Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2866: Stop Adding Weight to the Bar — 5 Times It's Actually Hurting You

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

In this episode the guys break down exactly when you should NOT add weight to the bar, including when you've already reached your strength ceiling, when your form isn't perfect, when you feel any pain or discomfort, after a bad night of sleep, and when you're in a calorie deficit.  They also get into a study showing exercise variety predicts longevity better than exercise volume, Sal's experience with a new peptide called 5-amino-1MQ through MPHormones, TMG as a creatine-stacking supplement, and the story of Pope John Paul II's assassination attempt and the remarkable forgiveness that followed. Then they coach live callers submitted through ⁠mplivecaller.com⁠. Sarah Beth from Mississippi on reverse dieting as a petite woman, Chelsea from Australia on training through pregnancy, Sandy from Connecticut with a 30-day check-in update, and Parker from Georgia on how to structure progression as an intermediate lifter returning to consistency. MAPS 15 BOGO —⁠ https://maps15bogo.com⁠ Buy 1 get 1 FREE — limited time (all 7 MAPS 15 programs same price) SPONSORS Rho Nutrition (liposomal NAD+ & Glutathione) —⁠ https://www.rhonutrition.com/discount/MINDPUMP⁠ Code: MINDPUMP — 20% off sitewide. Liquid liposomal delivery for cellular energy, recovery & oxidative stress support. Huel —⁠ https://huel.com/MINDPUMP⁠ Code: MINDPUMP — 15% off (new customers only). Ready-to-Drink: 35g protein, 7g fiber, 27 vitamins & minerals, no artificial sweeteners. Black Edition Powder: 40g protein. Complete nutrition for chaotic days. LMNT (electrolytes) —⁠ https://drinklmnt.com/MindPump⁠ Free 8-count sample pack with any purchase — no code needed. Citrus Salt, Raspberry Salt, Watermelon Salt & Orange Salt (2 of each). Submit a live caller question:⁠ https://mplivecaller.com⁠  Mind Pump Store:⁠ https://mindpumpstore.com⁠  Maps Fitness Products:⁠ https://mapsfitnessproducts.com⁠  Instagram: @mindpumpmedia   0:00 - Intro 2:40 - When you should NOT add weight to the bar — the full breakdown 5:23 - Reason #1: You've already hit your strength ceiling — what that looks like 11:07 - Reason #2: Your form isn't perfect — the leverage math that makes this critical 14:01 - Reason #3: You feel anything that isn't right — why every injury had a warning sign 16:19 - Reason #4: You had a bad night of sleep — the #1 predictor of injury in the data 17:47 - Reason #5: You're in a calorie deficit — why ramping intensity during a cut backfires 23:34 - Exercise variety study — more types of exercise = better longevity than more volume 29:01 - 5-amino-1MQ peptide — Sal's NP Hormones experience, NAD & energy 37:32 - TMG (betaine) — stacking with creatine for strength, power & body recomposition 41:03 - Pope John Paul II assassination attempt — forgiveness, redemption & Billy Graham story 50:08 - Meal replacement shakes as a fat loss strategy — when and how to use them correctly 56:03 - Reverse bands — why band-assisted pressing feels so different from band-resistant 1:01:38 - Caller: Sarah Beth (Mississippi) — petite woman, reverse diet, how high should she go? 1:20:35 - Caller: Chelsea (Australia) — 18 weeks pregnant, lost motivation, identity crisis 1:32:02 - Caller: Sandy (Connecticut) — 30-day check-in, big strength gains, community & letting people in 1:57:58 - Caller: Parker (Georgia) — intermediate lifter returning to consistency, how to structure progression

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Hit pause. Head on over to Mindpumpstor.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. Getting stronger through strength training is awesome. We love it, and it produces great results, and it adds to longevity, helps with fat loss. But believe it or not, there are times. There are definite times you should not try to get stronger.

In fact, if you do, you're going to cause problems. So don't add weight to the bar if this is you. We're going to get to it right now. Oh, let's hear it. Yeah, so I'm going to just preface with why this conversation is coming up, because, you know, I experience this myself. In the first few, and this is going to be confusing for some people because we advocate for getting stronger so often.

And it is very important, especially the first few years of training. But there are times when adding weight to the bar becomes a problem. And actually will reduce your ability to get great results and or dramatically increase your risk of injury. And I see this with myself. For me, at this point in my, you know, lifting career or journey or whatever, Getting stronger doesn't produce great results. It just means I'm lifting heavier.

Yeah. And the risk is too high for the reward, or the reward is actually quite little, and the risk is quite high. So it doesn't make any sense at all for me. I would, yeah, I would think this would apply more towards mature lifters. Yeah. Yeah, because of that fact, it's like it's not a linear progression.

You know, at a certain point, like, you know, you have to assess different types of strength. strength and different ways to reinforce your body besides just loading. So what is a mature lifter look like? Like is it years? Is it a certain level of development in the physique? Like how would you? Because I agree.

Yeah. And much of my lifting looks like that today. It's just like there's not. It doesn't make sense for me to push to the limits of or chase a PR. Like it doesn't make sense at all. Now, I'll tell you what that justification for me is I built the physique. that I wanted it in enough muscle. And so it's really easy for me not to just like,

I don't need to, sure, I like 10 more pounds of muscle, but it's not that big of a deal to me. Not like it was when I was, say, 22. And I was like on this mission to build so much more muscle. So it's really easy for me to be like, I don't need to push those limits. Like it was less, it was more of that than it was like a year's that I've been lifting. No, totally.

So that's actually the third point. So we'll fast forward to there and then we'll touch the other ones. So for the first, so strength is very close. correlated to muscle gain. Okay. And strength is the best correlate for longevity. When we're looking at physical performance, it's not muscle, it's strength. So when we look at like muscle mass, what we're really trying to look at is how strong you are. This is why a grip test is a better predictor of mortality than just muscle. It's the strength that produces longevity. It's the strength that builds muscle. But this is mostly true for the first few years of training. So to put it

differently, you don't get stronger forever. If that were the case, every guy in this room, we've been working out forever. We'd all be able to bench press 5-15-thousand-pound club. That's awesome. It just doesn't work that way. So for the first few user training, this is important. So, like, the best results that you could possibly get through strength training for probably your first, I don't know, two to four years, and this could change depending on your age

and all that stuff. But the first few years, I would say, generally speaking, of training will come from getting stronger. So you should try to get stronger for the first few years, at least. After that, it doesn't make much sense. This is true if you're already super strong, which we'll get to in the second, and also true if you're just very experienced. Now, this doesn't mean you can't build more muscle because the strength to muscle correlate actually starts to weaken the stronger you get. In other words, to go, you know, let's say I'm a regular dude, I'm in the gym, I'm trying to build my chest and I can do 10 reps with 135 pounds. To go from 135 to 225 pounds on the bench,

I'm going to see a lot of muscle on my body. To go from 225 to 315, I'll see some muscle. To go from 315 to 405, I'm not going to see that much more muscle. I'm just going to get stronger, but I'm not going to see this huge gain in muscle mass. This is true for every single lift. So if you're already really strong, then getting stronger is just getting stronger. It's interesting because I see this like so clearly with powerlifting and in the pursuit of just like, you know, being able to achieve these, you know, these PR lifts like continuously. And like you do get strong and you do get like that specificity of really focusing on that. Like you'll build up to the point where you get really strong of those lifts. However, now it's taken away functionality.

Now it's taking away joint health. Now it's taking away. There's a tradeoff to that, like, past a certain tipping point. And so it's like, yeah, even if you can get stronger, you know, now you have other things to contend with. And it's like, is it, is the juice worth the squeeze in that regard? There's got to be a good graph or formula for this. You know, you just, you did a good job in my opinion of describing that because I would agree with,

but is that more? close to us. Maybe that's why it resonated with me when you said it. I'm like, yeah, that feels, you're right. Like the difference of, I mean, just getting into a 135 bench. Whoa, what a big difference that was. Just to put the two wheels on. I remember the development of like my chest. And then I remember getting up to 225, huge leap. 135, 225, huge leap. Differences at 220, 225 to 315, definitely starting either. Anything beyond that, it's like, you don't see any. And now it's like, when I started hitting over 300 pounds was this is when aches and pains and started no. You're just lifting more. Yes. Yeah. So, and I thought of my journey, right? Maybe. So I thought heavily about this because this is just so different from person to person.

Right. It is very much. Because some people are just based on their leverage, just how their CNS is. Yeah, their morphology. I know what my numbers are. So I can give you my numbers. In fact, I was having a conversation with my cousins this morning because I just, there are certain numbers that when I get close to them, I just end up feeling my joints.

Like for bench press, when I get around 300 pounds, it makes no difference. Now I'm just wasting time. I'm just starting to hurt. When I get my deadlift close to 550, 570, it's like, what am I doing here? I'm just starting to increase my risk of injury. My squat, when I get it closer to 400, it just, and those just seem to be my numbers. They just seem to be my numbers. If I go beyond those, I can lift more weight.

I get no more gains. I just hurt more. And so it is different from person to person. But I think you'll know this for yourself. Like you've been working out for a while. You're like, yeah, this is really strong for me. Yeah. Pushing beyond that, you're just lifting.

more weight at that point. As far as experience this concern, unless you're a kid, you know, I said around three years, well, if you're 16, you know, you probably want to get stronger until you're in your mid-20s, right? But if you're an adult, you're not going to actualize your true potential for a while. If you're an adult, like the first few years you're training, get strong. So that'll give you the best results. After that, you could still get great results, better results by not focusing so much on getting stronger, by focusing on things like technique, range of motion, different angles, different styles of training, as we're going to get your game. It's not this straightforward, like, let's just get strong.

Now, you said two to four, the number that came in my, two to four years, the number came in mind was three to five for me right away. And I guess the way I thought about it is like, okay, so why someone at two years versus someone at five years? I think it has to do with how consistent you truly are. Totally. Right? Like two years dedicated?

Yeah, exactly. But that's to me, and the reason why three to five years came to my mind is because like very few people are, I don't miss a workout for two years, you know, and die and they're dialed, right? So it's like, you know, if you're super crazy. dialed, you could start to get to those peak PR numbers or reach potential, you know what I'm saying? Diet and training for two, three years in a row. But most people, you'll probably be able to focus on this for a good four or five years being relatively consistent. Agreed. Yeah, because most people aren't that crazy dialed in for that many years. So that was why I thought like three to five.

100%. Now, now here's another time you don't add weight to the bar. It's when your form isn't perfect. Mm. Okay. Not good, but perfect. So what? people need to understand is that when you're holding a weight, the joint that's moving, it's a lever, okay? In other words, if I'm doing a curl, the elbow joint is moving, the dumbbell is in my hand. So there's a lever there, meaning that the weight that is being, the tension at the elbow is actually higher than the weight that's in my hand. So a good example of this would be like picking up a broomstick. If you pick it up in the middle, it's kind of easy. You pick it up at the very end, you try to lift it so at the end comes off a floor. Suddenly it's, it feels a lot more

difficult. There's a lot of, there's leverage that's happening there, and it's a disadvantage. So let's talk about a barbell squat. If I have 200 pounds on my neck or my bar, on my back, I should say, the tension at my spine, especially my lumbar spine is actually a lot more. And if I add 50 pounds to the bar, I'm probably adding more like 100 pounds to my lumbar spine. And if my form is off by a little bit, now that extra 100 pounds becomes exponential. So I don't know if you guys have ever seen those diagrams, chiropractors will have them, or like forward head. And they talk about how much weight is on the neck

every time the face moves forward. Oh, yeah. Just by the average, but the head weighs like average eight pounds or something like that. And it's like you're putting 30 pounds of stress. Yes. Yeah, yeah. So it's like, you know, you need to have good form when you work out. When you get to heavy weight, you need to have perfect form.

Your risk of injury goes through the roof as your strength goes up. And so if your form isn't perfect, you have no business adding any weight to the bar. Just don't. Wait until your form is absolutely perfect. That's when it's safe. And if you sacrifice form for weight on the bar, you're playing a game of Russian roulette. This is why if you ever meet an experienced lifter, you ever meet that guy in the gym that walks up to you and he's in his mid-40s or 50s, and he tells, he says stories like this.

Like, I used to squat 400 pounds. But now I can't anymore. I can't do that anymore. You know why? It's because he did when I'm talking about. And I did this. I did this as a kid too. This is my wrist straps are a problem.

Yeah. And so I find now it's like I have certain little nag. And I know why I have those is because I compromise my form even by a little bit as a kid to try to add you know weight on the I mean I love that tip because it feeds into my hypertrophy tip that I'm always giving people which is slowing down your tempo. Yeah, because very because most people that are chasing PRs are rarely doing a four second negative. Yeah, you know, because they're so throwing the weight up. Yeah, throwing the weight up. And so they're using momentum or and so it's like teaching someone have perfect form slow it down. And then that has such great hypertrophy benefits. That's right. You know, So if you're always training. You've got attention, by the way, by doing that. Yes. Right. And so I like that for not only safety and what you're talking about,

but then it feeds, fuels right into the benefits of hypertrophy training, which I think a lot of people neglect when you are chasing strength so much. When you're so focused on strength, we tend to speed up the repetition so we could just put up more weight. And there's tremendous benefits, not just for safety reasons, but for hypertrophy reasons for slowing the tempo down. 100%.

Next one is if you feel anything that isn't good. so you're squatting, you're deadlifting. You're like, I feel a little bit in my back or my knee hurts just that. It's nothing bad. It's like you hurt yourself, but you kind of feel it. Here's what you should do instead. Try using the weight that you're normally using and try to do it in a way to make it harder. Make it harder.

And your knee stops hurting or your back stops bothering you. What you don't want to do is go past it by adding weight on the bar because, again, you're asking for issues. So this happened to me this morning. So the reason why this conversation come up is once I get around 300 pounds on my bench press, I start to notice certain issues. And one of them, it's just like this repeating issue, I start to feel like my peck insertion, my left peck insertion. And it's not injured. I just kind of feel it a little bit. Now, I could ignore it.

Yeah. And I could go up and wait. And but you know what I'm playing with a torn peck if I start pushing it? And so I'm backing down. So the next three, four weeks, I'm going to go light and make the weight feel heavier. Now, in the past, I've done this to myself where I feel a little bit of something. I'm like, well, that's not bad. It just feels, let me just stretch it.

Let me just do a little mobility and then go back to adding weight to the bar and then boom. And I'm hurting myself. Like, if you don't feel great, you have no business adding weight. This is such the conundrum for like strength athletes or just athletes in general because any of those little like indications and signals your body's sending itself, it's like, you know, you're kind of like programmed. And this happens when you're like performing, right? It's like, well, we need to ignore that because we need to keep performing.

But in reality, when you're training, you have to listen and you have to stop and you have to slow down. And so to your earlier point of like slowing your reps and like you're not going to pay attention to that if you're just focused on getting through the movement and getting up with the weight. And so to kind of slow it down really pay attention to like how your body's like signaling. You can make those little micro adjustments and save yourself. a lot of pain. Let me ask you guys this. I already know the answer, but let me ask you guys this. Think of the last, you know, four times you've, you've kind of injured yourself working out. I bet you every single time after you hurt yourself, you said this to yourself. I should have no it. It was there. Yeah, I should have no better. It was telling me. It was yelling at me.

That's my fault. That's my fault. Why did I do that? Oh, every, every single time. Every, every single time. All right. Next up is you have, if you've had bad sleep the night before, this is a, this is actually quite great. Yeah. This is wild. The data. It's the number one. predictor of injury, isn't it? It's worse than warming up. It's worse than poor form. It's bad. It's like the risk of injury goes through the roof if you had a bad night of sleep the night before. You know why this one is so confusing. It's good to know. Here's what can happen. This happens to me. If I have one bad night of sleep because I'm stressed, sometimes the next day my stress hormones make me feel like I can push myself. I'm glad you said that because I actually think it's really common

that people, they get a bad night's sleep, and they'll say things like, you know, I just got to get going, I break that first sweat, and then I had this great, I had my best workout. It was a terrible night's sleep, and so they try and make this case for...

They've got all this cortisol, these stress hormones, yes. Yeah, pumping through their body. Yes, but you're at, you have no idea what high risk you're at in that situation. It's just the squeeze isn't worth it.

No, and it's well studied. So I don't think I've ever shared this before, but the very first time I pulled 600 pounds was the... Four night of sleep. No, well, it was the day, after we initiated I initiated my divorce with my ex-wife. It was the day after.

Wow. And I was in such a high state of stress that I was in this kind of like stress hormones, you know, like I got to go. I got to, you know, figure this out type of deal. And I went and I pulled 600 pounds. And looking back, I'm like, yeah, that was all, that was all stress hormones. And lucky you didn't get hurt. And very lucky I didn't get hurt.

Yeah, that was a blessing. Yeah. Last, lastly, it's, you're in a cut. So this one is. my favorite to talk about because it was so crazy to watch this at the professional level again I think

it was one of the things that gave me an advantage of being in a, you know, kind of fish out of water in a space that I wasn't familiar with, didn't have coach with that, but I saw this and I was like the the amount of pros that were ramping up intensity and volume. When their nutrients were low.

When they're in a cut for a show. They're in an eight week cut doing cardio doing this thing. And then they're also ramping up intensity inside the gym. And I'm going like, what are you doing right now? Like, talk about, or not only a recipe for possibly paring down and losing muscle, but also injury. Yeah.

Like, and I saw it all time. So guys get hurt, getting ready for a show. Like, and a lot of it had to do with this. Did that just start with the, like, just being anxious that they didn't, you know, do enough, like leading into competition? Yeah. Trying to like, last minute. Thinking they're either going to make gains coming into the last bit,

which I thought was always ridiculous. It's like at this point, you're not building any muscle. You're just revealing what you've done. Or increasing that intensity and so that thinking that they're going to burn more calories, which will help them get lean and shredded. And so I think the two of those is what fed that way of training going like, dude, this is cruise control time. Like you did the work to build muscle.

Like now it's all about reducing body fat and keeping the muscle. And you talk about the studies all the time about how little we have to do to keep the muscle. So I'm training every day. So I definitely don't need to be training. super hard. Like, you train once a week or once every other week. You'll hold a lot of muscle. So you don't need to do that. So this idea of pushing really hard while you're also in a cut is just counterproductive. Yeah. So the question that people will have is, well, what if I feel strong? Like, I'm in a cut and I feel strong. Well, you are, if you're genuinely in a calorie deficit,

you're in a stress place anyway, right? Your body has, is intaking less nutrients than it's burning. And so here's what you do if you feel strong. You still go into your workout with moderate intensity. So it's so long, if you can add weight to the bar and not hammer yourself, then that's totally fine. But oftentimes what people do is a hammer themselves. And you're better off this way. You're better off this way because the biggest challenge with being in a cut with your workouts is that the workouts your body can't recover from very well. That's the biggest challenge. So volume needs to go down. Intensity needs to go down when you're in a cut, not up. this is what people have the flip.

They think if they're in a cut, they need to ramp things up. It's actually the opposite. And that causes so many problems for people. Like you said, it's not just competitors at them. It's like, oh, I'm on this diet. I'm going to burn this off. I'm going to ramp. It's like you're burning the candle at both hands.

Literally is what you're doing to your body. So I'm smiling and laughing because something happened to me this weekend that feeds right into what you're talking about right now. So I had my big Hampton group thing, right? We're in Miami Beach. And one of the guys has his company is really cool. It does all these corporate events called Boom Pop. Awesome company.

I think it's the largest corporate event planning company in the world. And Blake is, shout out to Blake. He's awesome. And he always plans our whole trip. And they all, everybody that I go with, they're into working out and fitness stuff like that. And he plans all this stuff. And one of the things that he had planned was this like group boxing class. Yeah.

Did you do this? So listen. Do you guys to box each other? And so, you know, I'm on a trip, right? So one of the things I do when I'm on vacation like this is I'm not getting all my meals. So I already know that I'm like lower calorie, lower protein. Time difference. Yeah, yeah.

And didn't get good sleep at all. And so I went in and I got my lift in the morning and followed that up with a good breakfast and a protein shake. So I at least get some protein. my lifting was very moderate. Like, I wasn't just, all the points we're talking about right now. I know I'm not slept well. I know that I'm under calorie and stuff like that. And so, and then the second day, there's this boxing class.

And I'm just like, yeah, I'm not going to that. And I'm not. And I don't want, like, you're the fitness guy. Yeah, and I'm the fitness guy. And so there is a part of me is just like, you know, you should probably run it by me and ask me some questions. Because I'll tell you why none of you should probably go to this class. That's bad for all of you. Yeah, it's not good for it.

Because I know what everyone's goals are. And I'm like, this is not good idea if you want to, you know what I'm saying? So, but I don't. I just like, I want to bow out. And then, like, he, like, made me feel guilty because he paid for it ahead of time. And so, like, I just, I don't, I don't show up. And I, I, I Venmo him money for not going, stuff like that. But I could tell he was a little, he frustrated and upset that I didn't go.

And I, and I feel bad because I also don't want to be that guy lecturing everybody on the thing. But the logic that's going through my head is exactly that. It's like, why would I? My goal is be muscle sparing on a trip like that, right? and or build. I'm not in like lean out, get smaller guy version right now. I'm in smaller me already. So I'm already trying to preserve what I got.

And I had already trained that morning. So I already kind of know like what I should or shouldn't be doing for the rest of the day. And then there's this high intensity boxing class. And I'm like, yeah, no, there's, I'm not going to tell all of you, you shouldn't, even though I don't think you should either. I'm whatever, but I'm definitely not going. And so it was pretty funny that, you know, I was that guy. You know what I'm saying?

And I'm like, but I don't want to preach too. You know? Yeah, dude. I feel like... So I'm caught in, like, his predicament. I feel like fitness professionals, I don't know, trainers, coach, whatever. Like, I think often we're in a situation like this, where families like, we're all going to do this, like, fitness.

And they all look to the fitness guy. Yeah. You know, your eyes rolling. Oh, God. Yeah. This isn't the way to do it. No, I don't want to do this. And I know, and I know you're all going to watch me because I'm the fitness guy.

And I'm sure the way they think, and I'm sure there's somebody who's listening thinks, too. It's like, oh, come on. I'm just like, one class. You're not, and it's not like, I know I'm not going to lose five pounds of muscle in one class. It's not that either. It doesn't even sound like fun to me. No. It doesn't sound like fun and it's not good for me.

So I'm like, yeah, I'm probably not going to do that thing. You know what I'm saying? So that's where I feel like bad. And I'm like, I opted not to like lecture everybody on like all their goals and what they're doing. I had a good conversation. I had a real good conversation. I do this. I volunteered at our church and I was at this table and they served dinner.

and so we all had dinner and then I had like a couple bags of chips because I barely had any dinner because I'd eaten before they had potato chips there and so I had a couple bags and I'm not even thinking about it I'm just like whatever

it's too small bag who cares right? Yeah yeah I'm not even thinking about it and of course one of the guys looks at me and he goes I feel so much better now that I see a fitness guy like you eating two bags of chips

so I'm like you know so we had a nice conversation about nutrition I'm like I almost never eat this but also I have the ability to eat stuff like this. It's not that big of a deal because of these. And so we had this wonderful conversation. People think that fitness, uh, like being fitness minded means that you're like this

crazy rigid robot. Yeah, like perfect. And I'm like, that sucks. Does anybody really want to live that way? That's not how, that's not how we're so aligned right now in stories. I, so listen. So they see you we can. No, listen. So now I'm in the, now I'm in the airport. This is me getting ready to fly back. So I'm, I'm, where you go to get on the plane, right? Waiting, it's like 10 minutes until we're boarding. And I'm leaning against the wall. My head's kind of down. I'm like looking at my phone so at that.

And I'm holding the bag of Doritos because I had just got a chicken sandwich and it came, and it came with chips also. So I'm holding this bag of Doritos and I'm just sitting there. We got protein breederator. And I'm right on a corner of a wall. And so this couple comes up and they're in the corner of my eye and my head's down. And they're like, is the plane boarding or not? And I look up and the both the.

couple goes and they point at me they're like mind pump yeah and i'm like yeah so i introduce myself and hey why we're talking i could see them like looking down at me holding this bag of doritos and you know say the whole time when we're all talking they were super friendly talked to him for a long time actually the guy uh it was so great the the wife turned him on to the show he was a pilot and so they were looking to see they could jump on the plane and they were i forgot where they were going hiking somewhere and they were just making a stop along the way. Great, great couple. And he's a pilot super in good shape.

And he helps other pilots stay in shape. Takes a lot of the information and stuff that he's learned from the show and applies it to the clients and things that he helps out. But he specializes in helping other pilots stay fit and get in shape. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, no. I invited him to come down. I said, hey, you guys should come for a live recording. He had an email me already.

So I'll set up at time. So hopefully you guys get a chance to meet him. But that was so funny that, just so random like that. And I did end up eating them. But I was like, even on the fence of like throwing them away. I'm like, I shouldn't throw these away. I'm a snack on them. But I can see, I can see them like.

I don't have a lot of stories like you guys. But, you know, because my physique's a little different. But I do get all the time, it's really annoying. Like when I go to buy energy drinks, I get a lecture from like the gas station guys. What? You just really aren't good for you, you know. Like all these things. You've read.

You tell me the terrible entrepreneur. Yeah. I was like, from your store. Well, I was going to say that. If the person who owns that gas stage would be pissed, he'd be doing that because that's how they make their money. They don't make no money on gas. Exactly. Yeah.

It's just, it's bizarre, dude. Like, I've gotten so much grief every time I drink and energy drink. And I'm just like, that's interesting. Dude, that's hilarious. This is not the same. This is not the same at all. But it does remind me of this one. I used to have this client who was an oncologist.

So cancer doctor, right? And great guy, super great guy. Obviously a stressful job. It's like, I can't, I can't imagine a more stressful. doctor job that you could do, right? And I'll never forget, we were scheduled to train. The client that I had before him didn't show up.

So I go for a walk, and I walk by him, and he's out, like, nearby smoking a cigarette. He's a cancer doctor. Oh, my God. Yeah, dude, I'm like, oh, my God. I remember thinking of myself, like, how could you?

Scratch in your head. Yeah, so he came in, and we start working out, and I knew the guy. I was friends with him. I've been training for years. I'm like, dude, I got to tell you, bro. So I walked by. I saw you smoking a cigarette, dude.

I said, aren't you like, you know the stats, right? I'm like, aren't you a cancer doctor? And he goes, yeah, that's why I smoke. And I remember my heart broke. And I was like, oh, yeah, dude. Of course you smoke, bro. You see people die out and say you're so stressed. Yeah.

I'm like, it's his outlet. And then I told him, like, you know what? Oh, my God. I said, I'm surprised you don't do more than smoke cigarettes? He's like, me too. I'm like, good job, dude. Let's work out, bro. Now, I would not put that on the same category, though.

It's not the same. Yeah, definitely. Definitely not the same as a trainer who eats a high calorie. No, we're not stressed out. That's not why we eat doritos. You know what it's like podcasting? I got to eat these Doritos. Sneaks in there around there.

No, anyway. So I was, I got to talk about, so I finally did, I know you guys did too. I think you guys did, right? I did my first appointment with our partners at MP Hornet. Oh, yeah, yeah. Just finish that.

I mean, their service is great. So fast, by you. Very good. Listen, two days later. The turnaround is amazing. Two days later, I got my stuff. And so I, So I had an hour call with a medical professional.

Yeah, an hour we went over everything in my lips. Very thorough. Anyway, so I want to tell you guys, so first off, they definitely like the reviews. Their service is great, super fast, which is crazy. Our old partners would take me like two weeks, three weeks get my stuff. I know. It was two days. It was at my door.

But anyway, they set me up with a peptide called 5 Amino 1MQ. And it sounds like this long, whatever. It's a capsule. Wow. So what it does is it inhibits an enzyme called NMNT. By doing so, it increases NAD in your cells. It's a fat loss peptide, but that's not why the guy recommended it to me. He said it's good for energy.

And I'm going to tell you guys, this is day three of me taking it, and it's phenomenal. So explain to me, how is this better than just taking straight NAD? Because this prevents, this raises NAD. way more effectively than taking NAD will because it prevents the breakdown of NAD or the conversion of NAD to something that's not usable. It's like comparing an Argonine versus

Citrally. Yeah, great job, dude. That's right. Absolutely. That's right. That's right. Sincorily will raise nitric oxide more than Ardenade. Are you doing the injectable CMAX too?

I know. I just are. I'm so happy. Did you get that? Yeah, I got that in NAD. Yeah, I do. Yeah. Oh, yeah?

Yeah, it's like clarity. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. Well, the five, the five, I mean, a one MQ, this is day three or four. And, like, crazy stamina working out. Sat in the sauna. Normally it's a 200 degrees, 20, 25 minutes, and I'm like, I got to get out of here.

Yeah. It was 25 minutes, 200 degrees. I had to get out because otherwise I was going to be late for work. I was like, I could sit in here for another 10 minutes. This is wild. So that stuff, yeah, I was thinking Doug would be, should probably use something. I was trying to order everything. It's in capsule form.

If you look at the reviews, people like the fat loss. That's not why I'm taking it. I don't care less. But the energy part was, you know, made me excited. Yeah, yeah. How crazy did you get? Because I was, you know, it's funny.

They were asking me, like, are you sure? You don't want any? And I'm like, I just want my basic. No, I just got a couple things. Okay. I did that. I said, wait for your call with Sal. I said, don't worry.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was thinking Sal brain. I was like, I'm in a kid in a candy store. I'm like, give me everything. I'm trying to get as much stuff as I can think. No, I should try the CMA. So I haven't done that a long time. Yeah.

Is it also, is it nasal? Is it the nasal? Oh, no. That's injectable. And then finally got some good dihexa again. Oh, yeah. You like that stuff.

Yeah. He loves that stuff. Now, you've had, you've had the nasal and the injectable CMAX, right? Do you prefer one of the other? Well, so far, I like the injectable. Oh, okay. Yeah. Over it as far as feeling the difference.

So yeah, I definitely feel a little bit different. Awesome. All right, I got a cool study for you guys on, on exercise and exercise variety. I'm going to pull it. up because I think it's pretty interesting. So they studied people who did different forms of exercise and single forms of exercise. And here's what they found. The people who did the most different types of exercise.

Okay. So people who did like cardio, strength training, you know, stretching. Like the people have the most variety. Yeah. Had the best all-cause mortality. And it had nothing to do with doing. more exercise. It had everything to do with more variety of exercise. Okay. So, which is kind of cool. Yeah. So people who, who kind of do this kind of like, you know, it does make sense. Yeah.

So doing a variety of exercise is for mortality and longevity is better. Well, this, I mean, this is what, which I would have guessed. I would have guessed that too. I mean, this is the thing that I think I've talked about with you guys, like early years, how I used to every workout. I said, didn't, I never repeat itself. Yeah. lots of benefits of like I could see of just overall health. Yeah. Like joint health, mobility, like I felt good. But I wasn't really strong. I wasn't really buff.

But I was a little bit of all that. But you responded well. Yeah, yeah. You know, and so for somebody who could care less about getting much bigger, building a bunch of muscle, or could care less about getting that much stronger and they just want to be relatively strong to their body weight and they want to feel good and be longevity, it's a pretty good way to train. So you know why I was, so I was thinking about this a lot because I read this study last week, and I've been thinking about this because there's a couple of things we need to,

we have to kind of tackle as coaches. And this, one of them is more importantly and the other. Yes, variety of exercise, and this makes sense is a good idea. But the main thing you need to tackle is that is what are people going to do consistently? This is just the number one factor. Yeah, that too. And so in my experience, and I think most coaches would agree, getting somebody to exercise, to do a structured form of exercise twice a week is a win.

period, end of story. So at the top of the list is what they like. And if they like a few different things, but they want to get the most bang for their buck and they're not going to do a lot of variety, strength training seems to be the best. That being said, if you like to exercise and you don't mind the versions or types of exercise you do,

I think the reason why this shows that it's so protective is because there's checks and balances with different forms of exercise. In other words, if I chase just building muscle, at some point I go beyond benefit and I start to sacrifice health benefits and go into just getting as big as possible. But if I'm running at the same time,

it's going to prevent me from pushing that too much. If I only run, lots of benefit from getting endurance. But at some point, if I push too much endurance, I'm sacrificing longevity. Strength training counters that a little bit. Flexibility. All these things are kind of checks and balances because you could go too extreme in one pursuit

and start sacrificing longevity. And each one of these is kind of a chance. Plus all the different stimulus is going to help cognition, the brain in that connectivity there. So I'd, yeah, and I just think your body overall as a whole. Like, you know, you express all these different types of movements. I think it's healthy. I think it's very important, though, that you know what you want, right?

So, because it takes me back to the conversation with this group that I was with, too, because, you know, they like, they may like to train classes and do all the stuff like that for these reasons of longevity and help it. But then when you're also sitting down and you're going like, man, I want to build about 10, 15 more pounds of muscle. Now we're talking specifics. Yes. And so I think that's the important thing because you'll have people will say like, well, I like the variety and I like the training. Like all this stuff of that. But then I want to lose, you know, 10 pounds or I want to build. It's like, okay, well, there's a better way to go at that than this like all these random exercises all the time.

Like, okay, they might benefit you longevity and it may, you might be entertaining for you. And you may not get a lot of joint pain from it because you're not hyper focused on something. But it is not the fastest best way to build muscle or to lose. body fat, there is a, and so I think that's, people hear, hear one part of that and they go, oh, well, that's what I want to do. It's like, yeah, but then they follow it right up with, yeah, but I want to, you know, I like to put, you know, 10 pounds or I want my chest to look this or my shoulders, look at that. It's like, okay, well, now we're talking about something different now. So it's like, being very clear with what, what you want to get out of it is important.

No, no, 100% because, now why is that important? Because results, uh, makes somebody more consistent. Yeah. It's just a factor. It's not the factor, but it's one of the factors. and so if somebody does all these varieties of exercise but they really want to see like a change in the way that their, I don't know, their arms look and want to build little muscle, it can become very disheartening and unmotivating something. Well, this is how I used to talk to my orange theory people

is, you know, they come to me after like a class and they tell me how much they love the class. Like, listen, I'm never going to tell somebody who shows up to this thing three, four days a week and loves it and loves everything about it. But then you're like, I'm having such a hard time. I can't do this. I can't do that.

And you're starting to feel disheartened? Yeah, exactly. It's like, well, if, you know, if you're, if you're okay with how you look, how you feel from showing up to this class all the time, then keep going for it. Keep doing it. But if you don't like the way you look or feel and you're doing this, there's a better way. And so, like, getting them to understand that, like, and every case is going to be different. Totally, totally.

Doug, how, what's your, have you been using the TMG from? Yeah, I started to use it. Yeah. Okay. So I'm reading more about it. What is that? What is that? So Betain is another name for.

TMG. You brought that up once before, but I don't remember. Yes, so I have some studies here because Doug was kind of talking about it. How long have you been taking it now, Doug? Just for about a week now. Okay. Are you noticing anything with your workouts yet? Not specifically. No. I can't say I have. What it says in the data is it does increase maximal strength and vertical jump. So it's athletic performance.

Wait a second. The study showed that that's, it helps just that? basically strength power is what you're going to see in the studies from supplementing with it. Okay. So you'll see it in some sometimes. What's what I'm going to take now. Yeah. So sometimes they put it in pre-workouts. You'll see it.

Now, Roe has it liposomal. So the dose is getting more of it's going to get absorbed in your body because it's protected by these kind of like these little lipid molecules. What mechanism is it doing? Methylation increases ATP production. Your body is. Really? Like creatine? So paired with creatine?

Paired with creatine is amazing. That's the best. Oh, I wonder if a lot of creatine supplements carry it then in it. It's probably popular. Some do. Some will include betane or TMG. But if you're already taking creatine, take it. If you don't take it also, it's got all these athletic performance benefits.

That's why I was wondering. Yes, you know, Thomas DeLauer has been talking a lot about it on Instagram. So I've been seeing his stuff come up. And one of the things that was interesting to me is the body. recomp aspect of it. Losing body fat. It helps with, I'm just looking at their website now,

normal liver fat metabolism. So that's interesting. We should link up with it. He's local. Yeah, he's local. Yeah, we haven't seen what's been like two years. He's a really smart guy. You know what?

I got to say this. So the most common side effect of creatine is gastro distress. And so some people will have to take smaller doses throughout the day. It's very common. By the way, you take a big enough dose of cratine and everyone's going to get that.

So, like if you're taking creatine for brain health, you've got to probably take closer to 10, 15, maybe 20 grams a day. You take that all at once. You're going to have some stomach issues. We're getting messages from people who are using rose creatine. And they're saying that they don't get gastro distress. Because they're liposomal? Might be.

So they're trained the bigger doses with Roe, and they're like, I have no stomach issues. I actually didn't even think about that. And I have, and I didn't notice anything there. If I do the gummies, I have to, to break it up, which is not all. You take too many at once then. Yeah.

Yeah. But I can drink a big dose of interest. I didn't even think of that. Yeah. So I've got a few messages from people who are like, hey, I've tried the larger doses with row and it doesn't bother my gut. And I think it's because it's liposomal. Yeah.

So, which makes sense. Which kind of makes sense. It's still the same. Still create too monohydrate. Yeah. You're not going to, it's going to give you a. Yeah, but that's good to know because there's, there's times where I'm taking it and I'm thinking like, okay, I want to, I want to boost it, you know, especially after like a

a poor night of sleep, right? So that would be a time I would want to do kind of mega dose. That would be a better way to do it. I didn't even think of that. Yeah, cool. Huh. So I read something the other day that I wasn't fully familiar with. So do you guys know who Pope John Paul was?

You guys know? Yeah. One of my favorites. The name, yeah. Okay. So he was famous for a few different reasons. He had the Pope Mobile. Yes.

After you get. That's right. So a couple things he did that were really interesting. One was he gave a speech in Poland, I believe. that they that that people believe, historians believe, was one of the contributing factors to the fall of the Soviet Union. In Poland, in communist, you know, territory, he had people chanting, like millions of people chanting,

we want freedom, we want freedom, which is like, like you say that in the communist country. And, uh, but anyway, so there's that. Very brave guy. So he, there was an assassination attempt on him in 19, Maybe Doug, you can confirm this. So he got shot. Dude in the crowd, pulled out a gun.

There's a picture of this guy holding gun like you could see when the guy shot him. He gets shot. Was it 1981? Let me see here. 45 years ago. So let me just see. It said it earlier when you were in the, it was 1980. Yeah, 1988.

Yeah. So he gets shot. They rushed him to the hospital, like straight in the chest. The surgeon pulls out the bullet, and he said that the bullet went straight for his artery and went around it. So it went for the artery and then went around it. He's like, I've never seen anything like this. It's so wild. This should have totally killed you.

So of course, the Pope's like, it's a miracle. And he's got this famous quote where he says, one hand pulled the trigger and another hand guided the bullet, which is kind of cool. So anyway, there's a picture of him with the guy that tried to shoot him. He met. Wait, that's a picture with him with the guy who tried to shoot him? That's right.

He didn't try to shoot him. He actually shot him. So he did shoot him. He visited the guy in prison. So the guy that tried to kill him. kill him. And he talked to him. It was basically like, I forgive you, right? And he's like, like, like talking to this guy in this, in prison. The man finally gets released later, converts, becomes a Christian. No way. There's a famous, I didn't know that story. There's a famous,

picture of the guy at the, the funeral of Pope John Paul. And he's basically like, you know, this horrible thing that I did. And it got me to become. Well, there's all kinds of meetings with him right there. Isn't that wild? That is wild. Isn't that crazy? Such a crazy story of redemption. It's like the guy tried to kill you and then you visit him genuinely. Yeah.

And it changes the man. It's sad. We don't hear more stories like that more. Did you know that story already? Yeah. Oh, you already knew. I didn't know that story. There's another crazy story.

You can watch the video. People can look this up. You can hear these guys get interviewed. You guys know what Billy Graham was? Yeah. It's like greatest evangelists of the modern times. There were these three men, I don't know where they were. they have an English accent because I watched the video of these guys.

They went to one of his, I don't know, what do you call it when he gets, when he's speaking to like huge stadiums? What is it? Like an altar call or. I don't know. It's an evangelist event or something. Yeah. He would do these all over the world, right?

Yeah. These guys showed up with a gun and they're like, when he does the call, so at the end of these, at the end of him preaching. Yeah. What Billy Graham would do, that's the video right there. What, what Billy Graham would do is he'd call people up to accept Christ, right? Yeah. He'd say come up and whatever.

So they're like, we were going to wait until he'd do. did that, we were going to walk up and shoot him. We hated him. We wanted to kill him. So they sat in the lawn, waiting. Listened to the whole thing. Listening to the whole thing. And converted him. Converted. And they went up there and got baptized, dude. Isn't that wild? Yeah, that's cool. Such a crazy story. That one I heard. Watch that whole video right there. Oh, is that it right there? Yeah, that guy right there, dude. Oh, was he one of the ones that was plotting to kill him? He was one of the guys that wanted to kill him. Oh, wow. Yeah, I guess there were gangsters or something that were. Oh, wow. Yeah, dude. I know. It's wild. Such crazy.

That is wild. So it's crazy stories. Anyway, I'm a change. topics here a little bit. I want to talk about a strategy. I don't think it's a long-term strategy, but it is a strategy that people can use to help them with fat loss. And I don't like talking about it too much because people can get carried away with it.

But it is a strategy, and it can be used, especially initially when you're trying to get things kind of under control. And that is to replace one of your meals with a meal replacement shake. now people have gone too far with this in the past but I could definitely I've definitely seen this be a successful strategy to to with some of my clients and I've gotten them to move from there to whole natural foods but just as a way to get them to get things under control well I'll tell you a way I've done it as a strategy where I like it is post reverse diet so what I'll do and I've done before with somebody is slowly increasing their calories through whole foods like we all talk about get them up to a place. Let's say I have a female client that hires me and she's at 1,800 calories. And over

the next six months, I get her all the way up to like 26, 2700 calories. And she's like, this is so much food. And like a good place to go because it's so much food. And I still want to say our protein is I'll take one of those meals and replace it with like a ready to drink or a shake. There you go. Some sort of a drink. I never done that. Oh, yeah. So way to cut the calories back. Still get protein intake in. Easier for them to digest. So they're not force feeding themselves more food.

And then it's a nice way for us to start to lean out. It's a perfect way after a reverse diet. Here's how I've done it with clients. So I've done it with clients that really struggle with nutrition. And then the conversation typically looks like, like this. I'll say, okay, which meal is the most difficult for you? And typically it's breakfast or lunch. Sometimes it's later.

But typically it's like breakfast. I'm coming out of the house. I don't eat anything. Then I overeat later. Or I grab this really fast garbage food. Or it's lunch. I don't pack a meal. I'm terrible at meal prepping.

Lunchtime, I end up ordering out or whatever. So with these clients, what I've done is I've said, okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to do a meal replacement shake in the morning. Or for lunch, you're just going to have a meal replacement shake. Yeah. And it worked for a lot of these people. And what I mean by it worked is it was a good bridge.

Yeah. It was a good starting point. And then we moved to different behaviors. Now, here's the key with this is protein shakes were okay, but they're not a meal. So protein shakes are just protein. And what you want, if you have a meal replacement, is some carbs and some fiber and a little bit of fats with your protein. It's going to produce more satiety. And it's a more complete meal.

It's not just pure protein. Yeah. Because sometimes people use just protein. Yeah. Well, you explain the differences. People have heard us talk about it. So example of that would be like Heel. Heel is an actual meal replacement.

Then you've heard us talk about things like weigh protein powder, which is just protein. Just protein. And so this is different. And so you have to explain the difference. What's the benefit? Why would I want meal replacement? Because I'm going to get some carbohydrates. I'm going to get a little bit of fats.

I'm going to get some fiber. And so it's going to give me more satiety. And it's more of a legit meal because it's more complete. Like you would never have a meal that was like a boiled plain chicken breast. It would always include some other macros in there. And so Hewell is much more of an appropriate. That's a good example. Much more of an appropriate way to do this.

What is there? What is their mac, could you pull up their site, Doug, real quick? What is their macro rate down? I know they're high protein, 35 to 40 grams normally. Yeah, 35 grams protein. Seven grams of fiber. Yeah. And look up their complete macros, Doug, if you can, because there's also a little bit of fats.

There you go. What do we got? Let me pull it up. It's pretty small here. Oops, I just made it smaller. So one bottle is 400 calories, which is a meal. Yeah. You know, versus a 160 calorie, you know, just protein, nothing else.

Yeah. Yeah. Clients on the go. That was always, like, hard. You know, when they make bad decisions. So to have a replacement was always a good option. This is also vegan, too. So can you read that now?

Yeah, so they are, you want all the macros in? Yeah, protein, fats, carbs. So yeah, so fat, 17 grams, carbohydrates, it looks like 30 grams. And protein is 35 grams. Plus there's some other. What's their, what's their protein blend? What are they using? P protein is one of the main.

So P-Faba bean, yeah, P-Faba beans. It looks like the main ones. P-protein's got a pretty good amino acid profile for vegan protein. And it tastes really good, which is important. They do taste good. It's important. People need to eat something. They have a, you guys, they have a coffee one that.

Did you finally get a chance? I've never tried the coffee. But, you know, I've just been avoiding the caffeine probably is the real reason. Yeah, they've done that. It's not a lot of caffeine. Yeah. I'll try it maybe after this. I actually didn't even check the amount of caffeine, to be honest with you, that's, that's

Justin are immune. Yeah, I knew it wasn't no high caffeine. More is better. To me, I don't count under 50 grams, dude. It's got to be at least 100 at least for me to even count it. But it's the flavor I like. I like coffee flavored stuff. So the iced coffee one is bomb.

Have you guys ever used, maybe Justin you have, we've used bands to add resistance to, you know, the bar. Have you done reverse bands? Reverse bands. Yeah, or it helps you. Yeah. you. I remember you had made fun of one time because I posted the video about that when I was doing bench and I was just like, I was inside the rack and I had it set up.

Yeah. So I could. And I was just experimenting with it because I had seen power lifters do that before. You know what's weird. So you would think it doesn't matter. Yeah. If I put bands to add resistance or if I put bands to, it's totally different. It feels way different.

Yeah, it does. But here's why I would think it's the same because if it's pulling. pulling up, I'm going to get, it's going to pull up the hardest at the bottom. So it's going to make it heaviest at the bottom. Yeah. If I'm doing it to add weight, it's also easiest to the bottom. Yeah, the lockout's still heavy. Yeah, the opposite happens.

You can load more when it's assisting. Yeah, it is. But then the weight would be the same because the band. Yeah, but yeah, but now I can feel a heavier weight of real weight, in other words. So I like it for actually, squatting is awesome in the cage with assisting. Oh, yeah. So I used to when I was getting used to moving 405, like, Like when I was getting to that place, I started with getting assisted with the bands. Mm-hmm.

When that would be like a single PR, but I could put some heavy bands on the 405 and get like three reps out. And so getting three reps out of that, feeling that four... It's like you're built in spotter. Feeling that 405, yes, 405 on my back, but I've got the... Yeah, but you would think if you added enough band resistance, it would be the same way. So I'm trying to... It is, but it's a different field. Now I have 315 on my back and I'm adding bands.

Yeah. So sure, at the top, they both feel the same. But that's not what I want to feel what 4-005 free weight feels on my back. So when I unrack it, I'm feeling like, oh, my, where that would be, so we're at the top where you're re-racking and stuff, you're, if you're, it's heavy at the top. Yeah, it feels different, feels way different. I think maybe, I've been thinking about this because I'm like, I'm doing the math in my head. It doesn't feel. It doesn't feel.

It doesn't feel. It feels different. So I'm doing the math. I think it might have more to do with the fact. From a tension in a resistance place, those studies would show it's the same. It's the same. Yeah. I think it has more to do with where the band is anchored because it's pulling me in a direction

versus pulling me in a direction. Yeah. So he has more to do with the anchor. But here's a funny thing. Band assisted does not cause as much stress on my body as bad resistance. It lifts a lot of that tension in the joint. It's weird. I know.

It's like I could do more volume with band assistance. Yeah. Even if I add time to weight. It was like sometimes I'll get a little bit of a tweak in my shoulder like at a certain point, a certain weight. And it was just like it wasn't there. because it just had that little bit of extra bit of elasticity. It's like my favorite, my favorite way to get stronger fast is to use bands.

Yeah, that and then like using them fast, like for fast. Well, I have yet to do that. I love some. When you reverse the direction is when the most stress is on the joints. And so now that's being assisted by the band versus the opposite. Yeah. So think about that for a second. At the bottom of your bench, when you're coming down the bench, the most stress is right here.

when you reverse direction. And you now have assist there. When you have banned the opposite way, the most amount is at the very top. At the bottom, it's not. So what I mean is it's the same strength curve. It's easiest the bottom, hardest the top.

Whether the bands are on the bottom or on the top, it's the same. But it definitely feels less stressful on the body. And I'm really trying to think about why, but I don't know 100%. I think there's something about what you're saying. Maybe it has to do with where the bands are direction. So I think that's one.

And then the other thing, again, that I find beneficial when you're trying to get... Because most of the time you're using these bands because you're trying to get through a plateau, right? If you want to get stronger.

There's something about feeling that weight that you wouldn't do by yourself on your back or on your chest knowing that you have these bands to assist it to get it off. The psychological lift. Yeah, like it's psychological.

It's just like, I just feel getting... Me getting used to... I remember I've told this story before back of the days when I was just like a 20-year-old kid. and those guys that were, at this time, I could barely do a plate squatting. And they put like three plates on me.

Just hold it. Yeah, I'm like, I can't even do two plates. Why I got three on here? I played that same principle. And I was like starting to approach the, you know, overhead press. It was like, I just need to feel the weight for a while.

Yes. And I just had to like hold it. And I'm like, oh my God. It felt like lead weight, dude, like the first like few weeks. And then you start adapting. You start responding. And like, okay, it starts to really kind of like

your body produces. So I love the way. band assisted fields. It works great for pressing and squatting. Deadlifting, I'm like, where would I attach this for the deadlift? It doesn't make any sense. But I thought of an idea. So you know out there we have that platform where the bands go across and you could put the bar underneath it and pull up. Imagine if those attachments were higher, you put bands across it and put the bar on top of it. Now you get a little bit of assistance at the bottom. Couldn't you do it inside the cage? Put it on your back. You could do it, but it's going to pull it straight up. And when you're trying to

deadlift it, the bar's going to want to move away from you or towards you because the way the bar is straight. A little bit. Yes. I mean, I haven't experimented with it. So I don't know. I bet you could make that inside the cage. You could do that. It'd be an interesting experiment. Yeah, but it works really great. The challenge about inside the cage that I'm thinking about right now is that there's a, the bar goes across. Oh, yeah, yeah. So I don't know if it would. If you can't, if the plates don't hit the ground. Yeah. That would probably be the, the challenge. Can you guys imagine what I'm thinking? Yeah, no, exactly. Higher, higher attachments, bands across. You put the bar on top of it. Yeah, I've never done ban

assisted deadless before. Squatting and bench press is my favorite. I've done banned resisted deadlift. I do those all the time. You know what I haven't done with it? Did you ever try that actually with shoulder pressing? It would be kind of cool to shoulder press with it. Yes. It feels great. Yeah, that would be. I haven't done. I had never done it with shoulder press before. It feels really good. Band assisted anything.

Yeah. Feels really good on my body. Shoulder press would be cool. I want to do that now. I never thought to do that with shoulder press. Yeah, well, the landmine, I'll do, you know, of those presses where I actually stand on a rubber band and then have, you know, have the, the bar, yeah, and just, like, do some, like, shoulder presses, like, single arm. And then so you get this, like, cool dynamic of, you can do speed wraps with it, or you could just do, like, it adds to the resistance, but it's smoother. Yeah.

And so, yeah, it's a totally different feel, but I've, I've experimented with that. Yeah, you know, it's cool about what we're saying. So somebody listening right now has a home gym, and you want more variety. bands are phenomenal and they're cheap. You can go out of Amazon and get yourself a thick pair of weightlifting bands. And with your cage, you can do all kinds of cool stuff. We also sell them too. Yeah.

Do we have just the bands or do we have the ones with the handles? No, just bands. Oh, go on our site. Yeah, no, no, go on our site. Yeah, we got the best ones. We do sell them. Or are you going on Amazon if you want. Element is an electrolyte powder that you can add to your water.

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Go to drink elemente.com forward slash mind pump. That link, you'll get a free sample pack of their most popular drink mixed flavors with any purchase. Back to the show. Our first caller is Sarah Beth from Mississippi. Hi, Sarah. How are you doing, it's so cool to meet you. Yeah, awesome. Thanks for calling in.

This is awesome. So before I start, I do have to say I have to be mama bear. for just a minute and let y'all know how absolutely proud I am of y'all as men and fathers and husbands just for being so open and vulnerable about your lives and your struggles and your accomplishments and all those things. And like putting that out there publicly, I think that is so important for other men to see. And I just thank y'all for being a space for that. That is doing so much good work out there. If you ever, whatever you do with mind pump in the future, please don't ever change that. So I'm saying that. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you, Sarah. Okay. So my question is, what does a good

appropriate cut maintenance and bulk look like for a very short female? So I know that, like, being a woman, I am already at a lower metabolic rate than a man, obviously, but being, I'm five foot tall, like, on a good day. So that puts me at, like, the lowest of the low when it comes to metabolic rates. And I feel like all the fitness content out there is geared towards like the average male or the average female. So I feel like whenever I hear these goals and numbers and everything to reach, I almost have to like filter it of like, okay, like that's a good thing. But like it doesn't completely apply to me. So that's kind of my question. And I wanted to give you a little background information on myself, just so you can know kind of where I'm coming from,

from a psychological standpoint with my question. So I'm 34. I was overweight my whole life. My heaviest point was in 2020, about a year after I had my daughter. I got all the way up to 248 pounds, which is insane to even say. I sent Doug pictures for y'all to see because it was just, it was insane. And I really got to a point where I was like, this is not healthy. Like, I've got to do something.

So I didn't really know where to start. and I picked up a book about processed foods, and it scared the crap out of me. So I immediately was like, all right, no more processed foods. That's insane. We're going to go all to whole foods. And that's the only thing I did. And over the next three years, I lost about 70 pounds just doing that alone. Then I got on OZNPIC for one year.

I gave myself the deadline of just one year. And in that one year of still not really changing anything else, still doing whole foods, I lost an additional 60 pounds. Well, when I got off of the OZNPIC, immediately, of course, my hunger came back. And it kind of hit me. I was like, oh, if I don't like for real make like some lifestyle changes here, like all of this weight is going to come right back. Like, yeah, I've got to actually change something here.

So that's when I dove into the fitness space for the first time. And I immediately like fell in love with it. I was like, this is, how have I never discovered this before? This is amazing. So I started integrating kind of one thing at a time. I started by hitting, you know, my goal weight and protein. And then I got my steps up and then just kind of incorporating other, you know, movement type of things. And then it eventually led me to strength training.

That's always the last thing for women is strength training. So about, it was about seven months ago that I started like a real structured strength training program for the first time. And I am type A overachiever. goes way too hard when I do things. So, of course, that's exactly what I did. And I over did it. And I was going to the gym four days a week, doing an upper, lower body split. Each session was an hour or longer.

And then I would follow each session by 20 to 30 minutes of cardio. I was getting 15 to 20,000 steps a day. And the kicker is that because of my height, I would use, you know, TDE calculators and combined with my complete fear of gaining any weight, I would not let myself go above about 13 or 1,400 calories while doing all of this activity. So as you can imagine, that very quickly took its toll on my body. And after about five months of doing all of that,

I am super consistent. I don't miss a workout. I don't miss anything. Don't miss my steps. Five months of doing that, I wake up one morning. and of course my body is exhausted. I'm underfueled. I'm, you know, just completely worn out.

I got out of bed and standing up too quickly, I passed out and fell face first, hit the floor and some other things on the way down to the floor. Had to go to the emergency room, a huge deep gash on my forehead. They had to sew together. They took a CT scan. Thank God there were no broken bones or internal bleeding.

But I had a very, very nasty concussion. And the doctor who, you know, treated me after asking me, like, how did this happen? And I told her that little history of what I had been doing. She kind of looked me dead in the face and was like, I'm going to need you to go home and get in your bed and recover from this concussion. And then I'm going to need you to eat. And at that point, I had only been listening to you guys for about a month. So I was just tipping my toes in the water. And, you know, I had been hearing you telling people about reverse dieting and about, you know, under-fueling their bodies and how, you know, you can try all you want to build muscle. But if you're not giving it enough calories, it's not going to happen. And you're

going to put yourself in some real risky situations here. And after that accident, when I came home, it was like, it hit me in the face. I was like, oh, my gosh, they were talking to me. I always put myself out of these categories because I'm like, oh, I'm a short woman. It doesn't count for me. But no, it totally did. And I put my body in some real danger doing that. So I really, and at this point I'm listening to you guys 24-7, so I'm just soke. I'm like a sponge.

I'm soaking it all up. So after I healed for my concussion, I completely revamped my strategy and my goals and everything here. I went down to three days a week in the gym doing full body workouts that only lasted 30. 40 minutes tops. I cut out all extra cardio, brought my steps down to about 10 to 12,000 steps, and I started my first ever reverse diet, which was terrifying, absolutely terrifying. But I looked at, you know, what had just happened. And I was like, you got to do better. You're not, you're not treating your body with respect and well. And you're going to just keep driving yourself

into the ground if you don't do something different here. So I very, um, very interesting. incrementally worked my way up, and I am proud to say that as of this week, I am at like between 1900 and 2,000 calories, and I'm still going. We're still pushing. And just like you guys said, I saw all the things that you talk about all the time. My energy skyrocketed. My mood skyrocketed. I thought I felt great beforehand. I realized I didn't know what great felt like. My period normalized, my sleep got better, my strength. Oh, I'm not kidding, y'all, during this reverse at some point, I can remember there was one week where I went to go do my hip thrust and I added a couple of pounds and I was like, I can go more, I can go more, I can go. I literally added 20 pounds to my

hip thrust in one week and then another, you know, 15, 20 pounds to some of my other compound lifts in the week or so after that. Crazy, crazy. So here's where my question comes in. I believe it. I'm a believer. Reverse diet is the way to go. It's amazing. But I am still a five foot tall woman. And I listen to you guys advise women all the time. And, you know, advising some women to push all the way up to almost like 3,000 calories or more in a reverse.

And I'm looking at myself and what I'm eating now at 2000. And I'm like, there ain't no freaking way that I can push myself, you know, up to that point. And since, like I said, there's not a lot of content out there. are geared towards petite women. I just wanted to hear your thoughts on, you know, as I'm doing this reverse, how far do I go? And then really, from my health standpoint, when I do eventually want to go back into a cut to reveal all this muscle that I know that I'm building right now, what does that look like in a healthy way?

Because I obviously did not do it correctly first time around. And I don't want to make that mistake again. So any advice you guys have, I would really appreciate it. Well, great question. And great job. Yeah. Yeah. Really, really, you're doing a really good job.

It's really hard to get out of the fear of gaining weight. And now you see. Yes. Now you see like, okay, that fear was, it was just that. It was a fear. It's not happening like I thought it would. In fact, the opposite's happening. I'm stronger.

I feel better. So here's the context with reversed eye. And then I'll get to kind of your question. The reason why we often recommend that women get up to 27, 28, maybe even 3,000. thousand calories is because oftentimes women are interested in losing body fat. And so we just want to give them runway. So it's probably not a maintenance, but it's going to give you a nice runway to go back down and to end in a nice comfortable place.

Okay. Number two, there's such a wide individual variance with someone's, let's say, metabolism, with activity. And yes, does your size play a role? It does. But it's pretty amazing how high somebody can get their metabolic rate whose strength trains is active and is petite like you are. Like I've trained women like you who've gotten their calories above 3,000.

And it wasn't. That's wild. And it wasn't an issue. You actually have a healthy metabolism. The fact that you've already reversed and you're seeing great results tells me that you're going to respond really well. Because sometimes it's more challenging. Sometimes a reverse takes a long time to get the body.

Right. the person's body to not be so afraid to build muscle and it still wants to store body fat, you know, type of deal. So where do you stop? Well, there's a couple things to consider. One, I don't like a fit, active woman who's working out ever to be at a maintenance that's below 1,800 calories. It's just, it's too low.

If you're walking around at 1,600 calories, strength training three days a week, hitting 10 to 12,000 steps a day. You know, if you have, if you got kids and a life, that is too low to maintain. What you'll almost always run into is at some point burnout. At some point, hormone issues. At some point, it's just too low. So, 1800 is like, that's like, that's kind of like the limit where else have somebody maintain with who's active and strength and do all the things that you're doing.

So now here's the other side of it. you're going to reverse diet to a place where you're going to be like, this is so much food, I feel like I'm just overdoing it. Then that's a good place to cut from because what you'll fall at is going to be at this comfortable place. Considering your activity level, your strength training, the fact that you're a mom, all that stuff, I'd like to see you at a maintenance that looks like 2000, 2100. So if you want to cut, we got to get above that so we could cut at 2000. Like 1900 that you're at right now

19002,000 now, I'm not going to put you in a cut. If I put you in a cut right now, you'll see a little bit of fat loss. You'll also see strength loss. You'll feel like crap, you'll plateau, and then you'll be back kind of to where you were before.

So I wouldn't, I'd have you reverse out. Now here's the other part of it. If you reverse properly, especially if you see strength gains, oftentimes you see yourself get leaner through this process. If I put 10 pounds of muscle on you

and you gained no body, body fat, your body fat percentage went down. You actually got leaner. Right. And you're going to look at you. Well, and that's, yeah, that's one thing I was kind of going to ask too is I, obviously I'm gaining muscle because my strength has gone through the roof. I went to go through a baseball the other day and way overshot my target.

Like, I know I'm getting stronger. But I can kind of feel and telling my body, I know that I am putting on a little body fat too, which I know comes along with it. So kind of what you mentioned earlier, I feel like I may need to move a little slowly through this because I was at so low calories for such a long time kind of thing. So, you know. Here's a deal. If I was coaching you, it would be based off of how well I could coach you through this

process because you're, do you know what your body fat percentage is? You look like you're in the- I don't. Okay. If you're in the low to mid-20s, keep going. That's a good, healthy body fat percentage you'd be at. You look good. It's all good.

It's fit. Everything's fine. Keep going. Now, I would, if I'm coaching you and you're just like, Sal, this is too uncomfortable. I used to be overweight. I'm really scared. Then I might slow it down. Then I might slow it down.

But if I could get you to relinquish control and trust the process, I don't care if I get your body fat up to 25, 26 percent. Because I'm going to set you up for a nice cut later. That's going to have you sit around 21%, 20%, with maintenance at 21, 2200 calories. Now you live your life and it's like, it's no good deal. And that's the goal. Honestly, I think I wrote in my question. Honestly, my fainting thing was kind of a big scare for me. So it's like my goal at this point is I just want to be healthy.

Like I want to be here from the long run. I want to be independent as I get older. And, you know, if it means body fat goes up a little bit in order to maintain that, like, so be it. I'm not going to lie. At one point, it was let's get as tiny as possible. But, you know, I kind of got scared out of that, honestly. How many weeks have you been at the calories you're at right now? Here I've been probably three weeks.

Three weeks. But, you know, at the same time, because I restricted calories for so long, and this is kind of like a, oh, I get more calories. I have kind of made the mistake of like, all right, my goal this week is 1900 calories, but I can have the extra cookie or two, but I can have the extra. So, you know, in reality, if I average out my week, I'm probably, I've probably gone above a little bit. So, you know. And during that three weeks is your scale weight kind of maintaining? It's fluctuating up and down a few pounds. What's it looking like?

It's maintaining. Honestly, if I do have a night where I'm like, oh, let's go get pizza. Of course, it'll spike up the next morning. But within two or three days, it's right back. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I would say it's maintaining. So that's, okay, so kind of a good rule of thumb when I'm reversed

dieting someone like you is that I want to increase you by about 200 calories, give or take, whenever we get to a place like this. When you are holding weight, scale weight like you say you are right now, and you're feeling good in the gym, it's like, okay, let's go up another 200 calories. Then I'm going to hold there again. And you might see scale go up one or two pounds. I'm looking for it to level off again and hold again. And so I want to see it hold for like a week or two and then I'm going to go up again.

I'm just going to keep stair stepping you up with your weight kind of maintaining. Like we're ready for the next bump. And just keep doing that until you get to a place that Sal is talking. about. And really, it's less about your height because I've seen really, really petite, short women eating 3,000 plus calories. And I've seen people that are tall and lanky barely be able to eat 2,500 calories. So it has everything to do with your muscle mass, your training, volume. Like, it's unique to each person. And so getting it to a place where you are like, this is a lot of calories. Because what we know now is like, you feel great at

where you're at right now. So this would be the ideal place to cut back down to. too. So if you know, if you, if this feels like a good amount of food, you have nice flexibility with the food that you can enjoy a cookie every once in a while, like you can do things like that. Like, then this should be a good goal of like, this is where we want to end up. But if we're going to end up here, that means we need to take it up a little bit higher so that we can come back down to this place. Yeah, too, Sarah, let me ask you this. So you said you really want to be healthy, have energy, feel good. If we look at the whole context of all of that right now, what's happening

with you. Your energy, your strength, how you can perform at home for your kids, the amount of food that you're able to eat, the way you look. Would you, would, would this be a great place for you to be forever? Would you be happy? Um, I mean, yeah, I would, I would like maybe a little bit less body fat. Like I said, I feel like I've, I've added just kind of a little more body fat in the past several weeks, but it was just probably just fluctuations. But I mean, overall, like, yeah, like I say that, But then I go out with girlfriends this past weekend and every single person is complimenting. Like, oh my gosh, you look so good. That fits you so well, you know.

So I know a lot of that is a mental thing. It is. So the reason why I'm saying that is, you know, 25% body fat for a woman with more muscle objectively looks better than a woman with less muscle at 22%. So that's number one. Yeah. But number two, you really want to have a complete relationship with this. Not a one, not a narrow relationship is the mirror.

the scale, body fat percent. A complete relationship is like my energy, how I feel on my husband, what I'm able to do in the gym. Do I feel like I'm overstressed with my food or I kind of feel like it's kind of relaxed? So that's the complete relationship. And if you're feeling like, you know what, I feel kind of good. Even if you just went on this path, you're going to kind of have this nice body recomp. Maybe slow, but over time, it's probably going to happen.

Right. The other side is this is this. if you want someone to guide you through this process, because that makes a big difference to outsource it, then I would say work with a coach, and we have coaches that are really, really good, and then you don't got to think about this. You give it to your coach,

and your coach does the reverse for you. Your coach asks you the questions. Your coach is monitoring all this stuff and working with you when you're having the, oh, am I gaining weight? What am I doing? And they'll just take you through this process. And considering where you're at,

you're probably six months. It's probably a six-month process, which includes a reverse and a cut. Six months will give you the reverse and the cut, and then you'll have, you'll, you'll, kind of be where you're, where you want to be. But you're kind of getting there. I think your relationship to it sounds like you're getting in the right place. So if you want to coach, I can have somebody call you and they can just take, for the next six months, you have them do it.

Otherwise, just to encourage you, uh, yeah, because I was going to say, I was going to say too. Through this entire process, like I have never hired a coach, I've never talked to a nutritionist. I've never even owned a gym membership. I don't even have like friends and family who are into fitness. So it's just like me and podcasts and chat GPT, like we're all dogging it out here. And so I'm like, you know, I'm figuring everything out on my own here. And I feel like I've done a pretty good job, decent, you know, especially learning everything. You've done a great job. But yes, it's definitely, it's definitely one of those things when you don't have someone to bounce the ideas off of directly you get in your head and you ever think and you overanalyze and you

second guess and all that honestly you're like six months away from being in a really good place with all of this uh to where you you know you have someone coach you teach you and then you're like now i can do this and i can maintain this and i know what it feels like i know how to go through the process i know how to modify this uh i know how to improve the quality of my life through this process because what you want sarah is for the rest of your life you want to be comfortable with this. But you don't want to do, you don't want this to be the stressful tracking, you know, like lifestyle forever. That's not going to work. You're like six months away just based off of talking. If you want to coach, I'll have someone call you and I think you would do really

well with them. But again, I'm going to encourage you, you're on the right path. Like, you're really doing a good job. Thank you. All that is really encouraging to hear because like I said, doing it by yourself. You kind of, you're kind of shooting in the dark. You don't really know. So that's why I really wanted to talk to you guys and hear your opinions, because, it's that's very encouraging everything that you're telling me. And I was going to say, you know, there was a day, you know, six, eight months ago when I was in the 1300 calorie purgatory and working my butt off in the gym where I thought to myself like, oh my gosh, I'm going to have to do this every day for the rest of my life in order

to make it. And so like finding you guys and hearing everything that you have to say and everything that you tell people, it, I know you hear it all the time, but it has literally changed my life and made me realize like, no, you just. don't have to do that. You can actually enjoy it and enjoy your life and have energy to play with your six-year-old when she wants to and all that kind of stuff. So I really, really appreciate it. You have to get to a place where you enjoy it, because I promise if you hate this, you're not going to do this forever. There's no way. There's no way. We're doing great, sir. Yeah, you're doing really good. Would you

want somebody to call you? Because we have really good coaches. Yeah, that's great. Okay. I'll have somebody reach out to you and let them know that, you know, based on our idea, we think probably six months will be good. But they're going to ask you more questions and probably get a little more individualized. At the very least, we'll send you a free program. Are you following any of our programs? I'm not, no. Okay. All right. I'm going to, I'll leave it up to the coach to which one we should send you, but you get a free program regardless. Thank you guys so much. Y'all are amazing. Can I say one more thing to you before I go? Yeah. So I want each of you to do me a favor when you go home tonight and give your wives a big hug for me. My husband also owns and operates his own business, so I see how much work and

dedication and time and stress and all the things that it takes to do that successfully. And I know that you guys have seen all this success that you have seen because you have someone at home to love and support you through that and take care of all the other things so that y'all can do it. So I really appreciate everything y'all do, which means that I really, really appreciate everything that they do at home for y'all to make this possible. So if y'all can do that for me, I would appreciate it. They'll love that, Sarah.

Thank you. You got it. Good. Thank you guys so much. You got a great attitude. And she did a great job so far. Great job. It is scary.

Reverse dieting when you're, you know, we're, she lost over 130. She lost 130 pounds. Yeah. She lost. But she had that little wake-up call, which was obviously a blessing. She's feeling the benefits. She has no idea how much better she's going to feel. Oh, yeah.

When she keeps moving this record. I mean, I think she's doing really good. I think the fact that she can even recognize that in this reverse diet, yeah, I put on a little bit of body fat, but I don't care. She knows and she's okay with it. It says a lot about how well she's doing so. I think six months is going to give her time to continue to reverse and then cut with a coach. She's very coachable.

Yes. Yeah. She's very receptive to information. I think she's going to do well. Best use of a rod dog I've heard yet so far. I did catch that. Doug doesn't know what that means. That's good.

I've heard it before. Our next caller is Chelsea from Australia. Hi, Chelsea. Hi, Chelsea. Hi, how I use? How can we help you? Um, first of all, just the usual thank you as everyone else does for everything you guys have done. You guys have helped me through a lot from like training to even like eating disorders.

It's been crazy. So thank you guys. Second of all, so I, September, October around last year, I was about 76 kilos, super fit, had quite a lot of muscle on me for a female. I dabbled in some red atrutide, lost about six kilos, pretty much old muscle, because I didn't hit my protein, couldn't train because it just killed my drive. I knew better, but I still did it. And yeah, kind of paying the consequences of that ended up quite like skinny fat. Around January, found out I was pregnant.

And then from about January, obviously came off everything, January to April, wasn't training, wasn't really eating, kind of. lost my motivation for the gym. I'm now 18 weeks pregnant and I hate the way they look and I hate going to the gym. I have absolutely no motivation. I have been going now a little bit. Maybe like once or twice a week if I can, but from being like the really strong girl to, you know, I did 30 kilo back squats the other day and that just absolutely took it out of me, whereas I'm used to being able to do like 80 kilos and yeah i just don't know where to go because like i want to train for health but i am still kind of chasing that aesthetics but i know it's kind of probably pretty far away in reach you be careful chelsea like this is uh your your goal has to be totally different

or you're growing a baby you're growing a baby right now how how you look aesthetics and even strength goals are not important anymore just not right now i got i got to say this too chelsea um not enough is communicated to women on just how challenging this process is, especially if you identify with being a fit or a fitness fanatic beforehand, it is very challenging because a lot of our identity, especially if you're a fitness fanatic, was probably wrapped into how you look and how you could perform. Maybe, if you don't mind me saying, a little body dysmorphia, which is probably what led to the red of true tide. Super common.

Super common with fitness fanatics. I'm raising my hand because I'm one of them. And so now it feels like your body's not yours. It's not yours. It's doing things that you, none of your old tricks work. You probably don't want to eat anything except for hyper palatable food. It's probably the only thing you can keep down because otherwise you want to throw up. You're tired.

When you do work out, all your stamina and strength is like, where'd it go? and you're, injury prone on top of it. And your hormones are totally different. And so it's this radical, like, who am I? What am I? That's out of control.

And a big challenge that people, that fitness fanatics have is a sense of control. So oftentimes one of the reasons why we are so fanatical about our fitness, it makes us feel like we got things under control. I got my schedule. I got my eating. I got my supplements. I got my workout.

out and now it feels like you have no control. So it's extremely challenging. But it's also a blessing. And I'll tell you this. I'll tell you why. Besides the fact that you're going to have, you know, bring a human into this life, into the world, it's a blessing because it's going to help you face some of the biggest challenges that you probably had that you maybe didn't want to face before.

You're just kind of forced. So here's what it looks like. And I'm going to ask you this. Okay. I'm going to ask you a question. Are you someone who is worthy of being taken? care of. Yeah, of course.

Well, okay, but really. But what's the answer really? Yeah, yeah. Do you feel that or do you just know that in your head? Um, no, I do feel it. I do feel it. I just don't relay that into like gym and fitness, but I relay it into the real world in other,

in other, like, aspects, definitely, yeah. So that's going to lead you. So if you can tap into that, like if you had a best friend or a sister that is going through exactly what you're going through, you would probably advise them and comfort them and give them empathy in ways that you probably don't give to yourself. And so that, if you let that guide you, your fitness and nutrition is going to be exactly what you need.

And so what it might look like, your first trimester or you're kind of in that space, a lot of nausea probably. You're feeling that right? Okay. Yeah, I've just gone into the second. Okay. So the nauseous finally disappeared and the energies come back a little bit. Okay.

But yeah, the first trimester was like I couldn't, all I did was sleep and vomit, basically. Yes. So taking care of yourself during the first trimester probably look like sleeping. And the only thing I can keep down is pizza or the only thing I can keep down is, you know, Lucky Charm cereal or weird. Like I know that. My wife went through it with my dog. She didn't have it so bad with my son, but with my daughter, she literally had to walk around with a bucket because she was throwing up so often.

And she struggled with it. And I'm like, honey, right now taking care of yourself as like being able to hold down food. So I don't care what it is. Let's eat it. But now that you're coming out of it, it might look a little different. So you might look like, okay, what's going to nourish me? And then when you go to the gym, what you need to think is not what workout I need to do or what body parts I need to train. When you go there, you literally have this conversation with yourself and think, what's going to be?

make me feel better. And maybe that's walking on the treadmill. Maybe that's stretching. Maybe that is lifting weights. And so how long were you working out for before you got pregnant? You're a fitness fanatics. You've been doing it for a while? Five plus years.

Okay. I don't care what your workout looks like if you guide it with what I said. So when you get to the gym, all right, what does taking care of myself look like today? Is it skipping the gym? Is it walking? Is it yoga? is it two exercises and get out? And how do I know I'm taking care of myself?

I feel better when I leave. Like I leave the gym feeling better than I did walking in. Let that guide you. Yeah. And then let your body do what it's going to do. Now, if you do that and you're able to do that properly, your bounce back is going to be so much better than the average woman. But I'll also say this to you.

It takes a lot longer than people realize. And this isn't communicated well on social media either. They like to tell you, oh, four months, later. I mean, you'll definitely be better than the average woman or if you had never worked out. But give it, it takes like a year or two before you're like, oh, I feel like my old self, like completely. Okay. So it's all, it's all about caring for yourself in the right way. And you're going to develop, if you're just right, you'll develop a relationship with fitness. It's going to last you for the rest of your life.

Yeah. I think the hard thing is seeing a lot of like, and I know, I know better. But like social media, I see like pregnant women and they're like, this is my workout. and they've got this big bump and they're like jumping around and I'm like how are you doing that right now like and I thought that would be me just because I was so fit beforehand and it's just most most a very big percentage of women feel like you they're just not the ones posting about it yeah they don't want to talk about it go talk to some pregnancy's different too my wife has two separate complete pregnancies one was like that she could work out and then the other one was like complete complete and then the other one was like complete. like bed written. So you just never know. Yeah. And talk to other moms and be like, hey, how was it for you? Because this is what I feel like. And I guarantee you you're going to hit a lot of moms, be like, oh my God, it was horrible. It was so hard. I felt so sick. It was so difficult. But I will say this, it's better than had you not been a fit per, like however bad it's been, it'd be a lot worse if you went into it without your fitness background. Yeah, definitely.

So that's the context. I'd like to sell you a program, excuse me, send you a program. program that has, I think, good workout programming for someone through pregnancy. So if you need some structure and some exercise, you know, exercises, I can send you one. Yeah, definitely. I've got anabolic, but that's probably not really appropriate right now. No, starter. Yeah. I'm going to send you starter. That's a great one for during and post-partum. Amazing. Thank you so much. Okay. And this is going to be hard, especially for someone who's identified so strongly with their fitness, but lead with like, okay, how can I take care of myself today? How can I take care of myself today? And that's going to just kind of help move you through this. And then talk

with other women who've had kids because they're not the ones posting on social media. They're not the ones standing on a soapbox. When you feel great, that's what you want to tell everybody. Nobody wants to talk about how hard it is. But when you sit down and actually talk to other moms, I promise you you're going to get a lot of women. They're like, oh, my gosh, thank you for, yes. Definitely. That was really difficult for me. Yeah, yeah. How does, how does, how does hearing all that make you feel? I guess I kind of knew some of it, but I don't know. I thought maybe they'd be like, I'd just go three times a week.

That's all you need to do. Like I've tried, you know, I put it in chat, GBT, and I'm like, tell me, what do I need to eat? We're at, like, I know the answer, but it's like, there's got to be another way. There's got to be like a minimum criteria of what I just should be meeting. but yeah I guess kind of just resting up and utilizing this time

to just train to feel good opposed to trying to still kind of I guess chase somewhat aesthetics now listen to your body listen to it listen to it and I've trained pregnant women that were like once a week this is all I could do the rest of the week

I could do a little bit of walking and then other pregnancies look totally different so if you're like I feel like garbage and I do not, I can't move. I think what I'm going to do is go for a walk. That's your workout. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm studying fitness as well at the moment and should be qualified by the time the baby comes. Wonderful. That's cool. Utilize that towards other women. Good. Yeah. This will make you a good trainer for women through pregnancy, which is very, very needed in our space.

Awesome. All right. Thank you guys. I really appreciate your help. You got it, Chelsea. Thanks for calling in. No, always. Thanks.

All right. That's tough. Yeah. That's tough, dude. I couldn't imagine getting pregnant and then being like, oh. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't get a read if she's going to listen or not.

I think she knows. I think maybe it confirmed it. And I'm hoping that starter will help her a little bit. But here's a deal. She's got no choice. Yeah. Because if she goes too far, her body's going to shut down. Yeah.

She's going to go to bed. She's not going to do her any favors. Yeah. So our next caller is Sandy from Connecticut. Oh, again. How are you doing? I'm good. How are you? Doing good.

Welcome back. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Give us a little update the last 30 days. Catch us up. Yeah. How's it been going on?

What's going on? Thank you so much for having me back. I have to say that the, what you, a month ago, you know, what I expected to hear was not what I heard, but I think it was exactly what I needed to hear. So thank you. I was really focused last time on all my failures and fears and my setbacks and things. So really turn things around. Your advice really turned things around for me. And I spent this month, you know, just trying to change my thinking.

I've gone from focusing on failures, fears and setbacks to just understanding this is my year for recovery. So. All right. And I'm going to be okay. So just some updates. So as far as retirement stuff goes, I'm just going to read my notes, keep from babbling too much. You know, we went from having no information for so long to being overwhelmed with information this past month. The person that's responsible was finally charged.

He did plead guilty. every week this past month I've gotten either an email or a letter or a phone call with more information and next steps, what to expect, et cetera. So, you know, that's been very stressful. I mean, I'm glad things are moving along and getting towards the end of this nightmare. But just all that contact and all this information is just like the kick in the gut again and again and again. So there's no good news as far as getting any money back, but it seems to be wrapping up so we can move on with life. I did reprioritize my goals this past month, as you suggested.

I made community and stress reduction, number one. I did find a church that feels just right. And, you know, it's already brought me a sense of peace and hope again. So that's been great. I need more time to really connect and, you know, form a community there. But I've been going to the services and it's been pretty great. I do have a community of friends at the gym. I kind of made it sound last time I had nobody and, you know, for community,

but they don't know everything going on. I mean, it's my happy place and they just think I'm this happy-go-lucky exercise break. So very few of my friends and family know what's going on. I don't like to burden people with my stuff. So other than you guys, I'm kind of dumping all over you. Sorry. So that's kind of what's going on there. My coach changed my workout based on your advice.

I now am doing one exercise in each set and two-minute rest between each exercise. And Adam, I know you said closer to five minutes would be good, but I'm telling you two minutes was in eternity. It always feels that way. You know, all the same people are at the gym around the same time. So, you know, they bunch of, all these guys were coming up and they were like, what are you doing? I've never seen you stand around. Usually you're flying around here. And so people were calling me out on this two-minute thing.

So I didn't know what to do with myself. But I really, really am seeing the benefit of that. So I just can't stress. I mean, you guys stress it all the time, the rest, how important it is. And so somebody approached me and said, you know, what's going on? That you're, I started walking circles in the gym because I couldn't just stand there wait for the, I literally was standing there watching the clock ticked down. And so actually the other day I was dusting during my two minutes, so which they appreciate.

So I told, so this woman who walked up to me, you know, said, Sandy, what is going on? And I said, listen, you build muscle during recovery. So you need to increase your rest time. That a girl. Yep. So I said, and you need to listen to mind pump. And they're like, what's that? So anyway, that's what's going on there.

Just I really see improvement in my strength, like already in 30 days. It's pretty crazy. That's rad. I know, you know, my numbers aren't that impressive, but just to give you an example, I'm doing a trap bar deadlift, and I started at 115 pounds. Yesterday I'm at 150. Whoa. That's a huge difference.

Awesome. That's a big jump. That's huge. That's huge. Yeah. That's awesome. I'm pretty proud of that. You should be.

Right on. I did do the, any, volt, body scan at the gym and for a baseline. I didn't look at the numbers. It would wreck me if I did. So Greg didn't let me look, my coach. He, he has it. He has the. print out. The plan is to repeat it in 90 days and then review it and look at it.

Smart. Good. Good. So I'm dreading that, to be honest. So true confessions, I have not stopped going to my two classes. It's, you said the intensity was a bit much, but honestly, it's my crack. They're my people. It's, it's, it's, I. I'm still going. Okay. I did miss one week and not, you know, I had two for work. And my phone was blowing up. Where are you?

Oh, that's nice. So I'm not ready to give that up. I did watch the video on the Maps Prime webinar. Doug, you're a beast. Holy cow, your hard act of follow. I was a bit surprised. I failed miserably. Let me tell you, Justin, it was not good.

It's okay. Everybody does in the beginning. So I like that you kept saying 90% of the people, you know, don't do great. I was surprised how hard it was to put my arms up straight on the wall. My back arch is so much. And my lower back pain is a huge problem. So I would say I was a good foot from the wall with my arm. And yesterday I was about three inches.

So I'm getting there. Nice. Progress. Nice. But I have not been due practicing consistently at home like I should. So that's still a top priority to keep going with that. Have you noticed any reduction in pain a little bit or no, not yet? Pardon me?

Have you noticed any reduction in pain yet? Yes, I have. Yeah. As a matter of fact, I have. Yeah. That's great. Amazing. Yep.

Keep going. The squat I'm pretty happy with. I can't keep that pole straight for anything, but the fact I can squat, I mean, a year ago I couldn't squat because my knees were so bad and my new knees are wonderful. So I'm squatting with a 50-pound kettlebell at the gym. Nice. Very good. And doing, you know, elbows to knee squat with it.

So I'm getting there. I'm back to planning meals and prepping on Sundays. I've been eating protein like it's my full-time job. I've consistently gotten about 160 grams. And so that feels good. For the most part, I feel pretty good. I will admit I'm hungry a lot. I am back to tracking.

And I eat a lot of the same things, but it just feels good to have some control. so that's helping with that. I am walking with a friend a couple days a week. I'm averaging about 10,000 steps a day. My sleep is better. It's not great, but it is better. I've been sleeping. I've been going, well, first, I did tweak my evening routine a bit.

I stopped checking emails after like five because they just want to avoid in case there's any triggers in there, any more news that I did. don't want to know about it bedtime. I did add the chamomile tea. I've been going to sleep pretty easily and sleeping four hours solid before I wake up. They may or may not go back to sleep after that most of the time I do. So if I had to guess, I'd say I don't wear anything to track the sleep, so I don't know for sure. But I would say five, six hours max.

and it's not solid. So that's better. Not great. So anyway, overall, I think I've made progress and, you know, I don't feel so hopeless anymore. I'm trying really hard to see progress in other ways besides a scale in the mirror. And that's, I think it's too soon to see much. I'm struggling, seeing much.

I'm focusing on these numbers, the weight, the weights and stuff, the going up and those kind of things. So I do have a couple questions. Do you think 90 days is too soon to redo the body scan and look at results? If in any other, anything else I could do for my lower back pain and just a reminder that's, you know, the pain is the degenerative scoliosis of arthritis in the spine and lower lumbar disc disease. the doctor, there's absolutely no restrictions. He said the best thing I can do is keep working out and working with a trainer and strength training and things.

So there's no restrictions. If it hurts, stop. That was the only thing he said. And then not really a question, but, you know, I understand focusing on stress reduction and, you know, sleep and building my spiritual community is still the most important part right now. It's also the hardest. I mean, I am white knuffling it.

that area. So any other advice or thoughts about that, I'd appreciate. So thank you. First of all, Sandy, you're doing, you're doing phenomenal. In 30 days, remarkable. Seen progress and strength like that to see your upper mobility and your upper back and arms and like getting to the closer to the wall is incredible. Noticing stress, building community. You got so many wins that are happy right now. The 90 day body fat test, that's not for you. That's for your coach. So don't, I wouldn't want you to, if you, if I was coaching you, I do exactly what he did,

which I like, I like that he didn't let you see it. That's for me. It's for me to make sure if I need to tweak anything, it's not, I'm not giving that to you to go, oh, this is what you did or didn't do. Like, you need to let that go. That's for, that's his, that's his compass to make sure that he's got the right plan for you. So you, you don't dwell on what it does or doesn't say. You need to let that go.

And you need to focus on the things that you're, what you already are focusing on and seeing great improvement. Continue to try and practice the zone one test in prime as much as you can because that's already showing you improvement. That's going to continue to make you feel better. Keep getting stronger in the gym like you're doing. You're walking. All those things are great.

I wouldn't take the, you know, the crack classes from you yet because I think that, I think that part of community is valuable to you. So I think, but I would continue to point out to you, You notice what happened when you gave yourself two minutes rest. Look how strong you got in 30 days.

Keep leaning into that. You're going to see continued progress that way. But you're doing a hell of a job. You're stacking wins right now. Yeah. You're doing a great job. Doing so good. So we saw you 30 days ago and you're very coachable and you're doing phenomenal.

So I think I can add a couple more coaching tips now moving for the next 30 days. So one, find something you enjoy to listen to. or do for your rest periods when your strength training. If you're sitting there watching the clock, you're going to hate it. So if you have a book or a podcast or you like to read or write down notes or music or music or learn something in between sets, that's going to make that feel productive and it's going to also make it enjoyable. Okay. Otherwise, it's going to be very difficult for you. What will happen, Sandy, is you're going to eventually the two minutes will become one minute, go back to 30 seconds.

So find something you can do in that two-minute period where it's like, oh, now is my time to, you know, read or listen to this book or something you enjoy. Okay. So I think that'll be a good practice for you. Here's the second part. And I totally identify with this. It's building community is super important, but doing life with friends where they know all of you, that's community. So what tends to happen with a lot of us, and I can be like this, is we have what are called duty-free friendships. So duty-free friendships are like, hey, happy, how you doing?

And then we go off on our own way. And I don't let you in. I don't really let you in on what's going on. And you don't let me in on what's going on. And so what that means, Sandy, is that when you need somebody there with you the most, you don't have somebody. You have someone there when you don't need them necessarily, which is what you're. when you're having a good time. But when you're really going through the tough stuff,

that's when the value, the real true value of having relationships lies. And so that's a difficult one because I know I heard you say, I don't want to dump on anyone. I don't want to scare them away. And so, you know, think of the people you know

and the people you think that might be open and or maybe at your church. And you tell someone, hey, look, I got some struggles and some challenges and I just need to talk to somebody. And I'm really scared to do so. And you would be shocked at how loving people could be. And that is so different than just, you know, having your gym friends, which is great. But you got to have those real relationships

where you can let people, because otherwise you're on your own. You're doing this by yourself. Well, I've always been the one that everybody else comes to to to fix everything and help everybody. And being in this position is different. So, um, um, I, um, Maybe, and forgive me for saying this, maybe it's because you feel like you're only lovable when you're a value. And when you're not of value, you maybe feel like a burden. I think that's right. Okay. Well, just so you know, people love the opportunity to love you.

They love it. People love to help too. Just like you do. Just like if somebody came to you, you feel like it's, oh, my God, let me help you. So, and like I said, you could try at your church or maybe the people you know already. and see if you could pursue those kinds of relationships. When it comes to stress reduction, nothing's more powerful than that.

Nothing is more powerful than that. And so I would say, you know, maybe seek that out. And then also make peace with the fact that for the next year, none of your goals are aesthetic. For a whole year, you're not even going to, now I'm going to tell you this, just to encourage you, your aesthetics are going to change. You keep getting stronger.

You keep doing this the right way. Your body's going to look better and better. But your goal for a year is none of that. My goal for the next year is I need to take care of myself. Just make peace with that. Yeah. And I think I wanted to, I've already gone through two years of hell. I was like, I can't do another year of not getting reaching goals.

So when you kind of stressed that last time, I was like, I can't do another year of this. And it's like, well, you have to. You have to. So it's the recovery, I guess. Well, the goals are just different. And it's not going to feel like health. And by the way, you might be healthy and strong. And by the way, you might be ready.

I know we didn't get into this because we didn't get into like calories and so like that. And I'm sure your coach is monitoring that way. But the fact that you're hitting protein as high as you are, you're seeing strength gains up and you're telling me you still have an appetite. You eat more. It might be time to eat more. And that scares the hell out of me. I'm sure it does, just like the rest periods did. But I'm telling you, okay, I'm telling you that when my client tells me that she's hitting protein every single day, I'm seeing her hit numbers and lifts.

she's never done before. Yeah, you want to have 30 pounds. And she's telling me she's hungry. I'm going to say, eat. Yep. You need to eat. Sandy, just see. That's your body telling you, I want to build muscle.

So if you want to see aesthetic change, you want to see body change, then let that body build some muscle. It's going to take over for the fat. And let me just say this, like, adding 30 pounds to a trap bar deadlift would be phenomenal for a year. You did that in 30 days. Like, that's a crazy amount of strength. And it's probably why it's probably why the appetite's up.

The appetite's up because the body's saying, like, hey, we need some more fuel. Ready to build. Yeah. So feed it. Eat what? More protein or like I. A whole food, whole meal.

A whole food meal. Yeah. Protein. Yeah. Something healthy. Like what you were already eating. Just eat another meal. More portion.

Or add your, or make your portions a little larger. That's all. Okay. Yeah. But look, let me, let me rephrate.

Let me put something in a different context that will help you. If somebody reduces the amount of stress in their life or is able to reframe the stress to add meaning to it and then deepens the relationships with people, is that more enjoyable or less enjoyable? Is that a better quality of life or a worse quality of life? Definitely better. So you just went through hell. Yeah. The next year is not going to be hell. No. It's going to be enjoyable. It's going to be better. But you got to do those things that are scary, like let people in and take your eyes off of the aesthetics. And it's going to feel so much better. It's going to be way better. Yeah. I mean, I still did freak out on about

about, you know, how to how to get through these years with my nest egg gone, you know. Well, it's really scary by yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Let people want to help. Let some people in. Let some people in, maybe one person or two people for the next 30 days, if you can, and start deepening those relationships.

You're very lovable. I barely know you and I like you. So our audience loves you By the way, you know how many emails we got after our first episode? Did you look at your episode to see the comments underneath on YouTube? No.

Okay, go on YouTube, find your episode, go read the comments on. That's your homework. So last week I was, or a couple weeks ago, I was driving to New Hampshire for a work meeting and it came on, the radio. I always listen to you guys. You're always in the car with me like I told you, but I was listening and it came on.

And I was like, oh, my God. That was, that was wild. And I, I heard a lot of things I didn't hear the first time, honestly, because I was, yeah. So that was cool. But no, I didn't know. Yeah. Okay. Are you in our private forum?

No. Oh. Put her in there right now. Yeah. We need people to talk. I got homework for you. Yep. Okay.

So three things. Find something to do that you like on your rest periods. Not dust? No. Actually, you could dust. I mean, yeah, I'm sure the owner in the gym appreciates that. If you're a psycho and dusting is enjoyable, go for her. I feel like you just want to be busy.

But that's fine, sure, if you want to. But find something enjoyable that really feeds you on your rest periods. Try to deepen some of your relationships. And then here's your third assignment. This one I want you to do right after you get off here with us is I want you to go on the private forum. Doug's going to give you access to it. It's on Facebook. I want you to introduce yourself.

Hey, I'm Sandy. I'm the one that was on the episode where this happened and that happened. And just tell the forum that. I'm the one that I talk to the guys and they just let me in and I just want to meet everybody. And that's it. I'm just going to let the rest happen. Let them talk to you. Just watch what happens.

Okay. Do you work out with headphones or no headphones? Are you headphones or no headphones? Either or. Oh, you do both. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Maybe play some gangster rap. I feel like that. Yeah. Don't do that. A little Tupac. Don't do that. The wicked stressful days, I'm listening to Pink Floyd. Oh, yeah.

All right, all right. You got thumbs up from Doug. There you go. I like that. I have to tell you a story that, Sal, I know you'll get something out of this. It's pretty wild. Oh, sorry. I don't want to cry today.

That was my goal. So I left church. one day. And I, after after the service, they always have a coffee hour to get to meet people and socialize and things. And a couple people approach me on, you know, it's a small church. This church is 250 years old. The floors are the wooden planks that are scratched up.

The pew's squeak when you sit down. The windows are drafties, you know, it's small. Maybe 40, 50 people were there. So it felt like home. It was great. The sermon was about hope. And I had the day before, I know we weren't getting any money back, but we got something that kind of confirmed that. So I felt hopeless.

So anyway, I go in, the sermons about hope. And honestly, it was like, you would have thought I sat with the pastor and told them everything. And he was talking to me. I was like, holy cow, this is like spot on pretty wild. I leave. I'm in my car and I was thinking, why did I not go to the social thing? I haven't done that yet. And this is where I'm going to build my community.

This was my homework. I'm failing. And, you know, and I was like, I am white knuckling it through this, this part, you know, hanging on my steering wheel and that phrase white knuckling. it came to mind. I had on a rock station. I was listening to Bob Seeger and Pink Floyd and all my stuff. Carrie Underwood came on the radio.

It's country on that station is unheard of. And she was playing and she's saying, Jesus take the wheel. I was like, okay, that's a sign. Wow. Right? Right? I was like, that's crazy.

Yeah. Well, if the guy's, if the guys, don't get annoyed me. I'm going to just preach to you a little bit. Remember, remember when Jesus was washing the feet of his disciples. And one of them said, no, I'm not going to let you wash my feet. And he said, if you don't let me wash your feet, you'll have no part of me. That's the part of us that we don't want to let people in. It's the dirtiest part. It's the part that's dark. We want to hide it. And so you let people in. Let people in. That's how you get those relationships. And that's how you're going to get some of this. That's how you're going to feel supported,

you know, you can't be by yourself. We're not made to be by ourselves. Yeah, I have a couple of very, very close friends that, you know, they know everything. But I worry that I make them worry about me. And they don't, nobody needs to worry about me. I'm going to be fine. You know, this two shall pass. And I'll a white knuckle it through, you know. And so I'm careful what I share.

Yeah, but you know what's more stressful when people guess. Yeah, that's true. I know my kids, when they don't tell me things, I'm more worried than when I know. So it's a myth. That's true. Go on the forum. Go post in there right now. Tell them your whole story because I know a lot of people in there looking for you.

Yep. Okay. And we're going to see you in 30 days. Yep. All right. Thank you so much. See you, Sandy. Thanks.

Take care. She's so much better than last time. Yeah. Wow. Huge progress. Dude, 30 days progress. She's like, keep pumping her up. I mean, I hope she realizes, like, what a win that was in just for a 30-day period.

30 days, yeah. And remember the people. the form we're like talking about her. Yeah. So I was like, oh gosh, she's got to get in there because people are looking.

A good call. Yeah. Yeah. I'm surprised we didn't do that the first time. I can't, I just, I guess we forgot. Yeah,

we're just probably tied up in her conversation. Yeah. Yeah. But I can't wait to talk to her in 30 days. She's going to do all right, man. Our next caller is Parker from Georgia.

What's up Parker? What's happening? Hey, guys. How's it going? Good, man. How can we help you? I appreciate you having me on.

I am going to read my question to you. All right. So some background on me, I did not start lifting seriously until my senior year of college. And I learned powerlifting style training from a friend, ran programs like 5x, 531, things like that. I was able to hit lifts of a 405 deadlift, 385 squat, and 250 bench, which is nothing special, but I enjoyed hitting those numbers. Then life happened, multiple kids, demanding job, inconsistent sleep, training, and diet. over the past four years, I've inconsistently run some maps programs and just kind of tried to keep training as much as I can, but it's been highly inconsistent. I'm in a much better season of life now.

I can reliably train three days a week. I get good sleep. I'm working on improving my protein and movement. But my question is, as an intermediate lifter who still has okay strength, how should I approach progression? For example, I can still pull 300 by 5 on a deadlift whenever I want to, but then it beats me up pretty significantly. So I don't know if I should aggressively push my strength back up or intentionally undershoot. I don't want to spend nine months getting my working weights back up to just 225 pounds, because it feels like I'd be spinning my wheels, wasting my time. Kind of reminds me of Jeff Goldblum's quote in Jurassic Park, though.

They were so preoccupied with whether they could. They didn't stop to think whether they should. So how would you guys structure progression for someone like me whose goal is building muscle, strength and longevity? If you were me, which maps program would you run for the next year? And how would you progress the lifts? Yeah, great question. Number one, I see in your question here that you're not,

you're hitting only 100 to 120 grams approaching a day. Yeah, typically when I track, that's what I end up hitting. Right away, change that. Yeah, get that up because that'll make a huge, huge difference. Like 100, 120 between the difference between that and 180, 190 grams for a guy your size is like 30, 40% increase in recovery, strength gains, performance. So make that a priority. I would say that's number one.

I can set you up on a succession of maps programs that I think will be good. But the thing you want to consider is you have muscle memory, which is going to come back in a hurry, especially if you're consistent. The thing you need to be considerate about is mobility and injury. That's the thing that'll stop you because you're probably going to get. strong real fast, but you're going to want to temper it, even though you feel like you can go faster because injury risk can be a bit high when somebody's strength, because it's not like you're weak, you're still pulling 300 pounds. So going from 300 to 330 to 270, like those are big

jumps. Now you're playing with heavy weights and you want to be played, you want to take it easy, even if it takes you longer because injury risk starts to go up when you start to move heavier weight. I mean, it's not a bad idea because of that to start them on something like more like a mass performance or symmetry first and then go to Anabolic then would be more ideal. So if I were to lay out like the full year for you,

symmetry or performance would definitely be in that rotation. I'd probably start it with that. Since you are already, I mean, you're not, not strong. If you're pulling 300 pounds, you're already moving good weight. And remember symmetry is a taxing you. Yeah. So to kind of reprioritize it, do more

unilateral work and, you know, more plane of motion focus. That's going to reinforce, you know, all these main lifts that you were already pretty strong in to begin with. So I think it's a good break, you know, from that. Yeah, if you did symmetry and you hit your protein targets, you could probably follow it up with power lift as long as you're smart with your training and you'd be okay. So take, take my, for instance, deadlift, take it down to maybe 225, 240, something like that and jump by 10, 15 pounds a week and see how it goes. Those four. Is that too aggressive?

We're going to switch your program. We're going to switch your program. Just follow map symmetry. At the end of map symmetry, there's a five by five where you get to deadlift. Then go and pick your weight. Yeah. And go ahead and go for moderate to high intensity. Shift your focus completely, I think is a good time to do that.

Yeah, but go map symmetry. And when it's done, then jump to Maps power lift. And then you've got percentages and numbers in the that you play with. Yep. Okay. And then after power lift, how do I need to approach, like, if I'm running anabolic, how do I approach progressing those weights weekly, monthly? how do you recommend approaching that?

You want to go by feel, but don't ever, you know, maxing out, like maxing, maxing out, I would keep that super rare. Yeah, you should be fine. If you're running, if you're running reps of five, where you're getting, where guys get in trouble when they start getting strong. Ones and threes. Yeah, they start testing ones and threes. And so.

And they're going 100%. And so if that's, if your goal is to stay healthy and we're not, you're not trying to do some match, right? You're not going to go compete and go do some shit like that. Then there's no real reason for. you to push ones and threes. Unless you feel amazing and you just want, but I would avoid that if your main goal is health, longevity, and you're going that direction.

It's just stick with fives. If you're running five by five type of protocol, you're moving a weight that you easily can do singles, doubles, and triples with. So it's, you should be okay. And if you do a good job of doing programs like symmetry and performance, as long as you get those in you every year, you're going to, you're going to, you're going to, you're going to bulletproof yourself. And just to add to that, you would do five reps with a weight you could

probably do eight reps with. So that helps you judge the intensity. Okay. So you're not doing five with what you can max out with five. So that's where you start to get into trouble. Leave like two in the chamber, yeah. Yep. So doing that plus the protein, I'll still build muscle.

Oh, yes. I'll have to be ratching it up too much. No, dude. Your strength are going to go up. You're going to get stronger. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But it would be symmetry. Hit your protein targets. Follow them with maps with maps power lift. And I think you're going to be great. Excellent. Well, that was easy. Yeah. I'll send you symmetry.

I'll send you symmetry. I'll send you symmetry. We'll send you symmetry right now if you don't have it. I think I've actually already got it. Do you have power lift? Cool. I've got a lot. So I may actually do performance instead of symmetry.

Okay. Yeah, I'm okay with that. Either one of those are going to be great. Yeah, both those, either one of those would be great. It's a good rule, a thumb. I don't know if you've heard me talk about in the podcast. It's just once a year. One of the other.

One of those programs should be in everybody's rotation, in my opinion. I don't care what your goal is, I think, run in either symmetry or performance, once a year should be in everybody's rotation. Okay. Yep. Well, that's good advice. I appreciate it, guys. You got it, man. Thank you for your time. Thank you, man.

Have a good one. Yeah, that's good. It's the challenge, just for people listening, when you got muscle memory, it's one thing to have muscle memory and not be like really strong for your weight. He's pulling 300 still. He'll be adding 30, 40 pounds really quick if he's consistent, his protein target. And then you've got to be careful with injury risk. Yeah, and you're running, you know, this program and you're noticing these lifts and you're starting to feel restriction and pain.

And this is something to really pay attention to. And this is where we need to kind of shift and alter our focus. So, yeah, that's where like a symmetry or a performance comes in because it's going to address a lot of those, you know, variations that you need to address. Totally. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. It's Mind Pump media. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump.

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