Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 188: Strength Secrets

Episode Date: November 20, 2015

How strong are you? How does your strength stack up against other people's? How important is strength for building muscle? What can you do right now to become stronger instantaneously? In this episode Sal, Adam and Justin tackle these topics. Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Learn more about Mind Pump at www.mindpumpradio.com

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. I want to ask Adam a couple questions. Uh-oh. Adam. About my birthday. Did you chat? You know what, bro? You ruined my fucking bit. I was about to do a bit and he just ruined it. I did? Yeah.

I was gonna say how you looked more distinguished. Yeah. Like glowing skin. I knew you were going that direction. That's how I show him in your head, bro. I'm like, you know, why don't you just sometimes just look at me and all those hands? What am I thinking right now? No, definitely not. I can't do that. You know, what? I'll be honest. Like we're starting to joke block each other. Yeah do it to be all the time. So I do it to you guys all the time. You know, it's just that we're reading each other's minds. Let's get in there. Stop. I know. I just didn't get you did that on purpose. I am. Happy birthday, Adam. Thank you. Thank you. Happy birthday, my 25. I don't feel like that. Huh? What? You look good, bro. You look 55. You look 55, man. I don't feel like that, tell you. Huh? What? You look good, bro. You look 55.

You look good. You know why you look good? I was that. I've read somewhere that, like 39 is a man's prime. And I know you turned 34, 35. Correct. When did you read that? You turned 34.

Yeah. But you look 39, so you look like you hit your prime. Really? Congratulations. You did a good job. Now you don't look weak. You look like you hit your prime early Congratulations, no you don't like he you don't you look you look right Right at your age right at my age just like that I don't think that's a proper either yeah, why he Because I don't 34 I mean I like to look about 25-ish maybe 28 is so I'm older than both you fuckers But I do I look older if we put all three of us together

You wait for real good you want a different three of us together? You don't really look older. Do you want it for real? Did you want a different answer? Huh? I don't know. I feel like I look like the same age as you. Are we supposed to build you up right now? I was just to keep it real. That was.

What am I? You're in a half older than you guys? Well, hey, Justin, how old are you exactly? I'm almost 36. It's in general. Well, you're my fucking age, dude. I'm one year older than you, almost exactly. If someone had to align us all four of us,

including Doug up, and he's in what they think is the youngest to oldest, I think Justin would look the youngest then followed by myself or Doug then followed you. Really? You know why? I think Doug actually falls in there with the look at you. I dress like I'm still in high school.

Yeah, that's probably why. You do, so does Adam. Yes, if you, if you're the one, I do especially. I sound old. A lot of people tell me that. When they hear me talking, they'll be like, Oh, I thought, oh my God. Oh, I thought, oh my God.

Especially when you do the ladies in gentlemen, let me tell you. Yeah. Yeah, when you do that. If you know what I'm saying, you do that. I sound like I believe right before you give like some good fact, that you go ladies in gentlemen. Yeah.

Let me tell you this. If I, I belong, I feel like I belong, if I didn't cuss so much, I would be like a radio, a guy in the radio on the 19 20s. You know what I a radio guy in the radio in the 19 20s You know what I'm saying? Maybe like the 19 20s type of does that would agree? Yeah, that's that's that's just I would agree I think that's 16 20s that you went back to I took it all the way back You see like the gossip English. Yeah, so I got tattooed like that

Dude what did you guys think about fucking Ronda Rousey getting her fucking? Oh she got smashed too You know, I'm a big fan. I love Ronda Oh my god, that was a great fight. I love seeing that. Here's my breakdown because I feel like I know more about fighting than you guys I'll give you my break down I'll give you my break please oh knowledgeable one. As soon as the fight, like literally 30 seconds into the first round, Holmes was fighting, she was dictating the fight she had the perfect game plan.

And who is she training with? Greg Jackson. He's the fucking mastermind of strategy. And her strategy was excellent. She kept the distance, kept circling. Is it quick that also fights in that camp? I don't know if he's fighting with them. No, he was at AKA.

Okay. But they've got good strategies there too, but great jazz because it's genius. She kept circling to Rhonda's right. And when Rhonda tried to clinch, you'll notice Holly Holmes, I'm a judo guy, so I understand what you need to do. A judo throws, you need your hips to be able to move

and get in. And what Holly Holmes would do is she would kind of overhook and put her hand in front of Rousey's hips to prevent her from getting her hips close. So she wouldn't get thrown. She break a free separation and she just kept, that's it. And what happens is Rousey, she just kept walking forward.

And so the game plan was just, it was bad. And you could tell, you should not stand and bang with the frickin boxer. No, no, that's a bad choice. So do you want to do a world class box? World class boxer and Rousey is a good with her hands but she's a world class grappler. But she was she wasn't just boxing she was setting up her kicks. Yeah. And she was doing throwing those oblique kicks which was winding her and so you could you see her wincing well, dude. She apparently rouse you had her jaw was broken in three places Yeah, now it could have been from the kick, but I have I think it was before I thought it was before because did you notice? She was following homes around and she kind of had her mouth open with the way coming out and her face was swollen

The wage and she looked gasped, but I think it was cuz her job because when you get your jaw broken You're you can't breathe yet to have your mouth open and shit so or nose broken but it looks like her jaw so did you guys you had a chance to meet Robbie on Saturday no so Robbie was the black guy with the big afro okay that was at the party that's came last guys is best friend and trainer oh shit wait a minute he was commenting quite a bit. Yeah, that's why I was going to share with you. Kind of debunk, which your theory was on that. Oh really? Well, not debunk. I agree with you. I think that homes came out with a great strategy. I think the hip kicks to keep her distance, the way she was circling in jab. That's right. She kept jabbing with her foot too. I watched the fight again this morning

and, you know, within the first 15 seconds, she catches her with a nice stiff jab. And then she was landing it. She landed two hard ones really early that you could tell. She'll go, Branda. Right. So, you know, kudos to her, her training camp and everything like that. I don't want to take anything from her from that at all. But one of the things that Robbie was talking about was, I overheard him say like, dude, as much as, you know, Holly's world class, everything like that. There's a ton more fighters, far more talented, not only boxing than her, the also MMA fighters. The fact that Rhonda should have destroyed her. Rhonda should have just liked the Vegas odds were and what they were supposed to be. Something wasn't right. And that was, you know,

whether that was in her smell in a fish. Yeah, he says that, you know, I don't know if that has some to do with the way she fell, her training program. Do you guys know also too? That was the first fight ever that her mother refused to go to? Or didn't go to, I don't know, she refused to. She didn't show up. Because there was a problem between her mom and her trainer, right? She didn't like the trainer in her training.

So the plat thickens. Yeah, so I think there's a little more going on than what I think the meets the eye there. Well, we'll see the rematch. Yeah, and I don't think it was because if Ronda just, she had a game plan to and she did a if she got a good Way of getting in and taking her down. She would have destroyed her on the ground That's that's how I feel like no matter how you cut it up and look at it. She She most certainly Should have imposed her will and I know she had a hard time

But you know, you've seen her bull rush before and just take right she didn't do that. She didn't do that Why did she do that from the game? And the one time she tried it was after she remember when she missed and wolfed Oh my god, home made her look. Yeah, but that was way too late right she would already been harassed kind of kicked a little bit for a while And then she then she kind of got desperate and then she went that route where she should have came out and Jess Maldor she should have went after went after her football tackled her from the very well I'm still a big fan of rousey. She's one of my favorite fighters. But she's going to be out for like a year. No, that was, that was actually, that was a made up rumor. Another one. She's not going to be out for a year. No, that, that research, your article

actually sent that, that was a rumor that got spread. She did not break her jaw. Oh, the whole jaw thing wasn't true. No, it was. You should have corrected me like 10 minutes ago. I will be, well, I didn't know. Oh, you said it. You said it earlier. Oh, sorry. So that's when he talks sometimes I just You really said broken job when I said something. Sorry. You know what? There's a problem. We need things. You don't we believe it You just don't listen. You just don't listen to me. You know that that's what that people could always do. She didn't get her job No, she did not get a job. We talked about her job. I was right there with So she didn't get her job, bro. No, she did not get a job. We talked about her job. I was right there with

Completely bought me a just to talk about it for like a minute. What were you doing? Oh, well, I what I was doing was I was letting you talk and knowing that I was going to think about shit. No, no, I was I was thinking that I got a chance to listen to Robbie's take on it and I'm listening to yours and I'm like He probably has a better perspective than any of us Of course he does the whole time I'm talking this is in it'm like, he probably has a better perspective than any of us. Well, I'm talking, of course he does. The whole time I'm talking, this is in it. This is Adam. He's like, okay, I've had meal five. I have meal six. God, damn, I'm sexy.

What's he was like? He's sitting there, he's like, he looks down, he's like, oh, Sal's got white. So I'm talking. And then it's quiet and then he knows he's supposed to talk. So I haven't talked for like maybe three seconds. Long time. Okay. So I think we're supposed to make a phone call, right, Doug? We have a winner. What's going on here?

What is this? Yeah, we do have a winner of the Instagram contest. Mm. Winner and winner. JP Fit Guy. What is Jay stand for for JP? Jason. Jason.

So I'm going to give Jason a call. Call him up Hello, this is the mind pump crew I don't believe it. Not taking the truth idols. Yeah, you know how to hear you can hear it's better You can hear it's still like you're in a background. It could be because we're recording from a bathroom. That might be it. Yeah. Yeah, I'm really friendly here. We got it, we got evicted from the studio

because Salga is the lady from next door overheard him talking about her fucking beard. You know shit. Got offended in turn to sense. And now we're recording from a bathroom. So could that be the echo? Oh, man. Oh, holy shit, that's crazy.

So my man, so let's see, your Instagram name is JP fit guy. So people want to come check you out. We want to fit guy. Well JP one fit guy. That just means I'm just I'm just one fit guy in a world of movies. Now like I'm trying to buy a one fit guy. I'm just one fit guy in a world of many. That's what I mean. So I want to know real quick. I got to hear you're I know you are a police officer, but where did your passion for fitness come from? I mean, where did you start lifting and stuff like that, obviously you have an experience.

Oh man, it was just kind of like how y'all would do it. And I just started in high school and you just never stopped. And then when I joined the police department, what 18 years ago, I put on like 10 pounds of this is the most setting your job I've ever had, you know. As far as movement. Because I gotta do some about this.

Yeah, because you're pretty ripped now. You're like super veiny ripped. Oh yeah. Yeah, now I'm in a good, I go a lot. I'm always the smallest guy in the group. You know, it's like, okay, that's cool I'm gonna be the most rich Hey, so so

18 years shit, man, you look like you look young. When did you won't you start becoming a police officer when you're 10? 10 years old. Yeah, so I do it. I knew it. I knew it two years old, yep, so I do it. I knew it. So let's so we appreciate all the all the awesome memes that you make of our about mine pump up. Yeah, they're always hilarious. Fuck you. I try to do the show justice. I love it, brother. Definitely do. How'd you find our show? I found I found you first. I found out. I didn't think cells real I said look a fuck this guy real I just kept going but I went back to him I started reading what attracted me to him Why didn't you think the picture of course you didn't jacked you had all the

defamation of like I was just got so yeah right and all of all the filters right he it's pretty deceiving it's very yeah very in depth those filters yeah you know I didn't say he was real and I still I kept going back to him and say oh this is fucking the good good information so and then that was right before the show started your pro-dirty tape but you haven't released anything yet So y'all start looking, you know, can't know the show is like five. Great So I was like I'll respect the word the social media man. It's so easy to do. Yeah, here like our OG mind pump pump head out here, man

That's what's cool. Hey, when we think of a few handful, you're one of them for sure. I put a little effort into it, you know. Which we appreciate. Which we like to get. Just, I know some of the stupid best when we get somebody, kiss somebody's eye, you know, like somebody look at it and say,

hey, I got you, what's up? Oh, no, we've definitely had a lot of people that have told us that they've found mind pumped through your page. So we greatly appreciate the little for sure, bro. Okay. Well, that's the purpose. All right, brother. Well, greatly appreciate the little for sure, bro. Okay. Well, that's the purpose. All right, brother.

Well, hey, man, thanks for listening to the show. Also, thanks for your service as a police officer. Yeah. You've been a safe, man. I do what I can. You know, it's fucking impossible job, but, you know, I can get in all that. But I

All right JP much love dude and well this this episode should drop next week sometimes so we'll let you know when it drops in Hey, push here guys. All right brother take it easy. All right. Thanks a lot, but Well, I didn't know we could call Mars because it sounded like we were talking to Mars I've heard videos of NASA talking to fucking astronauts from the space station twice as clear. How did that happen? How did that just Skype for it? No, that's not Skype. No, that's a phone.

AT&T. Skype was worse. Well, when you guys called me, I thought that was really clear when you guys called me in Vegas. Yeah, you sounded good. Were you guys using Doug's phone then too? Was it different phones? Same technology. Same technology. That's crazy. That's weird. Yeah. Same tech. Well, maybe

if you get rid of your iPhone too, we won't have this problem anymore. Isn't that the first iPhone invented? Hey, that's a Motorola brick phone. You could kill people with that. So, Adam, did you want to go into that article that I posted to that? Oh yeah, yeah. So I, that T-Nation article. So yes, so let me, let's kick this off like this. So somebody, a lot of times, by the way, two of the other posts was awesome.

For him, so great, man. I love, I love the community. I love you. I shared like-minded individuals. No, it's badass. Honestly, those that are not, those are listeners right now, that's kind of like the the next step of like mind pump 24 or seven is to be able to get access

to the forum and talk and share with everybody because it is. It's a lot of great information. So anyways, other than the recipe, I'm thinking about right now that I saw that it was awesome. There was also a post on Tination from-Nation and it was about how to measure your strength, right? Yeah, are you strong? Yeah. And it's written, the gentleman who wrote it, I believe, is a strength coach. So this is based off of his own personal opinion. And so he put out these standards of strength.

And I don't know, what do you guys think about them? I actually want to describe them, please, because I didn't give you the art of reading. Read, read, read. Why don't you read the portion where he describes what he, he classifies good, what he classifies is great, and when he classifies. Right. So deep, so he, the, the category, as he starts with this decent, which he says, basically is not bad. This is a level strength that the, the, the person can, you know, works out to get, focus on strength and maybe get to and maybe six months to a year type of deal. And maybe even some people who are naturally that strong could achieve.

Could achieve just on their own. Yeah. Just because they're just really strong people. That would be decent strength. Then you have good, which is where most people can get to with years of hard training. And then there's great, which not everybody can get to. There's a level of, you know, genetic gift that you need to have to get to that level. So you have decent, good, and great.

And for men, I'll go over some of the numbers, right? So for any has, he has a total number, but he also has a percentage of body weight. So if you're a small guy, then you might not want to go with a total number, you go with the percentage of body weight. But to give you an example, for the squat, a decent number would be 315. Good number would be 405, squat a decent number would be 315 Good number would be 405 and a great number would be 455 or

One and a half times body weight for decent two times body weight for good two and a half times body weight for great So I don't know what do you guys think about that that number there? Hmm, I think I think it's I thought it was very very good. I thought it you know I like how he describes decent, good, and great. Most of these things that you see, they just kind of say good, you know, good, excellent, or whatever like that. But because he gives a description of what he's describing

that range and I think that perfect classification of that. Because when I read the weights and I looked at Katrina and I were looking at these together. So I was showing her where she would fall on all these categories for female and male. I'm like, hey, you know this, yeah. You can visually see that too. It looks very logical, you know, as far as like progressions,

even personally in the gym, like what you see yourself accomplish and those numbers sound, you know, pretty, well, he lists squat bench press deadlift and the military press and he does bent over row pushups, dips, pull ups, all sorts all sorts so I don't know So great great for squats for 55 have you guys ever squat at 455? No, no, you never have you did 405 Yeah, yeah, and just and I know yeah, yeah, cuz his ass is massive I've I've actually done

500 was the most I've ever squatted yeah in my life, but I weighed 230 and I wasn't leaning at all So you I was pretty you you you brought up the the weight course. You brought up the weight ratio thing. This is where I was going to kind of challenge you a little bit on this. Well, I noticed you post that that person responded, Hey, Sal, what did you think? Because everybody asked Sal the technical questions, right? Sal, what is your take on these numbers? I'm sure herpes.

Yeah. Yeah. Does this seem accurate to you? And you said, well, I think that, you know, it should include weight ratio. And, you know, I kind of have a disagreement on that because there's other things that come into play. Like, when you, when the formula for like,

we're talking about physics, and when you talk about power and moving something, uh, distance and time come into play. And you would need that as a multiplier also because somebody who is 200 pounds and they're six foot three and somebody who's 200 pounds at five foot three, have total different leverage advantages on squatting, deadlifting, a bit more. Of course. Of course. So, but the tall guy's going to have an advantage with the deadlift. He is. So one, one of those lifts, the rest are, the rest you're at a disadvantage. Yeah, you're gonna be horrible at bench.

Yeah, you're gonna be the worst at bench, you're gonna be worth the overhead price, you're gonna be the worst at squatting for everything else. Everything allows it, except you only think you could have a lot of. That's why I said, yeah, I mean, I could see that in your lifts already. Right, just the way that you're, well, that's the only thing I am great in other than already. Right, just the way that you're this is what that's the only thing I am

great in other than like all that. Because I passed a lot in the auxiliary stuff, but is my deadlift. Everything else, my bench and my squat are on the upper end of good. Yeah. So, but anyways, that was my point was that, you know, weight does matter and it doesn't matter to me

because you know, a 230 pound sal, a 230 pound sal versus a 205 sal, I think it's a good way to gauge yourself. But you can't, a 200 pound guy can't compare himself to another 200 pound guy, because I was built. Yeah, because I was too, what I ended up getting, I was up to like 240 when I was playing college ball, and that's when I was lifting massive weight. And that's when I was lifting massive weight. But that's because I had a I was super massive. And I was immobile on certain movements. And,

you know, it's all relative because putting on extra mass fuck yet helps. Well, that's a thing. I mean, this is, are you strong for these exercises? Not are you a strong person? Because if, let's say you hit the max on all these things, does that necessarily make you a strong person? And what context? In the gym, yeah, you're a strong person. Yeah.

As a wrestler, would you be a strong person? Maybe not. I've listened. I've wrestled guys who I could lift twice as much as and even though forget technique They're just strong fuckers like they'll grab you and you just feel their strength Well, then what's the definition of strength? It's tough different because yeah It depends on the content. You're talking about it more from a grip perspective, right? Well, I don't know. I mean, I don't know like, you know, I mean if you were gonna if there's a there is a mathematical equation for this

There should be but like there is a mathematical equation for this. There should be, but like, there's so many different, there's so many factors. Well, that's, and then each, each, each thing that you, you, we, we would talk about, you would talk about different variables. Yeah. And you, that's where you would, you would do different formulas. So if you're going to use something where there's, there, you have to travel over distance, you have to acquire, you have to, you have to take an account for that because you have to go over a amount of distance. That's why so, so let's use my squad, my squad

and deadlift and Justin squad and deadlift and compare the two. We're probably relatively the same and when it comes to our strength because even though both those lift, we're opposite on. So for example, he out squats me. Well, I could argue with you that, you know, when it takes for me to go down with 405 pounds as deep as I go and as tall as I am, that takes a lot of fucking strength because how much I got to move. More time under tension. Yes.

Yes. And then the same thing goes for him for his deadlift. So his deadlift, when he deadlift, so only maybe 495 and I'm deadlifting 545. Yeah. So I have a better advantage because of lever reasons. But yet he and he's at a disadvantage. So technically, he's as strong or strong as I am in that lift.

So that's why if people are gonna get into starting to wait and breaking that down, I feel like you have to. Yeah, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. Like at the end of the day, it doesn't. It's all about what can you do. You know what I'm saying? I think that's why I like the power lifts,

how they have it. So you have to test out on each one of those because it does differ quite a bit. Because what makes you good at one usually makes you, like really, really good benches are usually bad dead lifters because of the short arms and the, but you know what though? He does list on this article.

He does list body weight stuff like for great, for pushups 90, 90 pushups for dips 60 for pull ups 30. So there's some there's some different stuff there because I know guys that could hammer the weights when it comes to the deadlift and all that stuff, but they can't do those types of things. Yeah, which like have you guys ever done 30 pull ups in a row? Yeah, I can. I've done no, I've done probably 20. That's that's the most I've never done 30 pull ups in a row. Yeah, I can. I've done, no, I've done probably 20. That's the most I've ever done was 30, ever. And that's like my max. Yeah, so I doubt I could do that right now

because of my issue with my forum. But I'm most certainly gonna do that. Same thing with dips, pushups, for sure. I could bust out 100 pushups. So there's definitely, those I did really, you know what's funny, my girl kicked my ass in most of all these categories. Oh, because they have a female category. Oh yeah, she was great in everything. Her squat, her deadlift, you know, what's funny, my girl kicked my ass in most all these categories. Oh, because they have a she meal category. Oh, yeah, she was great in everything. Her squat,

her deadlift, her bench, like everything she was great on. I'm like, what the fuck? I barely got you into strength training. But like strength, the other thing about strength, so easy. So easy. One thing that we also need to say about strength is strength is also a skill. And what do I mean by that? It's how you apply your strength. Like if I, if I could be this champion power lifter with lots of strength in the gym, and I could go to a farm and start throwing you know, base a bunch of, you know, hey, you know, hey, bales everywhere with a farmer who's been doing it for his whole life, he's probably going to kick my ass because his skill level with doing that particular technique is much better.

Well, he's figured out all the little nuances that his body just moves. Super, exactly, super efficient with it. Well, that's why it's, I mean, it's really tough to identify, you know, what defines strength when it has to be, you know, you have to give a specific example. And then you have to like show, okay,

like you guys are talking about levers then you have to show, okay. Like you guys are talking about levers, you're talking about near muscular activation, like how much you can control. But skill too, right? Like, well, let's talk about rock climbing, right? For instance, like, think about how much near muscular control and activation, like they can actually recruit

and they can get so many muscles involved into like the tip of their finger. Right. So they can hang, you know, and basically apply all of their emphasis into this one part of their body. That's what I mean. That takes an insane amount of control and isolated strength. Exactly.

Look, if you were to lift, if you were, if there was a huge boulder that we needed to lift, an engineer could use pulleys and do it by himself, whereas it would take five of me to lift it in the air because of technique, right? Strength, a lot of it is skill. And that don't mean like extreme technique, although that does come into play with a lot of things, I mean just doing something over and over again,

you just get really good at it. And it's just one of those things, you know, it's so hard to say, are you a strong guy? Because like I said, I know a lot of guys I can outlift who, and other things are just stronger than me. Why don't we just say like, who are you most impressed by, strength? Like, what would you identify like, maybe like two or three people,

like types of people, like, that you just look at and you revere. If you know what, I'm impressed by all athletic feats, even endurance feats, watching people do like 100 mile runs, it's like, I'm impressed by all of it because it takes, it's a level of specialty that required lots of training and a role of the dice with amazing genes. You know, there's that one Greek guy,

Karnasus, I think his name is, who runs, he ran a marathon every day for like a year. And the guy routinely does 100 mile runs. And I mean, just blows me away. All that stuff blows. It all impresses the shat. I mean, strong man competitions, a place I was gonna say strong man competitions,

but then also Olympic gymnasts on the rings. I watch that in pure awe because of how much movement, how complex the movement is, how fluid it is, how much control they have over their body. So none of it looks, they don't have a loose part of their body. Everything is fired at once, and it's in its super fluid movement.

It's like, you want to talk about pound per pound strength. A spectacle, because it takes their whole life to get to that point. You know, that's why it's like, it's just silly to me, do try and do that. You know, you guys should look up, Alexander Carolyn. He was a champion wrestler for the Soviet Union. He went under, under-affeted for years.

Used to dominate people they called him the Russian bear. Watch his Greco-Roman wrestling matches. You wanna talk about like freakish strength. He was, he would compete in a super heavyweight category. So he would routinely wrestle guys that were closer to 300 pounds or more. These guys would flatten out in the floor, flatten out like arm spread, leg spread,

so that this so that Alexander couldn't like lift them and turn them over to gate points. He would fucking, while he was on the ground with them, he'd hook his hands and he'd stand up. One leg of time, lift these guys up and flip them in the air and then do it again. I mean, ridiculous like monkey strength. Doesn't make any sense.

That was impressive. That is. Yeah, look that guy. You know, I like Lane Norton, man. Lane Norton of our time, he impresses the shit out of me. Yeah, he's got crazy strength. On top of being a great businessman and a smart dude. Like, I love watching him because when I look at him

and not to take anything away from the guys you guys are talking about or anything like that, but those guys like I feel like you you see something even like with just some of the reason they look like they were just built for that and they're these these specimens right like that guy was born to fucking do that and nobody nobody yeah there's a genetic disposition when I look at Lane Gordon and he looks like he's an average guy who has literally put the science to the test. He looks to me like the, if you, if you saw him walking down the street in an irregular teach in a medium or a large t-shirt, you wouldn't even know who the fuck he is.

But the dude is one of the strong's pound for pound guys that we know and he, he's gotten there through applied science, which that, that to me is, is cool as fuck. I think that's, you know what? There's a lot of guys like that though that look like like a regular person. Like there's strong, ridiculous strong. Yeah, it's rare, but let me ask you guys this. Here's a good question.

Here's a nice little hypothetical. Would you, what would you rather have? Would you rather be able to add 15 pounds of muscle on your body, but get weaker? Or would you rather lose, let's say, 10 or 15 pounds of muscle on your body, but get weaker, or would you rather lose, let's say, 10 or 15 pounds of muscle, but double your strength. Oh, wow. Well, I would rather be smaller, but we weigh stronger or be bigger, but we weaker.

I mean, do I lose some fat? You get another one. I think it's obvious where we all go on that, because I'm definitely the guy who, I always, that's my motto is, I just want wanna be the guy who takes his shirt off and looks like he can run fast. I don't actually have to run fast. I don't know. If I might strengthen increases,

but you're saying that your strengths basically are gonna stay the same if I drop 15 pounds. No, no, no. You say any increase. If you get way stronger, but you gotta be a lot smaller. Yeah, be smaller. I'll do that. All day, right?

Me too. Yeah, see, not me. I love that shit. Oh, I love going in there and just like, people looking at me. I like being understated. I, you know, I was the little guy in my whole life that was strong.

That's how I felt. I felt like I was the little strong guy forever. You know, like, it took me forever and half my life to get big and that's so for me, I'd sacrifice. Cause it goes back to what I've always said too. I've never once in my life taking my shirt off in the bedroom with a girl and she goes, oh my god, how much do you bench press? Yeah. You know, oh my god. And you know, and then people I say that and then people like, oh, you're so superficial. Yeah, but you like to break people's arms. Yeah, that's what I'm coming from.

Well, yeah, but let's, I mean, let's either you'll be in the bedroom naked with a girl a lot more time than you'll break someone's arm. Sure. Or even have to be like having sex with her. She'd be like, oh, they're doing it right. It should be like, it Then you'll be like having sex with someone and you'll be like, oh, if you're doing it right. It should be like, lift me in the air and you'll be like, um, can't. I'm not that strong. And you know, and I, and I, and I want to make it clear that when I say that too, I, Sal gave a very good analogy

because you didn't say that I would be some pussy. I don't have, because I wouldn't want to be 15 pounds bigger and be like a pussy. I can't even out, I can't lift even close to what I am now. Not just that. But if I took a decrease, which would still be, I would still be stronger than the average guy out there. I just got to be 15 pounds smaller,

and but stronger, like I would still rather be 15 pounds bigger. And, you know, you want the Ferrari, but with a little bit of a smaller engine, like a six cylinder for some reason. Well, no, I want the Ferrari, and you want the Honda Civic, but it can beat me in the quarter mile. Boosted. Yeah, boosted. Yeah boosted

You want it? You want it pushing, you know 700 horses People like look at that piece of shit car and it blows by my Ferrari and then oh shit He just crushed me. Yeah, because we both know where the chick what what car she climbs in when the car with the race is over Yeah, I'm not trying to check a track chick Either of my it's the point though. I'm trying to impress men. Wait a minute Shit, I got that mixed up there a little bit. That's a good one. That was a good one.

I like that. So back to the whole, the judge and the strength thing. I just think that if someone is going to get caught up on it, the best indicator I think, and I wish that I would have done this, that when I started lifting, I wish I would have followed a program like maps that was the core lifts, bench press squat, deadlift overhead press type movements, and I wish I would have seen exactly what my strength was the first week I walked in, you know, first couple of weeks I walked in the gym, and then I forever can use that as my benchmark. No, I got so distracted. Yes, because if I'd

done that, I could see where I was then, And of course, I know how much I've changed, but it would be, or not how much I can see. There's a huge difference from where I was now and where I was when I was 17 years old when I started to pick up weights. But boy, what I love to actually really be able to break that down, math, math. Well, to be honest, this is why I love sports so much.

And now we don't talk about this very much, but the strength that I have worked on so hard in the gym, I want to see it put to use. I want to see my muscles fire when I want them to as fast as I want them to, you know, I want them to lift something fucking heavy when I want them to, that's, that's what I want. I want to see them in action. I could give a shit about like, you know, puffing myself up and getting a pump and all this kind of stuff. I want to see you in action. I just want to, you know, well, I up and getting a pump and all this kind of stuff. I want to see you in action.

I just want to, you know, I totally feel where you come from on that too though because I have such a bitter taste in my mouth that I played sports my entire life and it pains me to have the knowledge I have now and to not have had it then and to think where my sports do. Oh, man. I mean, I was just an athlete. I like to play, I could pick up a ball and I could play anything. I wasn't the best at everything.

I was good, I was good at everything I did. You know, I was in great, it's the same way I probably lived. I'm not the great on everything. I'm pretty damn good at everything. But I never trained, you know, I never dieted. I never, you know, trained my body to be that way. Sure, there are coaches, how does do some bullshit, but not, I never dieted, I never trained my body to be that way. Sure, our coaches had us do some bullshit, but nothing effective like how we would train the body now.

I mean, God, I wish. I was such a waste, all this knowledge that came after I was done playing. I wish I could have applied that to see where I could have taken my body and be able to see that transfer onto the field. How awesome that would be. Right. I guess now, too. It's like, you know, as you get more knowledge, like you want to give it back.

And I think that's why this all makes sense, you know, what we've been doing and working on. It's, I feel like a coach, you know, like the way that I am with my clients, like, and I know some people call themselves coaches who are trainers, but at some point, I would like to organize an entire team's workouts and see what happens on a larger scale.

That's something I can see myself working on. That sounds cool. And developing that. That all being said, if you're an athlete and you're working out in the gym, there's going to be some very specific movements you should do depending on what sport you're doing. But they'll be a general. But I will say, I know you guys will back me up. The traditional exercises that have the most carryover to any sport are your basic movements.

You need to be able to push something off the ground, like a squat, you need to be able to lift something heavy off the ground, like a deadlift, and you should be able to push something off your chest and push something in the air. If you could do those things very well, those have a lot of carryover into pretty much any sport I can think of.

In other words, if you gain 50, you know, if you go up 10% in those exercises, you're going to see a notable difference in your sport versus seeing a 10% increase in, say, a leg press or a 10% increase in a barbell curl. Well, I'll try to set kick back. Those aren't going to translate. What you're saying is you want to see your body work harmonies, all at once. It's synergistic. These compound lifts provide that. It provides an exercise that you have to focus on using your entire body. The more effective you are at using your entire body as a whole, the

more effective you're going to be in any movement. And so, I mean, as it's just a general statement, if I'm stronger and I'm working on my upper body, but my lower body is stabilizing the load and the weight at the same time. Oh, good point. You know, like that's all, it's all harmonious. If you think about marching, if you think about marching, if you think about running, if the more I can get my upper body involved with that, the more power and the more ground forces I'm gonna create because I'm stronger in that movement.

Well, good point. And I would say for athletes training in the gym, you should do every, as many exercises or every exercise standing. Yes. You should do very little exercises. I don't ever see it. Because in your sport, you're going to be on your feet. You're going to be standing and be supporting yourself. I can't tell you how many people that I know personally and that I see in the gym, who will military press X amount of weight, seated, they could not press that standing.

And that doesn't translate well to sports. To be able to military press with a barbell seated versus being able to do it standing, it's not gonna translate well. And whichever one you train in, you'll get better at. I can press overhead standing more than I can seated because I train standing all the time. Are you the same way? Yeah, and so that's gonna translate better to, and I can't see it. Because I train standing all the time. Are you the same way?

Yeah, and so that's gonna translate better too. And I did that on purpose. I did that years ago. I always used to see it in shoulder press. And years ago I said to myself, you know, when am I ever gonna be pushing anything while I'm sitting down, I need to be able to do the standing and support it.

And I had to drop way down on my way and get, you know, better at it. And now I can press more, you know more standing, and Olympic lifters for sure. You give an Olympic lifter, you tell them to do a military press standing, they'll press 30% more and they will seat it in a machine. I agree. If I have to be in a seated position too, the one key thing for me is I'm still driving my legs into the ground.

So I'm still getting engaged with my legs, you know, so it's not like I'm not splitting body part up, right? I'm still involved. There's there's there's something we've touched upon this before. You just brought up an excellent point in that activating the central nervous system. It works better when it's all activated. If you're looking for maximal strength and power, then if you were to activate some of it and try to maximize a particular aspect. So let me explain.

If I'm doing a bench press, and I'm pushing as hard as I can with my upper body, but my legs and my lower body are relatively relaxed, I'm not going to be as strong as if I tense up and drive through with my legs when I press the bar. Even though my legs have zero to do with lifting the bar off my chest, because I'm activating the central nervous system, get more power.

So here's a little experiment you can do to yourself to see what I'm talking about. If you have a hand gripper or something at home, squeeze it as hard as you can or a tennis ball or whatever. Squeeze it as hard as you can with one hand, but relax the rest of your body, including your face and just squeeze it as hard as you can or tennis ball or whatever. Squeeze it as hard as you can with one hand, but relax the rest of your body, including your face and just squeeze it as hard as you can. Then try it again, but go and tense up your entire body, including your face. You'll see how much more you're crushing it. How much stronger you are because the central nervous system fires stronger and better that

way. Well, it's the same analogy too that I was trying to provide with with the rock climbing is it's you know, if they're not tense overall with their entire body when they're going into, you know, the next part of, you know, the piece they're grabbing after, if they're at all passive in the movement, then, you know, it provides, you know, that becomes dead weight. It's not, it's not, you know, it's not going to be a contributing force. You're not going to be as strong as you would if I'm contracted, if I'm contracted all the way up into that.

Well, a lot of it, so this is what, you know, what kind of what it boils down to. There are protection mechanisms in your body, naturally, that prevent maximal power output because it's protecting you from muscle tears and strains. Okay. So if you take someone off the street and have them max themselves out, they'll be able to recruit, they'll be able to maybe get 30% of their maximum strength.

They're having trained their body to be able to get more out of their body. And this is why when you take a beginner and you haven't worked out, they just progress so fast. Really fat, like within one week, I'll have a client within one week add 50 pounds to a cable row. Literally, within one week, add 50 pounds to a cable row.

Literally, you know, 20 to 50 pounds in a cable row, right off the bat. And it's because you're teaching your body that it's okay to lift with more power. Now, sometimes this happens naturally in extreme situations like, you know, your car's on fire, your pinned underneath your seat, you need to get the fuck out, your body will override some of that, some of that.

But most of the time you can't. So a lot of training is learning how to recruit your muscles and maximize your output. And somebody who's really, really well trained, who practices that can get like 90% of the strength out or more with their lift. And a lot of my strength is that. You know, a lot of guys, people will see me lift,

especially in the dead lift, and they'll be like, how can you lift them? I always train what they call on the nerve. I constantly am testing myself in that way, and I cycle it in regularly in my training, where I'm able to recruit as much strength as my body will be able to produce with that particular lift without fear of, you know, my body's not scared, it's going to hurt itself. And so that's, that's an important aspect of strength also. And that's, you know, that's why training in that particular, it's like turning that governor off. I mean, yes, get past that point, you know, in the process of lifting. And that's why frequency is so important. It's because we're trying to keep at practice practice, practice, practice, the movements. So now you're telling

your body, you're not going to die, right? And you keep keep going along that trajectory and it's gonna bypass that that governing system that was in place. Yeah, some coaches call it training on the nerve I'll give you an example. Let's say my max deadlift is 575 Then I'll always deadlift 500 pounds every workout. I'm gonna do a couple sets with 500 pound It's not my max, but I'm always getting heavy and just maximizing that fire. And then I'll go onto my regular sets

and that's what that basically means. And you'll notice that your lifts will go up as you continue to do that. And then the frequency aspect, practice, practice, practice, practice, and you're able to generate that much more power. Does that build muscle if you combine it with traditional hypertrophy training, yes, definitely. You'll build more muscle.

If that's all you do, then you won't build as much muscle as if you did hypertrophy training. But you'll get strong as shit. And you'll feel really fucking hard. Right. I've had clients add, you know, five pounds to a lift. No joke.

They'll add five pounds to a lift in the same workout because I tell them to squeeze the bar as hard as they can. That's it. Like, okay, I know you're gonna press this, but now that we're, you know, I'm gonna put five pounds on, and I know that was your max last time, but this time before you push it, I want you to squeeze the shit out of the bar,

and then boom, five more pounds goes up. Just something silly like that. I find myself doing that all the time. Oh, I've been, yes, I've been experimenting with that a bit. I'm gonna expose a little bit of those techniques with the Maps Athletics. Don't tell them what's going on. Go ahead and unveil that here at some point when it's ready.

We got secret stuff coming out. Oh! And with that, please subscribe to Mind Pump. Give us a good rating and review. You, you. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. For more information about this show and to get valuable free resources from Sal, Adam and Justin, visit us at www.mindpumpradio.com. Until next time, this is Mind Pump. you