Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2796: What Matters More for Results: Diet or Exercise?
Episode Date: February 18, 2026In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin coach four Pump Heads via Zoom. Mind Pump Fit Tip: What's More Important, Diet or Exercise? (3:38) Is Adam made of glass? (20:46) The cognitiv...e power of methylene blue and what NOT to take it with. (30:04) Sal the mouse trapper. (34:09) The infamous Hammer Strength machine. (37:15) "Steroid" influencers. (39:54) Another example of using data to twist & mold outcomes to communicate crap. (45:30) The clear pill theory. (49:29) The benefits of liposomal glutathione. (1:00:59) #ListenerCoaching call #1 – Needing guidance on feeling more comfortable in my body and being able to trust the process. (1:03:01) #ListenerCoaching call #2 – What program or training routine is best for me, as someone's goal is to stay injury-free, with my past issues in mind? (1:20:29) #ListenerCoaching call #3 – Looking for advice on what style of training is best for me to continue to build muscle, not feeling so stiff, and advice on controlling binge eating. (1:32:07) #ListenerCoaching call #4 – Looking for advice on staying compliant with military height & weight standards with a history of crash dieting. (1:48:42) Related Links/Products Mentioned Get Coached by Mind Pump, live! Visit: https://www.mplivecaller.com Visit Troscriptions for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code MINDPUMP for 10% off your first order. ** Experience the difference of Liposomal Technology. Use code MINDPUMP for 20% OFF everything. Visit: https://www.rhonutrition.com/discount/MINDPUMP New Program Launch (Feb. 15-28th): MAPS Great 8 (Retail $127, Code: LAUNCH for 50% off!) ** Launch bonuses include: MAPS GREAT 8 Nutrition Guide + 5 Days of Free Coaching with Top Trainer Cole (Only available to those who sign up by the 22nd. Coaching starts on the 23rd.) Mind Pump Store Mind Pump #2187: Why Building Muscle Is More Important Than Losing Fat With Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Mind Pump #2763: Eat as Much as You Want, but Don't Get Fat (JUST follow these 2 rules) Hammer Strength H-Squat -DHS-3042 Trans athletes have no advantage over women, study claims Visit Butcher Box for this month's exclusive Mind Pump offer! ** New users will receive their choice between Organic Ground Beef, Chicken Breast, or Ground Turkey FREE in every box for a year. ** Mind Pump # 2560: How to Break Free from Destructive Body Image Issues Mind Pump # 2385: Five Reasons Why You Should Hire a Trainer Mind Pump Concierge Coaching Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Dr. Gabrielle Lyon (@drgabriellelyon) Instagram Ben Pakulski (@bpakfitness) Instagram
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It's well known that two of the most important ingredients for a healthy lifestyle is diet and exercise.
But what if you had to choose one?
Which one is more important?
Which one's better?
Is it diet or is it exercise?
We're going to get into it right now.
Let's go.
I feel like I flip-flopped on this.
Yes.
Well, you have to eat to survive.
So I'm just throw out.
That's extreme.
I win.
I'll tell you why I flip-flopped on this.
Of course, I would have said diet years ago.
Yeah.
In fact, we used to always say when you were talking to a potential new client that, you know, 70% of your results come from diet, right?
And so.
Abs are me in the kitchen.
That's right.
Abs are me in the kitchen.
All the things, right?
We are now entering this time of, and I'm seeing more and more of this.
So every time we talk about this, I actually run into more family, more friends.
more people I know that are on GLP ones.
Oh, great direction.
And diet is actually not becoming a problem.
Like, they all eat less without trying.
Like, it's like they do, they have no problem not having the extra serving, having
the dessert, drinking the alcohol.
I mean, it has really, it has unlocked this hack for the average American that is,
is, is, is, is almost unbelievable.
But because of that, and I can, what's, what's, what's, what's,
wild too. This is just so hard because these are
like friends and close people to me.
And I remember when I did the experiment
I would have never let you guys
let me take pictures for the company
had I thought I looked like that.
Oh, you tell you what you were out of? Yes, bro.
And we still use those...
Epic Adam.
We still use those photos.
I just thought I was lean.
You know what I'm saying? Like I was like, and I knew I lost some muscle
but there is a look that you get.
Yeah, there is a look that you get.
it. And when you're when you're kind of in it, because I think you're losing so much body fat,
you're like, you know, and I saw my app. I'm like, I'm fine. I'm fine. And granted, too, I had
some muscle to lose because I had built so much. So probably not, but I have some friends who don't
really train. They've used it. And they've lost a lot of body fat, but they've also lost, and they
look sickly. And they don't. And I remember this, because I talked about this going with you guys.
they don't have the motivation to train.
They're so low calorie
and they're losing the weight
and the discipline to exercise
just is not there.
So for the first time in my life,
I'm going to flip-flop this
and say exercise is going to become more important.
I agree with you for a lot of different reasons.
One of the main reasons why I agree with you
because I think the GOP1 scenario
has illuminated this.
It's made it clear.
But here's why I strongly
agree with you. When it comes to being overweight, diet plays a bigger role. That's true. That's true.
The data is clear on this. Like, if you just exercise to lose weight, don't change your diet at all,
you're not going to lose that much. Okay. That's what the data is very clear. Lots of studies on this.
I've trained people for years. It's true. You go work out and don't change your diet. You won't lose
that much weight. But here's also what the data shows. Can you be overweight and healthy? Yes.
can you be the right kind of weight or underweight and unhealthy?
Yes.
A significant percentage of people who get heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
So it's not the majority, but it's enough to equate to millions and millions of people.
For heart disease, for example, it's like 20-something percent of the people with heart disease are underweight or of normal weight.
People with diabetes, it's something in that number.
cancer, same thing. So although obesity and being overweight plays a role in those things,
we also see millions and millions of people get those things who are not overweight. What's going on?
They're under-muscled and they don't exercise. And the data will show this. You can be overweight and
fit and have great health and longevity. If you're weak, if you have immobility, if you have
low muscle and strength, your health is terrible. Your mortality goes through the roof.
A stupid grip strength test can predict all-cause mortality better than almost any other single measurement you could take, which is wild.
And that's just doesn't mean your grip is special.
It just means it's a proxy for overall body strength.
So if you had to pick one, and again, that's the question because both are important.
But if you had to pick one, which one's going to have the greatest impact on overall health?
Vitality, vitality, mobility, lifestyle.
it's actually exercise.
And then here's the second reason why.
Now, this is from a trainer's perspective.
When you're a trainer and you work with people for 20 years,
you go away from everything they need to do
to what's the most effective thing I can actually get people to do?
Because that's the big problem.
The big problem is getting people to do something.
Because if everybody did everything I said, it would be great.
It would be wonderful.
Everybody would be healthy.
That would be a piece of cake.
But the hard thing is getting people to do what is right.
And so this is the struggle of being a coach.
It's way easier to get people to exercise.
than it is for them to fix their diet.
That's why I pick exercise as well.
Can I get the average person to walk daily,
strength train a couple days a week?
The odds of me convincing the average person to do that are far higher.
The adherence is way higher.
Way higher than me convincing the average person to overhaul their diet,
which is what they need to do.
That is very difficult.
You can correct the diet through this better patterns of movement.
And I think it's one of those behavioral things that really kind of compile.
the more you do it, the more better behaviors like transpond right after that.
Well, and we know too that, I mean, muscle is an expensive tissue, right?
It needs a lot of calories.
It needs a lot of nutrients.
And so even if you don't have the cleanest or best diet and you eat in a surplus,
which is not ideal all the time, if you're lifting weights,
some of that's getting partitioned over to building muscle, which is pro, which is good for you.
And so, yeah, I can't stress the, the GLP one argument.
too because and you know a lot of the stuff that you're you're touting right now is you know what we're
seeing at him we're seeing people go on gLP ones and come back with osteopenia yeah osteopenia
before osteoporosis what is how well here's what's happening they just started eating less
they lost muscle lost body fat but if you don't do anything to keep the muscle you'll lose
nourished you lose muscle you lose bone yeah i've seen fitness influencers come on and be like
osteopenia, how was this even possible?
Well, if you've been listening to the show long enough,
I mean, we've been screaming at the top of the mountain for a long time
that when we look back at all the clients that we train,
almost every single client,
even the overweight ones that ate bad
were under-eating on the protein part.
And so that was always like the first fix for me,
especially my female clients, especially.
Like I don't, 100% across the board,
always had to boost a feeling.
Every once in a while I might have had like,
an obese guy that just ate 6,000 calories and he cleared protein and that might have been an
issue, right? But for the most part, every client I had to teach to go after protein. So if you
take the typical American that isn't eating optimal protein for a weight training routine,
and then you also cut their calories from that position and they don't really change anything
else other than just pulling back on the calories, they're going to lose muscle. The little bit
they already had. And so they end up in an unhealthier place. And this is a
why I love Dr. Gabriel Lyon's argument that, you know, we don't have an obesity problem. We have an
under muscle program. I think her message is so important. It is. And now, of course, to be clear,
again, I'm going to say this again, because someone's going to clip this. Oh, yeah. No, we'll get roasted
for that comment. You need to eat healthy and you need to exercise. I think Jackal Lane used to say
that diet and exercise was a king and queen. You need to have both to have a kingdom. He's right.
You also need to have good sleep and all that of stuff. That's all important. But again,
Again, if you have to pick one, if you're listening and you're like, man, I struggle with all the stuff.
Where do you start? Start exercise.
That's it.
Start exercise.
By the way, Justin talked about this.
The data shows that when you start one healthy behavior, it encourages others.
So if you start eating healthy, you're more likely to exercise.
And if you start exercising, you're more likely to eat healthy.
But which one is more likely to lead to the other?
Exercise.
That's also what the data shows.
The data shows that exercise leads to healthier eating.
more often than diet leads to exercise.
And there's a couple reasons for this.
We saw us our clients.
There's a couple reasons why this is true.
Number one, exercise is easier to do and start.
As hard as it is, and people are like, that's hard.
It's easier than diet.
Trust me, diets every day, all day.
Your emotions are tied to it.
It's not just an hour, a couple days a week or a few days a week.
It's like, I eat all day long every single day.
This is how I bury my feelings.
This is how I deal with stress or whatever.
diet's way harder than exercise.
So you're more likely to stay consistent with a good exercise program,
which will then lead to a better diet more likely than you would if you start with diet.
The second thing is if you're exercising and strength training,
you start to focus on things like getting stronger,
which means you got to look at your diet a little bit.
You got to do that thing.
Now, could you go on a diet and just lose weight on the scale?
Never exercise?
You could.
And people, this is one of the reasons why they don't exercise.
Like, why don't you exercise?
I'm going to GLP1.
I lost 40 pounds.
Yeah.
I think I'm good.
not realizing that they're losing, you know, 40% is what the data shows of their weight is coming from muscle.
And then you want to look at things like insulin sensitivity, which is, you know, very important.
This is tied to so many of our metabolic conditions and poor health.
If you had to do one thing to improve this, it's not diet.
It's actually build muscle.
You can actually improve your insulin sensitivity, your blood sugar, faster and easier if you just built some muscle.
than through radical diet changes.
So for those reasons, exercise first.
And by the, good trainers know this.
A good trainer knows this.
You don't force diet on your client until they're ready.
No.
But they're here working out and they love it.
And let's go.
Let's get it going.
Do you think that there's also another layer there that,
do you believe that as humans were inherently rebellious?
Always.
So thinking about that, like the difference between those two is this is telling
someone to go exercise and go do a thing
is different than saying you can't have something.
So it's like that's another reason why I think it's easier
to get somebody to adhere to, hey, add this to your
already routine. Just go lift a couple
times a week and you'll be fine. Stop doing this thing.
Exactly. Versus, hey,
I know you always eat and do these things, but you can't have that
anymore. You can't do that anymore. I think there's
something with that that psychologically is far more
difficult for us to do. Especially if it's
been ingrained since childhood or most of our lives.
That's a great point.
That's how you attack diet, by the way, too.
As a trainer, you figure that out.
Instead of telling people stop eating this and that,
you go, oh, eat your protein.
Right.
You know, eat fiber and then everything else
kind of falls into.
Right.
But most people who decide they're going to go on a diet
and start exercising, especially if they're by themselves
without a good coach, they are going to go,
oh, I got to stop doing that thing.
I got to stop doing this.
I got to stop doing that.
I literally had a conversation this morning
with a family member who's a dietitian.
And she's a good,
dietitian.
Like she,
she knows her stuff.
And we were talking about our family,
and we were talking about,
uh,
people that we love with,
you know,
blood sugar issues.
Diabetes is something that kind of runs in my family and all the
issues associated with it.
And she's like,
you got to talk to them about diet.
We need to help them do this.
And I'm like, listen,
let's get them to lift weights a couple days a week.
So we have this whole discussion.
And she's like,
but diet does,
I'm like,
you're making dietary changes that last are so hard.
And then making impactful ones that have,
measurable changes on blood sugar consistently are actually relatively difficult.
I said, but if they just lifted weights a couple days away, if they gained like three pounds
of muscle, we would see those numbers change and it doesn't take that much.
And I was giving examples of like my parents.
Like my parents, I've been trying to get them to work on their diets forever as an annoying
trainer.
And recently what I did is I just, I did this about eight months ago, is I just bought them
personal training at the, at the place.
I got him a membership at the place I go to,
and then I bought them some training because they already go there.
And I know my parents would do the training because they're old school.
So it's like,
I don't want my son to waste his money, right?
So they go ahead and do it.
And we're getting great results.
And I'm also starting to see them make slight changes to their diet through that process.
Way more effective.
It just took me so long to start to apply it to my own family.
But again, if this is your question,
because what happens to a lot of people,
trying to improve their health and fitness or lose weight is they look at all the things they
need to do and then it becomes, I got to do all this. And yeah, that would be wonderful,
but the odds that you'll be able to maintain that consistently are zero, almost zero.
Start with one thing. So what's the most effective thing? Go build a little bit of muscle and the
rest starts to take care of itself. It makes the biggest impact on your health, your longevity.
is also this wonderful process of I did something hard for an hour that I got this result from.
Does that translate to diet that can also be hard?
It's harder, but also translate?
Absolutely.
Did I tell you guys my story about my buddy, my car buddy that was asking me advice finally about
he is like his own little at home like, you know, like he's doing like a lot of body weight stuff.
And he'd been doing it for like six months.
We were hitting golf balls.
and he was just like, hey man,
and he was like, you know,
I don't want to take up too much your time.
I know it's valuable and, you know,
I'll pay you and this and that,
but I'm just curious, like, you know,
what should I do?
This is what I'm doing inside my house,
like lifting weights and stuff.
And, you know, I just,
I want to build a little bit of muscle.
And I was like, at this point,
he's already, he's been training consistently in his house.
And he's doing like pushups and pull-ups.
And he's got some light dumbbells.
Yeah, some basics.
Like, he's got, he's been consistently exercising now,
And he's just like, you know, and I feel good.
He goes, but I'd like to put on a few pounds of muscle.
And I said, I'm going to give you one thing to do, and that's it.
I'm not going to tell you to do anything else diet-wise.
And I'm not going to pick apart your workout routine because the fact that you're doing
something right now, you're already sending a signal that your body should start to build
some muscle.
If now, if we just give it the protein, that's it.
And like, we talk for a long old time.
What about this?
Sounds too simple.
Right, right.
So this was like, I don't know, maybe two months ago or whatever.
And then we just recently did that trip.
I told you a three-day trip.
And he shows up.
I say, man, you're looking good.
He's like, dude, I've put nine pounds on.
He goes, all in the protein.
Just from that.
He goes, I haven't changed anything in my routine.
It's all muscle.
Yeah.
And he looks great.
He's a really lean, kind of smaller guy and just was blown away.
And I was explaining to him that.
I said, man, the material.
The first part was the hardest part.
You've already been in this kind of consistent routine.
I said, and then just doing that, I said, but you know, he said back to me,
he goes, man, it's hard.
because I really drilled home to him.
I'm not going to tell you anything else.
I said, just this alone will be hard to be consistent with it.
But if you do it consistently, I promise even the routine you're doing will show you
the results you want.
And sure shit, he came back.
But he is like, he's like, man, I have to like, I really have to prepare my morning
breakfast the night before or else I don't get that first 40, 40, 50 grams of protein.
And then I'm behind all day long.
Yeah.
And so, I mean, that's why if you've listened long enough, that's kind of the two things
that we talk so much about is like just start a routine go after your protein that will take care of
such a huge percentage for most people just start there just there just that watch what happens yeah it just
that alone and i think that's why you know we obviously we get clipped right you get like and you
will get clipped for your our comment that you know we're picking exercise over diet so some some
internet troll will will break down the studies and tell us how yeah how wrong uh we are
So, but we know that, listen, like you said, it's, it's what you figure out if you've worked with enough people is like, okay, I know what the studies say. I know what the most important things are. I know if I do all these things I can move the needle the most. But it's like, what can I realistically get this person who is 45, 50 years old and has already proven that they've struggled with consistency around diet and exercise their whole life? So do I tell them all the, the,
the best things or anything is?
Or do I tell them one or two things?
That make the big difference.
That make a big difference that I think that are the easiest for them to adhere to.
And then I'll build on top of that foundation.
100%.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you...
Oh, man.
Yeah, I know.
So let's...
Are you talking about...
Why are you made of glass?
I want to hear what's going on here.
I just can't...
I can't...
And I'm also...
I thought about this a lot, by the way.
I know.
So I think I figured it out.
I text you.
And I think...
Are you working out with the Niners practice?
No.
Dude, the frustrating part right now is,
so when I did my transformation thing last year or the year before,
whatever it was, a while back, right,
that I did the last time I did this after I came off the GLP1,
I got hurt like three times.
And I know what I did that time was, I was, man, I'm just feeling strong
and lifting, each time I deadlift, I was stacking on an extra 50 pounds to catch up.
Now I started at like 135, so it's not like it was impressive, you know what I'm saying?
But I think I got hurt at like three.
Yeah, but I scaled so fast, right?
And I think what you and I have both distilled it down to or agree that it is, because I've tried to, I mean, I'm doing all the supplement.
I mean, I am like doing everything.
I'm not, and this time I'm like, I'm not going, I'm not doing anything.
I'm not even doing five reps.
I haven't dropped anything lower than eight to ten reps, right?
So in my, so my eyes, I'm not even lifting that heavy.
But I think it's the same thing that I talk about that has been one of the greatest things of getting older and the benefits of,
having lifted and built so much muscle in the past is it comes back.
It's coming back so quick.
That's right.
And even though it doesn't feel like it's that much weight to me, it's enough that I haven't
allowed everything else to catch kind of up.
And I'm just these, I'm pulls, pulling and straining, all the stuff.
So I was thinking a lot about this because when this first, when you started first getting hurt,
I'm like, is there a nutrient deficiency?
Maybe there's a nutrient deficiency, but you're taking all the supplements.
And I'm in a surplus.
Yeah, and you're healthy, you look healthy.
And so I was thinking about it.
And, you know, so muscle memory is, this is real.
It's documented.
So people listening, if you built 30 pounds of muscle on your body, which Adam has built
more than that, how many, how much muscle would you say you added to your frame at your peak
that you wouldn't have otherwise carried?
Oh, I have it tracked.
I went from like 160 all the way up to 210 pounds of muscle.
Of just lean, lean body muscle.
So that's 70, what is that?
70 pounds?
What is that?
Yeah.
No, no, 50 pounds, 60 pounds of muscle.
50, yeah.
So that's a lot of lean body mass.
Yeah.
That's a ton.
That was on top of, by the way, like a kid who was working out.
That's right.
Already.
So it wasn't like I had zero and then I went to there.
Exactly.
So, you know, you build 50 pounds of muscle and then you have something called muscle memory.
What that means is if you lose the muscle, let's say you stop working out, you become sedentary, you lose it all.
Then you go back and work out.
You'll gain it back at a fraction of the rate that it took the first time.
Like super fast.
Way faster.
Like super fast.
Like, and we've already seen this.
Like the last time you did, you did this with your training, you gained over 20 pounds of muscle in like 40 days or something.
It was crazy.
But that's muscle memory, everybody.
And that's true.
It's real.
It's well documented.
It's incredible.
The problem, though, is that when you have, I believe, when you have muscle that sits on your body for a long time, it's controlled, it's seasoned.
CNS is working with it very well.
And if you look at the data on injuries,
injuries spike when athletes dramatically increase their strength
and performance in short periods of time.
And so you,
because you've had so much muscle,
because you haven't worked out consistently, consistently,
for like a year for a long time.
You've gone on off for a while.
Truth, yeah.
And you gain muscle so easily.
You lose it and you get it.
You lose it and you gain it.
So I think it's that you're just gaining it quickly.
And so you're trying to judge it based off your memory,
which is like, oh, this is easy.
It feels good.
Still, it's like, oh, I was pressing the 40s.
Now I'm pressing the 80s.
Yeah.
it's only two, three weeks later.
Yeah.
That's a doubling of the way.
Yeah.
Which is frustrating.
It is, it's frustrating.
Especially you go like when I, when I feel the way it's moving.
Like it's, it just, I mean, I literally, I was, I was, I was, this was.
So, well, last week.
I don't even know how I did it.
It was, I did strain something on my forearm.
And it was like, felt like a little bit of nagging pain.
It's still hammer curling right through it.
No big deal.
And then all of a sudden, the next day I look at it, it's like bruised and swollen.
Oh, crap.
Oh, man.
I'm like, shit.
Yeah, and then it hurts for me to grab my Tupperware out of the microwave.
I'm like, oh, I'm like, okay.
So then I just, all of last, the previous week, I just, I took off.
I started to do what you've been talking about.
Cardio?
Yeah, cardio.
So I did cardio all right.
And then, then I, so I had a nice week off.
And I'm like, feel great.
Come back in the gym, shoulder pressing, you know, warm it, warm it up with like,
and here's the other thing too.
And admittedly, I know, I should know better.
Like, I didn't, I didn't like really prime.
I didn't prime at all.
I got in and just...
You did a couple of warm-up sets.
I did a couple warm-up sets.
I did some 40s and 50s and then jump to 80s.
Plus your memory of what you do and what it feels like
is so based off of when you were like jacked and training all the time.
So it's like, how do you judge it?
It's, it's a...
You got to go super ginger.
I do.
And I have to stay there.
Like your point is like not only do I have to do that, but I have to stay there for a while.
even though I can tell I can go more.
And so I'm just, after this one, after this shoulder one heals,
I'm just going to, I'm going to go back to kind of this, this, the old, you know,
chasing pumps and high reps, supersets, really lightweight and stay away from anything
that I think is even remotely heavy, even though I didn't think it was heavy.
I haven't done anything really that heavy.
But in the context of what you were doing a month ago, it's twice as much.
And I think it is, it's like, it's, it's, uh,
They're all, it's all like stabilizer.
So I think like, or in ligament stuff.
So I think what it is is my ligaments and tendons haven't caught up to the muscles.
They don't build as fast as muscle.
Yeah.
So I think what it is is what I'm feeling is the muscles feel fine.
It's the ligaments, tendons.
And to your point, like the, how my CNS and my muscle just, they, they pick it right back up.
And so I'm just going to have to take it super.
You know what reminds me of?
It reminds me of women postpartum.
Like really fit strong women.
I'm not telling you.
You know what you remind me up, bro?
A chick.
No, no, you know how like, we've all known these really fit, strong women.
They get pregnant.
Then postpartum, they're like, no, I feel like I can do more.
And they keep hurting themselves.
And it's like, no, like, give it a year of doing like the, like the easiest stuff before you jump into it.
Because your body was so, I mean, that's a dramatic example.
Mano puzzle.
But, I mean, muscle memory's crazy.
Because I literally will watch you.
We'll record a podcast on Wednesday.
Then I'll see you on Monday.
I'm like, this dude gained seven pounds of muscle.
Oh, I know.
Well, tonight I get my decks so I'll have numbers to support what I just did.
But I can, I mean, I can feel it.
I can tell that I've got, I've put on a good amount of muscle in the last month again.
And again, really, I thought going really slow, weight and strength-wise.
And that's the only thing that makes sense to me because I'm in a surplus.
I'm not cutting.
So I'm eating close to 4,000.
Sleep is back to normal.
Sleep is doing great.
I have never been 90 days in my life of not missing a supplement.
I mean, I am taking everything you've given me.
And even when you're like, hey, I'm already taking that.
I'm taking it.
I'm taking it.
I'm taking it all of it.
And yet still having those little issues.
And so I just going to have to lay off.
I love to sneak more of those isometrics in your programming, though, for your limits.
No, I should.
I'm going to have you give me some, by the way.
Yeah.
Yeah, because I talk to my wife.
One whole guide on it.
And I'm like, she's like, when are you going to start?
that every other week workout. So of course I'm like next week. Wow, it sounds like never comes.
So she gave me a recommendation. I thought was really good that I don't want to do, which
means I probably should. She's like, why don't you have other people write up routines for you?
I know. I don't know. I need that. So I'm going to have you. Especially for us. It's like, yeah.
I'm going to have you. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. Because I know you'll give me something I need
to do. Sure. Because I know what I'll know what you like to. Dude. So yeah. Yeah. I think that's the
other part that I think is really annoying and frustrating is that you know you know I know too
so it's just like when it happens I think that's part like could trade port I knew it you guys
would be calming me down with the intensity like you know immediately I'd be like ah yeah you know
lame yeah you seem to be made out of steel though like you don't hurt yourself except for that time
you hurt what did you hurt uh what did I don't think you ever get hurt just kind of like my um
my QL it like it's yeah oh you just hurt because you like you're like you're you're like you're
like old dude. I just have like, yeah, like achy page.
Well, I do, I mean, I thought of Justin right away, especially when it was my shoulder on this one, I was just like, you know, this is, I mean, this is what he's really good at.
When he gets, when he falls off gets back on, he goes to swinging the mace clubs.
He does all the stuff. Yeah, he does all the rotational. I adjust right away if I feel anything. Yeah, you don't go, you don't go right back into building, like muscle building mode guy. You go back into mobility drill. He's all movement. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're the opposite. It's like, oh, we fall off.
I'm like, well, right back to getting the model.
Let me get looking good first and then I'll address the other stuff.
Let me make sure I look good first and then I'll address the other stuff.
And it's like so backwards and I know it's backwards.
And it's frustrating.
I was reading some articles.
So in today's episode, we're talking, we have prescriptions in here, which is they have a
methalin blue, a product just blue.
And I've been reading a lot about methyl and blue because it's really remarkable.
I had that over the weekend.
It has rad energy.
It is remarkable.
So methanol blue has been around for a long time.
It's a natural M-A-O-I inhibitor.
I didn't know it's been around for a long time.
Long time.
It was a, it was a dye that was used for a long time.
And then they noticed that had these.
Somebody swallowed it.
It was like,
these benefits, yeah.
Are you serious?
That's how that would do.
Yeah, look up methal and blue history.
That was been around forever.
And it's used in medicine, by the way, for certain disorders.
Like, you go to the hospital for, I forgot what it was.
They'll give you an IV of methyl in blue to help you.
But anyway, it's an M-A-O-I inhibitor.
So the M-A-O-I-M-A-O is an,
enzyme that breaks down neurotransmitters.
So when you inhibit it, you increase neurotransmitters.
So more serotonin, more dopamine, more norephene.
And so you just feel more energy.
You feel more awake.
You're sharper.
That's why they call it like a cognitive enhancement.
By the way, it's also important.
If you're on an SSRI, do not take an M-A-O-I.
Don't take an M-A-O-inhibitor.
Yeah.
Because it's dangerous.
Like you're taking something that increases serotonin
and then something that prevents it from getting broken down.
You can get what's called serotonin syndrome.
But by the way, that's how powerful Methyl and Blue is.
It's a powerful M-A-O-I or M-A-O-inhibitor.
But I was reading about it, and a lot of the products that are out there
are contaminate with heavy metals.
Really?
Yeah, so they've had third-party testing of other,
because Methyl and Blue is all popular now.
I think there was a video of Robert Kennedy.
He was squirting some of it in his water,
and it's easy to see because it's blue.
And so a lot of people are using it.
And I looked up some third-party testing,
that was like heavy metal contamination all over the place.
Oh, man.
So the place we go with transcriptions, clean, clear, it's good, legit, non-stimulant, but definitely works.
And you took it this weekend.
I did.
I took it this week.
I just had to do a lot of manual labor and stuff and fix a bunch of things.
And, you know, it was kind of running a little low energy, took it.
And it totally, like a long period of time, too, a couple hours of pretty consistent energy.
Now, it's got tons of cognitive benefits, but do you feel like energy, almost like caffeine energy from it, too?
It's not like a stimulant, but you feel more awake.
And I feel faster with the right word.
I don't know if that's the right word.
Like verbally, I'm faster.
Yeah.
Yeah, I could agree with that.
So there's no central nervous system effect from it.
There is mild because of the increase in the neurotransmitters,
but it's not a direct central nervous system stimulant like caffeine is.
So I still don't think you should take it before bed, but it's not a direct CNS.
Okay.
Yeah.
So we still have the groggy kind of underlying, I don't know, sometimes the,
During the day, I'll just, I'll just have that kind of low fatigue.
Now, is it okay for me to take with caffeine if I was drinking?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Okay, so it's fine with that.
A lot of people take it with.
What should you not take it with?
Anything that, any kind of medication that raises serotonin, like an SSRI or another
MAO inhibitor.
Dangerous.
It's actually very dangerous.
What would be another one of those?
Natural one, I can't think of them, but people are on medication.
So remember, remember.
Do they all fall in the anti-depression?
This is not a good commercial, but I'll tell you guys what have.
Remember a while ago when I got freaked out?
Yeah.
Because I took, what was it called?
Testofensen.
Oh, yeah.
So, Tesofencin, you get from peptide companies, right?
peptide companies.
This is when Sal does stupid stuff.
And it's a serotonin, norepinephrine dopamine reuptake inhibitor.
And so people, it's actually used for weight loss for some people.
They'll take it and they'll eat less.
And it also makes you feel better or whatever.
Well, I didn't know.
that you shouldn't combine it with methyl and blue.
That was scary.
That's when I told you guys I was,
I started sweating profusely,
like uncontrollably sweating.
And I knew right away,
I was like,
uh-oh,
I think I'm in serotonin syndrome.
Went to the hospital and they're like,
you're going to have to wait it out.
You're going to have to write it out, buddy.
And I was okay.
I got to tell you guys a funny story, dude,
about my kids were,
all my kids were mad at me.
All of them.
Why?
Pissed off.
My little one,
my daughter,
you're so mean.
I hate you.
Everybody was pissed off of me.
So in my garage, I noticed signs of a mouse.
So he's nibbling on, like, our paper towels.
He was doing all kinds of things, right?
Coop droppings everywhere.
And then I came in one day, turned the light on it, and I seen him running by.
So I'm like, oh, you're in my house, dude.
Like, you're going to have to kill you.
And I'm a mat.
I love catching mine.
I don't know about you guys, but I, oh.
Like catching live or like, you mean like?
Trapping them.
Okay.
Trapping them.
I have fun shooting on me.
Don't, yeah.
There's something about it.
It's like I feel invaded.
Don't, you know, carry disease.
Don't be in my house.
So anyway, but it's in the garage.
So I set up mouse traps, like the ones that snap.
Yeah.
Okay.
Now, this little mouse somehow got the food off three traps and they went off and he was, he
disappeared.
He wasn't there.
So I'm like, this is war.
So I'm like strategizing.
Maybe the sticky ones.
The sticky ones always catch them.
So we come home one day in the garage.
I got my daughter.
I got my,
my niece and my two little ones okay my my five-year-old my three-year-old my 16-year-old
my 18-year-old niece we turned a light on the garage and the mouse is just sitting right there
by the by the stairs and he's and my daughter's like oh my god my sister's little he's tiny he's so cute
look how cute he is i'll show you guys a video so i'm like so i grabbed the i'm like is there something
to like smash it i didn't have a shovel so i'm like let me get a broom so i walk over to him and
everybody's like he's so cute let's keep him come on and i keep him
So I take the broom.
I open, the garage is open.
And I blasted him.
And I didn't even kill.
I didn't hurt him because it's a broom.
But I got him outside the garage.
Oh my God.
I can't get me.
You caught him like that.
Everybody was screaming.
Don't hit the mouse.
My little one start crying.
My daughter runs in the house.
My daughter runs in the house.
Bro.
My wife comes home.
Everybody's mad at me.
She's like, why are you guys mad at your dad?
He's so mean.
He hurt the mouse.
Oh, my God.
You didn't kill it.
My daughter took a video.
Look at this video.
I can't believe he did this.
like,
what they need to see is a cat eating it head first.
It's biting it off and then leaving the entrails for you.
Oh,
my world out.
Hey, do you still have here work cats?
Do you still got those cats?
Yeah, yeah, they're savages, dude.
They don't, and they're on a hunt right now.
I think it's because there's this false signal of like spring.
So a lot of like flowers are because it's warmer.
The weather is so weird.
It's just off, right?
Super warm.
There's all the moles and the, you know, the mice and the rats and all that.
out and forced. And so they're starting to bring
him in. We had one of them bring
it like it was a mole, I think, and they brought
we had the doors open because it was such a nice day
or letting the breeze in and everything. The cats
came in and had one of those
in its mouth and then let it go. And then
they're like, you know, playing with it.
I'm like, ah!
Get this thing out of here! What are you doing?
It was freak me out, man.
It's like, dude, I mean,
they're kill machines.
Oh, yeah. They're effective.
Hey, I found, do you remember a while ago we talked about
the infamous hammer strength leg machine.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
It's been going viral right now.
Yes.
Yeah, it's going viral right now.
Somebody's all,
I see a bunch of people talking about it.
What is it called?
What is it called?
What is it called?
Doug, look at them.
Hammer strength, H squat.
The H squat.
I've seen all kinds of...
Listen, Dylan, you got to put this in the video.
You got to edit this in so people can see what this...
I don't know why can...
Why can I...
wouldn't I could go viral when we talked to all?
It's a...
It's a monstrosity, though.
It is huge.
It's a towering...
I know Doug has got to have some...
footage of that when we shot in that gym.
I know we had him take a, but you had
to have taken a picture or video of that. Is it that vertical
position? Yeah. Doug, did you find?
Is that your old gym? Yeah, remember the old one that I trained
out when I was in high school where we shot the original
maps black and you had to climb up it?
Remember you had to climb upstairs? Yeah, you'd
climb up. If you fell off the top,
you wouldn't hurt yourself. That's how tall it was.
Did you find it, Doug? I think
so. Yeah, it's a huge
lever, like squat lever machine. There's all kinds of viral clips
going around it right now. Is this it here?
No, no, no, no, no.
Also, it's a guillotine, you know.
If you look up, oh, here it is.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, there it is.
That yellow one right there.
Oh, the yellow one, okay.
Oh, my goodness.
What the hell?
You have to climb that row of stairs.
I actually feel like the one that placed,
the older one was even taller.
Apparently, it feels, I never used one because I was always when I saw it at the gym.
I'm not going up upstairs.
So the clips I haven't seen.
They're talking about how it was the greatest leg machine.
That's what everybody says.
Yeah, it says greatest leg machine ever made.
Now I'm all curious.
I want to try it is.
But as a gym owner, like, come on, you're going to take some.
Remember the one that, as in mind you had the chain on it?
It was a chain.
Yeah, it was like for sure lawsuit.
Dangerous.
Look at that thing.
Hey, how dangerous is that too?
You just hammered your legs.
You go down the stairs.
Yeah, that's a new version.
That's a new version of it right there.
Yeah.
But you can see the lever.
So at the bottom is the weight.
So when you push the platform, it's the bottom that lifts.
So it's like this crazy lever squat.
Weird.
Yeah, dude.
I wonder what the physics are on it that makes it so, so great in comparison to like any traditional hack squad.
Because of the platform goes down, it goes from leg press to squat almost.
You get this really full range of motion.
I was watching it on Instagram.
So I've never used it.
Like I said, every time I saw it, I'm like, I'm not climbing the stairs.
Because, you know, the other, the one that you used to work at the old golds or whatever that's off or American Barbell, whichever I want.
I forget what it is off of Monterey, has the one where you lay upside down.
Oh, yeah.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
And it comes down.
That's the old school leg press.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you miss that, you're dead.
Yeah.
This is impress you.
No thanks.
And your dreams and everything.
Hey,
speaking to Instagram and social media,
and you brought this up to Justin.
You said your boys were starting to watch.
Oh,
yes.
There's this new category of fitness influencers that are like these steroid influencers.
Yeah.
That are getting popular with kids.
Have you watched some other stuff?
So I haven't.
Yeah.
I've been meaning to like really sit down and watch.
I've heard a lot.
from like, especially my oldest, because he's, I think it's like TikTok, uh, where they're popular,
but he says they're funny and it's, he knows it's ridiculous, but at the same time,
I'm like, you know, this is probably horrific information.
Like, I need to get in there and like dissect it all.
So what they do, this, because I, so I clicked on one, clicked on another one.
So now my algorithm is starting to pick up on them.
And I'll click on them now because I'm like, what are they saying?
Yeah.
So it's, it's either a dudes who lift.
who talk about steroids.
Or B, it's these like fitness personalities
who are like experts on,
that's how they post as experts.
And they'll post like before and afters
and here's my clients and here's what I record.
All they need to talk about steroids.
So they'll literally talk about the cycles
that they're putting their clients on.
They'll show before and afters.
Here's what the doses are.
You guys, the information is crazy.
How is that like,
I am watching these guys say things like,
you know, like there was this one guy
that's like a thousand milligrams
of testosterone a week is a crazy high dose,
then this guy gets on.
It's not a crazy high dose.
This is what I have my clients do regularly.
You're not going to see anything over 500 milligrams.
I'm like, what?
How is this not regulated?
That's crazy.
A thousand milligrams is not a lot?
That's nuts.
That's 10 times what they would typically give you.
Do you think part of this is because,
and I remember when I was in my early 20s
and I mess with steroids and you think you need more of it,
but really what it is you just don't have the muscle maturity.
And the amount of steroids you add don't make that big of a difference.
And all you do is increase more and more risk.
Or you don't have the diet or the training.
Well, yeah, exactly.
Those things just were not, we're not there.
It took years of.
Bro, the doses that you, because you're open about it, it's not like you hide it.
What you took to become a pro physique competitor was like half of the way you messed around.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Less than half.
Wow.
I took way more.
and when I was a kid.
Way more, because of that same reason.
Took a little bit and it's like,
oh, yeah, I feel a little bit,
but I thought that I've only put on like five pounds.
You know what I'm saying?
Must need more of it.
And then must need more.
And then I, of course, I'm taking advice from these big bodybuilder guys
that are like, oh, yeah, Graham's not that much.
You know what I'm saying?
Telling you that's not that much.
And every, all these guys are all doing it thinking it's okay.
And it's like, bro, you should see what they're recommending.
They're having this, there's this one guy.
And he sounds smart.
He sounds like a smart dude.
I would have got full.
If I was 19.
for sure, because he sounds like a smart guy.
I would have been like, oh, he knows what he's talking about.
He's having his clients take, they're like, they're taking this much testosterone,
this much mastron, this is an anabolic steroid.
Then he's adding a little bit of this anavar, and then he's taking this much growth hormone.
Like, what?
Oh, my God.
You're going hard.
Are they young clients or older clients?
They're in their 20s.
Oh, wow, yeah.
20s and 30s.
Wow.
So anyway, that's what they, so like you talked about the trend twins, which are kind of funny.
But that's these little dudes are real short, but kind of, you know, little, you know,
little meaty guys.
And they just talk about
how much
steroids they take
and they work out
and they yell at each other.
Well, you know what's so dangerous.
And they are funny, but it's like, come on.
You know what's so dangerous now too is that
the best
advice doesn't surface to the top.
It's the most shocking.
Yes.
That's what goes viral.
That's what goes viral.
So somebody like,
it's the freak show.
Yeah.
Like somebody who's talking about
a very conservative this
and boring science and this,
you know what I'm saying?
Like that's not going to go anywhere.
It's always going to be just liver king
and all that.
Yeah. No, it is.
That's the only thing that's going to be popular in these social media things.
And you think that our kids, or your guys, because your kids are kind of in it right now,
you know, do you think by your younger kid or your younger kids, my kid,
when they get older, will be more privy to that?
I hope.
Like that these algorithms feed these people to the top because it's a wow factor.
More than it is, it's good.
Well, at least he knows it's ridiculous and he has conversations with me about it.
but it's like he's still drawn to it because it's entertaining.
Yeah.
And they're freaks.
Like,
so I think it's somewhat human nature.
It's like you're drawn to these oddballs, you know?
It's like the circus back in the days.
You know what's wild to me just on this topic.
Just hopefully some kid is listening so I could get through to you a little bit.
Because of mind pump, because of the podcast, we started getting popular, I had the opportunity
to sit down with some of my old bodybuilding heroes.
Like guys that were like, like back in the 90s that were crushing.
I got to talk to them off air.
and they were very candid about everything that happened.
I thought it was all about like, oh, this guy got that big
because he did way more drugs than everybody else.
He just did a lot.
Yeah.
And he'd tell me, he's like, no, dude.
He's like, I'm telling you the truth.
Like, this is, now I know some guys lie.
I get that.
But I believe them because genetics are crazy.
It's a lot of the factor.
How you respond to food.
I remember when Ben Pekolsky just crushed my paradigm.
Because I talked to him and I said, God,
yeah, pro bodybuilders have the best.
digestion. He's like, what do you mean? I'm like, you guys are able to eat 10,000 calories
a day and get big. He goes, what? He goes, no, pro bodybuilders can get big on low calories.
That's what makes them pros. And I'm like, of course. Yeah. Of course that's what it is.
Because I remember as a kid, I could eat 7,000 calories.
How can you sustain that? I know. Yeah. Yeah, I've made a lot more sense. Totally different.
Totally different. Anyway, speaking of crazy of not science. Did you guys see the, the viral study
on transgender athletes? Oh, yeah. They're trying to, they're trying to say. I didn't read it. I know it was
promoted on I love science, but I just, I couldn't.
Like, what was, give me the cliff notes.
It's terrible.
We're trying to make the case that there's no advantage.
I'll read to you.
Already, I got questions.
I'll read to you guys like one of the headline type thing.
By the way, just some hope.
You read the comments, nobody believes it.
Yeah.
Nobody believes it.
Everybody underneath is like, okay.
Like, roll my eyes.
It sounds like a total.
So here's what it says.
Landmark study finds no fitness advantage for trans athletes and
women's sports. So a landmark study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine has found
that's transgender women who undergo hormone therapy might not have a fitness advantage in women's
sports. The research which analyzed data from over 6,400 participants concluded that after transitioning,
trans women show no significant difference in strength, endurance, or oxygen consumption compared to
cisgender women, or as I like to call them women. The findings challenge assumptions about
trans women's athletic advantage. The researchers noted the need for further studies. Okay, so here's
you have here. When you have men and women, when you go more to the extremes of athletic
performance, so if I start to move out here with strength, stamina, endurance, bone density, that
kind of stuff, there's more men on that extreme. And there's more women on the extreme over here
where they're weaker, less strength, less stamina. But there's a crossover in the middle. In other words,
if you gave me the average dude and had him lift weights with the strongest female power lifter,
she's going to crush him.
She's just going to crush him.
We know this.
You give me an average dude and have them fight the top female MMA athlete that weighs about the same.
She'll kick the crap out of him.
Okay.
That's just, okay.
So there's some crossover, but it's the extremes where things get wonky.
So when you're competing for first place and you were a man for most of your life, you have a major advantage.
And that's the data clearly shows.
And this is an example of how they used data to twist and mold.
outcomes to communicate crap.
So based off what you're saying,
the 64 participants they use,
64,000 or 64,000 participants.
It was 64,400.
The 6400 participants had to be like these average athletes.
Yeah, people who just like,
oh, I'm going to go get fitness tests,
I'm going to go whatever.
But if you, again, if you look at like competitive sports,
what you'll see is an advantage.
And that's really what matters.
I don't care about pickup basketball.
Like, I don't think anybody cares.
Yeah, rec league.
That transgender athletes are showing up at the rec league.
No, who cares?
Whatever. Fine.
We're going to go play.
We're going to go swim in the pool.
Whatever.
But high school, especially college, especially professional sports.
Yeah.
Come on.
Where scholarships are on the line and records are on the line.
It's like, it's funny that we need a study to try and prove that when you can, if you
if you've watched some of these, it's like very.
There's clear physiological advantages.
It's clear.
It's like the emma, the emma, the emma.
MMA transgender that was just pounding.
Being the crap.
Just not even close, dude.
No.
Because I've had conversations with friends about this.
And they're like, well, I know a woman that could out squat you to me.
I'm like, yeah, dude, you're talking about the strongest woman in the world.
And I'm just a dude that lives away.
So now let me go find the strongest on the other hand.
But show me the strongest man in the world compared to the strongest woman in the world.
And there's a massive difference.
Huge gap.
There's a massive difference.
So you can't look at the average.
averages because there's crossover and everything with men and women, but it's the extremes
where he starts to see the gender differences. And so this, and they really did a good job
of twisting. And it's like going viral. I hear people now. But again, some hope, the comments
were like, nobody was buying it, dude. Everybody in the comments was like, cool.
Well, since we're touching the third rail. From the people that brought you fluoride in your water.
Since you're touching the third rail already, why don't, well, I'm so, I'm so curious right now,
your thoughts on what's going on with these Epstein files and the stuff that we're seeing.
Well, I have two things that I want to ask.
Like, one, it's crazy to me that stuff like the pandemic that has come out, and it's pretty
clear that this was completely planned, that I watched families get divided over.
How are we not in just an uproar of like somebody has to hang for this?
I mean, people got killed over this.
Families are still divided over this thing.
It was probably if you grew up in the last 15 years,
it was the most tragic thing you've probably been through.
And we're not in an upheaval.
And then the other two part to this question I have.
Companies don't have to answer to it because they're, you know, protected.
So, yeah, and there's certain individuals that led this whole thing that are protected.
And they were from the very beginning.
and so yeah, it's frustrating.
So someone, someone DM me that like how they're like,
you know, I feel like you guys are skirting around this conversation.
And I'll tell you what, and this leads to the second question,
so hang in there.
What I said to them that I don't feel like we're skirting around it.
I think we're just cautiously waiting to see what's going to happen
because there's another part of me that goes,
why are we just now getting this and this is the information we're getting
and how much do we not know?
and is it really about this
and there's more
there's really more than meets the eye
like what like
these are the questions I have
this is why I'm not
because I there's a part of me that thinks too
that it's hard to disseminate
that uh
what what we're seeing here
are a bunch of scapegoats
and that were intentionally
being used as scapegoats
so that the real people
in power and control that will keep it moving
and is so like I'm not on any team right now
and I heard
you guys say before we started podcast. I hadn't heard it before
that there's the new saying is the clear
pill. Right? So there's the blue pill,
the red pill. Red pill.
Clear pill. It's like they're both pills
are crazy. Yeah. The world
is a stage. That's the clear pill. And I
just cautioned anybody else that we're
friends of ours and content
creators to like, you know, it's real
easy to want to jump on a side
on this stuff. Well, there's two parts that because
I'm same thing, dude. I see it and I'm like, oh
my God. Like first off, this
This, this, uh, confirms the, the big leak of the Podesta emails from back then.
And if you've never read them, please don't.
Don't.
Don't.
It'll disturb you.
Bum you out for a.
This is a huge email leak that, uh, was put on, what's that?
WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks.
Yep.
So it all cooper, it's all like, you see it.
You're like, oh my God, it's true.
It's all real.
So I think part of it is, A, who's going to go after all the people in the emails when everybody's
implicated?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which side is going to arrest the other side one, both sides.
I know.
Or all the,
the sides. You have the top billionaires, top scientists, political leaders from both sides,
other countries, corroborate with everything integrated. Yeah, like religious leaders.
You see the Dalai Lama visited Epstein? Yeah. Okay. Like, who's going to make the move when everybody's in on it?
And then two, if everybody's in on it, why are they releasing it? Yeah, that's a part of my.
And I think, I think, I sent you a video. My wife sent me this morning and she's like, I think this may be true, accurate.
I think because it's clear when you read the emails that they play a game of psychological warfare on the public to manipulate us.
This is what they do with COVID.
It's what they do with the world wars just to get us to freak out and manipulate us and act in a particular way.
So they overthrow government.
It's just another part of the psychological warfare.
So why would they put this out now to freak us a lot about everything?
I don't know.
One theory is because they're preparing to get everybody to be up in arms against the powers that be.
So we got to overthrow everybody and get this new government, this new world order or whatever.
Right. There'll be a vacuum.
Yeah. So I don't know. Because it's true. It's like, wait a minute. If everybody's in on it, if all the powerful people are in, how the hell does this get released?
Yeah. Why? Because the people are like, released the Epstein files, they wouldn't give it. They don't care.
Yeah. Why? And also, this is all just from the FBI's collections. It's not even from CIA.
Yeah. It goes really, really far.
Yeah. And supposedly the FBI, CIA, other intelligence agencies were using Epi.
Eastine Island for blackmail.
So why are they releasing it now?
I think it's true.
I think they're trying to still mess with us psychologically and they're going to come out
with something else.
It's really interesting.
And I love the.
So it's like we got to be.
I love the clear pill thing because I told you I have these, I have these personal
threads of like family and friends that and that like I have like a liberal threat and
a conservative thread.
So it probably really good for me that I have both, right?
Because I see it.
And I remember during the pandemic like, man, really struggling to connect.
to see I die with my liberal side of my family and friends.
And I'm like, man, they just are there.
They've drank the Kool-Aid all the way, right?
But now I see it on my right side that are just...
Trump's in the emails a bunch of times.
Yeah, we have so pro-the-other-side and like celebrate.
And I'm like, whoa, dude.
I'm like, you guys should pump your brakes a little bit.
Bush family's in there.
Ignore information, right?
Yeah.
If it's not like something you want to promote.
It just shows you how easily everybody is fed by their own algorithm.
algorithms and they do such a good job on both sides like convincing you that you're right
your team is this this is all the science all the information all the stuff to support your
argument and so to kind of be like somebody who doesn't really identify as one one side or the
other it's all wrestling to me yeah it's you literally have your heel you have your oh pro wrestling
yeah yeah it's everybody has their their part that they're playing and they're
projecting and you know you know i have such a good example just i actually was just watching the
the netflix series on that right now too katrina and i that's like some of our background tv and by the
even when people know it's fake well that's so that the point you guys know that more people watch
the summer slam and the w w then super bowl yeah that's how popular wow and we all know it's
wow yes yeah so that's like think about that for a second yeah yeah real excited yeah we at least
believe football's real although there's a lot of people yeah yeah
We used to believe footballists.
Some people think it's all scripted, too, but I know why.
I'm like, oh, man, it's everything.
You know what I'm saying?
It's just like, meddled a little bit with.
Yeah.
So you see the amount of people that are, get behind it, behind characters when they all know it's, it's like, but it's like, it's such a great example of even how we navigate through the real world and politics and everything that's going on.
It's just like, we buy so hard into our team and our guy without, without everything.
fit a narrative.
That's all we have to go off of.
The question is, like, because people I hear people like, what do we do?
Yeah.
What do we do?
Well, here's what you do.
You stay calm.
Yeah.
When the, you know what hits the fan.
Just stay calm because it's going to hit the fan and you're going to want to, like, grab your pitchfork and you be ready for whatever.
Just stay calm because it's obvious that they like us to be afraid and to be angry.
The advice we gave last podcast where we lightly mentioned this.
About your own community.
Yeah, exactly.
Focus on people around.
Just focus on your family, your neighbor, your closest friends, and like don't get caught up in everything outside.
When you hear trumpets in the sky, you know what's happening?
Yeah, just stick with what you have influence and control over.
And I think that we've all been pulled out of that.
But that's where the problems all arise.
Point of me bringing that up is because I don't know, I've gotten several DMs from people that have heard us like talk about certain characters or people.
and they're like, they want to hear us like,
why aren't you saying more about this person?
I'm like, man, you guys are so easily manipulated by...
Point your finger.
Yeah, like, I'm not on, I'm on any of their teams.
No.
I'm not on any of their teams.
No.
Yeah.
None of their teams, dude.
Don't, don't...
It's because I have certain values that might align with somebody's team.
It doesn't mean them.
I had a client.
Everybody wants that gotcha.
Yeah.
What's that quote?
Like, none are more hopelessly enslaved than those who believe they're free.
I think that's so true.
So true.
Yeah.
I had a client once tell me great advice.
This is when I was getting into like understanding politics for the first time
and I was getting all whatever.
And he's like, would you let him babysit your kids?
No.
He's like, why?
I don't know.
I'm like, yeah, so stop trusting him so much.
Right.
Oh, yeah, you're right.
That's my new, that's my litmus test.
When I let them babysit my kids, nah.
Yeah, I'm probably not going to, yeah, listen to everything.
Well, even too, like we said it before, like anybody who wants that kind of power that bad.
He's like, shouldn't have it.
Yeah.
Shouldn't have it.
They're vermin.
The type of character.
it takes to do that.
Imagine climbing the ladder
to try to be present.
What you got to do,
the hands you got to shake.
Well, now we know.
You know what?
You know what it was really eye-opening for me?
I don't remember how old I was
when I realized how little they get paid.
Well, that was enough for me.
I always thought like, oh, it's just super high paid job.
Maybe 400 grand a year.
Oh, yeah.
I'm like, so, okay, wait, let me get this right.
So a lot of these really wealth.
Go get a job at Google.
And then questioning that, you'll get sued, right?
You see what happened with Sean Ryan?
Oh, he's been taking all kinds of these.
Yeah, well, he just like starts kind of looking at, oh, you know, some senators and some people.
I'm not even mentioning it, so we didn't get sued.
They get in.
They make, how much the center make?
250 grand a year?
And then you look, they serve for five years.
They come out and they're worth $100 million.
$90 million.
How?
Like, excuse me?
How did you, you definitely didn't earn that?
What's the other business and, you know, oh, it's just investments?
Is that we're talking about?
You see people get in trouble for following their trades?
That's my favorite.
There was a page on X that was like copying Pelosi's trades and whatever.
Oh, they got in trouble for that?
Yeah, dude.
Now other people have popped up and they fought for it because you follow their trades.
You'll crush the market.
Dude.
How do they know?
And to think that you're taking money from other, like, countries and you don't think
that's going to have influence on, like, our own country is hilarious.
How skeptical are you guys now of Bitcoin now that came out that Epstein was part of funding
all that stuff?
60% of the people there he was giving, he was giving money to you.
Wow.
I mean, Bitcoin.
I saw a tank, yeah.
That's why.
Because this whole time it was supposed to be a thing to free us.
And if it's tied to that dude, that's the complete opposite.
We want us to hold on to that.
Yeah, I'm like, is it still dropping?
Where is it at now, Doug?
Is that 70,000?
Oh, it went up a little bit.
It went up a little bit.
It was that 100 something.
It went down to like 60.
Yeah, something like that, which was depressing.
Mainly just because I bet you, because, you know, they made that they did this,
it's not a law.
It's a tax-exempt thing.
Did you see this, Doug?
So let's say you bought at 100 Bitcoin and you lose, okay, down to 50.
Say it dropped all the way down to 60, which you dropped out to.
You could write off the losses?
You could write off the losses against capital gains.
Oh, wow.
So a lot of people that bought at 100 sold at 60, took the 40,000, and then they can
write that 40,000 against other capital gains.
So if you'd flip the house or made money.
Oh, wow.
And then you rebuy right back into the market.
So they, did you know that?
Oh, I didn't know that.
You can do that with stocks.
Right?
You could write off your losses, right, Doug?
Yeah, I believe you can, yeah.
Against capital gains.
Doug, are you taking the RHO-Kratene?
Is that what that is?
Yeah.
Have you been taking it?
I have been.
What do you think?
I mean, it's great.
You just squirt it in your mouth and you're done.
Yeah.
So they're glutathione and NAD.
That's what I use.
That's what I use over there.
So for people who aren't familiar, it's a company that makes supplements that are all
liposomal, which means they're encased in a liposome, which is a fat, to increase.
to incur it to get it to be absorbed and use.
So I'll use glutathione as an example.
If you look up glutathione supplementation,
if it's not liposomal,
you might as well be,
you might as well just take your money and burn it.
You just don't absorb it.
If it's liposomal,
it will raise your blood levels.
We've had other partners that do this.
I just,
I like the fact that it's in a bottle
that I could just squeeze.
And it tastes all right.
Yes.
Yeah.
So it's just.
Because we had the other one,
it was like,
well,
well,
it was it gross,
but it's also the effort to tear the package and do the whole thing.
So it's like,
this thing I just pop the lid and then take it
and I've been super consistent with it.
But that's the thing is their delivery system,
which they do a good job.
They have a following that is fervent.
As soon as we started talking about it,
we had people come on and we're like,
I've been using it for years.
Yeah, I didn't know that.
I didn't know how big and popular they were before.
When they first started sending stuff to us,
that was the first time I had heard of them,
but they're big.
Yeah, they're real big.
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By the way, we put together with Butcher Box a mind pump box, okay?
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You got to go check them out.
Our first caller is Karen
from the UK. Hi, Karen.
How you doing, Karen?
Hi, you guys. Thanks ever so much. I'm in a bit of shock,
really. I can't believe this.
So thank you so much for having me. I just want to say
a big thank you to you to actually. Thanks for
listening to me today. And also,
I've been listening to the guys for over a year now
and you really have helped me so much.
move on from a bit of a dodgy place I was in.
And also, thanks for the tip about the pots and pans from our place
because my husband and I bought a set with our Christmas money and they're brilliant.
So thanks.
Aren't they great?
No, so I'll just read out my email.
It's probably going to be a way to do it.
So I apologize for the essay.
Right.
Okay, so I'll be fun of you guys for about a year.
And it's around about last year that I had a chat with Margaret.
And she advised me to go and do anabolic, which I've run twice.
then I had a chat with Kyle who then advised me to run symmetry and then do muscle mummy.
So I've done both of those as well.
And I also did join the muscle mummy movement for a bit and had a great chat with Corinne who helped me a lot.
I advised me that I needed to sort of move my calories up because originally last year I was in 1700 and I'd moved up to 2000.
She advised me to reverse diet up to 24, which I did very scary.
I did it. I also had a chat with Marcello as well. He then pushed me up to 2.6 and advised me to do that while I was doing muscle mummy. And then said also about then moving on to Map Strong because I said that I wanted to build muscle but lose about 5% body fat at that point. So I haven't run that one yet because I started on Max 15 because I was like, I want to give that a go. So that's where I'm at the moment with that. I have, so I'm at the moment.
And I have actually, I'm getting all like, drop my calories back down recently because where my job is so active normally, in January it gets very quiet.
And I had a bit of a panic about my activity level.
So I was at 2.6 and then I got to January, panicked about it and dropped down to 2-2 because I was really worried about gaining body fat.
I have two jobs.
I am mainly a singer, but I also trained to be a nutrition coach a few years ago off the back of my hip.
history and I've been trying to help people ever since get out of the ruts like I got myself
in for many years. Okay, so, so at the moment I'm on 2,200 calories, 140 grams of protein,
about 75 grams of fat and the rest is made out with carb, stroke fibre, and the majority of my diet
is whole foods. I hardly drink. I've really made an effort with all of that. I'm on 10 milligrams
of creatine a day, I'm up to it because obviously I listen to you guys every day. And I'm also on
Amiga 3 is D3 plus K2.
My scale weight when I started last year was 57.1 kilos.
I hope kilos is all right.
I know you guys are working pounds, don't you?
My skeletal muscle mass was about 22.9,
and my body fat percentage about 26.6.
Now, as of yesterday, I'm at 60 kilos.
Muscle mass is about 23.6, so that's good.
But my body fat percentage is 28.3.
It's not a bit up and down over this whole course, but that's where I'm sat at about the moment.
I'm on HRT.
I'm on estrogen and progesterone.
I was on testosterone for libido issues.
I stopped it a few months back because when I started lifting heavy, thanks to listen to you guys,
start to notice a natural increase of my testosterone.
So I decided to come off of it because I was having a bit of an issue with excessive hair growth in the upper thigh area.
And I wasn't keen on that.
So I thought I'd give it a go off it to see how I feel.
fed and my libido's been all right actually. I've felt pretty good, but I don't know if that's
affected me at all. My positives throughout all of this is my strength increase has been quite
significant. Deadlift has probably gone up about 20 kilos, squat 10 kilos and my bench 10 to 15.
Corin gave me some sort of goals to work to, which I'm getting close to, which is good. Generally,
my sleep, I track it a lot now, seven hours. If I work, I work a lot of late nights, six and a half,
but I tried to make it up on other nights if I'm not working.
My perimenopausal symptoms, I was getting quite bad dips.
They've improved a lot.
And I'm, and it's basically my major thing is, and I haven't got to that yet,
is that I've got a 20-year history with bulimia and body dysmorphia,
and I've seen numerous counsellors.
I've had all been into day centres and everything.
So I'm not binging and purging anymore since I increased calories.
So that's a major bonus.
I just, I'm sort of, I'm stuck in a rut now.
I don't feel like I've got the body I really want.
I did send you the photographs.
I just feel like I've got bigger.
Against the muscle.
I just feel like my fat's got a lot higher.
I don't like what I see in the mirror.
My dresses have all got tight.
I have to stand on the stage in front of people.
It's making me lose a bit of confidence.
I had some lady come up, poke me in the belly, told me I'd put on weight.
Not me back.
I did ball my eyes out over that.
I have to be honest.
but I woke up my next day and don't let it stop me from what I'm trying to do.
I've got so far, I can't go back on this now, so I just kept with it.
That was in November last year.
I'm 47.
I'm a mother of two boys.
I've worked with a coach previously.
This is 21, 22, and she reversed dieted me from 15 to 2.1 in calories.
I got leaner at that point, so that's what led me on to training to be a nutrition coach myself.
I wanted to help people get out of their own head over this and try and feel better about themselves.
So I really have tried to do something positive off the back of it and generally help people to feel better about themselves.
So I'm also doing that as a sideline as well.
I just seem to be able to help people better than I can help myself, but I am dealing with a lot of reverse diet clients.
And they all hate me for it because I'm having to trust me.
But I just feel like I can't trust myself.
So I'm a bit stuck.
I just would appreciate your guide.
and where I'm supposed to go with this.
Should I keep with the cut this reduced calorie?
Should I go on a different program?
I think I've covered most of the stuff anyway.
So, I'm going to you guys.
You're doing so good.
Karen, you're doing so good.
So many wins.
Oh, am I?
Yes, you're doing so good.
You've got to recognize all those.
So many wins.
Yeah.
So many wins.
Strength up.
You're not purging.
I know.
You're aware of the challenge.
Calories are at the highest they've been probably in years or ever.
Your pictures look amazing.
You look great.
You're feeling great.
You're feeling better.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The enemy, the battle is in your mind.
Yeah.
The battle is all in your mind.
And you've dealt with this for 20 years.
It's going to take some time.
Yeah.
And it's going to keep coming after you.
And, you know, I think you're moving in the right direction.
It's going to be difficult.
Some of the things that can help you with this is to let go a little bit of the control.
And I know that's where it stems from.
Yeah.
So control can look like restricting.
It can look like purging.
It could also look like counting macros and weighing myself and testing my body fat and analyzing my workouts.
It can look like all those things.
And so the path forward is letting go of control.
That's easier said than done.
And so you got to let go one piece at a time and then make peace with it and be okay.
And I'm really sorry that somebody came up to you and said what they said.
But I want to remind you that your value, you're a valuable person.
What other, someone else, some random person says to you, doesn't matter.
This is my job.
This is what I don't, I don't, people don't come up.
They do come up and say, you know, great singing.
But the majority of it is, oh, you, you know, why have you changed your hair?
Why do you, why don't you wear that dress?
You know, and it's just, it can, I'm very good at faking stuff.
I'm really great of that.
I've got this mask on,
but it's hard.
It slips.
It's hard to put yourself.
Yeah,
on stage.
Yeah,
to put yourself on stage like that with,
especially when you're challenged with this is extremely difficult.
So also,
can you mind this.
So when we're reverse dieting and we're building muscle and we're building
metabolism,
it doesn't work in this like perfect linear, like just leaning out and just speeding up
the metabolism.
So what will happen sometimes is,
which,
Because the fact, by the way, too, I am, not only am I impressed with you, I'm very impressed with our team.
The fact that you talked to six different people and they were all giving you great.
They were all different.
And they were all different. And they're all giving you the right advice along the way, which is so awesome.
That makes me feel really happy about my team that they're just all on the same page.
So because to bounce around to that many people and everybody giving you the right advice from everything from programming to reverse dieting to the goals that Corinne gave you, I think is phenomenal.
and I even think staying up at that 2,600 calorie would have served you and just hanging out there.
Just like give yourself time to acclimate to that new calorie intake, build some strength.
After you build that strength, then that metabolism starts to speed up and then you see the lean-out process.
It doesn't always happen like what you saw from the 1700 to 2100 calories.
Sometimes that was you were just so malnutrition that you started to get calories.
Your body responded with lots of muscle, built a bunch of muscle, and then all of a sudden you got leaner.
and so it's like whoa I increased calories I got leaner it doesn't always happen that way forever
you'll you'll keep increasing calories and then what it will look like sometimes is you'll get to a new number like 2,600
and you put on a little bit of muscle you put on a little bit of body fat but then you kind of level out and then you're like I don't feel better yet but give it some time
keep getting stronger keep working in the training and then all of a sudden you build a little more muscle then all of a sudden the metabolism kicks up and then all of a sudden you lean out and so it's not always like this perfect so you were doing all the right things I think you got it
in your head with the, even with your activity reducing,
I still would have kept your calories up there.
I would have really.
Really?
Really.
I was starting to see the changes.
I got to the end.
I love the last phase of muscle mommy,
the five by five,
you know,
and I got to that stage.
I was starting to see some,
and then I hit,
I mean, Christmas is crazy for me work-wise.
I hit January.
Yeah.
And then it started to shift back a bit.
And I was like, oh, no.
And that's when I panicked.
Yeah.
Here's your,
you were in the right place.
You really were.
And this is where the coach part helps
to have someone in your ear,
because obviously if I was talking to you
on a more regular basis,
I would have been like,
Karen, you're good.
Don't worry.
I'm not worried about your steps
coming way down and your activity coming down
because we're lifting right.
We're feeding the body right.
And don't worry,
that metabolism is going to come up
and then you're going to see yourself lean out,
just stay the course.
So I actually think you did,
you've done really good.
And honestly,
you cutting back down in the calories,
what might have happened was you might have pared down
a little bit of muscle.
And that's why you saw the body fat percentage
go the direction you didn't like.
it yet you were actually on the right track you were actually doing yeah i think that's yeah you're
right i think that's what's happened here i mean i wish i just stuck with it i was going to start
strong you see and then i just i don't know why i just i went up and that's why went to match 15 i don't
know why not 15 is fine too strong is it yeah they're both going to be great for you yeah
here's the other thing too uh karen what you're doing right now is you're talking about
you're talking about all of this yeah don't the the the what'll make things get
worse is if you keep it to yourself.
They tend to flourish in the dark.
Okay, the insecurities, the
negative changes, they start
to grow like mold
in the dark. And so keep talking
about it. And the second thing is coaching other people
is really helpful. Yeah.
It's really helpful. I love that you're doing
that. Because you can share
your story. You can empathize with
always empathize with other people
better than yourself. And it's going to really
help you move in the right direction.
This, everything you said is a massive
success story. Yeah. Right. Yeah, I just, yeah, I've done it. I did a tell-all.
It's basically when I started my business a few years ago, I did a video where I told everybody
about my eating disorder and a lot of people had no clue because I always seems like a happy,
confident person and they had no idea. Actually, I caught a lot clients out of it because they
trusted me and they were like, we weren't what we thought you were. And it was, you know,
so I, I, I, I'm not in it for the money. I really am in it because I want to help people.
and actually I use a lot of the stuff that you talk about is what I preach to them.
So I'm very grateful to you guys.
I really am.
I mean, my husband's fed up.
We'll be talking about you all the time.
But, you know, it's very helpful information.
It's really changed my life.
So I'm just, I'm doubting everything at the moment.
Yeah.
You're doing great.
It's a challenge.
And let me remind you the trainer, what makes you effective is your ability to connect with other people.
And that comes from us exposing.
our own challenges and weaknesses.
When a client looks at you and thinks that you've got it all put together,
it's so much harder to coach them.
And it's also a lie.
I've never met a single trainer in my life that's got it all together.
It just doesn't exist.
Karen, you mentioned that you came off the testosterone.
When did you come off the testosterone too?
Just curious.
Oh, God, this was during muscle mummy.
So this is like a month, at least a couple of months or so ago.
You can adjust the dose.
You can adjust the dose.
You can also look at lowering DHD, sometimes.
Sometimes they'll prescribe something else with it.
Or stay on it if you feel good.
Testosterone and thyroid are the aesthetic hormones.
So those are the ones that tend to help.
The reason why I'm bringing it up and why I was curious about that
because if we reduce calories, we dropped off the testosterone.
That right there could result in that muscle loss that you felt.
Yeah.
That point.
So all of a sudden you cut back to calories.
Now the body is not getting as much testosterone.
The testosterone helps you build muscle.
Obviously, you need the nutrients to build the muscle.
The combination of the two of those could also.
So I had this feeling that when you were right around 2,600 calories, you were humming along just right.
Then got in your own head a little bit, pulled back the calories, took off the testosterone,
then get a body fat test.
And you go, oh, shit, this is not what I want when it's like you were actually probably doing really good.
Yeah.
Yeah, I did change my progesterone as well.
I had my marina because I won't sleep in very well.
And I know it's the marina.
So I had that taken out.
And then it pushed the GP out to put me on body identical, you see.
So I don't know if that's made a little bit of a difference.
But I'm very up on my hormones.
You see, I've done cortisol and stuff in it.
So my RGPs are a nightmare over here.
They're so scared of it all.
So it's just, it's a fight.
It's a real fight with it all.
Forgesterone is great for anxiety, great for feeling calm, great for sleep, testosterone.
Yeah.
The aesthetic hormone, so is thyroid.
So you can always talk to them?
Say, hey, can I try a lower dose of the testosterone?
Yeah.
If you're feeling like you're getting too many of those other side effects.
Or if you feel good, you know, stay off.
I think the biggest impact is going to be diet, exercise, and lifestyle.
And you're doing great.
You're doing really strength gains that you were talking about.
Phenomenal.
Yeah.
Oh, that's good, Dan.
You're doing good.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it.
Do you think that I've got back three weeks of 15 left?
Do I go on to Strong?
because I didn't want to do it in less calories.
I love that next.
No, bump your calories.
Kind of strong.
Yep.
I love that.
Yeah, okay.
That's what I was wondering.
So I just want to check out as the right place to go with it.
Can you call us back?
I want to talk to you again a few months.
Oh, okay.
Now you've got me.
That's right.
Stay on top of you.
You're doing it.
Stay with it.
You're doing good.
I'd appreciate that.
That's really kind.
Thank you so much, guys.
It really made my day.
All right.
Thank you.
Take care.
Yeah.
See you later.
Boy, that's a success story.
but I also, I just feel that in my heart, you know,
that's a challenge and that struggle,
and then that person who went up to her
and made that one comment,
which for someone like her,
just so crushing.
Well, I mean, talk about a, you know,
every, I feel like a lot of people battle
with some sort of body dysmorphia,
but to battle with that
and then also be the type of person
who puts yourself on stage
where others are going to look at you
and constantly.
Absolutely.
I mean, talk about a really tough place to be.
Yeah, because she can't win.
she gets lean and muscular,
she's going to get negative comments.
She gets, you know, changes, like she said,
change your hair color,
she's going to get, like,
no matter what, you get judged in comments.
And so,
anytime you're on stage, it's like that.
And you also got to remember,
just for people who do this,
like the love you get from,
or hate that you get from your fans or,
it's not real.
It's really not,
it's not the same as like somebody
who actually knows you.
I really think she was doing really good.
And I think that the,
I'm so,
a great comment.
Our team was really,
I know,
I was like,
I was a little nervous because she's like, I got her, Kyle, Corinne.
She literally talked to like five or six of our trainers, but everybody gave good advice.
Great advice. That is difficult to do, by the way. Okay.
You find three trainers in the same.
I mean, you get, even the three of us, if we get the one person.
We'll have a little bit different.
Right, exactly. To stay aligned, like, that's kind of tough, you know what I'm saying?
So that's awesome that everybody was right on the right direction for her.
Our next caller is Shayla from Connecticut.
Hi, Shaila.
How are you doing, Sheila? Hi, nice to meet you all. I'm so excited to be talking to you today.
Yeah, same here. How can we help you?
So I will go ahead and read off my question. My name is Shayla, and I am a 21-year-old college student,
and I've been lifting for about three years now. I wanted to call in because the last few months
I've been struggling with recovering from an injury. In September, I started experiencing sciatic pain
that was primarily in my lower back and radiated down my leg on the right side of my body.
And I started to go going to physical therapy and she told me that I have SI joint dysfunction.
And then I started doing rehab after that and then slowly reintroduced lifting again.
And I got to be pain free for a little bit.
And then recently since the past week or so, I started experiencing pain again in my lower back.
And then what I believe is in my periformis muscle because.
exercise as like cat and cow in 1990s, they cause pain in my lower back and right boot.
Additionally, since my initial injury, I've been experiencing spas and like sensations in my right
foot when I walk for extended periods of time. It's like a tingling and kind of like numb sensation
and my toes kind of curl up as I'm walking. And then for a little more context, I'm 5'4,
about 145 pounds.
I eat around 2,300 calories a day.
I consistently hit my 150 gram protein goal through mostly whole foods,
and I average 13 to 15,000 steps a day.
Essentially, I wanted to ask what program or training routine is best for me as someone
whose goal is to build muscle and stay injury free with my past issues in mind.
Yeah, thanks for calling in.
So, okay, so here's sometimes what happens with physical therapy.
Okay, so SI joint dysfunction.
common. It's actually quite common. Pariformis syndrome quite common.
Sciatica pain as a result. Did they explain all this to you, like kind of how the
pariformis muscle sits on the sciatic nerve presses on it? Did you, they explain that too.
Okay, good. Yeah. Yeah, because, you know, if you have SI joint dysfunction,
then you've got a lot of muscles trying to stabilize, one of them being the pariformis.
And if you get that sciatica nerve pressed on long enough, it can cause tingling, not
numbness, it could cause heat, and it can go down all the way down the leg.
Usually it's in the back of the leg, but sometimes it can go down as low as what you mentioned,
down to your foot.
So it's all kind of related.
Now, here's what happens sometimes with PT is we'll rehab something until it's good enough,
but not good enough to go back to heavy training, bilateral movements, squats, deadlifts,
you know, that kind of stuff.
What movements do you think bothered it?
Was it a deadlift?
Was it a squat?
What were you doing?
What were you doing?
Also, quick question, too.
Are you an athlete at all or do anything else outside of this training?
Just curious.
I usually, typically, I run a half marathon.
I've been doing that for the past three years.
I'll run one a year.
And then I'm a group fitness instructor.
So I do that.
I run about four to five classes a week at school.
Oh, okay.
So that's kind of.
I'm glad you're asking.
This is why I asked.
There's other stuff normally probably alluding or leading to a lot of this stuff too.
Yeah. Yeah. So how did you hurt, re-hurt it? What were you doing?
So the day before I started experiencing the original sciatic pain, I did a lower body day.
And in that day, I did hip thrust, um, Bulgarians. I did Romanian deadlift. And I think it was probably the hip thrust because I typically do machine hip thrust.
And that day, I did barbell. And that after the first exercise of doing that, it initially started to feel like a little bit sore.
but not like super concerning.
And then the next day is when the concerning thing started.
Are you, are you okay with reducing the group X teaching?
Or is that how you're, are you getting paid to do that?
Is that your job through college?
I am, but I did scale back on that.
So during my original injury, I was teaching, I think, six classes a week.
And most of them were more instruction based where I was doing the exercise with them.
However, I started doing more coaching style.
So I'm not necessarily doing the exercise.
just kind of walking around the room.
So I've definitely scaled that back.
Much better.
So it's going to take longer than you think
to get you back to a place
where you go back to your lifting.
So once you feel better,
that doesn't mean you're done.
Then you start to work on changing recruitment patterns.
Yeah.
And strengthening.
I think right now a MAPS 15 performance protocol
would be good,
which is going to feel like a lot less
than what you're probably used to.
It's two lifts a day.
Okay.
And I want you to do that in combination with the correctional exercise that you got from PT.
Are you still doing those?
Yes, I am.
Okay, good.
And are you foam rolling your paraformis and all that stuff before you train?
Yes, I started doing that.
I wasn't doing that recently, but in the last week or so since I started having that pain.
Yeah.
Yeah, actually, what about symmetry 15 only because, yeah, I think that some unilateral emphasis will do well,
especially to get that stability again.
I think around the hips especially,
like single leg type work is really going to go far.
Yeah, I like that.
I forgot we had that.
Symmetry 15 would be good.
And keep the intensity moderate for like three months.
The PT work that they have you doing
should be the bedrock and the foundation
of the movement stuff that you do.
And then the only bit of strength training you do
is Matt 15 symmetry.
All the other like running classes,
that stuff is only going to exacerbate.
this issue. Until we get really strong and stable in the hips, going back to all that stuff
is just going to, even when you start to feel good, there's going to come a point where you're like,
oh, I feel good. If you go right back to all that stuff, it's going to happen again. You're like,
you're a very active person. So you should, this should just become a part of your movement. You get down,
you do all these movements that your PT had you do on a very regular basis, absolutely,
you do any sort of exercise or classes or so that it should be a part of it, but doing it as much
as you possibly can. And then strength training, all you really need is like two exercises in a workout.
That's it.
Perform very slow and controlled.
So that's the other thing, too, is to, if we're trying to strengthen these patterns,
we're really trying to be hyper aware of what's taking you out of that pattern.
And so, you know, when you start feeling lateral forces, rotational forces taking you in a certain
direction, you want to be able to correct real time and really slow down and be effective in that
movement.
So just to put it very simple, right?
Simply, you, when you're, what you're trying to do is create a new default muscle
recruitment pattern.
And that takes a little longer than people think.
And so what happens is you can start to train it and start to feel better.
But when you push the intensity, the old default kicks back in.
Yeah.
Because it's a stronger program still.
Yeah.
Now, I want to encourage you, this is a very fixable issue.
Yes.
Yes.
Very, very.
It becomes chronic in people because they do this thing where they make it feel better and then
they go back and they push a little bit and then it hurts again.
And then it's on and off, on and off, on and off, on and off.
And eventually people are like, I don't want to work out anymore.
Plus, you're still going to progress with strength and aesthetic goals.
So don't be discouraged by that while you're addressing this.
It's just, you know, this is what we need to address and really sharpen our mechanics.
And this is why running classes,
any sort of like high intensity type stuff is the enemy here because it's like to sal's point as soon as
you get going and you increase intensity and you do a lot of stuff you're going to go to the default
pattern we really need to slow down the training and exercise really put a lot of work in the
corrective so again that's what the foundation is the corrective work that is you don't miss that you
do that all the time and then when you sprinkle in strength training it looks like a 15 protocol
and then avoid there's otherwise every time you go to these long
runs or intense type classes or lots of like fast type movements you're going to go to the default
pattern you're going to slow everything down.
As soon as fatigue kicks in or lots of intensity and struggle kicks in, your body's better at
the old default pattern.
It'll just go right to it.
And then that's what caused.
So, you know, you want to give yourself a good probably three months at least of training
this way before you start to slowly scale up to see how you feel.
Okay.
Will that take, will the max 15th take me?
through that three months long.
Yeah. And then honestly,
after scaling up to me would look like going
to symmetry as a whole program. So
eventually, so MAPS 15 symmetry
right now with all the corrective
work we're talking about. And then as you start
to get strong, feel better. And if
you want to do more strength training, it would look
like MAP symmetry, the full program
is what I would go to. So that would serve
you the best.
Perfect. Yes.
Are you in a, are you in a, like a health
related field? What are you studying?
I am studying health sciences and then I'm assigned to my master's in speech language pathology.
Cool.
I had a feeling you were going to be in the health field.
Awesome.
Well, good deal.
So we're going to send you, Symmetry 15.
Follow that.
Okay.
Thank you so much.
You got it.
All right.
Thank you.
Yeah, the whole default, the recruitment pattern thing.
I knew she was doing other stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Good question.
The default pattern stuff, it's hard for people to understand.
But when you're, I like to use.
the analogy on a keyboard, right?
If you type with two fingers
all the time and then you try to learn
how to type properly, you're going to be
slower with the proper technique for a while.
So in other words, if I'm practicing
the proper way and then someone holds a gun to my head
and says go as fast as you can, I'm going to
go back to my old way because I'm better at it,
even though it's not as effective
ultimately, this is what happened. So
when you have a default pattern, it's like
basically it kicks in when you're tired and it kicks
in when the intensity's high.
So that's why this process, that's
to be very deliberate and you have to be careful with the intensity.
I'm so glad that you brought up how common SI joint dysfunction and sciatica is.
It was like 30% of my clients.
So many.
In fact, this is, uh, we talk about the challenges as trainers that we had.
One of the challenges always as a trainer, especially as a young trainer was when I got a client
who would be like, oh, I can't do that because I have sciatica.
Yeah.
I have sciatic issues.
Yeah.
And it's like, you know we can fix that, right?
It's like, you know that's not like, you're not like plagued with this.
It's so fixable.
It's so fixable.
and it's so common, and but people continued,
and the reason why they don't believe it is because
they do something, they feel a little bit better,
they go through their physical therapy to the point you're making,
then they go right back to their old shit,
and it comes back, and then they're like...
So they've had it for years.
So it's like, I got bad knees, I got bad hips,
I got bad shoulders, I have sciatica.
It's like, no, we can fix these things.
Yeah, exactly. We can fix all these things and understand,
but what you've done in the past is not fixing it,
and so we need to change some of those,
behaviors we need to change some of those patterns and we can solve this.
Of all of the issues that I would encounter with clients, the common ones, shoulder pain, back
pain, knee pain, sciatic pain, sciatic pain, SI joint pain.
All fixable.
The sciatica and SI joint pain was the most guaranteed.
Most direct.
It was the most like, oh, cool.
You got that?
I know what to do.
Just, yeah, give me a couple months.
It'll be gone.
Our next caller is Kyle from British Columbia.
Hey, what's up, Kyle.
What's happening?
Hey, guys.
What a trip this is to see you guys and actually be talking to you.
I just listen to you guys this morning.
This is great.
How can we help you, man?
All right.
Well, before I begin, I just want to thank you again for this opportunity.
And I just want to thank you personally for a saving podcast.
Don't get me wrong.
I love health science and studies and all that.
But you guys are rare in the case where you make it relatable.
And honestly, I feel that's the best way to help people.
So just want to get that.
Appreciate that, man.
Thank you.
Yeah, awesome.
Now, regarding my question, I haven't written out here just so I don't
ramble. I tend to do that. So I'll try to stay on point here, but I'll summarize my question
and just kind of fill you in on my backstory, just so you have my current situation just for
context and all that. Okay, so simply put, it's my 35th birthday this week. And as always,
I'm looking to upgrade my life and health in any way I can each year. And I've learned that
without health, life basically sucks. So the more you can improve that, especially the older I get,
the better. So I feel like I've kind of reached a training midlife crisis in a way to put it.
I'm looking for some enlightenment on how to continue here and just move on to a new chapter
into my fitness. Trying to kind of overcome a plateau and just try to adapt a new way of training.
I also have one semi-unique lifestyle factor that I'm trying to learn how to turn that challenge
into an annual benefit here.
So in terms of my backstory here, you can feel free to tell me to shut up at any point,
but I'll just try to fill you in here.
All right.
So I began my life in a state of poor health and obesity, unfortunately.
And that was about the age of 10 or 11.
And at that point, I remember, I still remember to this day,
I was looking at the scale and it reached 200 pounds.
And I was like, man, once I reach 200 pounds, I got to do something.
And then it kind of continued and I reached 210 pounds.
Then I was like, okay, that in combination with, of course, being a kid, you have that
motivation of the bullies and all that stuff, right?
So it was time to make a change.
And being a young kid, I honestly had no education, like no knowledge of what to do.
So I remember starting my workouts.
I do just like 10 bodyweight squats at night and I'd be like tired.
be like, okay, that's my start.
That's the go for it.
So that was that.
And in terms of diet, I really had no idea.
So after seeing zero progress after a bit, I was still motivated to change.
So I read one, the first book I found on the subject, which basically just told me to eat real food.
And it gave me a basic weight training program.
So I started that and that was really hard.
Even just changing food, going from Oreos to an apple took me like two weeks.
I just spat out the apple.
I couldn't, it just didn't taste like it wasn't sweet enough, right?
So I was going through that transformation and about two years of following that.
I, yeah, two years of following that, I continued to lose weight.
I ended up losing about 50 pounds.
I reached down to about 160, 170.
And I basically maintained that until my early 30s.
and I still didn't really know what I was doing.
And looking back on all this, it really just, like, I didn't really notice the transformations, like, physically as they developed, I was more focused on the mental aspects.
I realized that, like, my mental health got so much better, and that's kind of why it continued.
And so I just kept doing that, but I was strictly kind of more cardio-based until my early 30s, really.
and it came to another point where my wife was pointing out.
She's like, Kyle, you work out every day, but you look so weak.
You know, like you're weak.
You're skinnier than the other dudes.
And I was like, oh, man, that's kind of something.
And I was like, yeah, I guess so.
And that's when I started getting into the weight training.
So I found you guys and I started listening.
I ended up getting map split.
And I started adapting that.
I gave into, I was like, okay, I'm just going to go to the gym.
I'm going to start lifting weights finally.
and within a year of doing that,
I honestly, I gained like 10 pounds,
which I imagine is muscle.
Like I didn't gain fat.
I was mostly muscle there.
And I really started to notice for the first time a difference.
And that was just like basic weight training,
like the split program there.
And I just absolutely love that, that method of training.
Since then, my wife has noticed a difference as well.
And now she started weight training as well, which is great.
I got her Maps 15 for Christmas.
and it's kind of like getting her there.
We just got the kids at home now.
So that really works well.
So I actually stopped going to the gym.
We work out at home now.
I invested in some weights here.
And at this point, yeah, like I'm just really looking for,
like I've done the split style and I feel like I'm still getting stronger.
But at the same time, I haven't really been seen much progress lately.
I'm starting to kind of feel like I'm peeking.
like I'm adding a little bit of weight here and there,
but I hear you guys talking about like changing things up
throughout the year or adding different kind of dynamic movements
or ways to go about.
I'm just curious from someone who, like, given my training background so far
and just following the split style,
if there's anything I could be doing to really help,
I want to get a little bit stronger still
and kind of just overcome this and move on to a new.
chapter of strength building basically the answer is actually really easy uh doing it might be the
challenging part uh because it's going to be related to nutrition and so uh you probably are due for
a reverse diet where we start to actually add calories you have uh you've got the newbie gains
from lifting weights and you've put on some good muscle and you're probably feeling like you've
kind of peaked out a little bit because you're peaked out for the amount of calories and
nutrition you're giving the body. And the body will, if you give it more and continue following
maps programs, you can follow any of the ones that you want to. I mean, they're all going to be
great and you're going to respond well to all of them since it's all pretty novel to you.
But you probably need to increase calories. Any idea on what your calorie intake is right now.
Have you ever tracked before? To be honest, I haven't tracked too close. I went through about a month
where I tried it.
And I would, my best guess would be around like 23.
But this, I'm glad you brought up nutrition because I honestly feel like that's my
biggest downfall at this point.
I just started focusing more on protein, but I feel like a reverse diet would be a good
way.
Because I wanted to ask you guys, I have this issue where it's like, I feel like I'm eating,
you know, an appropriate amount, but there's like like twice a week.
I just feel like I have this insatiable appetite where it just like bring on more and more.
And it's like that's your body telling you it wants more to go build more.
Because you're doing the right things by lifting.
You're doing a good lifting program.
You're sending the signal to the body.
It needs more muscle.
Your body's going, we need more nutrients.
And so that feeling you have is a natural good feeling.
And it's the body telling you, we need more material to go build you more muscle.
Kyle, when you, do you, because you talked about working out as a 10-year-old and, you know, bullying and being overweight, do you, do you have a fear of getting fat or overweight?
To be honest, it's been in my mind, yes.
I, like for me personally, once I lost the weight, it's just like, there's two sides of it, really.
It's like the one side is once I started to lose the weight and develop my consistent exercise.
just mentally at that point of my life,
I had a lot of just like depression, anxiety and stuff like that.
So that honestly just like disappeared.
I felt super optimistic.
Like once I started the exercise,
I know there's brain benefits and all that.
It made a huge change.
So I'm scared of losing that.
But at the same time,
I noticed that people treated me different after,
you know, like after I made my transformation.
And I just, I fear in a way that if I,
because I got that through consistency and all that stuff,
I feel like if I backtrack on that in any way or just kind of deviate,
I just,
I don't know,
I just grew up having like,
you know,
I was treated poorly because of that,
so it's definitely in my mind.
I'll let you know something,
okay.
Sometimes we associate how we look,
with the change in the way people treat us,
but what's deeper than that is you're a doer and a go getter.
By the way,
that's where you get a lot of the mental health.
health benefits. Yes, there's physiological changes that we can measure, but if I induce physiological
changes with medications, you don't get the same benefit. We know this on the data. The data shows
it quite clearly. Where a lot of it comes from is you're a kid, you want to make a change,
and so you just start working at it. And then it starts to work. And so you build that muscle of
discipline and skill, and then the confidence comes from that. And that's what people kind of see.
and that's what earns the respect.
So it had more to do with that.
So I just want to let you know that.
I could feel that there's that underlying fear of,
oh, what if I become that, you know,
what if I just gain tons of body fat type of deal?
Your body definitely needs more calories.
So guy your size, that would aim for 200 grams of protein a day.
So you're looking at four meals with 50 grams of protein.
Whole foods.
Don't cut anything out.
Have some carbs in there.
And that should guide you.
and then workout-wise split is a lot of volume.
And it's amazing that you gain muscle,
which tells me that you were a bit depleted going into it.
And so you just started to feed yourself
and not maybe burn yourself out.
But MAPS endabolic plus an increase in calories
and hitting your protein,
you'll build another 10 pounds.
Yeah.
You'll gain another 10 pounds of muscle.
Oh, yeah.
No problem.
Wow.
Yeah, yeah.
No problem.
But MAPS endabolic is less volume.
You're not going to be working out six days a week.
You'll be lifting three days a week.
that rest recovery is really where the magic is.
You're going to find that,
especially if you start replenishing your body with nutrients on top of that.
Everything is just going to accelerate.
Are you doing anything else?
You haven't told us to as far as exercise?
Are you running too?
No, actually, I'm going for daily walks.
Yeah.
That's all good.
I just want to make sure.
Yeah, MAPS endabolic, 50 grams of protein,
four meals a day, have other stuff in the meals,
and your strength is going to go through the roof.
and you're going to gain another 10 pounds of muscle.
No trip out.
No problem.
If you gain 10 pounds of muscle on split,
you're getting 10 on anabolic.
It's pretty crazy.
Yeah, yeah, because split is too much volume for most people.
That's an advanced bodybuilder routine where everything is like,
so anabolic, bump your calories, 200 grams of protein day.
If you hit that every single day with whole natural foods,
you got to chase it, I'll tell you that much because it's not easy.
like 200 grams of protein
doesn't happen on accident
so you'd have to like really go for it
and your strength can explode
your squat, your deadlift,
your bench, your overhead press, your rose.
Then you fall that up with power lift.
It's going to go through the roof.
Definitely don't allow yourself to be hungry, right?
When you feel that hunger signal kick up,
just go eat a full meal that's that's 40 grams of protein.
Like if you just, that's a simple way to handle this
is like if you're not good on tracking
or you don't like tracking,
it's like you're hungry, go eat
and go eat a meal that has 40, 50 grams of protein.
in it and just listen to your body.
But you may actually feel like
you're overeating. Yeah, I don't take it. Because you're
so used to under eating.
So that's why I'm saying
50 grams of protein four times a day with food.
And so what you want to do is this. You don't have to track and weigh everything.
But you get a good idea of what that looks like. Okay,
that's eight ounces of meat. Okay, now I know
what it looks like. That's what I'm aiming for. Whether it's
chicken, steak, fish,
that's what it looks like. You know, 50 grams of protein
for eggs, what is that? That's seven eggs, eight eggs
or something like that, 9-8.
So just get an idea of what that looks like.
And then eat that four times a day.
Follow maps anabolic.
If you're getting stronger, you're moving in the right direction.
And your wife's going to trip out.
She's like, what's going on over the whole thing, for sure.
And all the mental and the other positive, you're going to see all kinds of benefits.
More.
More. Yeah.
Energy will go up.
Strength will go up.
Libito will go up.
You'll probably sleep better.
You'll see all kinds of other positive benefits.
So more to come, buddy.
Excellent.
That's really exciting to hear.
And, yeah, it sounds like it's kind of solving my issues there in the back of my mind.
So I really appreciate that, guys.
Yeah, can we have you back on in a few months?
I want to see what happens in three months.
Oh, boy.
I'm like, now I'm even more excited.
I got a path here and some follow up.
I dig that.
Yeah, for sure.
I'd love to.
I'm going to anabolic the heck out of this next couple months here.
And, yeah, I'll be pounding those eggs.
I love it.
Track the weights because I can't wait to see the strength game.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm excited.
Phase one in particular, you're going to love.
Right on, guys. May I just bug you on one more quick question?
Yeah, yeah. Okay, so I have one kind of unique thing I'm trying to, as I'm thinking ahead in life, just like in training and stuff, and my wife and I were in a really good routine now.
But there's one mix up that kind of makes it a bit challenging throughout the years. Every year, we go, we visit her family out in Japan for about two months, and I have all my weights out here. I've got nothing out there. I've collected a kettlebell last time I was there.
but like in terms of the year
would you use that as an advantage to
like is there a way to train
if you have minimal like just okay
I'll say so map suspension
that's our program that you use a suspension trainer
and you can pack that in your suitcase
and that's your workout for the two months or over there
I want you to know though Kyle you do a good job
reverse dieting and hitting anabolic consistently
those two weeks no it's two months
or oh it's two months you're out there
Okay, so two months you're out there.
So you'll, yeah, map suspension will be perfectly.
Yeah, you'll preserve everything you've built.
Yeah, so we'll send you maps anabolic and I'll send you a code for map suspension
if you want to get that now ahead of time.
And that program is easy to, it's literally all you need is a suspension trainer.
Fits in your suitcase and then as long as you have a doorway or a tree or something, you're good.
Excellent.
Well, I'll definitely find one of those.
Yeah, great.
Yeah, yeah.
We got you.
Awesome.
Oh, this is so exciting.
Yeah, I'm going to, yeah, I'll see if my wife wants to do.
join me too.
Oh, yeah, it'll be great for both.
Yeah, it'll be great for both you guys.
We'll talk to you in a few months.
Right on.
Well, thanks again, guys.
Really appreciate it.
Love the podcast.
And, yeah, Doug, you do an awesome job too.
I know you're in there somewhere.
So, yeah, all the best to you guys.
He speaks Japanese too, by the way.
Oh, excellent.
Right on, guys.
All right, guys.
Yeah, thank you so much.
Thanks.
It was two months.
I thought he said two years.
Two months.
Oh, okay.
I was going to say,
he'll need something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Dude, so would tell, okay, so I knew right away.
Just for people listening, if you never strength train and you gain 10 pounds of muscle
and the first program you do is split, split's a great program, but it's too much volume
for most people, especially as a beginner.
And so he gained that because he's strength trained and finally fed himself a little bit
and stopped doing so much cardio.
Yeah.
You know, but MAPS Anabolic, if he gained 10 on split, he would have gained 15 to 18 on
on Maps Anabolic.
There's so much more potential for him.
Oh, I think he's going to gain every little bit.
I mean, if he can eat.
The hardest part,
you're right.
So, like the answer, like I said, was easy.
The hard part will be the mental block.
That's right.
That's right.
He has some reserves for sure.
But he, yeah, he has.
The other thing, too, is just so crazy how your childhood just, man, it just forms you
and shapes you.
Navigates you.
You deal with it for the rest of your life, you know, so.
But I'm glad he called us.
Our next caller is Chris from South Carolina.
What's up, Chris?
What's up, Chris.
Hey, how are you guys?
Adam Justin, Sal and Doug.
He's been a long time.
I've been watching since probably.
2016 or so.
Wow.
Wow.
You're like family then.
Yeah, man.
How can I help you, dude?
One of the originals, I'd like to say.
All right.
I'm just going to jump right into it.
I'm not a huge talker.
So I'm just going to read it right off here.
Listen to the show for years.
I've bought many of your guys' programs.
I've jumped in and out of them.
I'm really struggling.
I've yo-yo-dited my entire life,
gaining lost weight.
My heaviest before I enlisted in the military was
305 pounds and then I've gotten all the way down to 182 pounds.
I've lived in between that for the past 15 years.
My biggest show right now is staying compliant with military
heightened weight standards. They're very stringent when it comes to
a number versus a height. It's currently up for review though,
so they're going away from right now we do a neck to waste circumference
value in the Marines, but the whole Department of Defense or Department of War is going to
a height to waste ratio, which will lend a little bit better to me.
I'm six foot.
36 years old, I'm pretty run down.
Military has not been kind.
Separated my shoulder.
I've had compartment syndrome.
I have severe osteoarthritis in both knees.
Then IED explosion.
List goes on and on.
Most recently, I've dealt with a Morton aroma in my foot, and that plus the arthritis has really slowed me down.
I understand this is like very broad.
We do two different PT tests a year.
One is more endurance-based pull-ups, plank, and a three-mile run.
The other one's more quick-titch-type stuff, more up Justin's Alley.
I'm open to any suggestions you guys have.
I just want to get programming because, like I said,
bought tons of your guys stuff,
but it's always like it's either weightlifting or endurance,
and I've not ever learned the healthy cycle of both of them.
I really want to be happy and healthy.
Sitting right at 250 pounds at six foot right now.
Definitely not in a good shape that I've been in in my life.
I've hired coaches before.
I went with the dumb ones online, crush it, kill it, cut me down to 1,200 calories, and that's what I've been at.
One thing, too, maintain those height and weight standards, I have crashed dieted and fasted.
I know you guys ate me for it.
Don't fast for fat loss.
It doesn't work in the long run.
But, you know, I've powered through my, I've done probably two or three weeks where I wouldn't eat just to,
be within standards.
So really just throwing it out to you guys.
I know that's like way all over the place.
No, no, that's good.
I know exactly.
Yeah, I know exactly what to do with someone like you.
But first off, thanks for your service.
Thanks to support.
You know, it's what I do.
Listen, your discipline is your strength,
but it's also your weakness.
Because you have the ability to turn it on or turn it off.
And so it tends to be what you do, right?
You're like, okay, I got to make it happen.
and to hell with the pain, to hell with the hunger,
and I'm just going to make it happen.
That button, we need to stop hitting it, though.
It's not working for anymore.
It's caused injuries, and you're probably tired.
It sounds like you're tired of it.
You're tired of that on-off type of deal.
It would be real nice.
Like, even the join, like I told you before, I was 300 pounds.
I did the machinist diet can of tuna and apple a day to lose 60 pounds in a month,
you know?
I was all about it.
I'm still all about it, you know?
It's like.
Listen, listen.
Listen, dude.
You can do it.
You can do.
And I'm sure you do.
You're probably very coachable.
You just need the right coach.
You need the right coach.
Like, you're so coachable.
That would be the hope.
You're so coachable that I could be a crappy coach and they'll do what I say.
And you'll just follow.
Yeah, yeah.
Which is what I did.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You need a good coach.
You need somebody who knows what they're doing.
Yep.
Who's going to get you out of this cycle, prevent the injury, get you healthy, get you
fit and get you in a place where you don't do the cycling up and down anymore.
that's what you need.
I could give you the advice right now,
but it's a hard,
this is a hard cycle to break.
It's because you've been living here for a long time.
I mean,
how long have you been doing this up and down?
Yeah,
I'm going on 15 years this year.
Yeah, this is like part of who you are.
So pretty much, yeah.
You need the right coach, dude,
because I could give you the advice right now,
but this mentality that you have is what we need to work on.
Small steps.
It's going to take time.
It's going to take months of work,
and you're going to want to go harder.
what's going to happen?
Well, you know, if I gave you advice, coach you a little bit.
But can I turn it up?
I'm like, no, dude.
And you're going to need me in your ear kind of helping you through the process.
And then at some point, you'll see that it feels good and it's working.
Then you'll start to trust the process.
And then you'll develop a different behavior, different behaviors around.
Different relationships.
And relationship with all that stuff.
If we don't, if you don't have the right coach, you're going to be stuck here for a while.
It's going to be really hard.
I mean, I've heard it.
I've heard it from you guys time and time again.
It's like, I've always done it.
not to,
uh,
not with any help or anything,
just with me.
Like,
I'm,
I'm waiting for that like,
oh,
this is actually working.
And I've never had that feeling.
Yeah,
no,
I get it,
dude.
And what's,
what's hard,
you can,
though,
you can't.
Totally.
And what's hard
with someone like you,
I'll just tell you the challenge,
because I've worked
with people like you before.
The challenge is when we're doing things right,
I'm a fighting you to not do too much.
Yeah.
That's the constant conversation.
Yeah.
Is you're going to be like,
that's not enough.
And I'll be like,
dude,
chill.
This is plenty.
We're moving the right direction.
And a lot of this is diet.
And the other side of it is the overapplication of intensity.
But the hard part's probably the diet.
That's going to be the harder part.
That's typically the harder part.
The intensity part we can work with.
And there's going to be times you have to turn it up anyway because you are in the military.
And that's totally fine.
But the idea is to keep your joints healthy, having you feel good, be generally fit
so that you can turn it up when you need to not hurt yourself or drive.
yourself into the ground. Diet-wise
is going to be difficult because it's not going to be this
extreme. Yeah, well, the reason why the diet part's
hard is because we want you like in a Goldilocks zone
where there's not a lot of movement on the scale
and that mentally messes with people
like yourself who have the ability to like lose
30 pounds and 30 days. Because you've been able to do that before.
And so when you're coaching someone like you and you're like,
listen, you're right where I want you calorie-wise.
You're right where I'm at what we're doing.
And then you're going like, it's not moving.
We're not moving. And then that's the part we'll wrestle
with going through this process.
And then you just got to kind of surrender.
You got to surrender that to somebody you trust to kind of guide you through that process.
And then the light bulb goes off because then at one point you'll see it, you'll feel it.
And you'll go like, shit, this is the easiest effort I've ever put towards this.
And I'm at where and then you'll have this unlock.
But it's the coaching to get there and the handholding to get there of like just trust the process.
I got you.
I got you.
Let me lead you.
Let me lead you.
And then all of a sudden, the switch.
hits and you're like, oh, wow, this is a trip that I feel like I'm trying a quarter of what I've
tried in the past, yet I feel better, I'm stronger, I'm fitter, all the things. And then that
becomes sustainable. The advice you'll get is, you've listened to the show for a long time. So you're
not going to hear anything that's going to blow your mind. You're like, well, yeah, I know I should do that.
I know I should hit my protein. Okay, yes, I need a reverse diet. I need to strength train.
I need to work on mobility. I need to not overdo it. I need to focus on sleep. You're going to
hear all the stuff that you've heard
say on the podcast.
The key, though, the kicker is the
guidance, the coaching throughout the process.
Offload it.
That's it. Yeah. We need to offload
this somebody trustworthy that you know
has your best. If you're open to working with a coach,
if that's feasible for you,
I'll have our guy call you
and set you up.
But the advice you're going to get isn't going to be
like revolutionary. And I'm like, oh my God, never heard
before. You're like, okay, that
makes sense. And then you're going to check in with
constantly and keep open communication.
Like, hey, man, I feel like I got to do more.
Or I feel like I'm eating too much.
Or it's not moving fast enough.
And then just keep working with the coach.
And it'll take a few months, but in a few months you'll be sold.
In a few months, you'll be like, okay, this works.
I'm 100% open to it.
Like I said, I'm 36 years old and like, that's not old, but I feel old.
Yeah.
Well, you, bro, you're 36 with a lot of, you know, a lot of hardcore mileage.
doing a lot of crazy stuff to your body.
Yeah, dude.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we'll fix it though, Chris.
We'll fix it.
Yeah.
I'm 100% open to it.
And as long as I want to like your dudes,
because, like, I'm tired of the crush or kill it.
Like, you see everything on Instagram.
Like, I'm going to work with somebody that you guys.
Not only is that the worst, that's the worst for a guy like you.
Because you're the type of guy that will go do it.
You're the guy that go do it.
That's what makes it really bad.
Like, those guys are already bad, but most people don't do it.
Like, you're the guy who's like, okay, I'll got this.
that probably gets a little excited when they're like, you're working out twice a day.
You're going to eat 12 undercounters.
Oh, right.
Let's go.
Horrible, bro.
You don't need David God.
That's the worst guys.
Yeah, yeah.
We got good people.
We got good people.
They know exactly how to coach people the right way.
And very solvable, very, very solvable what you're going through.
Well, have them call you, Chris, and then we'll be checking in with you.
And then I'd love to have you back on the show after you've gone through it so you can talk about it.
Awesome.
I look forward to it, guys.
I appreciate everything.
And it's been, like, great.
Great watching, like growing up with you guys, feel like one of the five of y'all.
You got the four and I'm the fifth guy there, you know, watching your guys' transformation over a decade.
Dude, if you ever come to California, tell your coach and he'll have you come in and hang out of the studio.
We appreciate it.
I will.
You're part of the family.
Stop picking on Justin so much, on Adam.
I can take it, bro.
It's good.
It's good for it.
Justin's good.
It gives me ammo.
If we don't pick on him, he gets angry.
Destroy them with later.
Don't worry.
Yeah, dude.
Thanks, man.
All right, Chris.
I'm going.
See, brother.
Yeah, dude, that's the, it's literally, it literally's like all or nothing.
Yeah, yeah.
And I've trained people like that in the hardest part is to pull it back, dude.
I know.
Even in the workout, I would have clients like this.
In the workout, I'm fighting.
He'll run through a wall.
In the workout, I would fight with people like this.
I'm like, okay, you're done.
What do you mean?
I keep going.
The point that I was making why this is so difficult is because for 15 years,
he knows.
that he can turn it on and drop 40 pounds, like overnight.
To achieve the objective.
Yeah, he'll just not eat.
He'll have tuna and apples.
Like, he knows he's done all the crazy shit.
Yeah.
And so when you get a guy like that and you're like, hey, this is what you want to do.
And he's like, he's like three weeks in.
He's like, the scale hasn't moved.
Yeah.
I don't feel.
I know how to solve this.
Yeah, yeah.
And there's a part of it was just like, well, this isn't better than what I've done.
You know what I'm saying.
And so you're constantly.
But he feels it now.
Injuries.
I'm tired.
I feel old and beat up.
He's in the right place.
He's in the right place now of like, okay, surrender, let the coach take you.
We'll take good care of him.
That's right.
Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram, Mind Pump Media.
We'll see you there.
Thank you for listening to Mind Pump.
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