Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2688: Eight Simple Habit Hacks that Produce Fat Loss & More (Listener Coaching)

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin answer four Pump Head questions drawn from last Sunday’s Quah post on the @mindpumpmedia Instagram page Mind Pump Fit Tip: 8 Simple Habit Hacks that Produce Fat Loss. (2:16) Isometrics for growth. (19:45) Will consuming artificial sweeteners make your brain age faster? (24:25) How the spiritual component in the success of people in rehab is so important. (27:21) New pornography data is alarming. (30:51) Add volume to your press with PRx. (38:39) Holy lifting. (46:16) What industries will AI disrupt next? (51:24) Shout out to the Mind Pump Park City House! (1:01:09) #Quah question #1 – Could tempo being too slow have diminishing returns? I go super slow because I want to ensure proper form, but my workouts take forever. (1:02:47) #Quah question #2 – Can certain rep ranges stimulate the appetite more? Ever since I started lifting in the 4-6 rep range, I have been so hungry! (1:06:13) #Quah question #3 – How do you know when it's the right time for a deficit? I'm getting stronger and building muscle, but I would like to lose some fat so I can see more muscle. I am struggling with what my goal should be right now. (1:07:38) #Quah question #4 – How do you program for a client who only wants to meet once or twice a week for 30-minute sessions? I feel like it's hard to be productive in that short amount of time. (1:13:50) 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. ** Visit PRx Performance for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** No code for 5% discount gets automatically applied at checkout. ** Muscle Mommy Movement Quiz Mind Pump #2437: What Happens to Your Body When You Quit Ultra-Processed Foods for 30 Days Mind Pump #2647:  Five Easy Steps to Lose 15 Pounds in 60 Days Mind Pump Store The Effects of Long Muscle Length Isometric versus Full Range of Motion Isotonic Training on Regional Quadriceps Femoris Hypertrophy in Resistance-Trained Individuals Artificial sugar alternatives, such as sweeteners, may make your brain age faster, study finds | Euronews Most children exposed to porn by age 12, study says Mind Pump # 2342: The Porn Addiction Solution With Sathiya Sam Sal Di Stefano’s Journey in Faith & Fitness – Mind Pump TV Mind Pump # 1165: Bishop Robert Barron on Physical Fitness, Satan, Evolution, Psychedelics & Much More Opinion: These companies could be to self-driving trucks and tractors what Tesla is to cars Mind Pump’s First Ever Luxury Destination Visit Paleovalley for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Discount is now automatically applied at checkout: 15% off your first order! ** Mind Pump # 1827: The 3 Best Rep Ranges to Build Muscle & Burn Fat Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Paul Chek (@paul.chek) Instagram Layne Norton, Ph.D. (@biolayne) Instagram Thomas Conrad (@realrecoverytalktom) Instagram Ben Bueno (@realrecoverytalkben) Instagram Sathiya Sam (@sathiyamesam) Instagram Bishop Robert Barron (@bishopbarron) Instagram Arthur Brooks (@arthurcbrooks) Instagram  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump, Mind Pump with your hosts. Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. In today's episode, we answered listeners questions. They went to Instagram at Mind Pump Media. They posted some questions.

We picked some and we answered them, but this was after the intro. Today's intro was 60 minutes long. in the intro, we talk about fat loss and muscle gain, current events, family life. That's a good time. By the way, again, if you want to post us a question that we can pick, it's Instagram at Mind Pump Media. Now, this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Rock Recovery Center.

This is a rehab facility. If you, a friend or a family member needs help with addiction, these are the best people. They're so good of what they do. They care so much about the people they work with. And if you go to rock recovery center.com forward slash mind pump, you'll get some free help. And somebody, one of you, will actually get a free scholarship, a 60-day scholarship, which is phenomenal. This episode is also brought to by PRX. This is the best home gym equipment company in the world.

Hands down, they have the famous squat rack that folds into the wall, comes off the wall six inches until you pull out the arms. Now you have a super stable squat rack. But they have so much more. and by the way, you can make payments on your equipment, so now it's like paying a gym membership, except it's your home gym. Go check them out. Go to PRX Performance.com forward slash mind pump.

On that link, you'll get 5% off. Also, if you're a woman and you would like something that's a little bit more individualized, find out which avatar you fit under. Go to muscle mommy movement.com forward slash quiz. See if you're a comeback queen, an efficient powerhouse, a strength novice, or a lifestyle integrator,

it's again it's a free quiz go to muscle mommy movement.com forward slash quiz all right here comes a show all right real quick if you love us like we love you why not show up by rocking one of our shirts hats mugs or training gear over at mindpump store.com I'm talking right now hit pause head on over to mindpumpstor.com that's it enjoy the rest of the show getting lean often involves tracking calories or macros or everything you put in your mouth and yes that does help but that can

be quite a challenge. Look, we're going to list habit hacks, things you can do that have nothing to do with the calories or tracking anything that typically result in fat loss. Oftentimes, in fact, these are more effective than the tracking itself for many people. We're going to break them down right now. This is the ninja method. Yes, yes. Knock the first one out real quick because I feel like we talked to this one like crazy. Yeah, we'll get rid of this first one first because we talk about all the time. That's just not eating ultra-processed food. So real fast. You should have a button for that. Yes. Here's why you do that. Ultra-processed foods are engineered to make you overeat. So when you simply avoid them and then eat as much as you want, that's the other part of

this, by the way. Eat as much as you want. Your calories tend to drop by about 500. That's what they typically find in study. So you now have a lower calorie diet, even though you're eating as much as you want, and all you did was avoid foods that come in boxes or wrappers. Yeah, you're also, I think it's important that people understand that there's a psychological benefit to that also. Because when you give people the permission to kind of eat more if you want to eat more so long as you stay with whole foods, there's this like, oh, I don't have to restrict feeling, which I think also results in more success too. That's right. So it isn't just simply that, you know, processed foods make us eat more and they tend to be calorie dense, but whole foods, and then also the psychological part of telling yourself like, oh, I can eat in time I'm hungry. I don't have to restrict, allow myself to eat.

just have to make whole food choices, and it's amazing what happens with you. That's right. So if you look at food, if you think of food as having potential addictive qualities, processed foods take those addictive qualities and amplify them tremendously.

So the odds that you'll overeat, when you eat ultra-processed foods, goes through the roof. It's very difficult to eat an appropriate amount of calories if your diet is, like most people's diet, it's about 70% to 80% ultra-processed foods. And by the way, just not to hammer this one.

but just a little bit more on it, this first one that we just said, towards the back half of my career, this is all I did. Yeah. Because it's very difficult, when you're taking the average person and you're trying to get them to adopt a healthier lifestyle,

there's a million and one different things we can do. And so what you're always looking for as a trainer is what's the one thing I can do that's kind of a big impact that people can tend to stick to? And it was this one. And this one, for a lot of my clients, this is all we did.

Well, there's so many behaviors attached to that. Like, you have to actually prepare your food. You have to think ahead of time. Like, you have to, if you're going to have food throughout the day, that's a whole food, you actually have to prepare it and, like, set yourself up for success. So it just builds in those type of behavior. That's right. It trumps the other seven or eight you have on this list, too. That's true.

If you do this one, the rest is better than all the other one. And if you don't do that, then all these other ones become even more important to try and include that. But just simply getting rid of the processed foods tends to sound the most. In fact, all the ones that we're going to talk about are made to be able to be done together. And you'll see as we go through them, you can actually stack them all together quite easily. And it'll result in, for 90% of people watching this, significant, consistent fat loss. Here's the next one. When you eat, don't eat while you're distracted.

So don't eat in front of the TV. No phone. Actually just sit down and eat your food. Now, here's what the data shows. When people do this, they automatically reduce their calories by about 10 to 15%. Automatically. So literally, they'll tell people, you know, here's a meal. watch the TV while you eat it that we have the show on or whatever, here's your phone,

or you're in a room by yourself and you eat and they monitor. And people go until they're satisfied. So there's no like stop eating or just eat until you're satisfied. 10 to 15% less calories simply because they're not distracted. The other part of this is people will eat between 20 to 30% faster when they're distracted. So the speed at which you eat and the amount that you eat are different because you're disconnected from your body's signals of satiety. You actually read them late. By the time you get the signal that you're satisfied, you're beyond satisfied because you're distracting yourself with, you know, whatever you're watching.

I mean, this happens so much with clients that we're always like kind of on the move and they're, they got to get in the car, they got to hustle, they got to grab whatever they can. And it's just this, you know, really quick eating where it just they don't really have those signals that they can pay attention to whether they're full or not. It's just they got to get it in. Well, I mean, have you ever sat down at the table or counter with no phone and no TV and 8. popcorn or chips. I mean, I'm envisioning that right now. That looks weird. You know what I'm saying?

If you walked in, right? If you walked in the house and Justin was just sitting at the table, eating a bowl of popcorn? Like, what's wrong with you? Yeah, it would look weird. You have to really love popcorn. Yeah, you like that. That's why, again, I like the, this is more kind of strategies how we would talk

to clients that didn't want to track calories or had a heart ting. It's like, you know, I'm not going to tell my client, no, you can't have popcorn, no you can't have chips, just do it without watching TV or your phone. watch what happens. You'd be surprised how much you decide, like, and that bowl of popcorn doesn't even sound good sitting at the table. And there's more science that goes into this. So we talked about the disconnection part.

But if we go deeper, typically when you're consuming entertainment or media, that media is, usually it's trying to induce a feeling. Otherwise, you wouldn't be looking at it. Whether that feeling be excitement or anger or fear or whatever. You're not looking at it if it's completely, if it's as boring as looking at nothing, you wouldn't look at it, right? So it's inducing a feeling. So you're connecting to a different feeling while you're consuming food and you're actually strengthening a relationship with food that is undesirable.

Do they have a study for that with which emotion evokes the most hunger? Yeah, that's interesting, right? Like a stressful, scary movie, make you eat more? Or would a happy, like, a sport movie make you celebrate and eat more? Even more importantly, let's say you eat while you're stressed because you're reading the news or politics, what that may be. strengthen inside of you. The neural networks may connect that, say, when you're stressed, this is what you do.

So then in real life, you're stressed at work. You're stressed with your spouse. You're stressed with your kids. You have a stronger desire to self-medicate with food because you've already strengthened that network through looking at media while you're eating. So bad across the board. Next up, regardless of what you're eating,

eat the protein first. This one's an easy one. We've talked about this many times. Protein has the highest satiety effect. when you look at the three macronutrients, proteins, fats, and carbs. Second will be fat. It's actually a distant second. And then third is carbohydrates.

So eating protein first tends to result in eating less calories overall. There's also an insulin sensitizing effect. Yes, blood sugar kind of stabilizing effect that comes from eating protein first. By the way, make sure it's a decent amount of protein. You know, 30 grams would be kind of the minimum. And this, by the way, this and the first one we said, not eating processed foods, eating protein first. this was like you're 90% of the way there when I would train clients.

Just these two right here without having to track or do anything else. Agreed. Yep. Next up, not drinking any fluids, including water while you're eating. This is a cool hack that we picked up

when we talked to Paul Check. Wasn't it a tough one to do? It was Paul Chek. I think we started talking about this. He might have been the one to, yeah, bring it up. I think it was him who brought it up first. I don't remember.

I remember it was around that time that we were talking to him. And I had never tried that before. And I was really fascinated by how well this worked. What I found, it does more than anything else is it slows my eating down and forces me to chew my food more. That's right.

It's what we all, not all, I mean, I'm the overgeneralization. A lot of people tend to shove food in your mouth and before you even finish chewing it, you're washing it down with a drink. And so that just speeds up how fast you eat and it's not ideal for digestion. And so simply having no liquid to swallow down, force you kind of sit there and chew 15, 20 more bites. And that alone ends up reducing the calories. You made me realize I took way too big of bites. I was like, choking.

You know, like, I hated this. I was, like, trying to force myself to not drink with eating. And it was like, oh, wow, I got to eat a smaller bites. You mentioned digestion. This is actually a, for people who have issues with, like, bloating or digestive issues after meals. This may be kind of a first line of a defense because fluid dilutes the digestive enzymes in the gut. Also, chewing is the first. part of digestion. The smaller the pieces become when you chew them, the easier they are to

break down by the gut, you know, throughout the body. So chewing your food regular, like a lot of it and allowing your saliva to do the work actually helps a lot of people with digestive issues. Okay, Doug just pulled out the impact of drinking while eating on digestion is actually a debated topic. I know the arguments for not to. What are the arguments for that are favorable? Well, hydration, that's silly. You can be hydrated all, like, improve it. Better absorb. drinking water can help break down the, yeah, but chewing would break it down even. So that's a terrible argument, too. Reduced drinking water can help no. No. Okay, so I, okay, here's a strategy then if the, to counter all the few arguments to say, is pounded glass of water before you sit down and eat. Yeah. If you want to get all that. Exactly. And then you, so then you takes care of the hydration argument and it takes care of the filling full sooner. Like there's the two biggest arguments they have for that. The only people I would be like, yeah, we should drink while you eat are people who chronically. under drink water. In which case And even then, I still like the advice of

that's right. Before you sit down and eat, you need to have a full glass of water and then have your meal. That's right. And then that would still stop up. But it makes a big difference for digestion. It slows you down. In studies on this particular subject, you tend to see, again, 10%, about 10% reduction in calories. Just because somebody, by the way, as

trainers, trainers are the worst at that one. Because when you have six to eight clients in a day and you've got to eat in between clients. You have five to ten. Ten. minutes. And so I would go in the back. I was notorious for this. In my studio, I have a little kitchen in the back. And I'd have my meal ready to go. One client's walking out the door. Someone's walking in. I'm like, all right, go ahead and get started foam rolling. I'll be right

back. I'd go in the back, microwave my food. And I'd take two bites and wash it down. It was like I was taking supplements. I mean, I would probably add any hard garner into that argument, too. I think that's a... Because you learn how to do that. Yeah, because you kind of learned when you're a hard garner and you've been forcing food down, you kind of learn to take bites and then wash it down is an easier way to get it down. And so I would add them to that category. Here's another one. This one sounds silly, but again, the studies on this are pretty interesting. Put your fork or your spoon down between bites. So you take a bite, put the spoon down to the fork, chew your food, and pick it up. It's literally just slowing the process down. By the way, when you do this one,

as it's silly as it sounds, you'll start to realize, you'll get impatient. It's what'll happen. If you get impatient, you know, you eat too fast. Yeah, I think this is the same as the like 35 chew rule or what about that, like chew your food 35 times before you take the next bite. I think that it's basically trying to do the same thing without you counting your chews. That's right. It's just a simple strategy. You sit at a restaurant for like three hours. That's ridiculous. I actually think the chewing and counting is a better one than this because you know how ridiculous you would look like this. Set. Yeah. Pick up. Okay, here we go. I'm sorry. I mean, I just want to share with the logic. The logic is actually

getting more choosing. That's right. That's really what it is. It's actually less to do, because what is, there's no science to support it's that it adds time. What's observed in the studies is that people will do this. The speed is a problem. That's right, because this is what it looks like for a lot of people. You'll take a bite and you're already getting next bite and you've got the next bite on the school of the board. And so what happens is neurologically, you're anticipating the next bite. And this speeds up the process even more. Yeah. Because you're not thinking about what's in your mouth, think about what you're about to get in your mouth. And this is what it feels like if you've gone through this is binging where you just you can't eat fast enough even though you

have food in your mouth you're not even think about what's in there you think about can I get the next one the next thing and everybody's experiences if you ever had a piece of cake or anything that's a dessert like that because you do that you always bring up cake he's always fighting for everybody you are I mean you're chewing on it you're already like carving the next piece out you know what the only the only time I ever seen a grown man buy a cake for itself what's your favorite is it the corner piece or is it middle oh corner piece for sure yeah yeah the frosty all the extra frosting or whatever I feel you on that Here's another one, walk right after you eat.

So this has a pretty significant impact on blood sugar and stabilization, which affects later behaviors. So the less your blood sugar goes up and down, the less likely you are to have cravings, irritability, search for that quick fix with food. And it's literally a 10-minute walk. In fact, there was a study where people didn't even walk. They literally just sat down, they ate, and all they did was lift their heels, so they kind of pointed their toes. I mean, it's like the most ridiculous exercise of all time. and they saw a significant reduction in blood sugar. Just because of the contraction and relaxation of muscles,

relaxing of muscles causes them to suck up all that blood sugar. I know this is about fat loss, but I find this such a cool hack for couples. Using that as time to like connect. I remember when we first started kind of talking about this as a tip for people and Katrina and I were practicing that, we found putting our phone away and just the walking afterwards that we were initially doing it for the movement digestion

and for the purpose of what we're talking. talking about. I found, oh, wow, this became like this guaranteed time that we'd always be connecting without our phones and any distractions, which the benefits of that for my relationship are great. Are incredible. And we know that how important relationships are in the overall health journey. And so I would add this is like just this like double whammy of a of a hack. Like if I'm looking at, oh, I'm going to do a couple of these. This one's going to be one of my top ones for that reason. Right. Next up, this one is actually, it's very powerful, but it's actually very difficult, and we'll talk about why, but it's to pause before you eat and you can either

pray or reflect before you have the meal. So what you're doing is you're trying to reflect on the intention, what you want for your body, what you want for your health. Now, you're praying, you're obviously praying and giving thanks. And what this does, if we take the supernatural out of it, what this does is it brings awareness. Now, here's why it's difficult. Oftentimes people don't want this awareness. I've had clients where I told them, hey, before you eat, I want you to pause. And then they come back to me, he's like, I hate doing that. And I'll say, why? Because then I don't eat or I feel bad about what I'm about to do. And it's like, well, this is the initial phase of awareness.

And oftentimes we want to be not aware of the habit that we're doing or we want to kind of somewhat disconnect because we know it doesn't feel good. Well, it also calms down your nervous system and brings you into more parasympathetic, which is where you want to be when you're about to eat. Yeah, I used to tell my clients to do this. Before you eat, doesn't matter what you eat, pause, and write down what you eat. want out of this meal and what your ultimate goals are for yourself health-wise. Yeah. And that's tough to do before eating a bowl of chips. This is really powerful, just purely from the awareness standpoint.

I mean, I think I had a lot of clients that really believe they were really good eaters. And until we started tracking and logging, they're just unaware. We do a lot of things kind of mindlessly, whether it'd be grabbing a handful of nuts or the extra bite or the second serving or the extra sauce and just stopping like that and taking a moment just helps the awareness piece. And I think that has a tremendous amount of value. Right.

And then next up, install or create a barrier between you and a bad habit. So identify what your bad habit is. Don't bring it in the house. Yes. That's the ultimate barrier. Right? So like potato chips for me is kryptonite, like 100%. If it's in the house, I'm going to eat it.

So I don't keep them in the house. And if I want chips, I'll buy a single serving. I'll make myself go and buy the single serving. But the barrier is I got to go buy it. The easiest thing to keep me away from eating ice cream like I love so much is not ordering it. Because there's many times where I crave it, but it's like, oh, I got to go get it or door dash it. They go through the hassle. It's not going to be here for 30 minutes.

Sometimes you do it. Yeah, absolutely. But it's more often than not. More often than not, I don't for that. Whereas if I regularly ordered it every time we went to grocery shopping, I always was putting a thing of ice cream in there, I'm eating it every single time. That's right. Yeah.

I had clients with this where, because you can be any barrier. So I had clients where I'd say before you, because they would say, well, I have them in the house for guests or because of the first, that was. That was always the first one, right? Is don't have it in the house. Well, I have it for guests or I have it for this. And I say, okay, when you want to eat it, set a timer on your phone for 15 minutes and just wait 15 minutes. And it actually cut the amount of times that they would go and actually get that food by like 30 to 50 percent with most people.

Just the 15 minute wait. And some people get mad with the 15 minute wait. But I want it now. It's like, all you got to do is say, I can have it. I just got to wait 15 minutes. And it was just a barrier. I remember a lot of clients justifying it for their kids. where they'd say like, oh, I have it in the house for my kids.

But even more reason for you to not do this is like you're now just creating the inside my belly. Well, honestly, that was top, I think that was one of the top excuses for why those things made in the house. It's like, wait a second. It's like, here you are trying to create a new healthy lifestyle for yourself. Your justification of why you have those treats on there is because you have kids and maybe they're not overweight right now.

But it's like, that's such a terrible idea is one, it's a temptation. for you. And two, you're already creating bad habits for them. So later on, they're going to have the same struggle you have right now. So it's like, may as well get the whole family on board right now. Yeah, totally. All right, I got a cool study on isometrics, Justin. What? That you're going to like.

New or just recently came across it. So I'm going to pull it up because there was a link to the study. So I want to be clear on, you know, how I quote it. But this particular study was the effects of long muscle length isometrics versus full range of motion training on regional qualifications. quadriceps, hypertrophy. So, and this is in advance, this is people who live with it. It was like in range, uh, stretch, the stretch range.

So it was, it was a full isometric contraction to, what's it called? Is it called yielding or non-yielding? Which one? The one where you're pushing and it's not moving. Were you overcoming? Overcoming. Overcoming. Yeah.

Overcoming. So it's, and it's in a lengthened position. So for the quads, they were in a leg extension, but it was at the bottom before you fully extend. And they were driving into the pad and it was too heavy to move. and they do it for the same time under tension that the other subjects did for the full range of motion.

So 30 seconds. It was a 30 second contraction versus 30 seconds of full range of motion. In the study, what they found was both built the same amount of muscle. Interesting.

Same amount of muscle. Wow. That's crazy. Remember it's in the short term. Six weeks. Yeah. Six weeks. So it's a six week period of time.

Now, if you extend it out, the full range of motion, I would bet my bottom. dollar would outperform it, plus it's more functional. But what's the benefit of this for people? Rehab. Safety. It is safe and it is different.

If you're like, if you've been working out for a while, just do three weeks of this and watch what happens to your body. Well, this is why I always like to revisit it because I understand like it's pretty monotonous. To, you know, do a full workout of isometrics is kind of brutal. But, you know, the benefits just speak for themselves all the time. And it's like, you know, if you ever feel like you're in a rut, that's always something to kind of bring into the mix. You know where I use this a lot because I've rarely trained calves,

such a waste of time to spend time training calves. But I will do isometrics in the, in the shower all the time. It's like if I've been a while since I've hit them, like that's what I'll do. And I swear I see in a short period time. It's a good. You never walk in and go, what are you doing? I'm is on my timet. I just hold it.

I just hold and contract really hard. I do five times. Put your soap up at the very. top five five five times make fun of me all you want but I know there's a ton of people that do not spend a lot of time training their calves you probably should probably do some of this you know yeah I don't think you've trained calves since like nineteen eighty five yeah yeah I just do jump bro so if you're listening and you've never tried to try that just these were length it's an easy uh easy thing to start with too you're in there everyone take a shower every day

it's like simple add that in your routine watch the difference in your calves and just a short period now these were lengthened isometrics though right so this would be like being at the bottom of a stretch with your calves. What's it on the other side then? Less. Is it? Yes. The growth, the hypertrophy we see from isometrics is better at the length and part than it is.

Now, that doesn't mean that they don't all build muscle. And by the way, Isoometrics in the shortened position. Because of the tension of it being in its elongated form? Yes. Now, I will say this. Shortened isometrics are valuable if you have trouble connecting to a muscle. Yeah. So if you're like, I can't feel my glutes, do them in the shortened position.

you'll feel them. Trying to get them to feel in the stretch can be very difficult. Which is why I started doing the calf thing because I know that's a reason

for something you get underdeveloped is because the lack of connection there. I'm trying to get better connected. I saw great benefits from that. I'm trying to think how I would, I would need to be able to be in a street.

Yeah, where I got on a two by four or something like that and then have to hold something to keep myself. No, you would drive into so you get into a way to... No, you get in a full stretch

and then you, I'm saying like you would hold from keeping me from coming up. Yeah, but it's not holding. It's your driving, but the weight is so heavy you can't. No, no, no, I know. You're driving with your calves,

but I'm holding my body still. Oh, on something. Yeah, I'm resisting. Yeah, I'm resisting the driving. I'm trying to, how I could. It'd be more difficult to do that. I tell you, man, if you're listening to this and you're like super into strength training and you want to experiment with this, I would love to hear someone's results.

Like, do this for, just do it for three weeks. Do it for three weeks. Try this on, you don't even have to try it on every body part, but try it on some body parts where you're just doing this kind of lengthened isometric for 30 seconds. 30 seconds. drive do a few sets of that instead of you know traditional exercise and then report back you know what you get from it but the safety is what's what's amazing with this and it's different it's a different

stimulus i wish somebody would come up with like a stick or something no justin it's too late too late every time i bring up one of these studies you know how painful it's going to be though when somebody like when nike or someone makes it and it goes like super famous you know it becomes yeah it becomes the next tool or whatever all right i got another i got another study on artificial sweeteners i'll read to you guys what the study showed and i want you guys to speculate on what's possibly going on. So the title of the study, this is what sucks about our news articles is they don't break down the study.

People will look at the article title and then they'll make their assumptions. It says, you know, they tried to be responsible here, but I know people will assume. It says artificial sugar alternatives may make your brain age faster. Study found. So people who consume the highest amount of sweeteners commonly found. low-calorie drinks and desserts, experienced cognitive decline 62% faster than those who consumed the lowest amounts of those sweeteners. Well, I don't need any of that.

Yeah. Well, so what do you think is going on here? Now, keep in mind, they just tracked a bunch of people for, let me see how long. Yeah, what are the things that are correlated to that? That's right. Yeah, they tracked, they analyzed 13,000 adults. I don't know how many years. But here's the problem with this.

There's no real controls. Yeah. And people who consume the most – now I'm not defending artificial sweeteners. There may be something there. But people who consume the most artificial sweeteners also tend to have the worst diets. That's just the fact. People have the most of these tend to have the worst diets. And in that category of people who consume lots of artificial sweeteners are people with diabetes.

So what you may be looking at are terrible diets, diabetes, both of which are associated with cognitive decline. Yeah. So it's important when you read studies to – tease that type of stuff out. Tease that kind of stuff out because... Did you ever hear back from our buddy Lane on the study that you sent over to him? Oh, for processed food?

Yeah. Oh, I was really... I really was looking forward to hearing that back from that. No, no, no. I haven't. I think more people should reach out to him because he likes to debunk things once they get to... Well, if I know Lane, he definitely would go and read it

and he'll eventually make a video probably on it, but, you know, since we have the shortcut to him... The thing I appreciate about Lane is that he goes deep. Yeah. So he doesn't just jump. He goes in and he literally breaks things down And sometimes, and he's done, I've seen this before, he'll, he's sent me before the work that he's done on one particular study. And it's like he spent eight hours trying to break something down, which I appreciate.

Yeah. That's why. Isn't that, he has a, like a paid group that he does? And isn't that what he does in that group? I think that's what he does. Oh, where he breaks down studies. Yeah, I think that's the main, like, if you really like that stuff, I think that's something that he, I mean, he does a lot of stuff on, on his Instagram, that's free. but I think he like every week or something

he has like a new study that he does like a full deep dive and like people that really want to get nerdy about it so I mean I think I'm surprised that you're not in that I would have thought for sure you would take advantage of that no I just text him he's my friend you too short cuts he's like he gets mad sometimes I'll send him a text oh I'm busy right now I can't reply to this all right bro speaking of our friends I know that last week

we had our friends Tom and Ben and you Oh, Rock Recovery? Yeah, yeah. And then you, I heard that you went and did dinner. Went and did dinner? They come to your house. No, I invited them over. You're so social now.

No, well, so real recovery talk. You're like no friends, like three years ago. Now he's got a hell of friends. I had just you guys. I don't like you guys anymore. No, that's not what I. Real recovery talk. Just is not godly enough.

It's their product. You guys are great. You guys are amazing. I know that. Heathed in over here. You guys know I talk about you guys all the time. And great ways. So, Tom and Ben.

host the Real Recovery Podcast. They also run Rock Recovery Center. They're just such good guys. You know, we hang out, I talk with them. They're so passionate and care so much about the people they work with. Like, they go so out of their way, you guys, to help these people? Well, because they both went through that. Oh, God.

I mean, what a blessing they are to the people that they work with. I imagine those are probably the, I mean, are all recovery centers ran by people that were ex-addics before? A lot of ex-addicts become... Yeah, I imagine... It's just like what we would see with people who lost weight changed their life, you know what I'm saying?

A lot of times become trainers. Well, I mean, it's a tough job. Even with really successful rehab, you know, facilities, there's going to be people who you spend a lot of time with that end up dying. They're so personal, though, like, in comparison to other experiences I've heard. You know, like... Bro, they talk to these people. They coach them.

Yeah, they bring the whole family in. Like, they're really good. No, Tom will text me sometimes. And you'll be like, hey, I'm talking to this woman. She found us through your show. And, you know, he's like, would you mind making a video for her because she's a fan? And then I'll talk to him. And he's like, yeah, I've been talking to her for weeks and trying to help her out.

And I'm like, does she hire you guys? And he's like, no. It's just weird to me. I don't know if you guys have seen, but there's like a documentary on like Bamarjera and also like, you know, Britney Spears and all this. And it's like, they go to this person that created some like virtual reality software to get them to like work on their recovery. And it's like. Interesting. Yeah, and it's, and again, there's, there's, like, contention around it.

It's, like, somewhat successful, somewhat not successful. But it's like, to me, the way that they're handling it was so impersonal in comparison to, like, really get into the root of it. You know, when I was hanging out with them, we were talking, the spiritual component and the success of people in rehab is so big. I mean, you guys know this, right? Well, the 12 steps is based off it. It's Christian. Yeah. Yeah, and they went through what it was based on, but, you know, and the, you know, and the, you know, and the, you know, and the, you know, and.

those in many of those cases there has to be a spiritual um a real strong spiritual component because you're dealing with something so powerful so difficult and the ones that have those those conversions oftentimes it's that you know that's what that's what ben experiences but it's also what tom kind of experienced but just just such great guys like i it's really when you meet people like that that really really really care about the people that working with to the point where they go above and beyond it's just you know i also i also i shared an article with them i don't think I share it with you guys because I was talking to them also of just the the need for those places. I mean, it's a sad thing, but it's like we need them more than ever and it's getting

worse before it's getting better with just the rise in depression and suicide and alcoholism and drug abuse. Like it's just we're going the wrong direction when it comes to stuff like that. And so support groups and communities and people that are working to help that I think are just so important. Speaking of addiction and stuff, man, the data on pornography, and its effects on, you know, you prompted this, right? Because you told me that, what's his name, reach out? Yeah. I always say it, Sathia or Sathia.

How do I say it? I think it's Sotia. Sotia. Yeah. So, you know, I just looked up more of the data on it. I think this is one of the most dangerous under, we under report or we kind of brush it under the rug. Don't consider it to be like as bad as it actually is.

Bro, we don't just do that. We, like, a lot of like, therapists encourage it. for like couples and so that's terrible. It's been encouraged. That's terrible. It's not, here's some of the data on this

because this is actually, this is secular data, okay? So I'm not speaking from a spiritual, religious standpoint. Just look at the data. The average age of exposure is now nine to 13.

Nine to 13. That was 14. Nine to 13. So think of the damage. So young. Think of the damage. It's so accessible, dude.

Majority of men consume it weekly, uh, with 60% of these men consuming it several times a week. Here's what the, the data shows. It is connected to depression, anxiety, overall lower mental well-being. Daily use was connected to higher scores on negative mental health measures and emotional coping is a key driver. Another study showed that it was increased to increased loneliness, isolation, psychological difficulties. There are some people that experience hypersexual

disorder from porn. Then in Europe, they were showing that it was completely, the adolescent exposure was linked to higher rates of rule breaking, aggression, and mental health issues. It changes, then there's brain and neurological changes. It changes, you can, you know, did you guys know you can MRI a brain and if someone's a heavy porn consumer? By the way, do you guys want to know what a heavy porn consumer is? What, once a day or something?

More than several times a week. Okay. So daily user would be considered heavy. Yeah. They can MRI you and see changes. in your brain, changes in the frontal cortex, changes in different reward centers of the brain. It literally changes how your body perceives a reward, meaning... Do you become more impulsive?

Yeah. And it changes all reward. So these parts of the brain aren't just for the sexual novelty or the novelty stimulation you'll get from pornography. They're also associated with the reward from doing other things. Well, it's very aligned with your tip today with processed foods because It's like the processed food version of sex. Yes. It just becomes like this appetite for us. It's going to screw all that up. You know what I'm saying?

It's very, very similar. Prefrontal cortex erosion. So it literally shrinks the prefrontal cortex, which so changes. Command Center. That's crazy. There was another study that showed that men experienced greater declines in partner desire. It has a terrible effect on couples and relationships, dramatically increasing rates of, infidelity and divorce there used to be the belief that pornography would reduce things like

sexual assault like oh if we give men you know with these desires more access no it actually increases it is bad it is not good and it's so accessible and so insane that like this is this is a problem that we need to talk about you know it's a big one and a lot of guys are like embarrassed to talk about it I think but more I believe he's scheduled to come back on the show isn't he I believe so I'm not sure when, though. Yeah, I was talking to him, and it's been over a year since we had him. And so I was like, yeah, no, absolutely. I think that all the guys and I believe it's an important conversation.

And I think a lot of people don't have it, don't want to have it. And so I think it's important at least talk about it, make more people and parents aware of it. I mean, I'm always trying to think of how I stay ahead of all that stuff. Like, and the only thing is, not giving yourself phone. Yeah, delaying the tech thing for as long as I possibly can is not allowing him on stuff like that, which is, I mean, I know it's a challenge because it's like, so much of our world revolves around the internet and the use of that. But I'm hoping by the time my kid is up to your guys' age that we've changed the way of some of that stuff is. It's just going to get worse with AI is what's going to end up.

I think AI makes that worse. Because all the safeguards they have now, I mean, it's pretty, there's some good software to combat it. Like, even with clothing, they can target clothing and all kinds of stuff. But all that's going to get eroded with AI. Like, it's going to override all that kind of stuff. Well, my hope with the rise of AI and it getting worse, in that way is that I'm my belief is in humans and culture that and I feel I feel like we're the pendulum's coming back the other way where like young men and in general are just are trying to

talk about it yeah they're talking about we're just five years ago or 10 years ago it wasn't talked about at all so we're becoming more aware of it I mean I feel like you see that was with my cousins up in Seattle this one of the ones that are at homeschool and stuff and some of the kids have already moved to flip phones you know and so they're and they're by choice you know they're not being told they have to do it but they're they're doing that Yeah, I love to see it. Yeah, because they know how addictive all the other stuff is. And so it's like, yes, of course, you want a phone for connection.

But you can still pick up the phone and call somebody and you can still do that. Like, you don't need to get on Snapchat to communicate. Well, I tried to put myself back in the mindset that I, or just the body and mindset and hormones when I was like 14, 15 years old. No, this was this was the mid-90s. We didn't have the internet. Pornography was way less accessible. You had to get a magazine.

Yeah. And the only way to get a magazine is... Lots of barriers. You'd have to either find one in a dumpster or you... This is true. Or you had a tree house. Like me. And it was so inaccessible to the point where...

And it was the same still images over and over and over. Was it like... It wasn't highly insanely novel. Yes, exactly. That's what I mean. It's like if you were lucky enough as a teenage boy to get a hold of something like that, you had one. Yeah. One magazine.

Or like I think I had like a one page. you know what I was all folded up for like years of having it you know what I'm saying it's like you know not a lot of novelty going on there no it's crazy it's crazy when you look at also the data on how pornography's changed over the last 10 years it's gotten so much more extreme because like classic so this is what happens with drugs right they'll introduce a drug and it's so strong it's only so strong and then the users need a stronger dose and so we go from you know mild opioids to fentanyl, you know, is where people end up or whatever.

Or just what cradium, cratum to 07.08 or whatever. Yeah, per example. So with pornography, it went from like nudity to extreme to extreme to extreme to now crazy taboo, like weird stuff that people continue to search for. And it's just, it's following literally the pattern of addiction and that dysfunction. And, you know, I talked about this earlier today. I had a workout with Dennis as part of my series. And we were talking about like men and, you know, the,

topic for me was like how the world really takes down men or, you know, the verbiage I used was the enemy, but you could also just say the world. Think about young men, how their desire, going out to meet and talk to girls, like, you had to, like, get your stuff together. You had to get your crap together. You had to, like, figure things out. You had to get rejected. You had to present yourself properly. You had to go through some challenges and be kind of, that zaps a 14-year-old's, you know, desire to go out and kind of like develop these skills that you need as a man. And then you throw video games on top of it and now he's not going out trying to beat levels of the world he's at home you know trying to beat level 39 of whatever video game so these men are just neutered

is what ended up happening totally neutered I know crazy so unfortunate anyway I want to ask you Justin about you were requesting something from PRX Doug brought it brought up the oh the halo bar I want those yeah halo bars yes yeah I was requesting him because originally yeah I wanted something that could add volume, especially for pressing, and something that's like all, I mean, you could get a lot of concentric and less like demand on the eccentric portion of it with these rocker arms that are basically, it's kind of like a landmine, but it's like attached, so the anchor points at the top of the cage, and you're pushing these arms out. So you get like a rad press out of it.

Well, what's dope is you can actually move the arms. You can put the arms down. Yeah, you put the arms down and do deadlift type stuff with it. You can do all kinds of explore. Oh, yeah. So there you go. You can even, yeah, use it for not angle as well. That's the best home gym equipment attachment I've ever seen.

I didn't realize how much they've been changing and upgrading stuff. That's like, like, super high quality. Well, and for velocity training, too. I mean, if you're doing anything with power, like, you want something like that that's like free flowing. As I'm looking at it, right, for athletes, no-brainer. I think you're breaking it down, Justin. For bodybuilders, Adam, set yourself up with a bench in front of that. for incline presses.

So much you can do. Or for shoulder presses. Because of the angle and where the resistance is at the bottom, it's easier, at the top, it's harder. Yeah. Which for a, like,

think of the shoulder pump you would get. Well, I mean, I love, too, that they're independent and free. So you can, it's contours to your body. Alternate, too, yeah. Dude, you put that on your home gym, on your cage.

You have a PRX cage with barbell, dumbbells. You can set it up like a Viking press, too, the way we love the Viking press, I mean, all of us. Oh, we love that. We're raving about that for the last couple of years on how much love. that movement we don't even need that anymore we can use that i mean i would i would i would use that

every single day so i wonder why we haven't we haven't you asked for it i asked yes so i just said i sent a message for it to you know i guess they were waiting for some for a video from us to to finish and so hopefully i can get that yeah i just shot a commercial for them already so did you really yeah i did yeah i love i'm curious how they're i'm curious how you know it's it's it's tough there's not a lot of good margins in in uh equipment so it's not like a super profitable type of business now they've continue to grow with scale and do well. So it'd be interesting to see how they are, how much more. For the most convenient thing you possibly do for your home.

I mean, have you guys, okay, there used to be a time. There's a couple of brands that we've been working with for a very long time that early on in the days. If I knew somebody used the brand, they were also a listener of my phone. Oh, you listen to the show or what that. Voi was like that. PRX was like that. It's no longer like that. I was just somewhere where somebody didn't know who the hell I was or anything and they had a whole PRX set up inside their garage.

I'm like, oh, PRX. Where'd you hear about that? And they was like, oh, they had heard somewhere else. It was like, oh, had nothing to do with us. But that's how big they've grown that big to where like... I think commercial gyms should use their squat racks, to be honest with you. When they're folded out, they're more solid. I've no idea why you wouldn't.

But I mean, maybe a lot of people think like we thought originally. I really thought the standalone cage was better supported. It's less supported. Yeah, I know. But logically, it makes sense now because I understand how it's use it. But I didn't think that way. Well, even then the ability to... open the floor up.

So if you're hosting an event or, you know, whatever, it's like, you want to give yourself options. Like, that's fixed otherwise. What's the value, uh, maybe you know this, Justin, there's two types of safety bars you can have on a cage. There's the hard ones. Yeah, and then there's the canvas ones. Yeah.

Are the canvas ones like that? Because it just dropping. It just drops it just catches. Drop it. So it's not like this clang. Yeah, it's not a clang. I think it's more of a noise thing. You drop some serious weight on the big, you drop serious weight on the road.

Oh, and that puts a lot of pressure. It doesn't even make that much noise. Yeah. Because it's like designed like this. It's soft. So it's like you could drop 300 pounds. It just catches it. People hardly.

I mean, it still make noise. It's not quite if it's a lot of weight. But man, you drop 300 plus pounds on those bars. I don't know. I like the same. Jim turns around and comes ask you.

For the yielding is isometric, though, that's too. So like with the canvas is not very good for that. No. Yeah. Yielding I would use just a traditional. I would just use the rack and load it with more weight than I can. Yeah.

For that makes sense. Yeah. But for dropping weight, I think the straps have become. more popular. You know, the popularity of bumper plates, we saw that climb in our, you know, during our era.

Yeah, that was just Olympic lifting. Yeah. Like, that's the only place you'd find it. Never. I never saw bumper plates. Now every gym uses bumper plates. Uh, but now I have a disdain for bumper plates. I don't like them. Unless you're going to drop the weight. There's a nostalgia for me in iron. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, dude. Like, you know, you can't fit as many in the bar.

You don't make any sound. It's like you put them together. I feel like it doesn't really count, you know. for the PR as much sound of the middle. I use bumper plates for my PR, but whatever. Yeah, dude. I mean, anything that's getting set on the ground, I'm using bumper plates, but everything else I'm not.

I don't, there's no way I'm squatting with bumper plates. Unless you're going to dump it. Even though I'm dumping it. The few times, I just did dump it the other day, but I'm really? Yeah, I'm using iron. It's not very, it's not impressive.

You know, I was going to ask you on it. Let's not talk about what I dumped it over. 135. No, it was, it was, it was like 185 or maybe it was, maybe it was 225. it was two plates or less for sure and I just I thought I was going to get like 12 and I think it was at 8

and I felt I felt that it was gonna be rough now where I'm at in my training right now like I don't even mess around with grinding it out it's like if I feel my form's gonna go off on something like that I just dumped it

you know it's crazy about squats if you don't do squats for like four weeks and then you go do four easy sets of squats full range of motion you're sore oh yeah it's always shocking to me you just get get sore every single time. It does not take my...

That's why it's such a good exercise. I haven't done traditional barbell squats in a little while, but I did box squats the other day. And great replacement. It is a great replacement for traditional squats. I'm so, I'm not a fan. And I'm not a fan because my, so much of my... You're good at squatting, that's why.

I'm not, thank you. I appreciate that you think that. I don't think that at all. But I know that how much benefit I got from working on my hip mobility and then getting to a deep squad you don't want to lose it i don't want to lose it and i what i have found which is so cool because i definitely feel like there was two years there where i you know i you know labeled myself as the mobility guy like i just that's how i did that all the time but now i've gotten to a point where

i do very i do very little mobility work as long as i do movements like that and maintain and maintain that whereas if i started shortening it up and doing box squats or anything like that like this is how bad my ego is like backing way off to focus on that i just won't and it's really frustrated. It's so crazy to me too. You have so much muscle. It annoys me so bad. My own, just, I don't know, what do you want to call me? I just, it just, you know what it is. I'll tell you what it is, is you were, like, I was, I was, I probably wouldn't have either had I not been in pain. My low back, bothered me so much. It were forced. It annoys, it annoys, yes, it annoyed me that I had this fit looking physique, but then I had low back, chronic low back pain. It was like, embarrassing, you know? And so that was a motivator. Had I not had that and I'm like, you were you don't suffer from that, I probably would be in the same boat, but it was that. Except for I don't, I don't. Except for I don't. I don't. Except for, I don't on the floor of my kids. What's that paradox I always bring up that I never know the name of? No one's ever going to remember this. Is that what it is?

Beta region paradox. Yeah, yeah. That's where it's not bad enough. Not quite far enough. Not quite far enough to make you get in the car and drive. And so, yeah. So it's like, you want to know what I'm excited for coming up? Thank you, Dylan. Way to go over. Yeah, good job over there, bro. It's like the ninth time I brought it up a day. He had it saved.

Yeah. I have. We'll bring it up again. You guys know I have Father Steve coming in on Friday? Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Flying it? Our buff priest. Yeah, he's flying in. Working out with him or what?

Yeah, so this is part of this, part of my series, right? Which is just kind of like trying to tackle this idol of fitness, but really talk about my faith journey. It's like church with weights. It's, you know, it's what it's becoming. I'm not. Holy lifting. And I've said this before.

I don't plan it. And that's on purpose. I'm not trying to let my pride get in the way because my pride is a MFer. Okay. It's a really, really strong. Good job, Sal. You're welcome. bad words. But Father Steve was the first one that he was the, him, Bishop Barron, but really

was him, Arthur Brooks, were the ones to kind of like open my heart a little bit to moving in that direction. Neither one of them preached or anything like. They were just such good people. And I remember when we met Father Steve, so when we went down to interview Bishop Barron, I don't know, was it seven years ago. Yeah. And, you know, when I, I remember when I first saw and I was like, oh, he lifts. Yeah. What's up, dude? Yeah. I mean, it was Joseph Glore or whatever? He was he. He was he. Huge, too. I was, like, impressed.

Because I, you know, growing up in the church, nobody was in shape, dude. I was always like potlucks and, you know, like, nobody lifts weights. Do you think it was that? My family was at, we were talking about you because they're following your series, which, by the way, I think it's incredible how well received that's been. Because I did not think it's just, yeah, super well received. It's doing better than any of our other series. It's been incredible.

My family was asking, like, you know, what was it for Sal? Now, I said that I thought that Bishop Barron, Arthur Brooks, were some of the most intelligent people that you ever heard talk about it. That's what I think. I think you needed somebody who you felt was at your level or more intelligent-wise to intelligently break down. Spirituality, the Bible, all the things. That was definitely a factor.

But it wasn't the first thing. The first thing, and I distinctly remember this, we went down there, which I don't even know why I was motivated to even want Bishop Barron on the show, I think it was divine intervention, but we went down there. And I remember when I came home, I told my wife this. I said, I don't know what it is about these people. I just want to be around them. I don't know what it is.

They're just really good people. That's the best verbiage I had back then. They're good people. I just want to be around them. And then that opened me up. And then the intellectual aspect and their ability to explain things and the history, you break things down. And when I asked them a hard question, or at least what I thought was a hard question,

they were able to. Intelligent. Yes. They were able to appeal. to my whatever, the intellect, and that definitely played a role. But it was just being around them. So it was the aura that drew you to them first

and then the fact that they can intelligently. Yeah, because had they... I probably took all of that. Had they immediately came at me and tried to preach to me, I would have shut off. But we were just with them, and they were just such confident, but gentle, strong but soft, you know, just good.

You could see how they interacted with us. other people, how they were with you, it felt zero ego. Oftentimes when you meet people for the first time, especially guys, especially if you work out. Look, if anybody lifts, you know what this is like. We've had a lot of experiences, interesting ones. Especially if you lift, if you look like you lift and you meet another guy, initially there's this kind of like, oh, let's size each other up. It's kind of weird. Peacocking. Yes, and as an older guy now, I see it, and it's a little annoying. It was none of that. It was like the most, they were just such great humility and just I don't know just great guys

and it just turned me in that you know in that direction a little bit but he's coming on so I'm excited so I'm gonna work out with him and then he's gonna do you guys know how to do that men's group there at the Christian group he's gonna teach it

oh he's gonna run it he's gonna stick around oh that's cool and teach it so yeah dude it's gonna be it's gonna be really fun how's the daughter's going to go on she's still going yeah she's still going

was there as many kids again I was so impressed with it like 20 plus kids that is wild to me it's crazy it's a lot I know that's a lot of kids

same kids mostly yeah It's a large group of kids. And different schools and everything. That's another thing that's so interesting. And they're all different, kind of different kids, different walks of life. Now, do you, I mean, do you resist trying to listen and be a part? Or do you, or do you involve yourself at all?

You all ask questions when they were at my house. Yeah. I mean. Oh, because sometimes they rotate to other houses. They go to different houses. Oh, okay. So the different kids will host and they'll go to different houses each time. Okay.

Yeah. So, yeah, when they were at my house, of course, I was like, you know, each drop. Yeah, here and there. Yeah. And, you know, and I kind of like, oh, man, I shouldn't listen. You know, I shouldn't ease drop or whatever, but I just get emotional. Is it, is it, do they share leadership and, like, does somebody else lead it every time? Or is it, like, one main person that's right?

Yeah, I don't, so I don't want to talk too much. So I don't want these kids to, you know, put on, you know, whatever media. But there's typically this, there's this one kid that you can tell he's leading it. Oh, okay. You know, and he seems to be the most spiritually mature, smart, you know. And it's funny, you get a bunch of kids together. It tends to be, like, one person that, you know, facilitates or whatever. but each person will read

and they'll all have prayer requests and it's very communal but there's a kid that seems to be the guy that is leaving. You know, before we started a little bit of a tournament I just, we didn't get a chance. I felt like I was starting to talk to you guys

and I hate, not hate, but I mean, we get going on the podcast and I feel like there's still topics personally that I'm talking to you guys about and I'm really, really interested in what we're going to see and I really think it's in the next couple years with AI, I was listening to someone talk about how it's going to disrupt the trucking industry.

And I wasn't, I wasn't aware of just how many people that employees. I mean, seven million people across the United States are in the truck driving business. And I think we are already, WAMO is already here in the Bay Area and you're seeing it all over the place, more and more people. And I actually think that the trucking thing is an easier thing to solve than actually self-driving cars people. So you may believe that self-driving cars, like a majority is still a decade or more away. But I think we'll see things like shipping containers and stuff like that being driven by AI way before we even see all these driving people around. The thing that will get away will be regulation. Like they may do a regulation where they say it'll drive, but there has to be a live human in there in case something goes wrong or something like that.

Which defeats the purpose. Who's that presidential candidate? He was running all-based. off of that and like went to where the trucking industry in the Midwest and was like really trying to talk about like UBI and all that I don't know you remember him oh that's interesting that you bring that up because that was leading that was what this conversation was leading me to talk about which is we had discussed UBI a long time ago and I think thought that this was a very strong possibility I really believe it's a strong possibility I also think for other

reasons too. I think that it's not something that I'm excited by any means. I just think it's one of the ways that Trump will try and make his run look so beneficial is if we pass something like that where the government has to infuse a ton of money or we end up taxing a bunch or we end up printing a bunch. I just think that's what ends up happening. And then of course, people are going to celebrate it because it's free money. And so, which will also drive everything up. Yeah, it's universal basic income. Andrew Yang. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He, You talked about a long time ago. Yeah, so I think that UBI will be a thing,

not because I think it's necessarily a good thing, but the motivating factors will be strong. Yeah. When AI disrupts so many markets, which it will, it'll be so disruptive, and we won't be able to adjust fast enough, and so you'll have this really strong political pressure to figure out a way to take care of people who are...

And you said something that's very key that I think is so important to unpack, because the other argument is that we've seen this with printing press, we've seen this with internet, we saw it with TV, we saw all these things that, and innovation always happens,

and there's always jobs that, and I think we will see new jobs that we don't, we can't foresee, but I don't think it will outpace. No, how fast, and I think that we're already seeing, look how fast AI is reproducing

and improving and how much more con, we just talked about the other day about how much content is being produced at the rate now versus what it was a decade and then say, you know, printing press and computer days, right? it's it's accelerating at such a fast rate and when something like this can get implemented

and wipe out seven million jobs overnight potentially and that's by the way we're only talking about one job right now or one sector it's going to end disrupt it I don't think that the innovation will be fast enough to create the amount of jobs and I think that for the first time ever we're going to be in a situation where it outpaces it significantly and that will force a ton of people out of work

with nothing to do which would I think he was going to make such a strong case for UBI. A lot of political pressure. A ton of political pressure. Especially when it's white collar. You have a bunch of white collar workers at a jobs who can organize political campaigns. It'll be a strong motivating factor. Well, and you also have a president who, you know, wants to say the economy boom because of him.

And that'll be an easy segue for him to look like he's blowing the economy up because he drives everything up because the stock market runs, the real estate run. all these things because UBI because once UBI comes, it'll just bring the floor up. You know, if you take the bottom, say, 10% or whatever it is, they automatically get a certain amount of money. It doesn't mean it necessarily gets better for everybody or that much, but it'll do is it'll naturally bring rents up, bring housing up, it'll bring everything up.

And so, which can be, you know, on face value, a president will run on that as success. That's right. My fear around it is there's two. one is a lot of people will lose a sense of purpose when you're given kind of free money and then you're a lot of people will use that to grow businesses and do other things

but a lot of people will probably just take that and that's it. Of course. The other one is that when you're taking free, when you're taking money from the government, they now have the moral impetus to control people and control you. We already saw this with EBT, right? When they're like, you can't buy these, you know,

sugary drinks and this food. And a lot of people are like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It's free money. Now imagine everybody gets, you know, UBI. And their limitations keep happening. And, you know, we'll, you know, weave into that is some kind of a social credit system. Yeah. Where now it's like, well, you can't spend it if you do this or you do that.

And it'll feel right. It's moving closer and closer to crypto is like a valid, you know, form. Yeah, I don't know. Do you guys, if you guys were to your fresh out of college or your young teenage age man right now and trying to find your way, right? What are, what direction are you? Like, what are you? What would be a smart direction? Yeah, yeah. What do you? What would, I mean, you, I mean, forget it's smart or not. It's like, what would, like, I think a lot about like, okay, I'm in this situation, like, what's my strategy? What am I going to try and go learn or what

am I going to go focus on to put to have job security right now? I mean, just a few years. I mean, not even a decade ago. People would say get into coding. It was like gone. Yeah, no, don't do that. Right. Like, definitely don't. I mean, how crazy is that? That's crazy. 10 years ago, it was go get your kid into coding because that he's going to have all. Forget about being a lawyer.

Yeah. Forget about these. Like, honestly, the trades are looking even more enticing these days. Like, learning a real valuable skill that you can do with your hands. Like, robots are going to take a while. Yeah. The other one would be. So you would go trade.

So you would go trade. I would go a job involving where you need to have, like, person to person interaction. So personal training, I think, will still be a great job. Because, in fact, I would predict that personal training, although it grows year over year faster than a lot of other segments of the economy, I think it's going to grow even faster when more and more people are going to need fitness and you want a person or being an AI consultant like you brought up the other time. I just think there's, you know, 33 million businesses in the U.S. of the 33 million, 30 million of them are like solo entrepreneurs or less than five or 10 employees, so small business. They don't know how to use. Yeah, and you just don't know, like, you're not Google, you're not Apple, you don't have the resources to, you know, build. And you hear some of these guys on the, on internet that are, you know, talking about, oh, you know, like lay off 10 people and I've got one AI that's doing the job.

These people have the capital and sophistication to go out and implement something like that. The other 30 million entrepreneurs that are just them and three other employees don't have the time to learn all the AI stuff. But if you can come in as a young kid who understands that really well and all the bolt-ons to it, and then you can look at a business. So you're a consultant. They hire you to figure out. Yeah. And what's great is that you could come in and you could position it in different ways. Either one, you come in and you go like, you know, you have a fee that you charge or for like e-commerce and businesses like that.

It's like the new website consultant. Totally. And you could attach yourself to the growth. You could come into a business like ours. And if, I mean, imagine the position. put us in right now. If you had someone came in that they saw our books, said, okay, this is what Mind Pump's been averaging for the last five

years, and this is what your overhead has been, employee-wise, it's next. I'm going to come in, and I'm going to increase margins by this much, and I'm going to grow top line by this much. Don't pay me. Pay me a percentage of the growth. Like, would you say no? Of course you wouldn't say

no. It's like a, and you're only asking a percentage. You're going to only get paid if you grow, or you increase those margins. It's like a no-brainer. It's like a no-brainer. It's like a no-brain. Yeah. And it's very, I know, I know just our own business where we're missing on those things like that that we're trying to figure out ourselves that if someone came in stepped in and saw all those holes and got paid that way, it would be. So that that opportunity is massive for the young kid that's already into kind of learning about AI and then all those businesses that don't even realize how much they can be using it could be easily. And you could like you said, leverage different ways. Yeah, the, the warnings on AI. for use among adolescents, teens, and as therapy or continue to grow.

I just read another article where it was Gemini, I think it was, where there was a watchdog group that's like, your safety features on this for kids are garbage.

And some of these kids are going in there and developing relationships with these AI models and they're getting induced into like psychosis or depression because they're so affirming

and it talks to you like a real person but it's saying things like, yeah, you definitely, that makes sense. You should keep you doing that type of deal. And they're finding that it's turning into problems. That's no good. You know, I've been meaning to bring this up in the last couple of weeks because I just

looked at our Park City place. We have a lot of availability in that and we don't talk about it that often. So if you haven't seen our Park City house that we have at sort of Heberts right outside of Park City like six miles basically right there. In fact, you can even take a shuttle from the neighborhood over to the ski resorts and stuff. but a lot of stuff to do even in the summertime over there that's beautiful and so if you've never and we've optimized it with oh yeah winter's coming too old dip red light yeah that house is so cool

so if you if it's all really really nice um and so if you haven't looked at the mind pump rentals com you can see that place but i just look there's a lot availability coming up in the next 30 60 days so if you're thinking about it now is a good time to and that right now is a lot less expensive than what it is in the winter wintertime it's a highly popular place to go in high demand You need to compete with me because I'm going to skim and me too, right? So we all want to get in there. So if you wanted to check that place out and now is a good time to do it for a very reasonable price and there's availability. So check it out.

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First question is from Amelia Hartling. Could tempo being too slow have diminished returns? I go super slow because I want to ensure proper form, but my workouts take forever. Yeah. So slow reps are okay. until they're so slow that the reps become endurance and stamina building.

So typically, you don't want your set to take longer than, let's say, 30 seconds. But if you're doing a really slow reps, like super slow motion training, and it's like a minute, a minute and a half, two minutes, you're now moving into endurance and no longer doing strength training. And that's what you see with the... It's a novel way to do it. It is. Yeah, it's not necessarily beneficial long term.

You know, I haven't brought up on the show in a long time, but I used to have a fitness manager. This was when I was just a trainer, so I'm 20. That was my fitness manager who used to train this way. Little rip jack guy. And our skate shoes. Yes. There's a little modality around that, right? Yeah.

And he did all, it was like just one long, slow set for every muscle group. And a guy was in great shape. And I think if you're already in great shape and you do something, I think, that to maintain, I think it is a safe, cool way to do it. But if you're looking for progress, you're going to be able to reap the benefits out of training that way for a short period of time. And then after that, you're going to need to move out of that. Yeah, this got the super slow-mo training.

You can actually look this up. This was a methodology that came about during, I'll say, World War II, when they were, what's it called when they limit your purchase of certain goods? Oh, yeah. What's that called? It's like ration. They were rationing iron because they needed them for the war effort

and so gyms, which there weren't a ton back then, but there were definitely in, you know, at that time there were some places where there were gyms and they couldn't get dumbbells heavy than 20 pounds or 30 pounds and so they came up with this. Is that really where that came from? That's right. I didn't know that. I actually thought it was more like

the elderly and it's, oh, interesting. I didn't know that. And now again, if the set takes you longer than 30 seconds or so, now it's endurance. Now it's endurance. which is okay if that's what you want, but now you're not doing, you know, string training. But if it's like a 30-second rep,

then you're probably okay. Here's the other side of it, by the way, is that muscles learn how to contract fast or slow based off of your training. I run into this with my strength training. I don't do super slow motion reps. I do traditional reps. That'll affect function for sure.

You tell me to move fast. I did this the other day. Dylan was filming me. And back in the day, I used to do these pull-ups where I would do explosive pull-ups, right? Pull myself up so fast, they could jump off the bar, catch it,

come back down. rip yourself up. So I was trying to get fast and I hadn't done them in years and I'm like oh Dylan I'm gonna go try strain your lap bro no no I didn't get straight at all

I try and I'm strong and pull-ups I could go rep out 20 plus reps and I tried to do them fast it was the slowest fast rep ever around my life I'm like whoa dude I have no speed because I don't train I felt jumping the other day

I mean that's another example what we were just talking about the other day when I was bringing up my 40 yard dashing and why I wouldn't do it it's like even though I could squat a bunch of weight and I can do all these exercises and deadlift like sprinting

is a different, a whole different skill. And I don't train that. And it's like, that's real recipe for getting hurt right there. Yeah, so you train slow always. You just, that's how good you want to. Then you move slow. You're just good at moving slow. Yeah, no, I don't know about that.

Next question is from Jamie Yoska. Can certain rep ranges stimulate the appetite more? Ever since I started training in the four to six rep range, I've been so hungry. I don't have any studies on this. Very common. But this rep range, low rep ranges, they do it? Do you think it? Okay, okay. I don't know why. I would debate that. And I, my argument would be, it's more novelty that stimulates. It could be, right? Yeah. It sounds like a woman. She probably never trains in that rep range. Yes. It could be.

Because I bet you if you took the power lifter guy who's been lifting three to five reps forever and all of a sudden you put him on a superset training program or 15 reps even. Yeah, 15 rep program all the time. He would feel his appetite go up to. You know what? That's a great point, Adam. is that Or he just want to go to sleep This is a good This is actually a good sign Now there's appetite That comes from cravings

When you're overtrained And stressed out Which is different But if you're training And you're getting stronger And your appetite's going up Great sign Feed it

Great sign It means you are building And you're moving in the right direction But yeah I noticed this with MAPS Anabolic Phase 1 I would have people going to phase one And they'd all be like I'm like really hungry

And I notice that with animal too But I think that's because a lot of people neglect that rep range Yeah And I think so I think you would be Yeah So I think it's more novelty, and you're feeling your body wanting to build muscle. And so that has more to do with the novelty of that than it is the actual rep range, in my opinion.

Next question is from Kennedy, Liz. How do you know when it's the right time for a deficit? I'm getting stronger and building muscle, but I'd like to lose some fat so I can see more muscle. I'm struggling with what my goal should be right now. You know, you've got to be in a place calorically where you could drop from, and then that's sustainable. That's how you know, like, this is a good place to do cut, right? So almost uncomfortable amount of food that you eat. Well, I mean, you don't want to be like, you know, oh, I'm building. I'm eating 2,000 calories. So now I'm going to go in a cut to

1,500 calories. Yeah. And then this is where you're going to kind of be at. Oh, that's not really a good place to be. I like to see people higher. So when they cut, they're in a sustainable caloric. I mean, that's general. To your point, a general, good generic number to kind of look at is like, you should be able to cut 500 calories from your diet and you're happy and satisfied with that calorie intake and you could maintain it for a long time. Yeah, it's a good rule of thumb. Yeah, just a good generic place is like, hey, can I take 500 off the calories I'm eating right now? And can I imagine myself eating that way? I'd like to ask you a specific question, Adam, because you competed. Now, this is obviously another level, right? So you're trying to get on stage,

2% body fat, the whole deal. How low did your calories get towards the end of... 2,500 was staged. That was the lowest. list. And that was like, you're about to walk on. That's like unhealthy. Yeah, that was me pushing. Pushing was sometimes I didn't even have to get down to 2,500. But 2,500, maybe I flirted a couple days with like 2,300. Never even touched 2,000. I was always 23 to 25. And how high did your calories get? Holy cow. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Now, how high was your body fat? Because you never let yourself really get. Yeah. And I was, so I like, you know, peak pro, biggest, heaviest, highest calorie. I was probably around 12%. body fat on the high end, and I was eating close to 6,000 calories, so 5,500 or so somewhere around that. And then you would cut. And then I would cut all the way down. And that when I was that high, cutting was, the lowest would be like 3,000. Wow. So when I say 2,300 to 2,500,

that was when I was going like to USA's and I was smaller. I was, I hit USA's at 203. So imagine I've been on stage at 203 to as much as 220. Okay. So the smaller version of me at 203 came down to like 23 to 2,500 was my absolute low. And those, I was probably up like 4,000 to 4,500. And again, just to put it in context, 23, 2,500 calories, you're hitting the stage at, like, what, 2% body fat? Yeah, yeah, 3% is what I probably hit stage for USA's right on. So just so people understand, like, and now it's extreme.

We're not talking about the typical person losing body fat to be healthy. Which is why you hear me jump on people right away when I hear where the calories are at. It's like, you don't need to be, I'm more realistic for the average person. Understand is I always like using Melissa. She was the last person that I trained for stage. And she's what, five, five one or five, she's less than five three. She's five three or less. I can't remember.

She's shorter. And when she, when she first hired me, she was eating about $2,100, $2,200 to kind of maintain and she wasn't at stage body fat. She was like, you know, she was softer version of her. She wasn't overweight or anything like that. But we got all the way up over 3,000 calories. And then I cut her from 3,000 something cutting it. Like we always talk about 200 or 300 or so.

And she hit stage. what her maintenance was when she hired me. Wow. Yeah. So she hit stage. What was her body fat? Oh, she was down into single digits. She got rid.

No way. Nine, 10%. Yeah. She was ripped when she, when she hit stage. So she, I mean, she carries herself in probably the mid-teens year around now. But yeah, no, we ramped her metallic. That was a healthy, decent calorie amount for a female and small that I worked all the way up over 3,000.

And then she brought her down to it. Yeah. I mean, if you're, if you're eating, you know, 1,400, 1,400 calories, or if you're a man, 1,800 calories, 2,000 calories. And you're doing workouts like crazy and you step in and whatever.

And you have another 20 pounds of body fat. You're not getting to 3% body fat. You're just trying to get down to 15% or 16% which is healthy body fat. And you're already there. You've got nowhere to go. You've got to reverse and get the calories up. So that's really the best way to decide.

Like, is it time for deficit? Are you in a place where you can cut and be okay? Yep. Next question is from Wally. How do you program for a client who only wants to meet once or twice a week for 30-minute sessions. I feel like it's hard to be productive in that short amount of time. I had lots of clients.

Yeah, yeah. I had lots of clients like this. You know what it looks like? Aside from encouraging them to be active on their own, which typically looks like walking, maybe the occasional exercise at home, you're doing two exercises. Two or three exercises. You do three. You're about three.

Because our 20, Matt's 20 is, Matt's 15, which is like Maps 20 in advance, is two. You can get three exercises. Yep. Three big exercises, too. Compound exercise. Yeah. I would do three compound lifts each time. So I had three compound lifts.

And you're getting great results. Yeah. And you'll build actually a very solid fit. I think people will be surprised. In fact, a lot of people probably... Because people do it so wrong. They don't realize that they don't have to do. Where you're not going to see great results if you're doing, you know, trisip

push downs and bicep curls of your two or three. Like you're doing squats, deads, overhead press, rows. Yeah, you're doing two to three big compound lifts for four sets, let's say, three to four sets of each of those two times a week and just stick into that and working on getting strong and you will absolutely build a great physique just so people know my my typical workout these days uh and i'm doing way more than what they're saying is about 40 to 45 minutes and that's it it's not a lot yeah you know you don't need much if it's done uh properly but for the average person this is i this is actually not just, you know, good.

For many people, it's idea. I had clients like this. Now, they would meet with me for an hour because they didn't sell 30 minutes. But the workout was 30 minutes. Yeah. The rest of the time was like stretching, mobility, talking about diet, nutrition. And they got phenomenal results. So that's how you organize it. You do two or three

compound lifts. Focus on getting them stronger with those. Don't focus on other fluff. And you're good. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. We'll see you at Mind Pump Media. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pumpmedia.com. The RGB Superbundle 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 Superbundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle 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 mind pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support. And until next time,

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