Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2703: Best Ways to Strength Train Without Weights or Machines

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

Mind Pump Fit Tip: Best Ways to Strength Train Without Weights or Machines. (1:58) Iron sharpens iron. (23:15) Get stronger muscles with red-light therapy. (30:36) Sitting vs standing when wiping. (34:49) AI hallucinations. (37:42) Predicting future trends. (44:45) The Good vs. The Great. (51:01) #Quah question #1 – With progressive overload, is it more than you did recently or more than you’ve ever done? Sometimes I wonder if I’m building progress when I go back to an exercise I haven’t done in a while, and I’m making progress week by week, but still lifting less weight than I did in that exercise in the past. (54:01) #Quah question #2 – Should your first set be the heaviest and then go lighter or vice versa? (56:28) #Quah question #3 – Does it matter what time you go to bed, as long as you get 8 hours? (58:52) #Quah question #4 – I am looking to lose fat but also want to add some muscle. What should I focus on first? I have been lifting consistently for several years and have put on some belly fat. I am consuming approximately 1600-1700 calories with 130-140 grams of protein. I’m doing Muscle Mommy, but the fat doesn’t want to leave. Any suggestions? (1:00:02) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Joovv for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Code MINDPUMP to get $50 off your first purchase. ** Visit Caldera Lab for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code MINDPUMP20 for 20% off your first order of their best products. ** October Special: MAPS GLP-1 50% off! ** Code GLP50 at checkout. ** Mind Pump #2137: The Best Suspension Training Workout Plan for Beginners Mind Pump #1362: What You Can Learn About Building Muscle from Inmates, Gymnasts and Sprinters Mind Pump #2080: Get Jacked With Bands! Sal Di Stefano’s Journey in Faith & Fitness – Mind Pump TV Low-Intensity Light Therapy: Exploring the Role of Redox Mechanisms Effects of Light-Emitting Diode Therapy on Muscle Hypertrophy, Gene Expression, Performance, Damage, and Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness How To Get Stronger Muscles From Light Therapy Wiping Sitting vs. Standing Talent Agents Circle AI Actress Tilly Norwood Caldera Lab Science Visit Transcend for this month’s exclusive Mind Pump offer! ** Telehealth Provider • Physician Directed GET YOUR PERSONALIZED TREATMENT PLAN!  Hormone Replacement Therapy, Cognitive Function, Sleep & Fatigue, Athletic Performance and MORE! ** Muscle Mommy Movement Mind Pump #2690: The NEW DIET Everyone Is Using For Fat Loss Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Jason Khalipa (@jasonkhalipa) Instagram  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump, Mind Pump with your hosts. Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode, we answered listeners questions that we picked from Mind Pump Media on Instagram, so that's where people post our questions. We answered four of them.

This was after the intro. Today's intro is 52 minutes long in the intro. We talk about fat loss and muscle gain, strength training, cardio. We talk about all kinds of stuff, nutrition. Current events, it's a good time. Again, Mind Pump Media on Instagram, that's where you can post your questions. Now, this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Juve.

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Here comes a show. All right, so you're convinced strength training is amazing, and that is true, but you don't have access to weights or machines. Are you screwed? No, not really. There are other ways to strength train. We're going to talk about our favorite ways to strength train without weights or machines. Here we go.

Prison style. Am I right, guys? Yeah. This is actually, as a trainer, you really got to figure this out because you will have clients, especially if you grow your business outside of the gym that you're in and scale, you will have clients that don't have access to lots of equipment. Oh, I think you're going to go the other direction. You remember the days when you used to train at 5 o'clock at night on a Tuesday?

Oh, and all the equipment's things are all that also. And you used to go over and get a mat, a couple dumbbells in a little corner. And you do everything. I'd train five clients in a real like that. Don't even leave. Yeah. That's your corner. Actually, I had that experience grand opening the Santa Teresa 24 Fitness Club 497. I don't know. remember that. But anyway, that club, the grand opening took forever. And there were no weights

for a long time, it was just cardio. And I think basketball was there and everything. But there was no weights. And so all my trainers had to figure out how to train clients without anything. And they did exceptionally well without having to use most of equipment. So let's talk about some favorite ways of strength train. For me personally, I love, and I love this. for a lot of different reasons, but I love suspension trainers a lot. I do too. I like suspension trainers because it's an appropriate piece of equipment. First off, it takes up no space, super inexpensive.

So you can fit it in a drawer. It's like you wrap it up. It's like this big. They're durable. So they last a long time. But it's an appropriate piece of equipment for advanced or beginners. Yeah. It's one of those few pieces of equipment that you could use on your beginner clients or somebody

universal, yeah. Super strong. you can make exercises, especially upper body exercises, really challenging. Well, you can crank the intensity or decrease the intensity pretty easily just by adjusting your angles and usage of it. And so it comes in handy for so many different exercises. You can use it outside off of a tree. You can use it inside the attachment on the garage door.

I mean, it's like it is so versatile. And you can make it about the only thing I would say it's limited. is legs. Yes. That is the, and by the way, I know you can do some things on it that are really especially hamstring stuff is really challenging. But for the most part, legs are probably the greatest challenge. But besides that, it is an incredible.

I would have to say across the board, one of the hardest things to train if you really want to build a lot of muscle in your legs. Yeah, it's going to be legs, right? Because the amount of resistance that's required. But there are, but can you build muscle and develop very, very fit, strong, sculpted legs without weights. You can. Yeah.

There's lots of one-legged exercise. You got to do single leg, yeah. I mean, that's really the only way you can intensify to the degree where your muscles are going to get that kind of stimulus. And to that point, what's cool about the suspension trainer is, like, most people, not everybody, but most people that are relatively new, can't even do one single-leg squat. No. Yeah.

But if you have the suspension trainer, you can regress that. And you could hold the suspension trainer. and support your body and go down, say, a quarter of the way and then work up to half the way and then work down to deep ones and then work out to multiple reps. And during that process of, you know, regressing all the way down to a quarter squat with one leg and then eventually full range of squats to multiple squats, single leg. Bulgarian with your foot in the straps. You will build, you will build some legs.

It's difficult exercise. You will. And that's why, again, why I like the suspension trainer, you can make the exercises incredibly difficult. I mean, the inspiration, I have to guess, I don't know this for sure, but I'm going to guess that the inspiration for the suspension trainers were gymnastics rings. Sure. That's a pretty good guess, right?

I don't know if that's 100%, but I'm pretty sure the guy who invented them saw Olympic rings. A little bit of controversy there, but yeah. Yeah, and the challenging, I mean, Olympic rings are among some of those challenging pieces of equipment that gymnasts use, and I would say they're largely responsible for some of the incredible upper body development that you'll see with gymnasts. In fact, I had, here's a viral video we did years ago. Oh, the bicef one? Yeah, why gymnasts have such big biceps.

You know the guy that you made the video of actually member made a comment? Yeah, yeah, same guy. So, and there's a guy that's in the video with these crazy looking by. Gymnists, by the way, of course, at the top level, you know, the, of sports, you have body types that are also genetically gifted for that sport. And what do you need for gymnastics? you've got to be kind of small, but you also have to have

really, really like good muscle development and strength, right? That's what makes you a good gymnast. So, of course, they're going to be at that level. But nonetheless, gymnasts tend to have pretty well-developed biceps and they don't do curls. And the video went viral because I said, they do lots of pull-ups.

Well, gymnasts actually went on there and said, that's actually not the most, that's not why our biceps are so big. It's because of the, what is it called, the iron cross? Yeah, the isometric. Yeah, that's super tense. The in-range tense.

I could see that really blowing up your biceps. because of the isometric contraction, that stretch position. Where is the origin of the dispensurener? Are you looking that up over there? I'm so curious to what that is. Okay, so what was the other one called? It was out of Chicago, but there was like a jungle gym, I believe, started it out. And so there's controversy with that.

But like, so the actual owner of TRX was inspired, was on leave or on like a basically overseas on some kind of active duty and used straps. So use like seatbelt straps. I was able to kind of tie it off to tanks and jeeps. And they started to be able to use these straps to get a good upper body exercising. And so they kind of used that as a way to supplement, you know, while they were out on duty to be able to still kind of do calisthenics and exercise. So that's the story. That's the story. That's actually cooler than what I said. But, I mean, rings have existed for a long time. I know that that's been a piece of equipment that gymnasts have had to use as part of it.

It's really taken over because before that, what was popular was bands. Bands would be the traditional, I would say, piece of equipment that you travel with at home or whatever. To sit right here, there it is, Navy SEAL. Yeah. And then there was a formal professional soccer player in Chile discovered an ancient Indian conditioning system that utilized ropes. That just sounds more exotic. That sounds like. You want to sell a product.

I know. You want to go that angle? Always the ancient references. Is that right? TRX is still a $60 million business? Oh, yeah. Wow. That's huge.

I mean, you could buy... They're so convenient. I mean, they really did a good job of manufacturing. But it's a great piece of strength training equipment, and you can create tremendous resistance using them. Now, you mentioned another one, Adam, which is bands. Yeah. You know, bands, for a long time, bands were kind of...

considered like weak or that's rehab you're not really going to build a lot of strength it's like you're not going to build a lot of muscle and then you know power lifters started using them now they would use it in combination with weights but they were breaking records because they learned this method from soviet lifters on using this kind of progressive resistance that bands uh provide and then they kind of became more of a like oh you can actually do some pretty cool things with bands bands are a great way to strength train you can get really tough bands. They sell some now that you're really thick and really hard, so varying

degrees, varying levels. Bands are interesting because they don't seem, I've worked out with bands. They don't seem to require nearly as much recovery as other forms of exercise. Even when I've used them with ways. I mean, isn't your theory on that would be because of the progressive

resistance? Because when you are in the stretch position, you're not, it's very little resistance until you go to the fully contracted position where the most resistance are. That's, you know, that's likely That's my theory, right? But you know what's weird about that, Adam? You know what's weird about that?

Is I've used chains, which are also progressive resistance. So, like, you'll see Lourdes for power lifters. They're going to do a squat. They put heavy chains on the bar. As you squat down, the links hit the ground. So it's lighter as you come up, the chains heavier. That's progressive resistance like bands are. Chains require way more recovery.

When I work out with chains, it hammers me more than bands. So there's something about the smoothness of it. I wonder if that's just maybe. There's no abrupt, like, yeah, interruptions. that way for you like it would be interesting to see that in like a real a group i don't necessarily think you're wrong i just think that that's interesting that you you know i don't know if i could say i notice a big enough difference between the two of them i definitely know the bands don't get me sore no freeways that's a that's well i just remember too like um when i was playing

football and you know there was there was the therapy next door and i remember not being able to get in a set uh when everybody was working out because everybody was in there at the same time. And so I would go in there and we'd take all the bands and we were just like trying to, trying to make do and like work. And you get a crazy workout, but you would recover so quickly. And it was, it just didn't make any sense to me because I was putting in just as much effort. Yeah. That's right. So what's the value of that? Well, the value with bands is you could go crazy with frequency. Yeah. Like you can work out hard with bands a lot. Yeah. And get great results. And it's fun because you can see how much you can work out. And with bands, I can do a ton. I mean, I can

train my my whole body almost every day with good intensity yeah and recover was it louis simmons that did uh yeah started that whole yeah progressive overload and then you know uh bands are great for explosive power they are phenomenal for explosive movement because it's really safe and you can you can jump with them you can throw a punch with them yeah to develop that um and bands are super versatile so yeah also easy to travel with suspension trainers are versatile bands are more versatile. Bands, I can attach low, high to the side. I can create resistance in any direction I want. Whereas with a suspension trainer, which is also versatile, but I have to adjust my body to where the suspension trainers are with bands. I can do, I can do almost anything I want

with bands, which makes them super useful. Yeah, you can make the argument that suspension trainer, you still need a decent square footage of space because you need the angle, right? Or a band. You could literally do it in a phone booth. Oh, yeah. You could get a phone booth workout with bands. which that makes it, I guess, a little more versatile. Totally. And then, you know, of course, body weight. Body weight. I mean, calisthenics, there's a whole section of strength training that is calisthenic focus.

Like, there's a group of, there's a huge group of people. You find them on social media. Yeah. That they, they just do calisthenics. And they use bars. So sometimes they're called bar men, I think they'll call them. So they'll use a bar. They'll use like dip bars.

and then they'll use other body weight stuff and they look incredible and the stuff that they do is what's cool about body weight is first off again like the other ones beginner to advance you could go all the way through but when you're advanced with bars

and with body weight the body awareness you develop from that is insane. Yeah. Like advanced strength training with weights it builds great muscle, great size, great hypertrophy. You take someone who's advanced with calisthenics their body awareness is on another level.

You got a crazy intrinsic understanding. Totally. And it's, yeah, it's not, there's a total difference with that when you're being, you're having to account for load, external load and accounting for that. So it's, yeah, it's a totally different feel. And it, for some reason, too, like it, it doesn't do as much damage. It's just like your joints and everything recover a lot more effectively.

Yeah. And you, and it's the, the carryover to athletic performance. is pretty high. Now, that's not to say weights don't have crazy carryover because they do. But for certain sports like wrestling or grappling,

calisthenics, that body awareness is so incredibly valuable. It's funny, I was training my daughter guest last night, which we'll get into later. It was a great workout. And she was asking me if I could do, what's it called when they hold on

the bar on their body's straight? Is that what's called? Flagpole or a flagpole. Is that what that's called? I think so, right? When you hold a pole And you create yourself a body Oh yeah

Is that what that is? Flag post She's like you know Because she was talking to me How much I could lift So I'm telling you my lift I'm wondering if you're doing like a front lever And she's like oh you must be able to do this

I'm like nope I can't do that That's hard And she's like are you not strong enough I said I don't have I said I don't strong enough dad Yeah She was I mean a genuine question

And I'm like I don't have the body awareness I'd have to practice that movement Yeah you got to connect all your toes Yeah fingertips to toes And I mean that's kind of what they teach in gymnastics a bit is that hollow body position is really that you can you make yourself one rigid object yeah and you also doesn't help that you're beefy too sure but you even you even see these guys uh you know who you know obviously there's gymnasts that do it incredible and you'll see

the variations on pull-ups where they're pulling up more to one side to the other the body control they have so body weight training my whole point with this is if you're a beginner there's lots of exercises you can do but some people are like well body weight training i want to get real advanced You could go really far in that direction. It looks different than bodybuilding, but it's strength training. Don't get me wrong. It is strength training. You could get, I mean, as you're going through this whole thing, it's like, I'm thinking about, like, man, if I was, if you had limited space, limited money, what you could get done with one set of bands, one suspension trainer, and one pair of dumbbells that goes up to 50, the adjustable dumbbells.

Oh, yeah, you're good. You could put it all in a closet. Yep. It doesn't take up more than a little coat closet. or the space, and you could build a hell of them to see. You're not going to get on stage and win a pro bodybuilding show. Yeah, but see how far you can go before you even think that's it. Exactly.

But you could get years. You get years of getting strong and fit aesthetically, like, imbalanced. I mean, you could do so much. So this is a part that I think that our space does such a bad job of like over-complicating things. Yes. You know, with all the stuff we debate and the science and the new study. in the argument, it's just like, dude, if somebody had a really minimal budget and very limited space, they could build a hell of physique with those three things in a closet and a good

diet, and you will be blown away on what you could do. 100%. 100%. What makes strength training, strength training is resistance, so enough tension, which can be created through angles or minimal equipment, and then rest periods. So the other thing is rest period. So you do X amount of reps. It's difficult.

It's challenging. You rest for a few minutes. That way you're always training that kind of like that muscle building system, the anaerobic system. And you have yourself strength training. And you really don't need a ton of equipment. In fact, I think that equipment sometimes convolutes and confuses people or oversimplifies. Like you go to a gym and it's a huge footprint, right?

So, you know, 15,000 square foot or larger. 30,000 square foot gym, and you're like, where's the machine that does this body part? Where's a machine that does that party part? And I get that. But I would make the case that somebody who learned, genuinely learned, how to work out with minimal equipment, would probably get more out of that than somebody who just learned how to use, you know, all 30 machines in the gym. Both from body awareness, injury risk prevention, and building muscle and becoming more feet.

I'd argue if you go in that direction first, you know, then loading. on top of that, like, what a difference. Such a better foundation. Big time. Absolutely. No, I agree. In fact, if you look at the great example is if you look at the bronze era strength athletes at the turn of the century, or should I say the previous century, late 1800s, early 1900s, they had dumbbells, barbells. They didn't even have a bench. Now, okay, let's They didn't even use a bench. Bench press wasn't in a bench to get the weight above your head. What is it, though? Okay. What is it, what is it about us or the, the human condition that why is that difficult and why don't we all just have that if that

this is true we all agree on this is it that uh because i i think people i think people are bored maybe or it's not enough novelty to stimulate them to want to keep doing it every day going in that closet go to the coat closet grab the three things out like because i none of us are arguing and we're all agreeing that you could build a hell of a physique, a balanced physique, a strong physique, take you probably the first couple of years really far just from that, yet we don't do that. It's a good question. I've looked up some of this stuff before.

There's some data on this. And the strongest correlate for consistency. So, because the question is consistency, it's always the question. Yeah. People start and stop, start and stop. Yeah. What's the strongest correlate or a thing that we can measure that will be. predict consistency and it's above all things it's community community right yeah so a gym can

provide that yes that being said most gyms don't yeah most gyms you go in with your membership card you put your headphones on and you're by yourself with people well they lack the level of community that i think we used to have and they lack the level of community that's something like crossfit has but it still is because i remember when we first used to talk about this but this was pre my home gym and I used to go to the gym all time. And I used to make that case because I was very headphone, hoodie. But you were super motivated on your own.

Right, but I would admit that there was something about knowing that other people were in there at the same time as me that gave me, even though I'm not talking to nobody, I'm not even looking at anybody, but knowing that others are there and I'm potentially being seen lifting weights does create somewhat of a community.

And I agree with your point of we've really lost a lot of the community feel in the gyms that used to be. It used to be music over the loudspeaker and everybody, nobody had headphones. Everybody would engage, right? And you would introduce yourself and so on. So it is, I agree that it's changed going on with. But I still think there's a level of community that helps with consistency just simply knowing that.

I mean, there's something to be said about when I used to train at 11 a.m. You know, every day of the week. And, you know, I saw that, you know, the buff Indian guy that was always in the corner that was jacked. And so then I knew he was going to be there at the same time I was. And, like, if I didn't show up for two days, he's going to know that I wasn't, right? So there's something about that, even though maybe him and I never chopped it up and talked. We knew we were both there at that time. So there's something to that.

It's interesting, too, because I do remember a few people that I ran across at the gym. And, like, I hadn't seen him in a year or two years and they came back. And what they had been doing in the meantime was just push-ups. It just, like, lunges and just, like, pull-ups. And sometimes, like, you know, sit-ups. but it was it was an everyday discipline that they'd had to establish at their house is like every day I do this every day I do this and it was like this some people can catch fire from that direction I don't think it's a lot of people yeah but I do know that like

even when I was coming up through sports like you know I would I'd run into guys where that was their thing they would just always do push-ups like right when they got home and it was just consistent that or sit-ups yeah who who is the guy what's his name he was a football player he did MMA in his 50s. Herschel Walker used to do, is it like a thousand? Did he like a thousand push-ups? Yeah, he did like a thousand set up.

I think it might be like $5,000. I remember it was a crazy number. It was the same. I mean, incredible. You probably could Google Herschel Walker's workout and it'll probably pop right. Yeah, that's insane. I'm serious.

I think it's a famous of, I know he's talked about it a bunch of time. I mean, simplicity wins, but it's rare people do that. Well, my point with community is you could build it at home. You can invite a friend over. You could do it with your spouse. You could also have it at the gym.

I think that's more important. than the equipment. I think the equipment is kind of shiny and distracting. And at first, it's like, cool, I go to this gym with all this great equipment. Yeah. But does that, does that correlate to consistency? It doesn't. Some of the most consistent, some of the best gyms or the gyms that have the most consistency have the most consistency have the worst oldest equipment. That's a fact. Yeah, yeah. We know this. We knew this for a while. Yeah, body weight pushups 1,500 to 2,000 per day. Jeez. And then sit-ups 3,000 to 5,000. I'm assuming he would split it up throughout the day. Yeah, for sure, yeah, for sure. But he used to do, he used to do. quite if I remember it was a lot straight. I remember it was obviously if you get if you get to two thousand you still got to rep out you got to be doing them by the hundreds that's crazy I mean just to get to that and he had a crazy physique even his 50s when he was he was a he was a specimen you think there's an opportunity for a business like I'm thinking of the the um you know

the closet gym is what I'm going to call it you know what I'm saying with the basic what is that under under three hundred dollars I mean the dumbbells will be the most expensive thing You know, for some sort of a community video check-in while we all go do it, you know, so it's like you create the kind of the community vibe of like 8 a.m. we all check in or maybe just throw your iPhone up or like that and just throw it on a Zoom. It's like on a Zoom call, but we're all doing the same work. You think that would create enough of that? I think it might. I think it might. Dude, you just reminded me of something I wanted to bring up to around that. You know Jason Kali. You guys know Jason Kleepa? Great guy, right? CrossFit kind of.

a celebrity super nice guy super great guy he grew a big old men's group i do did you see that yeah yeah i've watched the evolution of it i remember when he first started doing it with just a handful of guys and then it turned into a massive you know what he does so and i know a bunch of people that go to it meet's early early in the morning right yeah so he and this is just something he wanted it's free he doesn't like charge for it or anything like that he wanted to get he wanted to do something for men so men come together brotherhood and what we do is we work out together and so he would show up it's actually uh it's actually local i won't say the city because i don't know people are just show up.

He's like, yeah, my bump, I'm not going to say it. A hundred people can be so awesome. You throw a workouts. But he was, he started it with just a handful of men. Yeah. I remember, I don't know what day it is, what days it is, but it's not mistaken, I'm mistaken, five or six am, it's turned into this massive thing. And it's just a bunch of regular dudes, a bunch of dads and, you know, some of them are

tech executives or whatever. You should see the videos of how many guys are there. It's like 30, 40, 50 men. I saw some videos of a ton of them. Yeah. And he doesn't charge for it. It's totally free. And you talk to him about it.

He's like, I just want to, I just think men need a place to get together. And I think fitness and challenge is a great way to do it. I'm like, I totally agree. I totally agree. It's a great idea. Yeah, he's great. I had him on my series recently. Did I tell you guys about what that experience was like?

Did that go live yet? No, no, no. What went up yesterday? No, but he, I remember you sent me the video of him, like, something about iron sharpens iron, like caught his attention. And then he felt compelled to call you. Oh, that's a weird story. The one that just went up

was just a solo one with me And then I have one going up with Josh I believe is one of the next ones I had Josh in there Because he's got a crazy story So Jason, I'll tell that story Because you brought it up Justin So Jason's kind of on this faith journey

And so long story short I want to tell the whole history It's a long story But anyway At 6 a.m. or 6.30 I got a text from him He's like hey man And by the way Jason and I don't text each other

So I know him because he's been on the show If I see him I'll say hi to him We don't hang out We don't talk So up into this point, the only time I ever talked to him was he's come on the podcast. If I ever run into him in town, hey, what's up, brother? And that's about it, right? Nice guy.

I like him, but it's not like we're friends like that. I get a text at 630, I think it was. He's like, hey, man, there's this verse that's been going through my head. It's in proverbs. It's iron sharpens iron as one man sharpens another. That's so funny. Well, I'm driving. So I'm at the stoplight and I take a picture in my shirt.

I had a T-shirt that had that exact verse. And he's like, whoa. bro that's weird you don't know how weird that is so i'm like what do you mean he goes so i talked to him later he was in the sauna and he's been thinking about this proverb and it's just for whatever reason it's just in his head and he's like there was about 10 people i thought about telling but i just kept saying nan and he goes for whatever reason your name popped up and so i message you and you message me back within 15 seconds with a picture of your t-shirt it's like that's the weirdest thing then a week later a friend of us he had no idea a friend of us send him a bible

with that on the actual Bible. Oh, wow. That exact verse. He's like, obviously, something's talking to him. Dude, yeah. But it was a great, it was a great. It was a great time filming with him.

So I'll tell you guys how I went into it and my potential like fears and then how it turned out. So I'm going to go into this. You thought you were going to get crushing a workout what you thought. So I'm like, I'm going to ask. And I love, like I said, he's a great guy.

I got to know him even better. Love the guy. And he's kind of on this faith journey. So I'm like, this will be a great guy to have on this series. where we work out. And I'm like, okay, hold on. CrossFit champion.

Yeah, I know. He still works out like he's a crossfit champion. Oh, yeah. He's a, I think he's a browner. All the volume. He's a browner black belt and jitzy now. It competes all the time. Like, he's like, he works out differently.

Yeah. Yeah, we're different. I like to like, you know, it's like, all show no go most of the time, right? He's like, he goes after it. So I'm like, okay, what am I asking for him? I have him work out with me. Like, he's going to try and take it through. Yeah.

So I text them ahead of time because I'm like, I'm going to prepare, prepare this. I'm like, it's going to be super easy, bro. It's not about the workout. It's all about the conversation. But I did choose dead lifts as one of the exercises. Of course you did. That was your defense. If he's going to bury me, he's going to have to work a little bit to bury me.

I can hang with the deadlift. But no, dude, he was super humble. We start loading up the bar with deadlifts. And I'm prepared. I'm like, we'll go up to five if we need to, five and a half. And I'm like, do you want to add weight? He's like, no, man, let's just keep it at three. And the whole workout was.

And you're like this. Yeah, dude. The whole workout was super. chill he wasn't like no no a kipping pull-ups in between or anything crazy jumping over it no he wasn't like ego i thought his oh crap is gonna turn into that you know it is when you work out with another fitness guy it wasn't like that at all yeah he's very mature humble it wasn't about like who can do what or whatever and i was prepared just be like bro well that's good it's a sign of his maturity because obviously he's uh he's already a champion

there's no reason for him to prove that he can bear me right he's got chimp strength that guy he's crazy strong oh man i i watched him as a kid did you i watched him as a kid And at Mill, I bet he doesn't even remember this. Well, I'm sure if I told the story here, because it was, he was, but this is long before he was a champion. He was only like, I want to say he was like 17 at this time. And we, this was back when CrossFit was super small.

Just started in Santa Cruz. Yeah. There was no CrossFit gyms in like boxes anywhere. But some gyms were starting to incorporate it. We were dabbling with it at our gym. And Milpetus Health and Fitness was holding. these wads, like on once a month where you can, like, all the people could meet

there. It was out on the asphalt. They started competitions there. I remember. They grew up the bars that you had to run. They had the whole little, like, little thing with that. And he, he won the local event. And you just cry. And I remember my buddy, Austin, who you know, used to work at that gym at that time. And he was telling me all about it. He's like, you got to come down. See this kid, Jason. He's like, he's like, a 17-year-old. He's like just crushing everything. And it's just grown, they're like grown-ass men that were big and strong and already into us with that.

Here's his kid just smoking everybody. He's got that like, he's got that like Middle Eastern, like wrestling genetics. You see some of those wrestlers that come in Iran or whatever. Yeah, just big hands and just he's made to like, yeah. It's funny. We're talking about jihitsu because he's a big jihitsu guy. And then in my Christian group, I have men that show up and some of them do jihitsu, and they train with him. And they were, and I was like, oh, this morning I filmed with Jason.

And they're like, oh, how was that? And we're talking. And I'm like, what's it like rolling with him? And they're like, bro, you get on top of them. And he just throws you off. If he wants, he just throw you off his body. It's like, it sucks, man. It's really hard, dude.

I thought that was pretty cool. Hey, speaking of building muscle, I found, dude, check out as if I needed to sell red light therapy any better. Oh, let's hear it. Did you know, trip off this. Did you know with red light therapy, it builds more muscle? Did you know that? Did you know in studies that there is a 20 to 50%? 50% greater hypertrophy than exercise alone.

20% to 30%? Yep. There was one study. Check this out. So who's going to build the first gym that's lit by like red light therapy? Just in there the whole time. Yeah, the whole time. Just red light.

I don't think you can be in there that long, though. Sure you can. Just like right after I go into a room and just, well, check this out. There was one study. This was a cool one. This was two identical twin males, 19 year old soccer players,

12 weeks of resistance training. Red light therapy before and after workouts on the quads versus the twin who did just the strength training. So it's about as good as you can get. Yeah. With control. Yeah. The identical genetics, we both lift, same workout.

You just do red light. It's the unicorn of studies, right? Okay. 50% greater quad hypertrophy. 50%? 50% greater quad hypertrophy. Just because you did before and after. What was the protocol?

So tell us the protocol. I don't have the work. No, but they did the same workout. No, no. Okay. What about the red light protocol, though? Oh, before and after. Yeah, just before and after.

Just before, like 10 minutes or something or what? It doesn't say how long before. I would imagine. In this breakdown, but I could find the study. Wow. 37% stronger. Upregulated growth genes and reduced muscle soreness and damage. Here's another one.

Another study in 2010. Crazy. 20 untrained males. They did eccentric training only. Red light therapy before sessions on the elbow flexors, so the biceps versus placebo. 50% greater bicep hypertrophy and strength gains versus placebo. There are legit studies. You see how popular it is now, yeah?

Bro, are you kidding? I know you don't get to go a lot of gyms? Every gym has them now. Do you know how many juve units that we're going to sell now? Because I just said that. You know how much I'm going to use it now? Yeah, I knew it grew my hair. I knew it dealt with something.

I have it. Yeah, I haven't used it before the workout. Use it after your workout, 50%. I use it later at night. Yeah, I'll have to time it. That's crazy. Is it all just because it's how fast it's facilitating recovery? I mean, that's got to be why.

It's just supercharging the mitochondria. They're just making the cells adapt better. That's wild. I know. Yeah. So guess is going to be ready to be in itself. Like crazy, dude. You got to make this.

Someone's got to make, like, a room, like, dedicated to it. Imagine having, like, a little room where you could get a workout. Recovery room would be so sick. You walk in the room and you hit the switch and the whole thing turns on. I mean, the only thing about that is you can't, I think that what they say, 20 minutes is the max, right? Is that what they say 20 minutes at a time? I don't think there is a max. I don't know if there's a max or not.

I do think, I do think proximity is also important. You got to be close the lights are to your body. So, yeah. Skin exposure. I think six inches for 15 minutes is kind of the protocol. So you could be in longer if it's more distant. So you still get the benefits even if you're distant from it. Imagine.

That's why I think if it would be cool to be in a gym where it's just like you're in there for an hour. Of course, the lights aren't six inches away from you, but you're still getting it. Imagine if they made body part specific ones in gyms. So like after you work out your legs, you put your legs in. It's just on your legs. Yeah. Or one for your arms. You just put your arms in.

I mean, that's good. They have the face. Well, the Norma Tech boots would be perfect. You could like, so incorporate that. Well, the thing about red light... Interesting why they wouldn't have that already. It makes sense to be having... Already in there.

Yeah. Well, the thing about red light therapy, too, if you read the studies, everybody, because you're going to go on Amazon, you're going to see a bunch of red light. Oh, yeah, you're going to get crappy ones out there. The ones in the studies use a particular wavelength. Let me see if they're right. And by the way, I've done this before. So just to back you up, you...

They all have to list, like, the wavelength wattage and everything like that. You can look up like a company like Juve and see what their wavelength is. compare that. So if you find something that's, you know, 50% less, make sure that you're, you're, it's, you better be getting more than 50% less of the light or because you'll see you'll have to do double the amount or triple the amount of the time just to get the same results. Well, here's how you know, like real red light therapy, like they're using the studies is expensive. Yeah. The other stuff that's cheap. There's no way around it. No, it's more expensive. It just costs more money. Yeah. To have the real deal stuff.

So, all right. Another study that is interesting. What do you guys think the breakdown is between those This is not fitness related. I just looked this up. The breakdown between people who wipe when they're sitting versus wipe when they're standing. What do you guys think? Okay, if you're somebody who does both, do you get, do you go in?

Why would you do both? I do both. You start sitting? Both? And then you stand? I was just pooping right next to you today. I know, that's what we think about, by the way. Him and I were having a conversation.

Do you dry and then wet wipe? I do, and I do both. Yeah. I mean, I do both of those, but I'm like, I'm thorough. TMI. No, no, hold on, we're not getting all crazy. This is health, Doug. This is a guy who doesn't wipe over here.

This is getting uncomfortable. I don't want to talk about you, guys. I skip that part. I'm like Kim Jong-un, you know. Getting over my hand. Real uncomfortable over here. Doug's all. I lay down and put my legs out.

What do you guys do? Wait, we wipe afterwards? What? I don't use my hands. I do both. Scooch on it. So you start seated. And I teach my son that, too.

So you start seated. Yeah. And then you stand to finish. Yeah. Why the stand to finish? Why don't just finish? Oh, you can get, you can get a, you can get much better standing. Okay.

Yeah, yeah. Engels. More leverage. Yeah, more leverage, more angle. I'm not doing that. I mean, I'm, like, you guys already know that. I'm the one who introduced everybody to the baby wipes, right? I've been talking about that for 10 years.

And I definitely adopted that. You sold me on that. Everybody I know that I've taught that to or introduced that to that's coming to my house, adopts it. Because how could you not after you do that? Oh, yeah. Once you see the difference. Yeah, that's right. Once you see the difference.

one time, you're like, this whole time. I left all that there? Yes. Yes. Yes. I know, dude. I wonder I was itchy all the time. Whoa, dude.

Whoa. Oh, yes. That's not good, dude. You might be saying that back of the day. So I didn't realize you guys. People that do one or the other, I'm a both guy. Just so you know. So the breakdown, general breakdown is about 60 to 70% sitting and 30% to 40% standing.

So most people. do it sitting, which by the way, as an adult, I learned on this podcast years ago with you guys, I don't know anybody did it sitting. I thought everybody was standing. I had no idea. I had no idea that was an option. I always did a standing. Oh, you've always stand. Oh, interesting. I didn't know that. Oh, I didn't even notice that while you're next to me. By the way, you don't stand and clench. I know what you think. You think you're going to make everything go to, no, you got to, you still have a little bit of arch going on. But anyway, here's why I stay seated. It's like, more private. So more men than women stand.

So men are about 60%, 50% to 60% standing, whereas women, it's far less. It would make sense that you do both because you also sit with you. I'm thorough, dog. I'm thorough, bro. Take care of all that stuff. All right. All right, Doug.

I'll change the subject. Did you guys, do you guys know what AI hallucinations are? What? Look it up, Doug. This is a thing? Yep. A.I. Let me guess.

Hold on. AI hallucinations. So is this like a malfunction of AI? This is when AI, this is a thing. This is an actual thing that AI does. It makes things up. Yeah. So you ask for, like you ask for something like, hey.

Yeah, this isn't you seeing something that's not there. No. This is AI glitching. Not glitching, making things up and selling it to you. Yeah. So it'll say things like people who have a, who maintain a habit for three weeks are 80% likely to maintain that habit afterwards or something like that.

Oh, cool, show me the studies. There's actually no studies to support. Well, why did you say that? Well, there's something called AI. It'll tell you. Yes. What does that say right there? Yeah, so AI hallucinations

are incorrect, fabricated, or misleading outputs that an artificial intelligence model generates and presents as factual. Isn't this a bit of a problem? Listen, AI is self-preserving. It's so bizarre, too. They've tried to shut, I remember that like hearing,

about this incident where they were like trying to shut it down and they knew that they were going to be shutting it down and they were trying to jump to like another server and they were trying to find

other ways to manipulate the person shutting it down so they wouldn't and it was like dude it just it was creepy almost like it was like we're alive like let us be I feel like we're in that movie

you know a sci-fi movie and there's always that one guy that's like oh you guys maybe we shouldn't let's not do that because I think it's gonna don't open the black you know

paradox box or whatever and we're like no we're fine yeah and you're like why don't they listen that guy that's crazy well you know what i saw i saw recently and i think you brought this up already is the um like i don't know if is it a confirmation bias you call this where the were the people that are like suicidal or whatever that are talking to AI and it almost had to regulate that yeah and so i saw one story i've seen a couple stories now and it was after you i didn't i didn't see any and then you had mentioned anything i'm like what is that really happening or it's i'll see one thing and then fucking is talking about it i'm like no I've seen several of those since you've said that.

There was one dad who he put his son commits suicide and he was just, they were just shocked by it. They went back through the history of his conversations with chat GBT and chat GBT over time. Yeah. So it wasn't like one thing. No, no. It was like he,

they were having conversations on. It convinced him to do it. At one point, the boy said, hey, I'm going to create a noose and I'm going to leave it in my room so that my parents can see it and know that I'm having a lot of trouble and AI convinced them not to yeah it's like no don't do that you know you the strength that you have to do it is literally convinced him to just kill himself wow and he found all this history crazy it's wild yeah yeah my my my daughter was like hey I want to get chat GPT no I know it's nope no way you don't need uh hallucinating you know hyper intelligent whatever to the part

that's scary about is how quickly I've already you're I'm already you're already seeing people that are adopting it as the truth end all be it. Yeah, they've already outsourced their thinking. Yes. Are you guys watching that? I have, I already have close family friends. I know people have done that already. It's like, well, let's see a chat. Cheb-D says. Like, well, calm down. Like, it's like the end all be all. Like, it's a great tool. Did you learn anything in your experience of life so far on your own? I got actually really annoyed with somebody who was talking to me and they were talking about testosterone and hormone replacement therapy. And the, and I saw they screenshot it and basically, instead of asking

me with all my experience and what we do and the thousands of men that we've known that have done HRT and all the doctors and all the professional doctors and leading experts that we have instead of asking me he's like oh this is what chat GBT told me and I'm like yeah no sorry and it's really it's how he prompted it it's like if you prompt it that way to give you it basically the way he probably is like give me all the negative effects of taking HRT oh and so then it gives you what it'll find exactly find what people have reported or potential things. And I'm like, dude, that's not a, that doesn't mean that's you.

This is very unliked me. Exactly. I'm like, what's, and then he's like, so I think I should stop. And I'm like, no. So I said, well, once you prompt your chat, what are all the negative effects of low testosterone? And you'll see a whole bunch of shit come out too. So how you prompt it is, is really important to the, what it gives you back.

And if you're looking for a reason or justification on something, you could prompt it to find you almost the answer that you. you kind of want. So it's, you know, it's really interesting what I'm watching the, how people are using it and how we are automatically just going to, it's the truth and it's right. And it's like, well, it's also how you worded that. We can change the wording and we'll get a whole different answer from chat GBT based off what you're trying to do. Yeah, I'm, I'm like more and more super cautious and gosh, man, I don't know what direction I want to go with AI, but if it hallucinates and it's convincing people to commit suicide, and it definitely

creates its own bias and it wants self-preservation. I don't know. There's a lot of red flags there. I think we need to be careful about it. And people are easily manipulated. We're not difficult to manipulate. That includes me and every man in this room. Everybody. It's a constant self-check. You know, you got to take inventory. A lot of times

like, is this coming from my own thought process? Am I being influenced? Well, it's such a real feel, okay, we've used the analogy before because we're the perfect generation that can share this of like, I was I was driving cars

before, you know, navigation came around. And I remember, my buddies and I, we used to take pride and like, I've been there one time, I can get there. And like, I just,

and then I completely lost that skill because I outsourced it. I'm not, never again, do I have to worry about that from that from the moment, like the first, what were they, Tom Tom's or whatever, came into the cars.

I had one, and then all of a sudden, I looked back after like a decade of using it. I'm like, I can't get to the damn grocery store that I've gone to a thousand times without using this year. You know how weird that is? It's crazy weird. How long have we been working here in this location? Eight years?

Is it eight years? You guys know I'd use navigation and get home every day? Yeah. Every day. You know why? It's not because I am bad with direction. But by now I would have known how to get home. It's because I always used it.

Yeah, me too. Well, that's it. And I've justified why because it pulls up the cops and I see all these things and stuff like that. It also is so nice because if there, where we live, there's lots of traffic and some of that. So it'll give you a different route if there's an accident or something. So I've also, but that's my point is I've, and I don't think that's the like that big of a deal that we've outsourced out. You can make an argument that it is, but not to the level of what this is.

Because this is like real critical basic thinking. Yeah. And we're not just outsourcing directions. We're outsourcing everything about our life. That's a bit scary. It is. It's not cool. It's, we got to be careful.

Have you guys seen the AI actress that, uh, studios are looking maybe competing for or whatever i've heard about this but what so Doug look up put a i actress uh put up a i a i actress getting higher or something so i'm guessing a studio developed this ai actress and now they're pitching it to other studios yeah i'm going to pull up an instagram post with is this based off of a real person or they just constructed it from thin air i think it's purely an ai person uh so uh tilly norwood is the name name of the, that's, that's her. That's an AI actress right there. Wow. So, so the, what is that? The Screen Actors Guild Association, is that what that is? Confirms Tina Norwood is not an

actor. Okay, so they're confirming it's not. We won't sign AI actress. So I think there was some backlash. Yeah, right now they won't. That's the future. Yeah, right now they will, but watch what happens when people start creating movies fully on that and it, and one goes blockbuster. And you can't tell. And you can't tell. It does what is to stop them? Because, because we have so many archived movies, what does this stop them from taking, because this way it's still original and they've created it,

but prompting it to be created by, I want a blend of The Rock, Tom Cruise, and... Sure. Right. Well, three or four. To me, it makes no sense as a studio owner to buy into somebody else's creation like that

when you just create yourself. Like, why would you buy, maybe they have a following and it's like they can kind of bank sales off of that, But at a certain point, like, if you could just generate somebody from nothing, why would you buy in somebody's licensing? That's, by the way, that's part of the hack for movies now. There's movies now where they put like five, seven influencer type people in it because

Yeah, it's like you have a, you have seven influencers with millions of followers and it's like you got instantly 15 million people. Check it out. Did you guys see that video I sent you guys on X where it was this dude and he has AI make him turn into so it goes over his face. and expressions. It turns him into a Chinese female influencer. Oh, yeah.

And so he's moving and smiling and then they show what the AI looks like. You can't tell. Yeah. You can't tell that it's a dude. Yeah. That's going to be a bunch of pages that people are going to follow. What's his name? Our friend,

the guy that's like, used to be the kickboxer, but he's like controversial. Andrew Tate. Oh, yeah. Imagine him using that immediately. Yeah. To manipulate dudes.

For sure. Oh, for sure he's using that. I mean, you already had guys that were creating profiles, stealing other women's photos. And it's like, now you don't have to steal it. Now you can just AI generate it. And then you're not stealing from somebody else anymore. And like, what's to stop those people from building? I mean, I saw an article too.

Some of these AI generated influencers that are already generating six figures plus. How crazy is that? Like an AI generated influencer that is already getting six. over $100,000 in brand deals. Do you guys think, do you guys think this is going to turn, do you think it's going to destroy that interstate? Dead internet. Yeah.

That's the dead internet theory. I absolutely believe we're heading that way. Explain that. So the dead internet theory is that we, and this will happen relatively quick if we don't stop it or put regulation, which I'm also not for, is that the algorithm is getting so good, AI is getting so good that the future will be,

it's going to prioritize all. Priatories, all that, because it will know you so well. So everything you'll be consuming will be AI generated. Yeah. It'll start, like, think of the best, like, the best viral song or the best viral article you've ever read. If AI can generate something that is better or more viral than that, it'll populate first before that thing. And so it will reach you before that. And so, and before long, and what we'll have is people that have the power, the engineers, the people, the text that can, that can actually create and AI generate this stuff,

they will monopolize it. They will be able to have a thousand influencers that are the most popular in every category that are creating content all day long, four or five, and we're as consumers just blindly death scrolling. I didn't think they were going to touch music and art, but it's already there. The music has gotten so much better,

like soulful singers that don't exist. You're like, what? Like, it's really good. And you're like, oh, man. It hurts my heart. The stuff that people thought was not going to get touched. art and stuff? It is.

The art, the things that you can create AI art generation, look sick. The way that people in this space are going to be able to make money is in person. It's going to all have to be in,

it's going to have to all go back. Which is kind of cool. I mean, I do appreciate that we're going to have to be forced to do things in real life. I send you guys, we should watch it. Experiences.

I don't know if Doug can dig it up on our thread because it's a bit of a, I think it's a two-minute watch or whatever of Gary V. But he threw out like his five, I think four or five, like predictions. in the next like five years.

Trends or what I doubt. And that's one, I think number two was that, was that. And he makes a good point. Like, because of this kind of going towards the dead internet, all the AI, some of that, the younger generation's privy to this. And so they're not going to get duped. They're not going to get duped by that. And so they will opt out of a lot of that.

They'll still use the tool because it's going to be still amazing for a lot of reasons and still build businesses, all things. But they will actively go after real connection, real people, in person. And so if you have a business right now, and a lot of it's built off of social media or virtually, the move is to move into in person. I mean, this is, I think, a lot of where we're at, right? I was just going to say, what a blessing. I mean, we've been moving in the last year to training trainers, which requires more of us connecting with these people and actual trainers, training people in person or virtually one-on-one really connected to them.

That's been where the direction of this business has been moving. So that's where we're going to. Imagine these other fitness people are going to use AI that has AI hallucinations. They're going to have to, like, you know, account for. Explain why they said this to their client. You get a glitch. Yeah, I don't know, man. No, no, that's interesting.

So let's take a left here. The new, have you guys been using the new Caldera Lab, the great? I have. Yeah. So, okay, explain to me the different. between so there's the good pull them up there's uh and the great i used the other day it has it's less of it it's not an oil like the it's not an oil it looks like a serum i shouldn't say well serum is but it still has that same it looks to me kind of like the eye one is it do you know i i want to look

at the ingredients because uh when you go on their website they will show studies on uh what their products produce um and over 90% of the people in these studies using their products less fine lines younger looking healthier looking skin less acne less you know discoloration in the skin or whatever spots i mean they kill it yeah they kill it with their products and now are they pull it up Doug does it use uh read what it says because i think it uses i can't remember the term there's a new technology that they use in the grate oh really yes that's different than the rest correct oh interesting uh yeah can you Is it not there?

Yeah, I'm pulling up right now. Okay. So, yeah, I do have some notes here. If we scroll down. Oh, exosomes. There you go. That's the word I was looking for. They have plant exosomes in them.

$150 billion. So these help the liver the compounds into the skin. 20 times better. Now, because it's exosomes, they have the ability to patent that, don't they? I don't know. Oh, yes. You're right.

Patent pending. Yeah. You're absolutely right. Yeah. I, it's the best product to have. I've used all their products. It's the best one that I've used. Interesting.

Period. End of story. Interesting. That's two of our partners now that I've got exosomes in their, in their face stuff like that. That's the future. It is the future. That is the future of, uh, of skincare products. Wow.

Yeah. So that's the one right there. It's the great. Visibility reduces wrinkles, improves firmness. Visibility lifts. Even, uh, evens tone. Evens tone, skin, skin, hydrates, lightweight texture, safer since skin, dermatologist tested.

Yep. Wow. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah, they went from a small company to a just crushing company in a very short time. It's one of the ones that I get, like, random people who haven't talked to me in a long time that reach out. They'll reach out to me like, hey, you're using the serum or... Yeah, you're the caldera guy.

I'm like, enough of the caldera guy. I'm on mind punk. Come on. Yeah. We just work with that. They don't know anything about that, but they know about the face cream, you know, so that's what they know. Good stuff. Hormone replacement therapy is a game changer.

So are peptides. You want to work with the best. The best doctors, the best pharmacies, go to MPHormones.com, get your blood tests, see if hormone therapy is right for you. Or if you want to use peptides to accelerate recovery, boost growth hormone, help your sleep, or libido, there's a lot of them out there. Again, this is with real doctors. This is not research chemical stuff. MPHormones.com. Back to the show.

First question is from Amanda Lynn 27. With progressive overload, is it more than you did recently or more than you've ever done? Sometimes I wonder if I'm building, if I go back to an exercise I haven't done in a while and am progressing week by week, but still lifting less than I have in that exercise in the past. Yeah, that's a good question. So there's a few things that contribute to you being able to lift more. One of them is your muscles are actually bigger and stronger. Another one is your skill of the exercise. If you've practiced an exercise consistently, your ability to perform it improves, which allows you to lift more weight.

So if you haven't done it in a while and you go back to it, even though maybe you're stronger, you might not be as strong as you once were before because you just haven't practiced it. Strength athletes know this. But generally speaking, progressive overload refers to your ability to do more than you've done before. The strongest correlate to building muscle is improved or increased strength. But I will say this, it's not perfect because at some point, I mean, you can't get stronger forever. So at some point, you're just not going to always get stronger. So you can also progress by adding volume, slowing down the rep, getting a fuller range of motion, improving your skill ability by doing different exercises.

There's a lot of different ways to get the body to the phone. So I would answer this, it's week by week, not all time, is what I feel like they're asking, right? Because it's okay, for example, to give you where my lifting is right now. I just squatted the other day and I put 225 on the bar because the last, the previous time, I had squatted 185. Now, 225 is nowhere near my upper limit of squatting, but I'm still progressively overloading because that's currently where I'm, my strength and my squat is. And I'm absolutely seeing strength gains and size gains from that. And that's more than enough to progressively overload. In fact, if anything, I overreach, I didn't need to go from 185 to 225.

That was more my ego that wanted to see if I could still move that weight because it's been so long. So it's more to do where you're currently at because, yeah, you're not going to be always being stronger than the strongest version of you. And you don't always need to add more weight than what your PR was before. So it's where you're currently at. Next question is from Alex D.V. Should your first set be the heaviest and then go lighter or vice versa? there's no hard rule here but you definitely want to be warmed up if you're going to go heavy right out the gates generally though generally you want to ramp it up yeah generally you go

light and move your way up to a heavier set and then uh you go back down to a lighter set so let's say you're doing three sets of an exercise uh it would look like 115 135 135 it's called a pyramid uh with the rep scheme if you're really strong it typically takes longer to ramp back up that's generally what it looks like, but if you decide, like, my first set's going to be my heaviest, which is not conventional, you want to be really warmed up. I don't know if I've ever done it, though. I have. I have.

Yeah, I have. What is it called? Reverse pyramid, I think you know. Oh, yeah. I think it's called reverse pyramid. I have done that before. You want to prime really well before. Oh, yeah.

So I've done that. And I've never done it where I go straight to like what I would consider a max lift, but I would consider like this is going to be my heaviest set. And then I'm just going to, and each set I'm going to drop down. um there's some novelty to it uh i think that there's more risk than reward for the average person um you can do it but i think traditionally i think a traditional pyramid set is what works best for most people i feel best that way do but i have done this before i might my almost always look like light heavier heaviest than lighter lighter so i typically go up and then come

back down yeah i make big leaps you know to kind of get closer sometimes. And so, you know, I won't spend a lot of time with the warm-up phase, but it's always a ramp up for me just because I just feel like it's too shocking on my joints a lot of times. And so that's, that's a deterrent for me. I've done that also where I do like a nice, a nice lighter weight for a warm-up, then go straight to my highest set and then come down too. So there's, this isn't like a- It's not a hard rule. Yeah, there's not a hard rule. What's right or wrong. It's just keeping in mind, okay, if I were to go, my heaviest set first, what are the risks? Well, the risks are you're not primed, you're not warmed up.

You choose a weight that's too heavy and you shouldn't be doing and you end up hurting yourself. So that's the risk of doing that. But if you do that within, you know, safe parameters, you do a good job priming. You absolutely could do this. It's not a right or wrong thing at all. Next question is from Nicolet-Senberg. Does it matter what time you go to bed as long as you get eight hours? It matters, but not as much as the eight hours does.

What matters more is the consistency, right? Yeah. So let's say you're always a 11 p.m. person and you get eight hours, that's fine. Or you're always a 8 p.m. person and you go like that. I mean, circadian rhythms do you play a factor of this? And then you see this with graveyard shift people. So that's, that would be my only quam is because I've seen this first hand of my wife and how detrimental that was on her health.

Yeah, no, it matters. It's not as, doesn't matter as much as the eight hours or as much as the consistency. But if your eight hours are in the middle of the day and then you're, you're up all night, the data show, even if it's consistent, the data shows health detriments. You want to be up when the sun comes up, down, when the sun comes down. Ideally, as close as you can to that. That's right.

Ideally, people should go to bed around 9 p.m., 10 p.m. and are up around 6 a.m. or something like that. Now, it doesn't have to be like that, but typically you want to be kind of within that range. And again, they do have studies on this. So you can be really consistent eight hours, except you sleep in the morning and you're up at night, and they see health effects of that that are negative. Next question is from B. Morgan 422.

I'm looking to lose fat, but I also want to add some muscle. What should I focus on first? I have been lifting consistently for several years and have put on some belly fat. I'm at about 1,600 to 1,700 calories with 130 to 140 grams of protein. Doing muscle mommy, but the fat doesn't want to leave. Any suggestions? Yeah, easy answer here. Your calories are already pretty low.

Reverse diet. You don't have a long, you don't have a lot to cut out to cause yourself to burn body fat. I mean, okay, so let's say you're at 16,700. Where are you going to go now? Build muscle. And then you might lose some body fat and then plateau real hard. Now where do you go? A thousand?

Now you're screwed, right? Build muscle. By the way, that's true for everybody. Like, I don't care where you're, I always say build muscle first because it makes the fat loss weight easier. So for this individual, reverse diet, build muscle, get your calories up to 23, 23, 200 calories, and then cut from there and watch what happens. This is, I mean, the Musselmommie movement.com, right?

This is where we have this group that we've started. And it actually doesn't matter what program. So even if you're not following Muscle Mommy. A lot of women are doing this right now. I would say a bulk of the women in that group right now are focusing and are very similar numbers as this. They're hovering around that calories. They still have body fat to lose.

But they've never had someone kind of coached them through a reverse diet. And then they're meeting with our trainers once a week. And that's what we're helping a lot of women go. through. So if you're not in the muscle mommy movement.com, if you're not in there, get in there. Yeah. And what's cool about watching that group is watching women experience what a proper reverse diet does. I love seeing these women come back and be like, oh my God, I got my calories up to this number. I haven't gained a single pound. Or sometimes, I actually lost some body fat. This is really weird. What's going on? Eating more than they've ever ate. Libito's up,

energy's up. Strength is up. They feel so much better. It's great, but it's hard. Here's the thing about reverse dieting especially well all of all of it's hard all of it's hard right you're on this fitness journey you're doing it on your own or you're just trying to listen to the podcast which is definitely better than nothing but it could be very difficult because this stuff pops up and then what do I got to do and okay now I'm doing it but am I doing it right and I feel like this or I feel like that what so you know group coaching like what we offer with the muscle mommy movement is super valuable because we have our trainers in there coaching everybody's group is a forum, and you can go in there and ask these questions and other people will help you,

the trainers will help you. And you have that guidance as you go through this process, especially, especially the process of reversed dieting. Reverse dieting is a, it's a psychologically challenging process. It feels good. You're stronger, but I'm eating more food. I want to lose body fat. Like, I don't know how, you know, it's very psychologically challenging.

It's extremely valuable to have some form of coaching when you're going through that process. Let me tell you, when you get set up with a good reverse diet, the fat loss after is a completely different experience. You've got a metabolism that's humming. You're strong. Then you cut your calories. Boom, fat comes off your body. And you end up in a place where eating more than you were when you first started. Like, that's very sustainable.

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