Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2694: Why Focusing on Performance Transforms Your Body

Episode Date: September 27, 2025

Mind Pump Fit Tip: What is better to track, looks or performance? (2:13) PSA: The constant news cycle WILL decrease your quality of life. (27:08) Perception drift. (37:24) Shout out to Eight Sleep! (40:31) One daily habit could help prevent chronic back pain. (44:32) Improving skin health with Caldera Lab. (47:45) What the data shows about happiness. (52:33) #ListenerLive question #1 – Any advice on designing a personalized workout routine that supports my recovery, helps rebuild my strength, improves balance, mobility, and respects the constraints that come with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and stroke recovery? (56:05) #ListenerLive question #2 – I know a lot about health and fitness in theory, but I’m overwhelmed and unsure where to start. Any advice? (1:09:46) #ListenerLive question #3 – Any help or advice on why I am getting cramps in the bottom of my feet after working out? (1:20:00) #ListenerLive question #4 – What’s going on with fat distribution during perimenopause? What can I realistically do to maintain a strong and confident sense of body image? (1:26:01) Related Links/Products Mentioned Ask a question to Mind Pump, live! Email: [e-mail] Visit Eight Sleep for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump Listeners! ** Use the code MINDPUMP to get $350 off your very own Pod 5 Ultra. The best part is that you still get 30 days to try it at home and return it if you don’t like it – – Shipping to many countries worldwide. ** Visit Caldera Lab for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code MINDPUMP20 for 20% off your first order of their best products. ** Flash Sale: MAPS Performance 50% off! ** Code ATHLETE50 at checkout. ** Mind Pump Store Building Muscle with Adam Schafer – Mind Pump TV Mind Pump #2692: Want to Look Better? The Secret to a Sculpted Body Mind Pump #2667: The Truth About New “Magical” Muscle Building Drugs & More With Dr. William Seeds Eight Sleep Adds $100M for AI, Medical Tech One daily habit could save you from chronic back pain Mind Pump #2402: The 5 Reasons Why Walking is King for Fat Loss (Burn More Fat than Running & How to Do it Correctly) Visit MASSZYMES by biOptimizers for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code MINDPUMP10 at checkout for 10% off any order. ** MP Holistic Health Muscle Mommy Movement Quiz Mind Pump #2690: The NEW DIET Everyone Is Using For Fat Loss Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Dr. William Seeds (@williamseedsmd) Instagram  

Hey, I'm Dr. Z, and I'm a neurosurgeon. So that means long hours, early rounds, late nights, and everything in between. And through it all, I wear figs. They're comfortable when it counts and functional when I need them the most. So where do you wear your figs? On shift, on call, on the couch and the break room, listening to this podcast, wherever it is, they fit right in. And now listeners of this podcast can get 15% off their first order. Just head to WearFigs.com and use code FigsRX at checkout.

That's wherefigs.com code FigsRX. 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, we talked to live callers. We coached them on air in this podcast.

But that was after the intro. Today's intro is 53 minutes long. In the intro, we talked about fitness and fat loss and muscle gain. family life, health. It's a great time. By the way, if you want to be on an episode like this one and you want to call in, send us your question, send it to live at mindpumpmedia.com. This episode is brought to you by some sponsors.

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Pump. Use the code Mind Pump for that massive discount. This episode is also brought to by Caldera Lab, Skin Care Products that Improve the Health and Appearance of Your Skin. Studies show over 91% of participants saw dramatic improvements. Go check them out. Go to caldera Lab.com forward slash mind pump. That's C-A-L-D-E-R-A-B.com forward slash mind pump. The code is Mind Pump 20 for 20% off. Also, we have a sale right now. Flash sale. You ready? MAPS performance, 50% off. This is the one MAPS program you can run indefinitely. It'll build your entire body holistically, speed, power, agility, mobility, strength, muscle, fat loss, symmetry, balance.

It's in this program, 50% off right now. Go to MAPSperformance.com. Use the code, Athlete 50 for the discount. All right, real quick, if you love it, us like, we love you, why not show up by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at mindpumpstore.com. I'm talking right now, hit pause, head on over to mindpumstor. com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. When people start a fitness journey, the majority of them, the vast majority of them are doing it for aesthetic reasons. They want to look different. This is not

new news. I don't think I'm shocking everybody. So it makes sense then to track that, right? You want to look better, well then pay attention to how you look through your workout. Or does it? There may be better ways to track how you're performing or how are you doing or how you're progressing that will lead to better results with how you look. Let's talk about that. So I'm going to ask you guys a question. I know the answer, but I'll pose it as a question. What is going to accomplish better overall results? All results for somebody. All the results somebody could want from a fitness journey, okay? Tracking their appearance

or tracking their performance. Would you include would you include body fat tracking in that? Where would you categorize that? Because it's definitely, that's not a performance thing. No. And it's arguably an aesthetic thing, but it's not the mirror.

It's not the scale. It's a little more objective. It's more, that's more, towards the looks than it is towards the performance. It is. It is. Yeah. So the reason why I bring it up. And I'm making it a black and white. So, so, you know, if you have to pick one, let's do, let's do that. Strength performance, yeah, all day.

Well, the reason why I threw that in there is, because obviously I know that's the direction you're going. Yeah. But I actually still think it is the, I still think it's the better answer. Regardless. Even the body fat percentage. Yeah. Which I think is a really good objective number that coaches and trainers use. Sure. And people go like, okay, we're, we're building more muscle. I agree. but I still think the And that's why I brought it up. Obviously, I knew if we talk performance in the mirror,

anybody who's listened to this podcast longer than two weeks has heard us communicate that. I mean, most of our live callers call in, and we know that one of the things they struggle with is they're always looking at the mirror or the scale, and it's so deceiving, and it sends them down the wrong path. And so one of the number one pieces of advice, I think, that we give consistently is get rid of the scale,

get rid of the mirror, track your performance, focus on getting stronger, get better at the movements. And so we preach this. And so it's not a surprise that you're going to say that. But I do think someone would try

to make the argument for, well, what about body fat percentage? Right. It shows you. But even that can be very, not only misleading, but discouraging, because there's been times in my journey,

somebody who has tracked body fat percentage more than the average person, I would say, probably. Fluctuates a lot. I don't know. I don't know too many people that have tracked that data more than I have because I did it for a sport. And when I would do that, I could get really discouraged sometimes when I was dialed and I went the wrong direction on the body fast scale, you know?

And anybody who watched my journey on YouTube experienced a little bit of this where and if I was hung up on just that and I didn't have the experience and knowledge that I had. easily could have thrown my arms up and been like, what am I doing? I've made all these great sacrifices nutritionally as far as desserts and I'm eating the way I'm supposed to and I'm training hard. And then this result didn't go the way I wanted to easily could throw my hands up. Well, even if you just pay attention to body fat, it could mislead you and convince you that, you know, you need to aggressively, let's say, do cardio or do something. or restrict over, yeah, just sort of change your entire approach and protocol in a negative direction just to manipulate that one factor versus, you know, performance itself is, is the pursuit of it takes care of a lot of aesthetic and a lot of body fat and a lot of like muscle building attributes that will carry you so much further.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, that's, that's one of the points I make is that one of them leads to improvements in the other. or the other one doesn't. Yeah. So chasing a look doesn't lead to, it's not like a guaranteed lead. Not guaranteed. It could, but it doesn't mean that. It could, but it often doesn't lead to improvements

in, let's say, athletic performance, right? Which looks like strength, stamina, mobility, just being able to move better in your body with better fitness. It doesn't always lead in that direction. Better performance almost always leads, almost always leads to a better look. So that's one reason why it's better. The other thing, too, is neither one of these is perfect

because you could chase performance and go above and beyond, right? Especially PRs or something. Yes. It could really take you. Right. You could sacrifice life quality and health in the pursuit of either one of these. But one of these almost immediately leads to the sacrifice of health.

If somebody's starting a fitness journey right now, now, and they're just looking at the mirror and the scale, they almost immediately sacrifice health, performance, fitness, because to them, first off, it's subjective in the mirror, which is already distorted. You know, people are like that with themselves. We know this personally and with clients. And they stop paying attention to the other metrics. Whereas when you're, as a trainer, I'll just say this right now, as a trainer, you know,

looking how my client looked, I mean, that was important. I can see that they're getting more fit and getting leaner. Like, that was important. But the objective performance measures in the gym were always a better gauge. There were always a better gauge. This is even true for, like, the studies on muscle and how healthy muscle is for you, what muscle does for your body with insulin sensitivity, with longevity. Really, the metric they use is strength.

It's not muscle. So it's a grip strength test or getting up off the floor. That's a better correlate to better health than just how. much muscle you have on your body. Yeah. And this is going to be made even more true in the future with these drugs that they're trying to create to counteract some of the effects of GLP-1s, right? These myostatin blocking drugs or whatever.

We had Dr. Seedon, explained it very well. He's like, you're going to have a bunch of people with more muscle who are more like they're obese than they are muscular in terms of their health. So performance, if somebody goes and starts on a fitness journey and dramatically improves the performance over two years, they're stronger. more stamina, better mobility. The great odds are they're also leaner, look better, more sculpted.

Like, you're going to be able to tell. If that same person for two years just focused on the mirror and the scale, then the odds are they're going to go oftentimes in the wrong direction. And we see this all the time. So that's why I think it's a good discussion. And it's especially good because what people sign up

to do is change how they look. yeah and then the 90% of the time yeah and then the other stuff is like yeah it'll be good to get stronger yeah it'll be good to move better like that'll be good too but I really just want to get rid of this belly what do you think about what even Justin said because because you could make the case an argument too that that performance could lead into the unhealthy place also and I think we have seen this in with the adoption of PR you know when I started training yeah even as when I started as a personal training did you know I didn't know what a PR was right when people first started using that term. I didn't know what PR. What was a PR? Like that wasn't like a, it's not like a staple

fitness. It wasn't common terminology. No. It became a thing that we started to chase after. And, and I saw how unhealthy that could be. So to his point about even that, is there even a better way than saying chasing performance? What about chasing movement and like just getting great at movement? And part of getting great at movement is the ability to get stronger through the movement. Here's what's great with performance. First off, you have to chase it for a while before it becomes bad. So you take a beginner and they're like, I'm just going to get stronger.

There's a good three-year period. That's going to benefit them. Now after that, you start getting extreme. Now you're starting to sacrifice or increased risk of injury. That's a good point. The other thing, too, is overall performance has checks and balances. Right? So can you chase strength too far?

Yes, but what if you're also concerned with stamina, endurance, and mobility? Well, there's checks and balances. Well, yeah, and I think in that regard, because then you start getting into like, training aids and like belts and you know like certain types of compression gear and all these things to kind of help you pursue like a greater output however you're masking the signal of pain and you're masking the signal of dysfunction and so and I guess this the purest in me if I'm just

like focused on real performance you have to listen to those body signals as you go through the process. So there's an area of need to stabilize and reinforce around the joint to build up your overall strength and to actually get more out of it. But if we're just pursuing it in terms of one specific lift or one thing that like, you know, I'm just going to ignore all of my body signals and signs and pursue this goal exclusively. It can be problematic. Well, what you guys are saying I think is so important to really unpack or to elaborate on, which is like defining performance. That's right. Because it isn't just a PR. Yeah. Kind of to the, the concern you raised, which I think is good for us to have dialogue around because the average person, when you think about

lifting weights and you say you want to focus on performance, they do interpret that as, oh, just get stronger. Right. And we do sometimes simplify that and say that to people, just get stronger. Especially for the first few years. Right, right. A lot of times we say that. But to your point, you're making, performance is so much more than that. It's the ability to move in different planes. It's stability around the joint. It's the ability to move your body quickly to decelerate. It is strength.

It is a little bit of endurance or stamina. So performance encompasses a whole lot more than just PRs. And if you look at it holistically, performance, that is, then it does have its natural checks and balances. That's 100%. If you chase one-dimensional performance and go extreme with it, then you're into problems. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, if you chase extreme endurance, you're going to have problems.

I mean, they do this. They've done autopsies on extreme endurance athletes and found heart damage because of that, right? Extreme strength. I don't think I need to make the argument, right? Powerlifters, like, lots of joint injuries and issues and mobility issues, even sacrificing health for it. Extreme mobility. You want to become like Gumby, you're going to lose stability, and you'll cause injuries there as well so but overall performance has natural checks and balances and if you have

that holistic is a great word uh focus on performance those checks and balances handle everything and if you continue to progress in a you know and i hate to use this word because it gets bastardized but balanced way what follows that is the way you look yeah like if over the next three years you embark on a fitness journey and your only goal is all it is. You're not even thinking about how you look. Your only goal is I want to become way more fit. I want to have better athletic or fitness performance in a balanced way. I want to have strength. I want to have some endurance. I want to have good mobility. I want to be able to twist and move and laterally. I want to be able to do all those things. At the end of that three-year

journey, what you will see in front of you is a physical, aesthetic, visual transformation, An incredible transformation, which, by the way, here's the other side of it. Chasing performance in this way, you know what else follows along with it? If you're genuinely pursuing it, diet. Nutrition starts to follow it. And fueling your body, because one of the biggest problems with people when they're chasing, or one of the biggest challenges, I should say, with chasing the look, is that people start to use their diet in inappropriate ways.

Under-eating is really common. More common with women, especially when they're just trying to lose weight. Oftentimes we get them on the show and we're like, you've got to eat more. The reason why you're not getting results where we feel like crap is you need to feed yourself. You know what showed up a long time ago for them? Drops in performance, loss of strength, loss of energy, loss of stamina. And so if you're looking at performance holistically and chasing that, the diet starts to follow. It really does start to follow.

If that's your North Star, right? If that's the North Star. Like, I want to have better endurance. I want to have better strength. I want a better movement. Like if you starve yourself or depressive. yourself of nutrients for long enough. All those things go down.

So if that's your main driver is focused on that. Naturally, the nutrition kind of has to come up with that. And here's where body fat percentage even goes wrong. How many times have you seen men and women chase a body fat percentage and just destroy their hormone profile? Oh, yeah. Or destroy their health. I mean, that's like, that's one of the number one problems with women's bikini. I've had, oh, yeah.

It's like the most prevalent issue. I've had female clients who were, you know, quote unquote fitness fanatic. who couldn't conceive. Yeah. And they hired me as a trainer. I'm not a fertility expert, but I became their trainer. And, you know,

well, you're 16% body fat. Let's put you on a reverse diet. Let's increase your calories. Oh, no, am I going to gain body fat? Yeah, you probably need to. And the goal wasn't to help them conceive, by the way. This is just, I find out afterwards. This happened to be three times.

And then the client came to me and goes, you'll not going to believe this, sell. What? My husband and I have been struggling to, we've been looking, going to fertility doctors, and I'm pregnant. I don't know what happened. And then I'm like, I think it's because you were too lean before. And now your body fat, you're fed yourself.

So, and men, I've had men like this where they're so extreme what they're wanting to look shredded, low testosterone. It's like, we got their body fat to go up a little bit and eat more. And, of course, they get stronger. And then you know, testosterone goes up. I think, too, we need to do a better job culturally. of really like redefining aesthetics like aesthetics there's a beautiful way to move to yes which your body looks better when you have ability to move in a way that exemplifies like very seamless and flowing and natural movement you notice it right away when somebody is dysfunctional but might have

like an aesthetically good body right and they're very rigid and they're very incapable of like certain things it's not attractive and it's interesting to me that like a lot of these and this is kind of where I guess the disconnect

has always been for me with like bodybuilding and bikini pageants it's the lack of like the display of the movement aspect of it like so I know this was kind of incorporated maybe in the beginning where they actually did like movements and they incorporate that way. That's the first bodybuilding shows, dude. Yeah. And I think they should bring that

back. It's just like, it's such a disconnect, I feel, because now we just get into like screams and we just get into like the things that will help to kind of create this illusion of what a natural body could be capable of, but you're not capable of. Well, I'm bringing up a really, really cool, interesting point. That would be a fun study to do. Like, imagine taking, you know, 20 of the opposite sex and having them move in a way that is rigid and stiff you know and they're shredded

they're the lowest body fat percentage then give them 3% higher you know put on body fat to them and then moving well and would the opposite sex be a more attracted to that I mean I think so I mean I've openly talked about on the podcast many times how much I am like

seeing a a beautiful squat is such an attractive, attractive thing for me. So if you see beautiful movement, I think it has. I think we are naturally kind of, we've talked about how the eye is naturally drawn to symmetry. So that obviously plays a role. So I don't think you could take that same person and put 30% body fat on them and that you would feel the same way. But I bet, I bet there is a range, which is interesting because we can, we get so focused on

this number that we want to get down to or we think we need to be this shredded or with that. And we've seen enough stuff where even women don't want the man to be as shredded as us men think that we need to be. And so if you added the other element of movement in there, and I wonder how much you could get away with increased body fat if you actually just move better to attract the opposite sex. The reason why we universally consider some things attractive, and they've done studies on this, okay? So depending on the region of the world, body fat is higher or lower, but there are general truths in terms of what humans consider attractive. There's a shoulder to waist ratio in men.

There's a hip to waste ratio in women. There's muscle. There's development that is considered attractive regardless of where you come from in the world. Why? Because it displays health and function. Okay. But what we've done is we've taken the side effect that made that the main effect.

Yeah. So we've taken the side effect of good health. And it's like, oh, I like it when a, you know, when a man has nice developed shoulders and doesn't have a big belly and has well developed, you know, lower body, which is a sign of I can function, I can move, I can protect you, I can provide. I probably have good testosterone, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we're like, let's just focus on that. Let's just make, let's just look at the look. And the same thing with women. And then what's happened because it's just the look, and this is what happens when you focus on the side effect and not the main effect, we start to do.

we start to distort the hell out of it. Yeah. We start to distort it and force it. And media really pushes this even more as we share pictures and whatever and things go viral. And then we move away from what is actually considered healthy. In fact, the extremes, although on media may be sold to us as attractive in the real world, extremes are not. Everybody knows this. Like, you know, a super shredded, super jacked dude that's above and beyond what you can

accomplish naturally we may celebrate in social media but for the average woman it's not it's too far right same thing for the other direction yeah but my whole point with this is uh the whole point with this is if if you're on a fitness journey um and you want a look you want to look healthy and fit just get healthy and fit yeah it'll happen it will and you brought up symmetry symmetry symmetry is a great like symmetry and balance show health. So balance is your upper body and lower body they match, right? You're not having like this big muscular upper body with these tiny skin of the legs or vice versa.

That's balance. Symmetry is right to left, right? Your right side matches your left side. And we score this highly in bodybuilding and all that stuff. You know what develops balance in symmetry? Moving in different planes of movement. Yeah. Having overall good fitness, overall meaning the whole body.

Yeah. A lot more variety. variety of movement. If you have overall good performance and you can move in different planes of motion and you can rotate, you're going to be balanced and symmetrical. And the irony of this, again, is that we chase the thing that often doesn't even lead to the thing that we're chasing. And we sacrifice all this stuff. If you just went after these, and they're objective, what's great about performance is this objective. It's not subjective. So I can see on the bar I've added weight. I can see that I'm doing more reps. I can see that my stamina has improved. I can see that I have. have better mobility. My God, I couldn't squat fully before. Now I can squat fully without pain. I couldn't do a lateral squat. I couldn't do a windmill. Now I can. It's very objective. Then it results in the subjective things that we're looking for. Well, what are we at, Justin? Where are we at, Justin? 23, 25 programs we've written, something like that? Yeah. 25, yeah. 25. There's only one that we tell people they can run

indefinitely. Forever and over and over again. There's only, the maps performance literally encompass is everything that we're talking about right now. And it's for that reason. So no matter the goal, we tell people, like, it's the one program that kind of will take care of. There's no weaknesses in it because it has the holistic performance baked into the program. So strength, stamina, mobility, multi-planar movements, which include things like rotation, a lateral movement.

I mean, it's all in there. Unilateral stuff. Unilateral. Endurance inside there. It's got everything. Power. You can have power in there. Mobility.

days. I mean, it's literally, uh, it really is. Every, it covers the basis. Every other one of our programs, uh, great for what, first narrow in scope. Exactly. It's really amazing. But then I can tell you like, okay, well, if you've been running that for, say, a year, you're probably going to want to move to this one because you're, you're lacking X, Y, and C. Like, there's, there's a way to pick apart every other single one for that reason. But performance has always been, which is ironic because you would think that that would be the most popular program. that we've ever sold. And it is one of the popular ones,

but it's not the most popular when it technically should be. No, because people are unfamiliar with a lot of the movements in it. And there's always a reserve, I think, with that because it's challenging.

You get into comfort of like, the expectation is like, I'm going to have this type of an experience as I work out. And then I'm really just focused on, it's like you don't want to learn too many things. Like you just want to kind of stick with what's going to build the muscle

and give you the look. Well, I was going to say, I think the Sal's whole point of this is why the people don't, is that I think most people decide when they turn on the podcast for the first time and go, I'm going to listen to good fitness content or I'm going to go to the gym. I want to look better is the first thing. And to the average person, mass performance says performance. Yeah. Oh, I don't want to, I just want to look good.

That's right. It's the perception. But what you're saying right now is just that that pursuit will give you. that thing. And I think that if more people understood that, had a holistic approach to performance, they would get that byproduct that they absolutely want. Which single, and you already answered this, but I'll ask it differently, right? Which single program could we take a group of people on, have them run it for four years, and result in the best look? Yeah. Performance. Yeah. Which single program could somebody run

and run and run and run and would nudge them in the right direction with diet more than any of the program. Yeah. Performance. So it's interesting. And again, I gotta stress this. If your performance goal is super narrow in scope, this can

definitely go haywire. But when you have, when you're looking at performance holistically, checks and balances and symmetry and balance and you know aches and pains and injury it's like all taking care of just because you're doing you know because you're moving in in that direction which is cool it's a good discussion to have because as a trainer when I when when you train clients if you want to do a good job you stop you stop focusing you take their body fat percentage and aesthetics and you place it down the list and at the

top of the list is I'm going to see if I'm going to get this person to improve their fitness and health because you always know what's going to happen. And by the way, it takes a while to figure it out as a trainer. Because when you're a trainer early on, someone says, I want to lose 30 pounds. You're like, we're going to lose 30 pounds. That's what I'm going to focus on. But then later on, you're like, that'll happen. We're going to get you stronger, endurance.

We're going to get you moving better. Well, even when I had clients that were like very aesthetic driven and focused and even to the point where they're going to then take that and then go to a point where they can get on stage is like, I'm sprinkling in like rotation. I'm sprinkling in like a multi-ploid. planer type exercises because, you know, I want them to keep pursuing their goal long term. You know, and you can't just, you're going to hit a wall and it's going to be pain and it's going to be some kind of dysfunction you're going to have to contend with.

So whether you like it or not, like it's, it's coming for you. Totally. All right. I want to do a little, not an announcement, but like a, what are they calling public service announcements? Yeah. I think it's important to talk about. We see it these after a Saturday morning.

in cartoons. Yeah. It's probably, I think right now is important to talk about. And that's that our brains,

our minds, however you believe were not designed or didn't evolve, to handle constant news cycles. Oh, my God, yeah. It just,

you guys, too much. I don't care who you are, but you get caught in the constant news cycle, it will decrease your

quality of life and make you more anxious. Yeah. It will make you more angry. It is not healthy for you. And I know the argument's like, I need to know what's happening. No, you don't. No, you don't. You don't need to know what's happening all the time.

It's, uh, it got crazy. The first time I remember this really being a thing, you guys want to know? And by the way, they tracked this, like when this started becoming a thing, uh, where we started to see like these, like disorders resulting from just constant exposure to news. It was, uh, after the first, uh, Gulf War. So when CNN was like the first 24-hour news network, the war is on, suddenly people are tuning in all day long every single day. Right. And that led to all these other news networks that were 24-7. And now we have social media. Now you can throw in.

Yeah, you have people's opinions about the things that happened, which, you know, that was a whole other mess. Like I remember the news was like at like 8 o'clock or something or like 5 or 8 o'clock. You had like two options through the day or even just one day a week. And then it just, you know, started to really accelerate from there. Our minds are not, they're not, like, prepared or able to comprehend what's happening everywhere all the time. It's just too much. It's too much. It's too scary. It puts us in this really bad thing. I had a friend of mine call me the other day because obviously right now we're stuck in this, like this big.

The last time it was like this, although it was for a prolonged period of time, was during COVID. It was like, oh, my God, this got everybody. Yeah. But this person called me and was like, what's happening? I'm freaking out. I can't believe that this is happening, that they're doing this and that. And I'm like, listen, turn everything off for three days and just focus on what's in front of you. Get in nature.

Like your friends, your family, your neighborhood, has anything changed in those places? And they're like, no. Like, just do that for three days. Three days later, I checked in. They're like, oh, my God, what a difference. I did not know I was so, like, caught in that. I wonder what type of person is most. more susceptible to something like that, like, I mean, I'm, I'm always trying to be like,

Katrina is like the complete opposite. Like, in fact, I was watching. She does a good job of just. I don't even know if it's a good job. I'm like, she's like, I'm like, I have to like watch some stuff. So some, like just so she understands where, what's going on. In fact, she was, she was saying something. I mean, she's like, what are you, what are you into?

I know. I just have to watch this right now. There's a lot of stuff going on. I just want to, I want to get somewhat understanding of what's happening. So I'm just my hands, my head's not completely in the sand. It's like, why do you even watch that? Why do you? And it's like, well, I trust me, honey,

I don't want to just be completely, uh, ignore everything in the world that's going on. So I want to know a little bit so I can inform you because you definitely don't know anything about what's going on. So I mean, I, I, I'm fascinated and I think I'm very little.

Like I do not go down that, that rabbit hole of stuff, really. And, and you guys send me stuff a lot. And I'm like, I just can't watch it. It just, it puts me in a bad mood.

Um, it, it, it's like pulling a thread. you pull one thread and then it leads you down another deeper rabbit hole and it's like and now speculation like so many people speculate and there's just so much and it's and the more outrageous it is the more viral that's right and it's none of it is

positive or good it's all negative and unhealthy and so it's really tough and I'm speaking from somebody who I think doesn't really do it I know how tough it is for me like if I just give a little bit of a hold of it I can see where it's just like okay hold on I have to finish this Our brains are so wired for negative, scary stuff. It's not even funny.

Like, if you go on a Yelp review of a restaurant and you see 74 and five-star reviews and then one, one-star review and it has this like terrible story. That weighs a lot. Oh, you only read those. I actually, when I go to look for a review on something, I don't read any of the positive ones. I read the five worst. And then I make peace with what they say. In other words, if I'm looking to buy, we just, what did we just buy recently?

We always bought something different for the first time, and we were reading the reviews, and it's like, well, read the five bad ones out to me, out loud to me. And so if I hear him, I'm like, oh, that's not that bad. Or, yeah, that's okay. Or I go, oh, whoa, that's a problem. Is there more that say that? You know, it's like, that's all you read. I don't take the time to read all the positive ones.

You read the handful of negative ones, which is crazy to think that we are wired to do that. That's your filter. Yeah. We're so wired. I've talked about this many episodes. I made a conscious effort every other hour to think about the blessing. of just the previous couple hours because I was doing it just at the end of the day

and I was realizing that I was getting repetitive and when I started doing it every other hour I'm like oh my God there's all these things that I miss that are wonderful blessings like the conversation I had was so and so and the guy that said hi to me on the road and you know I went and had a, you know,

Justin told a funny joke and you just forget about it because our brains are so wired to hyper focus and concentrate on scary stuff so it's like we got to unplug. Do you guys remember?

I remember this. This actually happened. And it's funny, too, because I think it's so traumatic that when you bring it up sometimes to people, they'll be like, oh, I forgot about that. Do you guys remember during COVID news channels had a running death total on the bottom? Oh, my God. Do you guys remember that? It would actually have.

Literally just, like, blocked that out of my head. Like a ticker. Like I'm turning on the news, which, you know, we're in our houses. We've got nothing else to do. It's even more alluring to scare the crap out of ourselves. And on the bottom is a running ticker of death. Which is so crazy. It's so wild.

It's wild because that's happening right now, right? Yeah. Like, what is, what is the, what is the, so how many people are dying by the second? Or there's always people dying. So it's like, you take something that has always happened for as long as we've been around, that's at a high rate when you think of it as a whole population. And so you focus it on one thing like this. And then it just exacerbates it like, oh, my God, this is so crazy.

favorite my favorite is uh i remember having this conversation this was like 10 years ago i don't remember who else talking to but they're like you got to be careful because you know kidnappers and this and that and i'm like i feel like it's worse is it worse or kids getting more like abducted like what's going on we looked up the stats i'm like oh my god it's all time better yeah it's it's all time loves i thought it was worse see it now though like constantly yes i know yeah dude it's just we're not wired for it so because some people are like well i like well i can watch it and I'm okay. You're not wired for it, dude. You're fighting your biology. Like, you need to unplug completely. I think once a week, at least you need to not go on any of that

stuff. I mean, I saw this firsthand when, because my wife used to work in pediatrics. And it was like, you know, these kids that come to are hurt and are really, really sick. Yeah. And it's like, so her perspective and her lens is like, you know, well, they didn't wear a helmet. And so like this happened and so it's like you know just our kids learning how to ride a bike she's just like ah and i'm like it's going to be all right you know like that's it's it's just because it's she was so inundated with like all the worst case scenarios constantly and so it was like how her brain was like perceived i remember in my in my mid 20s i dated an ER nurse and i remember at one point this is before social media was so out of control this is early on right uh and so we were all

being inundated or plugged to our phones the way we are today and i remember remember, like, having to tell her, like, I don't want to hear any more stories. Like, like, literally everyone, every night was a crazy story. Like, she had multiple. It wasn't like, I mean, you're an ER nurse. And late night. Yeah. Crazy. Over night. Like, you're getting all the drunk, crazy meth heads, everybody that's, gunshot wounds. Everything's bad. There's no, like, positive story. It's always nuts. And so, like, you hear that all the time. Like, oh, my God, it just puts me in an awful mood hearing that all time. And so we've now all put, you know, ER nurse filters on every day.

And so we think that everything is so tragic, so bad, happening all the time, so evil. It's like there's all there's there has been evil and death and murder and all those things for that since the beginning of time and arguably a fraction of what it is today. But you get to see a thousand times more than what you saw just 20, 30 years ago. So it's like you think it's happening way, way more. Yeah, my, my, uh, I don't remember who was it, Those of my family members is like, oh, if something really bad happens, you'll find out.

You don't need to go looking for it. You know, you'll find out. Right. Don't worry about it. I think a good way to do this would be to schedule it for yourself and be like, okay, this day, this time. I'll go and check and see what's going on. And then I'm going to turn it off. Well, the other thing is this, too, Sal.

I mean, we've talked about this before. So what I've actually done in the last couple of weeks ever since all this happened is I have, you know, I have a handful of Instagram pages between my sons, the business page, my personal page. and then I have my car page. I go to my car page because I literally don't follow anybody on there and it's only cars. algorithm isn't kill you out. So literally like I've been just looking at cars.

That's all I'm saying. And so you can start to, and I even started doing more of that on my personal page so I could start to get fed that because on my personal page, I follow thousands of people and a lot of those are talking heads. And so when the whole Charlie Kirk thing happened,

like my whole feed on that was nothing but that. And I'm like, oh my God, I can get off of this. just switching to the other Instagram, same platform, nothing, got none of that news. So it's like you control a lot of what's being fed to you by the things that you like and that you watch. And so one of the ways that you can do that is to really start to curate that better. There's some interesting studies on how, like on people's happiness in connection to their own wealth or their possessions. and there's a stronger correlate to how well you're doing

in relation to other people versus how well you're doing. In other words, if you're doing so well, but you see that everybody else is doing a lot better than you, ooh, happiness goes down. Oh, sure. And it doesn't matter how well or how bad you're doing, that has a stronger correlate to how you feel about yourself than how you're actually doing.

Yeah. And this is true for fitness. the impact that social media has on girls, for example, and body image is profound. It's absolutely, because you go on there, and it's, you know, the algorithm is narrating to you a story that's actually not true. You know, you would think if you're into fitness, because then you'll get fitness stuff, right, in your algorithm. If that's what you're looking at for four hours or five hours of the day, your brain is perceiving that you're around those kind of people that much every single day. And I got news to tell everybody. I manage gyms for a living. They don't look like that. No. And that's a self-selection bias of people that work out.

You don't see rip people. A rip person in the gym is rare, let alone in public. So it's like... It's wild how that, you know, that whole perception drift works too and how that, how that it's like, it happens over time. It's like an overnight thing at the first time you look at that. I had a moment like that. I was recently even down on myself of like, man, I've just been so inconsistent and this and that. And, like, about my working out and my training was touring this house the other day and walk in and meet this realtor. First words as a mouth, like, man, you don't look like you've missed a day of working out.

And I'm like, so ironic you just said that to me. Because I literally, I know. It's like, I don't know if that's good, right? Then it's like, oh, I'm good. You're working fine. But it's interesting how much your perception drifts because I am around that all the time. and I have fit friends that I'm talking. And we talk fitness all day

and we're looking at bodies. And so even myself, even with my level of awareness of running gyms like you guys have, and I know that. I used to do that to be able to stand them up and be like, find me five bodies

that you even want to look like in here. Like they're not there. There's very few people are walking around single digit body fat, but you look at it enough, you talk to enough people like that, you get in your own little bubble, and then even my perception drips.

It's so crazy that. And you'll see, this, you'll see this often in female clients. They'll have all these signs that their health is declining because they want to get leaner. Like they start to lose their period. They start to have these hormone issues, hair, skin, nails starting to show that there may be a nutrient deficiency, but they're like, yeah, no, I like, I want to be in the teens, body fat percentage. And then, you know, as a trainer, you start to point this out. And then you can see the light bulb turn on and go, oh, wait a minute, maybe this is not doing me any good. Yeah. It's pretty crazy.

Doug, I want to hear, you brought up earlier some crazy investment news or research. Oh, I'm glad you brought that up. I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, no, I just came across, Doug, pull it up. There's an article on eight sleep. I saw it up there earlier. One of our partners just took on $100 million. Oh, wow. And really, I think it sounds like it's going to get prescribed for like sleep apnea and stuff like that. Is that correct? Would you correct me if I'm wrong? So, yeah, they're looking for FDA clearance for medical use of the eight sleep for sleep apnea. Epinia, menopause, et cetera.

Menopause? Yeah. Wow. Bro, I'm thinking about this. I mean, every client that I ever had that was menopausal, one of the things they complain about the most is the temperature at night, how much it is poor sleep period. How much it fluctuates and throws them off, they can't be too, it's either too hot, it's too cold, like, and the fact that this thing adjust on the fly.

On the fly to your body temperature is rat. Makes sense. So it says for AI medical tech, so eight sleep has this really interesting AI. in there that monitors your sleep while you're sleeping and then adjust itself on the fly to improve your sleep. So if your sleep starts to go, you start to move out of those, you know, those phases of sleep, you know, oh, you know, he's coming out of it. Let's adjust to bring him back down. And then it learns what works for you. Yeah. Which is wild. Of course they got a huge that's like, that's like groundbreaking. I'm pretty sure I've personally just talking to people

on the street, like sold hundreds of these by myself because I think they're so, I mean, anybody who has ever got uncomfortable, and maybe this is just, this is my experience, but temperature at night matters so much to me. It makes such a difference. It's the reason why when we tease me about it, when we go right to a Airbnb or hotel, the very, I've trained myself that

the first thing I do is go straight to that tomorrow, drop it as low as I can, because I know if I don't, if, And if I even wait till it's bedtime to go do that, the time that it takes to cool that house off is going to disrupt the first two to three hours in my sleep. That's how much of a difference, like temperature matters for me. That's what the data shows. It's very clearly wild.

And because your body temperature changes as you sleep, it makes sense for something to adjust. I mean, how many times have you felt cold and then I'm hot and I'm cold and it's your body temperature? I also, and I know this stuff like a, you know, the whole thunder vest thing of like to help dogs calm down and do things like that. I know that I've never been able to,

because I know some people are like, oh, just sleep with a sheet or no sheets. Like, I can't sleep without weight. I have to have weight. I don't know, attached to my trauma or something bullshit, whatever. Tees me that I need a thunder vest to sleep or whatever like that. But I need weight.

And so I love that in this. Why, when you share a room with Justin, you have them just laying on top of the sleep. But that I can, in the middle of summer, we're in summer right now. We have a 90-something degree day today. And I think yesterday was 90-something. and I've got my sheet, my middle blanket,

and my comforter on top of me. But it cools underneath so well. It says the monsters can't go, you, bro. When the sheets on you, the blankets on you? Yeah, when I was younger. I'm mad that I wasn't an early investor or not. I feel like that's like... Do you know for the longest time,

it's not like this anymore. But up until it, like, well into my adulthood, I had to have socks on. I couldn't have my feet... While you sleep? I couldn't have my feet uncovered. And I don't know what it was. Maybe a security thing or something.

I can't have it. So did you keep socks up and that takes me out? Huh? No. No, unless you want to be fast. And the kids are out in the, you know, then just take off what's necessary. So you sleep with your socks on, but you have, they take them off for sex. Yeah, well, no, I don't sleep with my socks on anymore.

But for the longest time. You did. You did. I have to be honest. You get the grippy socks. You don't slide. Hey, that's, hey, that's, talking about a brilliant invention. My kids, you know, because we don't wear the shoes in the house, the grippy socks that little kids wear.

Yeah. Those are brilliant, dude. Absolutely brilliant. You've ever seen kids fail? Wood floor, yeah. Because they're socks. They're so slippery. Anyway, I got a cool study for you guys.

Another awesome thing about walking. This is a big study. This study involved 11,000 people. And here's what it found. Walking, people who walk more than 100 minutes every day have a 23% lower chance of lower back pain. That's it. That's it. 100 minutes a week, which is not, what is that per day?

That's not much at all, right? 100 minutes. Less than 10 minutes a day. Yeah. Less than 10 minutes a day. To drop your, to drop the odds of time. No, there's seven days in a week. So it would be like, 10, 10 would be, you say how long?

A hundred minutes. Okay, so a little more than 10 minutes. 30, 15 minute walk, 15 minute walk a day. A day. Would lower your odds of back pain by a fourth. Just, that's not even much, bro. That's nothing. So let's talk about all the things that, why that has to do.

100% the hip movement, right? Getting the hips to move has to be a big factor in that. I think it's more... Circulation. Yep. I think it's more like sitting all day hurts your back. That's what I think. Well, yeah, no, no.

And if you just get up for a... No, that's what I mean. I think sitting in a seated contracted position for the hips. We need that extension, too. Yeah. Upright extension. And so just standing up, gets that full extension like that, mobilizes the hips, increases circulation.

And even as, you know, whenever you do these studies, though, I can't help but go like... Duh. Well, not just duh, but 80 years ago, this study doesn't work. No. It only works because how terrible we are. I'm so sedentary. Yes.

Like, that's this study. I guarantee you did this study, and it would be a moot point. Like, we did a study on 10,000 people who walked 12 minutes a day. We didn't notice anything. Because everybody moved. Everybody moved that much. But we do so many people don't move that we've gotten to a point where it's like, hey, just try and move for 12 minutes a day.

And it'll impact your life. I mean, it's both kind of crazy news, but good news, right? You don't need to do much. Oh, I mean, it's good to, it's good news for the person who is trying to get started moving in the right direction and knowing that. You don't need much to make a big difference. Exactly. But that doing as little as that if it's outside of what you are doing is a really good thing already. And you're already moving in the right there.

So for that point, yes, but it's also very sad. The other thing that's understated with walking is it's positive impact on digestion. First off, it dramatically lowers blood sugar just to walk after you eat, improves insulin sensitivity. We've hammered that to death on this podcast. But also, if you look at the digestive system, first of all, gravity is meant to, is part of the digestive system. One of the issues that astronauts have when they're on the space station is their digestion goes, hey, wire, because they don't have gravity. They get constipation and lots of digestive issues, right? There's no movement.

There's no pressure pushing it down. Also, if you look at the digestive system and the muscles that surround and move through it, walking actually allows or helps with the digestive process. So eating while sitting and staying or laying down, not good. Well, a lot of the stabilizing muscles, too, put that compressive force on, you know, your intestines and the stomach. That's right. That's right. 100%.

All right. We were talking about health earlier and how, you know, getting healthier. improving performance will give you what you want in terms of aesthetics. I think this is true for a lot of different things. One of our partners, Caldera Lab and their skin care products, their skin care products, now in their studies. Great connection there. Right.

In the studies have shown over 90% of participants notice all these, you know, reduce in fine lines and wrinkles, healthier skin, looks younger, all that stuff. But really, if you look at Caldera Lab and you look at the focus of their products, it's about improving skin health. It's not about making you look better. It's like through improved skin health. It's not like hiding anything. No.

And like their serum, it has natural botanicals that encourage a healthy microbiome on the face, which you have to have if you don't want blemishes. Do you think there's a clear divide in our society of like people that are, you know, alternative route or a holistic route like that, that like this is how I'm going to keep beauty, this is how I'm going to look young,

is how I'm going to avoid wrinkles. And then there's the other half that are like Botox, face surgery, do whatever it takes to do that. You think it's a pretty clear divide? Yeah, I think most people know that good health leads to how you look, but we're so focused on the visual signs of health that that's what we end up. I would love to see a comparison of those to see if one's growing and one's shrinking. And it, like, right, like if that's true.

Like, because I feel like... Here, I'll give you a good example, bro. This is one of my favorite examples that people get pissed off when I bring it up, but whatever. Look at the shoes that people wear, especially women wear, and how bad they are for health. Look at how bad. It's so crazy, I'll go somewhere with my wife, and she'll put some shoes on. They look nice. I like the way they look, too.

They look great. And halfway through the night, she's like, I got to get out of the... I'm like, why are you wearing those shoes? They're like this. Squeezing and elevated and smashed together. And then she'll talk. One toes like popping out. And she'll make jokes like you wouldn't last five minutes in these.

And I'm like, I probably wouldn't. She's like, you know, women have been trained to just deal with it since we were, you know, teenagers to just deal with this terrible whatever pain in my foot, my back or whatever. Okay. So make that connection to the face thing or the, what you mean? It's because it's an extreme example of like looking a particular way and you sacrifice. Okay. I got you. Yeah.

Because, I mean, obviously. obviously, the 90s kicked off the popularity of things like, you know, plastic surgery and Botox and things like that. And so I'm, I'm sure, I'm sure, was Botox in the 90s? It was, right? I know plastic surgery was. Oh, yeah. That's been around since the 70s.

Right. So, I mean, I really felt like the 90s. I mean, I even remember in the early 2000s, there was movies and shows that were starting to come about. There was like, so I really felt like that was like, and then Botox became a thing where you are having, and they still have these groups that, you know, like candle parties that are Botox parties right instead. What do they do?

You know, like candle parties were always popular. Like they do like Botox parties. There's a nurse there that hooks up. You didn't know that was a thing? I think that's a really popular thing. Wow. Yeah.

So I mean, so I know that that's continued to grow. So what I'd be interested to see is like, are we simultaneously growing this, this, you know, I don't counterculture or opposite that our people are going like, you know what? I want to look young too.

I don't want wrinkles. And I, but I'm going to go this. holistic approach and so approach so i'm trying to do essential oil stuff i'm trying to do like the you know what though i'm trying to do know because like yeah i know my wife got really like into this once she started to look into a lot of the beauty products with the chemicals that they've had and also too just like stuff they've found uh that they've had to recall so much and it's like uh you know being all ingrained in the garden and all this it's like there's a lot of like natural herbs and

there's natural things that we just discard because it's like, oh, that sounds like crunchy hippie stuff. But she started to put all these like oils and things in her hair. And it's like, because she was getting like hair, it was like falling out, you know, from some of these products and things. And it's like, you realize that's what's causing it. And it's like, and they're promoting it. And it's completely different how they're promoting it.

Yeah. But then like now too, it's getting fuller and like her hair looks different. So it's like, it's interesting. And once people kind of really understand. Like, well, maybe it's not really what they're promoted. It's not those chemicals aren't like benefiting you like they should. There's a lot of things like that in the world where we chase this one thing because we think that that's what's going to produce what we're looking for.

In fact, we're moving away from it. One of my other favorite studies, I just talked about this, who's I talking to my cousins? Because they were, I have a bunch of cousins and my brother and we're all in this like group thread. And everybody's really successful in there. Like, one of my cousins has a startup company. I am betting money. The guy's going to be a billionaire one day with this company.

A bunch of investment bakers. Everybody does really well. And so, and they're all very driven. But the conversations go to like, oh, I'm going to buy this car. I'm going to do this thing or whatever. And so I'm in there with them. And I'm like, you know, I said, what are you guys after when you're doing these things? And so then they're like, well, I like it.

This and that. But it all boils down to like happiness. Like, I'm doing this thing because it makes me happy. or I'm buying this thing that makes me happy. And so I'm like, do you guys want to know what the data shows on the, if you're looking for happiness with money, what's going to give you the most ROI? And nobody was familiar with it. And I wasn't either until I saw that study where it shows there's, if you buy something

that makes you quote unquote happy, your happiness does spike, but then it drops pretty it drops pretty quickly. And if you buy that same thing again, you're no longer going to get that effect. In other words, you're like, I really want that, whatever. I really want that car. And you get that car and you're happy. You're not going to buy the same car again exactly because the effect's gone. It's not going to give it to you.

So that's like the bottom. Then it goes to experiences, especially things that help you grow as a person. That gives you a longer happiness curve. So I'm going to go learn something or maybe go on this trip and, you know, change my outlook on things. But at the top of it, when you look at the size, if you use your, it has to be voluntary, if you use your money to help someone else, like a person or a charity that you really believe in, you voluntarily do it, not only does your happiness go up, it stays up, and then for the rest of your life, for as long as they've studied this. Every time you think about it, it taps into

that. It goes back up. Yeah. It's a happy memory. Actually, you're just as happy as you were the first time you did it. Yeah. Yeah. So if your ultimate goal with your money is to be more happy from having it, because there's a lot of things you do with money, security and all that stuff. But if you're like, okay, I got this extra money, I want to get happier. The data shows helping other people with it will give you the most ROI, which nobody knows. Nobody knows. Well, I mean, I think, I don't know, there's a lot of, you know,

these centa millionaires and stuff like that that ended up doing a lot of philanthropy as they get, you know, later in the night. I think whether they knew that going into it or they realized it after they bought everything and they're no longer happy. It probably happens like that, to be honest. You probably were massively driven to have

and then you got and then you got it all and you got it all multiple times. You're like, shit, that's not even fun to buy that anymore. You're like, oh, maybe I'll try giving it and see what happens. And you go, oh, whoa, that actually felt really good. Every time I think about it, it still feels good. Like, I'm sure that's a hack they figure out eventually.

I know. But it's cool. I wish people more... To give, serve, serve, and teach, you know, is the secret, for sure. It's so funny. It's so funny. But we chase the stuff that doesn't provide that. So it's just, you know...

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Go to mass zyms.com. That's M-A-S-S-Z-Y-M-E-S dot com forward slash mind pump. Use the code Mind Pump 10 and get 10% off. Back to the show. Our first caller is Bill from Texas. Bill. Hey, Bill. How you doing?

How you doing, guys? How's it going, Bill? How's it going, Bill? listen to you so many times, I truly think I know you, each one of you. All right. How can we help you, sir? Well, I've got a unique situation, but not really that unique. Over the last few years, about 15 years ago, I was diagnosed with a chronic disease

and told I live about two years. That disease is called pulmonary fibrosis. your lungs become hard and stiff and eventually don't transfer oxygen so i still have it it affects how we exercise because if i do a routine i have to gather my breath again and it takes about 30 seconds give or take and i'm on oxygen when i do that so i am taking oxygen but it still takes time to recover that's a problem i don't know how to address And then in addition to that, I've got three things going on. I've had sarcopenia, which is when you get older, many people lose muscle math.

And I've lost that. So my strength on my left side is probably 80% of what it was. But on my right, complicated by the stroke, it's about 20%. So I've got to work out some way to balance that. It's a problem. My voice bothers me, and it's not going to change, so that's life. But I also have four strokes, and I've also got IPF or idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. But I'm feeling good.

As I sit here and look at you guys, I feel as good as anybody I'm looking at or might be looking at me. That's great. Okay, so you want some advice on how. to approach exercise considering all the things that you've just told us, correct? I do. And my routine has to be a little different. I was a triathlete, a senior triathlete. I had to stop when I got diagnosed.

So I'm conversing with good exercise as well as swimming and running, which I did. As a triathlete, you guys probably know that triathletes make a life study of diets and exercise. to win events, I did okay. But now I have to get people like you, experts, to help guide me in the right direction. Okay, so Bill, first off, I love that you listen to the show. And I appreciate it through a lot, Bill. So impressed, dude. Yeah, so we can address the sarcopenia through strength training, but the approach is going to be different.

And also considering the difference and strength between your right and left. And so what it would look like, and I have some experience, I have minimal, but I do have some experience working with people who've had pulmonary fibrosis. And the way that the workout looked for us was we would do one rep, we'd put the weight down, we'd wait 20 or 30 seconds, and then we would do another rep. So it was not a complete, the set didn't look like one, two, three. It was like, one, put it down, we'd wait until we caught our breath, then we'd do it again. And so the set would get extended. It'd be a long set. What I'm doing now, the work that I have, I wear it on five days a week.

One day is lower, one day is upper. I run every day, five days a week. I work out with both the kettlebells and dumbbell bells, either upper or lower money through Thursday. Roddy's my wife's day, I call it Patty Day, and we do something. So I want to work on my schedule. I have of a Sunday through Thursday and alternating days up or lower, I'm right down doing between 12 and 20 reps, two to three sets. That's a great approach.

But how long have you been married, by the way? Sixty-two years. Oh, that's phenomenal. That's amazing. Champion. Yeah, so what you would do, Bill, is you would pick maybe a couple, you know, three, maybe four exercises for each of those days. you would pick a weight that felt, you know,

like you could, like it would challenge you a little bit. And you would do one arm, one arm, you know, one arm or one legate type exercises. So because of the discrepancy between right and left, a lot of the stuff that you should be doing is unilateral. Meaning instead of lifting with both arms, I'm doing one arm at a time. And if the set calls for, let's say, eight repetitions,

what I may do is grab a little bit of a heavier weight, but I'm going to do one rep, place the weight down. I'm going to wait until I catch my breath and then do it again. Because if you go and start to lose oxygen, which will happen quickly with pulmonary fibrosis, now you're working on stamina, which is okay if that's what you want from the strength training. But I think what you want from the strength training

is the muscle building, the reversal of sarcopenia. Plus you also run, which is giving you the endurance aspect. So the set's going to look very different, Bill. It's going to be one rep, you put it down, you wait, catch your breath, and then do it again. And so a set of eight reps is going to be a lot longer than a traditional set because you're resting for a good 20, 30 seconds in between every rep. I love that.

Does that make sense? And so I probably want a heavier weight than I'm doing for my 20 reps. Correct. So to give you an example, if I were, and I'm using arbitrary numbers because I don't know what you train with, but let's say I use a 20 pound dumbbell and I'm doing a. shoulder press for eight reps and let's say the eighth rep feels pretty challenging what i would do is i would maybe go up to 25 but the but i would do i would put the i would lift the weight put it down

and i'd wait literally with the weight down so not holding it but placing it down and then waiting about 20 or 30 seconds and then doing another rep and you continue that set until you hit the target number of reps does that make sense absolutely uh i did say thing on legs, there are squats and lungers. Correct. So I can do, I can't do the squats with one leg. I'll try to find some other exercise, like a squat where I do one leg. A lunge or a step-up would be great.

What kind of gym do you go to? Can you describe some of the equipment and all that? It's my back bedroom. Oh, okay. Oh, right on. There's nothing wrong with squats, Bill. I like squats, and here's why. I like the unilateral work, so I think most of the work should be unilateral.

But because we are walking and running and both legs need to work together, even though there's a strength discrepancy, it's still okay to do bilateral work with the lower body for some of your exercises. So don't get rid of squats. But the rest of the exercises, I would like kind of like the split stand stuff, like a lunge or a step up or you get a low step and you step up and come down. You could hold dumbbells with that if you need more weight, since you're going to be resting, you know, 20, 30 seconds in between each rep.

So you come up, hold yourself, come back down, put the dumbbells down, catch your breath, and then do it again. Well, what I'm doing today is I do four workouts today. In the morning, making coffee, I'll stretch my back. I have lumbar stenosis, which most people my age have. So I do back exercises, have a cup of coffee with Patty. And after we're done to coffee, we both come out. do chikung which is kind of like tai chi

yeah i know that is based on martial arts because i spent a lot of time in kung fu and in karate so after i've done that and during the day i'll do my workout and i'll do my walk run i got a treadmill for that i've got right now two dumbbells but what he was saying i shall buy a third that's right yeah you probably want to go a little heavier and just be conservative because you're now going to be going you know resting 20 to 30 seconds in between each rep and as far as diet what's your recommendations okay so before i give you some recommendations

are there any anything i need to know about that would be contraindicated like are you on any special dietary restrictions from a doctor or anything like that i've lost i hate to say this publicly. I've kind of lost faith in the medical community. The three things I have, they can't be cured or fixed. You live with them. Stroke, P.F. and sarcopenia. I wish there was a cure out there. So I run an exercise for my sarcopenia. I think I'm holding at bay. I can't do breathing exercise because I can't control that. But I've been lucky. I've been blessed. because I haven't had significant changes of my lungs, even though it's been 15 years. The stroke is my big problem.

You lose balance. You lose coordination. And I have muscle difference, disparity differences in my strength. So what you're saying is wise. It's wisdom and good wisdom. I don't think exercise wise. I'll do exactly what you're saying. to say. Okay, great. With diet, the data shows that a high protein diet is even more

beneficial as we get older. I strive that one gram per pound of body weight. Oh, great. That's excellent. Yeah, I think I hit that. That's excellent. Make sure your diet's also got a decent amount of fiber, well-cooked vegetables, berries are great with that. Yep. I think you're, I think if you're already doing that, you're doing great. Well, I tried keto, and I've been I'm paleo, so I'm maintaining that a little more conservative, perhaps, but it's doable. Okay. Did you go keto for any blood sugar reasons, or was it just because you wanted to lose weight? I thought it would be a fresh way to gain muscle mass.

Oh, no, no, no, no, eat some carbohydrates. Yeah. Yeah, sweet potato, rice, some easily digestible starches will actually help you build muscle and strength, and we'll give you some strength through your workouts. yeah well this this has been incredibly invaluable i never thought about to do one rest do another and rest that's a great strategy i'll start to do that today is a test and i guess some heavier weights to challenge myself a little bit more bill would you mind if we had you back on in like i'd love to check up on you man yeah i'd love to have you back on the show in about 60 days just to

see what's going to i'd like to do that i like it's always good to have a mentor looking over your shoulder and give you a little kick of the eye and then to keep you going yeah you don't seem like anybody i would need to kick in the butt no you seem like you're pretty pretty self-sufficient yeah yeah i know i appreciate you and i appreciate you calling in too well my pleasure and you guys doing a great job my daughter who's a super cross-fit all that stuff and her boyfriend the same and i'm listening now to your show so when will this be i assume it's we next week at some point You have to tell you the date. Yeah, definitely.

September 26. Okay, good. Yeah. Well, I've got about 800 friends there, strokes, and about 200,000, I should say, and about 250,000 that suffer with PF. I'll make sure most of them know about it. Right on. Well, Bill, we're going to stay in touch with you, man.

Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, Bill. Thank you. Great talking to you. All right. Bye, bye. You got it.

I do he's doing really good my favorite yeah so cool you know I didn't what we didn't need to add any more to that because I think the advice you gave was already perfect but um I like the idea though the heavier weight with just like one rep that's right I'd even probably have him try and do like a hold for three to five seconds at the end of that rep like it would be a press the key hold it for a couple seconds set it down rest like the key with that is just okay this is true for any more true anaerobic that's right this is true for anybody who's strength training You want to keep them anaerobic. That's what builds muscle. Now, the challenge with someone who has oxygen delivery issues is by rep three, he's probably already getting a rope that's meagued. The oxygen's not getting there and it becomes something completely different. You don't feel good or whatever. So you're doing one rep, you're waiting.

And you're doing another rep and you're waiting. Even long hold sometimes can cause that to happen. Yeah. That's why it wouldn't be very long, like three, five seconds at most. Stability. Yeah. 100%. So I had some success worth working out that way.

And we saw great strength gains. whereas before it was like what stopped us was the lack of oxygen and you know when you've got scarring in your lungs it's like you know you can improve VO2 max

through other methods but because the lungs themselves are not very limited especially if it's progressing over time it's very difficult I mean respect to him for using free weight still like that was impressive

super awesome man our next caller is Benjamin from Texas what's up dude what are doing Ben hey how you doing good how can we help you yeah so I showed an email a few weeks

ago, I'll break it down because it was kind of long-winded, but I'm getting married in October, and I've just been having a really difficult time, I guess, just in general with health and fitness. Right now I'm 26, six feet tall, about 180. I grew up, you know, doing sports and being pretty athletic and active all the time. And since graduating college a few years ago, I've sort of put on a little bit of weight that I'm just not used to and it's been really hard to to keep it off especially going into my wedding and so i've you know really what i feel like is uh dialed into health and fitness um with watching what i eat eating healthy uh me and my fiance going a lot of long walks i go to the gym when i can um and i'm just still not able to um lose the weight especially around my midsection and i think in the

last year especially, I've just kind of developed a unhealthy relationship with food that's kind of tied into a little bit of body dysmorphia. And then on top of all that, just getting inundated with like an overabundance of information online about what works and what doesn't in terms of health and fitness and what I need to be doing. So I'm saying working out five, six, seven days a week, others saying you only need to do a couple, others doing like keto, others doing just whole foods and stuff. So it's just kind of a lot to parse through and I was just hoping for a little bit of guidance on what's most important and how I can also tackle the mental challenge of not being too hard of myself and seeing myself,

I think, as others see me. Yeah, dude. I'm glad you mentioned the last point. about the kind of the relationship feeling a bit dysfunctional. I could hear it right out the gates as you started talking. I mean, you're six foot 180 pounds. You're fine. Most people would say you're fit. But this is not about what you're doing. That's wrong or even what's right.

This is about letting go. You're going to have to let go of all that stuff. Now, if your fear is if you let go that you're going to somehow go in this crazy opposite direction, I mean, that may happen, it's unlikely. It's unlikely. What's more likely to happen is you'll feel more at peace. So fitness and good health should not feel stressful. It should not cause anxiety.

It should not be an obsession. If it is, it's not healthy. This is no longer a healthy thing. This is an unhealthy thing. So what does this look like moving forward? You would strength train two days a week, full body. you would continue walking you wouldn't weigh yourself you wouldn't you would stop studying yourself in the mirror and you would try focusing on things that are higher and bigger um than the workouts

and the diet and so you would just not focus on those things don't count macros don't you know eat when you're hungry try to you know eat things that are whole natural and then and then take your focus off of it because you're you're you're in the midst of it right now i can tell and yeah definitely the wedding date is adding this other kind of pressure, which is undue. And I'm going to tell you this right now. You're going to get married. You're going to be a husband.

You'll probably have some kids. And those things are far, far, far more important than, you know, five or 10 pounds of body fat that you might think you have. Which you're probably good, dude. So you've got to let go with those things. Really commit to like two days a week of strain training and then just stay active and then take your eyes off of this. That's all. That's it, dude. Take your eyes off of this.

Eat your protein first. So when you sit down at a meal, eat the protein first, stick to whole foods. I saw on your email too, absolutely do not do 75 hard. No. That's the opposite direction. Okay, opposite. Yeah. The last thing you need to do is a thing that's like super hard and regimen and tons of stuff every single day.

It doesn't take very much, okay, to send a signal for your body to build muscle. If you strain, train, two full body a week, maybe three, backs and you walk and you eat your protein first and you eat whole foods it'll take care of the rest it literally will yeah that's it you don't need to obsess over this you don't need to get crazy and and do a ton extra stuff just focus on those three things that we're talking about and it'll do it'll do the rest and honestly just take your eyes off this dude like you go to the gym a couple days a week full body compound lifts and then don't think about it and just take your eyes off of it because you're going down a path that's going to be, it's going to get worse.

So what we have to do is disconnect. So just take your eyes off of it and focus on things that are bigger. Focus on your future wife, you know, maybe whatever you're doing for work and career, what it's going to look like when we have kids. You know, if you have a spiritual practice, focus on that because that's bigger than you. And just take your eyes off of this right now because this has become a tyrannical, you know, for lack of a better term God, that is just. just, it's, yeah, it's beating you down.

I can tell, I could tell right when you started talking. Yeah, I'd love to, I'd love to have Doug put you in our private form so we can help you through this process that way as you're going through it. And then, do you have any of the programs yet? I don't. I actually just had chat GPT do like a full body thing. Okay. We'll send you match, Annabolic. We'll send you a mask send you.

Follow maps out of all. Yeah, just do the, do the two-day-a-week version. That's your workout. Yeah. That's what you're going to do in the gym. And you'll get stronger. You're going to get stronger with that program. And the rest of the time, just stay active.

But make the activity non-workout activity. In other words, if your wife or your fiancé likes to hike or walk or bike, that's your activity. So make it relational. Make it pro-relational activity for your exercise. That way it's not all focused on the workout. It's more like, oh, man, I'm enjoying this thing with. Let's just get up and move around and do something fun. I'd like to have some accountability with you, too.

So I'd like to hear from you in the forum, at least every other week. Just check in with us. And the things I care about is energy, strength, how you're feeling. I don't care how you look. I don't care about your weight. I want to know if you're getting stronger in the gym and how you feel and just check in with us. How's your fiancé with fitness and all this stuff? She's super into it.

She works out a lot. She goes to solid core and loves that. Like I said, we go on a lot of long walks. We've just moved back from Los Angeles. so we were able to go on a little bit longer walks when it wasn't 110 degrees but yeah we still love going on walks

I think we're both just full gear like stress from the wedding like I said we just so we just moved back from LA to Texas to be back with our family but along with that came new jobs the weddings in a month so it's just like a lot

a lot of change all at once and I think we're both just kind of in the thick of it right now but not to sound like corny, I couldn't imagine doing it without her. And I would say that she does feel the same. So I think, like you guys said, just kind of taking a step back and leaning in to that and, like, focusing on the fact that maybe if I'm not eating perfect every day, it's because I'm going to my in-law's house and we're having a big dinner together.

That's right. Getting to see my friends that I haven't seen in years. That's it, man. It's the important. Far more important. So we've been trying to... Take a deep breath. Yeah, go ahead.

You're about to marry the woman you're going to spend the rest of your life with and have kids with and do life with. It's an amazing, amazing step. And this, take your eyes off of this. You go to the gym, and then when you're done with the gym, you don't think about it anymore. And just focus on the relationships around you. Those are the things that are going to last the longest.

You're getting married in October. You guys want a honeymoon? We are. We're pushing our husband. honeymoon back to March just so we can save up for a little bit more. Okay. But we're very excited. We're actually going to Tahiti.

Oh, good for you. The only time either of us are maybe ever going to go there, but we're going, we're going bigger going home for the honeymoon, which we're very excited for. Good for you. Ben, can we have you both on the show after you get married? I'd love to talk to you guys in October after you guys get married. Absolutely. I'd love that.

All right, dude. Let's do that. I'll have my assistant reach out. We'll have you and your fiancee on at the time. She'll be your wife. your bride, your wife, your wife at that time. Yes, sir. I appreciate it.

Check in with us in the forum. Doug, sending you maps and a blog, and we're sending you access to the forum. So check in with us. Just let us know you're doing it every couple weeks, okay? Absolutely. I appreciate you guys. All right, then. And I know I know you guys are men of faith, so I don't know if you would mind me asking

if you could just keep me and my fiancé in your prayers or a prayer or anything like that. I would really appreciate it. Oh, done deal. What's her name? Her name's Hannah. All right, man, no problem. Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it.

You got it, thanks, man. Take care, dude. I can hear it right at right as they start talking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's six foot 180 pounds. And he's like, I got this fat I can't get rid of. Like, uh-oh. Yeah, no.

I hear, I know exactly what that feels like. Yeah, yeah. It's, uh, yeah, it's a nasty, but, you know, but you get, you take your eyes off of it. Uh, you do it, but then don't think about it. Yeah. And then it starts to lose its. Otherwise, it turns into a hardcore, strict resist. And then it goes to bench.

Hardcore restrict and resist and then binge. It's like in with all the other things. Nothing good comes out of it. Yeah, yeah. Nothing good comes out of that. So I hope he checks in every couple weeks on the forum and then stays with us with that. But you can tell he's guys carrying the way to the world on his shoulders, man. Yep.

Our next caller is Daniel from Iowa. How's going, Daniel? Hey doing, Daniel. What's up, man? Awesome. It's great to get to talk to you guys. Hopefully you guys can help me out. Yeah, how can we help you?

Sure. Well, I've been working out pretty consistently kind of my entire life, but I'd say over the past nine, ten months, after I work out, whatever muscle part I'm focused on for the day, about 30 or 40 minutes after I'm done exercising, I just experienced like pretty severe cramps in that area. And it can be like this simplest movement. Like I was driving home from work and I had my left hand on the steering wheel. I switched to my right hand. My peck just freezes up. I had to pull over to the side of the road like two minutes just to get it to where I could like use my muscle again. And then I have to be pretty conscious about it for the rest of the night, like all the way until the next day I wake up.

sudden movements will just freeze my muscles up and I've tried a few different things and I just nothing seems to help at all so it just keeps happening and this just like when did this start happening it's about 10 months it's been going on about 10 months and before that you didn't have this issue not to this extent like a lot when I was younger I do pull-ups and for some reason I get cramps in the bottom of my foot but like I could just eat a banana and good to go I was I would be fine but yeah about 10 months it's gotten you've tried sodium magnesium water you've tried all that yes yeah have you had blood work done to look at things like kidney function liver function i have had my blood work done um they did notice that maybe they there was something going on with the kidneys

i'm not really sure um and potential for the liver i went back and got it redone after that and they said it all looked pretty good. But now it's still a problem. Yeah, I would go back to the doctor and just make sure that everything's going on is okay with how your... Some more opinions. Electrolite system is working, how the cells are communicating. Typically, with a client that would experience cramping, we would have sodium, you know, a little bit of potassium, but mostly sodium before, during and after workout. and we would finish a workout with 15 minutes of static stretching of the muscle,

where you're slow breathing, holding that stretch post-workout. That would be the typical thing that I would do with a client that has somebody's cramping. This will happen sometimes to somebody who's deconditioned, and then they start training a body part again, and they'll get cramping. But the fact that you've been working out this whole time, and it kind of suddenly started happening, I would go see another medical professional just to make sure that there's nothing that is underlying that we have.

haven't identified. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I wish I could give you, you know, better advice. Is there anything, the only other thing I can think of is just like really severely over training right now? Like, are you doing anything out of the normal as far as like a routine, training, work?

What's going on? I don't think so. I'm probably even lowered it a little bit. When I do exercise body parts, typically like two exercises. Okay. It's a, yeah. The same day I do two chest exercises, two back exercises. two back exercises.

I'm in there for just under an hour. I don't think I'm really overdoing it. No, no. Yeah, you're fine. I don't want to waste my time while I'm in the gym, so I do tend to try and go as heavy as possible. I think I'm in there like too much. Yeah, that's fine.

Yeah, and you don't get cramps and the muscles you don't train? Not generally, no. Okay. It lasts about a day. And then, you know, the next. morning it'll be all right but if i am not conscious with that muscle um they'll just like seize up my bicycle just seize up and i can't use it for three or four minutes and then just i have to pay attention to it so i use it in the smallest fashion and it'll just go right back yeah the

the first the general blood work which it sounds like you did and then the person i would go to first would be a neurologist yeah and just just that would start there just to see if they can find anything Yeah, we've got to figure this out. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I'd love to hear it back after you do that, Daniel. Anytime we have somebody who we can't give the for sure answer right away, I'm always so curious if we get to the bottom of this.

Yeah. Yeah, I can do that. Yeah, I appreciate that. And then we'll have you back on. We can talk about it so we can help anybody else that potentially is going through the same thing. Okay. All right. Yeah, I appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. You got it. Thank you. Yeah, interesting. Wow, it's a conundrum. Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, You just want to make sure there's nothing neurologically going on. Yeah, he's, if he's, if he's hydrating, he's taking the sodium, he's not over-training.

I didn't ask if he's sweating normal. Like, I don't know if that's, you know, much of a factor. Some medications can, sometimes medication, so I shouldn't ask him if he started any new medication. Sometimes that can cause it. It could also be nerve impingement or some kind of a neurological thing. Yeah, but most likely if it's that, it would be on the same side consistently or what about that. That's right. It's the muscle that's being, yeah.

The muscle is being worked, yeah, correct. And they're, you know, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, like, these are the nutrients to look at. Or too much. Sometimes too much can cause stuff like this. So if his body's not getting rid of calcium, you know, enough. But, you know, I would go a neurologist because they would see that typically in a general blood test. Yeah. I hope we hear back.

Whenever we have somebody that, I feel like we can't figure it out. I don't want to know. It's not that often. It's frustrating. Our next caller is Nora from Minnesota. Hi, Nora. Hi, Nora. How are you doing, Nora? Oh, it's fun. How can we help you?

Okay, perfect. Well, long-time listener here. Thank you for the years of solid, no-b-s advice that's kept me grounded through my fitness journey and phases, including my pregnancy at 41. I gained only what was needed was back in my jeans a week postpartum, and my doctor even skipped routine geriat. electric testing because my baby and I were so healthy. That mindset came largely from what I learned from you guys. So thank you. Now at 45, I'm in paramedipause. I'm on HRT. It's going great. I love testosterone. I love progesterone. And I'm still fully committed to lifting. I've made the shift from grinding away on my Pelopton tread and bike to heavy lifting with a squat rack purchased a few years ago. So thanks for your influence and I haven't looked back since. That said, I'm in

uncharted territories. So social media is flooding me with messages that midsection weight is basically unavoidable for women and the stage of life. And honestly, it's chipping away at my motivation. I'm seeing changes only around my waist. And it's got to be wondering, is this just what happens now? Or are the things that I can actually control? So I'd love to your take on what's actually going on with fat distribution during perimenopause? What can I realistically do to continue feeling strong and confident in my body? And how do I shut down the narrative that change in progress are just out of reach right now? Thanks for everything you guys have helped me with so far. I truly trust your approach and we love some guidance in this

next chapter. Thank you. Thank you. I love your question. Okay. So before I answer your question, I'll ask you a question. Is that okay? Okay. What are you going to tell your kid about social media? Right. Yeah. Well, hopefully she never sees it. All right. Yeah. Turn it off. Don't let it. Don't let it affect you in that way. It's just, it's full of crap. Like so much of the information on there, especially to women, especially to women is so terrible and so damaging. And make somebody like you who's fit and healthy. You don't look 45. You look exceptional. I can tell you're lean. You're probably, and I would bet money being very overcritical of yourself. And so that's just not, it's just not true. It's not true. Now, does body fat distribution change as we go to get older? It does, but we get older. What can affect that hormones? Now, you're on hormone replacement therapy. So that will, that will have an impact on body fat distribution. Okay. So how long have you been on it? For better or for worse? For better. How long have you been on it? For about nine months now. Yeah, it'll, it'll, it'll, you'll start to notice changes probably soon, a year, too, into it. Yeah, so testosterone, progesterone, you could take a peptide for growth hormone release like Tessa Maryland.

That can also make a difference. And so that'll help with body fat distribution because the changes in hormone profile is why you see the sudden change in body fat distribution of women where it's like less on the hips and thighs and then more suddenly around the midsection. Yeah. Right. Now, aside from that, because you're doing the hormone replacement therapy, so you've got that cover. Aside from that, the goal is, like what we talk about on the show, get strong. Build strength. Build muscle. When's the last time you went on a calorie surplus for yourself? It's a good question. You know, I've got obviously a young kid around, so I feel like I am on his calorie surplus, like eating, you know, all these additional toddler snacks that have been around, although I've been slowly eliminating them out of the high. household and that whatnot. But probably one where it's actually been like focused and dedicated. I don't know that I've ever done that. I knew that. I asked you that question. I knew the answer. Yes, I knew the answer to that. So let's put you on a calorie surplus. Let's reverse diet you and build some muscle. By the way, that helps with fat loss. Got to get you in our muscle mommy group if

you're not in there or not. Have you joined you? Okay, I am not. You've got to get in there. We're on there every day right now for the seven day kind of kickoff for it. And so, well, the link is musclemommie movement.com. Just go in there, take the quiz. And it doesn't matter what program of ours you're following. It's literally just for women that are trying to build muscle and be healthy and fit. And so if you went in a calorie surplus, a nice controlled one, you know, like 300 calories above maintenance, hitting your protein targets, not going zero carb, right, having some carbs with it because you need that energy and that fuel, eating adequate fats, what you're going to see is great changes in the body, especially on testosterone. You're going to build muscle.

through that process, you'll get probably leaner. The shape will change. Building muscles like the magic formula for almost everything. Got to feed that, though, yeah. But you got to feed it. Do you have any idea how many calories you eat regularly now? I am probably in that like 2,000 to 2,200 calorie range today. So I would track.

Now, don't get carried away with tracking. I get the impression that if I had you track all the time, that would also cause. I used to, I used to, a few years ago, pre-baby, I used to track pretty significant. So get an idea of what you're averaging right now. Okay. And then go 300 calories above that. And then hit your protein first and aim for that target. Don't get carried away, though, with the tracking.

Okay. So once you get a general idea of what that looks like, then let go of it and just kind of eat around that. And then monitor your strength. If you're getting stronger in the gym, you're doing great. You're crushing. By the way, the other thing that affects body fat distribution is insulin sensitivity or insulin resistance.

Okay. Hormone replacement therapy helps with that. But something that helps the most with that is building muscle. Building muscle makes us so sensitive to insulin. And so that also helps a lot with body fat distribution. In fact, when you look at women who've strength trained properly and fed themselves and built muscle, like I'm talking about like women who really chase strength, then went through paramedipause and menopause, they often don't run into body fat distribution challenges.

They might have a little bit, but not like the average woman. And they don't, and many of them don't go on hormone replacement. therapy. It's the muscle. Oh, interesting. It's the muscle that makes the big difference. So I would go surplus, get stronger, and turn off social media, Nora, you're doing great. You're doing really good. Do you have one of our MAPS programs yet? I do, yes. I've got, I'm trying to think here. Whatever the basic one is. MAPS Anabolic? Yes, exactly. Yes, I have that one. Do you have MAPS muscle, Mommy? I do not. She'll get it when she goes in the group. Yeah, get in the group and it has it has it in there. So you have it. Okay. Okay, perfect.

Awesome. All right. I'll do that. We'll be looking for you tonight. We'll be on tonight. We'll be on there. So we'll be looking for you tonight. Okay.

Fair enough. All right. Thanks for calling in. All right, Nora. Thanks, guys. Very helpful. You got it. Social media sucks, man.

Yeah. It makes me so mad. So exhausted. I mean, she's obviously fit. You can tell she's fit. She looks great, right? She's got a kid and it's like, it's like, I'm getting flooded. You can hear the verbiage, right?

I'm getting flooded with, all this stuff on social media and I'm getting so worried. It's like, oh my God, it really distorts our perception. I mean, how common is that, though, for our female clients that feel like they have a little bit, you know, five to 10 or 15 pounds they want to lose. And so they're right on, but they're relatively fit. But they've stayed relatively fit because they've kept their calories low for so long. And they've never really gone on a bulk because they think in their head, well, I need to lose just five to 15 pounds. Why would I go to bulk? And I'm just struggling to get this. And like, this is what will help someone like this is to go. And by the way,

Everybody, I wouldn't say everybody, but a large portion of the women we have. We've over 400 women in there right now. This is what they're kind of going through because many of them have never done like a proper reverse diet. And they need to build muscle. Even though their goal is to lose body fat, many of them need to reverse diet first. And so she'll fit right in with a lot of what's going on in there. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram at Mind Pump Media. We'll see you there.

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