Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2823: The Fitness Skills You Stop Using First (And Regret Later)

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

Most people think getting in shape is about building muscle or losing fat… But what if you're actually losing something MORE important? In this episode, the guys break down the 6 fundamental human movement skills that most people lose over time — not because of age, but because they stop practicing them. From overhead mobility and squatting… to running, jumping, and even throwing — these are the abilities that keep your body functioning, pain-free, and resilient for life. The problem? Even fit people lose them. This episode will change the way you think about training forever — shifting your focus from just aesthetics… to true functional fitness. Joovv's 10-Year Anniversary Sale is live . Fun fact — Joovv launched the first at-home red light therapy panel 10 years ago.To celebrate the milestone, they're offering limited-time savings across their entire lineup. ⇨⇨go to joovv.com/mindpump Code "Mindpump" to get $50 off your first purchase   This episode is also brought to you by HUEL  ⇨⇨go to https://huel.com/MINDPUMP Use code MINDPUMP For MP exclusive offer of 15% OFF . New Customers Only.   THE PERFECT GUT-FRIENDLY, CLEAN PROTEIN SNACK FOR ON-THE-GO. We started Paleovalley to make improving your health and nourishing your body with nutrient-rich superfoods simple and hassle-free. http://paleovalley.com/mindpump Discount is now automatically applied at checkout 15% off your first order! 00:00 Intro, sponsors & episode overview 01:45 "Use it or lose it" – why humans lose key movement skills 04:30 Overhead mobility & shoulder dysfunction 08:30 Squatting, hinging & foundational movement loss 11:30 Running: the forgotten human ability 15:30 Jumping & impact tolerance decline 18:00 Sitting, mobility & losing basic positions 21:00 Balance, coordination & aging well 24:30 Throwing & full-body athleticism 27:30 Red light therapy: what works vs what's hype 32:30 Push-Pull-Legs discussion + training philosophy shift 52:00 Listener Question #1 – Overtraining after massive weight loss & rebuilding energy 1:09:00 Listener Question #2 – Balancing strength training and cardio without burnout 1:37:30 Listener Question #3 – Avoiding overtraining while managing jiu-jitsu, lifting & lifestyle 1:49:30 Listener Question #4 – Fat loss plateau, missing cycle & metabolic health concerns    

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump, Mind Pump with your hosts. Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded Fitness Health and Entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. In today's episode, we answered questions that people posted on Instagram at Mind Pump Media. But before we did that, we did the intro. Today's intro was 52 minutes long.

In the intro, we talk about fitness. fat loss, muscle gain, current events, family life, always good time. Again, if you want to write any question that we can pick for an episode, go to Instagram, Mind Pump Media. Now, this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Juve. This is Red Light Therapy that works. It's the same wavelength, the same intensity as you see in the studies. Most red light therapy panels online are pure garbage.

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techniques guide. All of that together over 50% off. Head over to Mapsmarch.com. All right, real quick, if you love us like we love you, why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at Mind PumpStore.com. I'm talking right now, hit pause, head on over to Mindpumpstor.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. Here's the fact What you don't train What you don't practice You lose

You actually lose In fact There are six skills You don't want to lose You don't want to lose these abilities Let's see if the guys can guess what they are If you don't use it We're going to go

You lose it Well Steve just throw one out Okay well first one I'm going to say Is to press over your head Yeah That's definitely one of them So just to just to paint some context We've seen this

When you don't practice a particular movement pattern or use it often, the brain actually adapts, same way muscle does. So if you don't use your biceps, your muscles atrophy and they shrink. When you don't practice a movement pattern, the neural pathways that control that movement pattern

weaken, in essence, atrophy. So you actually lose that ability. You lose the ability. And then gaining it back is a whole process. And there are certain abilities, just to loosely name them, that you really don't want to lose because if you lose these abilities,

there's a lot of downstream negative effects that come from them, and you're right, that's one of them, is being able to lift your arms directly above your head. So I have a theory on why that is so bad today in comparison to say 50 years ago. What is it? Monkey bars. That might not be...

Listen, hear me out. Hear me out. Like, other than that, there's not a lot of things that a young kid or even an adult would have fundamentally done on a regular basis, overhead. Like, it's not a normal, it's not a normal movement like the hinge.

In full extension, yeah. In full extension, being connected all the way from hands, all short, like, where else are you doing that in regular life for the average person? We just, well, not a lot. Climbing's a big part of it. Climbing is a big part of it. And we organize our homes and our lives,

so we don't have to do that movement. Yeah, yeah. Do you guys remember the first time you had a client? Yes. When you actually realize, like, you can't reach directly. And what it looks like typically is a person, they can't straighten their arms out, and they can't do this. And they end up leaning back to try to straighten their arms out overhead. So one of my go-to, I don't think we've ever talked about this.

One of my go-to moves on a, we talk about the assessment, right, and how we used to break down. And everybody, or not everybody, but a lot of people know that's what our prime, our Maps Prime, is how we would assess a client, right? Right. One of the things that we don't have in there that I actually used to do, and a lot of it was to just point out how alarming this was, was I would take a client and put them flat against the wall, and then I'd have them try and raise their arms all the way up

to show, like, how exact. Their hips come off the wall. Oh, yeah, how much they would arch their back to get their hands above there. And I'd be like, we should be able to stay flat right here and be able to come all the way back and touch the wall. And they would be so, like, blown away how they can't do that. I remember the first.

time I saw this as a trainer and it was alarming because it wasn't somebody who was in advanced. No, that's what I was going to say. This was something I did like on people in their 30s and 40s. Yes. Like this is not normal. They just weren't working out.

They were just sedentary and they couldn't lock out and they had to have to overarch and I remember putting the weight down. Maybe it's too heavy. We'd go lighter and they still couldn't. And I had, I grabbed his wrists and I pulled them straight up. Yeah. And then I said, okay, now try and hold them there and he would contort. And this was common.

This was not uncommon It was so common So part of the spiel that I would do Is it's like Everybody comes in Especially 30s and 40s Because they want to lose body fat Or build muscle

Or look a certain way And I would like Easily break that down real quick I'm following our macros And doing these things like That's the easy part I'm like But I'm also going to get you

To move better and feel better Oh I feel fine And then I would do some of the stuff And be like look at this You lost it Yeah you've lost this And you're only this old right now like imagine if you continue down this pathway at 50, 60, 70, like, and then I'd do the whole

analogy or like, or metaphor of like somebody using a camera. I'm like, that person didn't wake up, you know, one day and then also had to use a walker. It was at 30 years old, you couldn't do this or you couldn't do that. And then it just got worse, worse, worse, worse. And the next thing you know, you're, you can't help for what you brought up, like think of all the fundamental movement patterns, like squatting, hingying. Yeah, you know. Those are other ones.

I mean, so I think immediately of. of like when the starettes were here and they were talking about what they implemented in the book where it's like you got to balance and then tie your shoe. I love that one. I think the bending over, you know, tying your shoes is like people, I mean, it becomes a lot harder. Like if you don't actually have the ability to hold yourself in place and then also hinge. Yeah, well, there's this. Is balance one of them?

No, I didn't put that on. Oh, interesting. So that's definitely one of them. But all the ones that I listed are ones that I was able to find data supporting that lead to a lot of the stuff that we're talking about. So like, for example, losing the ability to really extend your arm up above your head. You start to lose the connection between how the scapula and the humorous move together

and that thoracic stability, which is that upper midback stability. What ends up happening over time, you start develop neck issues. It starts out with neck tension. Then it looks like tension across the shoulder girdle. Then it's shoulder problems. And that then contributes to lots of other things. By the way, because again, this is not just older people. This is actually quite common.

We had a guy who came in, and I won't say too much without calling him out, but he was a physique competitor. This guy's like, Jack. In his 20s. Couldn't do this basic movement because he never trained with that full extension. Actually lost it in his 20s, which is limited by it. Yeah, I would assume, too, is rotation on there? Because like, trunk rotation, any kind of rotation where that's pretty limited.

I would say even the most egregious one I see a lot. is with the neck. Yeah. Because, you know, you end up turning your whole body one direction. And this is one of those where I see, like, injuries or, like, a lot of pain with a lot of clients because they can't actually turn their neck. Well, one thing, too, that's that we got to communicate. That's important is you don't lose these abilities because you get older.

You lose them because you stop doing it. Yes. So this is not a result of age. So a lot of the ones we're going to say, you'll notice that older people can't do them, but it's not because they're older. It's because they stopped doing them. You mentioned two others, so we'll go back to those squat and hinge. Yes.

Very important. So squatting, if you have a toddler, you notice how natural squatting is. Like this is, our bodies are actually made. This is actually a rest position for humans. It's a natural rest position. And scientists will notice that hunter-gatherer societies, this is how they often sit and rest. And it's because it's a rest. It's good on the body.

It's actually good for the digestive system. You decompress. It's good. It decompress at the spine. It's also a ready position. So even though you're fully rested, you could move very easily. And you lose that ability. Now, that's an easy one because most people who don't work out can't even do a normal squat.

Yeah, it takes a lot of work. And then what does that lead to? Well, it leads to knee pain, hip pain, and low back pain. And low back pain. So also important. And then hinging. This is an important one. Hinging is the ability to bend over without having too much flexion in the spine.

Loading the hips instead of the back. That's right. Right. This one is so crazy that all trainers know this. All trainers who've been training for longer than just a few months know this. That's why I didn't dead it. They can't do it. They just can't do it.

You tell someone to bend over and it's all lumbar flexion and there's no hinging at the hips, which is. And we, you know, we learn this, right? People will say, lift with your legs or, you know, try. And it's like, then you try to do it and you can't do it. You lost that ability. Yeah. And that is low back. This is why one, and we did this a long time ago.

It's in our, and it's in our programs. You see, I love, I love seeing all of our trainers use this tool. This was an unlock for me. It didn't happen until, God, I want to say year six or seven. When I went to, I went to some seminar, one of my national search, I don't remember which one. But the guy training us pulled out a PVC pipe and would put it on the back of their nodule. Their head. Yeah, the back.

Yeah, when their upper back and then they're on their hips. And you had to keep all three points. to those contact. And that feedback to teach someone how to hinge was better than any cue that I had been doing for years and just carrying a little light pipe like that that became a staple in my gym that we would do to teach. Because teaching a hinge to somebody who's lost the ability is a really, it's tough to cue. It's like you're speaking a different language. It is. It's a very tough cue. The best cue I ever used, which sounds funny. Stick your ass out. Stick your butt out. I know, which by the way, I remember when we first started this podcast, the trainers at the trainer, there was,

there was a movement for a while there. I haven't heard this in a long time, but it was really popular. And maybe it was during that time when we were talking about that cue, a lot of, you know, biomechanic dorks would get on there and be like, that's a bad cue.

Then you get an over excess. It's like, if you don't cue that to the average person, they don't know what to do. And so you had a lot of people that were trying to counter that. I was like, no, that was the best cue I had until I had the It just got the person to kind of go, oh, okay, this is what I do.

Yeah, yeah. that made sense to them. That's right. You know what I'm saying? Like telling someone to give them an anterior... I need you to do anteriorly tilt your pelvis a little bit. Yeah, it's like... Oh?

Yeah, yeah. And slide your hips back. Like, those are cues are tough for the average person to grasp. That's right. Until they can feel it or see it. That's right. You chop those hips. Yeah.

I mean, that was one of the better ones to cue too, for sure. Sick your ass out, karate chop your hips. Yeah. It was before PVC pipe, that was for sure my go to cue. I did that as well. All right, the next one, this is actually a personal one for me, because I need to start practicing this because I'm losing this ability. And that's just to run.

Just run. So I had a conversation over the weekend with some friends of mine, and we were talking about fitness. The conversation went to fitness. And we're having fun. And so I asked them a trivia question. I said, what's one of the physical things that humans can do better than almost any other animal? And so everybody's always like, I don't know.

Run and throw. Yeah. Run for distance. We're actually made, if we're made to do anything physically, there's another one, but one of them is to run. We have these big knee joints. We have these huge glutes. We're on two legs. And they actually used to do this contest.

There used to be a contest that they stopped a while ago, but it used to be a man versus horse, and it was a long distance run. And about 50% of the time or so, the human would win. And you think to itself, how does a human beat a horse? Well, it wasn't for speed. it was for distance. Yeah. And a fit human can out track

or out distance run pretty much any other animal. We're actually really, really good at running, which sounds crazy because the average person would say, no, we're not,

look around. We've all lost a skill. Well, most hunting, it's like, yeah, you might have been successful in actually, like, spearing or shooting. It never falls down right there.

It never falls down. You've got to track them for a while. Yeah, they bleed out and they're normally... I mean, we've now with, you know, we've evolved weaponry where it's more deadly.

Yeah, come on, the first bow and arrow was probably barely got in. You know what I'm saying? It was like enough to break to hide for a while. Yeah, they had to bleed out and they probably, the animals probably got pretty far before. And they're faster than we are. Yeah, before you tracked them down.

And this is, it's a personal one for me because, you know, we were laughing at this earlier, like was a couple weeks ago, but I was running because my wife was burning some taco shells. I heard her say fire. And I ran and I'm running. And I'm running slow, dude. And I'm like, man, I got to practice. But it feels fast, though, right?

Yeah, it's not, dude. That's how my mind now is like, oh, crap, I'm losing the skill of running. Yeah. I should practice running. It's a, it's a fundamental human movement. That doesn't mean you've got to run like crazy. It's a really deceptive one, too, because in your mind, you feel like you maintain these abilities.

Yes. And even though it's been like decade or so since you've done it. And then go apply it, you know, and it's like, you're, you're talking to a foreign, like, it's a foreign. language to your body now. Totally, totally. You know, I talking about stuff like that. Whenever we go to truck, you always ride the bikes and stuff like that. And I remember for a long

time as a kid, I would ride my bike all day long with not using my hands. Oh, yeah. Just balancing. I don't know if you guys have tried that. No, not one of the It's stacked. It's way harder than I thought it. It was like, wow, this is so crazy. Like, I can't do this. Like, I would do that forever. I would ride around on my bike and

use the handlebars and pedal it for 15 minutes straight, no big deal. And I can't do that. It's wild how quickly your body just adapts. Yeah, if you don't need the skill. If you don't want to lose a skill, you just got to keep practicing. I worked with this really good physical therapist years ago. And she had clients that she would work with who were in advanced age and they'd come

to her for, you know, very specific issues. And I would hear, and I heard this more than once where one of her clients says, hey, should I start using a cane or a walker? And she's like, we won't use that until it's absolutely. absolutely necessary because the second you start using that regularly, your ability to walk without it goes totally goes away. You know, this was the, in my opinion, when I think of the best thing that CrossFit did was, was this, was even though the way it was programmed, but the, the philosophy of being able to do. I get the philosophy. Yeah. Because they incorporated throwing,

obviously running. Every movement pattern you're going to cover was part of it. Now, the unfortunate part was you put that in a competition setting, which is not the ideal way to do that, because then you get a bunch of middle-aged people that are trying as hard as they can to do it, which is like, it'd be better off if you just did all that stuff. I'm so glad you said that because I'm referring to these as abilities and skills because there's a way to do it where it works. If you don't, if you lost the skill, because you stop running or you stop doing these things. Signing up for an ultramarathon is not a good idea. No, because fatigue throws skill out the window. Anything under fatigue, your skill goes down no matter what. So the idea is to practice and regain the skill before you ever try doing it to fatigue.

Under low intensity and work their way up, you know, progressively. Yeah. So, I mean, jumping has to be in there. Jumping's there. Jumping's one of them. And it's funny, dude, you guys, listen, this is a real skill. And by the way, you take the typical deconditioned 60-year-old and they can barely jump.

Yep. Many of them can't jump. 60, bro. Take your typical decondition 40-year-old. Well, they can't at least get off the ground. I mean, yeah, I mean, yeah. But like, you know, give them a little stand.

I mean, maybe this thing right in front of us and watch them try and stare at it. You know, it's a good test of that, by the way. If someone's listening right now in their middle age, like, I could jump, jump off of something that's kind of high and land. Yeah, don't do that. And you'll know that your-slose your knees. You'll know your skill is gone because it feels like you can you land soft. Well, I mean, I shared that. That was a couple of.

years ago in the podcast when I had just gone probably a few years of not training that way. In fact, plio boxes were pretty regularly in my routine that I would intermittently, I should say, but I would never go six months and not plio box something, right? And I hadn't for a couple years, probably three, four years straight. And I remember jumping out of that. I have a lifted truck. I remember just jumping out, like just, and I thought my knees were going to explode. Yeah. And it's just like, that is, I mean, that's a skill that I had and was just, yeah, and I did. I was like, oh my God, like, I lost that. I lost that. I lost that skill. My brain didn't, though. Like, I felt like I had done that a million times. I should be able to do it. But it's like, I hadn't adapted to

that. And it's like, yeah, if you don't slowly retrain it back, you will absolutely. You know, with skill I totally lost. Like, like, it's not good at all. In fact, it's, makes me really upset because, you know, I'll go to events like for my kids. My son just started playing soccer, sitting comfortably on the ground. I don't have it. Oh, yeah. You make me sit on the ground. It's a hard one for me, too.

You make me sit on the ground and five, ten minutes in, I'm like, this hurts. I'm uncomfortable. I'm going to stand. They go like 90, 90s. Yeah, dude. This is, uh, my personal, like when I think of like the last decade that I'm most proud of was the work I put into mobility because I'll sit in a squat. Yeah.

A lot of times. When I, when Max and I, you did that with your son. Oh, your son was a big motivation. Yes. And that has been. And so a lot of times when we're sitting on a lawn or doing something like that, I'll do it in a squatted position for half the time, you know, like just because that's become comfortable,

which is crazy to think because I remember how uncomfortable that was just, you know, seven, eight years ago. Oh, yeah. Here's another one. This is not one of the ones that makes a list, but it's just one that I noticed with clients. Being able to lay on a flat surface on your back. This sounds crazy, but a lot of people, their head,

they have a tough time with their head laying fully back. In fact, with clients, we would often have to put towels or something under their head because laying on a flat surface or their head would be cocked like this. Yeah, yeah. This is how forward head there. How forward their head there.

Super bad. With the iPhones and stuff like that. That's right. That's right. All right. All right. All right. The last one is throwing. This is the other ability.

So running and throwing are two things that humans do better than any other animal, especially throwing. We throw with incredible accuracy. And if you don't practice throwing regularly, your ability to do this without hurting yourself goes away and eventually you can't do it. Now, you might think just that,

why do I need to practice throwing if I'm not going to throw? It's really good for shoulder health. It's very good for shoulder health. Just the momentum, the slowing down the momentum, the relationship between the prime movers and the stabilizers, the way the scapula. T-spine rotation that's necessary. All that. Yeah, everything. I mean, you know, some way to kind of build that up to.

And this is why we emphasized windmills so much. Yeah. Because, like, you know, a lot of the body's ability to do, it's a pretty complex movement if you break down to throw. what all has to transpond from there. So it's like, you know, working on something like that really helps your body to understand. Like, okay, we're going to need all down the kinetic chain to work in unison with this

in order to now add velocity to it. And think of all the things that are happening together that are beneficial for the body. Yep. When you lose the ability to throw, it's not just that you can't throw. There's a lot of things there that you miss out as a result. So I want to fight for Justin's that he said,

because I could make a case for it. getting above some of the ones that you've said, which is the balance. I think balance has to be. My mother-in-law just happened last weekend. And she was down and out for three days, bruised this big on her hip. She was out in her,

and she's very active and strength trains, but her stability and balance isn't really there. And she was pushing down soil in a pot. She took her foot and she was stompinged down. And the balance lost her balance and just went on. So balance is very important. But the reason why it's not on the list is if you maintain the ability to run and jump, balance is typically there along with strength. You typically won't find somebody that can jump well and run well with terrible balance.

Yeah, it's a prerequisite to both things. Right. But now here's a deal. Like at her level, you're going to focus on balance. Before that. You're going to have to. I'm not jump boxing with her. No. I'm not jump boxing with her and having her run yet.

So she'll – and that's where I got a lot of clients. In fact, there was a real standard balance. one leg and then you have them forward, side, back, right? So, like, I'd have a client do that 10 times. And working up to doing 10 without losing your balance was very difficult. In fact, I bet a lot of people listening right now, I bet you, you can't, you cannot stand on one leg in balance and swing your leg forward, swing your leg back, swing your leg out 10 times without losing your balance.

I used to do that. And then I'd add a rotation, so you'd have to actually look, you know, to the So I, so I, uh, I love talking about stuff like this. too, just because the fact that we're getting older. And I think about this stuff. I always, not a week goes by that I don't put my socks on standing on one leg. With that in mind. Yeah.

Like I, if I, because I don't want to lose that. And so I will get my socks out of my drawer and I will balance on one leg by putting it. And it gets to a point where sometimes it's a struggle. It's not like it used to be when I was 20. Oh, my right hip flexor fights me. Yes. I have to work to do it. I refuse to put my socks on sitting down.

I refuse to do the old man. Cross your leg over, put your sock on thing. Not going to do it. With all the noises. Yes. No, bro. But it's it. We talk a lot, right, about how we build.

This is also, again, when you have a really good trainer, I feel like a little bit, these are the types of conversations that we would have with clients. And I would give these little tips to my clients like, hey, try. putting your socks on one foot. Always, yeah, balancing on one foot and just that habit is a great habit. Well, I want to be clear too because someone who's like fit right now

and works out, like I do, is listening to this be like, well, I'm fit and I work out. You lose these skills. I don't care how fit you are. If you don't practice these skills, you lose them. Especially the running, the jumping part too. A lot of people neglect that. Running, jumping, balance. Look, I've never stopped working out.

I've been working out since I was 14. I'm very consistent with working out. I've got low body fat percentage. You got muscle, whole deal. And I'm losing the ability to run well and jump because I never practiced them. I've already lost the ability to sit on the floor comfortably. And that's somebody who works out all the time. So if you're listening, you're a fit person, typically these are people who are focused on the aesthetic or simply focused on one style of exercise. That's their favorite style. You'll lose this ability, no matter how much you go to the gym, if you don't practice them. Yeah. So anyway. That's, it's, it's hard, right? Because what you just

hit briefly right there is that this is what motivates most people. to work towards. Yeah. The health journey is like, I want to look better. Yep. You know? Yeah.

Or I'm carrying this, this gut. I don't like it. And so let's get rid of it type of deal. I'm trying to think of like what percentage in my client. Very few clients, I think there was a percentage, maybe 10,

uh, that came in that like had that kind of holistic mindset to start. But it's usually because it's been so far down. Exactly. They've known something's happened, uh, that they're, they're forced. in that direction. It's like five engine

they're already restricted. Yeah, yeah. And it's like now we want to like repair. Yeah, yeah. But it's but yeah, no, I can't stress some of those those skills and any way that you can, you know, find it in your routine. I'm sure Justin's really good about this with all the rotational stuff. Like I try

to be good about things like that where I just intentionally do it, you know. I love too, a new one for me because I've never, it's been a long time since I was a kid that I've had a pool. And so like, like, swimming. Yeah.

And like, like, I'll literally do swim a few freestyle laps and breaststroke and things like that. I'm trying to regain that one. Yeah.

I sink, man. And that's such a good, that's a good, easy, like it doesn't provide, it provides a little bit of resistance. It's safe to do that. And so it's such a,

it's such a speed. It's such a, do you go to something in speed up? My house. Adam does. Do you really go in there naked? Oh, yeah,

we naked swim all the time. Do you really? Yeah, you can't see in my backyard. Would you not naked, I mean, we've done it. That's how we broke our pool open. Yeah.

Wait, you just all jump in. You got kids. No, just me and my wife. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're teenage boys. We've done it so much. We've done it so much. Well, we've done it so much.

So yesterday, we were swimming as a family yesterday, and we're doing some backyard work right now. And so we have construction guys that are coming in and out. And they had already left for the day. But I get home and I had already set the pool to where it would be a little bit warmer than the freezing cold. Right. So I come in and I told Katrina, I say, hey, tell Max, that I heated the pool up for us so we can hang out in the back area

and swim today and she's like, oh, he's gonna be excited. And I come, I was like, I walked out the door and here comes my son down the stairs. Remind you, he's almost seven now, right? Just ass naked. You know what I'm like, hey, hey, buddy.

Freeze a bird. Today's a short day. You know, we're swimming in shorts. And then we have, he's like, oh, come on. I'm like, oh, man. We have people come back. That might be contractors coming in the backyard. So, and so he puts this short time.

I'm the worst because I can't, there's nothing. I'm sure, I don't know if you guys, I'm sure you guys are like this, too. There's nothing I can do with my wife, like swim naked or whatever, where we're naked. And then I'm not immediately, I'm not going in that direction. You're not going to take advantage. Yeah, we can't enjoy the swimming because now I'm like, oh, well, now all I'm thinking about it.

Is that like, is that like, my wife calls me in the bathroom, if she's taking a shower and she has something important tummy and she calls me in there, I'm like, I look, I'm looking down like this. It's like, well, what you look at me? You know why, because if I notice, then forget. I have to imagine that's the difference between, uh, Because I feel like Katrina, I have very high sex traits. I think that has something to do with one kid and four kids, right? Like, you guys have less opportunity. And so if you're in a situation like that, is that?

I'm going to test that out. I'm going to tell my wife, be naked in front of me every day. Let's see how long it takes for me to not. Yeah. I don't know, bro. You know, I'm not too. Yeah, I don't know. You think you guys, I feel like I wonder why that, why that is, that I can handle that, you know what I'm saying?

And maybe because it's like, I, we're not ever short of opportunity. where I think if I had multiple kids, I could see where you guys would have. I'm sure it plays a role, right? Yeah, right. You guys have less, less, you guys are playing defense more than I am. So I pulled up, so I'm going to change something.

I pulled up some numbers on red light therapy because we talk about red light therapy, it's benefit. And I'm like, what do the studies show in terms of the type of red light, the wavelength, you know, that it uses the... I look this up. So check this out. It's like half the time, dude.

Well, check this. No, dude. It's worse. It's, yeah. So the studies on red light, so red light therapy has been shown in studies, just for people who aren't familiar with this, this is a wavelength of light that when you put it on any cell, it accelerates the production of energy of the mitochondria.

So you put it on your scalp. Now the cells in your scalp are more likely to grow hair, so it regrowth hair. It is better. Put it on your skin. Your skin rejuvenates. You put it on muscles that recover faster, probably build even more. In fact, there's some studies that compare like right arm to left arm to left arm.

The one with the red light therapy actually got more muscle. You could shine it on areas that produce testosterone. You'll produce more testosterone. So it sounds crazy, but there's so much studies around it. It's been around for decades. We've known this for a long time. So it's not like woo. This is actual real stuff.

But I looked up and I said, okay, what are this? What wavelengths are they using the studies? Well, there's red light, which is 330 to 660 nanometers and near infrared, which is 810 to 850. plus nanometers. If it's outside of that, it is nothing. Oh, if it's outside of it doesn't. It's ineffective.

The studies show it's ineffective. Oh, interesting. So if you're buying red light. Oh, see, so I thought it was, so I did this. So I've had family, right, that, oh, hey, I was looking, I was looking up Juve and, you know, I found this other one for like half the price or whatever about that. And I go, okay, well, what's the nanometers on the red light? And it was like, half the wavelength.

I'm like, well, okay, I just logically went like, well, if it's half, of what it is, you're probably going to have to sit in front of it for double time. And what the recommendation is on all the studies in your mom. No, it's more like a waste of time. Wow. Yeah. And so here's a deal with red light panels. They used to be, because again, we have the studies go all the way back to the 60s, I think.

Up until relatively recently, red light panels were so expensive, the ones that produced these nanometers, they were so expensive, like $15,000, $20,000, that the only place you you would get them would be really expensive, like skin care and spa-type places. So like if you went Yeah so like in the year 2000 or whatever You could go to someplace in Beverly Hills And you'd pay you know 300 bucks to be in front of this panel That probably cost them 15 grand or something like that

Well now like Jove which by the way Juve is affordable but it's not as cheap As stuff you get on Amazon Juve has panels that produce these wavelengths Like the ones you find in studies Yeah yeah if you find panels that are like cheap Or the ones that we put on the baseball cap Or the face mask or waste of time

Yeah You're wasting your money. It's not producing the nanometers that have been shown in studies to have. Hey, you just haven't, you may just have me things as we're talking about Juve right now. And Dylan, I hope this is possible. I know he's in the back right now. We're working on a whole new system right here where we have the switcher system. Will it be possible for like right now as we were just talking about Juve?

Justin's commercial like running up as like in a square box in a corner. Oh, the one he did with the aliens. Yes. At least the alien pop up the head. Eventually. Anything's possible, but it's a tremendous amount of work to set all these things. You have to have it. Once you have it set up on the switcher as a button.

It has to be saved there. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. No, I think it's possible for sure. Yeah. I think, like, I mean, that's, I want, I personally want that. When we talk about some of the brands that he's done commercials for, I just think you could do. We could repost it on Instagram and point to it.

Yeah, well, I mean, for now, that's cool. But I think it would be way cooler, like, right now, why everyone was talking. You have a little, the, actually you can see just. that he did. We have to bring some of those back. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That was exciting.

You did, I mean, they were brilliant. They were just. How long did the Juvon take you? Way ahead of the time. How long did the Juven take you to shoot? Do you remember? I think that was like two days. Yeah.

We, like a major production for it. Yeah. What we did, it was like nonstop. It's one of those things. I don't know, dude. I get in this weird mode where it's like, okay, then this, then this. And I don't really pay attention to what time it is or like if I have eaten food.

You're in the show. Yeah. It's just like pure creative, like, let's just get it out, you know, of my mind. And, yeah, I know we've done really long. You know, I have a little bit of, like, a dream that one day I can, like, do something like that. Because I also can be very creative with storytelling, not with, like, you're on another level. Well, we'll combine it at some point, for sure.

Well, I feel like it. Adam would have to loosen his first thing a little bit. I was going to say it. Too expensive. Is it? I feel like in the, in the perfect scenario where we don't have other much more important things to be doing. Yeah. Way more important.

That's always been the hit. Cheetah? It's like it's just not... How much money is it going to bring in? It's not going to produce. How does it cost us to do it? It's fun. Hey, speaking of exciting stuff, I haven't had as much fun writing a program as I've had

I did recently with the news. It's not coming. It hasn't not out yet. It's going to be out in like, what, a month or two, the new PPL program? Yeah. Yeah. So the most like frequently requested type of maps program is one that's a PPL split. Isn't it where we have?

Push-pull legs. We've avoided it. But it's like such a popular, everybody knows push-pull legs. Yes. That's just kind of like a staple in the gym. Yeah. Well, it's a, it's a bodybuilding favorite. It's a very, very popular.

If you're, if you don't do a traditional single body part type of split, it's PPL. Yep. Well, we've been trying so hard to, you know, tell people about, like, you know, training the entire body, like, total body workouts. And I think, like, that's just one of those. We got a lot. We haven't visited that. A lot of people that would love this. And by the way, this will be the first time we did a male and female version.

So for people who are... As far as splits, PPL and upper lower have always been my favorite. Yeah. Yeah. I just, that's all... It's like kind of what I'll fall back to if I'm doing a... Especially if your volumes high. Yeah.

If I'm doing a split, right now, I'm way more MAPS 15 type of protocol. But like, if I'm running that kind of volume, I love an upper lower or a push-pull legs type of split is like my personal go-to. Yeah, same. So I, this morning, I... was thinking and re had time this is my cardio week so this is the time when I can like listen to books and oh yeah what are we all this is like the third or fourth week of cardio the fourth uh cardio week so it's got to be so it's uh this is it been a month two months already has it been two no it can't be that yes yeah it's almost i posted about that today with

arnold had this one oh come on bro interaction with some guy i don't know who was but he was making him do all these like calisthenic uh cardio moves no i'm working it's great no bro Have you at speed two? I was going to say, have you made it over three yet? No, you're not even at three? I'm not trying, you know what it is? I'm really enjoying listening to books. Bro, you go any slower.

You'll go back in time. Three, I thought it was a few more fast. Three is not even walking, dog. I don't even think you could call it walking. Yeah, I don't think you have to be at three to call it walking. If you're under three, that is not. You're basically kind of not standing still. It's a stroll, dude.

You're not standing still. It's a very slow stroll. But I'm listening to books and I'm having great thoughts. I'm thinking a lot about stuff we communicate. And there was this one study that got me into this spiral of thought. So I'm going to back up and just for you guys, because this is wisdom that we've learned through practice when it comes to training clients. So when you become an early trainer, a lot of what you do is tell your clients,

don't do this, don't do this, don't do that, don't do that. Then you realize later on it's way more effective. If you stop saying that and you tell them to do this. So in other words, I could tell, you know, don't eat that, don't eat this. Or I could say eat your body weight and grams of protein, eat it first, and then don't worry about the rest. Why? Because it takes care of so many of the things. But also psychologically, not doing something doesn't make sense.

Doing something makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And so I was thinking a lot. It's really got me down the spiral. So I read this study on teenagers and anxiety and depression. Jonathan Haidt talks about this quite a bit about this research. So for the first time ever, this younger generation has had worse anxiety and depression than older generations.

This has never really happened before. Typically, that's the generation where they're like having a good time. And the anxiety and depression is a kick in until middle age when you got kids and Morgan, the whole deal. And yet we're seeing these kids just go through this terrible. I know where you're going. And so he was going through the studies and he's like, what is the best protection against this?

Like what is it that's happening? I have a theory. And what's going on? What is it? So I, you know, I think what you're highlighting right now is less to do with, it's human behavior and leadership, which is, it's a far better strategy in leading a team. It's a far better strategy in raising a kid. It's a far better strategy of clients.

And that is telling them to go do something versus don't do something. Totally. So here's what they found, okay. Tell a kid to get into a thing or a kid. Well, so here's what they find a study. So the study starts out with like each, you know, additional. hour of social media use was linked to lower overall flourishing and well-being. So that's connection between social media use and just worse and worse anxiety depression. And so what we do is we

point to social media. It's constantly bombarding them with images of perfect bodies. It's constantly showing them the news, a bunch of anxiety stuff, you know, scaring kids. So stay off social media. Stay off social media. Well, here's what they found in the data. Forget the social media. Kids that were really actively, religiously participant, participants. In other words, they were part of a strong church community, and I'll expand off that. It was like the best protection, regardless of how much social media they used, if they were part of a very strong community, it almost had no effect. Now, aside from the supernatural component, so if you're not religious, we could cut that out for a second. You'll find data that supports any strong together

community. I was just going to say, I would imagine you would see similar data in belonging to a club sport team and like anything that you that keeps you occupied doing something in the real world with other. Accountability built in with other people with growth and like in my. So it's not the same. So the religious community stuff was the best probably because it points in a really great direction. But you're right.

Kids who are active in clubs and sports and activities with other people, it's a great protection. So it's less about the dangers of these bad things and more about what it's pulling us away from. So it's really the isolation. That's right. So like, for example, sitting or resting, people like, don't sit too much. It's bad for you. Oh my God, the more you sit. It's not the sitting that's bad. It's taking you away from moving. Yep. Right? It's not that processed foods are so bad for you. They are, but it's rather it's taking you away from whole natural foods that actually have, they're better with their nutrients. They have natural breaks, which make you not eat as much. So it's

less about all this bad stuff. It's more about what is it pulling me away from. And one of the, one of the big things that just kept coming up for me, it's the wolf that you're feeding, right? It's a whole analogy. Wow, great one. That's great. So what kept coming up for me, what kept coming up for me was what we lost a lot of is real community, real community. And so I had this call with my wife, and I'm like, man, we have to continue to pursue community and friendships, even outside of our comfort zone. Like pursue it. Because people don't pursue it anymore.

It's not natural. Like it used to be where people come knock on your door and it's just the way you like. But now it's so unnatural that you have to kind of pursue it. And I told us, so this is the bet rather than because she's really good about managing tech, managing TV. I said, honey,

if we're just around people a lot, that's not going to be a problem. It takes up that time. It's self-regulating. It's like going after your protein. Totally. It takes care of the rest of the stuff. It's a way better strategy than telling your kids,

don't go on the saying or limit. It's like, let's go do this thing. That's right. Yeah, let's go do this thing or let's go meet up with these people or let's go play that sport. You're already so prone to like recognizing negative things. And so if we keep reinforcing like, don't do this. Don't like, then it's almost like hitting the golf ball and don't hit the golf ball in the pond. And you're going to help with like thinking in the pond.

You end up doing it. But if you have a kid that's at home all day after school and they're just on their phones and you're like, get off your phone. Get off your phone. Right. Way better strategy is like, let's go do something. Or you got to be a part of your friends. Or you can even say something like this. I don't care if you're on your phone so long as you do this and you do that.

You're part of this commuter. You're part of that group. Then I don't mind so much. And it's the most powerful protector against all of these things. And I was thinking about all this stuff. Like we talk about processed food. Think of pornography. Pornography definitely has its negatives.

But what it's taking us away from is intimacy. And that's the negative issue. That's the real negative thing is it's taking us away from. from those things. Just a totally different way to communicate these things and have a different understanding. So now it's like,

as I talk with my wife, it's like, yeah, it's a lot more effective. Yeah, I'm like, you know what? We're just gonna, instead of like trying to manage stuff all the time,

which we do, instead, let's just, let's be busy with pursuing relationships and friendships. And let's just let people in our home and who cares how messy it is and whatever. Well, this goes back to what we were talking about just today too

about the, it's just unfortunate, the area that we're at, there's less neighborhood stuff. Yeah. It was so common. my neighborhood. In fact, my son just two days ago got introduced to street hockey. So his best friend, who's like the, who's the sports fanatic, his dad for his birthday, which was just last

weekend, got him a hockey stick and a little, you know, ball and a net. And Max spent the day over there with them the other day and was all into it with him. And so it's like, that was like, you would walk outside my house on a regular Tuesday at four o'clock in the afternoon. And there's kids out there would be doing that. My neighbors would be doing that. You couldn't wait to run out there and go do that. There was community built in a lot with those things. Totally.

And because I remember one of the things that my best friend and I were like, you know, we had video games. It was different. You guys played it together. Yeah. You hung out at each other's house. It didn't. First of all, the science,

the science wasn't there on the way they could make it with like the open loop theory. It got boring. It got boring. We don't do it for a while, try and beat a level. then you get frustrated. The physics were a lot harder. You die. Yeah, and then you're like over it for a while.

I get tired of it. You can't save the game. My mom never had to come in. My mom never had to come in and say, stop playing those video games. Get outside and play. Like, in fact, it was the other way around. Like, hey, make sure you're back by the time that sun comes down.

If you don't, you know what I'm saying? You're in trouble. Like, you wanted to go outside because there was at, and then we had a park around the corner that you could walk to. There was always kids there. It was never empty. It's like, man, parks are empty. streets are empty. It's like you just don't, everybody is isolated like that. So it's like you have to,

as a parent, you've got to foster that. Yeah. You have to, you have to go with intent. And by the way to foster it, the best way to foster it is not telling your kids or even doing it with your kids, although that's great, do stuff with your kids. It's you yourself pursue community and relationships yourself so that people are over, so that you're over other people's houses. And oftentimes, this is just the reality. This is the conversation of my wife. It's not so natural these days.

So oftentimes you just got to be the host and you have to pursue. Now I would think you would have so because I'm interested to see how this continues to play out with Max as he gets older. And I always talk about how your family is similar to Katrina's

with a lot of things. We're with them a lot. Are you not with your family a lot? So they're more spread out so it's not as natural. It's not as easy. So like my parents are only about 13 minutes.

away. Yeah. But my brother's like 35 minutes away. Okay. My other sister's 40 minutes away. So my cousins are all kind of spread out now. So we get together for like birthdays and holidays, but we're not all right next to each other where we're close.

Yeah. Now we have like a great church community. And so at least a couple days a week we're with people. But and my wife's done this thing where she says, Sundays are open house for us. And we tell a lot of her friends after church. Everybody come over. It doesn't matter. Just hang out.

Yeah. And it's like you got to kind of make it happen. but man, you want to talk about protecting or defending yourselves and your kids against just what happens when you don't have that community you just got to be in it. You just got to be in it as much as possible. Yeah, yeah.

Which is work. Yeah, as you say, it can be a lot of work for the way we've structured society is the opposite. Yeah, your schedule is off. The house isn't always so clean. What about this? What about that?

You know, it's like, it is work, but it's so worth it. And the default is so easy to default to, which is just the TV and the, I mean, the way we have stuff streaming that's entertainment all the time. Like none of that stuff was there. So you kind of had to figure. It was too boring. It was too, being in the house watching television, if you didn't catch that few hours right after school or the, the first thing in the morning on the weekend.

It's like the rest of the time, it was like lame. I tried to explain that to my five-year-old. I was like, you know, when we watch TV, if the show wasn't on, it just wasn't on. He just couldn't process it. He's like, what do you mean? I'm like, I'm trying to explain. So there's a central place that would do what's called a broadcast. And the only time you could watch that show was when they were broadcasting.

So you had to watch it. And if it wasn't on, then you couldn't watch it. See, I feel like we can his parents kind of, again, again, you knew we were going to kind of swing this way. Hopefully we get back and more, more like this. But even though it's available all the time, you can still get back to, like, creating that. Like, there's nothing that stop. us as parents from going like cartoons are only Saturday mornings for sure we've done here's your window so we've kind of so like Friday night at our house is movie night it's the one night where

we don't sit as a family around the dinner table and eat we can we can watch movies late into the night max is to stay up past his bedtime it's a treat it's so and he looks forward to it it's Friday night that's not every night doesn't look like that every night there the TV isn't on we're not doing that we're doing other things there in the morning time on Saturday mornings is the times where he's allowed to get up and go down and watch cartoons in the morning and allows Katrina and I to kind of like slowly get up and start the day

and he knows he gets like an hour or two in the morning where you, so it's like I feel like you can still even though it's accessible. Yeah. It's the discipline as the parent to. To not make it accessible all the time. It's like oh and so it's not weird that after that morning block,

we don't do that anymore. That's all we do that. Yeah, the default, again, it's what I say. said to my friends too, I said, you know, the default, I understood this for fitness, like the default, if you just live and allow yourself to live the way everybody else does, you're going to be unhealthy. You're also going to be unhealthy mentally and spiritually, not just physically. So you will, your odds of being obese or having, you know, metabolic issues are very high if you just, if you don't structure things and you don't have some kind of discipline. It's also very high for psychological issues and spiritual issues if you don't, again, do the same thing. You have to like, So you always have to be a rebel. You can't live like everybody else. Otherwise, you'll be like everyone else.

You know, the, the positive side is that if, if we discipline ourselves to do it for enough, long enough period of time, like it becomes, it becomes, it becomes, just like bad habits become bad. Good habits become good habits. My, we were, when we were over at my families, my brother went to the, the Ligger store where we're all there with the family. So with that he came back and he brought me like a Diet Coke. You brought a drink something. He's like, oh, I was going to bring the baby in ice cream, but I know he doesn't need sugar.

I said, you could have brought him one. I don't, that's done. Yeah. I already did the work. Like he, like, you could bring him something right now. And like, I know my son now. And he'll eat a, like,

you take a couple bites of it. And then he'll give me the rest of it. Yeah, it does get easier. Like, yeah, I see, it's,

it's like, it's, it was a lot of work at the beginning. I was a bad guy and weird and all the things, you know, because that's just it. That's, you have to go through the uncomfortable bit of being not normal.

And intent, and having an intention of setting those schedules and those boundaries and going and meeting with people and getting out of your comfort. zone, but then you do it for an extended period, just like working out or anything else, it becomes a part of you. And it's habit. And it's like, then you don't have to like reinforce that. And I feel like that's, I've felt like the things that we did a good job of doing that.

I look back now after six, seven years and go like, oh, it's not hard to med. And it doesn't mean there's that times where he's like, oh, I want to do more. Like, of course he, he's a kid. Of course he's at, but it's like, no, you know that. And Katrina, I'm like, we don't do that. You know, we don't do that. And then it's like, okay. Of course you're going to try.

But that's it. Then we shift them to another thing. right onto it. Totally, totally, Adam, I was going to ask you, because you're the most consistent consumer of the Hewel meal replacements? Yeah.

How you still liking them? Love them. The mocha flavor, the coffee one's my favorite. And then strawberry banana. So they're non, their vegan protein. They digest so. Really easy. Easy.

And I was looking at the protein sources, P is the most, that's the most predominant protein source. P protein is one of the highest branched amino acid sources of vegan protein. So it's considered one of the more anabolic. Yeah. I was looking at the back of it I just I mean I love that it's it's ready to drink

You know so it's it's easy I've shoot I can't tell you the last time They're really palatable They don't talk about their energy drinks as much I I haven't tried drinking some of those Did you? Yeah the pineapple one is really good How much caffeine is in one of it? It was like 200 I believe is it 200 or 150?

No it's 200 yeah it's 200 Yeah yeah no it's a good so we have like five of them It's a good supplement It's a good supplement my normal caffeine The watermoan one I didn't like the watermelon one It was a little sweet but I haven't tried the pineapple one I'll try the point out for me. Yeah, it was tasty.

I liked it. So I was just like curious. I had this, there was this fitness guy that posted this GLP protocol. And I thought it was so good. Oh, yeah? Yeah, I saw the post. I'm going to pull it up.

As far as working out wise? Like what you do when you, okay, you're going to use this GLP1 or a GLP. Here's what, here's what you need to do. Okay. So, and he talks about how it works. It's actually quite, it's actually quite, um, coach was now, I don't know about his other content, but this was pretty good. So he talks about how it works.

He came up with something, and I think it's his. It's actually quite smart. It's an acronym that he calls March. And he says, you need to focus on mitochondria, absorption, resilience, cycle, and signal, and hypertrophy. So what he says is... That totally makes sense to the average. Yeah, you have no idea. So you need to make sure you have good mitochondrial health because otherwise the glucagon activation can actually cause more fatigue.

You need to make sure you have good gut health because it slows down gastric emptying. So if you already got bad gut health, then you're going to GLP, you're going to have malabsorption issues. Then he talks about resilience and cortisol. He's like, look, losing 20% body weight in 12 months is a physiological stress. I'm like, absolutely is. So users with poor sleep and high baseline cortisol already overwhelmed. Not a good thing to go on on top of that, go on a GLP one. And then he says testosterone is a good idea for a lot of people who,

who have gone to gLP to prevent the loss of muscle. And then he says, resistance training plus high protein. So he says, this is the order of operation for the people he works with. Is he, rather than throwing people in a gLP,

he's like, we got to get you. Address all these first. We're going to address these things first to maximize its effect, minimize muscle law. I thought this was one of the most comprehensive. Well,

that's the nerd in you that says that. That's so the, that's so great for coaches. That's exactly what's for. Yeah, okay. I was going to say, speaking to coach. Oh, okay.

Yeah, no, no, average person's like, what are you talking about? Yeah, no, I mean, you said that. I'm like, yeah, no, that did not. So he's like, all those terms are he's going to fly right over. For a trainer as a protocol to follow, like, think of that, I like that. So he's like, fix your mitochondria, fix your gut, fix your stress response, optimize your hormones, treat and eat, train and eat for muscle, then add the compound. I like the order of operation. And I'm like, oh my God, that's really, really well.

It's like the said principle for, you know, you use, I mean, we know that, right, what the said principle is, but you tell a client. Well, so what this would look like for the average person in muscle. go on a gLP, it's like, all right, we're going to start, before you go on the gLP, we're going to start with strength training. We're going to start with, you know, making sure we get good sleep. We're going to look at your gut health. We're going to make sure your gut health is good. Maybe use a probiotic, but if you need to treat yourself for things like SIBO, we'll fix that.

Then we're going to look at your hormone profile. Get you healthy, yeah. Let's look at your hormone profile. Oh, your testosterone is low. We're going to put you on testosterone if it doesn't raise through those other natural methods. Then we're going to really focus on hitting the grams of protein. Now, let's add the glp. and then boom.

You get great results, minimal muscle. I thought it was really really good fun. No, no, coaches and trainers. That's awesome. Wesnowski coaching is the name of his. That's awesome. Yeah, he doesn't even have a ton of followers either.

I thought it was really, really good. I had you come across that, you know? You were looking at JLP and stuff? It showed up in my feed, and I'm rarely impressed by, like, coaches and trainers

who post things on, like, JLP. A lot of it's like, you know. Young guy, old guy, I'm with you. He looks like a young dude. Yeah, it looks like a young dude. I don't know his other stuff. So I don't know if his other content's great, but this particular post,

I was like, really, really good. I'll give the guy a shout out. Yeah, yeah, no. From a coaching perspective, I think that's fun. That's really good. You're always looking for acronyms like that to remember to.

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Back to the show. Our first question is from Danielle Keppix. For walking lunges in your program, if we get to a point where grip is going before strength, is it better to stick with dumbbells or go to barbell back rack? Oh, this is when you go to the barbell. Yeah, yeah, definitely. This is when you go to the barbell.

Now, there's another option if you don't have a barbell or you're afraid of the balance is you could use wristraps. This is one place where I would use wristraps for a client because they're so strong that they're trying to use heavy dumbbells and they can't hold on to them. Yeah, yeah. You know, the idea here is the lunges. So this is when I'm like, let's go and use. I mean, if you had one really heavy weight that you could sort of hold like a zircher as you're doing it as well. But, yeah, I mean, that's probably going to be your best best barbell. But barbell back rack walking lunges, one of my favorite exercises.

I prefer that. If I have the space, if I have the space to do it, I like that. So you can just focus on the lunging part of that. Oh, bro, it's one of the best lower body exercise. I mean, if I want to do some grip state for the, I'll do just carries. You know what I'm saying? If I want to do something for that. But if I'm training legs and I want to go, I'm doing lunges.

You know, properized this was the walking lunges with the barbell on your back was Ronnie Coleman. Yes. Yeah, dude. There's a yellow spandex out in the street. He's in the park in law, out in Texas, in the sun. I do you remember that. He's got 135 on his back. And it's at the end of his workout.

He's walking. And you can see the veins through his pants. And his legs, dude. I think walking lunges are a really good exercise. Oh, my God. Super functional. You actually don't be, it's a great muscle builder. There's not a lot of room in a lot of gyms to do that,

especially if you train at a really popular time. That's right. So that's the unfortunate part. But if you've got the ability to do walking lunges, I think it's an awesome thing to incorporate. And if you can put the barbell on it, it just takes a lot of room. Yep. You got a lot of space. I mean, I used to do them in here all time.

Now that we have clients and stuff in here all time, I don't do them because we have so many people in here walking back and forth. Yeah, like backstep lunges with a barbell. Yeah, but I like the locomotion of moving forward and the weight, I think is just so good. Because I'll even extend my stride. I'll even throw a little bit of a balance between steps. It's such a great movement to play with. Next question is from Brad Bod Fitness. What is the biggest mistake that trainers make

when they go into business for themselves and leave the company or business they are working for? I know. This is the one you said. That's the one, bro. Go do your thing. Well, this was so common, right? So, I mean, most of my career, I train trainers.

So at this point, it's been hundreds. that have worked for me. And it's inevitable. Once they got the experience, they got good. And they realized, oh, man, the company's only given me 50% or 30% of what this client, this client. And their clients love them. They make so much more money.

Then they do the math. Yeah. Yeah, then they do the math. Like, oh, my God, I would be making this much. And they go, and listen, there's a, in this, I swear I've seen this play out. As a good rule of thumb, if you are not the number one or number two trainer, in your local gym, okay? You have no business going and trying to build your own business.

And you will make less money. In fact, even some of my top guys and girls that were my number one trainer went out. And they made it and they were making close to the same amount of money, but they had to work way harder and way more stress. Yeah, a lot more hours. And just to make the same money they were making for me at the big box gym. and so and but and the only ones that I ever saw surpass what they were making inside the commercial gym were the the top trend that you got to be if you can't prove to be number one with the muscle

of the gym and the the the the the the the the the the them carrying all the overhead and the stress of running a business you got leads in your gym all over the place you you're marketing everything that is the biggest mistake because and and to me that should be like if you want to do that I think it's a total good goal. You should prove to yourself you can be the top guy or girl in that facility before you make that leap. Otherwise, you're setting on yourself up for that. That's 100%. However hard, you could go into a big 40,000 square foot, big box gym as a brand new trainer.

And trying to become number one in that gym is a lot easier than doing your own business as a personal trainer outside of there. It's a lot easier. And let me counter this argument before anybody who's already thinking. in their head because I think this is unethical is you're going like, well, all of my clients said they'll leave and I can do that quick math. I'll instantly the next month make more money than I'm making right now. The inevitable will happen. One year or two years down the road, all those clients won't be with you still. And you're true. And you will have to go get your own business. And so even if you, the next month could for one month or two months, because they

all leave the gym and they all come to you, that to me is unethical because you didn't build that business. They may love you and say they're there just for you, but they would have never met you had they not walked through that facility. And that, therefore, that would have not happened. So you have to go prove to yourself that you can do that first. Plus, it's such a short-term vision. I mean, maybe they do come with you. Maybe they do stay with you. What, you got a year or two? And then what? Yeah. You still got to figure out how to build your business. And you haven't learned the skills of true lead generation, building a website, like all that stuff. Now, for people who are leaving their company that are not in fitness who want to become trainers. So somebody who's doing

some other field. This is why we always say go to commercial box first. That's it. The biggest mistake you can make is going off trying to build your own business or going to a small studio. I don't think that's a great starting point. Go to a big box. It's training wheels. It's the best place to start. It's training wheels. It's for a lot of great reasons, not just because they're taking care of the lease. They're taking all the overhead, the electricity, the lead generation, which are massive. But then you're also in a community of 5, 10, 15, 20 other trainers that have been doing this longer than you that you can learn from, that you can ask questions from. It's an incubator for growth. Otherwise, it's really difficult.

Think of it. It's like getting paid to go to school. And that and instead of what, and this is such an employee mindset to go, oh, I only make this much and the company's making it all this. Like you don't even know what it's like to run a multi-million dollar company. So get, that's an employee mindset to think that way. You need to first learn to be. You need to first learn to the best in your facility before you go take on the next new challenge, which is now you get to learn what it's like to go build a business like that, which is very difficult to do. Next question is from Alex Ewan. How come Mind Pump has changed its tune on cannabis?

What information came to light that made you change your minds? So this is, I picked this question because it is quite true. If you listen to early days... It's also geared towards you particularly sound. It is particularly me. I think all of us changed our tune to an extent, right? I think... To an extent.

To an extent. Like, we're wiser. And I think, well, the data now is actually reflecting quite a bit. So early days, there wasn't a ton of data. And a lot of, and there's, there are. Especially the growing, developing mind. That's right. It's really detrimental.

What we now see with cannabis is regular use definitely contributes to anxiety disorders, psychiatric issues. It really messes up the dopaminergic system of the brain to where, like, stoner, the stoner myth of the unmotivated stoner, it's actually kind of true. So whatever your natural inclination towards motivation is, it will generally lower over time if you use cannabis on a regular basis. Now, some people are like, well, when I smoke weed, I'm way more creative and whatever. Yeah, yeah, keep doing that long enough.

And you'll start to find that you lack it without using it. And then when you use it, you also assess it the next day. See if it's really like brilliant. If it's really brilliant. So there's that. It's also more addictive than was originally. believed. So it's not as addictive as other things, but it still is addictive. It does impair your working memory. It does impair or contribute to things like depression over time,

changes the structure of the brain. And I'm just going to tell people right now, I noticed with myself, like I really started reducing my use. I didn't go off it completely until maybe the last couple years where I really don't ever use it. But even before that, I started reducing my use because I started noticing that I just wasn't on the podcast. My memory wasn't as good. I wasn't as sharp. And I noticed when I'd go off for a little while, suddenly I was sharper on the podcast. I'm like, you know, and the podcast does challenge me more than everyday normal day-to-day stuff. But I'm like, you know, I don't want to be impaired. And what's really the benefit of this for me anyway? So I do think there's some medicinal uses. I don't think it's bad as

alcohol necessarily. But it's not, I definitely changed my mind on how I talk about it for sure. So, I mean, my two cents, I'm still, I'm still pro cannabis. As much as I am, pro glass of whiskey or pro glass of wine. That's where it's, it's been for me. Like occasional is what you're saying. Yeah. I think that that's, I've always looked it that way.

And if you've listened to the podcast long enough, you remember before I had a kid and then once I had a kid, I always talked about the day that I would probably walk away from it because I don't want my son to smell it or see me do it. What that translation looked like for me, the last previous years, I set it up to where it was outside. So as he's starting to get older, he's now at an age where he's,

like, he's very aware of everything around him. He's a very smart, intelligent kid. And so it's been a half a year since I've had anything. And I didn't say, I didn't announce that on the podcast and say, I'm quitting forever, like,

because I'm not anti it. And in the right occasion with my friends and really wanting it in a mood like that, I would have it. But I just haven't had that. I haven't had a situation where I was like... So here's a question for... I think someone might be thinking this.

You're okay with having the occasional glass of wine or whiskey with Max around. Why not weed? Right. I just... I don't want him at a young age smoking weed. And I don't want it to be normalized like that. There's restrictions already in place for him with the alcohol. He can't have that until he's 21 years old.

And if I had to choose, I think that it's a slippery... slope with weed because of all the positive benefits that come with it. In other words, I've told the story before. When I was in the thick of cannabis, which was in my late 20s, I have a younger brother who is 13 years younger than me. And so he was just coming up in his teenage years. And he's got an older brother that is in the cannabis industry. And I remember he started smoking at a very young age. And his reasons behind it was, you know, he had a lot of anxiety and it would make him feel calm and normal.

And I watched that slippery slope of it being like, I'm high all day long. And I think that it was right in the height of all the positive sides of it. There's none of that information about alcohol. No one's coming out and being like, yeah, you drink it. It helps with this and it's good for that. It's like, and so for the young brain, the young kid who hears all, the positive benefits of cannabis and and then also his dad also smokes like that. I think that's just an easy gateway for him to also adopt it. It's more it's more it can become more of an acceptable

daily thing. That's what I mean. That's what I'm saying. We're like he still sees his dad occasionally have a glass of whiskey with his is his mom. And now and I imagine they're coming an age where he'll want to try and taste it and I'll cross that bridge and I'm sure I will let him. And I think it'll it'll be something we have a conversation about. But I didn't want him. seeing me smoke and smelling the smoke and thinking that's a normal thing. Like I don't think that, uh, I don't,

I think that will be, it would be a harder challenge for me to convince him why he shouldn't, especially when everybody's talking about all the health benefits and how it's not bad. And it's all, I think that it would become something that he would start doing at a younger age that I'm the other thing that I changed my mind on because now we have data that totally counters what I thought. So I thought if you legalized it and regulated it,

less people would use it, less kids would use it. And my theory was, well, when it's kind of like taboo, more people are going to want to use it. And if it's regulated, it's going to be safer. That's a hard argument, though, Sal. Well, here's what we see now in the data. Yeah, but, yeah. But the data is not, you can't,

you can't track something that was legal and nobody's going to admit it before to now where they're tracking data. It's like, oh, no, they've got really good data on this. And it's still early. So I don't know if you remember this, but when we used to talk about this a long time ago, and we talked about the kids way, way long ago,

I was the one that was pro alcohol over, I'd rather my kid get into the Friday night after football game drinking than finding out that he's smoking all the time. And you were like, what? That's crazy. It's way more dangerous to be drunk. And it's like I think the weed thing is a slipperer slope than I'd rather handle the alcohol thing.

And I still stand by that. I'm in the same, I have not changed my opinion. No, no. They have really good data, though, on use, on alcohol use, cannabis use. on drug use, and since legalization and regulation, it's gone, it's exploded in its use. And you know what? Shame on me, this follows almost every other trend.

Because the American market is so powerful, the marketing system is so powerful that when we legalize things, regulate them, we make it, people use it more because of the power of our system, our marketing system. And because of the market and how powerful it is and competitive it is, cannabis has just gotten stronger and stronger and stronger. Because now they can legally compete. And now it's like, I mean, God, listen, I mean, I was using cannabis, you know, 10 years ago when we started the podcast and I would go to the dispensary.

That's back when it was, it was still legal for medicinal use. And it wasn't a big deal. And I'd go in there. I remember finding something 18, 19%, 20% THC was a lot. Yeah. You go into a dispensary now. Try to find something under 24%. Yeah, yeah, no.

They've made it stronger. They've concentrated it. Again, it's a... Well, too, to your point about alcohol, I think that even still, like, you pay a price if you exceed. Yes. So you have very, like, the alcohol poisoning, the blackouts, the, you know, the excessiveness of it, like, I think, you know, kids more...

The exposure of that after experimenting, like, that becomes a reality. And it's like, wow, this is kind of like, you know, there's, there's a line here. Whereas weed, I feel like there's less of that, that real rigid line of like, this is really good detriment. To your point, there is way more kids getting high and going to school than they are getting drunk and going to school. This is my problem because I see this so often with, with vaping especially. Yes.

Because it's just, they can have it in their pocket and they just puff and they're going about their day. Hit their red drops in their eyes and they're, like, there's no, I mean, they're, I mean, You can't do that. There's always an exception in the rule. You know, it's an overgeneralization for him. You see, there's no kids. But there's no kids that are really getting drunk and going to school. Where there's kids getting high and going to school.

But there's also this, which is interesting. This is what is interesting about cannabis. You can drink without getting buzzed and definitely without getting drunk. Like, we could all hang out, have a glass of wine. And I don't even feel buzzed. Yeah. Nobody smokes weed to not get high. Oh, I like the taste. I'm not high.

The point of smoking weed is to get high. Yeah. So it's like if every time you drank was to get buzzed or drunk would be a good comparison. Right. And so. That's what I mean by it's a slippery soap. That's what I've always said that I would rather my kid in high school, okay, have experimented with alcohol than be smoking weed. It's a way slipperer slope.

And then the next thing you know, you're a pothead. You're high all the time. And you close yourself on, I get more done when I'm high. No, you're high, bro. That's what makes you think you get more done. Isolate yourself more too. And you get into the video games. you get into the self-intertainment, you don't leave your house.

Like, there's some bit of at least a social component to alcohol. But I'm not even promoting alcohol. I'm just, you know, in comparison. Like, I look at all those things of how they're interacting with their friends and, you know, how that affects, like, their community. I mean, I think of as a parent, I try and put myself where you guys are with high school kids, right? Like, if my son called me Friday at 11 o'clock at night because he got too drunk with his buddies and he's like, dad, I'm throwing up, I'm sick, and I have to go pick him up. Yeah.

Like, that's a conversation. We're talking about I'm super proud of him for calling me. Like, I'm not even mad. I find out that he smoked weed at school. I'm fucking livid. Like, that total different experience for me. And I can see that happening in the scenario. I'm sure a lot of parents that have high school kids have dealt with both those scenarios.

Yeah. And they're two very different scenarios for me. And so, so again, I'm still, I'm consistent with how I felt about Canada's something. Now, personally, you see. I haven't for half a year, but that has a lot to do with, one, the Kratum thing that I went through, I was cleaning up,

I was like, I'm getting everything out, so I don't want no dependency or anything like that. So that just happened. I was like, may as well kick this, because it's always been easy for me to kick. And I've just stayed on that track this whole time. And Max is now getting to be seven years old. So it's like,

I think it's too, it's also important to understand, this is just because I'm older. Anything that has the ability to affect your physiology in a way to where you, it altered your state of mind, anything. is a slippery slope, whether it's alcohol, weed, cratum, anything.

If you take something because you like this, the mind shift or the, it changes your perception and it makes you, quote unquote, high in a way, slippery slope, because that's very easy to start seeking that out and to start not wanting to be sober. Well, yeah, that's what, I mean, that was the, the cratom slurry slope for me, right? It starts off as this herbal thing that you justify and say it's no big, deal. And then before you know, there's this dependency on something like that. But yeah, I mean, I, at least personally, I don't think that I've changed the two. I don't know if you feel like. I know you have more. Yeah. Well, I've been on kind of a weird path with that because I really

wasn't a big fan of it, like coming into the podcast. Like I, you know, all my friends were big stoners. And like, I like that. I don't know. I prefer to be around people like that versus like, you know, alcoholics or something. I wasn't like super drawn to it other than it, you know, just made me paranoid the few times I tried it. But I was, again, so everybody did initially just to get really high. And so I was like, I wasn't interested in that. But then like realizing you could do like five milligrams and then it was a weird thing

because I had the CBD kind of ratio to that and then taking it as an edible form. Like it was a weird combination for me because I actually felt like I was regaining a bit of memory. It was like actually kind of benefiting me in a medicinal way. And so then I started kind of justifying that. And so it got to a point where it became too frequent. And so the analysis is kind of like a chronic thing that I'm associating with, you know, being able to relax, but also I'm like, well, it's kind of like, it's good for me.

You know, and so, and then I had to like check myself, uh, because it was like a very much of, you know, my, my thoughts around it were I'm just, I'm doing this a lot now. And I'm like, I don't need to do this. and being off of it, my start to thinking more sharply and more clearly. So it's just been kind of a wrestling push-pull thing. For me, I still occasionally will use it,

you know, to kind of relax. Who's used it last out of all of us? Boy, I don't know. I haven't done it in a long time. Do you wins last time? Probably me, probably like a couple weeks ago. With the irony to that.

How funny is that? The guy who was like anti it, never did it before the podcast like that. Yeah. Mine's been six months, but it's not because I... What's when you went off grade? I'm here.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so, and I've, like, people that have asked me, because I haven't really talked about it publicly, uh, I'm not, like, coming out, I'm like, oh, I'm never going to do this again. I was just like, yeah, I just, it's easy for me not to do.

What's crazy for me? I love it for music, dude. I'm gonna be honest. You see, I, see, like, you just did a trip with all your buddies. Yes. Like, I would do that. If I was with you guys up there and I was into that and we're jamming, like, I would so do that.

You know, it's crazy. I have zero. Cannabis has no pull on me anymore. I actually don't want to do it. Create them. I will still get the temptation. I haven't touched it and I won't. Really?

But it'll still have a little bit of a temptation. Like the occasional, I'm tired, I'm stressed, whatever. I'll have the occasional like temptation. But weed has been, it is gone from it. In my opinion,

those aren't even the same universe because my body would way rather have an opiate feeling than a high feeling. I can give shit about the... Weed's always been. and easy for me to kick. It's never been a dependency. No big deal. That's why it's like not even right now it's not a big deal. I'm not like, oh, I'm proud. I made six months. Like that's not a big deal to me. And I made tomorrow. It's like not that. But the opiate feeling is that's a different.

That's a hard. That's the one I'll still get the occasional temptation. I haven't done anything. Thank God. But that's it. But weed, it's almost like almost like I don't want to feel that high. Have you two had to have the weed conversation with your kids? Yeah. Oh, yeah. So my oldest. My oldest is not like, he's not drawn to anything at all. My daughter, we've had a couple conversations, only 16, but those conversations are going to start kicking up now. Now that she's like playing sports and is more social, we'll talk about it a little bit. What about you?

Yeah, yeah, I've had to have quite a few. And it's just because, you know, once you get through junior high and I's in high school, it's like very prevalent. Like all his friend groups, he has to like actively seek friends that are, you know, not users, you know, to not have it around him all the time. And even he has friends that do use, but he doesn't, you know, and he opts out. And they're, you know, he's been pretty good about that. But there's always the temptation because you're bored. And, you know, like they're kind of pulling at them to try things and that kind of stuff.

And so it's a constant communication I have to have because I know it's going to happen. So if you guys get a chance, you should talk to our mutual friend, Jason, who's got three daughters, all in high school and just now college. And he's obviously, like, I love the dynamic in the relationship that he has with his girls. It's really cool. They're just so upfront.

He's very open about all that. And Jay, he occasionally smokes. So it's not like this hidden secret or anything like that. Yeah. And so he's talked to his, the way he's talked to his daughters. I think the thing that I, the takeaway for me, having a younger kid

that I think is just the most important, which is what you were just highlighted right now, is the communication. is just the it's it's actually not that big of a deal if we talk about it like if it's something I'm aware of dad knows we talk about and things like that and never losing that is because you can't control every single friend there have at every it's going to be at parties it's going to be they're they're probably going to try it whether you let you know what I'm saying and so I'd rather just be in the know of how his brain is thinking about it or if he's tried it

or thinking about it then to have him scared to death how I feel about it and then it's like And again, I think modeling is the best possibility. That's also why, too, he's never seen his dad drunk, you know? Doesn't mean I haven't been drunk, but he doesn't say, like, I'll have a glass of whiskey, but he's never seen me drunk. He's never seen me high. Like, I don't. And I'm not anti any of that stuff.

I just don't want to model that. So it makes that step when kids are all doing it. Oh, my dad does it occasionally too. So why not? Where it's like, I feel like he's more likely to be like, I don't see my dad do this. So that's the way I think. I think that's right. And then just having that open conversation, you know.

Next question is from Rich Ardizone. How does bumping fats help fix sleep disturbances? So there's a couple ways. One is if you're not intaking enough fat, in other words, you're not hitting your essential fats. You're going to have more than sleep disturbances. You'll have hormone issues, cellular function issues. Fat is essential. You have to have a certain amount of fat.

Now, I know what the RDA will say, but in my experience with my male clients, I never liked them to go below 70 grams of fat, and I never liked my female clients go below 60. Oh, 60 and 80 for me. Yeah, so, okay, so almost to say. Yeah, yeah. So, so, and I just found that this, lower than that, we would start to notice issues. The other thing is that for some people, they need more than that because it helps regulate their, their blood sugar.

And if you get a spike of blood sugar in the middle of night, it'll wake you up. And so sometimes having those fats before bed for some people is helps them with their sleep. Totally. But this is one of the first things you'll notice if your fat intake, along with like skin, hair issues, hormone issues, is you'll notice your sleep will be. What's the science on why we carved babies up before bed? Like, so one of the things that they other day with... Serotonin. Is that what it is?

Yeah. Yeah. So that's another one too. Some people carbohydrates before bed will get them to sleep really well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So it depends on the person. I think I'm like a baby. I think that's how. Me too. Yeah. Yeah. If you carb me up,

carb me up before bed, I'll be. Oh, I'm going to sleep. Yeah. But it has to do with like, like, like two lower carbs

and you start to mess with some neurotransmitter, you know, production. But yeah, fats are interesting. You don't see this as much today, I think,

but when we were trainers, this was a thing. Because we were in the 90s. Low fat, everything. It's still, I'd say, I don't know if this

is a male, female, asking this, but with females, it still is pretty common. I still will look at a woman's diet. Sometimes when they'll ask me, okay, what do you think of what I'm eating right now? I'm like, oh, I bumped your fats a little bit.

It's still a go-to move, chicken brass and fish and go really lean and stuff. And a lot of times... You throw some fat in there. They're like, oh, my God. It feels amazing. Yeah, and they cut things. People still think butter and whole milk

and all those things are bad. And so there still is a little bit, uh, and egg whites. Like, and so I'll see, I'll see some diet sometimes where I'm like, K, bump your fats. And so it's still, it's not as prevalent as it was when we were young trainers, but it still is. Look, if you like Mind Pump, come find us on Instagram. Mind Pump.

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