Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 094: Building Granite Hard Muscle, Military Service, Active Rest Days & Carb Cycling

Episode Date: June 10, 2015

PumpHeads are firing off so many great questions (@mindpump on Instagram) Sal, Adam & Justin are having a very tough time catching up. Some questions get answered after they have been posted multiple times so if you have not had your questions answered keep submitting them. Oh, and if you are a member of the MindPump Private Mastermind Forum, you can post your questions there for an answer from the MindPump Crew and the MindPump community.

Hey Adam. What's up dude? Alright, uh... Since we're here in Justin's night here, I think it's, uh, it's only fair that we can talk about him now. Yeah, no, absolutely. Um, bro. He's getting fucking sexy. I think he- I think he's uncomfortable with it.

I think you and I embrace it a lot better. He's going- we're- we've- he's doing the program, and it's become too effective now. I don't like it. Well, I'm nervous. I'm nervous because he's become so good looking, all the attention starting to happen. And he is not the spot like guy that he's going to get fat on purpose just because he doesn't want that. No, what we need to do, he's addicted. He's addicted to the fitness. He's addicted to the ripness. Well, he's in love with the program. What we need to do is we need to start training him. We need to give him a program that we developed

to make him fat. We need to, he needs to train incorrectly to reverse all the ridiculous results he's just gotten. I don't know if we can trick him. He's pretty smart. It's too, he's very smart, but now he's very sexy too, and we cannot have that. Well, what we could do is we could put like a flaxseed oil and stuff in his drinks

and shit like liquid like that that he would never know. God damn it. Damn it calories. Shit. It's too effective. The program is too effective. The nutrition guy, the survival guy is too effective. The fasting guy, that's like the secret, right? Yeah, he has all the answers now, bro.

He did that and then did you see his glutes the other day? I did. Round and beautiful. Oh yeah, Apple bottom. Did you see me cry? A little bit. A tear came down my face and I realized how amazingly beautiful his ass became. We cannot have this anymore. Listen, listen, and I realized how amazingly beautiful his ass became.

We cannot have this anymore. Listen, listenersminepumpradio.com, you can see the program that he was doing, we got to take him off though. Yeah, no more for him, dude. Our ego's can't handle this. There's not enough room for three sexy guys in here. I'm not okay with that. Fuck that shit.

Yeah, next we're gonna make him fat and unattractive so that we feel better about ourselves. MindPumpRadio.com, click on the yellow button, everything's on sale, which, you know what I just realized? What? More people are gonna get insanely sexy now. And smarter, because the price is stupid. Oh yeah. It's so stupid. I think it's too, I think people are deterred

because it's so low because I think like, oh, it's only a nine-some-bucks, it must not be that good. I think we should, I think I'm with Doug, I think we should raise it up like $900. Well, bro, look at it. $900 will make more sense. Look at all the shit that they get. They get the Maps and a Ballet program.

Three-faced program. It's got blueprints, workout videos, it's got trigger session concept. Who talks about trigger sessions? Nobody. We invented that shit. Well, how about the nutrition survival guide that we put together?

We can prize that thing over like a year of Justin and I going back and forth on what we thought was the perfect way to teach somebody how to eat everything from different levels of consumer and then breaking down your macro nutrients per body type. I mean, it's so much detail for that low of a price is crazy. Revolutionary information available,

it's thrown in there, the fasting guide. Who does a fasting guide? Nobody, you know, why? Because nobody is as smart as we are. Nobody is as smart as we are and now there's three super sexy dudes Talking about this program soon to be too sexy dudes me and Adam don't like the fact that Justin's got two sexy With the six pack formula. Don't forget that shit. Oh, no. That's perfect for summer, right? You do the program build our abs You get blocks. This is the perfect program to hop on to right now if you're trying to get ready for summer. Blocks for apps, bricks, mindpumpradio.com, click on the yellow button. Do it.

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind, pop, mind, pop, with your hosts. Salta Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. Welcome to Mindpump, and Justin Andrews. Welcome to Mind Pump, Justin hit it. Yeah! Too. Oh, I didn't have it.

Did you ever know that you're my hero? There it is. There it is, sorry. So I have a confession, Mike. Oh yeah? The other night I couldn't sleep. I already know where this is other night I couldn't sleep. I already know where this is going. I couldn't sleep.

And so instead of getting up and masturbating, of course, you always masturbation, dude. Instead of doing that, I imagine, I imagine Justin's voice. Oh, and. Got the same sublime effect. And it was similar, but did I perform better than what when you're dreaming about it

and it woke you up? No, what? It just relax me. Let me know. Can I say that when we get on these mics, dude, in Sal gets to talking, it reminds me of like what we were like in high school and we talked because masturbation has to come.

I talk about the size of my cock and he talks about masturbation at least one at once in every single episode. But this is so, so, so high school. But you know what though? Like I give you shit, but it also, I think that's why we like it. I think it keeps us young. It still makes me feel. Bro, I just read a study.

I swear. I can't talk about my balls. He does. He talks about balls a lot. I just read a study. I swear. I'm gonna talk about my balls. He does. He talks about balls a lot. He does. He does. He does. He does.

He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does.

He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. He does. No, Doug holds it. Doug the jock's wrap Doug holds it you're the balls on the con

The best of it are Doug holds it. No, no, no, no, Doug cups the balls. They're like all makes up that What's that one outfit that that guy? God what's his name? I love what you do never mind Borat Borat. Oh, there are Never Borat, he's got that light. You know what I like? I like the guy in the room that uses the least amount of marijuana. Forget the most shit. I'm like, what?

I'm like, what? That is true, yes. It is, it is. It is, it is. He's like, hey guys, shit. Yeah, I forgot. Brain. So, no, there's, I read a study, guys, that frequent ejaculation dramatically reduces the risk

of prostate cancer. I believe that. So, if you don't want to have prostate cancer, you need to go approach your girlfriend and tell her to help you out. Because if she loves you, she will help you prevent prostate cancer by increasing the amount of times you ejaculate. I'm saving you guys, you said. Ladies, do you want your boyfriend and husband to have a boyfriend? She will help you prevent prostate cancer by increasing the amount of times you ejaculate. And see how many guys use that. Ladies, do you want your boyfriend and husband to have a husband?

How did you really care about my health among generations? If you do, you'll take care of me right now. Yeah, I know. I know you did it this afternoon already, but I'm not sure. You really have them check it, right? Yeah, instead of that, that doctor with a big old meat hooks. Oh, that was a horrible experience. Did you get your prostate checked?

Yeah, bro. It was it. You thought it fit your in the butthole already, huh? It was like, it was like this guy and nothing wrong with, you know, he was like this middle eastern guy, big ass hairy hands. Oh, dude, my god. What has set the stage up?

Because the first thing you do is you look at it. I thought he's going to he uses assistant or something like Is there a nurse around here? Is there somebody? No, no, no, it was So you had you had what time was it in not Was it in the morning or the afternoon or what time was it? That was the afternoon difference is he probably had like I probably had a cook Asphold Pysmouth curry What had a lunch break.

We had a lunch break. And that's it. Did you have a glass of wine beforehand to just loosen up? I wish I would have. I didn't know it was good. It did be like so dry and not fun. And they don't go slow.

No. They loop up and they go right in there. They've rammed it in there. Yeah. Yeah. That's not good. I had that happen to me because I was over a friend's house and a eight cookie crisp cereal

Okay, cookie cookie what possessed me to eat cookie Chris. I'm not even it's not even a good cereal either bro It's terrible. It's like cardboard dog shit. Well when you when you when you when it comes out of you It's like shards of glass. so I thought I had vowel cancer and it goes back to your hypocondria for the listeners every time something's wrong me have cancer okay so I'm like oh my god I have you know something wrong cancer something's going on and it was the fucking cookie crisp anyway I go in there and it's a doctor and she's like well let me check your you know your butthole and there's no fucking warm up. And by the way, it's not the bent over position. You lay on your side, which for some reason,

I probably gotta like suck my thumb or something. I'm like, no. It feels even less, it feels even less masculine. Like I'd rather bend over. But you're like, you're the lay of man. Yeah, you gotta lay on your side and your knees in a like fetal position. And it's like, I feel like I'm being.

So humiliating. And then she doesn't go slow. It's like, rawr. You had a girl, bro. What do you complain about? Oh, that is much better. I had Captain Sausage finger. Breathe in heavy air. Yeah, but my butt's tighter than yours.

Yeah, he got up on the seat. He smelled like B.O. And he got on the table with Justin. He got my nose. He started spooting him. I'm almost done. Just relax. No, no, no, no. You started petting his phone. It's done. Just relax.

No, no, no. You started petting my hair. What is that? No, the doctor showed him a magic trick because do you feel my finger? Look, no hands. Damn it. I do all for that every time. He's like the David Blaine of prostate checks.

Yeah. He's like, why do you keep checking it? Stop checking it somewhere. Yes, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. Oh my. All right.

Is this where there's something in there? Oh, okay. This is what we have to look forward to in more 60. No. No. I don't know. You haven't done it. You're doing young for that.

You haven't had your prostate checked, doc? I haven't been to a doc. Oh, he's like, he's like me. He's like me, he's an anal virgin. Really? Anal virgin. Listen, can I just go back to the ball coughing thing? Like that was way better. Well, since you both have never had your prostate check,

you guys should check each other. That's a good idea. Well, yeah, after the show. Oh, I think another story, like, so about, you know, you go in for a physical. Yeah. Have you guys ever been in a while, like, got a physical?

Yeah, I had one last, I have one almost every year. And they still grab your balls and, yep, and then you cough. Okay. So I was doing one for a physical for football. It was like my last year playing. And this, this lady doctor, like, was like, okay, you know, let's, let's check your, you know, for your physical and like, I just dropped my pants and I was looking at her and I'm like, wait.

And she was like, oh my God, oh my God. And then like, was like, um, no, and like turned around. I'm like, what, like, what's wrong? I'm waiting for it to like, grab my balls and do the thing. And she just was like, look at me, like I was crazy. Oh my God.

Like I'm not crazy, like apparently. You know, all this works on all the way. Apparently they want you to grab it yourself and you check it. What are they getting? What are they getting? You're the professional. I got, I do that every day.

What? Why are they so lazy all of a sudden? Yeah, right? Like, I was crazy for like, rip my mouth off. Oh, that is hilarious. I was so confused. You didn't wait for the cue, huh?

No, I just went to it. I was like, I'm really. I was so confused. You didn't wait for the cue. Huh? No, I was like I've been to this rodeo before drops his drawers right away. What is it? He's he was there for an ear infection Well, check it out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah That's that's horrible. All right, What the fuck? Oh, Q&A. Don't be afraid. This is a Q&A episode. I love some Q&A. I do.

And I'm uncomfortable when you whisper like that to the mic. So I just want to, because there's so many good Q&A questions that I want to say something to some of our forum people. So if you get on Q&A on Instagram, and we don't get a chance to get to your great question, because obviously, we only have so much time and we try. Because we wasted talking about prostate exam.

Yes, you're right. We're going to follow that up. So, if you guys get a chance, then when you guys get on the forum, if you repost the questions of the forum, then just in cell, myself or Doug will get around to you guys. So, if you don't get your question answered on Q&A, get it up on that forum. Especially if it's a good fitness question that you have questions about, we'd like to get try and get everybody's much,

I mean, ideally, we're gonna do this for as long as we can and help as many people as we possibly can until we have to hire people to actually help that. And we promise not to hire anybody, don't worry, that means so you guys should be fine. That means anybody can be hired. So, not gonna be a good answer.

We're just leaving out true. Which leaves the door wide open. Wide open. Wide open. So first question is coming from, No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,zy. So, yeah, exactly. How to build solid muscles. So I'm going to assume he's talking about two people with equal, relative equal leanness, both built, right? Books the part. But one person's muscles look like granite and the other person's muscles don't. So I'm going to give you an example of two bodybuilders off the top of my head Professionals who kind of fallen this category, okay? I'm gonna give you two and these are 90s bodybuilders

So why because that's when I follow bodybuilding because I'm older than you Doreen Yates had a very dense Hard look to his body right his muscles look like you could fire a machine gun at him and they bounce right off And I'm throwing his eye. I'm just always referencing. No, it's I'm not really mad because I'm laughing right now Because I'm thinking of myself and Salis about to give a great analogy right now that nobody fucking gets all right Funny Real funny guys real funny. All right continue continue. I'm gonna continue. Oh, hey listeners Don't worry. I'll give you guys a better analogy when he's done giving his career is 19 I have his like Lou Ferregno

Arnold that's like well, so so during the eight solid hard-looking dance muscle. He was in limp he was one of them the first mass monsters to come on the scene and Flex Wheeler who was very competitive at the same time, did not, and you had big round muscles, you know, great conditioning, didn't have the hard dense look to his muscles. To use another example, if we go back in time, Schwarzenegger had a dense look to his body, but it did not look nearly as dense

as his favorite training partner Franco Colombo when they're next to each other both lean both muscular Arnold's muscles if he was kind of you know flexing is still looked like they were Muscles whereas Franco's muscles look like they were made out of granite and so I know that's even further back But they're more popular so maybe people will can you know relate to those two more? Yeah, and I think you've talked about this before, though, I think that's even better now, just explaining the difference between

cycloplasmic hypertrophy versus somebody who lives bigger muscle fiber or more muscle fiber. Bigger muscle fiber. So there's a couple ways that I would respond to this. And personally, myself, I noticed the difference in my own basic based off of how I'm training. So when I'm following like our phase one in maps, which is typically geared towards heavy reps,

less reps, a lot of mass building, I get a much denser, harder feel and look to my muscles. As we transition into more of the hypertrophy phase of our maps in a ball, where you start getting later in the phase three, a lot of supersetting, a lot of high repetitions, you're getting a lot of psychoplasmic hypertrophy because you're getting a pump. I start to get that more pumped, looking at a more bubbly look to my muscles. So I'm in that phase right now, as I'm getting closer to stage, because I need to have a bubblier look,

that'll make me look more aesthetic. Does it mean I'm more muscular? Does it mean I necessarily look harder or less hard? Well, you know, it's not that so much as it gives me more of this bubbly look. Now that's myself personally. There's a lot of other factors though that come into play here.

So if you don't know if someone's at the gym and they're depleted, and maybe they don't have as much water, so our muscle bellies are comprised of carbohydrates and water. And a big tall guy like me, with long muscle bellies, I can make my body look very, very different within the same day, depending on what I'm doing nutritionally. So if I'm very low carbohydrate and I have moderate to average or low amount of water in my body, I have a very soft flat look to me. The moment I load my glycogen levels all the way up, feed myself up with a ton of water,

like three quarters to a gallon of water, I expand. I look like I grow and I look like I added 20 pounds to my body just by manipulating my carbohydrates and my water. The body boner. So, yes, exactly. It's like the body boner to a great way to explain that. And then I also believe that genetics play a major role too. Some people just come out

the womb already looking at me. We just interviewed a female bodybuilder with figure. Yeah, and she has got this, I mean, she's 12 weeks out from a show and she looks harder than I look right now. You know, she's just got this great solid physique to her and Sal went to school with her when she was very young and she said, man, she looked like that when she was young. She's got these great genetics definitely someone you want to have kids with So yeah, you're gonna spit out some Olympia. Yeah, so yeah, and which that goes back to when you think of great another analogy Salis We jump out of the limpy at the start and a dating service is you know Some people and it's not not to say that you can't compete I think I'm somebody who I should I belong doing something like long distance running or swimming is what my body is built for it is not

Built for bodybuilding now. I've carved it. I've shaped it. I've worked my ass off to get on stage But there is most certainly a genetic guy out there who could put in probably half the work and look just as good If not better than I am just because genetically they've got it. They've got they've got the shorter origin insertions. They're a little bit smaller and compact. They already have a grainy harder to look to them. They came out more symmetrical as far as they're more of a with you know, if we were to do some auto types, they're more mesomorph looking, which means they look more like a you know,

bodybuilder or wrestler. Those people were built for the sport, and if you take someone like that and you take them to the next level, typically they end up excelling. Sometimes you see guys that are even that big, they're just kind of wiry looking, but they're either construction workers or they're grapplers or wrestlers,

and they're very strong, they don't have big muscles, but they've got that hard wiry look to their muscles. Another competitor, one of your people that you'll be on stage with at the San Jose and your friend Craig Capurso, he's got a very dense look to it. They look hard, much more so than the guys he tends to compete against. So I guess in a nutshell, increased, and by the way, there's no side, look, we're talking, I don't think they've ever done a study on this. And on top of it, this is very subjective. What might look dense to me, might look soft to someone else.

So I don't know how you would even test this. But anecdotally speaking, heavy weight, low reps, lots of sets of certain exercises, like five to six sets of squats and the three rep range type of deal, will give you that dense hard look. And the big, bubbly, more pumped-up look will come from the higher reps and the better pumps. That being said, if you stick to one of those for too long, you're not going to look good anyway, because your body will adapt very quickly. So if you utilize all of them, overall, you're going to

look better. Yeah, which that goes back to how maps is designed. Right. It's very important. Yeah, I wish we had more of an athlete version of that instead of always bodybuilders. Like, say for me how they looked. Oh, you mean how they looked? Yeah, like like a povle, like you know, I don't know how to say his last name, Satsulin or... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like you got that look, right?

Super granite, like just completely lean, but like you know know, the guy's strong as shit. And- Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee's a great example. He wasn't very big, but he looked just solid. Just solid and dense. And his strength for his size was incredible. Apparently he could extend, hold like 150 pound dumbbell,

outarm extended, and isometric hold. Like, something crazed like 120, 150 pounds, and he was a little guy. So, yeah, that density is interesting. And I don't know, I personally like the look. I'm not looking to get on stage, so I don't necessarily, I'm not necessarily looking for the big

billowy, bubbly look. I like the dense look just because it looks, I don't know, you look more like a workhorse. You know, like someone that works out with heavy weight. So, I'm into that too. All right, next question. This is from RJ AVOR EK, Rugevarek. His question is, if we were to go into a branch

of the military, which one would we choose and why? Oh, that's cool. That's interesting, because I feel like back in the day, I would have a different answer and completely like when I was pretty gung-ho about joining the military for a while. Really? Yeah, just because I mean, I have a lot of family ties to the military. My grandpa was in the Air Force. My other grandpa was in Navy. My dad was in the Navy. All of them went to the various wars. And I wanted to go into the Marines. You know, that was the first thing that came to mind

because I felt like, you know, it's just like a badass, you know, branch that I wanted to be a part of. They are, let's be honest. Yeah, they are. They're very, you know, very hardcore and I actually was getting recruited for a while through into college and

Just decided that I didn't want to be a part of it, but now Honestly, if I had to go and choose I probably would be in the Air Force because you know, it's I don't know like my I have more ties like my grandpa's in the Air Force Like like I just I feel this like connection to that more and plus it's a little bit more I want to say the guys that are you know behind the scenes and Less you know right up in in warfare and like the first out and like you know my priorities have changed in life You know like I just wanted you know, but that's me life, you know. Like I just wanted, you know. But that's me, I don't know about you guys. For me, I'd say not the Navy because being out in the ocean

for a long time, that's weird, I would totally think the whole kermit thing with the frog thing, the whole nose breath and water and some of that. No, no. You've been a Navy SEAL. Not at all. Air Force, probably for me too, just because of the technology.

That's what I was trying to get at. Yeah, technology. Getting in the tag, it's very cool. I feel like the skill set is very different for having to fly some of the multi-million or $100 million planes and jets and whatnot. So that would be it. I've never thought about entering the military.

I've never had a desire to, but I have incredible respect for people that do. Enter, of course, we have a voluntary military. So anybody who's there putting their life on the line, they chose to do so. So I have a tremendous amount of respect for them. But me personally, I've never had a desire to do so, but if I did, it would be the Air Force.

How about you? So I like Justin, I actually was very close to enlisting. So right at a high school, like many kids too, I had the recruiters come down and pitch you on the idea and at that point, I didn't have, I didn't have the finances, I didn't have quite the academics to go to the school that I wanted to, so it looked like junior college was in my future.

And I wasn't really excited to be going to junior college, and the recruiters came around the right time for me, and I actually had really thought about my father, those that don't know this. My real father took his life when I was seven years old, and my real father was in the Air Force. So there was a part of me that wanted to go to the Air Force because of that and You know then that like I said I almost got recruited at the right time and so I was really close In fact, I was all set up to do signing and everything and that was the direction I was going I did change my my mind last minute just because I also talked to you guys before about being younger and being very

financially driven and you know this was also around that same time that I thought about between the ages of 17 and 19 and I'm starting to make my own money and I actually I was moved out by 17 so I was already living in my own place and so I was kind of getting the taste of you know being an entrepreneur, being on my own and becoming a man. And like, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go sign up for four years in my life somewhere else, right? So I backed out last minute. Now I went through a phase later on that, you know, I was like, man, I would love to be a Navy SEAL. I just, I have one of my favorite books, first of all, too, is a survivor. If you guys don't ever, if you guys have any chance to read this book, it's just, it's Navy Seal

10. It's a true story. It's based out of a Navy Seal who goes in. He's a Marcus Latrell. He's the only survivor of his group was during Afghanistan and freaking, they made a movie about it. But if you get a chance to read the book, read the book before you watch the movie because the book is just badass. I've actually read it more than once and anybody I've handed that book to has either said one, it's their favorite all-time book or it's one of their favorite books for sure. So, fault had fallen in love with just the idea of Navy SEALs, what they represent, I just think it's so cool that there's so many things that they go and do

for this country that is so badass that we don't even know, they don't get recognized for or they don't know, but they're around the world saving lives and doing pretty badass missions and stuff. And to just be a part of the elite, I'm very competitive. And I think that would have voted very well in a branch like that and then trying to become somebody like a seal. I find it fascinating too that a very small percentage of people even make it through the training.

So just to make it through the training and to become a seal, I think it would be awesome not to mention the type of missions that they do. Each branch has their own elite. Yes, they have their own elite. Yes, right because I grew up admiring and it's because of movies right because we didn't hear green brace because we didn't hear like Amanda yeah, because we didn't hear a lot about Navy seals until you know later on But when I was a when I was a kid it was the green brace Yeah, it's a great Rambo because of Vietnam that that's what the green bra is. Yeah, a lot of stuff in Vietnam. And green bra would be awesome too.

I lean towards seals, because I've talked to you guys before, I feel like I naturally can swim. So the wand very, so that's why I wouldn't want to be in Navy SEAL, because it's just like, they make you drown. Yeah, they basically drown you. Yeah, you have to be okay. Yeah, you gotta be all right with that.

I used to, as a kid, I used to, I used to love to see how long I could hold my breath for and swim so many laps with holding my breath for a long time. And so she liked that that I was already naturally into and I was a good swimmer. So it all kind of for me, it all lined up that wow, that would have been a great field for me. What branch of the green brace from? Army.

Oh, that's Army. Yeah. Okay. And then you have, and then what was Delta Force for? Delta Force? that is that is there a Delta Force? Or is that just a movie? Delta Force? Jagges Jagges for the Jagges for the well command of our not Delta forces is Air Force and a green green beret is army and Navy seal is Navy. Navy. Well, they're bad ass man. I mean, you want to consider you're going to war. You know, you're trained to go kill people and not be killed and that's that's crazy It's a different mindset, man. Yeah, well, all the respect. It's just like it's it's totally, you know, I mean they're they're in protection mode

Like they're out there to to provide, you know, what we have here in our comfort zone safety I just don't think we do a good enough job when they get back. Oh, I know. We're taking care of them. Absolutely. You're out there doing what you're doing. Then you come back and that's like, here you go. Get back into regular life.

And I think we should do more personally. It's a next question. This is from JD underscore, Kubiki, KUBI CKI. Question is thoughts on active rest days. Nice. from JD underscore, Kubeki KUBI CKI. Question is thoughts on active rest days. So what's an active rest day? Well, this is when you're not working out in the gym, but you're still moving, you're still staying active. Active recovery, some people will hear it be.

Well, I think you could consider an active rest day, even working out in the gym. Sure, going light, doing trigger sessions. Yeah, I think that we've slightly touched on this could consider an active rest day even working out in the gym. Sure. Sure. Going light, doing trigger sessions. Yeah. I think that we've slightly touched on this a little bit. And I like this question because my philosophy has completely changed later in my career as a fitness professional compared to what I was early on.

And early on in my career, even myself with my background, I still was sold on the whole concept of how important the rest is. In fact, I've never used to present people that, you know, rest is this is important. And you purposely not do anything that you're trying to rest? Yeah, purposely not live. And yeah, and do things like that.

And to a sense, it's somewhat made sense for me because I was an act ofor of trying to build, and that was less calories I would burn and having less movement would do that. But later on, in my life, I found that, you know, what a difference. Frequency, first of all, would make an overall muscle growth for me. And then to understanding that, you know, a workout doesn't always have to be, doesn't always have to be super intense. And there's a lot of benefits to still going in on a day off and still touching all these muscle groups that are sore that we would normally stay away because, oh my god, my legs

are sore, oh my god, my back is sore, can't do them because they're not just going to tear and break down more muscle. Well, no, you don't have to break them off, and you don't have to lift even. No, you move them, you get blood flow. Yeah, more blood, more nutrients, more oxygen to those muscles is only gonna speed your recovery up. It is. If you were to compare two people with normal muscle damage,

okay, I'm not talking about excessive. Now, if you go crazy and you get into rabdo where muscles are breaking down to the point where, you know, it's bad, then, yeah, you probably do want to lay down and have an IV in you and, you know, not move. But I don't have a regular breakdown, regular muscle breakdown. If you had two people in that particular condition and one person in order to recover just sat around and watch TV all day and the other person moved and was active,

the active person not only would build more muscle and adapt better, they would actually recover faster. They'd feel better. They'd recover faster. So active recovery is superior over to, you know, not moving when you're only. I like to use these days, like specifically to get outside of the gym mentality and working out in general. Like I like to take these days of nature and like getting get outside of the gym mentality and working out in general. Like I like to take these days of nature

and like getting myself outside of like, you know, my day-to-day grind and business and all these kinds of things, I think. Chop some wood. You know, yeah, seriously. Dude, hell yeah, throw a flannel on and get, you know, get the business. But yeah, like do interesting things.

Like go, you know,. Like go exploring and caves and then take some yoga and do things that are outside of the norm, but you're moving and you're active. And I don't know, I feel like when you think about fitness and everybody talks about what to do in the gym and gym and gym, you really need to be more diverse than that as a human being. and I feel like that's, that turns into a grind.

It does. You know, I remember years ago, I was probably 13 or 14. I had been lifting weights shortly, right? My goal was to build as much muscle as possible. And in the summertime, you know, when school was out, I would go to work with my dad. And my dad, he works, he's blue collar. He's a tile center, so he does marble granite tile. And he would bring me with him to work every day.

So school would be out and I'd go to work with my dad and I'd be his helper. And my job was to do the mixing of cement, the carrying the buckets of cement up and down the stairs and get the sand and all the kind of hard labor because he's doing the, you know, the technical stuff. He's laying the marble, he's making a look real good, but I got to go mix the cement and stuff. And in the summer, I'm like, damn, you know, I want to build muscle. I'm not going to be able to build muscle if I'm doing all this work. So I would eat more calories, which was smart.

I'd eat a lot more calories. But I'd also would notice that I'd build more muscle and I'd get stronger. And the first week would suck. I'd be sore all the time because my body wasn't used to all that manual labor. And by the way, like I said, I would also lift weights on top of this. But by the second and third week,

I was performing better. And what's funny is I never put that together until much later. And then looking back on it, it was all that mixing cement in my- You should've me of loading trucks. Yeah, it's like- It's like-

And I was still lifting weights, but doing that on top of that, I was doing the active recovery. It was like trigger sessions all day long, and my body just responded. I would always get an amazing shape. Absolutely. So, do we have time for another question, Doug?

Oh, yeah. All right, this last question is from Nicole E1234. So, I think it's a 19, I think it dug a abbreviated a little bit, because it was a pretty long question. So yeah, what are the really asking there Doug? Basically, what's the most accurate way to calculate what? So how many calories you need per day per day? Yeah. The most accurate way to find your your Clark maintenance level. Also, when you do find your clerk maintenance level and living in a deficit,

you was asking how do I get myself in a deficit without... Like losing muscle. Yeah, without becoming catabolic, which you are catabolic, no matter what. Depends on the tissue, like catabolic for fat, you don't want to be catabolic for months. Yeah, well exactly. Understanding that if you're in a deficit, you cataball, a cataball just means that we're breaking down. And you're breaking down something. You're just trying to break down fat, which we're trying to stay in that balance.

I'm trying to find the exact question. So I can read it verbatim how she said it, because she did. Well, just a touch on it, I guess. You hear you want to hear it here? Yeah, yeah. What is the most accurate way to calculate true caloric need? And then an appropriate caloric deficit

for cutting or leaning up without risking going catabolic or wreaking havoc on your metabolism and then thoughts on what we think about carb cycling? I would say this, unless you have a specific date that you need to be leaned by like an a show, if you just want to get leaner, I would say making the deficit small is more likely to help you keep muscle than making it big. So I tell people, look, if we're just trying to maintain muscle and get lean, let's put

you like a 300 calorie deficit. Let's just start with that and take it from there. And that doesn't sound like much, but that adds up. And yeah, you're not gonna lose pounds of fat every week. But if we're doing everything like... Wouldn't you interrupt that too? Like maybe bring it up to maintenance and a little bit of surplus and then back down.

I mean, wouldn't you want to model the way the body works in general? Is that you don't want to do one thing in too long? Yeah, great input. Absolutely. This is where the mini cut and mini bulk concept kind of comes from. But if your ultimate goal is to get leaner,

I would go deficit for a while, maybe like a week, and then have a couple days at a little bit above maintenance and then go deficit again. That kind of goes along with the whole refeeding. I think that some people do. Shhh. Shhh. How I do this with clients and myself are somewhat similar.

Typically, you can take for a female, you can take between 13 and 15 and multiply by their weight. And that'll give you a generic number for calories. Now, that generic number is kind of an area where you should probably guesstimate the start, but it doesn't necessarily mean that's going to be accurate. So when you ask that, and you can, there's all kinds of stuff you can Google online for putting your weight, your age, your activity, blah, blah, blah, blah. But none of that shit really matters because for every person, for every size of a person, a weight of a person, there's going to be all these

different metabolisms and depending on what you've done before, if you've screwed it up or not, we'll make it a big difference. So, the best thing you can absolutely do is no matter whatever you try and pick, be smart, I mean, which I'm sure whoever's asking this question has an idea somewhat within 500 calories,

at least, of what's eating a lot or eating little for them, and get yourself in what you think is that number and stick to that for about a week. In a week's time, you can monitor, and if you're just, especially if you're tracking your water, you can monitor and check what's going on with your weight. This is what I do with a client. I find that number, and like I said, for a female, I multiply somewhere between 13 and 15 times their body weight and it spits off a calorie number.

So let's just say hypothetically we're talking about a female, it's a female, I have a question and I get she needs 1600 calories. So her 1600 calories is where her maintenance level is at to maintain. So I don't want her going too low because you you know, they're already pretty low for a person. Plus we're gonna get an activity and exercise, which is gonna kick up another three to 700 calories depending on what you're doing. So I'm gonna start her off right around there.

I don't have 1500 calories for a week and say, okay, we're gonna eat this for a week and see what happens to your body. Now, if you just stay the same and you don't gain any weight off of that, so they'll say this is your maintenance. Then from there, like Sal says, I'm gonna subtract roughly 300 to 500

to start your deficit off. Now, like Justin said, I'm gonna run that, I just lost myself. Can you hear me? Yeah, I got you, buddy. You're on. Yeah, keep going. I can't hear myself right now.

I just went dead on the radio. So that was really weird. So to hear myself go and then, okay, I'm back. Thanks Doug. Sorry about that. He's back. So once we figure this out, then like Justin was saying, I'm going to keep you in a deficit for a little bit and then I'm going to refeed you.

But then maybe when I refeed you, I might kick up some activity level on your exercise, whether it be higher intensity on your workouts or include some like Sal's steady state cardio because we're giving you a surplus of nutrients, but then I don't want to see a weight gain whose our ultimate goal is to lose. But then I'll try and cancel that off with activity. And then learning how to manipulate your cloric and take based off your days, I can't stress this enough. I think it's one of the most common things I see people don't do. And why I'm a huge advocate of tools

like the Fitbit and the Body Bug and what you're other risk when you like Justin. The basis watch. And these tools are a job of, these are all great tools to figure these numbers out because everybody's days are significantly different. If you think you burn 1500 calories every single day, you're crazy.

I mean, everybody is, there's no way. No, you sleeping in by one hour difference and going to bed an hour earlier or later or working at work that day at work you had to do a bunch extra more activity. I mean those things add way up. And it's so not black or white when they compare people who lift weights versus people who just do cardio. The cardio people burn more calories. But the people who lift weights end up getting leaner. So there's a lot more going on there than just, you know, calories, total calories burned.

There's repartitioning effects from muscles trying to build and recover and adapt. And there's hormones that play a role. So, you know, like Adam was saying, you pick a number and then just kind of go off of there. I don't even, it's funny, people ask me all the time, Sal, how many, what do your macros look like in your calories? I don't count anything. That doesn't mean that I don't even, it's funny, people ask me all the time, Sal, how many, what do your macros look like in your calories? I don't count anything, that doesn't mean that I don't pay attention. I've been doing it for so long that you can tell. I can see my body, how I feel.

Like the last three days I ate twice as many carbohydrates as I normally do because I'm really flat. When you say that because you've mentioned that before, have you never tracked in your life or you just don't track typically? I have really honestly, I keep track of protein. So I know how many grams of protein roughly I eat because I always try and hit around 170. Yeah. Um, and that's, that's it.

I mean, I could add it up right now. No, no, no, you could, but you never, you never have. No. Oh, wow. Okay. Because I'm on the same way too. I don't, I mean, I track right now when I get close to a show, but I've tracked so many times that you could, you could say a food right now, and I could tell you how many calories

and gram to carbohydrates protein is. Just because. So I've done that so many times and made so many meal plans that I don't find it necessary for me to count anymore. I can pretty much like you guessed me, but I have put that work in ahead of time. Yeah. But you've got a date to be but I put that work in ahead of time. So I,

but you've got a date to be like, you have a specific date and time, you look a certain way, I don't. And if I was in off season, I don't track at all. Off season, I'm 100% like you, I feel my body and I base everything, base of how I feel and stuff. But I think a person who's listening

and is trying to learn their body, I highly recommend. Oh, in the beginning, you have to. Yeah, I highly recommend getting an app like my fitness power, Fatc for sure. And putting your information, tracking it, watching it. Well, you got to do it because most people have zero idea. Yeah.

You know, when you tell them, you know, four ounces of chicken, they get eight ounces of chicken. They're like, oh, here's my chicken breast. Yeah, no no no no no that's that's not yes They just have zero idea of what a serving looks like a cup of rice looks like about any of these things So you you definitely you don't want to add things up in the beginning But if you do it long enough and you stay consistent long enough Then you learn your body and then you're in this wonderful kind of zen state like you know like I'm talking about where I don't really add Anything up. I just I know how I feel in the gym, I look in the mirror,

I pull things back, I move things forward. And that's just kind of how I do. Well, that's the beauty of it, you know, at certain point when you have, you know, gone through the process, like you understand your body and you understand like how to get there. So that way, you can relax, you can kind of go off rails a little bit, come back, you know exactly how to get there because you've really been dialed. You've been disciplined. Exactly. You've known how to do that.

So, you know, like, I mean, that's kind of where I'm at. Yeah. Well, you know, at this point, it all eludes to the next question that she asks, which is regarding to carb second. Well, carb cycling is effective if and only if you understand where your maintenance is and understands how does 200 carbs gain weight on you or lose weight? Like if you have your, everyone, or not everyone knows, but I mean, ideally you should kind of have an idea.

We've talked about this before on my and Pomp if you look, if you're an avid listener, that the body needs about 0.7 grams of protein. So it's 0.7 to one to one ratio for your body weight of protein. So that number always stays the same typically. I mean, it can go up a little bit from that depending on how low you're on something else, but you need to need that. So like Sal said, he keeps track of that. So that's going to stay consistent. Then your carbohydrates and fat are typically the two that you're manipulating. And when you're on the flop on sometimes.

And when you're lower on your carbon take, you should allow more fat into your diet. And when you are higher on your carbon take, you should allow lower. But until you figure out a basis by tracking your food for a good solid week or two to see what is homeostasis, then it's hard to say how you would carb cycle. Because I've got a female bikini competitor that I carb cycle as high, she gets 300 to 350 grams

of carbohydrates on her high day, on her medium day, she's still eating like 200, and I never drop her below 100 grams. And that's damn near more than what Sal eats. That's correct. So when I go low, it's under, it's 50. Yeah, so, and his high is probably than 200 than something.

Absolutely. You know, every, and that you're talking about a female who has a lot less muscle mass and size and weight, female bikini competitor to him. So and probably trains that the lower intensity level than this guy handles too. So everybody is different. Then I've had other clients where, you know, I have to put them as low as 50 grams of carbs on their low Day and then their high days peaking at like 130, you know because they're just they're smaller Petite frame their intensity levels out there their metabolism is much slower

So until you figure out where your maintenance is you can't really truly do a successful Carbsciting that your girlfriend or your friends is oh try this, you know, carb cycle carb cycling that your girlfriend or your friends is, oh, try this, you know, carb cycle 100, 200, 300 grams or 50, 75, whatever, their numbers, their throwing at you. Well, it doesn't really work that way. You figure out what keeps you the same. So let's just use this for hypothetical reasons.

Let's pretend that we figure that out and you figure out that you got your protein, you know what you need to eat there. You figure out that your body, if you eat 200 grams of carbs, and you keep your calories, and you make it the rest of your calories that we're trying to end at 1,500 calories through your fat, that that maintains you.

So your homeostasis is 200 grams of carbohydrates. So then, if I'm going to cycle you, 200 is typically going to be your, you know, almost your high. So that's the highest I'm going to let you go up if we're trying to reduce. So then I might carb cycle you at like 75 grams is a low day and then 125 to 130 is gonna be a medium day And then a high day is gonna go back up to your 200 to 2 maybe a little bit of a surplus depending on what's going on with your body That's what a carb cycle would be clear to carb cycling is a pretty advanced Yeah technique, you know, So unless you're getting pretty lean,

carb cycling, I mean, you're gonna have days you eat more and days you eat less, but you start playing with carbs and you're not that advanced yet. It's not gonna do that much for you. And I'm gonna tell you something right now. If you low carb diet and that's effective for you, and then you're like, I'm gonna carb cycle,

I'm gonna have two really high carb days and you're not super lean anyway, so it's not gonna make that big of a difference. What's gonna happen to you is you're like, I'm going to carb cycle. I'm going to have two really high carb days and you're not super lean anyway. So it's not going to make that big of a difference. What's going to happen is you're going to get hungry as shit because bump your carbs up. Your appetite goes up. I'll tell you that much right now. I go low carb. And when I have my two or three days of a high carb, I know for the next day or two, I'm going to cry. I'm going to cry. That goes back to what we thought about with leptin levels, exactly what that is. You

spike your leptin up by feeding the extra carbohydrates, and unless you have the discipline to fight that the next day, you're going to have a battle. So, I mean, sounds like the best before, you're much better off eating about what you need, with just a slight deficit, you won't go through those hard hunger pains. The more aggressive you are, which carb cycling is more aggressive, it is typically something more advanced as I do it, as competing I do it. So, but I even, with competing, I don't do it to like the last four weeks or so to a show. Up to that point, even myself, I just take myself from, let's say, for example, me,

my daily stay the same, Adam doesn't move, wait, is 4,000 calories, 400 grams of carbs. So, I don't gain weight, I don't lose weight on that that just maintains. When I drop down to about 350, I'm gonna slowly start to shed body fat and it's not depriving me whatsoever. 350 grams of carbohydrates means every single one of my meals, I get a nice full amount of carbohydrates in every meal

and I feel completely satisfied. So I don't feel that way. Now the moment I start carb cycling, like right now, I'm on a low carb day and I am starving right now. All I'm thinking about. Is that piece of bread right now? Yes, I just got a chicken salad

and they gave me a piece of bread. Within all I want to do, literally, it's dry ass hard roll and you have no idea. I just want to bite into and suck on it. But that's just it. You have to have that discipline to know that right now, my body is just tearing up and eating up fat because it has no other source of fuel right now as far as carbs are concerned. Now I don't like to live my life like that year around.

So when I come off of a show, I keep it around closer to just a small deficit to my clerk intake. First maintenance, excuse me. Beautiful, Doug, we good? On time? All right, that concludes our Q&A. Boom. Hooray. Yeah. 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. www.minepumpradio.com. Until next time, this is Mind Pump.