Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2891: How to Heal Your Body Dysmorphia (5 Strategies That Actually Work)

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

In this episode the guys break down how to heal body dysmorphia — what it is, why it's especially common in the fitness industry, and five practical strategies to work your way out of it. They also get into Adam's appearance on Chalene Johnson's podcast and the conversations around gray market peptides and Retatrutide, a new study showing vitamin D and calcium supplements do nothing for bone strength without resistance training, the nuance around blood lipids and saturated fat, and how Scotland fans drank Boston out of beer during the World Cup. They also cover a fascinating discussion on Super Patch haptic technology, how Mind Pump first partnered with Vuori before anyone knew who they were, and Japan's incredible cultural approach to cleanliness. Then they coach live callers submitted through mplivecaller.com. No BS 6-Pack Formula: https://nobs6pack.com Code: 6PACK for 50% off. Updated two phase ab building system with new videos and demos by Sal. $28.50 after discount. T-Shirt Winner: Facebook: Kevin Kenneth Blevins Send name, shirt size and shipping address to: https://mindpumpmedia.com SPONSORS Vuori: https://vuoriclothing.com/mindpump 20% off first order, no code needed, automatically applied at checkout. Vita Bella / MP Hormones: https://mphormones.com Code: MINDPUMP365 for a free 10 minute consultation plus raffle entry. Three free memberships and ten free essential labs given away this month. Raffle entry: https://calendly.com/vb-consultations/complimentary-consults?month=2026-05 Super Patch: https://mindpump.superpatch.com No code needed, use URL for $30 off. Haptic technology patches backed by over a dozen peer reviewed studies. Pain, sleep, performance, focus and more. Seed Daily Synbiotic: https://seed.com/mindpump Code: 25MINDPUMP for 25% off your first month. 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 2:48 - How to heal body dysmorphia — what it is and why it's so common in fitness 14:01 - Strategy 1 and 2: Get comfortable being uncomfortable and outsource your routine to a coach 19:41 - Strategy 3 and 4: Focus on a healthy objective metric and stop studying the mirror and scale 23:50 - Strategy 5: Create and strengthen healthy replacement behaviors 24:41 - Adam on Chalene Johnson's podcast — gray market peptides and the Retatrutide misconception 35:46 - New study: Vitamin D and calcium supplements do nothing for bone strength without lifting 38:37 - Blood lipids, saturated fat and why one bad marker in an otherwise healthy person is not the whole story 46:01 - Scotland fans drink Boston out of beer, ugly Ferrari, Japan fans clean the stadium after a loss 52:49 - Super Patch haptic technology — Sal explains it to a doctor friend who was skeptical 58:37 - How Mind Pump first partnered with Vuori before anyone knew who they were 1:03:24 - Caller: Alex (Washington) 60 day check-in — lost 20 pounds, strong metabolism, gets MAPS Powerlift 1:20:12 - Caller: Amber (Texas) — eating disorder history, still on GLP, hysterectomy in August, needs to bulk 1:32:23 - Caller: Kennedy (Missouri) — work accident trauma, six foot 180 pounds targeting 165, gets MAPS Performance 1:46:42 - Caller: Sophie (UK) — husband's recurring back pain and sciatica, sleep and stress are the root cause

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Here's a dirty secret from the fitness industry. Over 50% of people who work in the fitness industry have symptoms of body dysmorphia. Now, what does that look like for the general population? One to two percent. So 50 times higher in the fitness space. Today we're going to talk about ways to help heal this within yourself. Unfortunately, we have a lot of experience with this

because we're working in the fitness industry. And we've trained lots of clients. We're going to talk about this. how you can help heal your body dysmorphia. You know what's crazy about that stat? It's way more than that. It is. Underreported.

Yeah, because there's a majority of people would say they're not that are. Yeah. That are... Well, you work in the space, so being obsessed could look like discipline. Yeah. Counting every calorie could be disciplined

because you work in the space. Yeah. But both of which all the time... It just functions. Yeah, dysfunctions. It's super high in our space. In fact, I would, in my experience, it's my personal experience. I'm not a study, but this is my personal experience.

It's more often than not. Yeah. All the trainers that it work for me. Seven out of ten. Yeah. Seven out of ten. At least. Also, you know, full disclosure, I struggle with this for, I'd say most of my life.

Exercise was a source of comfort for me since the age of 14. And it's been better and it's been worse. and some of it was rooted. A lot of it was rooted in body dysmorphia later on probably more in control. So I also have a lot of experience with this myself. And it's definitely a challenge to tackle. And that's why I think it's a good thing to talk about

because fitness can be a path out of body dysmorphia or it could drive you straight into the arms of body dysmorphia in a way that makes it far worse. And so it's like a double-edged sword when we're dealing with us. What do you think are some of the most common forms of that? Do you think it's mostly people, like things like anorexia? Do you think?

Orthorexia. Okay. So explain all the different types of kind of body dysmorphia that you could have. And what do you think are probably the most? Well, I mean, we're going to be general because it can be pretty. I do want to say this. None of us are therapists or psychologists. We're fitness experts.

So we're speaking from experience. But you have the classic anorexia where you restrict, starve yourself, bulimia. This is where you purge, make yourself throw up. Reverse anorexia. Don't know what the technical or clinical name is. This is what you may see bodybuilders suffer from, where they never feel big enough. Right. And so they take extreme measures.

Drug use with that. The anabolic steroid use and just extreme exercise. Isn't that called like Biggeraxia or something like that? I don't know what the, you can look up reverse anorexia and see if the actual term. Biggerrexia, I think, is like, the slang term for it. Okay. Orthorexia is the obsession with everything being perfect and healthy. It's like counting everything, measuring everything. Everything has to be organic.

Everything has to be, you know. It just says muscle dysphoricia. Yeah. Oh, bigorexia. They did say bigorexia. Okay. So those would be the more common ones. And just, again, it's that sense of control. And wouldn't you also say south? So those are all kind of the main popular categories. And then within the, those categories is a spectrum, right? Absolutely. So there's also that, right?

Because there's also, you know, these are the clinical definitions or clinical names for these. But sometimes it may not be, you know, may be diagnosed that, but you are, you lean in that direction. I'll say this. Look, it is really hard to grow up and live in a media obsessed modern society and not, to one degree or another struggle with some kind of body dysmorphia. It's very difficult when you're constantly being shown and sold perfect bodies,

when it's being overvalued. It's becoming more prevalent in young men now. This used to be something young women suffered from. Now young men. One of their top anxieties is not looking good enough. So to get out of this modern society unscathed from this, is very difficult. At some point, everybody kind of knows what this feels like. And you're right, there's degrees. Well, especially, like, what drives you into fitness, if it's like the shame of

whatever body, you know, you're trying to correct something about yourself. And that's, like, the main driver of you coming in. And, you know, it's really hard to not, like, have that obsession, you know, going into, like, trying to solve this. And it becomes, you know, problematic. To your point, I'm curious what, because we, I mean, we've all, talked about this. I mean, you and I probably more about, like, that we, this is what drove us to fitness originally, right? This was originally what got me to go to the gym the first time was

insecurities around my body and wanting to be big. And, you know, and so we've talked about, now, when we grew up, social media didn't exist. And so the fact that it affected me and I didn't have that, I can't imagine what the statistics are. on somebody growing up today versus someone else where you are in the amount of time that this generation spends on their phones and following people that they aspire to look like or be like and then those people you know photoshopping filtering only putting their

best images out I mean it just has to completely exacerbate this problem like I mean How many X has this got in the last two decades? It has to have exploded. Yeah, and it's such a distorted reality. I don't know. Maybe Doug, you can look up how much time the average, let's say, teenager spends on social media or average 20-year-old. Yeah, because before that, it's like you're looking at a magazine.

Yeah, a magazine and ad. Ad or, yeah, on TV, maybe. But you don't spend a lot of time like you do with the phone constantly. Well, it totally distorts your reality. Like, if I pull up, so the average, okay. Well, yeah, because when we grew up, to your point, you saw an ad, you saw a commercial, maybe there was that one kid or two at school that was like, yeah, that was so gifted and beautiful, perfect, whatever, like, so rare. But even them, you see them on their bad days. Like, in social media, like, you only see a highlight reel and how many people are filtering it.

And it's only their best angles, their best lighting, their best ever. It's distorting reality. So distorted. Look, I'll give you guys an example. The original Tarzan movie. Maybe you can look it up, Doug. Look up the original Tarzan. The man who played it, and I want to get his name.

He was in a... Johnny Weismuller. What was the name? Johnny Weismuller? Okay. Jesus, how'd you know that? Because I was growing up back then. That was very...

I had to do the old age jokes for you. That was very quick to have a random name like that. I have never heard of my favorite talkies. So he was considered really fit. Doug had a poster. Poster of them. Okay. This is the original.

This was 19. When was this movie? When did it come out? 1904. No, that's when he was born. When did Tarzan come out? 1950 something? Yeah, let me see.

Doug. Doug just totally dated. I'm so afraid of. Hey, all this dude's pictures are in black and white. 1932 and 1942 and 1948. So look at a picture from that. That's my parents, you know. Oh no. It really is.

Look at Doug backpedaling right now. That's my dad, but dad's favorite show. That was really good. No, so if you look at a picture of him in that Tarzan movie, he was known for having this incredible physique. There he is right there. You know what he looks like? He looks like a fit dude.

Yeah, average fit guy that works out at the gym. Very average. I mean, you're talking about like he's probably 18% right there. If somebody looked at that now, you know, because we're so distorted, someone might not even think he worked out. Even though he was a high-level swimmer, it looks like a normal dude. It's actually what he looks like a swimmer. He was a swimmer.

Kind of a normal dude. You look at Superman, the old. Superman, people were like, that's super fit. It's gotten so distorted. Here's what happens. This is the example I've given before another podcast. Imagine if for five hours a day, because that's what it says with teenagers on social media for five hours a day, okay?

Imagine if for five hours a day, all you did was hang out with NBA players. That's all you did. For five hours every day. Yeah, you think everybody is seven foot tall. Bro, you could be six foot four and you'd be like, man, I am tiny. Yeah. I am a small person because I'm surrounded by seven foot. tall giants all the time. So it's distorted things so much. I don't, I think, uh,

most people at some point have suffered from some of this. And there are ways that you can kind of get your way out of it. And fitness is a great way to do it, but it can also be a great way to get you in it real deep. Um, and it can make things a lot worse. You can reinforce it or, yeah. Well, yeah, because that's the, and I think that's what we've seen happen with social media is that if you do push really hard and, and track all your calories and, you can, you know, and, and, and, get your body this way. And then you get rewarded with likes and views and comments. And so you get this like positive reinforcement.

And then you go, oh, well, I should do this for a living because people are asking me questions. How do I look like this? And how do I get that way? And like this is maybe this is my career path. And then so it's just natural progression of I get this reinforcement of how good I look at when it all started because I was driven by some insecurity because I didn't, I wasn't enough.

I didn't have this. I didn't look this. And then I start doing that. And then because I put it out there online, I start getting this feedback at a rate that you would never get in real life. And then all of a sudden, now it looks like a viable job or career for yourself. And then you get down that path. And then you get paid for it and you make a living off of it.

I'll say this to trainers. I'll encourage trainers. This can make you really good at helping other people with these challenges. It did for me. Yeah. In fact, it was a saving grace. It kept me from going too extreme because of coaching other people and caring about them. Well, you didn't, I know this on your list of tips, you didn't put this on here,

but we give this as a recommendation to people a lot of times that are suffering from this is to go help somebody else. Help someone else. Because that was one of the best things for me too. Yes. Was to see to, because again, I think that we all seem to fall on somewhat of a spectrum of this. And to see people even at a higher, crazy perspective, it's really eye opening for yourself. Like, oh my God, I can't believe he thinks of himself or she thinks of himself that way.

You're like, wow, I have a bit of that. That's right. You know, and so it's this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, great mirror. And then as you're coaching that person through that, like trying to help them out, you're like, oh, wow, I'm a version of this. Maybe I'm not as bad, but I'm definitely a version of this. Or you give advice that you should take yourself. Yeah. That happens to be all the time. Yeah. So I think the first thing is really you have to try to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Because if this is you, you derive a sense of comfort from whatever your behavior is. So I'll give an

example because I've gotten on I've gotten on the on calls with some of our clients here at mind pump. So we have trainers at work here and they work with clients and I love to pop in. It's one of my favorite things you do. And I tell my trainers, listen, if any of your clients have a request to have me on as much as I can. I can't do it all the time, obviously because I have to, you know, do the work that we do, I'll get on anytime I can't, especially if this person's challenged by something. Well, that tends to be just so the audience knows because I don't think you should put that out there like that. Everybody's going to ask for it.

Yeah, yeah. What you do a good job of is you've told the trainers that if you have a really client that's challenged with something like this, that you've tried to work through and they're still struggling and you want me to come on and help. And so what tends to happen as I get on with clients that have really difficult situations. And I've talked to a couple. I talked to one woman a while ago who was, you know, she had in treatment for anorexia.

She got released. and she's like, I'm done. I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to work with a therapist anymore. This was on a personal thing because, of course, we tell her, listen, we're not therapists. She's like, look, I want to work with one of your coaches. And we sat down and we talked,

and I said, here's a deal. I said, just to be, I'm going to be very honest with you, this is going to feel very uncomfortable. I tell people to listen to their body all the time. They can't listen to their body. You can't listen to your body. Because you're going to eat 1,200 calories, and you're going to feel bloated and stuffed,

like you're stuffing yourself. And that's what you're going to have to kind of get used to for a little while. For someone like me, especially when I was a kid. Which I think it's important to you explain why that is because this person has conditioned themselves to be so comfortable with feeling empty and hungry almost all the time. That's right. So they're so used to being empty. That's right.

Okay. And what someone else might call starving or depleted or flat or all the terms that we use for someone who doesn't have a lot of calories in them, that this person has now found that's their normal. That's their comfortable. Anything beyond that feels overly stuffed. So I got real, I conditioned myself to when I ate,

I would eat until I couldn't eat anymore. And this was as a kid, because I was always trying to gain weight. When I started to eat more properly, I started to realize, like, I'm not even hungry. Why am I feeding myself so much food? I had to get comfortable

with not being stuffed. How funny is that? Because my issue was always trying to get bigger. And so this may look like it may look like this for you, not doing tons of cardio all the time, or not going to the gym as often as you do, or skipping some workouts, or doing workouts that are totally different from the ones that you know you probably should do less of. And so getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, it doesn't mean you're going to be comfortable. I know people say that

term. It just means get used to the fact or accept that this is going to be uncomfortable. Right. This process is going to be uncomfortable. The next thing is, and this one is a big one, is you want to outsource some or all of this to someone else. this is where a coach can really come in handy. Because a coach could tell you, here's what your workout's going to look like, and you're just going to, and you just do what they tell you.

Or look, we're going to have you eat this much, and I know it feels like too much for you or too little for you, but this is what you need to eat. And you've got to outsource that control. Because a lot of this comes with a sense of control. There's so much internal conflict. Totally. Yeah, just necessary for you to offload that to coach

to really, you know, sift through that and give you the right answers. Do you know when I realized just how important this is for this person that we're speaking to when I really realized this was actually in the competitive world? And the reason why I say that was I was scratching my head why you had people, let's say, Phil Heath, for example, he's, you, dude, that dude knows everything about macros and training. Yeah. Yeah. Mr. Olympia. Needs a coach.

Like all the greats, all the people that had all these, that all had coaches. and it made so much sense when you think about so many of these people are extreme versions of this that suffer from this and they've just taken it to a whole other level, but they're also the same people that are in their head the most about their bodies and they can't, and if they're constantly assessing and looking at themselves and critiquing themselves,

analyzing data and all that, assessing. And again, I think I know what it's like because I fall on the spectrum of that. I'm not as extreme as that, and I've shared on the podcast before of how much I could get in my own head of like, I know I'm doing. doing all the own things. Luckily, I'm self-aware enough to know that, that stay the course out of him.

I know I'm doing the right things because I was coaching myself through this process. But I remember the mental games of looking at myself in the mirror and judging and going, oh, my God, this is bad. This is wrong. And way to overcorrect. Yeah. And then wanting to go the other direction and then having to like talk myself off that ledge, which is making so much more sense to me like, oh, this is why.

Think about how effective this would have been like, because you and I are similar, right? as a kid, always trying to be big, never allowing yourself to, let's say, go on a cut, having a coach be like, no, no, you're fine. You're not getting small. Don't worry. You're just getting lean. Oh, totally.

You know, really, it would have been effective or beneficial to be able to outsource that to somebody. For sure. And I think this is a valuable strategy. I think a good coach will do it. By the way, if you pick a coach to do this, make sure they're qualified that can do this because what you don't want to do is get a coach

that'll strengthen your body to sport because it can go in the opposite. Which, this also, speaking about the competitive space, this happens a lot. You get somebody who has no business competing because they already have an extreme version of Bodiesmorphia. And then they hire a coach who takes them to extreme levels of eating and training and just pushes that person even further down this hole. Yeah. Next, you know, you want to focus on a healthy objective metric. So I've told this story many times because it was the first time that this really occurred to me.

But I was a young trainer. I remember how old it was. I was either probably 19. And I had trained this couple. And then they had hired me to train their daughter. And they had told me, look, our daughter suffers from anorexia. She got out of her treatment. She's gaining some weight.

We wanted her to exercise now. We want her to strength train to strengthen her body. And so we'd like to hire you because they trusted me because I'd train them. And I actually got on the phone with the young ladies therapist because I had no. I've never worked with anybody with this. And I asked her, what do I do? What do you want me to do? What are the smart things to do?

She said, don't focus on her body. Don't do body fat test. Because she asked me, what do you do with clients? So, well, typically we weigh, we do body fat. So, don't do any of that. She said, don't focus on any of that. And so I thought, well, what am I going to focus on? I said, strength.

I'm going to focus on getting her strong. And it worked so well. And that's not perfect because strength can become its own obsession. But for this young lady who suffered, who had struggle with anorexia, Getting her to focus on and then take joy in getting stronger meant she was moving in the right direction. It was objective. You're either getting stronger, you're not.

And you can't restrict and get stronger. You can't overtrain and get stronger. And so that was the direction that she moved. It may be for someone else, mobility. It may be sleep. It may be connecting with people at the gym. It's something that's more objective, but that's also healthy. And then you can make that your target.

because some sense of control, I think, is necessary for people, the body dysmorphia. So when you have that metric, like, for me, I'll give my example. So my example, the healthiest ever was with my relationship to fitness was when I did jiu-jitsu. That's when I had the healthiest relationship with it. Because it took me away from wanting to be big and wanting to get jacked and super strong because it kind of didn't help me in my jiu-jitsu. There were checks and balances of that. There were checks and balances.

Like, if I lifted too much, I couldn't do jiu-jitsu really well. And I needed to be able to be mobile. And I needed to be. So when I focused on my jiu-jitsu, it was the healthiest I ever was with that because it was a healthy objective metric. I think the strength thing is so valuable because it's a measurable win that they can go after. And when this person is so used to using the mirror and the scale as the way of measuring their success or wins and you take that away for them, it's really difficult if you don't give

them something that they can go, tell me I'm doing the right thing, because I don't feel it. I feel bloated. I feel terrible. I don't like the way I look. The scale's going in the wrong direction. So please tell me there's something that is to signal to me that. And strength is a great thing for that. And so it gives them at least something, some sort of positive reinforcement of, okay,

we're going the right. I can trust this. I can trust this coach. I can trust this process. He's showing me that I'm getting stronger here. He's telling me that this is the pathway because all these other markers that I'm so used to looking at are signaling to me that this is not good. Which brings us to the next one.

Don't study your body or weigh your body. This is a tough one. So the conversations look like this. You know, get ready in the morning and don't study yourself in the mirror. Like look at your hair, do your hair, you're done. Get out of the way. Don't stand there and look at yourself and turn sideways. And what does this look like?

Because here's what happens. Your eyes start to focus on the areas that you feel like you're imperfect. Oh my God, I know I'm gaining weight, but now I can see it here or I can see what's happening there. don't study your body, get out of the way, stop looking in the mirror, and don't weigh yourself. The scale is a very terrible metric at measuring any kind of success. It's measuring body mass. And it more often than not, especially when it comes to people who are afraid of gaining weight,

it just pushes them in the wrong direction. So don't do that. And then lastly, create new and strengthen new healthy behaviors. So you may find comfort in what you're doing, which is why you do it so often, or a sense of control, you can't just stop doing it and have nothing. It actually does something for you. There's a reason why you do it. Find a behavior that's healthy and try to strengthen that to replace the old behavior.

So if you're, you know, if you're a cardio fanatic, maybe it's stretching. Maybe it's reading or writing. Maybe it's art. Something that you enjoy that is not the thing that is no longer serving you. And then you use that to bring you some comfort because you need to replace what you were doing before. So anyway, I want to ask you, Adam, about your, you were on Shaline Johnson's podcast. Yeah, yeah. Which was really cool because a large segment of our audience had never heard you or us before.

It was just cool. Yeah. No, I've had the response has been incredible. In fact, it's still going right now. She did a post not that long ago of a clip from it and the amount of ads and messages that I've received from it. I really liked how she did the interview. I hadn't listened to it. I don't listen to the interviews that I do unless my wife said something to me.

You should listen to that. And I said, why? And she goes, it was really good. And she goes, and she did it different than I've heard somebody interview before. So I listened so I could see what it was. And it was actually really cool the way she, she clipped it. So she edited the content in a unique way. So out of all the interviews that were done, I hadn't had somebody do it.

this way where she had sat me down and she wanted to just like basically hit me with these questions that I wasn't prepared for. It was just like and then I would like quick answers to her like like like and that she coached me on that like I just want you just direct straight whatever and I get and I was like I get it. I get what you're you're looking for right she wanted like short clippable type of to the point answer is not long winded nuance right so she did all that and that was what was the front of the episode and then the the rest was more conversationalist about and so more in depth about those types. You guys talked,

there was a lot of interest in peptides. Mostly about peptides. So I actually referenced you a few times when it got to places where I'm like, ah, it's a better question for my co-host who is way better with the studies and remember them.

In fact, one of the ones where I was referring to you that I wanted her to like understand was that there's this, she was talking about Reda. Oh, Reda's true type. Yes. And just how, popular it is over there. She's like, you can't go to the gym over here and not overhear conversations

of people taking it. And like people going like, oh, I got some. I can bring you tomorrow. So it's still great market. It is. It's not approved. It's not even if you have to approve. So this is not which is crazy. And so we talked a lot about that. And she has also heard a lot of the. So that and what I talked about you that I'm like, you know, Sal explains the study better than me because I know that initially a lot of the rat and chimp studies that we saw around it was so promising because it showed that you lost less muscle. In fact, it showed some built a little bit of muscle during this calorie deficit, which is just kind of mind blowing, right?

I was like, but that doesn't tell the whole story. And so there's this misconception because those studies have gone viral and people have talked about it and it's being shared so much that RETA, which is coming down the pipe, you know, is going to keep you from the move. The wave has happened where so many. average people have heard of GLP ones now. And then it's even hit so many people that everybody probably listening right now

either has experience with it or know somebody that has experience with it. And if there's any sort of negative feedback that they've heard, aside from like the nausea and things like that, it's they lose a lot of muscle too. And then the word on the street is that RETA doesn't keeps you from losing muscle. And that was kind of the conversation we're having it.

And I know it's because of those, early studies that showed that, oh, they built some muscle. So now there's this misconception that, oh, when we get to the GLP3, you know, now you won't lose any muscle. No, we have phase three trials now. Doug, you can pull up the Reda-Trutide phase three trial muscle loss. And you can see on the average that people lost muscle on them like they do with other GLPs.

There was some animal studies that showed less, a little bit less muscle loss. Reda causes so much weight loss that the muscle loss is significant as a percentage of the weight loss it did it better than let's say trezepatide but it still wasn't great so there are some mechanisms where it's trying to preserve

but you're going to lose muscle when your calories are really low and you don't lift weights and you're not eating enough protein you can't get around that there's no way to get around that you don't have the building blocks and your body will try to adapt and if you pull up the study dug

It'll give you, if you look up the study, I think it was like 28 to 30 percent or something like that. If not more, some studies show up to 40 percent weight loss, up to 28 to 30 percent weight loss, but what was the muscle loss that we saw. That's what I wanted to pull up. It just says reduction of both body fat. So it's a significant amount. And so here's the thing. It doesn't cause muscle loss.

It also doesn't have this profound muscle sparing effect. it's complicated because it does do some interesting things. It does cause energy release from the liver. It does a few other things. But your caliber is really low. You're not lifting weights. You're going to lose muscle. And this is what I communicated to it.

Because that is what I wanted to dispel was that there is this rumor about it that it's like so much more miraculous than the GLP 1 and GLP2 because it showed these promising studies around muscle preservation. and I'm like, what you're talking about is we're spitting hairs. If somebody is still in a significant calorie deficit where it's extremely low and they are not hitting protein and they're like they'll lose as much muscle, if not more in this situation. And so, but there's, that's not the belief right now.

The belief is that red is coming down the pipe and it's so much better than the GLP2s. So here you go. They had a phase two data, 35% of total weight loss came from lean mass. it's similar to other potent weight loss treatments, which are similar. So actually it's not even that much better. It does seem to cause a little bit more weight loss than the other ones because it acts on three receptors instead of one or two.

But you're going to lose muscle. Yeah. Because if you eat really low calories and that's what you do and that's it, you're guaranteed to lose muscle. So listen to the other thing that we speculated about, I speculated with her that I thought was because she asked me I'm like, oh, that's an interesting question and thought. Because all of the RETA that's out on the market right now is all gray.

Yep. Okay. None of this is pharmaceutically regulated or FDA-approved, okay? It's research chemical. It's all research chemicals. It's all gray. What is the incentive or why does somebody who doesn't have the regular GLP 1 or GLP2 doesn't slap a label of RETA on there and sell it because it's just the hottest thing right now?

And what's to stop them considering it's not regular? They do. They are selling them. No, like switching it out with the gilp one. Yeah. Like, why even go through the, why go through the rigamore to go and try and get GLP3? When I got GLP1, I got still boxes of that because I bought thousands of it from,

and why not just pretend? Why not just pretend? Nobody would know the difference. And that was, and I'm like, wow. I'm like, you know what? It's not a matter if that's happening. It's how much of that is happening. Yeah.

And I'll tell you what, when they did the big, when they do the big studies on the research, the research chemicals, the, when they, bring them in. One of the biggest ways where they're mess up is mislabeling dosage. Yeah. So taking too much of a gLP, not a good thing, everybody. Oh, yeah, no. You will not like the way you feel. It will not be good. By the way, Reda does have some more, more, some interesting side effects like skin tingling, um, and elevated heart rate. Heart rate. Yeah. That's what I heard. Yeah. So we'll see. It hasn't even has even passed. I know. Hasn't even got regulation. Well, that's what It's interesting.

It's still great. One of the things her and I were talking about was just how crazy popular the gray market and the influencer pushing peptides and Link in My Bio game has become. It's like it's insane. I know. What's crazy about this, though, is that people are forgetting that hormone balance and hormone therapy is if you need, if you benefit from hormone therapy, that craps on any other peptide or anything else. It's the biggest mover. If you got low testosterone as a man.

man or a woman, your hormones are off. And you, let's say you go through our people at mpheormones.com, you get your blood test. And they're like, wow, we could do some hormone replacement therapy. That's way more effective than a peptide. Yeah. Like, you want that first. This is exactly what I said to her.

She gave me scenarios like, you know, you know, imagine I'm a, you know, menopausal woman. I've got, my hormones are all over the place and I'm struggling just to lose those 15 pounds. And she's like, you know, what peptide would you put me? I'm like, that's definitely not what I do. I'd get your hormones in check. I'd address your sleep. I'd get like,

there's so many levers I would pull before I would even think to go to a peptide. I said, me getting your hormones is huge. So let's just pretend your hormones are good, right? So let's say you're on the thyroid. You got all that balanced. Okay. So we got that.

Me, I even made the case that me improving your sleep by 10 to 20% is better than any peptide. I'm going to put you on. So if you don't have the best of sleep already and you're coming to me saying, I want to lose the next five, 10 pounds or whatever, what peptide should I take? And you're telling me you get six hours of sleep at night. Me, not even making your sleep perfect, but improving it by 10 to 20% will give you better results than the greatest peptide up there. That's where we're at right now, though.

Yeah, and here's the other thing, too, people are getting advice from social media on all this stuff. And 90% of the people communicating this are not experts. No. And look, I'm not an expert. I know stuff because I get to interview experts. experts, like Dr. Seeds, who I would say he's definitely the world leading expert on peptides and what they do and good friends with them. And I've had them on the show a couple of few times. I've been on his podcast. I will talk to people who want to be on our show who are quote-unquote

peptide experts. And then I realized 10 minutes in, whoa, I know more than you do. I can't have you on my show. If I know more than you and I'm not an expert, what the hell am I going to interview you? Yeah. So one thing you could do, by the way, we got it. We should say this. MP hormones.com. there's medical professionals. Everybody will get a consult. Yes. So you can actually ask a medical professional what's going on.

That's the other thing too that we talked to her about that is like this is why you should go through a legit source where a doctor or a medical professional meets with you. Yes. Because they won't put you on something

you shouldn't be on. And so you have people that we started this whole podcast talking about body dysmorphia and anorexia and things like that. Like the last thing that, somebody who suffers from anorexia. Who do you think are the people that are going to be reaching out for the great

Marks? This is a problem, big problems. Huge problem. Yeah. Huge. And we've had callers call in. And there's, and a medical professional that's asking you questions.

They're not going to put you on this. No. No. I have a history of anorexia. I need to be on, you know, even if you just have a few percentages of body failure trying to lose and then people go to GLP one. I'm like, this, like, why?

Why are you doing that? Why not, like, let's mess with the metabolism. Yeah. Work on sleep. do all these other things. Even then, it's like you're trying to lose weight. Like you're trying to restrict your eating. Like that's all like it doesn't equate to body fat.

Like there's this like weird disconnect there. Yeah, it's crazy. Speaking of which we were just talking about how, you know, eat really low enough calories, don't lift weights. You'll lose muscle. There was a study that came out that is somewhat similar to what we were just talking about. So it was a huge review on calcium and vitamin D supplements. And so they did this huge review, and they found that older people who took vitamin D and calcium,

that it provided no meaningful protection against fractures or falls for most older adults. Okay. So most older adults taking calcium and vitamin D had no protective effect from the supplement. Here's why, everybody, if you're not giving your bones a reason to be strong, you can take all the vitamin D and calcium you want. That's right. It ain't going to do nothing. You got to give the signal. It's like eating more food, but not lifting one.

weights. You're not going to build more muscle. You're just going to get fatter. Yep. So taking all the bone nutrients or whatever. So when I read this thing, it's funny because that makes headlines, right? Vitamin D, calcium, they don't help your bone strength. No, no, they do. So misleading. But you got to give your body a reason to strengthen its bones. Like, do some resistance training. That's right. You do resistance training. You get your vitamin D and calcium in check, and you're going to get stronger bones. It works like clockwork. I've had many clients. Have you guys had clients go through and do bone scans while they train with you? Oh, yeah. It's, It's so predictable.

Yeah. How much... It's weird to me that doctors always trip out on that. You know, and they see results like that. And it's like, they should be teaching this. It should be like part of the protocol. That's because how many of them are not... Don't strength train.

It's so rare. I mean, how often do you guys... Or how, like, excited do you get when you walk in and you see a doctor and he's, like, he's jacked? You know? Oh, yeah. It's like... Oh, okay.

He's gonna get it or she's gonna get it. You know what I'm saying? So many times. I mean, it's better today. It really is. It wasn't that it was horrible 20, 30 years ago. I mean, 20, 30 years ago, it's like you never saw a doctor like that. The first time I had that, so every time I get blood test, you know, because I've been working out since I was a kid, my K levels could be a little elevated.

And it's always through like, they go through this process, ask me questions, what's going on or whatever. And I eventually realized like, oh, it's because I work out and I have more muscle mass. And I'll never forget. First time I ever happened, I had a doctor, review my blood test. He worked out. And he looked at me and he's like, oh, this is, by the way, this is normal. It's because you lift weight. I didn't even have to say anything.

He knew. He's like, thank God. But every once in a while it pops up still. No, they'll bring it up to me. And I'm like, you know, that's because I work out, right? No, it's super hard. You know, I'm getting, I've had a handful of my friends. I don't know if I brought this up on the podcast or not.

I think I talked to you maybe off air a little bit about cholesterol with friends of mine that I just wouldn't think that they have high cholesterol that all and all look pretty healthy. I don't know enough like every day what they're eating and doing stuff like that. But you know, you typically think as somebody who's got that is like they have a really poor diet and exercise routine. And they're both active people and keep their body weight in check, but both have high cholesterol right now and looking to fix it. And when you when you see somebody like that who, because I know you can you can eat like a ridiculous amount. Mine doesn't get affected. Right. It's weird.

Do you still recommend somebody if they're in a health. weight and they're working out still to, you know, limit the red meat, lower some of that. So there's a, there's a, there's a difference from person to person. Their genetic polymorphisms where saturated fat has a negative effect on their blood lipids. And so I've had a couple clients like that where we were doing everything right. And then we just had to adjust their fatty acid intake and it did the trick. Now is, now I could have saturated fat all day, all day long. have no negative effect on my lipids.

Every time they measure my lipids are like, these look like... Yeah, sometimes it's like pure genetic. And then you're dietary, like, contributions affect it little. Yeah, so saturated fat will affect LDL and a lot of people. To what extent depends.

Sometimes switching to grass-fed meat makes the difference. And sometimes they need to do... Like I had to have my client reduced their saturated fat and boost their, you know, other fat intake like olive oil and stuff like that and fish and it made a difference.

Yeah, yeah. But it depends, depends on that person. Now, being in a, a calorie deficit will that make as much? Usually gets better. Yeah, I was going to say that probably in itself a lot of times will do. It's just someone could be overconsuming, go on a little bit lower calorie diet for a little bit, minimize the amount of red meat you're eating or switch to grass fed. You know, by itself, by the way, unless it's extreme, blood lipids, and again, this is all, there's a lot of variance here. If it's extreme, then this is disqualified. But when

you're out of range, blood lipids by themselves are not great predictors, by themselves. You have to look at everything else. That's where I'm getting at with you here is because I feel like if that's the only thing they have. Like if you've got good strength, you've got good fitness, your blood sugar looks good. You know, all the other metrics look good. But then your lipids are a little, you know, kind of out of range, which is typically what it is. It's usually not like this major thing. If it's a major, that's different.

It's not a big, it's not a huge predictor by itself. And you can look up the stats on it. If people don't believe me, look it up. Yeah, that's what, and this is the challenge I had. with the advice with them was that I'm talking about two people that all other markers are good. And they're not in some like crazy like, oh, boy, that's, that's wildly. Just they're a little out of the range. And so it's like, does this person really need to reduce red meat?

Do they really need to do that? By the way, one of them of the two, I know that he had just got done it. We had just gone on this kick. So I had told the story a while back. This is a buddy of mine who wasn't really lifting that much weights. he was doing a thing in his garage where he was just kind of lifting weights all time and he'd never he'd never like consistently hit protein and I'm like this that's all I want you to do is just and so he really listened to the advice and was like he's like dude this is crazy I've never ate this much meat before and so and then he ends up getting this blood test oh yeah and then it goes up so it looks like oh my my advice of having him push that you know no granted you obviously could still hit protein and change your choices of yeah of meat and everything like that but I would argue that he's he's he's he's probably okay and he's lifting weights because all other markers he's good it's like literally that was his only thing that he was kind of high so but i was just like listen go when you try to

minimize how much you're eating out if you do red meat go grass fed sometimes cutting carbs will do yeah i've had clients like that too or we didn't change that we cut their carbs and then we saw now do you think that's because it probably put them in a deficit a little bit yeah that's probably put them in a little bit of deficit and then that probably level them out a little bit so it'll be interesting because I gave him that advice and sent him a link to one of our supplements that helped out so we'll see what happens

but I was really surprised by both of them and it sucked when it was somebody that I had just your advice yeah and he was just seeing great and he was seeing great results because he had never you know he put on like 10 pounds wow yeah yeah and you can see it on him he looked good he looked really good and but he see this is where it gets weird this is where it gets weird

because you have this gLP data you'll have a typical by the way I was an article that just came out so typical person who's using a JLP is avoiding exercise so a majority of them are not choosing to yeah they're not it's alarming yeah I should it's hard it should yeah remember what I told you

definitely don't want to you're not it's it's it's hard enough to be motivated to lift weights we're all busy we're all tired we all work a lot we all this way okay take that and now cut your calories down to 1,300 For somebody that doesn't even train to begin with. That's what I mean. Yeah, yeah, and you're going into deficit and then all of a sudden trying to get motivation.

It's exactly what you said, Adam, and this is this problem. This is what this is what it says. People's daily steps might drop after starting a GLP1 prescription. New research suggests. Yes. Why? Because people, so here, doctors at St. John's Hospital, Illinois and others, examine Fitbit data from people with obesity who were prescribed at GLP1 medication.

People's level of physical activity significantly decreased. Wow. after starting a GLP 1 they found. Now, I'll tell you why. It's because they're cutting their calories way the hell down. No energy. Well, I, one of the best things I did was when I did that was going into it like I think a client would go into it and not trying to game it, right?

Because this is what I experienced was just low energy. I did not have a motivation. I don't have a motivation to work out at all, much less continue to go, like increasing my steps or saying consistent. It was come home from work and I wanted to plop down. in my giant bean bag and just take a midday nap because I was just tired, was so tired from it. And so it takes a lot of discipline for somebody to continue to do the steps, continue to do the workouts, and then also push to eat when you're not hungry.

When you also know that that's what got. I'm trying to lose weight. Yeah, I'm trying to lose weight. Well, so my point with this is a lot of people are taking these peptides. They're losing lots of weight. Their blood markers are getting better, but they feel weak. they're losing strength and they have less energy. And so what they're doing is they're just looking at the blood markers.

Hey, you're moving in the right direction. Meanwhile, you have a friend who's like, dude, I've felt so strong. I've got more muscle. I've got more energy. And his blood lipid numbers are a little off. Yeah. And so like, oh, oh, what do I need to do? I know.

What are we really looking at? That's why I'm like, that's why I was so frustrated with it and was like so caught. I think that's where I reached out to. I mean, how do I want to advise him right here? Because I just got him to build 10 pounds of muscle on his body and do it a good job. And now the doctor comes back and say, oh, your blood lipids are a little off. And now you should probably cut back right. I'm like, oh, man, this is what got.

Killing me, Doc. Yeah. So it's like, it puts you in that predicament of like what's, and I don't know enough because it's not like I'm really coaching this person. So it'd be different if I was a little more. Yeah, see what, there may be something else. Right, right. So I'm also careful. Because I'm having organic beer.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm also careful to not just be, oh, ignore the doctor, do this. You know what I'm saying? And so I'm like, okay. Speaking of that, that's a great transition. So you know how they had the World Cup going on right now. Like Scotland's in there. And I don't know.

It's been years since they've really been in the World Cup. So a lot of Scottish fans flew in, and it was on the East Coast. It was in Boston. And so there's a statistic going around now that, you know, St. Patrick's Day is a big thing in Boston. Like, it just goes crazy, right? They died the river and everything. Yeah, everything. And everybody's drinking.

And so you can imagine how much. beer sales are so apparently like it's been three times the amount of beer wow wow triple gosh fans wow this is again this was a report out there that somebody posted it's been funny this is like a really you just made me remember this this has been a terrible year for italy they didn't get in the world cup and they came out with that just horrible Ferrari oh no Italians are just destroyed my family is like they're depressed there's so there's so They're not in the World Cup, but we have an electric Ferrari. The hell's happening, dude.

Oh, God. And ugly electric Ferrari in that sense, too. Look at that. Look this thing. Our Scottish soccer fans drinking all of the beer in Boston. Man, if you're a pub, you're loving it right now, huh? That's awesome. Champions, dude.

Yeah, did you see the clip? Speaking of the World Cup, and it was, it was, what was it? Oh, was comparing the New York Knicks celebrating after the Spurs loss. and just all the fights and the trash. And then they showed Japan playing. Who did they just... Japan played somebody recently. I don't know who they played this last week.

And I believe they lost. And they showed all the Japan fans afterwards. Crazy. Cleaning up the stands. Japanese culture is very... Dude, I mean, talk about... Huge. I mean, it wasn't like one or two people.

Like, all the Japanese fans that were in the stands. That's pretty cool. Stayed after the game and were using... had bags and we're picking up the trash. So I did, I did judo as a kid and I did Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a young adult. And judo I did in a traditional Japanese, it's in Japan town here in San Jose, San Jose Buddhist Judo Club, one of the oldest judo schools.

Yeah. And it was very traditional. And let me tell you the difference. You did Japanese judo. We show up. We set up the mats. We sweep the mat. This is part of your, basically part of the class.

You sweep the mats, get everything ready. it's very professional. At the very end, we clean the mats again, we roll them up. Brazilian jihitsu is like, you show up like, hey, what's up,

you're doing 15 minutes late, fist bump, you know, do your thing. Totally different. You know, this is a part, that's a part of our culture

I don't like, right? There's a bit, and I know we're in the world we can be known as like the arrogant Americans. That there's, there's so much that we can learn and take away from other cultures.

And like, what a great, I mean, you have admirable. Oh, 100%. You're in a, you're in another country in another team stadium your team loses

you stay after the game and you pick up the like that's I mean that it's like a whole new standard and it's like what's wild to me about that is those people are all strangers

there's not like a family of 10 people doing it's like there was like hundreds of people that like the whole culture that just that's what you do you go somewhere you make a mess doesn't matter if it's in a stadium

in a home or what that like you stay and you clean up your mess Do you guys remember? Remember with the big earthquake that happened in Japan? And was it the Fukushima power plant? Okay. And it was so radioactive that they needed volunteers to go down to help clean it, knowing that they would die.

It was the elderly, right? Elderly Japanese people volunteered. They volunteer because they're like, I'm already old. So I'll go down. Wow. Yeah, that was so cool. It's such cool things about cultures like that. Yeah, I know.

I just wild to me to see hundreds do that. I mean, that says something about an entire culture if hundreds of people get buying like that. It's not to say there's not good people. And I'm sure there's somebody who's listening to this podcast. Like, I always clean up after myself. Well, you're one person. You're not an entire culture. I've always wanted to go there because it's such a great culture.

But then they got weird stuff. Like some of their anime is really crazy. Like, what do you guys do? Yeah, it's a super clean place. And it is the culture to do that, to clean up after yourself. And good luck finding a garbage can. the street because people don't walk and eat food there. They eat it where they buy it or they take it home or wherever they're going and throw it away there. So yeah, there's a lot of like

little frustrating things about Japan, but I really appreciate how detailed they are and how conscientious they are. Is it true that it's custom or it's part of the culture where like, I don't know, Fridays or whatever, everybody goes out with the boss and you got to keep drinking until he says we're done. So I never worked in the corporate world, but judging by the trains, I don't think it's just a week, you know, Friday. I think it's like Monday, Tuesday. Yeah, they get hammered. That's funny. I saw a clip after this and I don't know, I think it was attached to this just like their culture and different things they teach and train and some of that. They're showing kid children when they're really young. This is to keep people from jaywalking, right? So the people,

you won't jaywalk as you get older. So when they're really young, there's like a stadium of kids. And they probably look like the kids must be five to seven at the oldest of young. Like our kids age, really young. And they're all sitting like in a school setting. And they show like a car full speed hitting like a child dummy. Wow. Yeah, yeah.

It's like like, show the kids. What happens? Yes. Yes. And so it's like one of those crash dummy like tests. And it's like there's like front row seats of it. And like all the children are sitting and they get to watch like what happens to this.

This is like. It's like the red asphalt leg video that we ought to watch. Yeah, they don't even show that anymore. No. Come on. That was, you had, if you got a point on your license or whatever and you had to go do traffic school,

they would show you. Look up how they train a Japanese kids to not, to not jaywalk and see if that pops. They would show you a video in traffic school of horrible accidents. Horrible. Yeah. Like brain. And I get it now.

Yeah. Back then, I was like, yeah. Wow. What is this? Yeah. It slowed me down, though. The first children is crossing your...

Crosses. Yeah, I'm not seeing there. Yeah. Well, there... There it is right there. Oh, really? There it is. Yeah, yeah.

This one here is the second video? Yeah, yeah, right there. Okay, yeah, yeah. You see it? Yeah, I see it, yeah. This can't be everybody. Oh, I don't know. It's not a lot of it.

It's Instagram, but I'm not... I'm not logged in on that computer. Wants were blocked. Well, I got to bring up some interesting science on our partner's super patch. So I was talking. So I had a couple of them on the other day. I don't remember.

Where was I? I went somewhere and I was with friends. And one of them was like they noticed I had the patch on my arm. I'm like, oh, oh, that's what it was. I was training my buddy who's a doctor, right? Science guy, doctor. So he's like, what's on your arm? I'm like, dude, this is the wildest thing.

Yeah, great person to talk to you. Oh, perfect. You want to go ahead and sit down? I got to explain this. This is a craziest thing. I said it's called haptic technology. And so there's no, it's not transdermal. There's no chemicals.

There's no medicine in it. There's no supplement in it. It's literally just the patch that sits on your skin. And the design on there creates tension on the skin. It actually changes, you know, how we can measure your brain waves to match brain waves. That would be like athletic performance or for sleep or for whatever. And his face, of course, is looking at me. I was like, get out of here, bro.

I'm like, listen. We're talking about it. I'm the big, I was the biggest skeptic. Biggest skeptic. I sent him all the studies. I have yet to hear from him. Oh, yeah. I'm going to say it.

Bro, there's like a dozen. So people don't need to understand this. He did his homework, man. There's a dozen peer reviewed studies on super patches patches and how well they work. And the studies are wild. It's like a little effect. No, it's wild. They work.

Yeah. It is really crazy. Yeah. So I use the sleep one all the time. The pain one I use like crazy. The pain one. Yeah, it's a, I compare it to, and I think when, I think when I brought this up, I brought this up before,

and you actually looked up, it is the exact, the studies that show what percentage of pain, I said, I said, it feels like if I have a level eight, it brings me down to like a five or something, five or six somewhere on that.

It's like taking an advil. Yeah, which, and I compared it to taking an advill. It is similar. In the pain study, it's as effective as in the process. Yeah, like Advil has never felt miraculous to me,

but if I have pain or if it's not as loud, yeah. But yeah, it definitely dole, doles it and it works. We know it works. Obviously, it's been around forever. Everybody uses it. And so when I use that patch, I'm like, this is what it kind of reminds me of. Only I'm not taking a pill. You know, it's like this patch I can put on. And so, and then you looked it up.

And what the research show is the same. So they have one for athletic performance. And they use them. That's one I want to try. So they have one. So here's a deal. So it's measurable. It's about as measurable as caffeine, which is actually quite measurable.

However, if you're an athlete, you have to use it consistently for you to notice the effect because you can have a day that's off or whatever. But it's measurable. That's what the study shows. So I've used that one. I've used the pain one. I've used the sleep one too. And then there's one called joy that's supposed to help with mood.

And I think it works. And it's really weird. I'm still skeptical. I use the sleep one. And what's cool is that... What's the Liberty one? I should look up with Liberty. They name them.

They have names on them. And I'm like, I don't... Does I have that one? And I was like, what does this one do? I think it just gives you freedom. That's stupid. Yes. The sleep one improved my REM.

So I consistently. measure my sleep already right now. That's what the study show. And so it improved my REM. Oh, Liberty Patch, better mobility, balance, stability, strength, and control. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah. So they have a whole bunch of these, dude, that are pretty, there's one that boosts metabolic rate. I got to look at the study on this. I still am skeptical. Even though I use it. And these are peer-reviewed studies. I still. Because it just seems so woo-woo. It's a whole new category of science. It really is. They invented or essentially created a whole new area of research. I'm really curious to see how it spreads out, you know, because I know he was, like, addressing the pro sports market and, like, they're doing, like, wild things with athletic performance.

But just to see, like, if it really does pervade, you know, culture. Well, isn't the, isn't this, the science behind Braille is very similar when you think about it? Like, what, like, we just take that for granted because it's been around for a long time. But you ever think that somebody blind touches a bunch of dots and. and can decipher it. Yeah, decipher words and sentences and language. Well, that's how it started. And what he did with the research,

because he's an engineer. We did a whole podcast with him. I know. I'm going to make it real simple. He literally took, there's tons of data. Tons of data on, I think they're called EEGs, right? That's the brain. Is that what the brain?

Look it up. Because I don't want to get this wrong. Tons of data. And there's EEGs on people in all kinds of different states of mind. He created an algorithm that could, sift through it all. And then like an engineer, he tested different techniques. And there's way more that goes into it. The guy spent, I don't know, $40 million of his own money, I think it was. And he would just put it on people and measure their brain waves. He's like, oh, cool, this one's

producing the brain waves that seem to produce better athletic performance. And then they would test it and they ran the study and then show, sure enough, it works. I mean, basically, he's an engineer. It's wild. Yeah. I know. It's really, really crazy. Anyway, super cool. I, uh, favorite shirt from Viori. What's your favorite? Stratotech for me? Yeah. Hands down. I'm on the jacket right now. That's the one that I wear all the time.

Yeah. All the time. I'd have to say strata. That's the one with the pocket, right? No. No. I think this is a strap. The pocket.

Doug's got one on right now. Yeah. Okay. You have the strata on? I like the, it's a little thinner, but it has a pocket on it and it just, it fits like a glove. Like it's very, yeah. And you're still stuck on the jacket.

Yeah, I bought another one. You know that, right? You got two now? Yeah, yeah. I ordered a third one. You got three now? Yeah. Yeah.

So I just. Are they different colors? Are you going to see? Yeah, no, of course. I mean, I guess it's a fair question. I have like five of the same color pants, you know what I'm saying? So I guess it's a fair question. That's how I wear clothes.

I get the same color. I mean, it makes sense. I feel like the pants, like having the black pants and I'll go together. But it's, no, they're, I just like how light they are. I like that I can dress them up or down. And so they look really, they look really sharp if I want to look dressed up. If I want to be casual in them. So it's one of the things that I love about Biori.

So I brought up the strata take because I, because I was wearing Stratotech to, went to a church event with a bunch of friends, and right away, people recognize now that I have, Viori's such a recognizable brand now. So someone's like, oh, Viori, I like them. So we started talking, and they're like, how do you know them?

Like, oh, they sponsor the show. I've been working with them for a while. And they're like, how long have you been working with them? And I was telling them, like, we worked with them before they had, they had one physical location. It was insinitas, right? That was the only one. Yeah.

And they were just tripping. Like, what do you mean? It was all online. Yeah. We grand open their first physical location. Nobody, a lot of people didn't know who they were. Yeah. And now everybody knows.

Yeah, we were the official first sponsor and partnership they had ever worked at. We reached out to them. So, I explained this too to a lot of friends and people that we know that have started a podcast and they've asked me questions about partnerships. And I said, you know, we really did it different than a lot of people I know in the space. Most people just they'll take whatever companies reach out or who will pay, whatever. out where when we built this, we originally were going to do no ads, no anything like that. It was like there was no reason we didn't need to. That wasn't the mission. Obviously got to a place where we had lots of companies that were reaching out, none that we were really interested in.

And I thought, well, why don't I just try and see if I can go after brands that we like. And I got to credit Taylor, because Taylor was the one who introduced this, who worked for us the way back in the desk. Yeah, T-D-D-D-D-D. Who, I don't know if you, I don't know if you guys remember this or not. I know, I know I've said it to you before, but the big motivation of hiring him was, I mean, he's a good 10, 15 years younger than me. And I like to think that when I was younger, I was the cool kid who was on all the hip trends. I'm fully aware. I'm not that cool guy anymore. I'm totally okay. I'm a dad now. I'm not cool. I'm not hip. Too much to keep up with. Right? Yeah. It's just a lot. It's a lot of work

to stay up on the trends and stay on that. But I, I love that respect to that. so much and know how important that is to the generation coming up. And he was that kid that I knew that was young enough and distant enough from my age that was like I was when and he was always on the latest, newest stuff of everything. And so that was a lot of the motivation of bringing him on the team is like, I want somebody who is up and up on all the latest brands and trends. And so I remember when he brought Viori to me and he's just like, we got to get with this brand. And so we reached out to Joe and the founder and basically presented to them. They're like, I don't know who you guys are because they didn't know who we were at the time.

And I was like, listen, I think this is right up our alley. We're going to make you a household name brand. I didn't pitch it like that. What I did say is we had a very loyal audience. I really like your brand. And I think that it fits our demographic really well. Gave him like a sweetheart deal and told him this is a sweetheart deal. and told him this is a sweetheart deal.

We can't afford to do a partnership with this forever, but let me prove to you that it's a worthwhile partnership. And so I made that pitch like that. Is that eight years ago? Yeah, eight, maybe more. Maybe longer. Maybe longer. They're one of the first. That's cool.

Yeah, they're one of the early, early partnerships. Like 90% of my wardrobe. I think all of ours. I mean, I have. So much better that way. They're always constantly, you know, the one thing I get upset when we do these ads for them is they always have like, new stuff coming out and I don't even keep up with all of it.

And then occasionally I'll go into the store. Like, damn, I don't even know they had all this. And we work with them. And so, you know, they're always coming out with new great stuff. And so it's an incredible brand. I love everything they do. Look, if you've been listening to Mind Pump for any amount of time, you know how seriously we take gut health.

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with recovery, that's what all the data shows on beneficial probiotics. And again, seed is the world's best. Go to cede.com forward slash mind pump. Use the code 25% off your first month of seeds daily symbiotic. Back to the show. Our first caller is Alex from Washington. Alex, what's up, dude? Hey, don't know.

Welcome back, dude. What's up, guys? Yeah, I think it was February last time that we talked. Yeah, so what's happening? Let us know. A little review and then update. Yeah, yeah. So when we first met, my personal goal was to lose fat. At the time, I weighed about 207, and I had just taken a Dexas skin, and I said I was around 30% body fat. So I met with you guys. I followed the advice to like just prioritize protein, daily steps, and increase healthy fats. And since then, I've lost over 20 pounds. So I'm about 183 now. more importantly, I just feel really good.

So I'm focusing on protein and activity instead of obsessing over, you know, every single calorie. And that made the process a lot more enjoyable, a lot more sustainable for me. And so I feel like I've been able to build healthy habits and I've been able to maintain a flexible, metabolic lifestyle for months now, which has been really nice with the stage of life that I'm in. You guys gave me a MAPS d'Avolic, and I really enjoyed it. It was really nice to try something new. I'm not typically like a full body guy. I'm typically like we're doing shoulders today or we're doing chest today,

but it was really nice to try something new. And I felt like my body really responded to like a new type of stimulus. So that was awesome. Basically at this point, like I've lost weight. I feel good. I'm just trying to figure out what my next steps are. So I've noticed a little bit of strength loss. My goal right now isn't to bulk, but I would like to get some of that strength back.

I am really liking how lean that I feel. I probably still have some body fat to peel off. So I don't know if I'm in like a recomp mode or what. I can kind of get into my calories too. My calories have actually gone up as I've lost weight and like my metabolism. has increased so I feel like I'm in what you guys have called like the Goldilocks zone like so that's awesome um just want to get a little stronger it's a little uh you know disappointing to like to like feel a noticeable strength loss in all the core lifts it's pretty it's pretty common when you drop 20

pounds you know so that's and and I think you're actually in a really good place I'd like to hear a little bit about uh because it's awesome that you've been able to kind of do this intuitive eating what would you say is like if you have what you think is it not a great day eating or what's what's the things that creep into the diet that were not ideal or like would not be what you consider a really good day. Yeah, a really good day. Like it's just a really good day is like being on it all day and it's like chicken and rice, beef and rice. It's just like, you know, getting good fiber. It's hitting my protein. A really bad day is like I don't hit steps. I'm short on protein. I go out to eat with the family.

Maybe I have some wine or something for dinner. You know, that creates like a poor sleep that night. And I'm kind of dragging the next day. And I'm trying to like catch up the next day. Well, Alex, let me pause you there for a second. Because I have a couple of questions before we get into what you considered the bad day, right? Let's talk a little bit about the strength changes that you noticed. Can you give me an example of where I,

lift was and where it is now? Yeah, I, so I used to be able to rep out like 185 on an incline barbell bench for three, four sets of 10 to 12, like pretty, pretty easily. I felt really strong in that lift and I'm really struggling on five by fives now. I'm able to hit five sets of five, but with the same weight. With the same weight, but I can't do anymore. Okay. So, so here's what you want to do with strength when you start to lose weight. And now this isn't true necessarily for beginners. A beginner will often see strength go up as they lose weight. And so this can sound confusing to somebody who's experienced because they'll drop weight

and see strength drop and be like, am I doing something wrong? Yeah. But it's expected when you're experienced. It's expected to go down in strength when you drop weight. What you want to look at is your strength to weight ratio. Right. So if you were doing 185 for 10 and you lost 20 pounds, your weight to strength, your strength to weight ratio would be the same if it went down to 155 for 10. 20 pounds down.

Does that make sense? Yeah. It sounds to me like you've maintained your strength or maybe even gone up a little bit. And so you can do this with your lift. You can say, okay, how much was I doing for one rep here? How much am I doing for one rep there? what of my strength to weight ratio? And if you're losing weight and keeping your strength to weight ratio around the same,

you're totally winning. Yes. You're doing a great job. Yes. Okay. Yes. Sweet. Okay.

So that's number one. Now let's go back to what you defined as a bad, quote unquote, bad day. Yeah. What we need is a complete picture of what that actually means. So I need more information. When you're going out with your family and you're eating out and having a little bit of wine, what are some of the good things out of that day? I mean, from a nutritional standpoint?

No, no, looks look at the big picture. Oh, okay, yeah, big picture. I mean, it's a great social bonding moment, like, with people who love me and care about me. And it means a lot to go and do things like that. So from that standpoint, like, it's a great day. Good. Because what you're talking about right now, Alex, is you're moving towards what would be considered a lifestyle of health and fitness. I'm so glad you went that direction with him.

it's where I was heading, which was, because I can tell just by looking at you from here, you're healthy and fit. You're in a good place. Now, does that mean could you be more ripped and maybe you want a little more of that? And what comes with that is sacrifice. So maybe less of those days that Sal's talking about for more abs. And so, and so, and I wrestle with this all the time. And like, and I have to make that choice of like, do I enjoy every Friday night?

I can have a couple glasses of whiskey and enjoy good barbecue ribs with my wife and not count calories. And you know what? I'm not going to look like stage at them that way. Definitely not. You know what I'm in a season in my life? I'm like, you know what? I want to ramp it up a little bit. I'm going to have less of those for a while.

And so I think you're kind of in that place right now where I think you're in a very healthy, balanced. And I think if you just keep kind of going the way you are, you're going to slowly just keep recomping, getting strong, getting a little bit fitter. if you wanted to see that faster or you wanted more leanness then you just you would have less of those days you'd have less of those days and you'd have more abs but then you have to ask yourself

and I always encourage people go through a season where you do that you know make those sacrifices get shredded to prove to yourself that you can you know say no to all those days and see if you're happier most people are not you know what I'm saying most people they get there and temporarily

go this looks badass and then they go but boy, I missed that night with my wife and I would have been really nice to have that popcorn in that movie and so I think you're right there. I think I feel at least that's what I hear and I feel from you is that you're kind of in that place right now. Yeah, you're doing a good job, dude.

You're actually kicking ass. You really are. There's a couple things you could do when you eat out if you want to make it a little bit more conducive to like fitness goals, like what I'll do is I'll still go out and enjoy myself. I'll just want to eat carbs.

That's really easy for me to avoid so I can have the steak and vegetables and the glass of wine. And so now the calories are a little bit lower. You know, there's little things like that. But, you know, fitness isn't life. Life is not fitness. Fitness makes life better.

You know, like on people's deaths. Exactly. So like on people's death beds, people never say, I wish I worked more or I wish I had better abs. Or I wish I avoided, you know, that dinner with my wife. Nobody says that. I want that on my tune.

People may say, I wish I took better. error myself so I didn't get a heart attack. Like that might happen. But oftentimes what they say is I wish I spent more time with my family. Or especially, you know, so, so you're in that phase where you're like, man, I'm getting this lifestyle that's really improving the quality of my life. And what I would say to you, bro, is just stay the course.

Yeah. The mistake you can make right now, Alex, is to start to look at it and everything's going good and then to start to be like, how can I make this happen faster? And that can be a mistake. That can be a trap. Yeah. As far as programs are concerned, I see you asked the question about Maps power lift. I think that would be a great program.

Okay. Yeah. I wasn't sure where to go from here again. I'm in a really good spot right now where I'm not focusing on every detail. I just want to stay the force and continue to build strength. Not really sure what program, but I know you guys have a program like PowerLift. So want to get your input. Yeah, I think PowerLift is a great program.

And my advice following it would be, When you're hungry, feed. So like if all goes well, your appetite will increase while you're going through this and feed yourself, but make good choices. Yep. I mean, allow that. And if we do that correctly, it should make this real natural reverse diet for you. Where the calories keep going up, we should see strength go up. Not really, I don't really care with the scale because you're at a good weight.

I don't need you to be any lighter than what you are. So, I mean, if the scale goes to 187, who cares? especially if strength is going up, that's a really good sign and appetite going up and eating more. So I'm really, that's what we're watching is to see that and feel that. And I think you will lean out in the process. And you'll lean out not through dropping weight on the scale, but through building more muscle. And so, yeah, that'll probably have you, have you done another scan since you did the 30% one? Do you know where you're up?

You know, I actually haven't and I didn't because I realized they kind of just robbed me of my happiness before. And although it sent me down this path of like, you know. good, dude. Doing something about it. Like, Sal, I think last time we talked, it's like, it sounds like it stole the happiness from you. You know, basically.

And I was like, you know what? I think it did. Bro, you are in such a good. Yeah, you're at a good place. That's a good place, bro. That's a good place. You're literally on the right path. What I do love is that my calories,

like when I, I was at like, 1,900, 2000, really trying to cut. And now I'm eating whenever I'm hungry. I'm at like probably 24, 2,500. The last time I actually tried. all day and I'm not gaining any weight. So I'm maintaining around 183 at like 24, 2,500.

Isn't that weird? Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. My metabolism is firing. I don't want to cut any more calories. I'm at about 8,000 steps a day. Yeah.

You know, some days are lower. Some days are a little bit higher, but average about 8,000. So like I think I'm humming along. And I have you guys to think because I feel like I have that. You guys talk about like metabolic and lifestyle flexibility where I call it a bad day, but it's not a bad day. Like I go out and I have that flexibility where I can go and do whatever with my family and then I could still maintain the goals that I have like big picture.

So it's pretty sweet. Yeah, you're killing it. Success story. Yeah, yeah. And honestly, if you're right, if you're probably falling around 24, 25 and we go into power lift and you eat when you're hungry, you'll probably go up. You'll probably go up around 27, 200, maybe even 3,000 calories and be able to still kind of maintain your body.

opposition where you're out. I'll tell you what. So at this point, if you, you know, just the only advice I'd give you is cycle through our programs and just focus on the physical aspect of it. So like power lift is great. I think symmetry would be phenomenal. Bridge everything. After that. And then you can look at different programs and look at see what looks fun. My advice I give all callers or people that were coaching is either symmetry or performance cycle through once a year. That'll address any imbalances. It's got unilateral work. It's got rotational stuff in there. And the one bad thing about anabolic and

power lift, if you just ran those all the time, is you'll get really strong, but you're not addressing a lot of the imbalances, rotational stuff, unilateral stuff. And that'll keep you healthy, take care of those joints long term. So as long as you cycle through one of those two programs every year

and just keep on this path, you're good, man. Nice. My other question, as I was doing anabolic, obviously there's barbell squats. I know you guys talk about doing barbell squats all the time. Man, my shoulder, my right shoulder is so uncomfortable holding the bar back there. I'm not sure what to do.

So I've opted for belt squats, hack squats. I've gotten strong, but I know that I would like to be strong at back squats. And I have a lot more to give there, but I just, I rack it because my shoulder can't take that position. Where do you feel pain for you? I mean, it's hard to describe it. So I can describe it this way. When I do a shoulder press with dumbbells, I can keep my elbows slightly in, inwards.

So there's no pain at all. But when I start to go all the way back, like a full blown, like behind my neck, it starts to just really feel super tight and uncomfortable in my right shoulder. Okay. So you can definitely fix that. There's some scapular issues there, a little bit of peck tightness, maybe bicept tendon tightness. I'm going to send you Prime Pro. and in Prime Pro, start doing the mobility movements for shoulder and scapula and practice those daily.

Okay. And get under a bar. External rotation. Get under a bar. You don't got to squat, but get into a bar, focus on squeezing the shoulder blades down and back. Grab wider on the bar. That might help. And then just practice holding that position without pain.

But do the mobility movements in Prime Pro. That'll take care of that. Okay. Sweet. I will. Thank you, guys. All right, dude. Thanks for calling it.

Keep it up, Alex. Yeah, yeah. I appreciate you guys. Thank you. Take it easy. What a success story. What a great story. You know, it's funny.

If being ripped was the weight of happiness, then the happiness people. I mean, I'm so glad you went that direction because that's where I was heading with him. I wanted him, I wanted to hear him defined to me what was good or bad, right? And so I could hear that because I could tell he looks great. He lost 20 pounds. Yeah. Yeah. And so he looks very healthy where he's at.

So, and, you know, this is the, I think this is the trap when you start to see great results is, it's similar to the money trap. You start making a little more money, more money. Just keep moving the goalpost. Yeah. And then it's, and you continue to sacrifice things for moving that goalpost. And so, you know, you have to ask yourself if this thing that you call a bad day and you challenged him on it, was like, well, what was so bad about? Well, no, I had great hanging with my wife, doing all this up. It's like, hey, you want to get down to 8% body fat?

Just do less of those. You know, and then ask yourself, is that worth that? Like, is it, are those abs worth less to those days? And if it is, hey, so be it, who am I to judge? That's up to each person. But it's like, you're in a really great place. I'm going to say this again, if happiness was defined by being ripped, then the most ripped-looking people would be the happiest people.

And here's the truth. They're not. They're far from the happiest people. It is not the path to happiness, no matter how much they sell it on social. But I do think, and that's why I said it to him, that there is value. I think everybody has to figure out their path. Well, there's nothing like experiencing. Yeah, there's nothing like saying, I'm going to do that.

And you could like, man, dedicate three months of your life. It's not your whole, I mean, it's a smart part of your life. Three months and make all those sacrifices. Be the person who carries their temperware around. You know what I? Don't go out to those dinners. Don't have that drink. Do that thing for a while.

Get those abs. And then ask yourself, like, am I happier? Did this make me better? And if it's not, if the answer is no. And if it's, and maybe maybe what you find. is there's somewhere in the middle of that. And I feel like this has kind of been part of my own journey of figuring out what that looks like. And it's like, you know, I know there's a, there's a balance like where I want to enjoy that drink.

I want to enjoy that dinner. I want to enjoy that popcorn. But there's also times where I'm like, I don't need to do that. Why am I eating candy watching the movie? Yeah, exactly. It's just like, it's Tuesday. It's not a big deal. Exactly.

You know what I'm saying? But it's like, then there's times where it's like, oh, this is a really nice night. I've got no kids, me and my wife. Oh, yeah. I'm going to enjoy that night. Our next color is Amber from Texas. Hey, Amber. How are you doing?

How are you? How are you just trying to stay cool over here in this heat? How can we help you? So this is a follow-up. I called in earlier in the year about starting a GLP and then Sal yelled at me and he's like, you shouldn't be on a GLP. I'm just kidding.

He was very honest because, you know, I had said that I had a history of an eating disorder and so I shouldn't have been on it. But I wasn't going to do this follow-up because I probably don't have the answer or the follow-up that may be, not saying you were hoping for it, but I didn't stop the GLP.

I did have the dose, but there was an episode that I listened to where a mother was considering putting her teenage son or something on one. And I was like, you know what, I need to follow up because the GLP gave me a whole lot of anxiety

since I've halved it. My anxiety has gone down. I'm not blaming it all on that. But it was just so bad that I was like, you know what, let me call in, let me do a follow-up and be honest. So being honest, I did not stop the GLP. I'm on a truce appetite compound, but I did have the dose. So I am able to eat more, and my anxiety did go down once I started having that dose. And since then, I went and I've got blood work a couple of times, and my gynecologist gave me a diagnosis of something called adenomyosis.

I don't know if you guys have heard of it. I'm familiar with. Yeah, so I have that. So I have that. So I have a a hysterectomy that's scheduled for August and I was also low on testosterone. So they were going to put me on pallets, but then I remembered you guys talking about Vita Bella. So I actually just signed up with them. I started my testosterone shots yesterday. And so with all of those changes, I'm, you know, I'm still on the GLP. I'm doing NAD with the shot. I'm doing the testosterone now, the 0.1 milliliter, the small dose. And I'm doing the vitamin D3 daily. With my upcoming surgery in August, my hysterectomy, me, they're going to leave the ovaries in. Should I change anything as far as my training,

my nutrition? Like, what should I do to prepare for the surgery? Should I take advantage of the testosterone and try and get as strong as I can before surgery? What do you guys suggest? I know it's a lot of information. Yeah, thanks for, thanks for calling in. And so I do want to address, first off, I'm going to be very clear. None of us are doctors here. So we're, we're personal trainers. So you're going to be hearing. Well, you guys have helped me a whole lot more than my doctors have. So there's going to be some, I'm going to give you some answers based off of my experience with clients and some speculation. Okay, so just take it for what it's worth.

I will say this. Some people do experience anxiety with GLPs because they do have an effect on resting heart rate. They will increase resting heart rate pretty predictably. And the stronger ones tend to do this more. The data on Reda Trutide shows that it raises it more than terseptide. Trezepotide seems to raise it more than some agglutide. And so for people that are very prone to anxiety, that may be,

a side effect. Now, it's not widely observed. A lot of people lose weight, get better with their anxiety, especially people who suffer with obesity and stuff like that. The other reason why sometimes people get anxiety on a GLP is their coping mechanism is food. You take away the food. I still have the anxiety. What do I do now? You know, type of deal. So that might be another mechanism. But what you're saying isn't unheard of. So I'm glad you kind of lowered the dose. Okay. So adenomyosis. So this is where the cells, there are cells that kind of proliferate and grow. Yeah, they grow into the uterus. Yeah.

And so they're basically removing this and they stop that from happening. It's a big surgery. It's a pretty big surgery. When you look at the relationship between testosterone and this condition, there seems to be no or a positive association, meaning raising testosterone may actually help. because this condition is estrogen-related. I want you to ask your doctor and confirm everything I'm saying, okay, because I can totally be wrong. So you got to get cleared from them first.

Now, from a fitness perspective, it's always best to go into a surgery stronger and heavier. Yeah, stronger, well-fed. Not just more muscle, but more body fat. Yeah. Okay. So I don't know what body fat, you don't like that. What body fat are you sitting at right now, Amber? I don't know.

I don't weigh myself. I don't take my body fat measurements. When I was signed up with Vita Ballard, the doctor, I said, do not tell me my weight because it's still pretty triggering for me. But I know I've lost at least 20 pounds, maybe, that, yeah. You're pretty lean. You're better off going into a surgery with more muscle and fat, not just muscle. That's going to be protective through the recovery process. So people who go into surgery, who are weak and or.

low body fat do very poorly. People who go in with a lot of muscle with low body fat don't do super great. They do better, but they don't do super great either because they don't have stored energy, which is body fat. So if you really want to do well, I would go on a bulk. Now, that doesn't mean eat a bunch of garbage because there also may be an association between insulin resistance and your condition. So I don't think you should eat a bunch of garbage, but it probably is a good idea to gain weight going into the surgery. It'll make your recovery better. Okay. That makes sense. It's scary, but I will try to eat more. Yeah. Because you're going to need some weight to lose. You know, when you get a hysterectomy, you're going to be recovering.

You're not going to be able to do much. You need weight on you for your body to use as energy. Your appetite's going to be low and you're not going to be moving much. So you need to go in with some stored energy. Does that make sense? that makes sense yeah that makes a lot of sense so bulk and maybe just i i'm doing like a full body routine about three times a week so and i didn't want to change it when i started the test just to see yeah if i get stronger with you know if the just adding the testosterone low make me stronger because i did get weaker with the glp my strengths did go down so i guess um just staying on that same training up until the surgery yep yep but definitely increase your calories keep lifting weights uh testosterone

should be totally fine. Clear it with your medical professional, with your doctor that is doing the procedure. Let them know, hey, I'm on testosterone replacement therapy. Are there any contraindications? Do I need to go off? Is it going to affect anything for the surgery? Do I need to do anything else?

And then just see what they recommend and go with what they say. But for my understanding as a trainer, and I'm talking to you, so it would be different advice for everybody else. gain some weight and then go into the surgery. That'll be your best bet for recovering from the surgery and bouncing back. Do you see that as possible being on the GLP one? Can you eat more? Being on the GLP?

Yeah. Probably not. I'd probably have to get off of it or, yeah, probably have to get off of it. That's why I asked because I would consider that. If you're already, you already feel like it's work to eat what you eat now and this is where we're at, probably consider even lowering the dose more or eliminating it for this period of time. You can always go back afterwards, but if you're already struggling to eat what you eat now and we're asking you to eat more during this period of time, that's probably going to be tough.

Yeah, you don't want to be catabolic going into a catabolic state. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, surgery and recovery is like really catabolic. So you want to go into a kind of anabolic. So what's your body weight at now? Amber, do you have an idea? She has no idea. You have no idea? I'm going to guess about 120. I don't know. I mean, people ask me like, it's to the point where people are asking me like, are you okay? Like, do you have some kind of, yeah.

Amber, yeah, yeah, yeah. When's your surgery? August 13th. Okay. Can you, you think you gain 10 pounds by then? I can, whether or not, I mean, I'd have to probably talk with the therapist while I go through it to do that or just, you know, just I guess my thing would be thinking about the end goal. You know, what would my future me thank me for? And, and just being able to come back faster for work, for my kids, for life. And yeah, yeah, it takes a lot of mental. I can physically. Are you going to listen to us this time? I feel like you didn't listen to us last time. I kind of did. I halfway did.

I mean, kind of. I'm afraid the same thing's going to happen here. I feel like you're nodding your head. feel like you were nodding your head last time and then you got off and you still. Yeah, you were. So I was nodding my head. So I feel like we're having a very similar conversation here where the answer is you don't want to be really frail after your surgery. No. That's what that'll happen. No, I don't. You might come out of it really frail. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I, yeah. I don't know if I can gain the full 10, but I can promise you that I will either decrease or get off the GLP. And I'm promising myself this. That way again, after I have the hysterectomy, I can come back faster because I'm a workaholic. I need to get back to work like the day after surgery. I think 10 is minimum.

I think that's a very conservative. So I just want to stress that because if you, if you half ass listen to us, I'd rather tell you 20 pounds and then you half ass and give me 10. Okay, well, then tell me 20. Yeah, I think you should shoot for 20. We got August. So what are we in right now, June? Yeah. Hey, let's do this, Amber. Here's what I'm going to do. Okay. I'm going to have you on in 30 days. So that'll give us some time before your surgery. And so we'll do another update. And if you don't do what we tell you, okay, I'm going to chastise you on air for everybody. Yeah. Okay.

Me van dera again again. Okay. All right. Yes. All right. We'll see you in 30 days. Yep. All right.

All right. Bye. Bro, yeah. She didn't listen to us the first time. No. No. She lowered the dough, she said. Yeah, but to an area where she still is not eating.

Oh, no. You know? Listen. Being really obese going to surgery, bad outcomes. Being frail going to surgery, worse than a case. I remember this conversation. I mean, I obviously remember Amber because we've met her before, but I couldn't remember the exact conversation we had.

It's coming back to me right now. We were very adamant about her being off a GOP. I know. There's no reason for it. She has a prior eating disorder. And so somebody who has, so for the listener, do not. If you had an eating disorder. You have an eating disorder in the past.

a GLP1 is a horrible idea. It's heroin. Horrible. Yes. Horrible idea. Any dose of it. Horrible idea. It is dabbling in something that you already,

I mean, it's like you said. The sense of control that people get from restricting themselves and they have an eating disorder is a big reason why they have the eating disorder. Now you have a tool that gives you more power to restrict. It's heroin for the person with the eating disorder. And no dose of it is a good idea. It's not a good idea. And so, and now I remember this conversation.

And look it, we got off the call and she, quote, unquote, half listened to us and still is not a good place. I want to know what she said in Spanish. I know. It sounded sexy. It sounded sexy. I'm not doing anything you're telling me, you moron. Yeah. I'm sure somebody went in the audience.

Our next caller is Kennedy from Missouri. What's up, Kennedy? What's happening? Good, how are you all? Good. Good. How can we help you, dude? So a little background, I started working out when I was about 17 and started listening to

you all around the same time, so about 2017. And then in 2019, I had a bad work accident and had glass pole on me at work and cut my leg open. And so I was out for about six months. And I lost probably 30, 40 pounds. And so when it came to putting that weight back on, I didn't do it correctly. I know that. It was just eat, eat, eat, trying to get as much my weight back as possible.

And then just, like, seeing myself, I kind of, like, fell out of love with it. and now the beginning of this year I kind of started like really getting back into it. Like I worked out the whole time but just never like continue to track my calories or anything else. So at the beginning of the year, I was at 196 and just not the way I wanted to be. And so I have been cutting for just to get. back to where I want to look like. And then I was going to try and put some mass on after that. So since January, I've lost about 20 pounds.

My strength stayed about the same. So I haven't, I don't feel like I've really messed that up any. But I just wanted to know what do you guys think? I know you guys talk about like increasing calories and adding mass and it helps you lean out differently than. So I was just wondering your eyes as opinion on that. and how that would go. Yeah.

I'm curious to the look that you're trying to, because it says goal is to lean out down to 165. You're a six foot tall dude. Yeah, I was just going to want to get, like, I'm 180-ish right now, 178, I think it's the last time I weighed in. Which is a good weight for you. And I'm about 20% body fat-ish. I had a scan last week, so.

Okay. Let's back up for a second, Kenny. First off, you've been listening to us since you were 17, so I appreciate that, man. That's really cool. Yeah. What happened with the accident where you cut up your leg? Any nerve damage?

Yeah, my whole, so I worked at the local glass company for a family friend, and one day I was moving a few mirrors for him, and they ended up slipping and falling on my leg, and so they shattered. and cut basically from, I'd say like four inches below my knee to, it's like a horseshoe down my leg that just like filleted off, basically. But yeah, so it cut basically to the bone. So, yeah, my whole right side leg is from where the cut started to down it is pretty much numb.

But I have full function of it. It's just that outer portion is pretty to numb to the tough. Wait, okay, so it's full function, so you don't have a... Yeah. Okay, well, that's good. Yeah. Okay, that's... Yeah, I got the muscles are still contracting.

Okay, so you can squat bilaterally. There's no, like, big difference between right to left balance is good. Okay. Oh, good. Yeah. Okay, dude. All right. Sounds like it was very traumatic, though.

Yeah. Yeah. It was rough. It was few. All right. You still think you're dealing with that a little bit? Um, I think there's certain things like I can't do or... It feels weird, I guess.

Maybe not, can't do. I can do everything. But like, I know, like, lunging with that leg back is, it's really tight. Like, my Achilles got shortened or something, and it's really tight on the back end. But I can do it. It just feels awkward. What about psychologically? What did that do for, like, body image and stuff?

Because it sounds like you were, like, you were working out, had a good, you know, relationship with it. That happened. I'm just, you know, kind of paraphrasing. Right. That happened. and then you're like, I got to gain the, I lost all this weight because for six months you're healing. And I got to gain weight and you said you did it the wrong way. And now you're kind of, you know, you're trying to eat real little.

I can see what calories you're eating right now. Do you think that there may have been a psychological impact from all that in all honesty? Yeah, I think for a long time there was. It felt like I wore pants for years after it. Didn't want to wear shorts. they had like two drains in it so there's like these two like little scar holes that where the drains came out they're still there um and being big athlete like not being able to play the sports i used to play that bothered me for a long long time um but other than that i wouldn't say

it was like a huge psychological thing i mean yeah definitely i had the sound A round of glass still bothers me if something drops and that still freaks me out. But I think it's been long enough now that I've like really prayed about it and talked to family members and doctors and stuff like that about it. And it's has helped. Good man. Spoken like a good man. You're tough dude because that's rough. So I think you're still dealing with some of it and I can see it in your diet.

it, you know, it says you're eating 15 and 1900 calories a day, which is really low. After I emailed you guys, it was, I emailed you all after I listened to a podcast, and I think Adam was talking about his wife and a reverse diet and had her somewhere, and I was like, okay, if she's eating that many calories, like, I'm way too far under. Yeah. Yeah. And so I'm at like 2100 now. But I'm at like 185 grams of protein a day.

Too low. Yeah. Too low, brother. You're lifting six days a week? Any six days a week. Yeah, yeah. And you have a physical job? No, I'm an office job.

Okay. So here's what I want you to do. And you tell me if this is realistic for you, okay? Yeah. I don't want you to track. All I want you to track is your protein. And I want you to eat when you're hungry. And I mean eat until you're satisfied.

Yeah. We're going to, we're going to let your cal. go up, brother. Now, if you were to track, I'd have you immediately go up to 2,600 calories. Immediately. And then after that, I'd have you go up even higher. But I think the tracking may be part of the problem. And so whole natural foods, hit your protein. Don't do the thing where you eat the lean protein. Eat the fatty cuts. When you're hungry, eat. Eat until you're satisfied. Six days a week of strength training is too much. I think we could put you, I have two programs in mind that I think might be good for. You tell me.

what sounds better. We could do something a little bit of bodybuilding focus, or you used to be an athlete. Would you like to get some of that athleticism back? Because I have another program I can put you on. Okay. Yeah, I would. That's my main goal is I want to be athletic. And when the time comes and I have kids, like, I don't want this leg problem to be a problem.

Oh, yeah, no. I'm sending you an ass performance. And I want you just to hit your protein and eat when you're hungry, bro. Yeah. And stop weighing yourself. You're, and I want to address how I started the conversation. with you where you're at, because follow the advice is exactly where it's laid out.

At 20% and 180 pounds, you don't need to go anywhere on the scale. Like, you can be 10% body fat in 180, 180 pound. So what I'm trying to say is that a good goal is not to move on the scale at all, especially down.

You're at six foot tall, you could be 180 to 200 pounds and be lean and jacked. And so there's no reason to go down. Like, let's build muscle and you'll lean out. So you'll- If you ate more, if you ate more and followed mass performance, you would get leaner and probably stay the same way. Yes.

Okay. So I did buy MAP's aesthetic at one point. That's a lot. Yeah. It was hard. Yeah, I loved it. I can only, I can only imagine on 1,500 to 1,500 calories, too.

That's a lot. No, at that point I was still, I wasn't really tracking at that point. That tracking has only started since January. I was like, I can't stand being this big or feeling this big. And aesthetic is the wrong program for you. Do performance. I mean, go ahead and hit your protein and eat when you're hungry, bro. What I think I'm trying to get to like your training.

Like, have you ever thought about working with a coach and not just, you know, working out? I just feel like there's a little hesitancy with the legs performance and its strength, which I bet you, you know, you're making a lot of strides and you're not. seeing it because nobody's there kind of reinforcing that for you. I mean, it would just be something to consider just because a lot of times we get in our head because of, you know, past things. And a lot of athletes I've trained before have had injuries and it's a really hard hurdle to get over again.

Totally. When you start to get somebody to reinforce the fact that you're making a lot of progress in stride with these incremental angles, like now I can, I can actually like cut better. Now I can actually jump and I can do all these like, you know, performance moves again. You get more confidence in that. And I just feel like, you know, maybe somebody would just build that confidence

in your blanket because I guarantee, you know, you've probably made a lot of stride and a lot of strength there that you're just probably not seeing yourself. Kennedy, were you a runner or a wrestler? I was a, I played soccer and men's volleyball. Oh, okay. Yeah. I'm just curious because

your idea of like the weight into your height ratio, like it's like you, you do not have to be that that light it's so i mean just i'll tell you you're six foot six foot i had two 35 25 285 35 i mean i mean you you yeah you don't want i was i don't want you i don't want you i don't want you i don't want you any lighter than that you're plenty light you know what say let's build some let's build some muscle let's eat some food you can very easily build into what you're looking for yeah yeah for sure so you're a mental thing from high school just being like this is one hundred

Yes, it is. That's why I asked that. The reason why I asked and why I thought maybe you were a runner or wrestlers is because this tends to happen with my runners or my wrestlers is my runners and wrestlers are so obsessed with keeping their weight down because they need it for their sport. And so they're obsessed with a number on the scale when it's like, dude, you could totally weigh 20 pounds heavier and have the body you want or whatever. So you have that mentality a little bit.

So that's why I assume that that was a sport. Kennedy, listen, I want you to have fun. I want you to start enjoying this. Yeah. Like, fall in love with it again. When you follow Maps performance, here's how I want you to feed yourself. Hit your protein and then feed yourself for performance. Man, I need more energy. I got to eat more. That's what I want you to think. Am I moving better? Am I stronger? Am I faster? This is fun. That's what I want you to focus on. I don't want you to focus on the scale or the mirror or leanness. I want you to focus on. Am I enjoying this? Am I having fun? Can I move better? That's going to move you in the right direction. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'd love to check back up on you after this too

Yeah you want to get back on in 60 days Let's talk with you again Yeah sure All right let's do it I'm sending performance to you Yeah and let's just talk about your strength improvements in the next conversation I want to hear all about it

Okay Sounds good All right here Thank you all for everything you do You got it brother Thank you I thought for sure he was a wrestler or a runner Oh well soccer's close

Yeah and volleyball They both I know trying to keep their weight down And they're light But that's, because he... Bro, six foot tall and 180 is small. I think it's... It is. And I think it's more than that.

He loved, because he said this, he loved fitness. Had a tragic accident. And when you're a fit person, when you're an athlete, and then suddenly you can't do anything. For six months. Yeah. And you come back, you're looking for control.

Well, did you hear... This has become control. Well, did you hear him also? He said there was a past high school food thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so he had some food stuff and low, keeping body weight down low. I mean, the fact that his goal, I mean, he didn't, you guys didn't hear him, but is written up here that he wants to be 165.

No, I know. What? No. 165 and six foot and you're tiny. And you want to be athletic and strong? No way. That's like frail. No way, dude.

Yeah, no, he should be, he should be at least 180. And we also, we cannot understate the trauma that being unable. to do what you want physically for six months. Do you know how depressing that is? I was just sick. You got to love how a man describes it. That's why I said. You said it's spoken like a man.

Yeah. No, I think it's okay. Yeah, yeah. I'm on a glass. Yeah, I'm going to sound of glass. Sins chills down my back. I'm fine. No, you know.

That's why I don't know. That's why I kind of talk about the coaches. You need another person. Like, because he's in his head. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Exactly. That's actually, maybe we'll give him a contact.

Why don't you send that? A contact, yeah, for him to maybe pursue that. At the very least, we'll be there for him. I know how depressed. I was just sick for a day, bro. For one day, I'm in bed and I'm like, I'm depressed. I couldn't imagine six months, bro. I'm going through that, you know?

Well, and if you add the extra layer of that, if you admit that you had like a weight thing in high school and then you watch yourself. Dude, forget it, bro. You know? Yeah, no, completely dwindle away and freak out. Then you overcompensate and go the other direction, put on a bunch of bad weight.

Our next caller is Sophie from the UK. Hi, Sophie. Hi. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you as well. How can we help you? Thanks so much for taking my call. Before I start, I just want to say I've been listening for a couple of years.

And I want to say how much I appreciate the way that you, your ethos, really, how you strive to educate and share knowledge and inspire, but also that you stay curious and you keep learning and you challenge yourselves. And you allow yourselves to be vulnerable. Yeah, I think that's admirable. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. What a nice compliment.

How can we help you? I actually have a question about my husband. It's not about me. But he knows that I'm talking to you. It's two questions. One is related to back pain because he recently had an episode of really bad back pain. But his fitness is good. His mobility is good.

His cool strength is good. So we're looking for advice about that. and then just what you'd advise for long-term health and longevity for him in terms of exercise and nutrition. Okay. So do you want me to give you some background about his back? Yes, that would help a lot. Okay. So he's 54.

He has a very sedentary job. It's a very high-pressure job as a police officer. He works really long hours, so he usually leaves the house at about six in the morning. He gets home maybe at 7 p.m. he gets on average, I would say, six hours of sleep on weekdays. He's always kept fit, so he cycles maybe 40 miles a week. He swims a couple of times a week. He does a bit of weights and chin-ups, and he does maybe half an hour of mobility every day.

Lots of stretches, things like glute bridges, that kind of thing, some Romanian deadlifts, but with no weights at all. Over the years he's had back problems several times. The worst time was probably about 15 years ago when we thought it was a herniated disc. And then every few years, he'll have an episode where his back goes into spasm and it takes him maybe two or three weeks to recover. His recent episode of that was about three months ago. So he felt his back stiffening up.

He went to the physio. He went to the osteopath. They told him to keep moving, which he does. They told him to stay mobile, which he does. They gave him all these exercises like glute bridges, which he does. And then after the osteopath visit, he got noticeably worse. And one day he sneezed, and this caused acute pain. I mean, properly, he had to go and lie in bed for two days.

It was so painful. But our National Health Service didn't really do anything about that. He hasn't had any scans or anything. at all. So the really acute pain morphed into something sciatica like. It referred down one of his legs. His calf got very stiff. He got pins and needles. And then gradually it improved. So he's done all the exercises that he's meant to do. It's improved. His back doesn't hurt anymore. His calf isn't stiff anymore. But obviously we're interested in avoiding this in the long term. What can he do to prevent this kind of thing reoccurring.

Yeah, good. Thanks for calling in and thank you so much for what you said in the beginning. He's had no scan, so we don't know if there is herniation or, okay. That would be very helpful because it sounds like there may be, now this isn't a death sentence, but it would illuminate to what the issue is, because it does sound nerve related. Yeah. because of what you described with the leg pain and the calf stiffness.

And so sometimes you can have a herniated disc or a slip disc. Or there could be bony growths on the spine, the bones of the spine, that can press on a nerve and cause those issues. Now, I think what he's doing is preventing a lot worse. So it could be a lot worse. Could it be better? possibly, but I think a scan would give us a better idea. Is there, I would also want to know if, have you guys peered in?

Is there any correlation with, when this is flared up with, like, have you gone back and been like, okay, what is that week been like, like, maybe the lifting routine that week? Like, did, was there, is there a certain time where a certain exercise that he has pushed that week? Was there a certain level of stress at work at the time? Was it a really poor week of sleep that week? Is there been any correlation to when he gets these flare-ups or something happens during, during to that week leading up to that, I would want to peer into that if you guys have at all. We've never looked at that specifically.

No. I can tell you that when this happened three months ago, it was a particularly bad time for it to happen because he was, he was on promotion at work. He was basically standing in for his boss. So at work, it was extremely stressful and extremely busy. But we haven't looked specifically to try and make a link between each episode and whether he was sleeping less or whether there was more stress. Well, you did say he sleeps about six hours a night through the night. There's a strong correlation between suboptimal sleep and injury and pain.

Very strong correlation. And that'll be exacerbated if it's during a time of high stress. stress, yeah, high stress and or if there was something compromising that he might have done in his lips. Let's say that was a week that he was kind of pushing his strength a little bit, doing a little more than usual. And so there could easily be a connection of, wow, you had a lot of stress going on. You already don't sleep really well. And that also was the day that you decided to do that extra run or you decided to do a little more weight on this exercise. There could be a connection there.

And just what the advice would be, I think he's doing a lot of the right things, right? to Sal's point to mitigate what's happening. The next layer or level to this until we find more information out would be like being mindful of those weeks like, hey, this, I got a lot going on. Stress works. If there was ever a time I really prioritize getting more sleep or maybe I scale back a little bit on my training this week because I had, so I being more aware of that in, in those moments. So just to kind of bring this together because sometimes when people say stress and

sleep, it sounds so general. and so like, oh, that's the answer they give when they don't know what the problem is type of deal. But if you look at the data, the things that you could do, so they've actually tested this. Like, what are the things you could do to dramatically increase risk of injury in a workout?

And they've tested things like not warming up, lifting with loose form, having a poor night of sleep the night before. Poor night of sleep the night before is the worst. And it really has to do with how it affects the central nervous system. So the central nervous system is what controls and organizes all the muscles. So let's just say for just hypothetically, I don't know if this is the case.

We don't have a scan. But let's say he does have a herniated disc. And so it's kind of all, it's always there, let's just say. It's near one of the nerves that can cause some of his pain. It's not doing anything there yet, but it's there. And what keeps it from causing pain is his muscles are well organized. He's got good core stability and everything's keeping everything in check. But then when you have cumulative.

stress. So here's what happens with poor sleep. You can have really bad sleep. You can have a night where, you know, people with infants knows what this like. You'll have one or two nights of like one hour of sleep and it's like, I'm dead. But you can also have what's called cumulative stress where, you know, over months and months and years, I just kind of have suboptimal sleep. Central nervous system gets affected. And it's not able to organize muscles in the right way. What it starts to do is tighten things up. So it starts to limit ranges of motion in areas that it believes it needs to protect. So let's just say that your husband's body has identified, which probably has, an area of instability. Let's just say it's in the lumbar spine.

Through stress and lack of sleep, it'll tighten that area up and prevent mobility, which in the short term may be okay, but in the long term can actually cause more problems. And so this is kind of what happened. So the number one thing I would do is to try to prioritize sleep, maintain the movement, prioritize sleep. Here's the other thing that I would look at. I noticed his weight

was 135 at 511 and he's also vegetarian. Okay. I would look at supplementing with, he's already taking creatine, it says. I would try to supplement.

He's already taking protein. I'm assuming he's getting at least 130 grams of protein a day. Do you know? He doesn't track. So we have no idea, really. Okay. Okay.

So I would like to see him hit about 150 grams of protein a day. Uh-huh. And then I would also, he's taking a multivitamin, which is good. I would also take an additional methylated B vitamin supplement.

Uh, I would take vitamin D in addition. And then I would, I would definitely take some essential fatty acids, uh, like, uh, high EPA fish oil would be a good idea.

If eggs could be on the menu, eggs would be phenomenal typically vegetarians respond well to eggs. If not, then you can skip that. Eggs are totally on the menu. We have our own chickens. Oh, awesome. Oh, good, good, good.

So keep doing that. Really nice eggs. But the essential fatty acids help with inflammation. They help with central nervous system function. Protein is great for recovery. I think the sleep would be the best thing. Because he saw physios. He saw people who understand movement.

I'm assuming they correct. They looked at his movement. They looked at his movement patterns. And they probably gave him some extra. exercises, like you said. My guess is going to be, it's the cumulative kind of stress over time, which is coming from sleep. Well, and to close the loop on what I was saying, and then what Sal has added, imagine a day, like we were just talking with this period of time, he's doing the high stress at work. He gets a less optimal night of sleep than what he normally typically

does, so it's even maybe a little worse, just slightly, but a little worse. And that next morning is the morning that he does his swim or his cycle or this thing. And even though that's a healthy exercise, that those are good movements, is that his body is tightened up because of that stress, that lack of sleep, what Sal is saying from the central nervous system. And he goes and does these movements. And that's just enough for that nerve to hit that. And he's, and then he freezes up. Or what happened in his case is he did an involuntary movement that was very fast like a sneeze. Yeah. And so those tight muscles can't react the way that they're supposed to. And if it hits a nerve, so it sounds like it's nerve related. When you have a nerve

pain, it's sudden, it's hard, and it's, it's debilitating. It's like, boom, I can't move. And that's typically a nerve type related issue. So if, let's say he has a week like that, or a bit or a night or two of really not enough sleep or whatever, would you advise him to try and cut down on his exercise? Yes, yes. It would be more recuperative. This would be a great time You know what, honey, maybe today's the day for the sauna or just a walk or a walk or, you know, like just stretch, a walk, more recuperative type of stuff. Yeah, you're doing, you're just reducing the intensity. That's right.

So not a cycling day, not a swimming day, not a strength training day per se. This would be a better day to do something to do. But just to encourage you, Sophie, let's just say he did get a scan and they did see, oh, here's some structural stuff that's going on. How many times in the last 10 years has he had this debilitating? kind of back pain? Well, the kind of back pain that he had this time around, he's only had maybe twice ever.

Normally it's extreme stiffness, and I've always thought it was muscular. Okay. And he's had that maybe every few years. That's not bad. If he has a sleep, no, no, no, listen. It's actually, it's a testament to him doing a lot of the right things.

He's done a lot of good things. I've worked with people. I would guess that if he got an image done, that they would see something. I've had clients like this, where they look at the image, they're like, whoa, I'm surprised you're not hurting all the time. And it's because of their fitness.

But that doesn't mean he can't get better. And I really do, I really do think with his job and, you know, six hours of sleep, five days a week, you can get away with that for a little while. But if it happens long term all the time. Well, paired too with a very physical demanding active job. Or just stressful job. Yeah. Yeah.

It definitely wears, it's cumulative is what happens. So if he could get an extra hour of sleep every night, I think it would reduce these episodes. Yeah, he's trying. He's trying, but it's hard. And what's your take on exercises like Romanian deadlift? Is that something he should be not doing or with very little weight? Or is that something that's protective if you can work up?

It can be protective if you can work up, but it's being mindful of what we just talked about too. Because a time for him to work up would not be that weak, right? Yeah. So like if he's getting, it's a good rest. He's fully recovered. Yeah, he's fully recovered. He feels great.

Hey, good time to try and get stronger in that left. It is going to be protective for him. But being mindful of not good night's sleep, really stressful at work right now. This might be the time where I'm working inward. At this point, he wants to maintain the skill of these exercises more than anything. So when he goes into do the exercise, more often than not, it should be able to be able to do it. Not necessarily to push it or to build muscle. those are going to be more rare occasions

when everything's going great and I feel amazing but more often than not you practice them so you don't lose the ability to do them which does make them protective because if you stop doing that let's just say stop doing that

because he's scared of it over time he'll lose the ability to do it which increases risk of injury okay does that make sense it does how difficult is it to get an image where you're at

can you request that or does it have to be like it would have to be be done privately. The health service will basically refer you for a scan if you're dying. I mean, we asked, and that's pretty much what they said. So we could have it done privately. Here's what a scan would do. A scan would give you, here's what the issue is, here's what we see, and then you have the image, and then you could take that to a physio who then might have better information. I mean, I'm pretty confident. I think you would be too, that they're going to

probably see it's just a matter how much the bulge disc is going to be how much like and because i i think he's done a phenomenal job i i've i've had clients with with incredibly bulging disc and never had any pain because they're healthy they're fit they take care of they do all the things and then i have others that have nothing but yet have all this crazy chronic back pain and so people can live with a bulge disc and and for the most part be pretty healthy and fit he's doing a lot of the right things i just i think the next level or advice i have for you guys is just being more mindful of of the like the week to week what's going on. He's not changing his job.

That's going to happen. You know what I'm saying? Those things are, so he can't control whether he's going to have stress or not. He's probably not going to get a lot of sleep. But knowing that, hey, this was an extra stressful week.

This was also an extra not good night of rest. And this is also the day I would have went and done that cycling for X amount of miles. Not a good day to do that, you know? If you do get an image, if you do get scans done, make sure that they look at everything,

not just discs, but is there spinal stenosis? can we look at the narrowing of the canal, not just if there's a disc, because there's a lot of things that could cause pressure on the nerve. So if you do go pay out of pocket, make sure you say, okay, are we looking at everything, not just like the discs?

Okay. All right. In that case, can I ask you a last question about just more general fitness and nutrition? Because I don't know if you can see how much he does. This is a person who never sits down. at the week. I mean, at work he sits down a lot. It's very sedentary. He spends the whole weekend gardening. Even when he's watching telly once a week, he does the ironing at the same time. He never sits down. So he can see that I'm doing weights at the moment. I'm on your concierge coaching program,

which I'd be really happy to say something about if there's time at the end of the call. So he hears me and sees me doing weights. and he's the kind of person who thinks he's never doing enough. How much should he be doing? You know, he's probably doing a set of pull-ups every day and some kind of random upper body weights once or twice a week. Should he be doing more, less, none? What do you think? I think I'm looking at it and it looks okay,

but I think the sleep is the big issue. Okay. I'm going to keep pointing in that direction. I think the sleep is the big, because he's doing a lot of activity. Yeah. He's moving a lot. And so I think if he, it sounds like, to me, it sounds like the challenge is going to be telling him what not to do.

Yeah. Right? Is that, so I think he's doing all great things. And so long as he's rested, stress, all that time, he just needs to be mindful at those times when this is peak stress at work. This is the most, the least optimal sleep we've been getting. This is probably the time. Take it easy on the way.

take it easy on the cycling. You can still do it, but just be mindful of it. Don't push that extra mile of cycling. Don't increase the weight on the overhead press today. Sophie, if he went from six to seven hours of sleep at night and changed nothing else, it would be life-changing. It would be within a week, it would be life-changing. Strength gains, he'd have mental clarity, less pain.

It would feel like he just took 10 years, got 10 years younger. One more hour of sleep. If he could prioritize that, it would make all the difference in the world. Yeah, is he doing his work? I'm assuming he must be doing these workouts before work. Is that what he's he get up really early or something? What's he do? Yes, he gets up really early.

He would be, okay, he would be better off, Sal, getting some of the sleeping in. And less work. And less activity. Yep. So if he's sacrificing sleep to go do this stuff, that's not good. No. If that's impeding on an extra hours. We're going to bed early.

I mean, I don't know what your guys' lifestyle looks like, but. Well, he tries. I mean, we go, he probably goes to bed but doesn't fall asleep sometime between nine and 10. And then he gets up either at four or at five. And he does maybe half an hour of mobility and then he cycles to work or partways. Yeah. So what you would do, Sophie's, because he sounds like a guy whose mind is racing, he's got a lot of ideas. It's hard to kind of wind down. So what I would do is when he gets home, it's going to sound funny. Do you work, Sophie? Are you, are you, are you, Yes, I work. Yeah, I work mostly from home online.

So what you would do is when he comes home, it's candlelight. That makes a big difference. No electronics. We're reading paper books. I mean, this sounds silly. Serenade him. I love that idea. And what shall I do with my two teenagers while up? Oh, yeah. I forgot to ask you that. Well, that throws a whole wrench. Who both have exams at the moment. But, you know, you get the idea. It's like you create this kind of

of environment that brings the CNS down. Yeah. Which allows them to fall asleep because what happens is we hit the pillow and we accept our, like we expect our bodies to be like ready for sleep when it takes about an hour or two for a body to prepare for sleep. And that has to do with things like light, yeah, the light that you're exposed to activity. So what you can do then instead of candlelight. This is what my wife does and it works really well is we got salt lamps and we put them

in the house and we turn our lights down and we go what we go by salt lamps. And it's a nice glow. it's a really nice environment. And it does help everybody sleep better. So something like that, less electronics, and just kind of wind down. And, you know, show him this. And, hey, look, he sounds like a very focused, focused individual.

You know, do a 30-day challenge. 30-day challenge of seven hours of sleep at night and see what happens. It would be, it'll blow his mind at the improvement he feels from that. All right. I'll try that. Thanks so much for the advice. You got it, Sophie. And then I'm glad you're enjoying these.

Yeah, yeah. How's a concier going? Oh, yeah. Okay, so I wanted to say, I've been doing the concierge coaching since January, and that was to get help with reverse dieting because I lost some weight last year. I wanted to reverse diet. I thought that that was terrifying. And it's just a shout out for your coaches.

I've spoken to Tyler, to Marissa, to Cole. Cole especially, I think it's not a given that this fit 21-year-old guy on the West Coast of America is going to relate in some way to a 55-year-old woman in the UK with two teenagers. So I think your coaches have great knowledge and coaching skills, but also they're good at listening and adapting, and they have really good communication skills. And what's really nice, I think, just coming back to my ethos point at the beginning, is that I feel like everyone's singing from the same hymn sheet.

So I find that really reassuring that, If I listen to your podcast, I hear one thing. Your coaches are saying the same thing. And I've seen really great results. So I won't say, thank you for that. I think it's incredible feedback. Thank you, Sophie. Thank you so much.

If you ever hear somebody compliment you on your kids, that's how we feel right now. I appreciate that. They're great. They are great. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much.

Bye. All right. That's the best thing to hear. Yeah. By the way, especially on a. concierre. Because concierre, you could get different coaches each time. And so... It's a lower cost version for people that don't know.

And you're still working with different coaches each time. But so the fact that they all are... That tells me they're doing a great job of communicating with each other with keeping notes on all the clients and stuff like that. And then, of course, what she's saying. So that's awesome. Totally. But yeah, back to her husband.

I think the sleep would make the biggest difference. Yeah, he's doing too much. He's just doing a lot. He's just doing a lot. He's got something there. early something there. Yeah. If sleep is his main thing that we,

I think we were all pointing to, and all the things he's doing activity-wise is impeding on that, you've got to cut back on it. That's right. They're not, and this is such the hard thing because the stuff that you lit,

like if you just looked at what she wrote, that's why we didn't jump to that right away. It's all good activity. Yeah. It's not too much activity. But if it's impeding on the sleep in order to get all activity, and he's already a healthy fit guy.

It's not like he's, you know, 50 pounds overweight. He's got an issue like that. like this he doesn't need to be doing all that he'd be far better off sleeping in at least two or three days of that week moving i would move those cycling swimming type activities that he probably enjoys to the weekend yeah and like hey do that on your off whenever you cut them in half yeah yeah thanks for listening to mind pump you can find us on instagram we'll see you there thank you for listening to mind pump if your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pumpmedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, and MAPS Aesthetic, nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs.

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