Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2760: The Best Workout Program For Busy People Who Want A Great Body

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

MAPS 15 Symmetry The value of running blocks of unilateral training. (1:07) Balancing the body from right to left. (4:42) Breaking down the components of MAPS 15 Symmetry. (8:40) Using unilateral training as a form of corrective exercise. (13:47) 15 minutes to get back on track after the holidays! (15:10) Related Links/Products Mentioned MAPS 15 Symmetry 50% off from Dec. 28-Jan. 3rd 2026. Code DECEMBER50 at checkout. Visit Vuori Clothing for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** No code to receive 20% off your first order. ** Mind Pump Store Mind Pump #1790: The Secret to an Attractive & Functional Body Mind Pump #2555: The Muscle-Building Secrets of Unilateral Training 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. Today's episode, another Maps 15 program, the last one in the series. Maps 15 symmetry.

You asked for it. You got it. This episode is brought to you by our sponsor, Viori, this is the best at leisure wear you'll find anywhere. And by the way, we have the biggest discount in the world that's offered for Viori. Go to VioriClothing.com forward slash mind pump. That I give you 20% off. By the way, MAPS 15 symmetry is 50% off right now for this episode.

Go to 15symmetry.com. Use the code December 50 for the 50% off. Here comes a show. All right, real quick, if you love us like we love you, why not show up by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at Mind Pumpstore.com. I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to Mind PumpStore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. All right. This is episode four of our four-part series. The Maps of 15 Revolution. This is the last one.

We've taken one of our most popular maps programs. Maps Symmetry. And we've made the 15-minute a day version. Here we go. The one you've all been waiting for. Lots of people are asking me for this one. Maps symmetry, when we created that. I remember Adam, this was your idea if I wasn't mistaken. What did you just? Yeah, shut up. This guy must be sick over here. What?

Get out of the faint couch. No, if I recall, this was something you had brought up. I don't even remember. Because we had a lot of callers. Yeah. Whenever we'd have callers call in, they would... We were teaching them unilateral stuff. We were because there was so many issues with balance between right to left and

development issues. And so we tell people go on these unilateral training kicks. And I remember you were like, you know, we should write up a program around this. We did, map symmetry. And it quickly became one of our most popular programs. One of the ones that people love to run.

They run it over and over again. People notice incredible changes in their body. And I think it's primarily because nobody does, really understands unilateral training, at least from a programming perspective. I think everybody knew the value of it, but there was never really like a dialed-in program that, like, you could follow

that just specifically stayed true to that. And my favorite part was all the feedback of people that did a Dexaskin ahead of time. And then came back and showed the contrast. It was amazing. Well, I mean, I appreciate the nod and everything. But honestly, it was like a very duh-a-ha moment. I mean, by this time, we had done close to, I mean,

hundred, if not hundreds of callers. and it was not a couple times or, you know, frequently. It was like every time we had a batch of four callers or more, at least one or two of them, we were like, oh, what you should do is, and we're just constantly, you don't have anything for this, but you should do that.

Yeah, yeah. And it was like this like, like, what are we doing? Of course we should do that. And of course we did that with all of our clients. Like, if you ever had a clients that had an imbalance like that, you would switch over to, you know, a lot of training. But to kind of Justin's point and also admitting myself,

like, I really never. ran like true full blocks. It was always like a... You throw an exercise. Yeah, like an exercise. Yeah, like an exercise. Yeah, and so, and I think maybe that's why it didn't dawn on me earlier to, like, write a program.

It's like I always handled as need be. Oh, this, my client feels like they have an imbalance left to write in their arms. And so I'll start doing some unilateral for that. But then the rest of the work is bilateral usual. It was like, never once I think, like, you know what, the value of actually creating a program that is all focused on unirondon. And it's like blocks of training like that for them. Yeah, it was...

And then, of course, it was an absolute banger for our clients. I mean, everybody, when you look at some of our top programs, this is hence why it became one of our Mass 15 programs, is because so many people saw incredible results. And it's such a, it's a really good place for a lot of people, too, also to start. Like, not everybody is ready to bilateral back squat, you know, or go right into a barbell bench press. And so it's a really safe good place, too, for a lot of people

that aren't quite ready for that. And I think that's a, you know, when I look back to how we originally wrote the programs, it's like if I was taking on somebody who I had to coach virtually and I wasn't there with them to watch their barbell back squat, I'd probably start them on a lot of unilateral type work

to lay that foundation first. So for people, unilateral is just when you're doing one arm or one leg at a time. So bilateral, both arms, unilateral one arm. Or bilateral both legs, unilateral one leg. This is on the right side or left side. That's right. And so symmetry,

the word symmetry in the bodybuilding world, what that is speaking to is a body that looks balanced from right to left. Some people will use symmetry to talk about lower body matching the upper body, but that's actually called balance. Symmetry is right to left. And so, you know, Justin brought up Dexas scans. This was fascinating to me because, now it makes perfect sense when you think about it, but this hadn't occurred to me.

What had occurred to me was most people are a bit stronger, or have more stability on one side versus the other. And this discrepancy, it will balance out somewhat with any kind of strength training. So in other words, if you strength train, you're more balanced than if you don't train train train. However, if you strength train for a long time and you get really strong, these imbalances don't completely go away. And in fact, you start to compensate. You can't even tell half the time.

So you may have an imbalance that's so big that your hips move to the side or the barbell twists or you hurt. And that's obviously, that's an obvious one. But sometimes the imbalance you can't tell, but you see a little bit of a development issue. Or you just don't notice until you go train unilateral, then go back to bilateral and suddenly you're much stronger. The Dexas scans were my favorite. So these were people who followed map symmetry.

They got a Dexas scan. Dexter scans are interesting because it'll tell you how much lean body mass you have on the right arm versus the left arm or right leg versus the left leg. And so we got a lot of these where people would show us before and after, and they would gain substantial muscle, and all the muscle would go exactly where it needed to go. So in other words, if they gained two and a half pounds of muscle,

it went to the arm and leg that needed the extra muscle. Naturally, building muscle where it needs to go, naturally developing more symmetry, and then the person, of course, noticed a dramatic improvement in performance. To put it differently, had they tried to gain two and a half for three pounds of muscle without training unilaterally, it might not have happened because the compensations are so good. Your body's so good.

I mean, it's almost certain it didn't. That's how they got there. Right. Normally they got to that place where there was an imbalance because there already was some sort of compensation on one side. And simply focusing on just building more muscle would end up adding more muscle to this side. More stress to the joint.

You probably end up hitting a limiter anyways. That's right. Yeah. That's what you tend to see is you tend to see someone's lifts. get stuck. Now, it really isn't realizing that there's a weak link there. And the body does try to prevent you from getting stronger, lifting more. By the way, if you push through this, you just hurt yourself. And utilateral training really reveals this. And I don't care how advanced you are. You go through a block of this. When we say a block, by the way, we don't mean a week. We mean months.

You know, you're training for four to eight weeks, just focusing on unilateral type strength training. And you see a really big difference between right to left. movement. In stability, mobility, and in strength. A couple tips, by the way, when you do this kind of training, is to start with the side that's weaker. Always. And let that dictate the weight and the reps.

In other words, don't do more on your right side, if you can do more on your right side, that you can do on the left. Let the weaker side dictate what the reps look like and the set looks like. And then what happens is the strength gains come, fast and furious. And the way the body develops is in a very aesthetic way.

So symmetry is very strongly connected to aesthetics, like how good you look. Even just a half pound difference in lean body mass, you might not be able to tell, but when you build the half pound of muscle for balance, suddenly you just look better. Your body just looks a lot better. And again, this is why bodybuilders prize this so much.

Symmetrical. And that's what this kind of training focuses on. So the original map symmetry was focused on that, but like other maps full programs, you know, each workout's going to take you 45 minutes to an hour, hour and 20 minutes. So that's what a full workout looks like in symmetry. I believe it was a four-day-a-week program.

Maps 15-symmetry is a six-day-a-week routine, 15 minutes a day. So you're doing two exercises today on some of the days. Some of the days are doing one lift, but more sets. And that's it. Total volume is going to give you great results, but it's only 15 minutes a day. And this format is so popular because people have found themselves more consistent. it's more appropriate with the amount of volume and intensity for most people's lives. And people just get great results.

You recover better. You perform better. Your energy is better. There's just so many benefits to the style alone. So let's talk about all the different phases and why those phases. And then also the tools necessary for each of those phases. Yeah. So this is a four phase.

So Maps 15 symmetry is four phases. There's four phases. Phase one is a focus on isometric with the suspension. trainer. Why? Why are we using more isometrics in the beginning? We want you to be able to connect. We want you to be able to connect to different ranges of motion, improve stability, because that's going to contribute significantly to your ability to perform isolator or unilateral exercises effectively. So first phase is lots of stability and isometrics to develop that, essentially. So you're doing like these suspension trainer movements withholds, creating that connection.

Well, and you've heard like bodybuilders talk about lagging body parts and a lot of times even Ben Bikolsky was bringing it up where a lot of times it's just that lack of neuromuscular communication. So that chain somehow in the kinetic chain, like it just, it got interrupted. And so now to reestablish that, the best way to do that really is to just focus on that contraction and isometrics are beautiful for that. Well, my favorite part, too, is the fact we're using this with a suspension trainer that allows you to regress and progress based off of where the person's level is at, too. Because even doing like a body weight hold for somebody who, you know, is advanced age or very weak.

You modify it easy. Yeah, you can easily modify with the suspension trainer to make it easier or more difficult by the angle of the suspension trainer, which makes it really cool. And so it puts you in a position to where you can really focus. on the isometric contraction and get that better connection. Right. So phase one, suspension trainer exercises and with an emphasis on isometrics. And you move to phase two, now we're incorporating unilateral exercises with dumbbells. So now you're moving into an entire block of training where the emphasis is on unilateral

exercises utilizing dumbbells. Strength training, it's traditional strength training, but you're working on one side at a time with this. And again, it's 15 minutes a day, six days a week is what the routine looks like. As you move into phase three, the unilateral exercises get more difficult. Okay, so a unilateral exercise may be an alternating dumbbell chest press. More difficult would be one arm, dumbbell chest press. You're not balancing, not counterbalancing with the other side.

You're just pressing with one side. So there's levels to unilateral exercises is what we're communicating here. And so it progresses you now to the more challenging version of the unilateral exercises in phase three. The last phase is fun. This is where it gets really fun. Yeah. And we did this in Map Symmetry.

In Map Symmetry, we set you up with unilateral training and then we end you with five by five barbell bilateral training. Why? We want to show you that you're stronger at your favorite exercises. We want to show you that you, that unilateral training is paid off. And now we're going back. You're translated. That's right.

So in phase four, it's five by five, one lift a day. And it's barbell. So a normal well-equipped home gym, by the way, we'll be able to do all this. Barbell, dumbbell, adjustable bench. You're set. Talking about these phases again on air reminds me of a question that we got a lot. And so I think we should address it right now is that, you know,

when I had people that were really trying to balance the body out and felt like after they got through third phase, they still had a lot more work to do. It's okay to repeat phases one through three before you get to four. this was a common theme that I found us talking about to people via email or in DMs that were going through this program or on the forum that would go through this program. And also if you're somebody who's like a really new lifter, like you're really new lifter, I feel like you're just starting to kind of get in the rhythm, that first one, and you're about to transition over to these five-by-five type of training. Don't feel like you're ready. Nothing stops you from running those first three phases over again. In fact, we ended up recommending a lot of people to do that.

it's really the idea that fourth phase is to see the work that you've put in by doing that and practicing those lifts unilateral and you pile on the weight is where you can get real strong you know what's interesting too about unilateral training is this unilateral training is on its own very correctional so correctional exercise can be very specific so you're like hey i bench press i have some shoulder pain here or when i squat i notice a little knee pain or ankle pain or have a little bit issues with my hip or my low back tends to bother me. Utilateral training often shows where the weakness or imbalance is and corrects it by itself, which is really cool, meaning you don't need to have a correctional exercise specialist with you. When you go suddenly to one arm or one leg,

things reveal themselves, you correct your technique and form on that, get stronger. Suddenly the pain goes away. It's a very interesting combination of muscle building and correctional exercise that other forms of traditional strength training don't necessarily do without injecting specific forms of correctional exercise. This is like if I were to have somebody fix their pain but not have me there to figure it out and do correct, I would say,

try correctional, try unilateral training and watch what happens. Yeah, and I love it if you stick with this. Like mobility is great to address certain issues in terms of like building strength around your joints, but honestly to do interrupt your normal. normal training blocks with, with, you know, lateral training, it helps to prevent a lot of even need for mobility

to strengthen it. Yeah, so it's, again, 15 minutes a day. All of our Maps 15 protocols are right around that time. This one's no different. So it's 15 minutes a day. The focus is on balancing the body right to left, developing muscle, building muscle. It's a great program to follow in a cut as well

so long as you're, you know, it's appropriate for you. for burning body fat. It is traditional strength training. The focus again, unilateral training, last phase, bilateral heavy five-by-five training. Also a great place for people to start right now. If you've fallen off during the holidays

and getting back in to get started right now, again, like I was talking about, I think this is a great place that I would put a lot of people even before MAPS, Anabolic many times. And so if you have fallen off the wagon over the holidays, this program's launching this at the end of the month, then you're considering getting started again. Like I would love to see somebody run this right before I had a ball it.

And by the way, the time it took you to listen to this episode, that is the time it takes to do one of these workouts. It's pretty cool. This program is 50% off because we're launching it right now. So you go 15symmetry.com. So 1-5 symmetry.com. Use the go December 50. You can get it right now. The whole program with the videos and everything, 50% off.

Go check it out. You could also find us on Instagram. Mind Pump Media. We'll see you there. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance,

check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pumpmedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes MAPS Anabolic, Maps Performance, and MAPS aesthetic, nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints

and over 200 videos, The RGB Superbundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now, plus other valuable free resources at Mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes, and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support. Next time, this is Mind Pump.