Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 272: Kicking Food Addiction, Staying Motivated, Static Stretching Tips & MORE

Episode Date: April 13, 2016

It is April and the Mind Pump Studio is on fire! Sal, Adam & Justin answer Pump Head questions about the dos and don’ts of static stretching, what fitness should look like to the eye, the best methods to stay motivated & mentally strong, the reality of food addiction and what can be done to kick it & whether or not a brace should be used to correct forward shoulder. Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Leave an awesome 5 star review and you may be announced on the show as a winner of a Mind Pump t-shirt! Winners announced weekly! Learn more about Mind Pump at www.mindpumpmedia.com

You know, I thought the last 100 years that it was the hottest it's ever been in. I'm pretty sure today is the hottest. And I can tell by the level of sour oiliness. So I'm extra oiled. It's, it's it. Am I that shiny? It's actually hurting my Adam.

Adam has rosier cheeks than yours. No, this, this makes sense because I would today, among all days, Adam has been looking at me more. I smell like pork. And let me tell you what, I don't know what that means. And I figured out why Adam's looking at me more than normal. I thought he was just paying attention. The reality is, I'm so shiny. He's looking at his own fucking reflection That's the way

I do God, Doug help us please. We do have shirts to give away. That's what we're doing of course who wants a shirt Who wants a shirt shirts for everybody? Yeah, we got 13 reviews this last week. Pretty strong. Pretty strong, but guess what? I'm gonna do today. It's like Adam's deadlift.

It's pretty strong. Yeah, pretty strong. I've seen it. Not too bad. It's impressive. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay.

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13 reviews, five shirts. What do we made of money? Yeah, we are, as a matter of fact. Boom! That was such an asshole laugh afterwards. Yes, we are. We're printing it as we speak. Yeah.

So five shirts, let me read them off. We have scabby mixed scab shins. Every time. They're these scab shins. Scab shins. You purposely pick, okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on, before you go any further. Yeah.

Are you even reading these reviews? Are you just picking the coolest names? I'm just picking cool names. You want to read them. No, you're not. No, they're always great names. I mean, everybody just comes up with the greatest thing for their actually reading these reviews a big good Yeah, no, of course, of course. Yeah, you've read these reviews right?

Yes, of course otherwise we'll get like Ain't no clown flyers five thousand We're like no, we're not picking you. How did you know Justin? I mean? That was an excellent That was so lefty old. I had to. Yeah, so you put anal and clowns in the same name flyers. You fly.

It sounds like a trapeze act. And maybe it is. I was just thinking of all my fears. I'm not going to get through this to the end. I'm sorry, no, no, no. Sorry, sorry, sorry, no. Sorry, no, sorry. Okay, we got your red.

Okay. Josh 26. Totally not original. Now. Lauren Ashley Crowe. Come on. I want to take Josh's back. Okay, Josh 26 totally not original now Lauren Ashley I want to take Josh's back. No, no Lauren Ashley Crowe. Yeah, and Zach Freymoyer All of you that sounds winners winners. You get a t-shirt. Yes at iTunes at mine pump radio No, mine pump media.com

That's where you need to send your iTunes name, your shirt size, and your address. We'll get that shirt right out to you. Say that again, because you said, what was the email you sent to? iTunes at MindPumpMedia.com. That's the email. By the way, the shirts can also be worn as a loin cloth.

Indeed, that's right. That's right. Pretty sure that we'll give you two if you send them a new pick also. Don't do that. No. If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind, hop, mind, hop with your hosts.

Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. When I was a kid, I always imagined what, like, how hot the sun was. What does it feel like? It feels like it's just a... It feels like it's just a... I no longer imagined how hot the sun was. Like, what does it feel like? But I no longer have to fucking imagine. Yeah, I know. I know. Solar flares. I don't get like, yeah, frying my skin.

It's pretty hot in here, Doug. Doug, what do I have to do to get, maybe you can give me the email address to the lady that is responsible for this so I can talk to her? Sure. I think this thing is probably lives on Venus. I know we're not here for what? Another two months at tops or what, what, what, what?

Do you think our landlord listens to our show? Oh, dude, she better fucking turn this shit down because it's getting fresh and we're getting ready to head and do it. Turn down for what? Yeah. We're ready. Sorry.

What's going to happen is the AC is going to kick on here another month or so. And we're going to be freezing ourselves. Is this how is it? Either sweaty balls or stick nipples. I try to take that. Doug, how is our how is our lease that appear during a alert? Do we do we pay PG&E or is that like part of the whole thing?

No, it's not part of the whole thing. Okay, I'm so so I'm bringing our portable AC bro and we're fucking turning that shit on this whole time. Oh, you know what we should do since it's all good. It's fucking just leave the like you guys wonder the humming sound. I'm like in the next podcast coming up. Doug's like cringing right now. It's not Doug's vibrator It's like he's like heaven forbid that's speaking of that dude. There's this new product. Yeah, there's new Memory we talked about the foam roller that had the vibrator on the internet. There's a new one now and it's like

Superpowered. It's like 200 bucks for this thing. And it's a foam roller that my race. It's a foam roller, but it's like legit, dude. I laid on it and you used it. Got crazy with it. And it literally, dude, it felt like- Did you foam roller glutes? Yeah, for sure. So the whole thing, but I know so it's legit.

Does it make a difference? Like does it break up? It feels, it definitely feels like one of those massage chairs that like has like is real powerful. So you can sit through there and then, I mean, it's functional. You can get through all these same like foam rolling positions. We'll have Adam do like a little bunch rolling on it.

Totally should do it. Adam, do you know where the bond cheers? I've never heard that term. You've never heard of the bond, the bond shield plexus. Could you point that out to me? Yeah. We'll use my lid on a graph. I'm gonna use Justin's index finger I've never heard that term. You've heard of the bond the bond shield plexus. Could you point that out to me? Let me use my lid on a graph. I'm gonna use a Justin's index finger to point it out on Oh

Mother fucking cool I'm motherfucking cool. Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick,

quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, dosing notes, how long should you do it? The dosing, the dosing, the dosing, the dosing, the dosing. Well, there's three types of, or there's not three, but there's three main types of stretching that you would do.

Static would fall into the corrective type of stretching, so static or corrective stretching. Then you have active stretching, then you have dynamic. They each have different protocols and different times or different places that you would utilize them. Static, since it's considered corrective, this is when you're trying to work on an imbalance on your body. So, one, you have to hold a static stretch for it to be effective for at least 30 seconds to a minute long.

And you would want to, you wouldn't want to do static stretching. This is something that I think we've talked a little bit about on the podcast, you guys, where we probably did this before in the past to our clients before they started a personal training session. Never would I do that again. Now, knowing, understanding it, the way I do now, and you know, you don't want to static stretch or correctively stretch somebody before they go work out. Other than that, because it's a postural deviation or an imbalance that you're trying to work on, you're trying to stretch out something that is overactive, as much as you possibly can. You're trying to correct it, you're trying to fix it.

So as many times throughout the day, the only time I would say you don't want to do it would be right before you get ready to do something explosive or do any sort of training or sport, right? Before. Yeah, they're finding like these time lengths and all this stuff are pretty irrelevant when if you look at it. Oh really? Like how long? Yeah, like the 30 second. Like, I mean, I think I think that more applied to like compression though. I retract that actually. Like with

the brain role. Yeah. Okay, because I wasn't talking about the, yeah, we're talking about static stretching still. Because in order for the goal, You tend to release it takes it takes a good What I believe 15 to 30 before that happens and for it to really go into its craft otherwise It's kind of like you're taking a rubber band and you're kind of just doing this Which is great for getting blood flow circulation You know a little bit of elasticity to it but for it to actually go into corrective work and you're trying to well here Here's what static elongate the muscle well here's what static stretching is doing because there's been some revelations and really what they're attributing the increase in flexibility from stratic stretching.

Is it muscular side? It's all about the central nervous system. It's not that you're making the muscle somehow more stretchy. Right. Because think about it this way. I could take you through a static stretch for your hamstrings, and you're going to have more flexibility after 30 minutes of stretching. And it'll go away once we stop after, you know, by tomorrow the day after. But right away, you get more flexible.

Now, does that mean that we've elongated your hamstrings? Does that mean that we've somehow made the hamstring more, you know, stretchy? No, it's the central nervous system learning to relax. And I have, and here's something, I've never done this, strings? Does that mean that we've somehow made the hamstring more, you know, stretchy? No, it's the central nervous system learning to relax. And I have, and here's something I've never done this, but I would love for somebody who's a surgeon or somebody who's ever dissected cadavers to maybe chime in. I wonder how a, if you take the muscle off a dead person before, let's say, rigor mortis sets in, how stretchy it really is. Because I would venture to say that a lot of the flexibility,

if not all of the flexibility that you get, it's like predetermined. Really is a function of your central nervous system and this is why static stretching makes your muscles temporarily weaker. Like Adam was saying, you don't wanna do long static stretches before you work out for the most part because you're literally telling the central nervous system to chill out.

To relax. And that could potentially lead to injury because there's a reason why your central nervous system makes you tight and it's because it's preventing ranges of motion that you may not have strength in or it's to keep you real tight and stable or whatever. And the second reason is you just get weaker, so you're not as strong. You want to do your dynamic warmups before your lips. Now, again, like Adam's example, if I'm trying to get a muscle to get out of the way,

for example, let's say I'm working on scapular retraction, or pulling my shoulder blades back. Let's say I'm doing a cable row, and I have a forward shoulder, and I want to squeeze my shoulders back. And my chest is just super tight. I may want to do static stretching on my chest just to get it out of the way. Excellent.

That's giving me. Excellent point. There is a place where you would incorporate. Right. Great point right there. I didn't even consider that that. You would do that because you would never do that before you go do a chest press. You would never want to really send that signal.

No. But if you're working the antagonist muscle and you're having a hard time, you know, to get into that neutral position. Now, that all being said, there's also some science to support static stretching in between heavy sets for a different kind of muscle signal to build more muscle. And here's a deal, it's an advanced technique.

So here's how the technique works. I'm doing, you know, chest, I'm doing flies. After I do my set, I immediately grab a light pair of dumbbells and then sit in the fly position for 30 seconds to a minute. So it's really stretching out my chest. Two things. Number one, what's happening isn't so much of the stretch as it's, as is, I'm having resistance

at the end range of motion. So as relaxed as you think you are holding those dumbbells in that stretch, the reality is the pecs are contracting to support your arms a little bit. So there's some science to support that that builds more muscle. So I have people tell me all the time, oh, I've seen studies that show that static stretching

in between sets builds more muscle. Well, the studies are done in the way that I just mentioned. And if you just sit there and stretch your muscle without trying to contract it in the stretched position, I don't think there's a muscle building benefit to it other than maybe, like I said, getting a muscle out of the way or something like that. Otherwise, all you're doing is you're weakening that central nervous system signal. But that's what static stretching is all about.

Look, I could do deep static stretching consistently two or three times a day for a while. And I'm going to dramatically improve my range of motion, but let's not forget increased range of motion without strength within that range of motion is That's the building I was gonna bring up. Yeah, like even if you're doing like a passive Stretch you're not getting the benefit of that neuromuscular connection because when you add that little bit of tension now You know the recruitment pattern is amplified. And so now you're telling your body that you need this muscle involved with this movement

on a consistent basis. And so therefore, it's more responsive. So a lot of like what they're talking about, like you don't wanna get to a point where you're inactive in certain areas of your body. So then these muscles stop responding and now you don't have that support system in place anymore.

So if it be like a squat, like let's say I have decent flexibility and I can go one inch below parallel with my squat. So now I go and I work on, all I ever do a squat, one inch below parallel, right? But what I do now is I go home and I consistently static stretch, static stretch, static parallel, right? But what I do now is I go home and I consistently static stretch, static stretch, static stretch,

and I increase my range of motion to now I can go down five inches below parallel. However, I never train within that five, that extra five inches. I always train within that one inch. I haven't, all I've gained is more range of motion, but I haven't gained more stability. If I then squat with the same weight

that I squat that one inch below parallel, I'm bringing down to that five inches, I'm going to hurt myself or the potential for injuries quite high. So that stretching should be used appropriately, but you should always, what's more important than that, than range of motion is stability and strength within the range of motion you have. That's actually more important. Well, here's where a lot of the other new theories come in like FRC and like these

things. That was just going to go this way. These different techniques. Yeah, because the thing is that they're trying to develop these new techniques for you to intensify that signal and that response. So they're going to try and teach you and guide you how to squeeze and connect to that muscle and put it through the range of motion all the way. So what you're doing is you're keeping tense throughout this entire range of motion, increasing

it slowly. But the more that you add this intensity to it, like the more you're amping your central nervous system to respond and prioritize it. So it's interesting. Well, this is, I mean, we kind of mentioned this before, I believe, I don't know if you guys still do, I completely eliminated foam rolling and static stretching completely with with myself personally. I have found doing dynamic and mobility work has shown me all the same benefits that I ever saw from static or foam rolling and some.

In fact, I've seen faster progress from that than I've read. I felt like, and this is totally anecdotal for myself, but I felt like foam rolling and static stretching was Crutching or helping an issue. I felt like the mobility and the dynamic stretching has progressed me Like I have like now I have new found ranges of motion I feel stronger in those range of motions before I felt the key the the keys that you feel stronger in those ranges of motion Because every little step that that incremental little step that you can articulate with the joint is supported. So, you know, versus you just pushing your leg into a position and then trying to hold it at the end.

So you're focusing on this quote unquote lengthening like technique. So it's a total difference. Oh, and like I said, mine's anodotal, but I can tell you right now from my experience, now we're coming up on close to probably a year that I've been training this way where I've completely eliminated the static stretching and the foam rolling.

And I have better flexibility and range of motion in my shoulders and my hips than I have ever have. And that was a big game changer for me. And there's added benefits aside from just that when you talk about your moving, your burning cow. Try doing a bunch of mobility work or a functional type training or using your stick mobility.

I mean, it's intense stretching that you're doing and you're burning some serious calories while you're doing it. So, I mean, and the neuromuscular side is obvious because you're actually having to move and do and work versus relax and send that signal. Yeah, I personally was static stretching if and I don't do this because I usually run out of time and also because it's not my favorite thing to do, but I for static stretching for me, the best time to do it is at the end. After I'm done with your work, I'm done with my workout, you looped up a little bit of your warm. Exactly. Do like a 15 minute, you know, 15 minute, or I would love to do a 30 minute just deep, you know, yin yoga based type, you know, static stretches

is what I would love to do. And then when I enter my workouts and I have increased range of motion, lighten the weight and play within those ranges of motion before I decide to, you know, push it. Yeah, I just want to be clear too that I wasn't poop-o-ing, you know, static and thrown away. I'm not, I'm not saying you need to throw that shit away Like it's not useful though. There's it definitely has its place. It's very beneficial

So I'm just expressing something that I I have found with myself recently I've completely moved away from it for myself. I mean, I could yeah, I can echo that too So that's why I wanted to kind of chime in because it's it like I feel like it's a game changer just like you know these other things we've brought up and You know, it's gonna shift the entire focus, you know in this respect as far as flexibility is concerned Oh, I 100% man. I mean I did a post just recently about this with You know, here's a thing and I'm telling all my and public listeners, beware. I see that the importance, and just like Justin is saying,

of the flow patterns, the stick mobility, all this functional type stretching, FRC stuff, this is going to, it's gonna be a huge wave coming, and you guys are gonna see it flooded all over the place, very similar to like functional training was, you know, five, 10 years ago or whatever it was. And because there's great science behind it, it is awesome. You know, just keep that in mind that when the pendulum begins to swing that direction that you keep your balance. There's a place for it,

incorporate it into your fitness routine. Right. And it is very, very solid and is much, much so a daily routine for myself. But it's only a small portion of everything else that I find. Yeah, because you know, they'll do, they'll take it and they'll, they'll market it and they'll change it and tweak it. It's already happening. But and they're going to turn it into this new branded way. Whatever. Yeah. And it's going to turn it into. Well, and Justin actually, he was a one PNF. Yeah, I was just gonna tell you that you were the one that really enlighten me off.

Like, you know, fuck, why didn't I even think about that? It's exactly like that. I mean, if that PNF stretching has been around forever, I'm using the very first certification I ever got. In fact, they talked a lot about it in that certification. Ironically, I have not seen it a lot in other certifications or talked about very often going forward, but PNF stretching has been around forever

and it's very similar protocol to how FRC and stuff does that. So it's not cutting edge new science. It's a lot of people that are seeing the importance of it and that it's neglected like we talk about neat. This is now gonna be something you're gonna see more and more. Just be careful, buyer beware. Don't get all sucked into all the gurus that sort of tell you it's the new way of life.

Just like what I see, I am a huge advocate of yoga. Do I think it should be seven days a week in replace your strength training? Absolutely not. But I think there's a place for it just like this. Chase Smith is asking what should fitness look like to the eye? Hmm. I think he's talking about, he's talking about aesthetics, right? How somebody looks appealing.

Finis should look healthy. No, I'm interested to see your run's views on this. Yeah, Finnish should look healthy and appealing. There are certain things that we tend to be drawn to, you know, wide shoulders in men. Don't be scientific about it. I want to hear what you say. No, that's what I'm telling.

Well, it's not just what I mean. Well, we'll bring it back to this. I know, this guy, he's always got his way of like trying to like, you know, evolutionary. Evolutionary. No, no, no, no, no. Naturally, it looks like athletes. That's how I see it.

And that's obvious to everybody else. Like, I would say that, but I see it more as like, describe that. Grace in movement. Okay, there we go. Grace in movement and having the abilities reflect, like, you know, you know how you look at an Olympic athlete, right? They're not fat, okay?

So that's part of it. Unless you're an Olympic shop putter. Yeah. Well, then I am impressed. It serves a purpose. It's just like strong men. You know, I'm not gonna look down on them for not having a six pack.

Who gives a shit? They look like they can move some weight. Well, okay, so you think about performance with fitness. When I think of fitness, he's saying what should fitness look like? For me, it sounds like when you look at someone the average person you think, while they look, he's gonna go to health,

I'm gonna go pure aesthetic. Of course. How did this happen? Yeah, right. No, I mean, I think when I look, I think when I look at someone, I look at their posture. Do they stand tall?

Do they have nice, confident posture? Their gait, how their legs are moving when they're walking. Are they moving, you know, what looks like seamlessly with grace, or does it look like they're in pain, or they're clunky? I've seen a lot of big buff dudes that walk like shit and you could tell right there

that that doesn't look like fitness to me, for example. Athletes don't necessarily, for me, represent fitness because I see, when I look at athletes, I see extreme forms of performance in a particular modality. So I see lots of swimmers with forward shoulder, I see lots of runners with very underdeveloped upper bodies. Boxer is rounded scapula.

Yeah, that kind of stuff. So fitness to me, for me looks like health. I see the posture. I see their skin. I see how they move. I see their confidence. Their energy, their aura. If you will, definitely not overweight,

but not super shredded either. Super, super shredded is amazing as a looks. Doesn't look like fitness to me. A lot of guys can get away with it, but that's because men can carry really low body fat levels. But even guys can get to it. And I've seen guys that are just shredded and you see them with their shirt on

and they look like they're dead. They take their shirt off and like, wow, nice six pack, but when you look at their face, they look gone, and they look unhealthy. And for women, that's even a little bit of a higher body fat percentage. Well, I guess too, it's just really working with what you're given.

You know, that was the part of the point. It's not necessarily that it's all high performance driven because for me, I completely agree with you in every point that you made there. But if somebody never reaches their full potential, then I feel like that's a missed opportunity. Well, what you sorry for you. Yeah.

To piggyback off with Justin just said about working with what you got, right? With what you, you're genetically what you were about. You're shaking like you make it. So there's two major things that I see. When I see what I would consider a fitness or what fitness looks like to me or what I'm wowed or impressed by a physique aesthetically is the two things I see right away number one posture, you know, which I think pretty much encompasses a lot about what Sal was saying about their gate and how they walk and I mean all that comes from their posture. If you have very good posture, you typically have a pretty damn

good gates. You don't have a sloppy gate and you have great posture. It's my gate, bro. Excellent. So the posture thing is number one. And then I look at symmetry of their muscle development, but not just the same for everybody. And this piggyback's off of what Justin was saying, which I can look at somebody's body and I can see what kind of type of body they naturally would have. Regardless of what they look like at the moment, whether they're super overweight or in phenomenal shape, I can see your bone structure and how you're built and I have an idea of genetically what you're kind of built

to look like. And I am impressed and I think fitness is when I can see somebody who looks totally different or, and they could be to either extreme, super buff or super lean and ripped, but I look at a body type and I go, oh wow, they definitely work hard to look like that. And I know that because I can see their genetics

and I can tell what they've had to do to get to that point. That person must be having be living a fit lifestyle in and out, nutritionally and gym to put that much work in. And I feel like I'm a little biased because I talk about how I was not built to be a fitness, you know, Men's Physique guy. I'm not, I don't have, if you looked at me off the street for sure, five years ago,

and you looked at my body type, nobody would go like, oh, that guy should do Men's Physique. He's got the aesthetics for it, or he's got the symmetry for it. No, like I pride myself on that. I'm not somebody like that. And it took a lot of work to try and make it work. You see the work behind it.

Yes. See, the other thing too, we got to ask ourselves, like what does fitness sound like? What does fitness feel like? You ever hear someone over the phone and they just sound unhealthy? You know, you hear their voice? How about this?

Here's some other signs of poor fitness. I'll see this sometimes in, like, I'll see this sometimes in like, I'll see this in girl sometimes, where their hair will be in front of their face, whether it be hiding kind of the way they look, or they'll be looking down, or you'll see this sometimes in your voice too. Going to confidence.

All this stuff, this all represents fitness. There's a mental fitness, there's a, and what we have to understand is, the amount of cues that your brain picks up from looking at someone, you have no idea. You wouldn't be able to list them. There's so many cues that you pick up that are unconscious before you determine whether or not that person looks appealing or looks healthy. You've got no idea, which is why some people can be heavy and some people can be underweight

and both can look very attractive. There's cues that your brain is picking up on that person. I feel like posture encompasses all of this. Poster's part of it, but try to quantify it. I mean, it's so different. It can be. It's so crazy that we can identify that just by your essence.

Someone's posture right there, smell? No, I'm talking about you, how healthy they are. Oh, I was like, what the fuck? Yeah, it's's yeah you started smelling and you're like whoa perfect posture. Yeah awesome You look put together. Why are you smelling that bro? Oh what's it? Oh up across in the center? But I think fitness you know what fitness looks like answer your prayer to help I got I got the answer you fitness looks like healthy next question I got the answer. Fitness looks like healthy. Next question.

There you go. There it is. In a nutshell. Josh Dusan is asking some of the best methods to stay motivated and mentally strong. Is this one of our blown homies? That's blown, yeah. You throw it away right there.

Shout out to blown. I like to do drugs. Sometimes I feel more, no, I'm asking. It's some of the It's a joke. Some of the best methods to stay motivated and mentally strong when we're battling like a downtime or?

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I'm going through some very stressful times myself at the moment and probably last me a little while. And for me personally, here's a deal. I made a decision a long time ago. And that decision is that the only thing that could ever decide if I'm going to give up or fail as myself, I could be on the ground,

you know, lose my limbs, I could be almost dead, and the only thing that determines whether or not I lose is if I admit it. If I say I'm gonna lose, if I quit. And so this keeps me extremely motivated during times of, you know, difficult stress, like some of the ones I'm going through right now. And a few years ago, I had lost someone that was very close to me, and that was a very stressful time. And I said the same thing to myself, you know, you, for me personally,

I just, I refuse to lose, I refuse to quit. And if that means I need to modify things or whatever, then so be it. I use all the tools at my disposal to help me to help me win, to help me not quit, to prevent me from quitting. So exercise changes. If I'm very stressed, exercise becomes a de-stressing tool. Reading becomes a de-stressing tool. The food that it becomes a de-stressing tool. The way I sleep, the people I hang around with, the conversations that I have and the research that I do is geared towards helping me come through this situation. Sometimes it looks like I'll give you an example. A few years ago, I lost somebody to cancer. And one of the ways that I stayed motivated was I just researched, because it brings me comfort to read and research as much as possible.

The vast majority of time I was researching ways and I could help her, but other times I just researched other things, that I found that to be something that kept me on track and kept me from losing my mind. Because you're going to reach some times in your life, this is for everybody. You're going to lose somebody close to you or something horrible isn't happening. You lose your job, maybe you're going to go bankrupt or whatever, that you're going to be challenged beyond what you think you're capable of doing. You're going to be challenged to the point of breaking.

And it's your decision, it's really your decision to decide how you're going to break. Nobody's invincible, but if you end up getting to that point where you're gonna break on your own terms. And so this is just the type of mentality that I go into these things with. And it's so far it's served me well, but I will say this, I mean, definitely affects me, like anybody, stress will definitely affect me. It's affects my sleep, affects everything.

So again, I decide, that's what I do. What about you guys? Well, so I mean, not to be cliche, they say they say we, uh, there's no such thing as big problems, the only problems that we make big, right? And I kind of think that's the attitude that we all, we all have. I mean, we all know, uh, life shits on us. Um, everybody gets shit on. If you think that you're any different than anybody else, that would be your first mistake. But I also believe that, especially the minute, at least I can speak for the minute in this room, the attitude I feel like we all kind of take towards, towards when shit when we get shit on is it sounds crazy, but I embrace that

feeling and the way I look at it is I'm not like everybody else. I think I'm special. And I think I'm special. And I think I'm gonna do something special. And I think that I don't wanna compare myself with, and I think to myself, what would everybody else do? Everybody else would complain about this situation or feel sorry for themselves or let it affect their work life.

Instead, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna excel in a situation like this. I'm gonna find what I need to focus on and use that energy to power me through that and actually elevate it at a time like that, which, you know, part of the whole level up hashtag that I remember starting year, like fuck three years ago. That was what that stood for was, you know, understanding when you're in times like that and learning how to level the fuck up. And it's hard because, you know, like I said, everybody gets beat down. It's really easy to look around

at you and see everybody else using that as an excuse. And then when it comes to like goals as far as whether it be fitness related financially, I said small goals, small daily goals versus focusing on the big goal. If the big goal is it one day you're going to be to a point where you're financially free and you don't ever have to work, that's a big goal. It's not a goal. You're going to accomplish in one day unless you get lucky and win the lotto, right? So each day you have to make small strides towards that goal. So focusing on those small strides that is going to take you to that long-term goal is

a lot easier than constantly thinking about this huge project ahead of you. And the same goes when I was competing, you know, I don't think about, you know, hey, I'm at, I was at X amount of body fat percentage and I got 12 weeks. I've got a show and all I think about is I got to be at 2% or 3% body fat to get up there. No, I think about what I have to do today's workout, what I have to do tomorrow, and then what I have to do the next day. Like, I'm always focusing on what's right in front of me, instead of getting caught up in the daunting goal ahead of me.

Yeah. I mean, I could definitely echo like both of you guys, like as far as like refusing to lose, like just having that, that fortitude to just, I look at it more like, as I have when I made this conscious decision that I just, I look at it more like, as I have when I made this conscious decision that I just, in anything I do in pursue, I don't quit. And so if it never happens, it's because that prevented me from pursuing it any further

or whatever it was. Like for me, I've been on really shitty teams where I wasn't even gonna see the light of day. And I just knew it was politics. I was on this baseball team. I could remember this vividly. And me and my friends. Yeah, it was in high school, dude.

Fifth grade baseball. Me and my friends were like, yeah. We're the best on the team. We were the All Stars, everything. But the coach, he had his son on there and he, all his other boys that were playing, you know, some revolve and they went to the program with him and everything. Uh, they played. And so we had to sit the bench.

My other friends quit. I didn't quit. That's the, that's the first thing. The next thing, like, it's just everything. Like it just became repetition. So I look at it as, as becoming tough and mentally tough when life hands you shit is repetitious so if you cannot think of it that way as one ball just hit me in the head fuck what am I gonna do quit you quit or you gonna you gonna walk right through that you

know you're gonna hit me with a bigger ball I'm still I've been doing these reps over and over and over and having it in my mind that I'm overcoming all these things constantly. So every day I look at that and I take it with me in business. I look at it as, you know, maybe I had this really awesome idea and I was, you know, working at it to death to get it accomplished and, you know, somebody along the line cut it for me. You know, I never quit. You know, eventually I'm going to un, you know, I'm going to sew it back together and put that shit out there. Well, we've mentioned before in the early podcast, how this

right here, what was what's happening right now, what we're a part of is a culmination of five, six misses. And it did exactly for all of us in a sense. We were all doing different things, different directions, we all had huge visions and we're working at this and then the different direction here all that didn't work out so well, let me do this. And somehow it brought all of us together

because that we all have that similar mentality that we were gonna just fold up because oh, the first idea didn't work out the right way or oh, I really believe, how is it saying go with success with meets opportunity? What is the opportunity meets luck? When luck meets, no, what is it, Doug? What is it?

I think it's luck is when opportunity meets our work or preparation preparation preparation means that yeah, some bullshit like that. Yeah. You know, you do not get that right. You know, I think I think it's important. My form, my four members are going to blast me. They're going to remember. I think it's also important to say this like being strong doesn't sometimes that means being weak. Sometimes it means it's okay for you to ask for help. It's okay for you to cry. It's okay for you to break down.

It's okay to fail. One of the biggest lessons I ever learned. Thank you for speaking to all our 90s babies for us. Thank you. 90s babies what? You had one right over you right there. Yeah, that's so the entitlement kids. Saying that feel kids, you know, I'm saying that feel like, oh, I need a ribbon.

In case I fail, I need all this stuff. You still need it. No, no, no. Well, the reason why I'm saying that, you know, why I'm saying that because everybody, when, when the three of us start talking, we start, you know, we're very much like, we're go getters, right? Fearless. We like to talk about, you know, embracing that, you know, hard times and taking it on and becoming better. And I think it's important to admit

to the people listening what that looks like on a deeper level. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying all that. I'm sounding that way. Part of it is because I'm telling you, part of it is because I'm telling me, you know, it's not, it's not just me saying it because this is what I do and it's easy. I'm saying it because I'm telling myself, this is how you got to be right now. This is what you need to do right now. You need to decide you're not going to lose. That means that I'm admitting to myself that I'm weak. I'm admitting that I need that.

One thing I used to do back in the days, I'd look in the mirror and I'd give myself a mantra. And it's so ridiculous, it's so just to do it. Just stand in front of a mirror by yourself and look in the mirror and say, you will win or some shit like that. It's so stupid and cheesy, right? No, it makes a big difference, man. You look in the mirror and it feels kind of funny at first

and you keep saying it. And then you know what, you don't want to let yourself down. Yeah, but you're naked, it's awesome. That's what I do it. You're massive. Oh, I will win naked. It's awesome. That's that's what I do it. You're massive Oh, I win You look sexy day and all the rest you look sexy today You know what don't I'm rock hard. I'm my god. I feel like

It doesn't work otherwise you can't say I'm you're gonna win when you're flaccid. It just doesn't work. You can't. You don't look at a peppy. Don't live everywhere. You gotta pep everything up. Don't look at a window. It's unbelievable.

Winners have motors. The end. You know what, though, I, you know, and I appreciate you, like I said, talking to the 90s babies and stuff like that and making everybody feel okay to cry. But I mean, I got to call bullshit a little bit on you because I know you and you are going through heavy shit. You got a lot on your plate right now. And I don't see you cry.

I don't see you doing that. I see you pick your ass up. I see you show up. Do everything you do every single day day in day out. You bring 100% still. You don't break stride. I don't see you texting me or calling me and telling me like, oh, Phil, sorry for me. Oh, poor me. And go this, oh, it's the worst thing I like today.

Anybody can do that is the message, right? It's not that it's not that word like, I mean, yeah, we're special, but it's it's it's a discipline. I'm saying it with special. We are, we are. I said it earlier that I'm saying that's why I'm saying I'm saying like, Sal, special because he can fucking, he can do that. Well, and'm saying that's why I'm saying special. I'm saying like, Sal special because he can fucking, he can do that. Well, and I think that's the reason why Josh is asking this question is he's not looking for us to justify why people should fucking cry and give. What?

I think he's wanting to hear. I'm listening to three dudes that I probably respect and probably have some, have some experience with success in their life. What the fuck do you do? Well, yeah, you know, but here you, you, you gotta understand this one thing. When I say it's okay to cry, I don't mean it's okay to cry, I sit in the corner and cower and fear. It's okay to break a little bit, gather yourself up and then do it again.

That's what I mean. Right. That's what I mean by it's okay to cry. That's what I mean by it's okay to be weak. You can be weak for a second, then pick your ass back up and go at it again. Because the only thing that's going to kill you is yourself. Yeah. Ain't nothing going to kill you but you. And I don't mean. Because the only thing that's gonna kill you yourself, ain't nothing gonna kill you but you.

And I don't mean in the physical sense, a car can hit you and kill you or whatever, but unless you decided that you're dead, you're not. You can just still live as a way I look at it. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Just gonna go cry. Go cry.

We're special. Let's move on. We have big egos. Yeah. Big egos and hard egos. Echoing with Adamson. Twice in whatever, so we call ourselves special. We have big egos. Big egos and hard game. I was echoing with Adam Sain. Twice in what episode we call their so special.

Special, daily affirmation, but it's on our podcast. Oh, good. All right, this special question for you, special guys is from Mr. Philanins. JVC is food addiction, a real thing. And if so, how do you help someone with 100% it's let me tell you something food edition is very real. In fact, we're all addicted. If we all stopped eating right now, we would die from the side effect.

No, I know. Eight. All joking is all joking aside, food addiction is worse than any other drug addiction that we have out there. 100% come out there and say, say something like that. We have more of a food addiction problem than we have a cocaine, heroin, and crack issue, for sure. It's more of a, it's killing more people. What kills more people than the abuse of food

in modern societies? Nothing. Nothing. Actually, you could combine everything in a wouldn't even touch what abuse of food does. And that's what it is. How about that for an eye opener? That's true.

When you eat poorly, when you look at people who are overweight to the point where it affects their health, because they constantly are eating too much or the wrong foods or definitely too much of the wrong foods, you're looking at it's no different than somebody who's addicted to a drug. It's abuse. So when they talk about eating too much or whatever, think about this way, it's abuse of food and it's something that will kill you and it could kill you in a relatively short period of time. You can eat horribly and get to the age of 40 or 50 and then have horrible chronic disease. And you should be able to live another 30 years with good health, but now you're not. Well, it's dangerous about it is that you have to eat.

You know, you can't go cold turkey. You can't identify somebody, like you can't like really like describe like specifically what's going on in their body like this moment, right? But it's dangerous, it's long term dangerous. If you keep these patterns up that you're eating this toxic stuff that your body is

reacting to internally like you're not you don't see it You'll see it manifest is like you know a lot of times that's why we do look at obese You know because these are all signs that you know Maybe your overconsumption is gonna lead to these chronic conditions down the road That's why we look at that as unhealthy. It's not that we're fat shaming. It's not this new wave culture of thinking of like, you know, everybody should just accept everybody that's bigger or whatever.

Like we're looking at health parameters here. We're looking at things that are signs of chronic things to come that are dangerous. Well, here's something to say. Somebody who said that. It's great. And here's something you should think about too. Are all foods as addictive as each other? Or are there some foods that are more addictive than others?

Are there certain ingredients and foods that are more addictive? Hell yes. This is absolutely, like Adam said, it's absolutely true. And the food industry targets those foods. Now, I don't think the food industry is targeting them, trying to get you addicted. I don't think that's the goal. I don't think there's-

Oh, I disagree. No, no, no, no. I don't think they're in a board room and they're saying, how can we get people at- I think what they're doing is they're testing and they're saying what flavors get people to eat the most of this particular food? Wouldn't they don't, what they don't realize

is indirectly they're targeting foods that are the most susceptible to be addictive, things like sugar. Sugar's easily one of the most addictive substances in food. It's so addictive, in fact, that you could be very full and always find room to eat something that's sweet. It tends to perk up your appetite and make you want to eat more.

It's easier to overeat with sugar than it is with almost anything else. So that's just one thing. So one thing that I've had clients who've been on the extreme side of obese and who had definite food addictions. And one of the things, two things that I've done in the past that were successful. And by the way, these are very difficult situations. Like when you're working with someone, you got a real food addiction. This is very, very hard. It's like dealing with an alcohol. I was just going to say, I mean, I'm reading the question over and I'm like, you know, how would we deal with someone like that? It's no different than if I was dealing with somebody

who was addicted to cocaine. You know, you couldn't just cut them cold turkey and say, oh, you're somebody who eats like this. Now I want you to be on this meal, regimen. That end and the next thing is they have to who eats like this. Now I want you to be on this meal regimen like that end. And the next thing is they have to want to. Yeah. If you just if you have someone who nailed it, yeah, if you got somebody who's doing coke and they have no intentions of stopping and you think you're going to come in and get them to stop.

You're an idiot. You know, the same thing goes for a food addict. If somebody is an ears, you know, I love that we always just fly off the handle with this shit. We don't prepare anything like that. And part of that comes with us having to admit when we're wrong about something and be honest with stuff that we recognize self-awareness wise, not too long ago on a recent episode when Sal was talking about ketogenic.

I literally listened to the episode again. I heard myself calling him out and saying he's ridiculous. I would never give up carbohydrates because I consume four to 500 grams a day. And I look how great I look. And that, and I thought to myself, what a, what a addict I am that I would, that was my response was because I can and because I do all that. And I look at me that I would not even take away that like, how do I not know that my, I have not created this addiction with this food?

And have I ever really challenged myself to eat without it and how would my body feel and it was completely totally shattered my paradigm. And I think that's something that that person has to be open-minded enough to allow that to happen. If you don't see that you have an addiction and you have a problem, you're not going to convince them they do. Trust me, you're going to piss a problem. You're not going to convince them they do. Trust me, you're going to piss them off and you're not going to have a friend anymore if you keep telling them that. No, one thing that I would do with the people who have severe food addictions is I help

them search what is the feeling that they're looking for or that they get from food? What do they get from food? So sometimes it's anti-exhiety. I get stressed out. When I eat, it calms me down. Other times is it's a reward. They like to eat at the end of a hard day's work. They like to eat a piece of pie or whatever

because it feels like a reward. Other times is it helps them distract them from stresses in their life. Whatever the case may be is I help them replace the food with something else that gets those same feelings. So, if I'm eating at the end of the day as a reward, well, let's think of a different way to give you a reward. If I'm eating because it helps them with stress, then let's find a tool to help you with stress

before we deal with the food aspect of it. Because if we don't get that root, that those root issues, it's one of the most impossible addictions to break. It's very, very difficult. Even gastric bypass surgery, this is where they remove the vast majority of your stomach and you're forced to eat less. Like you can't eat anymore.

There's people that I know personally, that still find a way, that have gained back a shit ton of weight because over time they've stretched out that little tiny pouch of a stomach they have left because they did not deal with the root causes of their addiction to food. So number one, look at the root causes.

Why am I eating this? Why am I eating this way? What are the things in my, what is it making feel better? And now let me find something else to replace that. And number two is then I teach people to become addicted to the feelings of eating healthy. Only because addicts tend to have that kind of personality when they get addicted to things.

So I get them to, I get them to, it's starting to join the flavors of different vegetables and really get into that mental space. Also get a, you know, trying to understand how you feel when you eat healthy. Now focus on that feeling and how you want that feeling again. And I'm trying to work with their psyche to get them to break that additional experience. It's almost exactly the same how you would wing someone off of drugs. When you're winging them out of the drugs, you're trying to teach them the finer things of life and why why life is so great. You can be sober. Look how fun this is when we come here when you're sober too. Actually,

there's actually those same things the same concept is food. That's why it's the parallels are ridiculous. It's just as bad and it's just as dangerous and it's killing more people than any other anything else we got going on. Papa Steeze is asking about forward shoulders. Apparently he has a very big problem with that. Should you wear one of those braces to train his shoulders to stay back? Oh, one of those braces that you see in the magazines in the airplane. So he's talking about...

Have you ever seen anybody wear those? I, you know, I don't know if I have. I don't think they'd wear it on the outside of their shirt. Maybe people do. So here's what he's talking about. He's talking about, they look like they're like, they're like straps, you put their tie around your shoulders. It's a bro.

It's like a, yeah, it's like a backwards bra. Man's here and it pulls the shoulders back and it places you in proper posture. So here's what happens. Somebody with really bad forward shoulder like this gentleman who just asked puts one of these on and is like, whoa, I feel so much better. I can move my arm better.

My shoulder pain is gone. Everything feels better. And this is true. You will feel better because now you're being artificially placed in a position that's more beneficial to the shoulder. New tris final. Here's the problem. The problem is, is you've replaced all those muscles

that are supposed to do that for you. And you've put in the job to somebody else. And yeah, you've get it to strap and here's what's gonna happen. So you're wearing a man's ear forever. Your exactly, your forward shoulder is gonna get worse and worse and worse over time, because those muscles get very weak. It's no different than wearing a cast on my leg,

and then taking the cast off a week later, and then my leg muscles have atrophied. It's the same exact thing. One of the worst possible things you could do is artificially place yourself into a better position with some kind of a brace. And there's even an argument against certain orthotics in shoes.

You guys are familiar with orthotics. There's even some debate about that. That's a debate about that. Because it does place your foot in a particular position and it benefits the rest of your body. However, the foot continues to get weaker or weaker. And I've seen arguments on both sides because one side says, well, you're going to wear shoes anyway. So it doesn't matter. And the other side says, well, it's better if you get the foot strong or whatever. The best possible

scenario you could possibly be in is where your muscles do the jobs that they're supposed to do and you require zero external force. That's what you want. Then you won't be dependent on it. So, you know, you got to go through the rehabilitative steps where we address that issue and we strengthen the muscles that are going to pull you back. And that's where you need to focus. You can stretch that chest out and get that more mobile and try and get it to that point where you can retract and you can keep that shoulder in a good neutral position. Well, this is the type of person that would love to see, and I don't know if they

have it or not, if they're going through, but you know, see them go through maps performance, green maps. Perfect. You know, this is a perfect person that going through that program. I would love to see how much that changes your issue before you try to decide to, you know, crutch it. It's designed to make you move better in a period. Yeah. So I think that just getting someone to do that and maybe using mods, you know, that are related specifically. It just becomes a focus that's very concentrated on issues like this, like that are, you know, detracting you from, you know, optimal movement.

And, you know, like in a sense, a lot of people are not achieving the gains, they're desiring because these joints aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing. And so these are some things that we really address in performance program. Yeah, forward shoulder is very bad for the shoulder joint. The scapula is forward. It's typically elevated.

You get impingement issues. You get inflammation at the top of the bicep tendon, then you have the external internal rotator, muscles or stabilizers aren't working very well, so you get rotator cuff type tears. It's just a bad position to always be in with your shoulders. So you wanna be able to have that strong mid back and the strong scapular depressors.

There's another one, see. When people have forward shoulder, they also tend to shrug their shoulders a lot. They go hand in hand. As the upper trapezius attempts to stabilize a forward shoulder, it'll tend to contract or stay tight. So just doing rows would fix this. The problem is if this guy goes in the gym and then goes to do rows,

he's gonna row in a way that's gonna favor his imbalance. He's gonna row, you're gonna do a bunch of bicep curls. Yeah, you're gonna do biceps and lats. His shoulders are in the main forward. His lats will contract, he'll pull up and then he'll get a lot of elbow extension. What you would wanna do, what he would wanna do is use a cable, probably sit up, use a cable row,

so he's not bent over. And what would be ideal is if he could have a friend stand behind him and grab his shoulders and help him place himself in position when he lifts the weights and then have the friend let go while he tried to hold that weight in that position and then let the weight come forward and then repeat or even having someone just touch the middle of his back to remind him where to squeeze but don't shrug don't shrug your shoulders if you got forward shoulder you're trying to correct correct that by you know bringing the shoulders back

Also at the same time bring them you're bringing them back. Bring them down. Do what's called retraction and depression Attraction and depression if you want to you know get further and like focus on your posture like one good Method I'll use with that is just you know doing farmer walks and keeping those shoulders You know retracted fully and then depress it really helps to kind of remind you know your doing farmer walks and keeping those shoulders, you know, retracted fully and then depress. It really helps to kind of remind, you know, your shoulders that this is a way that we're stabilizing everything. Yeah, it makes a tremendous difference. So again, if you have an imbalance or a tightness

in one area, strengthen the opposing area, but do it in a way where you're, it's placing you in that better position. Don't just do the exercise and assume it's correcting the imbalance like we said, like a row. Go on mindpumpmedia.com, do me a favor, go on there, check out the testimonials, awesome stuff, and check out our store.

We've got some cool apparel now that you can buy from us. We've got map shirts, we have awesome angry Mike Mug, which apparently makes your coffee anabolic. They just did a study on this. And when you drink coffee out of this mug, you grow massive, massive. You might hear Adam's voice. Believe us if five start rating a review on iTunes

and you can find us on Instagram at Mind Pump Radio. You can find me at Mind Pump Sal. You can find Justin at Mind Pump Justin. You can find Adam at Mind Pump Adam. Woo. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. For more information about this show and to get valuable free resources from Sal, Adam, and Justin, visit us at www.mindpumpradio.com.

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