Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2884: These 5 Exercises Are Almost Never Done Right (And It's Hurting Your Progress)

Episode Date: June 20, 2026

In this episode the guys break down five popular exercises that are almost always done wrong and sending people backward — jump boxes, hip abduction machines, circuits, renegade rows, and ultra high rep training. They also get into the science behind why ketone IQ works (mitochondrial efficiency, BDNF, and clean ATP production with no stimulants), Sal taking his wife to see the horror movie Obsession and deeply regretting it, the SpaceX IPO and the 4,000 new millionaires it will create overnight, 24 Hour Fitness removing basketball courts to add more weight room space, Jacob Collier and the guys' appreciation for elite musical talent, and Mind Pump offering 80% off select programs to high school coaches and teachers. Then they coach live callers submitted through mplivecaller.com.   Mind Pump Fitness Coaching: [ https://mindpumpfitnesscoaching.com 1.9 NASM CEUs   MAPS Anabolic Relaunch: https://mapsanabolic.com Code: ANABOLIC for 50% off through the end of the month. Includes updated female blueprints, masterclass videos and three days of live coaching with Cole.   High school coaches and teachers: Email [e-mail] to get 80% off six curated MAPS programs for your students.   SPONSORS   Ketone IQ:  https://ketone.com/MINDPUMP 30% off subscription orders plus a free gift with your second shipment. Also available at Target stores nationwide.   Manukora Manuka Honey: https://manukora.com/MINDPUMP Code: MINDPUMP for up to 31% off plus $25 in free gifts with the Starter Kit (MGO 850+ honey jar, 5 travel sticks, wooden spoon and guidebook).   LMNT (electrolytes): ttps://drinklmnt.com/MindPump Free 8-count sample pack with any purchase. No-questions-asked refunds on all orders.   LINKS   Submit a live caller question: https://mplivecaller.com Mind Pump Store: https://mindpumpstore.com Maps Fitness Products: https://mapsfitnessproducts.com Instagram: @mindpumpmedia   0:00 - Intro 2:32 - 5 exercises that are almost always done wrong and sending you backward 3:12 - Jump boxes: the right way vs. how everyone actually does them 10:35 - Hip abduction machines: why they're not building your glutes 16:00 - Circuits: the one thing they're actually good for and why everyone misuses them 20:13 - Renegade rows: they're anti-rotation training, not a back exercise 21:31 - Ultra high rep training: when it stops being hypertrophy and becomes cardio 24:42 - Ketone IQ deep dive: BDNF, mitochondrial efficiency and why it's not a stimulant 27:15 - Sal takes his wife to see the horror movie Obsession and deeply regrets it 34:17 - SpaceX IPO and the 4,000 employees about to become overnight millionaires 39:46 - 24 Hour Fitness removing basketball courts to expand the weight room 44:13 - Mind Pump offers 80% off programs for high school coaches and teachers 54:18 - Caller: Katie (Maryland) training during a high risk pregnancy with placenta previa 1:08:29 - Caller: Karen (UK) 60 day check-in on MAPS Strong with shoulder injury and a cut plan 1:23:13 - Caller: Bianca (Texas) burned out teacher eating 1750 calories and getting nowhere 1:37:02 - Caller: Alyssa (Michigan) 60 day check-in rebuilding after overtraining and period loss  

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Look, if you want to make progress, stop doing these five exercises. They're wasting your time. They're sending you backwards. And it's mostly about how you do them, you guys. The exercises themselves are okay. You just do them wrong. Everybody does them wrong.

Let's talk about it. Let's piss some people off. Yes. So the things that I listed aren't necessarily bad. Well, you could preface this with something that we've said many times in the show that any exercise performed correctly and safely for the right reason right right it's great yeah the ones i'm listening here are almost never done misused exercises yes yes and this came to me today uh working out uh in the gym i was this morning i went to the gym working out

i'm doing real light stuff this week because i was sick earlier but i'm in there and i always you know i can see what people are doing and um you know my trainer brain is always on and i see you know sure enough couple women, older women, I'd say middle-aged, doing jump boxes. Wow. And I never, I've never, I'm trying to think right now, have I ever seen anybody do a jump box the right way? Ooh, I have. Very rarely.

Maybe once. Actually, I get excited when I see it. Yeah. Oh, this person knows what they're doing. Yes. Either they are a trainer or they've had a really good trainer. It's a trainer gym is easier. Yeah.

So jump boxes or jumping on a box, the purpose of this exercise is to improve your power. Yeah. Your explosive power. What you're doing is you're practicing and training your body to organize its muscles in a way to exert strength quickly. Okay. In other words, if you do a jump box the right way, it's not with fatigue because I'm not training stamina. I'm trained skill, technique, and the ability to generate force quickly. And what it looks like is I prepare myself.

I jump as hard as I can. I step down. I actually wait a little bit. I wait. wait for a while and then I try it again never doing it to fatigue nobody does it that way everybody does it like this jump jump jump until it get real tired yeah well somewhere around um I don't know if it was boot camps or like train where like trainers would find exercises that would just exhaust people and so um anytime you jump you know it's like physically

exhausting but uh it defeats the purpose of what you're actually trying to work on with this particular exercise. And it does. It gets under my skin because it's like a very valuable skill to learn and to maintain, especially as you age. But at the same time, if you're not applying it correctly now, we're not gaining any of the benefits from it. We're teaching ourselves just bad behaviors. The hardest part about this conversation for me is the guilt that I carry over stuff like this. And not all the shins. Exactly what Justin said is what I did. Exactly. Yeah.

And so, and what the guilt had come, because I wouldn't have guilt if, I didn't know better and I was naive. The guilt comes from, I knew better and I still did. Oh. That's where the guilt comes from. The guilt goes from.

I don't know if I did it that bad. Yeah, yeah, I definitely did. Oh, worse than we are. Thanks, asshole. You know, and off air one the other day, I think we kind of talked a little bit about this. that, you know, there came a period of time where I was training boot camps. I had them all over the Bay Area.

And I had always classes anywhere between 15 to 30 people. It's a good size class. You got a burgeoning business. Yeah, no, it was good. It was a very successful business. I had multiple trainers underneath me. I had camps running at multiple parks at a time. And so it was doing, and I think this is the part that I think through the guilt comes from.

Like the business side of it, I was doing very. well. But I knew this is again, this is also what led. The beauty of this story is that it's what connected us and why MAPS and Abalc was so special to me when you sent it to me is because I'm at this place in my life already where I know like this is how I should be training most of my clients. And that's what gets them real long-term results. Yet I have all these these successful camps that have got just an array of people from ages 20 to 60 to 60. you know, mostly trying to lose weight or get in shape,

and I'm running them through these circuit-based workouts. Knowing that this is not the best way to get to them, but also knowing that this was affordable for them to do, and so the justification is, well, this is better than nothing. They're moving. They're moving. You know what I'm saying? Exactly.

Oh, they loved it. I mean, that was the other part, too, is that they're loving, high-fying, and, you know, celebrating what an awesome coach I am, and all so with that. But inside of me, I'm going, I'm not helping any of these people, really. And so when we talk about this stuff, it's tough for me because I knew. So I wonder how many trainers, because we talk about how we see this stuff.

And it's like, you never see it done appropriately. Could we have that many dumb trainers out there? Is there that many bad trainers? Or is there a lot of them that might have been in the same spot as me? He's just like, this keeps them busy. Maybe that conundrum where they're feeding them what they want, you know. Yes. Yeah.

And a lot of times, yeah, trainers, new trainers. trainers especially will fall into that trap of really trying to cater to the expectation that the clients are to coming in with. And so they want like something super hard and fatiguing and, you know, get the sweat and the sore and all that kind of stuff. And it leads into these bad practices. I just got to, I just got to just back you up a little bit, Adam, because although you did that, what people don't know, is that Adam stopped those classes and then offered free mobility classes.

for years. Right. Okay, so we had mind pump going on for a long time. He invited everybody here for mobility classes for free for years and years

that will come in on a Saturday to do it. So you're not all bad. Guilt is a powerful motor beer. But, you know, jump boxes, if you do them to fatigue, you're just training stamina, in which case you can do anything.

You can run in place. You can do jumping jacks. You can do safer movements. Yeah. Jump boxes actually are, quite high risk to fatigue, especially when taking a middle-aged person who's trying to jump on something,

you know, how many times do someone trip over the box? Oh, I was like my biggest, yeah. The shin eating is brutal. Yeah, I, so I was doing these, I had some boot camp classes early on. The reason why I stopped them

wasn't for the same reasons. It was because I hated teaching them. So I was like, I'm not doing this anymore. Later I learned, you know, how to actually do explosive training properly. The reason why I put them on my classes was because I was trying to make them entertaining. It was like,

I'm putting a bunch of, exercises together. Let me pick a bunch of movements that seemed fun and different. Every class had to be different, you know, that type of deal. I used to, well, I mean, I used to do something cringe, too. And, you know, you're trying to make it exciting and all that. So I would, like, hold pads, you know, in there. It's so irrelevant.

You know, other people punching. It's the worst punches you've ever seen in rabbit punching. And I'm just, like, sitting there. Like, oh, my God, I hope no, like, real MMA. Well, you know, hey, you remember when we, remember when we became friends with Tony Jeffries and he came on the show a long time ago. That was like his, he was a, you know,

excellent, actual body, yeah, gold medalist, right? I'll actually teach him technique. And so, and so that was like his thing that drove him crazy was watching all these trainers.

And I remember when we first was like, oh yeah, I was one of those trainers who was holding pads with no boxing skills whatsoever. I hope nobody leaves one of those classes being like, I can fight. No, actually the guilt of that made me go get training,

you know, like learn the skill of it more thoroughly. But, like, I was just like, oh, God, it's cringe. Jumpboxes done right, have a lot of value. But nobody does them right. And so most people listening right now, if you're doing them, you're probably doing them for the reasons I said earlier, which is just a fatigue. In which case, you're wasting your time and or worse, you're compromising your body's ability to recover and adapt from the stuff that matters that you're doing, like your traditional lifts.

Next up, hip abduction machines. We're going to get flame for this. Everybody does them. Everybody does them for the wrong reasons. Look, guys, hip abduction, these are the machines where you open your legs, right? you push against pads and open your legs. And I know why people do them, women in particular do them, to build their butt. Okay.

Now, hip abduction has a lot of value for correctional purposes. Okay, so there's value there. Sometimes you need to strengthen the ability to abduct or stabilize in that way. So you can perform the real big movers, your deadlifts and your squats and your lunders. To give you more stability. The other reason why you would do these, and I have a hip abduction machine in my garage. And the reason why I bought them was so that my wife could do them to prime this part of her glutes so that when she does her hip thrust, she can, she knows where to feel the movement. Yeah, because sometimes she has issues with feeling the movement in the right areas.

And so as a priming movement or as a correctional exercise movement is great. But as a primary exercise as like this is one of the main exercise I use to build my glute meat or whatever, you're wasting your time. It's not a very effective exercise at doing that. But if you do it for the right reasons, it can be great at amplifying the effectiveness of the better exercise. It's almost like, yeah, I mean, just lateral movement in general is super neglected. There's so many better, you know, types of exercises,

like lateral lunges, caustic squats, you know, you kind of go down that rabbit hole. There's just, we don't move laterally enough. And so I think that's just like a weak little band-aid compensation for that. A lot of times people are trying, but they're trying to build for the wrong reasons too, though, like you said, it's just mainly for the butt. So would you guys put it in the same category,

or do you think these are similar, comparing the abductor, like, so the hip adductor machine to like a lateral raise? So what the, so you're working on the, you know, lateral head of the shoulder. Similarly, you're working on the glute mead. So like the side butt, another way to say that. Small muscle.

small part of the butt or small of the glute. Would you put it in that same category? No, I think you'll get more hypertrophy out of a lateral. Okay, so that's why I wanted to hear you articulate. You'll get more muscle hypertrophy from a lateral than you will from hip abduction. And then back to what you, to Justin's point, which is he made a very good point. If you want lateral stability, some of the best ways to do it are through lateral movement. The reason why sometimes hip abduction is better, it says it's low skill.

So I could take almost anybody and have them do hip abduction machine. Lateral movement, there's more skill involved and the movement with walking and dragging things or whatever sometimes makes it more difficult to do. And it requires a little bit more space and blah, blah, blah. So the argument that I would always make for this is why it's terrible is that there's far better exercises

to Justin's point that you can do that benefits you so much more for that. Like just doing a lateral sled sled drag, even tube walking. Yeah, tube walking is great. I would argue is better. And because we neglect so much in that plane, so learning to do that, getting good at movements. Caustics, getting good at those movements, it's so neglected. If I'm already going to want to work on my glute meat, for aesthetic reasons, may as well also do a movement that is going to have other carryover too that's going to benefit.

More functionality. Yeah, way more fun. And still give you the benefit you want, right? You want to build part of your butt, and you want to get better connected to that. Why not get better connected to build it and also do a movement that is got far more carryover to, like, human movement. And so, I mean, I would even argue, like, you know, like a side step up. You know, with a rotation in there. You know, the hip-up induction?

I can think of, I could probably list like a- There's at least 10 or 12. Which, by the way, it would be fun for us today. I just saw something. I was watching one of my basketball podcast stuff. Okay. And this would be a fun exercise. to do sometime with each other.

And it just pops in my head right now. So this, hang in there with this analogy. So the guy goes, I can name, the first guy goes, I can name one more guard better than SGA. And then I go, oh, I can name three guards better than SGA. And he goes, oh, I can go five more. And they keep going around. And then I call him out on it.

Yeah, and then I go, nine. And then the other guys go, oh, I can't name nine. You got to give me not. And so then now he's got a list. So I can name five exercises. Yes. And so that, like, so what came to mind was like, I could name at least three exercises.

better than that. And then if you can up me, up me, and then we'll keep going until somebody can't. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. I just saw it literally right before we got on. I'm like, oh, that'd be fun to do with the guys when we talk about movements like this. Because you know there's somebody on there screaming on the other side going like, I think it's the best of the- well, so here's another value. I'm not going to lie. This is a real value. Hip abduction, if you have a machine, it's easy and people are likely to do it. So when I say Cossack squats, sidesteps, drag a sled. That's a lot work. And you take the average person, go do this. They're not with a trainer.

A lot of them aren't even going to do it. They're not even try, but you tell them, get on the machine and, you know, do two sets of 15, right. Okay, sure. No problem. And so, they're just more likely to do it, which is another value. But again, the way most people are using hip abduction machines, waste of time. Next, we have circuits.

Circuits are to build stamina. Nobody does them right. People pick exercises, throw them together, form goes out the window, and it's like, let's just get as exhausted as possible. I can only name one value for it. Stamina.

Yeah. Stamina. Well, okay, no, I can add two then. What? Okay. Short on time. So, like, if I had a time where, like, it was like this, and this is where I like to use, I think, you know, trisets or.

Would a triset? Would you consider that a circuit? Yeah, I would throw a triset. So three or more? Yeah, three or more. I mean, I mean, we're getting to it. This is semantics. With it, sure.

But I would, I would argue three exercises or more with. no rest periods in between would be considered like a circuit. And so where would I utilize? And I would also lump hit style workouts in this category. And so where would I utilize hit or circuits aside from just trying to build, you know, muscle stamina would be short on time. Okay. And the novelty of it.

It's like, oh, man, that meeting ran late, cut into my hour workout. I've literally only got 15 minutes. I haven't done a circuit in forever. so I'm going to get a little bit of, you know what I'm saying? So I can see value periodically. You know what the issue with circuits is, is that when people do them, the fatigue is the answer. It's the goal. It's not about technique or form.

It's do as many as possible. It's get through it. A proper circuit like you're saying. Yeah. Technique is the most important thing. Like it's fatiguing, but you're not letting your form break down. Yeah. Whereas when you see people do circuits, it's like, go, go, go, go, go, go.

What do they call it? A gauntlet? It's just like, that's the mentality is like, I have to get through the form. this like obstacle course of movements. Well, the hard part, the hard part to justify it, like I'm saying, is that I can also play devil's advocate or argue it on the other side that that's a terrible idea. For example, right. So I'm working out in my gym just the other day and, you know, they've got this class going

on of, you know, nine people in a circuit. And I'm watching them go through. And they're literally doing like, I think, eight or nine stations for a half hour, you know, just going around. It's the whole time, nonstop, right? It's a repeat. Yeah, I think every once in a while, every five minutes, they get like a water break and then they're right back to it or something like that.

And I'm watching, I'm going like, God, everybody in this that's doing that right now would be far better of doing like one or two. Like they just barbell back squatted for five sets. We're going to do squats and overhead presses today. That's it. That's it. We only got 30 minutes together. We only got whatever minutes do you have together. We're going to spend that entire time just getting good at the barbells.

And like, and I would argue that most people, that would be far more bit. Now when I think of myself, who does a lot of that already, Who also knows technique and form. Right. And I go, where could I, would I ever use a circuit? Well, I could see. Like, man, I haven't, I don't train enough stamina as it is. I only got 20 minutes today.

Let me, let me, let me push through a workout like that where I'm not. I know I'm getting a bunch of strength gains from that at all. But it's like, I'm living on time. Let me try and hit a full body little circuit and get out of here. I think, too, it really feeds into the burning calorie mentality. Totally. I need a burn. You know, the highest burn.

That's what they're all doing it for. So, yeah, it's like. And again, the value of it is just the endurance of it. I mean, you know, when you talk to someone, it's like, oh, you like circuits? Yeah, it's a great workout. What do you mean? Oh, my God, it gets so tired and sweaty. That's why it's a great workout.

Well, I mean, that was a trap. I fell in with that boot camp, right? Part of why what kept me doing is the feedback is that every, I mean, the ones they loved the most were the ones where they were falling over at the end, exhausted. You know what they really loved? Not to go off on a tangent or a side street here, but you know what they really loved, Adam was the community that they built and the shared struggle. Oh, yeah.

Because they were together. Commiserating. They were going hard. And that actually builds bonds. And that's why they showed up. That's why they showed up. It's like CrossFit guys. By the way, the same people showed up to your free mobility class.

They would come as friends and it was that community that it built, which, you know, that's very valuable. Yeah. Definitely. Next, uh, renegade rows. Renegade rows look cool. This is the only reason why people do them. Do you know what a renegade row is for?

Anti-rotation. Anti-rotation. It's for anti-rotation. Everybody, but somehow people put it in their back workout. Yeah. Like, because it says row because it looks hard. It's a very specific application. It's to strengthen something called anti-rotation.

And I almost never see anybody doing it who's working on anti-rotation. What I almost always see is someone picking a cool-looking exercise and I'm working my back. And so now I'm going to do this. Yeah, this is another just fatiguing exercise. Totally. It's really, I mean, you talk about jump boxes and this is up there with those. I mean, this is like when you would see the squat, curl presses, you know, or like, you know, step up, step up, step up, step up, step up, step up, step up, yeah, I mean, that's, that's what, that's what this is. Step up press. Step up press. That's what, that's what this is. It's just like, this is, get that heart rate going. I mean, Renegade rows, because you're, you're planking, rowing, you know what I'm saying? That's a lot. And so it's just an exhausting exercise to throw in a, you know, in a circuit. Totally. And then lastly, we have ultra. high rep, anything.

What don't want to be ultra rep? High rep, like 30, 40 plus reps. At this point, it's cardio. Yeah.

You're doing cardio with weights. In which case, you could do something else that's going to be safer. It's hard. And you're not, you've lost the hypertrophy benefit. Now,

I know what the studies show that high reps, taking a failure, will build hypertrophy like lower reps, which is true, but there's a caveat there. Cardiovascular, when cardiovascular endurance

becomes the limiting factor, which it does, when you're going 40, 50 reps, it's no longer hypertrophy. It's just stamina. So if that's what you want, you want lots of stamina, there's better ways to do it.

If you want to build muscle, you probably are better off keeping the reps below 30, I would say. It's probably the limit. Yeah. I think to close the loop on this, because, again,

we always get like a knee-jerk reaction when we hammer it, because there's always guilt that comes with that. Somebody who was doing that in their workout today, right? Somebody's listening right now doing jump boxes. Especially trainers.

Yeah, you're like, Oh, right, right, especially trainers who have clients that listen to the podcast. Oh, yeah, they're just like, you know, yesterday I told me this bullshit you have me did. Yeah, yeah. So, listen, all of them, all of them are tools. The problem is that most people are using these tools for the wrong job. That's right. And so.

It's like hammering nails in with a screwdriver. That's right. So it's not that I can't make a case for doing all of these somewhere. Yeah. I can make a case for that. Can I. It's just that most people that come, hire a trainer or go to the gym workout, 90% of them are like body composition change or they want to get strength or like name the top three goals. Yeah.

And most of these don't align with that. It doesn't match with it. Yeah. And so you're using a terrible tool for the job. And then, and try and get, oh, you know what you didn't put in here that I would add to this list? 100%. I can't believe we didn't make the list. Burpees.

Oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, that's right there. How did burpees not make this? It's like a mix between jump box and renegades. Yeah, I was going to see, but that burpees should have made this. It's a great way to get tired.

Yeah, yeah. Should have made this list because you see those still all the time. Have you ever seen? That's the, you're punished and you go do burpies. Have you ever seen the prison? There's some dudes on social media that have these workouts that they did in prison. Yes. And they always involve like pushups and burpees.

Yes. And they have the specific technique. There was this one dude I was watching. I mean, he's straight out. I mean, you could see this guy's got, he's got his dickies on, he's tatted. And he's doing these burpees and these pushups. and it's like he's breathing. You can tell he's done these.

He must have been locked up for a long time forever. That's Wes Watson. Bro, he's just, that's who that is. He's going through like I'm watching TV. I'm like, that's impressive, bro. This guy's really good.

Oh, no, that's his, he has it. That's, uh, that's the way. I think he's going to jail right now. He's got two big cases. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's got two big cases on him. Oh, no.

Oh, no. Yeah, yeah. But I, I, I peek in on him every once in a while because I had a close friend of mine who was like super into all this stuff and was like swore by. his content. I'm like, bro, this is a grifter, dude. Don't fall for all this stuff. And like, and so I would check in every once in a while. I'd send him stuff like,

listen, and I'd try to convince him. He finally came around and realized that he was just a big fraudster. But what impressive is if you watch him do his burpee workouts, I mean, the guys definitely worked out a lot. Listen, I did a lot of burpees. If I had nothing better to do, bro, I'd be an expert on burpees

too, dude. For real. Anyway, I was, so you guys have, I noticed you guys have been using a lot of the key ketone IQ. Yeah. No, okay. Yep. Love the way it makes me feel.

And I brought up some of the science as to how it's exactly working. So ketone IQ is exogenous ketones. Okay, so you take a supplement and instantly you have ketones that cross the blood brain barrier. And now your brain is operating off the ketones. This is what happens when you're a ketogenic diet. So when people cut carbs completely, sometimes what you'll hear, oftentimes what you hear is people say, man, that's so much mental clarity.

like what's going on. It's just sharper. Okay. So here's why it's so why it produces this. First off, unlike glucose metabolism, ketone utilization requires no insulin. So no insulin is required to get this to give you energy. It leads to steady ATP productions. By the way, when you take ketone IQ within 30, 60 minutes, you've got the ketones going to the brain.

It improves mitochondrial efficiency. It boosts ATP output. put while lowering reactive oxygen species. In other words, it's like this really clean, efficient source of energy. They also upregulates BDNF. You guys remember BDNF? Brain-derived neurotropic factor. They call this like miracle grow.

Miracle grow for the brain. And then it's got anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects. So it downregulates certain inflammatory pathways. So that's just a lot of the science as to why, like, when people take, exogenous ketones like ketone IQ. And they're like, it feels like the lights were turned on. Like, why do I feel so sharp? It's not a stimulant like caffeine.

You can take it before bed. But that's what's happening. Such a hack. Because, yeah, before that, you'd have to like, yeah, really restrict eating to get in that ketogenic state where you feel those effects. And it's like, man, it's just be able to take that exogenous. I'd love it.

You really have to. It's one of those supplements that you really have to try for yourself because trying to explain it to somebody is difficult. Yeah, it is. Because it's not caffeine. It's not. like that, but you do get this energy, clear feeling that you get, which is similar to kind of like caffeine's like, but it, you don't get to, you know what I noticed the most? Any fog is gone.

That's it. I noticed the most is I, uh, I can recall, uh, what I want to say sharp and quick. Yeah. Like I feel sharp and quick is how I feel. Yeah, I feel like anybody who, who takes it can feel it. It's one of those, it's a supplement that you don't need, like you, you can take it. There's a lot of supplements that we take that we know are good for us. For example, like, I know I need vitamin D. I have results. that show it. You don't notice until the vitamin is real low. That's right.

Like, exactly. You have to be really deficient to notice. It's not like one of those things you take it and you're like, oh, yeah, I feel that. Oh, you'll feel this. Yeah. Yeah, you actually feel it when you use it. Speaking of feeling things, I made a huge,

just a bad husband mistake. Oh, boy. Just a bad, you know, I'm supposed to be, I'm supposed to be like the leader of my family. I'm supposed to protect my wife. Confessions? And I just did such a bad job. So there's a movie out called Obsession.

Oh, you went and saw that? Yeah, dude. So you were talking about going to see that the other day. So I, I did a, I saw a trailer and I saw the reviews. First of all, 94% Rotten Tomatoes. Like, how often do you see? That's right. I heard really good things about it.

Okay. So super high rated. And I watched the trailer. Like traumatizing though. And I watched the trailer. And first of all, I read about it. It's a super low budget horror slash suspense movie. Okay.

Low budget. So it's a million dollars to make. It's already grossed over $250 million. It's like one of the craziest. most profitable movies of all time. Now, I see the trailer, and I'm like, oh, this looks like it's very suspenseful. And it's low budget, which means it's probably not hyper gory,

it's probably like more of the kind of mental, like, you know, those kind of scary movies that you're like, oh, man, this is really good. It's a psychological trailer. It is that, but it's also way worse. So I take my wife, who's very sensitive to scary movies, and I'm like, listen, I really want to watch this movie. It got high reviews. I think it's more suspense than anything.

And so my poor wife trusts me and she's like, let's go watch it. And dude, let me tell you. This movie, oh my, I mean, if you like scary movies, it's one of the best ones I've ever seen. Really? Yes, dude. It's one of the best ones I've ever seen.

It'll get you, bro. It's one of those ones that you're done and you walk out to theater. You're not talking for like 30 minutes. Nobody's talking. Bro, it was, boom. Were you worried about how you're going to sleep? I can watch a movie like that fall right to sleep.

My wife was affected Like really affected, dude Like I could see it in her face Five times while we're watching it I rubber leg Yeah, like, stuff's happening Yeah And I'm like, oh, this is not good dude

I look at her Without giving it away But it wasn't like jump scare stuff It was just like a real No, there's jump scare too Oh there's that But it's so well made It's like I'll give you the premise

Because this is So I read I was curious about it Because there's a show That I did get into for a while Although after a few seasons, it got repetitive, like most shows do. And it's like, okay, same trick.

You're right, so I'm over it. But the first two seasons I really love, and Katrina and I got into it, did you ever watch you? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so when I read about it, it read kind of like that.

Yeah. It read kind of like this, like, and it really gets your ring going like, oh my God, people can get like... No, bro. So it's not. This will twist your psychological... Yeah, this will twist you hard.

And it does... There is gore in there, but they use it the right... You know when they use gore or the right... right way where it's shocking. Yeah. So here's the premise, because it's not going to ruin the movie. This dude has, he's got a crush on this girl.

He goes to one of these like, you know, like spiritual stores. And there's this thing that there's like this one wish something that you can get. You make a wish and it comes true. So he wishes that this girl will love him more than anyone in the world. So she becomes obsessed with him. And that's all I'm going to tell you. Bro. It's bro.

And the way it ended. Oh my God. Dude, it was bad, dude. And I'm telling you, I'm looking at my wife. See, that sounds kind of like you, because that's what the premise of you is, is this guy. He, something happens. Adam, you can't watch this. And he becomes obsessed.

I know you're sensitive. It will ruin you. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, you already said, gore and jumpy is, I don't like that. Dude, I kept looking at her and going, let's go, honey. Let's go. She's like, no, no, we have. And then at one point, it got real bad.

I'm like, I'm like, no, we're leaving right now. She's like, I have to finish it now. I'm like, oh, man, she's sucked in. Poor kid. She's got to write it out, dude. Dude. And then we come out and then, you know, she goes to the bathroom. I guess some of the women had to watch it, one in the bathroom.

And they were all talking about it. And they're like, I was too scared to scream. I want to scream, but I had to scream. Too scared to scream. Listen, you got to watch it, Justin. I know you will. I will. Yeah, yeah.

Wow. That is going to be a classic. Wow. Yeah, dude. It was horrible. Horrible. Did it just come out? It's been out long.

Yeah. It's been out for a lot. a while. I could see how much it's grossing right now. Well, I know you said that, but I hadn't even really seen any previews or anything for it. I don't think I saw a preview before. I was so disappointed Mandalorian, dude. That was stupid. Terrible. Yeah, that was dumb. You know, that's an example. I would go on record.

No story. The story was, I hate that part. They do that, man, where they take advantage of that occult following, thing like that, just milk it dry. Yeah. No, no creativity in it or no new anything. It's just that, oh, we know there's a built-in audience. Well, yeah, it also annoys me that they tie in a lot of, like, like cartoon content that they put out before and you're supposed to like already know about all these like characters that have been in these other you know stories and and too it's just like for me it's just so weak because it's like you have this opportunity to to make a big movie yeah you know and you make it like a tiny one off episode but you just expand on it and it's like i'll give you one lame i'll give you one scene from the movie it doesn't give it away one scene where it's like she's living with them at this point right she's obsessed with them or whatever And she's acting erratic and weird and very creepy ways.

And so he's like, hey, honey, I'm going to go to work. And she's like, okay, you know, you can go to work. You know, I'll just wait for you. So she stands by the door, which there's more to it. But he goes and he leaves. And she's standing there looking at him smiling and not moving. And he closes the door. And then he comes home from work, bro.

She's still standing there? She's still standing there. She's soiled herself. She's peed herself. She's like, vomited. And she's like, oh, you're home. I've been waiting for it, bro. And you're just like, what is going on?

I mean, how. It's so bad. How long until his, does he, does it tip? Because obviously when he wishes for that, the initial, initially it's weird. Right off the gates. Right out the gates. But then he likes her.

And then he's kind of like, okay. I'm going to figure this out. Oh, dude. It's bad, bro. It's good, though. It's really bad. Yeah. This is really bad.

Anyway, I just, I just, I just, read some stuff about SpaceX at him oh let's hear it oh god let's hear it now this is crazy and and so i got some some some questions i think some there might be some investment opportunities but not what i think not what we were thinking okay do you know how many millionaires their ipos expected to create that work at SpaceX do you know many millionaires how many people worked there 4,000 their IPO is going to make 4,000 people millionaires. And not like a million, probably like more than like millions of dollars. Well, I read that.

Four thousand millionaires. I read that three point, I want to say three point seven. Three point something billion dollars is basically partitioned out for Elon. Yeah, friends, family. And I think what is included in that is investors in Twitter. and his other companies, that they do not have a period of a vested period time where they because most time when you have an IPO like this and you're, you have to wait. If you were pre-IPO, you have to wait until a certain amount of time.

And I don't know what the average is. This is I'm speaking out of turn here. But I know there's a time that you have to wait before you can cash out. And it's normally beyond six months or whatever that, right? And they don't have that. So in other words, as soon as this thing hits and it goes to the moon right away, whether that's, 10%, 30%, they automatically can cash out, which makes them like instant millionaires

or cent the millionaires right away, which then appeases them if they've been investors in these companies that haven't paid them back yet. And so it feels very Ponzi scheme to me. Legal Ponzi scheme, because I know everything he's doing is, is he's hooking up his homey's and his friend. I will say this, he's highly scrutinized

because of his political positions and stuff. Like they want nothing more than to take him down. So he has to, you know, cross his T's and dot his eyes. But some people are saying that the IPO is an exit for a lot of people. Like that's why they're doing this is to get all these people to exit. Well, check this. That's going to tell you to Adam. So 4,000 new millionaires right out the gates.

Do you know where the vast majority of his employees live? L.A. I wonder what that would do to the property values out in L.A. Well, definitely the... It'll probably cause a spike, right? It'll definitely cause a spike in the higher, the higher, which you don't normally see, right? properties in the three, four,

yeah, properties in the two, three, I think it's like two point five is what they say or something like that, at least in our area, is like a slower moving market because of smaller percentage of people. So I'm sure of the, the high-end homes, I mean, probably...

Because that's got to affect that area. Yeah, I mean, I have... If a thousand of those people are in LA or 2,000 people, that's going to affect home prices out there because they don't have like a ton of... It's like this area. Like, one of the reasons why it's so...

Yeah, there's probably definitely not 500. $5 million plus dollar homes available right now. So it would probably impact that that now becomes a competitive market. Because you see that. Or like what my buddy does, which he does that over here, right, where he buys two to four million dollar properties, dumps two to four million in it and sells it for $15 million. Like so good time to be someone like that. Somebody who buys high-end properties that need like love to them and then and then put it. It's ready.

You have to relocating. I actually was watching a thing. I follow a bunch of like real estate influencer people so I thought was interesting I think I said to Doug of stuff that is

in vogue now for houses they're trying to say that the there's a case that we're going to go away from the big open space and back to partitioning like we were in the back of the days. Yeah I've heard a lot about that lately.

I was wondering, that's why I sent it to you I was curious if you had heard that too. No, I've heard that. That's weird to me. That's dumb. Why would you want that? I agree with this.

I think there's people are going back to more cozy type of environments. I'll give you an example. Think about our place in Truckee. Do you remember the houses we looked at in Truckee that the same square footage that they were big and open

and then our house and there's space in our place. But it feels cozy. So that's the part I don't like about our house. You want more? Yes. So I still think back of the house that we were on the fence

and then we went to that one. I know what you're talking about. Yeah. I love that open concept. Yeah. But maybe, but I think you would too because you're a big family guy.

There's, like, you, you, when my whole family is up at Truckee, we're crammed in that little living room. We're, in fact, it separates everybody. Half my family's in the kitchen. Half my family's in the dining room. Half my family's in, half my family's inside. But like, when you come to my house, because I have an open concept, everybody feels. Yeah. That's what I like about.

If I, now, if I was, if I was, uh, and this is why I'm curious. And is it because families are shrinking and that. And so if it's, it was just being, you're doing more. roommates. Yeah, if it was just me and Katrina. You know what? You're right. It's probably because families are freaking. Yeah, because if it's just me and Katrina, I would like a little part. I would like when we're in the movie room, I feel like I'm in the movie room. When we're

in our living room, we have a cozy living room. But we have so much family and so and I like, for hosting it's, yeah, you're probably right. I think it's also just trends. You know, things come, things go. But I think the open concept is great if you entertain a lot.

Yeah, of course. Yes. You want to you also trending? And I think that's, that's falling out of favor, right? We're losing community. Actually, yeah, I've been hearing lately, though, that, you know, the new thing is not to go to restaurants to entertain people, but to bring people to your home and entertain.

So I think that might be a trend. I hope that's true as well. You know what else is trending, which is interesting. Was it you that sent us the video of the 24 on Hillsdale, the remodel? Yeah, yeah. They're getting rid of the basketball court. Completely.

And putting more weights. Yeah. I wanted to go stop in since that's the old, stop me ground for all three of us. We should go together. I would love to go with you guys. Yeah, I would love to have interesting to look at that. It looks totally different. The gym trends in general are going towards weights.

They're taking all the square footage away from all this other stuff and moving towards weights, weights, weights. I mean, it's always made sense because even, I remember we talked to Mastroff about this. The wet area and the basketball court always is the least profitable. Yes. Per square footage, it costs them so much, so much, and it doesn't return very much. It was just like an amenity you like to have. And it's like, and if you look at some of the, one of the turnoffs, if you have been a long-time member of 24, it's been how overpopulated the weight room areas. I tell you what, the last memory I have of going to 24 to actually work out, I walked out.

And I walked out because I was there at a prime hours. I walked in the, into the freeway area. I kid you not, this is not an exaggeration. I never in my total career of being in gyms. I'd never seen this. Every fucking dumbbell was off the rack. Oh, man. I've never seen that.

I've never seen a 24 and it, there was, I was so, like, my jaw dropped. I went, whoa. Yeah. Every, every dumbbell was out to rack. I mean, either people were using it or they were on the floor and I went, oh, my God. And I just turned right around and I walked out. Think about two of you, you're eliminating the basketball court, how much drama you just eliminated. Oh, yeah.

You know, like all the, like, liability of that. Yeah, and just the fights and constant. That's a constant. That's a big space, too, for, I mean, you could add freaking. funds. Six. That's a whole other freeway area. Yeah, yeah.

A whole bigger. I mean, but I like basketball court. Listen, you manage a gym with a basketball court. 100% there's going to be a fight. Fights a week. I'm sorry, once a month. It's also where all the free people are coming in. I mean, I used to stop people from letting people in the back door to get them inside the basketball court.

Now, did you guys experience this as well? Because I'm, I, I grant regrind open that one, right? And when I had the basketball, they warned me. So it was going to be fights. I'm like, whatever, we'll break them up. It was the middle-aged dudes that would have all the fight. Of course. You guys see that too?

Yeah, yeah. I expected, like, kids, you know, like teenagers coming in. It's the same thing you see in Little League. It's a bunch of 40-some-year-old dudes. Yeah, it's all the dad. I lost one of my best trainers from a fight inside the basketball court. Yeah. Yeah.

Because he broke up a fight? No, he got into a fight, but it was like he was. He didn't start it. He didn't start a fight. It was like, like you said, middle-aged dude, punking him and stuff like that and swung on him. He's defending himself. And then he got a fight.

fired? Yeah. Yeah. You know why? Because all how the person he reported it. Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I remember that. I also got, this is one of the, the handful of times that I was put on leave and almost fired. So I got so angry because at that time, my operations manager was out of town. She was out on leave for like a week. And so the assistant operation manager was put in charge. Yes.

She had it out for this trainer. She didn't like him. Yeah. And so she stepped in and took. control of the situation and she wrote the report up and wrote it up in a way that totally made my trainer look like the antagonist and I got so angry I went in the office and called her out on it and I made the mistake of going to the office alone with her. And then she reported me from cornering her in the office and then again like they totally exaggerated the situation.

And you're not exactly soft and gentle. Yeah. I'm sure there was a little angry. So I'm I was sent home and almost fired for that one too. So a lot of lessons. I, one time, I mean, this is not one. There's many times this happened. But one time a dude runs out, bloody lip. There's a fight in the basketball. So I used to go, you know, attention trainers to the basketball course.

We'd all run in there at the same time. It would always stop everything. I didn't see a bunch of jacks. And it would just, the fight with some problem. But it was always middle-aged dudes. Yeah, yeah. What are you doing? Go back to your family.

I was just watching. I have some of memories. Like, you remember that? movie along came Polly. Yes. Where he's covering him the basketball court and the guy has his shirt off. He's got like balled in and he's got like just a hairy matted body sweat. And I remember having to always cover that guy.

Every time. And it was like they didn't just sweat like drops of sweat where it was like slime. Oh. You know what I'm saying? Like I, dude. And it was always shirts off immediately. He takes a shirt off. And I'm like, oh God.

You know. You know that guy knows that. Yeah. That's like part of his strategy. His back hairs on your face. Such an old man move, dude. I had some to ask you. So I, almost every night I, I make tea.

Like, chamomile tea is like my go-to move. And, you know, ever since we've been working with Montecura, is it right? Yeah, yeah. So I use that honey. So that's always the honey now that I put in there because of all the medicinal benefits and everything like that that come with it. And I like it. It tastes really good.

And someone DM me, because I, I happened to, I don't know if I talked about it or I showed it on video or something like that. And they DM me and they said, you know that it loses its medicinal benefits if I mix it in my tea. Oh. I didn't, is that true? Do you know that? Not really. Yeah, no.

So the medicinal, the compound in manuka honey, which is what Monocora is. And Monocora is a brand that has the highest amount of this medicinal compound called MGO. So it's MGO is what you're looking for. MGO, anti-bacterial, anti-bacterial, anti-demeanor. antifungal, antiviral. This is what you'll, you know, people will use. You put it on wounds, right? You can put it on wounds.

It heals. This is all data, okay? It heals wounds. You could use it in your mouth for gingivitis. You eat it. It breaks down biofilms in the gut. So if you have bacterial issues like CBO or whatever, sometimes bacteria create what it called biofilms.

So nothing can penetrate them. Right. It protects them. And MGO breaks down biofilms. Anyway, if you put MGO in really, really, really, hot water, boiling water, and leave it in there for a while, it will degrade it. But you'd have to like put it in your scalding hot tea, mix it in, leave it in there for like 15, 20 minutes. So the way to do it would be make your tea, you know, keep it hot, mix it in, and then start drinking it

and you're not losing much of it. Okay, because that's how, so first of all, I don't, I don't, so I don't, so I have a, um, I have one of those, uh, automatic hot water things. Have you ever? Yeah, so it squirts out hot water right away. Yeah, and it squirts it out at the perfect temperature. So it's before it hits boiling. Yeah. It's right where you can drink it. Yeah. Oh, you're good. So I use that. You're good. And then I steep my tea for, I don't know how, like, five minutes before. So wait until it's steeped and then add it after. Yeah. And then that's where I add my heart. Okay, so I'm okay. Yeah, I was like, oh, man, she may feel stupid. I was like, this whole time I'm using. We got this just a nice hack. Yeah, well, I have. We got this good honey that

I'm like wasting. If it's, um, de great. That's a whole point of. You should see, though, the, the studies on Manuka. It's crazy. Gio on burns. Yeah. On burns. It's wild. I wonder too like it and I know I used to train this lady that's like a world renowned opera singer and she had like a whole, you know, process before to keep her, you know,

vocal cords and everything all nice and ready. And then she would, you know, do all kinds of stuff with like hot water, lemon and, you know, some honey. I wonder if that would, you know, even using the Montecora honey would. So I'll use it too when I sort of notice I sort of have a little bit of a scratchy throat or what that. And I'll just go take a tablespoon of it. That's right.

That's what I do it all the time. It's so much thicker and better than regular honey, too. Even regular honey, I would do something like that. Now with my local honey with this, it's so thick, it coats it. It feels so good right afterwards. Yeah. Opera singers, like, legit ones, they make a good living. Yeah.

That's a really hard skill. It is. To do. Have you guys ever watched opera? Well, I mean, if you're in Italy, yeah, and I think, well, I mean, it's a very specific skill. It's very specific. Yeah.

She definitely gets. a lot of, like, big, you know, like, gigs, like, in Europe and whatnot, but... You guys ever... Okay. I know composers make a bunch of money, that for sure. Yeah. I'm going to go see one in the end of this year, and I like, the tickets, I was like, really?

Whoa. Composers or conductors? Is it not a composer who does the... Composer? The conductor. Conductor is the one at the front with the stick. Yeah, exactly. And then, so what's a composer?

The guy that writes to music or the person that writes to music? Can you be both? No. So if a guy gets... So the guy that I'm going to go see, I'll share the next podcast. I'll share, I'll have to show these guys.

He's badass. What's making you go to this? That's interesting. I like just stuff like that. I love, so, like, I listen to all music. Like John Williams.

I am into talented people. Yeah. I have, like, such an appreciation. Like, I don't, I'm not very, uh, like, you know,

people get like, I'm only rock or I'm only country and I'm only this. Like, I can pretty much listen, watch, go. I mean, I went, It's good.

I went, like, two weeks ago to go watch a play with my wife, like all, which was a, what'd call it a, a musical? Yeah, musical. You did? Yeah. What'd you watch? It was the one on Alicia Keys. Did you like it?

Yeah. Oh, yeah, you did tell us about it. Yeah, yeah. Went and saw it, Hell's Kitchen. It was good. It was based off of her, her whole. I love, I love musicals. Yeah.

I mean, again, if you are talented in, in, in your craft, I'm interested. I just, I find watching people that, that are. at peak, this and this guy who's a conductor. But I would call him a conductor and a composer because one of the things he does, it's sick, is live on stage. He builds a song in front of you. And he does it by his ear.

And so he has his entire orchestra, and he'll be like, okay, give me, and he coaches him. Give me a C minor. And he'll, no, no, no, a little higher there. Okay, hold that. And then he'll go to the next group. And then you get to watch him,

and he'll do it first time. ever. It's not like he's rehearsed it or they, the people, the orchestra that he's working has never rehearsed any of it. That's cool. He's literally coaching each instrument up and then it comes together this and this. That's cool. And you get to watch it. I'm just like, oh my God. I went down the rabbit hole watching him on YouTube and he's just unbelievably talented. Dude, was his name? Yeah, I'll find it. I know I apologize for bringing this up and I wasn't planning on talking about it. But there's this one guy on Instagram, Justin knows him. I don't know what his name is. He's a drummer. Oh, yeah.

And he does things with so fast with sticks. Oh, my gosh. This is going to piss me out. Yeah. What is, I have, I can't even believe he does have the stuff. I know. Yeah. He'll, he'll, try to remember his name.

He'll use the back of the stick. He'll flip it. He'll use a base. He'll even put a stick on top, like, balanced over a symbol and just, you know, shake it just enough. So it'll, like, hit all these, like, really, like, complicated. It's wild. How people. Oh, talented.

Jacob Collier. Okay. So he comes to San Francisco in, I believe, either October or November when we're going. But I mean, I'd never gone to something like this. So I look at Katrina. I'm like, well, where do you want to sit? I'm like, I want good seats. So sit close.

And then she comes back. She's like, you know how much we're paying to go see that close? I was like, holy shit. I was like, well, I didn't think it would be like that. But, I mean, obviously he's wildly talented and I'm sure makes good money. Yeah, I got his name is El Estapario. Siberiano. Okay.

But yeah, he used to go by a different, like, handle. He's so good. He's so talented. You got YouTube, Jacob Collier, and watch him do this. Okay. Like, again, you don't even have to be into this stuff, and you go like, that. I find it so impressive when people can do stuff. Like the worship leader at our church, Charlie, you met Charlie.

He gets this haircut here sometimes. He's coming here a couple times. So he sings and he plays the guitar. And the other day, we're at church and he's doing the drums. And I'm like, you play the drums, too? So afterwards I'm like, what else can do? It's like, oh, I also play the trumpet. Like what instruments can't be?

It's like to get bored, you know? Like you get like the top tier of like an instrument and then it's like, well, what do I want to learn next? Because you get into the recording of it and you're like sometimes you don't want to rely on everybody else to create your end result vision. He plays like five instruments. I'm like, what do you not play? Like piano. I know people like, I know a lot of people like that. That's crazy.

Yeah. I think I'm into that stuff so much because it's like I'm so terrible. I have no talent in my bone. So it's like so far beyond it's like, it's like, so far. It's like, for me. Because like I have like this much talent. And then like I'm around people that have like this much talent.

And you're just like, oh, it's crazy. Because I mean, and there's a, I guess a part of me too. I like, you know, neuroscience and neuropsychology. So there's a part of me that's like, what's going on in that person's brain that's so different than my. That he could do that. That he could just hear it and go, no, no, no. It's wired different. Just totally wire different.

It has to be operating on a whole different. operating system that might can fire on because I'm like I can't I can't pick any of that up but then you see it all come together and you're like whoa that's so cool yeah all right I want to mention this before we finish here that we we just we had somebody right in today who was a coach uh from a high school local high school oh yeah yeah and asked us uh about our workout programs for a student so he's a coach he follows our programs got great results it's influenced his coaching and he's like can is there way we could offer these programs to my students, these are kids at discounted rates. So here's what we do.

And we're just for everybody. If you're a high, if you are a teacher or a coach or administrator, principal, whatever at a high school and you want access. We put together six, we have six maps programs that we think are appropriate for high school kids. If you want, you can email us at, at, where we're going to email? Admin? Admin.

Not admin. No. And, yeah. And at Mind Pump Media. So ANN. A&N. So Ann at Mindpumpmedia.com. Write in that you're a teacher, a coach, you know, whatever, from a school, and you

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Back to the show. Our first caller is Katie from Maryland. Hi, Katie. You're doing, Katie. Hello. Hi, guys. How are y'all? Good.

How are you doing? Good. Thank you so much for taking my call. So I'll just jump into my question and I'll provide a little background, but feel free to poke and prod and follow up with any questions. No worries. Thank you. So my question is, what should my programming look like during a high-risk pregnancy when I've been advised, no heavy lifting or intense activity? So my background is I'm a huge fan and longtime listener.

I've been listening since 2017. Let's go. I feel like we are long-time friends, considering I've spent hundreds of hours listening to you guys. The content and programs have changed the way I view fitness, state, and family. I'm forever thankful for stumbling upon this podcast nearly 10 years ago. So I'm a 30-year-old female who has been working out consistently since I was about 16. I have followed MAPS programs exclusively for the last six years. Being that my husband and I wanted to prioritize having children with some information,

fertility struggles in the mix, I listened to your advice and took several steps to prepare my body for pregnancy. I was 115 pounds and I put on approximately 20 pounds, some muscle, some fat, in the last two years. I also dialed back my training to MAPS 15 programs plus daily walking to ensure I wasn't overdoing my training. In September 2025, I started IVF. I continued with MAPS 15, but with retrievals, transfers, and just overall side effects, I will admit that my my training was not always consistent. Fast forward to January 2026, I got pregnant. Because of a history of miscarriages in an IVF pregnancy, I was put in the higher risk category

from the start. At six weeks, I had a sub-porionic chematoma or SCH and actually experienced bleeding until about nine weeks. At this point, I was advised no lifting, no activity. Thankfully, that passed and the baby was all right. During that time, I was only walking, doing mobility, but no strength training. After that, I started to incorporate lifting back in. But between first trimester symptoms and just fear of compromising the pregnancy,

it was mostly body weight, some bands, squatting no more than the bar. Nothing was intense, nothing structured. At my 20-week appointment, I was diagnosed with a pretty severe placenta previa and was told again, no heavy lifting or intense activity. I'm currently 24 weeks pregnant and just feel like I'm spent. my wheels. I haven't done any structured lifting or programs throughout the pregnancy. I want to finish the back half of my pregnancy, healthy, and prepare for this baby's arrival. I also just enjoy movement in my daily workouts for my mental health. I had pictured myself being the fit pregnant

lady still squatting and deadlifting until day of delivery, but that has not been the case, which is a shame because I've actually felt pretty good throughout the pregnancy despite these complications. Any suggestions on programming or safe exercises I can be doing? I had considered map starter since you guys talk about this post-pregnancy, but I'm not sure if this would even be considered too much with my high-risk diagnoses. Yeah, thanks for calling in, Katie. I'm so glad you're, you made it. You're pregnant. This is great, and you've gone this far. So that's phenomenal. So let me just encourage you for a second, okay? You have a history of strength training. And if you did no strength training, you did none for a year, not even nine months. You did nothing

for a year. When you finally get back into it, your body is going to get, you're going to get strong very quick. The muscle memory is a real thing. So I just want to encourage you with that. Don't have a fear, because maybe you have a fear of like, oh, my God, I'm going to lose everything. And then what am I going to do afterwards? It'll be okay. It'll totally be okay. My advice to you is to walk. Okay. Yeah, I don't, I don't want you to do any strength training because of the risk that you're at, because of the, uh, the, um, the hematoma. and some of the other issues that you had brought up, I think lifting weights has too high of a risk for what is going on right now.

I also want to just add that pregnancy is really hard, especially for women who have a history of fitness. Now, I don't mean that because it's harder for them in the sense that they're not fit and their bodies can't handle it. It's harder because you're probably so used to your body doing what you want and knowing what you do, what you can do, to change how you move and your strength and your fitness, that suddenly it feels like it's not your body anymore.

Suddenly it's like, I can't, like what's going on here? I'm at the mercy of whatever the heck my body wants to do. That's really, really tough. I've worked with a lot of women before, during and after pregnancy, who were athletes or really into fitness. And this was always a big struggle for them. And they would always tell me like, this, that doesn't feel like my body. Like, I don't know what's going on.

This is really hard. Who am I? It's like your identity, you have kind of this identity crisis, which I think happens anyway through becoming a parent. But it's especially for people who are used to knowing their bodies, which is one of the pluses of fitness. You really know your body. You know how to move.

You know how to train muscles. You know what to do, how to make yourself stronger. And now you're in this position where you're almost forced. And nobody likes to be forced. But again, I'm just going to tell you, as a trainer, I don't think you should do any strength training. but I do think you should walk. And I also think you can overdo walking.

Because the risk with someone like you who's walking is like, fine, I can't lift weights. I'm going to walk the hell out of myself. And you'll go walking uphill and you'll go on crazy hikes. And you're going to try and turn the walks into workouts. So I'm going to just go a little deeper. I don't think you should work out at all. I do think you should move. But none of it should feel like a workout because of the situation that you're in.

But again, after you have your baby and you're cleared to exercise, take it easy. Don't overdo it. I think MAP started would be a great way to exercise postpartum and then be very gentle with yourself because your body knows what to do. You've got lots of muscle memory. Your body's worked out before. So you'll do a lot better than somebody who has never exercised. That's for sure.

By the way, you look amazing. Yeah. You look healthy and fit. So you're going to be fine. You're going to do great. let's go have a healthy baby and then we'll talk about what strength training

and everything looks on the other side. You look great. So I wouldn't want you doing anymore. It's all about taking care of that other life and making sure they're healthy, everything, your checkups are great. And we'll worry about you will be, you'll get in shape so easy and fast.

Yeah. And it's also, definitely about baby, but it's also about mom. So if you train your body when it's not going to respond well to stress, which is probably the situation you're in, you can make it harder for yourself later. So the recovery would be much harder later

if you overcame your body. And don't judge this whole process. Like, why can't I do this or whatever? It's like, this is okay. This is where I'm at. She's going to chill. My sister had to, she had to be in bed for pretty much the entire last trimester

of one of her pregnancies. They said you have to stay in bed, which for my sister is like, she's like a machine. She's always moving, always working, always doing things. It was very difficult, but, you know, now she's her kid, now that the kid I'm talking about now is 10, and she's doing phenomenal. So, so yeah, maybe not the answer you wanted from us, but definitely, I strongly, strongly believe this, that what we're saying is what you need to do. No, and I appreciate that, and that's largely what I've been doing.

Two quick follow-up questions. Is there a step count that I should be kind of aiming for? I mean, just the usual 8 to 10. Or, you know, do you have another suggestion with that? With you, this is different. Yep. That's how you feel. Yeah, I'm going to give you two answers.

So I would like you to just to walk to enjoy the walk. Pay attention, yeah. It's not going to be a workout if you start to feel a little tired like you went too far. What are you averaging now in your steps? About 8,000, but that's a lot of work just because of, my job and I'm pretty sedentary. So I mean, that's putting in, you know, extra walks with the dogs, extra steps, just, you know, around my meal times and whatnot. Thank you so much for your honesty. So I'll give you a number that you can't go above 6,000. That's your mass. Like that's the limit.

You're not allowed to go above 6,000. Yeah. And some days, that's all I get anyways. And that's your, that's your max. That's your speed limit right there. Yeah. Okay. All right. I can handle that. And then my other question is just like mobility. You know, I steal. lot of like, I don't say the TikToks, but, you know, pelvic floor therapist talking about just like hip opening exercises and things like that. Is there anything that I could be doing like stretching wise? Again, not a workout or not overdoing it that, but just preparing for labor. You have to be careful with stretching when you're pregnant because you're, you're much more flexible, your ligaments. Super elastic, yeah. Yeah, especially sort towards the end. In fact,

stretching can cause problems later on with, you know, pelvic floor issues. You know, shoes and pain. So no stretching. But if you start to feel pain, then I would suggest you talk to a specialist and then they can give you some movements to help you. So sometimes women will have pain in their pelvis or they'll feel that kind of lightning shooting pain that comes maybe towards the third trimester as things are starting to loosen up, in which case I would refer back to your medical professional. Say, okay, what are some things I can do because I'm starting to hurt? But until then, it's like nothing. Like don't, don't try to. go chase anything with mobility.

Just, you know, walk, limit it to 6,000 steps. And, yeah, and enjoy this little break. Okay. Well, it's definitely been a break. You guys have come out with so many programs during this time. I can't wait to try them all once babies here and everybody's healthy. Awesome. I'd love to hear back from you when the babies.

Yeah, I would too. Final trimester. We got this. Okay. Thank you guys. Thanks, Katie. All right. All right.

She's like, oh, I want to, you know. I mean, she's heading into her third trimester. She looks great. She does look great. Pregnancy's so hard, man. Could you imagine, I couldn't imagine. Like, what's one of my mind? It's like releasing control.

Totally. It's so hard because, like, especially for fit people that have that ability to show up. Yes. You know, like, improve their body. And then I hate, listen, I hate social media for a lot of different things. I really hate it for pregnancy. Because you end up seeing highlighted. are women doing crossfit and marathons and, you know, hey, I had my baby two months ago.

I have abs. And so then women look at this and are like, what's going on? What's wrong with me? And it's like, that is not, that's just insane. Nothing to do with you. I mean, also add the fact, so remember how she started this. You know, she's been listening for a long time. She took all the advice on, she intentionally put on almost 30 pounds.

In order to get pregnant. In order to get pregnant, right? And so imagine coming from 30 pounds lighter fit, you had to put on that. body fat so you could have a baby, then you have a baby, and then you're starting to grow a baby. So her body in the last year has radically changed for her. Yeah. So she actually's got really, I think she's got good self-awareness. She's totally open about I think she's going to be good. Yeah. You know, even when she asked how many steps, she'll rebound. I knew I had to ask her how many she was currently taking because I'm like, I'm going to,

I'm not going to give you a number. I want to know what you're trying to hit right now. Yeah. And let's scale it down from that. I know that sounds so different because we, and this is, I mean, this is what real coaching looks like. That was different advice than what we give to a lot of their people. But her situation, that is not. Risk assessment. I had a woman, I tried. And in her first trimester, she couldn't come to her sessions.

She would show up like one out of three appointments because she was so nauseous. Second trimester, she'd show up. We'd do a little exercise. Third trimester, she'd show up and I'd massage her. I'd work on her traps. And then we might do with something, or sometimes it was not. nothing. And it was just, it was good for her just to show up. And this was an ex-athlete. I know, of course, baby was healthy afterwards and we got to exercise after. And it was,

it was amazing, but it was really challenging for her. Our next caller is Karen from the UK. Hey, how you doing? She's back. Hello. Hi, guys. Thanks for having me back on. Nice to see you again. Yeah, if I recall, you were like a performer, right? Like you sang on stage and that's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah, welcome back. All right, cool. Let us know what's going on. right okay i'm just going to read it off here again yeah right um okay so um so i increase back up to 2,600 like you advised because when i'm told to do something and i'm do it so i got straight back on it i went and moved to match strong got to say by far up all the programs have done of yours love it absolutely love max strong so so got through phase one uh fine didn't

really see anything massively change. It wasn't until I got to about phase two that I started to see things clicking into place a little bit, like the 8 to 10 rep range, started to feel noticeably stronger, my lifts began increasing, I started to feel more confident. I kind of decided just to think, well, sod what everybody else is saying, I'm just going to focus on how I feel and what my strength is like and not worry about anything else. So, yeah, you know, you know, screw everybody's opinions, which is quite freeing, really. Generally, my clothes were fitting about the same. So I was thinking, well, that's what I expected.

I have not weighed myself until literally just before speaking to you again. I've not weighed myself at all. So I've got the in-body, so I've not been on it at all. So it's been quite freeing, really, not to have to do that in a sense. So that's been good. I hit a bit of setback a couple of weeks into face tour. I got gastric flu. Pretty horrendous.

and I usually eat through anything. Nothing stops in eating, but I couldn't physically couldn't eat hardly. So my calorie dropped to about 900 and it was all beige. Literally carbs because I couldn't eat any protein or anything and I'd try, but it's made me more unwell. So it took me a couple of weeks to get back up again, but I pushed myself back up to 26 again, had to stop training for a week, didn't think it was right to do anything. and then eased myself back in the following week, going lighter and concentrating on form more than pushing the weight too much. So it took me, I did an extra couple of weeks of phase two because I knew phase three was going to hit a lot harder for me,

even though favourite phase really is the pushing as hard as I can for, you know, less reps. So I thought I was recovering really well and I went into phase three, really excited about it. And then I developed sort of like a shoulder issue. It started to hurt. And I was like, oh, God, what have I done? So I decided to sort of adjust my training. I sort of took anything out that involved pressing above my head because of the discomfort. I just focused more on rows and curls and things which didn't hurt me because I didn't

know what else to do about it. And I just maybe focused a bit more in the bottom of my body. So I did get through the whole. of strong, but I felt like it hindered me slightly, and I haven't been able to do it exactly as set out, I just to try to see myself through it as best as possible, really, because I did want to give up on it after how far I've come. My improvements, my positive smallness, my squat went up about eight pounds, bench press up about 22, which is what's really annoying. So I felt like I really, really did well with that one. Hip thrust, up about 33. So I'm doing it all

from home, it's quite hard to get up with, you know, and I'm just trying to push it up myself. It's quite hard to push that amount of weight on my own, sort of without machines or anything, I think, but I'm really pleased with that one. And my dead lifts up about 11 pounds as well. So I feel like strength-wise, I've done really well. I can see some more muscle definition. I can definitely see it in my arms. I can feel it. So that's really good. Weight-wise, I've popped up a little bit. Muscles about the same. Fats up a little bit. but I don't know whether that's because of what's happened in between all of it, really. That has pushed me back a little bit.

But I'm just really pleased that I didn't track my weight. I stopped tracking my sleep as well because actually found doing that put me more stressed about my sleep. I'm now sleeping really well. My progesterone is continuous. All of that has levelled out massively. So, hormonally, I'm in a really good place. I just feel like I just, I feel a lot better in my confidence, which is what I was aiming for is to stop worrying about everything.

so much, but I just think that I do feel like I'm ready for a car. I have got to that sort of point where I feel like I need a break. I don't know if it's the injury. Clothes are really in a struggle. I do a wartime show and I have to wear a war, like, Army uniform. And I've got one that I've had for years and I put it on. And I was like, oh, Jesus, this is like, the skirt is like maybe a bit too short now. I went into a care home and, well, okay, I couldn't bend over to put all my cables in

because I was a bit worried about giving everybody a heart attack. And one fella on the way out, though, said to me, I like your skirt, you said, but next time it needs to be a bit shorter. And I was like, yeah, right. You got to love these residents. They've got a great thing. So it's sort of what's the point where I've loved this whole process. I've really embraced it.

And I knew I had to come back and speak to you again. But the body fat has gone up. a little bit and I think if you can see in my photographs I feel like I'm fuller. I definitely feel stronger but it's not shown in my in-body results but I feel like I need that break just to try and shave off some body fat for a little bit because I'm going into summer and I'm wearing the same two outfits all the time and I just need that break really. I was planning to go to 21 from 2.6 with 130 grams of protein, 75 grams of fat and make the rest up with carbs. I want to go on to Muscle Mummy 15 because of my studying I'm going to start doing,

where I've already started doing it. It just allows me more time to, because the strong takes up quite a lot of my time because it's five days really, isn't it? And I love it, but it's sort of I need more time to get a study. And I just want to do a cut over the summer. But I do plan them to reverse diet back after three months, back up again. and I just wanted your advice and whether you thought that sounded okay and what you would sort of suggest program-wise that I go into to reverse back diet because I love strong. So that sort of program where there's something along those lines to be right for me.

But I also want to say thank you because I've obviously, I've just done another nutrition exam that I wanted to get my level five. But after everything I discussed with you, I love my singing, but I've realized that long term, I don't want to do it forever. and I then decided to sign up to become a person of trainer. So I feel like it's what's missing because I advise people day and day about their food intake and their nutrition and their health. And I'm telling them what they should be doing exercise wise, but I can't physically do it with them. And that's what I feel is missing. I want to actually be able to help them with that. So, you know, that's what I've decided to do.

So now I've started trying to be a PT. That's my next thing. So I just want to appreciate your advice. on what I've said basically. I think that's... You did a great job. Yeah, I definitely think your in-body's a little off. I'm looking at your pictures right now.

I mean, I can only imagine you you can see that and feel that, right? I mean, I'm... Yeah, I can feel it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I can see it. Your back, your back looks way more defined. You look like you built muscle and you look smaller.

Yeah. There's a one picture... I feel like bigger. No, no, no, no. There's a picture you sent. The one on the left is before, right? That's the before, duck? No, no, that's softer.

Okay, okay. So you did build a little bit of muscle. muscle. You might have gained a little. So I think what you're going is perfect with the cut. I think 2100 calories is absolutely perfect with the cut. No problem. I would like to see you do Maps 15 symmetry because your shoulder pain. Right. I did wonder if you might say that. I've got the actual symmetry program. I just don't have to 15. I don't know if I can cut it up at all. So Maps 15 symmetry. We actually have a 15 version of symmetry. Ah, right. Okay. And I think that'll be good for your shoulder. I think it'll be good. Right. Your strength gains are exceptional.

the 33 pound up on the hip thrust, the 11 pound of the deadlift, like, everything's stronger. I think it's, I think that's phenomenal. I also want you to know, too, a lot of times what happens, what you just went through to is the strength happens. And then muscle tends to follow. Yeah, muscle falls on strength. So it's not always like this direct correlation of like, oh, I got stronger, therefore I should have this much muscle. I feel like you're just like after getting sick like you did and then getting back in the rhythm and then the shoulder thing a little bit. I think you're actually in a really nice rhythm.

Now, I understand trying to lean out because of we got work and stuff like that. That's like in summer. I get that. But in a perfect world, I would probably only give you a break for a couple of weeks and then push you right back up because I think – Because I think you're primed to build more muscle. I think you really are. I think we're heading the right path. Now, the reduction in training volume, because 15 symmetry from strong is a reduction in volume, is a good place to go with a 500 calorie cut.

Yeah. And symmetry, you think is going to help your shoulder quite a bit. I think you have the right attitude Everything you're saying Like spot on the way you handled getting sick I think was spot on And the modifications you did because of the shoulder pain Spot on

I do think Now what I will caution you Is when you go on the cut To not weigh yourself so often No I'm not going to I've learned from this Okay good I think you're fine

I think 2100 calories with 15 symmetry Is totally fine Where are you averaging steps right now too I'm back So my activity obviously ramped up after, like I said, she originally in January, it goes a bit quiet. I'm around 10,000 steps a day. Oh, okay. Oh, you're good. Spending by gig. I'm 15,000 if I gig, because I move around a lot. Okay, wow. Okay. No, you're good. Yeah, you're good.

You're perfect. Perfect. Let's go. Go for it. 21. Now, when Adam said, if I was your coach, I would probably try and encourage you to do what Adam said, because what he's saying is 100% true. You almost, it's almost like clockwork. You get stronger, stronger, stronger, stronger, muscle. It's almost never stronger muscle, it's never, it's almost never at the same time. But nonetheless, there's nothing wrong with going in a cut, especially if you need the break.

Yeah, you're in a healthy place. You're in a healthy place. Maps 15 symmetries, lower volume. A lot of unilateral work, which is going to help your shoulder. I see nothing wrong with doing that. Oh, that's good. I did because I've done symmetry and I did think, oh, I wonder if they'll say that, actually, because I've also

got your prime as well. So I did, I've started to look through that. See, there's anything count me with that and prime as well there is something okay so what my suggestion to you before you do any is working out especially upper body stuff just do that zone one test where you're supposed to put your arms on the wall yes yes yes just do that four or five times before you get into a workout that'll help set you up in a good place plus yeah and plus because of your schedule i guess you're doing some more you're going into a season where you're a little busier 15 symmetry's perfect yeah yeah okay that's great and when i go back into

sort of reversing upwards again. What sort of program is you now? I've done strong and I loved it. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. Oh, great. That's good then. Yeah, you had two hiccups in there, right? We got, we got sick. We had the shoulder thing. You're going to come back off value. You could also go muscle mommy. Do you have that program? Okay, I've got that. Yeah. Yeah. If you want to do something different, you can go muscle mommy with the reverse. Yeah. She loves strong. Do strong again. There's nothing wrong with it. It's so, it's so novel too, right? It's so different than anything else and so you've got to experience it. Yeah, you've got to experience it. Run it again. You'll be fine. Yeah, such a good program, guys. I was getting into it thinking, this is amazing. I felt so great.

When I got to phase two, I just felt like I was sailing. I was so gutted when I got that gastric flu. Yeah. Because it's just it's just it to press the head out of me. Yeah. I'd love to see what it feels like for you to make it all the way through that program feeling good. I bet I bet you see even more increases and feel great. Yep, yep. Oh, that's good. Okay, I've got a plan. Brilliant. Can I just say as well, like with going forward, like with studying and everything. I just, I just, just want to say, I listened to an episode of yours, I was a dog, and it really actually made me cry a little bit, because you were speaking to a guy called Nicky.

Yeah. And if you know, Nicky, yeah, and I'll tell you what, you guys, I know this is a business for you as well, but that really was pretty epic to be in a few of them, because I know, coming from Neaton's sort of background, and that's what I'm trying to do with this, you see, I want it to be a business, but number one, I really care about

people, and I want to help people, wherever I can offer it, I will offer my services free for people to try and help them if they really need help. something like Nikki. And I just, I just want to say that because it really hit me hard today when I listened to you chat with that guy. And I thought what you offered and everything was exceptional. I just want to say thank you because you really do help people so much. And all of your advice, I just use it with my clients. And you give so much insight and experience behind. That's why I think you've inspired me to go forward what I'm trying to do.

So, you know, I really appreciate everything you do. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for helping me. Yeah, you're such a lovely, you're such a lovely person. Yeah, yeah. Stay in touch. So are you nice. Thank you. Stay in touch with us, Karen. Let us know how it goes.

Yeah, I will do. Yeah, you take care, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. What a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what a, she has a much energy. She'd be a great training. So her getting sick with the gas for flu, that's like, like, vomiting.

Oh, yeah. That's the worst. So, no doubt, she lost. Oh, yeah, yeah, no. She lost momentum and progress. She lost some muscle during that time. And then to be hindered by shoulder. That's why I wanted to run.

again because I think and she loved it. She loved it so much. It is such a unique program too. There's so much. I bet you there's movements that she was doing for the first time. So I mean, I bet the second time around she'll get it. But in a perfect world, okay, if I had her as a client. Oh yeah, no, 100%. And she asked for a diet break. I would totally respect that. Two weeks.

Two weeks. We go down to 21 and then right back up because I think she's primed right now to just. No, 100%. Yeah. No, 100%. No, no, totally. I love, too, the story of the guy in the care home. Just picture of this 89 new man. I know, right?

You can totally see that. It's a creepy old guy. Next caller is Bianca from Texas. Hi, Bianca. How you doing, Bianca? Hello. Hi, guys. I'm so excited to meet y'all, first of all.

Right on. Yeah, how can we help you? So my question is, I've sort of been on a long fitness journey, I'm sure, like most people. My question is, so what do you do when consistency fails you? because I feel like everyone preaches consistency. And so I was consistent with a plan that a nutritionist had put in place and I lost 36 pounds. But eventually I sort of hit a wall and then like a year later and wouldn't go below 199. And then when I started strength training again and being more active, I started like having energy crashes.

and it sort of stalled me. And then I started trying different things. And now I'm sort of afraid to be consistent per se, like in the wrong thing. So I don't know if that's the right question, but what do you do when you're consistent, but that doesn't quite work out for you? That's wonderful. Do you have quite a follow-up question of that? Do you have more challenges with the consistency around the exercise and working out or more

challenges with the diet or both? I think definitely with the working out because I'm a teacher and my nervous system is sort of burnt out at the end of the day. So, and I love strength training. So it is a little hard to be consistent there. Okay, good. Good. Good. Okay. So for me, the advice looks like setting more realistic goals for yourself. So stuff that you set small, easy wins. What that might look like for somebody. And this is. about this is all about meeting you where you're at. Okay. So this could be any, it could be you recognize that you really don't even step that much and you consistently only get about 4,000 steps. And so my goal with you would be something like, hey, let's just make 6,000 steps a day.

That's the thing that you always do now. Like that. Now, we'll build training. We'll do other stuff too, but like that's the one thing that we're just going to change that about your life. You never become a person who steps less than 6,000. It's an easy thing. I can go for a walk for 20 minutes every extra day, whatever that is, right? Maybe that's, really easy for you. So maybe it looks like let's just commit to like a program like grade eight where it's one exercise a day. Just one lift. Let's just let's be a person that just gets that one lift in a day. And so we need to find a place that it seems very realistic like, you know what? I know I can commit to that and then build build on that versus like I'm on or off, which is so

common for people that have been in it's like, okay, I'm going to do this thing. I got my nutrition lined up and I've got one meals plan and I got this program that says you know this workout three or four times a week for an hour and then it's like you do it good for a week or two then a stressful week at work happens and then it's just like then it all falls apart it's like start baby steps with things that you know you can commit to and you can know you can win and go win at it for at least a month and then we build on it and then build on it like that that's that's what I would do with you Bianca I have a few ideas and assumptions that I'll have to ask more questions to dig a little deeper. But I want to start by speaking kind of broadly. I want to take

like a thousand foot view on your question. So first off, consistency is the challenge with everyone. So it's not just you. So when you look at the data, weight loss is not challenging. For example, keeping it off is challenging. Working out is not hard. Continuing to work out is hard. So it's always consistency. So that's the big thing we need. to tackle is what is it that when people do this right, why do they keep doing it? And the easy, simple answer is because they love it. So number one, you need to find a form of exercise or a way to approach this where you enjoy it. Because if you don't enjoy it, then you're going to be, it's going to be a battle of wills. It's going to be a grind. So what you had talked about in the

past was I did it, but then I had energy crashes. Well, yeah, of course you're going to stop. You're not liking it. You hate it. So we need to do something that you actually genuinely like and enjoy and look forward to. And what that's going to feel like is it makes me feel better right now. It's something I enjoy doing. I feel better later because I'm doing it. Not it makes me feel terrible.

It makes me feel more tired or it takes away my energy for my work the following day. And I feel like I can't perform because all of those are like for sure. You're going to totally stop. Now, I do have some questions. So now we'll get back to, you know, a close-up view of kind of what's going on. You were following a diet from nutritionists, and then you started working out and you started energy crashing. My guess, and I'd love some details, is that your calories were way too low. They were at 1,400.

Okay. Of course you're going to crash. Way too low. Of course you're going to crash. Sorry, I do get between 10 and 13,000 steps a day, by the way. Yeah. Just naturally. So that's very low.

You're eating a lot. You're eating. Everybody would crash. It's amazing you weren't crashing just from that and much less the workouts. You slap on workouts on top of that. Are you, do you know what you're eating now? Any ideas? Yes.

So right now I'm at 1750 calories. And then I'm working, again, with a nutritionist, but I think she believed me now that I'm a little more active than she thought I was. And, but my protein is set out like 120 right now. So I don't know if that's enough. And, okay, and you're now, tell me a little bit about the workout situation. Is it a home gym? Do you have to go to a gym? What does that look like?

So I prefer working out at home because I do have a home gym. Okay. So it's just very practical and I'm more likely to work out at home. Wonderful. Good. Great eight, dude. Now tell me about your day. I bought the grade eight, by the way, so I do have it.

Perfect. Okay. Now tell me about your day. What does your work day look like? What grade do you a team? and what time do you wake up? What does that all look like? I teach third grade right now and I come into work at 7 a.m. I'm home by about four, but I come home to prepare dinner and just take care of some things around the house. I am a mom.

I have, well, I have one 13 year old. And then in the evenings, like after dinner, I'm pretty energy less. So that's been my struggle. And then it's either I go to sleep earlier and wake up early like at 5 a.m. to work out, or I figure out how to have energy in the evenings to work out. And honestly, that's been like my biggest struggle. Okay. So you're all day long, you're working with how old third year old, third graders, what are the eight, seven? Eight and nine. Okay, so a bunch of eight, nine year olds. And then you got a teenager at home. I have one, too, so I know what that's like. And you're eating 17, 150 calories. So are you, is this a nutritionist you're paying monthly? Yes. Okay. Can I make a suggestion?

Sure. Okay. Would you like to work with one of our coaches? Absolutely. Because 1750 calories is also too low. Wow. Now, how do I know that? How do I know that?

You feel no energy at the end of the day. Yeah. And working out, you're probably like, oh, my God, I got to fit this other thing in. And I don't have the energy to do it. And I'm tired. That tells me your energy is too low. You're an active person. Yeah.

You're an active person. 1750 calories would be the lowest that would put you after a reverse diet. Yeah. Wow. Okay. We need to build you into the body that you want, not cut you into the body. It's already too low. You feel so much better, yeah.

It's already too low. So phase one would look like this with one of our coaches. A reverse diet, you're probably going to follow a 15, Maps 15 or MAPS grade eight style program. And here's what we're looking for. How's your energy? How's your strength? How's your mood?

You're like, man, I feel good, and I'm getting stronger. But I'm not losing any weight. I don't care. Right now I want you to feel good, and let's get stronger. And we're going to do that for a little while. We're going to do that for a little while. We're going to stay in a season of feel good. I want you to be like Bianca, energy, amazing, creative.

I look forward to my workouts. I get energy for my family. And then when we reverse diet, you do a point where, like, cool, we got some runway, and you're feeling great. Now let's do a cut. Yeah. And then what the cut's going to feel like is you're losing body fat, but you still feel good.

Yeah. And you'll be higher calories than what you're right now. That's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's where we need to go. That's where you need to go. That's where you need to go. And then two suggestions around the workout. And then you can take either approach based off of who you are. You know, Sal is the guy who gets up at five o'clock in the morning and works, works out before he goes to the gym. I cannot do that. It's just, I mean, of course I can, I'm so, but I'm going to bed early. Yeah, that's not my, that's not my thing. Now, I also remember when I was having to commute and drive all the way back over to, my place over in Marina, and I would, like, I get home, it's like 4.30. And it's like, right before that, it's getting ready for dinner, play with my son, do my thing. And so what I found I had to do was like literally as soon as I pulled up in the driveway,

I was like, I go do my two exercises. And so my suggestion would be to you instead of like waiting to you kind of get home and you take off. Before you prep for dinner. Yeah, before you prep dinner and you kind of wind down and then think you're going to go in the garage and go get a workout, I'd be like, as soon as I get home. As soon as I get home, I'm going to just get those two exercises in if you're doing a map 15 or the one exercise in. If you're doing grade A, get it done right then and there. And then allow yourself to wind down for the night.

That would be my suggestion if you do the later one. If you go earlier like Sal, then just like you said. There really is no wrong answer. But here's what's going to happen with a good reverse diet. You'll have energy for either one. Because right now what you're probably juggling is I got to wake up early and I'm going to be tired or I got to do it after work and I'm tired. And so how would it feel to have energy in the morning and energy at night, right? Now you can do your workout.

Now we can build some muscle. Now we can speed up your metabolism. Now we can make your body, encourage your body to burn more calories on its own. That sets us up for the cut later on. But I would want you in a season of feel good, of energy, of getting stronger, and then later we'll worry about the cut. Because right now you're not in a position to cut. All you're going to do is fry yourself.

You said something that was like such a, an important thing that you said, I feel like my central nervous system is fried. Yes. Because you got a lot of stimulus coming at you all the time. Yeah. Your calories are low and you're actually walking and moving a lot. Yeah.

It's just not enough. Yeah. That's a spot on assessment. It is fried. That's a lot. That's a lot to be taking in, to be moving all day long, and then also try and pile on exercise

and to only be eating that. That's low. Yeah. And I got to tell you work with a coach or nutritionist that you feel like you have to convince that you need to eat more, they're probably not good. Wow.

Okay. Yeah. That's pretty eye-opening. I do feel like one workout and then it's like I'm depleted after. It's not even about being sore. I'm just depleted the next day. No, no, no, no. You should not feel like that after a workout.

You should feel energized. Yeah. Wow. And you're lifting weights and the primary focus when we're lifting weights is to build muscle. You will not build muscle on 1,700 calories moving 10,000 steps and feeling like that. There's just, you won't. You also all you're really doing is moving. And so it's like you're just moving more.

All that work that you're putting into the weights is not giving you the return you deserve for it. That we have to feed the body in order for you to build the muscle from it. And so that's the focus like Sal, so the next like six months, I'm thinking we're slowly inching those calories up. We're focused on getting stronger. That's all like stronger, feel better, sleep better, more energy. That's all we're thinking about for the next six months. And then we go the other way and then watch.

watch the weight come down and you feel good why it's happening. And then it's easier to keep off because your metabolism is faster. You feel good. Yeah. Because right now you're, yeah, right now it feels like you're hitting a wall because you are. You're running straight into a wall.

And by the way, what our coaches will also do is because they're also trained with exercise, not just nutrition, is to be able to take Maps, you know, 15, Maps Grade 8, and they'll turn it into Maps Bianca. So it's going to be very individualized for you. Yeah. Yeah, that'd be awesome.

Okay, okay. I'm going to have somebody reach out to you. and we're probably looking at six to nine months of a process to get us all the way through. Yeah, that sounds great. Anything that will help me feel better is great. You got it. All right, Bianca. You got it.

Thanks, Bianca. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. I can't believe the nutritionist put her on that low calories. It's a nutritionist.

Yeah, a nutritionist, though, 1,400? Nutritionist will go as low as 1,200. They'll go as low as 1,200. Yeah. that's their that's their that's their guideline here's what it is hi i want to lose weight okay cool we'll cut your calories that's the things cut calories we'll cut your calories and in the person's like i don't and even if i'm telling you i'm going to be strength training yep wow yep oh but i don't feel good i have no energy i have fried or whatever wow yeah okay we'll go up to 200 yeah no no it's

too low dude it's too low of course you feel like here's a deal if you're in a cut and you can't do your day and you can't do a single workout you're not functioning properly you're You're not eating enough. Or you have a nutrient deficiency. It's one of the other. You're not recovering. Yeah, no. She's moving like crazy.

She's trying to work out. She's a high-stressed job with kids all day long. Has a kid she has come home to. She's not tiny and petite either. Her body type needs more calories than what it's a. The combination of all that, way under-eating for where she's at. No wonder if she feels like she can't be consistent. Our next caller is Alyssa from Michigan.

Hi, Alyssa. How you doing, Alyssa? How you're doing? Good to see you again. Welcome back. Yeah, you remember. Yeah, I remember you were like the machine. You worked out all the time.

We kind of reversed dieted you, right, cut down on some of the exercise and stuff? Yes, yeah. So I'll read the email I sent in April. Tell us what you. So in our prior call, you guys suggested I cut back my training as all up my calories in order to regain my period since that call. I did exactly that following MAPS 15, which you gave me, thankfully, and focusing on walking 10,000 steps a day, no running.

About a week or two after our call, I did have a doctor's appointment, regarding my period. They agreed that my period loss is the most likely due to mental and physical stress. However, worried that at that point it had been over four months since my last period. They were adamant that I go back on birth control since it had already proven to work for me. As you know, I was not, still am not the biggest fan of it. But I put my feelings aside and have had one normal period since then. I'm about to have my second one in like five days maybe. Thanks my first call with you. I felt incredibly better lowering my training and eating more. I have gained about five pounds and focused on my strength in the gym.

I'm hoping the birth control is a temporary fix. And after some more time, taking early steps, I will naturally have periods again? I do have a question, though, will I ever be able to get back to what I was doing previously running about 25 miles a week and training in the gym three to four times a week since my period is taken care of? Yeah. So remind me of the desired outcome of the running 25 miles a week. Are you training for something? or you just like to run for 25 miles?

It just felt good. It was fun for me. So a couple things. Can we dive into that a little bit? Yeah, there's very, I'm going to make it a general question. Can anybody run 25 miles a week and lift weights three days a week long term and be okay with that and feel good with that and not get burnt out? No, not really. That's a lot.

Yeah. That's a lot. Could you do it for like a season? like you're training for something, perhaps. Could you always do that? Probably not. Unless you were like, that was your life. Like you slept, you took naps, all you did was eat and trained and relax in between workouts.

And that's just super unreasonable. I know the responsibilities. I also want to dive into I feel good. No, you don't. Like, you mean temporary in the moment when you finish the run and you get the cortisol spike and I just completed that big run. Like, is that what you mean? Because all the other shit, the rest of your day,

you don't feel good, you don't feel better. You don't have a normal period. That's not, so when we, when we train a client, one of the first things that we have to do is deconstruct that and help them attach, like what working out properly, feeding their body properly, what it results in it, and connect the dots.

So many times with a client, like you, I'd have to like, now that we're feeding more, be like, hey, how do you feel? And you be like, oh, I feel right, I feel better. I'm like, well, how you see him? You're like, oh, well, I am sleeping better. And I'm like, well, how's your energy throughout work?

Well, yeah, actually, I do have good energy throughout the work. And I do feel strong. I said, and so we have to, like, help you connect the dots to when you take care of your body, all these other markers that make you feel good. But what happens is a lot of times we're addicted to this one thing, this cortisol spike or this feeling of completion or what some people, it's punishing themselves for an hour, whatever it is, but they've attached that. I feel really good with that.

It's like, do you really, though, in that moment you might? But in the other 23 hours a day, your body does not feel good. But you're so disconnected from all those other things and you're focused on that one thing. And so I have to help my client reconnect to all the other things that makes them feel good when they take care of themselves. What you're describing with three, four days a week of strain training plus 25 miles a week would be elite athlete. This is a professional. This is all they do. And it's for a season.

So I've trained people like this. And they did not do this all the time. It was like for a block of time. And then there was a recovery period. And it was very dedicated. Yeah. It was a sport. And everything was.

Perfect. And even then, the strength training was not three to four days a week. Yeah, with 25 miles of running, it was one day a week of strength training with the people that I, that I worked with. But, okay, remind me of what you do besides working out and all that stuff. Were you in school? Like, what are you doing in life? What's going on? Yeah, so I'm an intern, like right now. I'm at my job. Three days a week, like eight hours. It's a desk job. So I just sit. But every morning on these days, three days a week, I wake up and walk on the treadmill, 30 minutes. I used to run. Are you?

Yeah, no, you're doing great. But would, would, I'm in school as well, studying construction. Um, my other two days, I really just, you know, do whatever I want, try to see my friends. Good. On walks. Alyssa, would you, would your friends and family say that you're an overachiever? Maybe in terms of exercise. Yeah.

So you, you might just like the feeling of accomplishment and the fact that I could do hard things. Right. Which I totally get. Yep. But yeah, that's a lot, hon. Long term, what running and strength training looks like for most people is if you want to run a lot, let's say 15 miles a week, then strength training is about one day a week. If you want to combine the two, it could be 20 miles one week. Then the next week it's just strength training.

So you alternate. Something like that with good nutrition. Okay. Yeah, I heard you talk about that. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And then as far as the birth control is concerned,

I would talk to your doctor or find a hormone specialist to say, look, my goal is to not have to take this. What do I need to do? What can we do? And I'm okay with giving it some time because I agree with you. I think four months without a period. I mean, I've worked with clients who didn't have a period for two years, three years, four years. So it takes a little time. I mean, I remember I had one client.

She didn't have a period for years. We did the reverse diet, the whole deal. And I think she got her period. It was like six to seven months later. And then she ended up getting pregnant. So it could take a little while, especially if you were on it for so long. So you can definitely work with them. And I'm hopeful for that, especially because you're young.

But with exercise, I mean, you can ramp it up. But 25 miles a week with three to four days a week, like, that's not going to, that's never going to be a regular thing. That just doesn't happen. Sorry. Yeah. No, I understand. Does that make you sad?

Yeah. A little bit. I don't know. I did feel like I could take. over the world when I was doing all of this. Yeah, until your body said. It was something to do. Until your body gave you the middle finger.

Yeah, yeah. Can you do, what if you did running one week and strength training the other week? Would that be something? Yeah, I've never done that. I would like, I mean, yeah, I can try it. If you love, it's a great approach. It's a really great approach for people who like both. Yeah.

So I've already had a few people now call in and explain their experience doing that. And they've gotten better at the running and the strength training. Yeah. By doing both. You stronger, more resilient. You get recovery. You know, it's just a better approach, you know, long term for that. Yeah.

You can even try that now, I think. If you're bumping your calories. Where are our calories out again? Where are we at right now? Well, previously in our first call, I was probably like 1,900, 2100. Now I'm probably eating like 2,800 sometimes. I mean, I still have days where I eat probably 4,000 calories. It's like, I just, I don't know.

My mom will make pasta or something. If you want to try running and strength training, You could slowly ramp up your running, but it would be every other week. So it would be running one week. So when you do your workout, it's a run. And then the next week it would be strength training. Can we see how you feel? Can we back up though and just kind of celebrate some of the really positive stuff that's

happened right now? 60 days, you've gone from like 1,9,000 to 2,800 plus calories. You only put 5 pounds on. We reduced the volume of training, strength training, and reduced your running. and that's crazy. Do you feel stronger? Do you feel stronger in your lives? Yeah, so like maybe months ago when I was running a lot and everything,

I was, like, I had been able to bench press, I think. My one rep maps, one rep max was 165 for one. And then I was able to do 135 for two. Like, my, the running totally decreased that. And now I can do 135 for six for three sets. So that's really strong. Alyssa, you know that's a really strong. Yeah, you are strong.

You are doing great. Five pounds on the scale, 60 days, reducing all that volume and intensity and increasing those. Like, you are on a perfect path right now. Yeah. I don't want to mess. And honestly, the big gauge for me would be like,

let's just continue down this path and let's focus on getting off the birth control because I think that's in your future. I think feeding yourself like this, training at this volume the way you are, just let's get strong and keep doing what you're doing right now. If we can tip you into the strong side of things a little bit more, you know, eventually, you know, it's going to benefit your body a lot more. I don't know if that's any interest. Yeah, like some kind of like strong pursuit. As I know, like, you know, it's an accomplishment thing that's kind of driving you with this running.

You know, if you could kind of redirect that a bit for a while. I would love 15 strong or 15 power lift. Have you ever done it? Have you ever tried powerlifting style training? No, I have. My brother actually did powerlifting. He's in high school. So I was like my first time even seeing it.

But I think it's cool. I think I'd enjoy it. I would be really good at it. I bet you could be competitive. Just so you know, a female who could bench press 135 for six is exceptionally strong. A female that can bench 135 for one is really strong. Yeah. So you're strong.

And you have a lot of potential then. Got a whole reflex there for sure. So you want to try that? I mean, I have thought about competing. I mean, I don't know much about it, but I always think if I'm going to compete, like I want to win. Yeah.

And we would all love to see you compete in that. That would be, that would serve you and your body. Your body would do a lot better with that. Let's do, let's do 15 power left. I'll have Dub send it over to you. And then stay on this course. And I'd love to hear back from you again.

I think you're doing, I think you're doing phenomenal. Maybe I'd be competing. That would be right. That would be right. I think you'd win. Yeah. I want to hear you,

I want to hear your numbers after you go through 15 power lift. I just want to hear where you're at. You want to get back on in a few months? Sure. Thank you for this challenge. It's not like running focus. Totally.

Let's go. Let's go. Be a great change of pace. 15 power lift and let's see those lifts. I want to check back in with you. Oh, man. Okay. Thank you.

This is so exciting. I really have to thank you guys. you've changed my whole body and like my brain. I really thank you. You're doing great. You're doing great. That's going to be awesome. Yeah,

I can't wait to check back in with you. Making a lot of progress for sure. Thank you. You give great advice. All right. It adds to me. So. Oh, thank you.

All right. We'll see you soon. We'll see you soon. All right. Thank you so much. All right. Good job, Justin. Justin nailed it.

He sensed the competitive. That's what she likes. She's got the spirit. And as soon as we told her, you know, pushed her in a competitive direction that was better, her face lit up.

Like really good job picking that up. Yeah. She's going to do great. I'll tell you what's frustrating. That she's young and after four months of no period, doctors like birth control. Yeah, why? I know.

Especially since. You gotta give it time, especially since they recognized that it was a stress thing under eating type of deal and then we've got her eating more. I don't understand it. There may be more stuff that we don't know, so I want to be very careful. But if this is all of the information,

if it really was that the doctor's like it was stress and over training and they're like, but you know, four months without a period, let's throw it in birth control. Like, I don't know if that's a good idea. No. No, dude. It sucks, too, because I bet you she was right around the corner from that coming back.

Dude, it could take a while. Yeah. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. It's Mind Pump Media. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance,

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