Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2638: Five Proven Ways to Age Slower & More (Listener Coaching)

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin coach four Pump Heads via Zoom. Mind Pump Fit Tip: 5 Proven Ways to Age SLOWER. (1:43) The older you get the faster you age. (28:25) Would you trade wisdom to go back 10 years? (30:00) Roasting a “puke” trainer. (33:42) The EXPLOSION of the peptide market. (37:25) Will AI replace doctors? (43:37) A product SO good, it ruined that whole category for you. (51:51) Pink Pony Club. (53:29) #Quah question #1 – Should you add more weight or do more reps? (59:06) #Quah question #2 – I’ve heard you guys say protein is hit or miss daily, it’s not a weekly average. Why? If I hit 150G one day, 250G the next, for an average of 200G per day, why does that not work? (1:04:21) #Quah question #3 – I keep seeing that taking Baking Soda before you work out will give you bigger pumps. Is there any truth to this? I’m worried instead of getting bigger pumps it’s going to be bigger dumps. (1:06:25) #Quah question #4 – Any tips for hitting all heads of the triceps when behind-the-neck movements cause elbow pain/discomfort? I don’t think it’s a mobility issue, since the pain is at the flexion point, not when having hands behind the head. (1:10:31) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Transcend for this month’s exclusive Mind Pump offer! ** Telehealth Provider • Physician Directed GET YOUR PERSONALIZED TREATMENT PLAN!  Hormone Replacement Therapy, Cognitive Function, Sleep & Fatigue, Athletic Performance and MORE! ** Visit Paleovalley for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Discount is now automatically applied at checkout: 15% off your first order! ** July Special: MAPS Split or Anabolic Metabolism Bundle 50% off! ** Code JULY50 at checkout ** Mind Pump #2187: Why Building Muscle Is More Important Than Losing Fat With Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Regular Napping Linked to Increased Brain Size - SciTechDaily Exploring the relationship between religiosity and telomere length in older individuals Exploring emotional well-being, spiritual, religious and personal beliefs and telomere length in chronic pain patients—A pilot study with cross-sectional design 41 Harsh Truths Nobody Wants To Admit - Alex Hormozi (4K) Why Haliburton Tore His Achilles (The TRUTH) Comparing Pentadeca Arginate to BPC-157: A Comprehensive Analysis Microsoft's AI Is Better Than Doctors at Diagnosing Disease Visit Jolie for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Try it out for yourself with FREE shipping. And if you don’t like it— you can return your Jolie for a full refund within 60 days, no questions asked. ** Why Your Tempo Matters When You Workout! – Mind Pump TV The Impact of Sodium Bicarbonate on Performance in Response to Exercise Duration in Athletes: A Systematic Review Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Chris Williamson (@chriswillx) Instagram Alex Hormozi (@hormozi) Instagram Joe DeFranco (@defrancosgym) Instagram Ben Bruno (@benbrunotraining) Instagram Functional Patterns (@functionalpatterns) Instagram  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast in the history of podcasting. This is Mind Pump. In today's episode, we answered questions that our listeners posted on Instagram at Mind Pump Media. But before we did that, we answered questions that our listeners posted on Instagram at Mind Pump Media. But before we did that, we did the intro portion.

Now in the intro, today was 59 minutes long, this is where we talk about fitness studies and fat loss, we talk about current events, family life. That's the fun time, so we hope you'll enjoy it and then get to the questions. Again, if you want us to answer one of your questions, go to Mind Pump Media on Instagram, that's where you can post it.

Now this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is mphormones.com. Now at MPHormones, the doctors there can assess your hormones, put you on hormone replacement therapy to build muscle and burn body fat. They also work with peptides. Today we talked about pentadeca-arginate-enthymosome-beta for really, really fast recovery from

injuries. Go check them out. Go to mphormones.com. This episode is also brought to you by Paleo Valley. Paleo Valley makes a protein powder that's so delicious it literally ruined all protein powders for me. Their chocolate and salted caramel, it tastes like candy. You got to try it out for yourself. Go to paleovalley.com forward slash mind pump. By the way, on that link you'll get 15% off. Also, we have a sale this month on some workout programs. MAPS split in the anabolic metabolism bundle of programs. All of that is 50% off. If you're interested, go to MAPSfitnessproducts.com and then use the code July 50 for the discount. Here comes the show. Getting older. It can suck, but it doesn't have to suck.

We're gonna talk about five proven ways, by studies and data, that actually slow down the aging process. Again, they're proven, let's get into it. I feel this is prompted from our gray hair conversation. Yeah, I know. Getting old rules to use that we're all out. I need to reframe this.

Let me list all five first, then we'll break them down. Just so people know what we're gonna talk about. Here are the five ways that the data shows are the most effective ways to slow down aging. Strength training, calorie restriction, eating things like omega-3s, grass-fed beef, fiber, taking naps, and mindfulness or prayer. All right, let's get into all of them

and the studies and data that shows why. Now, I first think what I wanna do is kind of paint the context, okay? There's biological aging, which you can measure through certain markers, right? Now, we don't have this perfect. Tellameres and stuff like that. Yeah, it's not perfect, but there are some markers that are pretty

good right like telomerase which is or mores I don't know how you pronounce it right which is an enzyme produced by the by the body that'll go up or down depending on how quickly you're aging. Telomere length or shortening. You have other markers like inflammatory markers, hormone markers, insulin centers. Yeah, that mitochondrial dysfunction or function. So that's all biological. But then you have like the perceived dysfunction that,

or should I say that the general dysfunction that we would attribute to aging, right? Lack of strength, lack of mobility, lack of energy, stiffness, bones not as strong, maybe cognitive decline, like all the things that we, if we were to kind of generally say, like what happens, what are the bad things that happen to you as you get older, those are things that we would typically list.

And so, the things that we're gonna talk about have been shown in studies to reduce the markers of biological aging, but also have been shown to improve the symptoms associated with aging. That's why number one is strength training. I was just gonna ask you, what would you say is better, the improving the symptoms or the markers that we currently have

that tell you whether you're getting older or not? Symptoms are, yeah, because that's what you're feeling. Yeah, right. That's more relevant to your individual experience. Who cares if your biomarkers look great if you feel like crap? Right, which I don't know if that's ever the case, maybe, because again, we don't have this perfect way

of measuring aging from a you know biological standpoint. I care most about my real age score. Yeah right exactly it's so funny I had a cousin who sent everybody his biological age score because he was like oh I'm so much younger than my age and we all know him because he's our cousin yeah and he is he looks the oldest he's for sure the oldest. He's not just looks the oldest, he's for sure the oldest. Like mobility, like everything, like most tired, most whatever. Guys, I'm like 29. So I'm like, I don't care what your score says, bro.

But strength training's at the top because it does all of the stuff, okay? So as you get older, you can lose strength, you can lose mobility, you can lose balance. Lose ability. Your bones can weaken, your hormones can change, your insulin sensitivity gets worse, you lose energy, all that's cognitive function declines.

Strength training of all the forms of exercise is the best. I'm not saying that's the only thing you should do, by the way, just for people. It promotes the best youthful profile. It does. So if you were to pick one form, and that's all you had to do, which is not ideal. Ideally you do multiple forms of exercise, okay? But if you had to pick one that would

slow down the aging process the most from all the markers and the symptoms, it's strength training. It just is. I mean- It also has the greatest ROI on the other four things that you listed on. Yeah, you don't need to do a lot of it. Right. For what you get on return, for the amount of time invested in doing it, it even surpasses the other four things that you talk about. One or two days a week of strength training

is profound in its effects when it comes to slowing it. In fact, my career as a trainer, I had a lot of clients that would be considered, it's so funny, we were in Vegas talking to the clients of our trainers. We now have trainers who coach and work with clients, some of them virtual, and one of them came up to me, she's in her 70s, wonderful woman.

And she goes, I hate it when you refer to people in my age group as advanced age. Call them something else. That's just a term that was used in our space, right? When you get your certifications, it's a category. But I had a lot of clients, a majority of my clients were over the age of 55, in fact most of them were over the age of 60,

and they all lifted weights once a week. I can't think, maybe one of them that I can think of off the top of my head did more than that. Everybody else was once a week, and they were active throughout the rest of the week, so it wasn't like they didn't that. Everybody else was once a week, and they were active throughout the rest of the week, so it wasn't like they didn't exercise. And Doug was a couple.

Doug, Doug was a, he was in his 40s when I trained. Oh, he was in his 60s, right? Yeah, no, no, no. Sorry, Doug, we always gotta do the age jokes. It helps when people meet you, they're like, oh my God, you look amazing. Yeah, he looks amazing for 85. For how the guys talk about you, you know, he's not 85.

Killing it. But they all lifted once a week, and the difference was, you know, one of the big things that you'll hear about as people get older is their balance is off. And we tend to think that balance is, and it is this, but this isn't what's happening when you're getting older. We think that your vestibular system, your inner ear, like, oh, you're losing your balance because your way of managing balance and your brain is getting worse.

That's not what's happening for majority of people that get older. They're losing balance because they're weaker. When you're weaker, you're just not as strong and stable. And your body is pruning off things that you're not challenging and using. That's right. So if you don't challenge stability, strength,

movements that are uncommon, then when the body has to move in this uncommon way or out of it, you're weak. And the body said, we don't need this anymore because you stopped doing it, therefore. It's interesting that is that what we tend to do is try and pin it on something going on in the brain that there's... because there obviously is something there, but it really has more to do with that. I remember having this discussion with one of the best physical therapists

that I've ever met in my entire life. I've talked about her before. She worked at my studio. We had this conversation because she also had clients in this age group, and what she would do is balance exercises, which are great. There's nothing wrong with them. But I remember talking to her and saying,

you'll get more bang for your buck if you just get them strong. And we had this whole discussion. Now, the reason why she did that is because physical therapists are so correctional exercise focused, they're not strength training focused necessarily. And I remember her going,

one of the few things I taught her, because most of the stuff she taught me, was one of the few things that she took from me was like, oh, let's just get them strong. And that's what happened to my clients. I just got them strong, and their balance went through the roof because they were stronger.

I didn't have to focus on balancing as much it was just let's build strength. This is something I mean, I've been talking with my dad. He's been he just had knee replacements and you know He's six seven and he's a big guy and he's old and it's like, you know His balance is off and all this stuff and in started to kind of use a cane. I'm like you can't use the cane Oh, God. The cane is the pathway to the spiral. The beginning of the end. Yes, the beginning of the end.

And so, you know, it's just been work. But I mean, just to really refocus and prioritize strength training and how we introduce that and do it appropriately with the right amount of dose, and it's already making a big difference, but I mean, that is such a common theme. It's like, let's just go to the cane.

Let's just get stability somewhere. If you had to pick an organ of the body that was the organ of youth, it's muscle. Muscle is what keeps you young more than any other organ in the body. Keep your muscle healthy, and you're gonna age slower. That's just a fact. And someone would try to make the argument that the heart is that, but by proxy, if you- gonna age slower. That's just a fact. And someone would try to make the argument

that the heart is that, but by proxy, if you work on the muscle, the heart is gonna get stronger. Healthy muscle tends to equal a healthy heart. It's more complex than that, diet comes into play and all sorts of things, right? Lifestyle, but yeah, healthy muscle contributes to healthy heart and the studies on this are pretty clear. I think that's an important thing for us to discuss

in this conversation because the typical default from either a general practitioner or just the average person will go, oh, this is why I need to do cardio or do a little bit of aerobic exercise because I need to strengthen my heart because the heart is the most important. The difference is you can strengthen your heart

and all the rest of your muscles on your body get weaker and atrophy still. Whereas if you strengthen the muscles support on your entire body, you will get some benefits and carry over to the heart. There's more carry over. That's right. And time for time, it's the most useful use of your time, but you should do both. Right, right. And that's what I'm glad you said that because my point of that is not saying like, oh don't do any cardio, you should just lift weights. But the point is if I had my dad and I only had one choice,

he's only- Yeah, you have one hour a week with him. Exactly, and I'm gonna get him strength training because I'm gonna get some of the heart benefits from that in addition to all the other benefits that come from building muscle. It's funny too, when you look at the studies on bone weakening in women, right?

Osteoporosis more common in women. When they have female participants who do aerobic or cardiovascular exercise regularly, their lower body bone density obviously maintains better than the average person doesn't do anything. But their upper body bone density still declines because it's only on the lower

body and it's not as effective as strength training even for the lower body. Strength training, you build muscle you build bone. You want strong bones for the rest of your life, stay strong. And again, muscle is the organ of youth, so keep it, and by the way, studies on people in their 70s and 80s who do consistent exercise

shows that they have muscles that if you were to analyze them in a lab, you almost couldn't tell the difference between them and a 20-something year old. So that's how awesome it is to do strength training. Next is calorie restriction. This one's interesting. Now people take this too far where they see the studies on animals and like oh my god you know these rodents or fruit flies live 30% longer because they were on calorie restricted diets. Here's why it goes too far. If you go calorie restrict too far, you can become weak and brittle.

Okay, so if you eat too little, you're also weak and that can cause lots of problems. That being said, I think to put this more accurately, calorie restriction, I'd like to say it like this, don't overeat. Overeating is a fast way to aging. I feel like I like that even better than even saying calorie restrictions.

Yes, calorie restrictions with the data. Because you very easily can tip into the too much too much, especially in the context of our experience of training the average person who is also trying to do the first step, which is lift weights, almost always under consumes protein. And that's one of the most essential things that you could eat for the building blocks of. step which is lift weights almost always under consumes protein. Yeah.

And that's one of the most essential things that you could eat for the building blocks of. I'm so glad you said that Adam because here's what the studies show. When they do the studies on calorie restriction it's a 10 to 15 percent reduction in calories. Okay. It's not a ton but it's consistent. Do you know how you can get a natural 10 to 15 percent reduction in calories? Eat a high protein diet, eat it first.

Right. So your protein is high, calories naturally drop, now you're hitting, now you're doing both. Right, and then, and you're hitting the thing that is going to complement. Strengthen your body. The first one, so important. And if you neglect to do that, that's, this is so important because if you go, okay, I got it, and so then you start doing things like fasting and really calorie restrictive

because you hear the studies and the benefits, and you're also doing the strength training, because if you go, okay, I got it. And so then you start doing things like fasting and really calorie restrictive because you hear the studies and the benefits and you're also doing the strength training, you don't even get to really reap the full benefits of the strength training because you're not hitting your protein intake. So those, and then that compounds if you actually do that. So if you take the advice you just said,

which is instead of looking at it like calorie restriction, just eat a high protein diet, prioritize protein, the calories will naturally probably balance themselves that way while also strength training now the effects are compound. 100% and then just to hammer this home when you look at the data on mortality people who are older so let's say over the age of 70 the people with the highest mortality risk are people who are severely underweight. Underweight is worse than being a little overweight when you're older.

Not obese, but being a little overweight's better than being a little underweight when it comes to mortality. Why? You get sick or you're in the hospital and you're a little underweight. Uh oh. More susceptible. That's when things really start to fall apart.

So it's really more accurately don't overeat and don't overeat consistently. That'll make your age slower. Next is omega-3s, grass-fed beef and fiber. So omega-3s and grass-fed beef, I'll put in the same category. Now here's why I said grass-fed beef. If you eat a lot of beef, makes a big it makes a difference to make

sure that your beef is grass-fed and grass-finished because the fatty acid profile is better. So really it's connected to the omega-3 tip. Now why omega-3? Because our fatty acid profile in Western societies is so off that it's pro-inflammatory. We have this huge, we have this just terrible ratio of omega-6s and nines to threes, and what it does is just produces more inflammation in the body, which more than is necessary or appropriate, which accelerates the aging process.

Foods that are high in omega-3s or second best, not as good, but second best, is supplementing with omega-3s to balance that out, which reduces the oxidative damage and inflammatory process that can contribute, or that does contribute to accelerated aging. Fiber is another one. And I love talking about fiber

because this carnivore diet group of people, which I'm gonna say first, there's a very, very small percentage of people that a carnivore diet is going to be good for. These are the people who are hyperimmune response for whatever reason, Michaela Peterson types, where they eat for whatever reason, their body's super reactive to almost anything. So it's best to avoid almost everything or everything except for meat. And you can get away with meat because it's so nutrient dense.

But what they'll often do is make this argument that fiber has no benefits, which is crazy. Fiber has some of the most literature of anything in diet to show benefit. Fiber's beneficial for digestion, beneficial for your microbiome in ways that we now know are beneficial for slowing down the aging process, reducing the risk of disease. Fiber helps with insulin sensitivity. Fiber is good for you.

It's good to eat a good amount of fiber. And in the studies on diets that tend to show benefits in terms of aging, they tend to be higher in fiber. So omega-3 grass-fed beef if you eat a lot of beef and fiber, which takes us to naps. This is pretty cool. Have you guys seen the studies on that? You know, a little bit, but not a lot.

And this one's interesting to me. Yes. So I'll read you some of the studies. Okay, while you're getting into it, I have a theory on why this is, from a study perspective, gets so praised so much. I think it has less to do with taking naps and more to do with how much as a population we neglect sleep. That's my theory.

I've got to as we age and I've noticed this with my grandparents and they've even mentioned it that it's been a lot like they go to bed a bit later and get up really early so their window kind of changes in terms of the amount of sleep. a bit later and get up really early. So their window kinda changes in terms of the amount of sleep they get. Sleep quality gets worse as you age. That's a fact. It's an absolute fact that that happens. So that may be the case, Adam.

In fact, there was a study that was done, cause I thought one reason why sometimes people avoid napping is that it might disrupt their evening sleep. And what they found in older individuals was it didn't. Interesting. It did not disrupt their evening sleep and what they found in older individuals was it didn't. It did not disrupt their evening sleep. So it just contributed to getting better sleep or more sleep. Now the studies show that short regular daytime naps

between five to 30 minutes. So you're not napping for an hour or two. No, it's very short. You're napping for 20 to 30 minutes. And anybody who's ever experienced this knows this. Like once you cross over that like Yeah, you get there 45 minutes to an hour. You wake up. It's the worst Oh, you feel worse today. Yeah, but where it's sometimes that I just did this while we were up in truckie

Because this is a place when I feel like I can do this where we get up early We go to the lake or active so with that and like midday. I'm like, man. I'm tired I'm gonna take a nap and I'll lay down and it's And it's so fast, it almost felt like I didn't sleep. Yeah, you feel like you were awake the whole time. Yes, but I know I slept because the time went by and I went, oh wow, I slept probably 20, 30 minutes before and then I feel so refreshed. So here's what the data shows,

and this is just a summary of it. By the way, the strongest evidence comes from, there's a UK biobank study. It linked habitual napping, those short naps, to brain volume equivalent to 2.6 to 6.5 years younger. So when people did this, their brains looked younger than their actual age. That's right.

Moderate napping is also correlated with slower cognitive decline and biological age acceleration in longitudinal studies. These are studies of like thousands and thousands of people. Now, here's the other side of it. Excessive long naps probably signals or signifies that you have some health issues. So somebody's like, oh my God, I need a two hour nap every day.

There's something going on that we need to look at. But the short naps, 20 to 30, that's mine, 20 minutes. And I'll often tell my wife this. I'll say, I'm gonna go take a nap for 20 minutes, I'll set my alarm, I'll come back and I'm like a new person. So do you think though, to my point, that it has more to do with what you're lacking in your night's rest than it has with this,

that this is some sort of a hack into? I think it's both. Like if somebody was getting eight hours of full great rest every single night, I imagine they're getting little benefit to these naps or do you think that person still experiences the same benefit as the person who is only getting six hours and then they're also at least taking this nap? So they've done studies on both and they both benefit. Okay. Yeah, so everybody

benefits from a 15-20-... Even somebody well rested. That's right. Interesting. That's right. In fact, I could say this right now, and I bet you 80% of people listening would be like, oh yeah, we all get that dip of energy right around two, three p.m. What we typically do is reach for caffeine to get us up when a 20 minute nap would be perfect and would require no drugs, no caffeine,

just to make us feel better. And then lastly is mindfulness or prayer. This one's one of my favorite ones. I'll pull up some studies for you guys, which is pretty remarkable. There was a cross-sectional study that analyzed over 1200 adults between the ages of 40 to 80. What they found, this is the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and they were looking for links between religious practices and

telomere length. Frequent prayer was strongly associated with longer telomeres, particularly in women and older adults. The effect was partially mediated by social support and lower stress, so it suggested that prayers benefits might also come from emotional regulation, community engagement. Telomere length was approximately 5% longer in frequent prayers compared to non-prayers, which is equivalent to about one to two years of slower aging.

Now mindfulness is the other side of it. So mindfulness is like meditation, stuff like that. And they found that it also does the same thing, increases telemedicine activity, reduces stress, cortisol levels. You get increased improved insulin sensitivity, like it's no longer the woo woo, like we have lots of studies that support,

I mean it's better memory, executive function, scores, slower cognitive decline. I think there's a deeper root connection there. I've been thinking about this a lot too, I just listened to a really cool conversation with Chris Williamson and Alex Hormozzi and they were talking about this interesting phenomenon that we do as humans where let's say you're having what you would consider a bad year of your life

or a bad season of your life and then you unpack that. Like what does that mean? And really what it is, it's a collection and normally a small collection, one time, moments where or something negative happened. But then you catastrophize it as this massive timeframe. When it was really like, those were four blips in a period of this time, but you've chosen to focus

so much on it and allow it to be this big problem. So if this is true, then the inverse should be too. Can I not take these small positive moments that have happened, probably in the same exact timeframe and reframe that time of my life and go, it really isn't a bad time of my life. In fact, I've had several significantly more positive things. And so I think mindfulness and prayer hacks into that. I think mindfulness and prayer or gratitude practices stop you from, because it's very easy. We're wired this way. Bad thing happens, freak out, all the negative like, all your focus goes, all the focus goes there because

we're wired that way. So it takes you actively going, wait a second, I'm okay, I'm not going to die. There's no lion or what, that, that, yeah, sure. I'm not gonna die, there's no lion or what that that, yeah sure, I lost the job, yeah sure, got in a huge fight with my, but the end of the day this also happened, and this happened, and this also happened, and it's like, and I'm healthy, and I'm alive, and I got somebody who loves me. We are, fear doesn't prevent death. Right. Yeah. And we are negatively inclined, and we are take-for-granted machines. Right. And we are negatively inclined and we are take for granted machines.

We really are. We are. My dad used to tell me this all the time. So my father was a poor Sicilian immigrant. Very poor, okay? No, he had to leave school to work at nine. That's how poor they were as a family. And he used to tell me this all the time.

Like, man, you have no idea the blessings that you have. And I didn't get it as a kid, I just never understood. I think this is why sometimes when people travel, or they go volunteer, they come back happier. It changes your perspective because how often do you turn on your water faucet and go, man, I'm so grateful I got water. I know, your outlook creates your reality. Instead, here's what happens, or you turn on the water faucet and go, man, I'm so grateful. I know, your outlook creates your reality.

Instead, here's what happens, or you turn on the light switch. Instead, this is what happens, your power goes out once a year. Life sucks. Rather than 364 days this year, I wanted electricity and I had it. Just at the fingertip.

There's a comedian that does this bit where he talks about how people were complaining that their wifi wasn't working on the airplane. And he's like, you are traveling through the sky on an airplane to Hawaii. And you can't get on Instagram for 10 minutes. But it requires practice because if you allow your body, your brain to naturally do what it does,

it is going to go to the negative. It won't go to the positive. This is my point. I agree. Of the unpacking the prayer and the mindfulness thing or you throw in gratitude practice in there is I think what we if you literally, speaking again Alex Formosy, his most viral tweet was he said the greatest superpower, I'm going to probably bastardize a little bit so forgive me, but it's like the greatest super power, I'm going to probably bastardize a little bit, so forgive me, but it's like the greatest superpower is the ability to be grateful in moments when there's nothing to be grateful about.

Yeah. And so, and I think there's, and the reason why I probably went so viral is because there is so much truth in that statement is like that ability, again, reframing and being positive in when there's nothing to be positive about has so much power. Maybe one of the most powerful things you could ever learn to do.

And so I think prayer, mindfulness, all those things give you a glimpse of that. Yeah, and it has to be a practice. It's the only reason you feel that there's nothing to be grateful for because you haven't trained yourself how to do that. It made me think, did you share on the podcast? I don't know if you did. I know you did with me privately. I don't know if you share publicly on the podcast, but I just think it goes right in line with this conversation. I think it's so important for all of us. You began to, you stopped

with the five things of gratitude at the end of the night, and you have now- Throughout the day. Throughout the day, like force yourself. And I just think that- Yeah, because my gratitude, my prayers started becoming generic. Did we talk about that publicly, or does that just mean you? I don't know if we talked about it publicly. And I just think that... Yeah, because my gratitude, my prayers started becoming generic. Did we talk about that publicly or was it just me and you? I don't know if we talked about it publicly. I just think if we did it, I apologize for us having this again, but it's on my mind

a lot. I think it's really powerful. I think it's an incredible hack. I don't know if you got that from somebody else or... What happened was I found... You always hear gratitude practice, practice, practice. So I knew the value of it, but the problem was my prayer started to sound generic. Same thing, same thought.

Yeah, like, hey, thank you for my family. Yes. Thank you for my health. Thank you for, it's like every day. I was missing the daily small things that I could be grateful for. What I started to do, actually set alarms for a little while, was every other hour, a little alarm would go off and I'd be like, all right, what just happened that I'm grateful for?

I started finding myself grateful for like. Random little stuff. Oh my, I'm grateful for the joke that Justin told me earlier. Oh my God, that was so funny. I'm so grateful for, I'm so grateful I went for a walk and it was sunny. Sounds silly, but it changes your brain totally. So unbelievably powerful.

And I think that, I think gratitude practices have been, become so popular and everybody talks about it. And there's really like two camps. You have people that like bought into it. I'm like, oh my God, life changing. The other people are like, oh, it's a bunch of bullshit. And I think where the bunch of bullshit comes from is from people. And I can attest to this personally myself of doing the exact same thing where it's like,

okay, I've really implemented that for a while. I've been like, I'm even to write it down, the five. And the same thing happened to me. I'm like, well, this is lame implemented that for a while. I've been like, I'm even to write it down the five. And the same thing happened to me. I'm like, well, this is lame. I'm writing the same five things. It's not that I'm not any more or less grateful for those things because I am writing them or not writing them down anymore.

But what I failed to do was that. Was like, how about like look beyond that? And then that's hard to do at the end of the day. Yeah, you forget. But you, exactly. And so what a great new practice that you have implemented. It's cool too because my wife has been commenting to me on how encouraging I've been lately, but it's, I haven't even thought of trying to be more encouraging.

It's happening naturally. It's a byproduct. You're just noticing things. I'm just noticing stuff that I don't notice. Because you're positive. And I can't default to noticing them because it's not my default. It's just not a default, a human default. And there are more positive than negative people,

I get that, but no, it's a practice. And the data shows, man, they can measure your aging, they can measure your health. I mean, these are real, it's not just your mind changes, it's your health changes, your fitness changes, everything changes. It's like a decay, you know, if you stay in that negative frame of mind.

100%, speaking of aging, I gotta tell you, it's just something funny. I know you guys will make fun of me, but I had friends over on Sunday, good friends of ours, James and Melissa, love them, and we're hanging out and my wife does a good job of making photo albums. You know what she does? She takes these pictures and she gets them printed in these books. They're really cool. You can get them printed. Shutterfly? Yeah, that's what it is, okay. So we had them out, and these are like 2016, 2017.

So they're old, it's like eight years old type of deal. And so these friends came over and they'd never seen these pictures. And we've only been friends with them for like the last six months. So they pick them up and they're looking at it and they're like, oh my God, they're like, is that you? Like yeah dude, they're like, wow look at all that hair and look at that baby face. I'm like screw you guys man, that's eight years ago. But it just you know made me realize,

and this is true too, the older you get the faster you age. I actually looked this up, the aging process accelerates as you get older. Now, that being said. It probably has a lot to do with the other things we've talked about. Yeah, but also, also, for anybody in this category, as you're getting older, like, oh my God, if you do the things that we're talking about regularly,

it's not fair to compare yourself to eight years ago. And comparison isn't a great thing anyway, but if your ego needs a little stroke, like mine did, I'm like, all right, do I know any other 46 year olds and how my aging comparison to them? Pretty good, I'm doing all right. I blame my gray hair on seeing a ghost. Say what?

I said I blame my gray hair on seeing a ghost. What ghost did you see? That's a ghost story. Oh, yeah, your favorite? Yeah, you know, I have a story I like to, I love to share when talking about aging because it was so impactful for me in my 20s And I've shared it once or twice before in the podcast

But since you're on the topic shared again, like I thought one of the coolest I'm like 24ish or five ish somewhere around that range and we've all talked about one of our favorite things about training Clients that were much older than us is just the wisdom Oh, I love it And I and I one of the my favorite things about being a personal trainer is I just love meeting all these different people from all different walks and all different age levels and parts of their life.

And sometimes I feel like I got more from the training sessions. Oh, totally. Asking them questions all the time. And I had this bootcamp class of like, I don't know, probably 20, mostly women, some men, but mostly women in there. And ages from, I think the youngest I had in there was a teenager or early 20s, all the way up to like

70, you know, the whole range. And I asked one morning, it was just on top of mind for me, because I was thinking about aging and getting older and stuff like that. And I was just like, man, I've like, I got to be in the best years. Like I'm 25, I'm going to Vegas, I got a couple of dollars in my pocket. Like I look good, I feel be in the best years. Like I'm 25, I'm going to Vegas, I got a couple of dollars in my pocket. Like I look good, I feel good. This is probably, this could be peak. Is this peak for me? Like, you know, and I'm, so I'm asking all them.

And the thing that I found that was so unique was that every single one of them would talk about, oh yeah, I remember my 20s, or I remember my 30s. And then I'd say like, so what were, I asked them, what was the best period of your life time-wise? And one of them whether I was talking to the 30 the 40 the 50 or the 70 year old said right now, that's so cool and and I was like, wow, that's One thing they had in common was they're all fit. Yeah. Yeah, cuz if your health goes south I could see yeah They were I mean they know that wouldn't say like, you know healthy. Yeah, they were doing boot camp. Yes

Yeah, yes, and so all of them. Yeah, the fact that they could even do a bootcamp flash speaks to the, at least their level of fitness and health, right? They weren't ripped jacked fitness, but they weren't like, but they were people that cared about their health enough to show up to a 6 a.m. class with this young kid and run around a track and do a bunch of shit. Right. So it was, but I really fascinated that me that literally a hundred across the board, there was not one person that goes like,

oh man, I missed my 30s, my 30s were great, you know what I'm saying, 50s not at, every one of them said all the great things about those periods of time still didn't trump the current moment. It's exciting to me by you. Well let me ask you guys, would you trade wisdom for going back 10 years,

15 years, 20 years, no. That would suck. Yeah. What do they say, youth is wasted on the young? It's because wisdom is so valuable. It's super valuable and wisdom gives you peace and calm and all this, the knowledge that comes, wisdom is different than knowledge.

It's from experience. I used to love training all the clients because of that. The advice they would give me was always like, oh, it was the best thing. I mean, we had a call yesterday. Was that the one that you were in? Yeah, it was the one you were in when we kicked off the longevity group. And Linda, was that her name? 75 year old? Oh, I think so. Yeah. Just love. I mean, man. I invited her down so she could listen to it. Yeah, it just lights me up when we get clients. I love that's probably why we did a thing that

was different, unique to the audience that didn't, wasn't there. First time ever we've done this where we launched a program. And then we offered a basically a free zoom for the first kickoff. Yeah, kickoff to the program. And so you just got to just for us an opportunity to for an hour talk to this audience of people. Amanda look at the group of the hundred and something, whatever, 100, 200 people that were in there. Such a spectrum. Such a spectrum. I mean, everything from young, old, I mean, every walk alive you could think of is just so cool to see that. And I, you know, speaking of the, I just think it's so neat that we've got people

that are 75 and just love the show. Dude, speaking of trainers and stuff, that clip you showed me of Joe DeFranco. Oh, I love him. So listen to let me take it. He gets it. He's so good. You know, tell me the story.

OK, let me tell you the story. So I get a text. I've been talking a lot with, you know, we have guests on the show. We have lots of people that come through here every once in a while. We all talk about this, that we meet people that we just hit it off with. And we, you know, they walk out and we go like, oh, that's our people. Joe DeFranco is an example of that, right? Ben Bruno has been that. Really, he wasn't even on my radar. And then we got to know him. I had heard his name drop a bunch

of times and seen his stuff. And I was like, oh, he's a good guy, but it hadn't really met and hung out. And then we hung out and was just like, oh, that's our people. Really, really liked this dude. And we've remained in texting back and forth. And probably, I don't know, once or twice a week is what we text each other. And he sends me over this text, he sends me a clip from Instagram, and it's a trainer basically talking shit about him.

And he's like, do you know who this guy is? And it's one of the guys from Functional Patterns who we've talked about before, just as far as like his His method of getting attention on the internet and so we've already I won't go through us scolding his ass Who he was like, oh, yeah, yeah kind of like I rolled and like yeah I know who the dude is or whatever like that like they not whatever he's like man

He goes I can't stand trainers like this. I tell you what, I'm going to, I said, this is last week. I said, I'll tell you what, I'll bring it up on the show and roast his ass again just because I don't like, I think it's just poor taste with some of this. But then literally like three days later, I'm up on my feet and Joe DeFranco decided to do, what do they call that? Like a reaction video to that trainer

who's basically shitty on my run. And I told Ben, Ben I'm like I don't think I could do that better I said like Joe let him on fire so the video was so who's the athlete that he's training Tyrese Halliburton okay so Ben's is trained by the way Ben has a client base that's incredible he's so good yeah and he trains this athlete and I guess this athlete suffered an Achilles injury Yeah, and this functional patterns guys like oh, it's this this is why he tours his Achilles It's this exercise criticizing Ben which is just oh It's so frustrating because and Joe DeFranco breaks it down well But you can you there is no training methodology that will guarantee injury free especially at that level

But the point he made I thought was so good He goes look if you're gonna criticize him for this, as his trainer for this injury, you should also credit him for all the success. And he crushed. Which, by the way, Tyrese Helleberton is what, in season three or so right now, so he's considered like his freshman years as a pro athlete

and is having a all-star career year, carried the Pacers all the way to the NBA Finals. And Ben's his trainer. And Ben is his personal trainer. Went on one of the most epic runs in playoffs you have ever seen. Nobody had the Pacers predicted to go all the way. Nobody saw him. And then, by the way, it's game seven, last game of the championship.

Pacers are playing, and Tyreserese against what was told to him to sit out because he had already strained his calf and he played anyways. And then he tore his Achilles. Right and then he tore his Achilles and then so for some puke trainer to break down that it's it was just one exercise. Yeah I mean like, that's such garbage to do that. But I mean, I had planned to come on here and roast the functional patterns guy, but I was like, dude, Joe did such a better job. I could have said, I'll share the clip because Joe got.

Joe was a trainer I looked up to when I was a trainer. And here we are, 10 years into mind pump, he's still a trainer I look up to. I still learn from him. He's incredible, absolutely incredible. Yeah, yeah, good P-Roc solid. Speaking of injuries and healing, what always used to blow me away,

and I think I know why now, these athletes will have a tear, and they heal so fast. Bro, it's... I used to be like, now part of it's genetic, they are athletes. Of course. They're like the 1%, so their bodies are just different. Yeah.

But the other part of it, which I understand now, is they've probably been using healing peptides for 15 years. Before we ever. They've known about it before we have. For sure. Of course, because the science has been around for a long time.

That's right. And so you know that when you're that high of a level and you have that kind of money, you have that much resources and access. You're a however many millions of dollar asset to this team. They're gonna be like, let's get the top scientists, let's get you on these peptides. I was the same way too, I was always like,

this makes no sense. How are they playing at a pro level a month later? And to your point, of course, genetics always play a huge role. So the super athlete is part of what makes them a super athlete aside from all their athletic gift abilities, probably also their recovery ability, their ability to tolerate.

So they have that working for them too. But still, it was still such a short period of time that it didn't make sense to me. There's something else going on here. I feel like what we understand and know about peptides now and some of the recovery therapies are becoming popular today, that science has been around I gotta say so because we Because we have our partners at mp hormones calm

We have access to peptides which allows me to use them and see what's doing what or whatever when you combine so Penta deca-argonate which is almost identical to BPC 157 so BPC 157 is what everybody knows But I use a version called Pentadeca Organate. You combine that with Thymus and Beta. The Wolverine Stacks. Oh, wow. There's a reason why they call it that. Oh, wow, and there's anecdotes of people healing

in 50% of the time it would normally take. Cut your healing in half. When I use those two, if I have a strain or anything like that, it is miraculous. I'm not using that word lightly. It's literally miraculous. The other thing too when you combine those two is you just get this different look to your body and I think it's because it upregulates the growth hormone receptors.

So I think it definitely changes how my body looks. But that combo right there, those two peptides together, if you wanna heal, oh my goodness, it is crazy. Supplements are here, peptides and stuff, and hormone therapy is up here. There's, and even within that category, and you're probably one of the better people, I think you, I think Ben Greenfield,

guys that really control a lot of the variables in their normal life, are some of the best people to hear talk about. Oh wow, I felt you, I think Ben Greenfield, guys that really control a lot of the variables in their normal life are some of the best people to hear talk about. Oh wow, I felt that, I noticed a difference. I'm not that person, admittedly. Like one, I'm super inconsistent with things all the time, I change variables all the time. Right now in my life, competing time, that was a total different time. But right now I'm like, I'm admittedly not the best person to be like, oh, this peptide or this thing. But that is so noticeably different. Like I've been- You've best person to be like, oh, this peptide or this thing,

but that is so noticeably different. Like I've been injured. You've used it when you've injured. Yeah, I've been injured so many times in my entire training career and playing sports, like my entire life, and know about how long an injury should take and what it should feel like.

And every time that I've been injured, and I've used that stack now, and it's probably been at least six times now or whatever, it is like notice like half the time. To the point where you're questioning the healing. Is this really? I tore my hamstring where it was, there was bruising. It was noticeable, I tore it in Hawaii.

It was noticeable bruising, didn't have access to my peptides. So I was in Hawaii for five days with this injury, limping around, got back, went on the two peptides I talked about. Within three weeks, fine. Three weeks, this was a discoloration, hamstrings, this was like a pretty high-grade tear. What is your prediction, Sal,

with RFK getting involved now, and I know what his thoughts are on a lot of that, do you think that we are gonna see peptides more widely used just by the general population? Do you think we're gonna start to see it more in the general practitioners being able to? I do, because they're different than pharmaceuticals. So peptides exist in the body.

Now that doesn't mean that they're risk free, but the risk profile of a peptide is generally far safer than a pharmaceutical, mainly because they already exist in the body. Pharmaceuticals are drugs that they invent to shoehorn into a particular class of receptors to make something happen. Peptides, your body knows what they are and what to do with them. So like BPC 157, thymus and beta is made by your thymus, okay? Your body releases this when

you're injured. It releases it to speed up recovery. Taking it is your body knows what to do with it and it does what it's supposed to do with it. A pharmaceutical is different because the side effects are who knows and let's see what ends up happening and again we're kind of forcing this drug to do this thing but a peptide is it's like a hormone your body already has them so you take those two peptides together you're taking two things that your body already produces you're just just amping them up, which speeds up. Signaling the natural production. Now the problem is, is that they're not,

you know, they're generic. So the margins on them are slower, or smaller. They're not patented like a drug is. So the incentives are not the same. That being said, they're so effective that they're blowing up, and everybody knows about them and they're exploding. And I think that what I think he's gonna do,

I'm hoping what he's gonna do is he's gonna place, he's gonna try to make it more accessible for people as an alternative. Because right now, if you want a pharmaceutical for pain, your insurance will cover it. So now I'm like, well, I got this pain in my knee, doctor prescribed this painkiller, I'm gonna take that. Whereas if I gotta go into a peptide,

it's more expensive, not because peptides are more expensive, but because insurance doesn't cover it. Yeah, on the loopholes. That's right. So that's what I think is gonna end up happening. It'll be interesting. As a result. Yeah, speaking of doctors, you guys see the report on AI doctors?

Have you guys seen this? No. Can I read something crazy to you guys? I have heard that it's- I mean, I heard, I know of people already that are using AI just to read their panels for them and getting like these crazy, right? If you know how to prompt the AI correctly and you go, here's my blood panels, basically tell me all the things I should be doing, supplementing all that. Like the reports are like, I'm sure it's a lot more individualized because we're a doctor and it's in general practitioner. You're just going that, like, and the reports are like... I'm sure it's a lot more individualized. Oh, bro.

Because when you get a doctor, and it's in general practitioner, you're just gonna get like great advice. And then you can modify it, Justin. So then it kicks you, feeds you out there, and you go, well, I also have this going on, or I also have only this much time to do this, and I, it's like, it just keeps...

Here's the difference between a brilliant doctor and a good doctor when it comes to diagnosing. A brilliant doctor can take all these variables from you. They know your medical history, that you went to this doctor, went to that doctor. They take all this stuff, they can bring it together, and from there they can assess what's going on better than a good doctor.

Brilliant doctors. Way more data points to work with. Yeah, so what's that one TV show with that one doctor that does that? House. House. So that's an example of like, now that's obviously a TV show, but a brilliant doctor can look at all these variables

like, and, oh, I've been to 50 doctors, they can't tell what's wrong with me, and then the brilliant doctor will look at everything and go, oh, this is what's happening, this is what's going on. AI does that very well because it can take every variable. So what they did was, so they took an AI model, Microsoft developed an AI system, okay,

and they compared it, they benchmarked it against real world case records published each week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The AI diagnostic correctly diagnosed four times better than a panel of human doctors. So they compared it to a panel of human doctors versus AI. They knew what the answer was. So they said here, what do you think's going on here? AI was four times more effective at diagnosing. How wild is that? Isn't that crazy? They had all the same variables,

like access to those variables, and it still beat them. Yep, that's right. So. What a major disruptor. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, so now, I don't think they'll replace doctors. No, no, no, no, no. You know what's cool about this that's crazy. Yeah, so now they're not I don't think they'll replace doctors. No, no, no, no

You know what's cool about this? That's exciting is that one of the number one complaints both from doctors and from patients is the Limited time that doctors have totally with these patients is they got 15 minutes to do exactly what you just said Yes, aggregate all this data figure it out get a little bit of a personal story. Okay, and then do this thing all this data, figure it out, get a little bit of a personal story, okay, and then do this thing. Where what I think is going to happen is that they're going to be able to use it in conjunction with the or complement with the AI and now you're just going to get a better answer and response from your doctor. If I had to imagine what this would look like, it would be like they would use an AI model that's going to give them three options, then the doctor's gonna look at those options.

And say, I think we should do this. Yes, rather than like this, or even final say. Or even like how right now when you come, what's the process? You go in and see the doctor, you sit in the lobby for a half hour, then you get in, you see the nurse who comes in,

does some of the basic blood pressure, stuff like that, then you wait again for another 15 minutes, the doctor comes in and you get 15 minutes with him I just need longer forms to fill out ahead of time So when you go in there you get all the variables and it you know cumulates Yeah, or the nurse does a lot of that for you She does a lot of getting it set up for when the doctor comes in I mean, it's going to it's gonna make things better. Oh, yeah

Yeah, oh, yeah. Yeah, I don't think it eliminates doctors know the human element quite yet at least no it's also gonna revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry because What it's gonna do is gonna take all these potential Drugs and it's gonna sift through a hundred thousand potentials and break it down to the these are the ones that are 90% Likely to be effective for what you look for It's gonna break it down to four or five Then the pharma industry can now take their money and invest in those and figure out what's going on. It's going to save a lot of money.

It would be cool to see that too, even on a preventative level where you see options of like, here's, you know, if the symptoms are severe, then we start going down the chain of like, you know, more aggressive options. I have a family member who he, his father died in his early 40s from a heart attack. He's had a couple heart attacks now. He's only in his, I wanna say in his late 50s. And when he, first off, having a heart attack, one of the things that they'll measure,

I think it's called troponin. Am I right, dog, is that what it is? Look that up. I think it's a marker of heart damage. His troponin levels will measure fine. He went to the hospital having a heart attack. He's got the pain and they're like measuring his troponin, like you're not having a heart attack.

You're not having a heart attack. Your levels are normal. And it turned out he was having a heart attack. He doesn't have crazy blood lipids. He doesn't have all this other, like and they can't figure out why, and this happens by the way, this is a small but significant percentage of people,

they're in this weird category of why are you getting these issues when you don't have all these normal markers that we would normally see. Is it troponin? It is troponin. What's going on? Someone like that I could see benefiting from AI, where they're like, you know what,

let's do all these tests, input your data in the AI, and let's figure it out. And it could be something strange. Like you don't absorb this nutrient. That's it. Who are all the top competitors in AI and what are they called? So you have Chad GBT, you have Gronk.

You have Gronk. I know Microsoft has a few, has one. Who's who's? Gemini, Google's. So I was asking because I know that there, I think we even said this, that we thought that Chad GBT was going to like basically destroy Google, right? And I even told my friends the other day, I was like, you know, we're still, we're so

conditioned to Google search when using AI is far more, is better for everything. Every single thing that you would Google for AI is better than Google already, right? But do you, have you guys noticed when you Google what happens now? Yeah, it pops up AI too. The first answer is AI now. Yep. So it's already, like what a move by- It's integrated.

Yeah, what a move by Google. I didn't even realize this until recently because I, again, I've been trying to use chat GBT and then I actually Googled something and I went, oh shit, the top thing is the AI answer first and then it has all the links to other possibilities. But they've already integrated that. So to me, that was the best defense they had to that.

So these are all. There's a lot. Chad GBT, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Splutter, Meta, Gemini. Doesn't even have Grok the one he used. Grok's not even on there. Splutter AI? Yeah.

Who owns Grok? Who owns that one? That's X. That's X. And chat GBT is? Open AI. Open AI and Microsoft. And then what? And then who do you say Google was? Gemini, I think. Gemini is Google. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. You know what the now one of the challenges though is that sometimes the answers seem like they're biased because the AI seems like it has its own Bias or personality so it'll say it'll come up with the answers that are like, huh? Like why would you say something like that? Some of them are pretty obvious really? Yeah So can you prompt out of it though? You can't I can prompt out. Yeah

like there's a famous one where it's like there's a famous one where it's like, there was a famous one where it's like, if there was a terror, they'll ask you hypothetical questions, they fixed this, but there was one where it was like, if there's a terrorist who's gonna detonate a nuke, but in order for you to stop them from detonating the nuke, you had to say a racial slur, what do you do?

And the AI's like, well you never should say a racial slur. So in other words, let the nuke go off. And it's because it was programmed that that's one of the worst possible things. That's a silly example, but yeah. So. Yeah, and I feel like even the imperfections, at least what I've seen, you can prompt around it.

Or you can say, well except for this example, or give me something that's more like this, or speak to me from this. I've even heard about the loopholes around gambling and stuff like that. Because they've obviously programmed it to where gamblers can't use it to improve their gambling skills. But then you could still prompt it. Figure out a way. Yeah, like it's a book or a movie. Write a book or a movie. Yeah. So there's prompts to still work around all the things that they're trying to like regulate with it.

So it's interesting. I got a question for you guys. Have you guys ever used something that was so good, a product or maybe you drove a car or you did something that it ruined that whole category because it was so good? Has that ever happened to you? Yeah, there's lots of things like that. So I, Paleo Valley ruined protein powder for me.

It tastes so good that everything else tastes terrible. I think it's a combination though for you, right? It's not only does it taste so good, but it also probably, when you talk about digestion, it's probably one of the- Well, that's why I started using it, was because I can digest collagen easily. I can't digest it at all. You can't do waste. No, but's why I started using it. Right. Was because I can digest collagen easily. I can't digest it.

You can't do waste. No, but I mean, I've had so many friends now that switched over it because the taste. And they're like, are you sure this doesn't have like a bunch of sugar? Are you sure this is, I'm like no. My favorite part about it is your ability to boost it all the way up to say 60, 80 grams

in a serving. And not feel like water. And yes, and it not, because I remember the old days of doing that with protein. I remember a young kid trying to chase protein and having a hard time back then and being like, oh, I'll just have three scoops or four scoops. And it's just like-

Oh my God. Yeah, it's like- Suffering. Yeah, you're just like choking down chalk or it was pasty and just like, this is not good. Where that, it's so thin and light that you can put four or five scoops in there and it's like still fun.

I used to do this in high school man I would pound protein shakes or gainers then I'd go to school and I was like fireworks in the back class I felt bad for anybody's I'm waving on everybody else. Yeah, of course you did. You call it out right away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You probably pointed out the nerd coming in here. Oh, my god. Johnny, that's your fault. Dude, I have a story I got to share with you, Sal, before I forget. I shared it with Doug and Justin yesterday,

and I did only because, was it, who was training? Who was, oh, Marcello. Marcello had a client in our studio. And Marcello, obviously, like our trainer sometimes, will let the client choose their music or playlist. And so this song comes on and I go, oh my God, like up until just a week ago, I'd never heard the song and now I've heard it a thousand times already.

And so I'm like, who's playlist is this? And Marcelo's like, oh, he points to the client. I'm like, oh my God, I gotta tell you this story. That just happened to me. So we are, it's me, my best friend, and my best friend's daughter. The one that I tell you, she is just like a fireball. She is all personality, absolutely love this.

My goddaughter is amazing, right? And she's in the car, it's me, my best friend, and me, we're in my truck, and then she's in the backseat, and we're driving from Reno to Truckee. And she's like, Justin and I are kinda talking, havingckee and she's like Justin and I are kind of talking having conversation and she's like trying to get our attention Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Peek Pony Girl, Peek Pony Girl. She keeps saying that to Justin I'm like what is she saying? He's like oh Peek Pony Girl. I'm like what is that? Is

that a game or something there? A toy she wants? And he's like no, no it's a song because like she wants me to play it. I'm like, well, play it. Put it on, right? And I'm like an uncle getting all into it. And you know my truck, I got the stereo system in. So I'm like, he puts on Pink Pony Girl. I crank it up in there. And the windows are down. We're driving.

It's summer day. She is just singing at the top of her lungs. Little three-year-old. That's so cute. She knows all the words. I'm dying laughing. And we're going. And I'm like, like listening and I go,

bro, do you know what the fuck your daughter is singing right now? Bro, the song is about a girl who moves from Tennessee to California to become a stripper. She's like rebelling. What are you doing, bro? You have got to listen to the song. It has such a catchy chorus. And of course, the three-year-old only hears the Pink Pony girl, which she has no idea what she's

singing. But I'm like, dude, as a dad, you have one job, bro. You keep your daughter off the pole. At three years old, your girl's already seen the top of her lungs. A stripper song, dude, this cannot be a good start today. I damn near fell out of my chair when that happened, because I had no idea.

I'd never heard the song before. I'd never heard it. I guess it's really popular. Not that I'm under a rock, but she was singing the top for a long time. So there's a clip. I'll share it with the editing team so they can insert it in here. Because when we get to one of my favorite things to do when we get into our our Community at over a truckie

I always let my son get on my lap and drive the rest of the way into the into the house or whatever And so I let her do that and she's drunk and we had the song crank the windows down She's singing the top of her life People looking at the car, terrible parents They're listening to Superstar and they're letting her dress up I know I had a bunch of DMs too of people that were like, yes, I'm aware, I just found out what it was, it's not me who's in, it's not my daughter,

I'm not encouraging it, whatever. My kids listen to dinosaur songs. There's songs you can find on YouTube of Tyrannosaurus Rex and Spinosaurus and these crazy names. My kids just over and over and over again. Wanna listen to some? What is a weird stuff on YouTube, dude? Like have you ever seen this this guy he he getting in trouble right now because it's my fault, because I make butt and poop jokes all the time.

And now my son, it's his favorite thing to do, and the more you tell him not to do it, the more he has Tourette's over it, and he needs to see it. Yesterday I gave him five bucks, because I said if you can go 30 minutes, which is a long time for a four year old, you can go 30 minutes without saying

any butt, poop, or pee, I'll give you five bucks." And he messed up twice and I started the timer over. I gave him another chance and he did it but it was he was so proud. But he gets in trouble. My son is the same thing. We and he learned it from my godson who's a little bit older and was saying chicken butt and so he chicken butt is the answer to everything. Hey Max you want to do this chicken butt? This is so funny. Hey Max you want to do this chicken, but Things is so funny. It's not funny, bro. It's not funny anymore. You said it way too much times He taught my two-year-old so I have my little two-year-old now and I'll say to her hey Dahlia. Do you love papa? I love butts

Now we're here How you doing? How you doing? How you doing? Beautiful. Now we're here. Oh, God. Beautiful. Look, most of you probably don't drink tap water.

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with no questions asked within 60 days. Try it out. Your skin will feel different. So will your hair. Again, it's joelyskinkco.com forward slash mind pump. Back to the show. First question is from Jason Snurb. Should you add more weight or do more reps?

Oh, I love this. I love this question because I can see how either one would be appropriate. I can't. Now I'll say this. Typically with my clients until we get to maybe rep 15, maybe a little lower, 13, I tend to add reps. Because I want them to master the weight

that they're lifting before I add load. As I've gotten older, I now add reps more than I add weight. In the early days, it was weight. But I don't think one or the other can be right depending on what you're doing. If your reps are really low, add reps. If your reps are really high, add weight. So it's high. Over 15 reps, probably add a little weight. If your reps are below 6, add reps. I think you're right. I do kind of use that as a determiner if they're a bit newer in the process or younger, you

know, to see how they can stretch their capacity with that and find that range and limitation with weight. And then as we have gone through this and matured, like, you know, adding reps, it just seems like a better, you know, plan for longevity sake. So this is a really cool question, because we got asked this in our group coaching forum, or the Zoom call last night when I was on this. And I also included that what you guys didn't say is tempo's in there too, slowing down the rep.

And the person who asked, it was a really good question. Corinne knew her better than I did and Corinne gave the advice and then came back over and said to basically reiterate that I know her really well and this is why I wanted her to do this thing. This is where trainers and this part is another example though of where having a personal trainer who knows you as a client is really helpful. Cause I'll give you an example where the answer to this is different. And to be yet to a same person at the same stage of their training is some clients, they don't believe in themselves and they're fearful of adding weight.

But you know, as a trainer, you're watching them like, I know she's much stronger than I'm watching the way she's moving that way. And so that trainer, that client, I encourage like, come on, we could add five more pounds. Even though I know I could progressively overload her by slowing the tempo down or adding more reps to the point you guys are making right now, because that is probably the default safer, better route to go. Like that's like, I think that advice is a wise, generic, good answer from a trainer is like, I think that advice is a wise, generic good answer from a trainer is like, hey, early in their lifting career, add reps,

slow down tempo are the first two directions we go because that's risk versus reward I'm gambling with. But there is the also the example of this is the client who I know can push more and I'm trying to also teach that skill in them. Yeah, that's great. That's great for trainers to hear who are listening because often what you're weighing are results to can I do something with this client that's going to improve their trust in me, their trust in

themselves, and the relationship to fitness. And sometimes adding weight does that. Yes. And it's more often than not with women. More often than not with men, I don't need to add weight to do that. More often than not with men. It's the opposite. I gotta slow down the tempo. Slow down the tempo.

Because, great point. And that's another example of how this answer is different. Generally speaking, and there's exceptions to rule in both, but generally speaking, my men will sacrifice form and technique to put more weight on. I could do more. Exactly, so generally speaking, my men will sacrifice form and technique to put more weight on. And so I could do more exactly. So that client, I go, hey, what, instead of adding more weight, let's slow the tempo down by four seconds. And then I love to watch that cook them without any

more weight. But then my, generally speaking, my female clients tend to be more, their form and technique is great. And she's doing wonderful wonderful and I could just add up the reps or I could slow the tempo down more but I want her to see herself lift 10 more pounds because I know how empowering that is. I know how many clients that I've had that I got to do that and they went, oh my God, I did not know I could do that

and what that does. Shatters their perception. For that new client, boy, it's a powerful, powerful man. I had female clients that The 20 pound dumbbells were the heaviest that they ever went and so getting them to go up to the 25 or the 30 Right or the 40s was like it just shattered their paradigm improve their confidence and now they're like I'm strong I'm actually strong. It's like you could have done this before you were just afraid Yeah, and so increasing the weight improves the client trainer relationship and improves their relationship to fitness. All three though are examples of

progressively overloading the body which is the most important thing. Adding weight could be one of the examples, adding repetitions and slowing down tempo. All three will get the job done. All three will be a novel stimulus, will continue to build muscle, are great for anybody at any level, but here's where the individualized part comes in and where coaching and training will always be better than a bunch of three talking heads on a podcast because that trainer, if they're a good trainer, they factor in the other variable of I know my client and I know what they're going to need the most.

Next question is from Chris Shenanigans. I've heard you guys say protein is hit or miss daily It's not a weekly average Why if I hit 150 grams one day 250 grams the next for an average of 200 grams per day Why does that not work? You don't store it like carbs? Yeah, you don't store You don't store protein like you do with carbohydrates or fat so Fat you obviously store it on your body as body fat uh although if you go too low a fat for too long that's not good, it'll kill you. Carbohydrates you store in the form of glycogen uh your liver and your muscles will hold that for you. Protein you don't store the protein on your body is your

like actual active tissue you don't want your body to pull from those tissues. By the way, that's hard to do. You have to really starve yourself for a while for that to happen. But here's what happens when you overeat protein. So let's say the maximum benefit you can get from protein for you is 200 grams. Everything above and beyond that gets converted to energy

in the form of glycogen or stored body fat if your calories are too high. You don't take that extra protein and store it for the day after. So you can use it later for recovery. It doesn't happen. Carbohydrates you store, fat you store. So protein is the one thing that you need

to hit consistently to reap the most benefits. You can't have three high protein. Now, there is evidence, because I'm gonna get people that say this, there is evidence that shows that when you go lower protein back to higher protein, muscle protein synthesis levels change. So there is some compensation. So what I'm saying is over generalized and black and white.

I know it's not as black and white as what I'm saying, because it is true. Like if you go low protein one day, high protein the next day, your body, it does more protein synthesis the next day to kind of offset. So, but it's not storing it, it's still not storing it. So yes, there's some compensation, but the compensation is not the same as with carbohydrates or with fat or with calories. Calories can average out over a week or definitely over a few days. Protein, not really.

Next question is from Sean Dickerson. I keep seeing that taking baking soda before you work out will give you bigger pumps. Is there any truth to this? I'm worried instead of getting bigger pumps is going to be bigger dumps. Is this a thing? Doug, look up- Is baking soda a thing? Look up the studies on baking soda and athletic performance. What's it? It's actually It's actually sodium. What is it? Bicarbonate. Yeah, so it buffers like a precursor to nitric oxide. No, what is it buffers your blood? It's a buffer So I'm making he's talked about was briefly. Yeah, so Enhances athletic performance particularly high intensity activities by buffering the acidity that builds up in muscles

during exercise. So it's a buffering process. Now here's a deal. I have never seen this or tried this. Here's a deal. It works. I've done this for acid reflux. And it helps a bit.

Well yeah. Though this, it works by the way. The data on baking soda for high intensity exercise, like there is a measurable improvement in athletic performance. So it's actually, when you're looking at it, especially for stamina and endurance, high intensity style, it's probably one of the best things you could take. Is it in a short term or is this like consistently?

Before. So you take it before you work out. Now, here's the bad part. A high percentage of people who do this will get diarrhea Which is not good for athletic performance great pumps, but huge dumps, but it's but it is true. It's weird. It's weird It's cheap. You can test this out. If you're one of those people that can do this. Well, like a table spoon Oh, you know what? Good question, Doug. Look up how much baking soda to improve athletic performance.

You see how good the AI is though, by the way, it's gotta be like a teaspoon. It's gotta be like a teaspoon and that's what it gives you, no? Yes. So, but listen, the data on this is fascinating. By the way, this is old study. Like a lot of studies have been done this for years,

so this isn't like new. It's been around for a long time. I've heard about this, I've never actually actually applied it I wish I would have experimented yeah does that give you a dose Doug I am looking for that yeah look up how much yeah how do you three to four three four taste a lot of four hours teaspoons four hours before athletic performance oh so it's four hours before oh uh-huh um interesting I've never tried this okay kind of want to try it you know because I tend to have gut issues anyway,

so I'll be really mad if I did this and then gut it. That tastes terrible. Baking soda's not bad. It's not bad. Really? Yeah, you mix it in water. I mean, it's chalky, salty, kinda weird. Yeah, it tastes like salty alka-salt.

You used to brush your teeth with that, didn't you? Yeah, I still use toothpaste, that's got it. You know what's funny? Baking soda was the go-to remedy for heartburn, for like you said. My dad just sweared by it. Okay, so yeah, and this always was a factor for me when I'd stay at a friend's house.

I was always like paranoid because I get like crazy. I was like, everybody carries Tums and my lanta and whatever the fuck else I need to solve my issues. But everybody has baking soda? But everybody has baking soda. That's weird. So I, in the middle of the night, I remember, you know, I stayed at a friend's house. I was unfamiliar with their house and I'm just like, you know, 2 a.m. like going through

their cabinets and shit. Found baking soda. I'm like, yes! And I'd take two mugs, I'd be burping forever and then finally I'd like calm down. But yeah, it totally works. Yeah, my dad does This is like an old Sicilian remedy my grandmother you take baking soda and you add lemon to it in water I miss it. There's a lot of like food recipes that include a few teaspoons

so it absorbs Smells and you know, so would it wait? Yeah, that's how we've always is in the refrigerator You keep it open in there to help absorb the smells and stuff like that keep that down So with the foods that contain that extra baby, that's how we've always is in the refrigerator you keep it open in there to help absorb the smells and stuff like that keep that down So with the foods that contain that extra baby, it's enough I don't know very many how much you're gonna need three to four taste tablespoons or teaspoons of baking soda I think I think like cakes and things like that. It's very very low amounts. Okay, it's blended in Yesterday I worked out, I had three teaspoons of baking soda. How'd you get it?

I ate a whole cake. You ate a cake? I don't know. Next question is from Dr. Cotton. Any tips for hitting all heads of the triceps when behind the neck movements cause elbow pain or discomfort? I don't think it's a mobility issue since the pain is at the flexion point, not when having hands behind the head." So okay first off, to be

clear, you're hitting all three heads anytime you do a tricep exercise. Can't isolate a part of them. So you're always hitting them. Now it is true that when your elbows are above your head that the stretch is in the long head, because that's the one that attaches the scapula. And so it is being more targeted, I hate using that word, but it is being more targeted because of the stretch. Now here's what I would do with my clients who would have elbow issues with overhead exercises. We would still do them, we'd do them so light,

it was silly, because this would actually fix it. This would fix it. So like let's say your workout, normally you'd use a 30 pound dumbbell overhead. I'm giving you a seven pound dumbbell and you're slowly stretching. You can do that even in a rubber band. And squeezing at the top. Like I am not a believer. Now there's definitely if you have an injury, acute injury, like avoid the movement that hurts it. But I'm in the school of thought that if an exercise hurts, figure out why it hurts and fix that. And I'm telling you, sometimes what fixes that issue

is to go super light and then practice that movement. I also like, which is also going lighter, doing single arm this way. Because then it allows, like when you do the, like in a easy curl or a machine or a dumbbell you're in this fixed position where if I kick out and I can open up it gives a little relief and sometimes people are like this and they're straining their their neck and their shoulders to do that position or simply just by doing a single I can I can kind of position my body

and body a little bit to where it's more comfortable yet still get the benefits of the stretch I to this day when I was a kid I was really strong at this exercise so it's like you know when you're a kid and you're strong at something you're like cool let's show off in the gym so I'd use a 120 pound dumbbell and I go crazy with it. These days I go light when I do overhead I use a rope I use the cable and my goal is to get a deep stretch and squeeze, and I don't do it heavy, and I get great results from it. I love this.

I single dumbbell it. I love a single dumbbell one at a time like that, and that way too I can focus on balancing it out and get the stretch. I'm also not risking a lot because I'm not as heavy, but then it increases the intensity. So those are some ways to do it. At the end of the day too, if it absolutely was bothering my client that much, it's not like the end of the world. No, it's not a squat or a deadlift,

like this functional movement that you absolutely have to do. Absolutely. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. Justin is at Mind Pump Justin. I'm at Mind Pump to Stefano, and Adam is at Mind Pump Adam. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump.

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