Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 075: Justin's Road to Ripped: Week 10 Update (+ Lots of Muscle Building Gems)

Episode Date: May 6, 2015

We are getting close to the end and Justin is turning up the heat! This episode gets real as Sal, Adam and Justin talk about the ups and downs of cutting, the pump, fast and slow twitch muscle fibers and how to maximize your Central Nervous Systems adaptive ability.

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, please only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. This is my episode you ass. Sorry, I guess I didn't work very well. Were you trying to do Star Wars? Yeah, because it's, it's me the fourth B with you. Okay, explain that to me.

I saw the, I saw the post you did. It's Star Wars Day, bro. Adam, were you busy doing cool shit again? I was. You need to pay attention. I know, okay. Well, he posted that, right? And then I got on to my YouTube cause I was looking up something on YouTube

and right out the gate that says like the, the Star Wars shits everywhere and I'm like okay I just thought you were doing that. It's not in the no bro. I know so explain that to me is it so made for me for so somebody had oh this like brilliant idea that made the fourth made the fourth be with you ah and then it's her new like a natural thing yeah and they're like trying to make it like national Star Wars. Fucking genius. I love it. I'm glad we have you here.

Those are my people. I would have never known that. I only know that because it's all wookie pedia. Didn't you know? What the hell's wrong with you? You need to nerd up, bro. Yeah. God, nerd yourself.

That's why I have you guys. Nerd app. Hey. Hey, everybody is still listening. Is this your, is it? Uh. Hey, is this your my nerd? Is this your episode Justin? Yeah, man God Tell us a little bit about yourself. I know it's like you know what I got to ask you question

I'm doing it. I'm gonna ask you a question Justin. Yeah, it seemed like you were little crap out earlier Is it what's going on where you're a little crap out? You talking about like me being cranky over the weekend? Yeah, what's going on? Is it is it the diamond? You're a little Debbie Dottler. I'm on some little carbs over there. I was like, I love how like you're a little like week moments, you know? I get exposed. I check you out here in this world. Right, we just tell everybody everything.

I know. Nothing's safe with my health. Nothing is sacred, you know. It's one of those things man You're just like trucking away trucking away and you're like man Dude is this ever gonna end and I was just so like I don't know I hit me all at once and like fuck You know like I've been doing this for a while now and I know it it's been paying off. And I know it like rationally, what I'm doing and how long it takes and all this kind of stuff. But like, I mean, I've just been,

I've just had so much stuff hit me all once, like business and family and people being sick. And you know, I've just been overcoming, overcoming everything I can. You know, and that's just what that leads to. Me being like, dude, you know, like,'s just what that leads to me being like, dude, uh, you know, like is any of this going to pay off? Like, am I going to get there? You know, on, on, anyway, that that's kind of what was happening. I love that though, dude. I love having you share that stuff. I'm glad I'm glad Sal did that, put you on the spot because it's, it's so true,

though, man. It's so real. And I think that's what people don't realize they see they see they see pictures of before and afters and they you know or they see someone who's been ripped You know, he's been ripped forever every you know and they on some cover of a magazine or supplement line or whatever it is and They don't realize what a hard work dedication the struggles everything that it took took to get there You know and most people don't do that. They don't show that, especially like on social media. Everybody puts their best foot forward on social media. Nobody puts their fat picture up. Everybody puts their best angle with the best lighting,

with the best pump they've ever had. It's up there. That's why I have the time when you see everybody's got the perfect lighting and filters. That's why when people meet me, they're like, did you lose weight? Don't look as big as you do in your pictures. Yeah, you got it down to a science class.

I mean, I need to learn a thing or two for you. Oh, I'm serious. That's why I think it's important you share that though, because I feel like I can relate so much to your journey that you're going through with the ups and the downs. And sometimes you feel like you're working just harder, even harder than the previous week. And the results aren't, you know, you would think to be compounding because I'm putting in more work, I'm being more disciplined.

And then I look at myself and I'm like, fuck, I don't look better. I don't look better. Yeah, where is it? And to us, it's like, first of all, we're our biggest critics. So it's already hard enough when you're criticizing yourself and you're hanging on it and you're looking at yourself every five minutes to see your body changing or black of. And you have this kind of awkward stage and there's a couple of things that I think actually

play into that from a science perspective. And I'll tell you one of the biggest things I've noticed is when you're depleted, right? So when you were cutting, typically know, typically your low calories, you're probably a little bit lower than the carbohydrates and you typically would on a normal diet. And when you've been doing it for a long period of time, sooner or later your body just gets really flat

and depleted looking. And a lot of things are happening there. One, I mean, our brains, first of all, function off a 60% carbohydrate. So the fact that you're cutting there, your brain starts to kind of get little tired and like this is where the irritable side comes from. I feel like in some of the cravings, you're flat because you're sucked out so your muscle

bellies aren't full and are popping. You know, honestly like you actually look worse than for. Yeah, you do. I feel like there's this little awkward face that you go through when you're cutting. And yeah, maybe my inches are going down, but like I would look at myself and I'm like, I don't like the way I looked though. I don't like the way I look at all. And what's been great is now doing this for so long

and being consistent with the whole competing thing is, you know, what I'll do is, and this is all part of my journey now is, let's say I'm being like shredding, and I just did that with a little mini-book. I'll be cutting, cutting, cutting, cutting, and leaning out, and then I'll just throw in like some high surplus days so I can fill back out and be like, oh, there I am.

There I am, I'm not that bad actually. And that's what it is. A lot of it is just because you're so depleted. You're so depleted, you're weak, your mind feels tired. Like your body is sucked out. Yeah, and I think too, in my bits of frustration with that is that it's not my strength. Well, I like going into workouts with strength. And I felt like I lost that. And so that was really it's not my strength. Well, I like, you know, going into workouts with strength.

And I felt like I lost that. And so that was really a get inside my head. Like, you know, I felt like a bitch like throwing this weight around. And it's just I was like, God, I can't stand this. You know, like, I just couldn't stand it. And then, uh, and then over the weekend, like on the flip of a coin, like, I got it back. And that, that's when I started, actually I switched into the face one again.

Oh yeah. Purposefully because of that, because I was like, you know what, it's time, you know, it's time for me to switch it around. And it was like boom, I was smashing weights around, dude. I was, I was hitting it hard. This is what happens, man. So what happens when you, when you phase your program

properly, even in a calorie deficit happens when you phase your program properly, even in a calorie deficit, because you're eating now 2500 calories. And you say, you lost like two pounds. Lost like two pounds. And yet you're coming out and you're strong, you're feeling what the heavy weights. Yeah, I mean, I almost smashed it.

I hit like 400 squat, like four times. Holy shit. So, I was ramping myself up to that and then simultaneously I hit the bench and I was, you know, I was wrapping out like an incline. I was doing like 275, wrapping that out. Oh, like 10 times. So, yeah, it was, I felt good.

Like I was like, okay, I got something there still, you know. See, I think it's important that we share this because we need to set the expectation for people. They need to know that it's a journey. It is not, you know, it's not easy the whole time. Light, you still have a life, you know, you're embarking on this journey. You're like, okay, I want to lose weight

or I want to get in shape, but you still have life. You still got to work, you still have a family. There's gonna be times when you're gonna just want to quit or when it feels like it's not working. And if you understand that before you go into it, I think you're prepared to handle it. If you expect to go through it super smooth and it's not gonna be a problem and you know, so and so said it was easy, you're gonna come into so it's gonna be tough for you to go through those plateaus, to go through those points where you feel like shit and look at your trainer and you have those all of us, you're a human. Yeah, it's very human. Well, that's the point that I think is so important to make is that here we are all trainers

We know what we're doing. You understand the science behind it. You get everything and it's still fucking hard Yeah, I mean that's what was one of the biggest eye-opener for myself was going through this like man If I am struggling with this Mentally physically just imagine you're every day person. Yeah, you know fucking clue. What's going on? They have no idea why they felt that way and I mean I was a victim of that for so many years of I would start in that process and then I also now would see That that feeling you have right now tired and weak I see weaker in the gym I feel flat,

and all those things would add up to like, I don't like this, I gotta go back the other direction, you know, and I would never push myself to break through that next level of like getting that lean. Yeah. So, and you know, just imagine the average person who's coming in and working out. You guys ever tell your clients, trust the process?

You guys ever say that? Yeah, so it's like, look at your plan, you know it's good. Trust it and just go, just keep, stick to it and keep going. Even though at that moment, you might think to yourself, this sucks, this isn't working. I feel like, you know, I'm not progressing, because it'll happen.

It will happen. Your body will progress and you will get to that goal. But you got to trust the process. And I think too that it is really important to have a goal, right? And I feel like I have trained a lot of people that initially don't really have any specific goal other than, well, I kind of want to lose some weight and I kind of want to look better or be healthier, right? And for me, I really had to have a specific goal.

You know, what motivates me is, is is and lifting weights is great and I I've always you know love lifting weights and but for me in order to Be motivated like I always wanted that to translate to something and so with me it was always with sports and Performance so I could I could attribute what I was doing in the gym on the field and I could see progress right and so that's why another frustration for me lies with this is because this is like the unknown. This is like, you know, me taking myself out of my professional career and being like, okay, I know this, but at the same time, I've never been through this.

And you know, you just get to a point where like am I really doing this correctly? Am I, you know, do I really know this like and I've been, I've been coaching people actually to get through this and so this is really gonna help me with that. Oh man, you're understanding it from a whole other level now. Yeah, especially when you see your clients go through that shit. Right. So that's why, I mean, that's one of the reasons why I'm doing this. So it's just so everybody knows it's not like, you know, that was a hard decision for me because, especially anybody, if you say you're in your professional career, and there's an aspect of it that's not your specialty, right?

And then somebody takes you out of that and puts you into another special team, okay, now I want you to go through this, explain it, and then become more educated with it while everybody's watching you. That's a tough thing to do. Oh, yeah. So, balls of steel. Yeah, it's just a ball of steel. Whatever, man, I'll take it, dude, I take it on full charge,

and I've definitely enjoyed learning, and this is just another way that I really feel like, and I told you guys this before, but I'm really glad that you guys challenged me on this and that this is something that I feel like I've already improved as far as knowledge but also like, you know, just just just being challenged and motivated to do that has expanded my range and my reach with people in clientele. Now you said something earlier that I want you to, I want to ask you a little bit about you said how okay you're saying over the weekend you were kind of feeling crapped out, but then you switched on a dime or you changed and then you're like fuck it, I'm gonna move forward. What was that process like? Like what went through your mind, or did you talk to your suck? Cause I mean, I'll actually talk to myself. I'll actually have a mantra, I'll create a mantra, and I'll tell myself, and I'll repeat things over and over.

I've actually looked in the mirror and said these things to myself to get myself through with certain things, certain things. But that's just me, everybody's a little different. Like, what did you do? What was it that got you from that, fuck, everything sucks right now to, you know, like you said, that switch on a dime, like that's it, I'm doing this. What was it that got you from that fuck everything sucked right now to you know that like you said that switch on a dime

Like that's it. I'm doing this. What was that process? And this this goes back to when we were talking a little bit about self-motivation For me it I get to a point where I kind of hit a wall and so I I feel it You know coming on and so for me noticing it right away and verbalizing it, I do verbalize it to me. Like, shit, like I, you know, I need to do something about this. And like, I can't let this defeat me. And so like my mentality with that was like, okay, you know, if I'm down about this, like how my, I just kind of took myself aside and get

my little pep talk to myself in my head. And I'm like, you know, okay, how many weeks do I have left? You know, what, what can I do to really take this full on and grab the bowl by the horns and get to it? And so it just came to the point where, you know, the frustration energy, I just completely turned into fuel, you know, into my workout and then I started working at, I started getting pissed. And for me, for me, when that happens, when I get frustrated or I get like, feel like I'm getting defeated, like that's where I'll turn that completely into, to almost just, I get like enraged by it. And so like that, it's crazy. I don't know if women can really identify this. I know maybe some can, but like I really benefit

from getting angry in my workouts. It really fuels me and I lift more weight as a result. I don't, I shit you not. I know some chicks are like that. Some girls are like that for sure. Oh yeah. I know some, like, I've done some boxing and pads with and stuff and then they take a lot of the energy and it's crazy.

Like, they love that. But yeah, like for me, I seriously, when I work out, like, I'm at that point now where there's no more niceties, like, I just get the hell away from me. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm, like hell away from me. Like I'm on like clear cut, like I'm out to wreck shop and that's it. So. Yeah, that's why I listen to our man.

I'm the same way, that's why I listen to the freaking, you know, devil music. Yeah, I'm working out. I mean, it sounds, it's music I would never listen to other than when I'm lifting weights. Right. I would never like lamb of God, you know, like I'm listening to like this is horrible.

But it pisses me off. And so it makes me work out harder. But otherwise I would never like Lamb of God, you know, like I'm listening to like this is horrible But it pisses me off and so it makes me work out harder But otherwise I would never listen to it like know what no other place, you know when I'm driving or anything cardio I don't listen to it only when I'm lifting because it makes me angry So you switched from phase three Mm-hmm to phase one a phase three was supersets higher reps shorter rest periods specifically designed to maximize the pump or what's called sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. So I had a question.

You guys call it the pump all the time. Now would you say the burn is that same thing as the pump? Well, the burn is... The burn happens first. Yeah, and the burn happens to the higher reps because of the waste products that are being produced, right, and lack of oxygen and the first. Yeah, and in the burn happens in the higher reps because of the waste products that are being produced, right, in lack of oxygen and the muscle, you can get a burn in your muscle and not get a pump. You know, things can burn and not get a pump.

So it's, you know, in terms of what creates a pump, we know what it looks like. We know how fluid rushes into the muscle faster than it can rush out. However, and we're pretty aware that the, if you're good anabolic environment, you're gonna have an increased pump. This is why when you feel healthy, when you're eating right, when you're working out right, you get better pumps than when you're not. Yeah. And pumps themselves can stimulate muscle growth through, you know, a number of different mechanisms,

everything from stretching the muscle fascia, which sends a signal, to increasing capillary structure structure to, you know, cell volumizing. Cell volumizing, all these different things. And, and that's, that's the circle plasm that's within muscle. That's what we're trying to increase with that phase three. Then when you move to phase one, it's like the, it's like the opposite. Longer rest periods, you're doing way less reps. You're not super setting. You're not going for the pump. Heck, in phase one, sometimes you don't even get a pump,

but you get strong really fast, like furiously fast, and to the point where when I do a phase one type workouts, I have to check myself in terms of how much weight I push because I'll get strong so quick that I can hurt myself. And you won't get the pump, you won't get that sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, but your muscles get hard. You get this kind of dense feeling.

And then there's this other comment people have been telling, have been telling me, every when they go through phase one, appetite goes up more than the other phases, which I find interesting. I have, it doesn't, I can't figure out why that would be. When you go back to phase one from phase three.

Yeah, it's like all of a sudden your appetite goes up and that's a good sign, but it's strange how that's the phase that everybody keeps commenting that their appetite goes up and I notice it too. My appetite goes up through the roof when I'm doing that kind of training. So I don't know, I don't know what's going on with that but more damage possible.

Yeah, it must be the intensity and demand like yeah, put it places on you, you might, I don't see that respond accordingly. And that's what I was thinking too, but in phase three, you're burning more calories. In phase two, you're damaging muscle quite a bit. You're doing more sets, you're doing more of the traditional stuff.

I don't know, I'm not quite sure. I don't know, I gotta really dive into the science of it and figure out why so many people are commenting on the hunger That they get in phase one So I don't know if it has to do with the central nervous system, you know adapting so strongly and if that stimulates some kind of hunger response Right, so I'm not quite I don't know. What about your trigger sessions? Do you change those now that you're in phase one? somewhat yeah, so I've actually now I know you guys are gonna give me a little bit of shit about this, but So I go ahead. Oh, I don't know. Yeah, I'm not gonna say exactly

No, I actually the athlete and me sort of kicked in a bit So I actually have intensified them just a bit. So what I've done is Now so I was doing like 10 to 12 minute hits at the end of my workouts, well, now on my other days, I'm actually doing a little bit of Hill sprints in the beginning and then I'm repeating my normal process with the... Fine, that sounds awesome.

Yeah, that sounds awesome. So anyway, yeah, I've been hitting those hard like I have these these sand hills and like really gnarly you know inclines around where I live and so that's always been like a go-to for me when I'm getting in shape for sports and and so that that's sort of what I've been doing and it actually in turn has given me more of an energy surge into the following days. In fact, you know, I'm glad you brought this up now. And I always tell this to clients of mine, people have trained. In the beginning, when you first get started, it's important to follow your program to

a T because you don't really know your body yet. You don't know what's going on. Just follow it. Trust the plan. But after you do it for a while, modify. There's general rules when it comes to fat loss and muscle building that are rules, right? But on an individual basis, people vary so dramatically

from person to person. And I think it's important to modify your own program for what works best for you. So like you just said something, you said, I feel more energized, I feel better when I think it's important to modify your own program for what works best for you. So like you just said something, you said I feel more energized, I feel better when I do it. So I can do it, you know, that's awesome. And I always encourage that to people.

And their fact, the producer Doug, he was my client for a long time. And in the beginning, he followed, I mean, it was basically exactly what I said, everything I said and that was it. And now he's, because he's been, it's been what, I mean, it was basically exactly what I said, everything I said, and that was it. And now, he's, because he's been, it's been what, how long has it been now done, about two, three years? He modifies quite a bit with his workouts and his results are even better. Yeah.

Because he's learned his body. He's your own body, he's started to learn how you feel and, you know, what's working for you and what isn't working for you. Well, I guess, too, like, that's something I always knew changes my body and I respond to it. The more that I can add in like really fast twitch types of conditioning movements, like my body really responds to that. And so that's something I've been introducing a bit more within my program.

That's a cool actually little point, you know, to dive into a bit because I'm kind of the opposite. And that would make sense because you're probably a lot more dominant slow twitch. So to do more fast twitch stuff is going to kind of throw a curveball more for your body versus like myself. And my body responds crazy when I start doing a lot of slow twitch stuff versus fast twitch.

Because I kind of have that body type already. I feel like I have more fast twitch fibers and more dominant than I am slow twitch and you're probably the opposite which is that's kind of unique. Well, I mean, there's a lot of factors I think that would move that would go into that because you have, you know, of course, fast twitch, slow twitch muscle fibers but even within the fast twitch muscle fibers now they've identified that some You know, there's type, you know type A and type B, you know fast switch muscle fibers Some of them act more like slow twitch muscle fibers depending on how you exercise and you know, we should back up and explain the two just

Yeah, the literature is a done a fast twitch muscle fibers are the ones that power explosive movement They burn out faster, but they contract with higher force. So when you think of sprinting, lifting heavy weights for low reps, throwing a fast punch, that's your fast twitch muscle fibers. Slow twitch muscle fibers are the ones that give you endurance. That's long distance running, that's if you're doing like a hundred body weight squats or more and Incidentally with the muscle fibers the fast switch ones have the greatest propensity for growth This is why lifting weights build more muscle than running long distance because fast switch muscle fibers grow in size

Much more than slow twitch muscle fibers do. Mm-hmm But besides those two things, there's a lot of things that go into it. For example, there's a high central nervous system demand or a different central nervous system demand with heavy lifting versus the higher rep type lifting. And some people central nervous systems get fried faster or easier than other people.

And so training a certain way is gonna give them better results. And I think with a lot of programs, most programs, if not all of them, except for maybe the really advanced strength training ones, they completely ignore the central nervous system. They don't look at what role that plays in how you progress. And let me tell you something right now, your central nervous system plays a massive role in how you perform, how you progress, it communicates to your muscle fiber. If you fry your central nervous system, I don't care how recovered your muscles are, I don't

care how great you're eating, you're going to get shitty results, you're not going to build as much muscle as just the bottom line. And it's like the amplifier to the speaker. You know, you could have great speakers, but you could have a shitty amp and there's barely any sound is going to come out of those speakers. And lots of things affect your central nervous system. Of course, genetics, your genes do. You know, like I said, you know, Olympic lifters at that super high level,

of course, they train to have a very powerful central nervous system. However, they probably also were genetically predispositioned to have an effective central nervous system. But sleep, diet, nervous system, but sleep, diet. I mean, you can, like I said, you could take someone who's ready to freaking go, peak condition, you can give them the worst news of their life.

Hey, your family just died in a plane crash. Their central nervous system will immediately will take a hit just from that news and their performance will drop and their muscles don't any different. This is also a great example for those that are listening that are competitors that I always try and explain to people that I think is ridiculous that I see all the time, which is when you start doing this hardcore, overtraining, under-eating for long periods of time, like talk about affecting your central nervous system, starve the body for a long time, do cardio for an hour in the day and hour in the morning, and guess what, you're

working against the body. Were your speakers still work like you're saying? Absolutely. They'll still work. I mean, if you stay in a caloric deficit, a more way, more activity, you will burn fat, but at a much slower rate. And I see this all the time in the competitive world, athletes just banging the shit out of their body because that's what they think. The harder I push, the more I suck away, the faster my results are going to be. And it's not necessarily true because then it gets to a point where you start fucking with your central nervous system And then it's just not responding the same way and they don't like they get it to a point because then after I see this all Time I'm just like yeah, I just need to reset my body because my body's not responding on this cut or this or that

It's so hard sitting back and and knowing the answer for them and not being all the time You know because how do you tell a guy who's a pro and this and that, it kind of knows, it's been there. It's like, they don't want to listen. They think they know and stuff, but it's like, I totally know. It's exactly what it is. You just bang in that body up for so long and not giving it ample rest and not feeding it properly.

It's not running the way. And I always use the analogy. It's like a car. You can take a car from here down to LA with four semi-flat tires, no oil in it and the timing belt off. You can do it. You can get the car down there.

You may have to push it for a little bit. It may be running really slow and it probably won't run for very long after that, but you can get it there. But if you actually air the tires up, change the timing belt, put some oil in that car, you're going to get there a lot faster. Yeah. Well, we were earlier talking about how you get angry before your lifts and it makes you stronger. And this is statistically the improvement

this. This is why top lifters psyched themselves up. That's your sensor nervous system. Your muscles, your muscles did not change in the five seconds. Your, your training partner slapped you in the face and you smelled smelling salts and you rocked out with, you know, Metallica. That amped your central nervous system and it gave you that extra juice and then you were stronger. Caffeine is another one. These central nervous system stimulants,

like caffeine and ephedra and all these things. And people take caffeine and they perform better. Your muscles haven't changed. Your central nervous system has. And so it's something that's important. It's a great point. Something that's important that people completely ignore and forget.

And so when it comes to You know progress in the gym if you ignore that you're not gonna get nearly the results that you can if you pay attention to it So and remember all those everything that happens in your life affects your central nervous system muscles are dumb You lift weights with them. They get damaged. You don't they rest. That's it. It's pretty black and white central nervous system on the other hand Lots of factors so pay attention to those two things. Get your mind right. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. For more information about this show,

and to get valuable free resources from Sal, Adam, and Justin, visit us at www.mindpumpradio.com. Until next time, this is Mind Pump. Until next time, this is MindPump.