Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1706: How to Improve Lifts Without a Spotter, Reasons Why a Caloric Deficit Doesn’t Always Result in Weight Loss, the Best Core Strengthening Exercises & More

Episode Date: December 15, 2021

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin answer Pump Head questions about tips for improving the bench press (or other lifts) without a spotter, common situations where a calorie deficit wo...uld not result in weight loss, the best bodyweight exercises to build a stronger core, and how to increase client compliance as a trainer. Mind Pump Fit Tip: Why ALL exercises are NOT inherently dangerous. (2:52) The dangers of being exposed to Xenoestrogens and how Public Goods is aiming to combat that. (22:37) #DadLife updates with the guys. Mind Pump Kitchen: Mind Pump Kids edition, blow pops, and being a trendsetter wearing Felix Gray glasses. (31:48) Understanding inflation with Milton Friedman. (41:06) The USA made a statement to China before the Beijing Winter Olympics and the art of flexing with NFTs. (47:38) Cool Science with Sal featuring the NASA DART. (53:39) #Quah question #1 – What are some tips for improving the bench press (or other lifts) without a spotter? (56:02) #Quah question #2 – Are there any common situations where a caloric deficit would not result in weight loss? (1:07:06) #Quah question #3 – What are the best bodyweight exercises to build a stronger core and when to program them? (1:12:52) #Quah question #4 - How do I increase compliance with my clients? (1:18:37) Related Links/Products Mentioned December Promotion: MAPS HIIT and MAPS SPLIT 50% off! **Promo code “DECEMBER50” at checkout** How To Behind The Neck Press Properly! (ADVANCED LIFTERS ONLY!) – Mind Pump TV Priming Your Body Before and After Workouts – Mind Pump Blog Dunphy Squat- Improve Your Squat with this Secret Exercise Mind Pump #1610: Testosterone… The Hormone That Divides Men & Women With Carole Hooven Mind Pump #1230: Surviving & Thriving In A Toxic World With Max Lugavere Visit Public Goods for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Receive $15 off your first Public Goods order with NO MINIMUM purchase** Visit Serenity Kids for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code “MP20” at checkout** Visit Felix Gray for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Milton Friedman Speaks: Money and Inflation (B1230) - Full Video Beijing Olympics 2022: White House announces diplomatic boycott of Winter Games NASA, SpaceX Launch DART: First Planetary Defense Test Mission Visit Oli Pop for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code “mindpump” at checkout for 15% off your first order** Rubberbanditz Resistance Band Set Mind Pump #1552: How To Have The Strongest Bench In The Gym Mind Pump #1652: How To Overhead Press Your Bodyweight Mind Pump #1285: The Ultimate At-Home Ab & Core Workout Shrink Your Waist With The PERFECT Sit-UP (SIX PACK ABS!) – Mind Pump TV Build Your Core Strength with the Hollow Body Tension Movement – Mind Pump TV Build An Amazing Midsection with the Side Wood Chop Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Atlaspowershrugged (@atlaspowershrugged)  Instagram Bret Contreras PhD (@bretcontreras1)  Instagram Max Lugavere (@maxlugavere)  Instagram Carole Hooven (@hoovlet)  Twitter Gary Vay-Ner-Chuk (@garyvee)  Instagram

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Starting point is 00:00:00 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. Salda 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 answered four fitness and health questions asked by our audience, just like you. But the way we open the episode is with an intro portion where we talk about current events,
Starting point is 00:00:28 scientific studies and we mentioned our sponsors. Today's intro was 52 minutes long, then we got to the questions. Here's what went down in today's episode. Here's some of the topics. We talked about all exercises are not inherently dangerous. We talked about Xenoestrogens in candles. That got us to talk about our sponsor public goods.
Starting point is 00:00:48 You gotta go check them out. Head over to publicguds.com, forward slash mind pump. Use the code, mind pump at checkout to get $15.15 worth of free stuff. We talked about our kids. We talked about Justin's son Everett wearing Felix Gray glasses to school to look cool. These are blue light blocking glasses.
Starting point is 00:01:08 Go check them out. Head over to FelixGrayGlasses.com. That's F-E-L-I-X-G-R-A-Y glasses. Com forward slash mine pump and you'll get free shipping returns and exchanges. We talked about inflation from Milton Friedman. We mentioned the Beijing Olympics, and then we talked about the NASA Dart, then we got to the questions, here's the first one.
Starting point is 00:01:30 What are some tips for improving your bench press? The next question, are there any common situations where a calorie deficit would not result in weight loss? The third question, what are the best body weight exercises to build a stronger core? And then the final question, how do I increase compliance with my fitness clients? Also, all month long, we're running a 50% off sale to very popular workout programs. Maps hit, which is high intensity interval training, great for rapid fat loss in short periods
Starting point is 00:01:59 of time. And maps split. This is an advanced bodybuilder style workout to sculpt and shape and build your body. Both of them 50% off. If you're interested, head over to mapsfitinusproducts.com and use the code December 50. That's December 5-0, no space for that discount. T-shirt time.
Starting point is 00:02:20 And it's T-shirt time. Oh shit, Doug, you know it's my favorite time of the week. We have two winners this week. We have one for Apple Podcasts, one for Facebook. The Apple Podcast winner is cheap, dish washing robot. And for Facebook, we have Corey McNott. Both of you are winners and the name I just read to iTunes at mine.pumpmedia.com include your shirt size and your shipping address.
Starting point is 00:02:49 And we'll get that shirt right out to you. Hey, look, there are no dangerous exercises. So in terms of exercises, none of them are dangerous. Oh, you're gonna give blast if you're not young. You know what? You know what? I want to say that because oftentimes you'll hear people say things like upright rows are bad for the shoulders,
Starting point is 00:03:09 or if you do a lateral with your pinky higher than your thumb, that's bad for your shoulders, or if you do a squat this way, and behind your neck. Yes, and the reality is, if you have the required control, stability and mobility, and connection to doing that exercise, it is not a dangerous exercise. What makes it dangerous is your body and your lack of ability to control and mobile. You can help yourself. We're supposed to explain all that.
Starting point is 00:03:33 Yeah. That is... There's actually interesting conversation because there's more to that. I remember being a trainer in the first like five years or whatever and you start to build up a little bit of knowledge and experience and then you go through this phase where you kind of probably think you know it all or whatever. And I see this a lot and I see this exaggerated in social media life right or world or whatever. And you see a lot of trainers and fitness people that like to point out people doing, you know, quote unquote, stupid exercises. You know, it's a stupid exercise or it's a dangerous exercise or they shouldn't be doing that or that's,
Starting point is 00:04:12 they're an idiot or like calling out people that are exercising when you don't even know who that person is. And I fell into that trap of being like that, you know, seeing, you know, knowing, knowing a little bit enough to get me by to teach others, to get in shape, and knowing what is considered dangerous for most people, or exercises that don't give you a lot of benefit for most people. And so all of a sudden, you assume that when you see this person in the gym that's doing
Starting point is 00:04:38 this exercise, you go, oh, that's stupid, and you point it out. But the reality is, I have no idea what their desired outcome is. I have no idea what they're training for. It could have massive application for what? For what they're trying to do. Yeah, and it may be ridiculous for 99% of the population, but how dare I look at this movement that I think is ridiculous and silly,
Starting point is 00:05:01 so long as they're performing it in a controlled fashion and they're not going to hurt themselves. And I think that a lot of trainers jump to that conclusion that like, oh, that's a great example of this is the Jefferson curl. So if you've ever seen that has to be the one exercise that looks like, oh my gosh, you can't do that. You can do that. Right, if you see a Jefferson curl and you've never seen one before, right? If you see that for the first time and you're an your a trainer, it kind of breaks a lot of the fundamental rules that you've been taught for good mechanics for bending or hinging over, right?
Starting point is 00:05:38 But that specific exercise is not supposed to be like a deadlift, it's supposed to be a different movement. And it's intended to strengthen and challenge all the muscles surrounding around the spine and your core. And if done properly, can be a very phenomenal exercise. Yet I know that most people, I probably wouldn't train that,
Starting point is 00:06:01 but I look differently at movements like that. That in the past, I would probably go, or even here's another one. Look at LeBron James doing a quarter squat. Or, or anybody for that matter. LeBron James is someone famous, but see someone doing a quarter squat and then right away we want,
Starting point is 00:06:18 I mean, there's pages dedicated. I don't know how to ask to grasp. To talk and shit about these people that are doing movements like that, when you don't know what this person does for a living, you don't know what adaptation they're going after. So who are you to judge whether that's a good or a bad movement? Yeah, I think if you're experienced,
Starting point is 00:06:34 you can watch someone do an exercise and notice that in many cases, they don't lack the mobility, they lack the connection. I could do that for, I'd say the most part, maybe not every single time, but for the most part. But that being said, there's a lot of exercises that people write off because they say, don't do that, it's dangerous. The truth is, if you own the exercise, it's not dangerous.
Starting point is 00:06:57 If you can do the movement well, there's nothing dangerous about what that movement is and that's really it. So the blanket, you know, bad exercise, good exercise or two dangerous, don't do it. Nobody should ever do that. And Jefferson curled my favorite because it's literally rounding your back,
Starting point is 00:07:15 you're bending over, you're, but you know that exercise was a staple among of gyms. Well, it's gymnast and Soviet era wrestlers. In fact, they did the Jefferson curl with a zircher position. So they were bending all the way down and it was a rounded back and then round. And then all that.
Starting point is 00:07:31 And then you can generate tension and you can maintain stability and control and strength in that position. Like it's a valid movement and that's the things like the prerequisites to a lot of these movements they need to apply. But as far as a judgemental trainer that's in the gym, I do find there's instances where you'll see somebody
Starting point is 00:07:51 with terrible form performing a certain type of movement where it does warrant a conversation in terms of, well, you might not wanna keep applying this technique to this specific exercise because it's going to, over time, on the stress may end up finding its way into your joints, your knees, like your lower back, there's a better way to perform and do these exercises. So I find value in making sure the quality element is there,
Starting point is 00:08:24 but in terms of like your original statement of the exercise itself, there is a biomechanical way to pull it off as long as it's done with good form and the prerequisites are applied. Well, listen, if there's ever going to be a time in your sport or your day where you're going to move in that range of motion, it makes sense to strengthen in that range of motion. I.e. the gymnast or the wrestlers. They're contorting their body in these weird positions. And so that you want to be strong in this, in this rolled up extended position that you
Starting point is 00:08:56 may not normally get in normal life. But if I'm wrestling on the ground with someone, if I'm folded over like a lawn chair, I want to be strong in that position. Along those lines, let's say you strengthen your body with what's considered traditional perfect form and you never strengthen your body in those positions. How you get hurt. And then you get hurt, right? Because you generate all this force and then as soon as you move outside that position,
Starting point is 00:09:19 you lack the stability and control to manage the force that you might have generated going into it. And that's how you get injured. This is part of the reason why we see normal people get injured doing the most basic things like reaching back and feeding their kid in the back seat or pulling a weed from the ground or picking up a bottle of shampoo in the shower. These are some of the most basic movements, but because they're twisting and rotating, and they never do that.
Starting point is 00:09:44 And they never do that in their training, then it doesn't take much for them to tweak something or to injure themselves. And so, again, you might see someone doing this weird rotating type of movement or motion inside the gym and go, oh, that is stupid or dangerous or you should know. But the truth is, if you do that sometime in your day today and you're not strong on that, you're at risk. Now, a big part of that, and this needs to be made very clear, you have to own the movement. So, you can, look, I'll tell you what, the most basic movement, a barbell curl, can be very dangerous for somebody who lacks the prerequisite skill, mobility and connection, right? A simple exercise like a barbell curl
Starting point is 00:10:26 could be dangerous for someone. Barbell squats all the way down. Can be dangerous for someone, or they can be very safe for someone, right? It depends on do you control the weight, do you have the stability, the mobility? Are your joints supporting the weight? In the sense that, you know,
Starting point is 00:10:42 your end of range of motion is your spine or is it the muscles that are supporting your spine? This is all very important. You use the example of a gymnast. You know, I had a gymnast that worked for me years ago. I learned so much just from watching this guy because he would do movements like he would do dips and he would go so low in the parallel dip bars.
Starting point is 00:11:01 And I remember thinking, oh, his shoulders have gotta be wrecked. And yet, he had some of the healthiest shoulders he was going to office it in the beans. And I remember thinking, oh, his shoulders have got to be wrecked. And yet, he had some of the healthiest shoulders with the opposite ends of being. And I remember talking him about it and he goes, oh yeah, he goes, I couldn't do that when I first started training. He goes, I had to really build the strength and stability to be able to do that.
Starting point is 00:11:16 But now, I have so much control in that range of motion. Now, if I tried to do that without building up to it, for sure, I would have hurt myself. Now, it is true that exercises,, not all exercises are created equal and that some exercises if your form is off a little bit, the risk goes up quite a bit, usually it's the compound, you know, the compound complex lifts. But nonetheless, movements, if you can do them right and you control them right and you have this stability, they're not dangerous.
Starting point is 00:11:43 My favorite examples are the behind the neck exercises, behind the neck pull down, behind the neck press. Olympic lifters do behind the neck presses all the time. In fact, they catch the weight on their traps all the time. Most bodybuilders would hurt their shoulders doing that because they don't have the stability to do it. Yeah, I got to give a bit of a shout out. It's, I think, is handle as atlas power shrugged. But I follow this guy, total unconventional lifter, and bringing back a lot of the really old school movements and barbell movements, you know, bent presses.
Starting point is 00:12:13 He does things where he's basically, he's doing like a clean behind his back, and he'll do like hack squats and things, you know, with the barbell behind him. Those are old school techniques, but it just, for a common person walking by, they would probably be like, whoa, stop, you can hurt yourself. What are you doing?
Starting point is 00:12:31 This guy has showed his whole process of getting strong in these old school movements and built himself up to be resilient enough to pull these movements off. Yeah, really the injuries occur and they can occur with any exercise, and of course, like I said earlier, some exercises, if you go outside of perfect form and control, the risk goes up dramatically, whereas with other exercises, the risk doesn't go up so much. But if you hurt yourself doing an exercise, it's because you didn't own it.
Starting point is 00:13:00 That's all it is. You either use too much weight for the type of strength that you have, you lacked this too much weight for the type of strength that you have, you lacked this stability, you lacked the mobility, you just didn't own the exercise and that's why you got hurt. That's the only reason you get hurt. An exercise won't hurt you if you own it
Starting point is 00:13:17 and I don't care what the exercise is. So you see videos of these trainers and coaches saying things like, you know, don't do side laterals with your pinkies higher than your thumb because it could place your shoulder and shoulder impingement and whatever. Not if you own the exercise. Now, I will agree it's more complex. It requires more stability.
Starting point is 00:13:39 It requires different strength and stability that may be some people own, but that doesn't mean the exercise is dangerous. And again, I like to point to those behind the neck exercises because behind the neck pull downs, you know in the 60s and 70s, that was a staple. At pull ups, they would do behind the neck pull ups, all the way up. And defense of the trainers that used to,
Starting point is 00:13:58 because I was part of this group that used to talk shit about the behind the neck, everything, and going deeper than 90 and the deep dips and all this stuff. Your national certifications said that. I mean, I remember being at least two or three national certifications deep in a couple of years experience. Yeah. That's my point.
Starting point is 00:14:15 They said, don't go down below 90 degrees. I mean, I was literally that guy who was training behind a client when they were doing like dumbbell bench press and letting their elbows would touch my hands. Okay, back up, or their dips, I would have my hand where their chest would hit. Okay, back up, I didn't want them going deeper than that because I thought it put them at risk because that's everything. That was what we were taught.
Starting point is 00:14:37 We were taught to do that. And it's so funny because I don't think I ever thought to challenge that. It just made sense. Oh yeah, it's putting them at risk. Why would we do that? And I can stimulate the muscle just fine by going just down to 90 degrees, but it never dawned on me.
Starting point is 00:14:52 Like, yeah, you stop doing that and you lose the ability to do that. So what happens in real life when you accidentally move in that range of motion? Yeah, we can move like a robot in real life. Yeah, it just didn't dawn on me. Until way later in my career. I think the same thing, my first move like a robot your whole life. Yeah, like you just, it just didn't don't. I mean, until way later in my career. I, same thing, my first certification was,
Starting point is 00:15:07 was not even a national cert. So when I started with 24-Fitness, they had their own sort of case. Apex, yeah. No, it was for our fitness university. Yes. And I remember when I, this was 19, I wanna say 97, and I remember the instructor explaining why
Starting point is 00:15:21 we should not go all the way down on a bench press. So he said, stop at 90 degrees. And then what he did is he had a towel. This was his example, and it like stuck with me. I'm like, oh my god, that makes sense. He said, this is what it's like when you go all the way down. And he took the towel and he twisted it really tight, and then he started bending it.
Starting point is 00:15:36 He's like, this is what happens to your shoulder. And of course, I don't question him as the instructor. So I taught everybody at 90 degrees. Later on, I understood how the scapula moved and the shoulders moved, and I read books on evolution how we have this incredible mobility and control with our shoulders. One thing we evolved with these incredible shoulders
Starting point is 00:15:55 allow us to throw with accuracy and all that stuff. And I remember thinking, what if I just strengthened that position, I was able to move within that. And then I started training that way. And of course, you get better results. But it's, you know what reminds me of, it reminds me of when people say, oh, you've got always lift with your legs,
Starting point is 00:16:12 because they're so afraid of their back. So everything looks like a front squat when they pick them up. And it's like, okay, what you're basically doing is you're trying to remove all potential risk by limiting your range of motion so much, but the reality is if you do that all the time, you were actually setting yourself up
Starting point is 00:16:30 for more potential injury in the future because then that's all you know how to do. That's exactly what happened to me. I mean, I had more shoulder issues, more hip and low back issues in my early mid-20s than I do now now four years old. Doing everything in 90 degrees. Because I was shortening everything up.
Starting point is 00:16:47 And that's what you don't realize too, is that you're not only are you shortening up, but then you're getting really strong and tight in that position, which is even more, you'd be better off not doing anything, and what just see where life takes me, then to get really buff in the shortened range of motion, because then you have all this power and strength,
Starting point is 00:17:06 but then you have no control in where the body technically could go. Well, my first introduction to isometric, so I was working at the gym when I had a lot of trainers that were super experienced, and one of the trainers was taking his athletes through just the pure isometric workout where they're in positions, they'd be on the field
Starting point is 00:17:24 where their legs super wide out, they're rotated a bit, and they're in positions, they'd be on the field where their legs super wide out, they're rotated a bit, and they're driving either a stick or just their body weight, they're just squeezing and adding tension to these poses. And I'm like, what are you doing? Like it just looks so bizarre that he's taking these athletes through these very specific type of movement, but he's familiarizing them in these positions
Starting point is 00:17:42 where they need to be able to drum up power. They need to summon force and control in those positions, which then helps to apply towards the field. So not just strength training, but some days are devoted to being familiar when an instance occurs where they're in that position on the field. Yeah, speaking of isometrics, by far the most undervalued piece of training technique that exists today. I mean, it's so, and it's so much more valuable than people give it credit for. When it comes to improving your mobility and your ranges of motion and connection to
Starting point is 00:18:19 your ranges of motion, nothing beats isometrics, nothing. So let's say you squat to parallel, anything below parallel, you lose connection. Well, what you can do is you can without weight, bring yourself down to just below parallel, and then use isometrics to connect to that new range of motion. And you can continue to expand upon that. And it's the safest, most effective way to do. In fact, this is the, and this is a simplified version of priming as, priming really utilizes isometrics in this particular way. And then when it comes to building muscle and building strength, if you apply isometrics in this way, you will see tremendous gains through both the isometrics and also the new ability to connect.
Starting point is 00:19:01 There's a 15 to 20 degree angle effects. So it actually strengthens even further than just that position. to connect. There's a 15 to 20 degree angle. Yes. Effect. So it actually strengthens even further than just that position. Yeah. So if you do isometric at 90, you're going to get strength all the way down to 70 and up to as high as maybe 100. Not only that, but then now you can actually call upon specific muscles that you want to activate and exercises that traditionally aren't for that.
Starting point is 00:19:21 Yeah. You guys, did you see the Brett Concheras posted posted a video of this girl, you know, doing a butt wave? Yeah, I did. You laughed right? I know. I laughed. But there's, you know, this conversation, you get why I'm bringing it up in this conversation.
Starting point is 00:19:34 Yeah, you can connect to it. Because she can sit there without doing an exercise and she can activate all the muscles in her butt. Now, if you can do that, then whenever you squat, you deadlift, you lunge, you do anything. You know how to make it a butt exercise. You can now make that the dominant muscle being activated because you have the capability
Starting point is 00:19:55 of mentally contracting that muscle without even moving. Add the movement in there where the hips are having to hinge and you can really start to grab and pull power in there. You need to from the new TikTok challenge. You have the boat, the boat wave. Watch it, the boat waves are coming. But it's a good, it's a good first goal
Starting point is 00:20:11 for anybody who is trying to develop a specific muscle on their body, right? Yeah, you know, instead of us going, instead of us going and looking for somebody who's in Staphamus who has this great butt, who probably did butt and plants and all the exercises they do, and just trying to do those movements when you can't even isometrically contract the glutes.
Starting point is 00:20:30 Like that's where you start. To your point, that's an easier thing that you can get to and safer. So get there to where you teach yourself to just be able to actually squeeze it and contract it. Now you teach it to work more in the exercises. So all right, here is an advanced way of using isometrics
Starting point is 00:20:46 for incredible power. So this is an at home way of, it's an apparatus you could set up at home. So I'm gonna give it to the audience. And in fact, I'm gonna try and find a way to set this up in my garage. So what you do is you put two bolts, really heavy duty bolts into the concrete.
Starting point is 00:21:02 Then you attach a chain to it. And then make it a long chain so that you can adjust the length if you want. And then you can take a barbell or a metal bar and attach the bar to either side of the chain or chains on either side of the barbell at varying lengths and you can get underneath it so you're like, let's say you're in a full squat.
Starting point is 00:21:21 So you get underneath the bar, chains attach to the bolts and then with good posture, good technique, good control, you try. Obviously you're not going to do a squat, but you're driving against an immovable object. You can put a bench underneath that, do a press, you could do a row, you could do a curl with varying lengths of the chain. This is how, this is an advanced way to use isometrics, and I'm going to tell everybody right now, if you try this, you will not see faster strength gains than you will if you apply this.
Starting point is 00:21:48 Now the strength gains come on very quick, then they start to taper off after about six to eight weeks, but they still keep coming, but in that initial six to eight weeks, you will see some ridiculous strength gains. And this is an old school technique that, strength athletes used to do all the time. I wonder what would be better that or like, you know, Justin, I mean, I feel like you could do more power
Starting point is 00:22:08 what you're talking about, but- It's advanced. The Dumfys Quatt was mind blowing for me the first time that I've had it. So that's better for connection and priming, but what I'm talking about is advanced. So in other words, if you lack the connection, don't go and drive against some chains
Starting point is 00:22:22 that are attached to the ground. You're trying to ramp it, you're trying to max. Yes. That's what I mean. You could probably push more power out doing it, but that also increases the chances of you doing it poorly or something. Or injury. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:22:35 Exactly. So that's why I said it was advanced. All right. So speaking of cool advanced stuff, this might not be cool, but you know, for a while now we've been observing this drop into testosterone and man. By the way, decades, right? We've been observing this.
Starting point is 00:22:48 And this is well documented. I've been observing it in every coffee shop. Yes. It's very obvious. Yes, very obvious. It's really interesting. Could you just show it a little bit like? Could you just show it a little bit like?
Starting point is 00:22:58 Could you just show it what it looks like? Yeah, it looks like it. It looks like it. Come on. You guys know. Gauge earrings with long points. Lots of, yeah, decisions with their entire hair. No, I could have the frappuccino that you know.
Starting point is 00:23:13 Just kidding. No, so this has been observed now for a while and there's been a lot of theories as to why it's going on. Well, the most, I guess the theory that most scientists agree probably has an impact has to do with these estrogenic chemicals that were just constantly exposed. Do they think that's one of the main? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:35 Oh, really? Yeah, that's the prevailing theory. Now, there's no smoking gun. People hate to hear that. They don't believe that shit. Well, there's no smoking. Well, look, BPAs, you know, thalates, like, BPAs, for example, getting banned, right?
Starting point is 00:23:48 You can't have them in children's products anymore because we know that it interacts with their hormone system. So basically what they are is their chemicals that have the potential to attach to estrogen receptors. So it's not estrogen, but because you're exposed to them, you're getting these estrogenic type effects and it could not estrogen, but because you're exposed to them, you're getting these estrogenic type effects and it could lower testosterone. It can cause, you know, estrogenic type
Starting point is 00:24:09 effects like, you know, fat gain or feminizing effects or, you know, stuff along those lines. And they, again, there's no smoking gun, but we were constantly being exposed to more and more of these. They're in plastics, they're chemicals. You know where one of the big ones is? You know, it drives me crazy to hear you say that because for the most part, like the pans and like we've changed a lot of stuff, but the two things that I haven't gotten rid of in my house that I know is probably one of these offenders is the the glade plug-ins and can't send to candles.
Starting point is 00:24:44 I absolutely love those and I love the way it makes my house smell and I haven't given that up. I was just going to say that. So candles are a big one, right? Really? Yeah, because they put all these chemicals in there. It's burning off and you're breathing. You're literally, which is got to be worse than like just to send to the ones, right?
Starting point is 00:25:01 Yeah. Yeah, which are the ones that live when you like. Yeah. So that I know receipts are a big one, you know, the smooth, laxie receipts. I remember when Max Lugavir said that. He's like, don't even touch those. It's basically what he said. He just caked with it.
Starting point is 00:25:12 Yeah. But the candles is a big one, right? So we used to, Jessica's a huge candle. I don't think she likes candles as much as you, Adam. You know, it's funny. Adam literally can tell you this, like, the cost of the average centred big candle. I could. Yeah. They run $18 to $20 at Target. And more candles are stripped for the three with three. Adam literally can tell you this, like the cost of the average centred big candle.
Starting point is 00:25:25 They run $18 to $20 at Target. And more candles are stripped for the three widths. No, I really do. We have a, what are the, what are the cents? So they're like bubble gum and. No, I'm a, I have this kind of candle. Vanilla addiction. So I like, I like vanilla smell for some reason.
Starting point is 00:25:39 But I'll do other, I do other stuff to charge just to try it out, but I have so many that I have, I have at least one to two candles out in every room, and then I actually have a storage place at my house that probably has 15 to 20. So I probably have 500 bucks worth of candles in my house a little time. That's ridiculous.
Starting point is 00:25:58 That's how much I like them. I just like the light smell that it puts off. So did you switch, so I know you're know you're, you, I have it. That's why I was saying you're bringing this conversation up and you're making me feel guilty that I haven't. So public goods, uh, you, which I know you get a lot of your problems. I have most of my stuff through public. They have candles too.
Starting point is 00:26:15 They have candles and their BPA free, thalate free, their essential oils essentially and they're not expensive. Pull them up, Doug, where they, where they, how much? Okay, so they're still sent in or they just plain. Yeah, no,, no you can get sent to candle that are just don't have always candle. Okay, chemicals So it's not the smell that's putting it off. It's something else that's in it. No, no, no It's the smell but but the public goods candle uses essential oils Not not these chemicals in other words. You're not gonna be bringing it breathing in estrogen I tell you what this is why you're getting more
Starting point is 00:26:43 Camel this you know, I tell you what, maybe that's why you're getting more camera, more reason. No, I tell you what about this company. This is, I keep continuing to fall in love more and more with them because I didn't even know they had this in there. That I've told you guys the last time we had a commercial for them that my house is like slowly getting converted over into all public goods. And here's the thing, check this out. 15 bucks for that thing.
Starting point is 00:27:01 That's at least, I know it's at least $18 to $20 minimum at target for that size of a candle right there. Yeah, so it's natural, there's no BPA, lead. So what do they use out like an essential oil? What do they use? Essential oils, natural waxes, the weak is cotton, so you're not gonna be breathing in a bunch of. And I like the way it looks too,
Starting point is 00:27:22 because I like the whole black and white thing going on. Yeah, so I started to get paranoid. That's why I changed out all the champoos, all the subs, all the stuff and like that I was in close contact with all the time drinking out of like you know aluminum instead of out of plastic and you know I just started doing I don't know how much of an effect it's made you know because it's like it's just a volume thing. Well I I still stand by what I originally saw this stuff. I think it's, I think you're funny and silly if you're the hippie crunchy person that freaks out about all this stuff all the time.
Starting point is 00:27:51 Are you garbage every day? But yeah, he's like, you know, or you have other areas that are much bigger rocks in your life, right? You've got fucking ton of stress, and you do other bulls, you do drugs or other bullshit, but then you won't have a fucking scented candle. It's like my buddy, I had this buddy once that,
Starting point is 00:28:06 every once in a while I train him and he's like, and I, he'd be like, hey, I tell him, hey, try this supplement or whatever. Man, I don't know what's in that stuff. I don't wanna take that. I'm like, bro, last weekend you took Molly off some dude, you bought the nightclub and you're afraid to take, you know, you know, Citroën before you work out,
Starting point is 00:28:22 but get your stay, get everything straight. But back to what I'm saying, so, but there's been, and I've noticed that there's been a lot of like very subtle changes that I can change. Like it's not that big of a deal for me to change my, if they both put off vanilla smell candles, it ain't that big of a jump for me.
Starting point is 00:28:39 I didn't know they existed. I didn't know that public goods had this. Which amount. Yeah, so the cool thing is with public goods, all their products are like that. All of them are, you know, earth friendly. All of the prices are great. And you can get-
Starting point is 00:28:50 You can smell vanilla. And you can get everything. So you can get everything. And you save money on top of it. Cause you're- Yeah, no, they're, they're, you know, I saved the toothpaste and the soap, the laundry detergent.
Starting point is 00:29:00 That stuff gets up there in price. So it's kind of cool to be able to go to a product like this that I feel like not only is it superior,. So it's kind of cool to be able to go to a product like this that I feel like not only is it superior, but then it's also cheaper. Are you more aware of this stuff because you're a dad now? Is that what kind of triggered it?
Starting point is 00:29:13 No, I think it's our conversations that have triggered that to be honest with you. Yeah, because you're probably the most hippie crunch you had of all of us. And you talk about this stuff. And so at first, I think I was a little resistant to a lot of it where I was like, that's stupid. I don't, there's much bigger rocks on it.
Starting point is 00:29:28 Before I go change my fucking candle out, I should probably do X, Y and Z. My thought process has changed a little bit on it because it's like, if it's a product that, I am not adamant about exactly what hand soap brand I need to use. I mean, it's not like I'm in love with dial or some brand that's like, oh, it's so magical.
Starting point is 00:29:47 I can't give up my, yeah, right. So, or my laundry detergent or things like that. It's not like something that's hard for me to give up. So, I don't mind doing that. Like, it's not that, it's not that, it's not that you don't save money anymore. Well, I remember even before we had, I forget her name that was talking about testosterone
Starting point is 00:30:02 and like all the, you know, the decline of everything in the phyllia, so. Oh, Carol. Yeah, Carol, I was talking about testosterone and like all the, you know, the decline of everything in the thalais. Oh, Carol. Yeah, Carol. I was talking to a doctor before my son was born and he was talking about like a lot of cases of this kind of, you know, being transmitted from the parents and the mother to where it's affecting the genitalia
Starting point is 00:30:20 of young boys especially. Yes. And to where like, and they measure, and this is what she kind of talked about, with us on our podcast was about like the taint length, and how they measure that in terms of like, it's really bizarre, but like, they can affect it in mammals through testing.
Starting point is 00:30:40 And because remember the, the, the genitalia is the length of the taint the tape or how close you're yeah, so you get Closer to your but hole in a sense. I'm gonna be very you know vulgar about this. Yes, because remember the the genitalia In a very medical type. Remember in a fetus. It's essentially the same until the The chromosomes tell the hormones to come in and testosterone comes in and it either can turn into a penis or become a clitoris But otherwise it's all it starts from the same point. So let's say it's getting the signal to turn into a boy or male genitalia, but it's also getting the Xenoestrogen, so it gets kind of a confused signal.
Starting point is 00:31:16 And so the genitalia develops a little bit differently. So smaller penis shorter taint and smaller pieces. And it's happening, I guess in numbers that that's alarming. The longer my taint the more masculine I am. I think that's what it was. Yeah. I don't know about masculine. Yeah, longer distance.
Starting point is 00:31:35 Masculinity is more male than just alpha or whatever. I think it just means the genitalia is more the way it's supposed to be. Yeah. I don't know if it makes you more or less masculine. Interesting, right? Maybe more virile. I don't know if it makes you more or less nasty. Yeah, so interesting, right? Maybe more virile. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:31:47 Hey, speaking of children, can I just tell you guys right now this is early, so I don't want to be one of those dads where you have a genius son. Yeah, he hasn't spoken or word yet. Yeah, he wants you to get a reason to taste. Yeah, you know, you have that conversation with your wife, honey, I know. Bro, I'm guilty now, dude.
Starting point is 00:32:03 I'm so, I'm guilty. I'm guilty. So Max, not to cut your story honey. I know bro. I'm guilty now dude I'm so I'm I'm guilty Max is not to cut your story out You know Max is into like one of his favorite shows to watch or cartoons is Baby Einstein's have you guys seen this yeah, yeah, it's not it's it is very it seems like it was made in like the 90s or earlier And but it and it starts off with like a Mozart song. And then all.
Starting point is 00:32:28 I can't get my son used to watch him, I'll just not. Oh my God, he's so infatuated with it. Maybe Einstein, what a great cartoon. Oh, and it's just, it's what's teaching them all these different sounds too. So they play like, and it's all old school classical music. And so it's really interesting. There's, it's not super action.
Starting point is 00:32:46 The graphics aren't great in it, but he's so drunken. And I tell Katrina that he's a genius. That's why I said, I said, tell me he's not. Like this kid is not watching bullshit cartoons. Look at he wants to watch. Look at what's the Lord. He wants to learn about Beethoven and Mozart right now at this age.
Starting point is 00:33:00 He's gonna be a genius. I love it. Well, so how distinguished. So, okay, you guys know what? My son started pushing that little sled around. And this loves it. And genius. I love it. Well, it's so hard. I'm gonna be distinguished. So, okay, you guys know what? My son started pushing that little sled around and this loves it. And now he runs with it and whips that thing around and I'm like, honey, I'm like, he's like,
Starting point is 00:33:13 he's kind of strong for a little baby. I don't know. So anyway, he's gonna be a monster. She sent me a video. So we have these. I saw the loaded box. So we have these boxes that we put like Christmas decorations and stuff away
Starting point is 00:33:24 and wrapping stuff and we store. Well Well anyway, she sent me this video of him driving this box around the house on the floor and he's having a great time. And I'm like, man, that box, it's a big plastic box. It's you know, relatively heavy. And I see him like it gets stuck and he'll like pull it back and like drive it. Anyway, go home. And I find the box and I pick it up. And I'm like, this box pull it back and like drive it. Anyway, go home. And I find the box and I pick it up. And I'm like, this box weighs probably more than he does. So I'm like, let me see. So I get him in front of it and he gets so excited.
Starting point is 00:33:52 And he starts driving that thing around the house, pushing into chairs, pushing the chairs with it. And I'm like, is that down with Jessica I'm like, honey? Grunting. I think I got, I think the right genetic mix hit. Yeah, it's cute. I think this is gonna be you're at that You are at at least for me
Starting point is 00:34:07 You're at the my favorite like one of my favorite times like when you hit that will like one year mark It felt like it felt like I've just said this before felt like Twilight Zone for the first six six months Then you fart that fart then you start thinking Where that came from you do some time then you start thinking like from six months to a year. It's like, okay, this is getting better. We have a routine down now. You've got stuff like you're in the swing of things. And then year one hits and here come all the milestones.
Starting point is 00:34:35 Like you used to like, oh, you send a word, always putting two words together, always walking now, always running, oh, he can jump. But like, this is where it all starts from here on out. Like it was, I remember like every day would be fun. So we taught him science, certain science for sign language. We can communicate with us.
Starting point is 00:34:49 And he's starting to try to say words. Like he says, bye bye and mama, but he doesn't say much. Right. He's only a year old, but he does the signs. And so one of the signs is for food. And so he does is he'll put his hand to his mouth like this. That means food, right? And this kid can eat like he can eat. Now he's not, he's obviously burning it off.
Starting point is 00:35:07 I don't know where he puts it, but he eats like a little machine. And if we're kind of like putting it off, like we're busy, he'll walk up to us with this stern look. He'll grab, he'll grab my face and he'll make eye contact with me and he'll take his hand and he'll do it to me. Like who the fuck are you making me, man Food motherfucker, baby, so funny, man.
Starting point is 00:35:26 Yeah, dude, I'll start laughing. I'm gonna be alright. Calm down. I'm sure part of it has to do with the food that Jessica prepared. She literally makes tritips. So she'll get the grass-fed tritips. She's like a little caveman. She'll make them, then she'll blend them, then she'll blend them with vegetables like zucchini
Starting point is 00:35:44 and broccoli and asparagus and then sweet potato and this kid just throws it down. I'm glad you brought that up because one of the number one things I get and we can address this right now so I don't have to keep responding to so many DMs around it is people always want to know what I'm feeding Max and can like on a regular basis. He eats exactly what Katrina and I eat. It just, unless Katrina and I are eating something bad, then we don't feed them that. He gets it.
Starting point is 00:36:10 But we literally make our food, and she normally makes Irish whiskey. She normally gives, or makes a pretty good size to where we'll have leftovers. And then she just portions off his stuff, these little containers. And it's sweet potato, rice, yams, you know, bison, ground beef, turkey, and, you know, these little containers and it's sweet potato, rice, yams, you know, bison, ground beef, turkey, I mean, chicken, he eats all of it, man. He eats everything that we, whatever we have for dinner, we just portion off whatever, whatever we're having over to him. And he eats, he eats it all.
Starting point is 00:36:40 We introduced him to fish and sushi really early. He eats everything. Yeah. He eats everything. And so it's not special. I'm not doing anything. I do use a serenity kid stuff every now and then. So if we're on the go and we're not,
Starting point is 00:36:52 and we're trying to feed him, my kids. Have you ever looked at other, well, I'm sure I know you did. You look at other baby food. Oh, it's all sugar. Yeah, no wonder you switch your kid from this baby food to real food and they don't like anything. No, my kids don't like anything.
Starting point is 00:37:04 Well, I wonder why you were giving them a super candy for, you know, his first year and now he's not gonna eat regular. Yeah. I see where parents get caught in doing that because they, the, you, well, one, it's always start, at least what I've seen. It starts with everybody wants to see the reaction, right?
Starting point is 00:37:20 All the family wants it. I'll give them a candy, give them a cookie. Oh, like legit candy, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So they could see the crazy reaction that they do, and then they realize, oh my God, how much he or she loves it, and then they use it as a bribe tool,
Starting point is 00:37:33 as a way to get them to do things. Oh, sit down, you do this, I'll give you this, I'll give you that. And then it's like, once you open Pandora's box, dude, it's a wrap that kids gonna want. Biggest of candy, I'm so mad at you for bringing in a box of blow pops. A box of, it's a wrap that kids gonna want. Be kind of candy, I'm so mad at you for bringing in a box of blow pops. A box of, listen.
Starting point is 00:37:48 Katrina, get a box. Katrina, get it over. It's over there. It's over there. Yeah, we got to, you know, let's say even half of them, I have. Bro, it's a big ass box of blow pops and I've eaten four this morning. I never even asked her what the logic behind why she did. So for my party, for my forias, she did like a sweet table.
Starting point is 00:38:08 And it was just like, you know, all the treats and everything that that, and she had all those blow pops. And they just, they've lasted. Nobody's eating them all. Would you say you're trying to make a popular again? Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to bring it back. I told her, I've been, I've been, I've been having one at least today, right?
Starting point is 00:38:20 Yeah, but you suck on them. Which is weird. I think it's weird. I think it's weird that you take a who takes a blowpop and crunches it on the first bite. Fucking man. Oh, you probably like, hello cool, Jay. Did you remember? Like the fit? It always used to creep me out because he'd be like on a music video and he'd be like, yeah, licking his lips a million times. Like, yeah, they'd stop. Yeah, you know that work. You know that that girl's not. No, you know for sure at one point in his life
Starting point is 00:38:47 that some girl said, oh my God, when you look your lips. And that was it. That's it. That's like every guy. Every guy that does something quirky, we one girl, I believe one, every chick said something to that guy, I said, man, when you, you get me out of this.
Starting point is 00:39:02 That's true for most guys, but LL Cool J's a famous, good looking fit, wealthy, pretty good. Yeah, but it probably could do anything. It started before, don't you believe that? I'm sure. I believe that. And that way, dude, speaking of the kids too, I don't know if I told you guys,
Starting point is 00:39:15 but my youngest is a total trend setter. Is it really cool? Yeah, I picked him up a few times, and it's funny, because I do remember that was a bit of, like what my personality, I would try to like get whatever the other kids didn't have. You know, like whatever was cool at the time, I would try to like find something totally different and try to like create my own thing.
Starting point is 00:39:34 And so it's just, I've noticed that like, sometimes like he went to class one time with a total mohawk and I'm like, dude, that is a bold move. Yeah. That's a serious move. The other day he wore like a, like, dude, that is a bold move. Yeah, that's a serious move. The other day, he wore like a sport coat and like- A sport coat? Yeah, and then he put on some Felix Gray glasses.
Starting point is 00:39:52 And he just went in with his hair all slicked. So, what grade is he in now? He's in third grade? Third grade, yeah. Wow. Third grade he's doing that? Yeah. That's a big deal in third grade. Oh yeah. Yeah, especially like third, fourth, fifth, sixth. I was great, he's doing that? Yeah. That's a big deal in third grade.
Starting point is 00:40:05 Oh yeah. Yeah, especially like third, fourth, fifth, sixth. I like this, that was totally like that. I remember you and I talked about this. When we first met, I remember that was one of the things that I liked about you because I was like, ah, that's how I was, I was always about. I know, I connected with you like,
Starting point is 00:40:16 cause it's, I mean, I'm not like a huge fashion guy, but I definitely like to find things that like, nobody else has or like, I could be unique somehow. So what did you get feedback on the glasses in the sport? I did like the kids were all asking about it like, you know, why are you wearing nose? And like he kind of like, you know, he says that it's good for him when he's on the screen. You know, so I've at least like sort of indoctrinated him with that. And so it's I'm going to be interested to see if this becomes a thing like within this
Starting point is 00:40:42 class of like the other kids are going gonna be like all of a sudden wearing them and then he'll like not wear them once they all wear them. Your son's got an affiliate code. Yeah. Help him to. Feel the same password. I'm all for that dude, that's where it's at. That's all it takes is one popular kid to make it cool.
Starting point is 00:40:58 Make it a trend in the school. Yeah, forward slash ever it. You know, you own ever it 50 for. That's hilarious. Hustle in that. Hey, speaking of discounts and this kind of stuff, 4-slash Everett, you know. He owed Everett 50 for. That's hilarious. He hustling, dad. Hey, speaking of discounts and this kind of stuff, I found an old Milton Friedman clip. So Milton Friedman is.
Starting point is 00:41:11 That you hadn't watched? So there's so many clips, there's so many videos of him talking to universities, like they're long and sometimes they're drab on. And so I guess I haven't seen every single one. I thought I'd seen everyone. I thought for sure you have. No, and maybe I did see this one.
Starting point is 00:41:27 I just forgot this particular point, but he was speaking at it. It looked like he was speaking at a college and he was talking about inflation. So here's the interest, so Milton Friedman, my favorite economist of all time, and he was really popular during the 70s and 80s. So during the inflation, during the inflation of the 70s,
Starting point is 00:41:43 and then after when we tried to correct it and we did correct it with rising interest rates. And so some of his talks were around inflation. And what's cool about a lot of stuff that, well, all the stuff that Milton Friedman says is it's still applicable today because economics, the laws of economics don't change. So it's really cool because you'll see what he says. And he says he'll warn people, if you do this, it's going to happen. And this what's going to and sure enough, all that stuff happens really cool. you'll see what he says and he says he'll warn people if you do this It's gonna happen and this what's gonna and sure enough all that stuff happens really cool But anyway talks about inflation and I didn't even think about this So inflation was blowing up in the 70s and he says you may think that if prices go up by 10% And you increase your wages by 10% that you're in the same place you were before he goes
Starting point is 00:42:21 You're not oftentimes making 10% more puts you into brand new tax bracket. So now, you're actually paying an additional 5% in taxes. So you're actually making less money. I didn't even think about that. Think about that right now. If you're not... That's how they're trying to justify it for a lot of people
Starting point is 00:42:39 because wages are going up right now, like crazy, everywhere, everywhere is having, because there's jobs that are needed, but people aren't wanting to go back to work because they're making money staying at home. So the only way that they can entice people to come to work is by raising the wages. So then you get everybody who's like,
Starting point is 00:42:52 okay, inflation's going up, but who cares? Because now I'm making five more dollars an hour than what I was before. Well, oftentimes, actually, if you look at the numbers, the new wages don't match the real cost of new products, especially like things like gas and food, which often aren't included in their numbers. I mean, gas alone, like.
Starting point is 00:43:11 So where do you stand on stuff like that? At what point do I get to say that I was right on this one and you were wrong because it was about a being a bubble that's been going for now? Or do you get to just keep saying it's inflated, inflated, inflated, inflated bubble, and then it's actually-
Starting point is 00:43:24 Here's a deal, like a Peter Schiff move, you're. And then it's eventually. Here's a deal. Peter Schiff move. You're just going to keep on. Well, here's a deal. Nobody can predict. See the incident bubble. Nobody's going to predict that when the market's going to correct. But I think if you look at, first off, you look at the smartest people.
Starting point is 00:43:36 Some of the smartest people in investments right now are pulling out. They're selling. I mean, Elon Musk sold a ton. You'll pull out, man. Right? Bezos sold a ton. Like these guys who are usually make pretty good calls, They're selling. I mean Elon Musk sold a ton. You'll pull out, Matthew. Right? Bezos sold a ton.
Starting point is 00:43:45 Like these guys who are usually make pretty good calls, well, Buffett, Buffett is now pulled out quite a bit of money, right? Now, they still have lots of holdings in the market. Yeah. But you can tell that they're looking at things and saying, this isn't looking. Well, yeah, a lot of those guys, especially like Elon, I don't know about Buffett, but a lot of those guys are in tech stock. And tech stock hasn't made sense for the last decade.
Starting point is 00:44:07 What drives the market? Yeah. But they're getting 15, 20 times evaluation. It's crazy inflated numbers. It's all speculative. And it's not real hard data that's supporting, okay, this company's doing X. It's growing this much. It should do that this much.
Starting point is 00:44:25 So people are just speculating on the future of what these things are and how much they're dominating and how fast they're growing. And so they're basically buying stock on where it should be in 10 years from now versus like looking at it year to year. So I think that they're probably pulling out of a lot of those stocks.
Starting point is 00:44:41 Because look at how fast those ones can go the opposite direction, look what happened with Zoom. Look what happened with all the I buying stock. Like anything that's like tech related right now is on a crash. Because- Yeah, well a lot of things are, but with inflation, what you have is,
Starting point is 00:44:56 let's say the government needs to raise a trillion more dollars in taxes. Well, they can either raise everybody's taxes, which is very unpopular, probably not gonna get reelected, or they can print a bunch of money. They're the ones using the new money first. So now they can pay for all their projects and pay all their special interest. Like, if you look at these spending bills, by the way, look at the percentage of them that actually went to people with like, we need relief. And then look at the percentage
Starting point is 00:45:22 that went to special interest. it's ridiculous, right? So it's a massive discrepancy. But it's an easy way for them to tax people without people realizing it. And then on the other side, what I just talked about with Milton Friedman, I didn't even think about that. If you raised everybody's pay by 10%,
Starting point is 00:45:39 you would put, because we have a progressive tax code, right, our tax code works, it's not flat. It's not like everybody pays the same percentage. It's, if you make this much, you pay a low percentage. And the more you make, the greater the percentage of the amount that you make, you end up paying. So it's always wins. So exactly. So you make 10% more, and everything's 10% more expensive.
Starting point is 00:45:59 You're like, oh, I'm in the same place. Except you're spending now 5% more, or 10% more in taxes. In reality, you're worse off than you were before because of the tax liability. Well, especially if you're a W2 employee, right? I mean, if you're working a nine to five type of job or you have like a standard salary and you go up 10% you're really affected by that.
Starting point is 00:46:17 But I thought that was really interesting. I had never thought of that. I didn't even think about what, and I don't know what those numbers look like. But I'm just crazy. I mean, people think that like inflation is like innocuous, like it's not gonna affect them substantially. Well, what's crazy is in the 70s,
Starting point is 00:46:32 well, the rich people that are pushing for it doesn't affect them that much. Well, that's why they want to do that. That's why they don't give a shit of milk, goes up three X gas prices, go up two or three X. Rich people don't care if their food costs go up, you know, 30%. As long as they're at it,
Starting point is 00:46:44 so it's go up 150% especially. Yeah Rich people don't care if their food costs go up, you know, 30%. As long as their assets go up 150%, especially. Yeah, if you're wealthy enough to where you're investing 10 to $20,000 per month in stocks and bonds and assets, like what do you care if your grocery budget just went up a couple hundred dollars? It's, you know, especially when all those asset prices are going through the roof with inflation. And what they did in the 80s to stop the inflation is they jacked up interest rates and there was like a two year recession, but then everything corrected and then we had the boom of the 80s, you know, with the deregulation of the Reagan era and all that stuff.
Starting point is 00:47:17 Today, we have such massive debt that if they raise interest, we won't be able to pay off the service fees on the debt. So they basically, essentially, we don't have any tools to handle massive inflation. So it's like, what do we do? We raise interest rates. So now what does that look like? What is that going to end up looking like? And which is kind of speaking along those lines, I don't know if you guys are noticing that, oh, first off, did you guys see that we, what do we do with the Beijing Olympics? We essentially said we're going to boycott, sending over representatives over there. Did you guys see this?
Starting point is 00:47:49 No, I didn't know that. Yeah, I just saw some. Yeah, maybe Doug can find this. And basically the leader of China is like, we don't care, or whatever. And then I'm seeing in the news, the anti-China propaganda now, starting to, you know, people are beating the drums, even the left, which typically was kind of silent on it. Yeah, so I don't know what they're planning on doing. Oh, great.
Starting point is 00:48:11 Yeah, so the White House announces US diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. So there's, and now I'm seeing the news on all sides start to say things about China. Whereas before you had kind of maybe the right saying stuff about China, whereas before you had maybe the right thing stuff about China, the left was kind of silent. Now the left is starting to kind of come out. So it sounds to me like the prop again is starting to something. We're still avoiding calling the new variant
Starting point is 00:48:36 what the following matter should have been. What exactly is a diplomatic boycott? What does that mean? We're not sending athletes there either. Nobody, like what's... We're not contributing to the fanfare of the games is what it says there. So I'm not quite sure.
Starting point is 00:48:50 I don't mean like we're not gonna promote it. Like I don't understand. Are athletes still gonna go there? Maybe Doug can find out. Are athletes still gonna go there? Maybe Doug can find exactly what it's like. I believe athletes are still going. They're just not, we're not sending any representatives
Starting point is 00:49:03 for the country as far as political type of represent. So it's like, let's be, what does that mean? That just means we're not doing it. And so, we're doing our, no, athletes are going over. Yeah, so that's where I'm confused here. Like, what do you, it sounds like it just means that we're not going to promote it over here.
Starting point is 00:49:23 I think this is like a,, you know, public gesture. Yeah. Which by the way, it isn't nothing. Like if you on a public stage announce you're doing, even if it doesn't mean much, what you're saying to the world is we don't agree, because what they're saying is the reason why they're doing it is because of the human rights issues in Hong Kong and with, what's that group of people in China that are we go thank you they're taking them and they're putting them in concentration you know
Starting point is 00:49:49 yeah reeducation camps it's like that yeah I heard about that with Muslim concentration camps that they've you know the world's been criticizing them about that what's happened as a result of that like I know that there's been brought up a few times well now we're now it looks like we're all officially saying, hey, this is a big issue, whereas before it was kind of silent. Yeah. So it sounds to me like they're bringing up the,
Starting point is 00:50:14 either they're doing the propaganda thing to prepare for the midterms so that they can get people to pick a side or whatever, or they're preparing for something else. And oftentimes what you'll see, and you'll see this in the media, is when the government is about to take a step, they prepare by getting public support
Starting point is 00:50:31 with new articles and shit like that. So this will be interesting. Well, let's pay attention, I guess. Yeah, let's end up seeing. Soon they're gonna be in the metaverse. That's where all the Olympics will be like everything else. We won't even go anywhere, fly anywhere, we'll just get on our, be your name, Goggle. How are we gonna be in the metaverse. That's where all the Olympics will be like everything else. We won't even go anywhere, find anywhere. We'll just get on our,
Starting point is 00:50:46 be your name, goggles. How many names do you have? It's coming. You know what I saw? Actually, almost every day now, I don't know, I keep watching all this stuff. I'm so interested in where it's going. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:50:57 Tender is now moving into the metaverse. How's that work? I have fucking no idea. I have no idea how any of this stuff works. You date in the Metaverse? You can bang your alien dragon fantasy. I do know it, but it seems like every day I see a new big company that is moving in that direction.
Starting point is 00:51:17 It just seems so weird. I feel like there's so much money and hype around a lot of stuff right now. This, this is where I do feel like a bubble burst is coming or a correction is gonna have it. In the last 10 years, name one market that would have lost you money. Yeah. You could have invested in stamps. In the last 10 years, yeah. Baseball cards, the stock market, real estate. You could have invested in used cars or cars even now, you know?
Starting point is 00:51:43 That's what's annoying. That's annoying to listen to your friends. Like, oh, I just, I invested in crypto, or cars even now. That's what's annoying to listen to your friends. Oh, I just invested in crypto, yes, right. This is why you see all these people on social media who are now these investment experts. Oh, this is what I, yeah. Well, yeah, because right now you could swing a bat in the dark and you're gonna hit something.
Starting point is 00:51:57 Something's gonna work. Yeah, so that's why I'm a little bit like, yeah, this kind of seems like a bubble. No, especially with the NFT stuff. I mean, I feel like everybody is jumping on this and buying random NFTs for random companies and stuff, but who was I listening to? I think Gary Vee pushes it pretty hard.
Starting point is 00:52:14 He makes a pretty good case for people that have a network, for example, we have a network of people that pay attention to us. It's like you're giving them a portion of the company, right? So if you give them these NFTs, they invest in it, they're investing you because as long as you continue to grow, those things drive up, so it gives the ability
Starting point is 00:52:37 for your early adopters and supporters in whatever movement it is that you're doing, their ability basically to invest in you in your own digital life. I think we still have no idea what to do. That's gonna look like, right? And we have no idea. I think, I like what you said before.
Starting point is 00:52:51 I think a lot of these big sales are people laundering. That's what I think. I thought that was the best. Did you see, did you see, I did that yesterday, did you see my story? Yeah, I said that NFTs are the new drug dealer flex. So I just thought, oh, you got the fucking great paper.
Starting point is 00:53:04 Oh, you must have, you know, that's a $10 million deal he just did right there. He's moving big weight, you know what I'm saying? When you put that on your phone? Yeah, show girls. I, you know, I saw, I follow some of these NFT pages, right? And this kid was like a concert and his backpack was, you know, one of those digital apes.
Starting point is 00:53:23 So he's walking around and it's, again, it's like a flex. Like if you are, if you're in that world at all and you're paying attention to it, you kind of know what the real expensive ones are. And so if you see somebody with it on their backpack, you're like, oh shit. That's so weird. That's like 10 grand right there.
Starting point is 00:53:38 Hey, speaking of tech, Justin, did you see that NASA? Did you see the NASA dart? Did you see this? Dart? Dart, I think, Doug, maybe look this up. This isn't the one you brought up the other day where you just this? Dart? Dart, it's called, I think, maybe look this up. This isn't the one you brought the other day where you just got kinetic energy. No, that was really cool.
Starting point is 00:53:49 That was cool. NASA dart, they're starting to work on a concept where if a meteor is coming closer to the Earth, they could fire off a rocket and hit the meteor and put it off course so that it won't hit the Earth and they're calling it quick. Okay, now is this a dummy missile in terms of this? Yes, not exploding, right? Because you don't want to explode a meteor,
Starting point is 00:54:11 it would shower us with little one. Why can't we shoot four satellites up and make a giant web trampoline? Yeah, that's totally just... That's so sciencey. Yeah, no. No, I mean, I mean, why can't we just put rockets on the earth
Starting point is 00:54:26 in this point? Well, that's a good point. That's actually how we thought of that. No, it's that. So yeah, you don't want to nuke a meteor because now you have four meteors. Well, we don't want to go on a orbit. That's why I say we use a big trampoline
Starting point is 00:54:36 so it hits the trampoline. No, there it is right there. So I guess it's launched off of a satellite and the goal is to hit. So you want to hear my theory around this? Okay, so it sounds great, right? Oh, we're gonna spend a bazillion dollars to potentially save us from a meteor.
Starting point is 00:54:53 I think we want a diplomatic reason to put a freaking super accurate missile on a satellite. And other countries are gonna be like, well, you can't do it. We're gonna know it's to save us from a meteor. We have missiles in space. Yeah, yeah. And we can shoot moving out. We're not allowed to save us from a meteor. We have missiles in space. Yeah, and we can shoot moving out. We can shoot moving rockets.
Starting point is 00:55:08 We can move in targets. So hitting China is gonna be super easy. Just that fly. Of course. That's what it always amounts to. Any kind of new toys just about like, who's got the biggest coolest toy and who can do the most damage?
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Starting point is 00:55:44 I love them, And of course, because you listen to Mind Pump, there's a discount. So if you're interested, head over to drinkOllypop.com. So drink O-L-I-P-O-P.com forward slash Mind Pump and use the code Mind Pump for 20% off. All right, here comes the rest of the show. First question is from Anthony Otto, what are some tips for improving your bench press or other lifts without a spotter? Oh good old bent. I used to think I needed a spotter with bench press all the time. That's because I would train to failure so often that you know you miss which rep is failure and then that's it you're stuck. Right. You just didn't want to be left in the situation where you got to roll the bar down your stomach.
Starting point is 00:56:26 And then just totally smash it. I just wanted to put some 45s on there and I couldn't do it without help. Yeah. That's what's up. You wanna know it's funny? I know, we're gonna answer this question by the way, but this is something interesting.
Starting point is 00:56:36 The early days of bench press, in fact, you can see this in pumping iron. The bars on the bench press that held the barbell were close together. So you would grab the barbell on the outside of the bars, which meant you couldn't load one side at a time So it literally was designed for people to load both ends at the same time So it's like they literally designed it originally for she needed two people. Yeah, Doug remembers right Doug? I do I got those
Starting point is 00:57:01 Waits at Sears. I think it was back in the day. They were like concrete and plastic and plastic. And I bought a bench with these two very narrow bars. And I put that thing on there. And the thing was so unstable, it was a disaster waiting to happen. Now, we're the commercial gyms like that too. Cause I know that's like, if you were to, if you just bought a at home bench set up
Starting point is 00:57:22 just a couple, two decades ago, it was like that. Yeah, no, the original ones were. I mean, very quickly though, they figured out, oh, if you put them on the outside, it's much more stable. You know what I used to do with those Doug is because I had the same problem is I would move the barbell way over to one side so I could load one side, then load the other side and then slide it over. It was like this whole pan, yeah.
Starting point is 00:57:40 All right, so let's answer this question, right? So bench press. Here's a general piece of advice, and then I'll give you something a little bit more advanced to specific. First off, one of the best ways to increase your lifts is to do them very frequently. But there's a caveat with this, which is,
Starting point is 00:57:57 you can't do them super hard very frequently. So in other words, let's say you want to improve your bench press. Maybe once a week, you have your traditional hard bench press workout. And then you can bench press another three days a week, but you're not going as intense. You're either focusing on speed, so you're going explosive with the push, or you're focusing on form and technique,
Starting point is 00:58:16 or you're doing tension, so where you're holding it at the bottom right above your chest, maybe that's a sticking point. So basically frequency, lots of practice, but again, modify the intensity. And then the second piece would be, this is something I discovered much later on. It's a great, great tool, is variable resistance.
Starting point is 00:58:33 So like adding resistance bands to the bar so that the bar gets harder the further away you push it from your body, which makes it harder where you're stronger. That's an advanced technique, but it's one of the best ones I've ever. We kind of covered all the bases, but in terms of the your sticking point and kind of focusing on the weakest part of the lift and generating more force within that. And this is something that a lot of power lifters are known to, you know, focus on to really
Starting point is 00:59:02 get them through and progress, you and progress past some of their limitations, but staying there and doing positive reps where we're squeezing down, we're generating more force in that low position of the bench, really makes a massive difference and just like increasing the grip, strength and control will add more security stability within that exercise itself too, and in control, we'll add more security stability
Starting point is 00:59:27 within that exercise itself too, which will then allow you to shut all more force and increase your strength. So I feel like these are all kind of generic answers and the truth is this is really the depends situation because yeah, and it is always right, but like I'm listening to you guys give tips, something I'm going through guys give tips something in my I'm going through my head of like my like my journey of like bench pressing and like
Starting point is 00:59:50 There were very pivotal moments in in that journey where I saw leaps right? So like one of the first leaps in my bench press was actually Moving to high reps. I never moved to high reps like I literally just was changing the face right I was a kid who trained in the, you know, six reps was to build muscle. Everything that I read was around there. I wanted to get stronger. I wanted to have your bench press. So it made sense that I was lifting these low reps to do that. But simply moving to the 12 to 15 rep range, which I thought was only for people that wanted to get lean back then my bench press shot up. Another one was I talked about on the show earlier
Starting point is 01:00:28 about not going past 90 degrees. I was never doing anything like that, getting really good at really deep body weight dips made a difference. I've talked about on the show before, getting good at my incline bench. For many years I neglected incline bench because I was terrible at it.
Starting point is 01:00:44 And again, I just wanted to get good at a flat bench press because that's what we all compared when someone said, what do you bench? No one says what they incline bench. They say what they flat bench. And so I just wanted to get good at that. So there was a huge discrepancy in my weight that I moved on incline versus flat bench. So I made it one year ago to get just good at incline and getting really good at incline, ended up increasing my bench significantly. So it really does depend on what you potentially are neglecting. Now, you guys gave good tips for sticking points, added resistance with bands and chains,
Starting point is 01:01:17 if you've never used some of these things. But I feel like those are all things if you've already done all the stuff that I've mentioned. Like, if you have, if you haven't addressed your programming and, and, and, if you're neglecting good exercises that really build the string, I get some people think that they want to get a good barbell bench so they don't ever fuck with dumbbells. Yeah. It's like, I, that was another thing. I have something to carry on. I really got good at dumbbell, uh, benching. And that carried over into my barbell bench.
Starting point is 01:01:44 You can see independent loads. Yeah. No, there's, there's lots of different things that we're good at dumbbell benching and that carried over into my barbell bench. That's pretty impressive. Yeah, no, there's lots of different things that were just kind of, you know, sprain spaghetti out there and like you pick what might make the most sense in terms of what you can apply that maybe you're neglecting within your programming or you're not addressing things like for me, my limitation was I would get shoulder pain, I'd get impingement and so my shoulder wasn't tracking properly. And so I had to address that mobility wise
Starting point is 01:02:09 and add more rotation, add more of those type of drills to add security in my shoulder, which then provided more of a stable situation where I could load my body, signal that, hey, everything's accounted for so I can now apply more force, which was huge. And then the other thing that I noticed that drove a lot more strength was focusing on leg
Starting point is 01:02:32 drive. And so that was another thing that provided a lot more rigid security throughout my body. I was able to distribute more force and get my body more involved, past just my upper body, my torso, including that leg drive and that tension and strength that I could summon from that increased my bench as well. You just named another one that was a big leap for me was when I was introduced to priming and understanding how important that was before going into the lift. So I too was...
Starting point is 01:03:03 That's by the way, that's an easy way to add like, on almost everybody's bench friends. Right, right away, like just getting myself into the proper position. So I had this tendency of the shoulders always rolling forward when I started to do like a band row or prime my upper back, right,
Starting point is 01:03:21 before so I could hold myself in that retracted position when I go into bench. That made a huge difference. So I feel like there's a lot of things that you should kind of check and then Sal, you mentioned another huge leap for me, frequency. You wanna get good at bench press, you wanna get good at anything,
Starting point is 01:03:36 and you only do it once a week, do it two or three times minimum of a week. Just practice it and don't go to failure on it, practice good at that movement, right? So if you wanna get good at the bench press. The strength is as much of a skill as it is, your muscles contracting harder. That's right.
Starting point is 01:03:51 And that's what it is, you're practicing the skill of a lift and you just get better at doing that lift. Justin, you mentioned leg drive. I want to emphasize that for a second, because that one made zero sense to me for so long. It does to a lot of people, yeah. I never understood. I'm like, you're on a bench, you're pressing with your arms,
Starting point is 01:04:07 you're doing nothing with your legs. What the hell does driving your legs into the floor and tensing up your legs have to do with the press? And people are like, oh, you're more stable. I'm like, well, I mean, I guess, but really what's going on? I don't know. Then I realized, oh, you're just,
Starting point is 01:04:21 you're CNS fires harder when all of it fires versus when just the radiation effects. Yeah, so like the example I always give is, if you squeezed something as hard as you could with your right hand but had to keep everything relaxed including your face, and then you tried that again, but allowed yourself to tense up your whole body, you'd see like a 10, 15% increase in strength.
Starting point is 01:04:41 So when you're pressing off of a bench, driving into the floor and tensing up your legs in your lower body just creates more of a central nervous system firing signal and just allows you to press more. Here's another one. Now some exercises have a lot of carryover to other exercises. And so sometimes just getting good at something else and you mentioned some of them at them like dips and incline presses.
Starting point is 01:05:04 Here's one that's not so obvious that has tremendous carry over the bench press. It's actually one of the exercises that probably in my experience, again, this is general, so everybody's different. But generally speaking, has some of the best carry over the bench press? Overhead press. Overhead press. If you're stuck at your bench press, sometimes, and I've done this before, where I didn't even focus on my bench, I focused on my overhead press,
Starting point is 01:05:26 and then right away, we'd see a game. And not a body builder military press, a full range of motion. Yeah, down the upper chest. Overhead press, you're right. I mean, another great one, you get good at that. I remember that, getting good at that carried over into my bench press.
Starting point is 01:05:41 So, I don't know, there's a lot of things that we just listed off, and I think the thing that you neglect the most out of all the ones that we said, I would say probably, and by the way, even though you guys gave chains and bands first, I actually think you check the boxes and all the other ones. Oh yeah, if you're programming sucks,
Starting point is 01:05:57 that doesn't matter. Right, like if you're not doing frequency, you're not doing the exercises that we talked about, you're not manipulating rep ranges at tempo, we didn't address that. You're trying too hard or you're trying. Yeah, it always aren't tracking properly. Not stabilizing. Yeah, hit all those. And then if you've checked all those box enough consistently than playing with cool tools, I think like we mentioned, I think are. You know, it's funny.
Starting point is 01:06:18 If you're watching this right now, try this. I bet you at least 50% of the people watching this will increase their bench press by one rep or five pounds by doing this following and it'll happen right away. Prime your shoulders with either a prone cobra or maybe like a suspension trainer W or something like that, right? Do some of that prime and connect, then go bench. It's the strangest thing. You'll all of a sudden see that small increase in strength right away. You didn't build more muscle.
Starting point is 01:06:50 All you did was turn things on differently and get things to move a little bit better. So I dare everybody to try that. I bet like I said, 50, I would bet about half of the people watching this would see their bench press go up by five pounds. That was one of my Friday fitness tips, like I don't know, a month or two ago. I agree. Next question is from Andrew Beth. Are there any common situations where a caloric deficit would not result in weight loss? Yes. Now, here it is. Ready? First of all, if you're in a calorie deficit, your body is making up for those calories by burning tissue. But how can you not wait, lose
Starting point is 01:07:22 weight from that happening? Gaining more water weight. This is where you may see your weight stay the same because you're holding more water even though you're losing body fat or even muscle. That being said, if you are in a deficit, your body has to make up the difference. Okay, so let me explain this very simple science, because I know there's people in the wellness space that deficits don't matter, which is not true, that's so false, it's ridiculous. This is like one law, right, that you can't get around. It's literally a law of the universe,
Starting point is 01:07:53 where energy cannot get created nor destroyed. In other words, it gets transferred. We can't just create it out of nothing. If there was a way to do this, we would have infinite energy and become interstell you know, interstellar being whatever. It would be awesome. Yeah, it doesn't work. So here's a deal.
Starting point is 01:08:08 Let's say your body's burning 2,000 calories. So that's how many calories your body is burning right now, 2,000, and you take in 1,500. How did your body burn 2,000 if you only took in 1,500? It took it from itself. It burned its own tissue. Usually body fat can come from other tissues, but it's usually body fat. So if you're in a calorie deficit, you will lose tissue.
Starting point is 01:08:31 Your body is taking it from itself. But if the scale doesn't go down and you're like, what's going on? And you know for sure you're in a deficit, it's water. And this one really messes people up. I can't tell you how many times it would mess up clients of mine because they come back and be like, oh my God, I gained two pounds or three pounds,
Starting point is 01:08:48 or I lost three pounds. I ate like a crazy over the weekend and I lost three pounds, what does this mean? Or vice versa and it's like, okay, let's give it a few weeks and see if it sticks because I don't know about you guys. My body weight can fluctuate five pounds in one day, just from water.
Starting point is 01:09:02 So this was something, this was something I always knew, but I didn't communicate it a lot until I went through those three years of competing and I had to track and measure and I was so diligent about everything so consistently and I saw holy shit how much. So I actually got to a place where I was fluctuating nine pounds in the night. So I would go nine, now mind you, I'm doing a gallon and a half to two gallons.
Starting point is 01:09:28 You're a big dude. Lots of muscle. Yeah, 230 pounds. So that's a lot for the average person, but it is not that far off like three to five pounds, the average person easily can fluctuate. And that is a lot. Three to five pounds in a night, you know, north or south could really fuck somebody up. That's bustin' their ass on losing weight.
Starting point is 01:09:50 And then they get on the scale the next morning, hoping that all that hard work they did the last two days is gonna show and it goes up. Talk about really discouraging for somebody who's on a weight loss journey and then talk about what a terrible signal for them to be sent to then adjust what they're doing. for somebody who's on a weight loss journey and then talk about what a terrible signal for them to be sent to then adjust what they're doing.
Starting point is 01:10:08 And this is why I became a thing that I started to communicate a lot about. They would all of a sudden change their calories off. And what is that person? We did the fat. So then that person freaks out that day, they cut their calories even more. So maybe reduce it another 500 when they didn't need to.
Starting point is 01:10:23 They get on the treadmill now for an hour later on that day. And they totally send their, their body a signal that they do not need to send. And they just make it more difficult for themselves in the future. And so you got to be careful of allowing a day or two of fluctuating up. And then you add in things too, like when, when you know if you're on your period That's gonna change. It's you add in a day where you just drank a little more water You add in a day where you had saltier food so you had higher sodium intake Like all these things can make a difference on how much water you stress you have a stressful day at work So your body starts to retain a little bit more water So all these factors can manipulate how much water your body ends up holding in a day or not, or not releasing.
Starting point is 01:11:10 And a lot of times people allow that to dictate what they do nutritionally and exercise-wise, and then they just make it worse for themselves. This is the number one reason why extremely low carb diets became so popular. It was not the only reason, but it's the number one reason because you see very fast initial weight gain with a low carb. You don't retain quite as much water when you take the carbs.
Starting point is 01:11:36 It's a lot. Every three grams of carbs that you intake your body holds on to three ounces of water. So you take somebody who's eating three, 400 grams of carbs every single day and do the math. It's ounces of water. Their body is not holding on to three ounces of water. So you take somebody who's eating three, 400 grams of carbs every single day and do the math, that's ounces of water, their body is not holding onto your mouth. I'll lose, I'll easily, if I cut my car,
Starting point is 01:11:52 and I don't eat a lot of carbs anyway, but if I cut my carbs, I'll easily lose eight pounds within a week on the scale. But I know it's water, I'm not burning eight pounds of body fat in a week. So definitely, it's definitely important to consider that. But again, deficit or surplus, me, by the way, when people say it doesn't matter,
Starting point is 01:12:11 either A, they're totally negligent, ignorant, and idiots, or B, they're confusing what may be happening. Because yes, you can adjust, you can change how many calories your body burns, which then makes it no longer a deficit or no longer a surplus. And then they'll come across me like, no, calorie surplus or deficit doesn't matter because I ate the deficit and I haven't lost any weight. Well, your body adjusted its burn.
Starting point is 01:12:36 So again, the deficit or the surplus, that ultimately it will make or break whether or not you gain or lose weight. So what you're saying is we can't create energy from nothing until we get a test rack. Yeah, totally. Okay. Next question is from Matthew Garcia. What are the best body weight exercises to build a stronger core and when to program them? You know what I'm gonna do right now?
Starting point is 01:13:01 I'm gonna give my favorite advanced core exercise. This is advanced So you need to be really strong and have good stability, but I'm gonna give one of my favorites away This was an exercise. I saw Bruce Lee doing Dragon's day. Yes, and then so Bruce Lee was I was like huge Bruce Lee fan when I was a kid I mean enter the dragon return to the dragon You know return of the dragon excuse me Chinese connection like great. I loved, enter the dragon, return to the dragon, return of the dragon, excuse me. Chinese connection, like great, I loved him. And he was really muscular for that era,
Starting point is 01:13:30 and he did all these extra things. He did dragon flags, which were really cool. And then, here's what solidified it. Rocky did it in Rocky IV. That's the one where they're doing the montage where he's getting ready for the Russian, and he's doing them on the thing, and I like that. Anyway, that exercise, if you're strong enough
Starting point is 01:13:44 and have the right stability, nothing builds my core. Literally, I'll do seven reps of that and nothing will build. There's a picture of that. And there's lots, so most people won't be able to do this, but there's actually, you can do like a regression to this. Like there's regressions that you can do, like a reverse crunch to alifting your hips off.
Starting point is 01:14:04 See your knees are just slightly bent. And kind of, yeah, or you can even do like a almost like a reverse crunch to alifting your hips off. So your knees are just slightly bent to just kind of, yeah. Yeah. Or you can even do like where your legs are straight, but you know what I'm saying, right? Where you kind of roll the spine up and then keep your legs straight. Instead of maintaining that.
Starting point is 01:14:14 Yeah, instead of maintaining it, like the dragonfly is really advanced, but there's definitely variations of this to progress you to get here that the average person could actually do that I agree have tremendous value. Now I'm gonna back out, and I'll give you my some of my favorite,
Starting point is 01:14:29 one of my favorite basic exercises. I love reverse crunches. It's one of my favorite exercises. I would have clients often start with it, because it was harder to turn into a reverse crunch into a hip flexor, set up than a forward sitting crunch or or setup. So I'd have people lay on the floor or on a bench, they would anchor their upper body, bend their knees, tuck
Starting point is 01:14:51 their knees so everything's kind of nice and tight. And then just roll their pelvis backwards off the bench and it's a great way to really work the muscles of the core. I like is a simple exercise, the perfect setup. And just because I can, you know, you can sort of highlight the connectivity between like each one of your abs and like really focusing on bringing that sternum down towards your belly button and getting that, you know, that sensation and that crunch and feeling there in the core and really isolating it. And then another one, well, I was going to bring up levers like for like an extreme version
Starting point is 01:15:25 of what you're talking about with the dragon flags, but you can do that with a pull-up bar and sort of work your way up with that. Again, to your point, you can bend your knees and you can kind of slowly, it's more of an eccentric type of a move where you're really stabilizing your entire body. The other one that's really a lot more simple
Starting point is 01:15:43 than that is the hollow body position and that's basically, a lot of people do planks and they're familiar with planks and that isometric position in terms of like stabilizing the spine, getting your core activated, well, you know, flipping on your backs and now your legs are just slightly up, your toes are pointed, your arms are behind your head and your fingers are pointed. It just helps to kind of connect the entire body at once.
Starting point is 01:16:08 So if I have that ability, that translates so well to basically any position I put you in. So perfect setup was the one I was gonna say and I just think that that lays the foundation for like every other app exercise you're going to do that having the ability to articulate your spine like that slow and controlled, not only is it extremely challenging,
Starting point is 01:16:29 but it's so beneficial to everything else. The other one that I'd add in there because, and I thought for sure, you were gonna steal both from me, Justin, is to I like a cable wood chop, you know? Oh yeah, well. I just, because you can load it quite a bit. Very function.
Starting point is 01:16:43 Yeah, the rotational strength unit, the anti-rotational strength that comes from it, very functional. I just, there's, and rotation is rarely ever trained in core workouts. So those would go, those would be like my two favorite, or I like what you did with the dragonfly,
Starting point is 01:16:58 or like a regression of that, like those. And then where do you program it was the rest of this question? Well, typically, either on a day, it's on its own or at the end of a workout. And here's why. Now I know if you have a weak body part, it's important to prioritize that body part and work at first in a workout. The problem with the core and doing that with the core is you need it to be stable for
Starting point is 01:17:22 almost everything that you do. It's not a great idea to start a workout with core. Fetigue your core, then you go on to work out your legs or your back or upper body and the risk of injuries tends to go up. So typically at the end of the workout, two or three days a week, maybe six sets for core, I would incorporate some rotation,
Starting point is 01:17:42 don't neglect rotation, and some kind of a rolling forward or rolling back exercise. Physioball crunches are another really good one. You gotta do them right though. Active planks is another really good exercise, but something that targets the abs so that you're bringing the ribcage
Starting point is 01:17:59 and the pelvis closer together, so that's any movement that does that. So that could be a crunch, a reverse crunch, it could be a perfect sit up, and then something with Rotation and the cable chop is a great or bands, you know that rotation is so important and if you watch people's core workouts They almost never include rotation either a because It's not a popular way to train your core or b because they're misinformed and say and they think oh
Starting point is 01:18:23 If I work my obliques, I'm gonna get a bigger waste. God forbid. So stupid. That's so dumb. Please train your obliques like you trained in the muscle. They're very important and the stronger and more defined your obliques are, the better your core will look.
Starting point is 01:18:37 Next question is from Nate B. How do I increase compliance with my clients? Oh, yeah. This is it. You know what's funny? Of all the questions I get from trainers. Don't learn from the government. Beat them.
Starting point is 01:18:49 This has to be one of the more common ones. Versions of this, right? Like, how do I get my clients to do? You know, when I tell them, how do I get my clients to eat better? How do I get my clients to show up more at the gym? Okay, so here's what I would have said to you 15 years ago. What I would have said is you have to inspire them,
Starting point is 01:19:08 you have to motivate them, you have to really present the case really well, get them to do what you want, call them every day. And then I realized that that was a terrible strategy because although if you're good and I was great, so one thing I'll say is I can sell an idea very, very well. This is something that I'm always been able to do pretty well. So I could get my clients to buy in right away
Starting point is 01:19:31 and I was really good at this, but I would get them to buy in with inspiration, motivation. That would wane, either because they weren't working with me anymore or because it wanes because that's just what happens. And then they would stop. And I realized this is a failing strategy. I can motivate them all day long.
Starting point is 01:19:47 It's not gonna last forever. My goal is to get this person to do things forever. So what I started to do was meet them where they were at. And I would inform them, I would support them. And whatever they could commit to, I would do the best job of providing the best service and value. And then what would
Starting point is 01:20:05 happen was magical. They would slowly improve their compliance on their own. Some people who would take a year or two, other people who would take a few months, but I had so much success by telling my clients, okay, here's what'll get you where you want to go, oh, you want to start there, that's no problem, we could do a lot with that. And then I would be that guy. I'd train them, support them. I'd be honest with them. Oh my God. Why am I not losing weight? So well, it's because the diet part, I'd be honest with them, but I wouldn't force them.
Starting point is 01:20:33 I wouldn't sit there and try and, you know, you know, inspire and motivate them and drive them to do what I wanted. And then little by little, they'd come to me and be like, Hey, Sal, I want to do this thing with my nutrition. Hey, Sal, I'd like to show up to another workout. Oh, hey, I've been doing this this thing with my nutrition. Hey, Sal, I'd like to show up to another workout. Oh, hey, I've been doing this other exercise on my own. And little by little, these people magically did all the right stuff, took a little longer, but it stuck, it stuck forever.
Starting point is 01:20:54 Well, isn't the difficulty in the beginning is that you're reliant a lot of times because you're business model of bringing them into the gym. And so it's like this urgency in this hustle to have them in front of you, have control. A lot of it is a control issue. I think that a lot of personal trainers have
Starting point is 01:21:15 in terms of even this word compliance. It's this assumption that they're gonna be doing all these things that you're telling them. And you're the biggest part of the piece in this entire puzzle of them moving forward. And it took me a long time to pull myself out of that entire equation. And to do what you're talking about in terms of like providing
Starting point is 01:21:40 the right kind of information, being available constantly, making sure they know that they can rely on me. But guess what, if you don't show up, it's completely on you. And I actually like flipped my business model on its head, so that way they were in that same understanding that they know that I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna be professional.
Starting point is 01:22:03 I'm gonna take them through, win their ready, wherever they're at, you know, what they're willing to commit to. I'm definitely going to be there if they don't show up, you know, that's something they have to wrestle with themselves. This is their journey. This is entirely their process.
Starting point is 01:22:21 I just want to keep reassuring them. I'm going to be here. I have the tools for you to get through this, you know, on the other side. It's basically, you know, instead of like being there casting, you know, the fishing rod for them, like I'm teaching them how to fish and do this all themselves and then removing myself. Way more successful. Yeah. I'm going to pick you back off of what Sal said, but probably say it a little bit different,
Starting point is 01:22:47 than the meeting them where they're at, type of deal. Is anytime you learn something new, whether it be a sport or a new habit or behavior, it's like part of what makes people wanna keep doing that is the experience that they have from it. And normally if it's a positive experience that they have, they're more likely to come back
Starting point is 01:23:06 and do it again. Like if you go play a sport for first time and you get your ass handed to you or you don't like it, it's a miserable experience, you fail at it, you fail at it, it's really tough to get up and want to do that again. That's the same thing when it comes to working out. And so what I want to do is I want to create a ton of small wins. So it's kind of like the same thing that you're talking about. So but when I set these goals, I'm going to set things that I know that they can get they can accomplish. So we can just start adding up all these little wins. So to give them momentum and to encourage them to want to do more and comply to more things that I'm going to throw their way. If you lay something out, it's this super complex,
Starting point is 01:23:44 hard, tons of workouts, tons of diet and calorie stuff to follow, and you give them all, there's a small percentage of people that, okay, they get that, and maybe the engineer mind that really likes that, and they're like, okay, I got all the details. I know exactly what to do, that's not most people. Most people are not like that.
Starting point is 01:24:01 Most people look at that and go like, it's like sitting down with a kid, trying to teach them football for the first time and you're teaching them all these defensive schemes, all these different stances, how to throw those this, and how to do it. And like you're teaching them like 50 things at once and you're like, oh my God, this is overwhelming.
Starting point is 01:24:14 It's like literally give them one thing, one goal you're gonna give them right now that you know is an easy win that they can accomplish either that day or the next day or within that first week. And then you build upon that. And what you'll see is if you can build that momentum, you'll see the compliance start to go up versus
Starting point is 01:24:31 trying to throw everything at them at once. It's 100%. And when I pieced it to get, I mean, I had a client once, I remember when she showed up, she was referred to me by one of my other clients that was a doctor. And she came in and literally, these were the first words out of her mouth. I introduced myself and she said, I don't like to work out.
Starting point is 01:24:47 I'm here because Dr. So-and-so has told me numerous times I gotta come see you. I'm only gonna work with you once a week. I'm not gonna do anything on my own and I'm not changing my diet. Those were the first things out of her mouth when she met me. Old trainer, Sal would have blown her out the door.
Starting point is 01:25:01 Well, you're not gonna do it, I say, you're not a student, whatever. Instead, I said, no problem. There's a lot we could do with one day a week, definitely more than what you're doing now, which is zero. And she looked at me like, really? I can only have to come once a week. I said, yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 01:25:14 If you're not working at it all now, with once a week, there's a lot of stuff that we can do together. Now, here's the key, here's the interesting part about this story. After about two years, or through the course of two years, this woman met with me two more days a week, started working out on her own, started working on her nutrition,
Starting point is 01:25:32 became a certified personal trainer. This was over the course of two years because I met her where she was and I provided her a ton of value. It also reminds me of, I have a family member who was very talented at soccer when he was a kid, but his dad was a very high level soccer player in Italy. So when he was a kid, his dad was like super soccer coach. No, you got to do it this way. You got to
Starting point is 01:25:58 do it that way. He'd bring him to all these games and he just overbearing. Well, this family member of mine hated soccer because of it and quit when he was 12. Later on at the age of 30, he looks back and he goes, man, if my dad was cool about it, he goes, I would have been playing, I would have gone to college and had a scholarship and I would have loved it.
Starting point is 01:26:16 Because, but he made it such a shitty experience that I ended up quitting. Now he's a dad himself and he's different with his kids. So think of it that way. By the way, the advice that we're giving to the coach right now works when you coach yourself. Okay, here's, this is the, the, the important part of this. When you're trying to coach yourself and get yourself to do this new thing.
Starting point is 01:26:37 Okay, it's the same thing. Say to yourself, what is a small challenging yet realistic step that I can take right now or in a state of mind that is not motivated? I'm going to start there. Do that and then watch the natural progression happen from there. If you do everything all at once, your chances of long-term success are less than 10%. That's statistically true, so less than 10%. So whatever advice we're giving to this trainer right now, apply it to yourself for better
Starting point is 01:27:07 long-term odds of success. Look, if you like our information, you've got to head over to MindPumpFree.com and check out all of our guides. We have guides that can help you with almost all of your fitness, nutrition, and health goals. You can also find all of us on Instagram. So Justin is at MindPump Justin. I'm at MindPump Sal and Adam is at MindPump Adam. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your
Starting point is 01:27:28 body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pump Media dot com. The RGB Superbundle includes MAPS and Ebola, MAPS Performance and M 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 Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com.
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