Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2821: If You're Not Doing THIS You're Leaving Gains On The Table

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

If you're only lifting weights to build muscle… you might be leaving serious gains on the table. In this episode, the guys break down why strength training alone isn't always enough, and how adding the right forms of cardio, mobility work, recovery, and even modalities like Pilates can actually improve muscle growth, performance, and longevity. They explain how your "gas tank" (cardiovascular fitness) can limit your strength, why mobility unlocks more muscle potential, and how tools like sauna use and recovery strategies can enhance results without overtraining. The conversation also expands into modern stress, community, and why human connection may be one of the most overlooked factors in overall health and resilience. Plus, they dive into new research on fish oil and mental health, and share some wild fitness and animal facts along the way.   The Spring Bundle: Symmetry ($187), Prime ($107), Advanced Training Techniques Guide ($47) all for $147 (over 50% off) mapsmarch.com This episode is brought to you by KION ! ⇨⇨go to ⁠getkion.com/mindpump⁠ 20% off, No code needed automatically applied at check out!   This episode is also brought to you by Troscriptions! ⇨⇨go to ⁠troscriptions.com/MINDPUMP⁠ Use code "MINDPUMP" for 10% off your first order   What does Seed Daily Synbiotic do for you? Supports benefits in and beyond the gut——yes, Seed will support ease of bloating, healthy regularity, but it will also support your gut barrier, skin health, heart health, and micronutrient synthesis. Note: Gut immune function is not "boosting the immune system." It is about supporting the 'cross talk' between your intestinal cells and your immune cells. ⁠seed.com/mindpump⁠ Code "20MINDPUMP" for 20% off your first month of Seed's Daily Synbiotic 00:00 Intro 00:39 Sponsors, Promotions & MAPS Bundle 01:55 You're Leaving Muscle Gains on the Table 06:01 How Cardio Actually Improves Strength & Performance 10:19 Using Cardio as a Strategic Tool (Not Constantly) 11:36 Mobility, Range of Motion & Unlocking More Muscle 14:39 Recovery Hacks: Massage, Sauna & Performance Boosters 17:06 Can Pilates Help Build Muscle? Programming for Goals 22:27 Fish Oil, Stress & Modern Health Problems 25:17 The Real Reason We're More Stressed Today (Community Loss) 33:08 Why Human Connection Matters More Than Fitness 45:16 Sleep, Supplements, Random Facts & Dad Life Stories

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump, Mind Pump with your hosts. Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Right, in today's episode, we answered live callers. People called in. We got to coach them on air.

But this was after the intro. Today's intro was 58 minutes long in the intro. We talk about muscle building. fat loss, personal training, current advance, family life. It's always fun. By the way, if you want to be a caller, here's what you do. Submit your question to MPLifecaller.com. Now, this episode is brought to you by some sponsors.

The first one is Keyon. They make high-quality supplements. Today, we talked about their fish oil supplement. There was a study that showed that using fish oil regularly, if you're under a lot of stress, will significantly improve the symptoms of stress. This is from fish oil. This is a double-blind placebo-controlled study that just got released. Kion has great supplements, which include fish oil.

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why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at MindpumpStore.com. I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to Mind Pumpstore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. You want to build muscle.

You want to speed up your metabolism. So you just lift weights. Here's a deal. You're leaving gains on the table. If that's all you do, let's go. Oh. Okay. You guys taking a guess where this is going to go?

Nutrition? Well, no, no, no. You're right. Yes, diet for sure. But I'm talking about other forms of exercise. Okay. Other forms of exercise that can really encourage or contribute to or foster the muscle building process of strength training. I mean, sure, that or other forms of exercise.

Okay. Think about this. So here's where this thought came from, right? Okay. There's lots of different ways of exercise. And they're all great for specific goals or adaptations. and the best form of exercise for building muscles is strength training. Like period, end of story.

Nothing comes close. Obviously, I don't think any need to make that case. But can other forms of exercise be used in ways to encourage or add to the muscle building process? Maybe not through the- Cardio, like in an indirect way? Why not? Yeah. Absolutely.

Think about that. Let's start there for a second because we've talked so much about how, like, really hard cardio training can send a competing signal, which is true, especially long bouts of cardio. Like you run lots and lots of miles and you lift weights and your goal is to build maximum muscle. The cardio is going to, that much cardio is going to take away from the muscle building process. But can a little bit of cardio help you build muscle through the strength training process? Well, that's the biggest argument that people try and counter when we talk about that.

So there's plenty of science to. support that building your cardiovascular gas tank feeds to your muscle building potential. Yeah. So, yeah, absolutely, there is some benefits to it. The, I guess the argument that I would continue to make that we've made on the show for a really long time is people tend to overdo that and underdo and leave basic strength training on the table. And there's, there's plenty to get from that well before you improve that.

And so it's this kind of, I don't know, delicate dance when I have that conversation with somebody of like, what do I want you to focus on? Like, I mean, yet personally, I do so that. I was on the dinabike just the other day doing the intervals. The assault bike? Yeah, the assault bike, right? To, you know, try and build my gas tank a little bit, you know. I only spent seven minutes on it or eight minutes on it. So I wasn't doing it for a long period of time.

Well, it's interesting about that too, because you're doing like hit style. Yeah. And so it is a bit like of a. fast twitch, like acceleration kind of stimulus, which your muscles do tend to respond to. And it's really it's like the amount of time and the duration and how you're like injecting that in your program. It really could then spark like a new stimulus for muscle. There's two ways that I can think about. One is through general health. If your health is not optimal and other forms of exercise might help with that, then that can help you build more

muscle, right? So if your, if your cardiovascular health is compromised for sure. And all you do is lift a few days a week and you just, you just don't have good cardiovascular health. That becomes the limiting factor. Now that starts to limit your capacity to strength frame. And overall health, not being so good. The other thing is, you know, cardiovascular activity increases capillary density and blood flow. And again, so long as it's not overdone, it can help. And look, I've experienced this myself, not so much recently, but in the past when I was real, like super, like hyper-focused on building muscle, there was a point there where my stamina was so bad and doing a little bit of cardio.

And I did a little bit of cardio because I noticed my, just to tell you guys a specific story, it was years ago. And we got into this competition at one of the gyms I was running. It was me, the fitness manager, and one of the top trainers there. And the competition was to see you can gain the most weight. over, I don't remember what period of time. And so we just went on this huge competition, see how much weight we could put on the scale.

So we were lifting and eating like idiots and just getting as big and puffy and we didn't care. Let's just see who can gain the most weight. And I remember one of my staff members was tease, we were all teasing each other. And one of them was like, I bet you couldn't even do a stationary bike

without getting gassed out. I'm like, yeah, right, dude. And I got on the stationary bike and I gassed out. And I remember feeling like, uh-oh, this isn't good. So I did a little bit of cardio for that, but then I noticed the benefit and the strength training.

Yeah. Now I didn't have to rest as long as it was in between sets. I felt like I could push harder in my sets. It became a limiting factor to what I was doing. And the little bit of cardio actually helped me build. Yeah, I noticed the quality of two of the output of those types of exercises and performing it. When you do have that type of like cardiovascular stamina that you've built, it doesn't take much, but it does contribute towards a better outcome and quality of your work.

Well, I have a really simple barometer that I've always used personally, which is when, when I'm, it never happens in upper body. But when I'm training lower body, if I'm training my legs and what's limiting me in the strain training routine is I'm gap my heart rate. Oh, yeah. My heart rate, I'm like, my heart rate is pounding so much from the set of squats or lunges or if I'm doing something back to back. And it's not like, oh, the muscles are fatigue, which is what happens when I train my upper body. If I treat my upper body, it's normally, chest is on fire, palms like crazy. I need my chest. But you're not so gas.

But I'm not gas. I'm not like, I'll do some leg workouts where I'm like grabbing my, and that. So that's my barometer of like, okay, this is where I can use, I can introduce some of that to get to get the gains out of that because that's my limiter. It's not my, my, my quads are, oh, we can't handle this anymore. It's like my heart is going, we can't handle this anymore. And now the argument, we've actually joked about this in the past, but I actually have a really break it down. Like the argument is, well, then just do practice higher reps and shorter rest periods for legs, which will build stamina. But I would surmise that you probably are better off being more efficient with how you build the stamina through cardio and then going back to traditional strength training.

Because you're right, Adam, you could do that and just push it and just be gassed out. But now your strength training is cardio for a while, right? But what if instead, because VO2 Max or quickly, quickly adapts. It adapts very quickly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I could easily do a couple. weeks of really short interval style training like you did on the assault bike. And very quickly, boom, I got the adaptation and my strength training, strength training. So, okay, so I just want to

make sure this is clear so that the audience doesn't think that you're flip flopping or were flip flopping because I still stand by the way we coach and talk to people in regards to this conversation. Yet, admittedly, I tell you how I, how I'm using it right now. And so you absolutely could just stay in a 15 to 20 rep range of, you know, strength training. And it will get there. You know what I'm saying? You'll get there. I think a hack is for the next week or two, I get on that dinabike for eight-minute blast.

Yep. And by week two, I'll already be able to handle some of that late. I noticed it in the first week. Yeah. So, so yes. Absolutely. I think that's, but again, this is how I've always used. Cardio to me is this intermittent tool.

Yeah. I'm rarely ever am I like all the time doing it consistently. It's like I notice things in my strength training. Boom, I'm going to do that. Oh, I've got something coming up. We're all need a little endurance. Boom,

I'm going to out in there. Oh, I'm getting ready to get leaned out for the next six weeks. Final two weeks. I'm going to use some cardio to like shred down. Like I've always used cardio as this intermittent thing that I pull in and out of my routine based off of that. And so I still stand by the way we've communicated the podcast because I think the way we've educated people that have been listening and I'm trying to learn. I think it's the simpler approach.

What you're talking about is a little more nuanced and advanced to understand. Well, I'm talking to the person that's already consistent lifting. Sure. As a little time. Most of the time when we're communicating this, it's like average person has a tough time stringing in two or three days a week in the gym. They don't have a lot of time. The number one goal is fat loss. What form of exercise should I do?

Yeah. Strength train. But there's a lot of people who strength train whose goal, and they do it consistently. And their goal is to build muscle. And because of that, they do nothing else. And in many cases, they may be leaving gains on the table because they're not doing other forms of exercise to augment the strength. Another example is like flexibility, mobility, you know, range of motion style training. Totally.

You know, like if you lack range of motion or you're tight, which can happen. It can happen if you strength train a particular way all the time. Could a modality like Yin yoga, could that make you better at strength training? Definitely could. A guy like me for sure. When I devote one day a week to deep stretching and let's say the sauna, I notice my strength training is better because my range of motion is better and I feel better. It's a good introduction to those new ranges of motion before we really start loading it up. And I think that's one of the big, I guess, like miss staps a lot of times is like we'll promote the message of full range of motion like squats, full range of motion exercises. and people have just done sort of that limited version,

and it becomes an entirely new exercise. And you can really, like, do more harm than good if you're not, like, really building that up and, you know, acquiring that type of strength support around your joints and that end range. But, like, if you start tapping into that, think about your muscles, like the potential, you're leaving how much percentage is, like, 20, 30% also you could gain

by really venturing into that. To put it differently, for most people who are looking for health, longevity, fat, like the typical goals. And most people who are like, I'm only going to be able to work out a couple days a week realistically. And I'm only going to pick one form of exercise. I'll stand by my guns and say strain training. But different forms of exercise are better at certain types of adaptations. Can you get endurance with strain training you can? Can you get more functional flexibility with strain training?

You can. But are there other forms of exercise that specifically for those things are a little better? Like, yeah, cardio will get your stamina faster. And there are forms of mobility, specific mobility training, specific forms of yoga, if you want to have like something that you can put a label. Like they're better at increasing ranges of motion in a shorter period of time. They're like little hacks, right? So you know who's good at this?

Jay Cutler was really good at this as a bodybuilder. I mean, he was famous for getting, and he made this kind of a popular thing to get really deep tissue massage, like painful deep tissue massage. And he said that this made him build more muscle because now they tried to explain it by saying you're stretching the fascia and that's probably not what's happening. What probably is happening, because deep tissue massage does help with recruitment patterns. It does help arrange a motion. It's just a different, you know, application. he noticed it in his workouts and he got better pumps. Oh, I stand by that the timing that I made my run doesn't work the same.

I don't have the same successes I had without Katrina's dedication to massage me at that time. That's right. I mean, that was an early period of mind pump and she wasn't full time working for us. And so she had time to massage me almost daily. and to get those massages, like, I still have... And it wasn't the, like, foo-foo. No, no, she's a sports massage. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And obviously, that's one of her gifts, right? That's what she did. She did her whole career, her whole family, right? They had the only school in the Bay Area. Like, they taught it. Like, so she's really good at what she does. Her whole family is. And I...

The way it sped up recovery was insane to me. And I have such a good gauge because I know it was like before. I know it was like during and I know it was like after of, like, what that feels like. And I've just never been able to handle that level of volume of training as I was able to handle while she was still doing that.

And so, and I know there's other factors that played a role too. Like my calories were much higher than what they were before too. That helps to go. But it's dramatically different what it was. It wasn't just that, you know?

Another example is like sauna use. Studies will show that sauna use post exercise boosts endurance of V-O-2 max more than if you didn't do that form of exercise. So using a sauna post-workout studies on this are pretty interesting, will boost V-O-2 max more than not doing the sauna. And the sauna is a hack in that sense because it's not stressful on the body. Is it just the core warming up as a signal that it's like emulating, you know,

some kind of cardiovascular movement? A little bit. Yeah, a little bit. Vasodilation. It helps with endothelial health, increasing blood flow. The heat is a bit of, you know, stimulates heat shock proteins. I mean, we could try to break it down. I can't wait until my son gets it.

My son's getting done literally right now. Right now? Yeah, as we speak right now, it's getting all set up right now. No, it's awesome. I can't wait. It's awesome. Are you good about using yours? Are you, how consistent?

Not mine. My wife uses ours. Yeah. But when I go to, when I go work out, I almost always use it. I'm surprised you're not religious without having it at your house. When I'm home, I'm home. And I don't want to like, like, you know, I'm not working out or taking time in the sauna or anything like that. So it's typically in the morning, because I'll do it in the morning before I come here to work.

And then so it's like three days a week or something like that. Yeah, I guess that makes sense because you get your lift so early and then you're, that's it. You're like, you're like, you're just a nice combination because I do it, you know, post workout. Yeah. Have you considered doing it with your, your one week on, one week off and like making that part? I definitely do it more on the weeks I don't live. Yeah, because I feel like that would be a great. I spend more time.

I spend more time in there. Another form of exercise, here's a good one that, because we've kind of pooped on this one for a while, is Pilates, is could I think of an application of Pilates that would help with strength training? I do, because of its end range stability that helps build. You know where Pilates might be a phenomenal application with strength training? This dawned on me earlier today as I was thinking about this segment of the podcast

is, because I'm thinking about all the different modalities of exercise. I'm like, would there be benefit to this? Would there be benefit to that? Is there any place for this? One of the hardest clients, types of clients I ever trained ever were people with hypermobility. Hypermobility is so different.

A lot of it was hard because it goes, you have to train them in a counter way to what you normally would do. So some of hypermobility is like super crazy range. You limit their range. You have to limit the range of motion. And because if you go to their full range of motion, injuries like they're going to get hurt.

They're just lax. Everything's relaxed. Pilates with its short, you know, kind of pulsing, you know, exercises at end ranges of motion would be excellent for somebody with this hypermobility who's strength training, who finds that they get injured when they go astograss and squats and stuff like that. You're really trying to condition them to become more rigid. That's right. In those ranges of motion.

And it would be something because with hypermobility, the limiting factor to strength gains for them, oftentimes is pain. And it's tough because everything they see on social media. is like, here's a full range of motion. I think I can make an argument in a case for almost every modality you're thinking. Exactly. You're thinking about. The reason why we, and I'm sure right now people are all scratching their heads because

you're saying all these positive things on Pilates, you're saying all these things about cardio. The reason why we don't is the nuance that comes with that. Rarely do I meet somebody who I think has the perfect balance of Pilates to their strength training routine and everything else that they're doing. They're all in on Pilates. And their goals. Or the person who utilize. who utilizes cardio to increase VO2 max so that they can then get more out of their workout is a cardio junkie. It's like, or the, you know, so it's like, or the person that is into yoga.

We're just talking about anomalies. They call themselves a yogi and they do it three to five times a week and little to no strength training with traditional, right? And so, you know, it's, it's tough to on a podcast without this specific. This is why if you're really always, really interested in my opinion on our strong beliefs on all these different modalities that people ask direct questions like that we answer generally is listen to our live callers. Because now we're talking to a specific.

Yeah, because we just had a live caller the other day that I remember, I specifically remember telling her like, oh yeah, do your Pilates because she loves Pilates but also listen to the show and hears what we're talking about with Strain Training. So it was like, I think we were prescribed her two days a week of full body strain training one day of her Pilates and then encouraging walking

the rest of the time. And so, you know, when you have a close, client who's sitting across from you and they tell you they love this thing or they feel so good when they do it, I would never tell them, never do that or oh, that sucks or it's terrible for you. It's like, especially when they're moving their body, they enjoy it. It's like, they're going to repeat it. That's all factored in. But if that same person is like, I do Pilates three, four times a week and my goal is to build my butt. I want to build my butt. And I wish I had a little more shape to my shoulders. Like, I want to lose some body fat. Well, it's like, well, listen, when it comes to

reducing body fat, sculpting your butt, sculpting your shoulders. That's not the best form. This doesn't mean that you have to get rid of it, but I'm saying that why don't we use the right tool for the thing that you're telling me about will still include the thing that you love a lot because I don't want you to lose that.

I think that's important. And so the prescription looks something like that. Two days a week, full body strength training, do your one week of Pilates that you love to do and it has lots of benefits. But now the majority of your work is utilizing the tool that's best suited for the things that you're telling me to.

And you said back to me, my body's perfect. I don't want to change it. It looks exactly how I want. I love my body fat percentage way it is. And I really love doing Pilates, but I hear you guys talk shit about Pilates. Well, don't stop it. Keep doing it. You have the aesthetics you want.

You feel good. You love doing the thing. But it's people come to us with specific goals. And then they want to shoehorn it into the class that they love or the modality that they enjoy. And it's like, okay, well, you've got to pick and choose. Either do the thing that you'd love and just and love it. and enjoy the benefits that it gives you, or if you really want the thing that you're telling me

and describing to me this look or this performance or whatever it is, and then I tell you that's not the best tool for it. Don't get defensive like I'm attacking your modality. This is the beauty, I think, in art of coaching and personal training, is that there's lots of nuance and conversation, and it's, depending on the question, you can have a very specific question for a specific goal,

and then I'm going to give you a specific answer. But it doesn't always apply to everybody because people have different goals, different personalities, and there's different applications. And so I just thought, you know, there's probably a segment of people listening who are super diehard strength training, which is great, that's me, who might be leaving progress on the table because they're not using these other modalities to augment. And you could definitely augment strength training with other forms of exercise and find that strength training to become. far more effective. So I got a study for you guys on fish oil that Max Lugavir just posted. Oh, really? Yeah, which is really cool.

Relatively new or what? New one. Okay. A new randomized double blind trial found that taking omega-3s daily for three months significantly improved stress, anxiety, depression, sleep quality, and everyday memory in adults with psychological distress. So people who are stressed, who have a lot of stress in their life either due to work or sleep issues or kids or whatever,

taking a daily intervention, 500 milligrams of EPA, 250 milligrams of DHA, improved nearly every psychological measure that the researchers tested. Interesting. What a, just a wonderful, inexpensive,

healthy supplement that you can take that will help your brain. By the way, it's also great for your blood lipids. It's great for muscle function, overall health, longevity. It's like one of those things that's probably, for most people, I would say it's in the top.

It's in the top 10 for sure. A lot of people are deficient. Well, it seems like we're moving more and more in that direction with the type of stress that people deal with. It's so funny how as a society we've flipped in the last hundred years. We were much more closer related 100 years ago to like how we originally evolved, which is the line. Acute stress. Yes, acute like, war! You know what I'm saying?

Like, this is like crazy, right? Stuff like that. I mean, but today it's not like that. It's political drama and just staring at your screen and intaking all this negativity and political divisiveness. Like it's this low level chronic stress all day, all the time that I think people don't perceive as bad because it's not as scary as a bomb's coming, you know, but it's more, it's consistent at all the time. It's so wild you're going there. So before I do, though, I want to recommend. men that people, because fish oil isn't all the same quality.

Oftentimes, it's rancid. It's not high in, you know, the... Keyons. Keyon is the best. They have really, really good fish oil, super high quality. So people listening, because you can go to the grocery store and get... You do that poke test. Yeah, dude, if it smells fishy and, like, it's probably rancid.

And you can go to the grocery store and get, like, their brand. You can buy fish oil anyway. It's not the same. It's not the same. So, all right. It's wild that you just said that, Adam. Because I was just listening to a book today. that talked a little bit about that.

Yeah. And I think what we've been doing is placing the blame on the type of stress and not on something else that's been missing in our life that we used to have that made us so resilient.

So it's not the stress as much, which we're pointing to. You know, this low level constant stress, people texting me, emailing me, I'm busy all the time, you know, versus back in the past, like you said, you saw a line. I know where you're going.

I'm going to, I'm going to... So it's, okay, so trip off this. So here's what led me down this rabbit hole. So there's this like interesting phenomena that was studied with war veterans. So people would serve and when their time was up, they'd go home and a significant percentage of them would reenlist to go back. And they were studying this and like, what? Why would you want to go back to living in the barracks, eating military food, potentially being in danger. Why would you trade being at home or being in society?

Like, what's going on? And so what they found was it really had to do with, I'm going to loosely label it as community because they had community. So here, this is what I wrote. I literally, this is a quote from the book, okay? And there was a researcher. I can't remember his name. I'm going to find his name for.

you guys. He's an American researcher Japanese name. And I think I was telling you about it today, Doug. Wasn't I giving you a little bit of his name? Yeah. So I'll get his name here in just a second. Here it is. His name is Shinya. Let me see. I can't remember. Shinya something. I'll find it. But anyway, he did a big study on this, and this is a quote. He said that in modern societies, people now pursue what are called duty-free relationships. So duty-free relationships are like relationships that don't require a lot. More like an acquaintance. Yeah, it's like we're buddies, we're friends.

It doesn't require a lot of responsibility and help. We're not like doing life together. It's just like, hey, what's going on? And then I'm isolated. And that's it. Yes. So these relationships and they also are pursuing subjective forms of well-being, which are based on things like self-esteem and the verification of the individualized

self. And they're discarding interpersonal forms of well-being based on social support and community. So what they find in these studies is when you have real community and connection, where you're actually doing life with people where people know about your challenges, not just the surface stuff like we hang out on the weekend here and there, but like actually we're helping each other. We become very resilient, like super resilient. So you look like older societies where like, you know, World War II, you know, London getting bombed.

It's a lot more intensive of a relationship for sure. It takes more work. It takes a lot more work. but the payout is much greater, I'm sure. And I've heard that from veterans that, you know, it's like they leave their brothers out there, and it's like they just long to be back with them. It's like a purpose that's not matched, you know,

in civilian life. His name is Shigahiro Oishi, who wrote this. And he talks about how it's just kind of organized this way. And I think a lot of people can kind of relate. Like, a lot of people that live in neighborhoods, especially out here in California. Like, you don't really know your name. neighbors, you might say hi to them or whatever.

Yeah. But back in the day, like you did life together. And if your kids would go to the neighbor's house and then you guys will help each other and someone's sick and let's all bring them food. Now the drawback of that, I guess you could call it a drawback, which is what we all run from is they know your business. And, you know, you want to kind of be like left alone or whatever. I mean, people used to knock on people's doors without calling.

Yeah. They were just not, hey, what are you doing? Come on. If someone knocks on your door now without calling, you're like, what the hell? Yeah. Like, don't answer the door. Nobody texts me first. going and borrow stuff from your refrigerator?

Yeah, dude. What was open? So what he's saying is that modern societies, which is focus on individual pursuits and this kind of like individualized kind of society, he's like, we live in, and now we live in societies where the majority of the people that you run into are strangers. The vast majority are strangers. I mean, social media is like the junk food of connection. Totally.

You know, and personal connection with neighbors and relationships is like the slow way of cooking real food. Yeah. You know, it takes time. Work. Yeah, it's work. It's effort. You know, it's like, but it's, it's way better when you do, you know. But I think that's just what has happened.

And it's so quick and easy to just. And it's funny because I think the younger generation that they grew up with it thinks that they're more connected. because at the touch of their phone screen, they can be talking to their friend who's a stayed away or at all times they can be DMing back and forth throughout the day and not see them. But there's something that's missing. Without that human touch.

I mean, obviously, we feel strongly about this with the decision of the business in the last year of just we're going to, it's like there's going to be a clear divide. There's going to be people who are going to say, just like there is with junk food, right? They're going to be like, who cares? I like the way it tastes. It's easier.

They don't know my drama, my personal issues. Like, I don't care. I'm going to, and they're going to go all in on that direction. And there will be other people that value the whole foods and the slow cooking process and that and go like, I want human connection and places in my life where I can do it the old fashioned way or get reconnected to a human. I'm going to. And I'm willing to even potentially pay more money for that and do that. And I think that we're heading very quickly in that direction where most things will be like, I mean, we were talking off air. And so curious to continue that conversation.

Like, you know, we think that personal training happens to be one of those professions that you really value the interpersonal connection. Like, in fact, so much that you can be kind of an okay trainer. But people keep coming to you. But people keep coming to you and they love you. And what I mean by okay. And what I mean, what I should define. let me define okay better because you would still be a good trainer. You're just good in different way.

Like you're not the most educated. They don't have the best programming. Yeah, you're not the most knowledgeable, but you're likable. And people like coming to you, which is probably the number one trait a trainer can have is to be likable. You could have a decent business. Now, throw in some experience and some real serious knowledge and you become extremely valuable. but what professions do you what else do you see like that

and what other ones do you not see? One of the things that we were talking about because I know your family is deeply in the finance world. It's like... And they're so mad whenever I believe. I know they are, but it's just like I'm with you on this.

Like, I don't give a shit about my finance guy so long as he brings me back more than 9% you know what I'm saying? It's just X as he knows. He could be a dick. He could be like, it's so impersonal to me. And but it's like, yo, we did 13% last quarter. I'm like, all right, keep going, guy.

You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't. Well, the argument I made to them was I said, you know, when you work with a person, because they're like, oh, personal training, AI is going to be. And I said, listen, every time you work out with a trainer, you spend an hour with them. Every time you work out. Every time you make a trade, your client isn't sitting with you hanging out for an hour. You might meet with them once a quarter. Yeah.

You might have to do it in your sleep. Well, listen, just to play out their argument, I don't disagree that there will be some people who are like, I just want the result. That's right. Tell someone to check all my all my aura ring. track all my data, tell me what I need to eat today, and that's all they want from it. But I'll tell you something right now from someone who trained a lot of clients and been in this before a long time, 80% of the clients aren't that. 80%, you felt more like a therapist and a friend. That's right.

And so, yeah, the 20%, there's a 20% that were like, yo, Adam, I got 18 weeks, we got to look like this, I got to do this, tell me exactly what you do, don't do. That guy probably does pay for an AI that's a quarter of the price of what I would be charging to get layout the perfect blueprint for what he's going to do and he's going to fall to. But that is such a small percent of your, of the client. I'll argue this, that in a society that's just running towards, you know, lack of community. Because where do people find community now, right? It used to be your neighborhood, your church, what is it? You're like city, you know, meetups or whatever. Yeah, like that doesn't really happen anymore.

I believe gyms are going to be a great place to find it where you have great culture. You know everybody. You work with your trainer. anything people are going to be and because people are so still they still want to look good what was it they still want to get fit they're still going to go in that direction what was it Arthur Brooks said the other day I heard him say something as the first time I'd heard him say that that what activism replaced oh it was something around huh probably motherhood no it wasn't motherhood it was something else I wish I remember what I want to say it was it

was either church it was something more related to church community that direction because you have this sense of belonging towards a better, of higher cause. And so that's like why there's such a high level of activism is because there was such a low level of that. I wish I remember, but the way he articulated was the first time I'd heard him say that. I'm like, oh, I got to remember that.

That was a really interesting conversation. But it's really interesting, again, to look at like, because I've already been kind of looking at this research and it just keeps confirming it. Like, what is it about stress? Why are we suffering from all these effects of stress? Is it because we're bombarded with stress? And the old, I guess the old message was it's the type of stress and it never goes away.

And I think that's part of it. But then you look at the data and you see some people are just really resilient. And it's like, why are they so resilient? And it's because they have tight community and a higher sense of purpose. And suddenly they can handle way more stress. And I got to tell you this, my dad, the way he grew up, they didn't have social media. they didn't have constant reminders but he didn't grow up without stress

I'm gonna tell you right they were poor No it was he was working since he was nine Sometimes they didn't have food Like that's really deep stress You build up your tolerance just like a muscle But he but he speaks so fondly about growing up Because that community was really tight You know where he grew up was really tight

Everybody knew each other And we're with each other All the time and it just makes you super resilient And I think that's the big problem There's other so many factors too I shared a clip from that minimal podcast about isn't it wild how we we have the the poorest person has more than what kings and queens had oh yeah just because it didn't even exist right and so you know and so the real

secret is is appreciating and loving what you do have versus always focusing on what you don't have and i think that the haves has happened so fast for us and for so long that like people have become numb to like going like do you know that literally just like what a few hundred years ago, having warm water when you wake up every morning before work was like mind-blowing. The fact that we like- This place in the world, where that's still the case. Yeah.

Like, that's crazy. That's crazy that almost almost everybody has that as like a base necessity thing that they have, which that would have been the ultimate luxury at one point is to have you turn on a faucet and instantly every, because every morning you got to bathe their shower. Most people probably been doing that for a very long time. you just walk over and you at your your house that's so small or doesn't have this or doesn't have that only has one television in what you know what my dad was a teenager like 15 16 and he at the time he's like deep into work so he's like full working whatever his mom would warm up

water and fill up a bathtub and just keep filling it with pots that's how I used to do it until it was warm and then he jokes about it but he goes we would all use the same water yeah and we'd start with the baby and we'd end with the dirtiest person which typically was me or my dad because we were working. So it's like the baby, then the next person, the next person. Then you end up where you go ahead and just dump the 30-as-old. Because he can't keep having warm water. They can't keep having warm water.

But yeah, it's really interesting because my friend Chuck really talks about this. He's good at this because he's done lots of mission work. And so he's gone to places where he doesn't know anybody. And he talks about this. Like, you got to go do work. You got to go and actually make friends. You have to go and be a part of the community. It doesn't just happen by accident.

Yeah. You have to go and he actually talks about this. He's like, oh, yeah, I see some people that I'm like, I want to be that person's friend. And I would like consciously put the effort in to be their friend and build community. Nobody really does that anymore. I think we just kind of like, except to fall into it.

We're also, you're, I mean, we're, you're, you're talking from a place of being in the Silicon Valley, which is probably the worst. One of the worst. Yeah. Because there's places in the, I mean, even in my little pocket neighborhood. Didn't you say, who was it that you know that lived? My sister, my sister.

My sister lives in the, like, deep part of. or mid, middle of Texas and out in the middle of nowhere. And like the whole neighborhood every Friday is on the front lawn, like the whole neighborhood. And they all barbecue and they got their little lawn chairs. They fold out and everyone's just kids are running around on their bikes all over the place. And that's like every Friday. Like every Friday it's a thing that everyone's doing and it's normal.

And it's not like you needed an invite or a flyer goes out. It's like it's just expected that. Feeds your soul. Yeah. And so there's communities like that. I mean, like I like I, like I, I feel really cool about the place. I'm in a little cul-de-sac.

A lot of people, all of my neighbors are older, but they all go out and do their own yard, and they all know each of they. One of my neighbors has eggs. He comes over probably once every other week and drops off extra eggs to us. I got another neighbor that, you know, older. Anytime we see ambulance or anything coming in and out there with his wife,

one of us is over there asking if we can take someone. So there's that, I mean, that's also what drew me there, right? So, like, because you don't see that. I also have lived in many houses before that. that I live there. I remember our condo that Katrina and I lived in when we first got together or shortly after. I lived there for two and a half, three years.

And I never met anybody. Any neighbor next to me. And we were connected. Our homes were connected. Yeah. How great. Like we literally could walk outdoors. It's like five feet away.

And like I didn't know their name. Like nothing. It's like a total commuter mentality. Like even the schools. Like when I was at saying, stayed, it was like you just show up, you do your thing, and you piece out. Yeah, and nobody's staying to hang out. And like the only ones are the artificially manufactured ones, like the fraternities and sororities, like, that's the only way you could like build any kind of community there.

That's just like kind of a conundrum here in this area. I was thinking too while I was listening to this study, I was thinking of like my own tendency. And I think this is natural for people because I'm like, you know, why are we moving away from it? If it's so good for us, why did we move away from it. And I think it's because it takes work. It takes work. Like to give you an example, if something's happening to me personally and I'm struggling, right? And you come up to me, when you guys come, hey, Sal,

what's the matter? I don't want to talk about it. Leave me alone. And I genuinely want to be left alone. Yeah. But then as a good friend, you see something, you're going to kind of corner me. No, no, man, you've got to talk about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I might be resistant. And I don't want to talk about it. But then afterwards, like, man, that felt good. So I don't think it's just that. Sal, I also think that it falls in line with a lot of the other things that I try and defend

with where we're currently at. We haven't seen the fallout enough yet to course correct. So we're still in the middle. I mean, iPhone's been out for what, 20 years? Hasn't been that long? Really? Is it 20? Actually, I think so.

Two decades already. Yeah, yeah. But that's not a long. That's not a lot. I mean, two decades is not a long time. First of all, it took the first five years before people started. to really even adopt it. So it's really only 10, 15 years

that everybody has kind of adopted it, right? And social media came, what, maybe five, 10 years after that? So 15 years, somewhere on there. So we're, and we're, and it's just now becoming a conversation, you know, I mean, to the point where when I was first bringing it up just, what,

eight years ago, tease, nobody knew about those books. No one was talking about that stuff. So the fallout hasn't come. And there's not enough communication and there's not enough to see like, oh, wow, this shit's kind of messing us up. you extend that out another decade or two

and it'll course correct I think that people will be like oh wow like and it starts I think it's starting to happen I think Gen Z's kind of figuring it out a little bit with if you see what kind of they're trying to do I think so too yeah I think they're all kind of like okay we need to like

hang out with each other millennials really had the worst because they grew up with it right in the middle of yeah to the point where I remember hearing things that were like if you don't learn it or you don't figure it out, you'll be left behind.

And so it was this idea of like, oh, give your kid this tool right away so they could figure it out because everything's going to be. And there was some truth to that. Everything is built off of that, is surrounding around that. And the kids that don't know it really inside and out probably are doing okay, business-wise, related to that. But we didn't know what the ramifications of that were long-term. And I think we're starting to piece that together.

I think so. Extended out. And I bet you you see more and more. I agree. I think so. I was going to ask you, Adam, as you were talking, I remember what you were saying off air about the calm and sleep from prescriptions? Yes.

Dude. So I tried it too. Have you tried it? I haven't tried that. I've been doing the methylin blue quite a bit, though. Bro, fire. Yeah. It's fire.

Yes. Yes. It's actually really, like, effective. What was the name of? So the sleep one is. No, no, no. The doctor who we had on. Oh God.

I know he hasn't aired yet, Doug. I want to... Dr. Scher. Let me get his name here. Thanks. Because his episode hasn't aired. It's got... Dr. Scott Scher.

I think he's how he pronounced his last... So Scott. It was Scott. That's how I was looking. Just his first thing. Sure. I'm not sure. So...

Dr. Scott Scher. Yeah, there is. Actor, he came on the show. One, it was great interview. So look forward for the audience to hear that one. Lots of good information. So good. Yeah, really, really good.

And set me up with a stack. He knows, obviously, I've been working on my... sleep. And so I've been sharing my sleep score. So people have been seeing I've been, I first time in my life I've ever hit 90s. So I've had two 90 now. So I've had a 90 to 92. Legit. So I consistently are in the 80s, which in the past never was hitting in the 80s. I still have my occasional. If I had alcohol like four or five nights back and that did disrupting my sleep. I had not the greatest score. But man, that stack, like you feel it. Like I, I'm such a

fan of supplements that you know me. I'm so skeptical. Yeah, you guys really feel it. Yeah, yeah. Like, there's not a lot of things where I'm like, oh yeah, I feel that. It's, and it was measurable on your heart. Very measurable.

Yeah, so I did the, so the calm and the immune one have an extract or compound from corticeps. It's good for immune system, but it also increases REM sleep. So I did just that. I think it was immune. So it's not even supposed to make you sleepy. In fact, you could take it before you work out for athletic performance. You could also take it before.

bed because it boosts REM sleep. And I definitely woke, wake up more rested. So I took a half of the calm. And it's called a torch, right? Trokey. Trokey. I don't want to say TOR. I want to say TROC. TROC. What is TROC? What does it mean? That you can do a subling. Is that what that means? A trokey is something that dissolves in your, in your life. But you could just swallow it too. Yeah. So I took, but it hits faster if you if you did. So I did like that. It does have a, you mean, it has like a mouth numbing feel to it. So I took a half of the calm and then the sleep, I think I took a full. And within 30 minutes, I felt like, ooh. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, it was nice. So it was really nice. And I had a great, I had a good, good sleep too. So I am definitely a fan of the product already. And I know, and a fan of him.

I really enjoyed that podcast. So that was a really good one for sure. I learned something really interesting. the other day and then I confirmed it with a friend of mine. So I was out to dinner with my friends Griffin and Katie and they have a son who's autistic. So have you guys heard of autism fever? No. Fever? No. So parents will report this and there's studies on it.

And I confirmed it with them. So parents with children with autism will notice that when their kids get a high fever, their symptoms of autism, like almost. go away. Oh, interesting. Wild. Look it up, Doug. Type in autism fever.

I've never heard of this. Yes. And so I brought it up. We were at dinner and they were talking about their kid. They're great, great parents. They're awesome people. Griffin is like,

bro, he's like one of these people I could talk to and get like super deep on pretty much any topic. He's like one of those guys that like will have a quote from a book for every conversation. He also loves conspiracy theories. So if you ever meet him, Justin.

Yeah. Oh, he's on that level. But we're all talking and I'm like, oh, I read about something called autism. fever and his wife looks at me and she goes, oh, it's a real thing. She goes, when my son has a high fever, suddenly he's talkative, he's making eye contact, he's like, yeah. And so they don't know why. They don't know why or what's going on in the brain that causes that, but it's this, it's a,

it's a documented phenomenon. And I think it's so interesting. And I'm like, like, what is happening during a fever that makes a, so is the, with an autistic kid, is, is a, with an autistic kid, Isn't the brain like hyperactive? Good question. I don't know. I don't know. And autism is such a wide spectrum. You wonder if it kind of shuts down a certain...

Like it down regulates or something like that because you're got a high fever or something or something like that, maybe slows that down or something? I don't know, dude. I don't know. I'm not able to cast right now. But recent research suggests fever causes immune cells to release molecules like IL17A, which interact with a specific brain region. involved with social communication.

That's what it is. So you would think that you would take like a peptide or something that would release it. Well, I think that they're researching this. Yeah. And it could potentially lead to a treatment. Wow. It was just wild to meet someone.

It was like, oh, she's like, that's crazy. She goes, he gets a high fever. And suddenly he's like, that's wild. It's like his symptoms are gone. How crazy is that? Yeah, my little nephew. Way crazy. I can imagine having an autistic kid

and then all of a sudden that when they're sick and then they're like. All of a wake. Can communicate. the better than the other can. Weird. Totally. I know.

Interesting. That's super interesting. That's super fascinating. Something else that's interesting that I learned about animals that Justin loves this stuff. Yeah, dude. Hippos. Do you know what body fat percentage hippos have? Because I think they look like they're chunky.

No, they're like huge, muscular animals. Bro, they're 5%. No. Yes, they are. 5% body fat? Over 65% of their body mass is muscle alone. Just for context. No, so.

The average man is 40% lean muscle. So they've tons of muscle and they're big animals. Well, I mean, they're literally the most vicious, violent animal. And strong. If you pin them against anything, they'll win. So I'm like, yeah, but they look chubby. It's because most of their body fat is in their super thick hide. So they have really thick skin that protects them.

Yeah. So they look kind of like they're, you know, like chubby animals. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, but it's not. I looked up a picture of a hippo with the skin peeled off. So it's just, they're just, bro, it's just their, their muscle machines. Yeah. They're super.

If you look up a picture of a hippo He's thick. Without their skin, like they could do like a drawing of one. Bro, it looks like a, it's a tank, dude. I have some. 5% body fat. 5%, dude. I have some animal news for Justin.

You know how much sperm that a whale ejaculates? You mean semen. Sperm is what's in the semen. I heard you say this story. It's disgusting. 40 gallons. A few whale, 40 gallons. Dude, why is that making a vomit?

I don't, that's so much. 50 gallon drum. That's crazy. I wonder if it's a lot at once or it's a long time. What would your guest be? I feel like this is a challenge. Doug, you got to Google this. Doug, look up a blue whale ejaculate.

Yeah, is it you think it's a, do you think it's a long period of time? Like jackass. Or you think it's a lot at once? No, I think it's a lot. At one time. Yeah, because a whale, it's a blue whale. That's the biggest animal in history that we know of. And so a blue, a female blue whale,

you know, it's probably got a big, you know, vagina. I feel like that'd be like the worst episode of Fear Factor ever. This is your best way of sciencey yet. I know you have a blue whale? Have you ever seen them talk about how big a blue whale penis is? It's gigantic, bro. Okay, show up. Doug.

How big of a blue whale penis? Go to have you never Googled this. Yeah. He's actually like, I don't know where to search. Is it the biggest of all animals? It has to be the biggest animal. I don't know. So this is, yeah, this is pretty interesting.

Blue Well's semen capacity is enormous with estimates reaching up to 475 gallons when fully emptied. So they do not necessarily ejaculate all of it at once. Thank goodness. Anyway. Yeah.

It's excessive. Yeah, as you say. That's disgusting. 40 gallons of it. Sometimes you get like seawater in your mouth. Stop, Justin. Yeah, that was actually the mean that I... So by the way, their penis is 2.8 meters long.

How many feet is that? Because we don't... Well, so it's like, probably 10 feet long. No. Between 8 and 10 feet, yeah. That's how big their wing is? Yeah, so a meter is a little bit longer than a yard, which is three feet. So you can multiply that by 2.8 by 3 around 9 or 10 feet.

Wow. Wow. That's a mad hog right there. Hey, are you, this weekend? You had your first soccer game. Oh, my son. Dude, it's the funniest. Watching five-year-olds play soccer is.

It's hilarious. Well, so my son, he's so cute, right? He's kind of like anxious or whatever, but he's doing it. And they start the game. And he's running. Like, he's running, okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he'll run towards the ball, but as soon as the ball gets close to him, he runs away.

Yeah, dude. And it's funny, too, because the ball would get near him, and he'll look in another direction and just run. And I'm like, is he scared of like, does he not know what to do? Is he like afraid to like engage? Yeah. So like the whole game was him running around the ball and away from the ball. And then if the ball accidentally got close to him, he'd run in the other direction.

And I'm like, the ball, focus on the ball, hit the ball. And he's just running around. Yeah, because you always see a cluster. Like there's no actual positions at that level. Like everybody just, you know, moves with the ball. wherever it goes. No, no, it's not like he's like, you know, sometimes kids will go play in the grass. No, no, he's just, he's running.

But he's just running. That was Ethan. He was just like, like, ooh, a bee, you know, then he'd find a stick and be like, ooh. Get to the ball! It's just funny because I sent you guys a video. The ball comes, and he just runs away. It makes a big circle around, and then it comes back away.

Oh, ball's going to be near me. Walk around around. I'm like, get the ball, get the ball, get the ball, get the ball. And it's just, yeah, and afterwards, you know, I don't want him to feel bad or anything. And so I'm like, hey, and so his mom is really good. Jessica's really good because she's like, at first I was like, does he know? Yeah, maybe he's just not. Maybe he doesn't know.

But no, she called it. She called it. She says, I think he's, he doesn't, he's scared to engage with the ball because he doesn't want to be the one to do it or whatever. The pressure of it. Yeah, I think that's what it is because he's, he's paying attention, but he's like, he's obviously avoiding. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, wait till it unlocks for him because he's that kid. He, uh, so this is the same age. I don't know if you remember me telling the story on the podcast when I went and saw my godson play. He's the same age as Aurelius was his first year of playing soccer. And I remember getting ready to go watch him. And I'm like, hey, you're going to score goal today? He's like, yeah, how many? And I'm like, oh, we're going to do more.

And I said like, okay, how about three? He's like, how about five? He scored six goals. I was like, yeah, just a little, same thing, though, just fast. But only he wasn't afraid of going to the ball. and you just get out in front of all the kids. It was just like one goal after another was wild. I have a soccer story with my son this past weekend and just freaking broke my heart, dude.

I'm like, of course, this is going to happen, right? So we're at a birthday party. There's a big birthday party, like 70 people there, jumpy house, tons of kids all ages. And this is Max's best friend who loves sports. And they got two goals set up. and there's kids there from their traveling. They had their traveling. They came straight from their traveling soccer.

So it's like serious. Yeah, yeah. They're like, these kids are three years, four years older than him. And they're like, I mean, they're making moves.

And my son's like not interested. Like he played in the jump house when it was just him and Julian. Then all these kids came and then he's like coloring on the bench. And he's fine. Like, hey, you want to go to, no,

I'm good dad. I'm doing my thing. And I'm like, okay. And so finally after all like kind of the older kids were playing, uh, done playing. soccer, they all went in the jumpy house, and then nobody was on the lawn. I said, hey, do you

want to go kick the soccer ball with Daddy? And he's like, okay, yeah. And it was like, oh, cool. So I get him out there. And we're kind of kicking around. And there's a kid in his grade that's, like, he's like this little tiny little short kid, but he's like a phenom. Everyone talks about he plays baseball, soccer, everything. He's like really good. And he's like this little short little, he's smaller than Max. And so he comes running out. I'm like, okay, cool. The three of us. And Max is like, cool. Obviously, kid looks littleer in him, let him. And so we're playing it. Max is trying to get from me.

And I kick it over to that kid. And so Max turns around and that kid just plants and boom. And launches it straight into Max's chest. Yeah. It's a soccer ball. But I mean, it was like a, it was a, and I knew right away. And I'm like, oh, man. And I see my son.

He turns around. And you could just tell he's trying not to cry. Everything in him and find his emotions. And he just like head down comes walking into me. and you can tell he's trying to fight back crying and he starts crying and I'm like dude what's the chances of like I get him out there for like two minutes yeah and he gets blasted and he gets blasted like literally right after we started right after we started playing and I'm like dude the by I'm never going to play sports dude at the rate we're going due to the love that we're

having and you can tell he was like I could tell like he's trying to control his emotions and we sat down and I said hey man I said did that hurt or to just scare you and he's like It scared me. Because it did. It's a soccer ball. And it's a kid. It was like an adult, but the kid did.

Plus, when you're that little and something like that happens, I'm sure, I don't know if you've seen this, but they get embarrassed. Yeah. You know what I mean?

That's part of the tears too. Oh, oh, I fell. Everybody saw me or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I was just like, God, man.

Oh. Get them out there. Poor buddy. Yeah. The whole time all these big kids are playing, nobody gets hit with the ball. Nothing happens like that. Max goes out there.

The first. literally within two minutes. And the kid, it was like, I mean, the kid gave great kick. I mean, what a great kick. I mean, he planted, put his foot right into that sucker. And Max was just in the wrong place. And it just pelted him right in his chest and launched off of him. Oh, man, dude.

My poor buddy. It's funny. We got, like, because sports themselves, they've been bringing so many different, like, lessons and challenges. Like, for me, like, going revisiting this through my kids. It's so different. And you think it's going to be like a similar experience. And like you remember all the fond memories of like where you got, you know, from all of those, you know, those hard things and struggles that you faced and all

stuff. And even just like right when I think, I'm like, oh, dude, we're, we're getting it. You know, and like I got him in a new sport. And like the very first, I think I might have told you guys. Like he scored like right away in lacrosse. And I was like so pumped because I was like, I needed a win for him because he's been fighting me. about this sport the whole time and it's like and he's still like any

he he keeps coming back and is like like I dad I don't like this I don't like this sport I don't like it's not a fit for me and he's like and I'm just like oh and I just had to like walk off and like trying to like really see like well

you know is this is this something that like I need to like you know override his his want to do it so he gets the experience or like what what is the replacement of her word and so he actually it was good it was he came back to me with like some options he's like here's actually what i would be interested he i i love football he's like i love like flag football but that's the only sport so far out of all of them we've tried that

he's like stuck with and then he was like i really want to like ride my bike and like you know get competitive with that and i really want to do boy scout and i was just like really like i had no idea. You know, that was such a left field thing for me, but I'm like, well, that is actually kind of cool, you know, like, he can get into, like, really like, learn how to build a fire and, like, getting, like, and I've been wanting to do that. It's just

like, it's just so, it's hard, man, because you think, like, you know, this is, like such a good base for him. And, like, this is going to be, like, the progression of how I'm going to build off of this and, like, turn him into a super athlete, you know? It's like, it keeps, like, blowing up in my face, you know?

I still think he's, this is what I, He's so good at it too. That's so frustrating. He's so good. He has such a good base, what you guys do with gymnastics. He's so gifted and talented in every sport he plays. He's just not interested in it. And he's still young.

And wait until he's in, like, high school. And his boys and him are playing pickup basketball. That's a factor, yeah. Yes, it's a total factor. He's young still. And it's the same advice you guys give me with Max is like, and that's how it makes me chill out is like, okay, he's still young. And I was a late bloomer.

and I didn't play a lot of sports until later. And so it's like, okay, you know, he'll just, I did think it was going to be the friend thing. So like you, I can totally identify. Like, I thought this was going to be the unlock. He'd play the sport. He'd be good at it. Then he'd love it.

It's like, I thought his two best friends who love sports, he would be like, okay, now I'll play. But he's still like, now I'll color instead. Yeah. So I'm just like, but I mean, I remember long before any of this happened, I remember seeing in him that trait. And I remember telling Katrina, I'm like, oh, this is so, that was the first.

I don't know if you guys remember the first trait you saw on your kid that took you back to your deepest memory. But my deepest memory of a kid is remembering kids wanting me to do stuff and me being like, nah, I don't want it. And being like, you could not convince. Yeah. You could not convince it. In fact, the more you tried, the more I would dig my heels, I'm like, no, I don't need to do that. I don't want to do that. Yeah.

It's interesting. Yeah. And then eventually maybe I came around and did some of those things, but it was always on my terms. It was like, okay, I'll try that. And I've been that way all the way through adulthood. And it's been, that's my, I think it's a good trait. And I agreed, right? Katrina and I both agree that.

Especially for peer pressure and stuff. Yes, like, it's like he, and we've seen these things where that he said, like, I don't want to do this or I don't feel like this. And we just go, okay, we don't push it. And then all of a sudden he decides he wants to try it or he wants to do it. And it's like, so funny. It's like, it's got to be on his terms. So just let it be.

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Back to the show. Our next caller is Andy from Utah. What's up, dude? What's up, dude? How are you doing, Andy? What's happening? How can we help you? So I feel pretty overwhelmed when it comes to trying to lose weight. I've been trying to do it for a few years now.

I'm a plumber and I work quite a few hours. I'm on my feet all the time. And I don't have a lot of time also. I'm 5-10, I'm 300 pounds. And last Texas scan I did was like four years ago. I was about the same weight and everything. And it showed up like 38% last time I checked. So, I mean, I have a background and lifting and stuff.

You know, I did stuff in high school. But, you know, I just, I have a hard time being consistent because of my job. I remember I've been listening to you guys for a little bit, and I've searched quite a few of your guys' episodes, and I remember Sal talking about specifically trying to work with, you know, blue-collar guys and how you're trying not to over-train because of how, you know, how active we tend to be. So I just don't know where to start.

I don't know what to do. I mean, I understand to not eat a ton, you know, or something. I don't know. I just don't know what to do. Gotcha, dude. Yeah. So the workout part's the easy part here.

I think MAPS 15 would be your protocol. For sure. You're so active. I'm not worried about making you more active, but a little bit of strength training. You know, one, two lifts a day. Stimulate the muscles. Great eight would even be awesome,

even more simple. I think that would be great for a guy like you. It's all diet. This is all diet. This is all a diet issue. The challenge is taking too many. steps at once, which is where people screw up. Yeah, one extreme to the other. Yeah. So it's like,

I'm going to fix my diet. I'm going to do this, that, this, that, and the other. And then it just doesn't stick. Fizzles out. Yeah. So what have you tried in the past, diet-wise? I mean, I've tried. Honestly, what I've done the most is just like intermittent fasting. And boy, I, you know, in the construction world, we start at six and we don't eat lunch until about 12. So, you know, I kind of got used to that. but I never really saw results, to be honest with you.

That, yeah, that's all I've really ever done. There's no magic to fasting except for the guardrails that it provides with the eating window. And a lot of times what it does is it creates a binge-restrict type of relationship. Yeah, so it's like I don't eat until whatever, but then I just go for it and eat a lot or high calorie. So we got to start with just one step, Andy, and not do any other steps, just one step. So I'll propose one to you. And I know you're on this show and all that, but I want you to be very honest if you think you can do it. Because we can't take a step that you don't think you can maintain because you're just going to set yourself up for failure.

Right. So the one step I'll suggest is this. Just don't eat fast food or processed food. So just eat food that you made or that your wife made, meal prep, whole natural food, chicken, meat, rice, potato, vegetables, fruit and that's it. So don't eat processed food or fast food. Just start there. Does that sound somewhat realistic for you?

It does, yeah. Okay. Do you grill? Do you grill at all? Yeah, yeah, every now and then. Because, I mean, one of the things that helps my clients, they're like you, like, and this helps me is how I prepare is whatever day off, I don't know if you have a traditional schedule or, you know, Saturday, Sundays or your days off or not, but

whatever your day off is, that's my, that's my grill day. I'm going to grill, you know, four or five pounds of meat, chicken, steak, tri-tip, whatever it is that I feel like. And then just a bulk rice, white rice, just tons of white rice and that. You can do sweet potatoes and some other things like that to mix it up if you want, but I keep it really simple. White rice and I mix up the meat, so I have a little bit of something different. And I have something prepared for me in my refrigerator and something I can take to work.

that right there. And literally not even over-complicating the portion size yet and what types of meats. It's like grill whole food, you know, grill meat and white rice and have that ready to eat and make that your choice when you're hungry to like Sal's point of just staying away from the eating out. The probably, you know, typical plumber construction burrito and shit like that. Like get away from get away from that. Yeah, I know.

That's four burritos, dude. So from and, you know, bust out your Tupperware of, you know, steak and rice and enjoy it, you know. Eat when you're hungry and eat until you're satisfied. Stay away from sodas. Stay away from, you know, eating out and processed food. That's it. Don't do anything else. And I'll tell you this, Andy, I could confidently say if you just did that.

With the lifting. You'll probably lose 15 to 20 pounds just by doing that. Eating until you're full. You're not even going to feel like you're dieting. You're going to eat when you're hungry and just eat until you're full. Yeah. That alone will probably result in about food. And I'm going to add a layer to that to help because what will, when you'll know when it'll get hard is when you make the mistake of letting it go too long without eating, then the cravings kick up.

So make sure you've got stuff. Don't skip any meals. Yeah, don't skip meals. Don't stretch away. Oh, I'm super busy. I'll wait, you know, four hours. Because that's when the cravings kick up. And that's when it makes it really hard to make that choice of that steak and rice, that chicken thighs and rice that you made for yourself that you barbecue.

That tastes pretty damn good anyways. But now you're like, oh, my. God. I want a cheeseburger. I want a cheeseburger because your body feels like it. So be disciplined yourself to try and have it ready for you somewhere with you, whether it's in your cooler on the go type of deal or it's, you know, when you get home right away, try not to let those hours go too far because it makes the craving piece that much more.

And like I said, I could, I could confidently say you'll just from that alone, you'll probably see about 15 to 20 pound loss on the scale, maybe more with a guy your size and as active as you are. but like if I had to put money on it, I would say, yeah, 15 to 20 pounds without doing anything else, without trying to eat less, without trying to nothing, just all you're doing is eating whole foods. That's what you'll see drop on the scale and you'll also build muscle. Yeah, that's what scale weights.

So that's, you'll make a different. I mean, you do that just that and then we'll give you the next step. You call back in or you reach back out to us and then we'll just keep a layer on top. I'll tell you, I'll tell you this. If you just did that forever, I think you would eventually get your body fat down to below 20%. I don't think you'd ever have to do anything else. But you can call back if you want to keep taking more steps. I mean, it really is that simple.

Don't get creative or crazy with it. That's all your disciplines around that. If you think that's somewhat realistic, just do that. And listen, when it happens, if and when it happens, which most likely will, you'll have a day or a step back or a mishap. You get back on weekend or whatever. Yeah, you didn't prep your meals. Don't beat yourself up.

F it. You've messed up, you know, whatever. it's like, hey, one bad day, back on the horse. But recognize that what made it challenging and why you messed up. And I'm willing to bet, done this long enough, the thing that will mess you up is not having the meals ready and prepared for you. Because I ain't even telling you you can't have tri-tip, you can't have chicken, you can't have steak, rib-b-eye.

Enjoy that shit. That's all good food, bro. That was some, with a cup of rice or some sweet potatoes, yam, that's all good. Barbecue it up, use your favorite seasoning. All that stuff's all good. but eat whole foods and eat it when you're hungry don't wait six eight hours between meals and if you can be consistent with that what sal is saying it will radically change just be consistent with it and then when you have the day when you F up recognize why you did because you probably

didn't prepare you didn't have your shit ready to go for yourself it's okay tomorrow I'm making sure I do that and you get back on the horse and you watch how far that gets you yep okay sounds good I appreciate it guys thanks so much you got to do I'm gonna send you the great eight program. That's your program. It looks like it's not a lot. You're going to get strong on it. Trust me. Yep. Just follow that. Good deal. Well, thank you. All right. Thank you.

I mean, it sounds people listening. It's like, really? Is it that simple? Yeah. I mean, here's a funny, here's a crazy thing. A guy like that who's already active. So remember, the context here is he's active. People didn't know this. He's in his notes. It says he does 20,000 steps. So he's blue collar.

So he's already active. So he's already way more active than the average person. So there's the context right there. Strength training, we're going to add a little bit because he wants to signal for building muscle. So just add a little bit. So all that in consideration, if all he ever did for the rest of his life was nothing else aside from what we said, he's not tracking calories, he's not chasing this, he's not chasing. He's just eating when he's hungry. He's just taking a whole natural foods. He would eventually drop below 20% body fat and probably closer to 17% forever. Yeah, those natural limiters are built in real food.

That's it. He would have to do nothing else. And the great part about that, there's no, like, you have to eat this kind. It's not chicken breast and tilapia. No. We're not even telling them to eat all the vegetables. No, dude. Just start with real food. Literally just that.

But I'll tell you right now, where this gets hard. Of course. You skip and then your cravings go up and then your buddy's like, hey, we're going to grab some jack in the box. You want something? Yeah. That's a temptation. If he just gets hyperfocus on not letting more than three, four hours go by before he's eating again, not let himself like that what people, you know, quote unquote,

is starving, even though you're not starving, but they feel like they're starving, that those cravings are kicking up. That's right. That's when it's so hard to eat that thing you made for yourself or that you eat yesterday. But if you eat, just as you start to feel hungry

and you make those choices. You'll trip yourself out. Like, I'm full all the time. How am I losing weight? Yep. Our next color is Luptcho from North Macedonia. That's got to be a first. Wow.

That's got to be a first. For over there? Yeah, dude. Yeah, probably it's the first. I'm the first one. Yeah. I mean, since I've been watching you guys, I'm probably the first one. Awesome.

How can we help you? Yeah. So I'm going to read from my email so that I don't go too much astray. So hi, team. My name is Lipcho. I have issues with my knees since I don't know when and have been trying to fix it. And any help is appreciated. So a little backstory.

When I was 19, I had an accident and my right leg was broken. Since then I have, I have had an ankle issue and never gained the full range of motion. maybe some nerve numbness and also I presume my whole right leg mechanics have been off ever since. Ever since I found you guys in 2017 and got to know more

through listening to your podcast, I started doing combat stretches which kind of held with the range of motion but haven't been consistent with them till lately. I have been testing my ankle mobility with a test that I saw from squat university and have been doing combat stretches

with a dumbbell on my knee to push the range of motion. While doing them, I also feel some hip strain. I don't know if that is normal or not, and not sure whether I'm doing the stretches right. Since I started doing them more consistently, I feel like a numbness or strain on the outer side of the foot below the big bone. I don't know how it's called. I did map symmetry twice in a row the first time without doing the last phase.

Now in the last week of the last waist, actually that was last week before I sent this email, while doing the program, I didn't feel much pain in my knee while doing any kind of squats, maybe a little discomfort, but nothing drastic. Also, I really focused on my right leg since it has less muscle than my left leg and cutting off some sets for my left leg, like maybe or two sets depending on which phase I was in. When doing Bulgarian squats, I can push more work. weight and feel no pain because I presumably I don't go below parallel or slightly below parallel. But when doing barbell squats and going for a full range of motion, I always have a huge pain

in the knee and here cracking. Also, I feel like on my left leg, my quad is activating more than on my right. Even after the workout, my left leg muscles are sore and the right ones are kind of soarish. I lowered the weight and started doing squats with rubber bands around my knees to try and open up my hits and also I did cave, my knees caved a bit to see whether that would help, which it kind of did a bit. I don't feel any knee pain on a day-to-day basis

only after doing barbell squats and challenging the range of motion. And also, as I mentioned, while doing the combat stretches more consistently with weight pushing the range of motion, I feel this numbness and strain on this. I think like where the ankle area is probably. So yeah, any help would be appreciated. Luptcho, when you're doing the combat stretch,

are you trying to use the muscles of your body to also get yourself in the position? In other words, are you doing it passively? Or when you get in, are you trying to pull your toes up? you're trying to be active and connected. Pulling. Pulling the toes up.

And also I did kind of found out this heck when I push everything down to the ground and just push the new forward. If that makes any sense. Yes, but you want to connect to everything. Why are you doing it? Yeah, yeah. He's doing great.

Yeah, yeah, he's doing that. He's a smart move. You're doing great. I would also add 9090 and a 90-90 progression. I was doing those. Very good. You're doing a great job. And you've already seen some progression

it sounds like. So you're moving in the right direction. So what I would have someone like you do is I would have you follow map symmetry. I would extend phase one in additional two weeks. So instead of the two weeks of isometrics, you're doing four. And then you're going to do phase two and three, and you're going to skip the bilateral phase. You're going to stay unilateral. Just phase two then.

Oh, sorry, just phase two. Yeah, so you stay in phase two, skip phase three. That's right. And I would go do that two rounds and then do it again, a third round. and then try the last phase and see how you feel. I think you're progressing. You just got to give yourself some time. Yeah.

Do you have access to a sled at all by chance? No. Okay. Yeah, it'd be great if you could push or pull, especially pull a sled, you know, in terms of like chin angles and getting that strength, going backwards would help a lot. I, on the weekends, I always go on this troll,

which kind of has this kind of uphill, downhill. rough terrain where I just think of my leg and just push it if that counts. That's fine. Yeah. That's fine. Do you have Matt's Prime Pro yet? I have almost every program with you guys. So do you do the foot exercises in Prime Pro?

So you're doing the ankle stuff. You're doing the hip stuff too. Yeah. Not really. Okay. I'm like piano toes. Start doing some more of the foot stuff too where you sit on your knees and then you push your, you drive your feet into the ground, short foot.

So incorporate some of the feet stuff also. Yeah, that's a good call. My sister just had surgery, same area as your fibula, was broken. And she's lost a lot of good connection to her feet. And so I have her doing a lot of ankle, feet and hip stuff to get reconnected, always, obviously, before you work out. And then I would take the advice Sal is saying with symmetry,

follow that along like that. I wouldn't mess with a lot of bilater. You don't need to do bilateral stuff right now, and I wouldn't want to do it until I felt a lot more recovered and balanced out. So you're doing good though. It'll probably take a couple rounds of symmetry

with skipping that last phase before jumping into that last phase. So two rounds without last phase, third round, jump, and then go into the third. And then see how you do it. So actually another round of symmetry, it would be.

Yes. Oh, yeah. Stay in that first phase. And extend that first phase longer the asymmetric phase. Indefinitely, any change. you can get to be barefoot walking around and articulating those toes. I'm always barefoot.

Perfect. I mean, at home, when I'm at anybody's house, I'm always barefoot. Okay. Oh, good. Well, good. Yeah, progress should continue for you. It sounds like you're doing all the right things. How long are you being good about all this?

Have you been doing this for a while now? How long? One month or so. Oh, okay. Oh, you're doing good, bro. I just want to make sure this isn't been something you've been trying to, you've been doing all these things for years. You keep you keep sticking to what you're doing right now and what we're talking about.

Give it time, man. You're going to be, you're doing good. You're doing really good. It takes time. It takes time. But you're doing good. You're doing real good. Okay, okay.

I mean, yeah, I figured. I mean, I always trust the process. I'm really satisfied with doing a lot of your programs and they really work. So I really trust you guys about this thing. Well, thank you. Great. Yeah. Awesome, dude.

You're kicking ass, buddy. Keep us posted. I'd like to hear how it's going. Check back in with us in a couple months. I want to hear where you're at. I mean, help you progress. Yeah, sure. Sure.

Sure. Can I ask you another question? Yeah, yeah. We're done with this. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's regarding my mom. So let me just.

Okay. She's, I mean, she's been diagnosed two years ago with, osteoporosis, mainly in the lumbar area. And she's been having a little, I mean, a lot of pain issues in that particular area. I don't know, maybe a couple of months now. And I mean, her doctors, her osteoporosis doctor said, it's not from that thing. So she went and had a city scan where she, where they found out that she, that she has like, Lumber sciatica.

I don't know if I pronounced that good. And lumbar spondylosis as well. So I want to help her out. I want to help her out. As I know, I mean, you sell have been talking about your client that you helped a lot with osteoporosis. And I've been thinking on putting her on MAP starter. Perfect. Great choice.

But she's too much afraid to start working. out because she thinks if she cracks something, she might end up in a wheelchair. Yeah, so map starter. I don't know how to do map starter. Have you seen the exercises in there yet? They're really regress. Yeah, she should feel confident. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. And are you able to train her yourself to kind of watch her? Yeah. I mean, since I've been listening to you guys, I've picked up a lot of stuff. That's it. You just tell your mom, say, mom. Listen, don't worry about it. I'm going to watch you.

I got you. I'm going to watch you. I have a program for you, but I'm going to watch your form and technique. Take it real slow. Yep, work on technique. Encourage her to get her protein intake up too. Yeah.

So encourage the protein intake, getting that up with the strength training real slow with MAPS starter. She'll do great. Even last reps and go real slow and hold positions. Start her with real lightweight and slowly progress her. So until you'll take care of her. I got it. And she'll stay in MAP starter for a long time.

Yeah. She can do that for a year. Yep. Cool. Cool. Yeah. Perfect. Cool.

So thank you very much, guys. You got it, man. This was really an honor. Do what you do. Keep the integrity. I really are an example. Have been to me, even through my fitness journey. Been taking notes about parenting, about life.

So thank you. Thank you very, very much. And do what you do. I love to hear back from you in a couple months reach back out, let us know how you're doing in a couple months, okay? God bless you all. Thank you, you too.

God bless you. Take easy. Bye. See you, brother. You guys, so I looked up. It's right above Greece. Oh, it's right above Greece. Yeah, yeah.

And I think Alexander the Great was from Macedonia, if I'm not Mesodonia, if I'm not mistaken. But it's in that region right there. First of all, cool that we have a listener over there. I know. It's a small region too, right? But he's doing, it's a large country, it looks like, from the map. Yeah, I was kind of looking at it as well, yeah.

It looks fairly good to us. He's, he's doing great. He's progressing well, and it takes time. Yeah, that's what, after an injury. That's how I was trying to get to. A month, I was like, yeah, yeah, I thought he was going to be, because it says he's been listening to us for a long time. I'm like, man, did this injury happen way long ago? And he's just now, and he's been working on it for years.

And I'm like, oh, one month, he's already doing great. He's going to be fine. He's just going to keep making progress. But this is what, so my sister, I just, this is, she just got out, she just took her cast off. And she had some Achilles work done. And man, she's just, physical therapies. Tell you what, it's not to blanket statement all bad, like all PTs, right? No, they're great.

They're just limited. Yeah. It's just, it's tough to find really, really good. It's tough to find a really good trainer. It's tough to find a really good doctor. It's tough to find really good, whatever. But I mean, some of these, they just, they get you heal. and then just kick you right out.

Her movement sucks. I mean, she's watching her walk, and she's like, and you know what the doctor says to her, well, you need to lose weight, because losing weight is a dead. That's the solve. Right, that's just like lose weight, because she's overweight.

She knows it. But like, I'm like, well, that's not the root cause. I said, you could be obese and not have this pain. I said that. So, and so you could take somebody who has now has bad, poor movement patterns, and you'd go tell them,

encourage them to run or move, like, do all this activity. And I'm like, no, no, no, sister. We, we, we, we, we, when you have, I said, when your knee hurts like that and you didn't have an acute injury there, and you just had this surgery down in your Achilles area, you're, your foot and ankle of like gone to sleep, your brain has just decided you don't need to use it very much. So you've got limited strength, mobility, and flexibility in that area. And then also in the hip, because that was all locked up

too. So we've got to gain that access back. Get reconnected. That's what you got to do. And so it's very similar to him. And I've got her doing, you know, two. or three of the movements for her foot from Prime Pro, two or three movements for ankle stuff, and then two or three movements for her hips every day, as many times as a day as you can. And I said, that is more important than you trying to get on the treadmill and walk for three miles. You have to start there. Yes, yes. Our next caller is Mario from California.

Mario, what's up, dude? What's happening? Hey, what's up, guys? How you doing, man? How can we help you? So a little bit of background. I'm 5'6, 240 pounds. Most of my training has been like really just strength focused.

I love your guys' programs. I've run out of Bollock and I've ran power lift. I even ran MAP's performance before going to the police academy and it helped out tons. Awesome. But the reason I actually reached out is back in October, I hurt my shoulder and it turned out it was a torn labrum. So after that, took a week off of lifting. I've still been training very light, just the uninjured side, because I did remember in the past hearing you guys speak on studies showing that

that can't help, like, retain some of the muscle and strength on the opposite side. So my real question is, is, like, once I'm fully cleared, what would you recommend, like, what direction to go in just to rebuild strength the mobility to ease back in the regular training. Yeah, good question, dude. So with the, once you're fully cleared, and you continue to do the rehab exercises, by the way, I like map symmetry.

Yes. And you would start with the weak arm, which would be the arm that had the tear. And let that arm dictate how much weight you use for the other arm. And then you should see some pretty rapid and consistent gains and strength and stability. But don't go crazy with it. Don't push it.

Just be nice and smooth with it. But symmetry, unilateral train will be great. And I would skip the last phase. So I'd probably go through symmetry twice. And then maybe the second time around, you can go through the last phase. Would you also encourage him for the shoulder stuff specifically to keep that kind of isometric stuff in his routine?

Oh, yeah. So even after you do phase... Especially priming to... Yeah, in phase one, you're going to go through some isometrics. which are going to be really good for you in the shoulder area. And then even when you move out of that phase and you go into phase two to strength training, I'd actually still incorporate some of those isometrics for the shoulder before you work out, like starting your workout with the isometric for the shoulders,

just to help that speed up that process. Do you have map symmetry? No, I don't have symmetry. Now, would you want to do the 15 version of it or would you want to do the full version of it after you're cleared? I think I would I'd really I'd want to jump in like the full version of it All right we'll send that to you dude

All right cool You got it man Yeah take your time brother All right yeah yeah yeah I should be out of the sling By this week Recovery they gave me like six to 12 months to fully heal Yeah Yeah just take your time and you'd be surprised

Now I'm going to say something but just be very careful Yeah With good exercise you recover a lot faster Yeah But I'm saying be careful careful because you don't want to go crazy with it. But it'll probably happen faster if you do think smart. Have you utilized any peptides before?

I haven't utilized any peptides right now. I did get a steroid prescribed to me to help that healing process. It's just testosterone that they gave me. Yeah. Oh, wow. They gave you a injection of week. Wow, they gave you testosterone. Well, here, do this.

Yeah, that's what they ended up giving me. Go to MPHormones.com. Because you can get testosterone there, but they also prescribed peptides. So like BPC, BPC, thymocin beta combo, man, that makes you heal real quick. Yes. Okay, yeah, that was one that was kind of interested in looking into it. Just with my work, I didn't make sure it's prescribed. Yeah, yeah.

The way MP hormones works is you meet with a medical professional. And then you get a prescription. It's like, it's kind of like a Costco membership. So it's, I think it's like 149 or something a month. And then you're, and that includes your testosterone. So you get your testosterone for free, including the member. membership and then peptides are sold to you at wholesale. So and it's all done through a medical medical professional prescription.

Okay. So yeah. I'm into it. All right, my right, dude. All right, all right,

all right, good, got it. Yeah, it's, I like, I love when I see little kids on the. I know.

It's just, yeah. Yeah, you remember when your boys are that little? I know, yeah, and then they just like climb all over you. Yeah,

you know, the whole, so I had, um, AC joint, uh, resection, which is different than a labrum.

Labrum tear can be a pain in the back, But I remember they gave me. I don't remember how long they gave me. They said, oh, this is when you'll be like able to. Now, now I was smart about it, but I did, you know, exercise. And I did things that the doctor's like, oh, you got to wait longer. But I went in and I still worked out. And they were shocked.

I would show up to the physical therapy appointment. And they'd be like, oh, my God, you're already moving that well. And it's just like, yeah, I'm practicing exercise and doing things on my own. I was careful about it. That's it. But I was back so much faster. And this was before peptides before any of that stuff. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. And just making sure those movement patterns. are legit. Like you're going to set yourself up for long-term success. Our next caller is Marta from California. Hi, Marta. Hi, guys. How are you? Good. We're good. How can we help you? Good. Thanks for your time. I really appreciate it. So I found your podcast just a few months ago. So not that long. And I've learned a lot from listening to you guys. Honestly, I'm not super

familiar with your programs, but I really like what you have to say about fitness and nutrition. So I wanted to get your advice on kind of where I'm at at this point in my life and the direction I'm headed. So I'm 60 years old. I'm 5-9, about 138 pounds. And I'm pretty new to lifting weights. I've also been dealing with some chronic plantifestiaitis and knee pain issues for civil years. I had an in-body scan in January and my body fat percentage came back at 18, but I just had a DEXA a couple weeks ago, and it came back at 22, which seems like a big swing to me, but I know the DEXA is the gold standard, so I'm going with that number. I'm pretty disciplined, like a lot of your listeners, very consistent with exercise and diet.

I ate my protein, one pound or one gram per pound, and whole foods, little to no alcohol. And I ate about 2,200 calories a day. I've always been fairly athletic and I started weight training after going through menopause, which included gaining 15 plus pounds and a total shift in my body composition, which freaked me out. At the time, I was intermittent fasting. I was eating very little. I was doing a ton of cardio. I was tired all the time and I was gaining weight.

it made no sense to me just from everything I'd been told and learned over the years. So it was kind of at my width end and I started learning more about strength training and the power of protein and I thought, okay, I'm going to give this a try. And if it doesn't work, I guess I just give up. So I was kind of at that point where I was ready for just like saying this is it. this is how my life's going to be for the next however long I have. So anyway, I started out with Dumble's at my house, just following some online programs. And then about six months ago, my husband and I joined a gym, which is just, you know, half a mouth from our house. So my current exercise program is three days of about 35, 45 minute full body strength sessions,

two days of stationary bike hour long sessions of Zone 2 and sprints. a day of hot yoga, a day of mobility exercises. And I also do before every day, every morning I do about 10 minutes in mobility before I do anything. And I get about 7,000, 8,000 steps a day. That's kind of what I aim for. Since I started lifting weights, even when I was doing at home, I've lost that 15 pounds that I gained. And my body comp is completely shifted, like nothing, like better than before. It's kind of been nothing short of a miracle.

I'm a total believer in strength training now. I'm trying to convince my girlfriends to lift a dumbbell here and there. But I think it's one of those things where we've been programmed to believe a certain thing for so many years. And it almost seems too simple. So let's see. I'm doing, like I said, what feels like a lot less, eating more. And I think I'm leaner than I've ever been or at least in a long time. So I'm super stoked with the progress I've made over the past 18 months or so.

And it's kind of crazy to say it, but I'm on a point where it's kind of become kind of fun. Like just to kind of see how you, what the changes you can make that aren't crazy and hard, super hard, can the impact it can have on your body. It's amazing to me. Um, so anyway, more than anything, I just was hoping to get your advice on what I should do, what I shouldn't do, um, going forward to build the strengths at this point in my life. I'm, my ultimate goal is to do as little as possible. Um, and while avoiding injury, um, so I can get as strong as I can reasonably expect to at this, at this point in my life. And from there, it's almost embarrassing to say,

but I want to do the minimum amount necessary to just to maintain that level of fitness as I get older. I just want to be able to live that healthy health span. You have obviously, you have obviously done your homework because of the routine that you have put together for yourself is wonderful. Yeah, I'm actually going to say something I don't think I've ever said to anybody who's hold in. I think you're doing everything perfect. Yeah. Yeah. For real. Yeah, there's really nothing I would add. Yeah. Perfect mentality. I have a couple questions. And I know you're working, it says in your email, you're working with a physical therapist slash trainer. So their background is a physical therapy.

But they're also trained. Okay. So that means I'm pretty confident they know what they're doing, at least when it comes a biomechanics. The strength training that you're doing is traditional string training where you do a set and you rest, set and you rest. Yeah. Yeah, like three sets. And it's mostly machines and dumbbells. I haven't done anything like. with the barbells or anything. You know, I'd like to at some point. My problem, too, is right now I was working with this PT. I'm in San Diego. He was in the area.

And then he moved to New York. So once I started the, I joined the gym, I tried a trainer at the gym. It didn't work out anyway. So I went back to him. He's been training me virtually. So he's been programming like six week blocks, six week blocks. And it's been great because there's some, biases towards my, you know, for my injuries, just strengthening my quads and my caps and my

hamstrings and stuff. Um, but my, my question is too, like, I just want to make sure, um, my form's good and then I'm, I'm activating the right muscles. So because I'm so new, I, I, I just worry because, you know, I'm starting to feel a little something in my elbow, like a little, you know, so I just worry about that, but, um, I want to go slow. I'm super excited about it and kind of just like, ready to like progress. And that's sort of me, mentally and kind of how I operate. I'm like, cool, let's keep going more and more, like, you know, harder. No, no, no, no, you're perfect. No, no, no, you're perfect. Don't, don't. The mistake you can make is just trying to rush things. Now, what you might want to do is ask your trainer,

because they sound like they know what they're doing. They say, hey, could you find me a trainer in this area to supplement what I'm doing with you so that, you know, I could have the occasional workout with them to watch my technique. Maybe that could be helpful. I mean, you could also do what, This is what are, we, we have virtual trainers here, right? So we have trainers at virtually coach people all of the world. And we have them, like we'd have a client send in a video. Like so we'd say, hey, video yourself doing the squat or doing this. And then that's part of when they meet with them on a monthly basis.

They're reviewing that. They're reviewing that. So maybe have your coach do that for you. We also have a private forum. I'll have Doug put you in, get you in there. And inside the private forum, this is really, common. This is probably the most popular thing that people use the form for, because we have people like Dr. Brink, who I think is one of the most brilliant movement specialists in the world.

We have Jordan Shallow in there. We have We're all in there. And tons of other coaches that are really good in there. And if you literally just take a video of you doing a movement and say, hey, does this look all right? Or even like how you're saying, hey, I kind of noticed this issue in my, and you'll get within five minutes, you'll have 10 PTs respond to you and say, hey, it could be this. try this, this might be happening, or I notice this when you move. This is going, like, so it's a great community. I love your combination of, I think you're doing the right amount of strength training. I love the yoga.

I love the sauna. The biking, the CSI, I love the steps. Everything you're doing is great. Your diet is great. Body fat percentage-wise, so that's within the margin of error. But I'll tell you this, your best health, your best hormonal health, your best fitness, the best way you feel and energy is going to be between probably, 20 to 25% body fat.

So in that like mid to low percent, 20% is where you want to live. I would definitely suggest you don't chase getting leaner because you'll start to notice negative results just from how you feel. Calorie wise, you could probably eat more and you'll probably feel better. If you bump your cal, you're at 2,200 calories. I bet if you went up to like 2350, 24, you would just have more energy and strength. Oh, yeah. You'll build muscle.

You'll build muscle, especially paired with the routine that you have. You have such a good routine. You added a 200 calorie meal, high protein meal. Easily. You would just get better energy. Easily. Okay. Because that's the other thing.

I just wonder about calories. I mean, I hear you guys all all the time telling people they need to eat more. And the more I hear it, the more I'm like, yeah, I need to eat more. So I have bumped my calories up. But it's just so I'm like, it's the idea that, you know, is just a struggle sometimes. What you'll see is muscle come on. Yeah, you'll just see more stuff. Yeah.

The way your routine is, you will build muscle. You're not going to put money. And here's a plus side of it, Marta. And I don't know what else you do, like socially in your life, you and your husband. But as you increase those calories and you get to a place where you can maintain a very healthy weight and be eating, say, 25, 26, 200 calories. Now you have what's called metabolic flexibility. So occasionally when you and your husband go out for a nice dinner or drink, you can go on vacation. You can have a dessert.

You can have a little bit of this stuff and it not feel like, oh, my God, I put that. weight on, your metabolism is moving at such a higher rate that it gives you more metabolic flexibility. And so that's another benefit of feeding yourself more and really fueling that muscle building is it'll speed that metabolism up and give you a little more freedom and flexibility for more days like that. The way you do it, someone like you, I'm going to make an educated guess. You probably generally eat the same kind of things most days. You probably have a scale. Pretty much. Yeah. So if you just added a 200 calorie meal to that, a high protein, you know, 25 grams of protein meal.

That's maybe 200 calories. Just add to your current what you're currently eating. Or eat bigger portion. Or just go two more ounces on every meat serving you do. That's how easy way to do too. All right. There you go. I think that is, for me, that would work better.

It's just instead of four ounces, six ounces. Oh, yes. Oh, for sure. If you only have four, easily go to six to eight ounces on all your meats. You're just going to get more energy and stronger. In fact, go to six right now on all of your meats. Stay there for a little while. enjoy the strength gains in the Muslim and then literally go up again another two ounces and you'll be fine.

Yeah. Just inch your way up that way. And that'll be an easy way to bump the calories, not radically change or have to force another meal down. But I mean, your routine and your structure is perfect. Beautiful. Oh, awesome. Thank you. That's great to hear. That's why you feel so good. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, I mean, way better. I said just, you know, take, I mean, I know they're kind of good for you the naps, but I don't feel the need to take a nap in the match. Yeah, you've got way more energy. stuff. Okay, one last question if I can, just about diet. Sure. So I don't, is there, I mean, I've read a lot and heard a lot, but I just want to get your take on increasing calories. Is there a different, like once I get my protein, because I normally get about 150 grams of protein,

and it's not that hard for me. We always, we eat pretty well and clean. But as far as fat and carbs, if, you know, is there, should I be eating more carbs with what I'm doing? Or is it, is it, it doesn't matter at this point. No, if you're eating enough fats, because fats, you have to have a certain amount. You can't get around that. But this is where I've noticed a huge difference between people. Some people just feel better eating more carbs when they bump their calories. Other people feel better with more fats. And so you just got to, but just play with it and see how you feel and they say, oh, you know, I noticed that when I bump, when I increase my rice, I've just got more energy and I feel good. Or, hey, when I increased my, when I added a little bit of avocado or some olive

oil I feel better. So that's really an individual thing. Okay. I encourage you to play with it. I like especially a client like you who's really dialed in. I love everything you're doing. Like what I would normally do with someone like you is like for two weeks, I'd say, hey, let's add that avocado in, you know, every day, right? So you have like that. Let's just do that for two weeks. Let's see how you feel. You report back to me. And then the next two weeks, I'd say, hey, let's bump, you know, one cup of rice into your diet. So that could be throughout all the meals and let's see how you feel and you report back to me which one feels the best digestive wise energy wise strengthen the gym wise and then that's what we're probably going to do more of

but nothing wrong with toggling or splitting it uh you're you're in a good place yep okay because i feel like it's shocking me because i love bread but it's i feel like based on what i mean now i'm eat more fat like i my fat with avocado and nuts and stuff like that yeah anyway okay that's And don't be surprised. I know you said you like bread. Don't be surprised if you cut out gluten if you feel even better. That's just common with a lot of people. Not everybody, but for a lot of people when they cut out bread, they just feel better.

And I've noticed even more for women than men. Yeah. And I don't eat a lot. I eat the Ezekiel bread. So it's not honestly considered bread. Yeah. Yeah. That's not real bread.

I know. I know. But I've gotten used to it. It's like, I'll get it. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. No, you're doing great. Thank you guys. Yeah, you're doing great. I appreciate your time and all the information and the knowledge that you guys share with everybody. I appreciate it and learn a lot. I'm going to have Doug get you free access to the forum right now. Okay, that's awesome.

Yeah, we'll see you in there. I love that. All right, Martin. Great. Thanks so much, guys. Bye. Bye. She accidentally became like a great testimony for everything we talked about.

I mean, how often do you hear somebody who calls in who's like? Her prescription was perfect. No, the routine was great. The routine was perfect. I mean, every bit of it. Every bit of it. And really where she's at, she could literally just afford to eat more calories.

She'll feel better. Yeah. She'll feel better with more calories. Yeah. She'll eat more calories. She'll build more muscles. She'll have more metabolic flexibility. That's right.

And so, but what a cool story. And even the trainer she's working with, you know, X-A's a physical therapist also. Her plan going to the future with her training. Yeah, that's great. What a cool story, too, for somebody. Yeah, gained 15 pounds, beating themselves up. 60 years old, gone through menopause, felt like ready to throw their hands up. Did less.

Yeah, it was doing less. Lifted weights. Eight more protein. Boom. Radical change. So cool. It's as if what we say is true. I believe it.

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