Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2561: 5 Crazy Things That Destroy Your Health & More (Listener Live Coaching)

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin coach four Pump Heads via Zoom. Mind Pump Fit Tip: 5 crazy things that destroy your health. (2:17) How much does your mental state affect your physical state? (28:42) Polarizing personalities and knowing your teammates. (32:17) Why with some studies you must be careful how you interpret the data. (43:51) The difference between sleeping with and without Eight Sleep. (46:16) The staggering shift in culture. (49:40) Reducing the ‘puffy eye’ look. (55:59) #ListenerLive question #1 – What can I do to balance my lower back out? (58:07) #ListenerLive question #2 – The total volume (weight x reps) decreases until I can get up to (or close to) the original rep range. Will this still produce gains, and is this the right way to achieve progressive overload? (1:05:31) #ListenerLive question #3 – Are there other obvious and effective ways I can lean into my extra range of motion on traditional exercises to unlock additional gains? (1:19:21) #ListenerLive question #4 – Workout-wise, after all these new developments and recommendations, should I get my CPT so I can train myself or should I get a personal trainer who’s willing to educate me? (1:33:06) Related Links/Products Mentioned Ask a question to Mind Pump, live! Email: [e-mail] Visit Eight Sleep for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump Listeners! ** Code MINDPUMP to get $350 off Pod 4 Ultra. Currently, it ships to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia. ** Visit Caldera Lab for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code MINDPUMP20 for 20% off your first order of their best products. ** March Promotion: MAPS Performance or MAPS Performance Advanced 50% off! ** Code MARCH50 at checkout ** Sitting risks: How harmful is too much sitting? - Mayo Clinic How Much Exercise You Need to Offset Sitting All Day HANDGRIP DYNAMOMETER Muscle Strength, Physical Fitness, Balance, and Walking Ability at Risk of Fall for Prefrail Older People Association of Grip Strength With Risk of All-Cause Mortality, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Cancer in Community-Dwelling Populations: A Meta-analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies Media overload is hurting our mental health. Here are ways to manage headline stress News addiction linked to not only poor mental wellbeing but physical health too, new study shows Association between eating rate and obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis Psychological prehabilitation improves surgical recovery Space Agency Offers $5,000 to Volunteers Willing to Stay in Bed for 10 Days How and Where people spend their time 1930-2024 - YouTube Visit NED for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Code MINDPUMP at checkout for 20% off ** Stick Mobility | Snake Reach | 1 Long Add Windmills to Your Workout to Increase Your Deadlift Strength – Mind Pump TV Kettlebell Kings Presents: Kettlebell Suitcase Carries – Kettlebells 4 Aesthetics KINSTRETCH – Functional Anatomy Seminars Justin’s Road to 315 Push Press Mind Pump #2255: The Smart Way to Improve Speed, Power, & Performance With Brian Kula How To Do The Pelvic Clock Exercise – Mind Pump TV Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises & Techniques Mind Pump #1822: Wim Hof on How to Control Your Immune System With Breathwork Emotional Release of the Psoas - Montgomery Somatics Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Brian Kula (@kulasportsperformance) Instagram Wim Hof (@iceman_hof) 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 DiStefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is mind pump. Today's episode live callers called in. We got to help them on air. We got to coach them on air, but this was after a 56minute intro. In the intro we talk about fitness studies, diet studies, talk about our family. It's a good time. If you want to be on an episode like this, by the way, where we can coach you on air, email us at live at mindpumpmedia.com. Now this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is 8 Sleep. This is the most advanced sleep system you'll find anywhere. This goes over your bed and it

controls the temperature of your bed and it uses AI technology to individualize it to your sleep stages. Literally improving your sleep every single night. There is no company like 8 Sleep when it comes to improving your sleep. Go check them out. Go to 8sleep.com forward slash mind pump. Use the code mind pump. You can get $350 off their Pod 4 Ultra. This episode is also brought to you by Caldera Lab. They make natural skincare products that have been shown in studies to improve the appearance and health of people's skin 90% of the time. I don't know any products that have that kind of a success rate.

And again, it's all natural. Go check out Caldera Lab. Go to calderalab.com forward slash mind pump. Use the code mind pump 20, get 20% off. We also have a sale this month. Maps Performance and Maps Performance Advance are both 50% off. If you're interested, go to mapsfitnessproducts.com. Use the code MARCH50 for that 50% off discount. All right, here comes the show.

T-shirt time! And it's t-shirt time. Ah, shit, Doug, you know it's my favorite time of the week. All right, here comes the show It's t-shirt time Shit Doug, you know, it's my favorite time of the week We got six winners this week for for Apple podcast two for Facebook. The Apple podcast winners are Valerie Jean Elijah VS D nice eight zero one two eight and one green chef and For Facebook we have Chadn and Angie Harrell Brown. All six of you are winners. Send a name I just read to iTunes at mindpumpmedia.com.

Includes your shirt size and your shipping address. We'll get that shirt right out to you. Everybody knows that smoking and being obese is bad for your health, but there are other things that could be killing you, literally killing you. We're gonna talk about five crazy weird things that are destroying your health. I'll start with the first one, sitting a lot.

You guys wanna hear some data on just sitting? Just sitting on your booty? Just sitting a lot. I got, so I have some- Staring off into space? Yeah, dude, so people who sat for more than eight hours a day with no physical activity, ready for this, had a risk of dying that was like people who were obese and smoked.

Wow. Just by sitting a lot. Wow. Isn't that insane? Now you could offset that with about 60 to 75 minutes of moderate intense physical activity a day. But if you're, and now this is a big one, because the landscape of what we do during the day has changed so much over the last five decades. It used to be where a lot of jobs involved at least walking or physical activity. You know, 50, 60 years ago, a desk job where you sat all day wasn't super common,

you know, if you were like a lawyer maybe. But these days, it's the norm. It's the norm to sit all day long and unless you exercise vigorously 60 to 75 minutes every day, you're gonna get negative effects. And again, people who don't exercise and do this, might as well be obese in smoke.

That's how bad it is. I mean, you're not getting any sunlight. You're underneath all these artificial lights. You're literally not expressing any of the systems of your body. You're not, which need constant movement. You need that blood flow. You need these things to operate and

stay relevant. Otherwise your body starts to down regulate everything. And so to sit, it really is, it's this slow death. That's how I've always looked at it. Totally. What are the outcomes that it's connected to? Obviously saying something like obesity and cigarettes is pretty general and vague. It's as bad as that, but what does that mean? Does that mean that you see, I was gonna say, do we see an increase in? Diabetes, had a, yep, all of it.

Heart attack, diabetes, cancer. What about too, like chronic pain? I just feel like when someone is so sedentary, one of the most common things you see too is just like, I mean the body will prune whatever you don't use, right? So if you decide you're not gonna lift your arm above your head for 10 years straight, you'll lose it.

And how many times have you seen this with a client where they're just like, yeah, I just can't do that. It's because they stopped doing it. And so the body just goes, okay, we don't need to do this. You got weak, which is like the next one, right? It's, you just sit there, you're not expressing your muscles. You start pruning down. Navali, you're just gonna be weak all over.

We'll get to that one. We'll get to the weak one, because that's another one. But just to continue to focus on sitting, your body will only ever be as fit, strong, stamina, as it needs to be. It'll never be more than it believes it needs to be. So, if you're sitting all day long, your body adapts to that and it is a slow death. You atrophy. Your circulatory

system requires contraction of muscles to pump blood effectively. So does your lymphatic system. So you know blood pools in your lower extremities. You got to move and contract those muscles to get that blood flow. Same thing again with the lymphatic system. Your digestive system also needs movement. There are muscles that pass through the digestive system that massage the digestive system and get it to actually process food properly.

Insulin sensitivity is highly affected by movement, or to put it differently, negatively affected by not moving. You want mitochondrial dysfunction, right? That's a buzz term these days, poor mitochondrial health, don't move. And then just to kind of hammer this home, through all of human history, because remember your body is getting signals

from getting outside signals. So what you're doing tells your body, it also reports to your body what kind of health you have. The only times in human history where we were indoors and didn't move all day long was when we were not good to be around, we were sick. And so your body slowly gets that message and says,

we're sick right now. And your body will actually morph and shape itself to the positions that you're in all the time. So this is why people can't squat. This is why posture is so bad. You used to see this, you still see this. This was more common back in the day when we had less awareness around osteoporosis, but you would see humpbacks, especially in elderly women.

You know, women who didn't constantly strengthen their bodies. They would get this frailty that resulted in these micro-fractures in their spine that would develop this kind of humpback over time. So sitting all day long is absolutely terrible for your health. It literally slows everything down. That's right. And yeah, it's, I mean, cognitively as well,

so you get to the point too where it's like, you know, all of that affects your mental state, which then turns into depression. You're so right because the brain, remember the brain is what controls the rest of the body. When you're not moving your muscles, they get weaker. When you're not moving your muscles, your brain gets weaker

because it is what's connected to the rest of your body. And so your brain, a healthy brain looks different than an unhealthy brain and it's, hypertrophy of the brain happens just like with the muscles. And sitting all day long is one of the worst things you could do. Now, how do you offset that? Well, an easy way to offset that is every 30 to 60 minutes,

get up and move a little bit. So if you have, if you're listening to this and like, oh my God, I don't have time to work out, I work at a desk job, I sit all day long, you have a little alarm that goes off every 30 minutes, stand up, do five body weight squats, sit down. Like literally that small amount of movement makes a significant impact on your health.

You stand up, move for five minutes, sit back down. By the way, if you're thinking, I can't do that, I have to stay at my desk, there's also studies that show that productivity goes up by doing that. In other words, taking five minutes out of every 30 minutes to move will actually give you more back in productivity. So you're not gonna do less work, you'll actually do more work as a result

of moving every 30 minutes or so. Isn't this where the eight to 10,000 steps a day thing came from? Or is that, like if you just did that, like the all cause mortality and things like that go significantly down? 8,000 steps a day gives you 80% of the benefits you'll get from movement. So literally, fine, I don't work out,

I don't do structure exercise, I just wanna be healthy from an exercise perspective. 8,000 steps a day, you'll get 80% of all the benefits you'll get from exercise, like majority. And most people can accomplish 8,000 steps a day if they did little micro walks every 30 minutes to an hour. It's funny that we know that, and yet we all have admitted how guilty we were

of scoffing at people in our early 20s that said things like, when you asked them, what do you do for exercise? Oh, I walk a couple of times. Yeah, that's not working out. Yeah, and you, oh, that's not working out. When in reality, they're 80% of the way there just simply by doing that.

And if I can just get them to incorporate a day or two of some strain training, I mean, you're way ahead of everybody else. Next one is being weak. So we know obesity, right? But being weak is really bad for your health. In fact, this is now probably gonna be implemented widespread in most Western medical systems

where they're gonna use, yeah, they're gonna use a hand dynamometer and test your grip strength, and they're gonna use this as a very easy way to predict all-cause mortality. It's so effective at predicting all-cause mortality that independently, your grip strength is a better predictor than almost any other

single predictor and better than most two or three combined. It really does a good job. By the way, there's nothing magical about grip strength. It's just a proxy for overall body strength. It's a metric for whether or not you're gonna be independent or dependent. Yes. And that's really what we're looking at

is how dependent are you on other people to provide care for you versus you being able to get up and take action yourself and really take control. I'll show you a study by the way. So the studies also show this, okay, if you have a strong grip, and by the way, strong grip is not like you're like a bodybuilder, but rather generally strong for your age group or whatever versus weak.

If you have a strong grip, your risk of everything goes down. Heart disease, cancer, definitely cognitive decline. That's a big one. The really strong connection there. And if you're in the lowest percentage, everything skyrockets and everything including your risk of falling. They actually did a huge study on people 65 and older and found that older men that were in the lower quartile of strength had a 42% increased risk of falling versus those who were stronger. Just falling, not all the other stuff I said,

but just falling down, which is a, like one of the number one ways that people who are older die? Not necessarily the fall itself, but falling and then what that causes. Yeah, because it'll break a bone and then all of a sudden they can't. Their health declines quickly.

Yeah, real rapidly. One of the hallmarks of weakness is also instability. Oh, yes. So if you are. Balance. Yeah, if you're weak, one of the things to go is the balance and stability which is Obviously super important. What do you guys think of?

the test of Getting up off the ground with no hands. That's another one. I love it So that's that's such a good. Yes basic thing to like teach people like just don't lose this they use that so when they were looking at strength and its Connection to all cars mortality, that was one of the first things that they tested. The reason why they went with grip strength is because grip strength is easy to test in an office.

Yeah. Whereas you could take, okay, everybody get on the floor, try and stand up, you know, you could just give someone something, have them squeeze it. But both of them will show, I think getting up off the floor is a better predictor. I think so too. But grip strength is really, really good.

Just because that requires some mobility, stability, and component to do it right. Grip strength gives a good overall measure of strength, which is pretty good, pretty general, and pointed us in the right direction. But your ability to get up off the floor with no hands requires some good hip mobility, leg strength, stability, so you get a little bit of both. I've always thought that was such a great test

with my advanced age clients to do. Now to offset this, if you just wanted to prevent yourself from getting weaker as you got older, one strength training workout probably every 10 days or so is enough. If you want to not just not get weaker, but actually get stronger, two days a week of 35, 45 minutes of strength training is enough

to get you progressing and stronger. Now you're not gonna be a bodybuilder, you're not gonna hit the crazy PRs, but when it comes to longevity and health, that's all you need. You really don't need much to get your body to be stronger or stronger. It's crazy, we're sort of in that period of life

now where like our parents and people around us, like you start really visibly seeing this lack of strength and how this is really spiraling into, you know, really unhealthy situations and, you know, it's tough because like it is, I think sometimes I don't realize, you know, it's not everything at once. You can't just do that one workout a week

and that's really all we're asking is to just start with that and even stay there. I had, towards the back half of my career, I did have a significant portion of clients that were advanced age, 60 and older. The majority of my 60 and older clients worked out with me once a week. Majority.

Most of them only lifted weights with me once a week, and then they walked on their own. And they all saw remarkable gains in strength. Well, I mean, you've talked about the study before that what is it to just not lose the muscles once every two weeks? Yeah, once every 10 days or 14 days, something like that. Yeah, so if you're doing it once a week,

then you're already increasing frequency, so you could build strength technically off of that. So you can combine that with the 8,000 I mean combine that with walking 8,000 steps a day the ability to get off the ground and strength training one day a week full body. They're good I mean you're checking the boxes. You're definitely in the the top ten percentile by just being able to do that next up Here's a weird one watching the news a lot. This one's cool. So, I found some studies on this. So, people who watched the news a lot, 73% of them, had severe levels of problematic issues like anxiety, they had poor physical and mental well-being.

It was an extreme net negative on their mental and physical health. So these are people who say that they watch a lot of news. So people who report and say, I watch a lot of news, I watch it daily, all their health markers are worse, especially mental health. Yeah, same ones that yell at people driving by the neighborhood.

Yeah, I mean, this is not surprising to me at all. And I think that you could actually put a lot more things in this category than just the news because this is the nutrition for your brain. And if you ate junk food all the time, we know what that would do to your gut and your health and your body fat, right? How unhealthy that would be to eat junk food all the time. And that's the same thing for the brain. I mean, you consuming reality TV, negative news,

social media bullshit, like all the time is that's what you're feeding the brain. And of course, if you're feeding the brain and of course if you're feeding it with this stuff that is addictive and negative and controversial and of course. Here's the stat that I was looking for. 61% of people who report watching a lot of news when they say yeah I watch it quite a bit or very much actually so 61% of those who report watching a lot of news when they say, yeah, I watch it quite a bit or very much. Uh, actually, so 61% of those people report experiencing

being physically ill and mentally ill versus 6% of other people. 61% versus 6% and they control other factors for this. And that's just the news. Yeah. I think one of the, when you look at the psychology of this, the way it's explained is, there's a couple explanations. One of the main ones is when you are consuming information that's alarming, that you have zero control over constantly,

that is a bad place to be mentally. This is why as a parent, you don't tell your kids scary stuff that they don't place to be mentally. This is why as a parent you don't tell your kids scary stuff that they don't have any control over. You don't inundate them with the world problems that they can't affect right now. That's right. So here you are watching the news, you're living in wherever America

and there's stuff happening over here and over there and the kid got kidnapped over there and oh my God this terrible thing happened over there. None of it's in your neighborhood, none of it you have any impact over, none of it you can really do anything about and it's just ringing alarm bells as if it was in your backyard,

as if it was something that you could, but now you can't control it. It's terrible. In fact, therapists and psychologists often recommend people who have lots of anxiety and stress. It's one of the first things they say. Very easy, just stop watching the news and watch what happens. Like turn it off and see.

Now people are like, I need to be informed. No you don't, you don't. I've had this conversation with people many times. If there's something you need to know, you'll know it. You're not even taking a surprise. And if you're taking a surprise, everybody's taking a surprise. So it's not like, you know,

your buddy's probably gonna come up to you and be like, everybody, we need to, you know, this crazy thing's happening tomorrow. Like, you'll know. You didn't know there was zombies? Yes, it's better to not know because you don't have the capacity to handle or take care of any of it. And all you're doing is making yourself worse, which then affects your ability to actually

impact things you can impact. So in other words, you can impact your family, you can impact yourself, you can impact your community and your work, and yet you're allowing things that you can impact your family, you can impact yourself, you can impact your community and your work, and yet you're allowing things that you can't impact impact the things that you can impact. So this is why I watch you just turn it off. I mean, it helps when you look at it through the lens

that the intent of the news is to manipulate you to feel a certain way. Of course. I mean, I came in here the other day talking to you guys about like, man, I sure feel like we're getting this like conservative message shoved down our throat And I just I can feel it. I can feel Being fed that and it's in and really easily

When it's your team that's winning or it's your team scoring the points you get so caught up in the yeah good I'm glad we're doing it, oh yeah. Screw those guys. Yeah, and then you go like, oh, wait a second. You know what I'm saying? I'm falling for it. Yeah, this is how they want me to feel. This is what they want me to think.

And it's like, you know, it's never, I don't know, news to me is just not what news used to be. Like, news 50, 60 years ago was a lot different than what. It was on once a day, or twice a day at most. Now it's a 24 hour news cycle and if you're on social media, your algorithm probably is injecting news into your algorithm every five or six posts,

sometimes every post. Even the old news will just weave in there. That's right. Just to make sure you're scared of something. That's right. All right, next up, not going outside. Not going outside has terrible impacts on health. I have some study, I have some stuff on that.

So, children today, okay, and I'm sure you could very easily bring this to adults too. Children today versus 20 years ago. So just 20 years ago, that's not a long time ago. I just shared the prison thing. Yeah, 50% less time outside. They spend half as much, by the way, children 20 years ago probably spent

significant less time outside than the kids 20 years before that. So it's just this constant decline of going outside. Oh, less than prisoners, that's wild to me. I know. It's crazy. Here are all the things connected to not going outdoors regularly.

Anxiety, behavioral issues, declining health and wellbeing, depression, increased levels of stress, obesity, trouble maintaining focus, and then vitamin D deficiency. So every day go outside. It's very, very important you do this. This is one of those things that,

if you've been in that health and fitness space for as long as we have, you know this, right? Mm-hmm. It never became so obvious to me on just how powerful it was until I had a son. And I remember having this conversation with Katrina, like how clear, how clear it was when we made a cautious effort, as soon as the sun came up and the day started getting him outside in the backyard

and kind of playing and doing our thing, versus let's say a rainy day or a day where he's indoors all day. I mean, it was like night and day difference. Anybody who has kids, just pay attention. Literally. And we think we're different because we're adults. I know, right.

And that's sort of my point is just like that to me I knew it already but like seeing it manifest in your child who's just this innocent You know body running around trying to figure things out watching them Completely shift and change from a day out in the Sun versus a day. You know, it's not about this by the way Is that people get this with their pets? Like if you have a dog and he's chewing on your furniture and pissing on things, first thing someone's gonna tell you is bro, get your dog outside.

Oh, he hasn't been outside all day long. We don't wanna look at us as animals. We're animals. We need the same thing. We need water, we need food, we need sunlight, you know, we need all the things. Yeah, it's just funny that, yeah, we totally do that with animals.

Yeah, it's funny. So go outside, it's very good for you. It's been documented. By the way, I'll say it one more, a different way. Indoors is the processed food of outdoors. So we talk about processed food, fake food versus real food. Inside is fake outside.

We create fake outside inside with lights and all the stuff inside and it's temperature controlled. It's not outside, it's a fake substitute and the results of which are negative health impacts. All right, lastly, eating too quickly. Eating too quickly is not good for you. There was a review of 23 studies on the topic, this was published in the International Journal of Obesity,

that found that eating quickly is very strongly associated with higher body weight. Now, when you eat quickly, you don't get the satiety signals as fast. In fact, so funny, I actually had this experience, I totally forgot about this. My wife and I, every once in a while we will indulge in certain types of foods.

And for whatever reason, one of them is a hot dog. My wife and I like good old fashioned hot dogs that you can get at the ballpark or you leave a concert. indulge in certain types of foods, and for whatever reason, one of them's a hot dog. My wife and I like good old fashioned hot dogs that you can get at the ballpark or you leave a concert, they have them outside, there's guys making them or whatever. Those street dogs are bomb, by the way. They're so good, right? Those are good.

Terribly unhealthy peppers. Delicious, terribly unhealthy, okay? And we'll do it like, like I said, it's like once in a blue moon, right? But we got one, we ate it, and we're like, do you want to get another one? Like yeah, but then we had to wait. We had to wait in line, then we waited in line,

and then we got to the front, and then we looked at each other like, oh, I don't want one anymore. We missed the window. And we both laughed about it, because what happened was the first one, we ate so fast, then we waited in a line, the satiety signals hit us, and we actually were,

it was funny because we laughed about it because we're like, we missed the window of being able to eat another one, because now I don't wanna eat another one type of deal. That's so true. It's so true. I remember early trainer, and I wish I remember the name of the diet,

I think it was called like the 52 Chew. Yeah, you're right. It was something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And of course back then I thought it was so silly and a gimmick, but when you... There's all these studies by the way showing it works. That of course, back then I thought it was so silly and a gimmick, but when you... There's all these studies, by the way, showing it works. That's why, because when you...

By the way, if you've never done this, the next time you sit down and you eat a steak or eat something like that, just count your chews. And I forget what they... I think the number is north of 38. I wanna say it's somewhere between 38 and 52. I don't remember the exact number, but there is a number that they,

for just general health and digestion, what you're supposed to chew, meet like that before you, and pay attention to how much, like you're probably doing half or a third of what you need to be chewing. And just that alone as advice that allows the digestive process

to go the way it's supposed to, and the natural signs of satiety to be produced, it makes a world of a difference. The second you start chewing. Yeah, I remember applying this, but by taking and eliminating something to drink with my meals, which forces that a bit more. Yeah. So it's like, because I'm pretty sure, I never got scoped or anything, but I'm pretty sure I had like

a hyaluronia, like to where it's like, it restricts that opening. And so it's like, dude, I was like choking on everything, you know, and I had to like chew it down to powder in a sense. But yeah, it was like eye opening in terms of like how everything like I got satiety signal was much more prevalent and just, you pay attention to what you're eating and the flavors and the food. It's a totally different experience.

At the bare minimum, people should do it just as an awareness thing. I'm not saying that you should count every single time you chew. That would get ridiculous. But at least pay attention because, to your point point Justin is like you know we're guilty of this like you you take a bite and then you may

chew it twice and then you wash it down. You're thinking of the next bite. Yeah you're already on to the next one and you didn't even chew but a couple times and you're already washing it up. Did you look up Doug how many chews it is? Yeah 32. Oh it's 32. You know it's as a trainer this was a I didn't know it was an issue until like you Justin I had digestive issues and someone talked to You know, as a trainer, I didn't know it was an issue until like you, Justin, I had digestive issues and someone talked to me about this. Now the reason why I ate so quickly

was I was training nine clients in a day, sometimes 10. You had a little five minute break between five. I had a five minute break. Warf it down. Tea, my 50 grams of protein, my 100 grams of carbs, and so it was like, I was taking supplements. I was like chew chew, wash it down, chew chew, wash it down. We did that forever. Absolutely.

The digestive process starts in the mouth. That's why we chew food. You're actually digesting it in your mouth and it's producing digestive enzymes. Your gallbladder is producing bile. Your body is starting the digestive process by chewing. So one of the things you could do is A, don't drink lots of smoothies, that's terrible,

and B, don't have fluid. Don't have any fluid with your meals and that'll help quite a bit. By the way, there's other studies that show that eating slowly, not distracted, will reduce your calories naturally by 10%. So in other words, not even trying to track. If I just eat slowly and don't distract,

because distractions will also do that, right? If I'm watching TV or on my phone, I'll pick up on the satiety signals later. But if you don't distract yourself, chew your food, don't drink anything, you'll cut your calories on its own. In other words, you're just full 10% with 10% less calories, which is super insane. So it's really interesting when you think about

whether you believe that how evolution happened or God made us this way that we have these natural abilities if we just do things naturally that would help us or keep us from becoming obese. Like if you ate just whole foods and you didn't do it distracted and you chewed your food. It would. Obesity would almost not exist. It would solve.

Like just. The vast majority of it. And we have so many diets out there and we argue who's got the best science for this. You just need to listen to grandma the whole time. And it's like just do that. Like just try that and you'd be surprised how much of a difference that by itself will make would just be not distracted chewing your food,

eat whole foods. It's like trying to weigh, track, measure, and like really like it's not even necessary if you were to just do those things. So I'm going to switch topics here. I got this It's not even necessary if you were to just do those things. So I'm gonna switch topics here. I got this really interesting study I got from Science Daily. It was published recently, March 17th. Came out of the University of California. And surgeons, they're always looking at ways

to improve recovery, like the speed of recovery, how well they recover after surgery, all that stuff. And this was an interesting study. You know what they did? They did psychological work or rehab work, mental work, pre and post surgery. And here's what they found. They found that psychological prehabilitation

significantly reduced the length of hospital stay, pain, anxiety and depression after surgery. So obviously hospital stay, that's an obvious one, but a lot of people, and then pain, but a lot of people experience anxiety and depression after surgery because you're in a bed, you can't move, you're on meds, right? But then

you know, your hospital stay, here's what they found. Doing the psychological prehab, so psychotherapy and acceptance and commitment therapy, reduced the length of hospital stay on average by 1.6 days. So more than a full day in the hospital was reduced from that.

They weren't doing any movement, they weren't doing, it wasn't a new medication, it wasn't a change in diet. So what does that look like? Psychological work. So supportive psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, basically working on the person's mental state. Before and going into surgery.

Before and after. A decrease in pain by an average of 3.5 points, which is significant. Lower anxiety levels, regardless of which validated anxiety scale was used, and reduced depression levels, regardless of which depression scale was used. From the mental work.

Crazy, right? So you think of the physical stuff that's happening in your body and how much your mental state affects your physical state, which is pretty wild. It'd be interesting to be almost like coached up, like right before you get into like a surgery, because it is a major event, you know, something that a lot of people have a lot of anxiety, obviously white coat syndrome and all that's a real thing for people to address that going in. Of course that's gonna happen. I remember talking with some,

I remember my surgeon clients said something once. They said, one of them operated on a kid and he brought this up and then I asked my other surgeons about this and they said that often times, kids use way less pain meds post-surgery and you gotta keep them in bed because they wanna get up and run around. I'm like, what, why?

And he goes, because they don't know. They don't know how to react. They don't know they're supposed to be in pain. Right. Whereas an adult will get a surgery without any two weeks off work, you can send me some Norcos or whatever. And the little kid's like, you know,

they're like, no, no, stay in bed, Timmy. Stop running around, you know, we just did a, you know, just did a hernia surgery or something like that. See, this is where too, it's like a blessing and a curse having a wife as a nurse, because when I had surgery, it was like, I was like comfortable. I'm like, okay, oof, that was, you know,

I felt that and I was like sore and everything, laying in bed, and she's like, get up, get up, go walk down the hall. I'm like, no, I don't want to do it, you know. It was pressing me on it, and then it got me out a day early. So it is, I mean, it it, and then it got me out a day early, so it is I mean it's Again like it's a mentality that I think people like going through that it's like oh, man

You're trying to just kind of heal up, but you know sometimes you need that extra kind of push What do you think about that? Oh you asked me for? Make sure this guy has plenty of space I wanna make sure this guy has plenty of space. I wanna make sure he's got plenty of space to say the things he wants to say. You guys are the YouTube comments that are making Adam on secure. That is the funniest thing I've seen.

Fuck you all. Yeah. Doug, do you have some of the comments? Well, we need some context here. Okay, so we did. What do you mean you need context? Anybody who's been listening to the show for last week knows that I was absent for the first time in years.

Four adders was super sick. So he wasn't here for an episode or two. And uh... One of the best episodes they've ever done. Yeah. No, that's a big joke. What did the comments say? According to the comments.

It's all salty. I mean, the comments ranged from people just saying, you know, we're just so happy to hear Justin talk more. However, they got a little bit mean, maybe? I don't know, I mean, here's one, it's a little, it's a little- I have a different take on this. Yeah, he says, honestly didn't even notice

Adam wasn't present. Oh wow, wow. That's a little harsh, you know. Wow, bro. Yeah, Justin has such a calm and mellow vibe. Adam always gets a little aggressive. Hope he recovers soon though. Thank you. And then this one guy said so much better without Adam. No dude. I gotta start giving him

a space. I didn't realize that I talk over him. Yeah you did shut up. I didn't know I did that. That's hilarious. Well you can't keep doing that. Justin used up almost all his words on that episode. Yeah, exactly. That was such a stretch. You don't realize, you guys, is that this totally reflects real life. I only have that 10% in the conversation anyways. That's all I'm here for.

Adam and I are just blah, blah, blah. Just all day. I think that's the one that gets me the most is that I really don't feel like I interrupt you. At least I don't think so. But if enough people are telling me that I do that, I'll try and be more aware of not talking over Justin and giving him his space because he has so much intelligent

stuff to talk about. So heaven forbid. You're going to get struck a nerve, man. You know what's funny? They don't even know what they're doing. All you guys need to do is give Adam an excuse to just do the other business stuff. I'm glad you love this. Gladly replace myself. I'm great. Cool, you guys do that. I'll go over here and manage our money. That's what he's gonna do. I think there was I think there was another, there was a narcissistic one too that was there. Oh, that guy's a dude. Like I like the limelight or whatever.

No. Oh, yeah. You and I have the oldest child syndrome, that's what it is, bro. I guess. That's true. That's true. That's very true, right Doug?

Yeah, you wonder what the dynamic looks like if you have different personalities in this, you know? I know you guys are, I know the two of you have started watching, I was watching the series on HBO, so good. The Inside the NBA. It was amazing. And the four hosts that are on there.

And what I think about, like obviously this is, we've been doing this for 10 years, and so I'm always watching people that are, you know, in media and what they do and always trying to learn, right? What are things that we can take away? I would say that if there was anybody that I'm enamored by or aspire to be like, it's the four of those guys, the way they-

Great chemistry. Great, great chemistry. It's amazing chemistry. And they have this, you obviously tune into that if you are watching the NBA, and they need to have Shaq and Kenny and Charles need to have basketball knowledge, right? Because you don't respect what they have to say.

You don't respect who they were as players. And so even though we're not talking about sports, I feel like that's kind of what we do in fitness, right? Is we've all done this for a really long time, even though we're all very different, trained different types of clients, we're all really good at what we do in fitness, right? Is we've all done this for a really long time, even though we're all very different, trained different types of clients, we're all really good at what we did. And so we have that type of respect.

And then it's very similar as far as the dynamic of, you know, playing with the personalities and the- Melting different personalities together, it makes them more dynamic and interesting, you know? Otherwise, yeah, if I was just like you guys, way less interesting. No. Like it's like- it's like the likable you're the likability who is it no there listen it's they're encouraging me because they think there's a deficit here so I work on this stuff all time and I like so I'm you

know I don't want to fuck it up when it's like somebody's gone like I want to make sure it's still okay and presentable. If you ever give Justin a compliment, he finds a way to make it not a compliment. You do great, you're very likable. I can't help it. Adam and I are, we're acquired taste, I guess. Oh, that's for sure.

Oh yeah, no, that's for sure. More polarizing. Polarizing. You know though, I don't know about you, but I always embrace that. I don't wanna be liked by everybody. I don't give a shit, you know what I'm. Like I don't want to be liked by everybody. I don't give a shit, you know what I'm saying? Like I think that's part of like who I am.

You're either gonna like me or you're not gonna like me, and 100% aware. What was the name? Didn't you have, this is your first social media? We love to hate Adam. We love, yeah, that's what it came from, right? I mean that came more related to fitness, right? Your clients hating you when you're working them out

or whatever like that, but then they love me afterwards, right, so. But I always, I think I've had a polarizing personality since I was a kid I'm resistant to the crowd like I don't I don't want to do what everybody else I mean we talked about this just the other day with jujitsu Like I really want to do just you but what keeps me from doing it so many people do it Yeah, and so I'm just weird like that where's like, if somebody dresses this way or does this thing, I'm so resistant to being that.

I'd much rather bring on the talking shit to me, bullying me for being different, than to fall in line with everybody else. I embrace the... Well, I feel like we all have that. That's why I say I'm good. That is something that we have in common. I think all of us have that.

Also, what makes this work is that nobody truly wants the limelight of the attention. That's why that's why. It's just like a great team, right? You have a great basketball or football team, like the ones that are really good, is that nobody has to be him. You know what I'm saying?

Everybody wants to win at all costs. At the end of the day, for us, it's always, can we present really good, valuable content that people walk away, maybe they laugh a little bit, maybe they learn something a little bit, but they walk away feeling like, I didn't waste that hour and a half of my time, it was well worth that.

There's some value there. And that's winning. Whether Justin said all the talking or Sal did all the talking or whatever, none of that matters at all, so long as they walk away with the feeling of that. So. Yeah, I was polarizing because I was having an opinion,

which is shocking. I always had a, even as a kid, I had a strong opinion about something. Well, you talk uncertainties a lot. Oh. Yeah, which is a strength, right? I mean, that's a strength. People follow that immediately.

To speak confidently. It's also known as arrogance, maybe, or a little bit. So that's what I've been told. Yeah, I don't know, dude. I just, I don't, I mean, I'm attracted to qualities like that, like I like people that feel strong. Cause I also feel I'm opinionated too. And so, and the way I've learned my whole life

is by speaking up, by having strong opinions, but I'll be the first to admit when I'm wrong. I'll be the first to admit when- I love, I love learning that way. Yes, that's how I learn too. It turns off, sometimes people get turned off by it, but I love having a strong opinion and then somebody, and I don't like fighting, like if you can't debate

without fighting. No, a good debate. But if you're like, no, no, no, here's what's going on, here's the data, here's the evidence, and we go back and forth. I've had clients like that, where you have these really heated debates, and I love it. It's mental sparring, but I enjoy it.

I'm not trying to necessarily win. I think I'm right, but there's so many times it came out and I was like, whoa, that was wrong. I have to care about the subject. Huh? Otherwise you're like, you don't care. Otherwise I'll let you squabble it out, and I don't give a shit.

Yeah, but imagine too, like how, like, for the audience who doesn't get to see the behind the scenes, you know, loud debates and arguments and stuff like that, it would be really crazy if you and Doug were like, Sal and I, when it comes to opinions about that, like if, because then it would just be crazy. It would just be hard to get anywhere. It's literally already a lot for the two of us.

Just laughing. Dex over there quiet. I mean, that's what it kind of looks like, right? He's nodding his head though. Yeah. No, I know what he's thinking to say. He's like, I'll just let him say it because I feel it right now.

Well, I mean, it's what happens a lot. But I mean, shit, we wouldn't, I definitely think that that is so much of what led this to be successful is that you have, you have four leaders in, in their different ways, right? Everybody leads in a different way. Very like nobody wants to conform. Everybody feels strong about their, their opinion and you fight for it.

And at the end of the day though, the fight is never led by ego. It's always about the team. It's always about winning. Like I never wanna fight with you guys just so I can be right. Like I don't give a shit about that. Like I want the right answer. And if that means we gotta go at it a little bit and I gotta passionately stand up for what I believe

and you're gonna stand up for you and we're gonna go butt heads for a while, bring it on. Bring it on. I love that. Have you seen the studies on really effective teams or they'll look at like Navy SEALs or these elite military teams?

And what they'll find is they seamlessly trade positions depending on the circumstance. Somebody will lead and it's seamless, everybody will follow. Based on the strength of that person. Right, and that right there, when a team can do that, that is, you're unstoppable, absolutely unstoppable. It's a seamless transition and people have no problem

leading or following when the situation. Well that's the part of this conversation that the average person doesn't understand. So what they interpret sometimes of is egotistical, narcissistic, or someone talking over somebody is really the beautiful flow of a game. Is this ability to know my teammates so well, and I know when Justin's like, I've made my point,

I got nothing else to say. And I'm done. Yeah. And Sal also, when Adam loses his train of thought or the direction he's going, like we just, we all know each other so well Adam loses his train of thought or the direction He's going like we just we all know each other so well that one podcast around where that happened. Yeah, that was my favorite Yeah, it's one of my favorite moments. We never practice never talked about just no. No, we were on a show and Point and

He started kind of coughing a little bit and so I just kind of took over But what happened was Adam lost his train of thought, started coughing to pause. And afterwards he came up to me, he's like, bro, thank you so much. I'm like, I didn't even know that's what happened, but I just took over. But that's an example of that.

That's such a good example because it's not like, wasn't rehearsed, it's not taught. It's just beautiful. It's one of my favorite parts about doing this and why I could see doing this for so long is I love flow. And I miss it because I don't play sports anymore. And that was the snowboarding, organized sports, and probably this podcast,

or the three closest feelings of flow state that I've ever felt. And so at least this, I get a little bit of that. There's moments when just things are flowing, the conversation is dynamic. And by the way, a lot of it is there is talking over and all that stuff, like that's part of that flow for us. Although, you know, maybe the listener, you know,

that wants to only hear Sal talk and tell studies and all the facts, you know what I'm saying? Like to them, they get annoyed by it, but it's like, no, there's a, for me, it's a beautiful sense of flow state. So for the rest of the episode, we're just gonna have Justin. Yes, yeah, yeah. So go ahead, take it from like, no, for me, it's a beautiful sense of flow state. So for the rest of the episode, we're just gonna have Justin. Yes, yeah, yeah, so go ahead, take it from here, Justin.

I'm gonna take you guys on a journey. Hey, I got a study on, I love studies like this. There's no results of it, they're just looking for people. But I'm reading, yeah, like, what kind of person do you think is attracted to this, okay? And this will highlight why some studies are, you gotta be careful with how you interpret the data. So the space agency is offering $5,000

to volunteers who are gonna stay in bed for 10 days straight. So for 10 days. Do they get paid? They get $5,000. Oh, for sure. There's a ton of people signing up. Yeah, but who in particular?

This sounds like college guys. Yeah, college kids. I mean, they're the ones that will do any study. Yeah, dude. Yeah, bro. I'll lay in bed for 10 days for five grand. Hell, yeah. Five grand's a good amount of money for that.

Bro. Money ever. That's torture, though. You imagine 10 days straight in bed for five grand? I still, I know I brought it up again today and I brought it up originally, but I'm so hung up on this, that prison study with kids to me.

Because why that's so fascinating to me is that we are volunteering to do that. Like we are choosing to basically, what we consider punishment and prison for somebody, locking them in indoors for 90% of their day, giving them a very small window where they can be out in the sunshine, we do that as a punishment, and yet kids today are opting in to do that.

That's wild to me. That is so wild. What's crazy about being in bed, so what they'll experience is lots of atrophy, depression, anxiety will go through the roof, from doing that, you'll see some health markers. How many days does it take before you get like bed sores and all that?

Well, you have to not move. Yeah, that's true. So they'll be hopefully moving. And your sleep cycle, I'm sure you've been bedridden for something, a surgery or an injury, you notice how your sleep cycle gets all know, have you guys, you guys have, I'm sure you've been bedridden for something, a surgery or an injury, you notice how your sleep cycle gets all messed up? You don't sleep well at night?

You're napping in the middle of the day and then it throws it off. You get that weird wired energy that, yeah, you're just laying there. Anxious and just. Spinning. Yeah, just absolutely terrible. It's one of the worst things, in fact,

when you look at the data on, it's so funny, right? The expending energy not only gives you more energy, but also makes sleep better. So it's weird, right? You gotta burn energy to create energy, but then doing so also helps with the sleep process. Helps with that. You know, we have eight sleep today,

and I sure hope they don't get, they shouldn't be upset about this, because I think this is super awesome about them. So I don't know how many total beds that we have between all of us and our houses that have eight sleep in them We've got quite a few right? I've Since we were introduced to the brand. It's I think it's been over two years now I have used my eight sleep every single night swear by every single I air you swear by and and

I got a leak First time ever. And how I found out was such a pain in the ass because I didn't even know. Like I'm laying in bed and I'm like, I'm all wet, my ass is all wet. I get up and I'm like. You're like, not again. So I actually didn't even,

eight sleep didn't even dawn on me like that. I thought, oh shit, I spilled something in the bed. So I got a towel, I put a towel over and stuff like that. I was too lazy to change the sheets out right then and there. I'm like, it's just probably water I spilled or something. So I laid a towel there, and then like two hours later in the middle of the night, like that towel gets soaked, and now I'm soaked again, and I'm like,

what the fuck, it's gross. And then I realized like, oh shit, maybe one of the tubings or something like that cracked. And I was thinking about lately, one of the things that or something like that cracked. And I was thinking about lately one of the things that Max and I do a lot, which is probably the reason for this, is we wrestle pretty aggressively. You're pro wrestling. Yes, pretty aggressively on the bed, body slamming and diving.

And I'm like, probably not a good idea on that. But the reason bringing it up was just the customer service at Aidsley was just incredible. Immediately, it didn't even finish explaining what I thought it was and what that, they're like, we'll send you a new, yeah, we'll send you a new mattress cover. Also, what was really cool was that when I took it apart, my mattress was completely dry and fine because it's got that protective plastic at the bottom of it. Oh, so it only was the sheets.

Yeah, so it was just the sheets. Oh, that's a good idea. So even though my sheets were soaked and it was a nightmare for that night, when I actually pulled, like my big concern was like, oh shit, I hope that didn't soak my mattress. Wow. And I pull out mattresses completely dry because it's got that protectant. And so it just got the sheets. And they're right away sending you a new one. Yeah, right. I mean, right away they said, we'll have one out to you. But so that was the night before last. Last night was my first night sleeping without it. Holy shit, did I not realize what a difference that is. I mean, I've been so conditioned to getting in a cold bed

and like it regulating my temperature all night that I forgot what it was like to lay on a mattress without that. I mean, like I said, for two years straight, I've had that every single night in my house. And it is like, I heat the sheets up so fast. I don't care how cool it is in the house. Like, I've now become like,

this is something that I gotta have because it makes that big of a difference with my sleep. Oh, that's, I hate that, that, waking up in the middle of the night, too hot, take off the sheets, then you get cold, put the sheet back on and say, ah! That totally sucks. That's what makes those things so awesome is cold, put the sheet back on, it's like, ah! That totally sucks. That's what makes those things so awesome,

is the AI figures you out, so it almost felt like, I didn't realize what a difference it was until I didn't have it, because it's done such a good job of being mild. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's not like, I remember when we first worked with the other company, they basically, you just set the temperature at whatever you wanted.

And so I'd have to set it as the lowest setting, but then I'd be like, oh, freezing. Where this, because the AI has figured out where it needs to be all the time with me, it's like, it always just feels cool and comfortable. It never feels freezing cold or unbearable because it's adapted to my body temperature. Well, you know, there was a, I found this,

you ever seen those on social media where it says, like the percentage of adults who do this, and it's like starts in 1930, and then it keeps going to the current time, and you can see, you know, how things shift with either like GDP, or it could be how many people smoke, or whatever. I saw one from 1930 to 2024 with how people spent their time.

Oh, interesting. Okay. Okay, so what are our categories? Family, school, friends, neighbors, church, restaurants, college, coworkers, and online. Okay. Well, online wasn't very high back then. Yeah, it was zero, right?

So I, no, so here's what was trippy. So I took 1930 and 2024. I screenshotted both of them. In 1930, the average person spent 22% of their time with family, 20% with friends, and 10% with neighbors, and almost 10% in the church. So you add that up, you're with people. All the time. All the time. That's more than that up, you're with people. All the time. All the time.

That's more than half the time you're with somebody. Today, 60% online. Wow. 13% with friends, 8% with coworkers, 4% with family. Wow.

4% That's sad. With family. From 22% to 4%, church 2% whereas before it was almost 10%. So what's crazy about this. What is shifting culture in just a short period of time? And we wonder why we have so many mental health issues.

What's crazy about this to me is that today versus 1930, we have so many time-saving devices, devices that take and make things far more efficient. Okay, we have, you know, they didn't use these all the time in 1930. We have washing machines, we have dishwashers. Microwave. We have microwaves. Everybody has a, you know, really easy stove and oven. People eat out quite a bit. We have computers that manage our schedules, you know, freeways. we have jet air planning. We have all these time-saving devices

that are supposed to give us more time, and what they've done is destroyed our time and just put us on time-saving devices that are online. It went from 20% of our time with family to 4%. That's so interesting, Sal, too, because we've all heard this before, where they survey people on their deathbed, and almost always they say,

Spend more time with them. More time with my family. Yep. So here we have all these devices that give us more time, so technically. What we do is we fill it with crap. And we hear all this wisdom from older people that are passing saying,

I'd give all the money in the world, everything I've ever made or everything I did in work to get just more time with my family. And yet we are continuing. What do you think that is? Like, it's not a lack of us knowing that most people that are listening to this right now are probably familiar with the surveys

that have been taken on people like that say that. So I don't think that's new news to anybody. I think everybody's very aware that all this cool technology that we have absolutely saves time. I think we take each other for granted. In the past, we were together a lot because we had to be. So we depended on being around each other and working together.

So it was a part of our life. And so we took it for granted. We took the value of it for granted. And we've made things so that you don't need to be around people. And now being around people requires a little bit of work, right? It requires like, I gotta get through social anxiety,

gotta talk to that person, gotta deal with that issue, gotta not be so isolated. It's just like eating processed food is so much faster and easier and maybe, you know, impalatable, but the negative effects are just terrible. So I think it's just. Yeah, and I think even in your immediate family can easily be segmented.

We could all have different things that we're drawn to or I'm justifying for work or I'm outside working on things around the house or Courtney's doing something else and the kids are in their room and you know so I've been very consciously intentionally trying to you know address that and pull outside and you know bring back stuff like wiffle ball you know games and home run derby and you know whatever it is like that I can get physical activity that we all collectively do together. But it's so hard, you have to be super intentional about it.

You have to be intentional. And a majority of families in 1930 ate two meals together every day. They ate breakfast and lunch together. Today nobody eats breakfast together. Breakfast and dinner. And a majority of people don't even eat dinner together. They used to eat breakfast and dinner altogether.

That alone was just time. I will, so I always want to try and be balanced with, because I hammer tech a lot, right? I've been hammering tech for a long time, iPads, tools like that. There has been something recently that's developed in our household that I actually really like related to the iPad. It's been come, you guys know that for the longest time like traditionally I read to Max before bed and a couple books with that.

So in the last, this has probably been going on for almost a year now, I'd say. Every day of the week, he FaceTimes and reads to one of the family members. Oh, that's great. And such a cool way, you've got my mom who's hours away, you've got my uncle and aunt who live in another state, we've got my dad who's in another play.

Like I've got family all over the country, so of course I would rather them spend that time with them in person. And Katrina's mom gets to do that, right? Katrina's mom's with him at least once or twice a week every week in person, which obviously I value that. But it has allowed him to be able to do that and connect that.

And it's really cool to watch, like this, the to watch, like he tells them stories or he reads to them and they're interacting and he's on FaceTime. So there have been things where, like that's a really cool thing. Like I mean, everybody in here probably has family that's in another state and has kids. So the fact that he's been able to connect with them on that level,

that's been a really cool positive way that I've been able to connect with them on that level, that's been a really cool positive way that I've been able to use that tool. Yeah, and I think Justin said it right though, you have to be very intentional. Because if you're not intentional, it's really easy to not be around anybody. Yeah. And that's really bad for us.

Really, really bad for our health. They definitely engineered the environment for us. I was going to ask, I think, Doug, are you the one that uses Caldera Labs eye serum, or is it eye cream often? I use all their stuff. Okay, how do you feel about the eye cream? Is it called eye cream?

What's it called? Yeah, I don't know the exact name of it, honestly. Maybe you can find, yeah, get the name, because I want to make sure I'm not directing people the wrong way, but I haven't used that. Just the dressing, the bags and the eye circles. Yeah. So I use the...

The tired look. I use the serum, which is my favorite, and then I use the the tired look I use the serum which my favorite and then I use the face cream but I and now I use them both. Eye serum. So what I like it what I like to know is the difference between that and the face serum because they feel similar but I know there's got to be something in the eye to make it anti-inflammatory. Yeah I think so I think it's things to help reduce the swelling. Puffy eyes. It's got natural anti-inflammatory compounds in there that reduce and help constrict some of the blood vessels and stuff under the eye. So to reduce the swelling. So really good for somebody who

that's a like a chronic thing for you right if you have bags under your eyes or you have the a lot that'll probably be a good idea to use that. Oh, interesting. That runs in my family, so I'm asking about it because I'm like, I'm gonna start using that as well. Because I was only using the face serum, and now I started using the cream and the serum, and combined it's like amazing. So now I'm like, I'm gonna eat one. I'll have to do that next time.

Like, obviously I've had times where I have puffy eyes. Yeah, yeah. And see, I'm really curious to see what a difference. You don't get puffy eyes. I do sometimes. Oh yeah, bro, I have fat face. Of course you have puffy eyes. Yeah, that's puffy everything though. Yeah, no, that's true.

Fat face and puffy eyes are like hand in hand. Okay. Yeah, yeah. You get real squinty. Yeah, I'm tired. Squinty eyes. Is there anything for that? Put it on your whole eye.

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All right, back to the show. Our first caller is Clifton from Alabama. What's up, Clifton? Good morning. Hey guys, how you doing? Good, how are you man? How can we help you? Just wonderful.

I really appreciate you guys taking my call. And I just wanna say you guys have changed every aspect of my life in a positive way from my faith to my marriage to my diet to every aspect of my life in a positive way from my faith to my marriage to my diet to every aspect of working out and Justin even to my workout music I have Grant and stranglers working out. It's it's fantastic. That's awesome. That's my friend Adam. That's awesome. Thank you. So I'm 29 years old, 172 pounds. I pretty athletic build. I have a lot of trouble building a lot of muscles.

So I'm pretty lean. But one thing that I've had an issue with and it's become more prominent is that the very, the very lowest part of my back. My muscles are really uneven. So my right side is much, much larger than my left. And I don't, I don't know the terms. I don't know the names for the muscles down there, but I've tried Googling it and there's, it's a little bit confusing, but I really like dead lifting

and squatting. That's two of my favorite lifts. And I can feel the engagement in my lower back when I do dead lifts and squats, but I can, I can feel that it's heavier on the right side than the left. I know I'm engaging more on the right. And my right muscle, whatever that muscle's called down there is way bigger than the left one. And I'm trying to figure out how to even my back out and what exercises I can do.

All right, good. You sent some photos, I think, Doug, it says up there, if we can take a look at those. It's probably a rectus spinae. Are you, do you have map symmetry yet? No, I've run anabolic and Yeah, static that's gonna be the that's gonna be the program. I don't mean that'll be the program Yeah, and I can't we're not looking at the pictures yet, but I'm but if you say low back, it's probably erector spinae

You do a lot of dead lifting because you're following those two programs. Do you use an over-under grip? So I alternate. I do over-over up to 315, and then I do over-under left, and I alternate left and right to keep it even. Okay, that looks like a rectus spinae development, but it could be the shadow, but do you feel the engagement different?

Oh, you got a little bit of a, you can tell. No, he's symmetry. Yeah, you got a little bit of a shortened side too. Looks like a little QL tightness. Symmetry would be the way I would train you and I would train you like that for like a year to balance that out. And it will balance out. But it looks like one side you have your QL, so quadratus lumborum looks a little shortened, so that means your hip is a little elevated and there might be some compensation going on with the erector spinae muscle. This

isn't uncommon. This is not uncommon. It's not super common, but it's also not uncommon. But again, the way to fix something like this, especially at your age, this will get fixed, is if you train unilaterally for a good year, it should balance out pretty well. The hardest part about this is going to be the mental part of having to really reduce the weight. Because you have enough of a discrepancy that we can visually see it, you're probably quite a bit stronger on one side than the other.

And that's going to need to dictate your program for the year. I saw your numbers. You lift pretty good weight. When you go to single leg and single arm, everything, you're going to be significantly less. And then when you go to the weaker side, you're going to be even way less. And that needs to dictate your programming is, you've probably heard us talk about this before with people is when you're trying to balance this out, you start on the weaker side always, and that dictates what you do on the other side. So

and it's going to feel really weird on the strong side cause you're gonna be like, this is gonna feel like this feeling nothing. I'm not getting enough workout. You are, don't worry. This is how we balance it out. And then eventually it will balance out, but you're gonna probably need to run.

So in symmetry, there's an early phase is isometrics. Then we get in unilateral and then we finish in bilateral. Probably would keep you out of bilateral and just keep repeating the, uh, all the unilateral work for a good, a good year before I tested you bilaterally. I have three cause I've had, um, QL issues for a long time, but like three very specific exercises I work on all the time. And one is, um, a windmill. Uh, if,

if I'm priming with that ahead of time or even if I'm incorporating it as an exercise within the workout, that and then suitcase carries and then also the snake reach if you look that up use a stick with that but it's a really good mobility exercise to kind of help to regain some connectivity there and get you to strengthen it up. No previous injuries? No nothing in the back. I've had you know falls and bumps here and there but nothing major. Okay and it says you didn't play sports so it could have happened you know I mean I've seen

weird things right I trained a guy once who had some asymmetry and it was because he rode a scooter a lot when he was a kid. So he was always kicking on one leg. So, but that can happen. You can definitely balance it out. It just takes time. And what Adam said is very important. You start with the weaker side, let that dictate the weight.

Yeah, and I know that I'm very, very right side dominant. Everything I do, I'm right eye, right leg, right hand, everything and I do enjoy running and I really enjoy weightlifting and there's a lot of. And I do, I do, I do enjoy running and I really enjoy weightlifting. And there's a lot of, a lot of things that I do physically. And I know that I'm, that I'm favoring my right side and everything I do. So I'm not really surprised that I have an imbalance, but that was,

that was my question was how to fix it now, because I'm, all these habits are so ingrained. You know, every, everything I do is focused on the right side. Well, what happens when you lift with a barbell is you have a movement pattern that is now your movement pattern. And it's the best movement pattern for you. That's the one you do at best.

Beneficial compensation. Your body's just told to do this task and it's recruiting however it can to make it happen. Yeah, the example I like to give is like, if I learned how to type with just two fingers and I can get pretty, and I got really good at it, I've been doing it for 10 years, that's the fastest way I'm gonna type.

So if I try to type fast, I'm going to two fingers. It'll take me a while to do proper typing before I can surpass my crappy technique before. So a good year of map symmetry should balance this out. I would stay in it for a bit. Yeah, so you really know the difference. We'll send that to you. Yeah.

Oh great, I really appreciate it guys. Yeah, you got it man. Thanks so much for your time. You got it brother, thanks for the time. All right man, right on. Have you guys ever had, you said your chest, right? Yeah, oh yeah. You had asymmetry.

I had this in my back, not quite, not there, but I had some, I was getting a massage and the therapist goes, oh, your right side is really far more well developed. I said, what? And then I went up to the wall and I kind of rounded my shoulders and put my erector spin up against the wall and I was like, oh my God.

And the reason why was because I always use an alternate grip. Double overhand, yeah. And my heavy lifts are always right hand supinated. So I switched to an alternate grip and my heavy lifts are always right hand supinated so I switched to double overhand and then that's it I've been training like that ever since but it I mean you it'll take a while you know yeah yeah just a little bit from throwing you know baseball and all that but oh yeah it canceled out yeah yeah and if you guys seen this the

the the remains of long bowmen? Yeah. Middle ages? Their bones and their spines are twisted and developed. Formed that way. That's right. Protracted in one side. Crazy.

Our next caller is Jeff from Utah. What's up, Jeff? What's up, Jeff? Hey, how you guys doing? Doing good, man. Good, good. Thanks for all the content. It's really good.

It's been great. I mean, I discovered you guys a couple of years ago and I feel like it's really propelled a lot of, uh, you know, what I've been able to do in the gym and just kind of noise cancel out all the BS that you see online. So I appreciate you guys doing what you do. What's happening. Cool. Yeah.

So I just had a quick question about progressive overload. Um, so obviously, I mean, different ways to do it, right? You can increase time under tension, you can increase your reps, you can increase your weight. My question is around in terms of total volume, because at the end of the day, that's what really propels muscle growth, right? Total volume per week, you don't want to get that up every week, et cetera. So my question is, if you do a certain amount of weight for a certain amount of reps in a session, and then the next session you up the weight, but you can't do the same amount

of reps, which is typically what happens, is there a threshold where your total effective volume is not as high as it needs to be? For example, if you're, you know, benching 225 for 12 for three sets, and then you increase to, you know, 250 and you can get three sets of, you know, eight, obviously the total volume in that second session is going to be less, but you are doing more weight. And then obviously with the goal of increasing over time, the reps, that initial volume is going to be a lot lower. I guess I'm just curious to hear you guys' thoughts on that. I mean,

that's something that's kind of not, I guess, limited me, but kind of been a thought in the back of my mind of, do I really want to go up in weight if I can't get close to the same amount of reps? Right? I hope that makes sense. No, I get what you're trying to ask right now. And this is the other factor or variable that isn't talked as much about when discussing progressive overload in volume, right? Is the intensity changes. So like you could just you could do 30 reps of everything with really lightweight and end up adding more volume than doing like a bunch of five by five sets, but the intensity comparison is dramatically different. When you're lifting a weight that you can only do five times compared

to a weight you can do 30 times, you may not be able to do as much volume and as you could with that really lightweight, but you're going to get more bang for your buck. So there's that other, you have to factor, it's hard to not factor that in also. There's no perfect formula, but the best one is sets times reps times weight. And that's the one you tend to use. But if they're close, and by the way, that's within reason, because like Adam said, someone could be like, well, I do a hundred reps and I'm doing tons of volume, right? So I would say within the rep range of 20,

so 20 and lower, but also base it off of how you feel, because it's not a perfect formula, it really isn't. So you also got to base it off of how you feel. I think 225, you know the the the example you sent us here says 225 for 12 versus 235 for 10 Which you know, it's they're so close which one feels harder to you Is what I would say which one feels more challenging to you with they're so close. They're within two reps I would say they're probably around the same But it really does depend and here's another thing too Like you could have somebody that always trains on low reps, like, you know, I'm like this, like I like to train really low reps.

So, you know, I could do sets of five or six reps with squats, really heavy weight. I substantially lower the rate and do 20 reps. It's way, it's just the intensity for me is way higher with the higher reps. It's just because I'm not, I'm not a customer. So you have to add, you have to also see how you feel, essentially. But if you're tracking your volume week over week, unless you're making radical strength gains, it's gonna be pretty accurate.

You'll be able to go up five, 10% in volume on a weekly basis if everything's doing well. Jeff, just from my personal experience of tracking my own personal volume over years of competing and stuff like that, what I kind of noticed was the thing I was more concerned about when I would zoom out from a month is I realized that a lot of times I just didn't progressively overload at all

because I'd have these peaks and valleys. I'd have a week that I did really good and I did overload and then the next week I just organically came back down. And then when I looked back at 30 days, I'm like, oh, I didn't really increase anything. So when I would start to actually go after a goal of like, okay, I need to increase, the one thing I would sell it is I just don't want to go backwards for the week.

So if I would just, I would stay, hey, I want to do at least what I did last week, a minimum of that. If I'm changing the rep range and this, and, and, or, or adding weight instead of sets, I just want to make sure that I accomplish the same volume as I did the previous week. I don't want to go backwards. And that seemed to just kind of naturally keep me going forward, was just not allowing myself to go backwards. I didn't have to actually really overload that much more. People think they need it, you know, when they hear, oh, they go as much as they can thinking they're going to get more return from it. And it's not like that. Like you don't need, there's a threshold and there's a point where it's like too much. And then all your body's doing is trying to recover. I just didn't want to go back to backslide. So I would always be

tracking my volume and go like, oh, and let's just say a number like 15,000 pounds of volumes. Like, okay, so I got to make sure I accomplish 15,000 pounds this week And I just would make sure let's at least get that way and whether that was through, you know Heavier weight or more sets or more reps. I was like, I just got to hit that threshold. I just get to that threshold That's fine at any means I needed to So long as I felt good, obviously there would be exceptions the rule got sick or hurt or something wasn't feeling right I needed more rest then of of course I'm going to listen to my body.

But that was just like, don't go backwards. Because you'd be surprised how many people go backwards and they don't realize they're going backwards. They had a really great week and they overloaded organically or naturally. And then the next week they just were off, you know, and they didn't push as hard or didn't do as much. And then they back slid 500 or 1,000 pounds of volume. And that, a lot of times, would attribute to why somebody would be in a plateau for

a long time. It's like if you just set a goal for yourself not to go backwards and at least stay at that same volume, you'd be surprised how well it'll just kind of naturally happen. You'll get stronger, you'll end up adding one more rep or five more pounds to the bar, and it kind of just takes care of itself You also also don't you know, here's another thing to consider is sometimes what you need to do is reduce Overload that's right and that gets your got your body progressing. So sometimes people get really stuck on this this this formula and they push it push it push it push it and

They're not progressing and what what what needs to happen sometimes is a reduction. So that's why this is not a perfect science. We're dealing with the human body in the context of your life. Your body's always changing, and your life is always changing, and how you perceive it is always changing. So you can't take that out of the equation.

If you were a machine, perfect conditions, all controls are the same, then it would be an easy formula. So it's not perfect, definitely not perfect. Yeah, and obviously I mean, there's deload weeks that people should be incorporating regularly, but I guess just going back to that, making sure that the total volume is the same each week.

So if you go up in weight, but you can't do the same amount of reps, obviously if your total volume is lower, should you just add in more sets or should you do? Yeah, yeah, I would just do like an extra set. That's what I would do. I would just do an extra set.

You typically see more sets with low reps typically. Three sets of 20 for squats tends to be something like six sets of five or four for squats. Okay. And then just kind of wait until you can get back to that original rep range for three. If you're doing three and then you go to four to keep the volume the same, once you get to that original rep range of three, then you'd add more weight. I guess I just, I don't want to be adding another set every single time I'm doing a lift, right? You won't. There's a limit. Yeah. Yeah. You won't. And that's kind of what you do until you reach that limit. Cause then you'll find yourself hitting a plateau because you've got too

much volume. And then you hit this point that Sal's talking about where it's like, oh, you need to back off, and that's the best thing you could do to see yourself shoot forward again. It's a tough thing to communicate because there's all kinds of science to support a part of this thing, right? And it's like, people take to extract that one thing,

and they're like, oh, this is the way to do it. It's like, well, there's a lot of nuance here, so, and a lot of variables. And so, for me, I think that one thing and they're like, oh, this is the way to do it. It's like, well, there's a lot of nuance here. So, and a lot of variables. And so for me, I think that one of the best things I learned through tracking as much as I have was like, you know what, just being aware, like you being aware and tracking is actually just a huge, and you obviously know enough to kind of understand

the science around progressive overload just by the question you're asking. And so just paying attention to own behaviors and habits was a huge, like it was just eye opening for me to be tracking going, oh shit, I didn't even realize how much I back off on this week versus that week. Just not thinking, I thought it was the same week, but when I really was tracking,

I realized there was discrepancy. And so just becoming aware, I think there's just tremendous value in that, especially if like you understand, hey, I'm trying to get stronger. I'm trying to kind of overload the body and just tracking lets you peer into that and give you more insight. I think that in itself is just, you're already ahead of 90% of the people. Yeah.

I appreciate it. Yeah. And I think it's, yeah, keeping all factors you can the same, right? If you go to a new gym, you know, one machine might feel a little bit lighter and I go, what, why can't I do so many more reps? Exactly. And just keeping it as, as a consistent as possible. Are you, are you following one of the maps programs right now?

What's that? Are you following one of the maps programs right now? No. I was on, I did anabolic for a while, but then I linked up with one of my buddies that does training and he gave me a new program. But honestly, I think it probably would be more effective if I went back to an actual maps program. It will be.

And that's kind of why we do that. We kind of like build that all into the programs for people. So if you just follow them, you're good. You know what I'm saying? So I mean, you know them all. You got one that you'd like to run next? No, I mean, would you guys right now, like my, my main goal is, is kind of recomp. Like I, I feel like I've gotten to a point where I have a decent amount of muscle mass. Like I put on 18 pounds in the last year, just cause I wasn't super, I wasn't training super hard before that.

But I've also gained some fat in the process. So definitely don't want to, I actually asked you guys a question a while back on Instagram that you answered about like knowing when you have enough muscle mass to start cutting. And he just basically said, you know, once your strength is at a place where you want it to be, which was great advice.

So I feel like I'm at that point where I'm like, yeah, I do want to start leaning out, but don't want to do it too quickly and risk losing any mass, you know? How many days a week do you in the gym? What's that? How many days a week are you in the gym? I'm usually in four, so I do an upper lower split.

All right, let's send him maps and a bulk advance. Yeah, that's a good one. I was gonna guess you're a golfer, and it was like performance. Just by looking at you. Yeah, I do love golfing, basketball golfing. So I'm a little bit thinner just in 6'2", 205 right now. But just want to get down a little bit leaner.

Yeah, yeah. We'll send a ball advanced. Enjoy. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. Take it easy. Have a good one. You need to live like a golfer.

Yeah, so I'll thinking the whole time. I got that vibe in the butt. You know, exercise, strength training in particular, trying to get your body to progress, get results, it's both a science and an art. It's not one or the other. Yeah. And this is where...

You can't just math your way through the whole thing. This is where a lot of people mess up, especially the study fanatics, the online coaches that really don't have experience training lots of different people, but they're very, very well versed in studies. This is where they go wrong, is that they don't have experience

with lots of different people. I understand the art aspect of it. So it is both. And I've seen oftentimes I've seen oftentimes, you know, things that are, that work for almost everybody not work for somebody. It happened enough times for me to realize, okay, we gotta figure this out.

We try and give people very general good advice that if you just apply this one thing or just do this, you'll get the biggest bang for your buck. And my advice when speaking to the audience that's curious about progressive overload and volume is simply just track. Don't actually overthink that. It's kind of like telling someone to just track their macros. It's like- The awareness alone. Just the awareness- What you're doing. Yeah, just the awareness. If you understand a protein, a carb, and fat, and that you need

to hit your protein, like the importance of those things, just you tracking and becoming aware of your habits is enough of the science to like totally help you a lot. I feel the same way about tracking volume. Like, if you know that ultimately you wanna get stronger, you want to increase volume over time, as long as you just track and just pay attention to kind of where your volume's been at, you'd be surprised how much that just enlightens you

because this is what I found was like, wow, I didn't realize that when I zoomed out, I really haven't added any volume over the last two months. I was actually just in these peaks and valleys and when I look back over the course of three days, I was actually staying the same. And so just becoming aware of that and setting little goals, okay, I just don't wanna go backwards this week, Let's just stay on pace. Made a huge difference. And obviously I competed

at a really high level when it comes to building muscle. And so I didn't have to go any deeper than that. I didn't have to like get really, really scientific about, okay, how do I overload this week? It was just like, just don't go backwards, Adam, and you'll be okay. Our next caller is Katie from Texas. Hi, Katie. Hi, Katie. How can we help you? Hello. Guys, I feel like we are all familiar friends. I've heard your voices so much over the years. Lovely to meet you.

I will tell you a little bit more about myself before diving into the question. So I'm Katie. I'm 31 years old, five foot eight, 155 pounds. And I was 18% body fat back in December. Last time I did a DEXA scan before starting maps, anabolic, um, I'm pretty healthy, like great diet hormones, everything all good, very consistent menstrual cycle, everything like that. So, um, and I put on muscle very easily. So, um, hopefully it should be a fun question as I dive in. I'm an experienced lifter.

I used to teach small group strength training for about three and a half years and stopped that before starting this program. And I've listened to you guys for about five years. So I'm a massive fan. I owe so much of my success to you guys, just in my fitness knowledge and as a coach to you. So thank you for all you do. Thank you. Yeah. So thank you for all you do. Thank you.

Yeah. So why I am writing in. So obviously one of the limitations, I know you guys have discussed it at length with group fitness is kind of having to teach to the lowest common denominator, not really being able to individualize programming. So very true in the facility where I taught as well.

And one of the areas where I taught as well. And one of the areas where that came to light was with squat depth. So we very much coached with back squats and everything like that, like stop when your hamstrings are parallel to the ground, come back up from there, that's gonna be the safest and most optimal range of motion for the masses with the least risk of injury.

So when I was a coach, I took the programming at the gym where I taught and very much adhered to how I would coach it, just knowing people would watch when I was taking class. And I would say in general, the way that I lift is very textbook, but just as far as like always the optimal placement of where things should be like lining up the elbows with the body, things like that on certain movements.

So perhaps a little bit rigid and a little bit constricted to those safest ranges of motion. But that said, I am extremely hypermobile. So in switching to Maps Anabolic, I've been able to start doing more of that astrograph squat and my quads have transformed. Like I had very good quads before starting Maps Anabolic, but like now doing that full range motion,

I've got like much more of that like meaty quad shape. It is crazy. And it's just in terms of the strength and definition, everything like that, it has unlocked a whole new level as far as my lower body. That's not to say, my whole body in general, I've experienced a lot of just really positive change from apps on Nabolik, but that extra range of motion, it's wild guys as far as just what I've been able to unlock.

Why I'm calling in, I really don't experience, like I know there's so much doom and gloom with hypermobility, like people write in and it does, there tends to be a lot of pain with it. There tends to be a lot of risk, but I really don't run into that. I follow a lot of the advice that you guys have already given as far as preventing injury and how to really control

and pause and that extended range of motion so that it's safe. But I kind of want to have some more fun with it. Like, I feel like there's this untapped range of motion that obviously I found with my lower body that I've been able to work with just in doing max anabolic. And I'm like, okay, where else am I being super restrictive with the ranges of motion of focusing on that safe, like optimal range versus maximizing where I can go? So first part of the question, I mean, there are a lot of instances of like, just because

I can, doesn't mean I should, like just because I can do a backbend doesn't mean I should do bicep curls in a backbend. Like there's, there's still benefit to having like a braced core. But are there other areas where I could really benefit from going a little bit beyond the optimal range? So it's like, I mean, I think like with a military press, for example, it's like, okay, optimal range, you're gonna have elbows here. So you can really lock in with that anterior delt. But like, if I can go really far behind my body, would that add benefit?

Are there places where I can push it a little bit as far as going into that more extended position? I think the other follow-up question is just in terms of the programming and where to go next. Obviously, I'd love to do some more of the unconventional stuff. What should I check out to do some more of the unconventional stuff. So like what what should I check out as far as some of those new ranges of motion or new ways to incorporate rotation things like that. So the first thing I thought of

when you talked about the squat was the squat of the upper body which would be like a shoulder press and especially since you just said talking about stopping it like 90 degrees, if you don't do a full barbell press where you bring the barbell all the way down to your chest and your elbows are tucked down by your side and then all the way up or doing like one of Justin's favorite which is like a kettlebell where you actually spiral and get all the way fully extended and bring all the way back down, there's huge opportunity for strength there. Also you mentioned the kind of behind the neck pressing. We just did it, did the episode go live?

I don't know if it went live, but we just talked about it. Yeah, we actually just did an episode where, well, the title's like the five exercises you're not doing or something like that. I don't remember what we titled it, but one of Sal's favorites in there is the behind the neck shoulder presses. And so if you can do behind the neck with good control

and safely, like lots of benefit to that, to do that. So yeah, I think those are two that come to mind right away. So Katie, first I'll answer the second part of the question. I think you love old time strength. Yeah, I know, I was immediately thinking that. Great program, we'll send that to you. I think you'll love it.

Awesome. You said you have hypermobility. Were you diagnosed hypermobile or is this self-diagnosis? I think it runs in the family. I haven't had a doctor specifically say you have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome or something like that, but I've got the stretchy skin, I've got all the double-jointedness.

I can really go in a lot of different directions and it definitely is something that's like, my mom has it, grandma has it. I'm only asking because when you're diagnosed, then it's a whole nother level, right? Okay, so you just have hypermobility you've identified since you were a kid, it runs in your family. Okay. It's just super flexible.

And how long have you been strength training? So, as far as like really well-programmed strength training, it's probably been about five to six years, but I've lifted weights. I mean, I was an athlete in high school. I did like the bikini body guide workouts when I was in college, like that. But as far as like really well programmed

and like getting like barbells and everything involved, that's probably been about six years. All right, so you're advanced, you know what you're doing. And you said you were a coach, you know, exercise. Okay, good, that's gonna help me a lot with how I answer this. So generally speaking, okay, and people don't like it when I say this, but it's true,

any range of motion that you have control and stability within, in other words, any range of motion that you feel you own is safe. Is good. Okay, so it means anything, literally anything. And you can look up a Jefferson curl, for example. There's a Zurcher version of that that Soviet wrestlers used to do,

Greco wrestlers used to do, because it would help them lift people off the mat. If you saw someone in the gym doing that, you'd be like, oh my God, what are you doing? They're gonna kill your back. Yeah, yeah, for sure. There are contortionists that use strength training, and they use it in very unconventional

ways and for what they do, which is extremely extreme. If you ever watch a contortionist, it's like, it's crazy. The risk of injury is they actually do pretty well considering what they're doing because of how they do it. So Mike, my answer to you is anywhere where you could move in a deeper range of motion, go ahead and do that, but do it very slowly and incrementally. Okay, so.

Like it's a brand spanking new exercise you've never done ever. Like, be, in terms of like, I would even, you know, are you familiar with kin stretch at all? Like I know mobility is a thing, but like in terms of you really being able to gain recruitment in that range of motion, if it's an end range that you've never used before, uh, to,

to start there and really just, just start with the isometric contraction and really like focus on, you know, the ability to, to have strength to, to move out of that position. And then we start loading and then, you know, it's a very slow progressive way to do it. But the, the problem is a lot of people drop into these new ranges of motions that might even be like one to two inches below what they've normally done, and this is potential for injury,

especially if you have hypermobility. Yeah, so I would go much lighter, I would challenge the range of motion, and I would use isometrics. Isometrics are your form. So to give you an example, you're doing butt, as to grass squats now, you could stand on two benches with one foot on either side,

and you could do kind of a sumo squat version with no weight or five pounds, and just go down as low as you can with good technique, good control, stop at the bottom, and then tighten everything up, including the muscles of your upper body. Really create an isometric hold and contraction. Hold that, come out of it slowly, that's the exercise.

And what you're doing is you're strengthening or connecting to a new range of motion. Then when you wanna challenge it with resistance, you go lighter than you think, cause here's what happens. Cause I've worked with people with hypermobility, actually more clients than I should have, considering that it's quite rare.

And what you would find is you would, even if you're like, oh, this feels good, I think I can do this, everything looks good, looks good, technique's great, the next day they hurt. So you wanna go easier than you think and slowly challenge ranges of motion in whatever exercise you wanna do. So if you're just coming down to 90 degrees

with a shoulder press, then what you could do, let's say you're using a 65 pounds, okay? 45 pound barbell with a 10 on each side. I'd go down to a 20 pound barbell and I'd go real slow all the way down. And when you're going down all the way, there's no relaxing. Stay tight, squeeze the bar, tense up your scapula,

keep everything connected, then go all the way up and pause at the top, connect to everything. That's the movement. So if you do it that way, you'll be able to find crazy adaptations from different ranges of motion. So it'll be exciting for you if you do it right. It'll be fun. Yeah, no, for sure.

And yeah, I think that's the, I mean, the challenge just when you're coaching is that just because someone can go so deep in a squat, it's like, I think that's the, I mean, the challenge just when you're coaching is that just because someone can go so deep in a squat, it's like, you hit a point where your muscles aren't engaged at a certain level. And I think that's where I'm like, okay, where can I push it where I still feel the muscle, but it's definitely still in a further range of motion.

The stretch position really is hypertrophy gold. So much unlock potential. Like a fly, you know you do a fly you could cut the weight down in 50% and really kind of challenge the depth a little bit make sure you stay connected watch what happens like this could be true for almost any exercise. Yeah yeah for sure I mean I know with my squat it's been I've definitely gone way down in weight as far as what I could push just at that like horizontal stopping position, but I mean, obviously it's resulted in pretty big gains from that perspective.

So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, I think that's awesome. I, I very much, I mean, um, I've just had so many rules in my head of like, no, you have to stop here because it's in the textbook. But yeah, no, this is awesome and super, super validating. I mean, it's kind of one of those where it's like,

I can go really far with the range of motion. I feel like I'm limiting myself. But go easier than you think. That's the last, I'll just say that one more time. That's it. And we're gonna send you old time strength. You're gonna love old time strength. Yeah, no, I'm excited.

I mean, I definitely, um, it's, I love anabolic and those are all movements I love and I'm familiar with, but yeah, I'm like, what haven't I tried? Like some of like Justin's throwing and things like that. What's some weird stuff I can throw in? Two, if you get, I mean, I'm about to launch this series on YouTube, but like have gone through a lot of these unconventional lifts and explain my reason and rationale with it. And, uh, you know, the through a lot of these unconventional lifts and explain my reason and rationale with it and you know, the progression of that.

So yeah, if you get a chance to check that out. Yeah, but I would love to hear back from you after you do old time, old time. Yeah. You have to come back on in a few months. Yeah, for sure. I mean, we'll see. Perhaps I'll be on Cirque du Soleil next.

No. And all the conversions and stuff. Awesome. Are you making the trainer webinars? Have you been showing up to our trainer webinars? No, I haven't. I so I am not really coaching anymore. I kind of quit so I could it was like a side hustle for me. So I kind of quit so I could do my own stuff and have a little fun with it. But okay, so you're not okay. I thought you're coaching still if you're

coaching still I see going to be in there but that's okay. Yeah. All right. Yeah. All right, Katie. Awesome. I appreciate the time, guys. Yeah, have fun. Bye-bye. Yeah, those ranges of motion. When I first met my wife because she did the silks, her range of motion was, especially in her lower body, was insane. But because she did the silks, she was strong, because she'd have to suspend herself. There's tension in that. Yeah, she'd suspend herself in the splits. So like one foot on either side in a silk, the middle of body not supported,

she'd have to hold herself up. So on accident, because she didn't understand, at that time she wasn't a well-versed trainer, she developed strength in these really crazy ranges of motion. It's all about connection. And isometrics is your friend when this is you. Our next caller is Amelia from Colorado. Amelia!

How you doing? Welcome back. Hi. Just for context. I'm good. So you're coming back, this is like we're revisiting you, but last time we talked to you, you were a dancer. You were training like crazy or doing a lot of dance,

which was very vigorous. Plus you're doing tons of strength training, we advise you to lay back way off, do Maps 15, because you want to build some strength, and now here you are, what happened? Okay, so initially when I started Maps 15, my strength went up,at went up 20 pounds. I felt more energized leaving the gym

instead of like I could nap for days sort of thing. It's been really nice going to the gym and like not being like, oh, I have to be here for three hours. Just the quick in and out was mentally more easy for me. I kept in the cardio two days a week just because I wanted to keep my stamina so when I got back to dance, I wasn't behind.

Previously I talked about how I wanted to build my glutes, so I was working on that mind muscle connection, kind of doing light hip thrust, like more pump work, before I would do lower body compounds just to try and connect more. When school started back up in January, my strength went down, my squat decreased 10 pounds. It was kind of hard to progress because one week weight would go up and maintain and then the next it would go down and, um, that was tough. Sometimes I tried to keep the weight up and sacrifice form, but then I'd be like, no, I know what you guys say about practicing the skill. Um, I'm now week three, phase one of MAPS 15 performance.

I'm still doing the cardio two days a week, hip thrust pump work. I never trained power before, so I'm kinda like excited and nervous about this, cause it's new. But yeah, I know last time we talked, you said it's to be expected that with dance coming back, I'm not gonna be able to have the leaps and bounds and strength gains.

Because it's a lot, right? How often are you doing dance? And how long is it, just for context? So it can be two to six hours a day, five days a week. It varies, but yeah. Yeah, that's a lot. That's a lot. New developments.

I learned that I have facet joint arthritis in L4, L5, and S1 because of some transitional vertebrae and dance. I know last time I talked about getting back pain from certain moves. And then I was also told I have diastesis recti and a hypertonic pelvic floor and was told that I need to change how I lift concerning bracing, pulling in instead of pushing out, exercise selection and then adjustments for my back. I'm kind of, after hearing that, I'm kind of at a loss for what to do navigating all this information, which leads me to, I

guess, a kind of advice question regarding going forward. As we talked about before, I've had a lot of health problems that I've had to navigate on my own just cause I haven't received much help and I've been researching and debating, getting formal education

and it kind of relates to workout wise. After all these new developments and recommendations I was thinking about getting my CPT so I can like train myself in a way and understand What I should do because it is so personalized or if I should just get a personal trainer who's willing to educate me I live near Cola sports performance, and I heard one time in a podcast you guys talked about yeah him and how great he is. So kind of like how I'm taking my health into my own hands, I'm debating on taking my fitness into my own hands. I was just curious your thoughts on that and please ask me if you need any more details on anything I just said. I'm happy to give them.

So with facet joint arthritis, if you do good technique, good form with your strength training, that'll help prevent any progression of that. That can happen when you're challenging ranges of motion in extreme ways, which can happen with dance, but your strength training's gonna help protect that. Now the hypertonic pelvic floor. Okay, so that for people listening,

essentially your pelvic floor muscles are kind of constantly tensed. So you're holding tension in your pelvic floor. That can come from the result of either trauma to the pelvic floor or the lower body, or just anxiety and stress, or you know. What tends to happen when we don't feel safe is we tend to tense up our pelvic floor muscles. We tend to tense those up

and so they're hyper tonic they're always tensed up. The solution for it is exercises or movements that help you relax. So belly breathing, practicing really deep belly breathing would be a good way to work on that. And then if you want to find an exercise specialist, I would work with a pelvic floor specialist who has experience working with this. But this is not an exercise, the way you train your body typically is by connecting and tensing. The way you train something like this is connecting and relaxinging. The way you train something like this

is connecting and relaxing. So you have to learn how to feel your pelvic floor and then learn how to release it and relax it. And belly breathing can help a lot with that, but it's not the ultimate solution, but it's definitely a start. Yeah, so I looked for a pelvic floor specialist. That's actually who diagnosed, or I don't know if diagnosis is the right word

but told me that I have that and the Diastasis recti and funnily enough when I did the deep belly breaths. I almost It almost made it worse. I don't know how to describe it or like I'd feel even more anxious. Yeah All right, so here's what's happening with that. So this is cool. I'll tell you a story. I had a client once when I learned real belly breathing. I had this woman come in.

She was an executive. I had been training her for six months at this point. And I learned belly breathing. I learned these kind of these techniques. I said, oh my gosh, she'd be perfect, a perfect candidate for this. And we went to a quiet part of my studio and we did belly breathing for like three minutes

and she started crying. And I was, at the time I was like, uh oh, what's happening here? And I talked with the individual that taught me this and we tend to store either trauma or anxiety or whatever in our body and then we disassociate from it. So our body's holding it, but we're like, it's not there. When you belly breathe, you're allowing yourself to feel it,

so it's coming out, and it's gonna feel uncomfortable. It's gonna feel like anxiety or emotions or lots of different types of things. So that's actually a good sign, it's not a bad sign. But I would practice it to the point to where it's a little unbearable, because that's probably a good sign. It's not a bad sign. But I would practice it to the point to where it's a little unbearable, because that's probably what we experience. Like, oh, I don't want to do this anymore.

Okay, stop right there, and then practice it again tomorrow. And then see if you can get better at it. A lot of value of having somebody with you do this. I mean, it's worth the investment, in my opinion. I think going through a process with somebody and having them take you through, because then you get the benefits of the education part you're talking about too,

so you're gonna get educated on it while also having somebody basically hold your hand through the process. That's a win-win. I think it's a very, especially what you're into and how important this is to you, it's such a worthwhile investment to do that. You'll look back and say,

it's probably one of the best things you ever did. Yeah, it's really, yeah, the breathing's the antidote to a lot of what's going on. I personally experienced this too, even going through a Wim Hof course, and how they have really specific breathing patterns and ways to get in position where you're super parasympathetic, you're hyperoxygenated, and it does,

it's just one of those things if you're not consciously including that and you're always so driven and you're always applying this tension and stress and with movement and exercise and just even your own mental drive and fortitude in that direction, it's inevitably, it's not gonna benefit you. We need to be able to get in that other state.

So any way that you can do that like yin yoga or whatever those types of practices are that you can include as some type of an antidote to that would be great. If you go on YouTube, you can also look up, and the way to find it, maybe Doug can help me here, would be emotional psoas release, maybe try that. And this is a movement used by therapists to help people release tension or trauma in their body. It's very strange feeling when you get into it. Did you find anything on that, Doug?

I did, let me pull this up. Yeah, yeah, why don't we send that, just send that to Amelia so she can look at it. So you can practice this on your own. Thank you. So you can practice, and you'll shake and feel really weird, and then your body's gonna do things

that you're on its own, and the belly breathing. And practice that daily, and get to the point where you're, I don't wanna go any further, and then stop it there and see if you can get a little better each time, and that'll help you because the tension in your pelvic floor is Because for whatever reason there's there's a lack of safety. Okay now it can also come from Like lack of safety with movement where I have I you know

My but my public floor staying tight to stabilize me but because of your background and dance I that. I think you could probably do lots of amazing movements without a problem. So I think it's probably something else and it's either anxiety related or something like that. So I would give that a try. Okay. Yeah. And that kind of, I mean, going back to what Justin said about maybe doing like yin yoga and stuff like that, It makes me think about, whenever I,

I guess, whenever I go to do cardio, sometimes I'll get anxiety, like feel like I'm gonna have a panic attack almost. So I don't know if that's, well that's probably a sign that I shouldn't be doing that. Yeah, your body's talking to you, for sure. Yeah, your body's talking to you. So slowing down and movements that slow you down

are gonna be the key. Okay, yeah. This is probably why you feel so good being busy all the time. Sorry? I said this is probably why you feel so good being so busy. Right.

When you say you're a busy go go go always doing something? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. There's something in there. There's something in there and so it'll start to come out. You got to get through it otherwise it'll start to manifest in far worse ways than you know an injury here or there. Yeah okay so the belly breathing and all that and then you suggested I should probably get a trainer if that's an option to. Yeah, a pelvic floor specialist, and you can even find therapists that also specialize.

There's somebody you can talk to, yeah, as you're going through it. Just be good for the accountability, too. Technique of it, you know, take you through it. I know that kinda sounds crazy, you know, you're probably looking at me like, what are you talking about? But the reason why the pelvic floor movement felt

like it was giving you anxiety is what I'm saying. And there are therapists that also understand pelvic floor work because they're so closely connected. So if you could find someone that does both, that would be the best. Yeah, okay. I'll look into that. And then training wise, how I mentioned Brian Kula,

or not Brian. Kula. Kula, yeah. He's amazing. They're great. Yeah, I think that's a different thing. Absolutely great. Yeah.

That's a good course then. Yes. Okay. And then, yeah, okay. I don't think I have any other questions. You're doing great. Yeah, you've made good progress. I probably do have a bunch of other questions,

but then I would just spiral into, I like to know a lot of stuff, if you can tell. Yeah, we like you a lot. Thank you, I love you guys. Yeah, you got it. Keep coming back. Hey, do you have MAPS Prime Pro? Cause that's got some good correctional exercises.

Oh, good, OK. All right, are you on our forum? Can I get you on our forum for free? Yes, I am. All right, all right. Well, you got everything. You're good. Just stay in touch with us.

Let us know. I'd love to hear if you find a specialist in your area, because I think that's one of the best routes you could go. You get all the education, everything from that, doing that with a good coach and trainer. Okay, and any questions I should just tag you guys in the forum then? Yes, 100%. You got it. Okay, well thank you guys so much for having me back on and thank you for guiding me through

all of this. Yeah, just immense gratitude. Appreciate that. Thanks, Amelia. Thanks, Amelia. All right. Take that. Thanks, Amelia. Thanks, Amelia. All right. Take care. Thank you guys. Bye. I hate dropping that on such a short conversation. I know.

You know, I know you're being sensitive to not go real deep in ass, but did we, the first time we talked to her, did we get into childhood trauma or anything like that? We didn't. No. We're just, we're dancing around that. Well, I mean, it's not our scope.

Yeah. And I would typically as a trainer We don't have to fucking diagnose her but we didn't even ask her do you are you aware of childhood trauma that you went through? So typically pelvic floor. I mean when you have that hyper Tonic because again, it's your body doesn't feel safe and it's it can just be anxiety and stress overall Because we tend to tighten ourselves up in that region of the body when stuff like that happens. But it could also be, and sometimes it is, sexual trauma. So, and then the body just, it just, it tightens up.

And if it happens before you remember, it can be something that's hard to process. But oftentimes it is, it's just, you know, the person's like, oh yeah, you know, this happened to process. But oftentimes it is, it's just, the person's like, oh yeah, this happened to me. And not realizing it, because she lives with it, so she doesn't even know that she's constantly tight. Well, and that speaks also to your other point of knowing that that type of person

tends to also like to keep themself really busy. Oh, it makes perfect sense. You're running. Yeah, it keeps me distracted from having to do the work and think about the things that I don't want to think about. That's right. She's on the right path. So, and I definitely think this is a situation where, yes, you could try and solve this yourself,

but I mean, this is a worthwhile investment. Because this could be life-changing. This just absolutely changes. For sure. She's got a lot of work ahead of her, if that's the case. But if she gets through it, she's chipping away at it. Look, if you like the show, come 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 Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes maps anabolic, maps performance, and maps aesthetic.

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