Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 093: Becoming Anabolic

Episode Date: June 8, 2015

Lifting weights is no guarantee that you will build muscle. Your body will only prioritize muscle growth IF you are anabolic. How do you do this? Sal, Adam & Justin break down 5 different ways for you to put your body in an anabolic state so that it wants to build muscle and lose fat.

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Squeeze on my butt Have a giga luck two Have a giga luck two People talking like Where'd you get that part? Mine pump made it new. Come to mindpumpradyo.com, quick the big yellow button and sign up now.

Hey, you guys wanna hear something funny? What? So I got, God, it's alphanies, it's been almost six months or plus no seven eight months now. My girl for my birthday, my birthday's in November. She ordered me a, is it Cardello belt? A weight belt? Oh yeah, the weight belt. It's Cardello, right? Is that what you call it?

Are those the ones that sometimes people have like shit written on the belt? Yes, okay, so and you know, she's got it like all like branded really cool, you know, so she'd end. Here was the thing originally she was doing like level up and this and that and then we we ended up watching Vine Pump and it took off and we've been we've been having so much fun with that She's like so she wanted to change it all this by the way like she hasn't been telling me she's doing all So if I haven't seen what the draft looks like or anything she just said, you know, hey happy birthday I just been working with me. Oh really? Yeah. Oh no way. Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that surprise my the fuck up I didn't know that so I'm not in the loop but whatever

Oh, no way. Oh, I didn't know that surprise motherfucker. I didn't know that so I'm not in the loop, but whatever You're worthless, bro. That's true. Nobody sends you files. You have nothing to contribute So she's been going back and forth on this and You know, she's been really she's been really frustrated because it takes a really long time First of all, they take long just to get anyways because they're all customally stitched and nice and I guess Supposedly she's got all this extra stuff on it that makes it really expensive and nice that she did, right? I don't know, I don't even know. I don't know she's not a jazzle.

There's nothing worse than getting a gift like that. You're like, you know what? Oh God, I have to tell you guys another story. You want to hear a better story? Just reminding me of something. I'm just thinking of getting a gift from a girl friend. You did get it? From a girlfriend that you're like,

what do I do with this, right? So I had a girlfriend one time, oh God, she's gonna hate me. Justin, you know who this is. Oh yeah. So she, for my birthday, and I'll get back to the other story just a minute. For my birthday, she gets me a blanket.

And it's a, I don't know, a big woppy? Like a big, no, like a big throw blanket. And I open it up, and it's a it's a I don't know whoopee like a big big no like a big throw blanket and I open it up and it's a it's a huge picture of herself laying on the beach. Oh and I'm like 25 years old and I'm like oh this is really cool and I'm thinking to myself dude when am I gonna my boys if my boys see me with this they are gonna fucking rip into me dude life You asshole and she was like so excited to give it to me, and I'm like oh my god, dude What do I do you know I'm saying like I'm I really gonna walk around cut it up with this blanket with my girlfriend on a

A few a huge fucking six. I don't know that's creepy. It's like did you imagine waking up to that in the morning half asleep? Oh Show, oh, dude, you know so so so bad, so bad. Right. So that's a, she might have beat you in the whole narcissism there. She's like, Hey, how do you use your gift? It's a picture of my face. Because I'm so fucking hot. Think about me all the time. Yeah. So can that remind me of this. Anyway, it's back to my, my weight belt story. So, you know, my girls have been going through this back and forth. It's been this pain in the ass to get this all done. And, you know, she finally told me the other day. She's like, it's finished.

It's coming her way. That's not, and this was, I don't know, this was maybe a couple, maybe like a week ago or so. And I followed up on her and I'm like, hey, when's that belt supposed to come in? Is this supposed to come in this week or what? You know, and she's like, oh, she's like, let me call and follow up on it. I don't know why it should be here already, but now.

So she calls down there. And the lady, by the way, the company is awesome. They're super customer source. She says that they've been really sweet to her and just explain that they want to make sure they get it right because you can't return them. You stitch her in its wrong size. And this and that, you're asked like, you can't return the belt,

and that's a lot of money, and they're not gonna give you another one. So, you know, they wanna make everything, make sure everything's perfect. So, she calls, and she goes, oh, the lady goes, oh my God, I'm so glad that you called us. She goes, we're sending you a belt out right now, and it's a blank belt.

And we want you to put it on, on Adam, and have him wear it and make sure it fits because the belt you ordered we don't think it's going to fit you as you go as well I measured him this night she goes well yeah well the guy down at the warehouse who actually puts them together and stitches him he was starting to put it on he recognized the mind pugglo he's a huge fan of mind pump and a follower of atoms and he goes there's no way his waist is this big synopsin amount of regular ones so they can measure it and then they can check it out And you're right. That's awesome. That's right. That's right. That's what you're what

She was all she was so fascinated to tell me that story She's like oh my cuz I don't know where they're stationed. They're not around here You know you know you made it when the weight belt company Those who you are. Oh yeah. Cause to the T. Fuck the tonight show. It's all about the Weight Belt Company's. Let's get this party started. Oh yeah.

Let's rock and roll. If you wanna pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind, pop, mind, pop with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. All right, it's a mind pump time. This is Salda Stefano. You hear it with Justin Andrews.

The Adam Schaefer. And Doug Olross, oh. Yes, this spinner. All right, so, hey guys, you guys see my water over here? I do, you know what? Are you alkaline? No, check out this water, dude. It's pink and purple.

Now, read the freaking label. It says, Alka, Alka true. So, I'm not one to get ripped off, but I don't know why I'm such a dumb ass when it comes to water. Like, I'll see different waters. Because it says smart, you think that it's smart water. No, I'll just see different waters,

and I'll wanna get them. So, this is water that's alkaline, which I know is complete bullshit, but I don't know why is making you smarter. No, I'll just see different waters. I'll like it. So this is water that's alkaline, which I know is complete bullshit, but I don't know why I bought it anyway. It costs me four bucks. What? Yeah. Why did you do that?

It's so dumb. I know why I'm doing it. I know I'm being completely stupid. And I'm like, I'm gonna buy this water that says it's pH balanced, which is gonna do nothing for her. Yeah. It's gonna do nothing for me at all. Is that okay? So is that the pitch on this? Is that it's pH balance, which is gonna do nothing. For her. Yeah. It's gonna do nothing for me at all. Is that, okay, so is that the pitch on this?

Is that it's pH balance right here? It's got alkaline, it's alkaline, it's supposed to balance out your body, so you're not so acidic and blah, blah, blah. The truth is your body does a pretty damn good job of it, and if you really are acidic, you're probably dying. So, and I don't think this will help you that much, but I got closed

So I bought it for dollar for gallon water and how alcoholine would it have to be in order to balance you out of it? Bro if something was out really truly alkaline you wouldn't be able to drink it I'll burn your face That's good right? Super acidic So I just bought a bottle of fucking gallon of water for like five bucks You know it's great I'm gonna drink the fuck out of it.

And I know this without even asking you guys, but I think as a salesman, we're like the biggest suckers or all, or the easiest close. I'm the easiest close ever. Oh dude, I will buy it. Because you can appreciate talent, right? Yeah, he really has like a great pitch. You're right, oh yeah.

Ooh, I didn't think of it from that angle. I buy shit simply because the dude did a good job. I had to lie to you. I'll buy something that's a shitty product because you sold it to me well. Like someone will sell it to me really well. I'm like, that was pretty good, bro. I gotta sell it to you. I'm convinced even though I know it's bullshit, but I'm gonna buy it just for this.

I've actually told people that. I have actually said to people, look, your product sucks. Yeah, this is bullshit. And I'm paying for it. Yeah, and they're look on their face like, why did you just say, I'm like, you know, this product sucks, but you did a pretty good job. So I'm gonna buy one. I had a kid come up to my door and sell me,

ah, fuck what was he selling? Mag is cookies or something, you know, some little kid. Yeah. This kid was a closer. If you was an underage, I would have been like, give me your phone number because I'm gonna call you when I need to hire a good salesperson because you're a genius, but he's under age

and if I asked his phone number, his dad would shoot me so. Do you guys remember when there was a big thing going on with the door to door sales on the newspaper people? That would actually, they were going, and so this was what they did. Oh, were they're casing your house? No, no. So I have a client that used to,

where she was like head of the Mercury News. And she actually created a division specifically to go in and to basically spy on these managers that were doing this. So, the company Mercury News, I don't know if this is still true and how it still happens now, but back then this was probably about eight years ago or so, they actually hired an outside company to come in and solicit their newspaper. So, you know, you guys have all had your doorbell rang before and someone comes in and they try and convince you

to subscribe to this new newspaper or whatever. Well, this company that was doing it, they were really successful, but one of the things that they were doing is they started sending these kids up to the door and they would have them like tell these total lies and stories, Oh, fuck. You know, they're dying of cancer and stuff like that

and they only have so long to live and blah, blah, blah. All these stories, we're people, and they're like, all I need is I just need you to subscribe. And because it's so cheap, newspaper people are like, oh my god, they would just, they would subscribe. Because it's like, wow, that's dirty. Yeah, so it was really, really big deal. And she actually hired my, she asked me if I had

knew somebody who needed a job and told me what was going on. It's perfect timing. My cousin's in between jobs right now. And he could totally do this. So she hired him to do that. And so every day he'd come home from work and he would tell me like they're training.

And I remember him going through it. And then like, you know, it took about a week or so after they got to the intro and explain all the base stuff and they'd say, OK, well, you know, this is what you do. You know, and they started telling him like, Oh, yeah, teaching them how to like, and like dirty, dirty stories. You know what? I hate, I hate people who come up to my door to try to sell me shit, but it's not for

the same reasons other people hate. Like, I don't care that you're interrupting me. If I don't want to answer the door, I don't. It's as apparent in, I don't know, Justin, if you're. It's as apparent, I don't know, just if you're the same, as apparent, I've become ridiculously paranoid. Like, some random dude comes up to my door to tell me magazine, I'm like, oh, you're trying to see if you can. What are you doing here? How'd you get here?

Yeah, you're trying to rob my house, you want to see if I'm home. I'll give you an example. I was at the mall with my son, right? And we're getting out of the car, and you know how when you drive in the parking lot, the mall, like, you could go one mile an hour If you turn your wheels it sounds like you're freaking Yeah, it sounds like a freaking car chase scene from you know in 1965 movie

So I hear that sound like grab my son like run to the sidewalk. You just become so paranoid. Yeah. Yeah, yeah Very jumpy. Oh, yeah, so when you come to my door If anyone ever comes to my door, I'm Basically figuring out how I can kill you very quickly. Yeah, so when you come to my door, if anyone ever comes to my door, I'm basically figuring out how I can kill you very quickly, yeah, it goes bad. So you probably don't wanna come to my door. Yeah, and I know the door to door, like Jehovah Witness and like, you know, like there's, we've had like all kinds

of different like random people come by and it's really hard to get to our house. They were like nowhere. Oh see, that would make me more of a foreigner. Exactly, so I'm very aware of everybody that's on the street and all my neighbors too, we pay attention. And we had these two ladies that would always come by. And I didn't know what they were trying to sell

or anything, they just were totally like, didn't come out in the open with it. And we're just asking all these questions, you know, and then finally got into the religious, like, oh, do you go to church and do you do this? And I'm like, okay, and I'm like, I'm kind of telling them, yeah, well, you know, I haven't been in a while and blah, blah, blah.

And like, close, now they think that they have a chance. Like, you know, oh, we're gonna convert you. And so I basically, I stopped, I tried to stop, you know, then where they were, I'm like, oh, oh, gonna convert you. And so I basically, I stopped, I tried to stop, you know, then where they were, I'm like, oh, you guys are Jehovah's, oh, I'm not interested, I'm sorry, you know, I respect what you guys are doing, you're trying to, you know. But don't you wanna save your soul?

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But then they finally leave, and anyway, they keep coming back, because my wife was even nicer than me, and it just got to point. See, I'm an asshole. We had to be totally dexed to them. I'm always, it got to that boiling point

where I was just like, dude, listen, we're eating dinner. You know, you're waking up our kids. It's like the dog would go crazy. No, I get to the point where if I can tell, it's either Jehovah's Witness or Mormon or whatever, you can tell it's a religious, they're coming to try and convert you or whatever. I will say the worst shit.

Just for fun, they'll come out of the door. Have you heard the word of the Lord or whatever, I worship Satan and then they'll look on their face. I should have said that. Oh, they'll look on their face and like what? But yes, I worship Satan and I'll look at it. Yeah, come on in. And they'll never say on it.

They'll never come back. I have, or what about those people in front of grocery stores that are trying to get you to donate, to like save the whales or whatever? Oh, yes. I said some whore, I want to call foods. There's always some dude there, like with a clipboard and I'm like, oh, beeline it right in.

Dude, I had green piece that just bothered me on the way in and I fucking shine them on, on the way out again. And of course, they always make the stupid, this is what they always say to me. Hey, our movement could use your muscles or some stupid shit like that right? We were just the other day we were walking remember that knucklehead said some shit to me We were walking away from the main street the same thing. Yeah, same thing

So some is someone said that to me and it was a you know green piece thing and and I said hey I dumped my motor oil in the drain Can I walk away and the look on their face was like? Because they'll want to kill you like there's so adamant about it Oh you asshole. And of course, it's not true. I don't do that. But I'm going to say that shit to you to make you see shit. Yeah. Hey, what are we talking about today? So let's, this is a cool subject. So I had someone ask me this the other day, and it's a subject I take for granted because I talked about it. I've talked about it so much. I mean, because you wrote a book on it? Yeah, I wrote a book on it.

Really, it's the difference between what it means when your body is either erect or flas it. No, that's not the case when I didn't even want that. What does it mean? Sorry, Justin. It's anabolic. Keep asking. Anabolic versus catabolic.

You know, what are those two terms mean in regards to? Where are the grow or die? Yeah, basically. Anabolic is when your body is... Feels amazing. Yeah, exactly. Your body wants to build muscle. It's trying to build this positive functional tissue.

This is why anabolic steroids are called anabolic steroids because steroids exist in the medical field that are not anabolic steroids are called anabolic steroids because steroids exist in the medical field that are not anabolic. Like if you take a corticosteroid for inflammation, that's not an anabolic steroid. You could take those steroids all day long and it won't make any bigger.

Right. You want, you know, anabolic means pro muscle tissue just for the sake of this particular episode. And really, for the most part, in regards to athletic performance and muscle, you're either one or the other. Yeah. You know what I mean?

You're either building, or you're tearing down, or you're getting rid of muscle. And it's this delicate kind of balance between the two. That's right, that you have to, it's hard to dictate that. Yeah, so the big question, and here's how, let me tell you how important. Well, this is also why it becomes,

and I don't know if you guys are the same way too, but I typically try and focus a client on one direction or the other at first. And it's not that when we've talked about this before, it's not impossible to build muscle and to burn fat to do it same time, but it is much easier to be geared one direction to their like focus. Let's be focused on being anabolic all the time,

trying to build as much muscle or just lose. Yeah, or just cut. Well, what's interesting is when your body is anabolic, it will lean towards burning body fat. So I'll give you an example, right? If you take an individual who's working out with weights, their diet is the same, nothing's changed, okay? They've just been working out for a long time, and you give them

anabolic steroids, which give you this hormone signal to make you anabolic, they will build muscle and they will get leaner, because it does this nutrient-repartitioning effect, where what you eat gets shuttled directly to muscle because you're so anabolic. So being anabolic is good either way. I mean, ideally, just like what Adam said, ideally shit, if you could build muscle amber body fat, that's like the,

that's the penacious. So holy grail. That's where you wanna be. Oh dear. So jumping on that. Holy grail. So what are some things that you guys, I mean, what's obvious?

What's an obvious way to make a client anabolic? Just one obvious, someone who's sedative, doesn't do anything. What's the first thing you do? Lefty weights. Yeah. Absolutely. Lifts some weights. That's how you can become anabolic. But there's some other signals that we've identified that I talk about in the Maps Anabolic program. That's why I put anabolic after it. I wasn't trying to make it sound like steroids. I was using, I used the term anabolic. But you were. It's like a low dose of steroids. Yeah.

I've had so many people say that that actually put that in the original advertisements. That's great. It's like a low dose of steroids. I don't know how true that is, but people say it so far. Yeah. So there's some signals that happen in the body

that promote muscle growth. Now, the first one that we're all familiar with is the damage that comes from exercise, right? When you lift weights for all intents and purposes, you are not building any muscle. In fact, if we just analyze what happens to your body while you're lifting weights, if we just looked at that, stress and breaking down.

Yeah, nobody, no scientist, no doctor would ever recommend that you work out because it looks like it's horrible, right? Yeah, if you didn't get any benefit or rebuilding, you know, to that, if you just were breaking down and exercising and then you had no benefit, like, come on. Yeah, you get, who's going to be exercising? Yeah, you get inflammatory markers go up, you get muscle damage, you get, you know, all these horrible sounding things Happen your body during the weight training process, but really the breakdown of muscle

Your body aims to adapt to it to protect itself from That same potential stress next time right so this is like kind of like the hormesis, right? Yeah, yeah, where you're introducing these It's kind of like the hormesis, right? Yeah, where you're introducing these toxins or you're introducing these inflammatory things, but it really gradually, your body tries to overcome that, right? And then gets better at it and wants to exceed

and get stronger as a result. Yeah, because your body is trying to adapt to its environment. It really doesn't know you're in the gym, doesn't know you're in the weights. It just thinks that you're... It's like overcoming your environment exactly. So, your body always wants to thrive.

And so, the only way to do that is to be overcome all the forces against you. Yeah, your body will always do the absolute minimum it needs to do in order to survive. It will never Go above and beyond the minimum Okay, it just doesn't like my body's only gonna be a strong as it absolutely needs to be It's not gonna be stronger right then it needs to be it's I'm not gonna like lift weights once and then all of a sudden Wouldn't that be great that would be awesome You could just sit in a safe air and say. Could you work harder for me please this time? Yeah.

It would be super right now. There's a lot of systems in the body. I think the whole body is an adaptation machine, but I mean everything from, if you took a piece of sandpaper and rubbed it on the top of your hand until it got a little raw. Right. And then let it heal and then did that again,

let it heal. Eventually you'd develop a calis. Yeah, you didn't call us. Yeah, so I would start. If I punched you in the face right now, and let it heal. Eventually you develop a calis. Yeah, you're even calis. Yeah, so I punch you in the face right now. The very first time I punch you in the face it's gonna fucking hurt like hell in my put you out. I do that every single day, you know, as soon as you're gonna have a pretty good gin, dude.

Oh my God. But you actually, I'm glad you said that because you can overdo it, right? If you punch me hard enough, you'll just kill me. Like you'll overcome that adaptation process, which is why when you train too hard, that signal gets overridden by the, I just need to heal. You know, forget this adaptation, you know, jazz,

I just need to heal my body. And of course, intensity is super individual. You know, somebody who doesn't do anything at all, doesn't take much break their muscle down. But that's the only signal that all other workout plans focus on. They, they, they, they focus, they hit other signals that have to do with muscle growth on accident,

but they don't understand them. They don't really focus on them. They just know break muscle down, build it up, break muscle down, build it up. But there's other signals. There's other things that happen when you lift weights. We've talked about myostatin before. Resistance training dramatically lowers myostatin. In the muscles, of course, the more intense the resistance training is the lower the myostatin goes. However, even moderate or low intensity activity will cause a drop in systemic or whole-body

myostatin. And as we've learned in previous episodes, myostatin is a super potent regulator of muscle growth. In fact, it's more potent than the hormone signals that you get. You can compare two people, one person on a shitload of steroids, another person on my that inhibition and the dude with the Miles that inhibition won't even need to lift weights. You can just sit there and his muscles just get bigger. So yeah, it's great. I mean, just the hormones in general, like talking about hormones in the inverse relationships

and it's so complex because you have checks and balances all over the board. And it works so well to adapt and raise one while the other lowers, a shut one off, turn the other one on, you know, and it's just, it's fascinating to me when you think about that. What a lot of people, like you think about always having to lower inflammation, right? I remember I think you even brought up to me one time a study about athletes and where they actually took Advil or they took ibuprofen.

Yeah, right. And then they looked at the long term as far as like okay now training versus the athletes that didn't take pre workout, the difference there and why their muscles actually had more growth and strength. It's because they actually allowed that inflammation to occur. Yeah, and they needed that. Some inflammation is essential. And so athletes who take regular doses,

so if you do this every once in a while, it's not going to do anything, but these are over the years where before every single run or before every time you live, you take ibuprofen or naproxin or another NSAID, and they've noticed that they had lower levels of protein synthesis, so less muscle adaptation,

and higher rates of ligament injuries and tendon rupture, because that signal needs, inflammatory signal needs to be there To tell the body what to do. This is why you'll get only so many cortisone shots in one joint You know, you'll get a cortisone shot from a doctor eventually. They'll say okay. We're not gonna give you anymore Yeah, cuz your joints gonna get deteriorate Um at right now Adam's in getting ready for a show So you're in this kind of delicate stage. Can you tell when your body's anabolic versus kettle? Oh, yeah

Absolutely and especially right now, because I'm so ultra sensitive. When I start getting this low a body fat percentage and I'm cutting and depleted right now, I can feel. It's, this is my, this is what, you know, we kind of talked a little bit on the road to San Jose Pro interview you guys did with me. But this is the part that I just get really fascinated with because I am constantly playing with foods with the knowledge that I know whether it be cholesterol or fats or creatines

and certain types of carbs, whether it be fast acting, slow acting and the timing of it when I have it and how much of it I have, I am always playing with that stuff because I can really feel it. I mean, I can feel it, not just my energy levels and the feeling of anablog. So the most anablog time I have ever felt, even more so than any hormone, anything like that whatsoever, it has been just coming after a show.

Oh yeah, that was true. After a show, when I have been, you know, for a six to eight week period, or however long I've been dieting for, because typically when I'm dieting, you know, I'm six to eight week period or however long I've been dieting for because typically when I'm dieting, you know, I'm keeping myself always at maintenance or lower, you know, for, you know, weeks on end. And even refeeds, if I go into surplus, it's a very minimal surplus. I'm not overdoing it because I don't want to put any extra weight on when I'm trying to cut. So the first day that I do this over surplus,

my body is just like, what? It hasn't had it and I'm telling you, I mean, I can feel it. It's the most amazing workout. I mean, I wish every workout felt like that. It's just, and this is why we advocate many cuts and many bulks.

Yes, because you get the mini cut, you get the fat loss effects. Once you start to go catabolic muscle wise, you go mini bulk, you take advantage of that, anabolic, that's what we say you get anabolic when effects. Once you start to go catabolic muscle wise, you go mini bulk, you take advantage of that, anabolic, you know, that's what we say, you get anabolic when you're bulking, but only for so long.

You keep bulking long enough, the anabolic signal goes away, and it's just fat stories. Yeah, you know. Well, I think that's such a good topic, and I don't know if we, I don't want to redirect us from where we're going, but I think it's, I mean, I don't know how many Instagrams that come across of people that follow me or whatever

that or I see on my thread that, you know, took out my, you know, four month or my six-month bulk, you know, and you're looking at the picture of the guy and you're like, dude, you put like 25, 30 pounds on and at least 25 of that 30. That's like, you know, and then what you don't realize is that when you go to cut, how extremely hard it is to hold on to just those five pounds when you got 20 to go, just to get back to where you were. I mean, that's why you wanna put on

as little excess as possible. So then when you go to shredding or cutting that reducing, your body fat, there's not a lot that you have to get rid of. If you got a lot to get rid of, it's really tough to shed 20 pounds of fat and think you're not going to lose two or three pounds of muscle on the way. It's a delicate dance. It's a very delicate dance.

It's actually a tiny little window you're talking about. Yes, where you can shred, but you can also maintain or even grow muscle wise. Well, see, that's the thing. See, that's the thing when it comes to resistance training or working out in the gym. You have to view it from this angle, am I anabolic? Don't view it from the angle of,

I tore it up in the gym or I got really sore or whatever. You have to look at and say, am I anabolic or am I catabolic? I feel like shit right now, I might be catabolic. If you, when you look at things with this lens or through this lens, you watch what happens to your workouts, you train smarter when you start to realize, when you start to look at that paradigm and say,

okay, the entire reason why I'm lifting weights is because I'm trying to become anabolic. There is no other reason why I'm lifting weights. Yes, you might love working out, but let's be honest, how many people would lift weights if they got zero results from it? So it's actually a lot more than you think. Well, a lot less than do now though.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. So you have muscle breakdown, myostatin levels go down. You have something called mechanical signaling. So check this out. Every time muscle fibers stretch and contract, that's called mechanical signaling. And that sends a small anabolic signal to build muscle. In fact, stretching by itself, deep stretching, does have a small anabolic effect. And they've done this studies on animals where they'll take like a bird and they'll put

a weight on the birds' wing and have it just in this really extreme stretch position for a long period of time. And they'll build a little bit of muscle. That's a sliding filament theory. That's what that is. Well, that's just how muscle fibers contract. But the sliding filaments, if we're going to get technically, that's part of the reason

why muscle damage happens because those attachments, those little, they compare to Velcro, little attachments between muscle filaments, fiber filaments will tear and that's what some of the damage comes from. So you have mechanical signaling, we talked about myostatin breakdown, then there's something called glute 4 or glucose transport of 4, which is, if I say this, you guys are no right away what I'm talking about, you know, the window of opportunity, the post workout window.

Random walk window. Yeah. So this is a protein that gets activated within muscle that increases the muscle cells permeability. So it's ability to absorb things like amino acids and glycogen increases, which is why they say feed yourself something that's fast acting post workout to take advantage of this,

for effect that you just got from your workout. And this lasts, they save an hour. There's not really any accuracy in terms of how long it lasts, but we do know it's a shorter window. It doesn't last forever. But after you work out, this glute 4 gets stimulated within muscle, and that's why you eat something post-workout. Or even if you don't, it still makes your muscles more anabolic, that particular aspect

of it. And then lastly, there's a hormonal response when you look for it. Have you guys seen, I'm sure you guys have heard studies like squats, make your testosterone level go up and stuff like that. They'll do comparisons between exercises and look at what the hormonal response is. And there's definitely exercises that are superior to others. The king of all hormone boosting exercises is the barbell squat. Second place is the deadlift.

And you can pretty much, you know, any big gross motor movement, barbell movement is up there. Any small isolation-based movement is at the bottom. You know, balance and stability is way at the bottom. Is it, I mean, is it like the central nervous system response with the squat, being that it almost sends out a signal? It's crushing you. You're dying.

I don't know. That's a great question. There's so many factors. There is. You think, too, you have so many muscles that are having to engage all the time. Oh yeah, you know, that's another. Your whole kinetic chain, I mean,

is having, especially on a barbell squat is completely. It's a good question because if we did like, you know, if you did like a squat clean and press, you're not gonna get as high, you're not gonna get a big of a boost of test, it's definitely a good exercise. As a heavy back squat. Yeah, so you, I mean,

you always like those really slow grinding, you know, like the powerlifting lifts. Yeah, yeah, cause it's, you really do feel like you have to, like every little millimeter is a fight. Yeah, and they do stimulate that response. So check this out, right?

So we just talked about, there's five that we just, we just labeled, right? We have breaking muscle down, myostatin mechanical signaling, glucose transport of four, notice glute four, and the hormonal response. Now, we are limited on one of those muscle breakdown. You can only break muscle down so much, right? I can break it down.

I can hammer my legs today and I might be able to hit them hard again 48 to 72 hours later if I'm smart and I train properly. I can't do, I can't break muscle down every hour of every day. Like if that was the case, then we just be in the gym all day long, we'd all look like, you know, running Coleman. Heroes. You are limited with breakdown. And this is where workouts, you know, the modern bodybuilding routines.

Or a cake. This is where they fuck up because so many of them are based on, if not all of them, are based on intensity always, dude. Intensity always and they're based on anabolically enhanced, and when I say that, I mean, athletes who take external hormones like testosterone, it's based on those people because when anabolic hormones took the stage,

you saw more and more body parts splits, especially this one so each body part one so week type of thing and they kind of get rid of the frequency because they're always anabolic. So they can tear muscle down and that have to worry about the other signals that we just talked about. See, those other signals are not as limited. That's the crazy part. Like I can stimulate, I can do mechanical signaling all the time without doing excessive breakdown. I can drop my else that without excessive breakdown. I can get Luke 4 to go up a little bit without excessive breakdown. I can affect my hormones

naturally without having to break muscle down. And this is where the trigger session concept. Yeah, absolutely. It reminded me of like trigger session rubber band right away. Exactly. That's where I came from because I thought to myself, I said, okay, if you, how can we possibly get those other signals? How can I maximize those other signals without that limiting breakdown factor, which is important, by the way, breaking muscle down for the natural athlete especially, is the most powerful of all the signals. Okay, if I didn't break muscle down, I just focused on the other one. If I just did trigger sessions,

I didn't do any foundational. You were like a yoga check. Yeah, you're not gonna get, you're gonna build a little bit, but you're not gonna get much, right? Yeah, you're like a yoga check. But I thought to myself, okay, I'm already breaking muscle down.

I understand that part. How can I maximize those other signals without hitting that limit of breakdown. And that's where the concept of trigger sessions came up, which is basically low intensity, frequent movement on the days in between the heavy workouts. And since incorporating that, I mean, shit, it's like people just, they can't believe the boost

that gives you, it's like a little turbo. I mean, Adam, you've been utilizing for a while now and your body, I mean, it's looking different. Well, you know what, crazy before. Yeah, it's, and that's probably one of the biggest factors out of all the things that I have changed consistently, you know, it was doing things like that. I mean, just all the other, and I don't know if I want

to take this podcast, this direction, not or save this for a whole nother one, but, you know, we could dive into the periodization of the maps and a ball program. I think that's so key. And it goes right in line with what you're talking about because, you know, part of the body's splits before, you know, you were so concerned, you know, you hit one muscle, you destroy one muscle, you know, per week. And my man tout even as a trainer, even with the knowledge I had as a trainer early on in my career, I was always thinking,

it was always about how, you know, if I got really, really sore, then I did enough work, you know, for that muscle for the week, you know, and it, sure, it's enough work to, you know, build a little bit of muscle and look better than that. But I've seen the most progression in my workout by, you know, periodization. I mean, that's just more frequency and period.

Yeah, oh, yeah. You know what's funny? The top, some of the top guys that I've met so far in your industry, like yourself and Craig and some of these other guys, when I bring this concept up, first of all, nobody says to me, that sounds crazy. Everybody says, oh shit, that makes sense. Like everybody says that.

And I think listeners right now listening are going, oh, that makes sense. But a lot of you guys did some kind of variation of this without even just on your own. Because you've been working out for so, I mean, how long have you been lifting weights? Forget about how long you been a trainer. How long have you been lifting weights? About 15 years. Yeah. So, you've kind of developed that sensitivity to your body to know, oh, this is working and

this isn't working. Because I remember when I first brought it up to you, you're like, oh, I do that all time. I do calf raises oh, this is working and this isn't working. Yeah. Because I remember when I first brought it up to you, you're like, oh, I do that all time. I do calf raises when I take a shower and I do, you know, yeah. Yeah, there's little things that we definitely, we do. But you know what, having this structure and it's just, it's forced me to be more committed to it, which is in turn, made a huge difference, I think, for sure. And I, you know, a lot of guys, though, man, I tell you what, a lot of guys in my profession, what I do do not.

A lot of them train the old school way. And I was just telling this young kid the other day in the gym who listens to us. And he was asking me about my workouts. And he's paying attention to what I was doing and stuff like that. And I said, you know, it's crazy. One of the, to me, the biggest one for know, it's crazy. One of the, and to me, the biggest notice,

the biggest one for me, it's made a huge difference and has made my life a lot easier is was legs. Being a six foot three guy, squatting heavy and doing things like that. Oh my god, it is a workout dude. And I don't care how long I've been doing it for. It is, I used to get like nauseous and dizzy and want to throw up like, and I And in order for me to see gains on my legs, I had to have these workouts. I didn't used to have these 90 minute leg workouts where I just punished myself just to see a little bit of growth in my legs. And then I didn't wanna move them all week long

because they were so damn sore, I'm wobbling around all the time. And to be honest with you, there's this like trainer pride thing that you can, oh yeah, I mean I hit legs so bad You know I can barely walk dude. I'm never like that anymore like yeah, I get sore my legs for sure I feel it absolutely but not like where I'm crippled and because I I in turn want to be back in the gym hitting legs again two days later Yeah, you know, so I'm hitting my legs three times a week

But I'm not I'm not having to do 24 to 30 sets of leg exercises. You know, I'll come in some days like today, we'll be a leg day, but what I'll do today, because it's legs and then I'll also hit auxiliaries. I'll come in and I'm gonna do squats. I'll do like eight sets of squats. Eight sets, that's it.

Eight sets ain't shit. If I know I'm only getting eight sets, like I can get that done. And I've seen the most gains by doing that. And then I'll go do other body parts like I'm gonna end up hitting some shoulder work like that and some chest and some other things and calves. You know, it was a huge paradigm shift for me

on this subject was realizing that recovery and adaptation can be separate. Cause you just said something, like you get so sore before, and in your mind, you're thinking, oh, I'm so sore, my muscles are gonna grow. Yeah, we always think recovery. Right, no, that doesn your mind you're thinking, oh, I'm so sore, my muscles are gonna grow. Yeah, we always think recovery. Right, no, that doesn't mean you're adapting.

That could just mean recovery. That could just mean your muscles are going to recover from the damage, but the signal, the anabolic signal, is gone by the time you're done recovering from that ridiculous onslaught. Does that make sense? So true. So my legs are sore for four days.

Well, my anabolic signal might only be two days long. Well, it ain't gonna do shit because those first two days, I'm just trying to repair all that damage. By the time my muscles are done recovering, that signal's kinda gone. And I've lost that signal instead of hitting your body a little less intensely or less volume and hitting it more frequently.

Now you're constantly bouncing that anabolic signal up. Right, when that anabolic signal is... That's how I feel now. The way I feel now is just as that anabolic signal starts to dip on my legs, I'm hitting them again. Just to start hitting again, that's what's getting hit like every three days or so, my legs are getting hit. Like I said, I've seen...

Right. I did the same thing with my back. So, you guys know this, that this last seven months for this show, the main focus for me was to bring up my legs, my legs, my calves and my back. I've been the three primary focuses, and unfortunately I don't get to show those off for men's physique or whatever.

But for me at the end of the day, it's I'm always building the physique I want. As much as I'm trying to build a physique that appeals to the judges The end of the day. I really don't give a shit what they think, you know I want to be happy in the physique that I that I rock on a daily basis and you know for me It was always bringing those legs up to match my upper body and for the first time in my life I feel like I'm really symmetrical, you know, and it's always been rough

You know, it's been rough trying to build those legs and the best thing I ever possibly did was you know getting and it's all, it's been rough, you know, it's been rough trying to build those legs. And the best thing I ever possibly did was, you know, getting that to my head. And I have to say like even knowing it before it until you kind of drilled it in my head, you know, and would kept saying that about it. And you said it again, just now with the whole recovery and adaptation are different, you know. And it's like, God, that's so true. Because for so long, I'm always thinking, break down recover, break down recover. It's all about break down recovery. I didn't even explain to people like, Oh, you know, that down recover, break down recover, it's all about break down recover. And I'd even explain to people like,

oh, you know, that's how you dictate whether you hit it again, you know, you break down as hard as you can, whatever. And then, you know, if you're still sore, you don't necessarily need to hit it again, you know, wait till you fully recover, then hit it again, whether that's four days, five days, seven days, or whatever, you know, and that was always my mentality. And it's not to say you can't do that and see some results.

I mean, I've actually, I've built a great physique leading up to that, but the next level for me was getting the point where I'm always like you said, trying to throw that anabolic signal towards them. And of course, trigger sessions has been. You know when people freak out too, is when I tell them that I'll work out a sore muscle. Oh my God, you can't work out a sore muscle.

You're gonna, you know, that's bad. You're still recovering. know, that's bad. You're still recovering. No. It's overtraining. No, I'm not trying to destroy it, but what I am doing is I'm just trying to bump that anabolic signal up again. And you know what? I tell you what?

Listeners, I guarantee you've done this to yourself before, where you were super sore, and you had to go do something. And then you felt hella better. And all of a sudden you're like, I'm not a sore. Yeah. I feel better. Because, look, I'll tell you something out. You take two people. You take one person who beats their shit out of their legs

and then lays in bed, doesn't move for five days. They just lay there and recover. You take another person who beats the shit out of their legs and then have them walk around every day, stretch, maybe do some hiking, some light movement. I guarantee you the guy who moved is gonna build muscle and the guy who laid there and didn't do shit will lose muscle.

Not only will he be... Well, it's the same just like, you know, physical therapy where the first thing that they try and get you to do after surgery is move and start, you know, adding, you know, light intensity, light intensity, but like, get you through range of motion and they press you on the range of motion. It's not a comfortable experience, it's recovery, you know, and the success really is

determined based off of how, you know, you address it right away and you train your body to then gain that movement and that mobility back. So, you know, if you don't do that, your fucked, it freezes up on you. Well, think of the two of the most important things, are essential things when it comes to recovering is what? You're talking about nutrients, nutrients in oxygen, and what gets it there is blood flow. Movement, right? And so-

So, yeah, more blood flow, more circulation that you get is only means that much more oxygen, that much nutrients are gonna get to that area, neglecting it, laying in bed and stuff like that, you're getting limited, you know? And it happens so quickly, look, you could put your arm in the cast for two days and I swore to God, you'll get be weaker and smaller

two days later. That's how fast your body adapts in that direction, especially in that direction. It's actually three days, 72 hours after recovery. So after a muscle has been recovered, it's not sore. It has no damage done. It's fully recovered within 72 hours at your feet, sets in.

Yep. So that's why it makes more sense to hit a muscle more frequently instead of harder and longer, less frequently. And for any look, there's always exceptions to the rule. I've met people who are like, no, I've tried both. Most people, however, will respond better this way. And I'll give you another example. If I, let's, we'll use, we'll keep us stick to legs

as we're focusing on. The best exercises for legs, right? Barbell squat, not for everybody, but generally, right? Barbell squat, stiff leg, and deadlift, heavy lunges. There's like four or five, like best exercises for legs. If you work out your legs once a week, I guarantee you'll have one or two really good exercises and because you're gasped and fatigued,

you're doing things like leg extensions, leg curls and all these little tiny movements. If you work out your legs three days a week instead, you're probably always going to squat, you're always going to front squat, you're always going to stiffly, you're always going to do those super effective exercises and you can do them. And if you compare the total volume, it's probably the same. Look, if I work out my legs three days a week, five sets each time, that's still 15 sets. I have to tell you a great story because you said this. This is so awesome that you just said that.

And it was, this just happened to me. So I haven't done lying leg girls on a machine in probably six plus months. And I've been doing nothing but just barbell squats, deads, and training three times a week. And my quads were really sore the other day because I put a lot of emphasis on my quads. And my hamstrings weren't that sore,

so I thought, you know what, I'm gonna add some hamstring work in with some other auxiliary muscles and stuff, so I hopped on the leg curls. How crazy is this? So I used to always leg breasts and leg extension and leg curl and donkey kick. Those were like staple exercises in my routine.

For me, hamstrings have always been really weak. I don't do very much weight on there. Maybe 80 to 100 pounds or whatever that on those lying leg curls was strict good form. And that would be challenging for my hamstrings. I get on this machine that I haven't been on for six to eight months plus. Dude, I'm up by like 75% strength.

Wow. Without even doing that machine, talk about if I actually would actually incorporate that with that and adapt to that a little bit in addition to everything I'm doing. I was like, I got into warm up and I put it like at 70 or so thinking like, okay, that's gonna be 70 and then I'll go 80, 90, 100 or more like that. And I was like, started crawling, I'm like, holy shit, this was so light and weight I did like 30 reps just to one real quick.

And then I like, I jumped up to another 50, 15 reps, like, no, I'm not, and I kept having to jump up with that. And then I'm like, at a point, I've never even been there on that line, like, crow machine before, I thought, wow, how crazy is that that I haven't even done that movement? And my hamstrings have become that much developed, that much more developed just by

because doing all those big motor movements. It makes a huge difference. And just before we close off, people have told me because we covered the subjects on our podcast, like, God, you're giving out so much of information. Don't you want people to buy your program? Look, yeah, I do want you to buy the programs

that we have on our site. However, we are also big believers in sharing ideas and information. And, you know, just to break it down, because people are going to ask, well, how do I use trigger sessions exactly has work. Like, this is what you do. You do this on the days you don't lift heavy weights, okay? When you lift heavy weights, that's the day you lift heavy weights. Don't do trigger sessions. It's on the days off that you do the trigger sessions.

And the goal of the trigger session is to maintain a loud and a ballic signal that you got from the day before with your heavy workout. And this is how they work. You do short, really short low intensity movement, and you do them several times a day for body parts that you want to work on. Low intensity. Low intensity. If you push it, you're going to fuck yourself.

So you're just trying to get, look, for those of you competitors who get a pump backstage when you're going on stage, it's like that. Like I'm just trying to get a pump. So let's say your weakness is shoulders, triceps, and biceps. Then I'll do an exercise for my delts, biceps, triceps, real light, get a little pump. It should take me eight minutes.

And that's it. And I'll do that three times that day. And you start incorporating that. And you have to be consistent, by the way. Trigger sessions are not like, have you workouts, where you can get away skipping one here there. When you're super consistent with trigger sessions, you will be blown away.

Now, if you want more details in terms of, you know, really how to utilize them. And it would be a specific exercise. It's all that kind of stuff. We could do, I could do 15 podcasts breaking it down or you could go on and get the program and it kind of breaks It all down for you, but that that's in a nutshell kind of how they work. Yeah, so but other than that I don't know Doug how we doing on time we we over we're way over. Yeah, I think we're all right

Well, I'm good. I appreciate it. Thanks for listening lots of info. Say what? Oh mine pump radio.com That's right. That's where you can find the program click on the yellow button Do it get it to deal. 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.

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