understandable. Like They don't want to move that area. And I think the same thing happens with body composition and stuff. It's a sore subject.

You feel a little attacked. And when we're talking about diet, it couldn't be a stronger attack on your life and your lifestyle and the way that you live your life yeah you're kind of living your life like uh reckless because you are in some cases you're putting yourself in danger because you're compromising your health uh and in other cases um you're just um you're just making everything more difficult for yourself your jujitsu the other things that you love that you say you love that you say you really like that you enjoy that you want to get better at you're just like every time you're just shooting yourself in the foot before you go to practice because you don't have the right nutrition um and those are those are that's tough it's tough to hear that it's tough some you know you're like fuck you dude like no i i love jujitsu i love love lifting. It's like, no, if you loved lifting, you would

change the way that you eat so that you can lift better and you can enjoy the results from lifting. Like this works in such a positive fashion, you can't even begin to understand it until you start to head in that direction. But when you eat better, everything else is going to improve massively. Your conditioning is going to improve. Your strength is going to improve massively your conditioning is going to improve your strength is going to improve your body composition is going to improve everything will fall in line from that and just your overall your overall health in general is watching one of the guys that has been on Rogan before I think he was a like a psychiatrist and they were asking him

like what's the best thing for someone to do to really help them to help them with depression and help them with anxiety and he's like food and sleep and you don't need to be a doctor to know that like we know that but it you know life can be messy and things can be difficult sometimes. So, you know, when someone asks you a question, point blank, and they say, hey, what time do you get to bed? You're like, 1230. You know, time you waking up? Seven.

Like, fuck, man. Well, that's going to be hard. It's going to be hard to figure out that lifestyle. That'd be hard for anybody. That'd be hard for for anybody regardless of their genetics and regardless of performance enhancing drugs it'd be really difficult for someone to make progress with a schedule like that yeah i'm just thinking of like that would be there and the thing is is what you just mentioned right there the staying up super late getting up up, not getting sun, going about your day. The health habits kind of just become something that you kind of do sometimes.

And you'll feel as if you're maybe attacking it. You'll feel as if, okay, now I'm working out. I'm taking care of my food. I'm doing this. But the thing is, is like, even though you're doing it, there's no intention behind the way you do it. So because it's kind of just like haphazard, you're doing it and you feel like you're making an effort and you're not getting the results and you think to yourself, this isn't working, but it's not working because nothing you do is currently intentional and consistent. It's just things that you sprinkle in here and there. Like I have a guitar and I'll,

like there, I have sprints where i'm just like playing it every day then i have like something gets busy and i don't touch it for a few weeks i'm just like fuck i'm still just doing some scales and some shitty songs why am i good at the guitar yet it's like because i'm not playing it every fucking day instead of getting my son high, maybe you should play the guitar again. Or maybe you guys can get high and play the guitar again. There you go. But it's just like that. It's like, no, but do you know, like, I mean, we've all had, like, things that, like, ooh, I want to get good at this. Or, like, maybe two years ago, maybe it was that, or a year and a half ago, I saw the kettlebell

juggling stuff and I was like, I want to get good at this. And I tossed the kettlebell for a few days. I was like, man, I didn't because I didn't put any intentional, consistent effort towards it. When I finally put some consistent, consistent, intentional effort towards it, doing it a little bit every single day, I was able to progress, right? Because I actually put intentional effort towards it. And it's the same thing with your nutrition. It's the same thing with your exercise. If you're just half doing things, I'm not saying that you have to do it three hours a day in terms of the gym or whatever. But if you're if you're not consistent, you cannot expect the results you're looking for. You have to have some consistent effort into it. And it doesn't need to be a long time, but just a little bit every day, or changing your habits a little bit every day, that'll get you in the direction you're looking to get to. Neutropics. Every single biohacker and their mother talks about the benefits of Lion's Mane or Alpha-GPC, blah, blah, blah. We have this mix of supplement. But no one really tells you how to analyze what you actually should be trying to take or what problems you may have.

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or to help progress in certain areas. Like if you're wanting to speak better think faster communicate better there's so many things he goes in depth on in this ebook and you can get it now on our website at power project.live the links in the description along with the podcast show notes not everything's a cold plunge you know like you get in a cold plunge and you're like i'm gonna try this thing i gotta see what this is all about and you get in there and it's like mind altering immediately immediately mind altering immediately um making you kind of question all kinds of stuff like you're questioning you know how how like quote unquote tough you are you're you're questioning how long you can stay in there you're questioning like is this safe like is this okay you know how how like quote unquote tough you are you're you're questioning how long you can stay in there you're questioning like is this safe like is this okay you know i i'm starting

to breathe hard like this is wild you're trying to control yourself you're trying to pretend that it's not freezing but it's freezing and then when you get out and uh you know once you dry off and once you calm down the effects of that are insane like it can't be really compared to anything it's like i would say it smashes the shit out of a cup of coffee and even kratom like it smashes all those things the way that you feel after that sometimes your body is even like so numb i don't know if you guys experienced this before but like your body is even like so numb. I don't know if you guys experienced this before, but like your body is super numb and you can move in ways that you normally can't move. Like I can like jump and run and like do all kinds of stuff. Like first thing in the morning, normally it takes me a while for my body to get kind of warm and to get kind of loose and I can move better as the day progresses.

But if you get that cold plunge first thing in the morning, it's like, boom, it just changes everything about you. The problem is, is like some of the stuff that we mentioned sometimes, like getting a better sleep, uh, getting some sunlight, like they don't always automatically, uh, make you feel better. I know for myself, as soon as I started working on my sleep a few years ago, it actually would make me somehow, I don't even know how this is possible, but make me feel worse. I'd feel groggy. And I was like, I need to go back to bed. And I'd go back to bed and I'd wake up and I'd feel like shit. And I'm like, this is weird. So it took, there was a lot of resistance there. There's a lot of friction there for me to, you know, finally get my shit together to where I was sleeping like appropriate

amount of hours. Uh, and the same thing is going to happen when you try to go on a walk, when you try to get some sunlight, especially if you're not in shape, you don't feel good. Um, if you walk too much, it hurts your feet or your knees or your back. It's all going to like, it's going to suck. It's going to not, it's not gonna feel good you're you're gonna listen to us we're talking about it other people are talking about it and you're gonna go and try to apply it and you're gonna i don't understand what the fuck those guys are talking about stuff stupid it didn't make me feel any better yeah lifting weights didn't help my depression it sucks and it's like well we're not saying it's going to fix anything but it should help and

assist but you probably need to get into it for a long enough period of time again it's not going to be like the cold plunge like the cold plunge might have life-altering impact right away but some of these other things are going to take longer yeah when do you guys think the um you know motion is the lotion uh how long do you think it takes for somebody to start gaining some momentum uh you know with their like we'll just say going to the gym and that sort of thing i i mean i don't know maybe there's a blind spot here but i think that's individual on individual you know it depends on it depends on the person the type of stuff they're dealing with.

But no matter how long it takes, it's still good for anybody to build that habit. And the thing is, I think the mistake that people make is, like you mentioned, they do a little bit too much too quickly. They walk. And that's necessary. It's necessary if you haven't, if you're someone who doesn't take walks often, maybe you are feeling pumped on a day and you walk for an hour and a half. And the next day you're like, fuck, my feet are sore as hell. But it doesn't mean walking is bad. It just means like, okay, let's just walk for 20 minutes instead. And let's just, let's do a 10 to 20 minute walk each day instead of an hour and a half in one day. And I think people will learn that when they start working out too, because the excitement is going to be there and you will go hard.

There will be a session that you bite off way too much more than you can chew. And the next day you feel like you tore a hamstring or you feel like your pec isn't connected or some shit. You just, you just feel bad. Instead of connecting, instead of your brain connecting that to gym bad must stop. It's like, just back off a little bit and get in there, get a pump, get some blood, feel good and get out and do it again the next day. It could be a 30, 40, 50 minute workout instead of it being a two hour workout. If you can do that consistently and you can over time, just challenge yourself a little bit more with certain workouts. That's how you build the habit, but you don't build the habit

by going so fucking hard that you can't repeat it again tomorrow it's going to take a while for you to like for most people to have some of this stuff feel good you know you remember your first couple days of jiu-jitsu i think you're coming up on a year right um sometimes the stuff just like it doesn't feel great uh i can think back to i mean nowadays i'm super used to training with different people it doesn't really matter as much and um but when i was young i remember like sometimes i would like work out with somebody new or different and it would just i mean it would just kill me like i would be sore forever even after i've already been training for a handful of years. So it might

take people like a long time to adjust to it. But I like what Nsema was saying is you got to be kind of cautious of not overdoing it. You don't want to give yourself, you don't want to give yourself like negative feedback. You want to give yourself positive experiences. And if you can kind of think of the gym, you're going there to feel better. Like as you get more used to it, you can start to think of it whatever the hell way you want. But in the beginning, I think that's a great place to start is I'm going here to help myself to feel better, to feel better about myself, to feel more accomplished and so forth. And if you can find an exercise or a movement that you like enough to concentrate for a couple of sets to get yourself winded, I really think that breathing is so critical. And I think that over the next couple of years, we'll start to hear more and more people. like that but you think about again what a cold plunge does getting you to breathe you know that wim hof style or any breathing practice what is it really doing it's just mimicking hard exercise

so if you go out and run some hills or you go out and you you find us you find something at a gym that you like to do maybe you're on like a leg press or a leg extension and you get yourself to that point where you're like, I'm kind of warmed up, but I'm not really into this that much. I halfway want to go home. Just don't, just don't go home. Don't quit. Don't give up. Just say, look, man, if you can concentrate for the next 10 minutes, this is going to, this is going to make you so high that you won't even understand how good you're going to feel because you'll get high from the lifting. And I think you get high from the breathing. Greg Glassman was mentioning how he felt that that had to do with like oxygen with some of the runners, people getting like runner's highs and stuff.

I don't know if they really know how or why these things happen, but I think that it has a lot to do with your breathing. So get yourself to that point where you're breathing hard. Put yourself up against the wall, like make something kind of difficult. Like what difficulty do you have in your life? What are the things you have in your life? How hard is your life? Like if your life's not hard, well, make that shit hard because life will get hard at some point and life will be easier to deal with the harder that you train, in my opinion. And if you have hard shit that you dealt with before, use that. Fucking dig deep. Use that resentment. Use some of that stuff. It's okay to use some of that here and there as a fuel use a little bit of that

and make it difficult and do you know three sets of 15 reps of leg extensions with short rest period in between get that burn going and when you feel like you can't do any more reps do some more that's the perfect spot to be in they said muhammad ali didn't count his reps he's like i only counted when it started to hurt and he said no pain no gain and i think that's really where the gain happens and the gain happens not just in your muscles but in your mind and i'm not saying like blast yourself and fucking overtrain and all that stuff but just for a couple of sets see if you can kind of sit in the pocket the way an nfl quarterback does when a 300 pound person is bearing down on them and see if you can you know still be brave enough to

throw the ball over the middle the yin and the yang of this shit is so fucking hilarious because literally we go from saying you want the gym to make you feel good don't bite off more than you could chew you don't want to feel way too sore the next day. Do three sets of 15. And when you fail, do five more reps. That's where it is. But the thing is, is I get what you're saying. And that is a good thing to do. You got to get yourself at least close to that.

Yes. And the next day after doing that, your legs are going to feel kind of fried. But the thing is, is just not to have your mind say that's bad. I think it takes a while for people to build the habit of like, I'm going to stress my body out today. And the next day I might feel a little bit beat up, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I think like newer people, it's, if you can build that, that's going to be really good for you in the long run. Because like, for example, I think it's also good to find things that you can do that with that potentially won't have that much of, like, a ramification for the next few days. I do that a lot with sauna.

I'll have one or two sauna sessions during the week where I'm just like, I'm going to stay in here. And once I get uncomfortable, I'm going to stay in here for 15 to 20 more minutes. And once I get uncomfortable, I'm going to stay in here for 15 to 20 more minutes because I know like, okay, next day I might feel a little bit drained. But I personally think that there is a benefit to having a few times a week something that I can do that will make my body feel like angry or make my body feel really stressed. Because like I'm not going to do that in jujitsu. I'm not going to like – I'll roll every single round. I might roll a little bit harder, but it's going to be – I'm not going to do anything that jujitsu, right? I'm not going to like, uh, I'll, I'll roll every single round. I might roll a little bit harder, but it's going to be, uh, I'm not going to do anything. That's going to get me injured there in the gym. I'm not going to have my gym work. I might do some things that are kind of hard, but I'm not going to destroy myself, but I can do that with

a sauna where my heart rate, usually I'll leave the sauna when my heart rate gets like one 15, one 20, and that'll take maybe like 30 minutes, but I'll leave when my heart rate gets like 115, 120, and that'll take maybe like 30 minutes, but I'll leave when my heart rate gets like 150 or 155 and that'll take maybe 50 minutes. And that is extremely uncomfortable because for the last 20 minutes in the sauna, my body's like, just leave, just leave. And then my body naturally wants to go to the fetal position and sit there. Cause that's more comfortable in the fetal position. I can like, and that's where it's like, okay, let's stay in here a little bit longer. Right. That's, I think that that's good good that's a good stress test and if you can if you can enjoy things like that where it's not injuring you but it's it's it's pushing your body that's a

good thing to do okay how do people handle because you know when it comes to like, okay, I'm going to start this workout program or whatever, this bro split, days off and recovery. How do they approach that? Dude, I think if there's anything that we've learned, it's like no days off, bro. But one thing is like if you have your program and your day's off, you should still try to, I i think still figure out ways to like get your body moving a little bit take a walk sit on the floor get in some positions i think this is really important for the jiu-jitsu athlete for sure right if there's a day you're not doing jiu-jitsu or you're not in the gym then still figure out a way to like if you have a slant board at home or at work or something get your knees into some deep ranges of motion sit down on the floor while

you're doing some shit and get yourself into like kind of like a long range position and just keep your body moving on these off days because there's anything that's fact it's that movement and blood flow to these different areas is going to aid your recovery so not only is walking going to be beneficial but can you do things that gets a little bit extra blood to your adductors can you do things that gets a little bit extra blood and maybe synovial fluid to your knees, which just means getting into a deep squatted position and doing something that's going to help your recovery of these areas? Not like when things, some people think of rest days, they think of resting, like I'm

going to go to work or do whatever. I'm not going to do, I'm not going to do much of anything else. No, use this day to just naturally use your body and move it into some different positions that's going to help recovery how do you guys feel if you have a full-on off day i don't like it if i'm like if i really end up not doing anything no i don't i personally don't feel better afterwards i feel like i'm'm unused. I feel like I need some like fucking SSRIs or something. I've definitely gotten better, but I feel like the momentum, like I lose a lot. And then I get upset at that.

But yeah, no, I don't, I don't, I don't love it. Yeah, I think like a reinterpretation of an off day, I think is important. So like, you know, maybe you don't go to a jujitsu class. Maybe you don't lift necessarily for the day. But maybe you do an exercise in the gym or maybe you watch a bunch of film, a bunch of video of jujitsu. Maybe you go on a walk. Maybe you do some of the things you're mentioning. Just use your body for that day.

things you're mentioning just use your body for that day um maybe there's like an activity that you're going to do with your family and you're like well well that's that's my activity for the day like um the last two weekends in a row instead of doing my longer runs which are supposed to be like two hours or three hours depending depending on the schedule, I just hiked and I'm like, these hikes are, they're plenty. Um, I'm at high altitude and the fucking thing is pretty much straight up for like three miles. Uh, this is a different activity. It's not running. It's not quite as intense as running. My heart rate doesn't go to the same amount, but, uh, it's close enough. So I think that recovery is critical. People backing off a bit is important. You have to remember you can't make something out of nothing. So if you're working every single day towards your goal and you're trying to like lose body fat simultaneously, and you're not giving yourself the nutrients that your body needs,

you're now day three, day five, day seven, you're going to start to kind of feel like crap. And you're going to feel like you don't have the energy that you need in order to be motivated. So I look at food and sleep and any other form of recovery, even a day off. These are all, they're all motivators they can also be demotivators like you can train so much that it annihilates you and you don't want to

train that's not supposed to be you can eat so much that you don't want to train and you can under eat to the point where you're like i don't want to train so you have to be careful you have to be careful and you have to really figure out exactly how to deal with all that. Ain't that a bitch though? I know. Just move more, eat less. On some of the days where you maybe aren't doing the thing that's more intense, maybe you can start to learn. the thing that's more intense, maybe you can start to learn, like, do you perform better if you eat more on the days where the intensity is higher, or do you perform better when you eat a little bit more on the day where you rest more, and then the next day your intensity

is better? You know, you've got to kind of start to really pay attention to a lot of these things, and I think you could start to pinpoint it really well and you can start to learn it really well. If you weigh yourself, you start to pay attention. Like after a while, you should start to say to yourself, oh, I bet I weigh this. I bet I weigh 222, you know, and you just know that you weigh that. When you start to get more in tune with all those little things and you're going to start to be able to figure out if you need more fuel less fuel more rest less rest if you wake up in the morning and you look like jack like more jack than normal and you're lean and stuff that means that something

happened in the last couple days that made your body more efficient don't know exactly what the hell it was but it was like a combination of food and sleep and uh less stress and those kinds of things yeah when you wake up like that and you you feel like superman on that day those are good days to to push it but it's also good to try to pay attention what the fuck happened in the last three days how did i get here how'd this happen kind of figure out what that is and bottle it yeah right whatever the hell that is, summer is here and it's time to get some new footwear. I'm not talking about these. Flip flops suck.

I used to love them, but they are messing with the way you walk and they're actually messing with your feet because every step you take in a flip flop shortens the big toe, which can have some long term ramifications. That's why we have been wearing our power sandals. And this is actually version two of our power sandal, which live now at powerproject.live it is zero drop it has a german leather footbed so it's comfortable as it has a vibram sole which is going to last you thousands of miles to walk in you can run you can hike you can walk you can lift in these sandals and because of the heel strap it's going to stay connected to your foot so that when you run, which you can literally run in these sandals, or when you walk, every step is just like if you're walking barefoot. We love these things, and that's why we've partnered with Shama to make our version two, which is much cleaner than our version one. Both versions are on the PowerProject.Live website, so get your new summer footwear the power sandals peace um so let's say somebody

they get on a um pretty good streak they're just like damn those guys on the podcast were right and i'm feeling good after six months but then all of a sudden they wake up they do wake up tired they don't want to work out or for whatever reason now that that extra motivation is gone where do you guys think that are like that maybe two or three places that they need to like look into and possibly address first i would say uh trying to switch things up a little bit is a really good idea um maybe a different environment uh different gym, different place to run, different place to walk, whatever the thing is that you're doing. I think all those things are really helpful,

and I think they can help a lot more than you would think. And I also think that, for me, a huge motivator is nostalgia. So sometimes it's good just to go back and play the same old fucking CD that you listened to forever and just play that song or whatever that is. It's amazing. It has some sort of soothing powers over you.

It puts you back into a place. It helps with, I don't know, putting you back into a place of remembering helps with, I don't know, putting you back into a place of like remembering where you were or how old you were when these particular songs came out. Or there's many different ways to have nostalgia that way. But I think that those two things I think can help a ton with just kind of keeping things fresh. And the last thing I would say is just like, let's do something different. You know, just do something different. Yeah. You know,

just do something like you're tired of going to the gym and like, you don't want to deadlift, like do a farmer's carry mimics it good enough. The same fucking thing pretty much. So yeah. Yeah. If you suddenly wake up with like no motivation and you're tired, you feel beat. That's a sign that like,

just do something small for the day. I, cause there, there are days that I wake up like that and it's, that's a sign that like, just do something small for the day. Because there are days that I wake up like that. And it's not like once every six months. It's like once every, sometimes once a week, sometimes once every two weeks. Like it'll happen where there's just a day I wake up and like, it's not there today. So what do I do? I just, I'll still do my small micro-dosed habits. I'll jump a little bit during the day. I'll walk. I might go to a sauna and just not even sit there for long. Maybe I'll just sit there for like 15 minutes and let my body sweat 15 to 20 minutes and get the fuck out.

And then maybe I'll – I have some equipment at home, so maybe I'll just do some things and get just a small pump. And sometimes that turns into a bigger workout, right? It could. Sometimes you start going and you're like, oh, that actually doesn't feel as horrible as I thought it was going to. It could. And then it could also many times it's just like, it's a chill day. But even though it's a chill day, there are so many habits that have been done. I was able to get a little bit of a sweat in. I was able to get a little bit of jumping in. I was able to get a walk in. I was able to get a little bit of a pump with like some stuff since I have equipment at home, some kettlebells, I was able to get a little bit of a pump with like some stuff since I have equipment at home some kettlebells I was able to get a little bit of a pump It was still a productive day for my body is the sign if I wake up and I'm feeling like that

That's a sign where Bob my body's like don't don't get a crazy workout today You know what I mean? I'll be then and and I'll follow those signs so my workout won't be shitty But I'll still do something that makes it like you mentioned. You're like, well, sometimes when you don't do anything that day, you feel like you've lost momentum. Just do a little something to give your body the signal and get some good sleep. And the next thing, you'll probably feel better. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

And the diet and nutrition are the – I'm sorry. Sleep and diet are the two like obvious ones that you guys already talked about and that's where i wish like when i was first starting that i like tracked and logged those things because i just remember days where it's like you know mark you mentioned like oh i got the 50s up on the incline press and then you got the 55s and then 60 like holy shit next week i'm throwing up those 65s i remember getting stuck there and being like oh shit it's over like that's it i'm never making gains again you know but then it's like well maybe the night before i did or didn't sleep well or maybe i didn't eat well and it's

like man i wish i had knew all of this stuff and it would have not have cared at all but wish i would have known to be like hey you got to pay attention to everything kind of all the time. Right. It's not just like, Nope, 5am we're going to the gym. And that's when I put in all my effort. It's the, you know, where they say the 23 other hours of the day that actually make a huge impact. What do you guys feel when it feels like, uh, you don't have it for a particular day, what's the, can you describe the feeling? It's like, wow. Taking it right from zero goes, because I think I heard Andrew say this, but it kind of feels like a little bit of a cloud. It feels like a little bit of a cloud.

Like you wake up and it's just like things aren't as bright. You're moving a little slower. You go outside and it's just like, hmm. That's kind of how it feels. And mentally, it also feels kind of like there's a cloudiness mentally, right? So when I feel like that, I'm just like, all right. It doesn't mean I do nothing. It just means I do the minimum and see where that takes me.

Because like you mentioned, it might take you a little further or it might just allow you to do that. But at least I know that if I can get some sleep and recover, next day is going to feel good. Yeah, just because there's a cloud doesn't mean you need to hide. You can maybe just get a fucking raincoat or an umbrella and figure out a way to deal with it. Or you can be like a little kid and just run around and splash around in puddles, right? Good splash, yeah. I kind of feel the same thing. Sometimes it feels like, to me, it feels like I try my many tricks and there's like just nothing there.

There's like nothing behind me for the day. And you're like, where is that normal? Normal is like this drive to go do something. And now you're like, I don't care. It's like, wow. Like, okay, normally i don't care it's like wow like okay normally i don't care but normally i at least care a little bit yeah you're like fuck man there's nothing there and you have your cup of coffee or you do whatever you normally do in your in the morning routine and you get through some of that and you're like oh still there's nothing there go to

the gym maybe put on some music try to start to work out and you're like there's nothing there go to the gym maybe put on some music try to start to work out and you're like there's nothing there then you have like an energy drink or something and it's still there's still there's nothing and uh it's a it's a really interesting feeling but i think it happens to everybody um not just people that work out i think it literally happens to everybody but i think when you're trying to exercise or trying to make yourself do something a little not just people that work out. I think it literally happens to everybody. But I think when you're trying to exercise or trying to make yourself do something a little bit more challenging, it's even more frustrating because you're like, I know I can't really feel this way and still perform the way I want to because it's it's nagging. It's almost like being really hungry.

Like you can't concentrate. I just want to eat. I've actually this is like super fat guys, power lifter thing, but like sometimes I'm on a run and like all I want to do is stop right now and eat. I just want to fucking eat. I know what you mean. It's like too distracting, you know? It's too distracting. Yeah. I get like that on my way to jujitsu sometimes in the morning where i'm like oh dude i hope this hunger just disappeared and it always does because once you start rolling you don't really think about anything but yeah

surviving yeah so for me it feels like it feels like i'm under not very dense water like i'm under like a small layer of water right not completely submerged but like everything's just slow and so like when i'm rolling on the mats it's like oh, oh, I know he's going to pass my guard this way. I should react to it. Nope, too late. Like, well, here we go again. Like stuck, you know, getting, you know, stuck in side control all over again, just like I was the last roll,

whatever it may be. And then for me, it seems like the more I try, the more pressure gets put on. So if we were to look at it like, oh, you wake up in the morning, you got rain boots on, you'll be just fine. And you try something, it doesn't work. Well, now the water's going into the rain boots. So I got to put on, you know, rain pants. And then you try something again and it doesn't work. And now that water fills up to like your waistline. It's like, well, shit, now I need a whole coat. And so like you try all these things

and it feels like it just gets worse and worse almost instead of the opposite and like that's when i kind of know like all right it's just not there today that is okay before i used to think that it was like the end of the world and now i'm like just chill out dude it'll be there tomorrow or the next day or the next day just keep doing your things because you understand now all this shit's going to amount to something eventually even if it's small, 1% of your 100%. You know, I, I, I hate the life is jujitsu things, but what are you talking about, bro? Life is jujitsu. But one thing that you said that, that like actually makes, makes perfect sense. And this is what, this is like the style of how I roll on those types of days. There'll be certain days where everything's feeling good, where I'm just like, okay, I can just like – when there's resistance against something that I'm doing, I'm just going to go towards that resistance and barrel through a little bit.

I feel like I have the energy to just kind of barrel through smoothly. I'm not going to hurt you, but just – my opponent's resisting me. I'm just going to barrel through it. And there are certain days where I go into juice and I'm like, ugh, today's going to be just chill rolls where I'm more of like a fucking squid in the fact that like, if somebody puts pressure on me, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna avoid that pressure. I'm going to like move in ways and do things that cost me way less energy.

I'll still get to the outcome of tapping my opponent, but it wasn't that it was me just like kind of, of just like flowing through you know what I mean it's funny how like the way you roll and the way that even the what we're talking about here the way you do things on that day is like I know you have the quote of like lean into the resistance but you kind of just like you go around the resistance yeah some days or yeah you go around it or you kind of almost like go with it you go with it exactly let it uh that's perfect you go with it yeah yeah it's like uh kind of the buddhist thing like the middle way like you just kind of you just kind of like let it just let it chill for the day it's gonna be fine you fine. You know, it's a day. It's a moment. It's, you know, and it's hard to, you're like, no, I'm trying to get better.

I want to do this, and I got to do this by this time. But when it's not there, I know firsthand, and this happened several times. I mean, I've gotten hurt before, like really, really injured, like badly, by trying to do stuff that just, it wasn't in the cards. stuff that just it wasn't in the cards and i knew it wasn't in the cards and i still tried it but i was again you're just trying to like you're trying to salvage the day turn it into something that it's that it wasn't meant to be and uh sometimes it just happens so try not to chase after it too hard yeah did you guys ever have something like this uh in especially in power lifting but like so a couple weeks back i started

working x guard once it started making sense i was like okay i can do this and then like the first day i kind of quote unleashed it in live rolls i kept hitting it really well like it was working on everybody i tried it on and then follow up the next week it's no longer working on anybody and it's not because it's like the same people it's just wasn't working I need to control my excitement when something's working because the following week when it doesn't work it's like equally or even worse excitement have you guys ever had something like that where like you're benching and all of a sudden like deal you know whatever it may be 600 pounds or whatever on the bench next week is going to fly off me. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, damn, what happened? It's happened a bunch of times.

You have something figured out and you just don't, you know, you're like, oh, I think I got this figured out. Or, I mean, I remember in football in particular, um, doing certain, certain things that people like certain moves and they would like you know it'd work over and over and over again you're like oh this is gonna be great i'm gonna use this in the game and you go to do it in the game and it just like has no impact on the guy at all like it didn't stop him at all and you're like oh like whoops uh so yeah shit like that happens all the time i think it's just to keep you humble and to keep you working you know and to keep you um

you know having a good understanding that, like, some stuff's going to work on some people. That's what I find interesting about what you guys do is that you guys are, you know, we could say don't compare yourself to other people, but you guys are in competition against another individual, and you are getting compared to that person, at least in some of those moments. And so that is super interesting to put your knowledge of what you learned in the previous weeks up against this other guy who knows how he learned some of his stuff or where he learned some of his stuff. But now you're colliding together, and you have to have this battle, so to speak. It's interesting because there are the days where everything's clicking

and everything's at 100%, whether it's in the gym and all your lifts feel just like you feel explosive as fuck. Everything's moving. You may have some PRs. You in jujitsu, everything feels great. X guard's clicking. You're sweeping people right and left. You're invincible.

And then there are the days that you go into the gym and it's like you're at 60 60 to 70% of capacity and you try to lift certain things. Maybe you fail a lift. You're like, wow, that I haven't felt that in a long time. Right. But the thing is, is that's the natural ebb and flow of anything athletic. It's not just the gym. It's not just the gym where like everything's a hundred percent. It's any type of athletic endeavor you're trying to go towards even running. There are probably days, Mark, where you have a two-hour run planned, and in mile one and two, you're like, fuck. What is going on? Why are my legs so heavy? Why am I breathing so heavy?

Only 10 minutes passed. What? And I think the thing is we shouldn't expect every day to be that 100% everything's clicking, I'm in the fucking matrix type of day. We should appreciate those days when they come. And on those days, maybe we can allow ourselves to push the envelope a little bit because we got it. But on the days where that's not there and it's not even close, we should still do what we can. Just understand that this is the ebb and flow of sport and this is the ebb and flow of progress. You're going to have the days that are just amazing. and then you're going to have the days that are average, and then you're going to have the days that are shooty.

And that's okay because you're going to, again, have a 100% day maybe in a week or soon. It's just how it happens. That's how it goes. Yeah, I'm hoping it's this way, but I don't know stocks, but S&P or whoever it is, it's like ups but like um you know what i don't know stocks but like snp or whoever it is it's like ups and downs right but if you look at the bigger picture it's generally still going in the upwards trajectory we use in big words but that's how i'm hoping it is because that's how it is don't be saying that's how you're hoping it is that's how it is in that moment you know where i'm like oh my gosh like i'm i'm getting smoked today and i'm like well these are going to lead to

something later on and that's how i kind of treat those off days too where it's like the day is like destroying whatever terminology i'm going to use and like no whatever i do today is still putting you know some uh some points on the scoreboard for tomorrow and the following days yeah you guys do a little diagnostic and and see if you're like do you push it a little bit? Do you, do you try to push it when there's nothing there just for a second, just as just a double check or triple check? Or do you just say, fuck it? really hard to always maintain a constant steady like control state so I don't know if maybe that's me pushing it a certain way but it's because Casio what he said on this podcast like don't fight back because if it's not there like I might potentially hurt myself or I might like I said get more frustrated because it's like okay this person who like let's say i we go we're on the same level we're both white belts we go back and forth and i'm like getting frustrated because like it's just not

there today and then i'm like i'm gonna try really hard and i'm gonna try to whatever passes guard and it doesn't work i feel twice as bad so i just try to stay controlled and calm on the mats as much as possible um when it comes to lifting and stuff um i might do something like uh the sled or like the tib bar like as silly as it is i might jump on the new tib machine and just like fuck i'm just gonna go till i cannot move anymore that sort of thing yeah uh when you said that i was i was thinking about it with because in in gym context you know when you walk in and you start moving weight some days okay it's good but some days there's just a place where you're at and you're just like

okay i should keep things here this is what i got let me keep this consistent tempo through this lifting session um jujitsu is the exact same thing nowadays i think in the past i like when i was a lower belt i would be like, fuck. I would try to push. I would try to do more than what my body and what my movement is currently giving me. And that would put me in a bad spot. But nowadays, I constantly do what my body gives me. Right. So what that means is like, if, and it's even, it's hard to explain, but you can feel when just like, maybe things aren't as smooth, um, certain things that you do just, it's, it's just

not as clean, but I just do what my body gives me on that day. And there are certain days where it's like, again, everything's a hundred percent. I'm rolling with what my body's given me. The idea of, cause in the gym, the idea of pushing past what your body gives you is maybe moving heavier load than you're supposed to be moving on that day, which leads to injury. In jujitsu, the comparison would potentially be

instead of rolling at 60 or 70%, I try to roll at 100% capacity or something and things just are erratic and they're not smooth and that's not beneficial at least for me that that's how it is so like i never bump up my intensity if the intensity is not there i don't try to force it yeah for me with lifting um it was always uh like if i started to warm up and i was supposed to do like a one rep max um say it's like a one rep max uh partial range of motion bench press or something uh benching off like a board or something like that um i would warm up and 315 just felt weird

it's like oh that's really weird then i would start to make my warm-up different than normal uh maybe i would take 315 again or maybe i would make smaller jumps as i got towards uh the desired weight for the day and then if it was really bad and just didn't seem like there was anything there i was like okay instead of a one rep max how can i still squeeze something out of this i'm here yeah. Yeah. I'm with teammates. That's the other thing. Like when you're going to jujitsu, it's not like you just like roll with somebody for,

you know, a couple of minutes and you're not feeling it that day. And you're like, Hey man, I'm out of here. See you guys later. It's kind of weird. Like you're kind of like leaving your team.

You should be able to do that without any real explanation, but then people are going to be like worried about you. Like what happened, man? Did you get hurt? Are you mad? Are you sad? Or like, well, what the fuck happened? Like, where'd you go then people are going to be like worried about you like what happened man did you get hurt are you mad are you sad or like what the fuck happened like where'd you go and you could just be like i just left because it just wasn't there today yeah but it's difficult to do those things so when i was in those moments where i still thought i needed to like push or lead or be there for the team i was like well maybe let's do like three sets of eight i have no idea what

my weight is going to be for so i don't have any expectations i don't understand or know what three sets of eight looks like benching off of two boards with a close grip because i've never done it before i haven't done it or i haven't done it in years yeah and so now we got a totally different thing because i'm thinking two board all right at least 550 575 at least should be in somewhere in there maybe six plates and i get to like four plates and four plates this feels like a ton like okay well we're way off but now if i change it to set to eight i don't have a reference point to base it off of yeah it's a totally different, it's almost like a totally different drill,

totally different exercise in a way. So those were some of the things that I was able to do when I was competing that really helped. And I was still able to get in the work that I needed and it still felt really good. You helped me realize something because when I was mentioning kind of how I back off on those days that I'm not feeling 100% in jiu-jitsu, the way I would back off when I was a lower belt was like, okay, if there are certain positions that somebody's going to take on me, I just let them kind of like, I'm not going to waste my energy trying to battle against this.

Like, you have side control, I'm just going to fucking wait. You have this, I'm just going to kind of wait through it and see what I can manage. The way I do it now or what ends up happening now is I'll get to those positions and I'll just kind of cook people a little bit more. So if I get to side control on you, instead of immediately moving and progressing to a place where I'm going to go tap you, I'm going to cook you a little bit here so I can just like save some energy. Then I'll keep progressing. Or if I have a position where I like I have you controlled, you're going to stay here for a bit while I just, cause you're still getting work in, they're still getting work in. And even though it kind of sucks for them, like they need to get used to being uncomfortable and used to breathing in

these weird positions. Right. But the thing is, is like when you have more tools in the gym, right. When you understand, okay, I don't have it today, today you know kind of how to back off on load you know okay i'm just going to go through this i'm just going to get to end range and work that there there are still things that you know you can do and progress without just increasing the weight and going as hard as you can because that's i think that's like what most people will want to do or sometimes do if they're like it's an everyday pohada or go hard every day type of thing in the gym it's like okay i'm just gonna i'm just gonna go super hard today but the next day they're feeling like shit but when you have those tools in the gym in jujitsu on those days

where you're not 100 you can still have very effective sessions right without destroying yourself without the next day being totally beat up. You can still be super effective. Yeah. How do you think I should handle that situation? Because like what you're saying, like when you're maybe not at whatever percentage to like, you know, get into that good position and then move on and maybe submit the person and you're just cooking them. I'm the person that's getting cooked. And there might be also a day where I'm not feeling 100%. I do need to – because it's still fairly new, I do need to work on like the highs and lows of jiu-jitsu.

Like one day I'm like, fuck yeah, dude. I'm whatever, entering any competition that comes my way. And then other days I'm like I'm never competing again in my life. Like that's just how it feels. But on those days, as somebody who wouldn't be able to get somebody off of me like you or even even at White Belt, like sometimes I can't get certain people off of me. How should I approach that? Should I just, I don't know, like sit in my prayer position and hope that like they make a mistake and then try to take advantage? No, that's still problem solving.

Like on those, when I was a lower belt and I had less tools than if someone was cooking me in their side control or someone had my back, it wouldn't be like, I'm just going to give up and get tapped. It's like, this is where I am. This is like, today is a day where I'm just focusing on escapes because you're going to like, when you're new at jujitsu, escaping is going to be the things that you're going to be learning how to do. Right. Like people are putting you in bad positions all the time. And if you don't know how to escape, what do you think is going to happen learning how to do right like people are putting you in bad positions all the time and if you don't know how to escape what do you think is going to happen you get into a competition and someone gets you inside control yeah game right so it's it's not bad that today for some reason everybody's putting you everyone's taking your back or everyone's getting you inside

control it's just like this is a hole for you yeah you need to like you you need to calmly figure out the technique to get out of these positions. And that doesn't mean you bench press the person off of you. That means that you do the things that you've been training and learning and implement them. It might be a little bit harder today because you're a little bit more tired, but you should still be able to do it. Got it. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, almost like I can't control what kind is gonna uh like what kind of practice coach is

gonna draw up today like we might like whatever i don't you know football terms but like okay special teams is getting a lot more work today like well fuck i hate special teams but it's like well that's what we're working on today bud so like i'll just treat it that way yeah yeah i know for myself a lot of times best like performances especially with something like running which i'm still learning uh a lot of it's just been like i just went out and i was like i'm just gonna start super slow started out with like the slowest jog i could figure out and then i would get warm and then all of a sudden i'm like wow this feels different than normal this feels better than normal let me push a little bit.

And there was just like zero expectations. And on those days, I think I feel the most fulfilled. I feel the best about it. And on top of that, I tend to perform the best. It's on the other days when I have an expectation set for myself of what I should do and what I'm supposed to do. And I fall short of that or, or that's even just super challenging for that day where I'm like, that really sucked, you know? So I think trying to really lower your expectations or maybe just change some of your

interpretation of your expectations, maybe your expectations shouldn't always be through the roof. Maybe you can kind of toggle them and adjust them in accordance to what's realistic for you for that particular day. And then also, can you zoom back and get a 30,000-foot view of your training over the last two years or three years? Are you doing better? Did you make progress? And what's the last two years, like, are you doing better? Did you make progress? And what's the last, what's the last two years look like? What's the last six months look like? What's the last six weeks? You know, in this last six weeks, are you, are you literally not improving? Like, should you be upset by the workout that you just did? Um, or should you be overly concerned about the next

workout that you're going to do? Probably not. Like you, you probably literally are making progress all the time. You're not giving yourself any credit for it. You're not seeing it. You're not paying attention to it. You're not recognizing all the different challenges you've thrown your way. And then also too, like people are living their lives. Like, you know, there's people that are, uh, between the ages of 25 and like 40 that are still, you know, working on their career, working on building a family, like there's a lot of like real life, real world shit going on.

And you're crying about your jujitsu class, you know, crying about your shitty run that you did for the day. So trying to have perspective, like, hey, no, I've been doing better. I've been doing better for a long time. This is fucking sick. This is really cool.

I'm going to continue at this. And what's it going to look like two or three years from now? I think a really cool thing about what you mentioned there, and when you probably think back to it, it's like, think of your good run days and your bad run days now. Compare those to your good run days and your bad run days last year. It's like your good run days last year are your bad run days this year. Right. And, and that that's,

that's a big deal because when you, when you start something new, there'll be many days where you're like, most days might feel like bad day, bad day, bad day, bad day. Did you ever watch Jackie Chan adventures?

I didn't. Oh, that's, that's my generation. Yeah. Whoever watched that, y'all know bad day, bad day, uncle bad day did you ever watch jackie chan adventures i didn't oh that's that's my generation yeah whoever watched that y'all know bad day bad day uncle um but anyway almost a lot of your days seem like bad days because it's a new thing and that's the hardest hurdle because it's like most days are bad days even though they're actually good days because you're doing the thing right but after a year then like you have good days but then you're bad days even though they're actually good days because you're doing the thing right but after a year then like you have good days but then your bad days now were good days a year ago right that's a big deal man like yeah you're thinking about it thinking like uh yeah uh a no a life altering day a year ago is a terrible day today.

What do you mean? If I show up to jiu-jitsu and I've hurt my feet and I get my ass choked and I get beat up the entire time, dude, what the fuck was that? A year ago, holy shit, I went to jiu-jitsu. Yeah. That is huge, right? So that's a really good point and think about it that way that that's the thing what marcus mentioned you gotta like

you really need a perspective shift a little bit because when you start that's fucking amazing but now it's like yeah it's it's a mind fuck strength is never weakness weakness never strength catch you guys later bye