Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1758: How to do Drop Sets, the Benefits of Straight Arm Vs. Bent Arm Side Lateral Raises, the Pros & Cons of Taking Time Off From the Gym & More

Episode Date: February 25, 2022

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin answer Pump Head questions about how to do drop sets properly, the difference and/or benefits between doing side raises with straight arms vs. bent elbows, the pros and cons of taking a couple weeks off from the gym entirely, and how long one should supplement with Ashwagandha. Mind Pump Fit Tip: Eating a lot of protein can be KILLING your bulk. (3:40) Sal, give the fans what they want. (17:34) Men are pigs. (21:33) When to and not to take a stand as a parent with your children. (28:07) Vuori is CRUSHING the athleisure wear market! (42:27) More Americans today own crypto than savings accounts! (44:58) #Quah question #1 - How do you drop sets properly? (49:21) #Quah question #2 – What's the difference and/or benefits between doing side raises with straight arms vs. bent elbows? (56:16) #Quah question #3 - What are the pros and cons of taking a couple of weeks off from the gym entirely? (1:02:23) #Quah question #4 - How long should I supplement with Ashwagandha for? (1:06:36) Related Links/Products Mentioned February Promotion: MAPS Performance and MAPS Aesthetic 50% off!! **Promo code “FEB50” at checkout** NCI Certifications x Mind Pump Mind Pump x NCI Mentorship Coaching The Myth of Optimal Protein Intake – Mind Pump Blog Mind Pump #1220: The 4 Best Sources Of Protein Visit Magic Spoon for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Visit Paleo Valley for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code “Mindpump15” at checkout for 15% discount** Visit Vuori Clothing for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! More Americans owned crypto than savings accounts: Study Visit MASSZYMES by biOptimizers for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code “MINDPUMP10” at checkout** MAPS P.E.D. How To Dumbbell Lateral Raise - The Right Way! (BIG SHOULDERS!) - Mind Pump TV Summary of Ashwagandha Visit Organifi for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code “MINDPUMP” at checkout** Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Kyle And Natasha Kingsbury (@livingwiththekingsburys)  Instagram

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. 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? Today's episode, we answered some fitness and health questions that were asked by our audience. But we opened the episode with an intro where we talk about current events, talk about our families, we bring up scientific studies

and we mention our sponsors. Today's intro was 46 minutes long. After that, we got to the fitness stuff. So here's what went down in today's episode. We opened up by talking about how eating a lot of protein can actually make bulking more challenging. We also talk about how I am now snoring because my bulk personally is effective.

It's working, but now I'm snoring, so I'm gonna have to chill out on that. By the way, one of the ways that I'm helping myself gain muscle mass is by using paleo-valley bone broth protein. The reason why I like their protein is it's the easiest digesting protein I've ever had in my entire life. There's literally no ingredients in it,

except for bone broth protein. So I can handle 60 grams at a time and it feels like water on my digestive system. Really remarkable. Go check them out. Head over to mindpumppartners.com. Click on Paleo Valley and then use the code Mind Pump 15 for 15% off your first order. Then I talk about how men are pigs. It's true.

They are. I experienced it myself. Adam talked about his son's new tantrums that he's starting to throw. Good times coming. Then I talked about how active wear is going to be growing predicted to grow by 25 or 26% by the year 2026. That let us talk about our sponsor, Viori, which makes Athlete's your where for men and women. It's one of the leading companies in the space. It's exploded over the last few years because the quality is incredible.

The comfort is amazing, and they have this incredible guarantee. Go check them out, head over to mindpumppartners.com. Click on Viori, that's V-U-R-I, and you'll get 20% off your first order. Then we talked about how more Americans today own crypto than have savings accounts, true story. Then we got to the question. So here's the first one. This person wants to know how you do drop sets properly. That's the first

question. The second question, this person wants to know the difference between straight arm laterals and bent arm laterals for the shoulders. The third question, this person wants to know what the pros and cons are of taking a couple weeks off from the gym entirely. And then the final question, this person wanted to know about the supplement Ashwaganda. How long should they take it for? Also, four days left for our huge February sale.

So two very popular workout programs are 50% off. The first one is Maps Performance. This is an athletic minded workout program. So you train like an athlete, perform like an athlete, look like an athlete. It's unconventional exercises. It's a lot of fun. If you're the person that likes to look good,

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both maps performance and maps aesthetic eating a lot of protein could be killing your bulk right let's talk about bulking and a lot of protein. Just refuses to say gains. I know. Well, you know why? It's specifically about, it's specific about bulking because you know, it's funny. So I got, what did I do to kill your gains, dude? No. In bulking, yeah. I was, yeah. No, so here's, here's why I was talking to somebody the other day. I think it was on a, oh no, here's what it was. I was on the NCI group last night with the trainers and coaches. And there was a young lady on there that was talking about having a client that was a hard gainer. It was a female client, really skinny, who feels really full eating anything over 1200 calories. Yeah. And she's like,

what do I do? It's going to be really hard for her to eat more than 1200 calories. She's super full and she's got a super fast, or based on her appetite, her metabolism's faster than what she's eating. We can't get her to gain any muscle. I said, well, how much, what's her protein intake like? And she said, oh, we're aiming for a gram of protein per pound of body weight. And I said, that might be the problem. Yeah, she's eating all protein.

And from natural sources, too. Yeah. And so here's the issue with bulking is that yes, a high protein diet does help with muscle gains. It's also the most satiating macronutrient. Protein will kill your appetite faster than carbs or fats much faster. So if you're eating a high calorie diet and you're you have a fast metabolism, you're trying to put on size and you're eating a lot of protein can make it very, very challenging.

Now, the interesting thing is studies show that high protein or really high protein is more important on a cut than it is on a bulk, right? So when you're bulking, as long as you're eating like 0.6, 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight, and your calories are above surplus, you're doing fine, it's when you're cutting that you want the higher protein because it preserves muscle and it of course helps

with appetite. But I remember this with myself as a kid trying to eat more food, if I ate too much protein, it was to kill my appetite. I get, that couldn't eat. It becomes a chore really fast. And that's where, I think supplement companies, you know, really like peered into that and tried to make it. So you get as many calories as possible

and try to make it palatable so you could consume like 1100 calories in one sitting. But man, you'd pay the price as you're digesting it. Well, I really think there's a fine line here because I also went through the phase where I was eating plenty of calories But I wasn't getting in a bowl. Yeah, but I wasn't getting enough protein. Yeah Yeah, you're right. There's I'm not saying low protein. Right. Right. So it is like this It's that's why it's not that simple right like I think sometimes The fitness space oversimplifies it like oh you just got to get your protein and and I remember when we first started the podcast We would go back and forth on this,

because it's like, I'm really careful about that message, because I know that a majority of my clients didn't get enough protein. But then if I'm talking to a hardcore fitness person who knows protein is like this magical macro-nutrient that helps you build muscle, they over-consume. And sometimes they over-consume so much that it fucks digestion, and then they have a hard time

bulking or putting on muscle. So there really is like this sweet spot that you want to be at and I feel like a lot of people tend to be on the extremes. They don't, they, they, they grossly under eat it. So that's why they're not building any muscle or they eat so much of it chasing it, thinking that it's the magical macronutrient. And then their digestion is kind of fucked up and then they can't, or they just have their appetite just doesn't allow them right? Like, like, them right like like it's a satiate yeah and the example of

this young woman that we were talking about I think she was I think she said she was like 109 pounds and I said you know if she eats 75 grams of protein that would be plenty for her body weight and then she could eat the rest of the calories in more palatable carbohydrates and fats because those don't hammer your appetite Nearly as much. I mean, this is even for the case with me when I'm trying to gain You know, I wait right now. I'm maybe closer to 215 215 grams of protein for me if it's from food in particular because I can add shakes and shakes don't do this as much but if I eat 215 grams of protein in food, my appetite is shot.

It is really hard. Yeah, so I know we've given in the advice in terms of like trying to cut down where we start with protein. Would you reverse that in this situation where you're trying to like go carbs, you know, and then fattening protein in terms of the order of it?

Yeah, it depends on the person. If it's one of those situations where you're, and you know, I think it's important to paint the context that I'm talking about people who are challenged with eating enough calories to be in a surplus. Yeah, that's who we're talking about. Yeah, so if it's easy, if a surplus is easy for you then maybe this is not that big of a deal.

But if you're somebody's like, man, I can't eat enough and it's really hard for me to eat all the calories that I need to in order to gain any additional muscle. In that particular case, I would say, okay, so long as we're getting, you know, about like I said, 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight. After that, go for the more easily digestible, palatable macronutrients, carbohydrates,

and even fats, right? Fats and carbohydrates, especially when you combine them with salt or a little bit of sweetness, are very palatable. Protein is just, and we know it's for fact, it's a fact. It will bring down your appetite. I mean, you eat a bunch of chicken, especially lean chicken or lean protein,

and you're just like, I can't eat anymore. Well, I also think this is, here's an example, right, of where, and something that we don't advocate for, but where it sometimes makes sense is eating processed foods and foods that are super palatable. More palatable. Yeah, just because it's, I mean, I did that when I was trying to hit my, when I calories had to be like

4,000 plus, it was just, it was, It's hard, man. Yeah, it was impossible to do it with all whole foods. I mean, maybe I could do that once in a while, but consistently to maintain that muscle mass that I have me, I had to pile on. But the thing that I did was, I just, I made it a rule that,

okay, I'm gonna get like all of my protein intake that I need through whole foods and natural sources, and then I'll pile the calories on after that. Like, so it was like, okay, I still was eating, a bulk of my nutrition was coming from clean, quote unquote foods, and then it was like, okay, I still was eating a bulk of my nutrition was coming from clean, quote unquote foods. And then it was like, okay, I just had this dinner. It'd be really tough for me to have another, and I hit, let's say I hit all my protein,

what I need to as far as hitting my protein targets. But I'm like, short of thousand calories. Be really hard for me to have a double or triple serving of the dinner I just had, but I definitely could sit down and have some ice cream. I could definitely get a sit down and have like magic spoon cereal. I could definitely do something that was super palatable

like that or a process that would help me do it. And I know we don't for health, it's not the ideal thing for you to do, but for someone who's really struggling with putting weight on or bulking, that was a strategy that I found I had to do in order to break through that that struggle. Yeah, for me, it's like,

as long as I hit right now 150 to 170 grams of protein through food, then I'll eat the rest in more palatable macros. Like I'll have potatoes and I'll even fry the potatoes sometimes, white rice is good, and I'll add butter to the rice which makes it more palatable and salt. And then at the end of the day, for me it's easier to add a shake for the protein.

Because if I have a lot of protein from whole natural foods, my appetite's it's done. I just can't eat anymore. So that's what I'll do if I'm still chasing protein. But what would happen sometimes is, when I was, again, back to the 4,000, 5,000 calorie days, I'd hit my 220 grams of protein, at like, say, 3,000 calorie mark.

But then I knew I needed another 1,000 calorie. I'm throwing those stuff on. Yeah, that's where I would slap on the ice cream or do something like that to keep my calorie high. I remember I had a client just like this, and it was somebody who, and it was a woman who just, I don't know if you guys, and this is not super common, right? It's nine out of 10 times it's the opposite.

It's somebody has an issue with eating too much. But every once in a while you get a challenge where you have somebody who's, and they're, they're being very sincere. It's like, I just don't, I can't eat anymore. Like I feel like I'm stuffed and, and, you know, I'm just not hungry. And I remember I had a client like this, and I kept pushing the protein, and she's like, Sal, after I eat the chicken breast and stuff that you tell me, I can't eat anymore. And then I said, you know, let's try cutting your protein down a little bit, and seeing if we can get more calories

by doing that, and it totally works. She was able to eat more food as a result, and then gain some muscle. And again, the studies show this, that the upper limit for most people, for gains from protein, is around 0.6.7 grams per pound of body weight if you're relatively lean. More than that, and you really don't get any additional benefit. Now, the additional benefit you may get for meeting more than that is really good when you're cutting because there seems to be a muscle

preserving effect when your calories are low. And also the appetite suppressant effect that you get from protein, that's really handy when you're trying to cut. But when you're doing the other side of that, oh, that can make it really harder. And what's the theory or the science behind that? It's that when you're low calorie, I mean, your calories is what gets converted over into sugar and energy and fuel. Because you're low calorie, you have minimal amount of that. So then the body starts looking for other resources. I'm assuming that's why a higher protein diet in a calorie deficit is more advantageous

than a higher protein diet in a bulk. Yeah, I'm gonna say this very carefully because context matters. I'm gonna get somebody who's gonna get all, but I mean for the general population to get an understanding of that's kinda how I would try and explain. Yeah, and really protein, again, I'm gonna get somebody who's gonna get all, but I mean for the general population to get an understanding of how I would try and explain it. Yeah, and really protein, again, I'm gonna be careful with this because context matters quite a bit.

And it's not, as cut and dry as it's gonna sound right now, but protein has an anabolic effect. High protein has a pro muscle building effect. So it's like you're sending a build muscle signal while you're also cutting calories. And cutting calories generally is a get rid of muscle signal. Caterbolic. It's catabolic, right? Because your body's always trying to balance the energy and a great way for it to do

is reduce muscle because muscle is expensive. It burns a lot of calories. So eating high protein in that particular state tends to preserve more muscle. Now the reason why I'm careful with this is because people will hear this and be like, oh cool, the more protein the better and I'm going to build more muscle if I just eat a ton of protein. It's not that simple. But yeah, when you're cutting, you have a muscle preserving effect when you do that.

And when you're in a bulk, you don't need as many grams of protein to build muscle. It's just because you're already in a surplus, it's not nearly as important. High protein is important. Just, you know, the super high protein intake doesn't really make that big difference. Well, just simply being in a calorie surplus that we now switch from being, you know, you're in a deficit, you're in a catabolic state when you're in a surplus, you're in an animal state. Yes. So just simply being in a surplus, you're already pro building or pro adding, right? Totally. So that makes sense, right? And when you're low like that,

your body's looking for other resources for fuel. Yeah, it's interesting to me too, but just even on the training side of it, like how people don't really attribute, or think about the muscle preserving strategies in terms of like when you're in a cut, like all they wanna do is like cut down. And so they're trying to reduce calories

and then get high intensity movement, almost cardiovascular-based type of exercises instead of focusing more on actual strength training to provide that signal that we still need the muscle there. The key to cutting, 100% is muscle preservation. That's the key. Focus all your energy on muscle preservation while you're in a deficit and you are more likely to end up leaner from a body fat perspective.

Do you guys see that message very often in this space? No, they don't. They're never. No, the message is very much like this scale. How much weight you lost, how much size you lost, are you smaller, that type of deal. Muscle preservation is the most important thing whenever you're trying to get lean. Because what you don't want to do is you don't want,

especially this. That's all your work you're losing. Yeah, and regardless if you're, and I don't care if your goal is to look sculpted or not, you don't want to end up at the end of a weight loss journey with a significantly slower metabolism. Good luck maintaining that, right?

So you're eating 2,500 calories a day and you're overweight, you lost 30 pounds, now you're eating 2,500 calories a day and you're overweight. You lost 30 pounds, now you're eating 1,200 calories a day, and that's what you gotta eat to maintain. That's a big difference, and that's forever. That's a tough position to be in. That's usually why we see you. You know what was really tough for me,

and I don't think I've shared this on the show before, was after using all those strategies to push calories for as long as I did during the competitive years, was now that my metabolism is so different than what it was then, is breaking behaviors, eating behaviors. Like I had to train an example of what. That's a tough one. Like an example of an extreme one, right?

I got to a point where for at least four or five years there that if I ordered like a five guys, it was always two double, double burgers and whatever else on the side, right? And when I'm slamming four, five thousand calories, that's only like 1,600 calories. It's just a fraction of my day or what are you doing? It's actually helping you.

Yeah, and it would be high protein, and so I would need it for the day where, and because I got so used to doing that, that if, you know, and now like, oh, Katrina and I would just order five guys the other day. And, you know, it's the, my natural thing is that, or two of those, it's like, but I mean, I'm like more like 3,000 calories a day right now.

But, you know, for the longest time, I would still do that. I would still go back and still order that, and then way over consume, but think I would still do that. I would still go back and still order that and then way over consume. But think I need to eat that much. It took me a while to get out of that mindset of I don't need that much anymore. And just one of those will satisfy me. It'll give me my color, can take I need.

But I train myself so hard on always pushing the calories for such a consistent period of time that you get these habits of certain dishes that you eat or what that and the serving size that you would do it in. Totally. And the reverse is true. Right. Yeah.

Right now, right? I've been trying to bulk. It's been really hard. Now, my metabolism's way faster than it's been a long time, especially ever since starting TRT. So, I've gained some muscle. Metabolism's really fast. My gut health has always been the limiting factor, or should I say for the last maybe eight to 10 years,

it's been a limiting factor. And there's been some stuff that I've done over the last year or so, my gut health seems to be really good. So I'm pushing calories and it's really weird and really hard because my eating habits were the way they were for so long. Where I didn't eat all the time.

I didn't have to worry about eating all the time. It was better from my gut health than that's what it was in my metabolism. Now it's like, holy cow, man, I got a, my goal was to see if I can go from 210 to 220 or so, gained 10 pounds. And I'm sitting at 215 right now and there's no way. There's no way, I'm gonna be able to, no way.

I don't want to. It's way too much food. You know what's been happening? I'm sitting at 2.15 right now and there's no way. There's no way. I'm gonna be able to, no way. I don't want to. It's way too much food. You know what happened? You know what's been happening? I'm snoring now. I'm snoring at night now. On my side, I'll sleep on my side.

Last night I wake up in the middle of the night. My wife's not in bed. I'm like, where should go? She went in my daughter's room to go to sleep. Well remember, we used to get shit all the time on the podcast because she would hear me breathing back in the early days when we first started the podcast. Like that was like, well, we get criticized for that all the time

because I feel like, and everyone we had was it, who do we have here? Jordan Shallow. Oh, Shallow. You took the drum roll under the butt. Yeah, yeah. He's a heavy breathing.

Shallow is like that. You're just sitting up in there. He's a big guy, though. Yeah. I feel like everybody has a different threshold, too. I don't think my body is getting over 210 for me is really hard, right? Some people over 210, no problem.

And they feel comfortable for me. I'm like forcing my body. I don't think it's that good. Oh, watching you right now, it so reminds me of show years, because the way you have to eat, to just to maintain your size right now. It's silly. It's like having a whole nother job on top of the...

It's expensive, it's silly. It takes up a lot of time Yeah, it looks cool though. It's fun for a second dude. I mean I never showed off So I had no I got a I want you to use that for marketing reasons. We make some money man. I had a pump today. That was I I have fans with it. This hasn't happened to me in years give the fans what they want No, listen, I had a hashtag.

I had a pump today where I couldn't. I washed my clothes on you. I couldn't change my shirt. Remember that? I haven't had that in a years where you get such a pump that you're like, try and do your shirt and you can't do it. But you know what I've been doing? That's helped a lot is at the end of the day,

I add protein if I need it. Yeah. And the only one that I can do that doesn't really make me feel like, oh my god, I'm so stuck. Is the bone broth protein. The bone broth one. Yeah, from paleo. I can throw, I can have, you know, 60 grams serving of protein with that.

And it's like water. It's super smooth. Easy. It's just because there's nothing in it. It's just, there's no flavor, there's no color. So you use it, so I haven't used it. I'm so terrible, right? Yeah, I haven't tried you,

but I know you both get a little more upset with the way. Although I do notice things when I've had, I've told you before, I've had multiple things a day of way, but I haven't been, I haven't messed with that yet. Do you say, I just like water, it doesn't taste like a professional. No, no, no, no, no, you taste it. You taste like bone broth. There's no, there's no flavor.

Yeah, there's no nothing in Yeah. There's no nothing. And it's literally just, have you thought of making it like in like a super stew or something like that? You can. Like something you would use like a normal broth. We tried that with like a chicken soup. Oh, you guys are. So yeah, I wonder if you have you tried it.

I haven't. I'm just, you know, I'm trying it. Yeah, was it good? Yeah. No, I just mix it with water, but I could have, I literally a 60 gram shake, drink it, and 10 minutes later, it's like I drink water. Wow. Versus if I do other proteins, 40 grams is where I'm at.

If I go like 60, it doesn't matter what the source is. Don't you, do you pour it in your rice, right? Oh, if I do, yeah, if I make it into a hot broth, yeah, then you can use that instead of... I've done that before, but not with the Paleo Valley protein powder. I did that back when, but not with the paleovali protein powder. I did that back when we were working with a kettle and fire. That would make the protein rice that you talked about.

That I really liked. I thought it actually tasted really good. Oh, dude, speaking of showing off or whatever. So yesterday was the day in the life, right? So I'm posting stuff. And usually if I'm doing a workout, I'll do like a flexing pick or whatever, put it up there for my ego. Anyway, so I did an ab shot right and this is I've

done this now a few times where I'll flex the you know the abs or whatever literally what percentage of Lude DMs do you think come from men versus men all men. Why? I've been saying this this day one what I used to say was like four dicks to one one boot set of boots just like that. Guys are just for the one likely to throw it out there. Yeah, like it's just in in in our nature It's 10 to zero. There's no 10 to zero it's dudes and they'll say shit and it's the same guys. They'll say some shit. Oh, hot

Like I don't even respond So okay, so I get why women are so the girls don't do that. They they They're just a little more subtle. Yeah, they're just, they're a little more subtle. Yeah, they're more subtle. That's what I was looking for, right? Like guys are like, hey, I like you, I wanna put it in your butt. Yeah.

They're like direct, like, whoa bro, like. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We're girls in her first, right? Yeah, well, the girl will say something, she'll compliment like something. Like, oh, your hair looks really nice. Yeah. Oh, that lighting really compliments you.

You know, so it's your show, you know. Dude, dude's are bad, dude. And it's like, you know, whenever, whenever that happens, I know, like I could tell, I could feel for women, right? I would devour those clothes off you. Right. Well, guys say shit like that.

Dude, I say fucking old and dumb. I don't even say have to shit, like, I get seeing some of these DMs. And I don't say nothing. And I go back and like every time you say something terrible to me, I never respond to you to keep going. You persistent pig. No, it's funny because when I was younger,

I remember I would hear like, girls or women talk like complain about guys cat calling them. And I remember thinking like, what are you complaining about? If I was walking on the street and girls were like cat calling me, I would think it's awesome. And then I remember I had a female employee, she was talking about how come into work

and some dude was saying something to her and I said that back to her. And she said, it's different. And I'm like, what do you mean? And she goes, do you feel threatened by the girls? I'm like, no. And she says, yeah, because they can't do shit to you. If you don't want them to, they can't.

No. And she goes, imagine walking through a room with a bunch of big buff dudes that are after you and they're saying stuff now How do you feel I'm like oh, I guess you're right? I feel like that with the DMs of these I've shared remember when I share that story about Kyle that's it. I mean we joke about that story. No, I'm sure we joke about that story But there's there's a lot of truth to that like Like never in my life had that ever clicked for me, because I agree with you, I thought the same way too, it's like, oh, they're complimenting, they mean no harm, but there is a lot of truth to that. Like if you're a 105 pound little girl

and some group of three dudes that are 230, 240 or Hollernatch, you like, there is a very, even if they mean well and they're just floating. It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, it's still threatening, there's still a threatening, you know, feeling that you get from that. And I just, that never really fully connected for me. It's still Kyle Kiesbury.

Yeah. They're back a little. Yeah. I had that. Hey, Justin, what should I do feeling? You know, Justin and I were there and I'm like, we can't help you, bro. Yeah.

You hold us down too. Oh, you know, let's sit back. I'll get the popcorn right here. So it gave me a whole different perspective on that. And men are persistent and they don't, I remember reading this study, where if a woman says something to a man that's nice, he's far more likely to think that she wants to hook up

with him versus if a man says something nice to a woman. And the evolutionary, I guess explanation was wants to hook up with him versus if a man says something nice to a woman. And the evolutionary, I guess, explanation was that men assume more often because that'll give them more opportunities. They're going to be wrong a lot. Well, we're always looking for that. Yeah, and so they're going to be, so, but at least the odds are, they're going to be right sometimes and then they'll get to mate or whatever.

I had a buddy who worked with me. I'll never forget this guy. And I'm trying to think, I don't know if Justin had him as a counselor for a little bit. Anyways, he would literally pick up on at least 10 girls a day. Like just, and I'd always say, like, no. I'm just so cold with people on me. I didn't say his last name. Who's Michael?

I don't wanna tell you his last name. Oh, that guy was aggressive. So, but he was, I mean, sweet, nice guy, what about that? But he was just like, I mean, he would don't want to tell you I was aggressive so he and but he was I mean sweet nice guy what about that But he was just like I mean he would literally walk over to one of the gym and I would see him like try and get a number And then not even five minutes later be walking on the other side of the gym trying to try to get and then his whole logic and There's numbers. Yeah, it's a numbers game. He says you know I heard you out of 10 will say we'll say yes, and so you know, I just I just every day We'll talk to like 10 of them eventually.

It's a valid strategy that works, but at the same time, it's like, do you really want to be that guy? Yeah, I look at you. Well, I know some guys don't mind. You know, shame to your game, dude. And the truth is, it teaches, first off, yeah, I don't want to be that guy.

However, it does teach guys to be okay with rejection. You have to learn that. Well, isn't that a young man so improving your hands? You have to learn that because when you're at a dance in junior high or high school, it's starting to change, but it's still a little bit. Well, isn't that the theory on why why more men do sales is because they handle the sales. Yeah, just sales is just a thing. They handle rejection there, right? Is that why, isn't that why? The majority of sales people are men. That's the theory of logical theory.

Yeah, it's the theory because like I said, you're the junior high dance or high school dance. More guys are gonna go and approach the girl to ask them for dance and they're more likely to get a no, right? Girls typically don't approach guys, not nearly as much. And they're more likely to get a no, right? Girls typically don't approach guys, not nearly as much. And if they do and they get a no, it tends to be a little bit more devastating because they're not as used to it, I guess.

Where the guys are just like, oh. Well, into the approach is different. It feels a lot more like friendship, you know, I don't know if this is my own experience, but I've been approached some time. It was mixed signals. I didn't know that they're like trying to, you know, get further along.

It just felt more like, let's hang out, you know, like, you're talking about you getting trapped in the friend's own? No, I'm talking about like, when a girl actually wanted to go on a date. Oh, oh, oh. But the way that they asked was like very, like, not as direct as a guy with me.

Yeah, well, just like the Florida, like I was saying, I was like, sounds not getting 10 to zero, it's just the women aren't like as aggressive as the guys are. It's like different type of flirting. They're smarter. Yeah, about it. We're playing the long game.

The guys, I just throw it out there. See what I, oh, he didn't respond this time. I'll try again next week. The girls are like, let me crack the door open and see if he steps in. Time to go. I don't give off that vibe.

I got happily married man, but the guys don't give a shit. That's all I'm gonna say. Speaking of happily married, I wanna start this story with that just in case. Oh. He's like, I used to be. Ear muffs Katrina.

Yeah, I'd be like, I'm trying to like, I just want to make sure that I don't get roasted for this one later on because we are just talking about, what was it we were talking about? Toys in the kids. Oh, that's right. um what was it we were talking about toys toys in the kids Oh, that's right. So in the podcast we were talking about that and I always try and tell Katrina Before air so she doesn't feel like she gets blindsided by a story at that. So We're talking about the tantrum thing and and the toys and and she's talking about how like oh he's fine

It's just we just had Christmas and we had family we didn't see and so I totally lost that argument I'm like okay, oh yeah, this was when we were we were talking about how you thought you just had Christmas and we had family we didn't see. And so I totally lost that argument. And I'm like, okay, all right. This was when we were talking about how you thought, you just had too many toys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It just gives, it seems like every single day. And I tried to like approach that and say, hey, could we try and limit that?

Or maybe we get rid of some stuff. And so I completely lost that argument. And I lost it to the, the one that I don't know if you guys have dealt with before, but the, well, I'm with him all day long, and this is what he winds up doing in the snout. So I'm like, okay, I just I surrender. She pulled the I'm in charge. Yeah, it's harsh. Hey, which they win. Yeah, even. Yeah. So then I then I make this comment about like, well, maybe, um, maybe I haven't seen this tantrum thing because my relationship's going to be different from the yours that which also was not

good. Yeah, it was not a good direction to go either, right? So I'm like, I'm drowning. Maybe I'm just better than these are thoughts we keep in here. Yeah, yeah. So I'm drowning in this conversation for sure, right? So anyways, the reason why I'm bringing it up was I saw his first kind of like tantrum, like I haven't seen this yet.

And I mean, I'm I'm just getting up. I can't imagine your son three. He's the sweetest kid ever. Oh, I can't imagine. I can't imagine. Oh, yeah. But he's going through his phase right now where he's learning what he wants and what he doesn't want.

Yeah. And he's starting, even though he's not fully there where he can communicate with us. But he's starting to understand like, no, no, I don't want to do this or I'm going to do it. Or if you can't. So anyway, so I wake up to hearing it and he's down, he's downstairs at the bottom of the stairs. And I, you know, I kind of hear it for a minute and like it's, it's not getting better. It's getting worse. How does he scream me or is he just crying?

Oh, he's, he's crying. I mean, he's crying good enough to where when I went and saw him, he said like a, a, a, not covered tear face, you know what I'm saying. So he's definitely not like him. Like I don't hear him like get like this. He's such a quiet kid that he doesn't get super loud crying like this. And this is the loudest I've heard him get. So and I'm, Maximus, you know, I'm standing on the top of stairs and I look down and he is just uncontrollably crying

and he's holding his pillow downstairs. And I go walking down and I go, what's going on? What's going on? And she's like doing her thing. Like she's just letting him let him cry at the bottom of stairs. And she's like, he's pissed off that I took his pillow off his bed. I'm like, well, why did you take it off his bed? She's like, well, honey, we're leaving today to go to Truckeye. I want his pillow for his bed there. And he's going to want the pillow. But he doesn't understand why I'm like, well, why did you take it off his bed? She's like, well, hun, we're leaving today to go to Truckee. I want his pillow for his bed there. And he's gonna want the pillow, but he doesn't understand why I'm taking off the bed. And so I'm like trying to explain to her.

I'm like, well, just why, why? Like just leave it. I'll bring it or grab it or we'll hide it or sneak it on. And so like that. But no, she's just like, she took it down there and brought it down and like, okay, he's gonna throw a tantrum, let him do his thing. And so I come down there and I look at him and I go,

hey, hey, what are you doing? What are you doing? And he's like, hold on to his pillow. It's sucking up all the snob bubbles and stuff like that. And so, I said, I'll put it in the suitcase or I'll bring it down later like that. And he was so funny, dude, he carried his pillow all the way back up the stairs and wanted to put it back on his bed and then he was fine he was totally okay about it

or the part that I was like and I couldn't win this this conversation and I won't probably win it here again. So you took his side over her. Yeah it's like well so Justin I had this conversation I don't want to completely roll him on the bus either. He's going to include you. I have a lot of fun. I'm going down he's going him on the bus either. He's gonna include you guys. I am, I'm gonna be so fun. I'm going down, he's going down with me, right? We're a team here, yeah. I'm a team. Don't include me, okay?

I don't need you. Obviously, his boys are older, so he's experienced some of this stuff already. And, I was talking to him about how Katrina has told me that Max is going through this phase now where he's starting to defy her every once in a while or throw a tantrum and it's kind of out of character. It's rare, but it's, she's seen it.

I hadn't seen it yet. And I was telling him, I'm wondering when we get, this one we were over in Florida. I said, I wonder when we get back if, if I'm going to see like this new side of him that I haven't seen. He's on the other side. I don't, I think you're going to, it'll probably be like how it is for me. And I'm like, what do you mean? And he's like, oh, well, I, like, he's like, ever it is literally like me. And so he like, what do you mean? And he's like, oh, well, like he's like, Everett is literally like me.

And so he just has to be handled different. And he's not consistent. He goes, Ethan's like, you can be very consistent with the way you discipline him. And if he's acting out and it's not easy to read. Yeah, he's easy to read and handle. He goes, but he goes, Everett is, you know, one day he'll be acting out a certain way.

And if you discipline him that this way and he's fine. And then the next day you discipline him the same for the same type of thing, and then he freaks out. And he goes, I bet you, you and your son are gonna be like that. And so again, this was like the first situation, and I just think I would have just handled that differently.

I'm like, just leave the pillow. And then but her argument is like, you can't get his way all the time, because if I let it, if I give him all this leeway, then he's gonna take advantage of me later on the day. Well, she took a stand at that point. Well, yeah, so at that point, she is. Like, it's just like, okay, you're in.

You've committed to it. Hold the card, yeah. Yeah, but so now I'm really interested to see like if this is gonna be this kind of like similar situation that Justin was talking about is like, because I understand him or I see myself in him and I'm just like, hey, just leave me alone with the pillow, you understand?

Yeah. Take a stand somewhere else. I'm like, wait a second, I'm more concerned that he's gonna have this spoiled attitude because he gets everything he wants right now and has all these toys. You're worried about a pillow? I'm like, I'm like, we're on different planets right now

on the things that we're concerned about. I'm like, let him have his damn pillow. It's different, moms and dads and then the experiences. And you know what it is sometimes, and I've done this before, where you take a stand and then you're going through it and you realize, if I could go back in time, I wouldn't have taken that stand. But now that I did, I gotta stick to my head.

Yeah, I imagine that's probably where she was out of it. I think she probably realized. She probably got upset or frustrated, took a stand and now you gotta follow through. Yeah, cause in her defense, okay, because again, Katrina's super woman. She's handling everything. She's getting him ready in the morning.

She's packing up for them to take off. She's doing his breakfast. Like, you know, and so she's carrying this, doing that. And then like she's getting pushback on grabbing his pillow and she's just probably not in the mood to like. And dad comes down, is merciful. Yeah, good dad comes down like, go ahead son, go put your pillow back in your bed. Oh, I see.

I see she was hard on you son. I will allow it. I'm probably not getting sex for two weeks now. No man. Hey, so Aralius, he gets mad and he's, bro, it is I have to turn my head and laugh because I don't want him to think it's funny when he does this shit. But he'll get mad, he'll get up, and he'll walk and knock shit around. Like, he'll walk over something, knock it off a shelf, grab something and throw it.

And just, I'm like, what's he doing? Just because like, he's showing us he's mad. And he just walks around and just that, dude. Like, what the hell is he doing? You know, he's like throwing it, he showing us, he's bad. And he just walks around and dents that dude. Like what the hell is he doing? You know, he's like throwing, he's like, just throwing shit or he'll see, he was sitting at his little, you know,

high chair, whatever, eating. And then he'll like, he's like, he's done. So he'll say, I've done, I've done, right? But we're still eating, he's like, okay, honey, we'll be there in a second. I've done, he gives you five seconds. After five seconds, throwing this off the table, throwing out, take my water,

and then you'll go to catch the water, he'll switch the hand, throw it behind him. He's like, no, everything's going on the floor. And he looks right at you while he's doing it. He just looks at you, just throws it, and throws it. Like, and then I try not to laugh, right? I turn my head. Yeah, Katrina said Max was doing this thing,

and I haven't seen this yet either. Like, they were getting ready to go to school. And, you know, so she's on a time schedule and he, you know, went over and was wanting to go outside. And she says, no, no, no, we're not going outside. Now we're going to get ready for school. And she turned around and he like slid the slider open. And then she's like, no, no, no, no, and then he stepped outside

and then looked back and she said he would like, take one step, you know, and then like look back at her. Yeah, just you could see that he's like testing what he can get away with with there right now. And I'm like, oh, wow, I just, I he hasn't messed with me like that. Yeah. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens. No, it really is. We'll get mad and he'll like squeeze your face. And you'll make this, this look on his face like, and he's got these little, little, little, little strong little nubby fingers. I'll just dig in.

And then he'll do it. And then he'll see that he, like he'll squeeze it. And then he'll kiss you. Oh, I'm dig in and then he'll do it and then he'll see that he like he'll squeeze it and then he'll kiss you Hmm. Oh, I'm sorry and then you'll do it again And then oh like man, this is a this is an abusive relationship You heard me that you love me right after. Yeah, I had to get every Punching bag, you know, that was like the best thing ever because he just like he sometimes will have that where he just doesn't know how to like Get rid of all this like anger and like I'm like put it here, you know, and then he'll just like hammer at it

And he actually what's he call him? Jimmy so it's like his little like His little punching bag. He just named him Jimmy's I'm gonna get Jimmy Oh Just let him get it out, honey. Just let him get it out. It's hilarious. And you know, okay, truth be told,

I don't deal with this nearly as much as Jessica, right? She's at home with that. That's why we lose these arguments. We do. And I get it. Listen, she pulled that card on me to my account. I get it. Well, no, that's a point.

If she came in to tell me about what I do, right? I would say the same thing. I get it. And, but, you know, so that also means when I see it once or twice, I'm not as frustrated because I didn't see it 15 times all day long. Right, right. So, it's hard for me, the challenge is, because this just makes it worse, is to not laugh, because I see this little, you know, not even one and a half year old.

Terri, I totally feel you. Terri's is my wife. She'll change it, dude. She was changing his diaper the other day And he would not sit still and she's on the floor of them and he's kicking his legs. It's all messy Errrr dude. Dude, he she got He grabbed the remote control tried to throw it and then he Kicked the diaper a little bit and a little poo marble fell out onto the cart onto the road and she just like

Baaah she got so and I like Try I like held it in. I was like, dude, I want to laugh so hard. That'll make the song go bad, you know what I mean? Oh, dude. It's so funny. No, you're so right, that has something to do with it too, because I mean, I see the tantrum for the first time,

and there's a part of me that thinks it's comical. I'm like, oh my god. You know what it is? I'm like, it's cute. I'm like, oh my god, it's his new sheets and his new pillow that he just got his, his mario. It's a little human. They're getting super angry. It's just, it's funny.

Over something ridiculous, right? So I'm just like, let him, and just watching him like sniffle and cry and bring, drag his pillow back to him. Like, are we happy now? It's back on the bed, bro. Like, yeah, all the world is back in peace. You know, it works on Aralius is if he's really pissed off, if I start trying to make him laugh. So I'll like tickle him and he'll get really mad. But if I get him, then he'll start giggling

or if I throw him in the air and when he's pissed, he gets a little more mad, but then he starts to laugh. That used to not work on my daughter at all. If I did anything. That's the good to diffuser. No, Mike, it made my daughter worse when she was little. I learned real quick, just leave her alone. But he's funny, the little one, I just, I'll play with him, you know, while he's angry and he's, ah, and I'll kiss him and hold him and tickle him and

then eventually I'll win it over. But yeah, that's a good time. But yeah, I couldn't imagine dealing with that all day long, because especially when they get old enough to like run around and cause a little damage and throw shit. Oh, yeah. it's a compilation of a bunch of these interactions, right? And it like usually like boils up to that point and you end up seeing where it got boiled up. Like as you walk in and like, oh, what is this? When I was when I was younger, you know, I, you know, sorry mom, but this, you know,

it's just true. Okay, so my mom had four kids and we were, I was three years older than my sister, but then it went like two years or less between each one. So four kids, she, you know, didn my sister, but then it went like two years or less between each one. So four kids, she didn't have a nanny or anything like that. We could go to my grandma's house sometimes, but ultimately my mom did.

She grew up to shop with us, went to the post office with us, like had to clean the house with us, like all the stuff. And we were, you know, crazy kids. My brother and my sister were maniacs. But, you know, when I was a kid, I didn't understand this. So everyone once my mom would lose her shit. And remember one time I told her I remember how old I was 10 maybe 11 or maybe younger and she just got the she got super mad. She grabbed this magazine and she threw it and she's like ah and remember I looked at her said mom you need to calm

down. What is going on here? And she looked at me like, you see what boy we're doing. You know? But then you become a parent, I'm like, oh, that's why. I understand it now. I totally get why she lost her shit. You know, she probably cleaned the same area 15 times in a row and just finally lost her.

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to the public time, right? Like me, I have a lot of patience. I think once in our house, like I think I would just be like, yeah, let them figure it out, you know, let them sit there and throw his tantrum or, you know, be frustrated for a minute, we'll work it all out and then we'll talk about it.

But I can't imagine if he were to do that and I know that's coming, right? Everybody says that day comes, right? Where they're, you're in the grocery store or somewhere in public and they just decide they're gonna be a shit. What you're supposed to do, and actually doing it is be a shit. What you're supposed to do, and actually doing it is really hard.

So what you're supposed to do is you let them lose their shit and you don't give them any attention and you walk away with an eyesight. Obviously, I don't wanna leave your kid alone in a store, but you let them lose their shit and whatever. That sounds great in theory, right? Well, yeah, that's not the same. At home, that's really, that's exactly how I would do it.

Well, when they're screaming in the grocery store Yeah, and then they realize that if they go and they knock the cereal boxes off the aisle or open a bag of something spread everywhere Then you start to then you're like okay, this isn't working. Oh, these you gonna pay for yeah No, my mom actually let my brother did that. He was losing his shit And so my mom said I'm gonna leave you in the store and he kept doing it So she went she parked in front of the store store so that she could see in the store. So she went in the car so he thought she left. He didn't know.

And she was watching him lose his shit. Well anyway, fucking the manager comes, you know, finds my mom, man, you can't leave your son. And I'm not leaving him, I just saw it. I tried to get him to realize. Until the storm comes down. Yeah, I was trying to make him realize. Anyway, it's all fun.

It's all good time. So I was reading a cool article about the market that Viori is now starting to crush in. Do you guys know that that market, that active-ware market, is poised to grow 25% over the next like four years? Wow. 25%.

That is massive, massive growth. The article I was reading about, Viori was talking about how they, Viori as a company totally came in and disrupted that market, really disrupted it. They were showing how they came in. I wonder how much of the market share they have in comparison to like, to Lulu.

Because obviously Lulu is one of the first, right? And then they, I know they've been, they've been chasing them. What, when did Viori kick off? Like, 2012, 2011? It wasn't that long ago. That's a good question. It was like nine years ago, right? And then they, I know they've been, they've been chasing them. Well, when did Viori kick off like 2012, 2011? It wasn't that long ago. That's a good question. It was like nine years ago, maybe? We got them when they were pretty damn new. Yeah. And then they, now they're almost, I think, close, they're getting close with thousand employees, maybe something like that. Yeah. So it's, they've exploded. Which is a ton considering they're,

they're mainly a direct to consumer brand. Yeah. And so what the article was saying was that, you know, because Viori at first focused on men, and so what the article was saying was that, you know, because you were at first focused on men, and they crushed it with that, and then women were buying some of the men's stuff for themselves, because I liked it so much, and that's what gave them, like the impetus to say, all right, let's go after the female market,

in which case now they're also explaining. You know how I was thinking about too, because I experienced this when I moved to Chicago, and I was out there, and I felt like I was on this weird island of fashion because it was like there's like coastal kind of surf influence and all that kind of stuff which didn't really make its way into the Midwest but I've seen that sort of change and seen more people wearing you know, ethlein' all that, like within like the heartland and all that. I wonder if that's like an expanded market

through there too. I bet it is because it doesn't look like it used to. I would think what we just went through too, like everybody now moving to Zoom and working home part-time too, probably accelerated that, the growth also. So did you know that comfort, but it's also stylish, which is a advantage.

So the Athletes are wearin' market actually took a hit during the pandemic. Really? Viori crushed. So a Viori crushed, but the overall market dropped down. Really? The overall market dropped. I guess maybe people aren't, you know, the whole market, right? Because there's obviously a lot of people that aren't just wearing it for work, they're wearing it for going out and playing sports and doing, you know, social active things. So that's interesting. Yeah. So the market went down, but Vury crushed, which is like, I mean, that's, if you're crushing in a down market in your space, are you watching

I have not been checking in with the market at all lately? Yeah. You watching it right? That's not good. That's probably why everything's going down. Yeah. That's just happening when we're not talking about it on the show anymore. Yeah, that's our fault. Well, everything was like hitting, you know, for so long. Yeah, it's like inevitable. Yeah, no, it's not doing so good right now. It's looking very interesting.

You know, inflation numbers keep getting higher and higher. And so it's, I read this interesting statistic. I want to double check it, but did you guys know that more people, more citizens, I couldn't believe this. More citizens own crypto than have a savings account? You said that yes or they can't be possible. No, maybe you can double check that, but it was like 25 to 24%.

First of all, I didn't know that so few people had this. I don't know what a more shocked about there is that there's that many people that have crypto now or there's that few of people that have savings accounts. Well, like, okay, so did they move, did they originally have a savings account and then just be like, ah, this isn't gonna benefit me anymore. So I'm moving to crypto.

Well, so I'm gonna guess, but I would love for Doug to confirm this, but I'm gonna guess that it's because a lot of young people who wouldn't get a savings account are buying crypto, right? So you're getting a lot of these teenagers, college kids. More Americans owned crypto than savings accounts for the first time. What are those, what are those stats they write there, Doug? That's crazy. Yeah, so a new study found that one in four Americans own crypto marginally higher than the number

of Americans with savings accounts for the first time ever. Wow. I think it has a lot to do with kids. A millennials, where the biggest crypto fans, well, yeah. With younger higher earning males dominating the ownership charts. Well, it's also two because, I mean.

Yeah, 24 to 23%. Savings accounts just what what two decades ago, you could actually make a couple percent on a savings account. We know how it's like a fraction of a percent. Well, here's another statistic that goes along with this. Did you guys know that a 39 or 40% of Americans don't have a thousand dollars in their savings account? So almost 40% almost almost 40% could not survive a thousand dollar emergency Just to show you how many what percentage of people are living literally Paycheck to paycheck earning and spending earning and spending. I think we see I think that is more common than not

Especially over here in the Bay like I think it's just it's so hard because living yeah The cost of living is so so high and everybody's so leveraged You know to be able to afford the lifestyle. The thing comes as the only way to survive here. So yeah, I mean, it's hard to break through and then start really like saving. Yeah, but there's a huge chasm between people like that and then people who have tons of money. That's why it's that's why it's got even he's got even wider if you if you live in the Bay Area either a you have you Cash out stock or whatever you got a lot of money or you earn a lot of money you and your wife for whatever or You're like struggling to be able to pay rent on your tiny apartment. It's like it's like either or I don't know too many people in the middle

In fact, you know having to I it's just, super, super high cost of living low supply of property. Lots of people who have, he's, he's, look at that, oh, 56% of Americans are unable to cover a $1,000 emergency expense. That's, that's crazy. That's a high amount. That's a lot. Yeah.

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click on bio optimizers, that's the discount code for 10% off. All right, here comes the rest of the show. First question is from Heidi Lynn Swisher. How do you do drop sets properly? Ah, good old drop sets. Otherwise known as strip sets. This is where you do as many reps as you can with a particular weight, then it's called a drop set because you would put the weight down or drop it, grab a lighter pair of dumbbells or lighter weight and then squeeze out more reps.

And then you go down and you can do this, you know, two or three, four times. Some people do it more than that. Well, they'll do down the ladder, roll the goal all the way down the dumbbell rack. I mean, the proper way to do a drop set, first of all, form is absolutely crucial with any set, but especially with drop sets because drop sets are intensity-based.

Like I explained, you know, if you're doing as many reps as you can with, let's say, 30-pound dumbbells, and then you, you know, you get to the 10th rep and you know, you can't perform an 11th rep, then you put them down, you get the 20-pound dumbbells, you'll get another three or four reps out, and so form is very, very important, and the one tip I have for drop sets is to drop the weight a little more than you think when you go from one weight to the other. I, the mistake I would usually make as a kid would be I'd go down five pounds, which only gets you like a rep.

So I figured, you know, a bigger drop allowed me to squeeze out more reps. It's an intensity technique. It's great for an incredible pump. It's not something I would do on a consistent basis though, and I would save this for more for advanced lifters. Yeah, I'd say for advanced, or I'd save it for a hypertrophy phase of your program, right? So like a phase three and a lot of our programs, I wouldn't be doing it in a strength phase.

And I do think that that's the most common mistake when you see somebody doing a drop set is they drop down to a weight, they can still do, but then their form kind of goes out the window. So it's like kind of defeating the purpose. If you're, especially if you're trying to target a specific muscle or get a pump in a specific muscle, to not drop it enough weight that you can still concentrate on that muscle. So I agree, I think that's the one rule I would say,

as far as the time and like, the actual percentage of the load, like I think that's just going to depend on the person. And I don't think it's that we're splitting hairs a difference if it's a 15 second or a 30 second difference between getting it. If you do three or four or five drop sets in a row, you're gonna get a pump, you know? I can't imagine doing this a bunch of times.

Like it's definitely something you just do occasionally for fun more than anything. I mean, we used to do, it just kind of reminds me of some of these old techniques, like even the 21s and all these, you know, fun type of hypertrophy type of techniques and exercises to throw in, but it can get sloppy and get away from you really quick.

That's exactly what happened. I have a conscious of it. As a kid, I abused it. I did it all the time. I was caught, if I do it now, it'll look like this where I'm kind of rushed in my workout and I don't have a lot of time. And like, I, I, I, So less volume or intensity?

Yeah, or like I realize like, like, let's say I'm, you know, finishing up and it's on, on one of my last exercises, I'm doing, you know, bench or something and I look up at the clock and I go, oh, shit, I gotta get out of here in 10 minutes or what I thought, but I wanted to get, you know, a good lift on my bench

and I just don't have the time to do five straight sets with rest periods like, you know what I'll do? I'll do a drop set real quick on this and just at least get a really nice pull from it. So it's kind of how I would like, insert it into my workout now. If I have the time, I'm doing a more traditional type of lift. If I was rushed for some reason,

like that might be like a quick way. Yeah, the benefit is you get the higher intensity, it's good for hypertrophy, good for the pump, you can over do it very easily. Form is where people always screw up because the idea is to get more reps, and so you tend to see people do this, and then their form starts to get sloppy.

I probably do drop sets, I would say twice a month, maybe at most, I almost never do drop sets, I would say twice a month, maybe at most. I almost never do drop sets with a barbell. Almost never. And it's mainly because barbell exercises, if I'm doing a bench press or squat or a deadlift or overhead press, I'm not working out with other people. So I would have to load it with a bunch of tans, I guess, and throw one off and throw one off and get underneath it again.

I like a drop set to have really minimal rest. Dumbbells are better. I get my three pairs of dumbbells and I go one, two, three. That's the only instance, like I would say, pretty much need a workout partner. Yes. You have a barbell and you're doing like a bench press where you're like stripping the weight off.

But other than that, yeah, I probably wouldn't. Totally. And they also lend themselves a little better to single joint exercises than they do to compound lifts. I would not do a drop set for an exercise where, like for example, with a deadlift, the difference between a safe deadlift and a bad deadlift or a dangerous deadlift is small, right?

If your form is good, safe. If it's off a little bit, it can become pretty dangerous or risky, I should say. Unlike single joint exercises, where if I'm doing a curl, I's off a little bit, it can become pretty dangerous, or risky, I should say, unlike single joint exercises, if I'm doing a curl, I'm off a little bit, it's probably still safe. So I don't like to do drop sets with complex compound lifts. I like to do them typically with isolation, single joint exercises.

My favorites are like laterals. Laterals are great for a drop set. Curls are great for a drop set. Curls are great for a drop set. Cable exercises tend to be okay. I said press downs are good for a drop set. Any isolation exercise in general will tend to be good with a drop set, but not heavy complex. I agree, although the last time I did it, I actually just did it on a bench press. I did it on barbell, but I think something that's important too is that. So, when I'm doing a drop set, I'm not so hung up on what I want to do rep-wise, right? So, if you're following like a, you know, you're training 10 to 12 reps, I'm not trying to do a drop set and

also stay within my 10 to 12 reps. I'm going to take it to where I have the muscle fatigues, and I can't do another perfect wrap. So,'s what it looks like. So I might get under like the bench and let's say I do a set of 225 and then I drop down to say like 150, 160 range or whatever. And you know, maybe I get seven out and I can already feel my form wanting to go off. Like that's it. I rack it like then I go drop again. I drop down to 90 pounds. Again, I'm pressing it out, maybe I'm gonna get six

of those before my forearms starts to go and then I rack again. I'm not even though I could have potentially got 10 reps, but I'm gonna roll my shoulder and arch my back and cheat it up just to get it up. I'm shutting it down before that, so that's how I would do it with the- I also usually don't drop down more than twice.

So I have done the run the rack drop sets where you're literally starting, went into the rack and you're stepping down. We have it. I believe. There is, there's a run the rack in there. But that's way too much for most people. I do, I'll go from one lift, excuse me,

from one weight to another weight to another weight, and that's it. It's usually three and then I'm done. I don't go any more than that. But yeah, the pumps can be intense, it's really cool. Totally can be easily abused. And like I said, I still, even now today, and I'm training really hard and consistent

twice a month is at the most that I would do them. Next question is from Party Boo Hat. What's the difference and or benefits between doing side raises with straight arms versus bent elbows? Oh, Good question. So, okay, the action, so we're doing laterals, right, or side lifts for the shoulders.

The action of the delt is the same, whether my arm is bent or straight, because the action of the deltoid is to lift up the humerus, which is the upper part of my arm. So then why would I keep my elbows bent versus straight? Well, really straight arm lengthens the lever. So whatever weight you're using is going to be much heavier. The problem is when you start to really straighten the arm out, some people start to feel tension

in the top of the elbow. And it just doesn't feel as comfortable as good. And it also tends to, you know, and I've seen people do laterals like this, it tends to encourage this external rotation at the hand, whereas a bent elbow allows the hand to fall a little bit and helps counter that tendency to want to turn it into this upright row or this upper back type exercise. Now, do you guys ever play with how bent or not bent your elbow is? Do you have sometimes where you'll go heavier and bend the elbow and then other times you'll go like, really light your straight arms? Like really light like yeah, that's so much anymore. I used to but now it's almost always with the slight bend elbows. Do you guys have about you? Yeah, I'll play with it and that's

exactly how I'll decide on how to do it. If it's today where it's like I'm just really either touching the latherals or I'm going to just I'm going to go in real light or just kind of chasing a pump and I'm not lifting heavy. I'm going to go straight arm, slow control then all I'm just going to be like, or just kind of chasing a pump, but I'm not lifting heavy. I'm gonna go straight arm, slow control, and all I'm doing is really trying to pump blood into that muscle. Now, if it's a day where I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna go a little heavier on my latherals, even though I don't recommend going really heavy on latherals,

because how many people incorporate their traps when they do that? I will, I'll occasionally go heavy on them, or heavy in comparison to the straight arm. And that's the time where I'm gonna bend my elbows a or heavy in comparison to straight arm. And that's the time where I'm going to bend my elbows a little bit in order to do it. I think mainly it's to protect some of those supporting muscles. Like for example, like a fly, a fly you keep your arms slightly bent too. Now if I straighten my arm out, the peck is doing the same thing in a fly too, but the

tension at the biceps gets you to the northern. It's tension in ligaments. Yeah. And so when you have a straight arm lateral, you lateral, and I've done this with, I've seen clients come to me and tell me their elbow hurts when doing laterals, and I watch them doing, and say, oh, you're bend your elbow a little bit, and then they'll have less pain. So I think that's really the main reason why you almost always tend to see it with the bend.

I wish you we could like break down like, because here's the thing, as you go from, you know, almost completely straight to here, to here, to here, to here, to here thing as you go from you know almost completely straight to here to here to here to here to here as you go in you know this like so let's say this is 15 pound laterals are hard difficult completely straight 15 pounds completely straight is like doing 25 pounds here or doing 40 pounds here You know saying so you know a lot of people are fooled into thinking that, oh, I'm doing super heavy laterals,

but it's like, well, you could also cut the weight in half and go completely straight and get just as good of a lift on your delts as you are on your laterals as you can with the heavy weight. Yeah, there's something about, I think, locked out joints, like I'm a little cautious to train that way very often. Like, I always'm a little cautious to, you know, train that way very often, like always keep a bit of a soft knee or a bit of a soft elbow and

most things just to keep that kind of cushion and allow for the force to distribute a little more effectively. But so even when I'm locked out or like I'm a straight arm and it's not completely straight, I agree. I'm the same way too. Like when I say straight arm, which means straighter. Yes, straighter.

It's almost all the way up, but there's always like a five to 10 degree band. But I do see, I used to see this with clients that if their arms are too straight, it was really easy for them to do this, to rotate, externally rotate, right? Yeah, I've seen one. When the elbow's a little bent,

because now the resistance is in front of the arm, it puts them in a more, I guess, advantageous position for what we're trying to target, I should say, right? Well, now can you explain that, too, because somebody that's not as much of a body builder or like isolated, focused guy, like I know that there was like emphasis on like kind of turning the thumbs down at the top, was that technique? Yeah, so this this right here This this rotating in the wrist has nothing to do with the shoulder. This is this the shoulder does not so what this does is it turns the elbow

Yes, so if you look at that cue of pretend like you're I think it's an old Arnold cue I want it is where he's it pretend like you're dumping out milk or whatever I thought all that is doing is it's Keeping the elbow from doing what he was saying. Yeah, because if you look at the, where the side deltoid connects at the, at the humorous, it's here. So this would be direct resistance when my hand is, when my arm is slightly rotated down. As I rotate up, now it's more front delt, right?

In fact, an old school, nobody does this anymore, but an old school front delt exercise was actually called a standing fly. Where do I always do this? Remember those palms facing up and you come down and come up, this is a front dealt exercise and it's all about where the dealt attaches at the humorous.

So when you externally rotate this way, you're gonna get more front dealt and if you start to go heavy, then you start to shrug and squeeze the upper back and you start to get more traps. Which if you're interested in power, if you're an athlete, that's probably better, right? Because you want that strong,

what do they call it, a yolk, right, up in your upper back? Yeah. But if you're sculpting and you're trying to hit the side delt or whatever, well now it's all about connecting and feeling the target area, in which case it makes more sense. And I know those people online that say things like,

don't hold the dumbbell that way, it's bad for the shoulder, but no, no, no, listen if you can do it with good stability and strength control It's fine. It's any exercise done without good stability starts to become dangerous that would just requires a little bit more Stability that's the cue that Justin I actually really like that cue for you especially teaching like beginners It's harder to explain like internal external rotation to them or try to break down the position of their elbow It's easier to give a cue like pretend like you're holding gallons of milk and you're pouring it out You get up like that just it's a one of those great. I think trainer hack cues that is just it's not It's not technical, but it's a great cue to get people to do what you want them to do

Next question is from Rebecca Cara Martin. What are the pros and cons of taking a couple weeks off from the gym entirely once in a while? Well, more pros and cons. Yeah, if I'm talking to somebody who's super consistent, it's different than if I'm talking to somebody who's not consistent. So if you're super consistent, the pros are better recovery.

You're gonna get better results by doing this, less inflammation, less injury, a nice reset. The only con I can see for this super consistent person are you lose the mental effects that you can gain from exercise. I do this, right? I work out more for the mental effects than the physical.

It's like a meditation for me, it makes me feel good. And so moving and doing that kind of stuff makes me feel good. Not going to the gym for two weeks, you guys would see a change in my personality. Not only that, but most people, I mean, I can count on one hand how many times I program this for a client.

Most people struggle with consistency. Most people take two weeks off and that's right. That's what I'm saying. Most people struggle with consistency that I don't need to program a week or two off in the year because it happens naturally. It happens naturally, right? So, literally, less than five clients have I ever had to say, hey, you know what?

We should probably take a whole week off because you've been going consistent for the last year with no breaks. That just doesn't happen that often. But you're right. If you're a fitness nerd and you love training and you're borderline addicted to lifting and you rarely ever take a day off, there's tremendous value. There's tremendous value in somebody taking a week off from that and maybe doing something like more recuperative, walking, stretching, doing other stuff. I think what that study blew

my mind when that came out that we talked about a couple months ago, it's per a while ago, when it talked about the, they had three months of consistent training, and then they had a group that never missed any days for three months, and then they had a group that every third week, they took a whole week off, which sounds like a ton. When you think about it over the course of three months, like they're missing almost a month of training in there, and they actually got the same a whole week off, which sounds like a ton. When you think about it over the course of three months, they're missing almost a month of training in there, and they actually got the same results as the client.

At the end, there was no difference. It's just a month. So, I mean, that just highlights how important the week of rest and how beneficial it can be. Now, to the person who gets the mental benefits from activity, you could do is go to the gym and go super easy and super light. So you'll get some of the mental benefits of moving or whatever. And this is how I would do it,

is I would go two weeks. Two weeks completely off for me would not be a mental, would not be good. Well, yeah, and I definitely would stress that I wouldn't stop the activity from having it. It would just be a different form of it that was very much more recuperative, restorative, and low intensity, but to make sure that you're keeping the body in that path of healing and blood flow and all that, like I think that's essential. Well, I'm just keeping the habit up. You've got to. You took a long time to probably build a discipline of training every morning at 5 o'clock

in the morning. You know you need to take some time off of hammering the weight. So I'm not going to stop getting up at five in the morning and go into the gym or doing thing. Instead, now I'm just going to walk, you know, or swim or do the sauna for an hour. It's like, keep that habit that you've built of showing up to the location or whatever you're lifting or exercising. Keep that consistent.

Just modify it. Now, what we don't know is this could be a question from somebody who's got like a week vacation coming up, where they're taking off for a week somewhere. And if that's the case, then I wouldn't worry about it. No, and I tell you what. When I go on vacations, I'll usually do some workouts if there's a gym, but the hotel gyms are usually crap. So I'm not training it anywhere near the intensity

or volume or whatever. So it's kind of like, it's not a week off, but it's kind of like D-load or whatever. When I come back, I always have the best workouts. So I would say if all things being equal, if you compare to very consistent people and one person took two weeks off every six months and the other person took no weeks off, physically speaking the performance, muscle and strength gains will be better with persons who took the weeks off. Yeah. Because, uh, your body needs some of that.

And it does resensitize your body to exercise. Next question is from Matthew Garcia. How long should I supplement with ashwaganda for? You know, it's, you know, it's funny about ashwaganda. It is now becoming, uh, what, because of the studies that they're doing about Ashruganda. It is now becoming, because of the studies that they're doing on Ashruganda, it's becoming one of the most popular health and wellness and athletic performance herbs

that you'll find anywhere. There's no drawbacks of doing every day, right? Well, drawbacks potentially, let's say you downregulate and like not. No, no. So what I mean by that is you could have an intolerance to nightshade, nightshade vegetables, so you might have an issue.

It also changes your body's relationship with cortisol. So, yeah, it could, well the reason is, so in fact, it lowers cortisol, right? Because I guess your body becomes more efficient using cortisol. So it's like it's a good stress hormone, or excuse me, a stress supplement, or what they would call an adaptogen. But the challenge with stuff like that is it may mask other stuff. So you

may just allow yourself to keep, you know, messing your body up on more. But that being said, improves recovery, strength. It gives people better sleep, raises testosterone, and men, it gives people better sleep, raises testosterone and men. It's a remarkable herb and supplement. I personally do not see effects past 60 days. After two months, I go off. It does nothing for me anymore. Oh, interesting. And I noticed that with any herb or supplement that I can.

So give me an example of somebody who you would, for sure recommend like, oh, that type of person should take this. And then what person would you say like, would you say avoid it? Yeah, so the person I would give it to, they already have a good diet, they're exercising well, good sleep, right? So everything, all the big stuff is taken care of.

And they want a little extra performance, they want better recovery, then they may recommend, hey, let's try Ashwaganda. A lot of people seem to feel real good on it. So let's give that a shot. The person I wouldn't would be the person who we're dealing with, you know, HPA access dysfunction. Now, typically functional medicine practitioners will use Ashwaganda to help people with

HPA access dysfunction. But because I'm not an expert in treating that, I wouldn't do it because what I'm afraid of doing is giving them something that makes them feel better But then doesn't address the root issues so like that allows them to keep going on the bad the wrong path so like the cortisol junkie We talked about on the show the day you would avoid giving it to that client It was just a mask temporarily they would feel better and they would probably cause more damage Might even start ramping it up. Totally, right? So, and you know, functional medicine practitioner would look at all the other stuff first before,

or all together. But other than that, I mean, it's a great, I tell you, most people if they take ashwaganda within a few weeks will notice energy libido and athletic performance enhancement. So really, it's just like you get adapted to it at some point Which then it probably loses a bit of its effectiveness overall. Yeah, and I have yet to find any Product that doesn't do that. Yeah, right. Well, so the the green juice

Organifies they have to with 600 milligrams of it inside there. Yeah inside of it is that considered a reasonable dose Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's a good dose You can go higher if you're like, you know super intense lots of stress inside of it, is that considered a reasonable dose? Is that okay? Yeah, that's a good dose. You can go higher if you're like, you know, super intense, lots of stress. The way I would use it, as I'd say, okay, I'm gonna go through six weeks of really intense workouts or I'm gonna add extra volume

because I'm trying to cut or something like that. Then I would throw it in and it moves the over training line a little further. So now I can add more volume, more training, and I'm not so at risk. Cause here's what I notice when I'm in Shaganda. I don't get a sore and a stiff, and I seem to be able to handle a lot more volume

when I'm taking it. But again, it's one of the few supplements you'll actually notice. Most people will notice a difference. Not as profound as Craya Teen, and Craya Teen is something you can take all the time. It's not something you go off and all you just take it all the time, and you continue to reap the health benefits from it. I wonder if that's one of the major things that people do report back about the green juice, why it makes them feel so good.

I 100% think so. Oh, wow. 100% think so. I think the Ashwee Ganga makes that big of a difference, so it's good stuff. Look, if you like our information, head over to MindPumpFree.com and check out our guides. We have guides that can help you with almost any health or fitness goal. You can also find all of us on social media. So right now, Justin and Adam are on Instagram. You can find Justin at MindPump Justin.

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