Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2364: The Downside of Getting a 6-Pack, Overcoming a Cortisol Addiction, Unusual Causes of Shoulder Pain & More (Listener Live Coaching)

Episode Date: June 22, 2024

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin coach four Pump Heads via Zoom. Mind Pump Fit Tip: What is more important to look at? Calories and macros or food quality? (2:17) Have we been rocked to sleep when it comes to social media? (20:17) Bluey mania! (25:51) Aurelius, the garbage man. (27:06) A special call to the Mind Pump audience. (28:20) A discussion on potential depressing news coming out of 24 Hour Fitness and its downstream effects. (33:16) When Mind Pump gets lit, Zbiotics is nearby. (42:40) Life in the fast lane. (47:23) Shout out to Esco Elite! (54:28) #ListenerLive question #1 - I want to follow the Mind Pump route, but I'm not sure which program to start with. I have MAPS Anabolic and MAPS Performance. Should I bulk or cut? (57:32) #ListenerLive question #2 - Are macro calculators accurate? I wanted to start to fix my eating and get lean. I plugged my info into the macronutrient tracker. I am 180, 5'10" and I put that I moderately work out. The breakdown looked like this: Calories:2648, Protein: 166g, Fat: 59g, Carbs: 364g. (1:09:53) #ListenerLive question #3 - What are the best exercises, stretches, and or massages to loosen my tight chest, relieve pain in my neck and shoulders, and increase my shoulder mobility so that I can properly perform overhead squats? (1:27:13) #ListenerLive question #4 – Are six packs realistic without tracking? What's the time frame for this? (1:43:09) Related Links/Products Mentioned Ask a question to Mind Pump, live! Email: [e-mail] Visit Butcher Box for this month’s exclusive Mind Pump offer!  ** Your choice of bone-in chicken thighs, top sirloins, or salmon in every box for an entire year, plus get $20 off! ** Visit ZBiotics for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Promo code MINDPUMP24 for 15% off first-time purchasers on either one-time purchases, (3, 6, 12-packs) or subscriptions (6, 12-pack) ** June Promotion: MAPS 15 Minutes | Bikini Bundle | Shredded Summer Bundle 50% off! ** Code JUNE50 at checkout ** Mind Pump #1605: How To Get Jacked On A Budget Mind Pump Fitness Coaching Course 54% of US Youth are Chronically Ill • Children's Health Defense The Internet’s Final Frontier: Remote Amazon Tribes Mind Pump #2132: Six Reasons Men Today Are Weak Sal Di Stefano on X: "Shame on you 24 Hour Fitness. I started with that company and learned a lot and credit them for so much in my life. But that was back in the days where Mark Mastrov ran the company. After he left, the company slowly fell apart. Sad." Cannonball Record Broken: 25 Hours, 39 Minutes from NYC to LA Esco Elite Mindset Life, Business and Relationship Hacks with Adam Schafer (Mind Pump) Get your free Sample Pack with any “drink mix” purchase! Also try the new LMNT Sparkling — a bold, 16-ounce can of sparkling electrolyte water: Visit DrinkLMNT.com/MindPump Mind Pump #2287: Bodybuilding 101- How To Bulk And Cut MAPS Prime Webinar MAPS Macro Calculator Mind Pump #2345: The Muscle Mommy Revolution Mind Pump #1652: How To Overhead Press Your Bodyweight The Wall Test | Mind Pump TV MAPS Prime Pro Webinar Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Jen Cohen (@therealjencohen) Instagram Max Lugavere (@maxlugavere) Instagram Jordan Shallow D.C (@the_muscle_doc) Instagram Modern Warrior (@mwselfdefence) Instagram

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. In today's episode, we had live callers call in, so people called in and we got to help them on air with their health and fitness, but this was after the intro portion So the intro is where we talk about current events Family life we bring up studies. We have a good time that portion was 55 minutes long

Then we got to the live callers, by the way We have show notes you can click on the timestamps to tick you to your favorite parts of the episode also If you want to be on an episode like this one email us your question Just email it to live at mindpumpmedia.com. Now this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one, ButcherBox. This company brings grass-fed beef, wild caught fish, heritage pork to your door.

This is healthy meat to your door at great prices. Check them out. And if you go through our link, butcherbox.com forward slash mind pump, you can get your choice of bone-in chicken thighs top sirloin or salmon in your box thrown in for free for an entire year plus $20 off now this episode is also brought to you by Z Biotics so this is a probiotics that has been genetically modified it is actually unique and different no one else has this probiotic okay this special

bacteria destroys or helps consume or break down acetaldehyde in your gut. That is one of the negative byproducts of alcohol consumption. So here's what you do. You drink Z-biotics, then you go drinking with your friends. You have some alcoholic beverages. You feel way better the day after. I do not drink alcohol ever without using Z-biotics ever again. Go check them out. Try it out. Go to zeebiotics.com. That's Z B I O T I C S.com forward slash mind pump to four and then use the

code mind pump to four for 15% off for first time purchasers. Also, we have a sale this month. Maps 15 is half off. The bikini bundle of workout programs is half off and the shredded summer bundle of programs is also half off all Of those 50% off if you're interested go to mapsfitnessproducts.com and then use the code June 50 for the discount All right, here comes the show All right. So what's more important to look at calories and macros or food quality? Which one's more important? The truth is they're both

important. Of course if you eat too many calories you'll gain body fat. Of course if you miss your macros you're probably not going to get to your goals. However the types of foods you eat influence your behaviors. Besides that they also influence your health. In other words two equal calorie diets with equal macros, one with better food quality, tends to produce better health markers. So they're both important. Stop arguing over these two things. Look at both of them.

Was there a point in coaching a client where you felt like this conversation came up? So is there levels or layers to this? First, I want to get my client to understand X, Y, and Z, and then we'll make our way to this. Or right out the gates gates are you communicating, hey, we should be all organic, we should do grass-fed, like, where does that conversation come in from?

No, actually, I remember distinctly how this started. I came from the, like you guys, like the fitness space, and I think it probably skewed more towards muscle building, fat loss, like body composition, fitness space, then I worked with some really, really smart wellness professionals in my studio and they communicated things differently and there would be a conflict sometimes in terms of ideas, but I did, I, I, I soon realized that they were both kind of important.

Now my argument was always like, get the basics down first, right? So don't worry about things like organic, non-GMO, whatever, if you're just eating garbage or if you're not getting enough protein or if your calories are too high or not adequate. But the argument that they would make was, well, a lot of those things sometimes influence your behaviors. So in some cases, their arguments made a lot of sense. For example, if you hit your calories and your macros, but it was all

from heavily processed foods, yeah, technically you would lose weight and technically you would reach your goals, but how would you feel, how would that influence your behaviors? And then how sustainable would that be? On the flip side, you know, if I'm just focused on organic, but I'm not looking at calories and essential macronutrients and nutrients. Well, I could buy organic potato chips, right? I could buy organic cookies.

Yeah, or gummy bears. Gummy bears. I'm really good at marketing for that. So I think, I think the big problem is, is like, this is how it is and don't, uh, lend any credence to the other side. They're both important. Context matters. I mean, food quality matters, just like quantity, just like calories and macros.

Um, but it really depends on the individual and what exactly we're talking about, but it does matter. I guess I think I always communicated it in order of operation based off of our financial situation. That's, see, that's context, right? So yeah, so like if I had a client who was affluent and the difference of a you know price of something being organic or not it would didn't it was irrelevant to their lifestyle and it wasn't

going to impact him. I'm absolutely saying hey this is I would prefer we go this direction for these reasons. I did the same thing in the very beginning but that's actually been democratized quite substantially in terms of like you know the, the, the costs for something that's way different or the delivery to that. So, but yeah, to your point, that's how it always kind of assess it at first is like, let's, let's figure out their situation and what makes sense with their actual daily routine. Like, is this going to match and mirror that, but we can tweak it. So it's a little more effective.

Yeah, that's really, I mean, at least I feel like that's changed just recently with companies like ButcherBox who have now made grass-fed beef way more reasonable, right? Competitive with regular beef at the grocery store. Yeah, you're limiting a lot of middlemen. Yeah, and so. And they deliver right to your door. So brands like that are now,

and I think more and more of them are popping up where they're able to source higher quality meat like that and puts you on like a monthly subscription. I will say this though, to the whole cost argument, I used to take that like right away, people, oh, it's too expensive. Okay. You're right. And then I started looking deeper and asking more questions and well, number

one, personal training clients tend to be more affluent anyway. So if you're going to hire a trainer, even at the low end of 50 bucks an hour, you're, you know, you're, you're not, you're probably not living paycheck to paycheck. But even when I had students that would hire me and they'd say, well, it's too expensive. And we'd look at their diet. I was like, well, you eat out.

Like, you know, there's, there's better ways to save money to get, and you can also buy in bulk. And that'll save a lot of money. And then when I would help them out, they'd be like, oh my God, I'm eating healthy, and it's actually saving me money versus the way I ate before. I think what happens is people compare

eating out to eating out. If you eat out at a restaurant that doesn't try to serve you grass-fed meat, doesn't try to serve you organic food, non-GMO. It's gonna be way cheaper than the restaurant that advertises itself as such. Like you go find an organic, grass-fed, wild-cockfish-like.

Farmed table type thing. That's gonna be expensive. But when you do it yourself, it doesn't make that big of a difference. I mean, apples to apples, you might see a little bit of a difference. But typically people, you know, they save money if they eat at home anyway,

and then when you buy in bulk, that makes a big difference. And then you're right, like a company like ButcherBox, you pay a monthly fee for a box of food, and you do the cost analysis, it's incredible. I just found it is like, you know, and we teach this in our course and stuff like this with coaches and trainers that like, if they're using that as an excuse right now,

it's like I don't even try and like play that game. Like that's like the time game, right? So if excuse right now, it's like I don't even try and like play that game. Like that's like the time game, right? So if a client says like, oh, I don't have the time, I'm so busy, I can't come in, I'm like, well, there's 24 hours in a day and this and that, like I'm not gonna break down. You're right, but you ain't gonna be effective.

Yeah, exactly. So like, I would choose not to like, oh, okay, I understand, you know, we could save money by doing this and that. And then over time, I would explain to them the benefits of that and, or something would reveal itself, like they're inflamed all the time with this and that.

And it's like, well, maybe it's because of all these highly processed foods and how about just for a couple of weeks, I get you to change over to this and then allow that to reveal itself and then go like, oh my God, I feel so much better now. And you're like, and then all of a sudden, oh, now they see the value in it. And now they're like, okay, well, maybe I can do that. So I also get really annoyed though, with the other side that trivializes all of

the, you know, all of the things under the food quality category. And I know it can get ridiculous. So I'm not saying there aren't, you know, silly things in that category, but they'll do things like, like, they'll compare like grass-fed beef to conventional beef. Like, yes, there's a difference, but the difference is small and it doesn't make that big of a difference, so who cares?

It's like, well, one time, but if you eat meat a lot, like I eat meat every day, I eat red meat every single day. It's a major part of your diet. Do the math, do the math for me. Look at, over the course of 30 days of my fatty acid content from red meat, grass-fed versus non grass-fed and over that month over six months a year and so on it's a significant difference. So you can't just do that one thing. The other one is the whole like

oh you try to go organic you try to avoid foods with glyphosate residues or whatever. It's not that big of an issue. Look they did a study on glyphosates. They did a study on that ingredient. It's not that big of an evidence. Look, they did a study on glyphosates. They did a study on that ingredient. It's not that big of a deal. The problem is we've never done a study on all these things all at once. So you're not just eating whatever they're showing the study of the glyphosate. You also have xenoestrogens coming from this angle, preservatives over here, weird chemicals put in food to make them hyper palatable that aren't necessarily found in nature individually, maybe not an issue combined over time, maybe it's an issue.

In fact, it's funny, I was going to talk about this on today's episode. I think this connects very nicely. I just brought up, I just learned a statistic that was alarming. And, and, and I think this has to do a lot with our environment. The things that we put in our mouth and breathe and the things that we put on our skin. This is crazy to me. So check this out. 54% of US children, more than half, okay, are suffering from a chronic illness. Oh my God. A chronic illness.

54%? 54, either food allergies, asthma, autism. That's crazy. Yes. Wow. 54 either food allergies, asthma, autism. Yes. Wow. 54% of children have a chronic illness. Yeah. What's that coming from? Juvenile diabetes. Okay. Between 2001 and 2009, right? So 2001 we're already in a bad shape, right?

From one to nine up 23%, One in six children have a developmental disability. ADHD went up 43% in the past eight years. Almost 50% increase in the last eight years for asthma. Food allergies, this is like food allergies, one in 13 children, which by the way, that number was like tiny. Autism was so rare at one point that it was like, you just didn't see it. Now it's like exploding. What is it all connected to? I can't, I have to believe that it might have to do

with this- Multitude of factors. Yeah, this just- We're just doing a lot of wrong things. This symphony of chemicals and environmental, you know, whatever you want to call them, toxins or basically new things that you and I weren't exposed to when we were kids. Definitely not our parents. Now it's like all these things all the time. Do you think it plays a role?

Oh, something's doing something because these numbers are alarming when children, 54% of them have chronic illness. So it matters. I mean, it's overwhelming when you start kind of really peering into stuff like that. And I get that sense, especially if I have a new client coming in. I don't want to just like, dude, your environment,

you're like toxic. I get that too, the overwhelm, right? I totally get that. Because as a trainer, one of the biggest mistakes you can make when you're with a client is you throw everything but the kitchen seat and then they do nothing. So I totally get that. But what I'm trying to say separately, right? Here's the argument. I'm gonna use the argument for something else.

Imagine if someone was debating fitness to you and they said this to you. One workout's not gonna do anything for you. You're like, well yeah, no shit. That's why you have to do a lot of them over a long period of time. It's the same exact argument when someone says to you, oh big deal change your deodorant. What's that gonna do? Oh, you're not gonna spray your you know hairspray with those, you know Xeno estrogen, what's that gonna do for you? Oh big deal. You're avoiding, you know, you're gonna go with organic cereal Well, yeah one thing but it's all these things all the time They're probably doing something given that and I totally agree and I but it's all these things all the time that are probably doing something.

Given that, and I totally agree, and I think it's a massive factor, especially considered long-term, all the volume, and everything, but in terms of how you're gonna start communicating that with your client initially, I would definitely bring it up in conversation with less intensity versus the fact that reducing calories is gonna move the needle the most. Right, and make you healthier.

Or at least knowing your maintenance calories. The knowledge is what you have to build off of, establishing the knowledge. We build off of that, we tweak, we alter, and we get to the point of all these other quality food items we need to incorporate down the road. I think the key is to bring awareness without being an alarmist. Yeah. Right? So it's like it's important that they understand that we communicate that. I think it's part of our job to continue to inform and educate people. At the same time too, we're not gonna be an alarmist about it.

Like freak out. It's like listen, if you haven't been able to show up to the gym for 30 days in a row or you haven't been able to show up to the gym for 30 days in a row, or you haven't been able to follow your meal plan. Start there. Yeah, start there. Like there is no reason for you to freak out about your shampoo yet or your deodorant yet, because even though those things are probably not ideal for you and they are all compounding, what was going to move the needle in as far as your quality of life, longevity, your overall

health, is you being able to get your calories in check, move your body more, build some muscle. So let's, let's start there, but then also be aware, Chipping away though. Yeah. Being aware that there there's, there's many layers and levels to this that we, we hope to get to.

And, and just to, just to back you up, Adam, your body's ability to deal with, and I'm gonna use this term, and I know it's so loosely, and this pisses some people off, but let's just say toxins. I know they're not toxic, but let's just say all these environmental, let's say, chemicals, things in our, whatever that may in combination affect our bodies or on their own start to affect our bodies like Xeno

Estrogen, right? When you look at all those, your body's ability to detox from those, because your body does have this incredible ability to take in a chemical and then get rid of it. Your body's ability to detox dramatically increases when you're not overeating and you're active. So increases when you're not overeating and you're active. So that's another reason why exercising properly and not overeating are the two biggest rocks. Because when you all of a sudden, here's what you find. You take somebody eating a garbage diet that's too many calories, you cut their calories

with the same garbage diet, not perfect, but you see lots of improvements in their health markers. In fact, there's people that have done this. They're like, I'm just gonna eat. Remember that, we talked about that documentary, Super Size Me recently. There was a guy that tried to counter it who ate an only fast food diet

and showed that he lost weight and all that other stuff, which I hate because it's not, it's not reality, it's not real life. Obviously you're not gonna feel good, all that stuff. But what he proved was, if you don't eat too many calories, you still can see some improvements. and your body's ability to detox Gets better when you move

Appropriately and when you don't overeat so do those things first and the whole alarmist thing I get that because you know It's like it's like you guys ever get overwhelmed with choices trying to watch something on TV and you end up just not watching Yeah, that's what happens happens when we throw all this stuff and then we put a lot of fear behind it, the person shuts down. They're like, I'm not doing anything. Have you ever found, who have you heard that communicates this best?

I think this is really interesting. It's along the lines of what we're kinda talking about too, but more on the behavioral side, because Katrina and I, over this last couple weeks, we obviously went through it. There was very little sleep, very little food and nutrition, very little movement that happened for us. And together we both got back home and then began to eat again.

One of the, and obviously a very minimalist type of foods that she could even eat and I was eating with her. And one of the things we were talking about was got this, we bought these peaches and nectarines and together we're sitting there and we're just like, oh my God. It's just like every bite is just like, holy shit. Like she's like, these are the best peaches we've ever bought. I don't think it's that, you know.

I think it's we've had nothing for so long. But what I was telling her that I thought it was so interesting. I said, just, it highlights how we have these interesting like signals, signallers in our body. And it like speaks to me on like how we were probably supposed to have these periods of time where we really, and obviously we went through an extreme, right? I'm not advocating for not eating like she did and putting her body through the stress that she went

through just to get a peach to taste good. But the point is that it's interesting to me how it like resensitizes all these systems that tell you this is good, this tastes good. And it's like, and it's how crazy is it that you completely just become numb to that after you've like over saturated those systems? Like it's like, if you eat a lot of highly processed foods and you're

constantly in a calorie maintenance or surplus and you never run in a deficit for an extended period of time. It's almost like you never allow those things to get primed again to even enjoy those things. It's not almost, that's exactly what happened. And it's, it's so wild that if you just learn to do that, how much easier it is to adhere to a better diet too, because it's like, it wasn't like we felt deprived, we were eating a peach and we weren't eating some fried, French fries or something. It was like, oh my God, this was so rewarding and so fulfilling.

It's how crazy how much we screw that up for ourselves by the way we choose to eat. Wow. We don't give ourselves the opportunity to find joy in the everyday, healthy, natural things because we're totally. So it's funny because that's a, that's spiritual exercise, what you're talking about. Now we can identify physiologically what's happening.

Receptors down regulate, you know, catecholamine production changes, your perception of the flavor changes. Cause you know, at first you eat something heavily processed and sweet and it's overwhelming, then your body adapts processed and sweet and it's overwhelming, then your body adapts to it, now it's normal. Fruit now tastes bland, we've talked about that before. But the spiritual leaders have talked about fasting from food, fasting from stimulus, fasting from lots of different things, because it helps them appreciate the steps.

It's like when you go, how amazing do you feel when you go out in the woods and you're off electronics and then you come back and oh my God, I'm totally at peace. And I just, I wanna point out something that the audience has heard me go through for almost five years now, right? Max turns five in July. How awesome and rewarding it is as a dad,

as a parent at this point or this stage that we are in raising him that we trained his palate so well that I don't have to manage that anymore. Candy's probably overwhelming. I no longer do this anymore. So if a family member has a Snickers bar or something and they want to, I don't tell them no anymore. It's like he is now, because I've already seen this firsthand. It's so awesome. He will like reject it completely or he'll take one bite and he's just like hands it back. And he loves things like a granola bar that has like a chocolate chip in it or something. Like that is like, he loves that. He like just

enough of this like sensation of like sweet, like bananas with a tab, a dab of peanut butter on it. Oh my God, this kid will, will go nuts for that. But candy is just too much. Oh, but a candy is just like, you see it on his face. And it's so cool to have seen that like we created that. All human desires work that way. He reminded me of an article I brought up. So when you were gone, I brought up an article

that Justin and I talked about and it was fascinating. You just reminded me of it. So there's a tribe in the Amazon that had no technology. So they live in like huts and like, you know, like people did a long time ago. Yeah, I mean, basically. Yeah, and I mean, they had contact with the modern world, but they didn't have internet,

they didn't have any of that stuff, right? So Starlink gave them access to internet. So Elon Musk, you know, Starlink. Is this recent too? Yes, dude. Oh. So they had internet and the whole So Elon Musk, you know, Starlink. Is this recent too? Yes, dude. Oh. So they had internet and the whole thing was like, now you can get emergency.

Six months time or something. I think so. Something like that. It wasn't even, it wasn't a year or so. It was like months, okay? And it was, the way they sold it was like, you're gonna have access to emergency services if you need whatever, if you gotta sell something,

buy something. So they're like, yeah, we welcome this, right? I don't know how many months later, I think it was six months later, the elders were like, yeah, we, we welcome this. Right. I don't know how many months later, I think it was six months later, the elders like, get this out of here. Yeah. Our, our young people are addicted to pornography and social media. They're lazy. Sex practices are changing. Yes. They're aggressive sexually. They're there. We don't like the way they're acting. Yes, dude.

No way. Lost their drive. They lost their drive. Do any work. Like they just, they were hooked and addicted to social media, like, immediately. Talk about the wisdom in the elders. Well, they saw the contrast immediately. To see that and to pick up on that that quickly and to, like, reject something that is so novel and awesome.

It's been a slow drift for us. That's right. He's right. I think that that was, I think they were lucky. They saw the height. That's such a good point, Justin. I think they were lucky because they saw the contrast. You're actually, that's such a slow drift for us. That's right, he's right. I think that that was, I think they were lucky. They saw the height. That's such a good point, Justin. I think they were lucky because they saw the contrast.

That's such a good, what an interesting theory right there. Like we've been rocked to sleep. Dude, it's like the frog in the pot. Yeah, we got the internet, we went neat, neat, neat, and we had to wait, and it's like, it still had that delayed gratification. We had to just buy information, you know, and you're like, oh, cool.

We had radio with like two stations, then radio with 15 stations, then TV with one station, just about information. You know, and you're like, oh, cool. We had radio with like two stations, then radio with 15 stations, then TV with one station, then 15 stations. Wow. Why is this not being talked about more? It went a little viral and it kind of stopped. Yeah. I don't know.

I know. It's substantial. It is. It's such an alarming. And I think you're exactly right, Justin. I think it was such a stark contrast that it was like, holy shit, it was obvious. It was so obvious how bad it was. Because it was like, holy shit, it was obvious. It was so obvious how bad it was.

Because it was like, oh my God, we went from this to all said, now I can't get my teenager out of the hut. You know what I'm saying? He's there all day long, he's not doing his chores, he's not helping out with the hunting, like, wow. Yeah, they were even saying that the youth don't want to hang out with them or with each other because they just want to be on the phone.

They just want to be on the phone and talk on the phone. Just like you see the kids now. Isolated, dude. So I mean, the point with that is like all human. This should be shared in like every school, like every middle school teacher should know this study share this example. Like, yeah, good luck, dude. Yeah. It's so wow there's so much money obvious behind all this stuff and there's a lot of potential good that could be like you could sell the good I wonder if of course right cuz you know and I'm sure they present it that way it's an emergency and now you can reach you get more knowledge and like connects the world I wonder if you put a list I

wonder if Elon Musk of side by side pros and cons, I would like to see that. Or just look at the real world. I would look at the cons and they would supersede the pros. I think you can make an argument either way, but I think the reality is the way we're doing it's not working. I think that's obvious.

So cause you know how you reap the pros and not cons is that you have elders and wise people that have access to it, that deliver the message, which is. You know who does that? What? The Amish. Do you know that they have to vote? They come together and they decide,

because a lot of people think, I thought that they were stuck at a particular technology. That's not true. When new technology gets introduced. Yeah, that's built in religions, a lot of them. They talk amongst each other and they decide, okay, here's a new technology. Do we want this or not? I mean, that's, that's just conservatism in its, in its, it's rawest form right

there. That's exactly what it is. That's you, you are, and versus progressive. You're filtering. You're, you're progressive. You're let's push the boundaries. We'll figure it out later. Let's just do it. Let's fat more newer, better.

Like, let's just go where conservative is more like, well, let's test this a little bit. Yeah. And what are the pros? What are the cons? Like, so interesting to me. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's especially dangerous when it taps into a natural human desire, like your desire to eat your desire to procreate your, your, you know, all these desire to build friends. Yeah. So like when they tap into that, and then they, then it can become very distorted and perverted, but the whole argument, like for good part, I saw

this the other day, like I'm in a group thread with cousins and my brother, brother-in-law, and I wrote in there how, you know, two of the things I said. That have our pacifying men, the most modern times is pornography and video games. And I made the argument. I said, pornography takes away a man's drive, sexual drive, which is actually a driver to go out and create and do things.

And then video games, we have an innate desire to build and, and, and conquer and be challenged, level up. And I said, they pacify it. And of course, right away, the video game players in the group are like, well, there's good things in video. And they send me a study video games speed up and I, you know, so you can make those arguments. Yeah.

But I mean, I think we had to look in practice, like, listen, there's a lot of money in research trying to prove all the benefits of that stuff. A hundred percent. Of course. That's like, that's the, like the whole intuitive thing, right? Like where people get in a trap because they listen to their own lies. They created in their head to justify things.

They're like, oh, well, I was listening to my intuition. You're just closing yourself. Yeah, it's like reality is different. And speaking of influence, so we let our kids watch a little bit of TV and my wife is super, she's very strict about what she allows or whatever, but one show that she likes, and we'll let the kids watch this sometimes,

is Bluey, you guys ever watch Bluey? Yeah. Okay, yeah. You got bad news? Well, apparently that is the most watched content Disney's produced. Ever. Yeah.

Have you ever seen it? No. It's hilarious. It's actually, it's really good. What is it? I don't even know. It's like this, so they're Australian, and it's this dog family, and every episode is essentially the family playing together with some kind of pretend game

So like they're a bus driver the dad's a bus driver and they're really funny. It's really funny Okay, like seems like a nice family. I'll watch it with the kids or whatever, but they have Australian accents Well, my son now is starting to speak So my son now is starting to speak with an Australian accent. He said to my wife today that he wanted a banana. He's like, croaky. No, he literally said to me, he said, I want a, mom, I want a banana. She goes, a what? A banana?

A banana. She's like, she sent me a video. She's like, he's getting an accent for freaking blue. Kids are hilarious. That's great. That kind of stuff. Kids are hilarious. Oh, that's great. With that kind of stuff. Oh my God. Did I tell you what he's so,

he's really into garbage trucks, and he's into garbage in general. Where does it go? Recycling, what goes in recycling, and all this kind of stuff, right? Super into it. He's got, he was getting into garbage trucks a while ago. Remember that day we came over?

Yeah. And Max let him play in his room, so he played with all the Max toys. Yeah, the garbage truck. Max had a while ago. Remember that day we came over? Yeah. And Max let him play in his room, so he played with all the Max toys. Yeah, he had a garbage truck. Max had a garbage truck. Yeah. And so that was like, that turbo charged is like, oh my God, so we got him that for Christmas,

and since then he's gotten like four other garbage trucks. Loves it. So you know what he's doing now is, so I took him to a toy store, local toy store, and they have these long grabber arm things that you can squeeze the handle and it grabs things. And you know, my wife, she's really good at this. She's like, I bet he would love to pick up garbage outside

and put it in like a garbage bin. And it's become his favorite thing. So he'll go outside, he puts on a latex glove. And he uses the grabber arm and he'll- Either community helper. Yeah, dude, he loves doing that. But now he's getting a little zealous about it. He's a little bit too much.

Yeah, now he's like, it makes me mad when people throw garbage. I'm like, oh no. He's gonna say something. He's an activist. He's a great a thumber. Great a recent activist. No, no, no, no, no, no.

I don't want you to feel like that. He's gonna tell someone off, you know what I mean? Okay, so you just reminded me of something I actually wanted to announce on the podcast to see if I could get some help and maybe some resources from our audience. The audience is always great with things like this. So Max is now at an age, right,

we're reaching five years old, and so I think he's old enough to comprehend this lesson that I want to teach him. And so recently Katrina and her mom and I were all, this has happened because of just like, or this conversation came up because of this overwhelming amount of gifts and things that he received over the last two weeks. Which by the way, I was like totally not the, you know, angry dad over that.

I was like super blessed that our family did that. And like, it was great that he was distracted and stuff like that. But the kid just did have like four birthdays in a two week time, like a verse of stuff, right? And so he has this toy closet that just, overflowing of toys. And in the past, the move is, we've talked about this on air before, where you go in there on a weekend

with a black trash bag. You just take things out. You don't even say anything about it. You hide it. They don't even notice. They don't even notice after two weeks of hiding it and they don't notice, then it goes, you know, you donate it or whatever with not. So I actually, and I talked because her mom and her were challenging me like, oh, it's

easier than you think it is Adam. I said, no, I don't expect to be easy. I'm going to teach my son this and it's an important time. And I think he's at a place where we can communicate this. And I was talking to him while he's in the bath and said, we were talking about all his toys and I was telling him about how there's lots of children that don't have any toys, or very, very little amount of toys, and it would be really neat if we took some of your toys that you don't play with, and let's find a kid that we can give them to.

Yeah, how did he respond? Yeah, he was totally fine. Oh, that's great. Yeah, my son was like, okay, daddy, he was cute though, he was just like, well, these ones, daddy, I still play with all the time, we could do the ones that I don't play with. I said, yeah, and of course.

Yeah, of course, right? I'm like, yeah, no, son, none of your nice new toys. I know these are, but there's toys that you don't play. He's like, yeah, yeah, and he's like naming toys. Yeah, I don't play with that anymore. Sure, yeah, we could give that puzzle or this or that, right? He's like racking his brain of all the toys he doesn't care about.

So I'm like, yeah, that's a fun. I don't mind. The idea is what I want him to see is that, right? And so the reason why I bring it up with the podcast is like, I do, I would like a resource. I've used like my church or local church or schools in the past have connected me to families in need. But I would really like to find someone to connect me and I want to, I don't want to just donate it to a place. I want him to- Yeah, because it's in the goodwill of the toy.

Oh yeah, yeah, of course. No, no, no. There's lots of stuff like that. That's not what I want to do. I want to take him and I want him to see the kid. Who he's giving it to. Yes. And I want him to experience handing the toy to the kid and watch him get the opportunity

to see the joy that this toy that he doesn't even play with gives this other kid. And I'm hoping that will spark this, like he'll want to do that all the time. So that's the goal. And so what my audience can help me is, uh, the resources to finding, uh, specific kids or families that are in need like this. And then, um, and that would allow it. Obviously we, we were in California. So, you know, if you live in Minnesota and you have a place like that, it's not very helpful for me.

So I need to find somewhere where I could drive him, take him to the home and let him experience doing that. But I, yeah, but it was so funny because my mother-in-law, they were like challenging me like that, that camp, like, oh, he's good luck with that. I'm like, uh, yeah, you just gotta talk to him, you know? So I did. And of course he didn't want to give away his toys. He's in the middle of playing with, you know, I don't expect that with kids got a closet full of shit

that hasn't been played with forever. And then we're all so very, uh, he's a very loving, yes. And mature in that sense for his age. Yes, we're there now, right? Like about a year ago or so probably doesn't fully comprehend that. And so the move was just to just put it in the black trash bag, hide in the garage for a month when he doesn't realize it, then donate it somewhere with that. Now I'm like, okay, let's take this to another level of teaching. Let's show him what it looks like on the other side and then allow him that experience of giving. And so maybe that sparks this new thing where he'll want to do that

on a regular basis, and I think that would be a really, really cool thing to do. Have you ever heard you surrounding this story? It was a true story, I think, of this, there was this little boy, this little boy's little sister needed, was gonna get a blood transfusion or something like that, and he heard about it, he was a little boy, and he went in there,

and he was asking questions, and then he realized that the little boy thought that he was gonna give all of his blood to his sister, his, and Doc. Have you heard that story? I have heard that story. Oh man, makes you just cry. Oh yeah. This little kid is just like,

okay I'll give it to her, you know, and I'll say goodbye to everybody. They're like, no no no buddy, you're not giving it to her. No you're fucking kidding. You can still live, Judy. Oh, this kid just kills you. There was another kid, there was this other boy that saved his sister from a pit bull attack.

Yeah yeah, there's a picture of that kid. And yeah, dude, and he got bit on his face and everything, but he was all proud because he was holding like a, you know, like a. Champion. Yeah, dude, what a little badass. I remember that story. Oh, tough, yeah.

So cool. Did you guys, so I haven't confirmed this, but it's on the internet and it's new. So as of the releasing of this episode, this is new, it's making its rounds. I don't know if it's a, I don't have evidence that it's 100% accurate, but it looks legit and it breaks my heart if it is real.

It was a leak, an internal memo leak from 24 hour fitness. Did you get, Jesse? No, I mean, you briefly kind of explained it earlier, but. Can you read it? Can you read it? It's depressing, dude. It's- Read it because I want it to be accurate. I don't read it? Can you read it? It's depressing, dude. Read it, because I want it to be accurate.

I don't want you to just kind of paraphrase it. Well, it sounds like another snafu in this whole, was it EBI? Is that the acronym? DEI or whatever. Yeah, dude. So let me say I shared it, because it's really depressing if it isn't.

Did you tweet it? Did you tweet it out? I did, I reshared it. So it's an internal memo and it says, we're committed to creating more inclusive environment at 21st Fitness. By the way, not a bad thing, but when you hear that now, you know what's about to follow is not inclusive.

It's actually the opposite. But anyway. It's a different thing. Yeah, it says more inclusive environment, recognizing that we have work to do to become stronger allies in support of those who are impacted by, and then again, more buzzwords, systemic oppression and inequality. So to create a healthy, healthy and happy world within our clubs and other spaces,

we support our team members bringing their full selves to work every day, including their freedom of expression. So essentially what it's saying is outside of the branded uniforms that you're supposed to wear, this is what we're going to also approve that our employees wear, okay? Black Live Matter, anything. Pride or Pride Rainbow logos, Juneteenth logo symbol or date. And then here's where the controversy starts.

You can wear something with the US flag or US logo, but you can only do it on Memorial Day, Flag Day, or Fourth of July, Veterans Day, or Patriots Day. But the other ones you can do whatever you want. That's where people are like, what? How is that inclusive? I know. So you can't wear an American flag

unless it's on a specific holiday, but you can wear those other things all the time. And so people are like, what is going on here? And this requires a memo and some sort of policy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which by the way, you know, I don't, you know, whatever, support whatever you want to support. The American flag unifies everybody in this country. All those flags are under the American flag. Everybody.

But anyways, like BLM in particular, I think it was proven that they, that was a racket. That was proven. That they were taking money out of there and it was... Oh, we haven't heard from that group in a long time because of the scandal that came out of that. Yeah, dude. They all of a sudden disappeared. But anyway, so yeah, if that is real, that is sad.

That's sad. You know, hearing news from that company, I have a special connection, all of us do, to 21st. We all got our start there. But man, you imagine being a manager right now and reading that memo? I'd be like, what is going on here? I feel like they're just pandering to the buzzwords and the popular conversation right now.

And it's just like, I don't know, that place has been a sinking ship for some time now. And it's like, at this point, they're just like throwing hell marries everywhere. Do you think it's the, I mean, I would ask you guys, like if you think it's coming from upper management's idea, like think tank, or is this coming from like incidences where, uh, you know, employees have been wanting to wear these, these, uh, things that are,

definitely it's scared upper management that are responding to a loud minority. So it's a loud minority within a facility that is causing issues and stink about a topic. And then it's weak leadership that panders to the loud minority that feels that this is what I need to do. Cause if I don't, this could create negative news. Here, so here I'll disagree, I'm going to

disagree with you guys. And now I don't, none of us know what's happening, but here's what I think. I think nobody gives a shit. I think it's easy, very easy, nobody cares when you work someplace and they say you wear our uniform and nothing else. It's very acceptable. I don't think anybody debates that. Oh you want to work here? You want to work at In-N-Out? Here's your uniform. You want to work at Target? Here's your uniform. You want to work at 25 Fitness? Here's your uniform we're nothing else. I think that's simple. I don't

think it's coming from a loud minority. I think it's coming from these these new DEI requirements or strange. Do they have that? Do you think they have that department? I think that... Does 24 hour fitness have a DEI? That wouldn't matter if they had an investment. You're right. There you go. Because they don't, they're not, they're now, I mean, they have investment companies that manage them and they get money based off of these DEI points. I think they're trying to make points and they're trying to create like,

oh, our score is higher now. So now they're like that. You might be right. If they have these board meetings that evaluate that whole structure. Okay, what are you doing for inclusivity? Oh, you got negative points or whatever. I don't think employees give a shit.

I think if you work in a gym, you wear a uniform, I don't think anybody's going up to upper management, hey, I know you said we gotta wear a uniform. I really wanna wear. You can have your beliefs, you can have your values and express, but it's like, yeah, it totally sounds like it's coming from another.

What do you got there? So their DEI score is 3.8. There it is. So they're trying to bump that. Yep, there it is. Oh, so they actually are publicly, they score and you know, wow. Yeah, that's what I don't-

No, no, you're right, you're right. I wouldn't even debate that based off of that. Have you guys, okay, we meant- That's clear. I know it's different now, okay, but I don't think anybody gives a shit. What's a high score, five? Is it out of five?

Yeah, out of five. Oh yeah, so 3.8's not that good. I don't think anybody gives a shit. I don't think anybody's really, I don't think they're losing staff because they can't wear, you know wear a BLM shirt or a rainbow flag or even American flag. I don't think anybody cares.

You have a uniform, you work here. I wonder what our DAI score is. We don't care. 1.2. I don't care what it is, dude. I don't care. Oh, it's so crazy. I mean, actually pretty good if you consider our staff.

I'm a white guy, so I'm probably taking this down. I know, Justin and Doug fuck us. They're like, too much white privilege over there. Too much right there. You know what's funny? We probably have a pretty damn good score when I think of our staff, but it's not because we're trying to get a good score.

We don't give a shit. You're a good employee. I know, and that ironic how it kind of plays out that way. No, I don't care. Oh, I was listening to my niece who works for a startup company and they were actually, she's a recruiter. And her job is to go get these engineers and they're doing this.

Now the crazy part is she just grew up in the generation that's like, you know, is like agrees with this way of thinking. But she's also finding how challenging it is because they're like, we need more female this that represent like this. And it's like, where are they? Yeah. And they're exactly. And they're supposed to be engineers. And then they're also like, and then they also need to have this type of a background. This kid. So you're like, wait a second, they got to be a woman. They're going to be this color and they have to fit in this category.

And they also have to be, and they all have to be an engineer. They got to fit in this category. Like, oh my God, it's like, it's so crazy to me that you're trying to build a company, the idea is to build something very successful and the thought that you would go after a skin color, a background of a person. Sexual orientation. To fit into a position that probably tends to attract a type of person that doesn't necessarily fit in that box.

And it doesn't matter. And so you're willing to pass up the five other candidates that probably could have been huge A-plot. Imagine if sports teams and things like that actually manage their teams like this. You know why sports teams don't do that? Because they gotta win. And you see it right there. They would be in last place

if that's how they manage their teams. I love asking, I would ask people this, okay, you need emergency surgery. You have two options for doctors. The first person, the best doctor in the world at what you need. The second doctor is. The most inclusive.

And then just name, yeah, a bunch of different categories. All the inclusives. Which one do you, I want the best. I don't care what they look like or what the fuck's going on. Well yeah, I mean there's not a lot of Asian and Indian dudes in the NBA. I think that's a problem. Well, if you know anything about the engineer profession, there's a class, a race, a type of sex of people that tend to gravitate towards that position, just like there is for firefighters

or some... There's definitely some people that- The pool is, it looks a pretty good deal. Yeah, and when you're in the business of making it and your job, her job is to recruit, right? To go get, the whole reason why she has a job is supposed to go out and go get the best person for that position and like, they are held to these inclusivity type of strategies, it's that so backwards.

You know what makes me sad about this is that if you're a kid growing up in this environment, you may just ignore yourself because you think you're supposed to do something else because oh, you know, I need to be an engineer. I need to do what if you like the stereotypical thing or what if you like doing this other thing over here? This is what we did, by the way, this is what we did to formal education. We made this, we sold that you need to have a formal education so hard that they, that, and made loans so accessible and so easy because everybody has to do it, that we've exploded the cost of formal education and you have kids getting degrees that have no market value. They're worthless.

Because we've sold it so fucking hard. We didn't tell the complete story, you know? And we're gonna do this with all this like, it's better for you to do this thing, because what if I don't want it? What if that's not the thing I want to do? Anyway, I know. This stuff, this stuff.

More shenanigans. Anyway, Doug, is this air before or after we go to Vegas? After. After. Okay, so we'll come back and report because we gotta bring Z- after we go to Vegas? After. After. Okay, so we'll come back and report because we gotta bring Z-Biotics to Vegas. Oh yeah, it's on. We have to bring. I will.

I don't plan on drinking a lot, but I know when we do our live event, I think we are providing alcohol. It's like make a drink for you guys. Really? You're not gonna drink? Not a ton. Are you gonna be that lame? Not a ton.

When do I drink a lot? We have a bar in the, where we're speaking. Okay, when's the last time all any of us got like drunk together? Well, I mean, I don't mean, I don't mean we're not, we're not 22. I never want to get hammered anymore. My goal is to have a nice buzz. Nice buzz for as long as I can. Back up for a second. Have we all ever been really like drunk together? We never have.

Who's been the drunkest of all of us together? Together? Yeah, yeah. Well, like when we've been like a scene. Who is, who have you seen? Oh, I think you. Me? Yeah. When? There was that one podcast episode. Oh, on an episode. That was back when I was competing and I hadn't had any alcohol or anything like that. And I mixed you a drink. I was, I was pretty, I don't think we've ever even, we've never even been drunk. Not really. With each other. It's cause we're comfortable with each other.

We smoke like real, a lot of weed. We haven't had some times up at the Truckee house where we've been pouring whiskey like crazy. No, I would say Doug. I always tell when Doug gets lit. Oh yeah, cause he kind of fades. Yeah, real quick. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That takes two drinks, by the way. I would say Doug has been lit the most. Yeah. So for me, one drink, I'm OK. But if I'm going to do two drinks, I need the Z-Biotics. Yeah, for sure. There's no way. Because, yeah, two drinks just wipes me out.

Yeah. It does. It's horrible. One drink for me, if I don't use Z-Biotic, one drink, I could tell the next day. I'm just foggy. I've trained myself. I don't feel good.

So literally where my alcohol is at my house is the Zbiotic is right in the front of it with my little thing. And it's just, it doesn't matter if I'm having one or five, I'm having that. It's just, I've trained myself that. It's funny, because if I have beer outside, I do have certain alcohols that I will never get a hangover.

Like I just want browns or whites or something. But if I do wine, it's not a lot. There's a lot of people like that. Hold on, hold on. There's a lot of people that they can have clears, they can have, but they can't have brown. Whiskey does not get me hung over. I've gone to the threshold, trust me.

And next day you're fine. Yeah. Really? Yeah. But if he has clear liquor, I bet it just smashes him, right? Yeah, well mainly rum. Oh, I'm like just smashes him, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well mainly rum. Oh my god rum or Jaeger or yeah vodka. Yeah. Yeah vines gotta be the worst bad headaches with vodka Yeah wine is the worst right wine the day after and it's I found out it's cheap wines

Yeah, it's like cuz like like real expensive wine. I was like, okay, and I'm sure there's what do they put in the wine? Doug, what is it that's in there? Sulfites or sulfates, I don't know, one of those things. Yeah, and then that was the fact. Wine doesn't bother me for the most part. Really? But again, I'm not buying two buck Chuck either. I've only had the worst hangover I ever had in my entire life. Two buck Chuck was actually good wine. It was just sold cheap.

I know, actually they won some awards. They won awards. Yeah, remember the story is that in the divorce, the wife got all the wine and so she sold it all off. And so that's why it was two buck Chuck. Oh, that's a, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she, like, I can't remember.

You ever see a boat that's like a killer deal? You know, it's cause they got divorced. By the way, it's no longer two bucks. A boat. Is it even, do they still sell? Yeah, it's Charles Shaw, right? So, I don't know, I haven't bought a bottle. So I drank. So they still make it.

I drank one of those jugs of Carlo Rossi, you know, the shit wine you get at the grocery store. You know what I'm talking about? Like the jug. In a box? I think it was, I don't know the name. I think that's the name. I hope I'm not offending anybody.

But yeah, my cousin and I split one of those. And I had a terrible, terrible hangover all day long. And that was the first time I ever felt that. Yeah, yeah. Oh, terrible. Yeah, I definitely, you know, going back to the original point, I definitely think Doug has been the most lit.

Justin's probably drank the most, but then you don't know he's the most lit. No, definitely. He handles his alcohol the best. Yeah, Doug's jokes get inappropriate. Yeah, he's so obvious. Right away, right away, he gets loose lips right away. Doug is definitely loose lips when he gets... We quickly get him out of the restaurant.

It's time for us to get out here. Doug's gonna get his kick now. Doug's gonna get his trouble. Another argument for clean living. Is that the shit that's always on your mind, Doug? Is that what happens? Trust me, I censor a lot. Oh no.

Maybe we should, maybe we shouldn't. Do we have the opportunity in Vegas to actually go like just us? Yeah, of course. Well we have, after the event, we have... I don't like just us? Just like, of course. We could smash. Well, we have, after the event, we have. I don't wanna do it with a bunch of people though. I just gotta be us, you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know that we have some of our friends coming in. Jen Cohen's coming. I believe Max Pugovere is gonna be there. And I know for sure Jordan Schell is gonna be there. Oh, okay. They're coming to come hang out with us. So we absolutely, at one point,

we'll hang out and probably have some drinks. Okay, all right. With them. And I know that. So we drive the cars on Thursday, Friday you speak? No, I think it's Saturday or Friday. Friday you speak. Friday night is our VIP dinner. Saturday is our event. Now the driving, I don't think we've shared with the audience. So we rented these like super cars that you can race around a track. Well, some of us rented super cars.

Hold on a second. Who did the Corvette? The Miata doesn't classify super cars. That's not what I got. Shut up. And so you basically drive, how does it work? You do it by yourself. So I'm not a hundred percent how this one, they all work different, but they

typically have a pro driver with you and you're going to get to run three three to five laps. So first do they drive it first to show you? Like to like show you how fast you go? Or you drive with them in this passenger seat? They're in the passenger seat. I don't know if they show you one lap and then you get in or they actually just right away just let you drive. And then you get a time? Yeah well I'm sure what they'll do is you'll have a lap or two where he's like coaching you. Well they'll time every lap. So they'll have it, they'll know when you start going. But your first one's probably feeling it out. Your second one you'll probably get a little bit better. Third one you'll probably push the limits a little bit. That's how I imagine it's gonna go. I haven't rented from this track or done anything like this with...

Have you ever done anything like this? No, that's why I'm excited. Have you? No, I've never done anything like this. Yeah, and I really want... So of course we're all gonna see who's the fastest. Like a go-kart. Right? That's the whole deal, right? We're gonna see who gets the best... We are, but I definitely know that Justin has Yeah, and I really want. So of course we're all gonna see who's the fastest. Go Kart. Right, that's the whole deal, right? We're gonna see who gets the best car.

We are, but I definitely know that Justin has the huge advantage in this one. Well, I mean, you. Why, because he's the driv, because he weighs the car down. He has the best track car by far. What's the car you get? The GT3 RS.

That is the best track car that they ran. So you picked that, and then what did you pick, Doug? Ferrari. Doug and I have Pistas though, which is also arguably one of the best track cars. So I picked and I know you guys made fun of me I picked the Skyline but the reason why... Skyline or GTR is it was a Nissan GTR is that what you got? Yeah it's a Skyline GTR right? I don't know Doug look at it, we sound like idiots but that I the reason why I got

that is because you guys know me I'm not really into cars yeah but when I was a kid I liked the whole tuner, that whole- Fast and the Furious. Yeah, your Fast and the Furious. I kinda liked that whole thing, and the- Tokyo Drift. GTR, Skyline, that's a pedigree of cars

that you could tune to crazy horse powers and performance. So it's more of a childhood attachment. Is that the right name, Doug? Skyline GTR? Yes, I believe so, yeah. Did you look it up? Look up his exact car, I wanna see, I wanna make sure. So it'll be weird if I get the right name, Doug? Skyline GT? Yes, I believe so, yeah. Did you look it up? Looked up his exact car. I wanna see, I wanna make sure. So it'll be weird if I get fastest time, right?

Would that be kinda like unexpected? Right, Justin? No. You can expect all you want, son. I think I'm undefeated in the circuit, what are they called, the circus games, the carnival games? Yeah.

So would this qualify as a carnival game? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so we'll break the cycle. So the advantage to you is that you do have, you have the slower car. And so this is one of those situations where it's like none of us are pro drivers.

So going slower is probably going to- Yeah, so I don't think anybody's advantage is just like- You definitely do. You have the car that was meant to do this. Yeah. Yes. Coming from experience driving that car, you have a car that is- I have no experience. That is going to be awesome. Yes. Coming from experience driving that car, you have a car that is going to be

awesome to drive. Let's see. I was like a freshman in college. Last time I drove, yeah, it was a valet. I drove a Porsche. That's as much experience as I have. But you have the GT3 RS, which is the- I can't wait. I'm excited. But Doug and I's Pista is going to be a cool car. Can I tell you guys something I would love to do with you guys that would be fun but very dangerous? I would love to buy shitty little cheap kind of fastish cars, but little shitty cars. All of us get the same ones.

And then we fucking race to a city. What was that one? Gumball. Do a Gumball-style race. Did you see the guys that just, did you guys see the guys that just broke the Guinness World Record on that? No.

Oh, it's really cool. Google, most recent, it's Cannonball Run. Is it Cannonball or Gumball? It's called Cannonball Run. Cannonball, I think. Well, Gumball was another thing, I think. Look up Cannonball World Record, they just got set.

The effort, hey, look at the effort put in this car. It was actually really cool I just actually read this article. So it's funny. You brought that up it just got broken and it brought broken and during coven and Because basically there were these are the rules like they have to drive from one side of the country the other side of the country As fast as you possibly carry a period and that means so you get pulled over. That's right. That's right Yeah, exactly and like like you got to take a poop That's right all those and so so they modify these cars in any way They want pretty much to do it and like it's not and people think like oh speed is the only thing it's like come on There's so many other variables going in the bathroom gas tank

efficiency these guys Created this car and they actually modified it to look like a police car kind of like it like like almost like an undercover car. They had like four different, bro the guy in the passenger seat had four different radar detectors, jammers all set up they were checking they extended the gas tank to be like four times larger so they get like the effort put in. 25 hours it's from New York to LA. Show the car. 25 hours. I'm gonna show images. Average speed of 113 miles. There it is right there. So they modified the front headlights and tail lights to look just like these cars. Is that an Audi? Audi. No, no, no. It's like a Ford Taurus.

But it's all gassed up. I mean they totally modified it. So tell me right now this wouldn't be a blast if we all got identical cars. Look at the gas tank in the back. Create our own cannonball that be amazing? Of course this would be fun. Sure. Just to see. I love it. All the way across the country in almost one day. I'll drive fast just for fun dude. That's just crazy. Yeah yeah I know we drove up to Truckee a couple times and I had the editors of a car and I was going so hard and I could see in the rear view mirror they're like I want to say like three sheets. No guy wants to be the guy in a fast car that says slow down. It's like chicken. You know what I mean? Everybody's almost like, I'm not going to say anything. I don't want to be the guy that admits I'm scared.

No. Yeah, isn't that cool though? I thought that was, I wish you found the article because the article actually went into detail of all the cool things. I can't believe, so it's an illegal race. It's literally. Oh, totally illegal. Yeah, you're trying to avoid cops. You're breaking all the traffic rules.

Which also makes it kind of even more fun, right? The fact that you're in this like illegal, underground type of race. Now, this takes us all the way back to DEI. How come there's not women competing? Yeah. Yeah. I know. Oh, I know.

Oh, I know why. Because they're not stupid enough to do a race like that. Is that why? Men do dumb shit. Yeah. We do dumb shit. Yeah, you had to find the article so that we can all read it together,

because I thought it was a really fascinating article on all the cool little specs and modifications and the thought that went into. Now, they did have a massive advantage, too, though, that it was during COVID. So roads are gonna be way more clear. So of course they broke the record. Yeah, but I think a lot of it was,

cause they destroyed the record, I think the previous record was also a lot of the other stuff that was put into like making sure this car flew under the radar as far as like getting past, getting pulled over and going longer. So pretty cool. I want it, that's like something I would want to do, I think. Yeah, yeah.

It'd be a blast. All right, so the shout out, actually, Adam, it was a podcast you were interviewed on, and it was fire. You sent it to me when you guys were in Mexico, and I had the opportunity to listen to it, actually had a break, and it was really good, kind of broke down your life.

You talked about Bill's business. Great advice for people to hear. That was my buddy Mike. So I actually hired Mike straight out of prison. So his story. I love that story. Yeah, he's got a cool story. What a great story.

On how I took a chance on him. And now look at him. Yeah, his podcast is called Esco Elite Mindset and you can find them on YouTube, Spotify, all those things like that. And then of course the interview that he did with me. But yeah, you know, funny you say that because it was Katrina said, she obviously listens to all the stuff that I do outside of here. And she's like, that was the best interview I've ever heard. And I thought, I wonder why that is probably because we have so much history. And I was just like, chill. It was such a chill heard of you. And I thought, I wonder why that is. Probably because we have so much history

and I was just like chill. It was such a chill vibe for me and like, he knew he could ask me whatever. He knows obviously a lot about me. He worked for me for a long time and so. I have a theory as why I think it was the best. Besides your experience and all this, because you have a lot of wisdom that you can share,

but he put you in a humble place right away by saying how much you did for him. And then your true self comes out whenever that happens. And so you weren't, you were just, you felt grateful. It's what it sounded like. Sounded like you were really grateful that he said that, and then you went into really teaching some really good stuff.

Interesting, I'll have to say that to Katrina, because we, anytime she says something to me like that, because obviously our wives are probably the most critical of us, right? I know your wife is saying that. Yeah, my wife will tell you you suck. Yeah Yeah, I get that like so getting like literally that that people might think they're like, oh no big deal your wife said no for My wife to go like that was the best interview. I've ever heard you do I was like, oh, I'm gonna go listen to that. It's so I'm like, and so I listened and I'm like what I'm and I'm trying

I was trying to unpack. What was it? So I listened and I'm like, what? And I was trying to unpack what was it. There definitely felt to me that there was a lot of cool takeaways. I think that seems to be when you could walk away and go, oh, that was a nice little gym. And they all kind of tied together. So I don't know.

I don't know what it was. But I'll bring that up to her and see what she thinks. I thought that was funny Element is an electrolyte powder with no artificial sweeteners or sugar that you add to your water Tastes amazing and it gives you the electrolytes you need to fuel your workouts to feel good It's got enough sodium to make a difference most electrolyte powders don't have enough sodium believe it or not This is especially valuable to those you that eat a whole food-based diet those of you people that like to work out a lot and sweat a lot. This makes a huge difference. By the way, if you go low carb or no carb, you need to add electrolytes to your diet for the most part.

This is why people on low carb diets often feel like they're getting headaches or they get that keto flu. It's typically because you don't have enough electrolytes. Anyway, check out this company. Go to drinklmnt.com forward slash mind pump and you'll get a free sample pack with any drink mix purchase. All right, back to the show. Our first caller is Kamal from the UK. What's up Kamal? How can we help you? Hey, what's up guys? This is awesome. First and foremost, love the work you do. Genuinely like fatherhood, marriage, fear of God. Beautiful, beautiful. And I'm calling in because I recently turned 30 and sort of had a bit of a reflection of just wanting to get in the best shape possible. I do professional speaking and training for young people in the UK.

So I'm on stage a lot and just have this goal of building like a real solid, bigger frame of good muscle tone. So I've just finished a 12 week personal training course, took me from like 91 kilograms down to 83, working out three times a week, doing boxing once or twice a week. And it had me down to 1800 calories a day, really happy with the results, but not continuing the personal training, sort of taking my own program and taking control. So I definitely going down a mind pump program route. I just have no idea where to start with regards to which program would be best for the goals.

And then also being at 6'1", about 83 kilograms, my body fat set about 17% last time I measured now. Um, so just looking for advice on, you know, which program and the mini carts versus the box. Do I raise the metabolism first? It's just coming off the back of that. I don't want to delete all my progress, but equally I, I don't want to live at 800 calories for the rest of my life either. Yeah.

So specifically your goal, what is your goal specifically? You, you, is it just the aesthetic you want to get bill more muscle, get leaner, all of the above. Pretty, pretty much the, I'd say going down the aesthetic room has been quite, quite big, quite lean, um, for that physical presence. And then from there, I do a little bit of boxing and, and want to be athletic and be able to move really well. Okay. Sounds like we need to build on.

Yeah. This is a pretty straightforward. Um, so 1800 calories, very low for a guy your size. Uh, and you know, someone who's working out four days a week, I would do a reverse, a reverse diet. So start to bump the calories, make sure you hit your body weight in grams of protein. That's the most important part of this.

And then, uh, MAPS Antibolic would be a great program to pack some muscle on your body. So you're at 1800 calories. I'd bring you up to about 2200 calories. Start MAPS Antibolic. You could do the three day a week version. Hit your body weight in grams of protein, trying to eat all whole foods.

And what'll probably, what you'll see is you're just going to get stronger and stronger, build some And what you'll see is you're just gonna get stronger and stronger, build some muscle, and you'll probably simultaneously get leaner as you build some muscle. So your weight might not change much at first, or it might go up a little bit, but you'll find yourself with more muscle

and less body fat. Yeah, just slowly increase those calories. Almost like, so not necessarily a a reverse or a reverse, uh, bulk, but basically a bulk, you know, just a slow, yeah, gradual bulk that you're increasing calories building and just stay in that phase for as long as you can stand and get to the calorie amount. That's like uncomfortable for you. Like where it's like, you just like that amount of food, you can't sustain too

much and we'll start kind of cutting it back down. Yeah so in other words you know you go up to 2200 calories I would stay there for a while see how you feel then you can bring it up to 2400 calories stay see how you feel and you can continue on that trajectory and when you know you've kind of hit the limit is when you start to gain body fat more than you'd like and then you back go back down but at your size your calories I think at the current calories you're at, if you eat your, if you hit that 2200 calories, hit your body weight in protein and follow a good program like MAPS Antibolic, you're just gonna build muscle. You're just gonna get stronger. Yeah. Is what you're gonna see.

What are your grams of protein now? Are you tracking that or is it just calories? I'm tracking protein and I fluctuate. I think the best days are like 150 and then the worst day is like 85, 90. And it fluctuates between those, whether I'm on the road or I'm at home where I can, I can cook. We got to get you consistent with the protein. Okay. Cause that's going to make a big difference.

Even building blocks. Yeah. Even in studies where they compare calorically controlled diets to each other. In other words, two diets, similar calories, the higher protein version results in more muscle and more fat loss. So you build more and you lose more body fat with the higher protein. So I would be very consistent. And the way you do this is you eat the protein first.

So if you're aiming for 150 grams or let's say 160 grams of protein, you know, you want to eat about, you know, 50 grams of protein in each meal from whole food. Um, and then you can eat the rest, you know, of your macros, your carbs, uh, and, and your fats and your fiber and stuff like that. Now on the road is where I would use protein powders, because it sounds like you're busy when you're on the road speaking. Like it's hard for you to get, get an actual meal. Is that correct?

Pretty much it's train stations, service stations, and the options are terrible. Yes. That's where I would bring protein powders with me. You can, you can, you know, mix one up, hit those protein targets. Do not miss those protein targets. That'll make the biggest difference. Uh, with, with, yes. And then maps anabolicibolic, and there's a three day a week version. I would have you do that one since you're already working out, you know,

relatively consistently, and then just track your strength. That's going to be the best metric to pay attention to. Am I getting stronger consistently? Now you did mention athletic performance as well. Following MAPS Antibolic would be MAPS performance. That would be the perfect follow-up to that program. I mean honestly we kind of recommend that sequence of anabolic to performance then to aesthetic, you know, depending on how long you're gonna draw this out. But that would be sort of, you know, that's our general advice for anybody going through our programs. And if you're really focused on the building phase,

that's where you could probably spend a little more time in Anabolic and get to that point where you feel like you built a really good base. And then reveal it through Aesthetic. So that would be the last program. Do you have Aesthetic, Maps Aesthetic? No, I've got, I bought the Anabolic, the Performance. And I think there was like a combination of Performance with, uh, I think you've got the,

the, the mods where it sort of gives one day of a stay. Okay. Well, we'll give you that one then too, to kind of follow up. So if you follow those in sequence, that'd be perfect. Exactly. But I would start with maps, anabolic for sure. Definitely. Okay.

And what was interesting is my, the PT was like, I'd continue on 1800 calories because you're almost there and if you kept going, you'd really start to see the muscles revealed and you're bigger than you think. Um, but then like saying about the building of muscle, we'd go to bulk. How'd you manage that without losing all the progress? You won't. Yeah. You, I don't think you will.

So, so there's, there's a, you got to look at it this way, right? So you're 1800 calories. At some point you'll plateau, your body will adapt. So then what do you got to do? You got to drop it even more, right? You're already low for a guy your size. So then what do you do? Go down to 1500 calories. By the way, there's two ways to get leaner. Okay. There's two ways to get leaner. It's not, it's, it's, it's all about body fat percentage. This is what people need to understand, right? It's, it's much, the body fat you have, what percentage of your total body weight is body fat, right? So 10% body fat on a 200 pound man

is more total body fat than 10% on a 100 pound man. So it's body fat percentage that makes sense or that we need to pay attention to. So there's two ways to get leaner. One is to lose body fat. The other is to gain muscle. So if you were to just gain muscle right now and not gain any additional body fat,

let's just say all you did was gain muscle, no body fat. Your composition's going down. Your body fat percentage is going down as well. And so what'll probably happen with this bump in calories and this focus on strength is you'll probably see yourself get a little leaner as well. Not necessarily because you lost body fat, although that can happen as well,

but rather because you gained muscle and now your body fat is a smaller percentage of your overall body weight. Does that make sense? Yeah, that makes perfect sense. That works without worry, because it was like down in gene size, on the same size as when I was 23, and I'm like, I love it, don't wanna lose it. So that works without worry because it was like down in gene size on the same size as when I was 23 and I'm like, I love it, don't want to lose it.

So that really helps. No, you won't. You got to be careful. You got to be careful for if you go off the rails, right? Sometimes people will go, okay, I'm going to go up to 2200 calories. Then they stop paying attention and then it goes 27, 28. It's not quality. Yeah.

And then they're not eating, they're not hitting their protein targets and they're getting a lot of the extra calories from other places Which tend to stimulate your appetite even more. So you still want to stay controlled and disciplined That's why we'll refer to it as a reverse diet. It is bulk, right? It is a bulk in the sense that you're adding calories But we say reverse diet because it's structured in discipline versus sometimes when we say bulk what people do is they go Oh cool, just eat more. Yeah. A lot more calories. Yeah.

Picture the rock for the pancakes and stuff. That's right. That's right. And the final question I just had, there's a follow on with anabolic. When I looked through, there's no sort of like warmup or anything. Yes. Um, is what do you recommend doing to, to sort of prep? Yeah, there's two, two, two ways to warm up or general way would be to do a set or two

of the specified exercise with lightweight, make sure you feel good. That's a very general way to warm up. The more specific and much better way to warm up would be to do what's called priming. Now priming is very specific to the individual. We have a program called Maps Prime and Maps Prime, you go through a Compass test. It's literally just a test. You do three movements based on how well you perform those movements.

It'll tell you what your priming movements are for your workouts. It's because everybody's a little different, right? You might have ankle mobility issues or you may have an anterior pelvic tilt, right? Right. It different from someone else. So your priming movements will be specific to your body. And what I can do,

because we're already sending you aesthetic, is I'll, do you have, does he have aesthetic Doug? He already has it. Oh, he says you already have aesthetic, so I'll just send you prime then. Now you got everything. Oh, appreciate it man. Yeah, and then go through,

we did a video, a webinar actually, for the Compass tests. And so I get a little more specific there with Doug and kind of take him through those. And a lot of those tests you can just apply before your workouts and it's going to cover a lot of the broad strokes in terms of like your upper body, your midsection, your lower body and like get everything kind of warmed up specifically in your joints. So check that out. That's maps prime webinar, uh, dot com, I believe.

Yeah. Correct. Yep. Yep. Awesome, man. So we go on a treat it as a boat, go up slowly 2,200, do that for a few weeks. You keep going until you're like, stop and focus purely on other numbers going up strength wise.

Yes. Absolutely. If you're getting stronger, you're doing a lot of things. Right. Beautiful. Beautiful. That's awesome. I really appreciate it.

You got it, man. Thanks for calling in. Yeah. Pleasure. Keep doing good work. Appreciate it. Yeah. That's a, you know, for a guy, just for people listening, you know,

six foot one, 83 kilos. What is that? 170 something pounds, um, 1800 calories, it's kind of low. And I do know people that eat. It feels low, yeah. It is, you know, it's kind of hard to maintain 1800 calories consistently when you're, you know, you're surrounded by food and you know,

and you're a big guy, he's not a small dude. So I would, I don't feel comfortable typically keeping someone that size, you know, the height and everything, that body weight, unless he feels amazing and everything's all right. But he did say his protein intake, it varied. It was inconsistent, right? Yes. That would make a huge difference in terms of him and his progress. Massive. But the point I made, I want to make it again, you can gain weight and simultaneously get leaner. And it's not because you necessarily lost pounds of body fat, but rather the

current body fat you have becomes a, becomes a smaller percentage of your body weight and you can do this by building muscle through a very well done reverse diet. So you can actually gain weight, build muscle. Oh my God, I'm leaner. And that happens that hat. That can definitely happen. And it's the Goldilocks way.

That's right. That's right. And it's a great place to be. Our next caller is Janie from Pennsylvania. Hi Janie. How can we help you? Good morning. Oh, I'm so excited to meet you guys.

This is like the single most exciting call I've ever had. And I just think I cannot give you guys praises enough. I have to give the obligatory thank yous for all you do. You've turned me into like your little mind pump guru. And I tell everybody about you guys. It's great. Thank you. Awesome.

Thank you so much. How can we help you? I'm so grateful. So, um, I'll stick to my question here. Some things have changed since writing my question, I'll stick to my question here. Some things have changed since writing my question, but we'll get into that then. So my name is Janie.

My backstory is I've been an athlete all my life. I've, um, played rugby, played soccer through in track, played softball. Um, and I worked out through both of my pregnancies. So I have a five-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son. After I had my son, the next calendar year, I lost over 50 pounds over the course of the year. And during that time, I did track my food. I took my weight from 225 pounds to 175. I had a few plateaus gained five or 10 pounds, but then worked to stabilize. And then the following year, I didn't have to track food at all and it was great. During like January, February, March, I gained 10 to 15 pounds this past January, February, March,

and I wanted to ramp back up again. I always wanted to get down lower than 170. Ideally, I'd like my ideal weight. I know ideal body is an ideal weight or different but would be 150 to 160 pounds. I'm 510. I lift several times a week and I also go to Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu a few times a week and they typically burn around 600 calories. I started to attract food when I really wanted to like shave off a few more pounds and I was shook because I didn't add it up

until the end of the week. But even on days where I'm like, oh, I'm working out more. I should eat more. I was only eating 1700 calories a day. And I know you guys are gonna tell me, lay off the cardio, go get strong. So I wanted to fix my eating and get lean. I plugged my info into the macronutrient calculator.

And at that time, I was 180 at 510. I put that I moderately work out. And the breakdown was 2,648 calories, 166 grams of protein, and 364 grams of carbs, which is a lot of food. I ran them multiple times because I was shocked about the number of carbs, but it seemed significant. And I wonder if there's any right way

to bump up slowly to that or how it calculates such a big number. And I've recalculated since then, but I have some follow-ups then. Yeah, so first let me ask you this. When you, do you have an idea of what caused the, or led to the weight gain, uh, over the January, February, March period? No, I'm going to say it was probably just like holiday stress and eating.

And, you know, I wasn't really tracking. So I'm like, I've stabilized my weight for a year. Let's go a little crazy. And it kind of got a little out of hand. So since then, since writing all this, um, my kickboxing coach helped up my calories. I did that for like three months and then I just hired a trainer and I've been in a little bit of a cut with him for about four weeks while I'm like doing hypertrophy training. Okay. Good. Okay. Okay. So, so here's kind of what's happening. First off,

you work out a lot. Um, Oh, you know what? Let me back up. Macro calculators are a general estimate, but when it comes down to the individual, it can be radically incorrect. Okay. Cause the metabolism, human metabolism is very complex and it can adapt radically in lots of different directions. So could I get somebody your size or lean body mass, uh, to a point where your maintenance calories are like 25, 2600 calories? Yeah,

I mean I've done this with people smaller than you. But could your metabolism also adapt to a 1200 calorie or a 1000 calorie diet? Yes, I've seen that as well. So macro calculators are not anywhere as valuable as tracking your own and seeing where your performances, your body fat, like if you're eating on average 15 to 1700 calories and you're not gaining or losing weight, well then your maintenance is right about there. Okay? And what's happened, and I think I can say this confidently with someone like you, you have an athletic background, so you probably have conditioned yourself to try to beat yourself up to burn

calories. You probably are an intensity junkie. Your gauge of what a good workout is is based off of what you can tolerate, not necessarily what's appropriate. So some of my most challenging clients ever were high level, like ex high level athletes, collegiate athletes who then you know they're at a college five or six years, maybe they had some kids, they got a job, okay I want to get back into shape. And the way that they judge their intensity of the workouts and the way that they view their diet is so, so skewed. It was so difficult to get them to train differently.

Uh, because they, what they understand was what they, you know, what's, where you lived probably for years. I mean, how, how long would you say you were like a hardcore athlete for? How many years? I mean, pretty much always from the time I did, you know, basketball four years, some years I'd even do double sports. I was like in softball and I was throwing in track at the same time I did powder puff football, which got me interested in a rugby.

So I pretty much did that when I went to college. Um, yeah. So it's pretty much all, yeah. And the hypertrophy training has been like mind blowing because like I'm the kind of person that I'm like re-racking weights in between sets for something to do. What is your ultimate goal here? Or do you want to continue with the Muay Thai, Jiu-Jitsu remain in the athletic mindset or are you just trying to

change body composition? Yeah, I think the biggest thing is to find the compromise, right? This is the only way we can sort of like have a real conversation is what are you actually going to do? What will you compromise in terms of all those other activities that you're doing versus like just devoting specific days towards weight training and trying to build your body up. Yeah, so part of me signing up with my coach was kind of finally taking the breather in the hardcore training, cardio, go, go, go,

like you guys talked about on the muscle mommy episode. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna commit with my trainer. And we talked about it because sometimes I do CrossFit too. So I'm only doing those two days So I'm only doing those two days I'm only doing those two days a week So I'm only going to one boxing session a week right now and sometimes some crossfit I'm getting over bronchitis. So I've kind of taken a break from that. So I'm truly committed to the hypertrophy training

I'm on a 12-week program with him and then I'm kind of scared of what happens after that But I do want to stay committed to the Muay Thai. It's my third year with my Muay Thai gym. So I want to continue to put a lot of practice into that and like to just do secondary, but I thought I really want to give it a fair shot at trying to give myself some of the aesthetic goals that I've been wanting for a long time. And I knew I needed to change some things. Okay.

So tell me how many days a week, how many days, let's get specific. How many days a week are you going to do Muay Thai? Like when I'm fully training regularly, at least three. Okay. So like, so this is what your routines are going to look like three days a week of Muay Thai and what is a two hour classes? Uh, usually one, unless I do double classes, then it's two. Okay.

So I knew, I knew that I knew you were throwing double classes. If you're doing Muay Thai three days a week, you should be lifting no more than one day a week Yep, that's it. Okay, and you definitely don't right now After I'm done with my 12 week lifting program. That's what you suggest Uh, I don't think you should do it now either. What do you how many days a week? Are you lifting on top of the Muay Thai? Right right now? I'm only doing one day of Muay Thai and I'm doing five lifts a week Okay, Still too much. So if you're doing one day of Muay Thai,

if you're doing one day of Muay Thai, I would have you do two, maybe three max of strength training. But I don't know what the five days of strength training looks like. I don't know what the intensity and the volume looks like. I don't know if it's... Is this a split program?

Like what program is it? So can I say the trainer's name? I mean, it's up to you. I, yeah, that's fine. His name is Cody Wang. Um, it's modern warrior. Um, it took me a while to find a trainer I really clicked with and kind of jives with what you guys promote.

So I have like a day or two of legs. Then I have a, like a tricep chest day. Then I have like a back deadlift day. So it's usually like three or four days of arms and one or two days of legs. Okay. So it's like a traditional split. So, I mean, you could do that. I'd probably have you go down in the total volume, but I'm not training you.

So I can't, I'm not working with you. So I can't make an accurate judgment. I'm just basing it off of my experience. But if it one day a week of, of Muay Thai plus your strength training, you should be reverse dieting is what you should be doing. You should be taking your calories, being consistent, hitting your target body weight in grams of protein and slowly moving your calories up and what you should see is strength gains. You should see strength gains in the gym. Don't do any additional CrossFit. Don't do any additional cardio, don't do anything additional, get really good sleep.

How is your sleep right now, and be very honest? Usually like six hours a night, like I'm this type of person, if I had 36 hours in a day, that might be enough, so I usually like marathon for a couple days and then I sleep because I just have insomnia and I like to get up and get my workout in before my kids wake up some days and You know, yeah, you're you're I mean i'm gonna make a guess here, but I think i'm right

You probably have some hpa axis dysfunction. They used to call that adrenal fatigue back in the day wasn't a great um way to describe it because it's not that your adrenals are fatigued, but I I would bet i'll bet money That your your hormone Uh balances off and your trend you're you're basically a cortisol junkie right now I'll bet money that your hormone balance is off and you're basically a cortisol junkie. Right now, you're running off of the energy of cortisol. Stress and push and go and push until I crash and I get sick.

It feels good too, yeah. So here's what I, if I was your trainer, that's what I would have you do. You'd do one day a week of Muay Thai, you would do two days a week of strength training and you would prioritize the hell out of your sleep. Six hours, listen, the data is very clear on this. Consistent six hours of sleep a week more than doubles your risk of injury. It hammers your hormones and it destroys your ability to recover.

So what you're doing right now, and you're probably getting away with this because you probably have really good athletic genetics. It's probably one of the reasons why you were drawn to sports to begin with. Is you're just surviving and you're doing okay surviving. Most people wouldn't survive in this place, but you're not thriving. You're definitely not thriving. I would back way the hell off everything. And I would make sure that I'm devoting eight hours every night to sleep.

So what does that look like? That means I'm gonna have an hour before I'm going to bed turning the lights off or down, wearing blue light blocking glasses, being calm. I would cut my caffeine, no caffeine past 1 p.m. I would set, make sure that it's- I get to drink as much caffeine now. Good.

I'm a zero. I don't need it. Okay, good. Yeah, you're cortisol now. Yeah, adrenaline, cortisol. The adrenaline instead. I would go to bed at the same time, wake up at the same time every day, prioritize. Here's what's going to happen. What's going to happen is your metabolism is going to speed up.

Yep. Or you're going to notice your strength gains are going to go up. You're going to start to feel more energized. You're going to start to feel healthier. Your recovery is going to explode. And then here's what's going to happen, Janie. If you follow my advice, you're going to start feeling so strong and so good, you're going to be strongly tempted to add more workouts. You're going to be like, oh shit, this is great. I'm doing good. Let's go crazy.

Do not do that, okay? Do not do that because- Right now you're running in place. Actually, you're sprinting in place. You're going nowhere. And so you just have to really honestly have that discussion with yourself. Like, do I want to progress? Do I want to move forward? Do I want to get my body to a new level or do

I want to just keep ice skating right here? Yeah. Let me put it this way. Right now I feel my body getting stronger and I'm at like 1650 to 1750 calories wise and like 165 grams of carbs. But I think over the years of like dieting and just focusing on purely losing weight where now I'm trying to like get lean, I like scared myself away from the carbs. So like that's a lot. Sometimes I feel like I'm force feeding myself,

especially to hit those carb macros feels challenging. Yeah, you know, I, okay. So if a slow reverse diet, bump the calories, reduce your activity, focus on sleep, you're not going to gain a bunch of body weight. You might gain a little bit, but you're not going to gain a bunch of body weight. And what'll happen is you're going to see your strength explode and you're going to start feeling really good.

And honestly, I'll probably do this after my 12 week program. And I really want to improve the balance between upper and lower body because right now I bench as much as I squat. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So like what after this? You'll get you on a full body program, what program might help me make that transition into a like. Maps anabolic, hundred percent.

That's it. Do you have that program? No. Okay. I'll send that to you. Yeah, we'll get to that. Look, Jane, I'm going to put you in the forum too, because I'm going to make some, some bad predictions.

Okay. Over the next 12 weeks, you're going to get sick or injured because of the amount of training that you're doing, the lack of sleep. So if that happens, get on the forum, talk to us. Now I hope your trainer watches this. They probably know what they're doing, but that's a lot. That's a lot for a little bit of calories. And you're already talking about how your sleep is six hours.

You have insomnia, then you crash, you do a marathon, and then you go to, like those are all signs that you need, you need, your body needs to back up a little bit so you can start to get it working for you. Because somebody working out as much as you, consuming under 1700 calories, not losing any weight, like that is a very clear sign your body's holding on to everything. It has geared itself towards main storing calories. It has geared itself towards not burning body fat. It's gearing itself towards let's not speed up the metabolism.

So efficient. That's right. So we want to move it in the other direction. Otherwise you're going to live a life and eventually happens you'll burn out. Cause here's what it looks like. HP access looks like this. More wired energy, more wired energy, crash.

And it's like, I have no, I am fatigued, I don't know what is wrong with me, I feel terrible, hair's falling out, whatever, and I've seen it happen so many times. You're in that wired energy state at the moment. So. Yeah, and I have arthritis and I kept lifting because it's not high cardio,

so I'm like, I can still lift a couple days and then it lingered and then I really had to like, sit my ass down. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, recover. Yeah, and you know, again, this is hard for someone like you because you probably, you know, probably served you well in athletics. Like a lot of the, a lot of the, the, the success

that athletes have, you know, of course, is talent and hard work, but it's also the ones that can persevere because it's so demanding. Push through all the obstacles. That's right, but you can't do that forever and it's not going to work right now. If you just try to push through, your body's going to fight back at some point, probably with an injury is probably what will happen. So yeah, I'd have your trainer watch this and hopefully I could talk them into scaling

you down to two full body workouts a week. You can walk on the other days. It's okay to stay active. You can do your Muay Thai once a week and then reverse diet you and just carefully watch how things work but you should start to feel stronger and feel better and then the sleep part. That's the other part I would look at. Here's my suggestion and this is just because I know that athlete mentality is like always having to kind of Do something and make sure that you're you're feeling like you've accomplished something Really focus on skills, right? Like so if you're into Muay Thai, I want you to really

You know hone in on on like the the beauty of your leg kicks the you know the sharpening of your technique, and really get into that, but it's at a really low to moderately intense level. So, yeah, you can do all of these things that you want to accomplish and feel like you're accomplished, but you just need to let your body recover and restore it so that way you perform at a higher level. That's a great point. Yeah. I mean, on your days off, you're not working out, but you are practicing technique and you're perfecting technique and that'll, that'll go a long way into making your Muay Thai, um, you know, much better.

Yep. That's great. I really appreciate it. Those are great suggestions and I look forward to implementing those things over time and getting into the forum. That's great. I really appreciate it. We'll see you in the forum.

Let us know how things are going, okay? Yeah, well, thanks so much. Thanks, Jamie. All right. Have you had- Calm down. Yeah. I just wanna,

hold on a second. Yeah, you know, I've had clients, and you get trapped in that wired energy, go, go, go feeling, and- Well, it feels good. I mean, it's literally addictive. Yes. Yeah, it feels- That's why you're a cortisol junkie. Yeah, you're just like, and, and, and it feels good. I mean, it's literally addictive. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. It feels like you're a cortisol junkie. Yeah. You're just like, yeah, you get something out of it. Yes. And then, you know, you start to body starts to hurt. Things start to break down. You're wondering why am I eating so little, not getting leaner.

This isn't working, but you ignore it and you continue to just survive. So backing off and this sounds for people, it sounds crazy. But people will back off. And then after a few weeks, it's like, what is happening? Why is my body progressing? I feel like I'm not doing anything. What is that? It's like, okay, you're finally working with your body. Our next caller is Tina from Georgia.

Hi, Tina. Hello. Hello. Good to see you both. Uh, thanks for taking the time to talk to me. At a high level, I'm interested in the best stretches to loosen up what I believe is a very tight chest. I have a lot of knots in my neck and shoulders to increase my external rotation of my shoulder for proper overhead squats.

I'm very flexible otherwise in my hips and ankles and knees. And so the fact that I feel like I'm really limited in my shoulders is surprising. So I'm relatively fit, 41 years old. I work as a lawyer. And so I spend most of my day like this, even though I'm standing up now, I try to stand up as much as I can. I have a little treadmill that I just got for walking under my desk. And I've worked out for most of my life, you know, cardio and I follow your programs. I alternate between, you know, just walking or following a maps program. And, um, so I feel like I'm pretty fit. Uh, but the ability to, you know, maintain that overhead stretch is really challenging for me.

And what I've been doing, which has actually helped a lot is I've been doing, uh, dead hangs and that's really helps. I feel at least in my shoulders and I practiced overhead squats this morning and I feel that it's helped a lot. But even when I was getting, I got a massage yesterday and I still have these just very deep knots sort of in my shoulders and I still feel that I'm not able to maintain, you know, proper form with, with any way'm not able to maintain, you know proper form with with any weight This is just without you know, any weight at all. So my question is What's better and the other thing I'll mention is besides getting professional massages I have one of those guns and I use

Use it on both my shoulders and my pecs and that helps and my pecs are constantly sore. I don't know if that's tender, if that's typical or not, but my question is, is it better to apply point pressure or rolling pressure on my chest and back and is there other exercises that I should do and how can I tell whether it's really my chest or my weakness in my back that's limiting my ability to maintain proper form and have proper external shoulder rotation? Really good question. That's a great question. Very common.

I have to ask you something if you don't mind. First off, has your shoulder mobility always felt this way? Did you have any procedures? Breast augmentation is very common. Can cause shoulder mobility always felt this way? Did you have any procedures? Breast augmentation is very common. It can cause shoulder mobility issues. Anything like that before I can give you better advice? No. No, never problems, never surgery, anything.

I think it's always been this way. And I think it's definitely gotten worse since I've been, as I got older. Okay. So here's what happens. Here's why a muscle will feel tight. Okay. So muscles will contract to relax and it's all controlled by the central nervous system.

So if I tell my arm, if I want my arm to curl away, it's my central nervous system telling my bicep contract. So you can lift the weight, go down, lower the weight and then relax. Now the central nervous system also will call upon muscles to provide stability when there, it feels like it needs it or there's instability or it feels like, um, it needs to create more of a safe kind of structure. And this can happen when you have recruitment pattern issues or imbalances or weaknesses, your CNS can call upon

surrounding muscles to provide additional stability. And so what happens is these muscles can be slightly tensed all the time to try to create this stability that the body thinks it lacks. Okay. So in your case, upper trapezius is probably slightly tensed all the time. Then yeah, the muscles in the neck, the pecs might be tense. Because remember the pecs, the traps, the rhomboids, the lats, the internal, external rotators,

all of those are involved in shoulder mobility and stability. Even your serratus muscles, for example. All of those are involved in stabilizing the shoulder and the scapula. And if there's a weakness somewhere, the other muscles will be called upon. They all compensate. That's right. Now that, so that's where the tightness is coming from. Now the reason why massage feels good temporarily is when you take a muscle

that's slightly tensed all the time, which then starts to feel like knots. And if I press on it and I hold that pressure, it actually tells my CNS to relax. So that's why you'll feel a knot and then the therapist will push on it and I hold that pressure, it actually tells my CNS to relax. So that's why you'll feel a knot and then the therapist will push on it. And then all of a sudden the knot releases and you're like, wow, I feel so much better. But then if you don't solve the underlying reason for that, then the tightness will come back.

So I gotta go back to the massage therapist again in three days or a week, or I gotta keep working on these tight muscles. Why do they keep getting tight? And I'll get temporary relief. So what we have to do is figure out what the issue is, where's the instability and strengthen that. And it's probably the muscles that retract the shoulder blades and it's probably the ability to retract and depress the shoulder blades. So retracting

the shoulder blades is bringing them back. So if you could right now, if you could sit up tall for me, because I could watch this back. Your neck's probably too forward them back. So if you could right now if you could sit up tall for me because I could watch your legs probably too forward. Yeah so can you bring your shoulder blades back for me? Okay now squeeze them back as hard as you can. Okay now bring them forward. Now try it again. Okay now can you bring your shoulder blades back at the same time now? Do they go down any more? And now bring them back while bringing them down at the same time. Okay so they go down any more? Uh, and now bring them back while bringing them down at the same time. Okay. So you're shrugging a little bit.

There might be a weakness in the muscles that depress and retract the shoulder blades. So I would, there are correctional exercises you could do. Do you have maps prime pro? No, not now. Okay. We have them in there.

So prime pro has shoulder and scapular mobility movements that can definitely help with this particular issue. Now in between, I think static stretching is a good idea. I think using a TheraGun is a good idea. Massage is a good idea because it'll get those, those tight muscles out of the way. But we need to strengthen the muscles that are, you know, quote unquote weak. Otherwise you're just going to keep having to go back.

You need to set yourself up before every single workout with a good priming, uh, sequence that you do, especially with your external rotation of the shoulder. Uh, one thing too, like, uh, so in, in our prime program, um, that we do is like a wall test. And so we're, we're doing that. We're pressing ourselves back into the wall, uh, trying to hit all those points of contact, even with the nodule, the back of your head. So that's another one that we want to address is to make sure that we sort of

make that ugly, uncomfortable double chin, uh, you know, to counter a lot of this, like reaching forward and we're looking forward constantly and we're straining and we're lengthening those muscles out. But, um, you know, what we need to do is we need to get ourselves set up and stacked. Uh, so we're in good posture, upright posture. Then we can add the load and really start strengthening that position. Uh, another thing too that really helps. And I know that the dead hangs helps,

cause it brings that relief. Uh, but now we add things like a farmer care, just holding weights at your side in that good upright postural position, an isometric position, really like reinforce that position because like what we need to do is like strengthen but also counter a lot of the everyday forward trajectory of your shoulders and your head.

Yeah, so okay, and then one other thing that can be contributing to this, just because of the position, the work you do, um, is sometimes the way that we breathe can also cause, uh, some of these, uh, imbalances for lack of a better term in the thoracic area. Uh, so if you are like go, go, go high stress position, job type of deal, we tend to be stuck in these, these, you know, kind of upper chest or chest breathing positions. We're gonna get a full diaphragmatic breath. That can also alter how you hold your upper body and your shoulder. So are you

standing right now? Yes. Okay, when you take a deep breath, does your belly come out? No, no, I think you're right about that. Yeah, okay. So you're gonna, so I'm gonna want you to practice a full diaphragmatic breathing. In fact, we could try a couple right now if you don't mind. Okay. So place one hand on your upper chest, one hand on your belly button. Now I want you to take a deep breath,

but I want your belly to come out before your chest does. So take a deep breath into your belly, have your belly rise out, and then your chest follows afterwards Breathe in as deep as you can and then breathe out and then let's repeat that again breathe into your belly The hand on your belly should move first and fill up before the hand on your chest moves forward Yeah, you know what's interesting about that is when I do that I feel what's interesting about that is when I do that,

I feel, um, tightening or movement in my back. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, so a good idea for you would be to practice what I, what I just said, but a better way to do would be laying on your back. Typically that's what I would do. I wouldn't do it standing, but because we're on,

uh, you know, on, on zoom here, I had to do it standing. So what you do is you lay on your back with your knees bent, you breathe into your belly. So your belly rises as high as it can before your chest and then fill in your chest, hold that breath for three seconds, breathe out and then repeat. Now what you probably noticed right now, Tina, and I would love your feedback is it probably felt a little awkward.

Probably felt like I'm breathing in too much or what's going on is too slow. And if you continue down that you'll probably start to feel emotions. This will probably start to happen. You'll start to feel a little bit like, ah, what's coming up. Okay. It's because you're activating your parasympathetic. You're a lawyer. Yeah, you're probably sympathetic all the time, not parasympathetic.

You're probably go all the time, not parasympathetic, you're probably go work hard, focused. And so when you're always breathing in this kind of shallow breath, which is beneficial in a stressful situation, it does change the recruitment patterns of especially the upper body. But if you're always breathing like that, you're not getting a full diaphragmatic breath,

and what you're telling your body is stay tight, stay tight and dance. You're never fully calm at that point. That's right. At that point. So three, I would have you do it three times a day. You do it for a minute. You lay on the floor, breathe into your belly, breathe into your chest, breathe out, do it for a full 60 seconds. If you start to find yourself, get emotional, don't stop, keep going. We'll go all the way through it and then do it again in the middle of the day.

And then again, at the end of the it, and then do it again in the middle of the day and then again at the end of the day. And that'll probably help you quite a bit. Since you're down there, you can also do what I was talking about about pressing yourself into the wall, but you're on the floor in a sense, right? So you can bring your arms back and work on that external rotation. After you're done, yeah.

After you're done. So in fact, so Maps Prime, is it Maps Prime webinar? We just gave that one out. Yeah, Maps Prime webinar. MapsPrimewebinar.com, Doug, excuse me, Justin teaches the wall test. That's what he's talking about right now. Okay, yeah, I've tried different variations,

but yes, I will look at that one. But I would do the diaphragmatic breathing for a minute first. Yes. Okay. Okay, so in fact, those two breaths that you did, do you feel different? Um, maybe a little more relaxed. I was a little amped up, you know, getting ready for this. Yeah.

You would be surprised. I've had, uh, I've had challenging clients where we just couldn't figure out what was going on. Then we went to diaphragmatic breathing and it was like, boom, we solved the problem. Um, yeah. Oh my God. I'm in a calm state. Sometimes people don't really experience, uh, that calm state because they

don't give themselves the chance. Yeah. Think of it this way, right? If your body thinks it needs to be on guard, how is it going to hold its shoulders? How is it going to hold its muscles? Now think of your vulnerable spots on your body. Your body's not going to let you open your chest up. It's not going to let you be in this relaxed position because you're

exposing, you got to keep everything kind of protected. Right? So, um, that, that, that diaphragmatic breathing exercise is really beneficial. Then go into the correctional exercise and then it's like night and day. Okay. I'm excited to try this because I heard you say on a recent episode, Sal, and I think, um, that when you fall asleep easily, but wake up in the middle of the night, typically it's stress related and I just, I can't get past that. Yeah.

And so maybe this will help me. In fact, yes, when you wake up in the middle of the night doing the diaphragmatic breathing and you just keep going until you fall asleep. Cause your, your brain will receive the signal, even though it's kind of forced, like, okay, I'm going to breathe through my belly, breathe through my belly. It receives a signal like, oh, we're safe. We're cool. We can go to sleep.

Okay. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you guys. That was really helpful and not any, I've scoured the internet and, you know, tried all kinds of things, but I would have never, maybe never found these, these tips and you know, it's interesting. I had a trainer and, um, for a long time and he would always get onto me about

any time, you know, we would do, I don't know, any exercise that involved my arms. My shoulders would always, he would always just push them down. Yeah. You're probably right. I'm pretty convinced this is stress response. And, you know, um, the problem is, is Tina, just so you know, you can't work through a stress response stressed. Okay, so in other words, like, oh shit, gotta force my shoulders down, ah,

gotta hold myself better, hold my breath while I do the stretch. Like, tightening up doing it. Tightening everything up. Like, when you do these movements, breathe through them, tell your body, you're all right, it's all good, safe, and then you'll be able to do it right, because if you go into it holding your breath, being tight, force yourself through it, it's all good, safe, and then you'll be able to do it right, because if you go into it holding your breath,

being tight, force yourself through it, it's not gonna happen. Okay, great, thank you guys so much. This was so helpful and it's a pleasure to meet you and I'm a huge fan, I listen to you all the time, and even my son who's seven, he goes around saying, it's mind pump, it's mind, because he's so used to listening to it

in the car all the time. Awesome. Thank you guys. Thank you so much. listening to it in the car all the time. Awesome. Thank you so much. Nice to meet you. I remember the first time, so I had the privilege, Justin, of working with just some really exceptional coaches and trainers that were just very different from me. Right? Like body worker.

Yeah. Yeah. So I had this one woman that I worked with, I've talked about her before, Lori Matroka was her name, she was incredible. She was a physical therapist, but she was also gut health and hormone health, and she was like super, she was way ahead of her time, okay?

She was talking about leaky gut syndrome 15 years ago. So anyway, she taught me about diaphragmatic breathing, and I said, wow, and I did it to myself, because I tend to be a tense person. I was like, oh my gosh, I got a little dizzy. In fact, I was like, this is weird. I had a client do it. I'll never forget the first time I had a client do it.

I'm like, I know exactly who I need to do that on. And I brought my client into, there was a front part of my studio where the lights were a little low. And I said, okay, I think this is going to help us. We're going to start a workout with something called diaphragmatic breathing. I had to do the same thing, handle the belly, handle the chest. And 30, and I, we, I timed it for a minute, right? 30 seconds into it, she started crying and I was like, Oh, what happened?

She's like, I don't know. I don't know what's going on. It just comes out. Yes. Because she was holding on, who knows, right? She was holding onto feelings and that tells your body it's safe. You could let it out a little bit. And then she was like, Oh my God, I feel so different.

I mean, that's like when I was researching a lot about like fashion lines and like all these kinds of things and techniques to kind of, uh, you know, relieve some of that, that tension there, but same types of things, like belly breathing and man, it does, like we trap some of these, like really tense and like almost like your body stores memories and it comes out such a trip. Our next caller is Brenton from Canada.

What's up Brenton? What's happening? Hey guys. How can we help you? Hey, how you doing? I'll just dive right into it. I kind of got my question here. I'd like to read with a little bit of a backstory.

First of all, like everybody, I really appreciate the opportunity to jump on here and chat with you guys to keep it as concise as possible. First of all, like everybody, I really appreciate the opportunity to jump on here and chat with you guys to keep it as concise as possible. I started listening to you guys early 2020 as a realtor who had started their business and it had come to a screeching halt for a period of time. My mindset was terrible. My business was at a standstill.

I found myself on the road a lot just taking on more clients that I typically wouldn't. That's where I stumbled upon the podcast. So I appreciate that. You guys talked a lot about in the first podcast about loving yourself, which really was an important timing for myself. In high school, I was a bit of an athlete. But when I graduated after high school, I went from about 190 pounds to about 235 pounds in not much more than a year. I loaded 190 pounds to about 235 pounds in not much more than a year. Uh, I was then fortunate to find strength training and with training, uh, some good mentorship and a, and a training partner, uh, lots of hit intervals kind of went down to that 185 range, um, pretty quick.

Fast forward 16 years, I've stayed relatively consistent, um, but never really been in a place in my fitness journey that I can be super proud of. To start this year off like many others, I decided it was time to get a six pack, like you guys probably hear a lot. However, at 36, being a husband, business owner, realtor, I struggle to find time and most importantly father of two young girls at age seven and nine, I'm very conscious of how my fitness journey

is seen through their eyes. I don't want them to see me tracking food, which may be a story that I kind of tell myself, but I kind of struggle with trying to find a way to show them that I'm happy with myself, but at the same time, achieving. Top it all off, my kids love lifting weights with me, they love getting strong, they love flexing in the mirrors. My youngest who is quite petite also has decided she loves six

packs lately and wants dad to have one. So I naturally want to show her that I can achieve whatever I set out to do and that she can do the same. So I guess the question being, is this even realistic without tracking consistently? What would a truck timeframe be? Um, you know, I just started maps performance, which I think is a really good fit for me. I love playing hockey all winter and golf all summer. Uh, but would that be the best training program for me to use? Okay.

Do you know, uh, by any chance, Brent, what your body fat percentage is at now? Yeah, I got a pretty good idea. So, um, just using like the impedance testing that we have our local gyms. Um, I've checked and it's, I haven't checked recently. Well, a couple of months ago I was 23%. Okay. Um, I kind of bounced between that 20 to 24% in that range, uh, depending on what's going on.

Okay. So, so just so you know, so six pack is it, can you get a six pack without tracking? Yes, you can. I do it. I don't track, but I'm also a fanatic and I'm, you know, I could be a little extreme with things. It takes insane consistency.

And I don't know if the, if the, for a lot of people, it's not worth it. I would compromising consistency. Yeah. It's not worth it for a lot of people it's not worth it. I would compromise in consistency. Yeah, it's not worth it for a lot of people, meaning there's a lot of, you'll get to the point where you have a six pack and what typically happens, Brenton, is you're like, well, this wasn't worth it. My life hasn't really improved tons in value from this.

Now 15% body fat, which is not a six pack, is a nice, athletic, fit, healthy build. You're strong, you're eating healthy, you're not meticulous about what you're eating, and you feel great, right? To get a six pack, typically it's single digit body fat. Some people have it at 10%, but most people need to get lower, and that typically can often cause issues

with hormones, you're not at optimal strength level. Now there are people who genetically, you know, like they'll just get there and that's just kind of where they live. But for most men, fit and healthy is around like between 13 to 16% body fat. Now you could totally get to 13 to 16% body fat without tracking for sure.

And again, just to hammer this home, there are more millionaires than there are people with six packs. That's how rare and challenging it is to get there. So I'm not necessarily trying to talk you out of it. It's not impossible. But the road to 9% body fat, you still have to get to 13 or 14% body fat. So I'm going to tell you to get to about 13, 14% and then you can decide what you want to do from there. Let's talk first about, go ahead. Yeah, I was going to say, how do you feel about,

because I know in terms of you not putting as much intention into having a six-pack, you had to build up those abs quite substantially in terms of the size and treating them like their own muscle, like any other muscle that we're trying to build up and have hypertrophy towards. Yeah, so developing the abs definitely will make them more visible at higher body fats, that's the percentage. That's a big building phase. That's for sure. But go ahead. Sorry, I do, like I have been training for

quite a while and I would consider myself to put on muscle pretty easy and I think that's just that body type. So for me, if I'm like, when I'm around 20%, I do have some definition. It's just not quite like decent definition. It's just not quite where I want it to be. So yeah, that's, I suggest, I suggest you get a caliper test or underwater weighing because 20% typically doesn't have definition. Yeah. Yeah. You might be lower than 20%. Yeah. So, but nonetheless, first off, let's talk about your workout.

What does your workout currently look like? Yeah, I've done, so I've done anabolic a few times. That was really good. I do struggle with consistency now over the last couple of years, business has changed. And so obviously that consistency, I went from, uh, gym goer to home gym, which has been good. Uh, but I think that's probably a season that I've laid out.

Like I did just recently, uh, re-up the gym membership. Um, you know, I'm kind of getting re-engaged that way. There's, so that'll be good for me. I think, um, it's been a lot of following your guys's advice. It's been transition. I used to do the splits, um, over the last couple of years, it's been a lot more if I can hit two days a week, uh, you know, the big lifts is kind of what I go for, but naturally being in my basement, not super motivating. I don't go super heavy. Uh, if I, you know, when I do work out, it's after the kids go to bed, it's, it's

9 PM at night, which has been a struggle to stay consistent with for sure. Um. Okay. I got, I got, I think I know where I want to go with it. Do you know how many steps you take a day, by the way? Do you ever track your steps? Yeah.

Um, kind of between 7,000 and 9,000. Like I'm, I chewed for 10, but it's usually comes up short. Okay. I got an easy, I got an easy recommendation for you. So, and I think this will do really well. So diet wise, what I want you to do is I want you to hit your, your, your body weight or your target body weight in grams of protein. And I want you to prioritize that meaning every meal you hit the protein first.

Eat the protein first. Now this is why, here's why I like this. There's a lot of downstream effects from doing this. It results in a lower caloric intake. It builds more muscle and it also burns more body fat when the calories you're even controlled. So that tends to bring people just doing that alone tends to bring the calories where they need to go without people even having to pay attention to the

calories necessarily. So long as you avoid the heavily processed foods, right? Cause you can still really go over if you're eating a lot of box, you know, and packaged heavily processed food. So whole natural foods, hit the protein first, hit your body weight in protein. So in grams of protein. So start there. Do that with first.

Second, I would like to see you hit 10,000 steps a day. And you could do that by adding like a 10 or 15 minute walk after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And then third, I think the best workout for you would be maps 15. I would do the advanced version and it would be, it would be great for consistency. It would be great for consistency. And I would do it first thing in the morning.

You're going to work out for about 20 minutes. So wake up about 30 minutes early, go do your two lifts in your basement. So I think it's a five or six day a week program and then do the 10,000 steps, hit your grams of protein and you're going to start to see that your body will consistently progress really well with that. Yeah, I like that. And I do have an idea on calories. Like I have done a lot of tracking in the past when I was younger, before the kids were a little older. I, I did track the last few days, just to kind of see where I was at anticipating this call, um, kind of bouncing around that like 2300 range. Um,

I like, I usually pretty easy for me to hit that hundred and 75, 180 grams of protein. Um, but it's, it's probably just the yeah, consistency, I guess. So, but it's, it's probably just the, yeah. Consistency, I guess. So, but would you try and eat less or no? No, I would just hit the protein and then eat the rest until you're satisfied, whole natural foods. So as long as they're not heavily propped, because heavily processed

foods can make us overeat for sure. But if it's whole natural foods, let's say you start your meal off and it's got, you know, eight ounces of chicken or steak or whatever, eat that and then, well, okay, I still want a little more. You eat some of your carbs and your vegetables and then eat until you're satisfied, not until you're full. It'll take care of itself. And then you just keep focusing on building muscle because if anything, you're trying to preserve the muscle that you have, which then you can, you know, naturally reduce the body fat in replace of that. So, you know, to focus just on the protein is really gonna help you to, you know,

provide you with what you need, but also lower, naturally lower your calories. Yeah, you'll find what you'll find, Brendan, is you'll get stronger, and your body will slowly change its composition. You'll have a nice, consistent. It'll be more gradual, but it's just, that's the pace you wanna go.

Nice, consistent progress if you stay consistent with that, the 10,000 steps, the hitting your body weight and grams of protein with whole natural foods, stick to that. And then MAPS 15, do the advanced version. It's with barbell, it's barbell training. And you're going to see nice, consistent, and do it as far as consistent, do it first thing in the morning.

I mean, I have kids too, and obviously we have the business here. And if I don't work out first thing in the morning, just so many things pop up during the day that it's really easy for me to, it'd be really easy for me to miss a workout. But because I start my day off with a workout, I almost never miss. And because it's about a 20 minute workout, it's just done very frequently. I think you'd be, and it's, and because it's daily, it tends to be nice and consistent. I think you'd find, and it's, and because it's daily, it tends to be nice and consistent. I think you'd find a nice cadence with that.

Okay. I appreciate that. And then if I, I mean, being a guy that's like say a pack on muscle pretty quickly, um, like just don't worry about that. Like I don't want to get bigger. I don't love having the shirts fit tight on the arms for whatever reason, my own mental block.

But if I'm doing 15, it's, it's probably not drastic. Yeah. I'm not worried about you building muscle too fast. I, yeah, that, no, when I'm doing 15, it's, it's probably not. That drastic. Yeah. I'm not worried about you building muscle too fast. I, yeah, that, no, when I hear that, by the way, Brenton, I'm not discrediting you, but when I hear that it's typically because of body fat goes along with it. I, I really only ever in my entire life met somebody who built muscle like that.

It was, uh, he's a pro bodybuilder. And I remember, what's his name? He was trying to lose a hundred pounds. Ben. Pekulski. He was trying to lose a hundred pounds of lean body mass and it was struggling with it. Um, yeah.

So I, I wouldn't worry about that. I think what's going to happen is your body weight will probably stay about the same, but what's going to happen is you'll build muscle as you start to lose a lot more definition as it goes. That's right. No, I appreciate that. It's an, like I say, I've, I've listened is you'll build muscle as you start to lose a lot more definition as it goes. That's right. No, I appreciate that.

It's like I say, I've, I've listened to you guys for a long time. It's a, I've heard all this stuff before, but for whatever reason, I always kind of seem to think it's, it's not me or it, I got the something I can do. That's kind of that magic bullet. And obviously that's not the case. So I appreciate your time. This is as close as you're going to get to a magic bullet. Try it.

Trust the process and watch it. Yeah. Do you have maps 15 by the way? I don't, I got the RPG bundle, so I'm just kind of in, I think it's aesthetic. We'll send it over to you. Yeah. Awesome. Thanks. Um, do you mind if I share a real quick story as well? No, yeah, no, I'd love it. Uh, just again, a really big thank you to you guys for the impact that you've had on my life. I'm one of those guys that I annoy the shit out of my wife and my buddies because I'm always talking about the mind pump guys and what the mind pump guys say so I love to get your

name out there and and you guys have given a lot of advice more notably I actually you guys talked a lot about talking to a therapist and getting your mind right and stuff like that that kind of hit home for me a couple years ago in business and so I ended up talking, taking your advice, talking to therapists, uh, fast forward that therapist, um, urged me to take the next step in business and ended up buying the brokers that I was realtor for, for over 10 years. Um, and now over the last almost two years, that's been the best decision I ever made.

Um, and a lot of it goes to you guys for just kind of starting that, starting that ball rolling. So I think it's very cool that you guys let us in your lives and, uh, share some stories that, uh, can impact a lot of people in a lot of, a lot of different ways. So really appreciate it. Wow, man. Thanks so much for sharing that. Yeah. Appreciate that. That's my pleasure. All right, bro. Thank you. Thanks. Have a good one. Whenever I hear someone say, I don't, I'm scared of building too much muscle.

He's not going to happen. That doesn't happen, bro. You're not gonna wake up tomorrow jacked, you know? Takes time, you know? Worst case scenario, you're like, oh, I am building too much muscle, and then you slow it down, but have you ever had somebody actually encounter that? It's like the next day, whoa!

I knew it! Oh my God, I'm jacked! Damn it, Sal, my arms are 20 inches. It's all right. No, no, it's typically because their body fat's going up alongside the muscle. But yeah, this guy right here, I mean, if he switches it the way we advise,

he's gonna see nice, consistent progress. Well, that's everything. If your goal is six pack, you have to be dialed. Yes. I mean, there's no room for error. No, no. And I don't wanna put that stress on him, but it's like, you know, you got all these other factors.

I think 15 is literally the perfect recipe for that because it's, it's not too much. It's not going to interrupt this whole day. Like you can devote himself to that a lot of amount of time, first thing in the morning and be as consistent as possible. Plus it's, you know, people don't sleep on that. That program, I hit a PR and deadlift with it. It is the programming. You will progress. For a lot of people, it's an ideal type of structure

and workout, it just works really well. So, look, if you love the show, check out some of our free guides. In fact, we have a How to Squat Like a Pro Guide. It's free, you can find it at mindpumpfree.com. You can also find us on Instagram. Justin is at Mind Pump Justin, I'm at Mind Pump DeStefano. Adam is at Mind Pump. Adam.

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps, anabolic, maps, performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically

transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a 5-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing Mind

Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is Mind Pump.