Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2749: How to Reset Your Hormones in 90 Days (Trainer-Approved Plan)

Episode Date: December 13, 2025

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin coach four Pump Heads via Zoom. Mind Pump Fit Tip: Reset and balance your hormones in 90 days. (1:58) Errand boy. (32:25) Reinforcing good behaviors rather than negative ones. (34:40) Liquid Botox. (46:43) Leg extensions suck! (47:35) #ListenerCoaching call #1 – I've hit a weight-loss plateau. Please help! (52:14) #ListenerCoaching call #2 – I just started MAPS Strong while going through a reverse diet, I'm only 3 weeks in and struggling.  Is it too much volume? (1:08:34) #ListenerCoaching call #3 – How to balance endurance training without losing muscle mass or strength. (1:14:08) #ListenerCoaching call #4 – I'm looking for a program that does not sacrifice aesthetics but has a focus on reclaiming mobility. I'm looking for better movement patterns and having something to build a bigger gas tank. (1:24:46) Related Links/Products Mentioned Get Coached by Mind Pump, live! Visit https://www.mplivecaller.com Visit Luminose by Entera for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Code MPM at checkout for 10% off their order or 10% off their first month of a subscribe-and-save. ** Visit Paleovalley for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Discount is now automatically applied at checkout 15% off your first order! ** MAPS 15 STRONG 50% half from Dec. 7th-13th. Code DECEMBER50 at checkout. Mind Pump Store Mind Pump #2452: The Hidden Hormone That is Disrupting Your Sleep With Dr. Stephen Cabral 7-Day Overtraining Rescue Guide | Free by Mind Pump Media Mind Pump #2312: Five Steps to Bounce Back From Overtraining Mind Pump #2652: How Undereating is Making You Fat & Unhealthy Mind Pump #2377: The 4 Most Valuable Supplements Everyone Should Take Mind Pump #2720: Metabolic Healing vs Fat Loss: Which Comes First? The New One Minute Manager Mind Pump #2649: Top 9 Exercises for Each Body Part Based on EMG Research & More (Listener Live Coaching) Visit Butcher Box for this month's exclusive Mind Pump offer!  ** New users receive their choice of NY Strip, Ribeye, or Filet Mignon in every box for a year. ** Axon Rifle Flips Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump, Mind Pump with your hosts. Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. In today's episode, live callers called in, and we got to coach them on air. But this was after our intro, today's intro, was 51 minutes long. In the intro, we talked about fat loss, a muscle gain, fitness, current events,

family life, it's always a good time. By the way, if you want to be on an episode like this one, send us your question to mp.Livecaller.com. Now, this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Paleo Valley, makers of the most delicious protein powder I've ever had in my entire life. It's a bone broth protein. Their chocolate tastes like chocolate donuts. Not making this up. It's incredible. Very easy to digest. Good for gut health. Go check them out. Get yourself a discount. Go to paleovalley.com forward slash mind pump. This episode is also brought to by Luminos by Intera, the highest amount of GHKCU peptide in the skincare product you'll find anywhere.

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I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to Mind PumpStore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. hormone imbalances suck. They feel terrible. Low libido, low energy, skin looks like crap.

You're sleeping terribly. Horrible recovery. No results. What's going on here? It's actually quite common. Hormone imbalances these days seem to be far more common than they used to be. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to give you a 90-day reset.

Okay. Many of you can rebalance your hormones in 90 days if you tackle the problem and apply these strategies. We're going to get into it. Let's go. Do you remember what and then this used to be like the, like the big challenge that you had with your clients, like not real? Like I think early on, I'd draw up these meal plans, have these workouts, and you'd have these clients that were coming back that were, you know, I'm doing it. I'm doing all the things you're doing and they're just not seeing the results.

And I think that like your hormone clinics and stuff that they have now just didn't exist back then. So it was like, well, go see your GP. and the GP would be like, you're fine, you're okay. And then you'd be like, man, what is something? And you just assume they are lying to you. Yeah. And then we start to have, maybe, I don't know, it's probably eight years or so in my career to the, you know, the hormone replacement therapy and the clinic start

coming up and you see more. You could still find a hormone specialist back then, but it was just really uncommon. Yeah, no, I didn't know, I didn't know as a young trainer to like send somebody to go do that. I was super blessed when I had my studio. You know, when I opened my studio, my idea was to have this kind of wellness facility. And at the time, I was like just pure trainer. I understood strength training. I understood cardio.

I knew macros and calories. And that was it. And I had a young woman that worked in my studio. She was a physical therapist by training. But she went private and had invested heavily into educating herself on hormones. and gut health. So I had the opportunity to work next to her

and I would overhear her talk. It was a small studio so we would, you know, I'd overhear conversations. And then I would work with her myself and at one point she helped me. And that's when I learned about hormone imbalance.

And like you said, Adam, you go to your typical doctor, your GP, your hormones have to be so out of whack for them to notice based off of their readings. Like, you know, there's like, you can have hormones,

standard. They're so bad that the doctor's like, okay, we got to give you thyroid. Right, right. Or you could just have hormone imbalances that kind of fall within range. And they're like, well, you look okay, even though you have all these symptoms of hormone imbalance. And so I got the opportunity to hear and witness what it look like to try to balance hormones in a, you know, quote unquote natural way.

Now, sometimes that doesn't work. But many times it does. Many times you could do things in your life or not do things in your life. or not do things in your life that will actually cause changes in your hormones to balance them out and your symptoms will start to get much better. And so, you know, I think that's what's important to talk about right now. Yeah, I had this very similar experience to what you described at him. But like it was two of my clients that I had trained for years and we were doing all the right things

to the point where I was even infiltrating and having a personal chef make and prepare all the meals and we had all the macros and everything was balanced. and I was like literally taking over their workouts and managing their movement. And it's like, nothing is moving the needle at this point. We got to a certain point. And it was just like, just barely any progress. Yeah. I would say, go ahead.

People have to understand too. Like, I love that, like, we have Doug is a great example for this. And he's a bit of anomaly, but so are some of these clients that you end up dealing with. And more often than not, where somebody, doesn't know where their healthy baseline is. And to your, the point you made is that this range is so wide that you imagine, imagine Doug,

you know, a bunch of stress hits him, stuff goes on, he starts eating bad, doing a bunch of things. And he, and his testosterone goes all the way down from where he's at, what,

13 or 12 or what, 1,200 or whatever the hell it is. Just total. And it tanks all the way down to, like 450. Yeah, 450, which is a third.

Like it's like literally more than cutting him in half. But that would put him within range. Yeah. But he would feel that. Like he would have all the symptoms. He would probably feel depressed. He would be unmotivated to left. He wouldn't be recovering the same.

Just all he would feel all these symptoms. But if he were to go into CSGP, his GP, say, hey, your age, you're doing great. Yeah. You're doing great. Nothing wrong with you. And so I think this is what happens to a lot of clients that are just talking to their general practitioner. And they're like, oh, yeah.

And they're now in their 40s or 50s, and they fall in the lower range, but still in the range. And the doctor says, hey, no, you're fine. It's like, well, yeah, but did you know where you were just 10 years ago? Could you have been double or triple what that was? And that's what you're used to feeling healthy. Yeah, that's why symptoms are also important to look at. And, you know, what's crazy too, Adam? You mentioned people 40s, 50s.

hormone imbalances or symptoms of imbalances are hitting younger people now at rates we haven't seen before. Yeah, I mean, we can use, like, data on testosterone. Those levels have been declining in men for decades. The use of birth control and women has caused lots of issues as well. So, you know, let's start with, like, the big rocks, the big reasons why sometimes or oftentimes people will have these kind of, by the way, imbalances feel like suddenly my body's not mine. Nothing's responding like it used to. I can't seem to recover. I've got all this crazy fatigue or anxiety.

basically it's like what is going on is typically it could disrupt sleep it'll it'll libido from recovering libido could go down your temperature changes hot cold temperature changes you really just don't feel like yourself yeah and and that's kind of I guess and it doesn't have to be all of those it could just be some of those too that's right that's right so here's the first one that I've noticed and if you look at the data this has a profound effect on your hormones and that is sleep sleep sleep is one of the biggest contributors to

good or bad hormone profile. So poor sleep over time. By the way, acutely, it'll affect your hormones. One bad night of sleep in studies has a profound effect on your hormones. But cumulative kind of crappy sleep over time definitely throws things out of whack. It spikes the stress hormone cortisol

as your body's trying to produce more energy to get you moving. You'll see estrogen or progester. progesterone start to be out of whack in women. In men, testosterone will drop in women as well. Growth hormone starts to change as your body's trying to deal with the stress of poor sleep. So in my experience, when I would work with clients like this, if we tackled sleep first,

we would typically see the needle move in the right direction. And what does this look like for most people? And we can do a whole episode on sleep and we have. But generally speaking, you want roughly eight hours of sleep every single. night. You want to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. And the things that tend to affect sleep negatively are electronic use right before bed, you know, bad temperature in your room. So you want to essentially take it caffeine is a huge one. Alcohol is another one. You want to essentially tackle sleep and be consistent with it. And so you want to say to

yourself, I'm going to bed at this time and this is the time I'm going to wake up and I'm going to do this consistently and give yourself 30 days for many people with poor sleep. It takes about 30 days to start to see improvements in this. So that's the first place that I would start. The second thing is stress. Now, our audience, I think we have a bit of a self-selection bias of people because it's a fitness podcast. In our experience with our audience, we probably are talking to people who overtrain or do apply too much exercise and stress on themselves. versus when we look at the general population.

Yeah. General population needs more activity. Yeah, they need to step up their game. But when we talk to people who listen to our podcast or who call in, who are like, ah, my hormones feel out of whack and we look at what they're doing, it's like, whoa, you're doing way too much. Typically. Way too much exercise.

Way too much stress. And so I would say, if that's you, where you're like, yeah, I work out consistently. I never miss a workout. This is like my life. This is why I love what I love doing it. I think a MAPS 15 protocol for many of these people would be. appropriate. I think it's also important to note that the context of that matters because even the people listening right now are like, oh, that's not me. And I had this, I just had this

call with my cousin who's, you know, perimenopausal on thyroid, struggle, has been struggling with weight forever, and eats hardly anything. And so the people that don't think that they're over-training don't realize that it's part of that. the whole piece that makes it overtraining. It's like they look at the training by itself. I'm like, well, my friend is doing CrossFit and they're doing all this stuff. I'm not even close to that. And I go for walks and I'm only doing this.

I can't be possibly overtraining. It's only a few days a week or whatever. But what they don't realize is that in the context of maybe not the best sleep, they're super low calorie, not hitting their protein intake, who knows what their job, family life looks like. You've got all these other stressors. And then in addition to that, when you go in the gym, you get after it or you love the circuit class type of training. And it's just like, yeah, that's not necessarily bad training.

It's that in the context of where your body is at hormonally and health-wise, it's wrong for you. It's wrong for you. And it's not helping. And it's only exacerbating the problem, which is really frustrating because you're putting this what feels like hard work in towards losing weight or getting in shape. and you're only making it more difficult for yourself. This is why most people call it. It doesn't neutralize your stress, which I think a lot of people, if they're making the right decisions with nutrition,

with, you know, training, and then sleep. I mean, sleep honestly would be the answer in rest. But it's like, you know, for them, it's the combination of all three. So, you know, I'm doing all the things except that training itself is a stressor to have to remember. I'm glad you said that because I think there is this misconception about that. So many people, oh, when I'm really stressed, I go trained really hard. And so they think of it as a stress relief because of what gets released right afterwards

and how you feel and that feeling of accomplishment. And so there's a psychological part that tells you that, oh, this is a, this is good for me when I'm really stressed out. This helps me recover or get better mentally and stuff like that. You can't, this will help people. You can't force your hormones to balance. You can only allow them to balance. Okay.

So you can't make it happen. I can't go to the gym and be like, this is going to make my hormones balanced by beating myself up. You have to allow them to balance. So there's two sides of the spectrum here. There's the, I sit all day. I'm never active. I'm in front of a computer all the time. I'm really never outside.

And then you have the, you know, go, go, go, poor sleep, work, caffeine. And I go to the gym and do Orange Theory or CrossFit or Circuit Training. So those are the two general avatars of people with hormone and bad. balance. The person that I said first, you got to go outside and walk. You got to do some strength training. You got to move. This person over here, let's scale it way back. Let's have you do Maps 15 protocol, two lifts a day, stop all the other stuff. We're not having you do extra cardio. It's okay to walk. Those two people, the approach is a bit different. One of them, we got to get you moving, dude. You got to go outside. You can't be in front of your computer all

the time. You got to get some sunlight. This person over here, scale it way back. You're doing way too much. Bring it down. Let's have you lift a little bit and let's have your body start to balance itself out. So those are the kind of two general avatars when it comes to activity and how it's affecting hormones. Then when it comes to diet, you know, Adam mentioned one that's actually quite common, which is underfeeding yourself. Yep. Oh, yeah. If you don't eat adequate, especially nutrient-wise. No, if you don't eat, okay, the big, the big ones are fat and protein. You don't eat enough fat and protein. You can forget, you can kiss your hormones goodbye. You need both just to thrive. In fact, you can eat 10,000 calories a day,

but if your protein is too low and your fat is too low, you'll overtime die because they're essential nutrients. So that's the two most important. But carbohydrates also are in there as well. A lot of people think, oh, carbs are not essential, which is true, meaning you don't have to eat carbs for your body to function. But what we see in the data is chronic under carbohydrate feeding causes hormone imbalances, especially thyroid. This is what we see in individuals. It also can cause over time insulin resistance. I know people are like, I thought carbs were bad for blood sugar.

There's actually this strange phenomenon that happens where you go no carb for too long. You actually cause some insulin resistance and some issues. So carbohydrates also need to be in there as well. You don't have a ton of them. But if you're listening to this and you're like, I'm allergic to carbs or whatever, I don't eat them. I never eat them. but you're having issues with your hormones.

Eating carbohydrates may just be what you need. So that's what you're looking at with the diet. Now, there's, again, two avatars that we typically see with this, which is the overfed undernourished and the underfed undernourished. So overfed, undernourish is like, I eat a lot of garbage. A lot of heavily processed foods. This is what my diet looks like, but I have nutrient deficiencies because I don't eat high quality food.

Then over here, it's like, I eat high. quality food. I just don't enough. I'm eating 1,200 calories a day. You know, I listen to you guys. I eat whole natural foods, but when I look at my food intake, it's low, man. Yeah. So you need to bump your calorie. We just got to give you more, more food to get those hormones to balance. So that's the nutrition piece. And then nutrient wise, I, if had you asked me 10 years ago what I thought about taking a multivitamin and taking certain nutrients in supplement form, I would have said, well, if you eat a whole food diet and you're healthy, you probably don't need it. I don't believe that anymore.

Now when I look at the data, the amount, first of all, the planning required to have a nutrient-sufficient diet is insane. So fitness professionals who plan everything, like, good luck, it's hard for you, let alone the average person. And then the amount of calories required to get those nutrients is higher than what most people would consume anyway. For a man, it's like almost 3,000 calories a day, which most guys, if they consume 3,000 calories a day of a healthy diet, that might in some cases be too much. Or they're eating more than that, but it's not those types of foods well planned out. Nutrient deficiencies will cause hormone imbalances, in particular things like vitamin D. So supplementing with those becomes quite important. In some cases, and I've seen this, by the way, not all, not super frequent, but I would have to have to

estimate in my experience 20 to 30% of the time. So it's a significant minority. Somebody would just supplement with vitamin D and zinc and magnesium. And then we would suddenly see hormones start to balance out. Do you think a lot of this has to do with just how depleted our soils are? Totally. Like, Doug, I pull this out. I know I've seen this before.

Our fruits and vegetables have like 50% of like a potato or a tomato like just like 100 or 200 years ago. about that, like the, just the nutrient value of that to today's, it's like, it's crazy difference. Just industrial farming, right? How it, like, took over and they just don't do the regenerative approach. No, they replenish what the soil needs to grow a vegetable, but they don't replenish the minerals that are in the soil. And so mineral depletion is actually quite high. Yeah. So you could eat, you know, 500 calories worth of fruits and vegetables today has the

nutrient equivalent of, let's say, 100 calories or 200 calories. from 80 years ago. So that actually makes a big difference. So you could be eating lots of fruits and vegetables, but you're not getting the same nutrients that your grandparents did. Yeah, I've seen some really good, like, example. Magnesium's a big one. Do you taste the difference to, I'll be honest,

if you ever grow anything in your backyard, it's so substantial. Yeah, what does that say there, Doug? So I'm looking at, for between 1950 and 1999, there's been a drop of like iron by 15% calcium by 16% riboflavin by 38%. Yeah. Just that's in the 1990s. Even protein is dropped.

I'm talking about before we were born. Oh, that's 1950. Oh, he said 50? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Doug, look up magnesium. That's a big one. The riboflavin is a big one. Yeah, 38%.

Yeah. I mean, so, you know, again. You're not even talking about 100 years, though. You're only talking like, I mean, we're talking 50 years. Yeah. Right. That's crazy. Right, right, right.

So multivitamin becomes, that's why now we have studies that show people that take multivitamins, tend to do better, have better health overall. Which is to think it was a, you know, a healthy bias, but. Magnesium, the range widely from 10% to over to 80, 90%. Down. Down. That's right. That's right. So, yeah, supplement with a multivitamin, get good sleep.

And then diet-wise, here's how you approach your diet. It's going to sound very simple, this is actually really it. We've heard us say this at least a thousand times on the podcast now. If you hit your body weight in protein or your target body weight in grams of protein and eat it first and stick to whole natural foods and eat until you're satisfied, that pretty much covers everything. That takes care of all of it. Now you're like, I want to lose weight. That actually gets you to lose body fat. I want to build muscle.

That actually gets you to build muscle. It actually, your calories, when you consume this way, when you eat this way, your calories, your calories. calories, this is really not the best word to use to describe it, but this is what happens. They balance out, meaning you'll eat more when you want, when your body needs to build, you'll eat less in order to burn body fat. So over time, you get a body composition change by following a plan like that. So it kind of falls into where it's supposed to be naturally, unless you're on the extremes where you're like, you know, chronic under eater, in which case I'm having you make yourself

eat more, or you just have this crazy appetite, which this solves that many times, but you may be in that 10% where you have this dysfunctional relationship with food where you super eat, in which case, you know, you got to cut back a little. But for most people, that's it. You know, I was reminded, I was told you I talked to my cousin just the other day about her trying to lose weight and the challenges. She's been struggling for a very long time. It's good for me to do this just because we don't coach clients anymore.

and it's been a long time since, and every time I do, it reminds me of like, you know, this is stuff that we should probably talk more about or bring up on the podcast. Because what I realized talking to her is, one,

how common she is, because I've had this conversation so many times, of how many clients just don't know how? That sounds really crazy. But it's like, for example, like, I told you guys about the breakfast thing

where she was just, like, lost. Yeah. How do we eat 35, grams of the room. Yeah, I don't, I don't, I'm kind of a picky eater. I don't like Greek yogurt or I don't like cottage cheese. And so, how do I get 35 to 50 grams of protein in the morning? I just, and then, like, literally telling her that, you know, you can have ground beef and rice. It doesn't bother her chicken and rice. And she's like, yeah, I could do that, I guess, yeah. Doesn't have to be a breakfast. Right, right. And then, and then last night, and because she was, she was telling me the last time she was around me,

she goes, you know, it was so refreshing to be around you. Like, you actually look like you eat normal, like normal and I saw you had a drink and I'm like yeah that's how it's like the difference is there's some things that you I've I've learned that you I have balance and I understand what my body needs and so but you can still have a lot of those things if you if you understand what you're what you're in taking and you get an idea of that and for example I sent her picture last night it's uh you know Tuesdays or taco Tuesday at my house and so we're we're having tacos and I Katrina always makes the tacos in bulk and then, you know, I carved that over and then in the morning can crack a couple eggs over it and make it into a little bit of cheese.

That's your breakfast. Yeah, and now it's like a breakfast thing. And so I'm sitting in her a picture of that. And her question to me was, so do you use corner flour tortillas for the tacos? And I said, oh, I said, well, good question. I said, first way out what seven to eight ounces of that ground beef looks like and then tell me how many shells that you can eat with that. And I said, what you'll find is that that's a lot.

a lot of meat. And most people, most females like her are, and she told me, she goes, you know, I normally eat about two or three tacos, but I load it up with all the lettuce and veggies and it has probably one to two ounces of ground beef in it. So you just, you got a bunch of carbohydrates and low-air tacos. Yeah, but exactly. And I said, one to two ounce. Maybe you got three ounces of meat in there. I said, so next time, meat is not a garnish. I said, weigh the meat out so you can see how much meat you need to be eating because I'm trying to train her to get at least six to eight ounces in every serving.

And I said, doesn't mean you can. And so what I said, what it looks like for me or for Katrina, because it's harder for Katrina to eat that many tacos to get to six to eight ounces is we'll take a big bowl of lettuce. We'll put the seven, eight ounces of meat on it,

sprinkle some cheese on it. And then we'll crack like one taco shell to have the taco shell in it. But it's like one taco show gives you enough of that. I'm having like a taco salad type of deal. but the main priority is that you get to that protein. And it's just like mind-blowing to the people, it's like, I'm having all the same stuff. I'm having cheese.

I'm having ground beef. I'm having the lettuce, taco shell. But I'm prioritizing the meat and people just don't think like that. The other part of that, too, Adam, is that most the time you're eating very healthy. Because she mentioned that you had a drink. You must have been hanging out. There is definite value in eating food for its enjoyment. and for connecting with people.

That's for sure. Like, that's a real value. But if that's the only time you did it, you would almost always eat healthy. Yes. And the problem is, is we eat for palatibility or enjoyment most the time.

When we're by ourselves or when it's just a regular lunch or whatever. So if you, if it's like 90% of the time when you're eating, you're eating healthy, that 10% when you're eating for enjoyment and connection, it's totally fine. In fact,

when you realize it's for connection, you still eat in a more healthy way. Because I've experienced this. I experienced this in the past where when I would go on vacation, it felt like I was, you know, oh, I'm taking the breaks off. And then the meal was not about connection. The meal was about gorging.

Yeah. It was about like, let me get this in my face as fast as possible. Versus like, I'm hanging out with Adam and Justin. We're having great conversation. This is about connecting and connecting over the food. It's actually still resulted in better behaviors. There's another layer to that because we're, we actually talked about that on the phone also because she's,

because she again was bringing up that I was, that I had a drink and I was eating like normal, she said, as everybody else. And so, yeah, that's because I was with you and family and I'm not going to worry. I'm not measuring my food or I don't care about that time. So, but then I go home and I go back to it. I said,

but there's another factor that I also have working for me that you don't have working for you that we need to get working for you, which is your metabolism from eating these lettuce tacos and, you know, 1,800 calories. You have more flexibility. I said when you start to lift weights and you hit that protein intake like I'm telling you do, and that's all you focus on. And I don't care if the scale stays the same.

I don't even care if the scale goes up two or three pounds and your main goal is to lose 30. What will happen is your metabolism will get faster. And then those occasional nights with your husband when you have a glass of wine or when you're with family for Thanksgiving and you have you slice of pie, it doesn't feel like it sticks right to you. Right now it probably feels like that because that 450 calorie slice of pie is almost half of the calories you eat every day. And so, but when we build that metabolism up to where you're eating 25, 2,600 calories to maintain your weight, and you decide to have that pie every once in a while, or you decide to have that cake, it's a very small percentage of which weight.

And if you actually paired it with a day that you went and lifted, there's a good chance that surplus goes to some good work, too. So we talk about this all. I love when I experience personally what we teach because it solidifies it and galvanizes it so much. I told you guys recently, I've made a real concentrated effort to eat 220 grams of protein or more a day. I weigh about 215, 220 pounds. And so I've done this now for five or six weeks. And what we talk about, I have now just experienced.

And it's so cool to experience it, you know, at this stage of my life and, you know, having talked about it for so long. I haven't really targeted that in a long time. I always eat high protein, but never like consistent 220 plus. Here's what happened. I started doing it consistently. And this is what it felt like at first. At first, I just got stronger and I gained some weight on the scale. And I did.

My weight went from 2 16-ish to about 220-ish. So I went up about 4 pounds. Why? I added extra calories, extra protein. I got stronger in the gym. I don't care if my weight goes up or down. I'm like, I just want to hit these extra protein and just see how I feel around it because, you know, we talk about it so much.

And then here's what happened. My weight went up to about 220. Now it went back down to about 219, 218, and I'm lean. Yeah. I built muscle, metabolism kicked up. Yeah. My body composition changed. Now I'm like shredded.

I was lean before. Now I'm getting shredded and I'm not and I'm eating more. Why? Because I hit those high protein targets. It's really awesome to, to experience. I know we teach it again, but once you do it yourself, you're like, oh my God, it doesn't work. It's the biggest thing I miss about competing. When your metabolism is roaring like that, those flexibility days,

are more frequent. Oh, yeah, absolutely. When you get to a point where you're still training. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, you're right. Yeah, you can't do this and not work out. You're right. That was my point, too, with her is just as like, you know, it's awesome.

You're sending the signal. Is that even if you have this little night, people don't realize that, if you just focus on hitting the protein and you're consistent with those two or three days of lifting. And so say it's like Friday night and she decides to indulge, but she still hit her goal. Like she said to herself, hey, I'm going to hit that protein intake for the day. So she hits it. And then for dinner, we're going to have that pie, maybe a glass of wine. And she overeats five, six hundred calories over what her maintenance is.

But then Saturday, she's in the gym lifting weights. Like there's or maybe Friday morning. Which, by the way, she's not, I want to be clear, not because she's burning the calories off for the exercise. No. It's the signal that you send that tells your body to build muscle. Your body uses those nutrients and puts it to muscle, which then fuels the metal. And it could work the other way. She could have, if she lives at a Friday morning.

morning before she went and did all that stuff, they would already sent that signal and her body would need to recover from that from that work. So those additional calories, a good portion of those, get allocated over to recovery and building muscle. And so what a great place to be to be able to have this flexibility and also know that these extra calories that I decided to eat to just today because I was enjoying my family because I got my workout in and I hit my protein intake. Like, someone that's going to get partitioned over building muscle. This is, it's so, and I want to be, like real clear on this, it's not easy to hit these targets.

So, no, to do it consistently. What I, and I'm now, again, it's galvanizing it in myself. I've coached it so many times,

but now that I'm trying to consistently do it, something that's really helped me a lot was including, uh, protein snacks, uh, because it'll, it'll give me an extra eight to 10 grams here or there.

I do this three times a day. There's 20, 30 grams of protein. The paleo valley meat sticks. Stapled. Yeah. Staple. a lot. It's a staple, you know? It's because I'm trying to hit these targets. Not that I need to snack,

but if you are someone who likes a snack, there you go. You have yourself, you know, eight to 10 grams of protein, grass-fed meat versus either doing nothing, not hitting your protein target or snacking on other stuff, which typically is carbohydrates, typically a bunch of carbs. It was the exact tip I gave her after I said having that big dinner, carried that into your breakfast. She's a teacher. And so she gets to school about 23 minutes before the kids. And she didn't have a lot of time to, to prep. I'm like, so all you got to do is throw that in the microwave or throw it in a skillet real quick and break an egg over it. Now you have your breakfast to eat before they get there. And then she has this window for like two or three hours before she gets her lunch break.

I said, carry a couple of beef jerky or a couple of beef sticks with you before that. And that'll hold you. Send her the paleo value. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they like. They've tried most of the stuff.

That's good. Yeah. Justin, you said he told someone this advice, but they don't work out. So they just that better. Well, I mean, I was, like, trying to get them to target protein and, you know, just simplify everything. And then they stopped, they weren't like training in combination with that. And it's like, if you're not going to train, you're just eating more calories. It's got to go somewhere.

It just got bigger. You got to get the signal to go with it. So, yeah, that sucks. It's still working. That sucks, too. Well, especially if they're using, like, things like, you know, big five-guide burgers to get their protein. Well, that's the other thing. Exactly.

You've got to watch out for where you're getting the source of it. It's so funny. I got to tell you guys, it's fun. Just this thing that is so funny. She's going to get so mad when I share this. But my wife does this thing. And she'll deny it. In fact, she's going to bring it up.

She's listening right now. She's going to bring it up. You do this, honey. We'll be on the couch and we'll be just chilling. And I'm like, and we're either watching something or reading something with the kids or just hanging out. And I know that if I stand up to do anything. she's going to ask me to get you're now Aaron Boyd.

In fact, she's waiting Dude, that happens She's waiting for me And I know this Because I'm, you know, I'll stand up Oh, can you get me my water? And I'll be like That's funny

And I know, I'm like, you've been dying of thirst This whole time You're just like, I'm just going to wait it out Sooner later he's got to get up I'll wait till he breaks Yeah, and then I'm gonna make him The worst is like the opposite direction you're going to My kids do that to me all the time

Do you kids? Yeah, they're like What am I your servant? Like, No, you go get it. I'll get it for Courtney, but I'm not going to get it for them. Yeah, I don't mind. I'll get it for it.

But I'll tell her that. I'm like, we just sit in there waiting for me to get? No, but I thought about it so do just stand up like, no. I feel like I do that to Katrina. Oh, no. I feel guilty right now. You say that.

I'm like, I kind of do that. You just sit there and wait. I don't, you know what it is. I just don't know what it is. Her movement is what triggers like, I've been wanting to get up and get something, right? Like, I think that happened last night. I'm not going to get up.

Yeah, we're laying in bed watching the Warriors or something like that. And I saw her get up. And I'm like, oh, like, could you grab my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my so I already thought about it and I hadn't got it up yet. I'm into the game and then she gets up to move out of it. So she, she, she pulled, you know, she pulled the other night on me, which will work every time. I think this works on every man, but we were upstairs.

And she had some night supplements. And she's like, oh, you know, I forgot my night supplements or whatever. And in my head, I'm like, well, she probably should just go get them, you know? But she's like, I'm something like, are you going to go get them? She's like, no, I don't care. I'm just so sleepy. I'm just going to go to sleep. I can't do that.

If I forget something, I'll get up and whatever. So she's laying there. I'm like, okay. And then she's like, will you, will you get him for me? I'm like, yeah, of course I'll get him for. You know, you're the man. You're the man. You're going to go down and, you know, take care of me.

And it's downstairs, it's dark. And I'm like, okay. It's like hearing a noise at night. I'll get it for you. You'll play off that one. Every time. I know, super crap. I got to tell you guys.

some stuff with Max that we've been implementing that I think is really cool. I wish I actually would have thought about this sooner because it was, I don't know, could you, do you guys know, what book do you hear me recommend to people? It's a simple read that I tell everybody to read. It's like an easy book.

One minute manager. Yes. Wow. Boom. I had no idea. You're terrible. I was looking at you like, how much you never listen.

I listen a lot. Over here. I'm like Doug who got that. They feel like everybody would have that. It's like, I was like going through my head. I don't know any books you've said. I know you said a lot, but I can't remember a single one right now.

Oh, you're so terrible, dog. You're so terrible. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So I bring that up only because I started to implement this with Katrina. And then there was like this aha moment. It's like that's the same exact psychology is as one minute manager. Just the positive.

So we've, I've made this. So the routine is at my house. If you haven't heard already, if you have already, I apologize for having to hear it again. But, you know, at night when it's time for Max to. get ready for bed and get in the shower with that. Like his, his, Katrina takes him up.

He gets in his shower. If he's not reading to one of his aunts and uncles or my mom or dad, which he kind of rotates through everybody through the family. So a lot of times he reads to them via iPad. That's what he'll do at night. And then she kind of tucks him in. I'm downstairs kind of cleaning, getting the house all straightened up before we go to bed.

And then I come upstairs, come in his room, you know, kiss him good night and lay with him for a while. And I told Katrina a while back, I said, you know, I want to, he's at an age now where he's very cognizant of obviously everything he's doing and he can articulate. And like he's definitely at a, you know, he's at a much, much more mature age. And so I think he's ready. And he understands, he understands how to regulate his motions, all those things now. He's moved out.

He's moving out of that little boy. Right, right. Yeah, it's cool. Like you can have like a real, like deeper conversations with him. He asked a lot of really smart questions and things like that. And so one of the things I want to do is. reinforce all these great behaviors. So we've made a goal that every night,

when we tuck him in, that I find something in the day that I'm proud of that he did. And it's been cool to watch that unfold. And like, you know, and sometimes I have to search, right? Because it's just like, maybe you just, I was like, what did he do?

Like last night was one of those nights. And it's like, oh, you know what I noticed as I was cleaning up? Like, my son has always just done his homework. He's never not done his homework. he's never bitched about doing his homework. He just does his homework. He just does it. He just does his homework. His mom comes home. Mom says to your homework. He sits down, does his homework.

And so that was the thing that I brought up last night. But you can see now after consistently doing it, because we're about a month or so into doing it, it just is. It's super powerful, dude. It is. It's unbelievably powerful. You can tell he likes it. You know, you can tell it makes him feel good. And you can tell that it's reinforcing all those behaviors. And I'm like, man, if I can stay on top of this on all these things and a dream, that that way. I'm like, I remember how powerful this was with my staff. Like, it was just, it blew my mind. It changed the leader I was at 26 when I read that book. It also does another

thing, too, Adam, which is, it's, yes, it's powerful as a leader, powerful as a parent, as a partner. You do this to your wife. You know, she does this back to you. It also changes the lens by which you start to view things because you start to notice more. Yes. Of the good things. Because it's really easy to not notice those things and notice like the things, the ways that someone might miss up. But when you state, when you consciously are like, what are the good things? What are the things that they're doing that are good? You start to notice them more and value them more. And it changes relationships. Oh, 100%. I mean, I think as a parent who's always searching to be more patient with their kids, it helps with that, right? Yeah. Like if you're thinking, you know, if you're thinking of,

I don't, I've never met a parent who's like, doesn't wish they were even more patient with their, their child. And so if you train yourself as an adult to look at through the lens of not what he did wrong today, but it's like what were all the things he did right? You know, what were the things that I'm happy he did that I noticed like, you know, when his mom told him to go in there and just go brush his teeth, he got right up, went in there and did that. That's right.

Those are little tiny behaviors that I want to reinforce and point out versus, oh, the one time that he, you know, didn't put his toys away right away and he delayed. It's minimizing a lot of the negative things you have to address. I mean, I have definitely noticed that, like, in rewarding a lot of those moments where you're like, wow, you did this, you did such a great job with this. And, yeah, I've been implementing that a lot with my kids. And the other thing, too, with that, it's funny because every time I have, like,

somebody stay with me at the house, they get to see our family dynamic and how things, like, really work. You know, because, like, you go to family functions, and it's like, hey, here's the portrayal of us. You know? And like they're on their best behavior with, you know. And so it's funny because like my sister-in-law is like staying with us this week. And it's like, you know, she's in the mix.

And, you know, there's moments where like I have to like reprimend Ethan because, you know, he's not getting it done at school or this or that's happening. And it's like we have to like, you know, it's like we're open and have to like follow through with all these things that we're implementing and seeing. And so, but with Ever, it's like, he's doing so well in school, but then we'll have, like, things that I'm kind of a little more flexible on because of the fact that he's, like, crushing it. He's crushing it here. He's crushing here.

But he's dropping the ball a little bit here with, like, you know, gaming or whatever the thing is that, like, is kind of drawing his attention. And it's like, you know, as an outside perspective, you don't get a lot of the data points and all this. And so there's, like, you know, she's great. She wants to, like, kind of help, like, show. and like correct and do something. And I'm like, he's all right. You know, he's crushing it. It's interesting you bring that up too because,

so my brother-in-law, his son just went to college, to Oregon. And, you know, they've parented him quite a bit different than I think how I'm with Max, especially when it comes to like technology and stuff like that. But it's been good for me to see because I'd say I'm on the other extreme of like none of that stuff, to see like how much freedom he gets with games and gaming and all that stuff like that. And their big thing is like getting your work done at school and he's going to be a doctor. So that's what he's on. And he's was,

he's a 4-0 student. And they've always, that was kind of how they've always managed that thing. It's just like, hey, you know, I'm not the biggest fan of you sitting and playing games for hours on in. But if your homework,

your responsibilities, these things are getting done, they allow them. And he's got social. skills. He's got friends. He played sports. Kids are different. He's got, yeah. Kids are different.

So he gives him a lot of that. He gives him a lot of that autonomy because he does these other things really well. And it's like, you know, I could see where that's where I'd be a lot more flexible on some stuff. And yeah, because it's, it's one of those things. Me growing up, it's like everything. It was like, everything was regimented. Like, even if I was crushing it, it was like if I slip in any other facet, you know, or like I'm enjoying myself. Yeah, they come in like, you know, full authoritarian.

And I'm like, so yeah, I try to balance that out of like where I really put my emphasis. But really, I'm trying to focus more on the positive things and reinforcing that. It changes everything. Jessica and I have been going through a challenging season. And there's a few reasons for it. But one of them is we have our niece that just moved in. 18 year old kid, love her. She's wonderful.

Not that she's causing any challenges. But it's a, it is a new dynamic. It's a new challenge. a new kid in the house that we have to care about. And not just a kid, a teenager. A teenager. Care for. She's now moved into our dynamic.

It's a big adjustment for her. It's a big adjustment for us. And so I think, among other things, that's caused just some challenges. So Jessica and I were sitting down the other night. We haven't done this in a little while, which reminds me of how important this is. We sat down and just had two or three hours of just conversation. And we went to, we started to notice just the positives that have happened during this challenging season. And it made me realize it's not as challenging as I thought, or should I say not as negative as I thought.

I just, I forgot to focus on all these amazing things. Yeah. So we were talking. It's like, oh my God, this was incredible. Look at what happened here. And this is so great. And it completely changed the filter by which we view this kind of challenge. We're looking at this challenging season.

It's so easy. So wired. I was just going to say the reason why this is, you have to consciously do it. It seems so simple, yet it's so profound, is because we are wired the opposite way. That's right. We are wired to look at scary, danger, bad,

and it's in our best interest for survival. You don't need to try to think about that. You don't. That comes natural. And so when you become aware of that, that even with your own child, whether you like it or not, your default pattern is keep him safe,

point out all the things he does wrong, bad. Like that's, that's, your brain is operating from that system. It takes a conscious effort to go like, remove that switch and go, what are, what, you can't? Sure, he did that thing that he was not supposed to do. But what did you do 30 minutes earlier that I was so proud of that he does? Like, you should see the, so difficult to do that. You should see the data on the odds that you're, that somebody is likely to leave a negative

review over a positive review. Yeah, it's like eight to one. It's crazy. Yeah, yeah. If you have a good experience at a restaurant, unless it blows your mind, like completely blows your mind, you're not going to leave a review. Even then it's like a low percentage.

Even if you, like a lot of times somebody blows your mind, you just tell your friend, you're like, oh man, that was so amazing, but you don't get on it and go. That's how you like figure out where you're going to go too. You go right to the negative ones and you're like, how negative?

That's right. How bad is this place? 100%. So it has to be a conscious effort to shift this filter and it makes a huge difference. And then we're talking about you, you were mentioning your nephew.

Kids are so different. You made me think of this text that my wife sent to her family the day. My two little ones are so different in this one respect. I'll read to you what she wrote. Just to illustrate it. She goes, Dahlia, this is my two-year-old, or my three-year-old. Dahlia is the most independent kid I've ever known.

Won't let me help even to the bitter end of her attempts and frustrations. She wants to brush her own teeth. She has to comb her own hair. She has to put her own socks. She gets her own self-dress. She tries to change her own diaper. Like, she wants like, I'm going to do this, right? Aurelius, on the other hand, literally makes me hold his hands and rubbed it together

to leather soap and wash them. It's so good. We'll be like, wash your hands. It's time for dinner. Can you come wash them for me? I mean, come on, kid. That has to be such a, he wants you to do it for it.

That's such a great combination of when you see nature and nurture, right? Because when you're the little one and you see the older one already doing it, that organically kind of does that. And then if you're also that type, it just amplifies it, right? It just amplifies that she's, I can do it.

My brother, my older brother, he does all these things. I can do these things. And so... It's so different. It's so funny. Literally, he's just like, can he come wash my hands for me? No, dude. Rub your own hands together, buddy. I tell you, I asked, I was laying with Max the other day, and I just was talking to him,

and I said, hey, I said, you ever, you ever think about what your son's going to be like one day? And he's like, huh? I'm like, you know, when you're older, like daddy's age and you have your own son, you ever think what he's going to be like? You see, like, you see, like, long pause, pondered. You know, like, you know, what do you think you'd be like? He'd be really nice. Right.

That's cute, dude. Yeah, that's so cute. I see, you're probably right, dude. You're probably right. I got to say something that just, the peptide that it has, that I am continuing, like, little by little over time, I'm placing it higher and higher and higher on the list of just effective peptides, GHKQQU. Yeah.

Oh, for skin. in? Oh, man. It's liquid Botox. It works so well that I can tell if I stop using it for, it takes about 45 days, 60 days of stop using it and I notice my face versus using it. Huge, huge, huge difference. I can train and I swear by it. It is so the one we get from Interra has got such a high degree of it that after I use it three or four times, I can tell. But that's taking the whole skin care by storm. They just don't put enough. Did I hear him say yesterday that they're coming out with more, like in another one like that? Yeah. That's going to be crazy.

Yeah, I know. It's going to be amazing. One thing I want to touch on before we sign off here. I just got to mention just an annoyance I have. We did this clip on social media where we ranked quad exercises. And we ranked leg extensions at the bottom. And there was an out. There was outrage.

Outrage. No, leg extensions. Take talk outrage. That's the best. That's the best quad extension. Listen, everybody. This is all the kids. Nobody has ever developed amazing quads from just leg extension.

No. It doesn't happen. If you do, you already had amazing quads beforehand. I mean, it just doesn't do that. Sal, tell me,

there's got to be a study that they've done out there where somebody only did leg extensions three times a week, and then the other person only squatted three times a week and then they compared what happened. I mean, it's got, and if you are the leg extension guy,

I dare you to do that with your buddies. You'd be the leg extension guy, let your other buddy. be the squat guy three days so we can see what happens. You're right. It's a feel thing. It's a feel thing. It's not about results.

This is about, I feel it. Make all these guys feel like idiots. You know, hey, it's equivalent to the girl doing the thousand kickbacks. Yeah. It feels in her butt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's good to do your stair master kickback. I remember your donkey kicks, dude.

Do donkey pee. I remember the first time. The first time this got communicated to me was a group of power lifters who were at the time. I was a kid. They were the most big, strong dudes ever seen my life. and they were having me do like heavy singles and doubles of overhead press. Like you want to get big shoulders, get stronger the overhead press. And I remember, I'm like, you know, but I feel like lateral is more on my shoulders.

And he goes, oh, yeah, no, you know, he said to me, he says, go like this with your arms, put your arms out and do shoulder circles for a minute. And so I'm like, okay, I'm like, does it burn? I'm like, a dude, it really burns. He goes, you will build zero muscle doing that. And I was like, okay. Oh, damn. I should listen to this guy. Yeah.

What is it? It's the EKG. It's the EKG? Oh, no, no, no. It's a, I always get the acronym wrong. What do they use on? It's not the axi. Yeah, those electors.

Muscles on magnet. What are they using? I can't remember. It's not EKG. No. It's not EKG. That's for your heart. I always get the acronym wrong for this.

Muscles on magnets. What do they, what do they use to look at muscle activation? I can't believe I forgot. I know. I do it every time. Every time I, just because it's ridiculous. They're looking for muscle activation.

But the reason why I'm bringing up is so, so, so, so. people understand because that that's the science that you are aware of that you think is so good that proves that legist inches are so is based off of that science that it lights up your quads like a Christmas tree because something lights it up right just because it lights it up it does not just it's no different than if you were to put that that same machine on a girl's butt and she did butt kickbacks okay but I don't think there's any debate that that versus his hip thrust or squatting or deadlifts doesn't even come close.

It's the same argument, dudes. So all you dudes that think that leg extensions are superior, you're an idiot. It's the same thing. EMG. EMG. Yeah, EMG. Thank you.

Yes, that's all those research that supports how great leg extensions are are EMG reports just because they light up. And just because some of the- Yes, your quads are working with your leg extensions. Yeah, there's no argument there. So do you when you do butt kickbacks.

Yeah. You go do 50 butt kickbacks right now. I bet all your butts are going to burn. Or do what I did with the shoulder here. Your shoulder circles. Your shoulders are going to light up. It's great for rehab, but you know, you can't argue to me. It's better than squad.

It's not at the top. I didn't even go through, but I heard. So was it, did you go through them? Did you look? Just people. I can't believe these guys put leg extension. There's a S tier. What?

Click bait. You're not going to find a single rage, rage bait. We got a lot of work to do guys. I read those. I read those. I read those comments. I'm like, oh, my God. No, TikTok needs to be saved.

TikTok needs to be saved. TikTok is where the dumbest fitness people live. I think so. I think Instagram has gotten way better. Yeah. Right? Well, we don't have time for it. You know, X has got great fitness people.

I've seen great posts on X. Yeah. Instagram is good. TikTok, idiots. I think that's where they all live. Sorry, everybody. We'll help you. I'm offended.

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By the way, on that link, new users will get your choice of New York strip, ribbi or filet mignon in your box, included for free for an entire year. All right, here comes a show. Our first caller is Pat from Florida.

What's up, Pat? How you doing, Pat? Good day, gentlemen. Pleasure to see you. Yeah, same, man. How can we help you? Well, I've been on a journey for the last 18 or 24 months and I feel like I kind of hit a bit of an obstacle, roadblock, plateau, whatever term you want to use. My health journey is focused around, you know, getting healthier. I'm 58, closing in on 60.

I want to lead a much more active lifestyle. So I've been trying to get my weight down. My weight has gotten down. I feel like I just hit a point where I can't get it to go down anymore. Now, I know I'm getting stronger. I hit the weights two days a week. I stare master two days a week. I'm back on the bike after my surgery in June.

So I rode 15.6 miles Sunday. I ran two miles this morning. I just feel like I'm hitting this point where I can't get any lower in the weight area. And there's, there's pain points. And, you know, I'm talking things like love handles and things like a little bit of a protruding gut. So, you know, these are, I want to get rid of the dad bod. I want to do this because I want to get healthier. I want to get my cholesterol in line without taking any more statins. And I like to get my BP down, which I'm like borderline between normal and high. So these are all the drivers behind

me trying to get the weight into what I think is more acceptable range. Okay. So we have a couple things we want to look at here. Great job, by the way. Number one, I want to say that. So, and this has only been about two years. I mean, it's been two years weight focused. I've been on and off training my entire life. I grew up playing multiple sports, you know, football, baseball, soccer. I've always been active. Great.

And, you know, as I got into a desk job and growing up into what I would call adulting, things slowed down, weight came on. And I maxed out in my, you know, I think it was in my late 30s or early 40s. I maxed out at 208 and my face was bloated and I was like, I can't, I can't be this heavy anymore. So that's when the journey started. Okay, good. So, and then let's talk about your strength. You said you're getting stronger pretty consistently.

Yeah. That's a great. I definitely am. I can tell that from, you know, the dumbbells I'm using for my, my shoulder press. I can tell that from the, I'm moving up and weight with my, with my bench, my incline bench, you know, flies, presses. the number of pushups I can do, you know, two years ago, I could barely squeak out 30 in a set. Now I can do 55 or 60 in a set. Wow.

So I know I'm getting... Oh, you're doing good. Yeah, you're doing really, really well. Let's talk about the health stuff. I see, I'm reading your question. At one point, you had a little fatty liver, blood lipids look like a little. How is that all looking now? How are your lipids now and your blood pressure?

All in line. Because I got that diagnosis of the fatty liver in July, and that was after my surgery in June. because I didn't slow down with my eating and drinking from the standpoint of just living life daily normal. So my liver scores got out of whack. I got put on Mediterranean-style diet, which had me cut back on red meat, had me cut back on eggs, which I was leaning into heavily for my protein intake, which pretty much was the only macro that I've been tracking based off of listening to you guys. I don't really track my calories. I don't really track my fat.

So those are the, you know, that's, the fatty liver kind of hit was a little bump in the road, so to speak. Okay, but now everything's good. Yeah. Okay. I mean, how are you doing with hitting the protein intake, considering you had to take out the red meat and eggs? Are you really consistent with that? Are you struggle to hit that consistently? What's that look like?

It's been, you know, I've literally been, I've been tracking that, trending that upward for the last three or four weeks. So, you know, I'm slowly but surely moving into, you know, a higher lean protein intake. And, you know, for example, you know, during the Mediterranean diet phase, I was only doing, you know, three to five eggs a week. Well, I mean, I ate three eggs as swarmed. So, you know, that kind of thing. I'm getting back into, but I'm also not eating red meat like every other day like I was. I'm now adding in more chicken. I'm adding in more fish, you know, but still trying to hit those protein targets.

So eggs I wouldn't worry about. Saturated fat can have an effect on someone's lipids. But eggs typically don't. The data shows this. You can play with it a little bit. There's always an individual variance. There's a trap that I don't, that I'll talk to you about that I don't want you to fall into. And the trap is that you're doing great.

It seemed like you got your fit. You've got good stamina, good strength, healthy. Everything's moving in the right direction. The trap is to start nitpicking yourself from an aesthetic. standpoint, where you look in the mirror and you go, okay, well, I'm fit, I'm strong, healthy, blood lipids look good, everything's moving in the right direction, but I got this love handle area here, or I got a little bit of body fat here, or I want a little bit more definition there. And it's a trap because you're not going to get an improvement in quality of life by focusing

so heavily on the aesthetic. Focusing on performance and health are going to give you a great deal of the aesthetic. But just look, if you start nitpicking yourself in the mirror, especially at 50, you're almost 60. So, you know, and we got to just, you know, call that out. Like, that's,

you're getting to the point now with age where age starts to play a role. And I bet if you compared yourself to your peers, you're probably in a completely different category. And so you don't want to create this, these standards for yourself from an aesthetic standpoint that start to reduce your quality of life because you're sacrificing certain things

or chasing something that's kind of a little, bit of a boogeyman. Like, I mean, we could cut calories. There's two knobs we can turn that I see, don't you? Yeah, I mean, I can see protein and I would stop the intermittent fasting. So I, and then I would also maybe scale back a little bit on the endurance training. So like still do some of your cardio, I mean, it's good to keep the cardiovascular endurance up, but like long bike rides or consistently long runs are not serving you building muscle. So it's, it's not bad for you. But if you're trying to make an aesthetic change since that's what you're asking. Like we're trying to trim off the body fat. That's actually not helping the cause. What will help the cause is consistently

hitting protein, like very consistent with the, continue to get stronger in the gym and building muscle. And the scale might not even move. That's right. The scale might even go up. I mean, because I don't care if you increase calories as long as you increase that protein consistently simultaneously while you lift weights. What might happen is we might put four or five pounds on the scale, but it'll be muscle. It'll speed the material. It'll speed the material. metabolism up and you'll look different. The waste will come in. You'll be, but doing a lot of endurance training while also doing the strain training while

also maybe not being very consistent with the protein tank is the reason why we're kind of at this plateau aesthetically. And the intermittent fasting is not making it any easier on you. It makes it very difficult. Really difficult to hit protein tank. You know, 180 grams of protein a day with intermittent fasting. Just like you're doing this on hard mode. But again, you got to.

No, you're right there. I mean, the only reason I do the intermittent fasting was a. maintenance. You know, when I, when I started this journey and started taking a couple pounds off and, you know, the intermittent fasting helps just to maintain weight for me. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I get that. It kind of just gives me that ability to stay level, so to speak. And I also suffer from a bunch of ituses, right? I got some arthritis. I got some tendonitis. I got planar fasciitis in both feet, right? And that's another driver here from the standpoint of when I'm, when I weigh less, My planter fast e-I just doesn't bother me.

Sure. Yeah. Right. You know, because it just makes sense that way. And the other thing, too, is, you know, you mentioned, you know, outperforming my contemporaries, you know. And that's another driver here. I have this regular group of guys that I play golf with and I kick their butt every time. And I want to continue hitting them by 30 and 40 yards like I do.

Yeah. Yeah, I tell you what, Pat, I mean, big picture here. If you focus on feeling better, so what are the things that help with? with the tendonitis and fasciitis, performance, enjoyment. Are you enjoying your workouts? Are you enjoying, you want to run and you like it? Keep doing it. If you're only doing it to get leaner and it doesn't really matter,

then you can try other options. If you keep focusing on those things, the rest tends to follow. What tends to happen when we focus on aesthetic too much, we think we're going to get this return in quality of life. We actually reduce our quality of life. and we get the look, which you can get, but it's not going to, it's not the same. Most people don't get an improvement in quality of life

from just focusing on the aesthetic, especially not in a place where you're at. We're doing really well. You know, I would say if you just hit your protein and stop the intermittent fasting, you'll probably move in the direction you want to move. Cardio-wise, you know, maybe the running is not helping with the plantar fasciitis,

at least maybe not now. And you can modify that. you love it. You know, if you love being active and being able to run, which, you know, if you stop running, you'll lose the ability to run. That's the other part of it. So what Adam's saying is correct from an aesthetic standpoint, you could do other forms of cardio that are not going to be as muscle, I don't know, damaging for lack of a better term. But if you stop running, you'll lose that ability. So if you like to run and you want to be able to run, I don't know if you should stop it. I only run once a week. Okay. Yeah, it's a once a week run because, I mean, bluntly, my my body can't take the pounding running more than that, right? You know, I've got a bad knee. I've got a partially torn MCL, so I can't really put too much stress on. I only run two, two and a half miles at a time. It's not like I'm out there doing six.

Okay. And the other reason I like to run is because, you know, I like to be able to, when we go to a national park, I like to be able to go on a six-mile hike, you know, that kind of thing. That's good. And we go on a national park trip every year. So I want to go on these hikes because that's part of my enjoyment, you know, from a lifestyle perspective. Yeah, well, I could give you a workout plan that I think would be good.

Instead of two days a week, would you be open to doing like a everyday 15 minute plan, like Maps 15? I think you're 15. So it's probably the same volume that you're used to. It's just not all done in two days. It's a little bit every day. And a lot of people get better results that way. Okay.

Are you going to a gym or are you lifting at your house? I lift it at gym. Okay. A big box gym, but it's got everything. You know, and I recently got my stairmaster up to 30 minutes of stairmaster, 112 flights of stairs. So, you know, like I get off that thing and I feel like I've accomplished something and the sweats just coming down my face.

And that's how I love wrapping up a session like that. But I go in there and I do anywhere from six to eight, you know, weight movements, three sets of 10, two sets of 12. whatever it is, whatever I'm doing, whether it's shoulder press or lap pull down or, you know. Let me send you a program, Pat. I'll send you a math 15. That way you have some good programming. And then do you know what your body fat percentage is sitting at now?

No, I don't. I've never measured it. Okay. I'll just tell you, this is generally true. But for a man who's 58, sitting in the mid, you know, the mid-teens, body fat between 14 to 18% and being fit is, is actually, actually healthier than being between, let's say, 10 to 12% and being fit. All things being equal, that slightly higher body fat percentage within that range is actually going to give you better health.

Especially if you got cardiovascular endurance, you got strength, you have all those things, which you do. We idolize this like really lean look, but it's actually not healthy or not ideal for longevity and health. Understood. You know, one of the key drivers behind this was the losing muscle mass. And so, you know, after listening to you guys and knowing what I used. to do when I was younger.

That's why I got back into the gym, got back into moving some weights around. And again, I go back to the push-up example where, you know, two years ago, I could barely do 30 in a set. And I could, I can pump out 55 or 60 right now if I had to. That's great, awesome. Double strength. I do, I do want to do. I think Sal's advice is 100% perfect.

And what he's saying, I do want to double down, though, on the, what will happen and why you feel this plateau is when you have the endurance training and, you know, you're also missing protein intake. That's a recipe for no way we're building muscle. So that's like why you'll feel a plateau is like what's happening is you're eating just enough to maintain right where you're at, which is a great place. And that's kind of Sal's point is like, dude, you're you're kicking ass. You're, you have endurance.

You're strong. You're kicking your peers ass. Like, but you're also asking questions about body fat percentage. And I'll tell you from an aesthetic place is we got to consistently hit protein and and focus on building muscle. that's what's going to get you in that place where you'll trim body fat and you'll sort of sculpt more of the...

It's right. There's two different like goals. And so what you're feeling right now in the plateau isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's you're in a great place. You're healthy, you're fit, you're strong, you're capable. But if you're trying to make change aesthetically, then the focus becomes,

okay, we really need to focus on hitting that protein and take on a very consistent basis, really get strong in the gym. And then the endurance training just becomes less important. because I'm trying to build a metabolism. It doesn't mean it's done, don't do it, or it's bad, just becomes less important when the focus is trying to sculpt the body. So that's why you're feeling what you're feeling.

Then if you want to accelerate your results with golf, you go to MAPS 15 performance, just to reinforce that rotational torque. And, you know, all these, like, workout plans are great, but they lack a lot of rotational movement and lateral focus. To reinforce that is going to keep you, you know, pretty strong in that accelerated movement. Good call.

Why don't we send a performance? Master 15 performance. That'll be more appropriate. Just so you keep that edge above your buddies. That'll be a better one for you. Awesome. I love to get another 10 yards on the driver. Yeah, yeah.

All right, man. You're doing great, Pat. Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it. It's great talking to you guys. Yeah, yeah, you too. Thank you. All right.

All right, have a good one. Is he as old as you, Doug? Yeah, he's a couple years younger. Same age, huh? Yeah. Oh, no, you're older. Yeah, look how young Doug was all the time. It's so crazy.

Even with his new gray beard. It looks, it kind of makes him look younger a little bit, which is kind of weird. Yeah, he looks like the young guy trying to look older. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can I see your ID, sir? Yeah, yeah. You know, it's such a hard one to advise, right? Well, you don't want to get caught in that trap.

I, you know. Well, I know. That's why it works that you say what you say, but it's like, to me it's also, it's very obvious. Here, here's what it is. It's very obvious. It's very obvious what's going on. Yeah, there's a couple lovers. Yeah, he's.

He likes to get the sweat. So he's hitting that Stairmaster probably every time he goes to gym hard. He's moving a lot. He even goes for a run for, you know, a long distance. He's biked for a long distance. And then it sounds like hitting, man, if you're not eating steak and eggs and you cut that out of your diet and you're doing more metatrain and your intermittent fasting, I know he's not. No. Hitting 180 grams of protein every day.

No. So if he just hits 180 grams of protein every day, focus on the strain training, maybe replace some of the higher intensity cardio. with more like walking or you know whatever like that's the that's the solution but you know your point is incredible which is I mean hey at that if that was my dad uh dad I like what you're doing yeah you know what I'm saying like you're you like it you yeah you're you're the fact that you can go for a run and you can ride your bike that long and you're that strong in the gym like who gives a shit that you don't look like mr. universe right now like you're way more capable and you're in better health but at the same time if you want the aesthetic answer I have that for you

It just looks different than in your approach. Our next caller is Dan from Pennsylvania. Dan, what's going on? How are you doing, Dan? Hey, how you guys doing? Good. Good. I'm going to help you.

Great. So I'm just going to read my question. So I'm 42. I just started Map Strong while going through a reverse diet. And I'm kind of struggling with it. And I'm wondering if it's too much volume for background. I've lifted my whole life, but always was overweight. About eight years ago, I dialed in my dialed in my diet.

diet and dropped about 60 pounds. Since then, I've never really committed to a proper reverse diet, and I'm starting to find it harder and harder to lose fat when I try and cut, and my weight has kind of slowly been creeping up over the years. So I thought Matt Strong would be a good program to run for the reverse diet. However, I'm finding myself worn down, sore, don't feel like I fully recover from each workout. And so I was wondering if I should build in more rest days, or if I should skip the work sessions or drastically dial back the intensity of the work sessions. The only other MAPS program I've run into this issue with is MAPS aesthetic. And I know you guys have said that a lot of times that's too much volume for most people.

So I'm wondering if this could be the same issue. Yeah, it is. Yeah, switch programs. Yeah, switch programs. Strong is decent volume. The work sessions are pretty, it's funny because just out of the games, it's a lot. it's a lot. They're more volume in the workout, the foundational workouts.

That's what I notice. Yeah, if you feel worn down, it's too much. Okay. We'd want to switch programs. And you can either avoid the work sessions, which is totally fine. Or you could go through a bout of Maps 15 and or Maps Anabolic. Which would probably be appropriate. Have you ran MAPS Anabolic yet?

I have ran MAPS Antibolic and I actually just ran MAPS 15 over the summer. Okay. And like that. So I wanted to, you know, for the reverse diet, I figured since I was adding more calories, I kind of wanted to try Map Strong to, I really haven't focused on strength in a while. That's logical. Yeah, that's logical. Yeah.

I think we can do. Do we tell them what's coming out or what? Oh. Yeah, we can. Yeah, we figured, yeah, we have Map Strong 15. So we had the 15 minute version, which is definitely cuts into it. Once it drop, drops like in it. Yeah, well, by the time this airs, it will be out.

So we can actually send it over. Oh, so you're actually going to be the first one to get Mass 15 Strong, my friend. Oh, that's great. We'll send that to you. It's just too good a fit for what you're talking about. That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

You'll like it. It's got a lot of the cool exercises from MAP Strong, but it's in a 15-minute protocol. So that'll work really well for you. Okay, yeah. That sounds great. Yeah, yeah. I had a curiosity, Dan, where did you take your calories with this reverse diet? So when I was cut in, I was around like 2,000 a day.

And I've been trying to eat around. like 25 to 2800 a day and I've noticed that the weight's kind of like really kind of been like creeping on like I gained about 10 pounds so I don't know if you know I'm just kind of it's a big jump yeah it was a big jump and also like this time of year you know there's a lot going on so I don't know if maybe it's just like I'm letting it go too much on the weekends and if that's contributing probably if you're not tracking on the weekends that's probably what's after sure yeah you got a A reverse diet tracking, in my opinion, is more important than it is for a cut for a lot of people because it gets out of hand.

I would stay consistent at 2,500 calories for a while and then move up from there, but be consistent with it. And when the weekends, I think the weekends are more important than the weekdays because the weekdays when you got work and you're busy, you tend to kind of fall in line naturally better. The weekends is definitely where stuff gets out. The other thing of the other advice I'd add, too, is are you tracking steps right now to kind of see what your daily activity is? Yeah.

I mean, I'm pretty consistent with like around like 7,000 to 10,000 steps a day. Oh, good. I live and work in the city, so it's really easy just to get a lot of steps at each day. Oh, good. So be careful of, if you're like that in the city Monday through Friday, and then does Saturday and Sunday have the same amount of steps, or do they get reduced? Because if you reduce the steps simultaneously, also a little loose on the diet,

that's where that gap gets filled real quick. No, I usually, weekends, I'm still pretty good with the steps. Okay, good, okay, good. Because that's really common where someone's more active throughout that week and then they have the day where they sleep in or they're not moving as much. And then they also have a little looser on the diet. And that's enough right there to cancel out all that great work. But if you track with your reverse diet and stay consistent with that, follow math sifting strong. I think you'll be good.

Okay. Right on. There you go, man. All right, dad. Let me know how you like it. All right. We'll do. All right, guys.

Thank you. All right. Yeah, I knew right away when you said, oh, between 25 to 28, I'm like, oh, you don't know. How much you mad at it? Yeah, well, I mean, come on. And then weekends a little loose is probably 32. Come on, we just went through Thanksgiving. I mean, it's only been a few nights.

I haven't had pie. I know. Are you having pie every night? I just about, bro. It's like a sin to see all that pie. It's going to get thrown away if I don't eat it. Oh, we have apple crisp in our fridge. Yeah, that's right.

Oh, God. My tongue has got like a sore on it from all this sugar. I don't think that's from that. It's from you again. No. You set yourself up. Poor dad. This does not help dad at all.

Our next caller is Christian from Minnesota. What's up, Christian? What's up, Christian? Hey, guys. How are you? Good, man. How are you? Good for a Tuesday, I guess.

Yeah. How can we help you, dude? Dude. Yeah. So, um, turn in. 50 here in February. Signed myself up for a crazy endurance right next June. So I just wanted to read my email to you guys and get some advice from you guys.

Okay. So I'll be turning 50 this February. I wanted to reach out for some training advice. I'm 6'3, about 217 pounds sitting around 20% body fat. I live in Minneapolis and lift weights five days a week during the summer and six days during the winter. I also mix in zone two cardio a couple days a week. Here's where it gets interesting.

My brother-in-law, he's a banjo player in a traveling band, somehow talking to signing up for an 108-mile gravel bike race in Seamote Springs, Colorado in June. Most of the training plans I've seen call for at least five days a week of riding for 60-plus minutes, ramping up over time. My goal is to take this seriously while still lifting heavy year-round because that's what I love most. Every year, I bench 300 pounds on my birthday,

and since I'm hitting 50 this year, that milestone feels extra meaningful. my main concern how to balance endurance training without losing muscle master's strength. I'd love your perspective on how to structure my training and nutrition to stay strong and lean while prepping for this event. Something's got to give.

Yeah, you can't. You can't. They're conflicting goals. It'd be different if you said, hey, where I'm going to go for a run, but you're not talking about it. You're talking about a real goal, dude, like a real endurance goal.

And it completely conflicts with, a 300 bench press. It just is the complete opposite. You got to ask yourself what is more important. Yeah, more important, more valuable, what's going to give you more quality of life, and then lean into it. If you try to do everything, you're going to get nothing. Or hurt. Most likely you'll get hurt. Like if you try and keep a 300 pound bench press and train for a 100-mileer, you're going to get hurt. Guaranteed. Doing one or the other. Like you're going to overtax the body trying to go for keeping two goals. just you'll get hurt. But it doesn't mean there's nothing wrong.

Like, you could totally just, I'm going to commit to this whole endurance thing because it sounds fun and challenging and I'm turning 50 and like how many 50-year-olds could say they could do that. But just commit to that. And then your training looks like keeping yourself from getting hurt.

It's more mobility. It's more mobility and maybe some isometric work in there. Maybe one day of really moderate training, but really, that's it. That's nothing. You're not making strength gains. You're going to lose a little bit of muscle. Hopefully we maintain.

most of what you have, hopefully, but that ain't the goal anyways. The goal is like you get good at this endurance race and not get hurt. Just to help you feel better, Christian, whatever you lose... Come right back. Yeah, you'll get it back so fast.

It'll come right back. It'll be... It won't be an issue at all. It'll be, you know, it'll bounce right back. The way you would do this is follow the endurance training. And I think what Adam said is, I mean, that's what I found

with all my clients who did that kind of training. The most we could do, or what we could do, what we did that was beneficial, was about one day a week of strength training, and it was moderate, where we did like three or four lifts, and that was it.

The rest of their training was focused on their sport. Where's your bench at right now, by the way? I do 275, 5 by 5. So I'm not worried about hitting 300 in February, right? I mean, I just want to check that off, be a 50-year-old with a bunch of high school and young kids watching me throw up 300 pounds. and then I don't need to do it again, right?

So I don't need to maintain. I'm actually not looking to maintain 300 pounds after that. I mean, 225, you know, just, you know, that's not that far off. Work out with that, yeah. So I'm confident I'll do 300 pounds. It's just I like lifting weights, right? And Sally kind of made me sad when you said,

only to do it one day a week because it's kind of a stress reliever. You know, my wife and I go to the gym every morning at 545. It's part of my routine. so I'd like to keep up with that. You could spread it out. You could do Maps 15. Yeah. You could do Maps 15 and then like so what it could look like since you like that

and it sounds like you and your wife have something that I think is far more important than any of the goals is getting up and going to the gym together like that. But you have to discipline yourself to do two things. One, only do the two exercises in there and two, keep it at moderate intensity. And that takes a lot of discipline to do that because, again, now the focus becomes the endurance training. And so really you're just going through the motions on that. Your weight, I'm making you do 50, 60% intensity at most. So you're way lower than what you're normally do,

but you're still doing it. You're sending a signal to your muscle that, hey, we still need this muscle because I'm going to get in this gym. I'm going to do two exercises every day. But then right after that, you're going into your endurance training. And that's kind of the focus. Are you your brother-in-law, is he very competitive? Or is this new for him, too?

He's competitive. I mean, he lived out in Steamboat for 10 years, so he's a really good skier. He's actually a pretty good natural athlete. And my wife, which is his sister, she's done numerous ironmans, and she actually has now been invited to be on a competitive gravel bike team. You know, 12 women from across the country have been selected to be on this team. So she does it as well.

I've done races before. I've done 60 miles before. So I've done a combination of like lifting and riding. I'm just kind of worried about like the elevation. Starts at 6,000 finishes at about 8,300. hundred. So that's kind of, is your goal to compete or is your goal to be able to just do it? No, we're just doing it together.

Him and I, we're going to, you know, ride next to each other, draft off some people and finish. You're going to be okay. You're going to be okay, dude. If you, if you, you just keep, just ride. You got to ride a lot. Yep. Do a little bit of strength training.

If it's just to be able to complete it, you'll be able to, you'll be fine. Reinforce your hips and ankles, you know, make sure. If you need, like, again, with the 15 protocol, you got like two exercise, so you could still do mobility right after that. Map 15 is the program for you, especially since that's your routine and kind of going to the gym every day like that. Just don't do more.

That's, I'm just going to say that's, don't do more. Okay, that's where you'll, where you'll fuck up is you'll do more or go harder. So don't play in the middle of this. It'll be like, let me see where my bitch is at. I feel like I can still throw

275 up for five. It's like, no, right now we're just, we're working out with 185 and we're doing the, we're doing the reps. And it's like, that's the goal right now. And it's like, I'm, focus on the training, on the endurance training. I'm touching the weights because I don't want to lose a lot of muscle.

You just want to maintain. If you do it like that, you can very easily finish this race, do well, not lose hardly any muscle. And then as soon as you're done, your body's going to put on muscle. You'll be strong as shit within a month after doing this. There's a totally different mentality with your training. If you're like, I just want to be able to complete it versus I want to compete. If I just want to, yeah, dude, if you don't tackle this like you're trying to win, I think you'll be okay.

As far as nutrition is like maintaining my protein and stuff. I try to get 220 grams in right now. I really don't watch my carbs. I just, you know, eat fruit, rice, et cetera. Do you guys, should I increase my protein and my calories? Like right now I try to hang around like 2,500. I weighed 246 at the beginning of the year. Oh, yeah.

Calories, yes. Protein, you're already fine on protein, but calories, yes. You're going to need some carbs for all that endurance. Fuel the performance. So based on the performance. how you feel, you'll bump it. I mean, you're gonna, he's in an, you're almost the exact same,

you're 217, you said, and you're 6.3, yeah, it's, I'm 6'3 and around that. You're gonna be, needed to be over 3,000 plus calories with all that riding, for sure. So, you know, it doesn't mean you need to jump to that right away, but as you start ramping up that, fuel those, fuel those workouts. Because that will be a recipe for losing,

losing muscle. You'll just get lean, lean, and you'll lose muscle because you're doing so much endurance training. and not enough calories. So definitely get those calories up. And it can be through carbohydrates if you like, whatever, because you're getting enough protein. So whatever you enjoy.

Cool. Yeah. Well, that's all the questions I have for you guys. I really appreciate you guys. And I love listening to guys. I think my favorite part is when you guys just get into a real-life conversation with each other. I've got four daughters.

So I love all the kids talking, everything like that. So keep doing what you're doing. You guys are great. And I'm going to assume you. Do you have Master 15? We got to send that to you if you don't have Master 15? I don't have that. All right.

We'll send that over to you. By the way, I'm going to assume your daughters are super athletes with you and you and your wife as their parents. Holy dear. Big dude, strong, wife's Iron Man. Are they all crazy athletes or what? Basketball, hockey, downhill skiing, and swimming and lacrosse. Yeah, they're kind of all over the board. So the only thing they can't do is play football.

So that's awful. But they can cool like a guy, so that's all that I'm not. That's awesome. That's awesome. Good stuff, man. Very cool. All right, guys.

Thanks much. Take it easy. Take care. That's so dope. Yeah, you know, if you're fit and you work out, you're fit, and you don't go to win, you could, you could do pretty well. I mean, I've done. He could absolutely do this.

I've done long endurance stuff, but without, like, being fast, just because I'm fit. Well, no, you have. it. Not 108 miles. Not 108. But I did, 1008, I'd have to train. But my point is, that's a monster. Yes, it is. That's a monster. It is. But if he's going, if he just does, if he practices long run. Here's, here's, you're right. If he, like, he already has, I'm sure he has already downloaded the, the formula for what he needs to do on the biking part of the, is it all biking? Did I get that right? Okay. So if he, if he follows that protocol and he does math 15 with the

attitude of I'm just coming and coming in here and touching the weights. He'll be fine. He'll be totally fine. But what will get in his way is one, getting after everything. Trying to think I'm going to win this 108 thing or I got to be my brother-in-law or whatever like that and really pushing that endurance training and simultaneously going like, like, I got to keep that 275 bench. That's the recipe for the injuries. I was worried about with the bike seat and like gooch. Man, it's a long time. Yeah, that hurts the gout. 108 miles. That's a lot, bro. Yeah. Have you ever rode a bike more than two miles? I don't know how to write it by

These are O'nics. Our next caller is Chance from Indiana. What's up, Chance? Hey, guys. Cool on, man. How can we help you? Thanks for having me on.

I'll just go ahead and read my question here. I am trying to decide between two programs. So I'm looking for which program that is not going to sacrifice aesthetics but has a focus on reclaiming mobility. I'm looking for better movement patterns and kind of having something to help build a bigger gas tank. I don't have a specific athletic pursuit that I'm looking to improve in, but I want to be able to maintain my strength and improve my cardiovascular endurance just for things like play and sports from time to time as I get older.

I have seen a regression in my ability to kind of run, and I don't really want to be a runner. So Doug recently talking about incorporating sprints was something that spoke to me. I can easily do three days, three foundational days a week, two mobility, supplemental days. So the main question comes down to, or questions, is, is performance the best fit? And would it be okay in performance to switch chest exercises to unilateral due to some joint pain in my shoulders, specifically phase one? Or should I skip phase one altogether? And then should I also follow this program exactly the way it's laid out and allow the endurance gas tank to kind of build up in each phase change? Or should I incorporate things like the sprints or hit in the mobility days since those are shorter workout days?

Or would something like MAPS strong be a better fit because it has the work sessions? And I could do mobility and stretching kind of on those non-foundational days. to supplement that. Just do performance. Yeah. It's all laid out. You don't have to add anything. Yeah.

It's going to hit all the things you said. And yeah, you can definitely change the chest exercise. For sure. Yeah. But it's got everything you asked for. It's all built into the program. I was almost thinking symmetry

just because of what you just, you know, brought up at the end there. But yeah, I think performance even covers that with mobility. That's right. Yeah, yeah. That's a perfect program for you.

Okay. That's kind of what I was thinking. So, you know, it's good to have the confirmation there. with phase one of performance and doing unilateral, is it a big deal if I switch to like a higher rep scheme of six to eight? Not going to matter too much. No, you're good, bro.

Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, it's perfectly fine. Totally fine. Do you have mass performance? I do, yeah. Awesome. I've been doing, so I didn't know also if you care if there's specific unilateral exercises that you think are better for the chest.

with shoulder pain. I've been doing floor presses and those seem to not cause any pain, although I know that's not unilateral. Well, let's talk about your shoulder pain here for a second. What are you experiencing? It's just some pain right here in the front. If I, it seems like even when I try to really set my shoulders and put them in, you know, put them in the back pocket. Yeah. There's a little bit of pain right there. I think it's due to like I kind of messed it up shooting my bow. And so there's that pain when I do. chest exercises sometimes. So it's in the front of the delt. Yes. It's your bicep tendon. Yep. It's called bicep tendon. Bicep tendonitis. That makes perfect sense from pulling a boat, too.

So deep stretching of that bicep on the right with massage should really help take care of it. Okay. Yeah. So, yep. I'm almost positive. I mean, there's no way to know for sure without like doing a full assessment, but what you're describing sounds like bicep tendon. Well, one of the ways you can figure that out is you do a really good, you know how to do a bicep stretch where you rotate your wrist over and come back behind you. If you don't, I think we have one on our YouTube channel. If not, you can Google it pretty fast. Like how to stretch your bicep really good and get a really good deep stretch and get a really good deep stretch. I mean, that's good, good deep movement. Yes. I mean, that would make sense because I'm not doing anything for my bicep. I'm doing like, dead hangs and more shoulder mobility and none of that's helping. So if it's biceb, I'm not doing anything for that. It wraps right over the shoulder right there. So that's why you probably feel that. That's super common too. Yeah, rifle flip, right? Do we have a video on the rifle flip? Okay. Yeah, yeah. I know the rifle flip. Yeah. And really, I mean, like a long static

stretch of the bicep, the front del, and then go in your chest presses and see how you feel. Got it. Okay. I will do that. All right, man. All right. Thank you guys. That's, you know, what's funny about that pain is unless you know how to address it, it doesn't go away. Well, yeah, because you can get shoulder. You see shoulder. It feels like it's your shoulder. It feels like it's your shoulder.

And then it's, I used to, I mean, this is one of the things as a trainer. Sometimes you'll hear a problem and you're excited because, you know, you can make an impact. And that kind of shoulder pain that he's describing, whenever I'd get a client with that, I was, I could almost always show them dramatic improvement right away. And then within a couple weeks, make it gone. You know, just from deep tissue massage. I mean, the giveaway, too, is the bow. Yep. I mean, that's all, you're pulling back with that bice with that.

He's probably just strained it or overused it. That's right. Yeah, maybe it's overused. Especially since he's connected, like something to do with my bow. Because everyone, yeah. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. We'll see you. What's at Mind Pump?

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