Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2443: Three BIG Reasons Why Your Shoulders Aren’t Growing! (Listener Coaching)

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin answer four Pump Head questions drawn from last Sunday’s Quah post on the @mindpumpmedia Instagram page.  Mind Pump Fit Tip: Three BIG reasons why your shoulders aren’t growing! (1:46) The new/decked-out Mind Pump studio brought to you by PRx. (12:21) An exciting new exercise-mimicking peptide. (16:20) The STRUGGLE is where the gold is. (19:57) Like father, like son. (23:27) Halloween costumes with the Mind Pump crew. (25:45) Feeling the Happy Drops. (29:47) OnlyFans creators earned more than the entire NBA last year! (31:39) The internet opportunities are ENDLESS! (37:35) Fun Facts with Justin: The world’s oldest cheese! (44:50) Shout out to exclusive access to a NEW MAPS Program October 16th on IG Live 6 PM PST!  (50:34) #Quah question #1 – Does an increase in strength equal building muscle? (52:20) #Quah question #2 – What's Sal’s verdict on EAA’s since he has been using them? (54:19) #Quah question #3 – I see weighted vests for walking all over the place. What are your thoughts? (57:25) #Quah question #4 – Should I still train my legs if I’m currently 5 weeks out from a marathon? (1:02:28) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Organifi for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Promo code MINDPUMP at checkout for 20% off. Organifi Stater Kit: Starting your new juicing routine has never been easier! Snag this simplified starter kit and see what the lifestyle’s all about. 7 days each of Green Juice and Red Juice Travel Packs, 30 days of Essential Magnesium Capsules, 1 branded Organifi shaker bottle. ** Visit PRx Performance for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** No Code for 5% discount that gets automatically applied in checkout!!! ** October Promotion: MAPS Muscle Mommy 50% off! ** Code OCTOBER50 at checkout ** Building Muscle with Adam Schafer – Mind Pump TV How To Do A PROPER Dumbbell Rear Delt Fly Mind Pump #1117: How to Build Amazing Shoulders New drug may help lose weight, reduce fat by mimicking exercise OnlyFans Creators Earned More Than the Entire NBA Last Year The world’s oldest cheese is now revealing some of its secrets Visit Seed for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code 25MINDPUMP at checkout for 25% off your first month’s supply of Seed’s DS-01® Daily Synbiotic** Get 20% off Kion at getkion.com/mindpump Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Enrico Incarnati (@rico.incarnati) Instagram  

Are you a business owner or marketer looking to reach highly engaged podcast listeners just like you? AdvertiseCast can help. Whether you are looking to promote a national brand across Canada or a regional event or service, we've got you covered. Reach out today to Bob at AdvertiseCast.com That's E-O-B at AdvertiseCast as in Podcast.com 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 Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. In today's episode, we answered listener's questions. So people wrote in and we got to help them out, but this was after a 50 minute intro portion. So we're talking about fitness, current events,

family life, and much more. By the way, if you wanna write in questions that we can pick from, do it on Instagram, at Mindpump Media. Now this episode was brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is PRX. They make home gym equipment designed to maximize space. They have a squat rack that folds into the wall, comes off the wall like six inches so you can still use your garage or one of your favorite rooms and

you're ready to work out. You unfold the squat rack and it's super stable. It could support a thousand pounds if you wanted to and they have a lot of equipment like this. It's great stuff. Go check them out. Go to prxperformance.com forward slash mind pump on that link. you'll get 5% off automatically at checkout. This episode is also brought to you by Organifi. They make organic supplements. Today we talked about their happy drops. These are gummies that have been shown to make you feel better, happier. One of the active ingredients in fact operates like an SSRI. It increases circulating serotonin in the brain. It's one of our favorite products. Go check them out. Go to organifi.com.

That's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com forward slash mind pump. Use the code mind pump. Get 20% off. Also, this month's program sale, MAPS Muscle Mommy, very popular workout program, is 50% off. If you're interested, you go to mapsfitnessproducts.com and then use the code October50 for the discount. All right, here comes the show. You're training your shoulders consistently. You think you're doing everything right,

but they simply won't grow. Look, in my experience, this is due to three reasons. This is what we're gonna talk about today. If your shoulders aren't growing, it's probably due to the one of these three reasons we're about to talk about You guys want to guess? For me on the recording with the guys this is so if I don't know how often you guys are

Checking all the YouTube troll comments that are amazing For the series right now, but shoulders has been a hot topic one of the clips that went viral that Josh made was the rear delt fly clip. So I'm gonna say that one of the three is related to that. 100%. 100%. Yeah and I found that training clients. Two things. One, people don't often train their rear delts not nearly as consistently as they train their side delts or do overhead presses, but two, I almost never, actually, Adam, you're one of the first people that I've ever seen do a rear fly properly.

Most people turn it into like a modified row almost. Like it's a lot of rhomboid, mid-trap, it's kind of like this squeezing back here, whereas it's really just bringing them out. Like the rear delt really creates this kind of short range of motion. And when you develop your rear delts, it creates a round nice triangle or square shape to your shoulder.

Without that rear delt, your shoulders look like they slump forward. In fact, people often blame shoulder development on side delts, but it's actually often the rear delt. Plus it's important from a functional perspective to keep that all nice and tracking in place. So yeah, it's a, perspective to keep that all nice and tracking in place. So yeah, it's a definite important one to factor in. Yeah, so you know when you do bent over flies, for example, for the delts, you want to round your shoulders and it's a short range of motion. You don't want the scapula to come really too far together at the top. Otherwise it becomes like a mid-back exercise and the elbows need to be flared out.

You don't want the hands to come out further than the elbows or like in this kind of externally rotated position. You want them out, and what you want to think about, at least this is the way I used to communicate it, is you separate the dumbbells or pull them out rather than pulling them back. Yeah, I say fly out, don't fly back. Yeah, okay, same thing. Yeah, yeah, so most people fly back, and what makes this so difficult is that And what makes this so difficult is that there's bigger muscles, right? The mid-back is much bigger and stronger than the rear delts. And so when you think about, you know, the brain sees weight, move weight, body says do it as efficiently as possible.

So if the goal here was to just move these dumbbells in this fashion as easy as possible, then it would be advantageous for the back to take over because it's a bigger, stronger muscle. But since you're bodybuilding or sculpting or trying to target a specific area, it's counter. So that's what makes this so challenging. If you just look at somebody doing the exercise and go, okay, I'm going to do that now too, and you don't understand the mechanics of the movement or what that muscle is responsible

for, easily the back takes over. And then you end up just working your back up, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, except for you're trying to target your rear delts. And there's better back exercises. Exactly, and so that was a big turning point for me in my overall shoulder development.

And what I found was that building the shoulders, in particular the rear delt, not only did it bring my shoulders together, but then it made my arms look better and it brought my back up together. So that, to me, that muscle is such an important, and this bowl also for functionality, like Justin said, but aesthetically, like when we're trying to build an aesthetic symmetrical physique, the rear delts just bring the back together, brings the side of your shoulder and arms, balances it all out.

Yeah, have you ever seen an underdeveloped shoulder with an overdeveloped rear delt? Never. It's always, always, if it's a great looking shoulder, it's because it has an incredible rear delt. I read a bodybuilding magazine as a kid, luckily that said that, and so I never avoided rear flies, and I also tried to feel it

in the target area, so luckily I learned really early, and that really led a lot to my shoulder development. But if you're doing rear flies and you're using 30 pound dumbbells, 40 pound dumbbells, you're probably not doing them right. I I mean I can use 15 pound dumbbells and make them really hard by isolating that small you know rear delt muscle. Well how do you feel too then in terms of people performing like just like a lateral raise like improperly like I feel like I see that all the time. Same thing. That's the second one.

Same thing. The side delts are another thing that's done improperly even if you're doing them, you do them and your traps take over the movement. Because your traps can, man, boy, your traps can shrug a lot of weight. Yeah, it looks almost like a clean. Like if I do a heavy lateral, my hands come up higher than my elbows

and I'm squeezing back here on my shoulders. Whereas a lateral, my elbows tend to stay at the same height or height of my arms and I'm not allowing my scapula to shrug. So it's this motion right here and I'm using just the side delt. And it requires a lot less weights. In fact, if you go too heavy,

you will inevitably turn into this kind of upright clean where if you want to do a clean, there's nothing wrong with a clean is great for back exercise. That's a different exercise though, yeah. Totally different. So I actually think this advice gets a bit convoluted because you'll see examples of

these incredible bodybuilders with incredible shoulders doing some of these really heavy stuff. Yes. And I think it's important too to understand the educational process of lifting controlled and light and with perfect technique first, right? So part of the theme of the conversation that I've been having on this series too is just that quality of reps trumps everything. And it doesn't mean that at one point you might not, you might catch me in the gym doing

what we call like cheat reps or using some momentum or doing things like that. But it's after a very solid foundation, mechanical foundation has been laid first. Meaning, I've done lateral, you know, hundreds, if not thousands of reps of lateral raises with light, perfect form. I have a great connection to that muscle. I can call upon it instantly just by thinking about it through the movement. And so what people miss is that that bodybuilder that looks incredible that you see lateral raising 60 pound dumbbells, you know, and then you go try

and mimic it, is that for probably decades that bodybuilder has built an incredible mind muscle connection with those laterals. And so he can now do these exercises where he kind of cheats the movement and still engage really well. A really really good bodybuilder will be able to target and isolate a muscle with almost any technique. That's right. And I would never teach that to most people because most people don't have that

skill. Yeah, you gotta build that connection. Well-developed bodybuilders have that ability to target muscles with technique that normally wouldn't necessarily work that way. So I wouldn't look at the advanced bodies. Plus they're already so well-developed and all that. It's not necessarily the best example. And if you're one of those guys, look, if you're doing sloppy form

and your delts look great, then just skip forward. But if you're working out and you think you're doing everything right, like why aren't my shoulders developing? Why aren't my traps developing but my shoulders aren't developing? One of the reasons is because you're working out and you think you're doing everything right, like why aren't my shoulders developing? Why aren't my traps developing? But my shoulders aren't developing. One of the reasons is because you're not doing your lateral raises properly. You're not isolating the side delts and it's becoming this kind of upright, this clean

type exercise where you're hitting the traps. Yeah, now another one I tend to see a lot and this is, I don't know if this started with trainer's coaching or like the bodybuilder community kind of did kind of partial reps of this, but like in terms of an overhead press, I don't see a lot of full range of motion overhead pressing. If not even like an overhead standing press, uh, that you don't see that. No, nobody, almost nobody in the gym does a overhead press where they bring the barbell all

the way down to their collarbone and then press with full extension of the top where the head comes through and they're locked out, and then press with full extension of the top where the head comes through and they're locked out. That's a full range of motion. What you typically see is this short 90 degree press, and I know why people like that, you can use a lot more weight. You can add way more weight to the bar or dumbbells

versus doing this full, so when I was younger, I did the short range of motion overhead presses. It wasn't until much later that, I had a friend of mine that I worked out with that did these really full range of motion overhead presses. And he used a lot less weight than I did, but his delts were so well developed. So I tried copying him and I could not lift nearly as much, but I got the craziest pump in my shoulder. So now when I press, it's this real full range of motion with overhead press, because you're

missing half the exercise. There's more opportunity to you know strengthen parts of your muscle that you wouldn't tap into otherwise if you don't go to do that full range. I know that part of it the thought process is keeping a constant muscle tension yeah if you have it a little bit shorter but then again you do that we're gonna get in range we're gonna get that in range strength. Yeah. Yeah this one was a really this was was weird when I connected this, because I too lifted the 90 degree military press, right, was like the standard bodybuilder shoulder press. It wasn't until much later did I do full range of motion and had to go a lot lighter. But

it was like, not only did I, not only did it build my delts, the upper part of your chest gets incorporated a little bit there too, my delts, the upper part of your chest gets incorporated a little bit there too, so it just made that whole top of your chest and shoulder caps look a million times better with half the load. It just blew my mind that that was not adopted in the bodybuilding community, that it was skipped and not focused on because I saw-

It used to be the way people over at press. If you watched the bodybuilders of the 70s, they were all real full range of motion. And you know, by the way, and I know this is an aesthetic conversation about developing great delts, and by the way, the studies do show full ranges of motion always build more muscle than shorter ranges of motion, even if there's more load on the shorter range of motion.

But there's also a functional component here. The shoulder joint isn't just the upper arm moving in the joint, there's also your shoulder blade that has to work with your humerus. So you have a shoulder blade plus the humerus and they have to work together. When I stop short, okay, and I strengthen myself in this short range of motion, what ends up happening,

they create an imbalance between my humerus moving and then my scapula moving with it. So what ends up happening is people who train in the short range of motion often suffer from shoulder injuries because they have this discrepancy of strength. Then you see them do one full range of motion rep and they're like, it hurts my shoulder.

Anything outside of that range, you don't train, you're susceptible. No, and you have unhealthy shoulders. Why shoulder injuries are so common with people who lift weights is because of the short ranges of motion with the overhead pressing type exercises. So nice working out in here in this studio

being almost done. We're like this close, man, to this place being completely finished. I actually love it. Are you using the, what is that press thing you said on the PRX? Yeah, Viking press. How do you like it?

You used it the other day, right? I used it the other day. I'll be using it today again today. I shoot shoulders today. So I love that thing. I love it So now these these racks are different than the other PRX ones we had there. So these two arms fold out Yeah, come out. It's a four posts instead of two, right? So normally there's a full cage full cage. Yeah, so the other one which the other one I think is phenomenal

Yeah, the other one is a is a more than sufficient. That's what I have at my house, what we have at the truckie house. I love that one but this one is like full-on rack. Which tricks me out about the PRX is it's obviously designed for home use but it's the most stable rack I've ever used because of the way it's attached. Yeah. It's the most stable rack. It's funny to me why I thought the opposite was true until we worked with them. Totally. I thought, oh, that's weird, it's not gonna be as stable because it's the opposite, which thinking back,

it's like, of course. It doesn't move, it doesn't shake. Yeah, it's attached to a wall, plus it's got the legs. And so of course it would be as stable if it wasn't more stable. How far do these come off when you fold them in? Is it like the other one where it's only like six inches? Yeah, there's like six to eight inches. God, that's crazy.

Barely clearance out. That's crazy. I have an old school cage at home I bought years ago. It's so weird to me that you still haven't changed. You know what it is, is I haven't found a wall to attach and I'm also just lazy to do it, but I need to set it up because it takes up so much space. Yeah, you probably.

I could just hold it in, I could park another car. I know, I was gonna say, you don't even use, you don't even park in your. I do. Do you park in your garage? I park my car in there. Oh, that's it. I don't park Jessica's in there.

Yeah, I mean, to me mean I want all of my garage space and so it's The fact that I can hang the barbells hang it hang everything on the wall I have to have it and park the cars in there you guys both have yeah Yeah, how many of your workouts are at home versus here? Are they all here now because of the filming? So I'm shooting I'm trying to do is another not all here. They're either at home, too so about two, about half, two to three workouts are at home, two to four workouts, or three to four workouts are being done here.

So right now I'm running a Maps 15 protocol. Although I'm modifying because of my injury and some of that, which was so funny. I was, you know, these comments on YouTube and stuff like that. I thought he was gonna run Maps 15 exactly how it is. I wanted to see that, and I was like, well, I'm sorry, I'm fucking tore my pack.

Yes, yes, I wish I was running it too, exactly the way it's laid out, sorry. You know, so, but I mean, it's very much so the Maps 15 protocol. It's a compound lift with a isolation exercise with it. It's two, mostly two exercises a day. One day I dedicate to kind of like windmill, ab, rotational stuff, so the six day is kind of core focus.

I saved that one for home, that one I haven't shot here. It's kind of like whatever, you know? Although I did shoot some stuff on my Instagram showing the windmill and how bad it was but that's what it's looking like right now now what I haven't decided is and this when this will come out live I'll have decided by then is I think I'm gonna move it's been a month after this week will be one full month I think I'm gonna move into a more three-day week anabolic type of protocol. Yeah I haven't decided I'm gonna do that or I'm gonna do my own version of a split where I do upper lower upper lower type of

deal. Four day split. Yeah so I'm kind of wrestling with do I want to do a upper lower split right now or do I want to run a maps anabolic type of style because I'm itching I'm actually itching for more. And it was, Maps 15 was perfect with the amount of volume. And I could- Nice, you're feeling it. And I could technically keep going the way I am, but you know, the part I'm missing is the crazy pump

in my full body and stuff like that. So I'm wrestling with that right now. So we'll see what I do. That's fun, that's fun, man. They, I gotta tell you guys about a new peptide that they with that right now. So we'll see what I do. That's fun, that's fun man. I gotta tell you guys about a new peptide that they're studying right now. This is not available by the way for any partners or anything like that.

So everybody's gonna get excited when I read about this. But it's a peptide that they identified. It's called, it's just like long SLUPP332. All right, so what's so exciting about this? Well they used it on mice and they gave them, so essentially what it does is it is first off it causes weight loss, fat loss and it convinces the body that the muscles are exercising. So the metabolism boosts and the muscles develop more stamina and endurance by doing nothing.

What if you pair it with something? Okay, obviously that's what would happen, right? But check this. So it's an exercise mimetic. They gave the mice, the mice that use this peptide, they did no exercise, they didn't do anything with it, ran 50% further than they did before. It was like they were working out. It was like they're working out simply by using this peptide. What? Yes. 20% loss in body weight? Yeah.

Oh, you have it all up there. Yeah, it does it up here. Look at that. So it reduced fat mass, increased energy expenditure, improved insulin sensitivity. It increases muscle activity. So increased the number of fatigue resistant muscle fibers, improved endurance running. In obese mice, it caused a 12% loss in body weight with no change in diet or exercise.

So they changed that, they literally sped up the metabolism. So what's really cool about this, Sal, this peptide, is one of the things that we are running into, we noticed this when we started doing our GLP-1 group and kind of learning about this process, is there's a lot of people that I don't think are the best candidates for GLP-1 that are taking it that something like this would be far better for them.

Yeah. Like they don't, like there's people that are in... Yeah, like I need to lose 15 pounds. Yeah, they just want to like maintain their muscle mass but lose a little bit of body. It's funny that you brought up GLP-1. What do you think is motivating these researchers to come up with exercise mimetics right now? Oh, probably that. Yeah. Because what they're seeing with GLP-1s is people are taking them, they're not strength training, they're not eating the protein intake, they're losing muscle, so they're trying to come out with compounds that mimic exercise. So we may be in a... Listen, what happens when you combine those?

Of course that's what, just exercise. What happens when you combine those? It's crazy. What do you think? Of course, that's what's gonna happen. There's no way they're gonna. So here's what's trippy about all this. And by the way, this is with mice. We don't know if it's actually gonna deliver with humans and all that stuff. But let's just speculate, right?

Imagine if we were able to literally induce exercise-like and fitness-like effects on the body without any activity, without any watching your diet. People are going to be really disappointed when they realize that they look better, but the benefits that people talk about with exercise, they're not getting them all. They have the strength behind it. Not just that, but they're just not getting the value of it because there was no work, there was no effort, there was no challenge, there was no journey.

Now at this point it becomes cosmetic surgery and this is gonna sound like people who work out understand, people who don't work out don't get this. But so much of the value that comes from consistent exercise is in the learning and the struggle and the relationship with pain and the failures and the work, like anything else. If you just snap your fingers and you look fit,

you're not gonna get the benefits. You'll get the visual benefits. Everything, this is everything in life. Yes. Everything. We're getting there, dude. We're gonna get to that place. I know, and avoid it.

It's like, no, this is exactly where you need to be. We're gonna get to a weird place where people are gonna get everything they want. And they're gonna be sad about it. I had this really good conversation with one of my nephews who's in his early 20s and had a little bit of a setback financially. Something happened, and it didn't go his way

that he wanted to. Kid's a real hard worker, working hard, saving his money, doing really well, doing much better than I probably was in my early 20s. And he was just distraught. I'm so far behind and this and that it's like man you are so focused on getting to be this you know 40 year old version or super wealthy version yourself not realizing that when that happens I believe and I tell I told him I said I

believe this is gonna happen to you you have the right mindset you work hard you're gonna be successful I promise you what it's probably nothing what you think it's going to be but the thing that you're You have the right mindset, you work hard, you're going to be successful, I promise you. At what? It's probably nothing what you think it's going to be. But the thing that you're lacking is the understanding that when you get to that version of yourself, that version yourself is going to think back to right now and all this struggle and all this shit. And as the good time and miss this. And I know that's fucking hard for you to wrap your brain around right now. Isn't that crazy? As you're depressed and you're sad and you're frustrated. But this is it's, it's the struggle.

The struggle is where, where the silver lining is, where the gold is, where the magic is. And when you're in it, I think that's part of the secret sauce of some of the most successful people are the people that recognize and embrace that and understand like, Hey, this is the part and the, and it applies to weight loss journey and everything you're going is like, man, you reached this pinnacle, this physique or this dollar amount that you wanted and then it's like, now what? And it's like, oh shit, all the hard stuff was the stuff that was so fun to get through.

If you look at the value of fitness and a healthy lifestyle, the way you look is way down the list. Unfortunately, everybody thinks that's the top. They think if they look a particular way that life's gonna change and be remarkable amazing. The data is very clear on this. No, it actually is not. The value is not that at all.

The health is a value, the mobility is a value, but there's also the mental and spiritual growth you get from the process. That's where so much of the value comes from. And I know people listening who aren't there yet hear this and go, screw you, I just want to look this way, I want to whatever. But this is just, and what's going to happen, and we're getting there, we're going to, I believe we're going to get, I believe science is going to get us there with a lot of things. I believe we're going to get to a place where people are going to get everything they want. Yeah. And then they're going gonna be depressed and anxious and sad, and they're gonna be like,

I thought, what's going on? Why am I still not happy? When I have everyone's- I had this same conversation just with my kids, and we were talking about video games and our fond memories of certain ones. And it was literally the ones that challenged the most and were very like

Definitive like oh I passed this boss and it took me like three months to get past I'm like as simple as that is you don't want to play a game that doesn't challenge you Specifically, so you feel like you've accomplished something. It's just not fun No, and it's it's it's no different than any any of the rest of stuff it too I've been talking a lot with Ethan about this because it's I struggle sometimes I get excited when like my kids are like passionate about Something I'm like, yeah, I want to like go grab like buy something to make you know This a thing or it'd be a part of it But I'm like no he has to go, you know figure out a money You know to pay for this and then that's gonna actually mean something to him now that he has it

Otherwise, it's it's just not gonna have the same effect and I'm like, I gotta just pull myself out of this and just be like, yeah, great, keep going. Oh my God, you just remind me of a story I forgot to tell you guys. That just made me laugh. So Max, okay, one of the cool things, right? Kids not in sports, not in stuff like that, but he's gonna be a fucking closer 100% like he's got he's got like so He he wants this this Bowser of course right some other some other about it's like $100 and

Nana tells him you need to you're gonna have to work for that You know you're gonna have to help Nana water the plants for $10 help your mommy do some things for $10 You can wash cars with your daddy for $10. So he's been telling him, so he came home this whole last week, this has been this last week. And so every day, mom can I help you do the water? And so he's watering the plants. Can I get my money? Yeah, to make money.

And so the other night he's sitting down and he's got all these coloring, he's coloring these pictures or whatever. And he like diligently working. What are you doing son? He's like, I'm making paintings I go yeah, and he goes, uh, I'm gonna sell him no way Yes, yes, because I'm gonna sell him. Can you bring him here? I'll buy one. Listen. Listen. I go I go Oh, really? I go who gets home to Nana Nana I go, oh really? He goes, who are you going to sell them to? Nana, Nana will buy them.

Nana will buy them. Of course she will. You got a built-in customer. So I get so excited. I go, hey, I said, I tell you what, when you're done, before you go to bed, daddy will help you make videos to close the family. And he goes, huh?

I said, yeah, I'll teach you how to sell. And so all night he says, daddy, you can teach me to sell. Yeah, I'm going to teach you to sell. Oh, bro, your heart must be so. Bro, yeah, I was like, so listen. Listen, I go, I go, I go, listen, I'm going to you to sell bro. Your heart must be wrong. I was like so listen I'm gonna teach you an alternate advanced clothes So this is to make sure they have to buy something and he's like looking at me also I'm like, so I'm gonna record you and then you tell Nana Nana

Do you want to buy this one for ten dollars or this one for? For twenty two for both of them for twenty dollars like that, right? So I repeat it get him to say it and then I video him like that So and then I I had him do it for him to say it and then I video him like that so I and then I had him do it for like each family member and then I sent the videos to each member of the family and they're all like oh my god I'll take one I'll take

one guy made like 50 bucks like in a night yes it worked dad bro so great he repeated it just right like he totally registered I was like oh my god those moments are the best oh it was so good to see I didn't think that would like click for him. It totally clicked What was that costume you sent us he put on like oh my god This is what's so cool about the internet today that you can find this stuff now And I don't know why I didn't think of this

Maybe I guess probably 10 15 years ago. You just wouldn't find one. Now like on Etsy you can find shit like this. So Max of course wants to be a Bowser Mario theme is the whole theme again right for the the sixth holiday in a row right so he's like I want to be fire in the tummy Bowser there's different types of Bowser's right there's like 50 different Bowser's and he wants to be fire in the tummy Bowser so Katrina found a lady online who makes custom costumes and so we had that custom we made so she literally sent her a picture of what the fire in the tummy Bowser looks like and the lady oh it's legit has a full zips zips up and then he has a backpack that goes on that's the turtle

shell it's got a hat goes on about oh my bro it was like it's so hot you didn't want to take it off sweating all day he's just like I don't want to take it off. I'm like you gotta take it off buddy. It's good. So I bought uh we were at the store uh the other day and we're walking through and Jessica's like let's get something for the kids because we had spent the whole day without them so we wanted to come home and give them something. So you know what's cool when you have little especially little boys is I remember what got me excited as a little boy. So I'm like let's get him those Spider-Man pajamas. She's like, he's already got pajamas.

I'm like, it's not about the pajamas. I'm like, watch. So we buy the Spider-Man pajamas, come home. What do I tell my son? These are Spider-Man pajamas. Put them on and see how fast you can run. He's like, what? He puts them on, he's like, and he jumps on the couch,

he's like, mom, I'm stickier, like Spider-Man. And he's like, look at this. And I pretend like I can't see him because he's too fast. So he runs by him like, where'd you go? And he's like taps on me I turn on, oh my god, you're too fast. All day long. He's ready, he's jumping on things. This is so cool. He's got Spider-Man powers though. Oh my god. That's great. So I'm doing something different for the costume so I hope Katrina's like... Are you guys dressing up with him? Yeah, yeah. We're all dressed. So he's already told the family that they have to be all

Mario characters. Oh, OK. So who are you? So I'm not a Mario character. So this is what I'm getting at is, and the reason why, Katrina wouldn't let me. So the Bowser outfit that fits me, that's like sick and custom like his, is like $700, right?

And I'm like, order that. That's what I was just like. I am not ordering you a $700 fucking Halloween costume you're gonna wear one time I'm like well you try and sell it afterwards with that she's like I already know you know you won't and so I just forgot about it what do we do and then his costume came in I'm like shit I need to have something I gotta have a legit costume so we were on last night looking the night before last we're looking for costumes she found like a really reasonable like really good

Grinch costume and he's a big Grinch guy Now what I'm worried about is that I'm not gonna tell him yet. Do you think he's a hero? Well, no, no, I think he was what will be upset because the whole family is Mario characters. Daddy is the Grinch I hope he doesn't get pissed that I'm not the Mario thing and don't tell to Katrina Be so happy. Drop the $700. That's what I said. He'll get so excited. I was like, just order it. She can't get mad when she sees him get excited.

That's how I feel too. So I was like, you know what happened was she didn't. Then that costume came in and I'm like, hey, what about the one I was? She's like, I told you you're not getting that one. It's too expensive. And I'm like, Katrina, I'm like, are you kidding me right now?

Like now I have nothing. I can't have, like his dad can't have the worst costume everybody else, he has this awesome costume. And so then I'm telling her last night, I'm like, are you kidding me right now? Like now I'm, now I have nothing. I can't have, I can't like his dad can't have the worst costume everybody else. He has this awesome costume. And so then I'm telling her last night, I'm like, I should have worn my gut instinct. I should have just got it and told you, but she's like, no, no, no, no, no.

She's like, this website doesn't look legit. I don't want to spend that kind of money in this and that. So, all right, we'll do the Grinch. So the Grinch it is, so we'll see what happens. I don't know if he's going to be pissed or he's going to accept it or what. He's, that's one of his, that's his favorite Christmas character.

Remember my son likes, yeah, Max likes all the bad guys. Right? So I'm like, yeah. if he's gonna be pissed or he's gonna accept it or what he's that's one of his that's his favorite Christmas character Max likes all the bad guys, right? So his favorite Christmas character is the Grinch. That's his favorite Christmas movie cartoon. That's his character So like I'm hoping that what and what I'll do I know to do I'll set the table like guess what like Bowser and the Grinch are gonna team up for Halloween. Yeah, I'll make a big deal about good story Yeah, I'll set a good story up and then he'll be okay. If I just showed up, then he'd be let down. But if I set the table with a good story, I think he'll be okay.

That's awesome. You guys feeling, hey, we finally got the Happy Drops. Do you feel these things when you take them? Yeah, I do. I like them. These are wild. Yeah, yeah. They run out.

Yeah, but of all the things that are in there, there's normally, in all supplements, in my opinion, there's normally one or two ingredients that make something feel away or are probably the most valuable. When you look at that, what is it that I probably feel? Go to cola will give you a little energy, but it's a saffron. There's a type of saffron that's in a suffractive that's a...seffractive. This is a extract of saffron that's been shown to have effects. Is that a flower? I believe so. It's the little Not petals, but the little things inside the flower. Yeah. Yeah, and it's it's it's shown to have with the bees fly on get on

Yeah, I think that's part of it So it's shown to have I just know it tastes good. It increases. Well, don't do each to have SSRI. I just know it tastes good. It increases, well don't do eutinine, but it increases circulating levels of serotonin, like an SSRI. That's called the stigma inside the flower. The stigma inside the flower. But naturally, so you're not worried about like it down regulating or anything? No no no no no no. I mean there's studies on it for depression and then for libido enhancing in some people. See I would love to hear that from somebody who suffers from something like that or struggles

with something like that. It takes something if they notice that. I feel like oh yeah it puts me in a better mood or oh yeah but it's so hard to tell with things like that with the podcast. What's the recommended amount? Two, would you be four? Yeah, at least. I was like at some point I'm going to be on here.

Tom Cruise on Oprah. I thought that was going to happen. Look how fast Justin is. That was a slight flex. Hey, can you guys do this? If I did that, my knees are still in tact. You're doing all right. I have a stat for you guys.

I came across this. I had to fact check it because I was like, no fucking way. This is true. This is true though. OK, you ready for this? So 2023 to 2024, NBA combined payroll. So LeBron, Stephs, everyone. 23 to 24.

Yeah, this last year. Last year combined all the top players, all their their salaries all the players are all the top all The players all the players four point nine billion dollars. Well, okay. Well, that's not the interesting stat. Okay 2023 only fans content creators 6.6 billion dollars obvious. I Mean is it yeah, I mean a platform or a platform that is here's what's interesting That's it. That's a complete like free market type of platform that is not managed commercial power behind it I mean that is just yeah content creators putting out on a platform

Creating their own fee and stuff of that that to me is wild when you're you because the NBA is is Massive the amount of money it generates how big it is the amount of Commercial behind it like to think that only fans creators are making a much stronger desire To seek novelty with sexual desire then there is a watch sports So it makes perfect sense the most visited websites online or or porn This is like a big deal by the way like and I don't mean a big deal like money wise. This is a big problem. The data now on on pornography and this kind of stuff is pretty clear.

It's damaging across the board and it's not a little damaging. It's a lot damaging. So we've done like run this experiment of like let's just let people you know have this crazy access and it's messing with kids especially and adults messing with marriages and everything. It's crazy. So that much money being spent on something like that's like man, there's a lot of... That's not great. Now, how are you wondering about because it's like you get it for free. Like I just I've never understood the the appeal of like

subscribing. I'm the same way. They want to steal more of a connection or maybe feel like they're important. See that makes even more sad. Yes. Like oh she's talking to me. No, she's not. She's got some bot. I mean, obviously, Justin, because I'm the same way.

I think that's so weird to me. But we've had strip clubs forever. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And you know you're not going home with her. Yet you go and you throw tons of money on the table. Sure. Think, so it's the same concept, right?

Now you have a virtual. You're getting the attention. That's personal So I'm curious from you guys because you guys have boys that are teenagers Do you guys talk about only fans? Is this a conversation that comes up pornography was a big just pornography Yeah, in general that's in the same jokes with my oldest, but yeah, he's he's yeah, I don't know We haven't really dove into that conversation. That's something that we're gonna have to probably discuss at some point we've definitely talked about porn and you know like where

what he's been looking at online and those kind of conversations, but Hey, I would know first of all if you subscribe to something because like we have all the data from his phone Okay, I would know that yeah, and plus well the social media thing has been rough because it's like you can't police that so dude He's right and it starts with now There's there's other ways entry points but like snapchat is definitely like a first sort of entry point for a lot of kids Yeah, cuz it's just and I actually don't mind it as much because it's more just like hey It's it's almost like texting. Yeah, There's nothing crazier other than just texting, and then it goes away.

But then that's sort of the gateway into the TikTok, and then these other horrible platforms. I'm like, no. And then he realizes that if he's now, I have this shirt I want to sell. I'm not getting any views. If I put it on TikTok, and I get views, look dad, I have this to show that I'm getting, I'm like,

those aren't even real views. I'm like trying to make it out, you know, and like, you know, and then I'm also like, I got to check myself cause it's like, he's excited about like your action. And but I'm like, dude, this is such a worthless platform. You're not going to get any return. Like let's move our focus over here. There's always the, what I find interesting about all this stuff that we look at and we go, this is damaging, damaging, damaging, is the promise of money oftentimes allows

people to justify this kind of stuff. Like, well, but they're making money. Money's not everything. It's like these girls on OnlyFans, first of all, what percentage of them are actually millionaires? Very small percentage. Very millionaires very small percentage Very small very small percentage, but even then even those people who are millionaires on there Like are they really improving dude generally their quality of life their mental health. I'll make an argument

They're probably not I'll go on a limb and say there's so many more opportunities I had didn't even know exist right now that that you could make money just by sitting there basically doing nothing like if you actually did something before and you have like a skill or a specialty or something like for instance like Courtney was just kind of looking over this because it was like I don't know we kind of have made remodeling and all that starting to come up with bills and all this and for some reason she thinks oh I could you know do I'm like babe we're fine like you don't need to look for odd jobs. Like I don't need you to do that.

My $25. That Eddie Murphy's kit is one of my favorite kits of all time. I totally thought of that. She was like, bring this up. Now we make 4,000,700,000 and 25. That's a great, that's a great fit. Is that raw? Is that raw? Raw or delirious. Yeah. Someone had to look at the editing team had to look at that. That's before they were born.

So she found out that literally there's this way she can make a good amount of money if lawyers, when they go to trial, they need interpretation for charting that nurses do. And so all she'd have to do is interpret this for like hundreds of dollars an hour. Just read it over, tell them what they're talking about and that's it. And I was like, okay, yeah, you can do that one. Yeah.

There's, it's, so it's interesting, right? Because you have this, it's like double-edged sword, right you have obviously Where the housing prices have got what the cost of goods is gasoline? I mean, it's just so crazy for a kid right now That's teenage early 20s to look at that that has to look so overwhelming But yet the same time to their shit like this on the internet that this did not exist No, I just share what I don't know if you guys heard me

but right before we came in here I was looking at a post that our buddy Enrico did and It was on this girl who works four months out of the year makes a million dollars a year She literally all she does is if for Halloween and the whole Halloween season October We're gonna smart sets up pumpkins in front of people's just in the Houston and Dallas area not worldwide Not even statewide just in two big cities up to decorate your house Yes, and she starts she she has an Instagram her whole Instagram is built around basically showing her get the product showing the finished product So people can see like oh that looks really cool

I like that she has packages from as cheap as like a hiding 130 or 300 dollars all the way up to like $2,000 in that range. Yeah. And then she also will pick it up when it's all done and she books out before the end of August for all of October for an entire year and she and then all she has to do is service. So smart dude. Like what? What a great like. Just I mean before social media and the internet you couldn't have done that. No there's people that do Christmas lights too.

Yeah. You know you hire them just to put up the lights. I've seen it even like they do these picnics where they set up the whole thing ahead of time and like it's like this like full-on display like decorative display and like the same kind of a thing where they just ahead of time sell and people can just like oh we're gonna go on this random picnic but all of a sudden it's all here it's all set up and I'm like, that's a brilliant idea. Yeah, there's so much of that Getting jobs in the in general easier these days easier I mean you go around and there's jobs available everywhere when we were kids a little more difficult if you're motivated

Like there's just not a lot of motivation I mean when I grew up though, you had two options you either worked on a ranch or you were to fast food That was it or you had two options. You either worked on a ranch or you worked at fast food. That was it. Or you had a paper route. Do you guys ever have a paper route? Or construction. I mean, you dig ditches all day. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, there was like a I washed dishes at the pizza room. There was a handful of like, basically, for underskilled employees, you could only do a handful of things. What did you guys make back then? I was making, I think, $4.25. So did I.

Yeah, $4.25 an hour. Yeah. That was the minimum wage. And before that yeah it was just 50 cent. You know minimum wage is we're gonna be almost 20 I think it's 20 now where we're at. Is that what it is? It's close. Yeah I think it's close. I convinced the owner of the place that I washed dishes to pay me under the table though so it was nice. Oh really? Yeah I did. Oh wow. I'm not supposed to say that but I did. I was a kid. Everybody I was a kid. I mean I took every bit of over time anything that I could get so mine was $4.25 but then like if I had the opportunity to work a sixth day or seventh day like I always do because the

time and a half seemed crazy. I would do overtime as much as possible. You know what a good job for every kid to do? I think every kid should work in retail and every kid should work in a restaurant. I think those two teach you so many skills. Should be a requirement. Yeah like work in a restaurant you gotta learn how to hustle your ass off and you gotta learn and then retail you gotta learn how to work with customers. Yeah, deal with people. I mean I think just work. I mean I would make that same case for the ranch. I mean the type of work ethic it takes. Oh that's work ethic. Yeah, work ethic and problem-solving and you

know language I mean I you name it like there was like a whole host of skills that I had to figure out you know I'm saying going into that so it was real and then also just I mean there's something to be said too about hard labor I mean awful hours getting up at four o'clock in the morning to do stuff and literally shoveling shit like you know a ditch I mean that's this reminds me of a conversation I had this weekend where I was talking to somebody about exercise and they were talking to me about how difficult it is to want to work out and to get that feeling and I said you know if you this is just a conversation I used to have my clients one of the

one of the the big mistakes people make is they wait for the feeling that motivates you to do the feeling that motivates you to do the thing that you want to do and it's very unpredictable. However, there is a predictable way to induce the feeling you're looking for more often than not and that is to take action anyway. In other words, do the thing you're supposed to do and then what ends up happening as a result of that is you end up inducing the feeling you're looking for much more often. So it's a nice hack. So in other words, have the discipline to do the thing and you end up inducing the feeling you're looking for much more often. So it's a nice hack.

So in other words, have the discipline to do the thing and you'll get more of the feelings that you're looking for. Especially with these short workouts that you can do. Which was never a thought process going into that like back in the day. It was like, oh no, that's worthless. But no, if you can just make a nice impactful 15 minute punchy workout.

And watch what happens. You end up feeling like you're gonna work out. I think that's where we did the biggest disservice make a nice impactful 15 minute punchy workout. And watch what happens. You get a feeling like you're gonna work out. I think that's where we did the biggest disservice to the space, right? It was by us over-complicating workout intensity. This is why too I push so hard back on a lot of our peers that love to tout the studies that are related to intensity

and building muscle. And it's just like, man, it's, you, yes, that matters a lot. You've been training for 10 years and you're trying to add another 10 pounds of muscle. Or a 60 day study. Yeah, exactly. Or, okay, that makes sense.

But for the whole rest of the world, that has never been consistent and is trying to figure things out. It's like, man, they have to do so much less than I think that they, they realize. I mean, obviously part of the motivation of what I'm doing right now in this series is to kind of show that like, man, if you look at the exercise portion of what I mean, there's nothing impressive. There's nothing cool or in hype or like, wow, he's hitting some cool stuff. And it's like, I'm not killing it. I'm not, you don't have to.

Like you literally go send a signal to build muscle, which by the way, when you don't ever do any of that, it doesn't take very much to send that signal. And then make good food choices. Oh, by the way, you don't even have to overcomplicate that. Just eat whole foods. And when you do, make sure that protein is the center of it. Like literally.

And like, that will take you 80% of that. Yes, that will take you into a very fit, very strong, aesthetically pleasing physique. Now will that win you a title in bodybuilding? No. But I mean most people are just looking to be fit, strong, have some abs, look good. I mean you can achieve that with literally that. Look, when I first became a trainer, I thought the problem that I had to solve as a trainer was how do we get people the results are looking for. That actually wasn't the main problem that I had to solve. The main problem that I had to figure out how to

solve was how do I get this person to exercise consistently for the rest of their life. From here on out. That was the real problem and when I figured that out my clients became extremely successful. The results happened as a side effect, and I became very successful as a trainer, versus how do I get this person the results that they want? That's not the issue. And in fact, people get results all the time.

They just don't know how to maintain them. They don't know how to stay consistent. And there's a lot that goes into that. But that's the thing that you need to focus on. Not the intense, like, let's get the fastest results of the shortest period no let's figure out a way to make this last so that you do this for the rest of your life that's the real issue yeah that's where trainers I think need to focus they want to be successful yeah I know that they found the world's oldest cheese guess Hold on. Italy? No. France? No. Ireland? China. Oh really? Yeah. How old? 3,500 years

ago. What? That's what they say in this... Carbon dating? It was on a mummy. And apparently it was like smeared on their neck and on their head and it was like well it was a fermented dairy product of some sort. OK. Which, you know, it's got to be cheese-related. It counts, you know? But yeah.

Wow. Yeah, 3,000. Yeah, I don't know where they got that number from in terms of how they date that. But that sounds fantastically old. Now, cheese, is it hard to make? I don't know. You know how to make cheese, right?

You want to make cheese. I don't know how to make cheese right? I don't know you Well, it's not like a dairy also does cheese, okay How do you make cheese? What's the process? I've never done it, but I do believe you take milk and you add something in it that causes it to coagulate or Crate curds. Yeah, and then you use cheesecloth and you get out the... So it's a pretty basic... Very basic, yeah. Basic process. Okay. Yeah, because that basic process has been around for a long time.

How long have humans been eating cheese? Can you look that up Doug? It's got to be thousands of years. Well I just knew because of preserves for a while. Genghis Khan and all that. Like I remember that there was a whole... They lived off that. Yeah, cheese was a big part of the Culture. Yeah, wasn't it cow blood or blood? Yeah, the horses and cattle and all that that they drank their roaming if I'm not mistaken and they cheese I was like, is there a lot of nutritional benefits to drinking blood? Yeah iron and B vitamins Oh, yeah, well that was the actually drinking it. Mm-hmm. I didn't know that they had more protein and that's the thing

That's what they were stronger and like more physically pronounced and that's why they were dominant and over a lot of the other 8,000 years, bro. Wow, that's how long we've been eating cheese. They didn't find cheese, but no no no, that's that's what I mean Okay. Wow. Look at that. Oh, well, actually look at that clay shell sieves Oh chi evidence of cheese making well not actual i know too that there's some like archaeological um where they go back and they look at traces of of certain um like for instance there's like wine that was spiked by the way it's kefir cheese oh kefir yeah doug found it okay cool um gross yeah it's weird but but it has like like they had some psychedelic type of like

substance in some of these wines that were spiked back in the day and they think that that's where a lot like the Oracle Delphi and all that where they should go there they would drink this wine and then they would like start feeling, you know the the effects of the drink this wine and then they would like start feeling, you know, the effects of the psychedelic wine. But they were able to trace that back to these goblets and stuff and like they found traces of some kind of like ergot or some something in there. Aren't there aren't there some animals that will eat fermented fruit and get drunk as hell? I think that's a thing, right? Which which animals are like birds, crows, well, they'll eat like fermented fruit and just get drunk.

Yeah, I know there's birds that let those bugs sting them so they get high, I know that, right? There's, let their wings get all, like certain ants or certain bugs, they'll. Oh here we go, see Doug, that's a great website. Wallabies get, okay, so what do wallabies eat in there, Doug? Opium. Wow.

Yeah, they're into opium, the wallaby. They just fall over Monkeys, let's see. What are the monkeys doing alcohol? Okay There's a tree Maybe a monkey. Yeah, there's a tree called the marula tree that elephants apparently get high or there's a fruit on it Actually, this is for menage. Are you familiar with the the famous Bali coffee? Where they oh, yeah, they fall around the mongoose that shit the little pebble They shit the beans out and then they yeah, and it's like really expensive. Yes. I have some of that, right? So did you try it? I have it

I like I kept it like as like a my nice supposed to be like supposed to be the best But it's like literally this little tiny things that cost like 50 or 100 bucks for this because they poop they poop it out But it does so to the beans. So what the mongoose does, the mongoose eats the coffee beans and the way it goes through the digestive system, it brings out some of the acidity and then it makes like the... So there's elephant one that's... Sorry to deter you from this, but you brought up the elephants. It just reminded me of this article I just saw about...

There's this super expensive elephant coffee and they do the same thing. They eat from these coffee beans and it goes passes through and then you have people catching this elephant shit you know that's massive right? They're catching it and then they process it and then they- Humans are just special animals aren't we? Just figuring out weird ways to make it food. So what always interests me is like who's sitting around and goes like you know what we should do? We should try the elephants that shit. like I mean what makes you even go be starving Yeah, we're probably that I have food in a month. It's like dude. I'm sure I mean I'm watch shows

Yeah, the people get desperate. Yeah, maybe it's something like that, right? I don't know if speaking of elephant poop my my my son and I are on this great transition I know we're on this journey of learning about animals and stuff So he's super the kid loves learning about all kinds of weird stuff I love it right because I like doing that too. So he randomly came up to me goes how much is an elephant poop? I'm like, let's find out so we watch videos They poop a lot a lot a lot. Yes, apparently. Yes. Oh, he was cracking up He was laughing his butt off. I mean I want to say they're like like

Apparently. Oh, he was cracking up. He was laughing his butt off. I mean, I want to say they're like 10 pound balls. It's like a dug. It's like a dug size thing. Yes, yes. It's quite a bit. That's a great visual.

Yeah. Looks different, but it's a lot. Just a little different. All right, so the shout out. All right, so we're going to do something that we've never done before. So one of the things that we love doing, almost more than anything, is creating new programs.

Actually, it's my favorite. So it's some of the best memories I have are of going with you guys, and what we tend to do is we tend to drive off somewhere, we'll rent a house or go stay in Truckee, and we'll take two or three days, and we'll dive into creating a brand new program. You know, that's how we created maps,

performance, aesthetics, split, like all the programs went through this process, and it's an amazing, fun process. We've never shared that process of creating a program, really, with anybody. We've kept it behind the curtain. It's wild, it's a good time, it's fun, it's creative, a lot of arguing, a lot of yelling,

it's literally what it's like. It's chaos. it's like. It's chaos. So what we're gonna do is we're actually gonna film some of this and we're gonna put it on Instagram Live. You're gonna watch us in the process of creating a new maps program and this is gonna air it on Instagram, right?

Live? That's correct. 6 p.m. Pacific? Correct. On our Instagram page and we're gonna film us or it's gonna show us creating a brand new. October 16th. October 16th, a brand new MAPS program.

That's right. Come tune in. Seeds Daily Symbiotic is the world's best probiotic. All right, what does it do for you? Well, it helps ease bloating. It improves regularity. It also helps your gut barrier, your skin health, heart health, and it helps you create more micronutrients. It's very good for you to have a nice healthy microbiome and

Seed helps that. Again, it's the world's best probiotic. Go check them out. Go to Seed.com forward slash mind pump. Use the code 2 5 mind pump. Get 25% off your first month's order of Seeds Daily Symbiotic. Alright, back to the show. First question is from RainbowMom3. Does an increase of strength equal building muscle? Not always, however, consistent increases in strength will almost always inevitably lead to building muscle. It'll signal it.

Yes, so now how can you get stronger without building more muscle? Well, a muscle can learn To contract harder so you can get a better central nervous system activation that also gets trained when you strength train Technique you can get your technique your muscles can work together better So you're the skill of the lift you start to master so you can lift more weight But as you stay consistent with this then you'll definitely build muscle But especially those initial strength gains a lot of that central nervous system. It's not muscle fiber growth more weight but as you stay consistent with this then you'll definitely build muscle but especially

those initial strength gains a lot of that is central nervous system it's not muscle fiber growth I guess what I would say is an important thing to attach to this is that you're eating in a caloric maintenance or at least hitting your protein intake consistently with this yeah so consistently with this. So my concern with clients that are seeing strength gains in the gym but I know that they're missing their caloric intake or they're missing more importantly their protein intake then they're getting a lot of the you know central nervous system adaptation they're improving the skill which is all positive things but they're not reaping the full benefits

of building muscle and speeding their metabolism up because they're not feeding the body properly. Now if you're feeding the body properly, you're getting those calories, you're hitting your protein intake, and you're seeing strength gains almost always. You're building muscle. That's what I would say. Yes, but strength gains are great, especially in the first, I'd say three years. I don't know how you guys feel about this, but maybe the first three years of training,

that's what you should aim for, with good technique and good form, because as you continue to get stronger, stronger, stronger, you're gonna get results. And because strength is objective, I can measure it, I can see how much weight's on the bar, how many reps I'm doing. It's a great thing to chase versus just the mirror,

which can be very subjective. Next question is from lift to live. What's Sal's verdict on essential amino acids since he's been using them? Now we've all, I've been using them. You've been using them. Very consistent. And you Doug? Yes.

Okay. So, so I'm pretty sensitive to supplements and I was hitting about 200 grams of protein before, um, and now I'm adding essential amino acids to my regime. I think there's a subtle difference. Now I was hitting high protein before, but I do think I feel fuller, and I did see some strength gains from supplementing with the essential amino acids.

So I think that there might be some benefit to, unless I was eating maybe 250 grams of protein, maybe I wouldn't get the same benefit, but I'm doing about three to four scoops a day on a consistent basis. So I'm three times a day, I'm doing it. Just like clockwork. I'm doing it between meals and I'm doing it nonstop

because I have yet to be consistently over 200 even. So I've only had a couple days in this entire process where I've got just around 200 most days I'm landing like 180 190 and I'd like to be closer to 220 where I'd like to be so for me it's been a no-brainer I'm gonna take it now I on the other hand am not that sensitive I a lot of times I'm skeptical. I don't think there's anything I can attach and say, oh, I feel this.

Where the true test is gonna be is here in the next week or so, I'm gonna go get my body fat tested again. And knowing that I was consistently under eating protein for most of the time in this process, you know, the likelihood of me building a lot of muscle back even with the things that are working in my benefit are probably slimmer. So if I come back and I got some pretty good numbers considering that I didn't hit the

optimal amount of protein every day by also adding the EAs in there, I'm going to be very happy and sold by that alone. The two people, the two types of people I think would really benefit from this are people in a calorie deficit, even if they eat high protein, because I am convinced now that even more protein is beneficial in a calorie deficit. And the problem with that is protein has calories

and sometimes people hit their targets, plus they hit their calories. Essential amino acids have very little calories in them, but they have a very high kind of anabolic effect. So I could see value there. The other value I could see, which this is now becoming a thing, is where people, they can't eat anymore

and they don't even want a protein shake. And I'm seeing this with the GLP-1 people that we work with. Even a protein shake to them is hard to get down. And essential amino acid powder and water, it's like flavored water. It doesn't, it's not like protein, it doesn't satisfy in the same way, it doesn't cause the tidy in the same way. So for someone who's struggling to get protein and doesn't want to choke down a shake, essential amino acids are a lot easier to drink. So I see those are the two people I see tons and tons of value.

Next question is from RainbowMom3, I see weighted vests for walking all over the place. What are your thoughts? These are- This is making a comeback again. I know. This is one of those things in fitness that comes in and out, in and out. We addressed this a lot at the very beginning, you remember? We did. It was a popular thing back then and they kind of went away a little bit and I think

Go ruck makes it really yeah made it popular. Yeah, really popular it's a popular brand now that a lot of people have heard of rucking now and so Because that between that and CrossFit. I think they've repopulized something that's been around forever I got into it for a little bit Repopulize something that's been around forever. I got into it for a little bit And it was mainly when I was like going through my whole like bodyweight kick and I wanted to you know See if I could do unique loading and whatnot, but it was just so obnoxious back then they had like It was almost like the bomber Vest yeah, you had the weights that were like these like little metal things you put metal doughnuts that you put in there

And then doing push-ups or doing any dips, it was so funky and it would just flop. So they've definitely innovated in terms of making them more form fitted and they're better in that regard. But they're just, I mean, to me it's always been funky. So I have a way. I want to hear what you guys first before I

say how I would use this. Because I really don't see a lot of application for myself personally. There's one way I could see myself using this and I want to hear what you guys if you would use it at all and how you would use it if you were to. I use weighted I use weighted belts if I'm doing a weighted exercise otherwise maybe a vest but here's why I don't like weighted vests. I don't like weighted vests. I don't like weighted vests for the same reasons why I like walking. I like walking as a form of exercise because people can do it with good technique and it's a low risk of injury. It's

easy for people to do it consistently. What ends up happening, and the reason why people can walk with good technique is because people still walk. The reason why I don't like running is because most people don't learn how to run again. They just go run to fatigue and they end up injuring themselves. So it's a terrible form of exercise for most people. But they can walk, right? But now what you're going to do is you're going to take the average person who's going to start to walk and you're going to throw 30 pounds on them. They don't have the skill and technique to walk with an extra 30 pounds and not develop

overuse injuries. So you see plantar fasciitis. You end up seeing knee pain. You end up seeing hip pain as a result and it really takes away the value of walking which is I can get the average Person to walk every single day and I know it's gonna be safe and they're gonna get good activity And the extra calorie burn you get from it your body adapts to that very quickly It's not worth it unless running in them is a horrible idea Terrible unless you're you're you're training to get good at doing something with a vest on.

Let's say you're a soldier. Yeah, unless you're in the military or a fireman. Yes. That's where I see values. Or a police officer. You have to have gear on you and then you should train with it. You actually have a vest that's weighted to deal with. But yeah, honestly for me, it would be just hiking or something.

If I was like... But even then I'd probably have a way to backpack that's right like That's very specifically to what I would Emulate if I was going on like a long backpacking trip. I'm gonna have a way to backpack How did you how were you using so the only way and the only reason I thought about this because I'm in the middle of this whole thing right now of documenting and Transformation stuff which has got me in the mindset of like what I was doing when I was dieting and bodybuilding and to your point you just made, which is you're only going to get the benefits of the calorie burn for a short period of time, and

then your body adapts and then it's no big deal anymore. So I was so methodical and calculated about my weeks coming into my peak, that I could see this as one of the variables that I would adjust as one of the last variables going in. So for example- Like two weeks out or something? Yeah, for example, like four weeks out, I started these one-hour walks every morning, first thing in the morning, one-hour walks.

And then I added these 12-minute HIIT sessions the next week. And then the week after that, I would increase another day of doing a half hour of moderate intensity. And so I could see myself going, okay, on week three, I'm gonna just do all the same stuff, but now I'm gonna add a vest to all that and that will create another little gap of, another calorie deficit by doing that.

But what I know is that it'd only be a short period of time because then my body would adapt to this. So it's not like I'm gonna get long-term benefits, but it's a variable that I could change or manipulate to get a good week or two of just changing that and nothing else and it would give me that that extra calories. It's good if you want to get good at walking with a vest on. If you want to train to walk with weight on you, then you should probably practice that way. But again, the average person that's walking for fitness, the value of walking is that it's low risk of injury,

it's easy to do, you don't have to change your workout clothes, you could do it almost anywhere, it's good for you, it's healthy. You add a weight vest to the average person who's trying to do that, and then you start to, plantar fasciitis is the most common thing that I saw with clients. They would start adding weight,

either by holding dumbbells or a vest, then they'd start, their foot would start to hurt. And then once you get plantar fasciitis, it sucks. Then you gotta take time off and you can't do your exercise. So I almost never recommended a weighted vest. Next question is from Jose Ramirez. Should I still train legs if I'm currently five weeks out from a marathon? Yeah.

Five weeks? Yeah. That's a long time. Yeah, I would train legs up until you stop working out The difference is week before yes, and the difference is the intensity so as you get closer to the race You're reducing the intensity To the point where the week before Like you're you're you're going real easy because you're saving yourself for the marathon

But there but you don't want to take time off Especially five weeks off. You'll get weaker. Yeah. Yeah, you'll atrophy. Yeah. Especially as people then you see risk of injury start to go up as well but you need to reduce the intensity is what you need to do. I think that's the big mistake a lot of people make leading into a competition is they ramp the intensity up because they get so nervous about the competition when in reality. No, you got to flip that on its head. Yes, dude, you wanna peak for it. So I don't know what the consensus are

with all the studies. I know I read a study way back when that alluded to if your body, atrophy begins to set in seven days after recovery. So if you trained your leg, say, on Monday, and then seven days, or I mean, Monday, you're sore let's say till Wednesday, then seven days after that Wednesday,

which is basically 10 days after you train them, atrophy is already starting to happen. So, which means you probably wanna train them all the way up until the week before, and then that week you're gonna go moderate to low intensity, and then you'll have kept all the muscle, you'll be fresh and ready to go. But yeah, I wouldn't want to lay off.

My marathon runners at one point, at one point I trained quite a few is we would do one day off season, two days or three days a week of strength training. But as they ramped up their miles, the strength training came way down and it became one day a week of strength training. And then the two weeks leading up to the race, the second to last workout was a very light workout, and then the last workout was mostly mobility. It was mostly mobility, getting them ready for the race.

But it was one day a week for 12 weeks or 16 weeks, leading to the marathon, because the amount of miles that they put on their training, and it's just, this was trial and error for me. I made so many mistakes training marathon runners or 16 weeks leading to the marathon because the amount of miles that they put on their training. This was trial and error for me. I made so many mistakes training marathon runners because what I thought was low volume was too much because they were running for 25, 30 plus miles a week. It was just-

It gets away from you quick. Yeah. You're like, oh, wow, this is too much for them actually. Yeah, I learned the same lesson having to back off and really introduce it a lot less than I thought. Yeah, totally, 100%. Look, if you you like the show come find us on Instagram. Justin is at Mind Pump. Justin, I'm at Mind Pump to Stefano and Adam's at Mind Pump. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your

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