Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1146: The Best Trap Building Exercises, Techniques to Break Through Lifting Plateaus, Favorite Gym Machines & MORE

Episode Date: October 23, 2019

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin answer Pump Head questions about their favorite machines, how to grow traps, exercises or techniques to overcome a plateau and increase the weight you’re able to lift, and one bad habit they are working on. Mind Pump x Nutritional Coaching Institute have partnered up! The importance of effective communication and combating the poor information by ‘Insta’ coaches. (5:20) Sal is down with the thickness! (12:52) The guys recap their extended trip to Tahoe. The value of unplugging/scheduling time away to cultivate creativity and become more effective at what you do. (16:24) The benefits of having a home gym and the freedom it provides you. (24:30) What are Mind Pump’s go-to Halloween movies? (30:33) The beginning of the end of the war on drugs: Chicago becomes the next city to decriminalize psychedelic plants. (34:40) How taking creatine may fight cancer. (38:14) What makes someone charismatic? (40:28) #Quah question #1 – Despite you guys not loving machines, what is your favorite machine and why? (42:33) #Quah question #2 - How do I grow my traps? (50:14) #Quah question #3 – When you hit a plateau with your deadlift, what exercises or techniques can you implement to help overcome the plateau and increase the weight you’re able to lift? (55:32) #Quah question #4 – What's one bad habit you are working on or would like to work on? And what’s one bad habit you are just not that concerned about? (1:03:17) People Mentioned Jason Phillips (@jasonphillipsisnutrition)  Instagram Joe DeFranco (@defrancosgym)  Instagram Robert Oberst (@robertoberst)  Instagram   Related Links/Products Mentioned October Promotion: MAPS Anabolic ½ off!! **Code “RED50” at checkout** DISCOVER! Why Mind Pump Media and NCI Are Partnering To Give You This Ridiculous Nutritional Coaching Bundle ($6500 Value) For FREE!!! Visit PRx Performance for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code “mindpump” at checkout** Become a CPPS Certified Coach Today! CPPS Level 1 Certification - November 9-10, 2019 - San Jose, CA – Grab your spot today! Adrenal Fatigue is Killing Your GAINS!! | No BS Nutrition Advice w/ Jason Phillips | MIND PUMP IIFYM - Counting Your Macros Is F*CKING Up Your Health!! | Nutrition Facts + Advice (Jason Phillips) Chicago Follows Oakland, Introduces Resolution to Decriminalize Psychedelic Plants Creatine powers T cells' fight against cancer What Makes People Charismatic, and How You Can Be, Too MAPS Strong | MAPS Fitness Products - Mind Pump Rubberbanditz Resistance Band Set Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salta Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this episode of The Mind Pump, so look in this episode we answer questions from listeners like you who post questions on our Instagram page, but we also talk about current events, our lives and the people that we partner with. That's in the intro portion of this episode. So here's what we talked about for the first 37 minutes, the intro portion.

We talked about our new partner, nutrition coaching institute. This is the company owned by our good friend, Jason Phillips. It's a phenomenal place you can go if you're a coach and you wanna become an online coach, you wanna be a better online coach, to learn how to work with nutrition with your clients.

But here's the deal, we got you, we're gonna give away actually two people, a free scholarship. So here's how you apply, go to applywithnci.com. for SASHMINDPOMP, fill out the form. And two of you this month will win a nutritional coaching bundle scholarship valued at over $6500. Then we talked about beef cake season.

This is the season of bulking apparently. I'm getting a little heavy, I'm getting thick. Yeah, thickness about you says a lot of seeds there. Then we talk about our, thickness about you. There's a lot of seas there. Then we talk about our trip to Tahoe. That was a lot of fun. Adam talks about how he went fishing and caught fishes. Good times. We talked about PRX.

PRX, another one of our partners who makes phenomenal home gym equipment and actually has a payment plan. So you can buy the home gym equipment to a payment plan. So instead of paying your gym to rent their equipment, why not own one? Yeah, why not own your own your own gym? That way it's not all filthy and covered with sweat from the hairy dude that was on the machine before you. That guy always.

Now PRX is one of our partners. Here's how you get a hook up through MindPump. Go to prxperformance.com-mindpump, use the promo code MindPump and get 5% off your total and a free Maps Prime program with the purchase of $500 or more. Then we talked about Halloween movies and how one of those movies had Justin trying to explain to his 9 and 5 year old what a virgin was. Come on Disney, I thought I was safe. Then we talked about Chicago and how they decriminalized

the use of psychedelic mushrooms and other plants, maybe on it will move there. We talked about... We talked about... And mushrooms. We talked about creatine and cancer. Believe it or not, creatine may actually help the body fight cancer.

You thought it was good for your biceps, not just that, it's good for cancer too. Wow. And then we talked about what makes people charismatic, because of course, where charismatic is hell. All of us. Then we got in the fitness portion of this episode. The first question was, this person says,

hey, you guys don't love machines, but what are your favorite machines and why? So we talk about machines and their value. I love robots. The next question, this person wants to know how to work out and grow their trapezius muscles. Those are the muscles next to your neck. Next question, this person is hit a plateau with their deadlift.

What can they do to get their deadlift to go up again? Deadlift, one of the best exercises you can do works the glutes, the hamstrings, and the backs, we talk all about that. And the final question, this person wants to know what our bad habits are and how we're working on them. And Adam was, of course, in his brilliance, was able to point out my bad habits. Thanks Adam. It was actually quite accurate.

Also this month, all month long, the only time we're doing the sale during the whole year, Maps and Obolic, one of our most popular fitness programs is 50% off. So Maps and Obolic, phenomenal for muscle building, fat loss, and metabolism boosting. It's 50% off. Here's how you get the discount. Go to mapsred.com and use the code red50 RED50, no space for the discount. Also, I do wanna mention this one last thing.

Joe DeFranco, one of our good friends, probably one of the best strength in conditioning coaches and trainers ever. In fact, we all looked up to the sky forever. He's got a exceptional certification that will be hosted in San Jose here at Mind Pump Studios. It's happening November 9th through the 10th. There are I think another 10 slots available. So if you want to sign up for the certification extremely valuable if you're a trainer, this certification will take you to the next level.

Here's what you do. Go to see ppscoaches. com and sign yourself up Teacher time and it's t-shirt time. Oh, Doug. You know it's my favorite time in the world. Oh, man That's so sad today. Oh energy. Oh my goodness. Yeah, we have four winners for iTunes We have Katie Drago and soccer play a two three nine for Facebook Allen Park Katie fully all of your winners in the name I just read to iTunes at MindPumpMedia.com include your shirt size your shipping address and we'll get that shirt right out to you. So how excited are you guys on what we're doing with Jason Phillips going forward? More excited than you said. Yeah.

You don't sound very excited. But you pep in your step. I already know how excited I am. I'm on my way to here. How excited you guys are. You're trying down place. I don't want to sell you on how excited I am. Are you excited?

I'm so, dude, are you kidding me? So is, all we've ever heard is good feedback from his great things. Yeah, nutritional coaching institute. You know, it's a good thing he's doing that because the online coaching world is just exploded. Yeah. And it's good and bad. It's good because it's a new market.

More people have access to more help. It's bad because most of them suck. Yeah. There's a lot of them. The majority of them suck. Yeah, it's gonna be honest. So 98%. I remember one of the things that we hit it off

with Jason really well, and you know, you and him did a couple of really good YouTube videos together. He's a great communicator, and he's been in the space for a long enough time to understand like the value of education and then also the value of being able to take that education and be able to translate that for the average person to understand.

And I think the stuff that he does in his NCI, that's what he does really well. I mean, when we first got on the phone a few months back and we were first starting to have this conversation around, you know, what we would do or how we would work out some sort of a partnership together. One of the things that he was talking about that, you know, precision nutrition is probably one of the most reputable nutrition institutes that are out there right now. And he says that it's a major feeder system for his business. And I was asking him why.

And he says it's because it's incredible information. It's just so high level that the average trainer that goes through it goes through it, they're blown away, feel like they got all this information, but then they don't have the tools to go apply it to their clients as well. And so he kind of filled that gap he feels like and that's why they're doing so well. The most important thing for a trainer, I probably said it a hundred times on the podcast is how effectively you communicate.

You can have all the great information in the world. A lot of trainers do have a lot of information. They know the steps to burning body fat. They know the steps to building muscle. They know the steps to improving health. But getting your clients to really understand, and not just understand, but apply in long-term, lifelong ways, that's the skill

that makes you an effective trainer. Because any trainer, if you can get a client to just do what you tell them, you know, for three months, great congratulations. What happens after that three months? That means you didn't communicate it well enough. You didn't do a good enough job. And so the feedback I get from people who go through

the NCI course is exactly that. They're able to not just learn what they need to learn, but actually effectively apply it to their online clients. They also have courses on nutrition for hormones. You guys know that? So it's just there's level one, level two, but then there's hormone courses, so you can help people with nutrition and the hormones is extremely extensive.

So I'm excited to work with them. And then what's the deal with them? Are we giving stuff away? Well, what my pump is doing is we're actually going to pay for two people to go through that. So every month, we're going to give away, that's what we'll announce on the show, where we will actually give away two of these certifications, which are that two together are valued at like $6,000. So we're giving away access to all this stuff. I just think that's a cool way to do a partnership.

That was something that him and I talked about for a long while. I was like, you know, instead of us giving like some sort of a discount to our listeners, which I think is cool too. It's just a scholarship. Yeah, let's do a scholarship program if you're down for it. And he says, I would love to do that. So, you know, and we'll continue this on, especially if we get a good response from it. If this is something that trainers are looking to do, but we'll give away to scholarships every single month as long as it's going well and people are appreciating it and liking it.

Well, I'm excited about it. I mean, the best way for us to combat a lot of this bad information out there is start putting more, you know, of these, like, certified coaches out there that are actually, like, taught by somebody that's really reputable. And I think that this is a great program that we can finally lead people towards to, you know, flood the market with really solid information. I just got a DM yesterday, two of them. I had one girl who DM me and said, hey, I have an online coach. two of them. I had one girl who DM me and said, hey, I have an online coach. And my online coach told me to eat 220 grams of protein every single day. So, okay, how much do you

weigh? 110 pounds? Okay. Way too much for a freaking program. And the reason why she DM me is because she said, I'm having the following symptoms. I'm bloated. I have low energy. My workouts areated. I have low energy. My workouts are suffering. I said, well, how's your digestion? And she says, oh, it's okay. And I said, are you having a bowel movement every day?

She says, no, it's every two or three days. Too much damn protein. And I'm not going to air out who the coach was, but it's one of those social media Instagram coaches. Then I had another person message me and say, hey, my online coach said that eating fat and carbs in the same meal is really, really bad for my hormones. Like, what?

Yeah, and I know there's some eryvedic practices that will talk specifically to certain individuals about combining certain foods, but that's just it. It's very, very individual. With the average person, no. There's nothing wrong with eating proteins and carbs and fats all on the same meal. Do you think we're gonna see this die off?

Jason and I actually were on the phone yesterday and talking about this about the coaching world online. Do you think that we're seeing this huge spike in it because everybody at now is an expert. If you have X amount of people following you or whatever and selling coaching and training online, do you think're going to see that plateau and then come back down? I do. I think there's going to be a little bit of a reckoning. Like all markets, as a market, grows, it first starts like the like the dot com market. Remember when it was, there was the dot

com bust and you had all these companies coming in and they were getting valued at ridiculous amounts because it was the new thing and then a whole bunch of them failed. It's like it's any market. It's a filtering process. Yeah. And this is new. Online coaching is really exploded recently because of social media and because of the false sense of authority because when you go on Instagram and you see someone who has 10,000 or 20,000 or 30,000, 40,000 followers, the perception is this person must know what they're talking

about, but I think that that's starting to change. We're already seeing it now with these, you know, these Insta celebrities who can't sell more than three T-shirts even though that's been involved. Well, you can fake it for so long with like before and after picks and like personal anecdotes and people like you know giving their testimonials and all these types of things to kind of like rep you rep you as far as like a coach or you know just look at you like visually like you look awesome so therefore you know you must be providing good information but that only lasts so long yeah it's like a shitty restaurant with great advertising you, eventually everybody eats there

and it tastes like shit. And the pictures of the food look amazing. Yeah, so that picture of that burger looks amazing. That's what it's like. So you have people that are doubling, tripling down on the advertising, which would be their following, right? Which is driven through pictures or gimmicks or whatever to get attention.

And then what ends up happening is a good portion of those people go through that process and find out like, oh, this just tastes like a fast food restaurant, I'm cool, I'm gonna move along. Scarbidge, yeah, let's say it. I gotta tell you guys, I had a little bit of a shock over the weekend. A little shocking on it.

A little bit of a surprise. What's that? Okay. So I knew I've been putting on a little bit of weight. Recently, you know, I'm just... You're eating like a horse, it's just a sin. I'm just bit of weight. Recently, you know, I'm just feeling, you're eating like a horse, it's just a stand. I'm just feeling, I'm feeling, you know,

just bigger, you know what I mean? I feel strong, I'm strong, I haven't been this strong a long time, feeling bigger. And I'm like, I know I'm over 200 pounds. And I typically walk around, it's as long as you guys, we've worked together. 190 something. Between 189, 188 at the low, to like 195, 196 at the high.

It's just where it fluctuates. And I'm like, I know I'm over 200 pounds. I gotta be over at least 201, 200, 200, not these, 209. Whoa. That was, whoa. Beefcake, bro. Bro, you can't, you down with the thickness.

I can't use your little formula on me anymore, dude. You used that a lot. Pound for pound stronger so that if I passed you in a thing, you'd be like, well, I'm like 190, what are you? Where we're about three pounds off of each other. I know, dude. I'm just gonna be the bigger guy, I guess.

Yeah. New goal, huh? No, dude, so you know, I weighed myself. So I went to a wedding with Jessica over the weekend, her cousin got married, great, great dude, by the way, great wedding. And I put on a suit that I, it's my suit, you know, I have one suit that I wear,

because I never wear suits. So it's like this is what I wear for weddings. I got a dry cleaned, I had it wear it, worn it for five or six months. And I put on the pants and the, they were short. So like I'm standing there and you can see my socks a little bit so I'm like, I don't get taller. And I realized like, oh, it's because my ass

and my quads are lifting the freaking pants. It was just tight. It was just tight around my kicks. Yeah. I felt like Justin. I was walking around with the Justin, Justin Walker, whatever it feels like. I've been giving you the good game pat.

You know what? Back in the day, I up until probably I want to say 70 years ago, six, seven, eight years ago. I used to do every winter. I would call a beef cake season and I will bulk up to 22225. I used to do this every, every single winter. And then every summer, I cut down to like 190. I never, I was always off on that. I would have bulk this every single winter. And then every summer, I'd cut down to like 190. I never, I was always off on that. I'd, you know, to bulk up in the summer.

Yes. Just, it just worked out that way. It was never, you know what I'm saying? I always told myself that I'm gonna bulk in the winter, get cut and shredded in the summertime. And just for whatever reason, whatever was going on in my life at that time, that it just didn't work out that way.

I ended up the opposite. No, I just, I think my best shape, I've ever been in my life at that time that it just didn't work out that way. I ended up doing the opposite. No, I just, I think my best shape I've ever been in my life for some reason has always fallen in the winter for some reason. No, dude, I just, I used to get heavy in the winter and I do it on purpose, I'd fall the whole bulking cutting thing, which is all baloney. And what, what, the reason why I haven't done that for so long, first off, it's not effective. You don't need to push your body that much.

A some bulk and some cut, sure, and keep them short, but the long extended one, I'm getting up to 220. And I don't have a huge bone frame. So 220 on me is like, it's like 240 on you, for example. It's just too much weight. But because my gut health tends to be always in or out, and so I can't push food that much, but it's been good for a long time now. So that's what you guys saw me

Mm-hmm over the weekend eating because I don't have that you're actually mad at us for not stopping to eat I hope I don't get back up to hungry boy 220 you guys I want to see my round. I just wanted to get home bro We did wait what do we leave Wednesday or Thursday dog? Was it Wednesday or Thursday? We left on Wednesday evening. Yeah, Wednesday night. Yeah, we drove Wednesday night You know to get up there Thursday. We looked at what? Nine houses or ten houses So drove all over South Lake North Lake incline village trucky area all on Thursday Friday

We hit what two or three properties plus talk to the realtor stuff South Lake, North Lake, incline village, trucky area, all on Thursday, Friday. We hit what two or three properties, plus talk to the realtor stuff, drove all over again, incline village and stuff. Then hit the road, Friday, drove all the way back to San Jose, hit a little bit of traffic, but you know, sitting in the car again all day long from 9 a.m. all day, get to San Jose, finally. again all day long from 9 a.m. all day. Get to San Jose finally I come home. I unpack the bag from Tahoe, shower really quick, pack the bag up, kiss Max, kiss Katrina, get out the door again, drive back the direction that I we just came from to go to my buddies

place in Lodi, which is another two and a half. Well, with traffic on Friday, a good three hours plus of sitting in traffic head back there. Get there at like 10 o'clock or so at night, say hi to him, talk to him for a little bit, hit the sack back up at five a.m. Head to the Delta sack river area and drop in the boat there, fish all day long on the boat and sun and doing that thing. And then drive back to, oh man, you pretty energetic today. No, just stop there.

And then we get, I get back that night, late that night, crash, get up early in the morning again. And we go for a hike out at Los Altaos Hills. I forget the name of the trail that Katrina likes to go there. I forgot that was planned that she wanted to take his photos up there and we did this with their kids. And so now all three of us have our kids

and we did this, it was like a trip. I'll tell you something, dude. Going on a hard, going on a large, a long trip and not getting good sleep and now is gonna have a different meaning for you now that you have a kid. Because it's like you come home. And it's not like, when you don't have kids, you'll catch up. yeah. And it's not like you, but when you don't have kids, what a catch up.

Yeah, exactly. What happens when you come home and you don't have kids like, oh, cool, I get to go to sleep, take naps. No, come home, got to take care of the kids, got to stay up. So I can't be super dead. It was, I came home and of course, and I know this, right? So, you know, I know that Katrina, like,

this is the longest I went without seeing Mac. So going two days in a row, not seeing them, then seeing them for like five minutes before I went out the door again, and then Mac. So going two days in a row, not seeing them, they've seen him for like five minutes before I went out the door again, and then be gone again for a day and a night. So that was the longest stretch. So there's a part of me too. I couldn't wait to get home and hold them.

But I'm so exhausted, right? So I take them right after his bath time, which we kind of settle him down, he get ready for bed. And Katrina comes upstairs and she wakes me up. I'm I've got one leg up on the bed The other ones on the floor like this and I was rocking him and I had laid down for a second Past out. Yeah, like leg on the floor leg up on the bed sitting halfway up with him in my arms And she comes over and she wakes me up and she's like hey you wake and I'm

What you get up put him in the bed. And man, I was a tie. That's a long one. Dude, I'll tell you what, dude, that whole Tahoe area is just. I love it up to us. It's the best. It's my favorite.

I'm just happy that we all feel the same way about that. Yeah, I know. It's super important, you know, and this is a lesson that I didn't learn until much later. So if you're a young entrepreneur, this may be something you wanna think about, is when you have a business, it's so you can be so busy that unless you schedule time,

and make it a priority to have time where you unplug, it's not gonna happen. Now people ask, what's the value of that? Because you think to yourself, like, oh, I just need to work, I just wanna be busy all the time. Well, the value is your fresh, the value is it maintains and spurs creativity, it keeps your innovation, it keeps things in perspective.

So it's really important things, so for us, going up there, potentially finding a place that we can all go up and go away. And then scheduling, here's a big thing for me. That's why I sent you that long text after we got back. I want, I want your kids to know me like family. I want to know your kids like family. I want the same thing for my child. I think it's super, super important. And it'll just, it'll foster a bond between all of our families that I think will benefit everybody's lives, but then also benefit the business. That'll make us just better at what we do. And we have to have it. We have to have it scheduled.

And it's not gonna happen on accident, for sure. Yeah. It's never gonna happen. I learned that lesson with just Katrina and I, in our relationship, I think I talked about this on the show that I thought long ago where, you know, we made this deal in our relationship, I think I talked about this on the show a lot of the time ago where we made this deal in our relationship. I don't know if this was probably five years ago.

Katrina's, we've been together now for over nine years now. In that time, she has seen me start and build three different businesses. And I can get very myopic when I decide I'm going to put my brain to something and that's what I want to focus on to a to a to a to a fault, right? I mean, that's because I would consider that a strength of mine, but it's also a detriment when you talk about other people that are affected by that. And so, you know, I remember us having our first like rocky parts of our relationship years and years back and What I mean, rocky, like her and I just never disagreed or really fought ever. We had such a great relationship and understanding.

But the things that would probably start to wear on her is that my desire to work all the time. And something that I said to her that, listen, if you ever feel this way and you feel like I'm not paying enough attention to you or you feel I'm distracted all the time or all I'm doing is working. You have control of everything. You have all the accounts. You have my schedule. You have all access to all of that. You just fucking you put a weekend in there and you just book it out like you know, don't don't stand for it longer than a couple more weeks. Schedulers us. So still to this day, I'll open up my calendar sometimes

and have not looked ahead two or three weeks, and then also, it comes up that week, and I'm like, what the hell, why am I blocked off for these three days, and then she'll tell me, oh, we're going here, oh, we're doing this. You have to do it, man. No, you have to. It's important.

It makes a world of a difference in our relationship. So I compare it to working out, like how many times did you have a client that was an executive or an entrepreneur, a business person, and you try to talk to them about the value of exercise, and they'll say things like, I just don't have time, I work 12 hours a day, I'm busy, but then when you finally, if you do a good job,

if you do a good job and you convince them to do it for long enough, then they start to see the value and what do they always tell you? I'm more productive. I'm more effective. I remember the first time this happened to me. I had a client that I trained who was an older gentleman, very, very successful, self-made businessman.

He came to me to train him. His wife actually told him he had to start getting training because he had some doctor's appointments. That weren't so great. And it's so funny, three months into the training, and he comes in and he goes, I got some feedback for you. I think he's gonna say to me like, oh man, I look better, I'm stronger, I'm leaner.

He's like, I've never been so good in my meetings to my staff. I'm like, what? And he goes, yeah, he goes, because of the workouts. Because of the workouts, because I feel better, because I get that time to myself, when I have my meetings, I'm way more effective. He goes, I'm doing way better in business.

I knew that when he said that to me that he would never stop working out. And to this day, he's now 81. I still see him on social media. He still exercises, because for him, he found that value in the workout. That's the same what saying applies, I guess, the trading dimes for quarters, right?

So you do have to compromise a bit because, yes, like your schedule is super slammed and booked. Like everything business, you're gonna cram in there, but now you wedge in something, that's gonna make you even more productive later. You know, initially you might have a little bit of a drop in productivity, but you're gonna gain so much more.

This is why I think, why I value having a gym in my garage so much, right here, because it reduces all the non-workout time, like the time it takes the drive to the gym, the time it takes to get your bag and get already and all that shit or whatever, I can work out in my garage whenever I want. I can wake up in the morning, don't even need to brush my teeth or anything. Go out there and work on underwear if I want to, which I do sometimes.

I go out and just do my workout whenever and it keeps me. It just removes all the potential obstacles that come up in your way. So an obstacle would be like, oh, I got to, you know, I'm going to go home and then I got to go back to the gym. Like that's an obstacle. So maybe just go straight to the gym for more. That helps a lot of people. No, access whenever.

Yeah, that's been the game changer for me. Totally. Just to be able to go downstairs and then keep, you know, like going one exercise at a time. Just even if it's just, I got to go bench and then keep, you know, like, like, going one exercise at a time, just even if it's just, I gotta go bench and then I'll do like a few reps. Do you do that very often all the time? Do you really? Yeah, I, that's actually the most effective way to work.

That's actually the most effective way to work. Yeah, and I've noticed myself doing this more frequently lately, like the last two months or so, where I'll just take one lift. I have it set up and ready to go. Courtney gets mad because it's like, I don't put the weights away. This is my gym. I do what I want. But I do that specifically on the lift or a trap bar deadlift.

I'll have it set up and ready to go. And so I'll go down there and do some reps. And I'll hit those reps maybe like five, six times throughout the day. And that's what I think I would do with high high high one in my house. I would do the same thing. And it's a lot of volume.

It's all, remember what I did. would do if I had one in my house. I would do the same thing. And it's a lot of volume. Yeah. It's like, remember that. How it's up. Remember I do those experimental all day workout? Well, it's funny that we assume that you, and I think for the most part, a lot of people do this, they block off. And I would, for, for convenience, right, for convenience and scheduling purposes, it makes sense to block hours off every single day that you plan to work out and then you go to your gym or whatever. But if I had a PRX set up like you do in your place, I would set it up to where I just come in there, one exercise or two exercises and then go out and then come back and go out and come back,

I would love to do that. And on Expo Show weekends, when I'm there all day long, that would be the most convenient actually even for me to to do that. And on Expo Show on weekends, when I'm there all day long, that would be the most convenient, actually, even for me to do it that way. There's a lot of freedom with that mentality too, because it's like, you know, you could just on a whim, because those opportunities, it's like, you think they won't happen very often, they have all the time.

It's just like, okay, there's nothing going on, I'm going downstairs, I'll be right back up. Yeah, well, the turn off, I think, for people with the home jam, or the reason, the objections I would often hear from people is, well, if I have it at home, I'm not gonna do it. And the reason why they think this way, it's false, by the way, it's not true. Actually, statistically, if you look at consistency

with people who have access to something at home versus people who have to go somewhere, when you look at total use, the amount of times people work out is higher when they have access at home. Now the reason why people have a false belief that they're less likely is because they're comparing when I'm at the gym,

I know I need to work out. When I'm at home, I can do other stuff. Well, when you count in factoring the fact that you're probably not gonna get to the gym. Sure, if you're at the gym, you're gonna work out. But now factor in the fact that probably're probably not gonna get to the gym. Sure, if you're at the gym, you're gonna work out, but now factor in the fact that probably not gonna wanna drive to the gym. I always use it to make an excuse to not drive your ass

to the gym. So statistically speaking, if you have something accessible at home, the odds of you exercising are much higher because you're eliminating obstacles. It's just, and if you think of it that way, it makes perfect sense. As far as the workouts are concerned at them, all day workouts, the most effective workouts I've ever done. It's inconvenient for a lot of different reasons. You got to be going

in and out all the time. But if you're doing stuff at home, that's my Saturday, I guess, dad life, especially now, right? Saturdays and Sundays are the days of getting caught up from the week, right? I'm laundry's getting done, I'm washing the vehicles, I'm straightening up the house, fixing whatever needs to be fit. I could just a long day of that. Anyways, if I'm in town, that's kind of what my Saturday or Sunday looks like. And so if I could actually set it up to where,

and I guess the only reason why I haven't done it yet is because we were only supposed to be at this house temporarily for maybe a year. So, and I may only be there for another 10 months. So that's the only reason why I haven't set myself up the same way both of you have, because I get it and I can see the, especially now being a dad, I totally see the value of that having that access whenever I want to go down. Plus you're so consistent, obviously you're not going to stop your workouts, but I'll tell you what,

dude, when you hop in and out of doing sets throughout the day, because I do this when I write, so if I'm writing like a big, like a one of our guides or whatever, I'll pop in and out of the garage and do a set here and there, but I'll track the sets. Yeah. And I end up doing two or three times the volume that I would do in my regular workouts, but because it's so spread out, it doesn't hammer my body the same, and I swore to God, every time I do that, I swore to God, I see changes in my body. Plus it's a spread out, it doesn't hammer my body the same. And I swore to God every time I do that,

I swore to God, I see changes in my body. Plus, it's a mood altering thing, right? So like if I'm ever like in a feisty mood and current is a go downstairs, you know, like she's just like, go, you know, work it out. And I really do, like I need that. I need to work it out. The other objection is the cost,

because buying equipment is really expensive up front, but buying a membership is usually, you know, 60, 50 bucks a month, 70 bucks a month or whatever. Yeah. But equipment man, PRX now has a monthly option. So you can get their equipment, pay monthly, but now you have your own gym. Yeah, it's like nothing, but now if a sony and he's bought your own gym. Yeah. And to be honest with you, I, depending on the kind of workouts that I do, because I go to gyms too, I'll go to a gym at the moment two days a week, maybe one or two days a week,

and then I'll do one to three days a week at home, depending on the week. But I'll tell you what, dude, my, when I wanna lift heavy, and I wanna get after it, and be just chalk and just loud, you know, and just beef cake workouts. So right now I'm working out more of my garage.

Yeah. Oh yeah. It's more of the beef cake style workouts. If you guys start watching Halloween movies or anything to get you into the spirit of things really. That's right. Yeah. You're all against like horror movies. Did you guys see that? Did you see that meme that I think is? Uh, who is it? Cara that put it on our forum that did the meme of the friends that you watching the guy who's got his hands covering the size of the scary horror. It's that time of year you to bring your friend who doesn't like watching scary. She tagged me in a corner.

I'm excited because my son's 14 now. So now he's like it's cool to watch some scare. I'm not going to put the disturbing ones on but I was going to say what's the level you go now? Well, I'm going to watch six cents with him. I think he's like, it's cool to watch some sc... I'm not gonna put the disturbing ones on but I was gonna say What's the level you go now? Well, I'm gonna watch six cents with him. I think that's appropriate, right? It's kind of he's got a nice twist at the end. So that would be good. Like do you have like Halloween? Well, I'll watch it for you only because like so Courtney's big thing is always been hookah's Pocus, which is like the cheesiest like you know, Bet midler or whatever I think is like, which is, it's like a comedy.

Yeah, it is. It's so cheesy. It's actually scarier than you think though. But, you know, she grew up with it and has all this, like, memories with it and stuff. And so, like, we got the kids to watch it with her. And so we're sitting on a couch, we're watching, you know, this cheesy movie and popcorn or whatever.

And there's this part where, like, so he has to, he has to like this candle. And he lights this candle. And the whole thing is the witches won't come unless a virgin lights the candle. Oh yeah. Right? And so he lights the candle.

And they're kind of like making fun of them throughout this whole movie that he's a virgin. And then so the kids pick up on this and they're like, Dad, what's a virgin? I'm like, dude, there's six and nine. Like I don't feel like it's red. Like it's time for me're like, Dad, what's a virgin? I'm like, dude, they're six and nine. Like, I don't feel like it's red. Like, it's time for me to like,

you know, have the sex tolerance. That conversation, bro. Would you say somebody who's never been married before? Yeah. Yes, I said like, that's like, basically, I was like, people who aren't parents. I think they're so real- So immediately, they raised us like,

I'm a virgin, Dad, I'm a virgin. I'm like, all right, let's calm down. Like, don't go around town saying that all loud, you know, like it's like, let's just move on and they're just like, I'm a virgin. So it's like, the latest joke now is just like going to a room and say they're a virgin. No, no, you're, you're, I didn't,

I didn't win on that one. I didn't do a good job. You're oldest is nine. Yeah, nine. So you're like two, three't win on that one. I didn't do a good job. Your oldest is nine. Yeah. So you're like two, three years, two years away from talking about sex. Yeah. That's when it starts to come up at the end.

At 11? Like 11, 12. Really? For a boy? Yeah. I mean, they kind of know how babies are made. Well, hold on. What grade is he in?

Is he fourth? What? He's in fourth? Oh, I guess he's in fifth grade. Fifth and sixth. Fifth and sixth. So I had the conversation. He's in third. That seems so early now. Yeah, it's great is great. Well, you are right. So I had the conversation He's in third. So it seems so early now. I think that should I get this conversation my daughter. Yeah, I'm gonna be talking about this

Well, my daughter soon. Okay, I love that one. Here we go. Yeah, yeah, that's not a problem. You know what you do, dude? I tell you what I thought about on my oh my god Because my parents didn't say shit about sex with me. Oh, yeah, I didn't know that thing apparently kidding me No, you know the first time I heard the word sex on my mom was after I got married Then a little sudden she thinks she could talk about sex with me. I yeah, I didn't. Nothing. You kidding me? No, you know, the first time I heard the word sex on my mom was after I got married. Then the little sudden she thinks she could talk about sex with me. I'm like, it's too late, mom. I don't want to hear you talking about sex.

I learned sex with my teacher. She had, I remember it vividly. She had like this like huge perm. It was like a fro, but shit like really big, you know, anyways. It was really distracting. I didn't like listen very well, but that's where I learned sex.

Oh man. So with my son, what I did was, is I was just very frank, just very straight up and honest. So I said, oh, I know you're learning this in school and here's how babies are made. There's the mechanics. No, you just say, here's how babies are, and you just honest, you say a man,

you just tell him. The train goes into the canal. No, no, no, just be straight up. He puts his penis in the vagina and then, then sperm goes in there and then, and you talk, and then they'll ask you quite and just be cool about it. puts his penis in the vagina and then you know then sperm goes in there And you talk and then they'll ask you quite and just be cool about it And then my son was asking me questions like yeah, how does he get it in there? I'm like well Well, I think you feel be able to figure out when you want to do it. This is what happens. She'll help you don't

Yeah, the time comes she'll help you out. You got I need some extra hands I don't know you know why you don't want him to figure it out from his buddies or the internet He definitely don't because that's how I learned shit That's why I was a little worried like he's just gonna go to his friends and be like Mergent is this My dad says I'm a virgin You're a virgin Hey, do you guys hear what happened to Chicago? No, no they decriminalized all psychedelic plants. Oh, yeah.

In Chicago? Yeah. Dude, I'm not sure. So they're following the same, what town was it, Oakland? Yeah. So how Oakland did that? Yeah. Dude, little by little.

The war on drugs. That's interesting. We are going to, this is the beginning of the end of the war on drug. We're starting with marijuana. It's sorry, Nancy Reagan. Yeah, it started with marijuana. Now it's moving to psychedelic plants. It's going to eventually move down the list.

And what we're going to end up seeing, mark my words, are looser and looser regulations. I don't think they're all going to be regulated the same, but looser and looser regulations. I think I still think distributing, you know, trying to sell is going to be very strict regulations and laws. But I think self and personal use were this is the beginning of reduced sentences and just the way we treat people who don't hurt anybody but themselves. I think this is a very, very good thing.

Ah, yeah, it's exciting. Kind of interesting, right? And you know, Mexico's taking their stance. Their stance seems to be moving in the opposite direction because of all the insanity of their, did you know that one? How's that affecting the cartel relationship with the people and everything?

Well, dude, I just saw this the other day. What was that town in Mexico, Juarez? I think it was. That was the one where there was all those drug cartels or whatever. Juarez. Is that what breaking bad is in? No.

Is it Albuquerque? Oh, Albuquerque. Yeah. A little different. Yeah. But I think it was Juarez, if I'm not mistaken, somebody was getting murdered every hour. It's not a huge town.

Wow. That's how many people were getting, it was like straight up wars over there with the cartels. Like the cops are afraid to do anything. Well, isn't it, when you guys were in Tahoe that was talking about someone got kidnapped, one of the major drug dealers, kids, son got kidnapped or something.

Oh, I don't know. Oh, you know, you ducks or that. I thought it was you guys that told me that. Maybe it was my buddies when I was fishing with them. It's all ground up. It's all blurred. It's one fucking long day from this. It's my other friends.

It's my other friend, Justin and brother. That's like when you're like, we were up there and, so if we got the pizza last night, was it you? Neither one of us. None of us. Yeah, it was your other friend.

So look this up, I'm pretty sure that one of the major drug Lord's son got kidnapped. Oh, there he is. Yeah, it's a big deal right now. So I thought that's what you were talking about. Opportunistic fraudster. Yeah, there you go. Elchopo's son's arrest in a bid to steal Bitcoin, huh?

The capture of Elchopo's son. So I think his son was arrested. Oh, maybe his son was arrested. Oh, maybe his son was arrested and then there was crazy amount of retaliation and gangs like fighting each other over him being arrested. And I think they had to release him because it was getting so crazy. How fucked up is that?

The cops release you. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I thought for sure you guys, that's what you did with you. I did. Yeah, my buddy was just telling me, this is recent, look,

it's five hours ago, two days ago. I'm telling you right now, here's the thing.. I didn't do that. Yeah, my buddy was just telling me, this is recent, look, it's five hours ago, two days ago. I'm telling you right now, here's the thing, we need to all, we need to, as humans, we need to face the reality. There are markets for things. And sometimes the markets are so strong that trying to ban them only causes more problems. So people using drugs and abusing drugs, not a good thing.

Trying to make them illegal makes it worse. You know what I'm saying? There's just markets that you can't, that you gotta accept at some point, like okay, people are gonna do drugs, so what's the best approach here? Because this crazy, these crazy laws are causing a lot of children to be raised without fathers,

and they're creating a very vibrant black market, and in the black market, people settle disputes, not through lawyers and courts, but through violence because that's the only way to do it. So anyway, super crazy. Oh, another crazy article I read, Crayotein, the supplement that does it all, also may actually help fight cancer.

What? Yeah, yeah, scientists studied the T cells that go after cancer cells and kill cancer cells. Wow. And they found that when those T cells were not, when they didn't have enough creatine, they weren't nearly as effective. And so they speculated that having adequate creatine levels could make your T cells more effective at getting rid of cancer. Because, you know, creatine replenishes your energy. ATP effective at getting rid of cancer. Because you know, creatine replenishes your energy. ATP, which is one of the main sources of energy in the body.

So that makes sense, but that also would it be like one of those situations too that in the wrong environment could promote it? That's a very, very good question. Because I would think that that makes sense for fighting it for a healthy person, but then maybe somebody who has it, taking it would also fuel the cancer, I would think that makes sense for fighting it for a healthy person, but then maybe somebody who has it Taking it would also fuel the cancer I would think that's a very very good question Cells need more than just creating for energy. They need glucose and amino acids and And ketones sometimes so but that's a that's a very interesting question

But what they speculated was no the They opposite that you want to have adequate creatine so that your T cells can always go around and get rid of potential cancer cells. Also considered an antioxidant. Crateean. It's got some antioxidant properties for the heart. Dude, I'm telling you right now, creatine is... A lot more to it then. Crateean is the next big wellness supplement. I'm gonna say that right now. It's been for a long time, it's been all about,

first of all, it was about body building, muscle building, then it was, oh, just pure performance. Then it was, oh, it's good for cognitive benefits and boost. But I guarantee you, Crateen is gonna start to be marketed as in all around wellness supplement. I don't see how it can't be with this movement right now with veganism too. I figure that has game changers, right, man.

Those people are gonna benefit probably the most from it. Totally. So I would imagine that there's definitely going to be a push on it. Totally. You're trying to invest in your creatine supplement. No, it's, I think it's pretty interesting and pretty rare. It's like the one supplement that actually works. Yeah, it does everything.

And it does everything. All right. If I was going to recommend any supplement, it would be, aside from a nutrient that you may need, it would be creatine. And then last article, I got one more I wanted to mention to you guys. I read this interesting article in New York Times. There was a scientist and experts trying to explain what makes somebody charismatic, which I thought was a very interesting article.

Like they're trying to break down, we have what they tease out. I mean, what? No, that's the question because they were saying how it's so difficult. You can have two completely different people. Like you could have an entertainer, then you could have a person like Elon Musk or you could have a comedian,

or you could have someone that's on TV, a villain, or a good guy, both of which are considered charismatic, even though one is like someone you like, one is someone that you hate. And they define charisma. Curemagnicism. Yes, they define charisma as you want to be around this person. This person makes you feel better and you want to hear what they have to say.

And so there are a few different things that they narrowed down to, but the one thing that they had in common were that all charismatic people, as far as they could tell, were excellent storytellers. They were very good at using analogies and metaphors and at telling stories. And they said that charisma, a lot of times people believe it to be something that you're born with, but they said, no, if you learn how to tell good stories and you learn how to listen really well

and make people feel like they're the only person in the room when you talk to them, and you use good metaphors and analogies, you'll dramatically improve your level of charisma. And in my opinion, that likeability, that charisma likeability, that's a skill that'll benefit anybody. It'll make you more money, it'll make you more better in your marriage, it'll make you better totally.

Anything that you do. Anything that you do. How interesting is that? That is really interesting. This clause brought to you by Organify. For those days you fall short on getting your organic veggies or whole food nutrition, Organify fills the gap with laboratory-tested certified organic superfoods to help give your health a performance-the-added edge. Try Organify totally risk-free for 60 days by going to organify.com. That's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com.

And use a coupon code MindPump for 20% off at checkout. BEEP. First question is from Parker Glessner 6.6. Despite you guys not loving machines, what is your favorite machine and why? I think we need to clear that up first. Yeah, we do. It's not that we don't like machines.

Machines have a lot of value when you inject them into a well planned and programmed workout. It's just the reliance on machines, or that's all I do is machines. It tends to be the problem. Free weights, a couple of different reasons why free weights are better. Overall, free weights form to the body. Machines your body has to form to the machine.

Machines are typically designed for someone who's about average height, average limb length. Even though the seat's adjust and the arm length adjust, you get a tall guy like Adam on there, or somebody who's a little bit shorter like Doug, and some machines just don't work well for them at all. And I used to encounter this with clients, I put them on a machine, and it just didn't line up well with them. The other thing is that free weights tend to, that some of the best exercises you could ever do

for your body are the free weight ones. I have yet to see a deadlift machine, a squat machine. There's very few that are, I would even put in the same categories of squat. That being said, adding machines can be beneficial, machines. Yeah, they have their value. But when you're in a fixed position and you have like these machines that you're on a

track, you can only get really good at going on that specific track. And so, the carryover for me has always been not quite as substantial as, you know, me doing that same exercise, but now having a lot more variables attached, because that's just more things to consider when I have to move in multiple directions. Right, and now adding frequency and volume and changing the angles, machines can be awesome.

If you see me working on a gym, because I usually work out in my garage and my garage is mainly free weights, if you see me in a gym, you'll see me using mostly machines. And a lot of that is because I just don't have access to machines, so I like the novelty. My body responds well to throwing them in. Every once in a while, I want to have access to them.

I use them quite a bit. As far as favorite machines are concerned, I mean, I have one machine that if I see see it in the gym, I'm gonna use it. The pullover machine. Love the pullover. Not a lot of gyms have them. That's one machine that you're gonna say. I haven't seen that in every gym.

That's one machine that if I see it in a gym, I'm gonna, I love it. I love the feel of it. It's better than a dumbbell pullover even. I don't know if I have a single one machine. I love machines and being the bodybuilder one of us. They were used a lot. I still, my core training was still free weights

and compound lifts, but I did a lot of auxiliary work. I did a lot of these focusing on little details and small muscle groups. So I think I have probably a favorite of these, you know, focusing on little, little details and small muscle groups. So I think I have probably a favorite machine for, there's not a lot of gyms, okay, so I'll go south direction, like a rare one to see, or I get really said, I love, and I'm so pissed, in fact, the gym that I go to on a regular basis

got rid of this machine, and there's a rear-delt fly machine that you lay face down. Oh, I know what you're talking about. That's a great one. I fucking love that machine. And why I'm partial to that? Because rear delts were a major focus of mine when I was competing really just brought out my back

and my shoulders. And there's not a lot of machines that are designed for the rear delts at all, and that was a phenomenal machine. What's you guys, can you say that a cable exercises or machines, or is that out of the category? Uh, I would consider it a machine, you know, like a free motion cable machine, like,

I mean, because it's all, I mean, the thing about that, though, is it gives you a lot of angles, if you were gonna use that, then I would have to, that is because if you, or if you were gonna use that as listing what we think is our favorite, I use a free motion. I'll probably use that the most.

Yeah, I use a free motion. Cable the most. Cables, because you can do so much. Like a low pulley row is a staple in a back workout. A lap pull down tends to be a staple in a workout. So cables, if you put cables in there, and when I train clients, if I put a client on a machine, and if we're considering cables machines,

99% of time it was cables, 99% of time. That was the machine that I was looking for. Another great, and I don't know if this falls in this category, I like the seated row, I mean, excuse me, the T-bar row, chest support machine. Yeah. And the reason why I like that is because I deadlift so much, and sometimes my low back is a little fried from deadlifting, but I still want to hit my back and keep the frequency up. And so an exercise like that lends itself really well

because I can still load it good. I can still train my back really hard, but then I'm not crushing my erector spinae at all. You know, it's another good machine that you never see anymore? And I know, I think you and I have talked about this before Adam. I think this was a favorite of yours too.

The lateral machine where it was, there were metal arms and there were handles that you held with your hands. And it was like a circular cam and you came out and did laterals. That one, I don't know why I don't see those, I think, because people don't know how to use it. But I love that for shoulders.

Absolutely, one of my favorites. I still, I love the reverse hyper. I consider that a machine, even though it's plate loaded. And, you know, but to me, like I get such a great feeling all the way up the bat. My entire posterior chain, I can feel, get involved with that exercise. So I'll supplement with that every now and then, in between dead lifts and between good morning and evening.

Yeah, I think we can all go down the rabbit hole here. Of machines are great. I think the reason why we've made that point on this show, and that's why I wanted to clear it up before we went on this tangent, but that we've all started on different. There's a lot of favorite machines and machines have definitely value. The problem is a lot of the average person that is either listening to this show or that we would train gravitates towards machines in fear of training free weights and compound lifts.

And they don't spend a lot of time in the gym. The average person is gonna work out two to three days a week, 45 minutes to an hour. And when you don't have a whole lot of time, you wanna do the most effective, best, most functional exercises. And that's free weights. Now, if you're in the gym five days a week,

and you're doing everybody part two, three times a week, and you're doing all these different exercises, well, now machines have a lot more value. Now you're looking for more angles, you're looking for different types of tension on the muscle. You're looking at hitting certain muscle groups and not exhausting another side, like the example I gave the T-bar rows,

so you're trying to compliment your combat. So that's, I like machines that compliment all the big compound lifts. I wouldn't, where we hate machines or I think we talk out on them a lot, is replacing them with those. Don't ever, don't, and that's where to be careful when we explain stuff like this, where we talk about the value and how great this machine is or that machine is. It's not great if it replaces a good free weight exercise or a lot of the free weight or compound lifts that we talk about on the show.

It's incredible, they're incredible to compliment all those movements. So no matter what your favorite machine is, even like a dumbbell pullover, well, dumbbell pullover is great and Sal loves that machine, but I guarantee it's not great in replace of a deadlift or a row. Now those are staple movements. That's a great tool or a great thing to incorporate to compliment the big compound. Totally.

Next question is from JP 94. How do I grow my traps? Oh, good old traps. Grow them traps. You know, the most common exercise for traps is our shrugs, but I'm beginning to believe that shrugs are not the best exercise for the traps. And I learned this because of map strong.

We wrote map strong, there were two exercises in there that I'd done before, but that I didn't do in regular rotation. I'd throw them in every once in a while, but I didn't do them consistently. The high poles. The snatch grip high poles. The snatch grip dead left. in regular rotation. I'd throw them in every once in a while, but I didn't do them consistently. High pulls. The snatch grip high pulls. The snatch grip deadlift.

Yeah, snatch grip high pulls mainly. And heavy farmer walks with a trap bar. Man, I started doing those in my routine, and I did them regularly because in MAP strong, they're in their weekly. I mean, if you want to blow your traps out, you should follow MAP strong. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That that was when centered around that. When we were, I remember when we were riding it with Robert Overs, one of the things, and one of the ways that when we create a program might that a lot of it is us still steering the programming,

but we ask a lot of questions from the athlete. Like, you know, what are some favorite moves or whatever you found well? And one of the things that when we were like looking over a lot of the stuff that Robert was doing all of us right away We were like god damn a lot of upper back stuff here I mean you're and he's like yeah, no, I mean for the lifts that you have to and it makes sense it makes sense Why why he was doing a lot of that and so that's part of what is unique to that program is we made sure to include

That's not something we would that high, that much volume in the upper back and trap area is probably not something we would do in a normal standard program, but because that is a supporting area for a lot of overhead pressing and lifting that they do, it's crucial. So if you're somebody who's interested in growing traps and you haven't followed map strong,

to me, that's gotta be a thrust in your rotation. I'll tell you what, traps is one of those muscle groups that when you see certain muscle groups really developed on a person, you know that's a strong person. You know that's a strong person. Like you see a lot of developed biceps, doesn't necessarily mean they're a strong person.

You see a dude with developed traps, usually it means they're pretty damn strong. It's just one of those body parts and it really is an important muscle group. It stabilizes the entire shoulder girdle. The traps are very important for overhead presses and for rows and just for giving you strength in that upper back area.

Traps like any body part respond well for most people if you train them about two to four times a week. So on average about three days a week, they respond well to different rep ranges, just like any other body part, anywhere between low reps, three reps to higher reps, maybe as high as 20. And they also respond really well to different angles.

Shrugs, overhead shrugs, snatch grip, high pulls, and then tension movements like heavy farmer walks. Like when you're walking with really, really heavy dumbbells, or a heavy trap bar, and you're standing tall and maintaining good posture, because you're using so much weight, because when I did a trap bar, you know, farmer walks, I got up to over 400 pounds.

And although I'm not doing a shrug with that weight, just a simple fact that I'm supporting it, and staying stable with my upper traps in my upper back, I mean, they responded. Well, such a great contrast between that and then doing an explosive movement where you're getting that fast twitch response out of the muscle, which stimulates it completely

different way. So now you get your traps to develop, you know, both directions. Yeah, and what's funny about traps is a lot of people get tight in their neck and they get that tension. And a lot of times people think, well, don't work that area out because you're really tight.

And I used to believe that. Now, what I'm about to say isn't the opposite. I'm not saying go hammer the shit at your traps if your neck gets tight. But some full range of motion in that area actually reduces the tension and stress you feel in that area. So I would get clients who would have really tight trap areas. And I would work on correctional exercise for their shoulders and offset the overactivity

of those muscles. But then I'd have them do some really light full range of motion shrugs, really really light just let them come all the way down, let them squeeze all of it, and they'd get all this relief in that area. So just because something's tight doesn't mean it's too strong, sometimes it could be tight and weak, oftentimes it could be tight and weak. Now I know a lot of women avoid training their traps, I think this is a mistake. Now of course there's an aesthetic component, if you're somebody that has really well-developed traps and you want them to get too big, I get it.

But if you're a woman listening and you don't have really big trap muscles, don't be afraid of training your traps because you think you're gonna wake up tomorrow looking like a power lifter. It's not gonna happen. It takes a long time to develop any muscle including the traps.

Still train your traps because here's what's gonna happen. It's gonna make your mid back look better. It's gonna give you better posture if you're training happen. It's gonna make your mid back look better. It's gonna give you better posture if you're training properly. It's gonna make your overhead presses stronger. It's a very important muscle for overhead presses. And if you wanna develop good shoulders,

you also need to have strong supportive traps. So don't avoid trap training just because you think, oh, I don't want a big neck or whatever. Worst case scenario, you get to the point where you look in the mirror and you're like, okay, I think I'm happy where my traps are. Then you can really scale down, but it won't happen overnight.

I wouldn't freak out over it. Next question is from MiniFig. When you hit a plateau with your deadlift, what exercises or techniques can you implement to help you overcome the plateau and increase the weight you're able to lift? So specific to the deadlift. Yeah, well, I'll tell you what,

this is hard when you don't know why they're plateauing. Yeah, we don't know why, so I'm gonna give you some general answers that I think apply to a lot of people. Okay, one of the, one thing that I did that made a big difference with my deadlift was when I started using bands on my deadlift. When I was able to get a platform,

and you can do this without a platform too, it's just way more convenient and easier to do with a platform, I would have bands on either side of the bar, so I'd load the bar with weight, have the bands, and then as I deadlift, the bands, as you stretch bands out, they get tighter and tighter. So what ends up happening is that the bottom of the deadlift,

it's pretty much whatever the weight is on the bar plus a little bit extra resistance. But as I'm pulling it up, it gets harder and harder because the band stretch out. So it's giving me this kind of variable resistance. And that alone added about 15 pounds to my deadlift. Once I incorporated those, I noticed, and they just feel really good when you get up to the top and it's the heaviest at the top of the rep. So that's one thing that I did that really made a big difference. Another thing I did was deficit deadlifts. This one was really good. There's an easy way to do this by the way. Some people like to stand on like 45 pound plates. Yeah, here's another easier way to do it. Use 35 pound plates. It's another bar shorter.

So now you have to get down lower to do your deadlift and then do your deadlift or use 25 pound plates. It's another bar shorter. So now you have to get down lower to do your deadlift and then do your deadlift or use 25 pound plates and start easy and go slow. This is a great way to hurt your back if you're not good at these or you can stand on a block or something like that. But those really, really low deadlift, we have to squat down real low and come up. Those also transferred to my deadlift strength and my deadlift weight. I mean, without seeing or knowing too much about this person, the first area that I would always go is I would look at programming. Like, and assume that if you're like most people when they hit hard plateaus, it's a lot of times because their programming has been pretty similar. They've been following the same programming, whether that be the same types of exercises all time,

or if you're trying to work on your squat or your deadlift, I mean, you're probably just dead lifting all the time. Some of the best things that you can do is, if you go conventional time, go to sumo. If you're always strength training for three to five reps and chasing PRs, try training eight to 12 reps and lightning the load up. And then to Salis Point, messing with the strength curve by adding bands or chains, are all great techniques or what Justin said, go to Trap Bar for a little bit. So I mean, I always look first to programming

when someone tells me they're at a hard plateau. And then another possibility, I know personally from chasing PRs or trying to increase strength, I was overtraining, so I would also assess that part of programming. Am I deadlifting so much that I'm not allowing my body to fully recover and then come back to it?

So you may need to back off volume and maybe work more technique instead of going loading so heavy all the time So it's really tough for these types of questions when we get like a very specific what should I do? Yeah, because it could be a very simple answer I mean if I looked at your programming and saw something like that where there's a big hole where it's like Oh, yeah Well the last six months I've been training you know five by five, you know It consistently always training that way.

Well, shit. Let's jump to the eight to 10 rep range and, or let's do tempo and slow down the tempo in the session. Oftentimes when people hit a plateau with a lift, I assume if someone says to me, I hit a plateau, okay, it means you've been focusing on this lift. This is an important lift for you. You've been trying to get strong at it. That means you've probably pushed, pushed, pushed,

and you might need to back off a little bit. And oftentimes that tends to be the key, where if you're always in the gym and you're always hitting 200 pounds in your deadlift, or 300 pounds in your deadlift, and you're pushing it, maybe cut the weight in half for a few weeks and just focus on speed and technique. Speed or perfect form.

And do that for a little while. And then you'll find that your strength comes up. Here's another one with deadlifts that I noticed. Both of myself and with clients. If your squat goes up, your deadlift tends to also go up. The alternate isn't always true. My deadlift goes up, my squat doesn't always go up. So sometimes what I would do is I would back off on my deadlift. I'd stop deadlifting

as often or stop deadlifting as hard, focus just on my technique and my form. So I'm going lighter and then push my squat a little bit and see how strong I can get on my squat. Then as my squat went up and I started feeling stronger, then I'd go back to deadlifting a little harder and I'd notice, oh, there's that boost in strength. You know that happened. I know you mentioned the trap bar. Yeah, I mentioned the trap bar mainly to for changing up the grip and one of the things to for me that was always like, I would hit like a certain amount to where I could get

that, you know, pretty easily or not was my grip was the factor. So, yeah, my nice little like dainty hands. That's not true at all. This is pretty rough, dude, look at that. But anyway, so I would actually use, again, the farmer walks were great for me to just focus on, you know, sustaining, like getting more grip endurance and being able to grind through and maintain that grip.

I know that you switched up your grip cell with the hook grip, and I was wondering at what point do you wanna factor that in in terms of like, okay, I can hit, I can hit this weight and there's basically a ceiling to this to where I can grab, you know, with a conventional grip, you know, prone versus like now, maybe I'll try, you know, a different technique completely and start

all over. Yeah, no, I had to because I had deadlifted for so long with an alternate grip and it was like, my heavy sets were all right hand, you know, facing up left hand, facing down. And I had to actually develop an imbalance in my back. You know, a lot of people say, I don't matter, no, it matters. You develop an imbalance. And so then I said, okay, I'm going to go to, to, can just both overhand and I'm going to work on a hook grip. You know what I noticed? When I went to a hook grip with both sides, you know what got really

freaking sore on me? I think it was my breaky, Alice muscle underneath my bicep because it was pronated and I'm like handling so much weight. So it took me a year to work up to my normal weight with a hook grip. Now, to this day, my hook grip is not quite where my alternate grip is. My alternate grip I could still do probably 10 to 15 pound

more than my hook grip, but it's damn close and I get better, more balanced development. I would recommend everybody practice working on hook grip, or if they use an alternate grip to alternate, to really alternate. Don't do what I did where I alternated, but then when I went and heavy it was always the same size. Yeah, I would try and go overhand as far as I could go. And then that's when I would switch to the alternate.

But I like the trap bar a lot. I did lift it 600 pounds on a trap bar about four months before I did it on a straight bar. And that's because I plateaued and pounds on a trap bar about four months before I did it on a straight bar and that's because I I plateaued and I switched the trap bar exclusively and got my weight all the way up to 615 I think it was On a trap bar then I went back to the straight bar and I'd noticed I just felt stronger more solid and I was able to get it up to 600 pounds so

Try all of those things one at a time on your routine and see if it kind of helps you out. If I have to take a guess, I'd say you're probably, you're probably in store for some backing off though. If I had to take a guess, just from the way the question was, was worded. Next question is from JC Kubek. What's one bad habit you're working on or would like to work on? And what's one habit you're just not that concerned about? Oh gosh, that's a tough one. Bad habit?

They want to know our bad stuff. Yeah, I don't know. What would be a bad, you know, if I get nervous, actually, this is something, actually I don't even have to be fucking nervous. If I'm sitting, I tend to wreck whatever the hell's in front of me or around me. Even right now, as I'm on this podcast,

I'm twiddling with the frickin' wire to my mic. It's just whatever, there's a pen cap in front of me. That thing's gonna be destroyed. If it's an eraser, it's gonna be two million different pieces. You know, I would like to work on it, but to be honest, if I don't have an outlet with my hands, then I don't think I can function very well. I think it's just like a coping mic. I don't have an outlet with my hands, then I don't think I can function very well.

I think it's just like a coping make. I don't know. So are you counting that as the one you were trying to work on and also the one that you're not concerned about? You know, you don't get to do that. It's a two for one. It's a week ass bad habit. Both.

It's a terrible bad habit. It's, but I don't know, man. It's one that first came to my head. I'll give you a bad habit you have because it's somewhat of a... I would have jerked. Yeah. So piling it on you. Actually, this is, no, this is, this is, Sal was a great reflection for myself

when we first met because it used to fucking annoy me that he does this. That's so nice. But it, it, it, it, we're always a reflection of ourselves. I'm not his handsome reflection. Yeah, right now. We're always a reflection of ourselves.

And if it bothers me and him, that's obviously something I need to work on myself. So I, although I'm jabbing him right now, it's also something that helped me a ton. And I have this habit. It's the the leader in me, the teacher in me, the guy who likes seeking out knowledge and sharing and giving like, and that's how it plays out in my head. But I have this habit of like telling people all the time. And, you know, and I mean well by it, just like I know he means well by it, but it's

fucking annoying sometimes when you're on the receiving end of that. And I remember feeling that when we first met and I remember, I remember I had empathy for him. I didn't like give him shit because I want fuck that's me. Like Katrina always gives me a hard time that I do this to her. Like I go right into teach mode all the time and it's like instead of having dialogue or conversation or maybe asking her what do you think

or what do you know about this, I go right into telling you what I know and it rub some people the wrong way. And this was a bad habit of my own that I've continued to try and work on. And so you're talking about your bad habit of teaching by teaching me. On the butt test.

That's what I was talking about. Well, I gave you your shoppers. I gave you your shop to figure it out first and you didn't. So this is me now coming in. Let me help you out with that fucking bad habit of yours, bro. I won't disagree, actually.

And funny, it's funny. I literally had a conversation this morning with Jessica about that exact thing. She has a tendency to do the same thing. And no, yeah, I know I for sure. You know what it is? I think that's how I learn. It is. So the more I teach, the more I learn about it.

Me too, me too. One of the things that, so I have empathy for, I totally do. Again, I always say on this podcast, your greatest strength is normally your greatest weakness. So I think that's also one of the things that, so I have empathy for it, I totally do. Again, I always say on this podcast, your greatest strength is normally your greatest weakness. So I think that's also one of your greatest strengths. I know it's one of mine. I would, we talked about this in Tahoe. I learned a new word, I learned a new study,

I learned something right away. What I've found is if I say it or do it myself or apply it or use it or teach it to somebody else, it becomes cemented in my own brain. And now it's knowledge that I have acquired. It's not the first time I hear something, I don't feel like I've fully acquired that knowledge until I teach it or to someone else.

So I am empathetic to you and understand that. But I at the same time too, I know this is an area, it's a bad habit that I have, I tend to do it. My uncle's also a great reflection for that for me because him and I are very much so alike. He works with the company. He drives me fucking crazy. Sometimes again, it's a reflection of myself like, oh my God, I probably do this to people too. So, and I know I'm going off on my soap box here with this about salad. This is an area, this is mine. So this is one of my areas that I'm always trying to work on, not talking at people.

That's what it comes off if somebody else tells you you feel like you're talking at them. It works well for a podcast though. It does. It serves us a superpower on the podcast. Right, right. It serves us in many other areas, but that's a bad habit. I've spent a good majority of my life

being a talker, being, have people skills in that. I'm trying to spend the back half of my life being a better listener and observer. So that's my personal bad habit, I think, in what I'm trying to work on. What's Justin's bad habit? Yeah, help me out. Yeah, I know know I have plenty.

I think for me, mainly in the, like, this is something I've been working on for a long time is just being more open to criticism and, you know, like, allowing people to kind of chime in in my process where before that, I was like, completely would shut you off and be like, no, fuck you, I got this. You know, and like I wouldn't consider anybody else's input if I felt like I had a very clear vision of the way that I was going to be able to approach any project or any kind of a thing. Like I get really annoyed when too many people would chime in and I feel like I could handle. And this is something that me and Courtney have battled, you know, it's a time-old battle of like, I don't know if

you should do it that way. And I'm like, I'm doing it this way. You know, it's just how like I just very stubborn, very, very stubborn, very adamant that my process, the way I do things. And this is, this was, again, this was kind of a superpower of mine too when I was playing sports and like coaches would try and, they'd break down film. And I would actually tell them insights that they didn't have. And so they were just like, they would just all of a sudden after a while, they'd be like, okay, we're hands free. You know, you got this, I see that's working for you. I'm not really going change, whatever direction you're going with us. And so it just kept cementing my own ideas for things. And then, so anyway, I've been working on this a lot

and like really trying to like consider, if I'm especially if I'm working with other people, like considering other people in their thought process along the way. So I would say step one is just being able to identify it, step two is to work on it, but boy, does that require a lot of like self-awareness, right? Who wants to say that they're bad at something, or that they do something that's annoying or whatever, it's like, you know, recently I've realized how, in many ways, how I can

be annoying to certain people, one way is the way that Adam, you know, so eagerly mentioned the other way. He's very quick on that one. Hey, was I not on point or what? Was I not on point? Adam has a very similar answer. Adam has a bad habit of telling people they're better.

No, I'll joking aside. No, you hit it the nail on the head. So it's difficult to look at yourself because you don't want to know, you don't want to admit that you're wrong. And what's funny is when you get to the point where you're like, oh yeah, I definitely, you know, like I've been told probably my whole life that I didn't pay it, that I don't pay it enough attention and that I'm really forgetful or whatever. And you know, half the time I'm like, whatever, I don't bet that you do what they're saying.

Yeah, what would you say? Anyway, but more recently I've really come to realization that geez, that's really fucking annoying and I know I do that. So now it's like how do I fix it? You know what I mean? How do I work on that? It ain't easy.

It's probably a habit because, you know, how does something turn into a habit? Probably you just do it enough times to where it becomes second nature. Try to change second nature. That is really, really, really tough thing to do. I think you have to be comfortable with yourself before you can do that.

Otherwise, you feel like shit, you know what I mean? Yeah. But I'm pretty comfortable with myself, so. It's all good. Anyway, with that, go to minepumpfree.com and download our guides. They're all absolutely free. You can also find all of us on Instagram. You can find Justin at Mind Pump Justin. You can find me at MindPumpFree.com and download our guides. They're all absolutely free. You can also find all of us on Instagram.

You can find Justin at MindPump Justin. You can find me at MindPump Salon Adam at MindPump Adam. Thank you for listening to MindPump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com.

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