Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2691: 7 Red Flags That Your Workout Isn’t Working

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin coach four Pump Heads via Zoom. Mind Pump Fit Tip: 7 Red Flags That Your Workout Isn’t Working. (2:38) The value of being bored. (23:41) The ULTIMATE peptide stack for recovery and healing. (28:48) Muscle Mommy Movement. (33:18) There’s something in the air. (36:05) Kids say the darndest things. (38:26) Car sick. (39:11) Local family-friendly theme parks. (41:22) How can sounds induce brain wave states? (50:54) Shredded cheese bummer. (53:21) Traumatizing moments from childhood. (59:57) #ListenerLive question #1 – Is there a better program or hybrid approach you’d recommend for someone with tendinitis who wants aesthetics, performance, and longevity? (1:01:37) #ListenerLive question #2 – How do I better engage my glutes when squatting? (1:19:31) #ListenerLive question #3 – Is there a point that you can push past optimal calorie restriction? (1:26:17) #ListenerLive question #4 – How can I balance being a new mom and still make progress, but not end up in a dark place again? (1:33:50) Related Links/Products Mentioned Ask a question to Mind Pump, live! Email: [e-mail] Visit Transcend for this month’s exclusive Mind Pump offer! ** 15% off is off your total first order, but that does not include the blood panel or the physician fee, prescribed medication only! Telehealth Provider • Physician Directed GET YOUR PERSONALIZED TREATMENT PLAN!  Hormone Replacement Therapy, Cognitive Function, Sleep & Fatigue, Athletic Performance and MORE! ** Visit Brain.fm for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners. ** Get 30 days of free access to science-backed music. ** Flash Sale: MAPS Performance 50% off! ** Code ATHLETE50 at checkout. ** Mind Pump Store Mind Pump #2010: Seven Reasons Your Workout Isn’t Working Doing Something is Better Than Doing Nothing for Most People, Study Shows | UVA Today Muscle Mommy Movement Quiz Changes in female body odor during ovulation elicit measurable reactions in men, finds study Visit Butcher Box for this month’s exclusive Mind Pump offer!  ** Available for a limited time, a curated box pre-filled with Mind Pump’s favorite cuts — no guesswork! Butcher Box members who sign up through Mind Pump will receive: $20 OFF their first box, Free chicken breast, ground beef, OR salmon in every box for a whole year! ** MP Holistic Health Building Muscle with Adam Schafer – Mind Pump TV Best Hip Thrust For Glute Gains (ADD THIS!) Sal Di Stefano’s Journey in Faith & Fitness – Mind Pump TV Mind Pump #2690: The NEW DIET Everyone Is Using For Fat Loss Mind Pump #1882: How to Safely Train After Having a Baby Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Arthur Brooks (@arthurcbrooks) Instagram Tony Robbins (@tonyrobbins) Instagram Alex Hormozi (@hormozi) Instagram Dr. Gabrielle Lyon (@drgabriellelyon) Instagram LAUREN FITZ, M.D. (@drlaurenfitz) 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, right? In today's episode, people called in, and we coached them on their health and fitness on air. It was a good time. But this was after the intro.

Today's intro was 58 minutes long. In the intro, we talk about fat, and muscle gain and diet and supplements, current events, family life, it's a good time as well. By the way, if you want to be on an episode like this, if you want to call in and have us coach you, send us your question, send it to live at mindpumpmedia.com. Now, this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is mp hormones.com. Doctors there can see if you're a candidate for hormone replacement therapy, whether you're male or female

and or peptide therapy. There's a lot of peptides out there that have some pretty incredible benefits, including GLP1 peptides. You can get them there as well. Go to mpHormones.com. This episode is also brought you by Brain FM. They play music that's engineered to induce different states of mind. In other words, if you listen to focus, it changes your brain waves to ones that mirror focus.

There's meditation. There's sleep. You got to try it out. Try it out for free for 30 days. blow your mind. Go to brain.fm forward slash mind pump. Also right now flash sale maps performance is 50% off half off one of our most popular maps programs head over to mapsperformance.com. Use the code athlete 50 that's athlete 50 for that discount. All right real quick if you love us like we love you, why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs or training gear over at mindpump store.com. I'm talking right now.

head on over to mindpumpstore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. T-shirt time. And it's T-shirt time. Ah, shit, Doug. You know it's my favorite time of the week. Only one winner this week.

That's for Apple Podcasts. It's J.W.W.V.U. You are the winner. So name I just read to iTunes at Mindpumpmedia.com. Include your shirt size and your shipping address. And we'll get that shirt right out to you. And for the rest of you, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Facebook. you have a very good chance of winning because, hey, if we have no other people applying,

well, then you are the winner. So, again, go to Apple Podcasts or Facebook and leave a review. All right. By now, you know strength training is awesome. One of the best ways to exercise, change your body, shape, and sculpt the way you look. But check it out. Not all strength training programs are great. In fact, some of them suck.

We're going to talk about seven red flags that your strength training program, well, it's not working. Let's get to it. Did you steal this from my reel that went up today? No, did you put one up? Oh, of course. Yes. Come on, guy. It was the three ways, what was it?

Three ways, Dylan, or the three reasons your workout suck. Is that what it was? Something like that? Yeah. Yeah, the girls just posted it. Well, this is seven. Yeah. I did more.

Let's hear it. Well, so, you know, this is good because oftentimes people will follow a program and because they're working and moving, especially if they sweat. or it feels hard, they may for a long time think that it's good. This is a good program. It's hard. So therefore, it must be doing something. Sure.

But that's not the case. If you're following a workout program, there are definite red flags that you might need to find a different workout program. And strength training in particular, all workout programs have programming. In other words, you follow a particular way of doing it and you'll produce better results. This is especially true with strength training. Strength training is one of the most scientific forms of exercise. Programming makes a huge difference with strength training,

much more than other forms of exercise. So let's talk about the first red flag. This is a quite obvious one, but you would be shocked or surprised. I said I was shocked as a trainer when I trained people and they didn't pick up on this. You're not making any strength gains. Well, your program's not working. Yeah. It's just not what's it.

Right there in front of you. Period. End of story. By the way, all of these are in the context of, diet is good. Other things are good, right? Because you could have a good program and your diet can be terrible and that might be the problem. So this is like, everything else seems to be okay, but your program is not producing strength. Strength training should make you stronger. Now, there is a small subset of people where this becomes less and less true. If you're super advanced,

the more advanced you get. That's right. I mean, this is especially true, though, in the first couple years. The first three years. You're in the first few years of your training and you're not seeing relatively consistent strength gains, then that something's wrong with programming. That's right. It means it's not working. It literally means it's not working for whatever reason. And part of why that is is because early on when all of this is so novel, even subpar programming, you're going to see strength gains. So if you're not seeing strength gains, there's a real problem in the programming. That's right. That's right. Now, if you're advanced, at some point, you can't just keep getting

stronger, right? If that was the case, every one of us in here would be, you know, we'd be bench pressing 10,000 pounds, right? Yeah. So, but the first few years, like, the best correlate for whether or not you're progressing in terms of muscle gain, whether or not you're, you know, getting all the benefits of that, you know, better metabolism, you know, hormone benefits is strength. Nothing predicts muscle gain like strength. Nothing comes close. So this is the key, at least, again, like Adam said, for the first three years of your training, if all you ever did was pay attention to whether or not you were getting stronger, that would direct you in a better direction than anything else, including the mirror, including the scale or circumference measurements or

anything else. Like if you're getting stronger, you're moving in the right direction. If you're not adequate recovery, you know, your hormones of balance. Like, you have to do a lot of things right to be able to kind of see that in your program. That's right, 100%. Next up, you get sore every single time. This is going to ruffle people. Yeah, I was going to say this is going to surprise or ruffle feathers for sure because I think, and I think we're all just as guilty of chasing the soreness as if it was the best indicator of a good workout. And the opposite is true. That's right. Soreness will happen when you change up, your programming, your rep range, you try a new exercise. But if you get sore after every single workout, especially if you're repeating the workout. So you've been following the same

program there's nothing new it's not like you added a bunch of weight to the bar and every time you work out you're sore for two days afterwards it's probably not working in fact this one typically uh goes along with the first one you get sore after every workout you're not getting stronger yeah and i think that that's a misleading thing for a lot of people too because it's like you you start to feel that as an indicator that i broke my muscles down and so therefore now this is going to turn into like the building process that's right where i'm going to get muscle but you keep doing that over and over again and, you know, you end up just like causing damage and you're not actually adapting at this point. Do you guys find that this conversation has become

more relevant or more important today than it was just 20 years ago? I don't know if it's more. I had this conversation forever, man. You feel like it's more important? I do. I just, and what I'm alluding to is two what I think are major factors that played a role in that. I do think that CrossFit played a role in a role in that. And then just the amount of low chronic stress that everybody deals with, I think has played a massive role in that too. I think that a lot of people are just, have that that low level that you don't think is that bad. You know, you're on social media all time. You're stressed out about that. Financially, things are tough. The economy's been rough. Politics are crazy in the last decade or two. I think you've got

a lot of that stuff going on, uh, behind the scenes. And so, because I at least when I pay attention to a lot of the, the people that we help out, it seems that that advice feels more common than what it was when I was a 20 year old trainer. Does it not to you? Does it feel the same? Yeah, you're, you know what? You're making some good points. Uh, I mean, low level stress, it's funny. You brought up, uh, the news cycle, right? Social media. Um, I mean, when you're stuck on that all the time, which it's funny when you look at the data. In fact, I was going to talk about this later, and we'll get to it about being bored. We have no moments of nothing. We just don't. We fill every second of every day with something. And a lot of that something is stress. Right. In social

media's algorithms, it's like processed food. It's engineered to keep you engaged. In fact, it's worse than processed food. Process food had scientists go in and engineer food, and it took them decades to like start to really put things together, your algorithm, uh, modifies itself on the fly. So it's like eating food that, uh, modifies in itself as you're eating it to make it perfect for you. Also, you can make the argument that process, even processed food, especially good high protein processed food has value to building muscle and has some value, even though it's, oh, that has no, you're right. That has no value. No value. No. No. So this constant flood of, um, you know, just information, comparison, that's all, that's keeping things slightly above normal.

So that kind of low level stress. And you're probably not active while you're doing it. You're not out in the sun. So that's a great. So you never really fully recover. I mean, it's like kind of that low level that you carry on with you. And it's like. Not a bad point.

I mean, you add the stress. You add the divide in politics that we've seen in the last decade. You add all that up with that. And sleep got worse. Yeah. I just don't think that we. can tolerate the same level of intensity in the gym as that we could and I know there's a bunch of people that are screaming because there's there's still a subset of people that are like absolutely

sedentary need movement so with that but in general like when I think about all the people that we've been helping for over two decades it feels that way to me this was a common thing that I'd have to help people with but I feel like it's way more common and you just kind of replay in your head briefly just all the people that we've had call in Like how often is the advice scale back? Yeah. Scale back. Yeah, I know.

With the soreness, it's interesting. The best progress I ever get personally and the best progress my clients ever got were in workouts that produced little to no soreness. Oftentimes no soreness were the best workouts. And how do I know they were the best workouts? They got the best results. Strength gains went through the roof. In fact, soreness was for me a sign that I needed to scale back.

almost always. If a client came to me on a Thursday and we had worked out on a Monday, I'm like, hey, how did you feel after your workout? Oh, man, I was, I'm still a little sore. Okay, it was too hard. It was, it was, you know, maybe too much volume. We're going to scale back. That's how I use soreness. So if you're sore after every single workout, it's not working for you. By the way, I don't care what your workout is. So a workout may be well programmed for someone else. It's not working for you. That's true for all of these. So some workouts are bad for everybody, but some workouts are just not right for you. Next, your sleep quality gets worse.

So all the data will show that exercise, when applied properly, improves the quality of your sleep. If you start working out and you suddenly have trouble sleeping or you suddenly start waking up several times in the middle of night, it's your workout. And that's a number one sign, by the way, that you're overdoing it, typically, is that your sleep. So it should improve your sleep. quality, not make it worse.

If it gets worse, it's time to look at the workout. That's a big indicator for me if I get that restless sleep, energy that's just, oh, man, you can't shake it. It's like, I'm overtraining a bit. And, I mean, personally, the right dose is magical for me. Getting, like, I know a huge difference. I go on runs all the time where I admittedly talk about I'm not working out or I'm not lifting.

I don't get the best sleep when I'm not working out. But when I start training, my sleep is so much better. And there is that fine line of the proper amount of volume and intensity training and how much of that before it goes the opposite direction. But it's when done appropriately, it makes a big difference in your rest. The next one is that your normal daily energy gets worse. So if you're following a workout program that's producing crashes throughout the day, it's not working for you. This was me for years. For years, especially as a kid, I thought the harder I went, the better.

In fact, some of my first workouts, I bought, one of the first fitness books ever bought was Arnold Schwarzenegger's Encyclopedia Bodybuilding. I still own it. I think we have it here somewhere. It's all taped up. It's all taped up there. But it's a thick book. It's been used and abused. And most of that, most of that is.

I think Doug uses it as a booster. I don't think you'd be able to see it at the table if you didn't have it underneath it. Don't sit on that, dude. That's my favorite book. it's it's most of that book sorry Doug most of that book never gets told it just keeps on giving

he's gonna he's gonna stab you with too most of that book is exercises and when I first got that book my workout was everything I literally opened the book I went to page one and I did every single I did two or three sets of every exercise I remember I was in the backyard for three hours

something like that Arnold was a volume monster Yeah, but even he didn't follow that. It was just giving me all the... It was just giving me multiple exercise per body part. I just did all the one. And I'll never forget, like, I was just in school, I'd be like, oh my God, I'm dying. I come home and take a nap. My mom's like, what's wrong with you?

And then I'd wake up from a nap, go outside, work out for three hours. Yeah, I was beating the crap out of myself. But anyway, your energy, a good workout program should give you more energy on the times you're not working out. You should be more energized, not less. Another way to even evaluate that is immediately after. like I know when I when I'm doing just the right dose I actually and it took a while to train myself to be able to do this because I leave going oh I could do more you know I leave going like oh I've got more in me but that's the perfect place to leave not the oh my god I just cashed everything out and you're walking out yeah you're walking out so spent and so it is learning to to walk away when you still feel like you have something left in the tank and then if you do that the rest of the day seems to like get better and better and better with energy versus the opposite of, oh, I still got more. I'm going to go back and do more sets, and then you're kind of dragging ass the rest of it.

One of the reasons, there's two reasons why I work out first thing in the morning. One is it just works on my schedule, but two is because it makes me better here. Oh, yeah, sets the tone. It does. I come in after my workout, and, you know, we start recording probably two hours or so after I'm done, and I just feel amazing. That's how you should feel. Even being an anti-mourning guy, I do know that the times that I've done that, it's always

made my... It's the best. It's the best. Next up, this one, a lot of people don't even consider this. But this is a red flag. You're beginning to hate your workout. By the way, I don't care how effective your workout is on paper. If you hate it, it's not a good workout.

Just period, end of the story. A good trainer knows this. A good trainer knows that part of their job is to get you to develop a relationship with exercise where you enjoy it. So I don't care what the workout. I don't even care if it's strength training. We tout strength training from the rooftops. but if you absolutely hate it and you like other forms of exercise, don't do it.

Because doing something you hate isn't going to be something you're going to do very long. It just doesn't. I mean, you can white knuckle it only so far. And it's like some people, that's their perception of what workouts are and what fitness is all about is like white knuckling it

until you get to the point where you're happy with where you got. And then it's like, but where's the continuation of that? Where's the longevity in that? It just doesn't exist. So you've got to find a way to enjoy it. Well, this is why.

That's one of the follow-up questions we always have. Even when somebody says something that they run X amount of times a week, we almost always go, do you like it? Or do you love doing it? Because if you love doing it, I don't want to take movement away from you, even if it's not the best and most effective way for you to build muscle. So if I'm talking to somebody and they're like, oh, I want to lean out, I want to build muscle, and I run three times a week,

and I absolutely love it. And it's therapeutic for me and I enjoy it. Even though I know that's not the most effective way for them to build muscle and then lean out, I still would incorporate or allow them to do it because it's something they love to do. That's right. Now, two ways to approach this. One is to learn to enjoy and love what you're doing if it's effective. This is where I always point people.

So if the workout is effective and it is producing results that you want, I don't think it's hard to go from not liking it to liking it. In fact, this is what I got good at towards the end of my career is I got people who hated working out to enjoy working out. part of it was they started to really see the benefit, the full scale and spectrum of benefits. The second option is if that doesn't work, then don't do it. Try something different. I'm glad you said that, though, because I do think for a lot of people, part of this process is actually just reframing, right? Because there's a lot of people that will claim they don't like it. That's most of it.

And a lot of it has to do with because you are purely looking at the scale or the mirror as the indicator of how successful this workout is or is not. the sooner you learn to attach it to other things like mood, energy, sleep, libido, all that productivity, it's worth your job, you know, better father at home. Like once you start connecting the dots that, oh, this workout doesn't just get me, you know, a different number on the scale or a different looking body in the mirror. It also does all these other things. It becomes a lot easier to reframe how much you enjoy or like working out. Even being a workout person, I would say that I don't love to work.

work out. I've learned to love to work out because I recognize all the positive things that it brings to my life aside from what I can do aesthetically in the mirror or what I can do on the scale. It can't just be in means to the end. You know, yeah, you have to enjoy it. 100%. Next, you have repeating injuries. So the occasional injury may happen, especially if you're pushing intensity or chasing a specific goal during a season where you're kind of sprinting with your program. But if you continue to get repeating injuries, especially in the same areas, your programming's not good. And a big consideration with workout programming for people who put together like strength training routines is does this combination of exercises, does this

order of exercises, does the way the days line up, do the micro cycles and mezzal cycles, do those reduce risk of injury or do they increase risk of injury? Like I'll give you a silly example. Like this one, most people know this, but like you wouldn't do heavy deadlifts and then go do heavy barbell squats right afterwards. The injury risk goes through the roof because you've just fatigued the heck out of your erector spinet muscles, your posterior chain with a deadlift. Then you go to barbell squats and you're kind of setting yourself up for a fact. Another example would be to like hammer your core and then go do, you know, barbell squats.

Those are easy examples, but there's many that people just don't see. And if you're following a workout program that you got online or that you kind of put together yourself and you keep getting the same issue, the same needs. issue the same hip issue the same shoulder elbow whatever it's your program you gotta change it well it's an interesting one because you'll see this a lot with people that really enjoy this intense class setting or like momentum based you know fitness and that they get really engulfed by it and it's like they'll come back with an injury like a month later or two months later and it's like oh i just need to work myself back to it and then they do the same thing again and then get injured again and then they just like

not not like really critically analyzing like is this really benefiting me in my body like not sometimes it might be a bit of ignorance like I don't know that I could do it differently this is just like what kind of worked for me and then maybe I just need to back off a little bit this is actually pretty common do you guys remember Doug maybe you can look up the stats on how common is it that somebody gets injured in the first you know six months or they're working it's a pretty it's a pretty high percentage in the beginning yeah yeah especially for repetitive like I remember, I remember knowing the stat because that was one of the ways that I used to pitch personal training was just that like, and by the way, statistically, this many people get injured in the first couple months just. People used to justify this all the time to me. And I asked him, oh, did you have any injury? And they're like, no. And then they look, well, actually, I had like this ankle thing. And I had a shoulder. And it's like, you know, it's just convenient because they enjoy it so much. By the way, this happens with strength training too. Like somebody would be following, let's say a good. strength training program, they're getting stronger, they're progressing, but they refuse to

move out of it. And the next thing you know, they have shoulder pain or elbow pain. Then they use the elbow sleeve. Then they use this. Then they use that to try to remedy the issue without realizing that that program's not working anymore. I say 15 to 30%? Yeah, correct. Yeah. And 30% for the first 12 months in CrossFit. That's low. I still think it's underreported still. Yeah. Those people are embarrassed to report. Their injury. Yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's high, dude. That's high. That's really high. Are you kidding me? That's 30% of people that are going to get hurt. But, you know, if you follow good programming, your odds

of getting hurt the first year should be close to zero. Yeah. You don't need to get injured. That's the thing. No, no, no, no. There's a lot of ways to avoid that. Not at all. All right. Last, your appetite declines. Good programming will actually do this. Now, I'm not talking about the crazy cravings, ravenous hunger, because bad, overtraining tends to cause that as well. But just a nice, general increase in appetite, especially from strength training, is a sign you're doing the right thing. Your body wants you to feed it a little bit, and you're going to feed it more nutrients

to help with the muscle growth. If you're following a workout program that gets to the point where you're like, you just lost your appetite, that's a bad sign. I mean, you could even potentially say flat, like especially early on, because early on, if done correctly, again, you're sending a signal for your body to build muscle. It is going to want more calories, more nutrients, in order to do that. And so it's very normal to see a nice increase if you're declining really bad. But I think even if you're flatlined early on like that, that's typically a sign, too, like, okay, there's something that we need to tweak here because if we are sending a signal

to build muscle and you're not seeming to feel an appetite kick up, maybe there's something we're not doing wrong. This was so predictable that I would tell my clients. We see it all time. Yeah, because as a trainer, you want to get good at predicting things for your client, so it doesn't surprise them. So I'd have a client. I'm seeing that they're getting stronger.

and then I'll tell them, hey, expect your appetite to go up. What do you mean? Well, we're getting stronger. You're building muscle. If you find yourself getting hungrier than you normally do, that's a good sign. And I'll let them know ahead of time so I don't freak out. But it's so predictable, so predictable. All right, I got, I want to talk about the boredom study because you talked about how people,

you brought it up earlier about how it was so. It's crazy. So you know that study that I think Arthur Brooks brought it up on a podcast he did. And I talked about it once on the show. There's a famous study. on boredom or they took a group of men they put them in a room

I don't know how long they were in the room for it was like an hour and they had two options you either sit there or you push this button and then shock yourself so you can either sit there

or shock yourself it was a painful shock okay yeah right most people chose to shock themselves yeah versus just to feel something well there's also

there's a challenge I think I don't know if it's a game or a big challenge It's like known where there's like this sound dead room that if you you can win money, if you can stay in it. 45 minutes is the record. Is that what it is? Yep.

I know it's like a, it's like that sounds so like, come on, really? Some underground bunker is like super sound deprived. Yeah, it's completely sound dead. Yeah, but that's different. That's different. That people go mad because there's no sound at all and you can hear your heartbeat and your blood. I mean, part of it's too being super alone too. You know what I'm saying?

So I'm sure that exacerbates it too. Hear my ear growing. But I remember seeing that. I don't know what is. Is there a name for it? Have you guys seen it? Yeah, you could put, Doug, you could put the most soundproof room in the world

and then it'll pull it up for you. But yeah, boredom is interesting. So Arthur Brooks was talking about this. Obviously, he's an expert on, you know, neurobiology and human behavior. And he says, you know, when you're bored, this is when you ponder the big questions. This is when you think about yourself

and your family and things above yourself. And he says, this is actually very important. You connect a lot of dots. It's very important. And for the first time in human history, we've effectively eliminated all boredom. All boredom. 100%. I mean, I'll think back to when I was a kid.

That's it right there, Doug. The Guinness Book of World Record for the quietest place on Earth. That's so wild. So I remember when I was a kid, when you went to the bathroom, there was nothing to do in there, but go to the bathroom. To the point where you would make out design. on the tiles, if there was a shampoo bottle. There's a lot of carved, like, horrible things. There's a whole book section at Barnes & Noble

dedicated to bathroom books because there was nothing. Bathroom reader. Yeah. I know. There's nothing to do but read a book or a magazine in there. Yeah. So, but we've eliminated boredom where we don't stand in line and be bored. We don't wait at stop signs and be bored.

We don't do anything and be bored anymore. And so we've eliminated that. necessary period where we can ponder things and the downstream effects of that are more stress less feelings of purpose and fulfillment and less reflection so i was thinking about these studies right because i'm like sourcing your thoughts yeah i was thinking about this because i'm like yeah it really is it's so hard to sit and be bored we'd rather shock ourselves and then it occurred to me there is a way to do this and and have it be less painful move move you can walk and think you could exercise and think occupying your body allows you to especially if it's something

repetitive that doesn't require a lot of thought like a walk some of the best thinking you'll ever have will be doing that versus just sitting there and just thinking in fact I think for people who are depressed or anxious sometimes sitting and thinking can make things worse but going for a walk and thinking I think is totally different so I have something for you since you went this direction I just shared it this morning it was a Tony Robbins thing so I'm going to play it so so we can hear. And then another thing to also consider is actually reframing

how you're thinking. So this is what that is. There's only one reason you're suffering. You're focused on yourself. Self-focus creates suffering because the nature of the human mind is to find what's wrong.

And we're all selfish at times, but if you stay selfish, you suffer. The fastest way out of suffering is appreciation. there is no better way. You cannot suffer and appreciate. You cannot be grateful and suffer simultaneously. And the only way you can appreciate is get outside yourself

and notice the grace of your life in somewhat. Listen to me now. You want a different life right now? Want to transform your joy right now? Trade your expectations for appreciation and you have a whole new life. There's only one. Yeah, that's biblical truth too.

Super powerful. Yeah, being other focused. 100% No, that's very true Yeah, one of the hallmarks of Depression is self-rumination And we oftentimes try to think our way out of those things

And it just makes things a lot worse So yeah, I think the combination of what you're saying In that, right? So reframing it, not focus on self, Getting and Moving, like recipe for solving that, you know? Totally. Hey, speaking of solving things, I have another person that I know that used peptides for humans healing after surgery.

My buddy had shoulder surgery. Oh, yeah? Yep. Used BPC and thymus and beta. And he was skeptical. He's not in the fitness space or anything like that. So we talked about it. Got him set up.

He came back to me and he goes, he goes, my surgeon and my physical therapist are shocked. He's like, I'm, I'm as good as I should be in twice. Like, in other words, it took half the time for me to heal that they thought. And they're all like telling me to be careful because they can't believe. how well I can move just for museums peptides. It's great. My sister is going through this right. So I got her

the BPC-157 in KPV. Capsules. Yes. And you know everything she's been battling with inflammation and gut issues and she this, my poor sister, she's been through this so many times that she knows every single thing that will inflame

it. She knows what she needs to do during this time. It has been years and years. Yeah, yeah. So she's really got it down and she had asked when we had talked about this a while back, she'd asked me to get her this so she could try it out. And she's been taking it for five days. And she's coming to me going like, I've never felt this good. And already testing some of the foods that she knows that would kind of like start to like cause inflammation again. And she's like, I've never had anything that's impacted it this, this quick from after what she just went through. And so she's

trying that she says that's been amazing for her. This was literally just this happening right now. My sister's at my house right now and has been all week. And she's been taking it today. It was the fifth day that she's taking it. She was telling me that last night. Of all the peptides, I've tried them all, of all the peptides, and I have, that I've used, the combination of BPC and thymus and beta is by far the best, by far the best. Just overall recovery, reduced inflammation, well-being, skin health, hair health. Like, it's like, that is that right there.

It has the most research, right? I mean, it's got a lot of research, but they're just so regenerative on the body. The upregulate receptors for growth hormone. So there's probably a muscle building effect somewhere. But I like the just just the way it makes my body feel. Just an incredible combination. I mean, you have me sold right now on the thymusin alpha, right? Oh, if you're going to get sick?

Yes. That is wild. I know. I'm, again, I did it the other day when people say, had Katrina sick for four days. And didn't catch anything? I don't catch nothing. Yeah. It's now become, it's like when I, when I'm on top of it right away, I take that stack of stuff, you know, and thymus and alpha being part of that. And I'm on it. Before I get sick, it, I don't know what the percentage of what it reduces. But the fact that I, there's already been a handful of times where I haven't got sick is mind blowing to me because I always used to get sick. And or the few times I have still got sick when I did the sack. It's like super mild. You guys know the story of thymus and alpha during COVID, right? You guys know what happened with that?

Pull it? There were... If it works, get rid of it. There were doctors on the front lines in many places that were using thymocin alpha. So with thymocin, so there's two thymocin peptides. Thymusin beta is the one that I talked about. That's for like healing, you know, tissues and ligament and stuff like that. Thymusin alpha is for the immune system.

And what it does is it helps mature white blood cells and basically boosts your defense system against infection, viral infection. So when COVID was a thing and people were trying to figure out what do we do, there were some forward thinking doctors, because thymus and alpha peptides have been around for a long time. It's not like this new thing. We've known about it for a long time. And they were using it and reporting that their patients were recovering very quickly. Those reports were coming out. The government put a stop and stopped all production of all thymic.

You couldn't get it during that period of time. You can get it now, but during that period of time, for whatever reason, they stopped it completely. And you just couldn't. Didn't that happen with like N-A-D and some other things, too? That happened with, what's it called? N-A-C. Oh, N-A-C, which has been a supplement forever. Amazon wasn't able to sell it, obviously.

They told them you couldn't sell. Such a weird time. They were pulling things like that. You could buy it again, by the way. N-A-C., you could buy it. Suddenly you can buy it, you know, wherever. But anyway, but yeah, for people who are interested, MPHormones.com, those are the partners that we have that do all that.

What do you guys think so far? This is first time we've ever done something. like this before this the muscle mommy movement this whole group that we started for women it's pretty cool huh so this is the first

what we did is we created this group for it's called muscle mommy just for women who want to build muscle and you go in there there's weekly coaching calls with our trainers it's this great forum that's interactive specifically for this group and for the first seven days

the three of us were on every day talking to them yeah and I don't know I mean it's a lot of large commitment for us because at 5 p.m. every night we were doing it. Yeah. But, you know, I miss training people sometimes. It makes me feel like I'm training people again. Yeah, it does. Yeah, it's good to connect and kind of hear it. Too, it's kind of funny when we were off. You know, some of our trainers were like telling us, like, they're a little more comfortable to kind of bring up

topics and things. I think that's what's right about this group, too, is they feel a little more emboldened to, you know, bring up some things, you know, specifically female related. Oh, I think that's a big part of it. We've had forums. in groups forever, but we've always kind of just mixed everybody together. And I've gotten a lot of feedback of how many ladies appreciate that we've created a private community just for them. And you can see all kinds of connections and bonds. And I have to tell you, I mean, shout out to Hermosie and whoever else owns that with him,

but the school, the school app is dope. Oh, the school app is really good. I mean, we, yeah, if the audience doesn't know this, we always, we had a really really hard time years ago deciding whether we were going to do an app away from Facebook. And we even launched something years ago, long time ago. And it was just so difficult to get people to adopt something else. And so we've always stayed on Facebook because how user-friendly it is, and that's where most people are. But to see how well this app is working and how user-friendly it is, because it's like social media built into like this really robust educational app. So

So everything that we've recorded, so Sal talked about us being on there, that's still there. So as you come, let's say you just are the first time hearing about today, you go to the muscle mind movement. You can watch all those videos to get caught up. And there's all kinds of great tutorials and videos and education tools. But then we have our trainers in that. And then on top of that, too, we're now getting some of our doctor friends like Gabriel Lyon to go in there, Dr. Lauren to get in there.

So we have all these incredible tools. And then you also have programming. So if you're wondering what, there's programming in there. Or if you're already following another program, you still can follow that and still get the help and guidance in there. So it's just become a really cool community and really excited to see how well it's been received, you know, by everybody. It's awesome. All right. Speaking of women, this cool study came out of Japan where they were studying if the body odor of women, when they were ovulating, changed the behaviors or the mental state of men.

of men. Yes. What do you guys think happened? Well, because they did this study before, right, with men and their smells and like how women could pick up on,

yeah, like if they're attracted or not. Are we too dumb to pick anything up? Yes. No. I'm sure just subconsciously we were drawn to it. No, dude.

So they would have, they would have these women sweat and then they would, you know, armpit sweat. They'd take the armpit sweat. They'd have the men smell it. Then they'd have those same women during ovulation sweat

and then have the men smell it. And there was a difference. So ovulation is, of course, when they're most fertile. and it's like funny of this animal part of us and the men had greater senses

of our being they felt more relaxed with the smell okay so come on so we're relaxed yeah run me running through this for me

on what this looks like for a study so we're in this group I smell one thing are we huffing pits and then you go tell me how you feel and I go well I feel happy

or is that how we're reporting how do you feel yeah do you like the smell do you not like the smell I'm guessing you know how do you feel and they're comparing you know they're comparing and they found that when women ovulate the smell the the the pheromones they produce are um you know attractive to men what what were ours if they did the reverse you said the girls did the reverse women can

smell if a man has more testosterone right more testosterone and if they're more if they're compatible yeah so women would smell t-shirts their nose is more sophisticated they would smell t-shirts that men wore while working out. Yeah. And then they would pick out men that they thought were attractive. And the ones that they thought were attractive tends to line up with the smell that they liked. It's so interesting because, yeah, I'm sure your wives do, does the same thing, too.

Like, Katrina loves to wear a shirt that I wore all day. Yeah. So if I have a shirt that I was wearing today and I come home. Too far, dude. Too far, bro. That's not normal. Shouldn't have shared that. Your briefs.

And sometimes I wear hers, you know. It's just totally normal in my house. that's why that's why she wore him you took all my underwear justin oh my god speak speaking of our wives we so we we did a we did a family workout this weekend inside here and i don't you see we take we bring max we put the legos up front and everything that okay and katrina's walking over to him i got i'm headphones i'm doing my own workout and she she walks for to max she goes i love to watch your daddy workout do you love to watch him work out and he's like no why she's like because look how He's so focused he is. He's so focused when he works out. And then he's looking over. This is me being told later on. I don't see any of this going on. Katrina told me after we worked out. And then he's like watching her or watching me. And he goes, Mommy, you should see me at school.

He'd be really impressed. Yeah. It was so funny. You're impressed with that. That's cute. We had a bad moment yesterday. We were driving somewhere and my son, my four-year-old, almost five, he's complaining. I feel. anxiety. I don't want to sit here. I don't feel good. And we're like, you're fine. Breathe deep, slow. You're totally fine. Totally ignoring the poor kid. And we're driving. He just throws up. He's, he's sick. And I'm just like, both Jessica and I are like, wow, dude, this poor kid was trying to tell us. And we were just telling him, like, chill out when he was sick this whole time. Oh, I felt so bad. We took him home and just, you know, you know, when you kid throws up, like, if you're a parent, your kid's going to throw up in the car at some point.

Yeah. Just what happens. So you take him. at the car seat and I looked at it and I was like, I'm buying a new car seat, bro. I'm not going to try it. I'm dumping it. I'm not going to even try. Max actually throws up a lot in the car. He gets car sick a lot. He gets car sick pretty common. And so that's happened. I remember the first time it happened to me when he was real, real little. And he just, I mean, he blew chunks all over in the car seat. Those car seats, like, I don't know what yours looks like, but mine is like, it was so difficult just to take it apart. I told you. I threw it away. Looking back, you know, I was trying, because it was expensive, so I was like, man, I got to save this.

But, like, looking back, I don't know how many hours I spent trying to clean it. I'm like, I would have bought another one. You showed your hand all the way through those, like, the bag of the seat. Yeah. Always end up, like pinching. Yes. No. Armly.

No, dude. I hate those things. Under the car seat, I have this, like, car protector, car seat. Oh, good. You have one of those. Always. Oh, that's clutch. Always.

Yeah. Because, you know, they have blowouts when they're little babies and stuff like that. So now you can just toss that, too. But then we get home. And then my two-year-old, she sees him get sick. And I think she was a little, you know, whatever. And then we're taking care of him. And then she's like, Mama.

My wife's like, yeah, honey. She goes, if I get sick, will you love me too? Like, oh, she was jealous that she would get me. I was asking, that's funny. We were talking about this, too. It was like, we're in the hot tub and we're talking about Max. And I was giving him a hard time like, hey, how come, how come when you don't feel good? How come you don't want daddy?

And he looks at me, he goes, because you can't take care of me. Yeah. That's fine She started laughing That's right You know what I've been taking them I always forget This place is so close

It's such a great place to take your kid Oh happy hollow Yeah yeah You told me you were there I always forget It's right there It's such a great place It's got a zoo there

Yeah There's things to play on It had a total blast there That's one of Have you gone down to Gilroy Gardens yet with them? No thank you for reminding Yes you go there That's the other

Between the two I don't know which one I like more But I think they're both hidden gyms, especially Gilleroy Gardens, you would expect for a theme park that it would be, one, packed all the time, totally not, and two,

dirty, and it's not, it's so clean. Like, I'm so... It's never busy. I'm so impressed. And then at the third place I would tell you to go to, which is a little bit of a drive, but worth it, to the Monterey Zoo. Because a lot of people don't even know that zoo exists over there, and so

very private, clean, small, and it feels like you have it to yourself when you go with your kids well when we we went twice so i went to if you want to go to the ghetto go to great america yeah that's what you did that place getting it's gangster it's actually a lot cleaner and it was the last time i was there like they got rid of a lot of the tagging and the riffraff and all that and there was like nobody there because it's like later in the season yeah so we were just like hit and ride after really right yeah oh that's bro those ray bands were made for that i could not believe the quality and like so good clear like it no she did you see his videos no

Oh, maybe Doug can pull up his Instagram. It's probably still up there from yesterday. And you were with your two teenage boys. So when you go to a theme park with two, oh, okay, it was just Everett? Yeah, just Everett. Yeah, you go with a teenage boy, you're going to go on rides. Oh, yeah. No, like every, I mean, what else are you going to do?

I'm not going to sit there and just chat. Yeah. You know, it's like, I mean, we were kind of doing that line anyways, and it was, it was fun, like, just hanging with him. But it's just, like, funny because I haven't been on an actual, legit, roller coaster because we go to like the boardwalk every now and then and whatnot but they don't have because they they weren't they were always a little too scared it was still a little bit much and so um you know last time we went to great america like ever didn't want to go on any of the rides or nothing and now we're like hitting all these rides and i'm like i'm the one

that's like i felt like i was going to throw up on a few of them because it's just the the forces hit you a little bit different you know do they do they still have the demon does that still exist that's what the first ride we went on yeah that's still a classic it is it's classic but it's it's pretty chill actually the demon isn't dude you know what the craziest one which i didn't even expect it was one of those it's it kind of looks like the grizzly but it's not it's all like wooden um it's like gold strikers it throws you around there's no loops there's no corkscrews there's nothing like that it just it feels like you got shot out of a cannon and it's just like violently thrashing you through the whole ride like for an entire minute

you're just, ah, like getting just thrown. Yeah. How safe are, I have this debate with my wife all the time, because she's like, we're never going to put the kids on roller coaster. I'm like, why? Come on. They're depriving them of joy. Yeah, she's like, they're dangerous.

I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure them driving in your car is more dangerous. Why would you add more? Well, I'm just, I'm not adding more. I'm trying to take away from like, I'm pretty sure the safety and there is. Any car. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. What do you do, bro? No, no, I mean, it's like the same logic as the airplane thing, you know? I'm pretty convinced the safety issues are because of dumb people. Because, like, there's signs everywhere.

It's like, don't stick your arms out. Don't stand up. Don't, you know, this. People do that stuff? How safe, Doug? Do you have stats there for roller coasters? Oh, bro. You know how safe they have to be or else they get shut down?

Yeah. You can't. You know which ones are nonsense? You can't lose a person every 500 people or something like that. We're like, oh, yeah, that's up to the 4% that we lose this year. Let's start it over again. It's 20%. Nobody's head fell off once a year they get together.

Okay, listen, our goal is to keep it under 19% in the years. What does that say there? Maybe tomorrow we'll do back here. Exceptually safe. Exceptional safe. With the chance of serious injury being statistically very low, often cited as less. One in 15 million rides. Oh, come on.

And people, again, they have like, some surgery or dangerous walking out of your house to get in. That's what I thought. Yeah. Now, the ones that I will agree with her on are carnivals. Carnivals, that's different, bro. They pop those up. Yeah, you see the guy that runs them?

Yeah. And I don't think it's the ride. I think it's the operator. He's got like meth teeth. Whoops, wrong button. I'm not trusting that set up. Wow. So maybe I'll go then.

I haven't been to Green Merck. I want Matt. Oh, it's fun, dude. I show Max. Max is like, yeah, no. No, dad. He's still young, dude. I just got him to jump off my shoulders in the

pool. That was like a huge milestone right this. Sweet. Yeah. See, it'll happen. How old were you guys the first time you went on a real roller coaster? Oh, I did Santa Cruz when I was probably seven-ish, seven or eight? When is the first time you went on a real roller coaster? Oh, like loop to loop. Oh, well, you can't even do that until you're 48 inches. So, how tall is 48 inches? That's four feet. That's four feet tall. Yeah. That's a decent height. So how old do you have to be? Probably like eight or nine. Okay. So is that how old you were when you first? Probably. Wow. You went right away.

I remember going to Great America and being too short and waiting to get tall enough. Oh, so I remember that. I waited longer than that, bro. Yeah, no. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, no. So my family, when I didn't live here, I had family. You know, Stephanie and all that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We used to get season passes every year. And so even when I was a really little kid, and I remember I was, like, one of the younger ones, and so we were waiting for me to get to height so I could go do all the, because my girl cousins were all one to three years older than me, and all. also obviously sprouted earlier. So I was like the young little cousin that was waiting to grow. So as soon as I was tall enough to ride them all, I wrote them all.

How old were you, Justin, first time? Yeah, I was really young. You too? Yeah, I was the only chicken. I was like 15, 14, 15, I think. I mean, not much as change, bro. What were we just trying to get him to do the other day? He was like, river rat.

We were going to do raft. Oh, yeah, River Ranch. I feel like Florida, there was like some water park where he has like the world's tallest water slide. And there's like three levels of it There's one down And I snuck my way up Because I was too young

And my brother kind of like Pushed me in front And then I like hung down So you basically have to lay down your back And your legs like Already like vertical Wow And I just went for it

It was like The worst animal I've ever had Oh You go down and then it's all water Those are in my opinion More scary because you're like free You know what I'm saying? Like so there's a

a little bit more like when I get into a roller coaster I mean it's like do you know that I mean you're like locked in the things hooked around the rails I feel pretty safe you ever seen that the prank where people get in a roller coaster and they'll go with someone that's kind of scared and then they'll have like a loose bolt with them and they'll be like wait this just came off your chair right before it takes up why didn't I think of that you got a hold in your pocket that's horrible right as you're taking off you're like oh this fell off your chair is this important you know what you just said Justin do you know that that's that there's been some some major, like, some serious injuries of people who've done, uh, like high diving or whatever where it's the Anaba thing. Oh, yeah. It's like blown out there. Yeah. Yeah, dude. You can actually look that up. That can actually be coming. From high diving into the water? Like jumping in. I mean, it was uncomfortable. Didn't dig any damage. Like from a high, like, from a high place. And then it, yeah. What distance do you have to be up before it or to where it feels like concrete, they say? I don't know. It's because at one point, you're, if you go from a certain height, you're, you're, yeah, you're right. Yeah. I believe like jumping from like the Gold Gate Bridge. That's why

that people die right because it's like concrete hitting it like that i wonder what the what the height is because there's some there's some people that high dive from pretty you got to have technique though you got to know how to really like pierce it yes yeah otherwise it's gonna be like a you know and then how far does that how far up does technique work like that does it become irrelevant when you're i don't know just do what i do and don't do it just walk in it's like those old you ever see those carnival acts where the guy is like it's almost like three four stories high. Oh, and it's like a little ledge.

You jumps into like a little tiny tub of water. You're like, what? There's no single height at which water becomes guaranteed to kill you. So impact velocity, entry, posture, and body stiffness. What does it say?

250 feet, though, is considered highly lethal. Okay. That's hot. That's really high. That's really high, though. 250 feet? I was just thinking like it was going to be somewhere like 30 to 50 or something like something.

What's the deepest you guys have ever dive down underwater. Have you guys ever gone down below 10 feet? Oh, yeah. There's no, with no, with no, like. You can go, there's some, or at least they used to have, like, Olympic pools that had like 15, 15 foot bottoms. It's weird, huh?

That pressure gets me, dude. Yeah, it gets you, your ears big time. I don't do all of that. I'm a terrible swimmer, dude. You too? Yeah. Me too. Yeah, it's just, it never, I just see.

Too much muscle. That's what it is. Too much. Yeah. Adam floats. That's, yeah. I feel like I'm dog paddling the whole time, you know. Justin's also bottom-heavy.

He's like a bobber. Yeah. He's trying to swim down like this and just pulls him down. I hate that. I had a discussion with a friend of mine about Brain FM the other day and I was trying to explain to him how well it works.

And he's like, how can sound? It was a great, I love when I have discussions with people where I get him, you know? Where I was talking, he's like, how can sounds induce, brain wave states like does that really work? I'm like talking

about the data this and that and I said look sure I said do you listen to music that changes your mood and then boom got him right away he's like oh yeah I'm like that's a that's a state of mind or have you ever heard that that 1980s alarm clock that we all hear and it makes your skin crawl right away doesn't like the universally

everybody has that feeling right at least everybody I think grew up in the 80s if you hear that alarm sounds yes I don't care how oh yeah I mean I haven't heard one in forever And then every once in a movie or someone will hear that sound. It's the same alarm clock, by the way. It's the wood-looking, around the black. You know, they use, even in, like, horror movies, they use a lot of, like, babies screaming in the background, like, real faint.

So, like, gives you that, like, primal, like, visceral, like, tense. Oh, interesting. Yeah. So for women. For women in particular, they've done studies on this. For women in particular, that it has an effect, especially postpartum. postpartum women's brains are so wired to react to a baby crying um it's you guys look at the they have figured this out on the reverse too those are all like kind of negative and make you feel

angst but they also have things that make you shop in the store longer oh yeah so the music that's being played in your grocery store has been is been carefully curated that's not even like random that you're hearing what you're hearing it's like they have found music and stuff yeah dude is that I don't know if that's true, but I don't know. I definitely know it's curated and it's like they've figured out what sounds. A child's laughter is supposed to be good unless you don't have kids, in which case is terrifying. You know, that's quick. Is that right? It's going on here. Anyway, but we were talking about Brain FM and I was explained to him. And then, of course, the closing point is, you know, I'm like, try it out for 30 days, see for yourself because you could do that. And so I can't wait to get his report back. I mean, I don't think I've met anybody who I've turned that on to that hasn't noticed. It's 100%. Yeah.

I haven't had anybody yet tried. and not come back to me and go, that's weird. Yeah. That works so... It's just a matter if you're the type of person that you... I mean, we've always, from the moment we've been introduced to that, if we're not using it with Max or ourselves, like, it's a pretty consistent app that we use in our house for sure. All right, Justin, you have to bring up the shredded cheese bummer?

Oh, you want me to bring that up? Yeah, dude. Why is that... Well, can you look up... Doug, the actual ingredients that... Because they have preservatives, right? And you kind of, like, expect there's some preservatives, but there was, like, some forever. type chemicals in there that they snuck in there yeah and I'm like it's just cut up cheese like so it

doesn't stick to each other maybe yes exactly it's like emulsifiers or whatever they call those yeah where they don't like um oh my god I even think of that yeah me either you know because you just get a bag and you're like oh it's easier for my tacos or whatever uh and it's like dude so much better to just shred it we buy shredded cheese all the time PSA for everybody what does that say anti-caking agent like potato starch or powdered cellulose and a natural mold inhibitor such as metamycin. Interesting. Mold inhibitors aren't bad,

but if you're consuming it constantly, I'm sure that has an effect on your microbiome. So explain to me what you're doing. I wasn't listening to Justin. What's he doing? I do that sometimes. I do that to you all time. I do that to you all the time.

Yeah. So this is the key to try to change from clumping. Yeah. So they put chemicals in there to keep it. you know, so that you could still spread it or whatever. Oh, I thought he was saying there was something that you can add to it. No. Because I was like, mine never clumps up.

Mine is always. Yeah, because it's got all those chemicals in the bag. You'll buy it because, you know, you're like, oh, this would be a lot more convenient. Did you guys eat velvita when you were a kid? You did for sure. Oh, God. Super good. Look at the ingredients in velvita, Doug.

That has to be just plastic. Bro, it is. That's not real cheap. We used to melt it down and make fondue. Have fondue out of it. Just tip it. As a kid, though, I thought it was good. I mean, I was a guy that ate like easy cheese.

and was spraying in my mouth. I don't even think it's cheese. Is it real or no? It's, oh, it has got a base of skin milk. But then there's protein concentrate, canola oil, sodium phosphate, modified food starch, way. There's more in there, though. Yeah, look at that. It's got all kinds.

It's weird. Is it high in protein because of the way? Look up the macros of velvita. Watch it's hell of good. We're going to sell it. It's got stabilizers and thickeners. There's coloring, preservatives. Slap that on my steak.

That's some American cheese. I mean, I only remember using it for fondue. I don't remember what else we used it for. Four grams protein for 70 calories worth of cheese. So one ounce. Sure, mac and cheese I used to do that. I mean, that's not bad. Sal, six ounces of it is it 24 grams of protein?

Yeah, but it's plastic. Well, I know, but I'm just saying. Like, if you read a steak's worth, it would be, you know, it's half a steak, you know, a little, a little less than a chicken breast. Yeah. You know, so it's... I've actually never had Belvedo. You've never had it?

Never. Oh, you're not missing out on it. Yeah. Yeah, weren't you speculating it tastes like plastic you've never had it before? It looks like plastic. It was like all vegetables back in the day. They thought it was a good idea to put velvita on them. On what?

Yeah, vegetables. Oh, oh. That's the other thing my mommy said. Okay, we used to have it as fondue or melted over broccoli. Same thing. This is why I've, yeah, despised vegetables. Then I started to figure out, oh, you just need to, like, grill them. When I was, we were part, my mom was a really good cook, though.

I know you've talked about your parents not being the best cook. My mom was a killer cook, but we did this. some weird shit like that. That was like, that was off. Off brand. My wife, my wife, she's going to get mad. I don't know if I get mad if I share this, but she, she had the worst diet growing up. She didn't drink water. I think until she was like 15. Oh, you've said this before. What? I'm not exaggerating. How can you even do that? In fact, in fact, I'm not making this up. She told me the story the other day. She's like, sorry, honey. Who's the Korean guy who doesn't even taking a poop?

She's like that. She's never taking a poop. No, no, she never. King John. Yeah. I was going to try and mess up. That's a myth. though of course she told me a story she said she slept over a friend's house when she was like 13 or 14 had water all they had was water she she couldn't drink it so she went in the fridge and got otter pops and melted them and put them in a glass and drank that because she never drank water all she drank was soda wouldn't she be dead no apparently only brondo yeah so she couldn't soda that's all they had with soda is it there's enough water and soda for her to live? Oh, yeah, it's mostly water. Yeah, you won't die. You'll get obese.

Maybe have some other stuff, but only soda. And when she was a kid, she's like, oh, yeah, sometimes for dinner, we'd have, you know, like our dinner would be chili cheese fries that we would make. She's so lucky her team. That must have been hard to break that habit, dude. How does she do water now? Like, is it still, like has to add something to it? Thank God we, we have partners like element because that's what she puts. Even to this day, water by itself. Because she's, her brain is wired to have flavor. Because I feel like, just some good purified water, some of the, like, I crave it sometimes. I crave that. I don't know. That's interesting. Really cold water. Isn't that wild? But I mean, I've had clients. I've had

clients that. Yeah, that have like, I forgot that she was like that though. She brought it up to me the other day. And I'm like, no, you had water. She's like, no, I had none. Does she say when she like started to discipline herself to include it? When she got into fitness kick, she's super, you know, she's like this really growth-minded person, right? So when she wanted to start to get in shape, She started to She followed a lot of the wrong stuff But it was right enough to where it made a difference Because it was so different

But she was doing before So she did like lean cuisine meals And then she started drinking water for the first time And then she would make Like she juice greens I guess I was pretty Pretty guilty of that as a kid growing up too Although the one probably

Because I'm trying to think like When did I have water From the hose probably No I did I do remember playing right In sports I remember having water When I played sports Hose water was delicious.

I remember hose water. Unless it got warm. But I don't ever, ever remember going to the sink and filling up a glass of water, like, ever as a kid. Ever. I don't remember ever doing that. But I do remember drinking out of the hose. And I do remember having, like, a water bottle for sports. That's the time I drink.

We didn't drink soda. We had a PVC pipe. Literally, we were like cattle. Oh, yeah. They sprayed? They put holes in it. Shut up. Your parents?

No, this is when I put sports. At home? My parents were like, imagine it. your house in the backyard? Me, my brother. I'm thirsty. Turn on the hose. Go to the trough.

Turn the trough on. You're pissed while you're outside, too. Tired of cleaning up your bathroom. Hide it with some hay. Not an animal. That was common in football. Our football team in high school had the same thing, too. They just wheeled it out.

It was like some homemade, some homemade PVC pie. Speaking of which, speaking of which, was your high school, did it have at least legit urinals or did it have the stupid big one where everybody has to look at each other? Oh, my God, at least in my high school. But every time I went to a sports game, like, that was so the thing back then. Thank God they got rid of that. Like, I was scarred life. Can we just talk about how traumatizing that is for a child?

For sure, some pito guy wasn't involved in creating all that. Why was that? Like it's really hard to make a... I was like, I have to pee here? But no, no, this is what it was. Listen, ladies don't even understand. They don't know this. This entire wall was just one long...

And young guys... Bro, I had, I've had one in sports that were circular. You're looking at each. You and I would be half the distance from each other right here And we would be not looking at each other Like no way avoiding it Or you just have to not look where you're peeing You just like, huh, okay, yeah, yeah

Well, I mean, look, that's what you're working with. It's not cool when you're a grown man But when I was, you know, 10 and I went to a sporting event For the first time And I see a grown man and pull out his, you know, waiting right in front of me, traumatizing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get you scarred Butcher Box delivers grass-fed meat, crate-free pork, chicken, healthy chicken, wild-caught fish, to your door at great prices.

So if you like protein, if you want healthy cuts of meat, healthy sourced meat, go to Butcher Box. By the way, if you go to Butcherbox.com forward slash mind pump, you'll get $20 off your first box, plus either free chicken breast, ground beef, or salmon included for free in every box. for an entire year again it's butcherbox.com forward slash mind pump back to the show our first caller is austin from california what's up man i do it austin what's up sound adam justin huge fan this show you guys are awesome it's an honor to be on here thank you so much for everything you guys do you got it man how can we help you all right so i'll go ahead and just read off the uh the question that i had sent in um hey mind pump crew i'm 35 years old

in decent shape and I work a physical hands-on job. My goal is to get absolutely jacked. Think bolder shoulders, six-pack abs, big quads. I was running a six-day push-pull legs split and saw good results, but just developed tendinitis and both arms had to scale back. And now I'm following Matt Sanabolic and just wondering if I can get shredded and jacked off this program alone, given my goals and recovery needs, or is there a better program or hybrid approach you'd recommend for

someone in my situation who wants aesthetics, performance, and longevity. Thanks for everything. I'm a huge fan of the show. Yeah, no, great question. Tell me a little bit about the job, physical job. So I do a paintless dent removal. I take dents and door dings out of cars, no paint, no bondo. So I go behind metal and I'm just kind of cranking all day, you know, both arms.

So I think just a mix between that and then doing, you know, each muscle group twice a week just kind of caused me to kind of burn myself out and ended up getting tendonitis, literally both arms at the same time. And so I just completely worked on more recovery and kind of lost a lot of size. And man, that kind of sends you through a little mind fuck to say the least. And now I kind of just hop back on Maps Anabolic to try to get some size back. And, Just to know if that's the best program to be on or, you know, what you guys would recommend. How long you've been lifting for consistently? Consistently, two years.

Yeah, right after my son was born, kind of saw myself as, you know, I didn't want to be that soft pudgy dad. I wanted to be the fit dad that him and all his buddies looked up to. So I started working out. And then I actually started with Maps 15, started seeing decent results. So then I'd hopped into Maps Anabolic, it's all better results. Finish that one. Then I just jumped into a push-pull leg routine and then ended up, yeah, I ended up tearing my quad and then getting tendonitis in both arms.

Yeah. So your following Mavs programs, getting great results, then you jump to something else. You jumped to the shark is what happened. We just want to make sure. Yeah, man. I know. All right. So look, you're only two years into this.

The best thing you could do to get jazz. right now is to just focus on trying to get stronger. Okay, so if you're getting stronger in some of the core lifts, it doesn't have to be every lift. In fact, chasing every lift is a bad idea. But the core lifts, your presses, your pulls, your squats. If you're getting stronger, you're getting your building muscle. So that's probably for the next year or two.

That's your focus. MAPS anabolic is a great program for that. That being said, after following MAPS Anabolic, I definitely think you should interrupt your training with like a symmetry or a performance or a performance because Maps Anabolic is so focused on sagittal plane. Yeah, sagittal plane. And so we want some of those other movements so we don't develop issues. But anabolic is perfect. If you're getting stronger, you're moving in the right direction. If you're not getting stronger, you're not moving in the right direction. And that'll be true for you for the next couple years at least. I do think a three-day-a-week program or Mass 15 is probably in your, is the best for you, especially if you're having a hard time building. Because you can probably, if you're that active at work, you might have a hard time hitting the calories you need.

You're young, you're fit, you're active. Sometimes one of the hardest parts is actually getting enough food to grow. So what does your diet look like? And is that something you struggle with is to hit enough calories? That's something I'm, that's a whole other thing I'm struggling with right now. So I had blood work done right when my son was born, so I was constantly tired. And I went to more of like a natural doctor because I didn't want to like go into the hospital and get prescribed something. And went to a natural doctor.

They said my A1C was out the roof, my triglycerides, all that. So she put me on like a 30 day or 60 day carnivore diet. And it like kind of leveled me out. But then I didn't realize that this doctor was like a huge advocate for carnivore. And so now she like just wants me to stay on it where I'm like, I hate it. I was like, if I'm looking at a ribby steak, I'm like, oh, I have to eat this. And so now I'm kind of just, like, I don't even know what to do diet-wise because I'm not really,

I didn't mind doing like the carnivore for like 30 or 60 days. But I don't want to be carnivore my whole life. And no. So here's what you could do. You could hit your protein targets and then throw some starches and some fruit in there and some fiber. And using things like rice, sweet potato, yams, typically are. your good choice to go try it. I mean, if the if the carnivore made you feel a lot better, there's probably something you were eating that doesn't agree with you. Most likely things like

breads, sugars, those types of starch. I would stay away from that. And do use things like white rice, sweet potato yams, but start to introduce those into the fruit. Yeah, and fruit, sorry. That's it. Yeah. So eat your protein. Hit that first. Then eat your, your carbs from those sources. And that'll help with the gains. Yeah, you're going to need to too. This is a, and you've probably heard, or maybe not, I don't know how long you've been listening to Mind Pump, but we went through the carnivore or ketogenic diet early on in the podcast. And one of the things I talked about, because we all kind of had our own challenges with it, I was in the height of trying to get big and jacked, and I couldn't eat enough calories.

I just, that was the part that was so hard. It's like, just like you, I was like, I'm over the steak. I'm not hungry. I don't even want anymore. And trying to stuff down another steak when I'm already full was so difficult. So I found it really good for getting healthy or losing body fat, but I found it terrible for trying to gain. I couldn't. And my workouts, I didn't have good pumps.

I wasn't, I didn't have good energy. Like, so I think it's a terrible program for a terrible way of eating to try and bulk or build. Yeah. So what did you eat before you went on carnivore? What did your diet look like? I mean, it's pretty solid. I mean, we do, I mean, I was eating like kind of overnight oats every morning, like, what protein, like, mixed in. And then my lunch would usually be like a turkey sandwich or like chicken and rice and veggie bowl.

And then dinner was usually just like a protein salad and a sweet potato. So I thought I was doing good. And then, you know, I was told my insulin levels were high and my A1C was high. And now I like I just want to kind of get a second opinion because like my A1C wants from 6.4. And I was at 5.6. And she's like, oh, you still need to stay on the carnivore. And I'm like, I don't really want to, though. Interesting. That's very interesting.

Did you do any gut health testing? I didn't. No. Yeah, you might want to do that because you might be getting some immune responses from food that can contribute to that. And you could start with just fruit. Like you could start with just throwing some berries in there. People who are reactive to food tend to be okay with fruit more than the starches that we just said. So if you want to ease your way into it, that would be one way to do it. And then as far as the program is concerned,

MAPS end of bulk is perfect. And MAPS 15 would even be good. Here's how you should judge the workout programming for the next couple years. Am I getting stronger? If I'm getting stronger, it's working. If I'm not getting stronger, it's not working. Yeah.

And usually the answer is not to do more. Sometimes it is, but oftentimes it's not to do more. Definitely not in your situation where you're struggling to hit calories and you already have a really active job. More is not going to serve you in the situation. the right dose that's going to serve you. But we do need to solve the food, though, because you can have the best program in the world.

If you're not giving yourself enough nutrients to grow, you just won't grow. It just won't happen. You'll stay fit. You'll stay strong, but you'll stay at a plateau because you're not able to feed your body enough calories to break through the plateau. Did you still have the tendonitis when you were on carnivore or did that kind of dissipate? No, I mean, so I feel like it got worse when I was on carnivore. And then so now I kind of quit eating carnivore all the way. Like I'm just like sweet potatoes, white rice.

That's about it. And like I feel way more energy now with my workouts. And the tendonitis in my right arm's completely gone. It's a little there in the left arm. But I can actually work out again. And so I just started back on MAPS Anabolic yesterday. I was going to try to just run it Monday, Wednesdays, Fridays. And then I didn't know if it was best to do like a two-day break in between.

It's just kind of hard with my work schedule. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. It's kind of like a good day for me to work out. And then I didn't know if I should be doing like cardio like on off days or just sticking to trigger sessions because the thing I did like about carnivore, man, my abs were popping out like crazy. And as soon as I started eating carbs again, it disappeared. I'm like, man, should I go back to carnivore? but then I think of all the cons that came with the carnivore and, you know, they outweighed the pros. You know, Austin, abs are so overrated.

It's so funny. Amen. Nobody cares, really, except for you and maybe some other bros in the gym. It's super overrated, especially when you look at the data. Yeah, so, I mean, and that's from a calorie deficit. So that can happen. Yeah, and that's no carbs too. So you just pulling all the water out.

Now, cardio-wise, especially with your insulin and blood sugar stuff, I walk after your meals. That's going to have a positive impact on those things. And then again, I would look at gut health testing. Sleep might be another one if your sleep is poor that has a bad, that has a really negative effect on that stuff. Is your sleep okay? No. You're bad, bad sleep.

Yeah, it's not good at all, no. Okay, well, that'd be the first place I would look. Yeah. Do you have any ideas why your sleep is? Do you have a lot of stimulants throughout the day or? I mean, I don't have a lot of stimulants. It's just, I mean, I run a business with my dad, So it's usually about 14 hours, you know, a day of work.

Then I get home and then I have a toddler. So I want to, you know, I get like about three hours within the day. So I kind of just spend all my energy with him. And then it's about 9, 30, 10 o'clock when he's going down. And then that's when I, you know, kind of shower. I sit in red light for like 30 minutes while I read. And then I'm really not going to bed until like around 1130. And then I'm up at 5 to to start working out.

Yeah, you got to go to your schedule's crazy. Map 15 is becoming more of appropriate. That's the program for you, bro. Yeah, you've got a lot going on, dude. Even if you do the Mass 15 performance, I think that would be ideal. Yeah, actually, let's send him that. That's a good call because he's already done the Mass 15. Yeah.

You don't have Maps 15 performance, do you? No, no, I just have the, just Maps 15. I don't think Red Light therapy before bed is a good idea for you. Okay. Yeah, that might be messing up a little bit. Yep. That might be messing up your sleep a little bit. Really?

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, and try to go to bed earlier if you can or wake up later if you can, one of the two, because that has a profound impact on fasting, glucose, insulin, insulin sensitivity, all that stuff. Especially if it's chronic, it has a real big impact. I mean, the good news about this conversation is, to me, it's very obvious why you're not seeing the results you want. I mean, you're obviously over-training, overworked, not enough nutrition, not good sleep. That combination will keep anybody that's tough for anybody.

So it's like sleep and getting enough calories are number one and number two. And the number three, especially right now, reducing the volume of training, like in a MAPS 15 is a better choice than actually doing something. Yeah, that'll, that'll be, that'll serve you way more. So that's kind of the, I would, those are the three main things I would tell you, go focus on and we should see a difference. Supplement wise, you might, number one. You might want to look at Aschragonda, too, for for someone like yourself. Yeah. Yeah, I've never, I mean, protein and creatine is about the only thing I'm, you know, been taking.

I never really looked into Ashbaugh. Also look into potentially magnesium at night, too. If he's having trouble sleeping, something like that, that's off. I would check that too. Those would be two places to look supplement-wise. But we got to get better sleep, bro. I mean, we have to get better sleep. And then we got to be able to get enough calories.

Those two things are huge. Yeah. No, my wife was telling me the same thing. And then we like, in the mix of all that this last two months, we've been kind of trying to like buy another house. And like, so it's just been like kind of like emotional roller coaster with that. And then, yeah. Yeah.

I was like, okay, sleep needs to start being number one priority because I'm just like waking up tired every day and like going to bed exhausted. And you know, think of it this way too, Austin. I mean, you're in a season of your life, a young man, kid, married, business, you're sacrificing yourself for your family, which is commendable. And what you want to do with your workouts is they should improve the quality of your life, not take away from it. Yeah. Yeah. So if your workouts, if you're putting so much energy in your workouts that it's making you more tired to do. the other stuff. It's not the right kind of

workout for you. Or you're so sore and not recovering because you're beating yourself. Keep you strong and healthy. Not getting jacked. I think getting jacked is not on the cards right now. Yeah, like pushing your body might not be a good idea. And the irony of that, by the way, though, is focusing that way will give you more aesthetic gains

than focusing on trying to get aesthetic gains. So the irony is let go of the getting jack goal, get healthy, get better sleep, eat better, focus on those things. And what will happen is you'll get leaner and more ripped. And by the way, this is what it would look like with MAPS 15 or 15 performance. You know, it's a daily 15 minute or whatever 20 minute workout.

But when you're like, man, I'm fried, you skip a day and then just start again where you left off. It doesn't have to be a seven-day program. It could be a 10-day or 13-day program. So when you feel good, you do the workout, when you're like, I need some more sleep, then you don't. And that's it. And you'll probably progress that way. Awesome. Yeah.

No, that sounds good. I mean, I feel like hearing it from you guys is. Austin, did you happen to watch the YouTube series I did last year? I didn't, no. That's a good one for you to watch, considering where you're at and kind of the advice we're trying to give you because you hear me. So I came off of a, you know, I lay off. I hadn't lifted in a couple months.

And you get to watch me kind of reintroduced training. And the level of volume and intensity that I approach it with is similar to how I would have you train right now. And so if you want some slash entertainment and, help along the way watch that you'll get some you'll get some good nuggets in that while you're going through this process it's on the mind pump tv channel well i'll definitely check that out and then after like running maps 15 performance um do you think like stay in that stay in that stay in that stay in that yeah stay in that for right now and then just reach back out to us are you in our private forum or no

i'll have dub put you in that okay so i'll hook you up with that we'll send you map 15 performance follow that after you get through it just check in with us and and give us an update on how you're feeling and what's going on. And then most likely we'll probably tell you to stay in it for a little bit longer. But there's a possibility you rebound and you're doing great. But just hit us up in the forum. Awesome. I appreciate you guys.

And then one other question, like this doctor that I'm dealing with, like just to, she does prescribe me like my TRT. So I'm like scared to tell her like I don't want to do carnivore anymore because I feel like she's going to like drop me. You know, because like when I had my love, that was another thing. my testosterone is like at 180 when I just go through MP hormones you can go through us yeah but also also you can just tell her say look this isn't working for me yeah I'd like to add some more stuff into my diet let's continue to monitor and she most likely won't kick you off and if you could do some gut testing with me that'd be great because uh you know I wonder if I have some gut health issues I'd like to find out why my A1C is still where it's at and so and I really don't want to this is just not sustainable for me and if she's a good doctor she'll say okay let's find another way okay yeah awesome

worst case so you go through ampy hormones you can get that too so you'll be yeah well I should have gone through there first but all good it is what it is all good all right man yeah we'll stay in touch Austin I appreciate you guys again so much

you guys rock shows awesome thanks again appreciate it take it easy brother that's interesting that a doctor recommended that's a carnivore that's a new thing and then also a naturopath that gave you TRT I don't think

he said she's, she's into the natural health, but that doesn't necessarily be able to. That doesn't add up, though. I'm wondering if it's, I'm going to guess, I'm totally going to guess, but I'm wondering if it's a chiropractor

who works with a doctor that prescribes. And so sometimes chiropractor is going this like, in a combo, interesting direction where they do things that are just like, this is, what do you? Yeah, well,

that's a weird, that's a weird combo for, to put you on an extreme carnivore diet, but then also put you into your team. Yeah, the only time a doctor, in my opinion, should recommend

carnivore is when you identify, like, really extreme immune reactions to food. That really is the only real application. Otherwise, the calorie deficit. It's not sustainable, dude. And it's not sustainable. Listen, when you're coaching anybody on lifestyle for health, sustainability is at the top because I don't care how good something works. If the fall off rate is 90 plus percent, waste of time. Yeah.

It's a waste of your time. So sustainability is near the top. Unless there's emergency situations, I get that. Yeah. But, yeah, it's interesting. go our next caller is juliana from new york juliana hello hello how can we help you guys how you doing thanks so much for having me on i appreciate it you got it how can we help you uh yeah i'll just read my email here so i stay concise but um hey mind punt team i've been listening

to the podcast since inception and i've run through a ton of the programs with incredible results honestly i'm a lifelong athlete and i've never truly experienced muscle gain and body transformation like this until i started maps programming my question is how do i better engage my glutes when squatting. I've always struggled to feel my glutes activate during certain exercises, squatting being one example. I feel a lot of the lifts coming from my quads. I also feel some discomfort and impingement in my hips when the rep count and the weight starts to climb. Just looking for some tips on how I can improve my performance there. Super common with athletes. Yeah. So do they develop? Do your glutes develop? Or do you

also feel like they're lagging body part? I get some development, but I don't think a maximum as well as they can be. And what sports were you in as an athlete? What did you compete in? Primarily softball. I also played a little bit of basketball and soccer as well. Okay. The hip impingement sometimes comes from when people squat,

they're trying to stick their butt out or sit back to try to activate the glutes and they end up hip, they end up impinging the hips. So believe it or not, leading with the knees might actually help with that. So bending the knees first rather than sticking the butt back first. So that's more of a function thing. squat. But for someone like you, hip thrusts are magic.

Yeah. Hip thrust are a magic exercise for people who've been active, been working out, they squat. Like, I can only feel in my quads. Yeah. Especially to build up volume there. That's right. And so I would, you know, I would hip thrust before squatting for someone like you. And that's when you're going to see the development in your, in your glutes. Would you, as far as programming, would you always work it in before the squat or take the squat out and replace it completely with the hip

thrust. Depends how often you squat. Yeah. So if you're going to squat twice in a week, you could replace one of the workouts with hip thrust. Then the second time you squat, you do a light set or two of hip thrust more as a

primer than anything. Just to get connection. Yeah, too, you can, I don't know how low you squat, but that also could play a factor with that. Just, and too, be careful with that to lower the weight. a bit as you go down and progress in that low depth, but holding and pausing and then, you know, really just trying to emphasize the tension and connection there. That will start to contribute

towards feeling it more in your glutes. I also love doing, do you do conventional deadlifts or do you do sumo deadlifts? I do kind of a mix of both depending on what the program's running, but. Okay. Yeah, I love sumo dead lifts too, just especially if you don't deal them often and then we're trying to get engagement there. Just the opening up that stance helps like my female clients engage the glutes more. So it kind of forces you do that when you stand like that. I like that. A good glute combo like program or workout for somebody who says what you're saying would look like this.

It would be you would start with hip thrust. You'd have like three to five sets of hip thrust. Then you do a couple of sets of squats. And then you'd finish off with a couple sets of Romanians where you get a stretch at the bottom. And then when you come up to the top, squeeze your glutes really hard and then go back down. So that's like a good combo. Kind of hit it from every angle. That's right. That's right. And then, and that, that typically will do it. But hip thrusts are your friend. Yeah.

Hip thrusts are not a better gloop developer than squats unless you're somebody who has a tough time feeling your glutes. Yeah. In which case, they make, they make all the difference in the world. Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I know, too, with the hip impingement, especially like I just finished up Mac's performance like last month. So I lowered the weight on that and just kind of worked on trying to get deep into that squat. Perfect. Do you think there's any difference in like obviously spreading my feet wider, feels better on the hips? Is it something I should work towards a more narrow stance and like getting low or does it not matter either way?

It's okay. It's really okay. In a perfect world, we'd be able to squat low. from every foot position, but yeah. But if you're going heavier and you're like, you want to be comfortable, that's right, then go with the wider stance. Nothing wrong with that.

Okay, cool. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Did you, uh, Julianne, did you join our seven days of free training in the muscle money, muscle mommy community? No,

I just saw I come through. So I've definitely got to get in on that. Yeah, hop in. It's absolutely free. We're doing it for the, all, all seven days,

uh, the guys and I are, are leading it. And then we have two coaches that will keep it going on. But, uh, I think we had 300, something people there last night. And so just come join it. Yep. Oh, awesome. Yeah, I ran muscle

mommy in the spring and I love the program. I thought it was really great. And you could just so you know, because I know that that was some confusion, like you can run any program with that community. It's really just, it's like it's a community base for women that are wanting to build muscle. And so, yeah, there's a lot of people following anabolic and other programs. So that's more about building the community for us. That's awesome. Yeah, thanks. You got it. Julianne, are you, are you a tying from both sides or just one side? Yeah, I'm Calabrese, so read across the water from you. Oh, there you go.

You guys are angry over there. Yeah, we're some stubborn people for sure. That's what they say. Well, I hope you take our advice then. No, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot, guys. You got it. Thanks for calling in.

Take care. It's so funny. In Italy, the different regions, say things about, so what she said about being stubborn, that's a thing that Italians will say about people from Calabria. Yeah, really? Teisterura means hard head, hardheaded. I don't know why they say that.

It's so funny. This is weird. I know. You know, the whole, like, the reason why you'll see so many people rave about hip thrusts building that reason right there. Yes. And then you'll see studies that compare them to squats. And it's like, no, they actually build the same amount of glute.

It's not that it's better, but if it's better for you, then it's better. Yeah, it's a little more quad-driven. And for women who are like, I can't build my butt, no matter how many squats I do, and they don't feel it. Like, you got a hip-thrust, it fixes it. Super, super common in female athletes. Yes. Because you do, when you're anterior driven and you drive off of the, you're, like, you're

foot like that and your quads all the time, that's your default pattern. And so then you go to squat, which is already a quad exercise too. It just takes over. And so it's, and all it is is that you're just become so dominant that almost all my, like, I mean, Katrina's this way too. Katrina, Katrina does a lot of hip thrust because she was a basketball player. And that's when she does, and she has a harder time to. You barely go down more than a quarter squat in basketball.

Yeah, yeah. Our next caller is Aaron from Minnesota. What's up, Aaron? Are you doing Aaron? What's happening, buddy? How can we help you? How we do it? How we doing, guys?

Good. We're good. Awesome. I'll just go straight into the question, not waste your time. So in high school, I was up to 290 pounds. And then my junior year, I just got sick of it. And so I lost 100 pounds in like four months. Since then, I'm 33 now.

I've been fluctuated up and down, never back that high. but um and then uh this last april i decided i want to get in the best shape of my life for my 33rd birthday so um i started to cut um went down to 2100 calories and i've lost like 25 pounds on that um i'm down to around 186 pounds the goal is to get to 175 to 180 and maintain there to try to get in the best shape of my life. So my question is just kind of how do I do this the most efficient way. I was at 2,100 calories and I was at that for a long time. And for a short period, I dropped down to 18 to try to make progress go faster.

Or 1,800 calories try to make progress go faster. But my question is, is that too big of a deficit being 510? at, you know, 186. And then kind of how long should I maintain that cut until I go back to a maintenance for a while or a bulk? You're already lower than I would want to take you, and so I'd get you going back the other direction. Getting down to 1,800, that's like my 140-pound female.

Like, and I'm assuming you're probably a busy, active guy, probably train at least three to five times a week. Oh, six days a week. Plus 12 to 14,000. Yeah, you need to go the other way, bro. other way. It's time to, and you'll get, you'll actually get leaner if you actually give yourself more calories and get strong in the gym. It's, but you're, you're, you're as low as about as I'd ever let you get. And then, and we'd only stay down in that 1800 to 2,000 for a short

period to like maybe drop a little bit. And then I'd always be pulling you out. To me, that's kind of your, that should be your bottom, bottom that you ever get to, not somewhere you used to stay and hold. Aaron, what's the most, if we look at your overall fitness, uh, What's the most important goal for you with all of this? If I were to say, what's the ultimate goal, number one at the top? Yeah, ultimate is like longevity because I have three kids, you know, but for that short period of time, like are all, like, I know you had this, had this issue. I've watched your video sell, but, you know, I just wanted to look really good for a short period of time and then maintain that health, you know. That's probably the two biggest, you know.

Yeah. So with longevity, of course, longevity. But where I'm getting is, do you want to solve this issue of up and down? You know? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Okay. So we got to reverse you. I wouldn't put you on a slow reverse diet and focus on getting stronger. And I wouldn't even think, I wouldn't think about dropping calories for a long time. Yeah. And through that process, Adam hit the nail on the head. You're going to get body composition change if you do it right. So you're going to actually get leaner and build some muscle at the same time. Yeah. But I wouldn't. Okay. I wouldn't cut you. Definitely not. And in that, I know the best router, what I've heard is do a really, really slow gain. So like a quarter of a pound or a half a pound a week, is that kind of the range you guys want to see? If I let you weigh yourself, but I don't tell you. I'm not really hung up on the scale. And in fact, someone like you who's lost that much weight, I don't want you to get on the sale because, I mean, shoot, we could actually jump up. You're going to actually, when you add calories back and you feed the way you should and then you start, you're going to gain.

five pounds right away. So I'm not trip. Yeah, it's all going to be in my head. Yeah, exactly. So I actually don't like you weighing yourself with someone who's had lost a lot of weight like that, tend to freak out when they see any sort of fluctuation. And you could be doing the perfect thing and you're going to course correct when I don't want you to.

So I would actually keep you away from that. You eating that low calories, you stepping that much, you're not going to get fat on 2,500 calories. So I want you to incrementally keep working up. slowly and just, you know, add a couple hundred calories, stay there for a week or two, add a couple more hundred calories, stay there for a week or two, and just keep doing that and watch how you feel in the gym. You're at 1,800 right now?

Right now I'm back to 2100 because I think that that 1800 was too drastic for that time being. Yeah, go up to 23, stay there for a couple weeks, then go up to 24, stay there for going on 25, work your way up slowly, and then focus on getting stronger in the gym. Where you would go wrong is if you started to let go off the rails. So if you start to go, like, instead of going up 200 calories, you're like, I'm just going to eat everything, that's where this could go wrong. So it's still going to be controlled, but slowly work your way up. And if you're getting strong in the gym, man, we're moving in the right direction. Yeah. All right. I appreciate that, guys. And in that, I do like to, it's kind of my like mental, like, break from like just everything to go to the gym. And I know I can just do mobility and some walking incline. But what program? I'm going to buy one after this. So which one would you guys suggest just for that? I haven't done. maps or any of them yet. Oh, anabolic.

Maps Anabolic. Yeah, it maps, anabolic. And on trigger days, you can do some mobility stuff, trigger sessions, and walk. And we'll send it to you, bro.

You don't have to buy it. We'll send it to you. Yeah. So that's... Oh, well, I'm a business owner, too, guys. I want to support you guys.

You are by getting on here and talking about, you know, what you're trying to do. So that is supporting us. All right, can I get three things here. So, Justin, are you from the Midwest or you got family out there? I went to school out in Chicago, so...

Chicago. So did you ever have Calvers? Convers? No, Calvers. Colvers. Oh, Colvers. No, I haven't. Oh, man. You guys got to try it out. We were just in California. So I wanted to ask you that. And Sal, I got a book for you, The Meaning of Marriage by C.S. Lewis. Oh. Check that one out.

Oh, great. Love C.S. Lewis. All right. That's a great recommendation. I appreciate you guys. So thank you, man. Right on. What up, Aaron? Nothing for me? Yeah. Okay. So I'm trying to get my physique to look like you, man. I'm just fucking. Is it like pot bellies or what? I don't want to take it all your time, but I mean, your brain is exactly like mine, man.

Like you look at everything and see a business or how are they making money or how is this work? Or how can I turn that into something? And that's exactly how my brain works. So I feel like we're a lot of liking that. Well, good news, bro. We're going to help you right here. If you take our advice right here, you're going to get what you want. So just keep reversed dieting.

I'll have Doug send you over the program. I'll also have him give you access to our private forum. That way, as you're going through this process. Just shoot us a message. Let us know how you're doing and we'll help you out through the whole thing. All right. Time to get strong, guys. All right, I appreciate you.

Take it easy. All right, dude. Is that a restaurant? Yeah. Is that what he said? Yeah, so he owns it. I thought it was. Is it like a chain or something?

It's probably a chain. Wow, good for him. Young guy. Owning a restaurant father of three. Yeah. Doing all this. Lost a hundred pounds. Yeah, reverse diet.

Yeah. Yeah. He just needs, and he's 14,000. He just, he needs to feed himself, dude. Oh, God. And he's going to, he's going to gain so much muscle. The hardest part will be the psychological muscle. Stay away from the, if you, when you listen to this, Aaron, stay away from the scale.

You don't need to mess with the scale. And you know, it's crazy, considering he's a solo calorie, lost all the way, he's got some arms on him. He might have some genetics for building muscle. Yeah, yeah, no, he looks like, that's what he, when he feeds himself, he's going to see, and just get strong in the gym, you're going to see good. Our next caller is Libby from Michigan. Hi, Libby. Hello, how are you? Hello.

Hello, how are you guys? We're good, how are you? Very good. Good, good. So I've got a question for you. and a little bit of background to make it make a little bit more sense. Growing up, I was never super athletic, didn't do sports or anything like that, but I did grow up on a dairy farm, so I was pretty fit, functional fitness that way.

But then I went to college, became much more sedentary, didn't really work out a whole lot, gained a bunch of weight, didn't love how I looked or how I felt. And then I found fitness through an at-home company, probably your favorite starts with the B, ends in a Y. But I am thankful for that because it did change my mindset, get me introduced to it. But then through that and law school, I was working full-time, working out two to three hours a day. And then going to law school at night, I wasn't sleeping and just keep pushing. And if I didn't work out or my food didn't come from plastic tubs, I didn't eat it. So it came to a pretty poor situation there for a while.

And then I worked with Dr. Lauren Fitzgerald to fix it back in 2021 before BHRT was super cool. So shout out to her. That's how I found you guys. And then through less training, bulking, things like that, I actually fixed my hormones, was able to get pregnant. Yay. Which I was super thankful for. And now my pregnancy was rough. I couldn't really work out a ton.

I was just pretty sick. But now my baby is four months old. and I'm back to work trying to get back into the swing of things, and I started MAPS starter about a month ago, and I want to do more. So I know you're going to tell me to not, just trust the process. But I also find myself deciding when I should work out because sleep is rough, to say the least, with a four-month-old. And I don't want to push myself so far to go back to the place I was,

but I also want to make progress and feel better in my skin again. but I also find myself relying on my Fitbit-H-R-V readiness scores, all of that garbage that a machine can tell me and I want to be able to trust my body. So I guess I'm kind of stuck on how to balance all of that and still make progress, but not end up in that super dark place that I was a few years ago. Libby, did you join our Muscle Mommy community that started yesterday? I saw it last night and clicked on it and then had to go take care of the baby, so I didn't get a chance to go back to it yet. Okay, get in there. You are like perfect.

That's why we're building this community for that. And you can be following any programs. You could be on starter. So it's not like only people following muscle mommy. It's women that want to get stronger, build their metabolism, get fit. I mean, that's the idea. And it's support for everybody. We're doing it.

The guys and I are launching it for seven days. So we're in there talking every single day. And then we have two coaches that are going to maintain it going forward. But got to get in there with us for sure. Yeah. Libby, this is a, this is new territory for you. You can't approach your fitness like you did to your law degree. It just won't work.

You can't grind yourself into better health. It just isn't going to work. Your baby's only four months old. And contrary to what I think women are sold through social media, it takes a lot longer than four months for you to get to the point where you could start to push yourself. For most of my career, when I trained women who had a baby, it wasn't until a year or two after that they started to feel kind of like they would tell me like I kind of feel like

myself. So you can't grind yourself towards this. This is a new relationship you're going to have to develop and you have to approach it like this. My fitness routine has to improve everything else in my life. It has to give me more energy for work. It has to give me more energy for my baby. It has to make me feel healthier and more vibrant, not the other way around. That's going to be the view. Now, the challenge with this is you're very accomplished. You probably only have one gear, or I'd say two gears. You have either go all the way or don't go at all. It's probably the two gears that you play with. Yep. So the challenge with this is learning how to drive in this new gear. You're somebody that would be a prime candidate for coaching.

If you had a coach guide you through this process, what they're going to do is this. They're going a tell you what to do so you can kind of trust their advice because you can't really trust your advice right now your advice is going to put you it's going to move you in the wrong direction it's served you well in some areas of life but it's it's also caused some problems and if you keep going down in that direction the problem is going to get really really bad okay so coach is going to say do this and you're going to kind of put your faith in them say okay I'm going to listen to what you have to say a coach is also going to help you give yourself grace when you screw up and the way you're going to screw up is you're either going to push yourself too hard or you're going to

fall way off because you're going to have a tough time finding the middle ground. And the coach is going to help you get back on and figure this out. The coach is also going to help give yourself grace as you start to figure out what your body is responding to best with. And those moments where you're like, why isn't my body responding? What's going on? I feel like I'm doing the right things. It feels like nothing's happening. Like a good coach is going to be able to walk you through that. So you would be a perfect candidate for a coach. I think you would be very coachable. You're probably a very coachable person. I'm sure you were great with your professor. It sounds like you worked Dr. Fitz and you followed her advice. So I would like to have one of our

coaches call you because that would be best. But if you don't work with a coach, the view that you're going to have to constantly remind yourself of is, am I developing the right relationship with fitness? Not. Am I doing the best routine? Am I getting the best results? Am I that's that's going to be second and third first is am i approaching this with the right mindset and heart posture and if it's a no okay what's the right mindset here how do i approach this what am i doing this for uh how do i want to feel after this what am i want to stay away from what are my tendencies it's going to be a constant conversation as you develop a new relationship and then once you kind of start to figure that out it takes time then it's going to start to feel more and more

natural, and then the old ways will feel less desirable. But right now, you've got this, like I said, you've got these two gears, and it's like full speed ahead or nothing. He's to build you up. And you have no other gears. And I've trained people like you. So I know this. I'm like, and it's probably resonating.

Everything I'm saying is probably resonating with what I'm saying. Absolutely. Yeah. So, so, but if you do this right, I'm going to tell you, it's going to be a whole new world for you. And, and I'm going to sell this to you now. So here comes the clothes. Okay.

It's going to make you more effective at everything else you do. Yeah. So as effective as you've been with your full speed of head gear, you're going to be even more effective figuring out how to balance these things. So it's actually going to make you better. You're not going to, sometimes people are afraid. They're like, but am I going to be a badass still? You're going to be more of a badass because you're going to figure these things out.

Gotcha. Okay. Can I have someone reach out to you? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. All right, all right, good. This will be great. Yeah. We'll see you on the inside, Libby.

I will. Can I bug you guys with one more low question? Of course. Yeah, that's here. All right. So no one else has been able to. figure this out. So I'm hoping you can help me out. Well, I was pregnant. I didn't have, like, a ton of, like, joint issues or anything that way. But then about three weeks after I had

my baby, my right wrist just started being a pain. Like, I felt like I broke it. And I've had x-rays and everything. The chiropractors worked on it. Everything doesn't seem to make it better. And then a few weeks ago, my left wrist also started doing the same thing, which makes it even more difficult, like writing, typing, dealing with the baby, everyone's like, rest. And I'm like, okay, cool. I have a four-month-old that needs me. I can't really not use my hands. Any ideas are things I can do to make it better. Yeah. Do you, um, you're like a computer like crazy? That's interesting. Yeah. So hormones during pregnancy cause the joints to loosen. And then post-pregnancy, things start to settle again. Ligaments and tendons. Yeah. And you'll sometimes develop dysfunction.

Uh, you'll see oftentimes, which side is the side you hold your. your baby in the most? Probably my right side. Okay, and that's the wrist that started hurting the most first? Yes, yep. And then you switch sides and the other wrist started hurting you? Yes. Okay. So I want you to pay attention to how you're holding the baby. Okay. So pay attention to that because that could be causing the issue. And so you position your wrist in a way to where it doesn't bother you anymore or wear a wrist brace at home when you're picking up the baby. So what you'll sometimes see in women is wrist pain, shoulder pain, or hip pain. And it's almost always the side that they hold the baby resting on the joint yeah and it could be you're

holding in this kind of supernative position yeah yeah that's where it hurts so yeah so look at your wrist position and adjust that while you're holding the baby yeah in the meantime uh i would do just light mobility movement really light yeah risk cars yep and then and then if you have access to a massage therapist have the massage the forearm flexors and extenders uh and you know doing that once a week should should also help. But a wrist brace while holding the baby to kind of let it cool down and then figure out the position. Okay.

Connecting it with better patterns, yeah. I'll have Doug sent over to you our Maps Prime Pro. In there is a cool a bunch of like wrist cars and exercise you could do actually specific for your wrist. You could just follow along in there. Awesome. That'd be great. Yep. Yeah. All right, Libby. Yeah, I'm glad you asked that question. Yeah, great question.

Thank you guys. Also, I'll just want to say thank you for doing what you're doing with your series. It's awesome and sharing your faith with everybody. A lot of Christians, we don't have the ability to do that or the want to do that. So thank you. Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. It's encouraging. Thank you, Libri. Awesome. Well, thank you guys so much. You got it. Have a good day.

She'll do so well with the coach. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's why I want right away, I was like, you've got to get the community. I mean, I feel like at the very least, at least get inside the muscle mama community. She'll be, she's very coachable. I guarantee she's going to work really, really well with a coach and kind of, because it's tough, man. When you have that, you see this with high performing athletes. You'll see this with executives. like high-level executives, they've learned to just go.

The method of operation is to just get it. Well, and it's like I always say, it works. It's served them. Yeah. You know, it's really tough to break something that you do that has served you so well in life.

It's just fitness is different, you know? There has to be the right balance, and that's what's best for your body. It's not more is better, so. Totally. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. We'll see you.

It's at Mind Put 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 Esthetic, 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 Mind Pumpmedia.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, this is Mind Pump.