Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2613: Five Common Fitness Lies That Are Holding You Back & More (Listener Coaching)

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

Mind Pump Fit Tip: 5 Common Fitness Lies That Are Holding You Back. (1:39) The importance of getting the optimal amount of Vitamin D. (38:20) Forever chemicals suck. (42:27) Idols that rule you. (45:10) Vuori goes above and beyond! (53:57) #Quah question #1 – Any tips to specifically target triceps during close-grip bench presses? (56:51) #Quah question #2 – How do I learn to rest and recover, when my greatest assets are hard work, grit, and overachieving? (1:02:21) #Quah question #3 – What are the long-term side effects of TRT? (1:05:02) #Quah question #4 – From what I read, programming seems deceivingly simple (picking movements that you connect to and changing them out periodically, changing rep ranges and rest times periodically, making sure to progressively overload with weight, form rep sets or rest times) What are some things to focus on when creating your own programming and to ensure its effectiveness? (1:09:00) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Our Place for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code MINDPUMP at checkout to receive 10% off sitewide. Our Place offers a 100-day trial with free shipping and returns. ** Visit Vuori Clothing for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** No code to receive 20% off your first order. ** June Special: Shredded Summer Bundle or Bikini Bundle 50% off! ** Code JUNE50 at checkout ** 79 (PB-079) Poster - Effect of oral Vitamin D supplementation on response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced breast cancer Weekly Training Frequency Effects on Strength Gain: A Meta-Analysis Vitamin D3 and marine ω-3 fatty acids supplementation and leukocyte telomere length: 4-year findings from the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL) randomized controlled trial Vitamin D supplementation and incident dementia: Effects of sex, APOE, and baseline cognitive status New study sheds light on vitamin D's role in cardiovascular health Tap water study detects PFAS 'forever chemicals' across the US Get your free Sample Pack with any “drink mix” purchase! Also, try the new LMNT Sparkling — a bold, 16-ounce can of sparkling electrolyte water: Visit DrinkLMNT.com/MindPump Incline VS. Flat - Close Grip Bench Press - YouTube Mind Pump #1612: Everything You Need to Know About Sets, Reps & Rest Periods Mind Pump #2477: Our 10 Favorite MAPS Programs Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources  

Hi, I'm Richard Karn, and you may have seen me on TV talking about the world's number one expandable garden hose. Well, the brand new Pocket Hose Copperhead with Pocket Pivot is here, and it's a total game changer. Old-fashioned hoses get kinks and creases at the spigot, but the Copperhead's Pocket Pivot swivels 360 degrees for full water flow and freedom to water with ease all around your home. When you're all done, this rust-proof anti-burst hose shrinks back down to pocket size for effortless handling and tidy storage. Plus, your super

light and ultra-durable pocket hose copperhead is backed with a 10-year warranty. What could be better than that? I'll tell you what, an exciting radio exclusive offer just for you. For a limited time, you can get a free pocket pivot and their 10-pattern sprayer with the purchase of any size copperhead hose. Just text WATER to 64,000. That's WATER to 64,000 for your two free gifts with purchase. W-A-T-E-R to 64,000. By texting 64,000 you agree to receive recurring automated marketing messages from Pocket Hose. Messages and data rates may apply. No purchase required. Terms apply available at pockethose.com slash terms. If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go.

Mind pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is mind pump in today's episode. We picked some questions from Instagram that our listeners sent us and we answered them, but this was after the intro. Today's intro is 55 minutes long. The intro is where we cover fitness studies, fat loss, myths.

We talk about current events, family life. It's a good time. By the way, if you wanna post a question that we can pick from, go to Instagram, at Mindpump Media. Now this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is OurPlace. This is the best cookware you'll find anywhere and it's made without all

those forever chemicals that are messing with your hormones, probably causing problems. They're connected to cancer. You don't want that crap. Go to Our Place. Go to fromourplace.com. Use the code MINDPUMP. Get 10% off. By the way, you could use their stuff for a hundred days and return it for a refund. So that's how confident they are in their products. This episode is also brought to you by Viori. They make the best athleisure wear you'll find anywhere. Go to Vioriclothing.com forward slash mind pump.

That link will get you 20% off. We also have a sale on some program bundles. The two most popular ones we've ever had. Here they are. The Shredded Summer Bundle and the Bikini Bundle. These are multiple programs put together, designed to get you in shape, lean, looking amazing, both 50% off.

Go to mapsfitnessproducts.com, use the code June50 for the discount. Here comes the show. If you believe the following lies, the following five common fitness lies, you are completely holding back your progress. Now don't feel bad, a lot of people believe them to be true, but we're gonna correct things for you. Here we go. Correction! I like this. Yes. I don't know where this, where did this stem from for you?

Did you see something or come across an article or what prompted this? Yeah, just thinking about like what are the most common reasons that the average person just either plateaus, doesn't see results, or gets turned in the wrong direction? I'll start with the first one. It's an old saying. There's a little bit of truth to it, but I think it's caused, actually I'm positive

it's caused more damage than progress. And that's the old adage, no pain, no gain. So this is old by the way, I think it was invented back in the, I want to say the 60s, maybe 70s. And a lot of people believe this, even if they haven't heard this before, they think that pain in the workout, pain through the journey.

It's weakness leading your body. Yeah, this is what gets results. I would like to change this because I'm going to make this more of an accurate statement. I'd like to say no challenge, no gain. There's a difference between pain and challenge. The truth is with your workouts, hard is fine, it's going to be hard. Pain, most people don't know how to differentiate between good and bad pain or what kind of pain

they should be feeling, so what they tend to do, especially in the early stages of fitness when they're motivated by self-hate, is they seek out the kind of pain that typically means you're doing things wrong or you're overdoing it. I wouldn't even call it pain, really. I mean, I would call it struggle.

That's right, challenge or struggle. Yeah, because it's just, that's not the feeling you have going through that. Like if you do have pain and it's like a legit pain signal, that's really bad. No, it's totally bad. It's even on the sore side, if you were that sore or it's painful to get up or move

or sore to the touch. You ruined your work. That was not good. No. It's not ideal whatsoever. So it's manifested in the fitness space as no days off. I mean that type of attitude, which I feel obviously we've been screaming that from the rooftops for quite some time.

But I just think that one of the most common things that we get is once we convince people that it doesn't have to be that difficult, there's a much smarter, better approach, more sustainable approach to health and fitness. I can always see the difference of that, the person when we're talking on air or that we meet there, that light bulb had switched and they're just like, oh my God. I remember it in Katrina. I remember Katrina looking at me and going like, this is crazy. I feel like I'm, I'm trying at 50% of what

I was trying before half the time inside the gym, not running like crazy, not going from these eating not good. Then also starving myself. It's like, she goes, I feel more fed. I'm eating more than I've ever made before. I'm only strength training a few times a week, no running whatsoever, and I'm in the best shape of my life. It's like, and this is her figuring this out into her 30s, you know, so she- After decades of being an athlete. Yes, after decades of being an athlete,

a collegiate level athlete, and thinking that she knew what she was doing back then, and then realizing, oh wow, there is a much better approach. We have to understand kind of where this comes from. So there's a few roots that feed into this false adage. One of them is, oftentimes the people that get a lot of attention in the fitness and health space are fitness fanatics, orthorexics, people with body dysmorphia, or even people who've accomplished a lot in some kind of a fitness related or physical related field. Now I will say this, there is some mental discipline benefits to pain, but it applies to a very small percentage of people.

Like if you are competing at a very high level, that you need to learn how to deal with pain because when you compete, this is what you're gonna be dealing with. Now the average person, you don't need to train this at all or if you do train this kind of mental discipline, don't worry, it'll come just from being consistent. Just from maintaining consistency,

that's where you're gonna get this mental. Now, if I'm training a soldier, if I'm training somebody who's about to go into a fight in an MMA, you know, in a cage, yeah, we're going to have some practices that are going to push your mental limits. It has nothing to do with improving your fitness. It has nothing to do with building muscle. It has nothing to do with giving you more stamina, more strength. It's everything to do with you got to just weather the storm because when you're in the ring or the cage, or you're on the battlefield, that is what's gonna be important. But for most people, like 99% of people,

not only is that not something you should train regularly at all, but what it does, it actually stops your progress or sends you backwards. Here's why. Exercise is a stimulus for adaptation. It's the adaptation that is the improved fitness, okay? Getting stronger, getting leaner, improving some stamina, feeling better, having less pain.

Those are all adaptations from the stress of exercise. If the stress from the exercise exceeds your body's ability to adapt, you're just recovering, you're just healing, and if you push it beyond that, you can't even recover and you break things down. This is where you get hormone issues. You're just beating yourself up.

This is when you feel like I'm working so hard, I can't believe, why am I not losing, we have this stubborn body fat on my body, why is my body not responding, I'm killing myself in the gym, I'm super sore, what's happening? Well, here's what you did, you've exceeded your body's ability to adapt.

Now the question is, what is my ability to adapt or what does that look like? It depends on your fitness level, it depends on your lifestyle, and it's a lot less than most people realize. The other route that feeds into this is how people tend to go into fitness when they first get motivated.

You take the average 37-year-old who's like, I need to lose weight, I need to get in shape, and it usually comes from this place of, oh my God, I'm fat, I'm gross, I'm unattractive, I'm inadequate, whatever, so they kind of start hating themselves. So when they go to the gym, and here's what feels good when you hate yourself

in the short term, it feels good to beat yourself up. It's cathartic to punish yourself in the gym. And how many times have you guys heard this from people? How was that workout? Oh my God, I barely crawled out, I almost threw up. I crushed it. Great workout. What?

What do you mean great workout? Oh yeah, I could barely walk the next day, it was awesome. The reason why it feels cathartic is because you're punishing yourself because you hate yourself, you hate your body. And so it feeds into this. But again, not only is this less effective, it's actually the opposite of effective.

It actually sends people backwards. This is where you get people with hormone issues. This will destroy testosterone levels in men. It'll cause HPA axis dysfunction in women and in men. It's where your estrogen and cortisol and progesterone are thrown off. You get thyroid issues from this if you push this for too long.

This number, the reason why this one's number one is because it's probably the biggest, besides people just not being consistent or not trying, when people actually do apply themselves, this is the roadblock that gets in their way. And this is what stops people from getting results. It's the most common misconception I think. I think part of the problem is too, is that they get some sort of positive feedback from

it, right? Like take somebody who has not been exercising at all, eating terrible, no workouts, no nothing at all. And then all of a sudden New Year's resolution comes around and it's like, I'm gonna go every day. That's gonna be my new thing is done. I'm not gonna miss any days. All in. Right, and so they train every day for a month. Now at the end of that month,

if they compared themselves to where they're at compared to where they were two months prior, so well before they started, they would probably report back a fitter, healthier version of themselves. And so there's a bit of this like feedback that they get that is positive. Now what they don't know is that they could have done a fraction of that work and been further than where they currently are.

Yes, and I'll add one thing to that, Adam. They're not healthier. So what happens with people when they do this that first month or two, because we've seen this man, we managed gyms and we ran a gym, we worked in gyms for decades, they will see the scale move, but their health hasn't improved. The problem is, is they don't, they're not gauging their success based off their health. They're gauging it off the scale. So if they really were paying attention, they'd be like, man, I feel like crap.

I am tired. I am burnt. Yeah, but Sal, there's still some positive feedbacks from, you could dramatically impact your VO2 max, for example, in a month's time. Right. So if that person did some sort of a test where they're like, I'm gonna run a mile before I start. Oh, I see what you're saying.

They're able to do a harder workout. Yeah, they'll be able to do a better mile. Right. They'll be able to, like, so if they, before, or their first time, day one, they ran a 12-minute mile. And then by the end of that month, they're now running a 9-minute mile.

Right. You think that you are dramatically improving. Or you're moving in the right direction. Yeah, you think you're moving in the right direction. And it's really hard to convince that person that you could have been a lot further doing a lot less. And in fact, they think that this is just, because everyone talks about how hard it is

and no pain, no gain and no days off. This is how it's supposed to be. I'm supposed to train this hard. And this is why people give up is because they get that feedback and they go, okay, let's go month two. And then eventually those returns diminish. So that stops.

Then it really starts to slow down and then they're still telling themselves, man, yeah, then it really starts to slow down and then they're still telling themselves, man, this is what it takes. And then they finally go like, I don't even know if I really want this. It's like. Nothing's happening anymore. Yeah, I gotta train every day and push this hard

and I get this much results. The cycle of like emotions, you know, it goes through each one of those. Hey, I'll tell you guys, I gotta tell, listen, I gotta tell the audience, like, we saw so many people like this in our gyms, who were beating, I can pick them out by the way, because I've been doing this for so long,

I can pick them out a mile away, they're in the gym, they're sweating their butts off, they're working so hard, nothing's changed for a long time, and they're going, and nothing's changed, they still have another 20 pounds to lose, they're not getting more fit, they're not improving anything, and they're just beating themselves up,

hoping that something magically is gonna happen, and it doesn't, and instead what happens is they push hard, people who are really persistent with this, these are the people I feel bad for because then they start to hit these hormone imbalances and these issues that start to backfire, and then they're like, why is my hair?

This used to be such a mystery to me as a new trainer. Right. You know, you'd walk around, you'd see these people just going after it. And you're like, man, this person's like, getting it. And then you see them day after day after day, and there's no progress. And then it just, I was like, wow, it got depressing actually depressing actually watching well. I used to chalk it up This is what I used to think I should think man. These people must be fucking box They must go home

They must stop at McDonald's on the way home from here something and that's just must be there They must really struggle in nutrition because they're definitely putting the work in To not not be feeling and looking like the way they are. And so that was like what I just assumed. I assumed everybody was just so horrible with the diet. These clients were both the best and worst clients. I'll start with why they were the worst. They were the worst because it was so hard

to convince them that doing less would get them better results. They were so afraid of letting go, because they're like, well, if I'm doing all this work just to maintain the 15 pounds I initially lost the second I cut in half. Oh my god I'm gonna go backwards completely and then I'm gonna be totally screwed So there were the worst because I had to try to convince them and eventually I got really good at convincing them

But once they got convinced they were the best because in this and you said your life you said in the beginning This is what they would say like clockwork In fact, I used to actually used to do this with some of these clients, I would write on a piece of paper and I would date it and I'd fold it and I'd say, I'm gonna save this and I'm gonna tape it shut and I'm gonna open it one day to show you something really cool. They'd be like, what are you talking about?

Don't worry. And then the day would come, usually 60 days later, when I convinced them they're doing half as much work, they're eating more food, then they'd come to me and they'd say, this is weird. I don't know what's happening. Like, I'm getting leaner, my husband's commenting on things, I'm doing way less work. Then I'd open up the paper and I'd show them that they would say that. And it was like, boom. Now, selfishly, I did that to sell them more training. So I was like, look, I told you, now you can hire me for a year. But it was like clockwork that people have.

We have callers all the time that call in, we have these kind of these follow ups. All right, I did what you said, and I can't believe how much better I look and how much better I feel. Yeah. It's predictable. You have to think of your workouts like a prescription drug.

Too little, you're not gonna get the effect. Too much will kill you. What determines the dose is your current fitness level and your lifestyle, meaning the other stresses in your life, your age, all that stuff, and your current fitness level. And if you're doing it and you've only started, it doesn't take much to have the perfect dose. Not much to get the ball moving, but the perfect

dose. And by the way, advanced people with fitness tend to do this as well because they start with the perfect dose and they slowly veer towards the max I could do, which takes away from the... By the way, that's me all the time. I always struggle with. All right, next up, carbs or fat. Those are the enemy. Now this used to be fat, and then for a while it used to just be carbs. So when we first got into fitness, when I first became a trainer in the late 90s,

that was like the tail end of the anti-fat. Non-fat milk. Yeah, campaign, right? And everybody was super scared of fat, and it was really difficult convincing my clients, especially my female clients to eat more fat. But when they did. Butter was the enemy.

It was amazing at the hormonal effects and the skin effects and the benefits that they got. Because fat's essential. Do you guys, you know, we say this a lot. I'm just sorry for interrupting you, but I want Doug to look something up while you're talking. Do you think that like for non-fat milk sales have dramatically increased or decreased since our time or do you think it stayed

the same or maybe even increased? No I think it's declined. Okay so I would love to know. Non-fat has declined, low-fat I think might have been a little stable. Whole milk probably went up. So that's what I'm curious on what because especially when you look at the study Because based off of what we're saying is that there was this huge craze around not taking in fat. I definitely know that was like staple when we were trainers, early trainers.

So, and I feel like that's shifted to carbs and other things and so it's no longer, we don't demonize fat like we used to, but are we seeing that in sales? That's a great metric. Yes, sales of non-fat milk have generally declined compared to other types. Whole milk and 2? That's a great metric. Yes, sales of nonfat milk have generally declined compared to other types. Whole milk and 2% have seen a resurgence.

Skim milk sales have been on their lowest level since 1960s. Okay, okay, so that is true. I remember doing low fat just because I was like, I refused, because it just, the taste and everything else was like. Of nonfat? It's water.

Awful, yeah. And then obviously I progressed to whole milk but yeah we did low fat. We grew up on 2%. Same. Yeah no it's funny too because the studies come out showing showed that nonfat milk caused vitamin D deficiencies because they would add vitamin D to the milk. There's no fat. No fat soluble body vitamin and kids were getting all these deficiencies from it. Whereas whole milk you get you absorb the fat soluble nutrients. Yeah, fat was the enemy for a long time, but fat is essential.

If your fat is too low, your body's not functioning well, good luck, good luck trying to feel healthy, good luck having healthy skin or hair, good luck trying to burn body fat properly, good luck having a good hormone profile if your fat is too low. And this is so important that there's many, and we get this a lot on callers,

where we're talking to them for a while, and they're giving us these signs that, man, they sound like they're deficient, but they're doing everything else really well, good balance workout, good balance diet. What's your fat intake? And then we hear their fat intake, and they're like, 30 grams or 50 grams a day,

and we're like, oh wow, bump that. Every meat is super lean. And then just from that, just like, they grams or 50 grams a day, and we're like, oh wow, bump that. And then it's super lean. And then it just, from that, just like, they don't even have to change their macros that much or change anything going on with their routine. It's literally just giving their body, and then all of a sudden they report back. Listen, if you can eat, okay, okay,

you can eat 10,000 calories a day, but if you don't have enough fat, if you had a 10,000 calorie diet with zero grams of fat you're dead yeah your body star I mean I know you die I love using the I thought this was such a cool example for people to see this is it that what's that show called the alone alone and you've had contestants that had to go home and they had a starving today you got a huge kill they got like like a bunch of rabbits. Yes, they had rabbit and they have all this and you thought, oh my god, they

got all this meat but it was such lean cuts that they literally had to go fishing. They used to call that rabbit starvation, I think it was. Maybe Dougie could look it up. This is where hunters would starve because all they could catch was rabbit and rabbit's so lean they didn't get enough fat. No, no, you need fat to burn fat. You need fat to be healthy. You need fat to build muscle.

You need fat to be alive. So that one, now that one's not as big of a deal as it used to be, but what happened in the late 90s is you had the Atkins diet came out and this was a doctor that came out and said, hey, fat's not the bad thing, it's carbs. He had people go zero carb, bump their fat, and it was so opposite of the previous message that people adopted it and then saw great results. Now carbs, carbs are not essential,

so you can definitely eat zero carbs for the rest of your life and you won't die like you will from not having enough fat, however, they're not the enemy. Carbohydrates are their preferred source of energy for athletic performance. You need carbs, you want carbs for athletic performance. Building muscle is possible without carbs, but it's just way harder. Good luck trying to do it. It's also a super miserable way to live. It's great immediate energy. Let's just be honest, like regardless of Regardless of that you can make it without it,

so many things have carbs in it, and so many things that we enjoy. And we've talked about this before, that there is some hedonistic values to food that make sense at certain times. If you don't eat carbs, you're not having cake at your birthday. That's lame.

Who wants to do that? You have a steak with a camera. You're not going to be able to take your five-year-old son to his first movie and have popcorn with him. That's lame. Who wants to do that? You know what I'm saying? You're not gonna be able to take your five year old son to his first movie and have popcorn with him. That's lame. Like who wants to- It's also fruit. Oh then the extreme, yeah I was gonna say the fruit.

Like you meet people that are like, they'll avoid it because oh no, there's carbs in there. I remember when Atkins first came out and it was like, everybody was like, oh I knew it, it was fat, they were lying to us, you know, it wasn't fat. And then they were like, no, no, no, I can't eat that apple. It's got carb in it.

It's got too much sugar. I remember thinking to myself, this doesn't sound right. There's so many nutrients and benefits, it's like, come on, fiber. If you want to burn body fat, so long as you hit your essential nutrients, although above essential in many cases is optimal, like protein for example, but let's just put that aside.

If you want to burn body fat, you just have to be in a calorie deficit. So, you know, essential nutrients aside, it's a calorie deficit that causes fat loss. So it's not the carbs or the fats that make you gain body fat, it's excessive calories. So they're not the enemy.

Now carbohydrates, again, because they're not essential, I do, my experience with clients is there's a wide individual variance with carbohydrates. This is the macro I play with depending on the person. Some clients feel great on much lower carbohydrates, other clients feel great on much higher carbohydrates, and there seems to be a pretty wide spectrum with my clients. Fat different, you need essential fat. But carbs, this is where

you can move around a little bit. I always felt that it's kind of your your body kind of tells you that when you eat appropriately in the order we talk about which is if you go after protein first you get your healthy fats that you need to and then the carbohydrates it's's like, it almost takes care of itself. If you eat now, or where it gets out of control is when you eat the carbs first, and then you fill up on that, and then you don't get enough of your protein, or you don't get enough of your healthy fats. That's where you go wrong. If you just planned your meal out, forget that you're going to tell yourself how much carbs even, just go, I'm going to eat the protein, the healthy fats first, and then I'm gonna make my

way over the carbohydrates. It almost takes care of itself. By the way, I gotta just share this. Oftentimes when you eat a meal, it's typically served carbohydrates first, and people, I don't know if anybody wonders this, but I thought about this a long time ago, like why is that the order? Why is it the order, especially with old cultures, like Italy or any, they serve the carbohydrates first. Why is that? So I read up and looked into it, and here's why.

Meat was expensive. So sometimes that was all you ate. So all you ate sometimes was pasta or rice or bread, and that's why the meat tends to be saved towards the end. But the reality is- Well, it makes a lot of sense coming from, I mean, we gotta remember, we've only been living in this time of abundance

for a very- A fraction. A fraction. Very, very, so it makes sense for most of history, you did eat that. Like- Yeah, because that's all you had. Yeah, and it's like, yeah, I only get so many calories,

we only have this, we have a ton of rice and pasta, you know what I'm saying? You can either have nothing or you can have that. It's like, yeah, I'm gonna to eat that. I'm going to eat a lot of it too. So it makes sense that we've done that for a long time. I remember my grandfather explaining this to me, like a staple. My family's from Italy, right? Sicily, which was like the poorest part of Italy. And I remember talking to my grandfather, and I love pasta with sauce. Don't get me wrong. It's delicious. Homemade

sauce is amazing. And I remember telling my grandfather my grandfather, why is that such a staple meal? Why did you guys eat this so often? He goes, it's cheap. He goes, sometimes that's all we, he goes, a lot of times that's all we had. Tomatoes are cheap, we grow them, pasta's cheap. Mexicans eat rice all the time. Making them, rice and beans.

Rice and beans is cheap. What was Justin's? Potatoes. Yeah, potatoes, right? Seriously. I mean, if you go back, if you trace it back to all of our ancestors, that was the purpose of those foods. It wasn't just necessarily because you liked them

or whatever, but it was like you could eat a lot of it. My grandfather said that you would eat meat once a week because it was so expensive. Wow, that little. Yeah, once a week, if they were lucky, they would have meat. So I mean, maybe that's why, too, we're in is like, and I guess that's a good reminder even for us is just like, honestly, we are battling against, you know, hundreds of years of history of eating a certain way. It's a brand new problem. Yeah, and it's like this, and really even in our time,

it's only been a major problem for like 50 years maybe you know 40 50 years It's become because we have so much that's processed foods in abundance that now. It's like oh, we need to really Read now you can prioritize. Yeah, we need to rethink that it wasn't like that for the most No, you won't die from eating too little nowadays, but you'll probably die from obesity And so the priority with your meal is protein first, and then you can eat your And so the priority with your meal is protein first. Then you can eat your, and protein typically comes with fats, then eat your carbohydrates. All right, next one, this one still exists,

which is spot reduction, okay? I cannot choose a part of my body that I wanna burn body fat off of, and then exercise in a particular way to burn body fat from that area. That's not how fat loss works. Your body looks at all of your body fat as a reserve and it pulls from the body fat in the areas that it wants to. Now what determines

where your body pulls body fat energy from is genetics and hormone profile. If I train my abs, I'm not going to burn more fat around my abs. It's gonna come from where my body wants to reduce it from. Now you can spot develop. So here's the good news, I'll give you guys the good news. Especially with strength training. I can take a body part and develop it through strength training, which can give it the appearance of looking leaner.

Like a leg that has muscle and body fat looks leaner than a leg that has no muscle and body fat. So that may be why this myth continues to live. But no, you can't spot reduce. So doing a bunch of exercise for area doesn't make body fat come off that area. There's a very specific avatar that I think of right away, and I know you guys have seen it in the gym

for many, many years, is the client who would come in, and remember those assisted sit-up machines? Yeah. Yep. And they would spend the whole hour. Just doing that? Rocking. Yeah, rocking here, legs up, side. Oh my God.

For hours. An hour, an hour, you know what I'm saying? And just like a big old beer belly going on and it's like, yeah, that is not gonna get you chipped. They're like, I feel the burn going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's also that we say burn fat, so they feel the burn in that area, so like that's where I'm burning the fat. Yeah. No, it doesn't work that way. Yeah. It's also that we say burn fat so they feel the burn in that area so like that's

where I'm burning the fat. Yeah. No it doesn't work that way. If you want to change how your body stores body fat you have to either change your parents which you can't so your genetics but you can change your hormone profile so as women get older if their estrogen starts to drop or if your cortisol is elevated for too long, this is both in men and women, you can store more body fat in your midsection. Low testosterone, men will start storing body fat more like a woman.

So hormones can affect that, but the best way to affect your hormones, aside from hormone therapy, is to be healthy and fit. But you can't choose an area and burn body fat off of it you just can't do that. All right next this one I love which is you need hours in the gym I need to do hours in the gym not true at all we'll speak just to strength training because the strength training is the one form of exercise unless you have a specific like you know endurance goal or something like that. Strength

training really the only structured form of exercise that people need to do. When I say people, I'm talking about people who want to be more fit, more healthy, look better, but really just live a good life. So they're not like bodybuilders, they're not like long distance runners, they're not athletes, they're just like, look, I want to get fit and healthy so I can have a great life. The structured part of their

workouts is strength training. That's the one that you need to plan and I'm not gonna make this is a hundred percent true. All the data in the world will support it plus all of our experience. You need not much. Literally, literally the average person a couple days a week 45 minutes perfect. That'll take you very far. This is one of those things I just like all the time keep. Um, it's so crazy to think about like doing less is going to move the needle more. And, uh, it keeps playing out. If you establish a good foundational strength, like what you can do after that,

it's like, it's just mind boggling. Uh, even self experimenting doing less and then being able to see how much more progression I get and strength and muscle development. But it's just, we don't think in that direction ever because again, we always bring this up because work and everything else, life is so opposite to that. But the body is such an adaptation machine and we have to realize that we're dealing with something different. We have to apply the right amount that you need.

Fitness is more like baking a cake than it is like work or getting good at a sport. And that's hard to wrap your brain around it because it's a physical activity. It's like making a cake and you're like, one cup of flour, you're like, I'm gonna add two. It's gonna be so much better. That's what I mean by that.

It tastes better. Think about that for a second. Most people relate fitness closer to playing a sport or work when it's actually closer to making a cake. And that doesn't compute for the average person, but it is, and what I mean by making a cake is that there is an actual formula and recipe to bake a good cake.

And any more or less of those things doesn't make a great cake. And the more you pile onto, the worse it gets. Like you just keep piling too much flour and it doesn't have the right balance of eggs. It's gonna be terrible, it won't even work. Our most popular program to date with the greatest reviews and the most surprising emails, I mean surprising from the people people themselves like oh my god. I can't believe it is our maps 15 program

Okay, listen, it's even from advanced lifter. It is 15 to 20 minutes a day That's it and and everybody's like I can't believe it now. I have a theory on Because that's so true. I mean, it's it's surpassed everything that we've done and it's, and obviously if you listen, if you actually listen to a podcast that's about fitness, you're probably more about it than the average person. Right? And so I think we've attracted a community of people that are fitness, you know, enthusiasts or at least want to be fitness enthusiasts, right? Like you're not only going to the gym, you're also listening to your fitness podcast. You want to be that person. And so we tend to get a subset of people that are more likely probably to over apply.

And I know that's why sometimes people hear that advice that we give and they get so like, oh, those guys, like that's crazy. Look at all the people that are sitting on their couch and doing nothing. Like that's terrible advice. It's like, well, that's not really who's listening to this podcast. Very few people are actually, actually probably nobody right now is sitting on the couch.

This would be funny to get an email or somebody or who doesn't pursue fitness. Yeah, who's pounding some cake right now listening to the podcast. There's one guy right now that's like, oh shit. Oh, you caught me, dude. You know, it would be funny to the podcast. Like it's just... There's one guy right now that's like, oh shit. Oh you caught me dude. You know, it would be funny to get that. But I mean, most of the people probably right now are walking on a treadmill or in the middle of the gym workout right now or on their way to,

like that's what we get, right? Yeah, one thing I got to add to this by the way is because people, when they hear me say or hear us say you only need, you know, two days a week, 45 minutes or 15 minutes a day or whatever, what they think we're talking about is activity. No, I'm talking about workouts. No, workout. Daily activity's good. Like walk 10,000 steps, 15,000 steps a day, that's good for you. That's healthy, yeah.

I'm talking about workouts, structured workouts. You don't need hours in the gym to progress. In fact, the best data that we have on strength training with college-aged experienced males so unless so that might not even be you right so if you're in your 40s like it's even less than what I'm about to say the vast majority of results that they get from strength training comes from three days a week. When they add more the results become massively diminishing so it's like 85%

of the results they're gonna get comes from three days a week then they add another day week another 5% then they add another day week 3% it's very very diminishing results. By the way when you see bodybuilders training so long they're pro bodybuilders. Yes of course they're training as much as they are but not they even understand if they do too much. In fact, I remember in the 90s, there was a huge revolution in pro bodybuilding. Because up until the mid 90s or early 90s,

bodybuilders were just more and more and more and more. Then you had Dorian Yates who changed the game, who was doing, his workouts were one tenth of what the other workouts were. Now they were intense, but they were like so much less. And he changed the game. And to this day now, bodybuilders now really understand this delicate balance.

I mean, this is the time and temperature of baking the cake. You know what I'm saying? The more and the hotter you run it, the better. Imagine if someone's like, oh this is perfect, let's just keep cooking. Yeah. It's gonna come out better. Yeah. I mean, that's the, back to that analogy of this is more like baking a cake. It is. There's a, there's a right temperature.

There's a right time to do it there, which is, would be your balance of how many days and the intensity that you use. And there is a sweet spot to make the best cake and any, and you can get away with a couple degrees up or down, right? Or a couple minutes too long or not long enough and you can get away with a couple degrees up or down right or Couple minutes too long or not long enough you can get away with a little bit But the longer you extend that out the worstest cakes gonna taste man You start applying way more temperature and way more days structure of it will burn the shit out of it It's gonna be terrible. So there is a sweet spot that is ideal for baking that perfect cake. Lastly, it's that supplements have this massive effect on my progress, that supplements are somehow the answer.

Now, here's why this one exists. When you look at the industry of fitness or fat loss or health or all that stuff, if you look at the industry, it's an industry, meaning it needs to generate revenue. It exists because it's able to generate revenue. If there was no revenue generated, the industry would shrink and almost disappear. Now when you look at the industry, what generates revenue are consumable products. That's just a fact. So the information that's put out by the industry tends to be geared towards products that they can sell.

So what you have is a disproportionate amount of information geared towards products you can buy. Okay, so this creates this distorted effect. So it's a distorted effect. And it's not that they're evil, some of them are. It's not that they just want money, don't care about you, although some of them do. It's just that a lot of the information is geared towards consumable products.

When you go and you read up about fitness, eight out of 10 articles are going to be about stuff you can take. Even diet articles, you're going to see them talk about supplements. Training articles talk about exercise. They throw in supplements. You get this belief as a consumer that, wow, supplements make a big difference. Well, what's gonna really tip you over to buy it? You know, it can't just be like,

they can't be like super honest with it. It's gonna make a little bit of a difference. Supplements do very little. Unless you need a nutrient that you're deficient in, which is different. That's like a medical issue. Even the most amazing, powerful, data-backed supplement, Creightene, okay?

Creightene has all the studies, like you look at all the studies that support supplements, Creightene is in a completely different category. You know what's gonna add to your progress, 2%? By the way, that's a lot in comparison to other supplements, but it's nothing in comparison to lifestyle, exercise, diet, sleep. Everything else you need to highlight first.

That's right. So I would say don't even waste your time unless you like them, you enjoy them, you're doing the other stuff right. It helps you stay motivated, whatever. But supplements don't do much at all. And by the way, I'm saying this as a host of a podcast that's sponsored by supplement companies. It's the absolute truth.

I mean, I've always positioned it with clients that if you have the expendable income and you like to take stuff like that and experiment with it, then why not? Because there is plenty of research to support that they have value and they work, but when you think of all the things that we're gonna talk about

and I'm gonna do with you when I'm training you, it matters like nothing. It really matters. I mean, I can take that same client and we can fast forward three months of perfect dieting, training, sleeping, doing all the things, both versions. One version used supplements and one didn't

and you wouldn't see a difference. You would not be able to tell. So both clients, identical situation. The only difference is one took supplements and the other one didn't. You would not visually be able to see difference. And more likely than not, they would not visually be able to see difference. And more likely than not, they wouldn't even be able to feel.

You would be able to visually see a smaller wallet in the person that you're in. Yeah, yeah. A bunch of supplements. Yes. They need to fix their posture because their wallets are... Early in my career, I pushed supplements

because this is what we were encouraged to do, working in gyms. Later in my career, very, very few of my clients that I encouraged to take supplements, and they were the ones that were like really into it. Like Doug, Doug when he was my client, he never missed a workout. He ate right. He was really to the point where now he's, you know, part owner of a fitness podcast with us, right? He was fun to have experiment with supplements because he likes that kind of stuff. Yeah, but nine out of ten of my clients, I don't, unless it's a nutrient deficiency, I was like...

Well, and that's where it is a fun thing to do, is when they're already doing the big rocks, and it's like hey, let's add this, see if you feel it or notice it. And it's more like that, because if you're not sleeping well, you're not training correctly, and your diet is shit,

like talk about a complete waste of money. The vast majority of supplements are outperformed by the placebo effect, that's a fact. That's an actual literal fact. So they're not the difference between success and failure. So don't waste your time. Again, a less is a nutrient deficiency, in which case it makes a difference.

Speaking of which, vitamin D, very cheap. You can go to the store, you can buy it, it costs almost nothing, very inexpensive. Vitamin D is a supplement in its own category, mainly because it's such a common deficiency. I brought up the latest studies, I'll read to you guys right now, the latest studies on vitamin D. And it's again, it's not because vitamin D is magic, it's just because we just, it's so commonly a deficiency or even more commonly we're not getting optimal amounts. So we might not have a deficiency,

but we're not getting the amount that really is optimal for us. Remember, consider we evolved really being out in the sun quite a bit. Okay, so we were always, always, always out in the sun before. And now we're just so, so often not that this has become a problem, but they have, I found one study that was in 2024, this European journal of cancer showing that people who, who took vitamin D or had adequate vitamin D levels, uh, had a dramatic reduction in cancer

and overall cancer risk. There was another one with biological aging. This one just got published in 2025 from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Supplementing with 2,000 IUs of vitamin D reduced the measurable effects we can see on like our DNA and stuff of aging. So it seemed to slow down cellular aging. Another one shows dementia. Vitamin D supplementation was associated with a 40% lower risk of dementia in adults, which is pretty crazy.

It's 2024, these are all recent studies. This one was done in Switzerland. This was out of Lua Sain, it's called. Vitamin D deficiency was linked to an increased likelihood of all cardiovascular events. And then lastly, vitamin D and immune response, it has a profound effect on immune system. But again, it's not that vitamin D is magic, it's that we're so often vitamin deficient that you probably should supplement with this very inexpensive, I think it's 10 bucks, we'll probably buy you a bottle of vitamin D

that will last two months. My favorite part about this advice is what I recently found out from you was that I could take seven days worth in one day and not take it, so this has been a huge hack for me, because I always knew that I was supposed to be taking like five to 10,000 IUs is what was recommended to me from my doctor. Yeah, by the way, you get your blood tested.

So you see where it brings you. Yeah, right. So I originally was taking five and then I was still low so doctor recommend 10. And so, and I've just, I've admitted that I'm just inconsistent when it comes to taking supplements every single day. I didn't realize that I could just take five of those pills

in one day and then it's like. So now the way I look at it is like I've got it in my room and I try and remember, I try and remember to do it daily, I don't and then I go, oh shit, I haven't taken that like three days, I'll take three of them, you know what I'm saying, so it's just, I didn't realize I could do that and still reap the max benefits from it. It's like, oh my God, that's easy.

So it's not a hard one either to take and you can make up for it if you know if you're not taking a range of deficiency is between people some are like this some categories or groups of people 80% deficient which is below what is necessary so like african-americans 80% of them are deficient vitamin D because they produce less when they're out in the sun. If you're really pale, you're probably still deficient, just not as a high, by the way, that's deficient, not optimal. When you go to optimal,

you're probably looking at most people, period, end of story. But I use my dad as an example all the time. My dad had all these strange symptoms of pain, thought it was age, thought it was arthritis. We're Sicilian, right, so we have darker skin. But my dad was always outside. My dad's outside doing yard work and stuff like that. Outside more than most people.

And he had all these weird symptoms. Doctor finally after prescribing pain medicine, this and that. Let's just test your nutrient levels. He was severely deficient in vitamin D. You wouldn't think that would be the cause of pain. No, no, crazy, crazy stuff. Anyway, along those lines, I was looking up other studies on forever chemicals.

Boy, these things suck, guys. These four of them. Oh yeah, dude, it's terrible. I've heard stuff. Speaking of those, we got our place pans. I got mine yesterday. I didn't open them up yet. They make them without forever chemicals.

Yeah, yeah. And they last a long time, they're super high quality. That's where I'm going. Yeah, while you're looking that up, I was telling Justin about, we all got ours, and I hadn't opened up what Katrina ordered, but Justin was telling me they have other stuff too. Yeah, they have like, air fryer, skillets, they have all kinds of stuff.

They have steam infused. some of the highest, highest forever. If you put our website up, I wanna see, I thought I had already gone through, but I. Some of the highest forever chemical containing cooking products are pans, and even more than that, air fryers. Really?

Air fryers are through the roof. Now of course, our place doesn't use forever chemicals. All their stuff is Forever Chemical free. But I'm totally glad mine died. I know, I'm gonna throw mine out now. I requested it because it was like, oh yeah, look at that. You got one of those little time toaster ovens too?

Yep. Oh. Did you check this out guys? 45% of US tap water is contaminated with Forever Chemicals. 45%? Urban areas, 75%. I mean, doesn't that make everybody angry? Like, it's so frustrating.

Yeah, dude. I mean, they have way more products than I thought they did. Yeah, they have great stuff. And again, Forever Chemical-free, and they last a long time. Super, super high quality. One of the newer brands that we partnered with that I like of fight It's it's always cool when we find brands. I'm like, oh, yeah, that'd be neat

Whatever and you get it and then we get it and then it ends up being this like high and our audience like yeah And I had a lot of our our audience that was already on to them before we were and I'm like, I didn't even I wasn't Even aware but a bowl of everything. I did not realize how much stuff they have. Between the forever chemicals and the microplastics, those have been on my radar. Let's get rid of this shit. Do you know how much I spend on water? Because I get it, I get it delivered, but I get the glass containers. The glass. Yep. And I looked at the bill the other day. This is why, this is why in the new place that was like a must

was to build a filtration, build it into the house because I was going Through so much bottled water dude, and I was doing you were having it delivered I was going and having to fill it up every time I was like this is so annoying to have to do this all the time It's crazy. So worthwhile investment to put it in your house, dude. Yeah. Yeah, it's so worried Did you do it through did you do the the showerhead? No, I just did I just did a sink one Yeah, I just did under the sink similar to? Yeah, yeah, I just did it under the sink, similar to what we have here, where it's got its own RO and all that stuff like that.

So yeah, I know. Dude, I gotta ask you guys, well, I'll go first, so you guys have some time to think, but are there things in your life that are just idols, that you just have struggled with, kind of breaking down, or you have trouble with them? So I'll start with me, I don't know if you guys have any, but you guys know my, like working out, right?

Working out for me is a struggle. It's an idol. And it's, you know, an idol meaning something that you value too highly, right? It's too high on the priority list. And what happens is it becomes like a God and it's a terrible God. Everything but God is a terrible God. It'll tyrannize you. And I had an experience this morning that was just,

you know, I got really frustrated myself. So my wife wakes up early with this terrible migraine. And she gets these sometimes, right? Not as often as she used to, but they're so bad that she literally pulls her hair and will vomit. Like it's so bad that she's writhing, and it's hard to watch. It's almost like a cluster headache.

I don't know if you've ever seen those before. It's really, really bad. And so I'm trying to tend to her and care for her. And it's so bad that giving her medicine, like ibuprofen, moving to take the medicine is too painful. So it's like she has to sit there and I'm like, how can I get this ibuprofen in her mouth so that in 40 minutes she can maybe use the bathroom.

Yeah, because she's gonna throw up or whatever. So it took all morning, as a result, you know, I'm not gonna work out, which is fine. My wife's way more important. However, on the way, I find myself just angry and frustrated, not towards my wife, but just. Yeah, because you missed your workout. Yeah, dude, and I'm thinking to myself like,

I'm letting this just rule me. It's like this is still an idol that I'm, and it's way better than it used to be. I don't know Sal. But it really pisses me off. I don't know Sal, so when it comes to mine for me, and it's been a long journey for this, and I've watched, it's just material, period,

materialistic things, I like nice things, I always have. I'm sure a lot of that is STEM. It's better than it used to be. Oh, it's way better, way, way better. But what I'm getting to is that I don't think it will ever not be a conversation for you. I think once it's become, once it was, if it was ever something like that for you,

it will be a lifelong work towards it. At least that's what it is for me. I've told you I've learned ways that, I've shared this before on the podcast. So step one is awareness, right? Right, so becoming aware of that, that was a big thing. Then setting rules and boundaries and things up for myself. I've brought up before where if I want something, right, like I just say, hey, if I still want it tomorrow,

I'll get it. And then the second test was, do I get this and do I want to go show it to everybody else or is it something I can keep to myself? Yeah, and so if I can pass those tests, and it's like, because I also, I mean, because here's the challenge, just like you, is like fitness and working out

is a good thing. So it's not like you want to- Success and wealth are not bad. Right, so it's not like you don't want to, exactly. And having success in things is not inherently evil, but it is to worship it or idol it, right? Or put it above all these other things. And so how I've tried to, I figured it out,

and then I went, okay, well, how do I still have balance with it, because I do still enjoy some of those things So those have been the the big test and I and I get tested all the time where it's like Oh, I really want this thing and then I go. Okay. Well, let's wait till tomorrow Do I still really want that thing many times it goes away and it's like oh that was just a temporary Desire or need right or want and then after that the next test is like, okay, I'm going to buy this thing that I still want today. It's like, do I feel like I need to post about it or go show it to other people?

Because then is it really for me or is it me wanting to show that I have this? And so those have been, and I have to have that conversation all the time, all the time. So you're right. I think you're a hundred percent right. What's yours, Justin Cheese? Sex and drugs. Those are common, dude. Fucking rock star. All the time. So you're right. I think you're 100% right. What's yours, Justin Cheese? Sex and drugs. Sex and drugs.

Those are common, dude. Fucking rock star. Such a rock star. He has honesty in that. And I've worked through both. And really, the drugs, it's just like it's alcohol and edibles. And for me, it's like the feeling. And so I'll get snappy if I start to, it's more frequent,

and I get into this relaxed mindset. I can disassociate from stuff going on and can actually be in a better calm state. So I associate it with this calm state of mind and then being a better person around my family. Isn't it funny how we sell ourselves? Yeah, I sold myself on that many times and then checked myself hard because then when I was just interacting and, you know, get home from work and I'm trying to be calm,

like I had a really hard time because it'd get like just all of this frustrated energy and just like, I, you know, I had to, I had to realize that like, wow, I'm now feeling this pull that I didn't feel before. So yeah, I'd been working through that and it definitely backed off quite a bit. And then it sneaks up when the stress is like way up here and it comes back. So that's been a fight.

Sex has just been a thing that's just, you know, it's, it's, it's just, I'm really driven and it's like, I want it and, uh, I've always like, you know, I'm competitive, you know, so I'm like, where's the angle I can promote? You know, it's a winner. It's a loss for me every day. I had to stop doing that. Like, what are you doing? Like, this isn't a winner or loss every day. Wow. That's a winner, it's a loss for me every day. You know, and I had to stop doing that. Like, what are you doing? Like, this isn't a winner or a loss every day.

Wow, that's so good, dude. But it was, dude, but it's real. Like, and I tried, and I constantly communicate with my wife about this, and try to not give that energy off and like, you know, make her feel like, oh my God, this is like, you know, I don't want you to be in a bad mood or you know I'm like, I don't want to put that on you. You don't want you don't want pity sex either Enjoyable like connected time intimacy. Yeah, bro. This is different than than sex

I'm having such a huge realization right now. So So last night I prayed with my wife we pray together every every night, and she did the dreaded, and after she did it, you know, we finished, I said, Amen. I looked at her, I'm like, did you really just say that? She prayed for us to be humbled, and I'm realizing what happened this morning is we both got humbled. Yeah, because she hasn't had pain for a long time. So now you come home and blame it on her. And I haven't. No, it's not a bad thing.

It's not a bad thing. And I got a little cocky. So I'll tell you, this is the good news, but what you're saying is so true, Adam. You have to die to yourself every day. Every day you're going to move away from what's most important and every day you're going to have to die to yourself. And I had this great, and it is moving in the right direction, so I'll say that. And I had this great, the other day I'm working out and I've been praying over working out

or praying over body, muscle building, all that stuff, like I need help with this, I don't want to change this, those kinds of prayers. And I'm sitting there and I'm listening to worship music, which started early on in my faith, which I found was strange because I've always listened to the same hard metal, angry, and I just all of a sudden started listening to worship music. I find myself in between sets, reading scripture, praying, or texting my friends about like faith-based stuff. And I realized that very gently, God took my worship Sal time and has started to shift it to worship Him time and so now here's the humbling part I

felt real good about it oh yeah my workouts are worship Him time this is great it's all about worshiping Him oh my god I'm so grateful and this morning what happens I miss my workout and I'm angry and frustrated because of the workout not because of that so and I'm like and frustrated because of the workout, not because of that. So, and I'm like, thanks honey for praying for that. Don't do that again. If you pray for getting humble, you will get humble. Yeah, I believe that at least I've accepted that it'll probably be there forever. It does get easier and you get quicker at becoming aware of it, right? So maybe it will never end that moment like that doesn't happen for you that it

doesn't create some sort of like, but you'll be quicker and quicker to like, Oh, I know what's going on right now. Like, okay. And then you, and then you can work towards it. Cause I think that at least that's what it's been like for me is my, my journey with that has been, uh, an ongoing battle. I've just, I've gotten better and quicker about recognizing it and seeing it either before it happens or while I'm in it like oh, this is one of those things This isn't really about something for me This is really about others and how others perceive me or whatever it's like that's wrong reason and then you take a left All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna take a left. I'm gonna take a left. I looked up our

Partner Viori I looked looked up their history of reviews. By the way, they were founded in 2015, so they've been around now for 10 years. They have over 60,000 five-star super positive reviews. And I looked it up in comparison to other comparable competitive companies, and in that time frame, they, above and beyond, surpass other companies in terms of the- Take that athletic. Yes, in terms of their reviews, they absolutely kill it, absolutely.

And by the way, I see them now all over the place. Remember when they had that one store? They're everywhere. I was at the, I was at, what is that, Stanford Shopping Center up there? They have one there. And I'm at the, I was at, what is that, Stanford Shopping Center up there? They have one there. And I'm walking in and I see competitors and then I go to Viori and they're full.

Yeah. They're packed. They have made, in 10 years they went from, like nobody knew them to. I mean it was such a cool, It's just cool. It was a cool deal for us to partner with them so early. When did we partner with them?

Nine years ago, eight, nine years ago. It was right after they started. You know that at that time, it was just an online company. Joe had not, they had one store or two stores. Encinitas. They, but at that time, they had not invested or spent any money on real marketing and advertising.

No commercials, no podcasts, no ads, they were just organically growing and they were still commercials, no podcasts, no ads. They were just organically growing and they were still very, I would say, probably bootstrapped at that time. And so them stepping out and investing in us as a partner and a brand was new to them. And we introduced them to the podcasting space. And then, and I do remember there was a time

when I could see a fit person wearing Viori and I thought, oh, they listen to mind pump. You know, and I could go and say hi to them or what's that, it is not like that whatsoever. I mean, I see Viori everywhere. I mean, they're, every time I'm in the airport, everywhere, they're everywhere. Their top products are the Performance Joggers Core Shorts,

so I was looking this up, and the Meta Pants. These are the ones that people just. Oh, nice I was looking this up, and the meta pants. These are the ones that people just. Oh nice, yeah. Yeah, that's the ones I. That is my favorite. Meta's the one I always get. And now they have the meta for the shorts, which is like even better.

Oh yeah. I know the core is like their main ones, but. Yeah dude. I love the meta. I have their meta joggers right now. I mean, I love their joggers. Their joggers are all my favorite. Cause you jog so often.

He's a big guy. I live in irony there, right? Element is the best electrolyte powder anywhere. No artificial sweeteners, no sugar. It tastes great. It's the best one. It's the top one. By the way, they have a new flavor.

Lemonade, salt, delicious, no calories. Go check them out. Go to drinklmnt.com forward slash mind pump on that link you'll get a free sample pack with any drink mix purchase back to the show first question is from full veal castle any tips to specifically target triceps during close grip bench presses yes i like this question because a narrow grip it will it will the triceps more, but it doesn't automatically just hit the triceps more. In fact, you could do a close grip bench press and make it all delts.

Sure. Just by the positioning of where your hands go as you lower the bar. So anytime you're trying to hit a specific body part, I think it's important, whether you understand anatomy or not, literally look up the action of a muscle. So the tricep, what the tricep does is it extends the elbow. So for my tricep to get work, it has to go from bent arm to straight arm. It's called elbow extension. So with a close grip bench press, when you're lowering the bar, if you want to use more

tricep then you bring the hands back a little bit and allow the elbows to bend more. If I bring the bar way down here and I get minimal bend in the elbow, then most of the action is going to be at the delts, which brings my arm. Especially if your delts are protracted a bit. That's right. So the way I like to close grip bench is, first of all, I don't go too close with my wrist or my hands because that can be not so great on my wrist. I'll grab a close grip that's right about shoulder

or slightly within shoulder width. Then when I lower the bar, I make sure to bring the hands a little higher on my chest, which allows for that. Knuckles come back a little bit more towards you. I teach even. Wrists in line with elbows, elbows guide right down rib cage. And so if you, and so I want your elbows tucked as tight as you can so you should feel your rib cage as you come

down and your wrist should be in line with that. You could go a little more narrow. You could go more narrow but I mean it's the same. Same. So you're going here and any wider is gonna put stress on the shoulder so it's literally straight down and then in full range, right? So can you get it all the bar all the way down to your right, like your sternum or whatever. Um, and then extend it. But yeah, absolutely. You're right. If you flare the elbows all out wide and go too wide of a grip, now you're almost like a, some guys bench press that one. Some guys,

most guys bent, some guys bench with a closer grip and press that way. And so you got a lot more chest and shoulders. Now you could technically get a lot of triceps with your elbows flared out, because the elbow bend, but your wrists don't like that. So that lateral bend in the wrist, this is where people will say,

oh God, close grip bench press hurts my wrist. It's because your elbows are flaring out and or you're grabbing too slow. This is also why I like to do close grip in pet bench press on a incline opposed to a flat that encourages that yeah it encourages that and you get like a deeper range of motion so as that as that comes down you can really pull down versus if I'm on a flat bench a lot of times people have a hard time retracting depressing coming all the way back and so you just get a

deeper fuller range I've always felt felt it better in the triceps doing it that way, but yeah, no, the details matter, like if that's the goal. If the goal is to work the triceps more. And then, honestly too, just your mental focus on it. Literally, by the way, they've done studies on this, Adam. People thinking of the muscle while they're exercising alone increases activation. This is so powerful that I can show you same hand position, same

everything position and feel one of them in my shoulders and chest and the other one in my arms. It's literally in your head. Yeah, it's just in my head just by knowing it. Now again that's years of training and understanding how to activate certain muscles but that's how important it is for you to think about what muscle you're trying to work and not just going through the movement. And then of course, taking the tips that we just gave will help that, but focusing on it too.

By the way, the reason why thinking of a muscle while you exercise has been shown, again in studies, they can actually show muscle activation. The reason why that increases activation is because the signal that's going to your body to move is from your brain. So literally thinking of the muscle is a very easy, simple way of you activating that muscle even more.

So when I used to teach this, I would actually take them on the bar path and then at the bottom of it, I would actually hold the weight, and then tell them, hold it with your tricep. And then I wouldn't let it, don't press it up until you're holding it with your tricep. They'd be like, what do you mean?

I'm like, flex your tricep, and now hold the weight until that light switch, oh, okay, I'm holding it, okay, great. Now you're, this is at the bottom of this rep, I want you to feel always controlling this tricep, now flex it harder as you press up. And then that would get them to kind of understand that. Otherwise, if you just move the bar path,

the shoulders, the chest, all those other secondary muscles will try and support because it's advantageous for those bigger muscles to help support a movement like that, so you have to really learn how to concentrate on resisting the weight with your triceps and then flexing it. And I will say this, just that I'm a fan of the close grip bench press. I think it's great for tricep development, yes, but from a functional standpoint, it's

a very functional pressing exercise. When I was a grappler wrestling jiu-jitsu, it's not often that you're moving people away from you with your hands out here. In fact, in jiu-jitsu, this is a death sentence. If I bring my hands out here, I'm just asking to get an arm locked or a camuro lock or something like that, right? Typically you're pushing people off you with your hands inside your body. And I found the close grip bench press to be just the carryover.

It was amazing. Next question is from Morgan B Peterson. How do I learn to rest and recover when my greatest assets are hard work, grit, and overachieving? You know, what's funny about this is- Your greatest strength is your greatest weakness. Yeah, and not just that, but what we tend to do

is we tend to look at what helps us achieve the thing we're after as the thing that we're actually after. In other words, hard work, great, but why is it great? It produces a result. So it's like, hey, why are you outside digging a hole and filling it back up and digging a hole, filling it back up?

Because I like hard work, nobody ever does that, right? Like, what are you doing? There's no point there, right? Unless the point is just to exercise or whatever. So hard work and grit are great because of what they can produce. If you're over-training, what are you getting out of it besides just doing more?

You're not getting any more fitness benefit or health benefit, it's actually the opposite. You're just doing more for the sake of doing more. So I think the key with this is to say, what am I after with this hard work? What am I after? How can I how can I take this this discipline that I have and make it work for me now if your goal is I just like to

Occupy myself. All right We'll find a way to occupy yourself where you'll get more benefit because if you over apply hard work and grit to exercise if you over Apply intensity or duration or volume or whatever, you'll go backwards. You won't get the great results. I mean, I also, this is a great opportunity to learn about human behavior. This is your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness. This is in all aspects of life.

You name somebody that has this ultimate strength and I'll tell you where that ends up also being a weakness in their life. And you have to be able to look at that duality, is be able to go like, hey, I know this is a great attribute of me, but then what are the things, what are some of the bad things that come with that? Well, in this case, that's in your recipe for overworking, over training, under eating, under resting, right? So that's what happens for somebody who trains really hard, works really hard, and that's their greatest asset. So I think there's something to be,

not just in this conversation right here, but learning how to look at that in all aspects of your life is that your greatest strength is your greatest weakness. And you can use that as a focus of like the work is to be mentally disciplined, to allow yourself to rest and recover, and to sit in that. Yes. And that's the hard work for you right now.

That's right. You've proven you can do hard work and physical hard work. What a great point. You haven't proven that to yourself yet. I'm a hard worker. What's harder for you right now? Doing more exercises or actually taking a break? Right.

Taking a break is hard work. Well, you're such a hard worker. That's right. We're going that direction. Reframe it. That's right. Next question is from Bsavage83. What are the long-term side effects of TRT? This is a great question and we need to paint the context before we can answer this.

TRT stands for testosterone replacement therapy. Now the kind of person that is on testosterone replacement therapy is the person and this is when it's appropriate okay this is the person who is deficient or has a deficiency in testosterone so hormones are important in the body and they're drivers of different functions of the body and testosterone is a very important hormone for both men and women if you are deficient in testosterone the side effect of getting your testosterone levels to optimal levels through replacement therapy is better health, okay?

Because the deficiency of testosterone is not good for you. If you are deficient in testosterone, you are more likely to have heart disease, you're more likely to be depressed, you're more likely to have osteoporosis, osteopenia, infertility, you're more likely to have osteoporosis, osteopenia, infertility. You're more likely to have a whole host of health issues, including chronic pain and chronic health issues, including some cancers.

A lot of people think that testosterone might drive certain cancers. No, no, no. You actually are at a higher risk with low testosterone for certain types of cancers. So the side effects of getting your testosterone levels optimized. Is a healthier version of you. Is just healthier. Now the reason why some people may have some, you know, they're on testosterone and they're like,

uh oh, things are going south, is because they're not on replacement therapy. They're pushing the limits. I know what that's like, because that's what I do. You push the limits and now you're outside of optimal and you're more towards I'm gonna maximize all these other things, in which case there's this kind of trade off.

But aside from that, hormone replacement therapy, because remember the context is this, here you have an individual whose testosterone is low and ideally they've tried to get it raised through lifestyle and healthy practices and for whatever reason it's low, then going on replacement therapy improves quality of life and improves all health outcomes. So what's it with the dose depends there determines the poison or whatever I mean this is it this is like anything else. Now the neat

thing or the good positive thing is that we have a ton of research around testosterone and testosterone therapy and replacement therapy and the amounts that you can take safely and so there's a pretty high range that you could get up there and remain pretty damn safe. Now long-term abuse of steroids like yeah there's definitely side effects of that but replacement therapy taking enough to put your body at just optimal levels not super physiological levels optimal levels is all positive. That's a positive thing. Yeah, what's funny too about the hormone of testosterone,

in the past we've had a lot of bad press because it is a performance enhancing hormone. But the truth be told, of all the hormones you can take, it's one of the safest ones. I'm trying to think right now what hormone would be safer than testosterone. Like if you took a person and you mega-dosed them. Definitely not insulin.

Definitely not birth control. Definitely not, I mean. No, like if you mega-dosed all the hormones individually to see which one is more likely to cause big time health issues, I can't think of one that's safer than testosterone. And this is all backed by the data. It's actually a really safe hormone.

I mean, athletes will take, you know, 10 times. So what are the most common? Thyroid? Insulin? Thyroid will kill you. Birth control? What else? Yeah, you could go like progesterone and estrogen.

You take that too high. You do increase the risk of blood clots and certain types of cancer. I mean, insulin will kill you right away. Yeah, I've never thought of comparing it that way, so that's such a great point. If you compare it to every other exogenous hormone that we can take, it's the safest of all. Oh yeah, if someone was like,

here, we're gonna give you 10 times your normal amount of any hormone, which one would you pick? Testosterone. It's not gonna kill you. The other ones might cause some problems. Next question is from Amelia Hurtline. From what I read, programming seems to seemingly simple, picking movements that you connect to and changing them out periodically,

changing rep ranges and rest times periodically, making sure to progressively overload with weight, form, rep sets, or rest times. What are some things to focus on when creating your own programming and to ensure its effectiveness? Okay, you have to chuckle a little bit. Of course.

You have to chuckle a little bit about how this is the table's been set here. From what I read, programming seems deceivingly simple. You just have to do this, this, this, this, this, and this. Yeah. And know how to do the right balance of all those things. I'll ask a question. I'll ask a similar question.

Well, chewing gum. From what I understand, coding is simple. You just use ones and zeros Yes, put them in order Java yeah, just yeah, no no no no no Programming is it's funny. What's that? What's that learning curve? I can't remember the name of it, but like people will go to school for something and in the beginning They're like I know everything and then after a couple years like I know nothing there's actual term for this

Maybe you can find that Doug Dun It's not Dunbar's Law. Programming is it is actually deceiving it's actually incredibly complex. Yes. It's incredibly complex. Here's the good news. I spent ten years of my trainer thinking as a trainer thinking it was so simple and easy and didn't realize what a shitty trainer I was. It took me even super general like lame program. It took me ten to 15 years to like say, I think I can program well, depending on the person. So yes, there are variables like exercises, sets, reps, tempo, but you're also looking at the day, the order,

which one goes with the best. Of course you have to consider the individual with all of this, there's a huge wrench that you throw in the machine. Then you look at the days, how the days connect and what that means. Then you look at the weeks, and oh I did this this week, I gotta do something else this week.

Then you look at the month, and then you look at big time programming. It's complex to the point where, I mean. Oh yeah, I remember this, it's called the Dunning-Kruger effect. It's funny because I read this the other day like the during the 60s and 70s the Soviets were dominating an Olympic weightlifting and When the Iron Curtain came down in the what was it 1989?

We had a lot of their coaches come over and kind of teach us what they did The reason why they were kicking her ass wasn't because they use better drugs as we were using drugs, too I did the reason why they were kicking her ass wasn't because they use better drugs as we were using drugs, too It was because they had applied the scientific method to work out programming and they had figured out how to really Break it down. So here's what's simple moving as long as it's not overdoing it's better for you than not moving That's simple But if you want your workout to really maximize how your body feels your results If you want to know how to change it based on the context of your life and how you feel,

this is where it gets really complex. Here's the good news, a good programmed workout is cheap, it's inexpensive. I mean, if you got one of our programs, so long as it was an appropriate one for you, so don't just go for the hardest one, but think, okay, what do the guys say about these workout programs and which one will fit me?

You just, you get one of our programs, you have three months of workout programming. You can have a year of workout programming with us for less than it would cost you a year of your supplements. So, and that's it, you could recycle that for the rest of your life, and you're set. I also think where this comes from is that if you took somebody who has a

unhealthy sedentary lifestyle and you had them do any array of exercises Consistently for six months. So long as it wasn't overdone, right? Right, right Right, so long as you didn't like radically abuse them or what that like you just they consistently did all these random exercises Three times let's say you did a decent dose three times a week for an hour workout and you picked rent all kinds of random exercise with no rhyme or reason and manipulated all these things like you're saying just sometimes here and there, that person would be fitter than the version of them that didn't do anything, right?

I'll give you, I'll give some simple, these are silly simple examples, I can come up with a million, here's an easy one, right? Like someone's like, oh, I'm gonna work out today and I'm really, I wanna work out my core, that's really important for me, and I'm gonna work out today and I'm really, I'm gonna work out my core, that's really important for me, and I'm gonna work out my shoulders.

So, but the core's more important. So I'm gonna go and hit my core and then I'm gonna go do standing overhead press. Now, any strength coach or trainer would be like, no! Do not hit your core before you do standing overhead press because you're gonna put yourself at high risk for low back injury. or somebody might be like yeah I heard deadlifts are really important, I heard squats are really important, I'm gonna

work out on Monday and Tuesday this week so I'm gonna go deadlift on Monday then I'm gonna go barbell squat on Tuesday no no no no don't deadlift before you squat like that replaces you at higher risk for injury those are simple examples but it's there's a lot of moving pieces programming is more complex than you think and if you don't believe me rather than creating your own program or following your own program as you have try one of ours follow it and then come back to me. Well I do want to make it clear because we've said this many times an inferior program done consistently is still better than a superior program done inconsistently. True. And so that's

where this comes from too is is that you're right. If, uh, if someone just does random exercises, but they consistently do them and they, and they, so long as they don't overdo it, it hurt. Right. Like then, uh, yeah, that person is far better off than, than the guy who has the best has a maps program and rarely shows up. So of course that, and that's it. But if comparing apples to apples where both clients

I mean you take a client you give them all your random air sizes and I take that same client and then program correctly I bet you I bet you everything misleading is a lot of the exercises are the same That you'll see across the board with a lot of the programs out there These other programs a lot of times you'll see there. These other programs, a lot of times you'll see entertainment being highlighted a lot more. So there's more of the the marketing flash and there's more of the visuals. And also... That looks fun. Yeah, it just looks, it looks hard or they give you the feeling of hard but the

combination of everything matters so much more. Yeah, it's funny you're just making me think of, like group workout classes are notorious for what you just said. I've seen group workout classes where people are hanging from swings or they're wearing what look like, I don't know what they're called, like bouncy shoes. Or where people are using trampolines or then they use poles, like pole dancing.

There's no workout programming, it's all about like, let's add something novel to make it look fun and get people to do it. Yeah, let's create movement for these sedentary people and we'll show them results, because you're right. You take somebody who's not going to that thing and they do that thing three days a week consistently and they'll see an improvement from what they were doing, which was nothing.

And so, but there is definitely levels to this as far as like. Here's the difference between bad programming and good programming. If you have a trainer who does bad programming, the client will get some results and they'll be like, oh my God, I got some results. Man, I was working so hard, it was so challenging,

I got so sore, it was, oh, it was really a grind. But I did it. Then the client with the good trainer's gonna go, I don't know how the hell I look so good. I feel like, I mean, I'm working out, but I feel good, I'm not getting beat up, I'm not doing a lot. But it's like, it's so crazy how my body's responding.

That's probably the best way to describe this is that, you're right, you could still get there through poor programming, or getaways without with poor programming, but good programming, when done done correctly will feel effortless And that is like what you want and this is what we always want people to experience because there is this stigma around Being really fit and in shape that it's like oh that person has to be married to the gym and killing themselves Never enjoying food. It's like no actually not at all like that. In fact, they can have those abs

They can look that way they can be that strong and go to the gym a few times a week We need to read your size and enjoy foods that they like to eat too They're there it is effortless when you do it correctly But if you are doing it incorrectly, it can feel like a grind trying to get there Totally look if you like the show come find us on Instagram. Justin is that mind pump Justin? I'm at my pump to Stefano. Adam's at Mind Pump Battle. 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. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other

valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a 5-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing Mindpump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is Mindpump.