Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2833: Why Fitness Gimmicks Keep Fooling You And What Actually Works

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

Are fitness gimmicks secretly sabotaging your progress? Sal, Adam, and Justin take a hard look at the latest wave of EMS workout suits and other trendy equipment — and explain why the basics still reign supreme. Plus, a surprising study linking a popular 'natural' sweetener to blood clots, news on a potential sleep apnea pill, and what women actually experience on testosterone therapy. Stick around for four listener Q&As on everything from deadlift shoulder pain to returning to the gym after surgery. Sponsors & Links 🔗 Vita Bella and MP Hormones — Hormone & peptide therapy with real medical professionals: MPHormones.com To unlock this deal, patients must enroll in our Annual Membership ($1,399).   🔗 Butcherbox — Grass-fed meat & more delivered to your door: butcherbox.com/mindpump   → Free chicken breast for a year, free top sirloin for a year, OR free ground beef for life + $20 off   🔗 MAPS Push Pull Legs (NEW) — Two versions: men & women. 40% off with code PPL at mapsppl.com   → Sign up during launch week for 3 days of live coaching + free supplement schedule guide   🔗 Dose Daily — Liver health supplement backed by clinical trials.  http://dosedaily.co/MINDPUMP Discount code "MINDPUMP" for 25% off your first month of subscription.   02:43  Fitness Gimmicks: EMS, Thighmaster & Why They Fail 06:37  EMS Machines Explained 11:14  Why the Basics Always Win 16:54  The Value of Hiring a Good Coach 21:41  Erythritol & Sweetener Health Risks 25:13  Diet Soda Debate: Aspartame vs. Sucralose 29:23  New Pill for Sleep Apnea? 33:43  Sal's Tractor Crash Story 39:57  Testosterone Therapy for Women 43:15  The Misleading Hormone Therapy & Cancer Study 46:06  Scientists Digitized a Fruit Fly Brain 50:03  Meal Prep Talk & Tater Tot Debate 58:23  Q&A: Exercises for New Moms Carrying Baby 01:01:03  Q&A: Body Types — Lean Into Your Strengths 01:04:49  Q&A: Shoulder Pain from Deadlifting 01:06:52  Q&A: When to Return to Training After Injury Find Us 📲 Instagram: @MindPumpMedia 💻 Programs, coaching & more: MindPumpMedia.com  

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head on over to mindpumpstor.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. Here's something that is guaranteed to be a total stupid waste of time. The latest fitness gimmick that come up every year. Listen, don't pay attention to them. They never work. They never have.

Again, it's a huge waste of time and money. The basics, they always work. You know what the problem with that is, Sal? The gimmicks. They do work. They do work. How? That's why they, well, they work.

They do something. Or else they wouldn't get popular. For example Thighmaster I mean it works It works It builds muscle It can be able to build muscle

You don't think you build muscle Did you ever get a thigh master? Did you ever get a thigh master? Like build muscle? Bro, the thigh master You have to be like I mean you're not building a lot I bet a couple of you

Would have a hard time do it? With the thymaster? Yeah You don't remember those? They weren't easy. For people who are too young To remember this By the way this is the number one

selling piece of extra Of all time Of all time It's a spring I think it's, I think, uh, shake weight passed it now. The shake, okay, see? Well, shake weight. Yeah.

Uh, actually look it up, Doug. Say, what's the number one? People bought that ironically, you know? I guarantee you're, no, you're right. No, you're right. You're right. Oh, I wouldn't be surprised if Thighmaster turned into it. No, Thymaster was a legit phenomenon.

I remember. I'd go to my aunt's house. I'd go to my cousins. Everybody had one. Yeah. And it was a spring you put between your knees and you would just squeeze it. Yeah. And, uh, it's going to slim your thighs.

No, it did nothing. and it sold, Doug, that's not true. You can't say it did nothing. It would build a little bit of my soul. Just look up how much of the thigh master's off. Well, here's my point. I'll tell you where my... And by the way, minimal if any, let's just say.

What you see often, because we've been doing this long enough, is I see fitness gimmits get recycled. Yeah. So you'll see something pop up. Like a good example is the belt that you wear that flexes your abs. The first one to come out of that was like in the 50s or 60s. Yeah.

And every year it comes out. It's like, do you, if they're doing a thousand crowns. while you're at your desk, you know, type of deal. And it's a waste of time. What it works well for is making money, that's for sure. If you want to make a lot of money selling fitness equipment, come up with some weird gimmick, and you're more likely to be successful.

I hate to say it than selling something. Well, you know, what's hot. What's hot right now in regards to that is the new EMS machines. Oh, I've seen it. This is like, I always know when something's hot and trendy when my non-fitness space people reach out to me. I was seeing about paying for this session.

Like, I want to use something that's like not your advice. That looks cool. I know. By the way, the Thymaster generated $300 million in revenue in 1990. 300 to 15 million units. Okay.

Wow. What's shake weight at? Yeah. 300 million. Yeah. For spring. It's just. In 1990.

That's like. Who invented it? Who's that guy? The Thymaster. I don't know. What's your name from Ther's company? Yeah. Suzanne Summers.

No, no, no, she promoted it. Yeah. She probably, like, I mean, made some royalties off of me at least. Let's see what the shake weights. Oh, wow. Suzanne Summers and her husband actually bought it, acquired 100% of the ownership of the product. Wow.

I wonder at what point. Wow. Because he had Chuck Norris with his total gym, but that actually had, you know, a little bit of a little bit. Yeah, but those were all people that represented the product, not actually invented the product. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

He was paid to do that. True. Although Suzanne Summers bought it. Yeah. See, she made 300. million herself from it. See how many shake weights have been sold. How many units, I guess, would say that the shake weight sold.

I'm very interested in that. 50 million. Oh, not even close. Not even close. Wow. Yeah. Well, I mean, you'd count the squeam as one of those, right? Because, like, the Kardashians brought those, resurrected, that whole thing.

But it wasn't like a patented piece of gimmicky exercise equipment. It was a thing you wore. True. But, okay, so back to what you're saying. So, EMS is old science. So the EMS is old science. So the EMS thing is... Electrical muscle stimulation.

So when you put an electrode on a muscle and send a current through it, it'll cause the muscle to contract. Right? And so the... By the way, this science has been around forever. In fact, I remember, I believe Bruce Lee used stuff like this back when he was working out. And so it doesn't make some muscle contract. And so the thought is, well, if I can put it on and have it contract a muscle, it's going to do something. Right.

And what we find in the data, because I've been around for a long time, is there's some benefit for reducing a certain amount of muscle atrophy with injury? Yeah, this is why it's made its way in physical therapy. Physical therapists still use it. I mean, I have one at my house when rehabbing something that's an injury or with that. So it makes sense for something like that to reduce atrophy. But that's not what's popular right now. No.

What's popular. Yeah, so what's popular now is, which I think it's comical to what. You're either wearing this ridiculous suit or you bring in the whole like, you roll in the whole machine and attach it to you with wires and everything with that. And there's these dudes that are working out now in the gym with it attached to them. Or like I said, they have these body suits. And the science that they sell it with is that the, yeah, and we've talked about this before.

In fact, we've used this science to refer to how good in a limit. Lifter can activate their muscles. That's what they're... So a Olympic lifter is known to be able to tap into like 90% of their capacity, their work capacity or whatever, muscle recruitment, right? Right. The average person, when you go do it with the average person, when they bench press, they only get about 60%.

There's limiters. They only get about 6%. So the science behind these is what they're showing is that you stick these things on your chest, this person who's... you can only get 60% of muscle fiber recruitment on their chest while they do a bench press, and they're recruiting 90% muscle fibers. So what they're conflating two different types of studies. So the one that you're referring to is your total force generation.

So under duress, a car flips over, a kid is trapped underneath it, mom is trying to move the car. Suddenly she can. The adrenaline overrides your goal to tendons. Yes. So that's different than muscle fiber recruitment. Muscle fiber recruitment, when you train and, you're, proximity to failure, you're activating most of the muscle fibers. Yeah.

It's forced generation. So they're conflating two studies. Well, that was me who's conflating that. That's not them who's confiding. No, they were saying muscle fiber recruitment. Yes. That's what they were saying. Yeah.

No, anybody who works out, if you train with a certain level of intensity, you're going to recruit. The closer you get to heavy load or a high intensity, the more muscle fibers you're going to recruit. So in another words, and this is the part where I think it's so stupid in like when I see people doing this. This is like every rep trying to train to failure. That's what they're, here's what they'll say, because I've had people try to sell it to me. And they'll tell me about it. And I'm like, first off, it's ridiculously inconvenient. I don't see how can anybody could do this. Yeah. Anywhere. Oh, you're going to add here to that for

more than just a few novel experiences. Right. Oh, you're going to go sign up at a class because the class has this expensive equipment. How much is it going to cost you? Take that money and invest in a good coach. Way better return. Way better return in progress. It doesn't produce. Now, I could see potential benefit for an advanced athlete for very specific applications with the right coaching and the right measurements.

Maybe I have yet to see anybody put this together. Yeah, I'm trying to think where I would even. So it got popular, like always, in the bodybuilder space first. Yeah. Well, because what they do is they say, again, this person told me they said, well, you should try it.

This is like how people try to sell me Pilates or Bar. Well, why don't you try it? It's really hard. Yeah, it'll make me sore. Yeah, yeah. So what? Yeah, it's hard. I could do, we could do, what was that drumstick class we took or whatever?

I got sore from that. But dumb enough to return. I told you you never talk about that. She had his drumming to be there. You know, I was dying. I was burning. It was so hard. You know what I'm saying?

Doesn't mean I built more muscle and burnt more body fat. Perceived difficulty doesn't necessarily translate. It doesn't it at all. That's silly. But all the gimmicks they keep coming out, what they're doing is they're taking people away from what actually works. This is the part that gets me a bit frustrated. Well, I also, so the point I would argue, Sal, is because we tend to advocate for leaving two in the tank anyways and not training to failure anyways. It's close enough.

So when I think about all of my clients that I trained all these years, the ones that didn't get to results, the ones that never saw their goal. It wasn't for a lack of intensity in their workout. It wasn't because it was like, oh, man, if I could have just got them to push harder in their workout, we would have got the results. It was adherence to the diet and consistency and everything else like that. They could have worked. In fact, those same clients that didn't see the results, I could have got them to work out

with half the intensity. If they could have got the other stuff right and was consistent, they would have seen all the results. And so it's not like this is the answer that is going to solve most, people that so and to your point okay if anyone's going to mess with this my pro bodybuilder friends that are i say astronauts and that's about it astronauts because of the lack of resistance like added issues okay muscle stimulus okay okay in zero gravity and that's that makes a lot of I draw the line okay that makes a lot of sense okay i'll put you behind that i'll tell you this much okay

you have occlusion training occlusion training has actual data supported it's therapy it does activate muscle fibers with way lighter load. We know this. Is it even in the category of staples or things we would use with clients on an even semi-regular basis? No. No. In fact, I probably would never use it with a client. And that has data supporting it because it's it's kind of gimmicky. There's some applications for rehab. And again, the super advanced bodybuilder who wants to throw in a little bit of novelty, maybe, you know, type of deal. But nothing is going to ever replace just traditional. strength training with resistance, eating a good diet, having good sleep, unless there's some

radical, I don't know, gene therapy or some kind of medical intervention. I know GLPs have made a big impact when it comes to weight loss just for suppressing appetite. But like exercise gimmicks, exercise equipment, that kind of stuff. Even when you go to the gym, I'll tell you what, there's some awesome exercise equipment that's out there. Awesome exercise machines. And the science that goes into those are remarkable.

There's a whole, there's a company. I can't remember the brand. It's out of Italy. They call them the Ferrari, of course, because they're from Italy, but the Ferrari of machines. I can't remember the name of it. Maybe Doug, you could look it up. But they're like really cool looking machines. Biomechanics are amazing.

You're not talking about the ones that Transcendon had. Yeah. I believe they use them as well. I think they might have used them as well. I know that the reason why they were called, they actually used the same manufacturer. Does the leather in Ferrari offer the leather on there? Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not techno, Panetta. Panada. I've seen some equipment. In fact, if you click there, the equipment looks... That is them.

Okay. Some of their equipment looks incredible. Is it like hammer strength or what's the type of... It's like another level. Yes. Now, what I... You saw it? Yeah.

You saw it? I did. I wasn't there. No, check it. You didn't go to the transcend thing? No, it's just you and me, Adam. Oh, it was just you and I that went there. Oh, these two.

Why weren't they with us? What were you guys? Because it was negotiation stuff. Yeah. What are we going to do? You were just... Oh, that's what that one. We were just eye candy.

Oh, that was the contract thing. Oh, but they didn't finish paying. Oh, yeah, yeah. Stop it. But so, so. My point is, you could take some of the best machines that are out there, and could any one machine replace a barbell dumbbells? No.

No, they couldn't. Is that our boy right there? Just basic. Is that Phil Heath? That was Phil Heath on the front? Is it, really? Yeah, go back. They've got really interesting equipment, but my point is,

the gimmick stuff is just, and this equipment's super expensive. Yeah. you know? Yeah. Yeah. It's still heath. Yeah. So it just, you know, it comes out every year.

It comes out every year. There's a new piece of exercise equipment, the new, I remember one, we went to, what was the convention? I know what you're talking about. The one rep thing that. Yeah, so it was a machine. That's what it was. Yes.

It was a machine that you, like imagine it's a bench press, push as hard as you can, and the machine adjust its resistance to give you one max out rep, no matter what. Yeah. And they're like, you could get a full workout. It hits all three contractions. So it, like, emphasizes the isometric portion and the eccentric. And it, like, loads. And, like, one rep is, like, doing 50 reps and 10 sets.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All based because of intensity. Yeah, yeah. It's not true. Dave Asprey was all about this. Dave Asprey is, like, yeah. No. Big, big proponent of it.

It doesn't, it doesn't work that way. None of it works that way. Yeah. And if people took the money that they spent on these types of things and just hired a good coach. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody's looking for the novel, like, quick answer. Well, that's why I wanted to bring it up because, like,

I said it's reached general pop. When it was my, I seen it a long time ago, I think I brought up over a year or two ago on the podcast when I saw my bodybuilder friends and people doing it. I was just like, oh, this is the new thing. It's hilarious. I thought it was hilarious. They're doing the thing, but it's like, I mean, I'm not going to criticize bodybuilder guys

that are doing everything. It's like, why not? You know, why not do this novel thing that's kind of cool or whatever like that? So it is what it is. But the average person who's trying to get in shape and sculpt their butt a little bit more, lose two inches on their ways.

Total waste of time. It's like, like you're going to suit up in this stupid, inconsistent to begin with. Stupid this thing and shock the shit out yourself

where you're sore for two weeks. Like, that's the dumbest idea ever heard of. In fact, I'll say this. I'll say this, because there's a belief around personal training that you have to,

and yes, ideally you want to work with a trainer weekly, but would you get benefit? Could you get benefit from training with a trainer once a month? Yeah.

Sure. Yes. And it's more valuable than anything else who's been. A really good one of for sure. Yeah. If you spend $100, because the typical trainer will charge anywhere between 60 to 120 bucks an hour.

So let's say you spend 100 bucks once a month, meet with a trainer. There is nothing else you could spend 100 bucks a month on that will come close to the value you're going to get from just a good coach. And what's that coach going to use? A good coach? Traditional basics. They understand workout programming. They don't know how to manipulate it for you. And when you follow a good program, here's the thing.

When you follow a good fitness program, most of the time it doesn't feel like you're going to die. most of time it's hard but you feel good and occasionally you have those workouts where you feel like you're going to die but it's not the other way around which is what people I think that's how they judge fitness equipment our whole concierge program

is built off of that exact philosophy is this idea that you know even just meeting with a coach once a month with them even virtually is significantly more valuable than 90% of all those gimmicky stuff that you can do out there because of the guidance and information

and knowledge that you're getting every time you get on a call with them. That's right. Yeah. It was the last time you guys got anything that was fitnessy, fitness gimmicky that you used. Oh my God. Like us bought it personally? Have we ever?

Have you ever bought a gimmicky fitness thing? I've been given a lot of weird stuff, you know? Like, let's see, like that one door frame, like film roll thing. Yeah. I mean, it's like novel because then you don't have to lay down, but it's like you can kind of do it in your door. Are you talking about that? Oh, well, we had that one that that company wanted to work with us, gave us that, that plastic one that was like you stick your arm in it and so like that.

Yeah, that too. Those are all still really good. The vibrating ones, like. Yeah. Those are cool. Those are all given to us though. Yeah, I know. I have not.

I've used a couple and they're not even gimmicky because they've stood the test of time. What's that? I used the shoulder, what's it called? Shoulderhorn? I think it was for rotator cuff exercises. Yes. That's been around for decades. And it's actually pretty good.

It's not the best thing you could do for shoulder stability, but it's a great, it was a decent. Oh, the preacheral ones are kind of cool. The preacher, oh, yeah. Those are not preacherful, but arm blaster. That's been around since the 60s. That's kind of cool.

Yeah. That's a, that's the one that, like, you wrap around your neck, yeah, and then it hangs over you and it keeps your elbows in a lock position like that. That's right. Those are cool. That's right.

The wrist roller where you, to work your forearms, that's been around for decades. I mean, I was into the rope battle You know, conditioning for a minute. I was into that. I could see that for stamina, but... I liked it. I honestly, like, just because of like...

Can I help your flabby arms? I had the whole turkey neck thing on and I was like really, like, insecure about it. That's a good call. I did the, I mean, that was boot camp era, right? Yeah. And that was the only reason why... Did you bring ropes to the park? Yes.

Wow. That's the reason why it was cool is because it was an easy tool you could carry. I could buy. four of them and carry them in my little wagon to a camp. Your camps are just about keeping people busy. It's about keeping people busy. And what is the, what is the smallest equipment that you can bring with you that is hard for for people to do?

That's the science behind. This is how you're science. This is what you need to do. Make it hard somehow. You need cones. Yeah. A rope. What else are you,

kettlebell? TRX. A tier. You're good. Yeah. Yeah. And ropes. Yeah.

And yeah. A whole. Start a business right there. I think that's most of what. I had right there. Yeah, bands. And some bands. Yeah, you're done.

Yeah. And then you got yourself like a seven station little. If you get weights, you got to be kind of careful. Well, that's, that's, because you're a rich boot camp. If you get dumbbells in a boot camp, that's an expensive. Yeah, that's a lot of, that's a lot of unloading and loading too. You don't do that. Maybe a kettlebell or two.

You know what I'm saying? Did you have to pay? You said a question. Did you ever have to pay the parks? Yeah, I had to get a permit. You did, huh? Yeah, yeah, you get a permit. Yeah.

Well, I just kept moving park to park. That's right. Yeah. So I was a little more established. There was like, there's a, okay. You're running a serious.

I'm just saying, yeah, but I'm a little bit more legitimate here, guys. This is, you're five ladies and you're just dabbling. I was like, one-on-one. Yeah.

For a hot second. Well, I had trainer underneath me and everything doing it. I mean, I had multiple camps running. What was the name of it? We love to hate Adam,

fitness. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Why do you like that? What's up with that name? That's what my clients used to say that. We just love to hate Adam. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. They used to say that. And so that was like the, it just, but you're so likable. Yeah. I hate you. Says the guy who never says that.

I was just being so chastic. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, that's crazy. All right, I got a study for you guys. That's interesting. Do you guys know what urethriol is? Erythrythol. Eurythral.

Do you know what that is? I've heard of it. So this is a, it's an organic sugar alcohol. It's got almost no impact on blood sugar. Is it either low or no calories? Used as a sweetener? It's used as a sweetener. And it's often used as a sweetener in like keto, whatever.

Okay. Or sugar-free products that or... So you don't get any like insulin spike or any measurement? It has almost negligible effect on insulin. Wow. It's super low calorie. And because it's not artificial, you could say something's natural and no sugar, right? Okay.

There's a problem with it, though. It's been connected to blood clots. Oh, interesting. Yeah, in fact, I pulled up some studies going around. That's not good. No. There's some interesting studies that are popping up about this. So in 2023, they looked up, they did observational data from a 4,000 patients.

Higher circulating erythritol levels were associated with an increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, including heart attack, stroke, and death. So they said, let's look at the mechanisms. Is it just like a random association or is it actually causing this? At physiological concentrations, urethritol enhanced platelet reactivity and accelerated thrombosis formation. This was in a mouse model and in vitro. So then they did a small pilot intervention of eight healthy volunteers and they showed that ingesting eurythitol, the amount that you would find in a processed food, caused a massive and sustained rise in plasma erythritol, which you would expect, high enough to trigger. the platelet changes that would seen in lab tests. So then they did a follow-up human intervention study.

And with this study, it was a randomized crossover parallel design with healthy volunteers. They consumed a drink with 30 grams of eurythritol, which is what you'll find, like a sugar-free soda or a similar product, or 30 grams of glucose. So comparing the two. Eurythritol, of course, you consume that. You see it rise in blood plasma. And every single subject, platelet aggregation response has increased significantly to to multiple agonists at various doses.

Platelets also showed enhanced release of granule markers. So it very well may be one of those, quote unquote, natural, you know, sugar-free sweeteners. That's not good. That's not good. Now, is that partly because is it like we do with anything else, even though it's natural, just like cane sugar is, we concentrate the hell out of it? And so. Probably. I don't know where you would consume it naturally.

Where do you find eurythritory? I have no idea. But this is, this sucks because people consume these products. If somebody's consuming a product that is sweetened with urethitol, it's probably because they're health conscious. Like you're not seeking that out unless you're trying to avoid sugar. Right. Lower calories, improve your health.

And what they're finding is that it's, that it might actually be really bad for you. Small amounts in fruit. So, yeah, they concentrate the hell out of it. See, that's, ah, God. Yeah. So I know. Kind of crazy, right? Yeah. I know. Just made everybody sad. Sugar-free options. Well, I tell you. I tell you what. I mean, regular old sugar is probably better for you. It probably is. Most always. I mean, it's one of those things. Like, I know people go sugar-free to, to control their calories. Stevia seems to be good. Some of the artificial sweeteners have lots and lots of studies. But I'm not fully.

convinced. And I do think that if something tastes sweet, there's always some kind of an effect, even if it's just behavioral, which is still an effect, right? So I don't think it necessarily, like, okay, to give you, as a coach, did you ever have like this huge success with clients who are just like, I'm going to go artificially sweetened with everything? Did that ever solve? No, no, I didn't get to the root of it. Yeah. Never. I know. Interesting, right? That's crazy. I know. Yeah. Like you said, it sucks because you're, You think you're making the healthier choice and you end up making something that's arguably worse for you

than just drinking a regular old soda. You know, there's something that said, and we've talked about this before, about having something like that that has the sugars in it is it has a natural limiter on it. Because you know there's calories?

Because you know there's calories. When they're like, and I know I'm guilty of this. Yeah, you were a big sugar-free. Yeah, a big Diet Coke drinker. And so... You still drink a lot of Diet Coke? Not a lot.

I still get them, but I limit. So like kind of our rule is, I buy a 12-packed. of diet coke at the beginning of the month, and that's got a last week. Are you diet or Coke Zero? Diet Coke. Okay.

I don't like Coke zero. It's too sweet. Wow. The reason why I like Diet Coke over a regular Coke. Because one's aspartane and one's sucralose. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

I think Coke Zero is better for you. I don't know. Yeah. I know aspirate's diet. Look it up, Doug. I think I think I do the worst one. Okay. Yeah.

Only when you smoke cigarettes, you have it, right? Huh? Yeah. Yeah. Only 12 cigarettes, too. You know, no. So that's kind of like been my thing is like I'll get a 12 pack of And that's got a last, Katrina has Diet Coke also.

So it's like the two of us, I've got, you know, six or so to last us through the month. And then when it's gone, it's gone type of deal. That tends to work really well for me because I do still like it. Which one's which, Doug? Yeah. Aspartame is Diet Coke. Zero is a blend of Asperatame and Ace K. Oh, I thought it was sucralose.

I thought it was too. Sucurlose is the big fitness supplement sweetener. That's the one you'll find in. artificially sweetened supplements. It's always sucralose. Yeah, sucralose is always what they pick. What's in Celsius? Because that's my other poison I take.

Sucralose, I think. Maybe look that up, Doug. See, that's got to be that one. Yeah, I know. I know I read this about Eurythritol because back in the day, I would point to that one as a better option as a trainer probably 15 years ago.

You know, when I would talk about it. Natural media. Yeah. But I mean, like I was saying, though, the downfall of, of it is that when, what I think is that you can, you justify I have it more and more and more. And then I would argue the behavioral stuff

because the Coke by itself is normally not that good. It's you want it with something else. What I found that's interesting is that when, that people who consume, I find this really interesting. People who consume a lot of diet soda begin to prefer its taste. That's me.

The reason why I drink Diet Coke, it has nothing to do with the calories. If you, oh yeah, if I have a, I won't drink a Coke inside or if I, if I have no Diet Coke and I have a Coke in the refrigerator, I won't, and I'm under my calories by a thousand calories, I won't drink the Coke.

I don't like it. It's too sweet. Regular Coke is too sweet? Yeah, yeah. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. I like the taste of the, the diet. Have you tried, you've tried the, what is the, Coke zero?

No, the real Coke. Oh, the glass bottle. So I do like that. I do like, yeah, Mexican Coke. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, I do like regular. It does taste better. The other Coke, though, and Pepsi, I don't, I don't like it.

So, yeah, I know I prefer the, that's the reason why I like it. It has nothing to do with dieting. I'm not choosing it. It's the taste. Yeah, for the, like, the calorie saving at all. But my point is that because you know it's calorie-free, you can easily go, oh, I'll have another one. Especially when you're like a fitness person. Yeah.

So I absolutely have been guilty before of having three in a day. You know what I'm saying? And that's why I've put parameters of, okay, here's my 12th in the month. You can have them all in 12 days in a row or I can use it judicially when it's like, oh, it's Friday movie night. and we're having popcorn and I'll enjoy a diet Coke with my popcorn or something like that. So I got something else too that's interesting. I just read this article.

They may have this good news for you, Justin, a pill for sleep apnea. I was just going to ask you about that? We were just talking on our walk. Yeah. Because like one of those things, I just heard the other day that a lot of cavities are actually more related to the fact that it's apnea or like your mouth's open when you're sleeping versus you actually just consuming sugar. And I was like, oh, man. Is that true? Yeah, saliva is anti-cavity.

So if you have like people who suffer from dry mouth or people have surgery or chemo, let's say from mouth cancer and they don't produce saliva, their cavity rate goes through the roof. Yeah, through the roof. It's crazy. Yeah. More than sugar. Yeah. It's your, this is, look, your mouth microbiome, it will make or break whether or not you get cavities or anything. So like in my family, I don't get cavities.

I've never had a cavity. Ever. My sister, she gets, she just think about cavities. She gets it. For whatever reason. Courtney's like that. She gets them easy? She doesn't get it.

I get them. Yeah. So, but anyway, so there are clinical trials that just came out that they may have found a medication that stops sleep apnea. It's an anti-seizure medication. So he's got to wait. But you know what's weird about this? Waited it out. I thought sleep apnea, I didn't realize, and I guess it is, I don't realize that it's related to muscle control.

I thought it was just because you're bigger, bigger neck, whatever. Big tongue. Yeah, but it actually makes sense because I exercise it. Very thick. I do know that when I eat gluten, and I know gluten can have effects on some people's central nervous system, I know people are going to light up the comments. But you can look it up. When I have gluten, I'll snore way more. So I know there's some kind of an effect.

But this anti-seizure medication, they're finding had a really positive effect. Okay. Now, the question is you want to take an anti-seizure medication or just what? Just wear the dark face or whatever. Or lose some weight. I feel like I'm joined the dark side if I do that. Yeah. Well, some people don't even have to be overweight.

They just snore. Yeah. Yeah. I know gaining weight makes it worse, but. It's only, that's when I feel like if I will, if I'm, if I'm overweight. If I'm down weight, I don't, I don't seem to have any issues like that. Or I should take that back. Allergy season can get me sometimes, too.

If I'm really congested up here or sick, like that can, that will give me. Do you, do you, every night? Are you in every night, soren? I used to justify as I'd sleep on my side, and Courtney was like, yeah, you don't really snore if you're on your side, but then when I roll and I'm on my back, it's bad. Like, it's just... Do you wake yourself? You ever wake yourself up, snoring?

I have before, and it's... The only time that happens is when I'm, like, on the couch and we're watching something, and I'm just out, because I do that a lot lately. You have a big... Because you're tired, dude. You're exhausted. You got a big... A million things right now.

You do a second job right now. I do, but... Are you doing more digging at home? Yeah, but I'm finally kind of, like I, so I have a tractor now, which is, you know, a blessing. How did you a tractor? Huge blessing, a buddy. Are you driving it? He's like, yeah, he showed me. It was cool because he was like, you know, every dude when you see a big piece of equipment, it's like you're a little kid again.

Yeah. Yeah, like so, yeah, he, he showed me all the levers and whatnot. And I'm out there, like, you know, digging and using the bucket. So, yeah, we just started kind of finally making progress because, dude, me by myself and then, you know, and Courtney is so funny because like, these contractors will come by the house and like Courtney's there and she's talking about how much digging she does. And like she'll point to the digging, but they assume it's all the digging. And then I meet them and they're like, you make your wife? What are you doing? Like they all think she did all that herself.

I'm like, no, dude. But anyways You're like she did that Yeah she did this But I let her take credit But anyways Yeah a lot We've been doing a lot

We've been doing a lot Of digging and chopping And I'm tired I ever tell you guys My tractor story I told you my tractor story Right Tell it again

You lost control It was a long time ago Huh Did we talk about it on here? No yeah Long time ago Oh you did Yeah real long

You like lost control Right Yeah So I was uh Let's see here I had just got the job there so I'm 16 or 17. It's early in the job because it's the first time I ever,

because I ended up driving it a lot, but it was the first time I've ever driven a tractor at all. And my boss teaches me. And it's a, so I've got a front loader. And then we have a big tractor that's hooked to a huge trailer that's got all the fertilizer in it. And I'm loading and dumping it. Having a blast.

Like I learned all the stuff. And I'm like, oh, this is cool. And there's a big pile. And I'm like loading it up. And then it's a bunch of wood. ash that we're taking out to fertilize the 100 acres. And, uh, learned how to do that all fine. Loaded this whole big trailer up. And then it's got this old tractor that it, that's going to pull it out to the, to the back. And it, the way this, this ranch is set is, it's on, it's on

the crown of a mountain like this. So we're on the top of the hill is where the dairy sits. And down below in the valley is like the hundred acres of grass. And then we have a giant canal that runs down at that we, you irrigate with. And, um, And at the very bottom of the valley where it goes out into all the pastures is a huge telephone pole that's been cemented like into the ground that we run all the bobwire fences off where we can run all the gates and stuff. And so I'm on the top of this. He teaches me how to drive it. I'm having a blast. And then he teaches me how to use the second one.

He's like, hey, this second one, you're going to drive it all the way out to the back of the pasture. And mind you, he like teaches me. And then he goes off and he's doing his own thing. So I'm by myself this whole time I'm doing this. and he's like, when you drive this one, he goes, it doesn't have brakes. So you just need to keep it in a really low gear. And if you ever driven a tractor, tractors all have what I call it, granny gear, which is like, it like crawls.

Yeah, it'll go down a hill slow. Yeah, oh, yeah. You could take a tractor down a hill as slow as you want to go, basically. And so he's like, just keep it in a low gear as you go down the hill. And then after you get over the hill, then you can shift up and then you can speed up. What could go wrong? Give a kid a tractor with no brakes. Yeah.

I know. I think back now is like a 40-something-year-old man because he's only in his probably 30s at this time. And he's like, who gives the keys to like this? It tells the key. Yeah. No break's first day. You're learning how to do this, right?

So I would get on there. And so like I said, it's at the crown of this mountain. So we're kind of at the top. And I've got the trailer behind me. And I'm like, okay, I'm putting gray gear. And it's like, and I'm not kidding. It's crawling. It's like this.

And I'm like, oh, my God. At this rate, it's at this rate, I'm going to be an hour before I just get over the crown. So I put it in a little bit higher gear first gear. So just so I get a little bit of speed to get over the hill. So I want to get it over the hill to get it down. And then as I get over the crown of the hill, it's picking up a little bit of speed.

But I'm still, you could walk as fast as it. So I'm not tripping yet. And then as it starts to pick up a little bit speed, I go to downshift it. Oh, no, you can't get it in. So I go to downshift it into the granny gear. And it's just in neutral. And so, yeah, it's in neutral right now.

And I'm trying to get it down in the granny gear with a clutch in. And it keeps kicking it out. and it's slowly starting to pick up speed. And I'm panicking trying to get it into the granny gear, not realizing I probably should just put it into first or a lower gear. And so now I'm realizing it can't get in there. So then I'm trying to put it in the next gear. I can't get in the first gear because it's too much speed.

So at this point, this thing is now it's just, I mean, I got a ton of wood ash behind me. Oh, no, dude. That's pushing this thing. I get so much speed coming down this hill. My front two tires are bouncing off that. So I'm like, now at this point there's no gear. And I got this big steering wheel.

and the front tire is like bouncing. And I'm heading down this hill and I told you there's a huge canal and there's like a little bridge so a little bridge that goes over it. That's no wider than, I don't know, half of our studio. And on the left is the water

and on the right's the water and then down the middle is the trail. And I'm like, the wheels are up. I'm pointing towards the water over here and then I guess I'm spinning the way and then the wheels catch this way and then I'm pointing to that water. And so the whole time I'm doing this

going down the, going down the hill, I hit that telephone pole, like a toothpick. It doesn't just shatters. Right through that. Catch the tires at the bottom. Yanks me over. I go flying into the canal. Into the canal.

So, and then half the, half of where I'm at goes, I mean, the battery comes up flying out of it. Oh, my God. Wood ash from behind me over the top of me. So I'm covered in black soot. Wow, dude. Yeah. Oh, totally.

I was totally fine. I mean, a little bit of bumps and bruises, but... Did you think about jumping out? No. I would be afraid for it to run me over. Yeah. Especially the way it was going. It was so out of control.

I knew I had to try and write it out. And like... Oh, my God. Yeah, yeah. Wrote it out. And then the... What did he say when he saw you? I mean, he...

I mean, I'm like frozen. I'm so scared and sitting on it still after it's all crashed and done. And I look back and I see him like running down the hill, like a full speed to come over. And luckily, he was cool. he was obviously more, because I'm sure at that point going like, what was I thinking, putting some 17 year old kid,

you know? So he was probably scared to death, you know, that I didn't get, you know, I wasn't hurt and, you know, I was so embarrassed that I'm not like,

I don't think I, I don't think I was like, I shared that story way later to people. Wow, bro. You could have died, that's gnarly. You know, it didn't feel like life or death carry.

I think as I'm going down, I'm like, I'm like, we get in trouble. Yes. I'm more like, I'm about to crash this trap to be like expensive.

Yeah, yeah. I'm definitely losing this job. I didn't. I worked there for like three years after that. And it was all good. But dude, I'll never forget that. That was my first day ever driving a tractor.

That was, that's what went down. You just made me remember us back in the day when I had to go work with my dad. One of his helpers had me turn a light off so he could switch so he could like fix a wire. Yeah. And that piece of crap, dude, totally just.

prank me so hard, bro. He goes to touch the wire and acts like he's getting electrocuted because I'm the one holding the switch. Oh, God, and I'm like, oh, and he starts laughing at me. I'm like, oh, my God, dude. I had to walk out of the room. I was so scared. I thought I electrocuted that. That's so good. Yeah, that's typical. Anyway, I wanted to go over what women can expect from using testosterone because it is getting quite popular now. So hormone therapy is popular. It's pretty mainstream now. It's pretty destigmatism especially with women, I feel like these days. It's very, it's very destigmatized. It's going mainstream.

And the part that is that more women are opening their minds to is a use of testosterone because testosterone is, you know, we would widely consider it male hormone. But a lot of people don't realize that women have testosterone, just like men do. It's not a male hormone. It's a higher percentage in men, but women need testosterone just as much as men do. and it's responsible for the same things in women as it is in men. Libido, drive, energy. And it is one of the aesthetic hormones.

So of the hormones that you could take and, you know, use therapy for, the ones that will produce the biggest visual change in your body in terms of body, fat, muscle, a lot of stuff, testosterone and thyroid. Yeah. Those are the two. Yeah. But testosterone is, this is the one people feel the most. women all they'll talk about it and say oh yeah going on testosterone was like life changing in terms of

I mean it's so cool to see how far we've we've come with that I mean when you look at all the the great female doctors that we've had on this show that they all I mean that's that's part of like normal therapy now it's getting to a place where it's like especially once you get to a certain age I was listening to Katrina's conversation with her doctor she had over on speakerphone when we're driving and it's like it's just it's become uh almost common practice now that once you reach a certain age, they introduce thyroid and testosterone almost as like the go to. In fact, it sounds like that's the go-to first two. Is that correct?

Normally. Which ones? Thyroid and testosterone are the first two? Yes. Like that's what he was telling her while she was going to her because I, we talked before she got on. And I'm like, I'm really curious to hear if he's, if he plans to put you on testosterone anytime soon. It's one of the first ones. Yeah.

But he told her hers is so good. She's so good everywhere else. he's like thyroid is the only thing that you can use a little bit of it. And he even has her on a minimal dose. He's like, if you notice that you don't have energy, this or that, and she's like, no, he's like, we could turn it up a tiny bit. He goes, but I'd rather save that until you're feeling that way. And he goes eventually.

It's just a very straightforward hormone when they use it. Now, they can play with the dose a little bit, but, you know, hormone therapy will involve sometimes progesterone, in some cases estrogen. But testosterone, you're right. It's one of the first ones that because you feel it improves your quality of life, build muscle, burn body fat. It's a safe hormone. Well, and then you,

what I think is so powerful about that is then you, you couple the, the downstream effects you get from building muscle, having energy. Like, it's not just, it gives you that direct energy and strength and muscle, but it's like,

then the downstream effects of having more muscle, having more energy. It's like, libido is a big one. Yeah, libido, sleep, all those things. So there was this big, like, study, and I got to bring this up because they, and you'll see this,

There was a study of over 80,000 women, age 50 or older, on hormone replacement therapy, and they tied it, so I'm just talking about this because it's going viral. They tied it to cancer and vascular events. Now, here's why this is super misleading. What's included in this is birth control, is not non-bio-identical hormone.

So if you took a, like a lot of women are put on birth control type hormone therapy, either to stop, to regulate bleeding, or for acne, or for a acne, or for period pain, or for other reasons, you know, a progestin is not the same as progesterone, right? It's like anabolic steroids versus testosterone. Testosterone is a natural hormone in men. Does that mean you can go take debaul and you're not going to get negative effects? No, that's a derivative of, it's a type of an androgen, but it's going to cause all kinds of

negative. So what they took with this is they took a lump of women, most of them on what are called non-bi-identical hormones. So these are not hormones that are like the ones in your body. These are chemically altered like hormones. Like birth control. Yes. And those are the ones that cause issues.

But when you want hormone, like if you go to, like our partners at M.P.Hormones.com, if you go there and they test your hormones and say, okay, we can do hormone therapy with you. They use the same hormones that are in your body. They don't put you on these other, you know, derivatives or chemically different. hormones that you'll sometimes see women be put on. These are actual like progesterone, testosterone, thyroid, like the actual. Have you guys been getting all the, Phil with Vita Bella is the company who we work with now

and stuff and Phil's the founder, the amount of, I was just visiting my godson had his birthday just the past weekend and we were out there. And my best friend's wife is a nurse and has like, I didn't realize how many nurse friends that she had that was that have gone through us and oh really yeah and they've been going through us for a long time and they've now experienced the transition and they're like oh dude so much way better service i mean to the point i didn't i didn't bring it up i didn't even know i didn't realize all of them they had we were at a big birthday party and i was like oh my god yeah i guess phil's gotten on the phone with a few from even yeah yeah yeah and they're like the founder like

called me i was like oh i appreciate that i'm So shout out to Phil. I know that he knew that when we made this transition, that it was so important to us that our customers felt that first, right? Like obviously we shot the round for what was going to be the best dose legally. Obviously, we went for the no sales team thing too to where you're actually speaking to a medical professional. Like all these other things were obviously super important. But then at the end of the day, it was like take care of our customers because that's what I feel like what wasn't getting done.

And so the experience that I've been getting. or feedback I've been getting has been incredible. So it's really cool. So did you guys hear about what they did with the fruit fly brain in a computer? The fruit fly? Did you hear about this, Justin? What do you mean by that? Okay.

So I'm going to pull this article up and I'll kind of read what they did. They're able to literally digitally map this fruit fly brain. So we often use fruit flies because they're very basic like brain, very easy or whatever. Oh, I think I heard you. So a neurototechnology company, Eon Systems, took a complete digital map of a fruit fly's brain. So they took the whole brain and recreated it digitally. Then they ran it inside a virtual fly body in a simulated world. So the fly on the computer was running off of this digital map of an actual fruit fly plane.

So it's just like what a fly would do. So in other words, there wasn't like some sort of a mathematical formula or equation or pathway that it was programmed to follow. It was random. It was just they took the brain of the react. Yeah, how the mapped brain would react. And they essentially digitized it. It's an exact copy of this brain, but in the computer. How do you prove that? I don't know.

I know. Stop it. How do you prove that, Doug? What do you mean prove that? Don't put holes in it at them. It's... No, no, no, no, no. No, you can, technically you can do this, but they started with the fruit fly brain because it's super, super basic. Yeah. Super basic. I mean, what's more basic than that? Maybe like a worm?

So they did this, then they turned it on, and the fruit fly in the computer, which now had a brain that's like a fruit fly, it behaved just like a fruit fly on its own. They didn't tell it to do anything. It literally did everything that a fruit fly would do on the computer. I'll put that in Sims. Well, now, listen, it's not stopping there. They're going to try to do the same for a mouse brain next. And eventually they're going to try and do a human brain. This is that show upload, dude.

Bro, can you just hold on a second? If they technically could do this, let's say they do a mouse brain. Does the mouse on the computer think it's in a real world? Of course it does. It has to. If that's the case, why would they do a human brain?

Are you going to have like this human on your computer that's like, thinks it's real? Where am I? Hey, let me out. Bro, some black mirror craft right there, dude. The horrors. I know, who knows. I mean, so it's not until we reach a conscious brain

that we can even prove how valid this is or isn't, right? I don't know. Because like, okay, so. Like, I don't think they know what they're doing. So go down the chain from fruit fly to mouse or to these animals. Like, and we're all watching this thing act on there. How do we prove it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, I don't know. Yeah, I can't.

Where I, the human rate is the only way. Because, because then the human would get in there, it'd be like, let me, they freak out. Well, it's, right? It's reactive. It's not necessarily like, um, consciously decides. It's not until, and not until you have a conscious mind.

It's a sequence. It's a good question. So until it's a conscious mind that they try and map in there. They're not digitizing consciousness. It's not happening. No, they can't. They theoretically, they think they will.

They're not. Did you guys watch that Black Mirror episode where people had like, they look like phones? And on there, you had a clone of yourself in your phone as your assistant. And it literally thought it was you. And so this woman turns her phone on.

and it's her in the phone. She's like, hey, where am I? Where am I? She's like, hey, you work for me. You're my assistant now. Let me out of here. Let me out of here. She's like, no, you're going to do what I say.

You're my new assistant. And she's like, I don't want to do what you say. So she pushes a button and it simulates 30 days where this woman is in this blank room for 30 days. Like punishment. And then she turns out, I'll do whatever you want. I'll do whatever you want. I can't watch that show. Bro.

It's too twisted. Yeah. But it's like those concepts like are almost like you could believe something like that. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, ugh. Yes. Yeah, I feel like we're going down that. I hate that.

It's creepy. Going down that. All right, I'm going to change subject. Yeah, we're positive. I don't like that. Did you guys know, did you guys know that butcher box has tater tots? Tots? You can buy tater tots.

Dude. Yes, dude. Tater tots. Are they healthier? Finally. I don't care. You don't care. Nobody eats tater tots for healthy.

I love tater tots. I love tater tots. Love them. Well, I mean, they can't be. They also have French fries. It could be healthier in the way they're fried. I mean, all they are white potatoes that are deep fried in something. Are they deep fried in something else, like peanut oil or something healthier?

Normally they take the potato and they may coat it with a little bit of oil. Then you put it in an air fryer and you make it. But these come in a bag and you just throw them in the oven. Well, yeah, because they've already been done that. So I'm so. Right, yeah, but they're not fried prior. No, they're typically, I think, they're just cooked in oil. Raw, raw tomato.

Oh, I see. The oil is on the potato. It's on the potatoes. And then you cook it in the oven. I see. Is that, you know, that you just kidding? Well, I mean, I've purchased, not from butcher box, but I've purchased other ones. Look up the tater tots on butcher box.

Look at the, tater tots. You're talking to tater tots. Yeah, yeah. I'm super. I am a huge tater. I don't know about you guys, but that's like one of my favorite. Oh, yeah. Does you sneak them in your, you know where you, hey, where you went with the boys,

did you know that they were, they were famous for their tater tots, that bowling alley. Oh, they are? Yes. Did you not have any eat? No. Oh, bro. Did you have the pretzel? Did you have the pretzel there?

No, we didn't really eat there. Oh, I'm so much. Yeah, we ate before we got there. That was what, what makes that place so sick is they have like a, they have a, like a famous chef that is working out of there. Oh, serious? So all the stuff, all the food is amazing. Wow. At a bowling alley.

Like, no one thinks, like, it's amazing. I had no idea. Yeah, there's like nobody there when we went. It was like, wide open. I was like, oh, this is rad. There's like nobody here, all the lanes. Oh, I wish I. I made with them.

I didn't know that. Yeah, so I stand corrected. I thought you were talking about the French fries. but the tater tots are fried in avocado oil. Oh, okay. Well, that's better. That's right. I figured they would do something else.

They know, right? There's two foods that I'll eat until I'm really upset on my own. Chips and tater tots. Well, three foods. Potato chips, French fries and tater tots. You could put, I don't care how many put in front of me. I'm going to eat them until I can't. Yeah.

That's how much I like. I feel like I feel like you. I'll have to try and get some of those. Really? Do they have a special going on? Normally they have something cool going on where if you sign up, You get something cool right now. You get free ground beef for life in your box.

That's what I cooked yesterday. Three pounds of their ground beef. This is the ultimate meal prep. I'll give you guys. This is the meal prep hack for everybody and it's cheap. You cook a bunch of ground beef and a bunch of rice. And you can mix it together. I'll give you, I'll give you even the crazy, the tasty version of that, what I do.

So I do three pounds because that's all I can fit in my big old iron skillet. I would do four if I could fit four in there. Three pounds fits inside there. Montreal steak seasoning. That's all it needs on it. So season it, season it with that. No, you don't need no oil, no nothing inside the iron skill. Just literally straight dumping in there and do that.

I cook it slow so that I can also take a whole onion. I saute the whole, put a little bit of olive oil in a pan. First you saute the onion. Oh, separately. Yeah, they're separate. So are the mushrooms and so was that. So I got three pans that are running. Okay?

That's too much work. I'm not. No, it's not. It's because it all gets done at the exact same time, and it's amazing. So the mushrooms are being sauteed in ghee and garlic salt. So mushrooms are on a slow simmer with, and I do two whole things of mushrooms with with the ghee and garlic salt in it. And then I have my onions with olive oil also on low simmer.

And then they're all cooking around the same time. It takes about 30, 45 minutes. And then when they're done, you just mix that all together. And then you add your scoop of whether you're doing one cup or half cup rice, Katrina's half cup rice on one cup rice. on one cup rice, there's your meal prep, bro. It's so good. It sounds delicious, but it's too much work for me.

What? Yeah. I know, you and Doug are like a little chef. That is not, that is like easy, dude. Yeah, it's way more hard than what I do. I go, ground beef, seasoning, rice. Fun. Yeah, but you're, like, like, I'm, like, I'm a, like, I'm a, like, I'm a, like, I'm a, like, I'm a, like, I'm a, like, I'm a, like I'm a, like I'm a, like I'm a, like I'm a, like I'm a

Chop the onions up. You know you can buy chopped onions. I guess you could skip that part too if you really want to. And you just literally dump it in the olive. If Justin and I were roommates, we would eat pretty super. Frozen burritoes. Taurus. Tater tots.

Oh, they like burger. Burger patties and sausages, dude. That's got to be one of the most cheesy basic. A block of cheese, dude. It's so easy to cook what I just said. There's no, it's not tricky at all. It's super easy. quick, so good.

Well, yeah, you get... That's why I got married, dude. The ghee and the garlic salt that gets soaked up with that mushroom, so that adds a little nice to that lean, that lean... No, no, listen, it sounds delicious. It sounds really delicious.

You don't have to sell me on the flavor. But when you said... Too hard, huh? When you said multiple pans? Too hard. Just too hard. Hey, you went multiple pans and my head.

I was like, nah. So what I... Okay, so the, I guess the bachelor brain of me, okay, that has entered the cooking world because I, by no means, think I'm any sort of a chef. Bro, you are super,

into barbecue. You go crazy. You time everything, the perfect air temperature, what altitude? Like, I'm not even making this up. People listen. He knows how much longer it needs to go if we're in Truckee because of the altitude. So if I'm, this is how much science he goes into. If I'm, if I, uh, what I'm not good at is ask me to cook something where different things have different times. It's like, if I can figure out a way to make things that take the exact same time and there's downtime while you're waiting. So it's, easy to do a couple. So I go ground beef, rice, tater tots in the oven, done.

Tater tots, dude. I'm excited about that. Let's get back to the tater tots, huh? I will order some of those, though, because I do want to try. For sure. Ironically, it's so hard to get my son to eat carbs. So I've never thought this would be the day that I'm like, eat your French rice. Yeah.

My youngest too soon thing. Wild that my son doesn't like French fries, doesn't like rice, does not. Yeah, potatoes. Nothing like... Or rice. Yeah, he doesn't like it. Yeah. Really?

You kill me. What he'll eat for carbs? I mean, he'll eat like corn tortillas for like tacos. He eats tacos. He likes tacos. He'll eat tacos. But he's all like meat. He's not a carb.

He wants meat, dude. You know what my son will do? My 5-year-old, I could feed him 18 eggs a day. I don't know what is about eggs. He'll eat them as many as you want forever. That's cool. Hella eggs. He's five.

Yeah. He eats two eggs in the morning. And then probably into the 2 or 4 throughout the day. This is a 5-year-old eating. four to six eggs in a day, whole eggs. Dang. I have to start. I'm at that stage right now.

Justin probably can relate to then because your son was like this. Like I'm always, I'm trying to sneak calories in everywhere. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Part of why I, like, opened up the dessert, a can of worms with him because, like, I want the extra calories. I'm like, I let him have dessert and stuff because I'm like, he needs to eat more calories. More hell of olive oil in a store. Yeah, I do.

I sneak all kinds of stuff with that, honey on things. Like, I sneak all these calories because he'll just eat just, just, straight meat all the time. I told him this is the last time I tried to take him through drive-thru and get chicken nuggets. And he was like, nah, dad, I'll wait until we get home and eat your,

my leftover steak. You've got to have me reheat steak from yesterday. Didn't drive through and get chicken nuggets and french fries. I'm like, dude, come on, bro. I never thought that would happen. I know,

it's hard to talk about that. My three-year-old, I have to peel nuggets for her. She likes the white, just the meat. I know, I know, I'm like,

it's the best part. What are you doing? That's funny. He makes me peel the nugget. Who appeals a nugget? This guy does. This guy does. That's ridiculous.

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Go check them out. Go to dose daily.com. Forward slash mind pump. Use the code mind pump. Get 25% off your first months of subscription. Back to the show. All right. Our first question is from Lucas Keene 03. My wife is pregnant and I was wondering what lifts or exercises she can do to prepare us for carrying and holding the baby. As I know it can cause imbalances. So that's a good, question and and so um i'll start with this overall general strength is the way um to prepare but the pain uh because a lot of women will get wrist pain shoulder pain uh sometimes hip pain like this all day yes from holding a baby wrist pain being the most common one but shoulder pain probably being second

because they always carry their kid on the same same so that's the thing it's not switch it up this is what this will prevent issues uh is switching uh from side to side and everybody's got their favorite, you know, side that they like to carry the kid on. But besides that, it's just overall strengthening. There is no specific, you know, way to train unless we're already correcting an issue. But just traditional strength training, get stronger overall. And then when baby comes, you have to be aware that you're going to be, you know, that you're holding the baby on one side or the other and switch it up. I did you, I use it, what's it called the baby? Bjorn. I use that. We use that a lot. We use that a lot. You know they make these new ones where they

go around your waist and it's like a little seat. Have you seen it? And you put your kid on it. And so it's like the baby's sitting on a seat and you kind of hold them. Yeah, my wife had one with my youngest. It's really cool because it's not like, you know, the Bjorn, you have to put them in. Yeah. This is literally you just wear it. And then when you pick up your kid, I think I have seen somebody doing that before, actually. I love that thing. I think we used it like crazy. I mean, you can flip them forward or back. And instead of the old traditional, like, turning on your hip type of deal, like that gets uncomfortable doing that. for a while.

Justin could hold kids for a while. Well, I, yeah, I was the Bjorn thing. I tried it for a bit. It just felt stupid. I guess he just like, hold his kids like a tiger. Hold them. The back of their neck. You know what I just put him on my back.

You know, dude. You just see it. I swear to God. Never used it. Yeah. Nothing. I just have on. I held them.

Oh, did you hold on your shoulders? Uh-huh. Yeah, I got a buddy like that. He's always got his little bit. We just grew out of that. We just grew out of that. I loved it every minute of it. I did it all the way.

I did it all the way till just maybe. maybe six months ago. Like Max, we just, it was just like yesterday or the day before. He was just, Dad, can't get your shoulders? Like, nah, bro. Pass that now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, coming up on seven. We're in different stage here. Dad's got arthritis. Yeah. Oh, my neck and so now he's, I mean, he's not little anymore. And his legs,

his legs hang all the way down and past my hips. You don't have your kid pee while you were holding them up there? You know, in their diapers still? Oh, yeah. Oh, that has not happened to be. Next question is from Morgan B.

Peterson, can you talk more about body types? You touched on it recently with the collar having a more athletic body as a woman and how to capitalize on it and not have remorse for it. So, you know, the beauty of, part of the beauty of strength training is it's the most targeted form of exercise. You could target, build, and shape muscles just because of the nature of strength training. That being said, like, there's certain things about body type that you can't really get around, like bone structure. You have wide hips, narrow hips, wide shoulders, narrow shoulders, long femur, short femur. You can't change that.

You also can't, to an extent, can't change how you store body fat. Women generally store it in the lower body, men typically in the midsection, although hormone changes can start to affect this. So earlier we talked about hormone therapy. Sometimes women will find when they're in paramedopause or menopause will start storing more in their midsection. and hormone therapy seems to change that fat storage. But aside from what I said, like getting leaner and more fit, building muscle like that makes everybody look better.

But you've got to be careful with comparing yourself your body type to other body types. Right. Yeah, you got to be careful with that. So I'm going to say something's a bit of an overgeneralization, but in my experience, this is what I've seen time and again. It's, and correct me, if this is different for you guys.

But what I have noticed is each client or body type that I've trained has a strength and has a weakness. And as a trainer, I felt I had a lot of success when I understood that and then I leaned into that example. So my clients that were really skinny that had a hard time like trying to build muscle, those clients, it was always easy for them to get lean. That's what they never had a problem. And so me worrying about that or leaning into that strength is that, versus the opposite is true with the other client. The client that really has a hard time losing weight,

like fighting that and always just trying to lose weight with that client, I did so much better trying to build muscle with that client. So lean into your strength. If you have a more athletic body type, you hold muscle really well, but you always want to be leaner and always trying to do that and you're always fighting low calorie and trying to get lean, versus I'm going to lean into what your body does really well.

Like it builds muscle really well. Let's go build a bunch of muscle. That will speed your metabolism, that will help the process of leaning out. And so I've had more success when I had body types that were like that, where they had this kind of athletic build that they always wanted to be smaller or leaner. It's like you're always fighting against the body where your body wants to build muscle.

Let's lean into that. Let's build muscle. I also think we give too much credit to or put too much blame on body types and genetics. Like there is no genetics. There is no widespread genetics for like obesity. There will be a difference. 15, 20 pounds from person to person, depending on the genetics. But that's it. Not the 60 pounds, 70 pound type of deal. The vast majority of, you know, the effect you have is really lifestyle.

So exercise and diet. And everybody can look more fit and healthy or less fit and healthy. But, you know, don't get caught in that game of comparing your body type to somebody else's and saying, oh, I want to, that's a losing game. And the best success I ever got with clients where people were like, hey, this is my body. And I'm going to become the fit, I'm going to be fit and healthy for my body and be okay with it. Just trying to be objective from where you started, where you are, like,

and think of all the different metrics beyond just the aesthetics, like with the strength, energy and all those other things. Next question is from Julie E. Holmquist. I started deadlifting today, but my shoulders hurt. Is that something that will eventually go away? Or are there other shoulder exercises I should be doing to build up the deadlift. That's interesting.

Shoulder. Shoulder. That's hurting from deadlifting. Yeah. She's probably referring to her traps. You know, sometimes people say, hide up in my shoulder area. She's probably getting into it.

She's probably in a little bit of a shrug position. If you, she just started deadlifting. Yeah. If you just started deadlifting, oftentimes the initial soreness you'll get will be in the mid, upper back. Because a lot of people are weak there. The muscles that bring the shoulder blades back,

and support that shoulder girdle tend to be weak. Right. Unless you strength train. Maybe some protraction to, you know. Yes. Yes. And so I'd say go lighter and go slower. And you can have like a friend or someone press on your traps a little bit

to give you a little bit of myofasher release. But I mean, that's typically, that's probably what's going on here. Because the shoulder joint itself shouldn't get hurt in a deadlift. That's very, it'd be very strange. Isometricly stabilize it there. I also want to point out this is one of the, the most valuable parts about our mind pump private forum or our muscle mommy group too. We can sit here all day long and try and guess why it's our shoulders.

If I saw your movement in the deadlift, I'd know right away. I'd know right away. I know right away. Why and I'd be able to explain it. Because it could be a lot of different things. She could also be arching her neck while she's doing it. Yeah. She'd be rounding her back.

Yeah. She could be standing up and then kind of shrugging a little bit. I mean, there could be a lot of things that we're not saying right now that could be going on if I saw the movement. pattern. And so one of the probably the most valuable things or commonly use ways of using the forum is to video yourself doing a movement and then ask this question. And then you'll have either one of us or one of our trainers get in there and answer and help you with it. It's super, super valuable. Next question is from Untamed Fitness, A.U. For your own personal training,

do you follow the doctor's textbook order when you can officially start lifting again? or follow your own body's cues and start when you feel ready. Slowing yourself back into it, of course. So this is an interesting question because... Sounds like a setup. Yep. So here's a deal. For most people, you want to listen to your doctor

because you just don't know your body well. And when you think you're ready, you're probably not. And even people who are well trained, like fitness people, oftentimes overestimate how well they're doing. We're all guilty of that. That being said, you know, look, If you're, if you really know your body, you've got, you know, you've got a good background and exercise. You know your movement.

You know how to listen to your body. And you're already fit. Oftentimes what the doctor will tell you in terms of when you're ready is a really conservative estimate. Overly cautious. They're very, very conservative. Like, don't lift over five pounds or, okay, you should be able to move your shoulder in, you know, in 10 weeks. You know, I had shoulder surgery and I had full function in half the time the doctor told me. But that's only because I had worked out before.

I was already fit. Pre-existing muscle and, yeah, like. And I knew how to rehab it. That's it. Yeah. And I knew how to rehab it myself. I remember I went to the PT. And the PT's like, all right, lift your arm up.

And I was able to lift it all the way up. And they looked at me like, whoa. And I'm like, well, I know how to rehab it. And, but that being said, I've also had injuries where I'm like, oh, I'm good. And then I re-injured myself. Yeah. Yeah, this is such a loaded question for that reason. Yeah, exactly.

Because I don't think any of us probably follow exactly the doctor's orders afterwards. but then I've also made the mistake of more than once re-injuring myself. You did it with your knee. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Did my knee, did my peck. I mean, go down the list.

I've done it with a lot of things. I do have. So I guess the other way to look at this too is it's like, okay, you doing it faster or doing more, is it really going to get you that much better, that much quicker or that much more results? I mean, building muscle, burning body fat, that whole process is such a slow process anyways. is it worth going outside the boundaries that the doctor has given you between your appointments just so you can try and get a little bit fat like results that aren't you going to be that measurable? Like I don't know. I'll tell you what.

I know a guy who just had weeks ago had shoulder surgery and used BPC 157 and thymus and beta. Half the time. And he was like, bro. Half the time. The doctor was like, I can't agree. Yeah, exactly. You start getting real confident. I mean, it's a little like.

It's like, it's like, it'll cut like 40% of the time. Yeah. Off of your recovery. I, I think I, you got to calm yourself down a bit. Being the one who's probably been injured the most here, I feel like I've tested it so many times. It's half. It's half the time. Yeah.

It cuts the recovery time in half. But to Justin's point, that's part of the dangerous part is all of a sudden I'm like, oh my God, I'm back. I'm back in half the time. Let's go. And then all of a sudden you start ramping up and then that's where you can get hurt again. That's right. And for people interested in those kind of peptides, you want to go through.

through a doctor. We have some at nphormons.com. So you can check them out. You can also find us on Instagram. Mind Pump Media. We'll see you there. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body,

dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance. Check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pumpmedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes Maps Anabolic, maps performance, and Maps aesthetic, nine months of phased expert exercise program designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels,

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