Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1647: Ten Female Fitness Lies

Episode Date: September 23, 2021

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin are joined by Laurie Christine King to cover ten myths that contribute to women falling short of their fitness, health and diet goals. Why are women sold fitness lies more than men? (2:16) The unrealistic world of Social Media. (5:37) How education drives empowerment. (9:29) Ten Female Fitness Lies. #1 – Keto and Intermittent Fasting are the way to go to lose weight. (14:57) #2 – Fat and carbs are bad for you. (22:31) #3 – You should bounce right back after pregnancy. (27:31) #4 – You need to eat 1200 calories to lose weight. (39:28) #5 – Your period is not important. (48:05) #6 – You have to do lots of cardio to get the body you want. (56:54) #7 – Paying attention to the calories burned on your wearable devices. (1:01:05) #8 – Lifting heavy will make me look bulky. (1:05:06) #9 – Fat can be turned into muscle. (1:10:14) #10 – Low reps bulks and high reps tones. (1:12:25) BONUS: An effective workout leaves you dead. (1:20:48) Related Links/Products Mentioned September Promotion: MAPS Performance and MAPS Suspension 50% off!   **Promo code “SEPTEMBER50” at checkout** Visit Super Coffee for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code “MINDPUMP” at checkout** Paragon Training Methods | The pursuit of excellence Five Things You Should Know Before Trying The Ketogenic Diet – Mind Pump Blog Is Fasting Effective? - Mind Pump Blog What are Fats? - Mind Pump Blog How To Do The Pelvic Clock Exercise – Mind Pump TV Birthfit Intuitive Eating: What is it and is it Right For You? - Mind Pump Blog Period Repair Manual: Natural Treatment for Better Hormones and Better Periods Hormone Repair Manual: Every Woman's Guide to Healthy Hormones After 40 Beyond the Pill: A 30-Day Program to Balance Your Hormones, Reclaim Your Body, and Reverse the Dangerous Side Effects of the Birth Control Pill Active hunter-gatherers ‘don’t burn more energy daily than sedentary Westerners’ Resistance Training vs. Cardio for Women – Mind Pump Blog MAPS Fitness Anabolic | Muscle Adaptation Programming System Which Is Better: Low Reps Or High Reps? - Mind Pump Blog Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources Featured Guest/People Mentioned Laurie Christine King (@lauriechristineking)  Instagram Laurie Christine King Website Meg 💪 CPT, CPPC, PnL1 (@megsquats)  Instagram Lindsey K. Mathews (@lindsey_k_mathews)  Instagram Lara Briden (@larabriden)  Instagram Dr. Jolene Brighten (@drjolenebrighten)  Instagram

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. You just found the world's number one fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump, right in today's episode we have on one of our favorite people in the world, Laurie Christine King. She's a fitness professional who is doing the right stuff. She communicates fitness the right way. She doesn't make things up.

She tells the truth and she doesn't a way that's truly effective. So in today's episode, we had her on and she gave us 10 top female fitness myths that she absolutely hates. So we know you're gonna love this episode. By the way, you can find her on Instagram at Lori Christine King. You can also go to our website,

LoriCristineKing.com or ParagonTrainingMethods.com. By the way, Lori is spelled L-A-U-R-I-E. By the way, this episode is brought to you by our sponsor, Super Coffee. Now, this is coffee that's been infused with other components to enhance the effects of caffeine. It comes in ready to drink cans as well, that tastes really good, either with dairy or without dairy.

It's a great product, the guys in your love it, just in drinks it by the gallon. That's why he's always so hyped. Good stuff, by the way, they also have a coffee with protein in it as well. Really good stuff. Go check them out. Head over to drinksupercoffee.com forward slash mind pump and use the code mind pump for 25% off.

Also, we have two workout programs on sale right now, both 50% off. Maps, performance, and maps suspension, both half off, go check them out, or just go sign up at mapsfitinusproducts.com, just use the code September 50 with no space for that discount. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Laurie, always great to have you. You're one of our favorite people on social media,

let alone favorite females on social media, but just favorite people in general, because you are one of the few people that presents accurate, good information consistently, so we're happy to have you. Thank you. Come on the show. So you had some ideas of stuff you want to talk about, and we all love the idea. So essentially it's like some of the biggest lies that women are told. So we were going to talk about kind of the biggest lies that women are sold or told in the fitness industry and nutrition industry because it's like there's so much poor messaging out there and

there's so much snake oil. And I think ultimately when we look at nutrition and we look at fitness, we can make money off of it and people can monetize it. And so it's like the more sexy, the more extreme, the better it's all. Like the classic stuff doesn't sell well, but you tell somebody, oh, hey, I want you to do this really extreme thing and it's gonna be really hard and you're gonna suffer a lot to do

and people are like, oh yeah, like some, yeah. I'm listening. Isn't that interesting? I feel like women have been People are like, oh yeah, like some, yeah. I'm listening. Yeah. Isn't that interesting? I feel like women have been sold more lies in the fitness base than men, too. Do you guys think you're growing? Totally.

They're targeted constantly. Part of it, I think, and I'd love your input on this, Lloyd. Part of it, I think, is that women are, they make up a larger percentage of the just consumer base in general. Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, men don't buy things. Like women, women love buying things.

So that naturally happens as well. You know, it's like, I'm sure I would love to hear even with mind-pump media, how many consumers are actually female versus male, because I would assume it'd probably be. You know, it's funny, as a trainer, I'd say 70% of my clients at least were women. I think that's true for most trainers. With mind-pump media, it's pretty close 50, 50, I would say 70% of my clients at least were women. I think that's true for most trainers.

With my pump media, it's pretty close 50, 50, I would say, which is not bad considering it's just a bunch of, it's three dudes. Talk and fitness, right? So what does that tell you? But yeah. That was right. That we're very feminine.

Yeah, we try. We try a team of that. But I do think it's, the other reason is that women also historically have been targeted and told that they're not beautiful enough, they don't look good enough, they're not, you know, up to par, and oh, here's our makeup, here's our shoes, here's your dress, here's the things you could do to make yourself look better. So it's like natural that we could move that into the fitness space and use the same tactics and people.

I mean, the industry tells you that you need to be leaner and you need to be thinner, but you need to be more athletic looking, but you can't be too small. You have to have a big butt too. It's like all these things, and it's like this moving target that I think you just can't do it.

Like I think my best friend, I were actually joking about this, and I was like, man, would love to just make a social media poster and be just like, you know, once I would say, like, have a big butt, have abs, and then like, you know, like being able to lift heavy weights, performance, whatever, and be like, pick two. Like, you can't do, it's really hard to do all three. And, and yeah, you know, most people are like, oh, well, I want a really big butt, but I also want to be shredded.

I want to have a six pack. I want to be able to hit PRs and lift all the way. And it's like, we can kind of get the best of both worlds, but they're all different, opposite spectrums, right? Like one of them balls having a lot of food and actually being able to recover. And then it's like, well, if you want a six pack,

you got to be tiny, you got to be lean, you're probably not eating tons of food, but if you want a big butt, you can't have a big juicy booty and not have the calories to free your body to create that, right? I think that I almost think too that this is getting worse before it's getting better. And I think some of it has to do with, I've dropped this stat on the show, like, I

don't know, a long time ago when I first looked up, there's an app. I forget the name of the app, but it's the, it's like the most, one of the most downloaded apps that allows you to kind of like manipulate your face and your body. It's like, it's one of those filter out. Like face tuners. Yes. It's, I think that might be it. Like, and the amount of people that actually use that is like crazy. And so I, and I, I'll never forget the first time that I saw my two nieces, I have two nieces and a cousin. And these were different situations that, and I would have never guessed that they use it.

Because I see their, their Instagram and I, and I know them in person. So that they look like it. I guess I've never really investigated, but even the slightest little details, I caught my cousin doing this where there was a post of her and her girlfriends on the beach in a bikini, and she just shaved her hips in just a tiny bit more because it was just a bad angle where she's at. And they justified it as like, you don't want to do a lot because then that's really fake and people, but it's become common practice to manipulate those things. So I think that's perpetuating the problem

is like people think like they see Kim Kardashian. Social media in general, right? And I mean, I'm guilty of this too. It's like, if I'm filming a lifting set, I might set up my camera. I look at it after I'm like, oh, that was not a good angle. And then you move the camera three or four inches,

you know, a different direction. And you look totally different, right? And that's even, I would say that, you know, it's like, we'll film with really high quality like Sony cameras that are, you know, shooting in 4K. And then if you shoot with your iPhone, like it looks like you're shooting with a potato, right? And so it's like, I actually would love,

I've been meaning to do that. Whereas like, you know, film one set with like the nice camera and then film one set with my phone and's like, I actually would love, I've been meaning to do that, where it's like, you know, film one set with like the nice camera and then film one set with my phone and be like, by the way, like, this is the same body. But like, one can pick up more pixels, more details, because it's like, I think a gun here, it's like on social media, like I'm 5'3", and feedback I get all the time when people meet me in real life

is like, oh, I thought you were like 5'8", and it's just like, well, I mean, like, my phone's always on the floor, like, I looked you were like 5-8. It's just like, well, I mean, like, my phone's always on the floor. I looked all about that. That's all right. We met, I don't remember where we were traveling. We were at an airport, and then we seen the sky. I'm not going to call them out.

But we've seen this dude that's got like a big Instagram following. And Adam's like, dude, he's like 5-3. I had no idea. And like, look at his page, and he's like 6-foot tall. And it's just a little bit more. Like, after I remember afterwards, because I like, you look at his page and you think he's like six foot tall. And it's just like, after I remember afterwards, I, because I was so blown away by how much shorter he was in real life. And then I went and you're to the point you're making right now is he does a really good job of like shooting all his photos like down to.

Yeah. Like you learn your angles. Yeah. Just, you know, like that's, it just kind of comes naturally. It's not like you're, you're trying to do a thing special or a spark me is it's just like you learn what angles look good, you know, you learn what doesn't. But it's like for most people, you know, in social media, and I mean they've done Netflix documentaries about this now where it's like how bad social media

is for people's health because, you know, it's like even if I'm doing this, if I'm on my story, I'm probably using a filter, you know, it's like, I would'm doing this, if I'm on my story I'm probably using a filter, you know, it's like, I would never just like snap a picture and like pop it up on my feed, you know, it's like I'm probably going to use some sort of presets so that it matches, you know, the color and the vibe and the feel of my feed or, you know, stuff like that. So it's like, we just live in this world

where everything's a little bit doctored and it's because our normal and you just get used to it. Not only that, but it's also kind of, it's hard to judge someone for doing that when the algorithm and the views pay you to do that and you're running a business. So how can I judge you for kind of doing that? It's like, hey, listen, this is my livelihood and hey, if I match my photos all with kind of the same filter and it gets 10% more views, it would be almost silly not to do that.

So you made a comment earlier and I think this is important to know. So you said that it's really easy to sell fitness when it's sexy, extreme, crazy, you make crazy false promises and that's 100% true, right? It's always been like that in the fitness space. If I tell you, take this pill and you'll lose 30 pounds and 30 days, and here's these before and afters,

that's easy to sell versus, hey, if you hire me, it's gonna take a year and a half to lose 30 pounds, it could be a lot of hard work, we have to change all these different behaviors, all that stuff. So it's totally true. So one thing that we've done with Mind Pump that I see you doing as well well is you fight fire with fire. In other words, you use similar tactics,

but you sell the truth. And that is very hard to do. It's very hard to sell the truth. So you have to be very smart with how you do it. You have to find a good angle because this is a fight. It's a battle over the, whatever. The minds and souls of people who are trying to get in better shape, because the truth is, although there's a lot of issues and problems in the fitness industry,

here's the other side of it. It's the only industry I can, I know of, that actually has the solutions for our health epidemics. There's the only people in the fitness space, there are only people in the fitness space that I know of that actually can communicate effectively proper relationships with food and loving your body. So it's in real ways. So it's like, we have to figure out how to outsell the shitty ideas with the right ideas. Well, because like you said, it's like sex sells.

And I think it's so easy. And you know, it's like, Pergon training methods, my company, we were guilty of this too. It's like when we started our company back in 2018, if we did photo shoots, if we were shooting anything, you know, for social media, the website, it would be like, I'm in a sports bra, super tiny shorts,

like my business partner Brian would be, you know, shirtless. And so it's so funny now, because it's like if you look at our social media, if you look at our website, it's like, I want clothes on. Like I don't want my body to be the focus because it's not what we're about. And also, you know, it's like, I don't want my body to be the focus because it's not what we're about. Also, I don't want to be selling the idea that being within white female is the ideal body type.

That's one body type. There's so many different body types out there and all of them are worth celebrating, but health doesn't have a size. Health and wellness doesn't have a size, right? Like health and wellness doesn't have a size. And so it's like, you know, when we start looking at messaging, it's like that was a conscious decision we made where it was like, yo, like when we are shooting content for our company now, it's like, I just want you to be, you know, it's like,

we want to create FOMO and we want people to see our workouts and be like dang, like, people look like they're having so much fun, like, I want to be a part of that. Rather than again, you're just like, ooh, look my body, look at how shred I am rejecting. And so it's like, with both our companies, you know, it's like what we do a really good job of is we're education first because education drives empowerment, right? So it's like, with you guys, you have a podcast, you know, you have blogs that you're putting out, you're putting out content every single day for free because there shouldn't be a barrier of access to people loving their

body and understanding how to effectively reach their goals, right? And so it's like when people ask my why, it's like every day, like, that's all I do is just put out free content. I'm looking at what are people struggling with? How do we put out resources for people to no longer be out war with their body to love their body, to effectively, whether it's you're trying to lose body fat and get healthier or you're trying to gain muscle, you're trying to get a more athletic figure, you know, there's so much bullshit to weed through. And so how do we effectively help people

get there? It's education first. And we don't get that in school. We don't, you know, how many people go through school? They graduate, maybe they even get a master's and it's like, they still don't know how to feed themselves. And they don't get that in school. We don't, you know, how many people go through school, they graduate, maybe they even get a master's. And it's like, they still don't know how to feed themselves. And they don't know how to eat healthier. You know, again, they don't know the types of exercise modalities they should be doing to elicit certain responses. You know, it's like, we skip that.

And I don't know, I was thinking about this recently where it's like, I don't know that I wish there was more education because I feel like the nutrition education we would get wouldn't be good. I didn't feel like, okay, I'm sure it'd be like the 90s out there and stuff of like, well, you should, I mean. The food pyramid is great.

Yeah, the food pyramid is great. Like, yeah, so it's like, I don't know which is better of maybe if we received outdated information or again, you know, stuff that's very government-run in this and that whatever versus like the no education that we get. And so it's like for most people, it's like you hit your 20s or maybe it's the time that you start having kids

and you're like, oh, I need to learn how to actually take care of my body. Here I have this little kid that like it's gonna be dependent on me for food, I gotta figure this out. And so, you know, it's such a bizarre and broken system because the reality of this situation is like We we eat food our entire lives and we don't know we don't have any occasion Education we're understanding around that and so where do we turn to well? You know and in my generation was like you go to the drugstore and pick up like Cosmo of Holiton shape magazine

my generation was like, you would go to the drug store and pick up like Cosmopolitan, shape magazine, and stuff like that. Now it's like you have Pinterest, and we know that Pinterest is kind of where dreams go to die. And then, present day, you have social media. And it's like, there are great people that are, you know, there's content creators that are putting out great, you know, information, then equal parts, you know,

terrible information. So it's just, it's a shit show. It's absolutely a shit show. And so it's why I'm information. So it's just, it's a shit show. It's absolutely a shit show. And so it's why I'm so excited for today's episode because it's like, well, if we really dial it back, you know, like, what are the big, you know, rocks that we can discuss of just helping people navigate that shit? Totally. Can we start with nutrition? I mean, like in terms of a female perspective, like, what do

you see is like some of the grossest offenders in terms of like information that's sort of dissuading, you know, females from really getting, you know, that proper information that they have. Lie number one. Lie number one. Lie number one. I think especially the past two to three years,

keto and intermittent fasting have been the two most hot topics that I just wish like they would go away. Because the reality of the situation is that, you know, it's like, when we do studies more times than not, we're doing studies on men and then we're taking that same information and we're applying it to individuals that menstruate and individuals that, you know, are able to bear children and get pregnant and have babies. And so, you know, it's like we're studying an apple,

but then we're taking that information and trying to apply it to an orange, and we're assuming that the outcome's gonna be the same. And it's not, right? Right, just because they're both fruit. Yeah, just because they're both fruit. It's just not the same outcome. And so it's like when we're talking about individuals that

menstruate and individuals that have a menstrual cycle, it's like, well, you know, ultimately a body that feels safe is a body that's able to and wants to reproduce. And so if we're going extended periods of time without eating, well, that's, you know, compounded over time, that's a really fast track way to your body, not feeling safe. Like, if we're not regularly and reliably getting food, well, why would your body feel safe and able to grow

and how's a baby? Or, you know, same thing. Like, when we start talking about specific diet modalities, it's like, ultimately, like, if we really dial things back, it's like, we don't want to be excluding certain food groups for long periods over time. It's like, again, most people, and I would assume most individuals watching this podcast love being active, likely, you know, enjoy lifting and stuff like that. And so when we start talking about eating modalities, where we're getting rid of carbs,

it gave the very fuel source that typically our body prefers to run off of. Well, same thing, you know, it's like we might see that maybe keto is great for men, but you know, again, it's like, can it work for women? Totally with an asterisk because again, it's like everything works until it doesn't. And so we just have to be so careful. And it's not to say that there needs to be, you know, specific dietary restrictions of men versus women, but we just have to be more you know, specific dietary restrictions of men versus women, but we just have to be more mindful of the gano. It's like women have a superpower that whether or not we choose to use it

and whether or not you want to have babies and reproduce, you know, it's like our bodies are just wired a little bit differently. And so our body is different safeguards. And our body is going to react differently to different inputs than our counterparts that don't have a menstrual. Yeah, so studies actually show that. They show that fasting can have negative effects on

women sooner and more often than it will with men. I actually experienced this with clients, so I would have, when fasting become a thing, clients would want to try it out and they'd, and so like, okay, and I would talk to them about the pros cons, then they tried out, and I noticed with some of my female clients, they would gain kind of stress response sometimes, hair falling out. Yeah, they would have changes in their menstrual cycle, changes in their energy, where it would either be wired or tired more often than men, and then with keto, I know that there's been some stuff to show that women can often get thyroid issues from avoiding carbohydrates for too long. But really if you go, here's my opinion, forget all that for a second. If, if, and I think there's applications

for both in specific populations, but if you completely avoid a macronutrient that's available everywhere or you go for long periods of without food, and you're going into that already with a not necessarily healthy relationship of food. Somebody comes to me, wants to lose weight, they've done the up and down dieting, they don't feel very good about themselves, they don't necessarily have a good relationship of food. And my answer is, here's the answer,

don't eat all these foods ever, or don't eat for eight hours a day, I'm feeding this dysfunction and probably making it worse. That's one of my biggest issues. Well, yeah, like the way you eat an exercise should provide freedom and peace of mind and not stress. Yeah, like not stress, but also it's just like from a quality of life perspective, it's

like, well, you know, if we're talking about excluding carbs, it's like, well, how many food groups does that eliminate because that's suddenly You know no pancakes no breakfast cereal no granola, you know no muffins No fruit and you know Yeah, no fruit and it's like should we you know some of those foods like do we want to be eating them every single day of our life for every single meal? No, but it's like again like we we want Sustainable habits and we don't want to be doing things that we couldn't be doing forever.

And so it's like, when we're leaning in heavily to these extreme measures, sometimes you have to do that to achieve a goal or to achieve an outcome. But again, it's like so many people get broken by diet culture, and so many people get these really disordered relationships and habits and just ways of eating. And it's like, well, ultimately, in the nutrition fitness space, we're trying to go from point A to point B. And so if you could achieve the same outcome,

but still be able to eat those foods and still be able to have the cake on your kids' birthday, why wouldn't you want that? Why would you want to have to whitenuckle and suffer and struggle? If somebody could take you the other way, hold your hand, and yeah, it might take you a little bit longer to get there. But I think that most people know, if you said, hey, you're trying to achieve this outcome, would you rather achieve this outcome? And it might take

a little bit longer, but you can still have the cake on your kids' birthday, and you can still have date nights, and maybe you can you can still have the cake on your kids' birthday and you can still have date nights and maybe you can go out and have a drink on occasion versus like, hey, for the next six months, you're gonna eat this make calories and you're not gonna go on dates and you're not gonna, your travel's gonna be miserable because you can't enjoy yourself.

It's like, there's still gonna be people that choose that outcome and that's fine too, but most people want that other round. So it's just so education-based where it's like, how can we enjoy life while also effectively working towards our goals because then it becomes sustainable? Sustainable. I think it's the wrong people gravitating to these diets for the wrong reasons. And that's because here's the thing. I think Keto intermittent fasting have tremendous value for specific groups. If I have a client that I pick up and they have orthorexia and they cannot go a day without

weighing them in, I love to teach them intermittent fasting, to break those chains away from the food like that. And it's extremely valuable that person. If you have someone that have severe autoimmune issues, the keto diet could be life changing of that person. But the problem is a majority of people that hop on these diets hop on it because they want to lose weight. I heard a friend who lost 20 pounds and so they are going after a look

or trying to go after a diet like this to lose weight and the truth is these diets aren't necessarily great for that. And the problem is all the research to support these diets add that in there as a benefit. Oh, and it's great for losing weight. So then everybody thinks that, oh, this is what I should do to lose weight and the truth is, listen, I don't wanna demonize

these two things, intermittent fasting keto. There's lots of value in them. But I would say that where the problem lies is that a majority of the people that gravitate to these things gravitate to them for the wrong reasons. And then the next one, which is that, you know, that you listed was like fat or carbs. It used to be fat, by the way,

we're all of the generation where, and we're, you know, older than you are, I remember when fat was the problem. Everything was about fat. You didn't have to make that. You and fat makes you fat. The magazine had like, it was like scrambled eggs and then like the bacon was making like a sad face. And I forget what the headline was,

but it was like, that was like one of the big things where it was like, fat is bad. And it's still like, if I work with clients that are kind of in like the 45 to 60 age gap, you see that. You see that on food logs where it'll be like, everything is like low fat, yogurt, low fat this. You know, it's like you're only eating super lean cuts

of meat, so it'll be like chicken breast, chicken breast, chicken breast, chicken, tilapia. Tilapia. Well, the grocery store still provides it. So that's how you know it's still a prevalent problem in our industry because there's still tons of everything you do, low fat non-fat stuff.

We got hammered for decades. Hammered for decades that fat was bad for you. Literally everything was about how bad fat was, which is hilarious. There's the picture right there. We'll post that up on this video. But it's crazy considering fat, especially fat, is an essential macro nutrient. In other words, if you don't eat enough fat, you die. I don't care what your calories are. In fact, there's a condition. I can't remember the name of it, but trappers and hunters in the wilderness of the Midwest,

back, I don't know, 200 years ago, some of them would starve to death, even though they would catch tons of rabbits to eat. But they would starve because the rabbits were so lean. So I forgot the name of it, but they actually, it was like, rabbit starvation or something like that. And they would die or go mad because they didn't have enough fat.

And here we are telling people fat is bad for you, which is, now on that tip, do you ever, I'm sure you'd get clients like this, I used to, all the time, were especially females. They show up, you talk to them about their food, and you're like, let's increase your fat and see what happens, and then boom! My skin looks better, my hair looks better.

I have so much more energy, I feel that, my libido's back, you see that? Well, and the thing is, it's like, healthy fats are so important for so many different things in the body, so it's like if we're talking about, you know, joint health, if we're talking about, like you said, you know, skin and skin conditions, that's absolutely huge, especially, you know,

when we're talking about omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, it's like if you have a super inflammatory diet, we can change a lot of those inflammation levels and that shows up in things like your skin and your hair and how you feel in the day to day and how you recover from workouts. Dietary fat is so important for your thyroid health, your menstrual health. It's a part of and helps, you know, with your hormones as a whole. And so it's like, again, like the best way of eating is when we're consuming all the things. And it's like, for sure, you know, if we're in a calorie deficit, we have to take calories from somewhere. But it's like, especially again, I tend to work with

the population, the individual set menstruate. And so it's like a couple different things, but it's like, I'm always gonna be really mindful of how low I'm taking somebody's fat levels because you start to see that where it's like, if somebody comes to me and they're like, Hey, my menstrual cycle has been missing the past year too. And you look at food logs and you're like, Oh, well, you're eating like 35, 40 grams of fat.

Like, I'm not surprised. And it's almost like, it's a joke, right? Because it's like maybe two or three months later, you start dialing up their food. Maybe they get up to, you know, 60, 70 grams of fat. And then I'll send you, boom, that's right away. And you're like, oh, shocker. Like, the one thing that contributes to all this. So especially with the menstruating population,

it's like we just wanna be cognizant of that. And so, you know, it's like everybody is gonna have different food needs, but we kinda start looking at minimums where it's like you'll notice certain trends where it's like, well, if you're eating really, really low carb, that can be such a big driving factor for thyroid problems or hormone and menstrual cycle problems. Because in Kenya, it's like most individuals,

especially they're listening to this podcast, you're active, you like working out. So you're falling into that under recovery trap also, it's like, well, you're doing this exercise modality, but then you're not putting the fuel in the car that the car needs to do the thing, right? So it's like, with both of them, it's like, we have to find you. Everybody's going to be a little bit different on how many carbs a day they can

tolerate and how many carbs they need to support their activity levels in the gym and outside the gym and stuff like that. But it's like, we really start to see issues when we go the extreme. So we don't want to be super low fat. We don't want to see super low carbs. You know, it's like we want to be eating all the macros. And you know, the big, the big no-carb movement happened because somebody capitalized on the fact

that everybody was saying low fat for so long. So one of the most effective marketing strategies. Go the opposite. It's going to get a lot of attention. So, you know, Atkins comes out with his book in the 90s and he said the opposite of what everyone else was saying and because it's locality, of course, I'll lose weight on it and it just totally blew up. The next point that you came up with, I love because I have, you know, my son's 10 months

old, so my wife just had the baby, you know, 10 months ago and my wife is a trainer, she's been in fitness, you know, obviously I'm in fitness for a long time, but you still fall into this like, right after you have your baby, you need to bounce back, and here's what you do to bounce back, get back to your previous shape, and women feel so much pressure, and this is a challenging, and of course observing this from the outside,

I could see how challenging it is because. Well, and social media makes it work, right? There she was social media, so it's Right? Like, there she was social media. It's like, yeah, there's always that chick who's like showing, she's two months out, she's got abs already again. You're like, she did it. Yeah. And, you know, again, it's like this messaging towards the pregnant and postpartum community

has always been prevalent, but social media expedites it. And you just see it more because, again, you know, people are sharing their journey because it creates a way for them to connect with other people and and you again, it's like this blessing and a curse because yeah, you know, it's like you're expected to have this baby and then just oh, you should be doesn't work like that. I will give a shout out to Meg Squats who I fall on Instagram because she is currently six weeks postpartum. And so she had posted and you know six weeks is when they say like, Oh, hey, you're clear to go back to exercise like, woo. And so her caption was incredible because she posted a picture of herself. And she said like, Hey, y'all like technically, I'm clear. Do you know my doctor says, woo, you're good. And I'm not ready to go back to exercise.

And she was fit as fuck prior to her pregnancy. She was a power lifter and very in shape. And so I think that's so powerful messaging because again, it's like, here is somebody that was so athletic. And here she's struggling just as much, you know, postpartum. And it's like, everybody's gonna have a different pregnancy.

Everybody's gonna have a different reaction. And then especially, you know, well, how many kids are we now having? Because it's like, I see, you know, I used to see that all the time with clients where it was like, you know, let's say kid one, you were at 100% and then you had the baby and maybe now we're at like 80%. And then by kid two, you were at 100% and then you had the baby and maybe now we're at like 80%. And then by kid 2, you're like 60%. And it just gets harder and harder for most people with every pregnancy because it's like your body's going through such an incredible, but such a stressful thing of growing,

you know, carrying a baby for nine months. Then, you know, we have the baby and obviously baby. And obviously the actual giving birth is very difficult and stressful on the body. But then we slide into breastfeeding. You're not sleeping at all. You're not obviously super recovered for how many months because you're just caring for the same. And then we expect, oh, hey, well, I know you just had a baby and your body just did this incredible thing the past nine months. But now you need to look just like you did before. And it's like, that's not how it works. Like if we have surgery, how many months does it take for us to get back to, you know, gradual business? Great point. It's a lot. Yeah, great point. I, the, here's a big one that I would

focus on with pregnant women who had a baby who also worked out because it's a different challenge versus someone who didn't work out, right? The challenge was that they didn't understand, even if everything else felt kind of strong, and your muscles have muscle memory and they're quite resilient, especially if you went into the pregnancy and you worked out during the pregnancy, of course, appropriately, but here's one thing

that a lot of them didn't realize, your core stability is different. And it has to be, right? Everything stretches and grows and you essentially lose connection. So then they go back to working out and they're like, I can do barbell squats. I used to squat with 135, so I think 105 is fine. They go to do squats and everything feels okay.

And then the next day, like, why am I hurting in my back? And I'd be like, listen, your core has completely changed. We need to focus on reconnecting before you move forward. Well, and pelvic floor, oh my gosh, it's like the pregnancy, the entire pregnancy thing is there's so many different variables. Like I said, everybody's so different, but it's like being pregnant is expensive. Like you're going to doctor visits all the time,

but then there's all these extra special steps where it's like, you really, like one of the best investments you can make would be to be working with a pelvic floor specialist afterwards. Like, especially if you talk like the CrossFit community, that's super common to talk to moms on the big, oh, yeah, every time I do double unders or I go for a run, like I pee myself a little and it's like, that's a pelvic floor issue that we can fix and address. But again, you're like, there's not a manual, like, oh, hi, you just got pregnant, right? And so like, God bless communities. Like, Lindsay Matthews, a birth that she is absolutely

incredible and puts out such amazing content for the pregnant and postpartum community. But again, you know, it's like, if you talked to me three years ago, the only reason why I know the importance of pelvic floor health, and again, you know, like you were talking about with core stuff and whatever, it's because I've worked with clients and I've like done the education around that, but most people don't know.

You're most people again. It's like, you have this baby, the doctor says, you up and you go on your way and you're like, well, six weeks, I'm gonna go back to exercise. And it's like, really, you know, if you talk to a lot of experts in this space, most people are saying, hey, like the first couple of months after you get birth, like, talk to a lot of experts in this space, most people are saying, hey, the first couple of months after you get birth, be doing a lot of core exercises and really taking it slow and a lot of restorative exercise. But yeah, if you have somebody that was super active

and they love exercise and they love doing it, well yeah, you wanna get back to doing the thing you love and you wanna get back to feeling good in your skin, but again, it's just like there's this rush to get back and to bounce back. The reality is how many people we give birth and then you're like, okay, three to one diet, I need to lose this baby weight. It's like with clients, if I was taking one, I stepped away from one-on-one coaching years

ago, but even in our Paragon Training community, we encourage people, it's like, hey, you know, like, if we think about, you know, for nine months, your body expanded and accommodated for this baby, you should probably be just chilling and laying low and just eating at maintenance, you know, if you're breastfeeding, worrying about eating enough food to support breastfeeding, but just letting your body recover and heal

for at least nine to 10 months. And so it's like for me personally, I've always been the long ways, the shortcut kind of person. And so for me, it's like I would rather see a mom just eating at maintenance, you know, supporting breastfeeding, returning to exercise when it feels good,

and you're really listening to her body, but just giving back to herself and giving time to just recover. And I want to see that for, you know, one year, one and a half years, because the thing is we have so many women in our community that they did that. And then because they waited, because they gave their body time to recover, they gave their hormones time to just, you know, rebalance and get back to a good space. And then when they die it, it works.

And they're able to quickly, you know, get to where they're trying to go. But again, you know, it's like that we talk about getting from A to B. And again, ultimately it's, it's your journey, it's your body. It's you deciding how you want to get there. And you're an adult and you get to choose, you know, what you're doing. But again, if we could play the long game and an option A is maybe we don't die at for a year and a half and we're just eating at maintenance and worrying about feeling good and just giving back to ourselves.

And then we're able to do, you know, say a three month diet. It works. We don't have to go to insanely low calories. Maybe you know, if maintenance calories, let's say we spent the past year and a half were at 24, 2500 calories, well, and we're able to die at say 21, 200 calories, we quickly lose that weight three months later. And we're, you know, we have this banging body, we feel really great, we look really great, checking all the boxes, reversely option B, we have somebody that they give birth, and then maybe they have to go

really, really low calorie. And maybe their milk supply isn't great because they're still trying to breastfeed, but they're still trying to do this thing because they're really uncomfortable in their skin. And I totally get that. But it's just two totally different outcomes that, again, you know, a little bit of patience is going to create such a better setup for the future, because again, you're officially able to get there and more importantly, how are you feeling along the way.

And again, the breastfeeding thing is very sensitive topic too, but it's like, well, ultimately, you have a little that's dependent on your milk supply. So we just have to be cognizant of that too. Like, is that really an appropriate time to be worrying about trying to change your body and all of that two of like, is that really an appropriate time to be worrying about trying to change your body and all of that? And again, there's no right or wrong answer. We have to choose what's right for, you know, what we feel for ourselves, but it's just two totally different scenarios. So how do you find what's right for you?

I think the psychological hurdle is more challenging than at least what I thought until I saw Katrina go through it, right? So all of us or most of us, I should say, got into exercise and fitness because of our, you know, self-image, body image. Most of it. Insecurities is what drove most of us to the gym. So you got to imagine that many, many of these ladies that get pregnant still have that. And imagine all of a sudden adding 30, 40 pounds to and then your body feeling so different, looking so different, it's storing body fat in different places. And I remember Katrina going through this because Katrina's, I've never seen her have

body image issues. She's never, like, that she's very confident woman. And I remember constantly having to remind herself, like, hey, you just had a baby. It's okay, hun. Like, you're, you're going to get in great shape. Don't worry about it, but let's listen to your body and how it feels right now. Don't rush anything, there's no reason for us. And in fact, if you do that, you're potentially gonna set yourself back even further, and who knows what else. And your number one priority right now is to feed my son and keep him healthy as possible,

which means I want you as healthy as possible. We'll deal with the self-image, body image stuff later on, but I actually, I think that's part of why this is so challenging. We're talking about a lot of the physical things that are challenging, but I also think there's a major psychological thing that happens to a lot of women that see their body change so rapidly. Well, and we, I think one thing that I love about our Paragon Training Community the most,

because you're mostly women, is that my very good friend Hilary that lives in Austin, she was talking about this where it was like, hey, you know, I went through IVF and here I went through pregnancy and I did the hard thing and I spent a couple months breastfeeding and I'm now ready to just get back to feeling good in my skin. You're like, I did the thing, I did my part. And I loved that. And I loved hearing that because in the pregnancy world, we have so much guilt and there's so much judgment. And it's almost a damned if you do,

damned if you don't situation, because people love passing on their opinion of, oh, you should breastfeed more, you should breastfeed less, or you should do this, that and whatever. And so I think, you know, again, just having the autonomy to, again, choose your journey for yourself and what's right for you and your body. But yeah, you know, it's like also giving that permission card of like, how do you want

to feel and what do you want to be working towards? And again, the only person that matters, it's for you. Like you brought this kiddo into the world so you also equal parts, you know, need to do what's best for you. Yeah, Lori, you know, it's, it definitely is a huge challenge. I do wanna say this, the people that I've worked with who say,

I had a baby or I had two kids, my body was never the same afterwards, are the ones that rushed into it. Because they went into it so fast, not the pregnancy, I'm talking about the post pregnancy working out, and they caused issues that they didn't solve later, that later become harder to solve. You talk about pelvic floor issues.

If you don't work on those things and you strengthen everything around it, it can be very hard to even diagnose. And you start to, why do I keep hurting? Why is my hip keep hurting? Or why do I have these issues? You know, I'm working out all the time, I'm very fit. Then you gotta go to specialists and,

oh, lo and behold, there's some pelvic floor issues that happened 10 years ago when you had your kid. Now you did mention calories, you said 2500, 2400 calories. One more point, another point that you made that we want to cover was this like 1200 calorie number. Like you need 1200 calories to lose weight. And you do. I think I know the origin of it.

I'd love to hear your opinion. In my opinion, I think the origin of 1200 calories is this is what we were told is the minimum. I remember when I first got my first certifications for nutrition, they said never have anybody go lower than 1200 calories for whatever reason. So of course that's where people would set their clients. Let's start at 1200 calories, that's the least.

It's a weird industry thing and I don't transparently know where it started, but it's like, you see that all the time. Like if I walk in to say, you know, like a meal prep company or something and I buy some ready-made meals, it'll be like, oh, here's 1200 calories for women and here's 1600 calories for men. And you're like, wait, what? I don't work for five.

Like what? So I think that, you know, if I could go back in time and I just wish there was more education about how much food we all actually need to eat to sustain and do the thing because again, you know, it's like, I think in the community of fitness, it's so easy to also hear information about general population versus, you know, well, yeah, if you sit at a desk all day and we don't work out, your calorie needs are going to be very different than someone who's lifting and, you know, doing the thing and totally, right?

Muscle makes a big difference. But yeah, and so there's so many factors that go into how much you need to eat. The same thing, you know, it's like, when I, you know, was a teenager and I found myself, you know, I didn't know that I had undiagnosed thyroid issues, but I was, you know, super athletic, super active and it's only struggling with my weight for the first time. It's like, same thing. I went to Pinterest, went to, you know, and take up a cosmopolitan magazine and everything you read was 1200 calories, 1500 calories. And it's like, present day, you know, fast forward on five three. I probably, I'd say right now I'm lifting for about 60 to 90 minutes four times a week, pretty much following just a progressive overload, strength and conditioning program, doing

tons of bodybuilding, but it's like, I think in a day I lift for 60 to 90 minutes four times a week. And it's like, for me, I need 23, 2400 calories to. And you're tiny, by the way. Yeah, like I'm not tall. No, no, no, you're a tiny little thing and you're eating 23, 24 in a me, I need 23, 2400 calories to make. And you're tiny, but I'm not tall. No, no, no, you're a tiny little thing. And you're eating 23, 2400 calories. You're lean, your body fat's gotta be

in what the high teens at the most. I would guess, I transparently I don't know, but I... You're very lean, obviously, but you have a lot of muscle. You remind me, I used to tell a story on the, I told the story so many times on the podcast of how I had this female trainer that I would always use to sell training to new members because new members would, you know, especially women they come in and they, you know, I don't want to do the weights, I don't want to get big,

I don't want to get bulky, I don't want to do. And then I would page this female trainer who looked very much like you, right? She was small, petite, whatever. Super Jack. Yeah, and I'd be like, exactly. And I'd be like, can you guess her body weight? If you can guess within 15 pounds, I'll give you a free membership for whatever, and they'd be like, oh, she's like 100 pounds.

Like, all right, get on the scale, you know, she's 130 pounds. And I'd say, she looks tiny because she's lean, but she's got muscle. And then I'd be like, tell her what you eat. And then she'd be like, oh, for breakfast I had four eggs, two slices of bacon, two pieces of, and she'd go through this like huge laundry list of food.

And I'd be like, she can eat that much because she's got muscle. Yeah. That burns the calories. Well, just about the the message you're sending your body to go the other direction with 1200 cars and by the way too what type of person is the type of person as far as that goes for that extreme calorie restriction is also normally the same person Who goes for extreme exercise too? So if you it is it's on say so that's the same personality that's willing to do the extreme dieting is also known as the same personality that will do the extreme training, too.

So then not only do they go 12-hundred calories, then they sign up for one of those orange theory F-45 CrossFit classes five, seven days a week on top of that. And think about what you're telling the body to adapt to and setting yourself up for it. Even if you did achieve your goal, even if you got to the body image that you wanted, imagine how miserable you are training five to seven days a week and only eating

twelve-and-a-calfs for the rest of your life. Just eating the crap out of yourself forever. And you know what's, here's the thing, in modern societies, you want a fast metabolism. This wasn't true 10,000 years ago. If I could survive on twelve hundred calories 10,000 years ago, I did better than the guy who had the 3000 calories. Today, it's the reverse. If I could get my metabolism to burn more calories, then I'm going to fare better with the food because it's so we're surrounded by so much food, it tastes good. I'm not very active. So having a lot of muscle helps burn all those calories. So fast metabolism is a benefit nowadays. You're able to go on dates. You're able to travel and not be stressed out.

You can just enjoy food and enjoy, you know, so many experiences versus like the quality of life if you're trying to only eat 1200 calories or 1500 calories, that's tough. That's like one burrito. Yeah, one triple. Yeah, but so it's like if I could go back in time. I wish that I could tell my younger self like you know There's just so there's this assumption and there's this messaging of like I always grew up being like Oh, well, you're a really tiny individual so you just don't get much food and that's how it is And the reality of this situation is like that's like I love that I was actually born a very tiny person because again, you know, it's like most

clients that I'm talking to or most paracum members that I'm talking to are people on social media, you're likely taller than me. So if I'm here eating, you know, well above 2,000 calories, you know, it's not uncommon to have female athletes that are five, six, five, eight, you know, five, ten, and it's like maintenance calories, 2,800, 3,000 calories. And yeah, you know, again, if we talk on social media, you see, 510 and it's like maintenance calories, 2800, 3000. And yeah, you know, again, if we talk on social media, you see, oh, full day of eating, 1600 calories and you're like, sick dude, like what?

Like, so I think- That was breakfast. Yeah, so it's like, if I don't like making generalized statements for the nutrition and fitness industry because there's so many things that go into this, but if we're looking at active menstruating individuals, I would say that for most women, you are going to see you likely need a minimum of 1,800,

1,100, maybe, you know, again, the more active we are and the more muscle we have, the longer we've been training, kind of the floodgates open up for more leeway and more food. How hard has it been for you to promote like with women to live in a surplus? So I had somebody not about surplus, but I had somebody the other day they message and they were like, my husband doesn't believe that you eat as many calories as you say you did.

And the same thing, I opened my phone, I'm just like, okay. And so I like stopped for a second. And so I was like, okay, so I opened up ChronoMeter is my favorite food tracking app, and so I made a video screenshot. I went back no week ago, and it's my present day tracking. I'm not really trying to achieve a particular goal right now.

It's like I'm literally just lifting, we're in a strength cycle, I want to, yeah, I want to deadlift, two7 times body weight, which will be super loud and I will for sure rip that. Wow, that's pretty damn good. You weight is coming. But, you know, it's like at the end of the day, I track my food every day and I might have some days that's, you know, 2200 calories.

You know, maybe I did a lot of volume one day, so I might have 2500 calories, but it's like I'm consistently, like I said, you know, well, I'd say the good, solid range, probably 23, 2500 calories. I'm always aiming to hit, you know, right around body weight and protein. And I don't stress too much about the carbs and fats. You know, if I'm super active, I'm going to have a day with more carbs. And then, reversely, if I'm like, ooh, I said on my computer all day long, like, might have a little bit more fat, a little bit less carbs. Just because- Exactly how we told people, yeah.

Just because activity wasn't quite there that day. And so it's created, you know, it's like I said, I don't stress about food, I don't have a lot of the disordered eating habits that I had so many years ago, because again, you know, it's just like, this is a part of me, this is what I do. If I don't track my food, I actually don't eat.

So it's like, I'm always super stressed out, I'm always super busy with work. And so I track my food to make sure I'm eating enough food because otherwise what happens is you know if I if I go without tracking for a few days, I'll be like, damn, I feel really terrible in the gym today or like strengths just not there. And that's like I'll like track my food and be like, oh, well you ate 15 undercalers today. Like get it in sisters. So it's like for me, for me, I know that so many people find backward tracking, super obsessive, they're super stressful, that's like,

been doing it over a decade, and it's just something that I do, just like doing my laundry or going to the gym. It's just part of my life. But for me, again, I love doing it, because if I don't, I feel like garbage. Well, you've developed a good relationship with it. You've mentioned a lot of people who menstruate or having your period and the changes that

that can do to your body and the sense of how you might react to food and die in exercise. One of the other points that you put up here was that women are told that their period is not important or that you don't need to have one. It's not a big deal. Oh, your period is all over the place. We'll control it with this hormone or it's not that important. Like, why is this not a good message?

Yeah, so ultimately our menstrual cycle is one of the best underlying indicators of our health. And so we don't get a lot of feedback, you know, about that from our body, right? But, you know, for individuals that menstruate, it's like we should have a menstrual cycle. It should probably happen every 27, 28 days. It should be relatively symptomless.

But yeah, the messaging that I grew up with, and I really didn't learn about women's health and hormones and all that stuff until literary. I was 28 years old and I was struggling with a lot of just symptoms and stuff. And so I started reading a couple of my favorite books is Laura Brighton's period repair manual.

Dr. Joleen Brighton, who y'all have had on a couple of times, she's incredible. She wrote the book Beyond the Pill. Laura Brighton has since gone on. She basically wrote a book for individuals going into Pyramenopause and Menopause. And so that's called the hormone repair manual. But it's like, it wasn't until I read these books at 28 years old, you know, that I started to understand, oh, it's really important to have a menstrual cycle. Well, but, you know, it's like, there's so much messaging out there where it's like,

it's totally normal to have menstrual cycles that, you know, you have really bad PMS and it's totally normal to have cramps and it might be totally normal to like, miss school or stay home from work because, you know, you're on the rag or whatever it is. And it's like, the reality of the situation is like, those are all symptoms that we might be dealing with hormone and balances. And whether, you know, whether what those levels look like with your estrogen, your progesterone, you know, totally different depends. But it's like, when we understand that's a really good

radar on our health, well, maybe we're an individual that, you know, we love training. And we're super into fitness. And we're super into nutrition. And our menstrual cycles goes missing. And we just go, oh, well, that's kind of cool. Like, I really want to bleed every month anyway. Like this makes life so much easier. Like, that should be, you know, it's like, we can use our menstrual cycle as feedback from the body of, oh, maybe my

body's not picking up the things that I'm putting down. And whether that's, you know, our frequency with drinking things like alcohol. Maybe that's again the way that we are exercising. Are we training five to six days a week, doing super-strenuous, super-high intensity exercise or reversecy? Are we working out three to four times a week and putting in strength and conditioning or whatever? It's like our body is always trying to communicate to us, but as a society,

we've gotten really bad at being able to pick up the phone and listen. And so so much of coaching individuals is getting people to reconnect with their body and pay attention to again, well, you know, so many people use the scale as an index of their success and stuff like that, but it's like, when we're coaching people, we're getting them to look at, well, what are your energy levels like? What's your sex drive like? How are we sleeping at night? Are you waking up multiple times a night or reversely, do you sleep through a night?

How are you feeling in the gym? Are you regularly hitting PRs? Are you seeing changes in your muscle and body composition? If you're trying to diet, is it going successfully? It's like when we start getting people to pay attention and kind of kind of step out of their body and start analyzing those things and the things that really matter versus just hyper focusing on the scale, that's where the money's at because again, it's like if we're feeling really, really good, that's sustainable.

And that's what we're looking for, right? Lori, you're a good person to ask this. You said something that's really interesting to me because I remember getting a lot of clients that would actually say things like, oh, I just, I get really bad periods. Like, you, so I had to stay home from work or my cramps or miserable. I just have extremely heavy bleeding. Are there, do you, have you seen like common offenders or they're common, like when someone says that to you, are there like a, okay, I'm going to ask this or look for this

or look for this or they're common things? Sure. Well, I mean, I was one of those people. So it's like for me, I was the kid that in high school, I had really, really bad cystic acne. I had periods that were so painful, so uncomfortable that I would miss school for your days on end. And so my mom did what I think most individuals experience

is like you go to your OB-DYN, they write you a prescription for the pill, and it's like, oh dang, my skin is suddenly clear and glowing and oh, you know, like, maybe either I don't have a menstrual cycle anymore or you know everything gets better. either, you know, I don't have a menstrual cycle anymore, or, you know, everything gets better. And so it's a delicate balance of like understanding when we start doing things like taking oral contraceptives, how that might affect us in other ways.

But it's like if somebody's dealing with all those symptoms, kind of like you mentioned, you know, it's like, I was a little upset that there wasn't more discussion on, hey, well, actually, if you made changes to the way that you're eating and you made changes to the way that you're training, which I've always been athlete. I was a competitive gymnast, you know, did competitive track, you know,

in college it was like a random marathon and then got into CrossFit, and you know, present day just kind of love bodybuilding and strength and conditioning but it's like, I was always doing the most on everything. So it was like, if you talked to me in high school, well, everything I was eating was typical high school kid. Like, it was super highly processed foods, you know, going out to eat at McDonald's, you

know, caffeine and just tons of like sugar and everything was just stress, right? So it was like, I wasn't eating enough food. The foods that I were eating were probably super inflammatory and not great for my body. I now, your present day, I know that I'm gluten and dairy-free to support my autoimmune condition, but it's like, for sure, as a high school kid, I was crushing, you know, bread and pizza and cheese.

And all the things that now, present day, I'd be like, on my deathbed, if I tried to, you know, even have a couple bites of that. But you know, it's like present day I have really relatively symptomless menstrual cycles. And you know, it's like if I didn't track my cycle, I You know, it's like it, you know, that day would happen. I'd be like, oh, start my menstrual cycle today. But you know, for most people, you know, it's like the severe mood swings. It's everything from feeling super cranny leading up to your workouts to some people feel really terrible

during their menstrual cycle as well and just don't have that strength, don't have that power output. And so it's like, if you're again, we talk about a, how are we getting from A to B? And so would you rather take prescription and temporarily relieve those symptoms because the reality of the situation is if you got off the pill, if you got off the IUD, whatever it is, well all those symptoms are probably going to come back. But reversely, if we could just start eating a little bit healthier if we could start going to bed at night, if we could change the way that we're exercising you again. Are we doing super crazy workouts that are, you know, are we spending hours and hours in the gym? Are we doing the most intense exercise? Or

reversely, it's like, well, could we achieve the same outcome and train a little bit smarter, a little more sustainable? You know, again, it's like we get back to things like alcohol, the things that you're coming into contact with, maybe in your beauty products and the sunscreens you use and stuff like that, right? So it's like there's all these factors. Digestion is another really big one where it's like if we have underlying gut issues, that's absolutely going to play into your thyroid health and your menstrual health and all of that stuff, right? So it's like if you could reversely lean into a little bit healthier lifestyle and not have to take a prescription

and then suddenly have symptomless menstrual cycles, I think like most people would be down for that cause, you know? You know, it's funny. I used to have someone who did hormone testing and when I used to have my studio, and she was really good, very holistic. And she said, you know, it's interesting. Having a period is actually from a health standpoint,

a gift because every month you have this really clear signal that you're either doing stuff, some stuff right or some stuff wrong, which is pretty interesting. And then one more thing I want to comment on, you're talking about using a prescription to get rid of symptoms. Yes, it can and sometimes does, but also it doesn't handle the root cause, right? So you can, if you do all the stuff that gives you a better period,

and then on top of it, you also take the pill, you're gonna be better off than if you just took the pill. Now, the next one that you listed is one that we talk about all the time, and I would love to hear your perspective on it is the message that you have to do lots of cardio to lose weight or get lean, or you have to do lots of cardio to lose weight or get lean, or you have to do lots of cardio to get the body you want.

So why is this a bad message that often gets sold? So this message comes from love, like few met me in my early 20s and college, or like I was cardio queen. Like it's like, we did that same thing, you like ran my with on tonight. I still present day, I love running. It's one modality that I have super long legs,

like I am gazelle, like I can still, I don't even, like I said, I don't even run that often, but I just moved back to Dallas and there's a 5K on like the KD trail and I was like, ooh, I kinda wanted, I've been empty the tank in a while, like I should just show up and go like smokes and people like this would be fun, right? But the thing with cardio is that it's like,

if you enjoy it, do it. But understand that when we're looking at health benefits and stuff like that, it's like, if we are getting activity outside of the gym and we're getting 7,000, 8,000 steps a day, that covers us on the basis of cardiovascular benefits and just overall health and wellbeing. But it's like you don't have to do cardio to look good.

If you're trying to achieve a Chloric deficit, however you achieve that Chloric deficit, you could do that purely via food. You could do that partially via food and the way you're exercising. But we see so much messaging where I'll be like, do in my steady state cardio for 60 minutes on the stair. It's like, well, yeah, like yes. Every skinny model. Yes, you can do that.

You can create your chloric deficit via cardio. But reversely again, when we're talking about, you get to choose your own adventure and the best way to achieve your goals is probably to enjoy yourself while you're doing it. If you hate cardio, understand that you don't have to do cardio to achieve a good body composition. Ultimately, if we're talking about an athletic looking body, if we're trying to achieve that, that's probably a body that has a lot of muscle and you know a leaner body fat percentage. Well, you're gonna achieve that likely via lifting heavy on a progressive overload program. You're gonna achieve that body type through doing periods of chloric restriction and then going back to maintenance

and then chloric surplus to gain muscle and put muscle back on your frame, right? And so we're kind of whittling our body down. But it's like a gun if you enjoy cardio, by all means do it. But I just feel, and again, I don't know if it's just social media, but I'm just like, if I could never hear the word cardio again, like it would be too soon.

Because people ask that all the time, it would be like, whoa, well, you lift really heavy, you look great, you're super shredded. Like how much cardio do you do? And I'm like, I don't do any, like every once in a while, I might like go burn it down on the weekend, right? But and people are like, wait, what? And again, it's like, there, and I don't know if it's more just from like the bodybuilding world that it's just like they're obsessed with cardio, but it's like, again, how do we get from A to B the most efficient? It's like if somebody wanted to get a really

banging body composition, if they enjoyed cardio, I would incorporate as part of their plan, but it's like you don't have to do it. You don't only not have to do it, but it's actually not the best strategy. If you want to maintain muscle because you're sending the opposite signal

by running like crazy. So I think that's part of the problem too, is that the studies that we used to do are people when it comes to weight loss is all around law, law, thrown out of them, is calories in versus calories out. So in an hour period of time, what type of exercise burns the most calories?

And so I think that's where it comes from. I think it's just been perpetuated because of that. It's like, oh man, I could get on the stair master for one hour really hard and maybe burn 700 calories. I'm not gonna do that during doing weights, but again, it's not the oh man, I could get on the stair master for one hour really hard and maybe burn 700 calories. I'm not gonna do that during doing weights, but again, it's not the full picture of what's going on. And it's not gonna speed up your metabolism like lifting weights will.

So if you're like the average person who's only, let's be honest, the average person's gonna work out like three days a week. They're not gonna do four, five, six days a week. And you're only gonna pick one form of exercise. Do the one that speeds up your metabolism. It's just gonna give you the most bang for your buck. Now, speaking of calories burned, the next one that you put up was people talking about

paying attention to the calories burned on their devices and stuff. So why is this an issue? Why is this a big problem? What's the big deal with looking at my watch? I'm burning. Oh, so many cool devices. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, man. And I think it's just such a disservice. You know, it's like, I don't want to throw a company under the bus, but there's one in specific that they make a wearable ring. And so I have a garment, which like, that's what garment does, is like, tracks your steps and super accurate GPS.

And so I was kind of messing around with this wearable ring that a ton of my friends were like, oh, I love this thing, because it's super great for tracking your sleep and gathering data around that. And so I'm looking at it and it'd be like, however many steps my Garmin would say I would get in a day, the ring would be like 2000 to 3000 higher every single time. So it was like, it's-

That's a selling point isn't it? Yeah, so it's like- It's like cardio machines saying you burn way more elbows. Yeah, that's a bad idea. So it was like if my Garmin said, like, oh, you got, you you got 8,000 steps, this little ring would be 11,000, 12,000 steps and be like fake news. Oh my god.

But so same thing, it's like we have so many wearable devices out there, and people love being like, oh, in my group exercise class, I burned 656 calories. And it's like, y'all, our body is so complex and we can't be dumbed down to a wearable. And if some company had figured it out, we wouldn't have a growing obesity problem. Like I think I actually looked yesterday

just cause I was curious. And they're now saying, you know, right around 70% of the population in the United States is overweight or obese. So it's like, well, if you're now saying, you know, right around 70% of the population in the United States is your overweight or obese. So it's like, well, if you're Apple Watch, if you're Garmin, if you're Woot Band, like whatever it is, if they had cracked the code and figured it out, like they, I mean, they, they'd be making a hell of money right now. But it's like, we're still not there yet.

No, Lord. Maybe we will be. No, I tell you what, if you took a wearable that tracked calories and steps and all stuff and you put it on the hodza tribe of Northern Tanzania, I talk about a study that was done on them that and there's other studies have been done other modern hunter-gatherers but scientists went down and studied this modern hunter-gatherer tribe so they literally move all the time, they hunt, they don't have electronics, they live in hods and they found at the end that they burned

about the same amount of calories as the average Western couch potato, why? Because your body learns to adapt because otherwise you would die. In the wilderness, you're not gonna get six or seven thousand calories worth of food. But if you put these devices on them, I guarantee you would say five or six thousand calories. And it would be totally wrong.

They're not burning five or six thousand calories. And the scientists actually used very sophisticated metabolism testing to figure that out. So I'm a hundred percent with you on that Not accurate often. What do those numbers mean, right? Because it's like well, okay Let's say even if you did burn 600 calories in your workout like a gun It's like I feel like that's such a 90s way to like approach our nutrition fitness and health and be like oh on the elliptical today I burned X number of calories. Today, this many calories, so I just need to subtract. And it's like, again, like it's just not, it's not way.

I'd be nice to pull that math really lined up perfectly. Right. And the metabolism is just so much more complex than that. It's like ever moving and changing. So for you to think that you could follow this little tool that tells you the calories. And if that even mattered that much, and it's I said the other day, I think it's like one of it's actually maybe one of the worst ways for people to track or measure whether they're doing a good job in their fitness or not. There's just it's so much more complex. And what they find is that when when the average person sees this for they did this one study where they listed calorie, there was

this like citywide mandate all restaurants have to Just makes it more it just makes them eat more and they did they actually tracked it and people ate more because instead of saying Wow if I eat the burger it's 300 calories more. I'm gonna eat the salad. They said wow the burgers only three hundred more calories Yeah, I burn 600 calories in my class so I can have two glasses of white. Yeah, that's only what happens So it can definitely backfire another thing that you said now you mentioned I can have two glasses of water. That's literally what happens. So it can definitely happen. That's really bad for me. Another thing that you said, now you mentioned earlier, you have a goal of deadlifting, I was just say, two and a half times your body weight or?

So I have deadlifted two and a half times was our last strength cycle. And so this time we're going 2.75. 2.75, okay. So the next one you listed here is that women will still believe often is that lifting heavy will make them look bulky or manly looking. This is, why is this totally false and why is this damaging? Again, also, it's like when I was making this list, a lot of them were like, I was thinking

back in time to like, either things that I fully believe or things that, you know, you know, things I see coming up with are members and clients and stuff like that. So it's like if you met me in 2012 when I first started strengthening conditioning, I remember walking into a gym and the owner was absolutely jacked. Like she used to do, you know, physique shows and stuff like that. And like just such a badass athlete, like she was actually like a regional cross-fit athlete competing multiple times.

But so I remember, you know, it was like here I was, I was at the Dupts of My Eating Disorder, I was literally 92 pounds when I found, you know, the barbell and it's completely changed my life. But so, you know, I stroll into this gym, and I remember thinking, wow, this workout was so fun, I can't wait to keep lifting weights.

This is so cool, but mutually, I remember looking at this individual and in my head thinking, ooh, but I just don't wanna get big like that. And now I'm like, what? I wish I could get big. You know how hard that is? My best friend, Alex, I talk about this all the time

where we're like, man, we've been trained in a decade and we're still not huge. How do we get bigger, right? How do we get more jacked? Like just to get you know, of reaching my genetic potential, fuck. But it's like, we're not genetically made that like women don't, like we are.

And I do want to add, I do want to add I do want to add you've been working out consistently for years you lift weights like a bodybuilder you also probably have exceptional genetics considering your high level competitor in sports which means you are tired but also have really good genetics. The average person could lift weights all they want and what they'll probably accomplish after years of doing so is a sculpted, you know, toned or whatever body. It's like you don't lift having enough to get big. That's really the half, right? You go long way. They're saying that as they're lifting like 60 pound deadlift over there

enough. But it's like, you got to waste a go before you get that bulky. That's, you know, that's always like our talking points in our group. And again, it's like the population we have, like my ideal like best day in life would be that, you know, somebody joins our programs and they've never lived a way in their life. Like that would be-

Oh, you get to show them the magic. Yeah, like let's go, right? But it's like, you know, so many people will be like, oh, like I'm really scared to get big or I'm really scared to get bulky. And it's like, like, oh, like I'm really scared to get big or I'm really scared to get bulky. And it's like, y'all, like I'm dead. It's like if I'm hip thrusting, God bless anybody that's in lifetime

because all the 45 pound plates are gone. Like I'm hip thrusting, 425. Like you ain't squatting today, right? I mean, so it's like a guy and it's like, here I am, five foot three, you know, present day, probably 120 pounds, something like that. And it's like, I can deadlift 300 plus pounds.

I can hip thrust 400 plus pounds. Like, I'm lifting heavy and I'm still not big. Like, how do I get bigger? Yeah. No, that myth cracks me up. And what it does is it scares women from doing the most effective exercise. Yeah, and doing the one thing they need to do not mention okay it is so

hard to get there and it's real easy to go the other direction so I would always tell my my female clients that would give it a listen we're gonna try and make you look like Arnold and you just let me know when you wake up my heart and then go ahead take three days off and have a cheeseburger you'll be just fine you ain't gonna wake up tomorrow. Oh my, I knew it. I told them not to have me squat 55 pounds. Now I look like Lou Freeno.

And it's like the word tone, you know. I hear that all the time where there will be comments. So be like, oh, like, how do I get toned? You and it's like, y'all, like the athletic physique that you are describing again is a body composition that likely has more muscle than you have now. And yes, it might have less body fat,

but it's like so many people get caught up in the cycle of, oh, I just need to lose body fat. Like if I just lose body fat, I'm gonna have this physique and it's like y'all, like if you lose that body fat, you're probably gonna look like a melting candle. That's the body, come on. I do wanna point out though,

because there is an exception where you do get this and because somebody listening right now, I know for sure that's like, I don't care what they say, I've done lifting before and it's made me look bulkier. But many times they haven't addressed the inflammation, gut issues, they're eating, they're not eating appropriate for what their goals are,

and then they go touch some weights, and then they're through pant size, or something like that, do you have dirty balls? Also, though, right, like we have to remember, and this was on the list as well, is that, you know, when we're talking about fat, and we're talking about muscle, there are two different types of tissues.

So again, if we wanna bring back up the fruits and apples and oranges, like fat is the apple, you know, oranges might be our muscle. And so it's like, we can't turn one into the other. We can't do that. That doesn't exist. That's called alchemy. We've proven that.

You've proven that. You've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that you've proven that Oh, well, I'm really overweight. I just want to turn all this fat into muscle. It's like, well, there are two different types of tissues. And so back to Adam, your point's like, well, yeah, if you go from not lifting weights and you start lifting heavy, you are going to start building muscle. But that doesn't necessarily address the body fat issue. I want to assign the word issue, but it doesn't address the body fat component

that we have in that situation. So it's for that person, a gang comes back to education, hey, you know, right now you actually might see, you know, the scale go up because again, we're adding muscle to your frame, your body is doing what it's supposed to do. This is good. You know, out of future date, we do likely want to go through a chlorid deficit if you're wanting to lose some of that body fat. But again, so many people get bought into lifting and they're like, okay, and it's cool until again. You're like,

well, my clothes don't fit. Everything's starting to get really tight. The scale is going up. And so it's like the education of again, well, the long game, that's something that will have to be addressed if that's important to you. But nobody has that conversation. So again, it's like there's still not the education understanding around a lot of them. Not to mention fat takes up more space per pound than muscle does. And I do want to make this comment.

The percentage of women that can build muscle to an extreme extent is about as rare as the percentage of people that are seven feet tall. So if you think about everyday life, like how many times have you run into someone that's over seven feet tall? Like never, you never see that. That's how rare it is to have a woman that, and if you're this woman, you know, like you don't even lift weights and you look like Justin, because you have those, those kinds of genetics. Now that brings us to the next one, which is the low reps versus high reps. I know low reps, bulks, high reps, tones or sculpts.

Like, what's the problem with this particular message? I feel like this is a guy like where the 90s, like still leaks, like the present day and you're just like, whoa. And I think again, this whole like, oh, I should only do low weights and I should do high reps. That's still coming from that fat phobic place of, I don't want to be in a bigger body

or I don't want to be bulky or toned. And so I think it's just so tough because again, we were talking about earlier in the show, typically for a lot of male athletes, you know, especially if you were playing football, you were playing baseball or any sort of sport, you were likely doing strength and condition and you were likely in the weight room and so you already had some exposure

to you hopefully what a good training program might look like. But I think a lot of women likely resonate with me where it was like, oh, I didn't start lifting weights until I was 22 or 23 and like, I remember being in me where it was like, oh, I didn't start lifting weights until I was 22 or 23. And like, I remember being in the gym and be like, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm on the machines, I'm doing the thing. And so it's just kind of this bad information thing.

And so I think one of the most powerful things that someone can do is just follow a good training plan. I'm following that promotes being evidence-based, you know, like avoid following workouts from, you know, your favorite person on social media, or maybe you're getting, you know, random workouts off of YouTube, or like, I know when I used to do CrossFit, like, there was like a couple different big companies out there, and it was like Invictus and Misfits and Comptrain, and so it was like, you would like Cherry Pick, and so I'd be like, I'm Monday, we're gonna do Misfits and then I'd just say,

we're gonna do comp train. And not realizing that programming is all connected along the road. And so it's like, that was a really hard learning curve and I didn't understand like, why wasn't getting the results I was seeking and you just see, you know, it's like, this isn't uncommon for somebody to, you know, maybe on Monday they go to spin class.

And then on Tuesday they go to boxing. And then on Wednesday they go to an F45 class. And it's like, well, it's important that we enjoy the way we work out. But again, we have to understand if the way that we are exercising are the inputs matching up with the output or the outcome that we're trying to achieve.

And so it's like being very clear on where we're trying to go and how to most efficient get from A to B. But it's like if we're talking about strength training or we're talking about like, hey, I want to build a really strong athletic looking physique. It's like, well, you need to find a progressive overload program. So it's going to be a program that has weekly repeating movements. So maybe every Monday, you're back squatting. And so the goal over the course of that, 12 or 15 week training cycle is,

well, we want to increase difficulty every single week. And so if I open the cycle and I'm squatting, say 200 pounds that first week, well, hopefully that second week I squat 205. And then I squat 210 and I squat 215. So that, again, you're by the end of the cycle. Cool. I can hit PRs, we see strength gain,

you know, we're repeatedly performing a movement so we can get better at it, we can build muscle, our body gets stronger. And so for some of the people will be like, oh, well, I get bored of workouts really quick. So I want random training or this and that or like, I need to confuse my muscles. Like, that's another like,

I don't even know where that came from, but like, please, I hope it even know where that came from, but like, please, I hope it burns a fiery death, right? But it's like, the honest reality is like the more boring your program, the likely it probably is because we can't get better at something we're not practiced. I love that point because that was the, so we first started, right? The number one complaint, right, that we would get our feedback from maps on a a ball from maps on a ball was I know what all these are all this is just the basic squat. I know these exercises.

Is this shit the worst? Yes, that's why it's there. Just read it. Get back to the center. I also think part of this problem though too and why this one won't die is you have these famous Instagram girls that got famous from a television show or they're not even a real fitness professional. And maybe they put fitness coach in their profile or whatever, but they really don't know shit about exercise and training, but they're beautiful. You got the beautiful body that a lot of people like and aspire to have. And they're doing all these circuit training, glute kick, you know.

Here's a brand new exercise. Band exercise. Band exercise with, you know, 40 this, 30 that. And just heal it. So I think, and you know, we talk about, they got millions of followers for whatever reason. They were famous on a reality show or whatever like that. But I think there's a lot of that

on social media. You've got someone like us who've got 90 to 100,000 followers and then we're competing against this famous girl who's got four million followers that everybody knows and she's gorgeous and she's giving this advice. So I think that's part of the reason why this one doesn't do that. It's 100% part of it though, because the thing is, it's like, with me coming from a nutrition background

and having a bachelor's in food nutrition diatetics, it's like, I helped manage numerous crossfit gyms over the years, worked for Crossfit seminar staff, and I've been coaching now for over 15 years, which is insane to me, but it's just like, I've never been passionate about the programming side of stuff and I was never passionate about like the one-on-one

PT side of stuff. Like I loved group coaching, but miss me on programming, miss me on just understanding how to do all of that. And so when we founded Paragon Training, like my business partner, Brian, he's been training for 20 plus years, like and he's so nerdy and he loves, it were such a good balance because I'm super nerdy

about nutrition, I never get tired of it. But he's the same way where it's like spare time, he's listen to podcasts, he's digging into research, PubMed, all this stuff. And so it's so crazy because again, for so many years, I was following various workouts and various programming and cross fitness and that whatever. But it's like my best friend Alex and I, we both have been training for a little over a decade now, which is a reasonable time. It's like once you've

been training for a while, you're not going to see PRs and strength games. Like when you, you know, the first couple of years, like every time I step in the gym, you know, a PR, PR, PR, right? But it's always so fun and I love this where it's like, here I am, you know, training 10 plus years. And like I said, you know, it's like, our last strengths cycle, I had a 25 pound lifetime PR on my deadlift. And it's because Brian's programming is so good, right?

And so even, you know, we just started a strengths cycle again. And so I'm like, looking at the 12 weeks and I'm like, okay, if I wanna dood lift 315, that means you know, this is what I'm like doing the back of a math. I'm like, how to engineer it. But it's like, I know that I'm gonna hit it because our programming works. And so here we have these high training ages.

And we're still regularly seeing, you know, changes in strength and changes in our lifts. And that's how it should be, right? It's actually not super normal to be hitting these plateaus. Like certainly if we're talking about a Olympic weightlifting, yeah, if you're lifting at a high level and you're already lifting it. Squeeze out 98% already.

Like you might grind for like three years to get that next two and a half pound jumper, whatever. But it's like when we're talking about our general population, well, you're going to notice, you know, it's like our lack strength cycle. We literally had members, and it wasn't just like one or two, it was literally hundreds of our members where it was like, wow, 12 weeks later, and I hit a 20 pound, 50 pound, 100 pound PR. Like the number of women that we had hitting their first 300 pound deadlift and you're just

like, yeah! But again, it's just the difference of, well, these are all individuals that they came from the, hey, what I was doing. Never had something legitimately programmed. Like years of just CrossFit or years of marathon training or whatever. So you get really intelligent programming that's prioritizing recovery and that, you know, again, we're just letting the body do its thing like holy smokes. It's a science programming, workout programming is definitely a science and here's the truth.

Low reps, high reps, they all build muscle and it's just how you program them in your workout determines whether they work. One doesn't tell them one doesn't bulk, they both build. There's building and the shrinking, that's all muscles do. The last point that you bring up that I think is very important is this myth that an effective workout is one that leaves you dead.

Like crawling on the floor, I'm sore for days. Like if I don't survive this workout. Yeah, like if it doesn't beat me up, then it wasn't effective. This is one of my favorite ones to hammer because I think we all fell for this ourselves and it was the biggest game-changing moment of my life for my own training. When I realized that if I left two in the tank per set

or if I left the workout feeling better than I went into it, my body would totally progress and it would progress consistently. Yeah, and we were talking about this, you know, off air before, but it's like, again, you know, it's like in your 20s, like that's fun. Like you're like, you know, like catch me at the gym

for hours on end and, you know, it's like, it's fun to do those workouts no doubt, you know, like still every single year, my oldest brother actually got into CrossFit a few years ago. And so it's our family tradition that every year we'll do the famous Memorial workout Murph together. And so we'll go do push-ups, pull-ups, you run the whole Shabam. And it's our little like family bond thing we take her sweaty selfie after. And it's just, you know, it's awesome. And same thing, like it's so funny because I'm so far removed from working out in that way that I,

it's always like a good reminder of like, yep, go back to working out the way you work because it's like, when I switch to more bodybuilding and strengthening conditioning style workouts, the biggest change that I immediately noticed was the difference in my mental clarity and you know how I felt after workouts because it's like, if I were to go do across-fit workout at whatever point I left the gym, I felt like a zombie. It was like I couldn't, my work day ended at whatever time I went to the gym

because I would be myself you're rolling on the floor, redlining max out and it's like again, that's fun. But we also, again, if we come back to this whole, well, what goals are we trying to achieve? And how do we most officially get from A to B? It's like, if we could work out in a different way and work out for less time, feel better,

and more quickly achieve those results, like, would we want that? Because for most people, absolutely. Totally. And so it's like, again, you know, just understand that inherently exercises stressor. Like, that's the point. That's how we achieve those adaptations,

whether that's losing body fat, gaining muscle, getting stronger, hitting PRs, whatever it is. Like, that's duh. That's it. But it's like, well, maybe we don't have to go super hard and work out. So you know, it's like with our programming specifically, we encourage people to basically lift two to three reps

from failure and it's a hard learning curve, especially if you come from, you know, like the CrossFit style land where it's, and again, I struggled with this for probably the first year and a half of struggling where I'd be like, my business partner, Brian, would text me and be like, that, you were struggling pretty hard on those squats. You were grinding or those were really long reps. It was great.

It didn't be like, you should go less way next week and be like, what? But I'm trying to do the most. And so it's like, it's just again, this understanding that we don't have to do the most and that intelligent training is going to help us prioritize recovery. And recovery is the secret sauce to adaptation. So it's like, That's when it happens.

That's when you adapt. It's funny, when I would manage gyms and have trainers working for me, when I could finally convince trainers to train their clients this way. So tell them, your clients should leave with more energy and should leave your session feeling better than they walked in with.

And it was a struggle because a lot of trainers were like, no, I gotta beat my clients up. The ones who adopted it had clients that stayed with them longer and were more successful. They were more, they were worried of the opposite. They thought if they didn't beat their clients up, that they would lose clients and they were gonna be successful,

people aren't gonna lose weight, no one's gonna get in shape. But when they actually incorporated this, they became more successful because, you know, newsflash, people like to feel good. So it's like, strange. Yeah, it's like you wanna feel good and it's much more, you're gonna be much more,

I don't know, it's much more sustainable to show up to your workouts and feel good afterwards. It's less likely to be sustainable knowing that at the end of your workout, you're gonna be dead, especially when you're tired, maybe you're not motivated, like we all get sometimes, like it just, or you injure yourself, which is another big one. Dude, and as you go, well, like that's the biggest thing, right? Like we're adjusting and I was telling them about this yesterday where it's like the older I get, that's the biggest thing, right? Like Justin and I was telling him about this yesterday

where it's like the older I get, that is my number one goal. It's like don't get injured. And not just like in the gym, but it's like, you know, if I go snowboarding, it's like, don't fall, don't fuck this up. Don't get injured, because it's like, I just wanna keep being evil

to come to the gym. I'm gonna be able to do the things I wanna do. It's like there's nothing worse than being injured or dealing with this nagging knee pain or hamstring pain or whatever it is. It's like most people have kids and a family that they want to keep up with or again, you know, it's like the gym is just part of their life.

And so you don't, you know, it's really hard to have a positive attitude towards exercise if you dread it, right? So when we're talking about those personal trainers and stuff again, where it's like, oh, yeah, I get to get punished. And, you know, I'm going to not be able to squat the next day. And I'm going to be on my hands. And it's like, reversely. Well, yeah, if they had a personal trainer where it was like, if the

experience is like, well, yeah, like I worked really hard at the gym, but I felt great after. And you know, I'm able to show up as my best. You know, it's like, it's so difficult to explain how, you know, air quotes, how hard to go and a workout, right? Because don't get me wrong. It's like, when I'm going for, you know, hitting another PR in my deadlift this year, it's like, I'm gonna meet Jesus

on a couple of my raps. And that was like, there's gonna be some grind. And it'll be great, right? But it's like explaining to our members, because people will be like, yeah, so I did today's workout, and I think I wanna add more stuff, and you're like, oh, you didn't go heavy enough.

If you chose the weights, right? And you were lifting two to three reps from failure, like your legs were shaking, you got out of breath, and it was hard. But again, there's a difference between challenging versus again, like redlining, maxing out, potentially injuring yourself. And it's very hard, that's something that it takes time to develop that understanding, but again,

if you're coming out on your training cycle too hot, well, you're gonna plateau in the later parts of this cycle. This is a science thing. And we get so caught up in it's a motivation and discipline thing all the time that it's just like, oh the more I do, the harder I push, the more result I give, but it's like, no, there's a science actually to this.

I'll tell you what, we often work out in the morning before we podcast, okay, if you went back 15 years or 20 years ago, I would not be able to podcast after my workout because my workouts were so brutal and ridiculous I would literally sat here and it would have been the worst show of all time Yeah, now we workout before we podcast because we do we finish the workout and we're jazzed We feel great and we actually do your biceps look cute. Yeah, maybe and we do a better Painries and retake point. It's I get the special camera

We do we do better episodes as a result of it. And that's how you should feel after you work out. You should feel better, not feel worse. I tell you, it's always fun to have you on the show. Always fun to be around you. One of the reasons why we had you on is we want you guys to get more people to work under you and to hire you guys because there's not a lot of people

in our space who are doing it right. So we really appreciate what you're doing. You. So we really appreciate what you're doing. Super appreciate what you're doing. Super appreciate what you're doing. So keep crushing and we hope you get more people from this episode. Always a good time. Definitely. Thanks, y'all.

No problem. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. 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 includes maps and a ballac, maps performance and maps aesthetic, nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs.

With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal and Amin Justin as your own personal trainer's butt at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money bag guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is MindPump. Mindbump.