Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2869: The Best Strategies for Getting a Crazy Pump (That Actually Work)

Episode Date: May 30, 2026

In this episode the guys break down the best exercises and strategies for getting a crazy pump — hydration with sodium, carb timing, full range of motion, optimal rep ranges, superset strategies, and flexing between sets. Then they coach live callers submitted through mplivecaller.com — Lindsay from Alberta on reverse dieting and building glutes on too few calories, Alex from Florida on weekend tracking inconsistency and a military fitness test, Brianna from North Carolina on chronic overtraining and learning to let go, and Avery from Michigan on fat intake while cutting and dialing in nutrition before her July wedding. MAPS 15 BOGO — https://maps15bogo.com Buy 1 get 1 FREE — limited time (all 7 MAPS 15 programs same price) SPONSORS Vita Bella / MP Hormones — https://mphormones.com Code: MINDPUMP365 — Free 10-min consultation + raffle entry Free consultation booking: https://calendly.com/vb-consultations/complimentary-consults?month=2026-05 Raffle: 3 free memberships + 10 free essential labs given away this month Dose for Your Liver — https://dosedaily.co/MINDPUMP Code: MINDPUMP — 25% off first month subscription Butcher Box — https://butcherbox.com/mindpump No code needed — Choose your free for life offer + $20 off: free sirloin tips for life, free chicken wings for life, or free ground beef for life Mind Pump Fitness Coaching — https://mindpumpfitnesscoaching.com 1.9 NASM CEUs 0:00 - Intro 2:26 - Best exercises and strategies for a crazy pump — the full breakdown 8:48 - Hydration with sodium & carbs — why supplements don't come close 13:20 - Full range of motion, 12–20 reps & superset strategies for maximum pump 16:46 - Flexing between sets & why chasing the pump can work against you 26:14 - Clow peptide stack — GHK, BPC-157, TB-500 & CPP for skin and recovery 38:01 - Why young trainers suck at training older people — the 5 reasons 45:13 - Breast milk, breastfeeding trends & Doug's 30-day cholesterol experiment with Dose 58:13 - Caller: Lindsay (Alberta) — building glutes on 1,600 calories, gets Muscle Mommy 1:04:16 - Caller: Alex (Florida) — military, weekend tracking inconsistency, crushing fatigue 1:13:29 - Caller: Brianna (North Carolina) — chronic overtraining, marathon mom, gets a Mind Pump coach 1:28:40 - Caller: Avery (Michigan) — fat intake while cutting, getting married in July  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump. Mind Pump with your hosts. Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. In today's episode, callers called in, asked us questions to help them with their health and fitness. We got to coach them live on air, but this is after the intro.

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workout is the pump. It's been compared to other awesome feelings. I won't mention it right now, but it's amazing. It's fun. It feels good. It gives you a preview of what you could look like with a little bit more muscle. So what we're going to do is talk about ways you can give yourself an incredible, crazy pump for your workouts. These are tips and tricks.

Let's go. Do you remember the first time? I got a pump? Yeah. I remember the first time I got a pump on my back because that was. like a crazy. That was a big deal. That was way later in my lifting career. That was for me. For me, I was 15 or 16. Oh God, way later for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Way later for me. And it was because I did a dumbbell pullover super set to pull up and I stood and then I felt my lats. Dead lift to lap pulldown

was the first. That was the first time we got a pump. Oh, it's the first time I mean, I could, I, like, I did rows and in fact they used to really like hammer strength rows and I could feel kind of a pump. But not like this. Yeah. The first time I deadlifted. to a lap pull down was the first time I felt like my entire back. Like I felt like it was, it felt so different. Yeah. And anybody's experience that,

there is a big difference between getting a little bit of a lap pump or, you know, feeling your rhomboids a little bit versus like feeling your whole back pumped up. Yeah. So the pump itself doesn't necessarily trigger or signal muscle growth. But I do, I strongly believe it's associated with muscle growth because it tells us, quite a few good things that are happening your body.

Like, you know if you don't get good sleep, you probably don't get a good pump. Nutrition's off. You're not going to get a good pump. If an exercise isn't connecting well to a muscle, it's hard to get a good pump. You're connected. But also, even if it didn't trigger muscle growth,

it definitely doesn't take away from it. But one thing is for sure, psychologically, it's awesome. And I don't want to ever downplay that because people work out consistently years and years and years because they enjoy it. And the pump is part of it. the pump is when there's more blood and fluid in a muscle than than normally is.

So it feels big and tight. And you can see and look in the mirror and kind of get an idea of what that muscle would look like if it was more developed. So if you're like trying to build your butt and you get a pump in your butt, like suddenly you could see like, wow, this is what it would look like being more round. If you want your arms to be bigger and you get a good pump, now you can look and see like, oh gosh, this is what it would look like if I gained a half an inch on my arms. So I don't want to downplay that psychological component. I don't even think I'd pay attention.

into it until way later. I mean, I know that, like, so my arms got pumped and that I would, you know, you'd always kind of like measure like your bicep and all that to your buddies, but that was about it until like I worked out with Adam one time. We did supersets the first. I'd never done it before.

And my chest like blew up. And I was like, oh my God. Like, this is what you guys are talking about. It was wild. It's awesome. One thing, I have a question for you, Sal, in regards to the science on that. is there a lot of really good research that says that it doesn't contribute to it?

Like, I mean, do we not, is there not a possibility that it actually does play a role in belly muscle? And we just don't have the best. There's some theories around it. It's hard to control for. Yeah. Because if someone's well fed, well hydrated, and they're having a good workout and recovered, then they're going to get a good pump. And we're going to see more muscle growth.

But is it the pump or is it really? all the other things. So it's like, how do you separate the two? Right. I guess you could restrict blood, but that wouldn't be a good thing either. So it's really hard. It's really hard to parse it out. One thing is for sure, I'll say this.

Look, as a trainer, for sure. When a client had a body part that was hard for them to develop, the beginning stages of me knowing this is going to build was always the pump. It was like, oh, I never feel my back or my chest doesn't respond. And when we finally got that pump, I'm like, okay, it's going to start to build now. And I don't know if that was the pump. pump or more of that they were able to connect to the muscle more. But I always noticed that that was like the beginning stage of now we can feel the muscle.

Now it's going to develop, you know, type of thing, type of deal. One thing is for sure, we're going to go through this list. What you won't see on this list is anything in your pre-workout. Okay? Because they don't make that big of a difference when it comes to the pump. What we're going to talk about makes the biggest difference. And you could test this out yourself and see how big of a difference this makes. So you're not going to see citroline or organine or, you know,

blood, you know, these natural vasodilators type of deal. Those might help a little bit, but they pale in comparison to what we're about to talk about. And I know this firsthand. I know some of the clients I've trained. I know you, Adam, have experienced this as well. This was mind-blowing for me. Yes. Because I was drawn to all of the, because I love the pump, I was absolutely drawn to the, the supplement pump market.

Yeah. Like I just, I bought all of them. And I absolutely used to take them all time. And I swore by them. Like that they, this is totally working. And not that they're not, it's just that way later when I got into competing and I become very dialed with my nutrition. And now I'm really paying attention to hydration and carbohydrates and all these things like

that. And I went, oh my God, I don't even have a pump supplement right now. And I'm having the best pumps in my life. It has very little to do with that supplement. It has way more to do with these other things that you're talking. And not to go too far in a segue, but that market, those pre-workout pump. inducing supplements. They sold so well because the marketing was brilliant. What they used to do in the magazines, this was, I remember this. They show the before and afters. And it was,

it was a before and after. It was like before pump after pump. And I'm going to tell you this right now, you get a good pump. It's dramatic. And I remember if you look at that, you're like, oh my God, that's incredible. I want to try that. And people like them. And yeah, some of the ingredients may help performance. And there's some studies that support it. But it's the stimulant effect that people I think like the most. I mean, this is why the stimulant-free, you know, pre-workouts are not nearly as popular as the ones with caffeine. So we'll start with the first one. Most important thing, be very well hydrated and have some sodium. This makes a huge difference. And I first piece this together as a kid when I would have some food the day before that would cause me to hold water.

So it was like a high sodium, you know, pizza or French fries or something like that. And I'd wake up and I could kind of feel I was kind of like holding a little water, a little stiff. Then I go work on this crazy pump. And I started to piece together. It's like, oh, I'm, I've just got more water in my muscles. Got water in my body. And that's what, that's most of what your muscle is. That's what the pump is.

It's fluid. Sodium helps you retain the water in the muscles and in your body. And then you need the water. So it'd be very well hydrated and have some sodium. And the bigger, the bigger you are, the more water you could handle before and during this process. again, most of these actually I learned not until I really competed because never once had I tracked water so diligently either. And because I was trying to at one point during this journey get two to three gallons of water in, like I had to be really methodical about like how much I got by a certain time. And so what became really common for me was to get a half gallon in before I got into my workout.

And then during my workout, I would crush another half gallon. That would make a huge difference. Oh my God. Yeah. putting a half gallon of water in my system before I worked out and then drinking while I did was the craziest difference of pumps. And I've tried every pump supplement you can think of. It doesn't come close to that.

And that was so eye-opening for me. It was like, here I am. I don't have any of these, I don't have any special supplements in me to induce this. And I have got the most unbelievable pumps right now. And it's just because I just drink a lot of water. So I work out in the morning, like pretty early. so typically like 645, so I don't have any food,

but I make sure to have like a quarter gallon of water with a thousand or two thousand milligrams of sodium. Yeah. So I'll have like a packet element or sometimes more. Which, by the way, Sal, is, and I remember when I put this, it was kind of a duh, aha moment for me, right? Like being a young kid, of course, wanting to buy the supplement, did all the thing,

but it's just like a majority of what's in our muscle is water. That's right. And so it makes, and everybody, and anybody also knows, or most people know this too, when you wake up in the morning from not drinking any water for eight, nine hours while you were sleeping

or through the whole night you look flat and you look like you lost, everybody say, oh, I look leaner and they lost weight. That's all the water that's come out of your system, right? And so rehydrating and refilling that all back makes logical sense that the muscle bellies

are going to be able to fill up with that more. And so it was kind of a duh, aha moment for me, but I had never been intentional with it. I never, like, said, you know what? And so if you're listening to this and you've never made an aggressive goal to drink significantly more water than you usually do

before you get into your workout even and then during your workout, I just urge you to do that. Try it. It's game changer. Just try that with the high, like with some electrolysis. Yeah, add some salt in there for sure. And watch what a difference your pumps are.

The next one is to have carbs. So glycogen does, your muscles do store glycogen like your liver. And if you don't have enough carbohydrates, your glycogen is a bit depleted, which will make your muscles feel flat. That's the term bodybuilders use when they diet for a show. They just feel flat. So have some carbohydrates.

Now, I've been in a calorie surplus on a ketogenic diet, and I've also been in a calorie surplus in a diet with carbohydrates. The difference in the pump is night and day. Yeah. It is hard to get a pump on a ketogenic diet. It doesn't come close to when I have carbohydrates. Well, this is one of the things why I never liked low-carb diets that much. And I know they're great for fat loss.

They're great for curbing the appetite. I did appreciate it for all those things, but the pumps suck. And again, another thing that I learned during competing, I mean, I had this down to a science. I had exact amount of grams of carbohydrates I need to have before a workout. What was it, 75?

Yep, 75 grams before, and I would have this incredible. And if I did more, it would only be better, right? I needed a minimum of that, I should say, right? So I should make that clear, because I've talked about this before, and I don't think I've ever made that clear. It's like, as long as I got to that before,

I would see a huge, huge difference. But again, another duh, aha moment. Your muscle bellies are all water and glycogen. So, of course, loading it up with carbohydrates and loading it with water would make, would fill, would give you the most potential to fill those up, those muscle bellies up. And so it was another one of those mind-blowing yet, duh, moments for me when I actually tracked and went after. And you can have the carbohydrates an hour or two before your workout. That's enough time for them to get into, to get some glycogen in your muscles. Next up, really want to focus on a full range of motion.

Stretch the muscle, squeeze the muscle. Stretch, squeeze. You are pumping fluid in and out of the muscle and you're feeling the muscle. So to get a really good pump, you really want to target the muscle you're trying to get a pump in. And so when you're doing a back exercise, yeah, you can do rows and your back is working. But if you focus on stretching and squeezing and going through that full range of motion, you're going to get more blood into that muscle.

It seems like a sponge, right? Yes. Yeah, being able to wring it all the way out. and absorb a lot more and make room for that. Totally. Have they done any, like, good studies where they show, like, how much blood and fluid is getting pumped into the muscle in a full range versus, like, a shortened range?

No. I mean, that'd be interesting to see. I mean, it's pretty obvious. Like, you can feel a difference in it, and it seems pretty logical. But it's crazy. Like, any exercise, there's any exercise I do, and there's, you know, there's benefits to doing things a little faster, maybe heavier. There's benefits to that.

But if I know I want to get a pump, I'm going through a really. a real long, four-range conversion. Big contraction. And I am getting a stretch, and I'm getting a squeeze. And I am emphasizing both of those. And I can make the pump happen so much faster when I'm doing those two things right there. Agreed. Next up, higher reps.

Higher reps is much easier to get a pump than lower reps. Not to say you can't get a pump with low reps, but if I really want to feel the muscle inflate, yeah, I'm going to go 12 to 20 reps. In fact, sometimes I'll avoid higher reps because the pump can get so painful. it can actually restrict me. Like, this can happen with my legs. Like, if I go 20 reps, it's like two or three sets, and I'm like, I can't do too much more.

Stiff, yeah, at that point. I mean, when I think of this, I think of, like, the analogy of, like, pumping up a tire and the difference of if I got five pumps versus I get 20 pumps, I don't care how hard I pump that five. Like, the tire will pump up way more

after 20 pumps in that tire. And so it's the same, your muscle belly's in the same way, too. And it doesn't mean that there's not benefit to, there's a tremendous benefit to the low rep, but if I'm chasing a pump, I'm going to do things like high rep or super set like Justin's experience with me is like that's

the best way to get. And again, like this is so effect. What we're saying here is so effective. Like, do you guys have body parts? Maybe you, Adam, because I know Justin, you don't chase this too much. But did you have body parts that got so pumped? Yeah.

That they would hurt and you'd almost be limited. Oh, yeah. Yeah, delts can get that. Me too. Yeah. So me too. So in fact, sometimes I'll avoid doing some of the stuff for my delts because it just gets so,

like, so they get so full. Yeah. It's hard to move. But other times it's fun. And I know. If I'm going 20 reps and I'm going slow on the movement and squeezing and I'm hydrated, have the carbs, it's going to be balloon time with those muscles for sure. Next up, supersets.

You brought this up earlier, Justin, that you did this. So supersets are just two exercises back to back for the target muscle. And you can either do two compound lifts, but if you really want to get a crazy pump, do an isolation exercise first, go right into the compound lift. Yeah. Holy cow. Does this make things? It's a monster.

Oh, yeah. So like an example of this for like, I taught, talked about it from my back, is I did dumbbell pullovers, which is somewhat of an isolation exercise for lats to pull-ups. For chest, an example, would be flies to bench press. For shoulders, it would be laterals to shoulder press. For quads, it would be leg extension, straight to squats. So you're isolating the muscle you want to get a pump in. Then you go to the compound lift, let the other muscles kind of help out. And they inflates you. It's crazy. It's crazy. And then lastly, flexing between sets. Now, there's definitely body blows that do this,

because I want to see themselves in the mirror. But there's also, you know, old school bodybuilders did this because it helped get more blood into the muscle. And so when you're resting, you could literally sit there and squeeze the muscle and hold some contractions. There's an isometric benefit as well. Sure.

But this definitely ramps up. Well, there's some, aren't there some pretty recent studies that show the benefits, I mean, to intra, what do they call it? Intraset stretching or, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's similar. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, isn't that similar to that?

like the stretching is creating like this isometric tension on it is similar to that. Would you get the same type of benefit? Yeah. So that's like where you hold a weight in a stretch position. Yeah. You know what's wild about that, by the way, is you can get a pump with really deep stretching. I don't know if you guys ever experienced that where you stretch a muscle really and then suddenly you have more blood in there. So that's another thing.

Flexing is one. The other one is in between sets. Now this is going to lower your force output. So this isn't necessarily what you want to do when you're trying to like lift heavy. It's not like a performance benefit. No, but it's a feel thing. Yeah. And there's some bodybuilders that swear by this.

I've experienced with that with like a stretch of a fly, like just holding it there with weights and then like, oh my God. Like the amount of blood that would just like pump through there is crazy. Yeah, yeah. One of the downsides of the pump is that it's pretty disappointing when it goes away. It definitely, it's, I mean, you know, when you get. Well, it's not functional. No. And when you get really good at this, you can definitely see, whoa, this is what is my potential.

I could potentially look like this. and it could be quite dramatic. But if you do all this and you do it well, you can make yourself look very different, 30 minutes into your workout than you did when you first started. I feel like all your fitness influencers that everybody says that.

Right before they take pictures. Yeah, yeah. Oh, nobody takes pictures every time. Yeah, why would you? Yeah. I didn't even know that, dude, forever. What do you? I seriously thought everybody was just okay.

No, so I remember in the, again, back at the, my bodybuilding days, because I was already doing socials by then and I'd see my competitors I'm like, dude, they look crazy, you know? And then I'd be like, oh, that's because they're always like best lighting, best pump, best everything. You see them in real life and size them up.

You're like, okay, it's that that impressive. Regular D. Yeah, that's magic trick on. You know, speaking of competitors, so oftentimes, so competitors who compete on stage, right, they're trying to show themselves off as lean as possible and dehydrated. actually trying to be dehydrated to an extent to give them the illusion of being even more shredded.

And you talk to competitors and ask them, how hard is it to get a pump on stage? How hard is it to get a pump when you're trying to pose in front of people? You're dehydrated? You're not hydrated. You're depleted. You've tried carb loading, but maybe you didn't as well as you could. Your sodium was low. You've been into calorie deficit forever.

You're tired. And you'll hear a bodyboat say, like, I can't even get the muscles. That's like the art of it at the end, right? Yeah, I mean, I took a little, this is something that, you know, I talked many times about the things that I saw as opportunity for me, right? Like, I definitely do not think that I've got a great bodybuilding physique whatsoever. And, but I had some advantages with my programming knowledge, my nutrition knowledge. This was one of the things, too, that I thought was like a huge advantage for me. It was like, oh, these guys were like, like having no water, zero water and then trying to use just carbohydrates.

It's like, most of your muscle belly is water. Like, you want to, you want to pull the water between your. skin in your muscle. You don't want to pull all of your water out. Pulling all of your water out of your muscle bellies is like, you're making it almost impossible to get a deflated balloon. Yeah. So I was, I still on actually the day of competing, drink a quarter gallon of water, which

in context of like competitors, that's a ton. Some of them are spitting throughout the day. Yes. Water out of their systems. So I would, I would drink a quarter gallon in on day, on game day, getting up there on stage. So because I knew I needed that water. So to pair with the carbon.

But you do still lose the pump really fast because your body uses it up really quick. When you're so low calorie, you're so depleted that you do these little rubber band pumps and you're trying to time when you're going to go up on stage. And a lot of times I remember I would go thinking that it's about my turn to go out. And then something would happen and show it would get delayed. And then you would be like, oh no. Yeah, you would flat out. You know, this is kind of off subject. But I found this really interesting.

Like, and maybe Sal, you understand the science even better than me. but I found that if I different carbohydrates and or pairing with fats when I would intake food would allow my body to be able to stay pumped up longer or not. Yeah, I don't know what the science is with that, but everybody says that. Yeah, so I had, I had, so like one, I remember one show I got ready for. And this was the first time that I used sweet potato with my, my chicken to like get ready for, like to show. And so same amount of grams of carbohydrates as measured out as my white rice and everything like that. Um, but something to do with like how my body processed those carbohydrates versus then

if I would have rice and then and, uh, versus rice. I know it's the difference. And then versus when I'd have rice and avocado. So the best combination was rice, avocado and the chicken and something to do with it. And what then the difference was how long I could hold a pump. Interesting. All of them had a difference. The longest pump that I could hold. and fill myself out with what was the rice comboed with the fat comboed with the food. The food that I'll eat that will always give me a crazy pump if I have it like a few hours before is French fries.

Now, it's not because French fries are good for you. It's sodium and the carbs. It's the sodium and it's carbohydrate. It's the sodium and the carbs. Period and to store. By the way, this is also why to you at that point, this is why so many bodybuilders swear by like the pancakes and all the, or the burger and fries before. It's the sodium and the carbohydrate.

Yeah, it's the sodium in the carbohydrates. It's just that you're loading up on a ton of sodium and carbohydrates that you've depleted your body up for so long. Do you guys have exercises that you know like, oh, this is for, if I want to get a punt, this is the exercise. This is going to get me to just blow the heck up. Oh, yeah.

Upright rows for shoulders for me. If I do upright rows, it's going to, within four reps. My shoulders. That's why I love those rear delt cable fires so much. Oh, that's, yeah. Yeah. If I, if I, all I have to be. Oh, where you're bent over?

The full show. Yes. Two exercises. If I do a, obviously I'll do something for the full shoulder, right? like a military shoulder press or whatever. A dumbbell press and those rear flies and my shoulders are blown out. Just those two movements, like for sure.

For back, for me, it's a super native grip, close grip pull downs. And I go all the way up, get a real deep stretch, all the way down, get a good squeeze. It's like half a set. Four sets of heavy deadlifts over to lap pull downs. I don't think there's,

I don't think it's possible to get a back more pumped than that. Justin, do you even care? I was listening to you guys. I don't even know. He's like this sounds so good. I don't want to injecting this. That's one of those things is like, oh, this happened to me.

You know, that's kind of how I look at it. You know, it's crazy about this as an athlete. The last thing you want is a pump when you're on the field because you can't move. Especially, yeah, it was always the forearms. Like, when I would get a pump in the forearms, I would be like, oh, no, like, I'd be panic mode. Dude, I had a guy hired me who raced motocross. And I, like, okay, so what are your fitness goals? Yeah.

And he, dude, he confused the hell at him. He goes, I don't want to get a pump in my forearms anymore. And I'd never heard anybody not want to get a pump before. And I remember being like, oh, crap, what do I do? You know, we just had Phil Heath here. And he talked about something, and I wish we would have gotten more into it. And we've talked about this and speculated on this a long time ago. And I wish there was some good science to support this theory that I have or that we have,

because I think we've agreed and shared this, where the pump can be bad, where you only chase the pump. Yeah. Which I was that kid for a very long time. Yeah, because heavy low-rep strength training with long rest periods doesn't produce a pump. And so you'll avoid it and avoid this great way to build muscle. And so, and it just, what happened to me was I trained the pump forever. And I remember for years like, man, looking at, if I could just look like that.

And then I would deflate down and feel like, now I don't even look like I work out. Years I felt this way. It wasn't until I really started to just heavy. and train and load and so with that. And the biggest difference was when I worked out like that, I didn't have the impressive pump. But then what I... Exactly.

But what I looked like is I looked like I had muscle on me all the time. It didn't matter if I was pumped up or not. And now what I see as I've gotten older, because I've built so much of that muscle too, it's like, man, I touch a little bit of weights and get pumped up. And it's like even if I feel like, man, I'm really deflated. I haven't trained in a while. Oh, man, let me get in the gym real quick.

I'll get to pump it. And I'll look like a guy who works out. all the time. So it's, it's wild how that heavy training, I don't know what it is. We talked about it's more, you know, granite-like. Well, they all, they all build muscle. But if you avoid it for a long time and then you finally do it, boom, you're going to build tons of muscle. I had the same experience to when I would lift heavy, I had to get disconnected from the fact that I wasn't going to get a pump. It's like, okay, cool, I'm just going to lift heavy. But each time I built muscle, they both can build muscle. But if you stick to one for too long, like we talk about all the time,

you're missing the benefit of the other one. Yeah. It was a big difference for me for sure. So I want to bring up this peptide stack that I just got from our partners at MP hormones. Have you guys heard of the Clow stack? Oh, Katrina got that. Phil sent that to her. Dude.

So I'm going to look this. No. Okay. So supposedly it's like, bro, this is the best stack. He told her that. He said this is because she, okay, she's always taking like, you know, skin, face, like type peptide and supplements that we can get her hands. hands on and she would tell she told phil when we all first met what he was saying he's like oh wait till i send you what we have we have the the best so i looked up reviews first of all i'm very familiar

with these peptides so i know like oh this combination is amazing but you also look up reviews and it's like so it's got g hkcc u so g hkcc u really really increases collagen production so it's good for gut health but it's really good for the skin okay and everybody knows that then you have bpc 157 and everybody knows that one. Gut healing or protective joint recovery, but it also helps with collagen and protein synthesis and those types of things. Then you have TB 500.

This is a thymus peptide. This is good for hair growth. It's also got some benefits for skin. It's good for recovery. It's good for healing. And then you have KPV. KPV is anti-inflammatory. It's also good for gut health.

But when you combine them, the synergistic effects for the skin, because I've done GHKCU, BP, and TB 500. I've done that trio before, and you definitely notice. My wife's done it, definitely noticed.

We've never, never had added the KPV. But I know KPVs another peptide that's good for it. Stack that and sit in front of the red light, man, that's like, that's what she's doing. My wife's doing that right now.

Yeah, yeah. So that's the four peptide stack. And so what used to, and what's cool about our partners at MP hormones is it comes in one vial. So it used to be, if you wanted all four of those, you get four vials.

Yeah. You'd have to do four. injections. Mix it. No, it's all, it's all in one. It's like a tiny bit, 20 units. So that doesn't include the cream also. So there's another thing that you can also go you can also, she uses a cream too. You can also apply peptide to your face. Okay. And it's more. Okay. She has the injectable and then she also has the, the cream that she's doing. Bro, the before. So if you're listening right now, look up Clow Stack before and after and you'll see people 30 day before and afters. And it's like, do they get a facelift? It's pretty wild. Yeah. I mean, this is there. Katrina and I talk.

about this a lot. We've talked about this a while ago on the podcast where we kind of all are at with, you know, anti-aging and all the, the things out there and Botox and face and plastic surgery. And like, I'm so pro doing things that are like natural. And using the, using, using all those tools to do everything you can to reduce aging. Not a fan of like, like, you know, injecting Botox or plastic surgery. So peptides for people listening, these are, these are signulars that the, and the, the body that your body knows what to do with. Many of them exist already in the body like BPC does. Thymocin or TB 500 is a piece of thymusin beta. This thing already exists in the body. So it's not a pharmaceutical drug. It's a peptide that your body already has. It's signaling it.

And so you're signaling just tissue repair, collagen repair, skin repair, is what's happening. And many of these peptides that you have in your body decrease with age. Yeah, you're not injecting a foreign thing in there to, to, to kill nerves so you don't have wrinkles. By the way, have you guys paralyzed your skin? The data on Botox is wild. That's what it does, right? So the science of what Botox does is it kills the, right?

It basically paralyzes. It paralyzes the nerves that make... The muscle. Yeah, that make your frowns or smiles or all those things like that, which is why... Did you know that there's data that shows that people with Botox experience less... Happiness? Of course. Because they can't express as well.

Oh, yeah. And so there's this feedback signal, right? So your brain tells you to be happy, but then your brain also receives a signal from your face expressions that you're happy. And so these studies show that Botox can reduce these. Isn't that crazy? Because it's like, yeah, you're worried about these wrinkles when you're smiling. But then you're less happy. Yeah, exactly.

Immediately, like it affects your mood. Yeah. Doug, look that up. Look at how Botox affects happiness. I'd love to see those studies. I remember reading them a while ago. And it's pretty, it's pretty wild. Super common.

Super common. People are using Botox at such an age as now. Disrupting their brain's emotional feedback loop. Paralyzing specific facial muscles. Prevents you from making expressions like frowning, which can subtly dampen negative emotions and boost mood. However, this effect varies by treatment. So you basically can narrow your emotional, like I'm less happy.

You know, there's a way, there's a hack into the reverse of this for on the positive side too, by the way, if you've never tried this. Like, it actually takes, like, you have to be very intentional in practice. Like, the next time you're angry is, like, force yourself to smile. And it's, you will feel a difference. So I know, like, you will feel a difference. Like, well, here, try this. Fake laugh. Yeah. That's a real laugh. You're good on real laugh. Yeah. Have you seen that video where this lady starts doing that and she was like, ha ha, ha. And then the guy that she's doing it goes, ha, ha, and then they keep going back and forth. And it turns out.

escalates and it's real, you know, and then you're, you know, even just watching it and I started laughing. Yeah. It's like, it's fake and then all of a sudden it's real. That's what I mean. Like, you could, you fake smile when you're angry and you will literally start to feel better. I mean, it may not get rid of the problem that you're angry about or whatever like that, but it will dramatically shift how you feel about it right away. We also think like a smile has to do with the mouth and it does, but it's the whole face. So one of the most disturbing images that they've actually tracked this is a face that's smiling,

without the rest of the face smiling. So it's a mouth smile. You had Doug pull us up years ago. Without the eyes smiling. And it just looks unnerving. You had Doug pull us up a long time ago. Yeah. It looks creepy.

Yeah. It looks super creepy. It's really that marketing for that one horror movie. Yeah. Yeah. Oftentimes crazy. Like when they display a killer, they have a smile, but the rest of their body.

Yeah. Yeah. That does look creepy, dude. Because your brain can't register what's going on. And so they look crazy. That's a creepy. You know what I watch, whatever I feel like, oh, I'm like depressed or whatever. Like, there's this one video that it was from, I think it was in, in the UK where they had this, this talk show and they brought in people with like unique laughs.

Oh, I've seen this. Oh, my God. I die. Every time I watch it, it's like, oh, it's so funny. It's a bunch of weird laughs. You're like, g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-you know. Everybody has, like, the most bizarre laugh you've ever heard. It's so contagious.

Where do you think that... Why do we all have... That's an interesting. Why do we all laugh? No, no. Why do we all have different laughs? Oh, I don't know. I think it changes, too, based on who you hang out with you.

You know, when I was a kid, I thought... Weird. When I was a real young kid, I thought people laughed in different languages. What? I was really young. Oh, people of the countries laugh in different languages. No, stop. Fight the urge.

This guy. Fight the urge. Sorry, sorry. I was trying to think. think of examples. You think about how unique that is. So that's an interesting thought you said, Justin. So you think that it changes based off who you hang out with.

I do. Much like our slang does, right? I also start using slang when I'm hanging around. Well, you know, it's weird because I was thinking about that, even with myself, because I've, you know, you listen to yourself on the podcast or you listen, just how you interact with different people. And I was with, like, an old group of friends that I hadn't hung out with the long time. And then I heard one of my friends laugh.

And I was like, dude, that's my laugh. You know? And then I was like, ew, you probably affected me with your laugh. And then I picked that up. And then, you know, so I, and then, too, Courtney, it's funny because, like, the longer hang out with somebody kind of mold into that person. And, like, yeah. She has certain expressions that I've known.

I've picked up on. Same with her and me. And, like, she kind of laughs a little bit like me sometimes and I call her out on it. Yeah. It's weird. Do you notice that? Do you know that? I don't, I'm trying to think about it.

I don't know. I don't know. That's interesting. Yeah, yeah. I like, I like, I like it when people laugh heartily. You know what I mean? Like they're really letting themselves have a good belly laugh. Like a good belly laugh. Like you don't care, yeah. Yeah, it's great. It's like one of my favorite things. When you're with a group of friends or you're, you know. I mean, I never knew I did the, the, the, the, the Windex one that they make fun of me about. Yeah. But I think I only do that on podcast. For some reason, I feel like I might be a fake laugh. Well, I think, no, what I think it, yeah, it's like, well, no, it's not a Chrissy laugh.

what it is is like, because I know we're being recorded. So subconsciously, I'm aware of that. You're filtering it. I'm filtering it. So instead of a bell laughing, like, you're talking. He's saying something? I don't want to like laugh over. You'll overpower it.

Yeah, yeah. So I think I only do that on the podcast. I don't think I do that in real life. Unless you guys hear me do it in real life, tell me, because I don't think I have. Yeah, I think I've only done it on the podcast. And I didn't know I was doing that until the staff made fun of you. I don't do that.

I don't remember when they made fun of it? Oh, yeah. Yeah, they made like a whole, like, yellow index bottle. Yeah, model? Yeah. Do you guys remember in school when you and your friend would start laughing, but the teacher's like,

you can't talk and you guys just couldn't even look at each other. You'd explode? Try to hold it in. Oh, that was impossible for me. That was the best. You know what happened in public? I don't care where I am, by the way. It could be the most depressing place.

I could be at a funeral. So I hear somebody fart. Forget it. I'm gone. I'm gone. I have to leave. I'm a laugh. I know.

I don't do well in, like, serious environments. Oh, because you're nervous maybe. Yeah, it's a weird tick. Yeah, I just, I, yeah. I can't help myself. That's terrible. I'm going to come to you a bad dude. My son has a...

I'm going to be dying. I bet you are. Pussy. Wow. I'm just kidding. See, that's how I'm dealing. I have to make a joke out of it. You know, it's just how it goes.

My son is like super courtesy, right, with his farts. Like, he'll... Last night, I'm, like, laying with him. And it's like, but, like, where it's bedtime, right? The lights are out. We already read. We're laying down. there and I normally lay with him for like five or ten minutes before I go and uh like he

does it's everyone's one like all of a sudden he pops up and he gets up and I'm like what are you doing and I got a fart daddy and he gets out so he doesn't fart on me and then he comes back wow opposite of my house opposite opposite opposite my son will right on top of oh he did this to so I think I think why this has happened is because when he used to do come on buddy come on don't fart on me like that like I think I've so now he's trying to be yeah like so I think he I've called him out of out on that before. And so, like, now he'll go, Daddy, I have to fart.

Is that okay? Like, yeah, dude, go ahead, buddy. It's all good. No, no, Aralius will. One time Jessica was laying down on the couch and he climbs up on the couch, sits on, like, on her head and just. And now she went, hey, you know why? On her head.

Probably belly laugh over. Oh, how can he not laugh? Oh, God. Yeah. How can you not laugh? Just like I reinforce my sons and going, hey, buddy, don't borrow me. Oh, no, dude. You've now trade yours because he's like, oh, daddy thinks this hilarious.

Of course she got upset, right? She's like, oh, my, what are you doing? And I'm just like, this is the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. What are you doing, dude? Yeah, right. You just sat on her head? Like, God, that's the worst, bro. That's awesome.

That's a bold move. All right, I got a post I want to talk about. Actually, you sent this to me, Adam, a couple weeks ago. We haven't brought, I never brought it up. Which one? I thought it was a really good post. So somebody on social media did a post. I think they were a trainer.

I'm not sure. They might be just a fitness expert or whatever. Let me see. Yeah, they're a personal trainer. And the post says why young people usually suck at training older people. Do you remember this? Oh, I'll go to you. Okay.

So here's some of the reasons they say why young people suck at training older people. And I want to see if we agree with this. Yeah, let me hear it. And I did read these earlier, and I would have disagreed as a younger trainer, but I think I agree with some of these now. So number one, they can't wrap their heads around how important controlling systemic inflammation and improving mitochondrial health is for health and performance. So what they hear is blah, blah, blah,

because when you're a kid, you can drink like crazy, you could train like an idiot, you know, you could go to bed late. Number two, they don't understand that some movement limitations are permanent. Number three, they don't understand general adaptation syndrome and how life stress and physical stress accumulate. Number four, they don't truly listen to what their clients want. And then number five, to them,

everything is black and white. then there's risk management sounds soft to them. They can't accept the fact that full range of motion is subjective. What do you guys think about this? Incredible. That's why I sent it to you. I felt like this is every 23-year-old smarty-pants trainer right here. Yeah.

That's what I mean, it hit that button for me. It was just like, you know, all these things that when you're young, and even if you're knowledgeable, right, and you understand the science, you have this very narrow lens at which you see, training through. Totally. Once you've been training for a decade or two or three and you've had hundreds and hundreds

of clients and middle age people, you start to realize like, okay, I need to understand the science. It's very important, right? But then there's a ton of other variables that are individual to each person I'm going to train that I have to learn to balance and juggle. And this is what makes really good coaches. Yeah, I think the biggest thing that stands out for me. me with that is like young people, they want to assert that they, they know what they're the right

answer. They know what to teach of this person and they're not listening. They're not really receiving like that's a big one. Like that's, I see that all the time. And I was guilty of that too as a young trainer because like you're just, you're so focused on trying to figure out the solve. Like what's how can I like put together the best plan and implement this with this person? on, but I'm not really listening to their actual feedback.

Well, full confession, like, as an early trainer, I dismissed oftentimes what client said. We all. When I had a mom that was, you know, stay-at-home mom, two, three kids or whatever, and she's like, you know, I have a real tough time finding time to exercise. I'm like, time. You got, what are you talking about? Make the time. You know, you'll have more energy if you do, and it's good for you.

And then, you know, I had kids in my mid-20s. And I was like, oh, yeah. Like this takes up a lot of time. Kids are really demanding. I had to train a lot of people before I started to listen. The accumulated stress one, I didn't get that in my early days as a trainer. Like, what do you mean? We barely, you're working out twice a week.

That's not too much. And it wasn't until I had enough clients that would say the same thing, not get good results, that I started to scale things down. I saw good results. And I'm like, maybe I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Maybe I need to kind of listen to these people and change how I approach some of this stuff. Yeah. And then they became a much better trainer.

But I do agree that experience can play a big role in how you train people. And young people are at a disadvantage. That doesn't mean you won't find a young trainer who hasn't been trained well. No. I mean, look at our team. Yeah, you can learn. Yes. We train the hell out of these people and our trainers.

And we teach them. I mean, it blows my mind when I sit back and listen to some of these 23-year-old kids that we have working for us. And listen to the way they communicate health and fitness. I'm like, they're so far ahead of where. Oh, it took me 10 years to understand. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. What they've learned six months.

Go back, read them over again, and then let's pick the one that was the most. The most? Yeah, what was the biggest, like, because we're guilty of probably all of it. Yeah, so the first one, they can't wrap their hands around how important controlling systemic inflammation.

Okay. Is, that's kind of a big one. Yeah, yeah. They don't understand that some movement limitations are permanent. That's a pretty big one. Yeah. They don't understand general adaptation syndrome and how life stress and physical stress accumulates.

I think for me, that's the biggest one for me. Yeah. And they don't truly listen. to what their clients want. That was probably another one because I'm like, I know. I know what's going on. Both those two are bangers.

Here's another one. Everything's black and white. Yeah. Young trainers, everything is black and black. I mean, I'm guilty of all of them, but I really, I really didn't understand the stress bucket thing. Same.

Yeah. That was a big. I also didn't understand how big of rural age played. Yeah. Like, it plays a role, everybody. Sure. Now, you can make a big difference

with diet exercise, and you could be in a different category from your peers. fit and healthy 50-year-old, you are not like the average 50-year-old, but you're not going to be like a fit and healthy 20-year-old version. Well, another way to say that is we all agree, and every trainer listening right now agrees the stress bucket thing is a real thing. You have a smaller bucket when you get older.

Totally. I mean, that's like literally legit. You have a smaller bucket with more shit. Yeah. Like you have more responsibility. You know what I'm saying? Most likely have kids, a business or job. It's 24-hour responsibility.

Yeah. It's like, yeah, this other thing with parents I didn't even realize. And your bucket is smaller. When you're young, you have this big giant bucket with hardly any shit. And it's like, so you can get away with a bunch of stuff. You can get away with poor nights of sleep and not maybe doing your mobility. I'll sleep in. Yeah, yeah.

And still see results. As you get older, that bump in. Doesn't mean you still can't build tons of muscle. Doesn't mean you can't be in the best shape of your life. Doesn't mean a lot of the other rules in science doesn't apply to that person. It's just you're playing a different game. You have a different side. You can't slip, really.

I mean, you've got to continuously make, you know, right decision. When I was in my 20s, I didn't get that. Oh, no. Listen, when I was 22, I had a gym with my partner down in a Palm Spring area. We had a gym down there. And I'm not even, I'm not making this up. Like, we would work till 10, 11 o'clock at night. Now, the gym itself had a wine bar in there and beer.

And sometimes we drink afterwards and we go to bed at 2 a.m. I'd wake up at 7 a.m. I'd go work out. Right back after it. I would be wrecked if I did that right now. It would wreck me. And back then I could do that. That's what I'm bartending.

I do three, four days of it. in a row, sleeping, go to bed early one night, boom, I'm back to normal. If I did something like that, three days in a row, four days in a row, it would take me a week. Pain and punishment. Yeah. And I just didn't get it. So you hear people talk about stress when you're a kid and you're like, yeah, what do you talk about?

You have no idea. But if you're well trained, it makes a big difference. But here's the thing. When I talk to my family members who are getting trainers outside the state. So I have family members outside of the state so they can't, they don't have access to our coaches. And I always tell them, okay, talk to them. Okay, talk to the fitness manager and try and find somebody who you feel like you can connect with. In other words, they're kind of your age group and they have experienced training people like you.

Because if you get some young kid and they're smart, they just don't have the experience to understand, you know, kind of what it's all known. You want to hear some cool, cool study on women's breasts? Of course. I knew I get you guys excited from the stuff. A bear shit in the woods. No, this is an interesting, an interesting study. I got to find this. This was about, okay.

So this is an interesting study. So the more a woman's breasts grow during pregnancy, the more likely it is that the fetus or the baby is a male. Really? Yeah. So, you know, there's all these like, yeah, but there's all these like, like, like, you know, old, what are they call them,

old wives or whatever, like, you know, do you hold it high? Do you hold it low? Do you have more nausea? of less nausea. Yeah. They actually did a study and found that. In the wrong place.

Did you ever do the ring one or you put a ring around their belly button and the way it's to twirl around? Yeah, the way it spins. No, we did the Chinese birth calendar though. We did the Chinese birth calendar too. So when the baby was conceived in the mother's age or something like that and it'll predict if it's a boy or girl, yeah, type of deal. So I don't know.

But this is, so this, this, this says that this is due to the fact that male fetuses require more energy resources than female fetuses. So male fetuses grow faster of higher metabolism, a cumulative. more body mass and generate a greater metabolic and oxidative stress in the mother. So the mother's breasts because they contain body fat. How wild? How wild is that? I know.

Like that the body already knows what's coming and then starts producing milk at a higher rate. It's crazy. And just wants to store more body fat in that area to do that. What's cool to me. The magic. That's so wild. What's cool to me is the like what they know about breast milk and how. Yes.

When the baby's mouth touches the nipple. Yeah. The woman's body receives a signal that the baby needs more. immune factors. The breast milk is different at night than it is in the morning. So it helps put you to sleep. Different nutrient balance. Different nutrient balance.

It's wild. And there's like a two-way street. Like the baby's saliva sends signal to the mom to produce different things in the breast milk. Yeah. ChatGBT doesn't know that. No, I bet it does. I bet it wants to. How much more are our kids?

on formula today than they were 30 years ago. I think it's going down. Yeah. I think it's trending down. I think there's been a movement. So it was educating the importance of it then? So we've seen, we saw like,

yeah, I think it was going up for a while and I think it's starting to trend down. If I'm not mistaken, I don't know if Doug can look this up. Is formula, is formula use trending up or down? Okay, I was going to do breastfeeding, but either one would probably work.

I think it's, I think it is going down. There was a big push at one point that it was because breastfeeding rates. Oh, there was marketing around that it was better for your baby than the, which is crazy. And that it's more freeing. You know, don't breastfeed you're going to so you're more free to do the things you want type of deal. Yeah, it says it's been trending up over the last breastfeeding has been training up over the last two decades. It's been relatively stable and declining, declining slightly. I should go in the U.S.

Oh, that's due to failing birth rates, so, Sal. Yeah, no, no, no. If you look at it as a percentage, Doug, the last... It'll be a funny this is not usually going down in the U.S. Well, Prolong is shifted due to a mix of supply chain. Okay, so, Doug, go back to the first thing you brought up because this is a bit misleading. Yeah.

So breastfeeding rates have generally trended upward over the last two decades. So it's definitely, it's gone up a little bit. I think it's just better education. Yeah. You know, what does that say with national trends, Doug? Yeah, let me pull that up. The percentage of mothers who start breastfeeding has increased,

rising from roughly 73% in 2004 to 86% recent. That's a big jump. Yeah. While many start sustaining it remains a challenge. Yeah. It's a lot of work. Oh, it's challenging for sure. I didn't even realize until you become a dad and you see like, oh.

You see what they have to go through. It's crazy. You're feeding the baby. Then you put the baby to sleep and then, oh, guess what? Baby's going to wake up and you got to feed them again. And this is up ending all day long. Yeah. I remember my wife.

Then they get teeth. I remember my wife was, you know, when she became a new mom with, with Aurelius, and I remember her being like, I can't even, I don't even have time to pee. Like, she was like, she was like feeding the baby. She had to pee real bad, but then she couldn't get off the toy on the babies. And she's like, this is the wildest thing ever. And I'm like, poor lady. I mean, this is another one of those things.

I talk about Katrina, how much I fell in love with her, you know, D1 athlete mentality. Like, she was like straight competitive with, I mean, she had stored up so much breast milk. She was able to give it away and help others. Oh, that's so awesome. Yeah, she don't. Would you guys give it to? She had donated to people that needed it and stuff. So she was like, not only did she breastfeed for a year, but she also was on the pump, like pumping out as much she had.

We had a freezer just stacked of it in case like she, we needed it. And so then she was able to donate. Do you ever try it? I actually didn't. You never tried breast milk? No, I didn't. No, I didn't. No, I didn't.

Oh, man. You missed that. Did I? Is it an experience. Hey, do you remember? Do you remember? Oh, yeah. Too far.

Look at Doug. Do you remember the bodybuilding trend? Yeah. What are they doing, dude? There's a huge, I mean, listen, ways, I mean, come on. We're sitting here talking right now about how magical, how magical it is. Hey, I could make a commercial that would sell the crap. There's only one protein that doubles the weight of a human.

I think it was an episode of taboo that show used to watch. Like, they actually went through it because there was a problem because some of these bodybuilders were going to like these wet banks. And they, you know, and it became. an issue because it's like they're buying it up and now, you know, they're losing reserves. So, yeah, it was, but there was interest for sure. Bodybuilders were like, this is the way to get, you know, maximal gains. Yeah, Doug looked it up. Some bodybuilders buy and drink human breast milk.

I mean, do we have we done any good? There should be some good studies on this. It would be cool. I think none exists. I don't think, I don't think people are promoting it. Why wouldn't, why wouldn't we like test this? I feel like there, we should test this. Doug, look up adults drinking breast milk studies.

Let's see if any exist. Yeah, not, don't look on images because that'll be weird. Breast milk studies. We don't need any Game of Thrones. And then studies. Let's see if there's any studies to support. Videos. Scientific studies show no proven clinical nutritional benefit from adults drinking

human breast milk while compounds like human milk oligosaccharides are currently being researched in labs for gut and immune health. Yeah, I've heard about that because I've heard people help cure their gut health issues. Well, I mean, I mean, you know what that does for you. I mean, if you have a healthier gut. gut. You're going to build more muscle. I mean, you've talked about what our, you know, our partners see, all the studies coming out with them with the benefit of that.

Like, I mean, you would think if that helps that, it's got to promote that. So I want to see more. I want to see more research around it. Yeah. I mean, I let's, if you had to take a guess, cows milk versus breast milk heads up. For adults? Yes. Hmm.

Good question. Yeah. It's like, I mean, it's the same species. You'd think, you know, we'd be more receptive. I would think so, too. Just out of like dumb guy knowledge here. I think

there's human milk amino acid profile similar to cow milk. Well, it says that breast milk is significantly lower in protein than cow's milk.

Let me see about that. Well, here's a deal. Human milk is trying to build humans. Cow milk is building bowls. So I don't know, bro.

I don't know, dude. You want to look like a bull. Yeah, he looks like a boy. I remember what that guy told me. I remember when that guy told me that. You can't remember Arnold's thing.

I don't drink milk. I'm not a baby. Speaking of whale milk. Speaking of experiments. Oh, wait. Isn't Doug doing one? He's doing experiment. Let me see what does it say.

What does it say? I'm kind of not well organized for a quick reference. So Doug's doing experiment right now. Here's what he's doing. He got his blood worked on and he's going to do a 30-day test with dose. Oh, cool. With their cholesterol supplement. So my cholesterol tends to come in high.

This last time I have my numbers in front of me. I got 222. So 22, and you're taking dose daily. So you're doing that, what is it, like three ounces or something? It's two ounces. Two ounces every single day. Now, go on the dose website because the studies on dose are amazing. No, I remember it was like it reduced it by more than like 50% or something.

It was a pretty. That's why I can't wait. This is great that Doug's doing this and actually did his blood work. It should definitely impact his cholesterol. But I want to see what their studies. Okay, yeah, dose for cholesterol. It's right here. Read with their data shows.

Yeah, I remember last time we talked about it, it had the percentages. There you go. What does that say right there, Doug? Yeah, so LDL, let me get this pop up out of the way. So 95% of participants reported a positive impact. Triclycerides, 90%. Again, same story with that.

And then total cholesterol, again, 81% had a positive impact on it. So this is an actual clinical study that dose has. Was your LDL high or just your total cholesterol high? Yeah, my LDL is at 146. It should be less than 100, according to them. My HDL is good. Triglycerides are good. So I'm really looking at the total cholesterol and the LDL.

So we'll see what happens here. Yeah, it's interesting. My lipids, like, I can't do anything to them that make them go bad. It's really wild. I'm just like, no matter what, my... And he tries. I mean, sometimes I'm scared. I get my report, oh, gosh, what is it?

Oh, everything looks amazing. Thanks. 50 men ahead. But it is interesting how much genetics play a role in this. But you could definitely affect it through lifestyle for sure. Well, how much is your, like, someone like Doug, who lifts weights, super healthy? It's one factor, dude.

So LDL is probably the strongest correlate to certain issues. But you look at all of your cholesterol number. So your total LDL, HDL, you can even break it down to look at the particle size. but then you've got to look at other stuff. Blood pressure, strength, body fat. You got to look at your triglyceride. Look at all these other metrics. It's a part of a bigger picture.

By itself, unless it's extreme, it's not the best predictor. So, okay, so is it common with people that do have issues that be more serious situation? Like, Doug, I'm assuming that most case, if he was your client right now, you'd be like, I'm not really worried about it right now. We're fine or whatever. But what tends to come with that? Would high blood pressure be something that typically followed that for somebody who's... It's connected to heart disease.

Yeah, so that's why I asked about blood pressure. It's connected to... Well, blood pressure for sure. You don't want high blood pressure. But here's a deal. Doug uses dose and it improves his cholesterol numbers. Okay? That's a good thing because dose is natural.

And so it's essentially improving his health. He takes a statin. A statin is reducing the production of cholesterol is liver. Yeah, it's a blocker, right? And that doesn't necessarily mean you're healthier. Now, in some cases, it could be a good thing. But in other cases, like prescribing a statin to somebody like Doug, there's a lot of controversy around that. It's like, why would we do this?

He's super healthy. Yeah. It increases his risk of brain fog, maybe even dementia. So I don't know if it's a good idea. And you'll hear scientists talk about this. It's a little bit. But if you have like this dumpster fire and the person already had a heart attack, then they'll throw something out. Then it makes sense.

Then you'll see the data shows. By all means. Yeah. Yeah. So this would be cool. I mean, you're really good about being concerned. with your stuff, so I can't wait to see what a difference. It'll be interesting.

And you're going to do it for 30 days, 90 days? So I have three bottles. There's eight servings per bottle, so for 24 days. And we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. All right. Cool, right off. Yeah, good.

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You can get free sirloin tips for life, free chicken wings for life, or free ground beef for life included in your box. Butcherbox.com forward slash mind pump. Back to the show. Our first caller is Lindsay from Alberta. Hi, Lindsay. How you doing, Lindsay?

Good morning. Oh my God. I'm so sorry. Good. Yeah. Good. Good. I just had a question essentially about building muscle.

I've been working out consistently for about four years. The first two years of that were quite low calories. So I was trying to lose weight. I lost about 50 pounds. Since then, I've been trying to grow muscle, but I'm currently in a cut. Obviously, you can't fill muscle that way. I'm just wondering, do you think I should do like a straight-up bulk? Should I do a body recomp?

Because my main goal is to build my glutes. And obviously that hasn't really worked. And it's kind of getting frustrating because I bought the workout part down pat. It's just mostly the nutrition and calories and stuff like that. That's you need to be dialed in. So we need more information. But just right out the gates, if you're frustrated with your glute growth, then you would go in a bulk.

Yeah. If you want to make it happen real slow, like imperceptibly slow, you could try playing the recomp game. Okay. Which is really, let's like, takes a long time to see and feel anything. Okay. And also considering your background, you said you lost a lot of weight with real low calories. But I do need more information.

So let's start with your nutrition. What does it look like right now? Right now, I'm about 16 to 1,700 calories. I try to get a focus on proteins on about 140 grams. I try to focus on full foods when I can. I do track all of my food just because that's what I was doing with a trainer for so long. So it's just kind of been ingrained in me to track it. Yeah.

And so how many grams of fat and carbs you're having? I don't really properly check that. Fat, I'd probably say about 50, 60 carbs, quite, I think a decent amount of carbs. Okay.

That's why I thought your fat's probably really low, but you definitely gonna have to increase your calories. Oh yeah. We're not building an ass on 1,600 calories. Yeah, I know that. The only thing is like when I look online on like a TD calculator, it varies like 100 calories,

depending on which one I look at. So I don't really know what my actual maintenance is. Well, if you're eating, what is it, 16, 1700? Okay. And you're not seeing anything happen right now? Then that's probably become your maintenance. What does your workout look like? I do four times a week.

I do two upper body, two lower body, one focused on quads, one focused on glutes. Okay. And then your, and then what is cardio and daily steps and all that stuff look like? I don't do any cardio at the moment. I might do a spin class here in there, but I work as a waitress. So I get quite a bit of steps, probably like 12 to 15. thousand a day. Yeah, your calories are way low.

Way low. Yeah, you're going to have to go up at least 300 calories. I'd like to put you on one of our programs, too. So I'd like to put you on a MAPS program and then bump your calories at least 300 calories right out the gates. Okay. And that's just a start. You're probably going to have to go up again after that.

But that's a good, like, little bump to get you going. Okay. And then I'd switch the program out. Muscle mommy. Do you have muscle mommy? Do you have muscle mommy? No, I actually haven't tried one of your programs. I just didn't know.

It's fun to do. Oh, yeah. If you want your glutes to grow. That was a glute focus. So we'll send you muscle mommy. Follow that one. Increase your calories by 300. You need more fat in your diet.

That's pretty low. You're like at the borderline. So I'd get them up at at least 70. Okay. And then you can take the rest of the calories and throw them towards carbs. Your protein's fine. Okay. And then follow muscle mommy.

And if you're getting stronger, it's working. Yeah. Focus on the strength. Hold the 300 calories. Hold the 300 calories for a couple weeks. you should probably see the weight might go up a pound or two on the scale, but then it'll level off. When it levels off and it's holding for at least a week or two,

go up again and just keep playing that game. So the goal is can I add two or 300 calories and kind of maintain the scale weight around the same? And as long as I'm doing that, I'm just going to keep bumping up those calories. And I'm not worried about seeing a fluctuation of three to five pounds up or down. Like definitely at least to go down. We've got to push the calories harder. Yeah.

I expect you to stay around the same or even go up three or five pounds on the scale. Not a big deal. What you'll notice is more energy and more strength is what you're going to notice right out the gates. And then Justin had, he made a comment earlier. And that's why I was really actually, I didn't even ask you this. Are you doing traditional strength training? Are you resting in between sets?

Or are you doing like circuits and train them? No, I rest quite a bit, like three to four minutes in between. Oh, good. Good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's good.

Yeah. Within a week or two, you're going to just feel. way more energy and way stronger, and you know you're moving in the right direction. Yeah. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. You got it.

Thanks, you're calling in. Okay. Thanks. Bye. It's so interesting how so many people, especially women, come up with the idea that they're going to build muscle eating 16 hundred calories a day.

Yeah. It's not going to happen. No, you need the food. You need the materials. Yeah. No, no. It's not going to happen. I would say it's almost impossible,

unless you're a complete beginner and you started a thousand calories, in which case you're severely, you're severely undermuscled, but if you don't feed your body, I don't care what else you do. If you don't have the nutrients, nothing's going to happen. That's really going to grow. Wasting time. Well, we were just somebody, we think that the building process is in the gym. It's not.

No. It's not in the gym. It's the rest, recovery, and the eating that builds the muscle. And so if you don't feed the body enough calories, you don't recover and rest properly. And that's the other thing, too, is like, you also have to keep that in, like, someone who's training four times a week is also moving as much as you. And a waitress. Yeah. Yeah, moving as much as she is and then that low calorie.

So that's low calories even if she was sedentary and training once or twice a week. That's super low calorie for somebody who's going four times a week, training that much volume. And then also moving as much, it's just like, yeah, you're not going to build on that. And the thing to, yeah, the thing to consider, too, is, you know, when you're doing something like this, are you seeing strength gains in the gym? And if you're not, something's wrong. Strength turns into muscle. It's one of the strongest correlates to muscle growth. Our next caller is Alex from Florida.

What's up, ma'am? What's happening? Hey, I appreciate you guys taking the time to take my call. Yeah, you got it, dude. How can we help you? So I'm going to do what I pretty much heard everybody else do, and that is read my question, but I'm going to add in some stuff that's kind of happened since I sent it in.

So overall context, I'm 41. I'm weighing about 245, 250. I'm 71 inches tall. I've had a BMI of about 35 to 34. And as of my last in-body, two months ago, I had around 31% body fat, which translates to roughly about 80 pounds. So for the past two years, I've been doing a bunch of barbell training, lifting two to three days a week, and trying to get back into running shape after I had a foot surgery back in 2023. To do that, I've been eating around 2,300, so that breaks out to like 200 protein, 63 fat, 240 carb with about 35 to 40 grams of fiber,

which when I started that, was told that that was like a 2 to 300 calorie deficit for what should have been my maintenance. For the two years prior to that, I was eating about 100 to 200 lower than that. And before that, so call that four or five years ago, I was eating at 1950 because that was the number I had. I believe that at the 1950, though, I was starving myself and I never, like, fully recovered from that. And over the course of this, what I have figured out is I'm having some very crushing fatigue and I'm not seeing progress in the gym to kind of make a long story short. I recently decided that, the appropriate goal for me is to get into that 15 to 20% body fat range and not try and get to an actual scale number.

I'm active duty military and they're changing fitness component to be a two mile run that for my body size right now to get a passing score, as I'm married my dirty lawyer here, would need about a 16 and a half two mile run. I'm about a minute slower than that. All to be said, I don't feel like. like I'm making progress in the gym. I don't, based on the energy crashes alone, I don't feel like I'm eating at the appropriate level for how I am training. And I am looking for help because I realize that what I am doing is not working

and it is beyond my skill set to solve. Okay. All right. Good question. Yeah, you're correct. You're on, you're on track of like too low for sure. Are you, is it tracking accurate? Like, you're giving us numbers.

Is this consistent? you track or are you guessing or are you like estimating? When I am tracking, I am fairly consistent. I am using a scale. Now I'm about 75, 70, that's called 70% consistent. Because obviously on the weekends is what I tend to fall off the track. Okay. So we actually have no idea what you're eating then.

So we need to know. We don't know. Because when people are, they've done a, listen, so many studies on this, it's ridiculous. and even people who know are under, just underestimates impossible. So if you're saying 70, 75%, I can pretty reliably say your calories are higher than what you're reporting. Probably so. That being said, knowing your background and your workouts and how long you've been training,

I also think you're probably doing too much. Now, on the surface, on paper, it doesn't look like too much. But cumulatively over time, if it's been something that you've been pushing for a while and staying consistent, then it's probably time for less volume. So is the number one goal for you, because we also need to prioritize what the goals are, is the number one goal to get that runtime, or is it to get leaner,

or is it to build muscle? We've got to pick one. Honestly, at this point, it's the get leaner. It's probably been that for about four years because I feel like if I can do that, the rest should flow from that. Okay. Because I'll have, in theory,

less to push around. Okay. So I would, okay, get real consistent with your food intake, including the weekends. So real consistent. I'd start you off around 23 to 2400 calories. You're going to need to bump your fat. You put your grams of fat up there. It's pretty low. So I wouldn't want to see you have less than like 70 grams of fat in your diet. I think your strength training is okay if it's a couple days a week with running. Or you could try Maps 15 and you can do and you can focus on getting. your runtime a little bit better, which would look like a couple runs a week. One would be one mile as fast as you can. Another one would be a slow two mile. And you'll pursue that. But you've got to be consistent with your tracking because you can't reverse diet yourself unless you know what's really happening.

Yeah, Alex, I'm going to take a guess at what happens right here just because this is kind of common when somebody is really good about measuring and tracking during the week and then on the weekend they're not. and where you're telling us your calories are when you are tracking is low for what you're doing. So you under-eat nutrients during the week when you're being good. And then on the weekend, you over-consume in calories and probably still under-eat on things like protein that you need. Absolutely. I think that's absolutely the case. And so this is like a recipe for a hard plateau, is that I'm doing all this work.

But then what's happening is I'm underfeeding the body what it needs to build muscle and to see progress. during the week. And then I go on the weekend. I overconsume the stuff I shouldn't be eating. And I, and I still miss nutrients that I need like protein intake. And that is just like an absolute recipe for I'm not going to build muscle. I'm going to hold body fat and getting stuck in that. And so I don't know if you've listened to the show for a long time, but you'll, I've talked about this a lot about winning the weekend. Like if that is your thing, yeah, if that's where my battle is. Okay. So if that's your thing, I actually don't even, to start this kick off, focus on just those, two days more than anything else. Like the Monday through, you've already proven that Monday through Friday,

you can measure track and you hit stuff. It's like the new goal going forward, if you're my client is we're going to crush Saturdays and Sundays. Saturdays and Sundays are going to be your best days. Like that's, we need to go in. If you really want to see this change, you want to be dialed in, then Saturdays and Sundays are become your best days. And then I know what will happen is the rest of your week will be pretty good too because it's, that's already, you've already proven that's easy for you. Meal prep for your weekend. That's right. You got to be, that's got to be a, a, part of your weekend is meal prepping. That's right.

So like make that a priority and make that a goal is that I'm going to track and dial my weekends in. And then I bet you if you do that, you'll start to see the rest of everything else come together. Totally. And then do you have, do you drink on the weekend? I don't drink at all. Oh, good. Okay.

Good. That's it. We gave you. Because I got tired of feeling crappy after I did. No, good, dude. No. So it's what's happened. Adams right on point.

Do that exactly be consistent with it? Watch what happens. You'll start to see your body. move in the right direction. Okay. What program you want to send them, put them on? 15. 15.

Okay. Yeah, Maps 15 with the running. It's going to seem like a little bit of strength training, but it's, it's, I think it'll be, I was, I was actually thinking about Maps 15 performance. Would that be something that was appropriate for what I'm trying to do? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Any of them would be great. So let's send you that one then. Okay. Yeah. And then I'm going to have Doug throw you in the private forum if you're not in there already. So I'll have Doug put you in there. And so you can just kind of keep us posted.

I'm, I'm guessing if you, you win these weekends for in the next two, three weeks in a row, you'll start to see a big difference already. Totally. Okay. All right, Alex. That's it, brother. Stay in touch.

Yeah, most appreciate it. Thank you. Keep us updated inside the form. We'll do. All right, brother. So when people don't track consistently and they give you numbers, this is just coaches know this. It's under.

Yeah. It's always under. The weekends get a little loose. Here's what it looks like when they, actually, when they actually control this and they look at this, you know, somebody eats 2,100 calories, Monday through Thursday, Friday, Saturday, maybe Sunday they get a little looser. It actually looks more like 3,000 calories on Saturday. It's worse. It's so easy. It's worse than that, Sal, because not only do they do that, but then they, you know what they do? They eat 70 grams of protein. That's right. And they eat a fuck ton of saturated fat and a bunch of extra calories. And so, so. And then you add it up and average it out. And it's like, you're way over. Yeah. You're. You're missing your goal protein for building muscle. You're over consuming the calories for burning body fat. And so you're in this like hard plateau of not seeing any results.

At least he's not partying late at night. Yeah. Yeah, I had to ask that. I thought that too on top of it. But yeah. Our next caller is Brianna from North Carolina. Hi, Brianna. Hello.

Hi. How can we help you? Well, I'm so glad to be here. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question. I'm just going to go ahead and read my email because I tend to talk a lot and I want to stay on time. Hi, Mindana. My name is Brianna. I'm a longtime listener since 2017 and have valued your podcast so much over the years. I've shared it with everyone I know and now my husband and I discuss the podcast daily since we listen separately on our drives to work. I would describe myself as a fitness fanatic and while I do enjoy all fitness to include running, don't hate me, I especially enjoy weightlifting and have been lifting for about 14 years.

My overall question is, where do I go from here? I had a baby 17 months ago, and although I quickly lost the weight, my body was still very soft and soggy, mostly around the midsection. I've been steadily gaining weight, and it seems like nothing I do is helping. I'm almost back up to what I was when I gave birth after coming back down to my pre-pregnancy weight, and I'm confused as how I got here. Some background and context, because I have a complicated situation. So 2014, I had a hip pinning in my right hip because I fractured my femoral neck.

I made a full recovery, got back to lifting and running, completed a half marathon in 2016, began getting really strong in my lower body lifts, continued this for nearly a decade. I ran a full marathon in 2023. I lifted most of that training cycle because I didn't have a kid and any other responsibility, so I had plenty of time on my hands. I did run into some knee and foot issues at the end. of the training cycle and probably over training now thinking back. After that marathon, I decided that I would take a year off, get back to lifting, and then in 2025, I would run the 50th Marine

Four marathon. Well, I found out I was pregnant in 2024, but I decided that I was still going to go forward with the marathon. I gave birth in December of 2024, trained for it and ran the full marathon in October of 2025 at 11 months postpartum. I had a relatively easy and uncomplicated to pregnancy. I did anabolic at the beginning, switched to symmetry after that was done. And then following my birth, I slowly returned to lifting, doing kind of like what you guys say. I did bans only at about six weeks postpartum. Then I did a few weeks of traditional lifting with the stability ball, how you guys described starter, even though I don't have that program. And then I switched over to Maps 15, about two and a half months postpartum.

But this is also when I had to start getting into running so I could train for that marathon, didn't have time with a brand new baby to do both. My husband was also training for the same marathon, so we're just passing baby back and forth, coming and going. So I had to prioritize the running. Didn't lift as much as I should have, and I think that led to some imbalances in my muscles.

Following the marathon, I had some hip issues again. Point got it checked out. There was beginning stages of another stress injury. So I was put into physical therapy, restricted from any impact activity and any lower body lifting. I had begun MAPS 15 again, but with the restrictions on lower body lifting, it felt like I was doing hardly anything. So I switched to MAPS muscle mommy, so where I had a little bit more volume that I could actually accomplish in a workout.

Sometimes I don't get to do the whole workout in a day. I would do a couple exercises one day, finish that workout the next day. I kind of do, like you guys say, don't look at it as a seven-day week, but just pick up where I left off when I have time. I've been tracking my protein. I get about 145 to 175 grams daily. I was assuming I'm probably around 2,000 to 2,200 calories a day. I've been doing that for the past four-ish months now. I eat all full natural foods.

I do protein powder. And then at my gym has an in-body scanner. So I've been doing that once a month just to see if I'm going in the right direction. Other than that, I don't really step on the scale. I usually do 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day. I previously was clear to do a walk-to-run program because my job does require a fitness test twice a year. After meeting with the doctor, he said, hold off on that, nix the impact. I'm still clear to do lower body lift, really have to listen to my body, not overdo it to not exacerbate the issue while I'm still healing.

But it's been over four months of all this strenuous tracking now that I've stopped breastfeeding. and my baby's mostly sleeping better through the night. And I'm not seeing any weight change. And on the in-body scanner, I'm not really seeing any composition change as well. I wouldn't really care about the number on the scale if I was seeing that composition change, but I'm not really seeing any of that either.

I'm not sure if the inability to do any lower body lifts is affecting my ability to see progress. But I feel like I'm spinning my wheels and nothing is helping. I don't know where to go from here or how to make meaningful changes. I used to be really jacked and muscular, and now I feel like I'm a busted can of biscuits. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Please help.

Brianna, thank you so much for calling in. Great descriptors. I know you've been listening to us for a long time. You probably know what we're going to say. Well, my husband asked me the same question. And I was like,

no, I don't. Because usually when callers call in, I'm like, oh, you know, I'm already pegging like what you're going to tell them. And I really don't know.

But for you. We assume that, Sal, you're going to say, give it grace, wait for at least two years to start feeling like myself. But other than that, I don't really know.

Well, okay, so let's back up, right? So you had a hip pinning. You had a foot injury. Yes. You had another stress-related injury. You run marathons, and you continue to run a marathon through pregnancy while doing MAPS, Anabolic and MAPS symmetry? No, so that was postpartum.

I gave birth in December of 2024. I trained for the marathon and ran out of 2025. Okay, okay. So do you feel like you tend to overdo it? Maybe a little bit. Yeah. Give you a better answer. It's okay.

Listen, it's okay to say yes, but not be ready to tackle it. I mean, you had a hip issue. You had a hip issue and you decided to still go run a marathon. Yeah. Like, that wasn't enough for you to be like, maybe I shouldn't run a marathon. Yeah. I mean, I was so close. I was like, after all of this, I was like, might as well send it.

No, no, no, listen. No, I feel you. That's the attitude right there. Listen, I totally, I feel you. Feeling in recovery is boring for you. 100%. I feel you. So I totally understand.

But you got to be honest. Like, do you think you're over, do you think that you have a history of overdoing it? Probably in the past. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you, I think that's your button is to go, go, go. Yeah.

And I think your body stopped responding. After it sent you a bunch of injuries. Lots of signals there. Yeah, there's a lot of signals right now that your body's like, you're just going too hard. You're just like, the second you get clearance and you feel okay, you get after it again. And unless an injury stops you is,

is a little bit of the pattern. And so you're just, you're just overdoing it, huh? Let me ask you this. Are you ready to let go of this? Or do you still want to keep your arms tightly wrap around this, even though it's producing no results in injury?

Can we take? Well, I have, like, decided to give up running for the time being. I still want to be able to lift because that's what I really enjoy. However, with my job, I don't know how much I can give it up completely, just because, that would in my career which

what do you do for work I'm in the military so we do have to do fitness tests there is sometimes hikes or you name it whatever might come up that we have to do

that's easy yeah no no no no that's easy no you're lying to yourself super easy for you Brianna you're training well above and beyond what you need for passing those tests you know that you can pass those tests no problem

you can train for that easy there's not a military marathon test. Is there? No. Okay. I didn't think so. And you definitely can't do it if you keep... They're normally like a mile or two type test. And you definitely can't do it if you keep hurting yourself. Yeah. It's really hard to let go of. But you're going to have to... So I know what the answer is for you. I don't know if you're going to want to hear it.

And I don't think you can do it on your own because you've been doing this for so long. I think it's real uncomfortable for you to stop doing some things because you're forced, like you just said, for the time being. So your way of letting go of it is actually. actually controlling it, right? Okay, fine. I won't do it for now. Yeah. I'm going to wait until I feel better and I'm going to get after it again. And then I'm going to hurt myself. And if I do, then I'll stop until the doctor says I can. And I'm going to tell you right, it's just going to get worse. Bree, it's going to get worse and worse and worse for you. And you have a kid now, which adds more responsibility and stress. And you're, you're still young, but as you get older, it's going to,

your body's going to rebel in ways that are going to suck. Like, really suck. And I don't want you hit that. Just out of curiosity, have you checked your hormones? Um, so I had done a full panel, probably in 2023. I did a course, um, Sear where we weren't allowed to eat for like eight days and we were running through the forest and stuff. Um, that really wrecked me. I went to a functional medicine doctor. She did a ton of test. There was no like glaring red flags, but a lot of things just kind of off. Yeah. Um, and she did put me on a protocol that kind of helped my body get kind of back to normal. And I've started doing some of those things again, taking some of the supplements. But I haven't gotten them checked post-pregnancy. Yeah, I would definitely do that.

Just because a lot of the stuff, as much as you've been beaten up on your body, after having a kid, too, this is sometimes where you start to see that start to come. Listen, it's not going to help you, though, unless you change kind of where this is all coming from. Here's the answer. You need to work with a coach. You got to let go of it. If I give this to you, I know what you're going to do with it. I can give you advice right now. I know what you're going to do and take. I know how you're going to take my advice and how you're going to apply.

I've just trained a lot of people. And so I know what it's going to look like. And you're going to let you might do it until you start to feel good and then go back to your old ways. And I'm just letting you know it's going to get way worse and way harder if you stay on this path. This is not a physical challenge for you. It's a psychological challenge.

You got to let you got. This is not a thing that you can muscle your way through and overcome it like you have with everything else in your life. This is going to be a psychological challenge. I'm going to encourage you. Okay, let me encourage you a little bit, okay? You're really coachable. I know you're really coachable because you're in the military.

You know how to take orders, okay? So you would work well with a coach. Here's what will happen when you work with a coach. It's going to be scary and then you're going to start to feel really good. And then the psychological part is you're going to want to do more, but you're going to feel really good. So I think sometimes the fear of letting go of all of this is, oh, cool. Now I'm going to gain 50 pounds of body fat and I'm really going to get out of shape

because I got to like rest. That's not how it works. What it's going to feel like is like, huh, I'm starting to feel better. Hey, what's going on? I got more energy. And then suddenly you're like, my body's responding. This is weird. I don't feel like I'm doing anything to make my body respond.

At least not compared to how I used to train. That's right. I have worked with a coach previously for probably about two years up until I got pregnant. And then it was like I couldn't eat anything. And half the time I was too tired to go to the gym. So I just felt like it was a good time to like set. And I don't even think she coaches anymore. But she had gotten me to feel like a really good place.

I was eating probably close to 3,500 calories. I was probably really lean, probably leaner than I should have been. So I know that like a coach is probably a good idea. Just don't know how to find a good one because. Are you kidding me? We got them. No, no, no, no. We got them.

We have coaches. We got coaches now. We have coaches that we hire train and develop. So I'll send you, I'll send you somebody to call you. And if it works for you, work with one of our coaches. And I'm going to give you just, I'm going to be straight up with the timeline. This is going to take a year. Mm-hmm.

Okay. Now, that doesn't mean it's a year of no results. It's going to be a year of results. But it's going to be a year, probably a year of work. No setbacks. Where you're going to, at the end of it, you're going to be like, I can do this. Like, I could totally do this on my own. I see how this is how this.

I totally understand how I was before. I don't just know it in my head, but I feel it in my heart. And this is going to be totally, totally different relationship. ship of all this. Your performance is going to explode. You're going to build muscle. You're going to be stronger. You're going to get lean without feeling like you're beating yourself up and you're not going to hurt yourself. That's what it's going to be like, but you probably have about a year of this. Yeah. I think part of it is like, I know what to do, but doing it for myself is a lot harder. And so having somebody else take all the brainwork out of it makes it so much easier because I just can do

what they say. And then I'm like, okay, that's great self-awareness. Great, exactly. Great self-awareness. 100%. 100%. You're going to be a great client. I know it. I know it. So is there any like, I'm about to finish up muscle mommy. And I just don't know if there's anything that any program I should do next, especially with the limitations that I have or if I should. Coach will modify it all for you. Yeah. So that's their job.

That's their job. Their job is to continue to inquire much deeper than we've inquired. And listen to your- Our programming in there. And they modify it on the way. So it's what you're going to follow is MAPS Brianna is what you're going to follow. Okay. Yeah.

So the coach is going to individualize it. And as you work with them, they'll modify it as you go along. because you're working with a coach. Way better than any of our programs are written for the masses. As well as we can write a program, it'll never be better than a coach working with you and individualizing. So you're going to get Maps Brianna is what you're going to get. And then as far as diet,

like I used to track like every single piece of anything that went into my mouth. But now that I have a daughter, it's a lot harder because I don't like being on my phone to like track everything and I don't have time to like weigh everything out. I just kind of like have to go with the flow. is there a way to do this with out having to track every something? Yes, we have strategies. We definitely have strategies around that, 100%.

You're actually the majority. Most people hate tracking too long. It just feels like too much. I used to like doing it because it gave me like all the facts, all the data was right there. But now I just like I don't have the time. Yep. Oh, 100%. No, this will be great.

And you'll see us too because we like to pop in with our coaches and our clients. Okay. Yeah. Thank you for calling in. You're going to do great. Thank you so much. I've definitely taken so much value from you guys over almost 10 years I've listening to you. And this is always in my car, whenever I put the podcast on, I tell my daughter, like,

oh, Uncle, Uncle Adam, and Uncle Gus and her, you know, they're going to join us on our drive. And, yeah, because that's all she hears is mind bump in the car. That's so awesome. Thank you so much. God bless, Brianna. Thank you so much. Yep. We'll see you.

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, dude, totally. She's going to be a great client. Yeah. But, you know, you see somebody in there to call me. Oh, when I asked. are like, do you think you're doing too much?

It's like, she doesn't want to admit it. Because I know what it. She likes it. Because I know what it feels like. Admitting it means that all you got to do someone about. Yeah, I could do that for now. Yeah, it's always temporary. Yeah, my, even the healing, it's temporary.

I just had a hip, hip impingement, and I decided to go run a marathon after that. It's like, hmm. While I was pregnant. That wasn't. Rational thought. Yeah. Well, she's a killer, though. You know what I'm saying?

So that's how she's approached her in the right direction. Yeah. Our next caller is Avery from Michigan. Hi, Avery. How are you doing Avery? Hello. Hey, guys. What's happening?

I'm doing good. Okay, so my question is about fat intake while cutting. I consistently find that fat is the hardest macro for me to hit, especially when my calories are lower. Protein is usually no problem. Carbs are easy, but fats tend to fall short unless I really go out of my way to include them. So I'm wondering when calories are limited is fat intake, something that can be slightly sacrificed

in the short term or is unnecessary to consistently hit? a minimum target of optimal fats even during a cut. Essentially, how strict should I be with my fat macros when calories are tight? And does the minimum number of fats stay the same, whether my calories are up or down? Right now, my calories in this cut are around 17 to 800 or 1700 to 1800. My protein, I usually try to hit a gram of protein per pound of body weight. So I'm right around 130, but I usually go over that more in the 140, 150 range. My fats, I'm aiming for, 60 grams, but I tend to fall under that. And then I just fill the rest with carbs. So real easy fix, Avery, would be to switch your meat choices to higher cuts, higher fat,

higher fat cuts. So when someone tells me they're eating that good of protein, which is great, you're probably doing things like chicken breast, fish, leaner cut meats. So just switch to chicken thighs and rib eyes and enjoy a try tip and go to fat of your cuts. You'll be fine. You know, here's why, though, here's why that's so important. Okay. There's three macronutrients, right? Proteins, fats, and carbs. Only proteins and fats are essential.

Carbohydrates are not essential. What that means is if you don't eat enough fat, your body will not function. So this is what it looks like in a female when her fat intake starts to be chronically low. Hormone issues, skin issues, nail issues, mood issues, hair issues, you ain't building no muscle. So you need the fat. Okay. And I know we sell protein all the time. But sometimes what happens, and this is more common in women than men, is they're like, cool, I'm going to eat chicken breast and tilapia and have protein shakes because I don't want the calories.

But you really need fat. You need it. I would, let me ask you this. How often are you strength training? What does your activity level look like? So I'm currently, I just restarted anabolic. So I'm in the gym, three days. a week. The days that I'm not lifting, I usually am just, I'll either go, like, walk for a little

bit. I try to hit around 10,000 to 12,000 steps a day. And I can do that pretty easily, just from my day, my day at work and everything and walking the dogs. But, yeah, so I'm straight training three days a week and then 10 to 12,000 steps a day. You feel better if you bump your fat and if your calories need to be a certain number, cut the carbs and have the fats. I want to challenge, I want to challenge you, another way, Avery. I'm looking at your height and your weight. You are tall. You're 5-7 and your 135. Instead of trying to cut into the body you want, try and build into the body you want. I get clients that are at this point, because at 5-7, I can have you shredded at 140, 150, shredded to the bones. So you can be a heavier weight on the scale. Just with muscle.

With more muscle. And you'll look the way, you'll look 3% leaner. So you could easily go up to 145 and look like whatever it is you're probably trying to cut down to, 130, 120, whatever that number is. And it's just so tough to do that. It would be way easier to bump your calories to say 22, you know, 100 calories, and let's get strong and let's build.

And then, and not get attached to what the scale number says. And watch what happens in a month or two. And I bet you have the body that you're trying to cut into right now. And you'll be eating. Now, I know why this is scary because I'm reading your email. It says you lost 50 pounds. Yeah.

Yeah. So two years ago. Yeah. So it sounds scary because you're like, oh, great, I'm going to increase my calories than the 50 pounds that come back on my body. It's not. No. You're just going to get stronger and build muscle. I'm definitely, like, I'm not, I want to grow and I definitely want to put on more muscle mass.

So I've been kind of like when I purchased anabolic and ran it for the first time, I did have my calories, like, slightly above. maintenance. So I was aiming for around like 24 to 2,600, which like I can do easily. And I like doing that. And I like, you know, getting stronger. And I really do, I want to like put on more muscle so that I can look the way I want to look with, you know, at my, my weight and my height. I want to, you know, I'm not afraid of like gaining. I just, I want to look good. And I know that comes from like, I need to build more muscle. But I'm also like right now, I'm, I'm getting married in July. So I, do, like, want to look a certain way for my wedding and everything. Yeah.

You want to time it out. What happened when you were doing the 2,400 calories? What happened on, like, on the scale and the gym? Like, what did you get out of that? Um, I felt really good. I always feel great when my, like, calories are higher and I like, you know, seeing my lifts go up and everything. It's really encouraging.

Um, but then, like, once I hit that point where I'm like, okay, I need to, I need to bring it back a little bit so that I can, you know, look how I want to look for the summertime and especially for my wedding. coming up. So I've been trying to, like, go back and forth between doing, like, three weeks with my calories higher, and then I'll cut them back down for, like, another three weeks. And I've been trying to go back and forth, and I don't know if that's, like, going to leave me stranded. Yeah, no, no, no, let's back up for a second. Did you gain any weight when you're at 2,400 calories? No, no, I've maintained, I've been, I've been sitting, like, really comfortably between, like. Oh, Avery. Yeah. Avery, that's a Goli, Ox.

No, no, this is easy. Here, I'll give you a comfort because I know it's scary for it. You're getting married. Yeah. Okay. What are you at right now? 1800? Yes, yeah.

Okay. And I just reversed that this week. So I was, I took two weeks that I was sitting right around maintenance or slightly above. Okay. Which was what? Around 24. Okay.

Let's go happy medium. Stay around 22, 23. Just stay there. Keep working out. Okay. You'll get a little leaner and you'll probably build a little bit of muscle. Just stay there. Weddings, July what?

July 10th. So we have a lot of time. Yeah. So the thing, too, is like I already started my dress alterations. So I'm not supposed to like fluctuate and weight at all. But I feel like with my calories right in that like Goldilocks zone, I can maybe build a little bit of muscle and stay like comfortable. And I definitely want to like put more emphasis on my upper body and specifically my shoulders.

So can I take some like of the volume from. the lower body and the anabolic and maybe put it towards muscle mommy. We should give you muscle mommy. Muscle mommy is a nice shoulder and glute focus. Yeah, shoulder and butt. That's what muscle mommy is.

But here, so check this out. Okay, so you're getting married, which is stressful because you're planning it. You're doing all the stuff for it. You're getting your dress altered, which means you can't change too much because it needs to fit when you get married. Cutting and bulking is also stressful.

You're controlling everything. You're trying to watch this. Like, what's how? Just sit at like 22. 200 calories from now till then. Just chill. You'll be great. That'll be your best bet.

Stop going up. Stop trying to go down. Stop worrying about everything. Enjoy your workouts. Follow MAP's muscle mommy. 2200 calories will give you a nice little recomp by the time you get married. And you're not going to stress over cutting bulking, three weeks here, three weeks there. What's going on?

Just enjoy now till then. Relax. And you're doing just fine. Have you considered getting coached through the process? Would you want someone to coach you to the wedding? No. And, you know, there's so many things that go into the wedding and so many expenses. I don't think it's like something that is in my timeline right now.

Yeah. But like what you guys were saying sounds great. I feel like that I can easily eat that much. And that would help, like, having that little wiggle room to be able to add in some fatier cuts of meat that will help me with my fat intake. Yeah, dude. No, I think if you stayed at 22, follow Muscle Mommy and just enjoyed your workouts, you would get a nice little, you get a nice little recomp by July. Okay. You're healthy and you're good and you have plenty of time.

There's nothing for you to worry about just so you know. There's like a lot of different ways that we could go about this. Here's what happens. A lot of women in particular, guys do this too, but women are particular. Before their wedding, they add way more stress with their workouts and diet. Way more. And they end up getting worse results because of it. Or they rebound crazy afterwards.

So my advice is just chill, relax. Enjoy your workouts. 2200 calories. Stay right there. Don't worry about gaining and losing. And you'll get a little bit more definition and build a little bit more. definition to build a little bit of muscle by that time. That's it.

I'm going to have Doug put you in the private forum so you have access to us. And then just as you, you know, keep update us like once every three to four weeks. That would be great. How you're feeling and where you're at? Because I think you could even end up pushing your calories more. If you were already at 24 and you saw a no weight gain on that, because what will serve you the most right now is building as much muscle and because we can always like, I could do with you.

Like, let's say we got crazy and we built up to a hundred and 45. pounds and you put muscle on. You're like, oh, my God, I'm too big for my dress. Three weeks before the wedding, we could cut hard aggressively. I just don't want to add stress. If you're like, if it sounds relieving to you to like not worry about this, then do what I said. It definitely does. And like that's, I don't want to have to add more stress in the process and stress my body out with like trying to cut and go back and forth. Like it is, it has been something on my mind. And I also don't want to like look a certain way on my wedding day that doesn't look like me. So I feel really comfortable and I fall really comfortable around the weight that I'm at.

And that calorie range is really familiar to me. So it does feel like a little bit of thigh relief. No, chill. Enjoy your workouts. 2200 calories. Have fun in your workouts. Enjoy your workouts. Don't even worry about it.

You're going to be totally fine. Okay. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, guys. I really appreciate your expertise and it's very helpful. Congratulations. All right. Thank you so much.

You got it. It's a stress. That was the main thing I'm talking. What you're saying, Adam, 100%. She's working with a coach and she can let go of it. Yeah, I do. But she's, I can tell. right away we're talking about.

She's like, I got three weeks here, three weeks there. On top of like managing all the wedding stuff. It's like, no, no, just relax. Cool autopilot. State 22, you're fine. You'll be good. I mean, she's such in a good place.

This is like such an easy thing to do that we have lots of options. You have plenty of time. She's already at a good weight. She's young. Like she, I mean, she's got, she's already been at, she's already seen what 2,400 calories to 2,600 calories does. She's not over training.

Yeah. Yep. Yeah, no. She's in a good place. Overthinking it. If you like Mind Pump, come find us on. on Instagram.

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