Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2643: Six Data-Backed Reasons Why Becoming a Father is a Hack & More (Listener Coaching)

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

Mind Pump Fit Tip: 6 Data-Backed Reasons Why Becoming a Father is a Hack. (1:37) Tech addiction and the downstream effects on your brain. (28:47) 10 reasons why people go to rehab. (36:22) AI worship. (39:21) Kids say the darndest things. (43:53) Bullish on Bitcoin. (49:37) Hustles experienced. (51:57) Elite Trainer Academy Podcast. (53:29) #Quah question #1 – I keep seeing female fitness influencers show off their flat stomachs and basketball-sized booties while telling social media how this look is attainable. But is it really? I have always noticed with my own body that when my waist becomes more snatched, my glutes begin to shrink. So, how can I or anyone else achieve that basketball-sized booty while attaining a flat stomach at the same time? (56:31) #Quah question #2 – How often should I change my routine? Should it be a complete overhaul or a change to a specific exercise? (1:00:17) #Quah question #3 – Are belt squats as beneficial as barbell squats? (1:04:45) #Quah question #4 – Best workout plan for an overweight new dad? (1:06:53) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Rock Recovery Center for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Ben and Tom know firsthand the struggles of addiction and alcoholism. With years of experience helping thousands of individuals, they offer a free consultation call to discuss your situation. Whether you’re personally battling addiction or have a loved one in need of help, they’re here to guide you toward the support you need. By filling out the form and scheduling your call, you’ll also be entered for a chance to win a free 60-day scholarship at Rock Recovery Center, their premier treatment center in West Palm Beach, Florida. Don’t wait—take the first step today. ** Elite Trainer Academy - Podcast July Special: MAPS Split or Anabolic Metabolism Bundle 50% off! ** Code JULY50 at checkout ** Transitioning to fatherhood: Prospective effects of wellbeing on future depression symptoms Parents live longer than their childless counterparts, study finds People with children live longer, study finds — but only this many kids First-time fathers show longitudinal gray matter cortical volume reductions: evidence from two international samples  Exploring men’s alcohol consumption in the context of becoming a father: a scoping review Father Involvement and Father-Child Relationship Quality: An Intergenerational Perspective A Father’s Impact on Child Development ChatGPT's Impact On Our Brains According to an MIT Study | TIME Get your free Sample Pack with any “drink mix” purchase! Find your favorite LMNT flavor, or share it with a friend. Try LMNT risk-free. If you don’t like it, give it away to a salty friend and we’ll give you your money back, no questions asked! Visit DrinkLMNT.com/MindPump Mind Pump #1987: How to Burn Fat & Build Muscle at the Same Time How Phasing Your Workouts Leads to Consistent Plateau Free Workouts Mind Pump #2572: Only 15 Minutes a Day to Build Muscle & Burn Fat Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Stephen C. Meyer (@StephenCMeyer) / X Bishop Robert Barron (@bishopbarron)  Instagram Kyle P (@mindpumpkyle) 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. You just found mind pump. In today's episode, we answered listeners' questions. People went to Instagram and posted a question at mind pump media. We picked four of them, but we didn't answer them until we finished the intro today's intro was 52 minutes long in the intro we talked

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Helps trainers become better personal trainers. We also have a sale this month on some workout programs. MAPS split in the anabolic metabolism bundle of programs. All of that is 50% off. Just head over to mapsfitnessproducts.com and then use the code JULY50 for that discount. Back to the show. Hey dads, you want to unlock a happier, sharper, longer life? Tune in for six data-backed reasons why becoming a father is a hack, why it can improve your life, and why you should probably do it.

Let's get into it. Yes, I looked up data. So, and I'd like to go through this and each of these reasons, and again, they're backed by a lot of actual studies. I'd like to go through them, and then we can kind of go through our own experiences and talk about if we actually experienced some of it.

So the first one was improved mental health and reduced depression risk. In fact, I'll bring up what the study says around this. One of the best studies, so there was a 2015 study, that was in the American Journal of Men's Health, and it found that fatherhood reduced depressive symptoms in men, particularly when actively engaged in parenting. Fathers reported lower rates of depression

compared to childless men with stronger sense of purpose linked to caregiving roles. So this reminds me of what you've shared, you've been sharing recently on the podcast that I think is such a great hack, which is this, practicing these, these constant check-ins throughout the day podcast that I think is such a great hack, which is this is practicing these, you know, these, you know, constant, like check ins throughout the day where you have you do your

gratitude. Stay with me here. This is where I see this like the same thing is one of the most amazing things that you get when having a child that maybe you didn't anticipate, or at least I didn't anticipate, is all these random moments in a day where he does things that either make you so proud or fill your heart with so much joy. Like just the, I mean, kids just will, he'll randomly come over and just touch me and be like, daddy, I love you. And you're like, ugh. And just shows you that need as humans, even though we're these grown men who don't cry, don't need, but yet how good that feels

to have another being say that about you and then the feeling that gives you, real hard to have a bad day, real hard to feel sorry for yourself or be down on yourself in a moment like that. And so I think if you're to the point of the study, if you're a very active dad with your child, then you get these unbelievable rewarding moments sprinkled throughout the day all the time.

And I think that has to play a massive role. Oh, I agree. If I think to the most joyful moments I've had this week or this year or the last five years, majority of them involve my children and they're little things, right? They're little things like what you said, like, you're my favorite, you're my best friend, or I love you. When I grow up, I want to be just like my dad. Yeah, or, you know, what are you drawing a picture of, buddy? Oh, this is me. friend or I love you. When I grow up I want to be just like my dad. Yeah, or what are you drawing a picture of buddy? Oh, this is me, I'm just like you or stuff like that. And it's like, boy, boy is that amazing.

And then when it comes to mental health and depression, and this is true for men and women, it's especially true for men, being too self-focused is actually one of the main reasons or causes of depression. It being, just constantly thinking about yourself. I can't think of. That's asking me out of that all the time.

Bro, I can't think of, aside from my faith, I can't think of something that didn't make me, that made me as other focused as being a dad. Like that's immediate. Like if you care and you wanna be there and you love your kid, you immediately realize you're not the center of this whole thing and you want,

and you're focused now on someone else rather than just always on yourself. That's, for mental health, that's tremendous. And you can look at it kind of like a conscience. Like I have like an extra conscience. I'm just aware of what I'm doing and how it's affecting people that I really care about. And I know it's definitely going to trickle down. They're going to pick up on it because they're sponges. And it's even just like through my own experience, it's going to improve my own

behaviors in a way I'm addressing life. Here's a simple one. Okay, they're holidays. Holidays, when you're a kid, certain holidays are so fun. Then when you're an adult, like whatever. Then when you have kids, they're the most fun. Like Halloween, Easter, even things like Valentine's Day, it could be so fun like Halloween, Easter, like you know even things like Valentine's Day like it could be so fun when you have kids whereas when you're

an adult it's like okay cool you know Halloween I'm at a party again like I'm over it you know type of deal or whatever you get to experience all this kind of cool stuff or having your kid like ride a bike for the first time or you know all that stuff. You know it's attributed a lot of it to play, because, and I know Jordan Peterson talks about this a lot now, but it pulls you back in. It's like, and what really does that anymore as an adult? It's really hard to find opportunities for play.

Bro, I was at the creek, I go to the, every week now, we go to the nearby park, and there's a creek. And I used to love doing this as a kid. I think a lot of boys love doing this when you're little. Throwing rocks in the creek's so fun, right? You just throw a rock, try to hit some, skip rocks. All day. I never did that as a grown man by myself.

That's just, I don't know, I just never went to a creek as a grown man and started throwing rocks in there. I think it'd be kind of weird. But now my son and my kids are doing it, I'm doing it again. And it's like super fun. And again, the data on this, by the way, the reason why it's such an important topic is people having less and less and less kids.

Part of the reason is I think that what is advertised are the challenges and what's not advertised are the benefits. Because it used to be not that long ago that a man's pride was how many children can you support and how many are your father. Well, I like that we bring it up because it really isn't getting promoted. It's the opposite that we're always receiving. There's another way to do this and I think that it's great to at least put it out there. There's a lot of value and reward from having kids.

Well, and to speak more to what you touched on with one of the hallmarks of depression is the hyper-focus on yourself, right? And the comparing of you to others and just like so focused on you. I mean, we had a caller recently that called in that was battling with that. And that was one of the points that you made was like,

be careful with how much you focus on everything that you're doing and find something else to help and work towards and that will end. I can't be, at least I don't think I'm alone in this feeling that one of the biggest things that I noticed with having Max that I didn't know until afterwards was up into that point in my life, I would have said, or I did say, that I loved a lot of things. I loved my mom, I loved my dad, I loved my sister, I loved my friends, I loved my job, I loved a lot of things, I loved my dogs,

I loved a lot of things, and said those things. But not more than myself, right? Like if it came down to sacrificing myself. And you might have even said that. Wouldn't I have loved my wife more than myself? I did, I would have said that. That's what I mean. Like I think I would have even said,

oh yeah, I love my mom or my wife more than me. But when you finally do truly love something more than yourself, it's very, you know it. It's clear. It's very clear. Yeah, it is. And so at that moment for me, I realized like, oh wow, yes, I do love all those things and they mean so much to me and I would do a lot for all those things

I said and still but I actually didn't love it more than myself until I felt that love For with for a child like that shifted it completely. You know, what's interesting about that is Obviously because you're the mother of your child Cares for him does all these things. You saw her give birth to him. You love her more. Gave me a way deeper look for her. Hunter, Hunter, Hunter.

All this stuff in a lock. I don't know if that's in your list or not too, but the power of how it can grow a marriage too, because now all of a sudden you have this thing that for the first time in your life, you truly love more than yourself, right? Truly, truly love more than yourself. And then that thing is taken care of

by something else that you love. It just, it grows both of those exponentially and that the power of that is, and the reward and the joy that comes from that is consistent. It's a consistent, and I feel the more I pour in and give to it, the more reward I get back. You know what's funny about that? You know what's funny about what you're saying, not to go off on taking a left here, but when somebody genuinely loves your kids, even if they're an annoying person and you didn't really like them before for whatever reason, you can't help but like them.

When they love your kids and you see them love your kids, now you like them. Even if before, you know there's family members and friends that I'm like, I don't really like that person. Not for any particular reason, it's not my favorite people, whatever. Then you see them love on your kid, you're like, I like you a lot because you love this thing that I value so much. For sure. Pretty amazing. All right, next is increased longevity. Here's the study, the 2017 study from the Journal of Epidemiology And community health showed that men who became fathers live longer than their childless counterparts There was one study that found that there was a two-year increase in life expectancy, especially for those with multiple

Children so when you go through these yeah, I like Justin and I, is to try and guess why. Yeah. You know, like, Why do you think men with children live longer? Built in purpose. Yeah, of course. I think it's built in, and we know this from, You want to see it through.

We know this from other studies. One of the fastest way to, that you see men decline, and this is both men and women, but men in particular decline is when they retire. They lose their purpose. They had a very clear purpose for 30, 40 years, go to that job, get the money, provide for the family, that gave you purpose. Then you lose that, which so many people work towards thinking that it's going to get better. And in fact, life doesn't get better. In fact, a lot of men go through that midlife crisis and don't know what to do next because that gave,

and so having kids builds in that purpose. Well, yeah, and I think, I know this, right? You'll have men who'll be like, man, I gotta stop drinking so much, or I gotta watch my diet, or I gotta move more. Why? I'm a dad, I can't, like I gotta take care of myself better. I wanna see my grandkids. Now of course someone listening is like, well I know a lot

of dads are like, yeah of course. I'm talking generally speaking though, the data shows this, generally speaking, a man who gets older without children, without that, lives less long, they're more risky, they're more, they don't care for themselves in the same way because it's only about them. When you're weighing out my own pleasure versus nothing else, well I'm just gonna go for my own pleasure. When it's my own pleasure versus I wanna stick around for my kids, you love your kids, that's a strong motivation.

Plus you have the social support, right? When you have children, as your children get older, here's what happens, this is me right now. So I'm a middle-aged man with parents now who are older and they have personal training and there's certain things that they do with their diet because you know why? Their kids, me and my other siblings,

wanna see mom and dad be healthy. So now they have that social support where we're trying to encourage them to be healthier. And that's another thing too. Like you get old and you don't have children, social support where we're trying to encourage them to be healthier. And that's another thing too, like you get old and you don't have children, you know, oh boy that can be really difficult. Who's going to care for you? Who's going to be there for you as you get older? But yeah, the data on this shows, this is especially true for men by the way, men can be very self-focused and do a lot of things that aren't so healthy for them.

But when they have children, it tends to change that. Next is enhanced brain function and neuroplasticity. Check out this study, 2020 study in the cerebral cortex, it's a magazine or called Cerebral Cortex, revealed that fatherhood induces neuroplastic changes in the brain, particularly in areas like the prefrontal cortex, which governs decision making and emotional regulation.

Fathers showed increased neural connectivity compared to non-fathers. All right, why do you think that is? Why do you think your brain becomes more plastic, you have more connection to the part of the brain that does executive function? Also very obvious to me. It's the, I mean, when Katrina and I even have a conversation or make a decision,

we no longer just think about, oh, this is what we want to do. We also think of like, oh, how do we need to communicate this to him so he understands correctly and we don't negatively impact him? So the executive functioning or the brain that goes, I've got to think five layers deep before I just make this move is activated. Especially if you want to be a good dad, right? If I'm inspired to be a good parent and I want my kids to turn out right, I don't just react. And maybe old version me, whose I only suffer the consequences of being an asshole, I only suffer the consequences of having a short temper, I only suffer the consequences,

but I no longer only suffer from those consequences. So I now process things different than I ever had to do before, which I imagine challenges my brain in a way. Of course, there's more challenges, more variables, more obstacles to kind of work through, which challenges the brain just like anything else Like this is like to me. It's it just seems like it it provides that type of stimulus for growth, right? So it's like it's it because it's constant you don't it's it's not a job that you're just gonna walk away from

You know, it's not something that like, you know, I you know, I work on this But then I come home and like this is like a constant that like, you know, I work on this, but then I come home and this is like a constant growth pattern that you're training your brain to solve and problem solve, but also too, to just get ahead of it. The body and the brain, the brain is included in the body. So talk about strength training. Do your muscles grow and get stronger without a challenge or stress?

No. You can't build muscle unless you challenge your muscle. And the less you challenge your muscle, the weaker they get. This is all you use as a deterrent. That's right. Yes. Yes, you're right. So why do you have so much neuroplasticity when you become a dad? It's hard. It's hard. You got to grow. You are, if you care and love your forces, the issue, you are gonna grow because you're gonna have an infant. Then you're gonna have a toddler. Then you're gonna have a young child. Then you're gonna have an adolescent. Then you're gonna have have a toddler, then you're going to have a young child, then you're going to have an adolescent,

then you're going to have a teenager, then you're going to have a kid in their 20s, and then you might become a grandparent. And so all of that requires growth. It requires you become wiser and smarter and you can think of things differently than if you were just you doing your thing all the time, which requires very little type of growth. Now could you induce this growth in other ways? Of course you could, but I'll challenge somebody to say, find something you'd care about as much as you would care

about your own child, because that's the only fair comparison. Also, find something that, because you're right, someone could, somebody with a lot of discipline and consistency could say, I'm going to read and grow and do these things every day, but the beauty of the child is built in. I don't have a choice. Every day it's going to wake up and present me with new challenges. You get to choose the challenge.

Yeah, exactly. I don't like, I'm not actively carving out an hour a day. I'm going to read this book. And some days I decide I want to take that off. You don't get that. You don't get that luxury of, I'm going to take it off. Which for growth, it's a great thing. It forces that growth. And even things that are shared recently. I love sharing the things that I did wrong and what I'm trying to get better about.

I love the neuroscience around a child's brain development and how I can be better about the way I communicate something. And I recently caught myself doing something that wasn't ideal. Like an example was, you know, when he's struggling to find his words, me saying, use your words. And I had no idea that I'm prompting him to wait for your wait for my prompt to then do that, which then is in inducing him to go back to the cry, the whine, or the behavior before, which I should be just giving him the answer of, say this, and then that's how he gets

whatever he wants. And so, I mean, that's, that, you would never be thinking that many layers deep in a normal day if it wasn't being presented to me like that. And again, again, the reason why this is so powerful for this type of growth, and we're talking specifically about the brain, is because you care so much about them. That's one of the main reasons. So you could go and attempt this without children, but that would mean for an effective comparison, it would have to be something that you cared about. Deeply care about, yeah.

Okay, because there are people like this. Eat, sleep, and breathe. Look, I'm not going to, because there are people like this. Eat, sleep, and breathe. Look, I'm not gonna say there aren't people like this. There are studies that show that people who find this incredible, deep passion, it's typically, it's religious, typically it's a monk or somebody that's in this volunteer mission that really believes in what they're doing, that will find something similar. But if you're like, yeah, I'm gonna go do crossword puzzles, I'm gonna work, I'm gonna go, you know, study things. Not the same, it's not even close. And back to what you said about the unpredictable

challenge of it, who's more resilient physically? The guy that goes to the gym with a structured workout, still strong, still building his muscle, or the guy that works out in physical labor with unpredictable stuff and does that for decades? I'm going to tell you right now, I lift weights all the time. A blue collar worker who goes out and makes it happen, it's unpredictable, will work me under the table.

Another way to say it too is that who would be more dangerous or better? The guy who practices the martial art every day and practices skills and never fights. Or the guy that's in a fight every day. You know what I'm saying? That's the one you worry about, the one who's in the fight every day. Next is lower risk of substance abuse. So 2018 study in drug and alcohol

dependence found that men who became fathers are far less likely to engage in substance abuse including alcohol and drug use compared to non-fathers. There was also a 30% reduction in heavy drinking among new fathers. Again, it's like you are now thinking about someone else. Monkey see, monkey do. So I'd imagine even the father that may not be on top of a lot of things realizes that, hey, the things I do, my son's probably going to model, my daughter's going to model, therefore I should probably nip some of these things in the butt or be at the very least aware of it because there's a very good chance they'll go down the street. I know people who regularly, for example,

I'll give you an example, I know people who smoke weed regularly. They had kids, they reduced their use, and they smoke weed when the kids aren't around. Yeah, that's me. Because they don't want the kids to see them. Yeah, that's me. That's me.

I make a very conscious effort that he can't even smell that smell So if i'm going to partake in something like that, because you don't want him to do it And again, they're coming there's going to time in high school and that'll be a conversation in and i'm not anti-weed obviously But I also don't want to promote that either So it's like I I go through lots of lengths to make sure that if I'm gonna partake in something like that That and I'm going to delay how long we have that conversation I don't want him at the age of seven going daddy What's that smell and then I got to figure that out? You know I'm saying like not a good time

Yeah, I mean it's all modeling and it's also like you want to be present you you don't want to Escape and have these things where it's like, okay, what if something happens while you're in this state of like, you're inebriated, you know, and then you're caught with your pants down. Like, that's a horrible idea. You ever thought about that? That happens to me. I thought about that all the time.

Oh yeah, it's like, even if you're out, a night out, someone's watching the kids, they put them to bed and you're hanging out, and you're like, I don't want to get too messed up. What if something happens in the middle of the night? And I hear wits about you. That's right. Next up is the stronger social connections.

A 2016 study in social science and medicine found that fathers develop stronger social networks through involvement in child-related activities like school events and sports. Fathers reported a 25% increase in social interactions compared to childless men. This is especially true for men. We become hermits, easily.

A man becomes a hermit. When you look at a man without kids, without a wife especially, they very easily slip into not interacting with a lot of people. Yeah, we go straight into provider mode. Yeah, or even if you don't have, especially if you don't have a wife,

you're just not, as you get older, you become more and more and more isolated. This tends to happen to men. When you have children, you're meeting other parents, they're in school, or they're friends with other kids, you're meeting other people with kids, you're putting yourself out there for the sake of your child,

which increases social connections. Social connections is a key predictor of health, overall health, overall wellness and happiness. These days especially, it's something that can be easily lost because of technology. It's very easy to get everything you need and do everything you need without really being around a lot of people. Having kids encourages that. Like if you have a kid in sports, you're gonna meet other people because of that sport, just that alone.

Yeah, I mean, so I'm admittedly a father or a man that is not out there seeking new male partnership relationships, right? I'm not like, oh, I need another friend, I'm not actively trying to do that. But I'm also in the same breath, the dad who is like, oh, my son is becoming good friends with this, I wanna meet the parents.

You know what I'm saying? This kid is hanging out with my kid all the time. They've become best friends. Well, I wanna see what their mom and dad are like. So Katrina and I will hang out with the parents. Like that's just, and I would never do that. I would never go hang out with some random parents, uh, just to build more relationships. I just don't, I would, I would make a million excuses why not do it, no matter what the studies say about health. But

because I have a kid, I look through that lens. It's like, I want to know who my son is calling his best friend, the values that the parents have, what they're teaching their kid. Cause I know that kid is going to end up influencing as much much maybe more of my son and his behaviors than even I can and if that's true then I need to make sure that these parents are somewhat aligned with similar values as we have. Yeah and then finally I think this is the best one there's a increased sense of purpose and life satisfaction and there's lots of studies on this but there was one study done by the American Sociological Association found a 70% of fathers felt their life had greater meaning after having children. This is a

big one right like if your sense of purpose is just you versus when you have kids it is a big difference. You ask any dad who cares about their kids, about their purpose and meaning of life, and part of that answer is probably gonna include their children. It's an automatic sense of purpose. Sometimes this can push us in the wrong direction, by the way, which I think a lot of, I think men need coaching sometimes from other well-established fathers because sometimes you know what this looks like for a man, oh my god I have kids I gotta work five times as much. Now I have such a strong sense of purpose I need to just work my ass off. By the way the data on this

is interesting, men, the highest earning category of people in modern societies are married men with children. Gee I wonder why, Because you have a very strong sense of purpose. You're driven, yeah. That's 100%. There's this very nihilistic view that some people hold of that we're this irrelevant little speck on this rock spinning through the universe and one day we're gonna die.

And a handful of people will show up to our funeral and then a month will go by and no one will ever speak of you. And, and, and there's a lot of, a lot of people that, that think from that perspective and believe that. And I like to think that there's a part of you that lives on through your children. And there's, there's, there is a bit of, of me that gets carried on forever through my son and hopefully my son's son and my son.

Like, and if, and I play a big role in that, if I influence him in a positive way and give him all of me and my knowledge, then he's all of me and some, and he carries that on. And to me, that's legacy. That's real legacy is like, I've taken what I, everything I did over whatever timeframe I'm on this, on this spinning rock, I put that into this thing that shares my genetics and then it's going to go pass it on. Like that is the closest thing to living on beyond, uh, our death. And I think that to not see that or realize that or appreciate that,

I think is crazy. I think that's, uh, one of the coolest things to, I mean, as I know mine's only six right now, but as you start to see their personalities unfold and you see little specs of yourself in them, you're like, Oh man, that's, that's cool. You know, you get, and, and can I help, help develop that or maybe help show him where that could go the wrong way and like, and like, you get to play that role. And so a part of you kind of lives on forever if done correctly. Now the other side of this is you have less time less money and it's hard. Yeah it's hard it's hard but I'm a now that I'm again I'm speaking to men right now if you don't do something amazing that'll change your life that's one of the best things you can do, because it's hard, then you're a pussy. Because everything worth anything in life is hard.

Nothing that is super easy is in the same category. So of course it's hard. It's one of the greatest things you'll ever do, and it's hard, and yes, you're signing up for that challenge, but it's totally worth it, and it is, yes. And again, I want to tell guys like you're gonna become a dad It's gonna challenge you like yeah I want to I want to I want to push back a little bit on the time and money thing a little bit and

Where I mean I want to push back is that I do think that's what's perceived Is that all that was all this time? I won't have and all this money it costs to have a kid I would it's similar to like I mean you could make the same argument with getting married, right? it's another person that you have to, is dependent on you. But as a married man with a kid, I am a better version of myself. I think I'm a far more successful version. So I think I have significantly more money than I would have had all by myself without a kid. Having a partner, having a child, uh,

costs more money independent of itself, but because it gives me a greater purpose, I've, I've reaped more benefits. Sure. That's why I said the wealthiest men are dad. And then the time argument, uh, done a lot of cool things before I had a kid in my 20s, in my early 30s, right? A lot of cool things that have created neat memories and I had none of them come close to comparing

to the memories that I already have with my kids. It's only been six years. Right, and it's only been six years. So the time that you think you lose out on or that you trade for other things, guess what? Ends up being far more valuable and greater to you anyways. No, that's great. Earlier we were talking about how technology can make it so easy to stay isolated. Doug, I would love for you to look up a statistic on tech addiction, if there's a definition for it, and if people are seeking help for it.

And this is just on the heels of that one study that showed that people who are using AI regularly are actually losing. IQ's dropping. Yeah, their brains are becoming atrophied. In fact, there's some studies that suggest that the brain shrinks in certain areas, like muscle, that's getting weaker and atrophying. And so I'm wondering how aware people are

about tech addiction and what that does. And what does that say up there? How do they define it? It's a compulsive and excessive use of technology, including the internet, social media, online gambling, and other digital devices that leads to negative consequences in a person's life. It's characterized by a loss of control over technology use

despite negative impacts on relationships, work, school, or mental and physical health. Is there a stat on what percentage of people report? So, Sal, wouldn't the same thing be shown in a study? If you took a group of 100 people that, for say, I don't know, whatever period of time you want the study to run for, one group always uses a calculator.

The other group always does long form math. I would imagine the ones that don't go long form and use the calculator, their brain atrophies somewhat. And the ones that do challenge their brain in that way. Yeah, so no, that's a great question. And the reason why I bring that up is because that's how people are going to view this.

It's like, of course, I no longer, of course, it atrophies, who cares? The AI is handling it for me. Just like we, like how is that any different than a calculator? So I'll give you the example, because that's a great way to position it. How much are you willing to give up?

Yeah, it's such a great way to position it. So I don't, we'll use muscle and physical ability. I don't think we should go back to a time when we were breaking rocks and washing things by hand and being, everything's so physical. GPS and all that. I think that that, I think there was, get rid of some of that, right?

I think, but we've gone so far in that we don't do anything physical now that, to the point now where we're having all these detrimental effects from lack of activity, to the point where we have to schedule activity. So I think some stuff makes sense, but I think what these AI studies are showing is that we do everything through AI,

which is what AI promises to do. That we're gonna have actual cognitive decline. Let's stay here with that, the direction you're going. Okay. Cause that from our perspective and our age that we grew up in, that makes logical sense, like, Oh, let's not go back to breaking rocks and do it. But I mean, I can imagine if I was somebody who was born in the thirties or like that, I might make the argument like, why not?

You're doing something productive with your hands. Like at least that energy, you go to a gym and lift a bunch of iron for no reason, just to look a certain way. And I would say, you take that same energy, you could go build a house, Sal. You could go, you know. And they would have a good point.

The best comparison I would have would be the Amish. Are the Amish healthier and happier than the average person? Yes. They are. Yeah, statistically they are. So I don't, so yeah dude, they are. But now, how far do you want to go with this? I think that we're going to see downstream effects

that we can't even predict. Yeah, the concern is there's so many things you can offload now with the potential of AI as opposed to like having like certain things like I could drive more effectively because I know where I'm going because now like you know, GPS takes me where I need to go and it's like a convenience thing

but I could still challenge myself in so many ways. Stuff to think. Where AI is coming in is it's like, it's taking over a lot. Outsource everything. You're going to outsource everything. Yeah. Okay.

My reason why I keep going back to bringing it way back is because I don't think it's any different. The only difference is the speed at which we see fat, depression, and everything rise. That's it. It's going to be the same thing. The only difference is people will get fatter faster, they'll get sicker faster, and everything rise. That's it. It's going to be the same thing. The only difference is people will get fatter faster, they'll get sicker faster, and they'll get more depressed faster. So we've already been seeing it.

Yeah, because the Industrial Revolution took decades. Right. Yeah, we're looking at like, this is happening right now. And so we've been atrophying for decades too. It's just going to move exponentially faster. We will be sicker, more depressed and fatter faster than what we did for the previous decades. But the same thing, it is the same thing. And the same argument could be made from a guy who was born in the 30s going like, you assholes go to a gym and lift weights. That's ridiculous. Pushing us into wallies. Like,

I could totally see coming from that perspective, like as a man who grew up in the 30s Watching a bunch of men in the 2000s go to a gym. My grandfather said that my grandfather came He's like why why why go do that go build a fence go build a fence for your neighbor My grandfather, you know like I'll never forget he visited from Sicily never left the island and he came to Sicily and he saw Me working out in the backyard. He's laughing so hard.'s like, why are you lifting things and putting it down? He's I used to do that to buy some work. That's what I used to do. And a really good argument, cause I know you like using the stats on happiness.

You could say that, and you know this for doing for others. Imagine if you took, okay, your five hours or seven hours a week that you put into lifting weights in the gym to building something physical for other people. your five hours or seven hours a week that you put into lifting weights in the gym to building something physical for other people. What would that do for our society? What would that do for your personal health? What would do that for your physical health?

I mean. It could, it could, but again, I think it's an interesting conversation, but I don't think we've ever seen anything like this just because of the speed. The speed, that's it. So look at the stats up there. 26, okay, almost 27% of the global population has a smartphone addiction.

Holy cow that's more than a quarter. 14% of people have an internet addiction according to a study published in sciencedirect.com. Additionally, 31% this is a lot of people of US adults report being online almost constantly. Holy cow, 57% of Americans admit to being addicted to their phones. I wonder how many people seek help with that. Probably not many, right? It's got to be a growing field. There's also, there's also these growing things. I mean, did you guys ever hear about when we were kids,

these retreats, these blackout retreats and like, you know, dark retreat, like that's a thing now. And that's a growing thing. Like it's, it never existed. Now it's popular. Iowaska trips are popular now. It's all these things have been around forever, but they're becoming popular for these reasons.

There's more and more people, although a small forever, but they're becoming popular for these reasons. Yeah. There's more and more people, although a small number, but more and more people are realizing- Going nature cleansing. Yeah, yes. Yeah. There's a lot of this stuff that's happened. I just saw one of my friends that's a big social media influencer. She posted like, I'm taking a break on the internet for the next month or whatever that.

See you later. You're starting to see that happen more and more. Well- So there is more awareness. It's the reason why like you know you think to yourself like why would you ever go camping you're gonna go out you're gonna sleep in the way see you know we're heating you're gonna hear it's so hard and then typically when you come back from camping you're like that was awesome I'm so refreshed it's just disconnecting yeah from all the stuff there's something

inside of us that kind of needs it but that the reason why I brought up the tech addiction is we're gonna talk about, or mention, Rock Recovery Center a little bit. This is our friends that have a rehab facility that offer a scholarship to one of our listeners and viewers where you go there and you get, I think it's five months of rehab help.

And I looked up the 10 reasons why people go to rehab. Like what are the main reasons, you guys want to guess the main reasons why people go to rehab? The easiest, the first one obviously is substance abuse, right? I go there for substance abuse, but there's other reasons too. Mental health disorders is one. So many people go there to address co-occurring mental health issues that are often alongside substance use. So they go in there with mental health issues and they're using the drugs or whatever to try to self-medicate. Then another one, here's one of the biggest reasons, legal or court mandated requirements, duh, where the court's like,

listen, you've had three DUIs, you're going to go rehab. Then family or social pressure is another one. Uh, whereas family says, if you don't go, we're going to cut ourselves out and you're going to have to go. Then there's health complications from addiction, job or career consequences, um, behavioral addictions, sometimes non- substance and financial and social stability.

And another one is relapse. People are like, I tried quitting a million times. I need professional help, you know, type of deal. Really interesting. I wonder if... You're gonna see, I bet you will. I mean, you know, the course you will. AI addiction rehab.

It's only gonna get worse. That's what I think. Yeah, I don't disagree with that argument at all. I actually really don't think it is that much different than what we've seen. We're seeing it at such a fast rate because what AI can do. But we've already been watching this happen over decades. And to me, that's the example is like, we're going to have to choose hard and that's hard to do.

No pun intended. I mean, that's- Easy, have everything you think you want or hard and unpredictable. Yeah, that's hard to do, you know, no pun intended. I mean, that- Easy, have everything you think you want or hard and unpredictable. Yeah, that's what it's gonna look like. I mean, look how hard it is to, for what the percentage of population to choose to go to the gym and choose to do hard physical activity.

I know. And we know the benefits. And we know how crazy the benefits are. And yeah, and so this will be. And so this will be no different. This will be no different. It'll be really hard to convince a good portion of the society that. Do you guys think that fitness and health,

for lack of a better term, fanatics, are gonna be the ones that are more likely? For sure. To disconnect? For sure. Because they're health-minded. Yeah. I agree. And they've already connected those dots.

And they already have the discipline, and they're already used to being different. They're already choosing hard. They've already chose to do physical labor to take care of their bodies, once they really make the connection of the mental health side with the tech and everything like that in AI.

They'll be the first ones, I agree. Yeah, they're more likely the first ones. You know, you brought up AI. Justin sent me this video over the weekend on how some people are already worshiping AI. Tell me, so they're already kind of making it their God. Yes, so there's, I don't exactly know the groups where this is happening, but there's been a lot of reports

of people actually starting to worship it because they're getting all these answers and then every day they wake up and they ask questions just like they'd be praying or they'd be doing things. Of course. Yeah, and so it serves a lot of those functions of, you know, if you're perceiving God as this like a genie or this thing that's like… Just gives you what you need.

Yeah, just gives you like answers, you know answers for what's going on. And so it just seemed like, wow, that was an inevitability. Yeah, your anti-cross theory gets stronger and stronger. I agree with it. I didn't want it to come to fruition, but yeah, it is looking like it's making steps. Do you guys know who Stephen Meyer is? That name sounds familiar.

So he's intellectual who who for the last, I'd say 20 years, he's been the guy arguing for intelligent design. And what he does is he debates and discusses with astrophysics and science and biology on why it's more likely that there is a God that there isn't. I watched this video that he did, this talk that he did, and I was somewhat familiar with this but he broke it down. Before the 1920s, or right around the 1920s, most scientists thought that the universe was everlasting and infinite. That was the belief, like it's an everlasting, forever universe.

And then Hubble, I believe, was one of the first to be able to observe that there were other galaxies, because initially it was like this is the only galaxy, and then after that it's just space forever, and it's been around forever. Then they were able to observe light coming from these galaxies and they were able to discern accurately that everything's expanding and moving away from us.

So they were like, okay, if we rewind time back far enough, that means everything was all in this one point and came out of, and then that, and I didn't realize this, he had all these quotes from these scientists who were atheists, and they were angry with this answer. They were like, this doesn't make me feel good. This sounds a lot like theology and creation. I don't like this, and they continue to try to find

loopholes around it to try to make themselves feel better. You know what I would love? I remember when we first connected with Bishop Barron, and I asked him in the interview too, it was like his thoughts are on AI. He couldn't answer because I think back then too, it's like that's a huge can of worms in like unforeseen ways that it's gonna develop. But at this point now to get a lot of the religious community

and to really think these thoughts about like, if people are going to be stepping over here and like using it for spiritual needs, what does that look like with structured religion and then AI being like an option? Well, here's what's interesting. I asked AI, and you can ask, I've seen people post about this, you ask it with all of the available evidence and data, is it more probable that there is an intelligent designer

or more probable that there isn't? And you know what AI says? It's more probable that there is. So AI will actually. Well yeah, and you saw the guy with the highest IQ recording. Yeah, he also says a lot of inflammatory shit. Okay, yeah.

I follow him on Instagram, bro. Oh my God, he's got a little arrogant. Yeah, yeah. Have you seen some of his stuff? I have, yeah, probably. Yeah, yeah, so, okay. Check out this quote that Stefan Meyer shared. This is from Robert Jastrow, who's an astronomer.

For the scientist who has lived by his faith and the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance. He is about to conquer the highest peak. As he pulls himself over that final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. I thought that was so cool. What a great discussion.

If you like this kind of stuff, you've got to find this guy, Stephen Meyer, and he breaks things down pretty well. Yeah, that's a chick, man. Yeah, and he deduces things, so it's really interesting. On a lighter note, I'll tell you guys a story last night. It was Max's birthday. And you guys have obviously have heard my, how we've allowed him to eat sweets as he's gotten older and things like that. And so it's his birthday and we got him a cake.

And this year, I think this is the first year we got him a normal cake, right? So all the dyes and. Yeah, no, no, no, I mean like the first. Oh yeah, you know, that's a good question. It still was a blueberry. It was like a traditional cake or you're still making a healthy cake?

It was blueberry chiffon. Chiffon's pretty light. And you know, they use whipped cream. Oh, okay. Still on the lighter side. But before that, they've always been homemade. Katrina makes all the natural ones made out of banana and stuff like that.

So it's next level. Yeah, so this is like the next level. And I also now have, you know, allowed, there's been moments and times where I don't regulate and all right, let's go have some cake with that. And so I let them have a big piece of cake or whatever. And dude, we're sitting there. It's, did he eat the whole thing? Yeah, yeah, he ate it. Um, what do you say while he was eating it? I mean,

you could tell it was a lot for him because he's not, it's overwhelming. Well, and then like, and then we're building Legos like five minutes later, and he's like farting. Like, just, and I'm like, and I'm looking, I'm like, bro. I'm like, those are, and he's like, yeah, daddy, I'm older now, so my farts are worse. I'm like, oh, is that, I said, do you think maybe it might have been the cake that daddy let you have?

No, no, no, it's because I'm getting older. Because I'm a man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a man. So that was in the- I can't blame you, that's kind of true. So that was like in the early evening before bed, then it's time for bed. And this has never happened before. So it's so funny. It's I'm sure it's all

connected. Okay, so Katrina and I put him down and we just had to lay lay in bed, we're gonna watch a movie and we just got comfortable and we're laying that just started the movie or whatever. And he comes busting through the door. I gotta poop Announces it to us if I've never done that before I just bust through the the bedroom door. I gotta poop Go buddy go so he runs in the bathroom Have you guys ever heard me tell you his funny? Do you guys remember me telling you what when he goes to poop what he does know with the flashlight and all that stuff?

No. Yeah. Yes. So my son has this thing about pooping in the dark. He has to have his flashlight. He wants it completely dark. He wants his privacy. So I'm laughing because you ever have one of those poops like you ate some food and you're like, you just need to turn the lights down. You don't want to look at it, you just flush it out of there. He gets completely naked. He turns his clothes off. Yes, bro, he takes his clothes off.

He turns off the light. I see him right now. It is like a 40 minute ordeal. And you go check on him, and you'll just be sitting in there and looking at the ceiling and looking at the light and playing with the toilet paper. That's hilarious. But he does that, right?

So here he is. He's obviously got to go. He goes rushing in there, and he's got to poop. And then I'm laying in the bed. And we kind of did some remodeling the house. We actually have these like, we have one, two, three, four, we have five light switches in our bathroom. And so I'm watching him having to go like,

and he's trying all the lights to get the dimmest light setting. And I have all adjustable on all those things. And so he's doing the closet light. And I'm watching him, like, just, you could see his brain working, like trying to get the right lighting. Yeah, so he could get the right ambiance.

I'm like, bro, go poop. Big magic. It's just cool. Yes, dude, he come busting it, because he's got to go so bad. It's his formula, dude. But then he's like, there's too many options for the light here.

He is a man, bro. Oh my god. That's a guy thing, bro. I about died. I said, I got too many options for the light here. He is a man, bro. Oh my god. That's the guy thing, bro. I about died. You're going to have a right? I said, I got to share this with the guys. I said, this is so funny to watch. I was sitting there watching them fumble

with each one of the lights and adjust to the right way. Oh, that's too much light. Oh, that's not enough. And it's like, oh my god, dude. Go poop. Go poop. You know it's one of those poops when you take your shirt off. Oh, yeah.

They usually. I take it. I'm just going to shit. I don't know. See, that's the thing that's fun and interesting about raising a kid is I don't know where he gets that. That's not a me. That's natural.

It is. Like, what made this kid decide he wants to get naked when he goes poop and he wants to be all alone in the dark? That's like, that was all him. Yeah, they do learn things from you too. Like, my kid, I mean, I make jokes out of farts all the time so my now which was actually was super mistake Like I should never done this so now my four-year-old he thinks it's awesome And he loves to run to us and hit us you just if with a fart and he's done this before he sat on

His mom was laying down. I bet you get the dirty. Oh, dude He sat on her head and farted and I'm like and I turned turned my head hard as a laugh. Yes, dude. Cause that's like, you don't fart on your mom's head. That's terrible. Like that'll you know what I mean? When I was going to got me beat, you know, but he did, I had to turn my head real quick and I had to like gather myself before I went and, you know, talk to him and discipline him a little bit. But I mean, it's my fault. It's all my fault.

You know that he so everyone's been talking and commenting about his Emperor Palpatine costume that he wanted to be for his villain's birthday. We did a villain birthday party and he wanted to be Emperor Palpatine. Now the funniest part about this with my son is I can't even get him to watch Return of the, he can't even, he won't even watch.

It's too scary. It's too scary. It's too scary to watch that character. But he wants to be it. And the only reason why he's made that connection is because he'll watch the Lego version of Star Wars so the Lego version is really yeah they more tame yeah way more tame it's comedy but you get an idea of who the bad characters are who the good characters and they put a funny spin on even the

bad guys like you know like in their Palpatine and Count Dooku and all the bad guys they're kind of funny and they do funny stuff. And so he really wanted to be Emperor Palpatine and everyone's like, oh my God, he's into dark characters like this? I'm like, yeah, but he won't watch them. He won't even watch the real one, you know? Dude, I gotta say, so.

I think it's awesome. Different topic, it is awesome by the way. Different topic, I bought more Bitcoin today. And not a lot, but I bought more. And there's two reasons why. One is a stat that I'm about to read to you. Two, I got the magic. This always works everybody.

Ladies and gentlemen, listen. When Adam says something's a good buy, but refuses to buy himself, historically, 100% success. And it's worked for me every single time. Because I'm like, are you going to buy something? He's like, no, buy it. So anyway, look at the stat. As of 2025, this was shared to me by my brother,

and I have a thread with my brother and a bunch of my cousins, and they're all, this is what they do for a living, they're all investors. Are they going to show you the every four year trend? No, I've seen all that. And that's all cool and interesting. But this right here, statistic made me go, oh yes.

And yes, I know that banks are gonna start using it, regulating it, that's a plus, right? As of 2025, only 6.8% of the global population has invested in cryptocurrencies, that's it. Wow. Less than 10%. So that doubles, which is nothing. That's 13% of people

The value is gonna go through the roof if it just doubles Wow so the room for growth on on something like Bitcoin Yeah, is true. So I saw I got that stat and I was convinced I'm gonna buy a little bit more then I came and told Adam Adams like for sure get you know Bitcoin Like are you gonna get somebody's like no like I literally got my phone sure get Bitcoin. Like, are you gonna get somebody's like, no, like, I literally got on my phone. Anyway, but they think it's going to go to a million. Yeah. Yeah. That's the prediction. It's at a hundred and whatnot. And it's because again, because it, uh, there's a finite amount. Yeah.

Um, and I mean, I believe that with anything you look at, uh, coastal real estate, you look at very special spec cars. I mean, almost anything that someone else may not think is considered an asset, if there is a scarce amount of it and enough people want that thing, it is absolutely an asset. And so yeah, there's only so many of those. And to your point, if only 6% of the population, and that's saying total cryptocurrencies, I'm saying 6 many of those. And to your point, if only 6% of the population and that's saying total cryptocurrencies, I ain't saying 6% of Bitcoin. So, you know, there's over 68% that are it's in Bitcoin. Okay. So yeah. So yeah.

So Bitcoin is the biggest one. That's definitely better than the NFT thing. You know, it's funny, dude, I was thinking about this the other day and like some of the like hustles that we've experienced just in our own, like being here in the Silicon Valley and like what we've seen people get into and then it's just totally flopped like you remember the whole domain hustle yes when that came out everybody's buying up all the dot-com means yeah cuz you could sell them the same thing is NFT you know

what I like this there was okay so if you were speaking to that I've totally remember this I bought into it We were personal trainers and I remember people getting money and funding because they had a dot-com because they owned dog dot-com They were getting people were just giving them like money to build a business around that because they're like, oh Yeah, you will know nothing. Yeah, it means absolutely nothing. That bubble popped. I bought into it, by the way. I bought, so at the time, if you bought a domain, at some point a company's gonna want that name,

they'll buy it from you, right? That was the whole thing. Yeah. And this was during the time when marijuana became medically legal in California, and it looked like it was gonna become legalized at some point, so I had bought like 10 domains that were weed related. That were weed related.

Oh, weed related. They've since expired. But I thought to myself, like, I'm gonna just buy a bunch. Somebody's gonna approach me. Someone's gonna want, you know, weeddoryourdoor.com. I think it was one of them and stuff like that. So I did Star Wars merch.com. I owned that, dude.

You still own it? I thought it was so brilliant. You still own it? No, uh-uh. That might've actually been a good one, dude. Yeah, it might've, but no, they didn't want it. They just go around it. Yeah, exactly.

They're not gonna need that. Speaking of business, we should talk about our new trainer podcast. Oh, our Elite Trainer podcast. That we're gonna be launching on, what, next? Is it the 14th? Well, this is live, it's live now, right, Doug? That is correct.

It's officially live. Okay, so it's Elite Trainer podcast, is the name of it, hosted by our head trainer, Kyle, who's running the whole department here. Yeah. And the first episodes, he's interviewed us already. Has everybody been on already so far? Twice.

Yeah, so you've been on twice. So today I'm gonna do my second one. Yeah, yeah, so he's... And this is all trainer-focused. It's all specifically for trainers. And I mean, I obviously haven't sat in on your guys's but from what I'm getting and Doug has Also been on it too. So from what I'm getting is, you know, Kyle is really Interviewing each of us individually for and really giving both the listener

Peering in what we all kind of do for the business in a sense and our strengths and so You know you get a little bit of all that, and it's all related to make you a better trainer, a better business operator. And the idea is, I mean, as this continues, because it's gonna keep going, will be to have other top trainers on, other top fitness professionals talking about

all the stuff that would benefit a trainer. Everything from nutrition to biomechanics, anatomy, business, social media, how to expand and scale, how to use your different programs and systems. It's gonna be what it's all about. So it's exciting, Elite Trainer podcast. So for the trainer to do it. Yeah, and honestly, for the audience,

even if they're not, this is our opportunity just to shout out support, because we know when you launch a podcast, the first eight weeks gives you the opportunity to rank against other new podcast. This will be a completely separate new podcast, right? Separate from this one. And so any support that we can get from you guys. Download the episode, they'll help us rank.

Listen to it and all I ask, if it was helpful and you liked it, leave a review and help us. Listen to it. And if it would, and all I asked, if it was helpful and you liked it, leave a review and share it. That's it. I mean, that is the best way you can help support Kyle and our team that is trying to create a whole community around serving and helping trainers specifically. And so anybody who's listening right now, the best way you can support is that

is go give it a listen. If it was valuable to you, leave a review and share it with someone else and that is the best way to help us grow that thing. Element is an electrolyte powder that you add to your water it tastes amazing there's no sugar no artificial sweeteners check this out it has the right amount of sodium most electrolyte powders don't have enough sodium to really make a difference Element T has a thousand milligrams per serving to help you in those sweaty workouts for better pumps. Especially valuable for those of you on

low carb diets. Low carb dieters often notice brain fog or they hit a wall and it's often because they need more sodium. Go check out Elemente. Go to drinklmnt.com forward slash mind pump. You can get a free sample pack of their most popular drink, mixed flavors with any purchase back to the show. First question is from the Francesca Marie. I keep seeing female fitness influencers show off their flat stomachs and basketball size booties while telling social media how this look is attainable.

But is it really? I have always noticed with my own body when my waist becomes more snatched, my glutes begin to shrink. So how can I or anyone else achieve that basketball-sized booty while attaining a flat stomach at the very same time? It's a good question. It is a good question. Snatched, by the way, Doug, because earlier off, very late, is that a real, like, snatched means your waist gets tight. Oh, got it. Yeah, my daughter actually told me this.

I want to snatch, wait, oh my God. Okay, so. I'm too old for this. I've actually never heard that either. So this is actually a great question. Now, I'm gonna first address fitness, female fitness influencers. Their advice is terribly, it's typically terrible.

So I wouldn't listen to them for most things. So when they're like, this is attainable, look at me, it's like, attainable for who? They represent a very small percentage of people plus the way they live is probably not the way you would want to live. Nonetheless, getting leaner means you get leaner everywhere. What do I mean by that? So you want a lean midsection, which means you're getting lean. Although your glutes are a muscle, there's also some body fat on them,

and so you're gonna get a smaller butt if you get leaner. Also, if you want a bigger butt, and you're trying to build it through building muscle, trying to do so while getting leaner, good luck. You either build or you get leaner. Now, can you do both at the same time? In some cases you can, it's a very slow process. More achievable in the very beginning

when you start building some muscle and burning body fat at the same time. But later on, you decide, do I wanna build or do I wanna get leaner? Trying to do both is like trying to drive in two different directions and you end up moving nowhere. A much better strategy is you have periods of time in the year where you are heavily focused

on building and growing your butt, where you are living in a calorie surplus, you're lifting heavy weight, you're doing all the right exercises, and you're growing that ass. You're not really worried that the waist is not shrinking that moment because you're in a calorie surplus and you're growing that ass. You're not really worried that the waist is not shrinking in that moment, because you're in a calorie surplus and you're building.

Then you go on a cut and you shrink down. And yes, inevitably when you shrink down, the butt will probably shrink down a little bit with it. But every time you do that, you should be able to grow your butt exponentially more and then shrink the waist back down to the small. And have some muscle left over. Yeah, but it's a process.

This isn't a one time program you follow for three or six months and you get that look. This is speaking to the women that have achieved this that aren't genetically gifted, because some women are just, I mean, I've had girlfriends before that they put body fat on and it goes right to their butt and boobs. It just, they're blessed.

That was right where it went. Uh, and then when they lost weight, it only shrank in their way. So there's genetic, just like there are genetic anomalies in men that they touch weights and muscle comes on them. So there's genetic anomalies on both sexes, but then there was also women who didn't have glutes really are small butts and didn't, and had a waist. And then over time grew this basketball size butt and still have a small waist, but and didn't and had a waist and then over time grew this basketball size butt and still have a small waist but that didn't happen

overnight it happened they didn't happen at the same time yeah it happened at years of building those glutes then cutting down then building those glutes then cutting down then building those glutes and do that for some years and I'll show you some bodies that have been radically changed. I've done it. I've done it for many female clients, but over time. It's not at the same time and it's not a quick thing, especially when you don't have the beautiful genetics that just bless you in this direction. Next question is from Zemecha72. How often should I change my routine? Should it be a complete overhaul or just change specific exercises? Okay.

So I think it's probably a good idea to change some of the variables in your workout, probably every few months. Um, it's a good idea to stay where you're at, if it's working, especially for long enough to reap the benefits. Like changing too often, too frequently, you're not able to really reap all the benefits of each exercise or what you're doing because you're not giving your body a chance

to really get good at those things. Later on, I mean you're super advanced and you've been training for so long, you can change up exercises more frequently because you can move well and you can reap the benefits of a squat very easily or a deadlift very easily, but that takes a while. For most people it's like three months. Typically three months, stay where you're at,

and then change a couple variables. It could be the exercises or the reps, it could be the tempo. That's the best way to do it. Yeah, and you don't need to be super drastic, that's cool. You can do drastic changes, but when you do drastic drastic changes what you run into are programming issues okay when you're following good programming all the pieces fit well together so if you look at our programs the rep ranges sets exercise order it all works together so

if you're following maps anabolic and then you switch to a completely different program like maps performance the pieces fit together and the programming's good. But if you took and tried to mix and match, you start messing up the formula sometimes, oftentimes, and you don't get nearly as good a benefit. So typically it's like every few months you wanna change a variable.

And for most people, keep it to one or two variables. If you change a completely different program, make sure it's a program that has some, some backing and some science. And specificity still wins. And so if like you have a specific type of training you love and, and your body does well with it, like that's going to be the majority of your training. And then you're going to, you know, go through periods where you're interrupting

that or, you know, for me, I'm always conscious of if I'm backloading my squats quite a bit and I haven't done, you know, front loaded squats, like there's certain exercises I want to weave in and incorporate and make sure that, you know, some of these compensations don't happen because I'm too focused on getting strong in just certain areas. And so, you know, just, just kind of switching up the variables like Sal's talking about as well is probably the easiest way to do that. So it doesn't have to be so drastic.

It's really hard to answer this question and not shamelessly plug our business. Of course. I mean, if you have to ask this question, then there's two ways that you could easily solve this or figure this out. Because answering this vaguely, we're going to go, we can, I mean, that person could listen to all the great advice you just got

and I'd still be lost on what to do because it's not specific, right? But I could also invest the 150 bucks and get like three of our programs since we always have sales running on them all the time anywhere. And now you have like nine months of examples to literally follow and copy if you like and like that's a great way to learn or if you got more time and don't want to spend the money you can go back and listen to every episode that we've ever done where we break down a program and share it and launch it and learn that way. So I mean go the free route or go that route is the best way. Or you hire a trainer. I mean that's's the best route. I mean, that's expensive, right?

So I'm talking about very inexpensive is invest in two or three programs and you're gonna learn a lot of this yourself. Or if you don't have any money, then go back and listen to the episodes where we dive into each one of those programs. You know, if you have the money, then you really wanna learn, yeah, go get a professional

and stuff like that. But you know, I think we over, we tend to over-complicate and oversimplify program. It tends to be in one end of the other. Either as trainers sometimes we overcomplicate in the sense that we make it sound like it's so difficult, nobody can do it. So then people are like, oh fuck, I'm not gonna do anything.

But then we oversimplify it because then we're like, if you just do these couple things, you're gonna be great. Well, yeah, you will. That'll change, that'll get most people really healthy. You just do these handful of things, but the real art of changing your programming up and it's like writing code for somebody. It's like, I don't know how to do that.

So I'm probably gonna hire somebody to teach me or show me, or I'm gonna spend the time learning and the return I'll get on that is exponential. Next question is from AGNMT35. Are belt squats as beneficial as barbell squats? You know, I gotta say, belt squats were not a thing for a long time. Now I use them quite a bit.

I love them. They're different though than a barbell squat. A barbell squat is loading everything. You wouldn't say it's as beneficial, would you? I wouldn't. No, no, no. It's great, it's great, but it's not as beneficial. Yeah, like a belt squat, so what a belt squat does,

the belt is around your waist, it's typically attached to a cable, it pulls down between your legs, and it takes out most of the body. It's just a lower body exercise. Now, I like it better than other leg only exercises because you're standing upright, great range of motion, it's a good fundamental kind of human movement.

It's great for mobility for people who have a challenge with deep squats, but you've taken out the entire upper body that you'll get from a barbell squat where you're balancing a bar, you're holding it with your hands. Which has lots of value. Which has lots of value, your low back and your core is more activated and involved.

I mean a barbell squat's gonna make you stronger, faster, and improve performance, give you better results than a belt squat. Whereas a belt squat is like legs only. Yeah, belt squat is more valuable than a leg press, it's less valuable than a barbell squat. So I mean it's great, so great movement to have, but if you were like considering never doing barbell squats again and if I mean, it's great, so great movement to have, but if you were like

considering never doing barbell squats again and you're only going to do belt squats, well you are missing out on more value. You'd be far better off never bar or belt squatting and always barbell squatting because you're going to get all the benefits from the belt squat in the barbell squat and some versus the other way around. I mean, that's being said, I love belt squats for like mobility. Like if you struggle with getting down deep in your squat, you could practice with the belt. It pulls you down by the hips, kind of forces you into a deeper squat.

It can improve mobility. I didn't have access to this as a trainer. If I were training clients today, this would be one of my staple movements to help people with mobility in their hips and their ankles who maybe can't do a barbell squat properly. But I wouldn't stop trying to get them to barbell squat.

I definitely wouldn't stop barbell squatting though. Next question is from JLaura34. What's the best workout plan for an overweight new dad? Math 15. Easy. For sure. Very easy. I think we could have called that like new dad program. I mean, you could have.

Yeah. It's so great because you're doing two exercises a day. New care program. Six days a week. There's two versions of it. One of them is with a suspension trainer, makes it as convenient as possible. The other version of it, it's in the same program, by the way.

So it's Math 15, comes with two versions. The other version is barbell and Dumbbell version. And it's 15, maybe 20 minutes a day that you do it, so it fits your schedule. It's great strength training. The total volume is great for getting results, getting stronger. It's minimalist too, so if you're getting beat up

on the sleep area, you're not overtaxing yourself. Exactly. I mean, you combine that with just trying to walk throughout the day. You're going to reap a majority of the benefits you'll get from strain training with a program like that. There's a reason why it's one of our highest rated, most popular programs. It's one of the most popular programs that people get referred to get because people follow it and it's just incredible results.

And the total volume in it would be equivalent to like two full body workouts at the gym. It's just spread out in a way where it makes it super convenient, easy to follow. And if you miss one workout, it's not that big of a deal because you did five other workouts during the week. Look, if you like our show, come find us on Instagram. Justin is at Mind Pump. Justin, I'm at Mind Pump to Stefano and Adam is at MindPump Adam. Thank you for listening to MindPump. 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 five-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.