Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2933: How To Choose The Right Gym for You !

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

MAPS BOGO: https://mapsbogo.com Buy one get one free — mix and match any of the top 10 most popular programs (Anabolic, Aesthetic, Performance, 15 Minutes, Anywhere, Symmetry, Starter, Muscle Mommy, Powerlift, 40+) for $157.   In this episode the guys break down whether a good gym actually makes a difference — covering convenience, cleanliness, and culture as the three things the gym industry has identified as the real drivers of consistency. They cover why 24 Hour Fitness put gyms within ten miles of each other on purpose, why culture matters more than equipment, why CrossFit proved that a grimy box with no air conditioning can beat a fully equipped luxury gym, and why the right culture depends entirely on where you are in your fitness journey. They also get into new probiotic research showing measurable effects on strength, endurance and fat loss through improved amino acid availability, gut wall permeability in athletes, and CNS firing efficiency, why gluten sensitivity is more common than people realize and how to know if it's affecting your results, the famous Nun Study from the 1980s showing nuns with full Alzheimer's pathology who still scored perfectly on cognitive tests, why their voices have all gotten lower over ten years of podcasting, and the new Mind Pump Hormones community on Skool replacing their Facebook forum. Then they answer questions from Instagram.   MP Hormones Skool Community (free): https://skool.com/mindpumphormones Moderated peptide and hormone therapy discussion with medical professionals.   SPONSORS   Seed Daily Synbiotic: https://seed.com/mindpump Code: 25MINDPUMP for 25% off your first month. Probiotics discussed on air — emerging data on strength gains, endurance and fat loss through gut health optimization.   Hiya (kids' multivitamin): https://hiyahealth.com/MINDPUMP 50% off first order. Zero sugar, non-GMO, vegan, allergy-free. The only kids multivitamin the guys recommend.   LINKS   Mind Pump Store: https://mindpumpstore.com Maps Fitness Products: https://mapsfitnessproducts.com Instagram: @mindpumpmedia   0:00 - Intro 1:46 - Does a good gym actually make a difference? 8:48 - The three things that predict gym consistency: convenience, cleanliness and culture 11:06 - Why CrossFit proved culture beats equipment every time 17:43 - Why the right culture depends on where you are in your journey 23:12 - Why Orange Theory consistency is worth celebrating before evolving 27:27 - New probiotic research showing measurable effects on strength, endurance and fat loss 31:05 - Leaky gut is more common in athletes than the general public — why 34:10 - How gluten sensitivity shows up as low-level systemic inflammation without you realizing it 45:32 - The famous Nun Study — brains full of Alzheimer's pathology, perfect cognitive scores 59:34 - Mind Pump Hormones community is moving from Facebook to Skool 1:02:20 - Q&A: How to progress in a squat when you're already strong and in a deficit 1:05:04 - Q&A: Traditional sauna vs. infrared — which one has the science behind it? 1:08:13 - Q&A: If muscles grow through rest, how do bodybuilders train 6-7 times a week? 1:12:55 - Q&A: How long should you give a calorie deficit before expecting to see results?

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump, Mind Pump with your hosts. Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded health fitness entertainment podcast in history approaching over half a billion total downloads. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode, we answered listeners questions. People went to Instagram, Mind Pump Media, as the page.

They posted some questions. We picked four of them. but this was after the intro. Today's intro was 60 minutes long. Today we talked about the best gym for your goals. We talked about fat loss and muscle gain, probiotics and their value and much more. Always a good time.

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or training gear over at MindpumpStore.com. I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to Mindpumpstore.com. That's it. the rest of the show. Of all the things that can influence your results, of all the things that can make it easier or harder to burn body fat, build muscle, get more fit, and be more consistent, where does a good gym play into that? Does it make a big difference? And if it does,

what should you look for in a gym to help with results? We're going to talk about that today. Remember, we ran gyms for years. We know the answer. So we're going to talk about does a good gym make a difference. Let's get to it. First off, let's answer that. Does a good gym make a difference? Well, in the context of comparing it to a bad gym or a gym you don't like 100% of course. Yeah. I mean, nobody likes to show up to a place every day or every other day to a place they don't like. And so in that context, yeah, I think it makes a big difference.

in another context which is interesting for for me to comment on personally because I felt I did feel really strongly about this early on in the podcast. When we first started, you guys both had already been working out

from home for quite some time. I have always been a commercial gym attendee and I've always thrived in that environment and I swore that a big part of my consistency and hard effort and all the things were a part of this environment. And so I would be like, yes, I feel like with this question, where I feel like that's changed for me. So I wonder, you know, it really depends on where maybe you're at in your journey.

Yeah, I agree. Does that change? And have you guys felt that personally yourself? I've only recently felt like I've gone through. through that, recent is as in during the podcast, I've switched from this person who felt like I had to go to the gym to have great workouts and to feel that to now preferring. In fact, I'm in the middle right now of designing and building like this like ideal home gym. So I don't have to go to the gym. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting. So the data on this is pretty interesting.

So I think fitness fanatics, which the three of us would fall in that category, right? We made it our career. That's what we do for a living. We love it. I don't think it plays as big of a role in someone like ourselves. Like, you take somebody who loves working out. You can give them a garage gym. You can give them a gym down the street.

It's give me a park. They might even drive an hour to get to a gym. I've had friends who've moved to really remote areas and had to drive 45 minutes to and back. And they did it consistently because they're fitness fanatics. This is far more important for the average person that doesn't fall in that category of fanaticism, which is, you know, it's like over 95% of everybody. A very small percentage of us would work out no matter what. And then you've got the majority of us, the vast majority of us, where this, when you look at the data on this, it actually makes a pretty big difference on consistency, which is the one thing you can really measure in these studies. They don't really measure, at least we don't have good data on how much weight is lost or how great someone's results are.

But what we have is data on consistency. Is this just the result of the kind of built-in accountability of like knowing there's people there? You know, like people are going to see me. Because, I mean, you can kind of create that in a multitude of ways. But like that's like a pretty straightforward way to approach it. Well, I used to think that. And I actually, I think what Sal's, I can see right now what Sal is. listed up for the top three.

And I think I strongly agree with all three of these. And I would have in the past said what you just said, which is I felt like that was a big part of it. It was like this, I see the same people. And they're going to know I'm showing up and the energy of them lifting next to me. Like it was a vibe. Like where none of that is a factor. Where I currently go right now has none of that.

In fact, the top, the three that you have written here is everything. I agree with you for people like us. but like, yeah, but I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't relate to that.

No. I relate more to the average person than I relate to him. Yeah, but you're a, you say that, I'm a fitness fanatic. No,

I'm not. You know what I am? I'm somebody who fell into this career. Yeah. And I loved that having this as a career gave me an extra accountability to stay healthy and fit. That's what,

how I feel. No, compare to the average person, you're fitness fanatic. Look, you left this industry. You made three times as much money. You went back to this industry.

knowing you'd probably make a lot less money because you love it. You love fitness. You love working with people. You love the business. Well, that's different, right? So I do love helping people. I have found, and I didn't realize this until I left and pursued money, that I realized how much fulfillment I got from helping others be healthier.

And I also realized, too, because remember, I talk about that journey, I was the most unfit and unhealthy I'd ever been during that time. Right. And so I also appreciate it. how much it was an accountability piece to myself. So I don't know. I feel like I connect more, believe it or not, with an average person than I do a fitness fanatic.

I don't think of myself as a fitness fanatic. I'm also the guy who's always like, what do I always preach? Do as little as possible to elicit the most change. But I mean, okay, there's definitely a range of fitness fanatics, but you're not outside of the realm of people that, you know, well, we tend to work in the industry. but the average person fitness for them is it's an afterthought it's what I do to improve

my health my doctor told me I need to work out this is this thing I need to do it's very difficult to be consistent how do I do this right and then they stop and they get back on and so when you look at the data on that person which is most people what what types of gyms or what things in gems improve that consistency again that's one of the best things what are you wrestling with you're wrestling with something right now yeah no just because I guess the point I'm trying to bring up is like there's group classes are like a huge draw. Yeah. It's still a thing.

It's still what people want to get involved in. It's because they want like to feed off energy and create connections and community. Now that's the same thing with Fitbit. Fitbit like took off in comparison to all the rest of them because they had a built in accountability community. And it's just still like a very powerful thing to consider when you're when you're thinking about people wanting to get into a gym, stick with it. Well, the gym industry has got a lot of good data on this. So the gym industry itself is now a massive industry.

And they've got a lot of data on what gets people to sign up, what gets people to stay, and what gets people to leave. And they've really narrowed it down to three things. Two of them are pretty easy to identify. The last one is much more complicated. We'll probably spend more time talking about the last one than we are the first two. So here are the three things that they've identified. Convenience and then cleanliness and then.

culture. So convenience, very basic. Is it, you know, is it within five miles away from for home or work? And they found actually data on this when it's more than that, the consistency drops off. If it's 10 miles away, believe or not, which isn't that far to drive, you see far less consistency than when it's five miles away from home or work. So convenience is one. Twenty-Far Fitness did great studies on this. Remember when they were, when they were really the leaders in big box gyms, one of the things they realize is we're going to, we're going to put gym. within 10 miles of each other. Whereas the early gym industry was like, why would I put another gym 10 miles down the street? I got one right here.

24 fitness said, no, no, if we do like triangulate, we end up getting more memberships and which proved to be true. Now you see that model with like Planet Fitness and other companies.

They see this, they know this. Cleaningness is one of the first things that'll get someone to cancel. So you go to a gym and it's dirty, people will leave. Now the third one is far more complex, which is culture.

this one we've all experienced, and I know this for a fact. I know this, Adam, I'll speak to you because I know you've run clubs like I have. We could walk into a club change nothing but the culture, change nothing but the culture and the staff. The gym's the same, location's the same, the equipment's the same, everything's the same. The difference is the staff, which really drives the culture. And within what, 30 days? You would see 50% increase in traffic and people actually coming in to work out? Yeah, there was a saying in there.

in the company that there's no such thing as bad clubs, only bad managers. That's right. Because there was, and there's plenty examples, even outside of our stories of, you know, clubs that were suffering,

you switch the manager, who's the leader of the facility, and instantly that becomes a top performing club. Totally. There wasn't like you changed the demographic or you changed the average, the average income of the person that was showing up there. It was literally a shift in the culture, the energy of the gym.

It would be another way to say, say it. And that would turn around revenue and consistency for the members. Within weeks, which is wild. The best example I can give where in our industry, you see trends all the time in our industry. It's CrossFit. CrossFit. Prove this. Well, because it's, because it actually, it shows you how powerful culture is because the first two actually are not, it's not the most convenient or clean place. It's a, it's a dungeon. It's just, it's simple. There's not a lot of equipment. Not at all.

Air conditioning. Yeah. It's kind of grungy, like grimy type of vibe. Yeah. It's not a, I mean, of course, there's examples of people that made fancy ones, but for the most part,

CrossFit, they were called boxes because they were just these little basic boxes without even air conditioning in a lot of them with simple equipment. And they didn't even have great workout programming, which, you know, good coaches know. It wasn't even great workout program. Wasn't great equipment.

Wasn't great gyms. There was no air conditioning. There's chalk everywhere. Yeah, it was just the people there. But they had culture. Yeah. They had culture, which is a big factor. It is.

And if you look at the data on consistency with the average person, the thing that contributes to most to consistency is community. It's wild. It trumps everything. If you show up to a gym and you want to go there because you like going there because the staff is great, because the members you work out with are great. It's got a great vibe. I guess that's the best way to describe it. You walk in.

It's got a great vibe. the odds you'll keep going are way higher than if you're going to a gym with great equipment, music, everything's good, but you don't have that. Do you guys think that since culture is the most unique one, like you said, convenience and cleanliness is pretty straightforward to direct. In fact, I have the gym that I currently go work out at

is it checks these. It's the closest thing to me. So it's the closest thing to my house and it is very small, very private and unknown, and actually relatively expensive for how small, unknown, and how minimal equipment is there, but it's designed to be like a private place. And so I love it for those two main reasons.

Now, it is different culture-wise, especially when you talk about commercial. So do you think culture is different for each person? Like, I think about the culture of, you know, the gold's gym that I used to work out at when I was competing. I see where you're going. Good question. And, you know, the part of the culture there that I love during that time was different draw. Very motivating to walk in and see 10 other, because it's not often you see super jacked people in a gym.

Like, you really don't. Most people in the gym look pretty normal average people. Competitors roll feel are. Yeah, I mean, at all times, there was 10 other of my people. peers competing and training there, that gave me this like, man, I thrived in that culture. And I like that. And heavy clanging weights and just hard training. And I'm looking over like, man, he's staying here.

I'm going to stay here. It just fit where I was at. I have no desire to lift it was over. In fact, what I love about this, the culture is quiet. Yeah. I walk in and there might be one other person inside the gym. And there's, there's, sometimes there's even not a front desk person. So I walk in and I check myself in.

And I walk over to the always open treadmill that I walk on and warm, like, and I actually like kind of being unknown and undercover. And, you know, there's a, there's a couple of regulars that we see each other. And they're then, hey, man, are you doing? And it's like a small way. And so that's a very different culture. So do you think that part of this is actually maybe understanding who. you are, where you're at. 100%.

Absolutely 100%. I think the culture has to match. Basically, it has to feel good to you. It has to be a place that you want to show up to. Now, for most people, for most people, what that looks like is a friendly staff that knows your name. It's a lot of encouragement. This is the average person we're talking about, right?

Lots of encouragement. And you start to recognize people and you show up because of those people. That's typically what it feels like. Now the hardcore, you know, fitness fanatics, the bodybuilders, the athletes, they're probably going to want to be in a culture that drives them. They're probably going to want to be in a culture that motivates them to, you know, get that extra rep, to push themselves extra hard that's going to get them to want to be, essentially squeeze out that extra 1%. I could totally see that. I could totally see being a competitive mindset walking into a facility that is a competitive culture. Which, by the way, okay, okay, this is part of why I think the cross-sets formula was so successful was because they built it around the games.

They built it around. There was this already a built-in competitive thing that even if you weren't going to be in the CrossFit games, you were doing the workouts that the athletes are doing. So there's this competitive environment. So you wanted to be against other, you wanted to work out with other people that were working out to be competitive to, which was something, whether that was strategically planned or not, had to play a. massive role in that because you you automatically create this so my my good because like you would never be name a crossfit athlete that would work out in a normal gym yeah no no no like my friend chuck uh good friend of mine he's a pastor at the church i go to uh he loves crossfit and i love to tease him about crossfit uh and you know we we always tease each other about stuff i'll give him like

weird theology questions he asked me fitness and i we tease each other but i'm always like okay what is it about this crossfit gym that you go to that you like so much because I know there's better programming. I know there's better programming for him, the whole deal. And I said, is it the competitive nature? And he says, I'm not trying to be a CrossFit athlete. I'm not trying to compete in the games. He goes, but when I go in there and I try hard, everybody's really encouraging.

And so it's less about, it's competitive, but it's really about the encouragement you feel in the community as you're trying to do your best. So it's less about, for the average person, I'm trying to be as good as that person over there. although those people exist. It's more about, man, I'm trying hard, and I never had anybody cheer for me. He actually told me a story of his first time he did a MRF, which is that crazy wad that they do. And everybody was racing in it,

and he was one of the last people. And he said, everybody waited and was cheering him on as he was going. He'd never experienced that before, because all of his workouts before that were kind of on his own, by himself type of deal. It's like being on a team, yeah. Exactly.

That's exactly right. It's that community that people get from there. And culture, if you look at all this stuff, because notice I didn't say in here equipment, notice I didn't say in here cost. People will often say they're canceling a gym membership because of the cost. But gym memberships are cheap in comparison to the other things that we spend money on all the time. The average gym membership is less than your cell phone bill. Nobody ever canceled a cell phone bill because of cost.

The reason why they cancel their gym membership is because they don't see the value in the money that they're spending. but when people are bought into a culture, it's worth every penny and they stick around and they go. It's interesting to think about because, too, like I don't know Crossett was kind of like a big change and shift in the industry. And then there was like all these subcultures that came out. Like you got powerlifting gyms that were like, I wonder how much that grew in itself because I've seen quite a few.

And I've, you know, and I'm drawn to that somewhat, just like, you know, if you're around competitors for bodybuilding or, you know, just to have these different. kind of specified segments of fitness where people really like, you know, are passionate and they get into that type of style of training. I feel like, you know, we're kind of coming back to the general pop again and like we're trying to figure out like just getting people back in the gyms because, you know, it was like, I felt like COVID really disrupted that progress.

But it was cool when you started seeing all these like little subcultures pop. Yeah. And the reason why I'm talking about this is I think when people shop for a gym, I know this because I ran gyms. What they look at is they look at convenience, they look at equipment, the flashy stuff. I'm going to tell everybody right now on the podcast, the flashy equipment, all that equipment plays almost no role in your consistency.

I'm going to tell you that. It's a fact. I have run gyms with the worst, oldest equipment and we crushed because our culture in there was so awesome. And then I've been in gyms that looks spectacular and you feel the dead culture and you know that they struggle. But people hear what they do. They walk in.

Oh my God, it's got all those. great equipment and the price is good. This is the gym I want to join. That's not the decision. That's not how you should make your decision. What you need to do is go in there for a month, walk in, work out, work out. And if you say to yourself, I want to be there. I want to go there.

So I like to be in there. I like to be around these people. I really like to be there. That's the predictor, the best predictor of consistency is that right there. It's not equipment. And it's not even price, everybody. Price doesn't play a huge role. Now, if streams it will, it doesn't play a huge role, although that's what the survey actually said.

So to your point, I think the point you're making is a great point because the three Cs are technically actually cleanliness, convenience, and cost. But what you're making the case for, I think, is what will result in a better results for the person. So I'm going to throw a wrench in this conversation. you, where is it or how does somebody determine that what they think is the right culture for them is actually the bad culture thing. And I'm going to use, use an example so I don't insult everybody else. I'll just insult you. That's fine. So, because I know, I know this will be, this, this will be hard for a lot of people to see this.

I know you, you are self-aware enough that you can. Yeah. You know what you struggle with. you openly have discussed body dysphoria. So there's part of you that probably has got a natural draw to want to maybe even work out or be around like a bodybuilding culture like I like. But would you say that's a good culture for you to be? No.

No. No, I think for the average person, and I'll go back to myself, I'm not avoiding it. I think for the average person, step one is a culture that makes you want to show up because consistency is the biggest problem. So before you get into, is this the right culture for me? Does it make me want to show up? Let's just start there. Let's just start there.

You show up for a while. Then you can ask yourself a question. Is this the right culture for me? But consistency is the biggest problem in fitness. We know this. It's a subpar workout done consistently does better than the perfect workout done inconsistently. Now myself, for myself, the reason why a majority of my workouts are not done in bodybuilder gyms is exactly for what you're saying.

Yeah. I love the bodybuilder gyms. Yes. But when I spend too much time in them, it's, I get too embroiled in that culture of trying to get as big and muscular as possible. Yeah. And I know this about myself. And so 95% of the time when I'm in a gym these days, it's more of a like, not really a country club, but more of that kind of style of gym that's got other amenities, got a steam room. The average member is much older or families.

And I do better in those because that culture is healthier for me, for sure. I like that you framed it that way because I do think that we have obviously a very divide in the audience is listening. We have people that listen to the show that are very inconsistent and are trying to build a routine and change and be healthy or just getting started on their journey. And so the fact that you framed it that way, I think is so good because I think you're right. Don't overcomplicate this. If it's something you enjoy. and the culture is amazing and you're drawn to it to make you consistent, start there. Then the other half of our audience, which I think are call them fitness fanatics,

call them really consistent people, whatever you have, how you want to label them. You have to have come to Jesus talk to yourself. Yes. These are people who love us in the podcast, been listening for years, possibly, or maybe they just found it, but they've been working out for years consistently. And they're drawn to a culture or a modality potentially not ideal for them. You're right. I mean, I even, like, just listen to you guys. Like, I, I would have, like, an itch to go, you know, some super competitive, like, athletic or power lift chip.

It's not going to be good for me. Not at all. And so, yeah, to your point, I would, I would steer more towards, like, a racquetball or, like, something with, like, leisurely activity attached to it and, like, more of a chill vibe. Yeah, no. And, again, just to go back. Because there's a ton of, like, CrossFit, Orange Theory, type of people listening right now. They're like, I see this is what I'm saying. These are people that call in who like, I've been doing Orange Theory for three years.

I can't see results. I'm tired. What's going on? It's like, okay, good job on the consistency. We've got to change the workout. And it's hard for them to break up with. Yeah, because they've become so attached to the culture. But it's no longer serving them.

Yeah. But step one is be consistent. Yeah, no. That's why the way you framed it was perfect because I don't, I also don't want. And I think this is a great way to talk about things like CrossFit and Orange Theory. Because I know sometimes if you've been listening for a very long time, it could come off as if we're just bashing or hammering that. Listen, if someone's never worked out in their life before

and their first year of working out, they spent a year of consistency at Orange Theory, I'm celebrating that. Like, I'm not making them feel terrible. It's a terrible... It's like, to your point right now, because that made them consistent. So great job.

We started, okay, now let's evolve. Yeah. Now let's understand that you needed that motivation to get to the gym of the community, the competitiveness of the CrossFit or whatever the thing goes. You've now built the habit. You've now reaped some of those benefits. You now consider yourself a person who works out.

Now let's evolve and find the better routine for you. No different than how all of us are admitting right now about ourselves. I know that going to that bodybuilder gym right now is not the ideal focus for me in my life right now. I care way more about being a father, a partner, a business owner, a health and longevity. Those are all Trump looking like a bodybuilder. So what am I, why would I even put myself? But I know I like that and there's that edge to me. So that I don't belong there.

I don't belong there right now. Well, just to add to what you're saying, Adam, the, when you look at the facilities with the best consistency, okay? So the ones that people go to as beginners or not fitness fanatics who end up sticking around and staying around for a long time, those facilities have the best combinations of the thing you said. The culture that gives them motivation, but also appropriate workouts. And what are those facilities? These are personal training studios. By the way, also the most expensive. Personal training studio, good training studios with good trainers are the most expensive

of all of the categories we think of because personal training is done per session. You're not paying monthly. And if you do, it's expensive. But it's oftentimes per session to the tune of 50 to $100 plus. And I've been part of great personal training studios. I've owned one and I've been part of other ones and I know of other ones. You want to talk about consistency. People go and they don't stop.

years and years and years. And it's because all those things that you listed. It's the best workout for them because it's individualized. They got a good trainer and it's a great culture. And they just don't leave. So that's actually what I pay a premium to be a member at a private studio. So that's why. It's a personal training studio.

Yeah, it's a personal training studio. So yeah. So if you have a trainer, you're not paying a membership. But he allows a certain amount of memberships to be there. And he tries to deter people from wanting to do it by charging kind of an exorbit amount. Like most people that are shopping for cost, we go like, this makes no sense. I can go up the road to Fitness 19. Get three times equipment, open longer for a fraction of the price.

Why would I pay that? Unless you appreciate exactly some of the things that you're saying right now is like, I appreciate the cleanliness, the convenience, the lack of people that are in there. Everybody that is training is training with a personal trainer, unless you're paying that exorbit amount like I am just so I could have that. Like that is, I value that. I value that a lot right now. That's awesome. I've been reading more studies on the effects and impacts of probiotics and athletic performance, fitness goals, fat loss, muscle gain, that kind of stuff.

And it's really remarkable to me because these studies are all coming back showing that there is an impact, a positive impact, that this supplement, that supplements that contain the right strains of bacteria, good probiotics, are performance-enhancing supplements. It's pretty wild, in particular, endurance and strength. So I looked up the mechanisms. I'm like, what's going on here? Because we've speculated on some of the stuff. We work with Seed. We work with Seed. So Seed is a probiotic company.

It's one of the best ones in the world. It's the only one that we promote. And we've also since gotten messages from people who said, well, it's taking for gut health, but I think I'm noticing strength gains and stuff from it because I heard you talk about these studies. And it's legit. So I looked up, what are the theories?

Like, what is it about these? Because, you know, the microbiome does so many things. There's probably a million different ways we can speculate as to how taking a probiotic would make you stronger. But here's some of the theories. It says, better amino acid availability can theoretically support muscle protein synthesis when training and protein intake are already in place. So by a healthy microbiome or using the right probiotics can take your current protein

intake and just make it more effective. That's one. Other proposed pathways, including. lower inflammation and oxidative stress and gut muscle signaling via short chain fatty acids. So in other words, when you look at the data

on how they affect, let's say muscle gain, there's a small effect on building muscle, but there's a larger effect on strength. So it just might be that taking a probiotic like seed is getting your CNS to fire. If you're CNS fire a little bit more effectively.

And it's not a stimulant. It's not caffeine. It doesn't raise your heart. It's good for you. How wide? Just shows you how integral the gut. Isn't that crazy? Well, don't you guys feel like part of why this is so wild, so crazy and surprising is because

we always, we grew up in Western medicine, right? That's what we, and the studies are all mostly designed that way. And so we, we have this very isolated approach the way that we do studies and we look at things, rightfully so, right? I'm not bashing on it per se, but it seems a little obvious to me. because all of our systems work synergistically together, that if you did something to improve any of those systems, in this case, we're talking about like digestive system,

in a healthy, positive way, that it would impact the other systems. We see examples, like we talk about other studies right now that are so fascinating and wild, like mitochondrial health, things to taking a supplement or red light therapy that improves mitochondrial,

which is the engine in your cells. We talked about this other day. And then, oh, my goodness, it also improved, like, no shit. It's like, it's kind of obvious that it, And really what makes it so profound is, you know, a probiotic is that useful or that helpful, I think, to your digestive system that it has that. Not only does it help that, but it has even carry over into the other systems. But it seems a little, it's kind of obvious to me. Yeah.

And probiotics in general might even be more beneficial for athletes than other categories. Yeah. Well, too. I mean, think about athletes and their nutrition in general, like, and how that affects, like, their performances. So to be able to now crank up the ability to fire more effectively by just adding in, you know, probiotics, that's a whole other factor. Well, especially since athletes are so fine-tuned that 1% in any direction is such a massive thing. Well, it's more like this. Chronic gut inflammation is higher in athletes than it is in the average person.

Is it the inflammation? It's because you're such high stress. You're training hard. Yeah. You're training hard all the time. Yeah, you're always. And recovery is always. Yeah.

You're always tipping over into the too much. Yeah, so like what are they, so leaky gut syndrome. What do they call it now? Intestinal wall permeability or something like that. I think that's a medical term, but leaky gut syndrome. It's actually relatively common in comparison to the normal populace. It's more common in athletes. Yeah.

Because the inflammation, how do they push themselves and train. Information, stress and not poor diets. You know, you know what? I'm glad you brought this. It's been a while since we've talked about this. And I was just talking to, was a family member or a friend of mine? remember who it was. I was trying to explain a leaky gut and why it can be so elusive to people, because at least in my experience, I see two common things. Either one, it's a food that person

has eaten forever their whole life. And so they just assume that they have no issue with it, which by the way, if it's something that you eat regularly your whole life and you pair that with an athlete who's pressing his chest levels, it's more likely it'll be a food like that, correct? Like it's like under, you're exposed to it more. Exactly. You're exposed to it more frequently. All it takes is a time where that gut lining is vulnerable. I guess there's one was with, for a lack of a better term, vulnerable.

And then that food that you eat so regularly gets through into the bloodstream. And now your body is like. Yeah. So it's hyperpermeability. So your, your gut is permeable. It's a smart barrier that allows the right things to go in and the wrong things to not go in and at the right time. It's very complicated. But when it's hyperpermeable, it's a smart barrier that allows the right thing.

permeable because of inflammation or let's say your mucosa lining is deteriorated or you know you've got you know dysbiosis right you got bad bacteria overgrowth in your gut things get through when they shouldn't and the way that the body can sometimes respond to that is by creating an immune response so you always eat eggs let's say and you've got some gut inflammation going on for whatever reason suddenly your body now becomes intolerant to egg proteins. Because of the hyperpremiability, your body now mounts an immune response because it's picking up these proteins where it shouldn't be. They're like four in a meter. Well, and then also to add to that, why this is so tricky and can be elusive and hard to explain to people is sometimes, or Lisa, what I have experienced is, it's a spectrum at how tolerable or intolerable your body is to it.

Yeah. So maybe somebody, and this is why I feel like sometimes it's so difficult to get somebody to understand this. So let's use your egg example. I've been eating eggs my whole. I eat 10 eggs a day every day for my whole life. Now all of a sudden, there's something going on, but you don't connect it to the eggs because you just kind of have this low. You know, like, eggs are fine. Yeah, eggs are fine.

I eat them every day. But you tend to always have this like low levels systemic inflammation going on or gut issues. And you're not attaching it to the eggs because you've ate eggs your whole entire lot. and this has just recently showed up, say, three months ago or a year ago or whatever like that. And that's always been consistent with you. But what you don't realize is that's what it is. That is really difficult. And then eggs are healthy, right?

And so that's the other layer to this is just like, you know, we just assume it's going to be ice cream or it's going to be one of the obvious things. But I see that a lot. And again, because it's on a spectrum, you know, maybe it's somebody who doesn't have like, you know, Like you had like very severe like exam. Like you were, it was easy for you to point out. I wouldn't say easy, but you. It actually took a while, dude. I, I, when I figured it out, so this is when my gut was at its worst, it was eggs, nuts, legumes, dairy, yeast, and, let's see, what's the last one?

It was gluten. So those were the things that I was reactive to. Some of them more than others. Dairy was immediate. The other ones were the less. After, you know, healing my gut. and doing all the right stuff, which took a long time

because I had to figure out, you know, what was going on. Now I can have all of them except for gluten. If I have it too many days a row will mess me up, dairy, I got to stay away from.

But eggs and the legumes, you know, nuts, like no problem anymore. So you can reverse yourself out of some of those things. And to your point right there, you can be on a spectrum on those things because I feel like that's where I am with some foods.

Like I can, gluten, I'm definitely more sensitive to that fact that just did this last night and it was a wild reminder because it had been so long. My diet's been pretty dialed. I hadn't eaten a random place of pizza.

I had four slices too, which is a lot for me. I haven't done something like that. And man, I just looked like a bullet. And I, because I've been telling you how much inflammation has been down for me. Like I've been, because of the, the,

uh, my dosing transepatide and my diet's been dialed. I've really noticed my inflammation has come. I got a hold of that really well for, like over a month and a half, two months now, and I've felt so good. And this was like kind of the first time I had pushed something, like out of bounds like that. And I had gluten and I had a lot of it. And it was like instantly like later that night, I went, oh my God, like, here's that inflamed feeling and look. But I also know that I have been numb to that because it wasn't like I didn't like, I wasn't like on the toilet or I wasn't like, oh, like. Especially even a little every day. You're kind of swollen every day. Yes. So that that's what I mean. mean like I've kind of always had a little bit of there. So it's like you're and that's what I mean by when we communicate this. It's really hard because some people have this kind of this low level of systemic inflammation because they're consistently kind of allowing something that their body's intolerable to.

I'll tell you what, like, because I listed the common ones, but I would say 90% of the time, this is probably an anger some people. And I don't know why this is such a contentious topic. But 90% of time when I had a client eliminate gluten. they felt better. Like nine out of ten times. I can think of one person. That's why I'm saying 90, where it didn't make a difference.

Everybody else noticed less pain, more energy, less inflammation, less water retention. It's just one of those that I think most people do better avoiding. Some people can eat it.

But I think a lot of people do a lot better. Some people can, but I think most people are just kidding themselves. That's what I think it is. I think it's most like, I could go do it. You know what I'm saying? But then I just have this low level.

I get swelling like you do. Yeah, yeah. Oh, man, especially if I do. Well, now, you know, I notice it now, way more. Where I don't think I ever notice it. Because you tell me. I come into work and I was like, well, you've been to eat gluten, buddy? Come on, man. My face looks swollen.

Oh, I hate that. Yeah, no, it's. Remember we came back from England. We were in the UK and I was having beer and I was having bread. Yeah. And we were just, we were there for like two weeks. And I was like on a daily basis. And then flying too.

And then flying. And then we interviewed Jordan Peterson. and I watched that interview and I'm like, well, whoa, dude. What's wrong? I wonder, too, if there's something there, is, are, are we more aware of it? Or is there also something to be said about because you've, you've now pulled it out and you've eliminated it for long enough? Then you become, like, ultra sensitive when you go back to it. Like, is, is there, is there two different things going on there?

I don't know. I don't know. But I do know if I have some. I just have it once. And I could tell I hold a little bit. Well, last night, it was like obvious to me. It was just like instantly, like a couple hours later, I went up to the basketball. and went, oh my God.

It was so wild to me. How much, yeah, physical change I can see. But not, like I said, I would see, and here's words deceiving. I've been so moderate to low calorie that it didn't, my digestive system didn't go like, I was able to process it, right? I wasn't like on the toilet or messed up from it. But I could see the, just the inflammation, like, through my whole, my face, my body everywhere.

It was just like, wow. And it wasn't until the morning time that I see that pass or whatever. But I just think that so many people walk around and to kind of close a loop on this whole conversation from what you're saying is like, and this is my point about how this body systems all affect each other. And then you struggle with building muscle

and losing body fat. And you, you know, you consistently have a lot of stress at work. And you going through it with your spouse right now or have teenage kids or whatever, but like all those little things compounding. And then you just, and because it's eggs, it's a healthy food, you can't wrap your brain around. Why am I not seeing the results?

Why am I not losing the body fat? Why am I not able to build the muscle? It's all integrated. Yeah, to your point. It's like all these systems need to be able to play nicely with each other. And if one is off, it's like the whole system's going to suffer from them. Well, what happens is, and this is some of the stuff I hate about fitness media, as you'll get people on fitness media who say it's about the kids.

calories and the macros. And so cutting those foods out isn't going to make you leaner. And it's like, look, if it makes you feel better, if you're less inflamed, if it positively affects your hormones, which all of those things can be true by eliminating foods that you're really reactive to, then it will help with fat loss. It will help through your behaviors. It'll help through your exercise, your movement, how you feel. It will help the way you sleep. It'll help all those things. Which helps all those things right there. And it's which I think as I feel like I'm an old man when we talk about stuff like this. I've lately,

we talk so much about sleep, you know, and I feel like anybody who gets north of 40 can relate, you know, maybe if you're 30, you're rolling your eyes right now, but that anything that I do, that impacts my sleep positively and negatively,

impacts everything. Everything. All those things so much more. I mean, my joints don't bother me the same in my workouts. I've got better energy the next day. I mean, it's just my libido. I mean, all the things in my,

improve simply just by getting better night's sleep. And one of the number one things that can disrupt a good night's sleep is shitty digestion before I go to bed, you know, or inflammation going on. Like that's, wakes you up in the middle of night. So it's like, this idea of like, oh, it's just simply calories in and calories out. It's like, well, it's not that simple. There's more going on than just that. There's nothing like getting woke up in the middle of night because your digestion's messed up.

That's the most frustrating. me off. Do you do what I do? If that happens, not often, but if that happens to me, I stubbornly lay in bed. I'm like, it's going to go away. And just draw it out.

I do something drastic. Yeah. Right away? It's coming out one end or the other. Oh, God. I get up and try to do air squats. Try to move it. In the house?

I mean in the room? Yes, dude. Just trying to wake up. What the hell are you doing, dude? Well, this doesn't happen to me a lot. But there's been times I've told you guys recently. Last time was actually at a hotel was where I ate late in bed. I told you guys that it was late at night, and it was just, I could, like, I was so bad, it was keeping

him up. I had to get up. And I'm like, I got to move these calories. You know what's really frustrating? This has happened to me recently. I didn't realize this. We were at a restaurant and we were ordering food and you guys know me in French fries. Like, I got to love French fries.

Love French fries. Any fried potato for me is like my favorite thing. And I see in the menu, it says a side of French fries and it says underneath gluten-free available. I'm like, French fries. Where the hell is the gluten? Yeah, what are you adding here? You know what a lot of?

places do and it dawned on me. There are definitely places. Well, I'll eat the French fries and I don't feel so good the next day and I think it's the oils. Oh, the oils? No. So it's not like some battering. Yeah, it is. Yeah, you ever have French fries that seem to have a little bit of a like a crust on us? Yeah, dude, they freaking put them in flour before they fry them.

Sneaky bastards. Those really? Yeah, dude, it happens all the time. It happens all the time. Because I'm thinking- potato is gluten-free. Bro. How dare you? I'm thinking back. Is that true? Look that up. How common is as dipping fries I think it's more common than you know.

Yeah, I think it is. So you ever eat really good French fries and they're really good and they got a little bit of the crust on them? That's what it is. Well, you're hitting on something that's interesting to me because there's definitely times where I've ate fries and felt totally fine. There's other times I've ate fries and felt like shit. So now I feel like it needed. I'm going to ask every time.

It was some kind of oil. I just assumed it was. I thought it was because of the oil and, yes, they could also not make you feel good. But now that I know that there's putting flour in them. Very common. Very common. It's coated with flour or starch. No.

shit. Yep, to give their fries an extra crispy exterior and prevent them from getting soggy. See? Scroll down. Look at wheat flour, often used for heavily battered. Super lame. Or season. Curly fries. Oh, it's my favorite. Oh, it makes me so mad. It's so good. So mad. I love it. Wow.

Bro, I did not know that. Yep. You just got to go back. But it makes so much sense because I can literally think of like so many times where I've had French fries where they just went down so easily. No problem. And then other times were just like, cut, that just sat on me. I think it was cheesecake factory.

I think that's where I was. That sounds like the place I would do it. Yeah, that place is. I think in and out, watch it does it normal. I think it. No,

in and out, fries are, I get eat a million baskets of those. Yeah. And it feels that way, right? Yeah. It's probably what?

I mean, that makes so much sense now because there's definitely times, and you know what ones that are, it's always those big fat, crispy ones. Yes, dude. Yeah.

And I love curly fries. If I see curly fries on the menu, I'm going for it. Not anymore. Damn, dude, you just totally blew my mind right now. It really? Listen, it ruined my day when I read that. Well, I mean, actually, it's exciting, though, because it's always pissed me off that it's like this,

I felt like I'm rolling the dice when I have french fries sometimes because sometimes I'm like, they don't bother me at all. Now you're going to be that, that, that, that's going to say, are the fries, I think now that you described it and you said it, I think I can guess. I don't think I need to ask. I think it's pretty obvious the ones that are probably doing that, you know, and it's probably just type of, like, oh, no, you're just type of. Oh, no, I just like, I get a little gassy.

Yeah. You want to punch yourself in the face. You got to do that guy? Yeah, I just blame it on my wife. My wife wants to know this. You do it? She wants to ask if there's gluten in these fries. Roll my eyes real quick.

You know, allergies. You know, wives. Yeah. You know what I mean? All right, here's a fries. I take them. I thought that were for her. Anyway,

hey, I wanted to bring up something really interesting that I read about. There's this famous study done in the 1980s. They call it the famous. nun study. Like nun, like a Catholic nun. Okay. Yes, dude. And it's really cool.

So this famous nun study... Is it like one related to sex and not having sex? No, no, no, no, no. It was related to brain health. Oh, it's not the first thing you're going to go. Here's what they did. I don't know why he said that. What do you mean, why?

That's a person... It definitely abstains. Yeah. I mean, I would think that's what the study would be on. So it was a study... You're like, what's unique to them. That is... That's not the only thing that's unique.

So it was a... It was a longitudinal study on aging and Alzheimer's disease. By the way, I sent it to Max Lugavir. He wasn't familiar with it. I'm like, dude, you got to check this out. It's really, really cool. Now, what's cool about it is that, you know, when you study a bunch of people, by the way, this was a large study.

I think there were 678 sisters that were in this. What's difficult about studies is you have wildly different lifestyles among people typically. Yeah. So you got a lot of controls to figure out. Like, what is it? Is it this? Is it that?

Well, when you have a bunch of nuns, a lot of that is controlled. They live very similar lives, very similar diets, living conditions, education, lifelong habits, none of them smoked. Probably stress the same. No alcohol, no children. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a great study to look at brain aging and what's going on. And so they found a couple things, but one thing really blew me away. So trip off this.

So I'll read the, I'll read from a article on the study. Is your way we can kind of guess? I want to guess. Well, this one right here trip me out. This is why I sent it to Max Lugavir, okay? some sisters stayed mentally sharp into extreme old age, even though their brains were full of the plaques and tangles that define Alzheimer's. Oh, interesting. The best known example is Sister Mary, who scored well on cognitive tests at age 101 and died shortly afterwards.

Her brain showed abundant Alzheimer's pathology. So if you look at her brain, like, oh, she's got really bad Alzheimer's crushed cognitive tests. Interesting. So there's an idea that came out. out of this, which is that a lifetime of education and mental activity can help build a reserve that lets the brain keep functioning despite damage. So it's like an adaptation because of her activity, because of all the things that she did, they listed things like prayer, they listed things like, you know, meditation and doing things for other people and very active, even though

her brain had all of the signs of Alzheimer's, she cognitively scored, wow. Isn't that crazy? I thought the plaques were guaranteed. Because the plaques, they've, they've attributed, because they're always trying to look for like some, you know, something that's common, a commonality that they find. And then I thought that they, they, they somewhat kind of dismissed the plaque a little bit before they, they, they, they, they're definitely Alzheimer's has the plaques. Yeah. Okay. And they shows up. They think it plays a role. Now, the dismissal came from like all these pharmaceutical companies creating drugs to stop the plaque, but they didn't work very well. Yeah. Oh, that's what it was. Yeah. So there's trying to address the plaque. There's other theories around it. But it's, but it's, but it's, definitely a hallmark of Alzheimer's. And so some theories are like, is it a protective met? Like what's going on? Nonetheless, here you have some of these nuns who, for all intents and purposes, because as part of the study, they donated their brain so they could get tested afterwards.

They're like, oh, my God, she should have had. So it's like active tissue because they've still been working. That makes me. Isn't that wild? Yeah, that makes me want to see like other examples of like, say maybe professions or hobbies that people have that really like challenge the brain. And then like, is there like a much lower rate of Alzheimer's with, with that type of a person, right? Like think of a, I mean, example.

Somebody who does like crossword puzzles their whole life or something like that. Does that make a difference? Well, the biggest predictor when it comes to that or social networks and a vibrant social life, which all of these nuns had, right? Because they're in, they're with other sisters. They're never lonely. They're with each other. And so when you look at the data, loneliness is a huge factor. Now, did none of them have it?

No, no, no. Some of them developed Alzheimer's with symptoms. Some of them didn't. But that was just one of the more remarkable things. They looked at her brain and said, she should have had all these symptoms, but she did very well. They also found that. So they had, they followed them for a long time. So this is another cool.

Yeah, but was that like, so then you shared one example. Yeah, there were a couple like that. Okay, there were. Yeah, a couple like that. Okay. She was just the most extreme. She was the most pronounced. Right, right, right, right.

And then they also found that, because they followed them for a while, sisters whose autobiographies showed low idea density. This is like fewer distinct ideas packed into their sentences were far more likely to develop Alzheimer's later. So when they were young, based off how they wrote, if it was lower in what they call idea density. So ideas packed into their sentences, essentially complex writing, lower amounts of of that had higher rates of Alzheimer's later on. How would you, how would you, how would you give an example of that? Uh, maybe we could look that up, though.

Description in detail. Cause that's all I, yeah, yeah, I think so. I think it really has to. More adjectives? No, I'm serious. I bet it's measured like that. Like this person used, uh, 500 adjectives, which for every something thousand words. Yeah, it's a good question.

I mean, how else would you, how else would you describe or measure or describe that in a, on a study? I don't know. Maybe we could look it up, Doug. What is idea density and writing? and see what it says. Is your computer freeze? Yeah, I did. So how much information or meeting is packed into a text.

Okay. So there's two main ways. Lexical, density, the ratio of important content, words to grammar words, and creative density, how many layers of plot, emotion, and subtext are built into your writing. Yeah, so that's really super clear. We better hurry up in retirement for you. Adam forgets everything. What do we do?

What? What are we doing? Hey, bro, it's whoever gets that first, for sure, are you guys going to like, like, oh, for sure. Are you going to prank me? For sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I feel like you would to me.

So I have to. Hey, remember, remember you gave me your car out of? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it was give me me, dude. Because your concussions? Yeah.

I don't know. I would fail this one. Well, yeah. It's like, it's in my family, too. I'm like, always like, you know, trying to stay ahead of that. But it's like, dude. At some point, I'm just going to start forgetting everything. You know what?

I don't think so. You know why? Because since I've known you, you've only gotten smarter. It's true. It's true. Since I've listened to you talk and since we've had conversations, you've gotten smarter. You started right here, but I mean, it's a low bar.

That's such a shit sandwich. I didn't say that. I mean, you were borderline retarded when we first said. I seriously was going to put a helmet on you, dude. I thought this was Adam. special needs for you're out of range now you're safe no that's not what i meant no you've only gotten better dude with your verbal fluency do you think i would think uh i would think uh i's doing this actually would be really good what us having to communicate on a podcast like this so i think you're

would probably be really good for us uh to to help prolong that i hope yeah i hope yeah so it's it kind of forces the issue you know it's like yeah we got whichever one goes first the rest of us will take okay well yeah we got you we'll make it packed yeah we'll take care you yeah do you Do you think we've been, I don't think, have we increased verbal fluency, or do you think we just gotten more comfortable? Uh, and, are they independent of each other? Uh, I mean, I talked to you guys all fair, too, so. I don't think you've changed. I think Justin and I have, go ahead.

You guys are both smarter. You guys are both a lot smarter. Yeah, yeah, I think you got dumber. Your voice is totally different, dude. Oh, my God. I heard, like, an episode from way back. Did I tell you that? Did we tell you that?

Oh, yeah. Who was in here? Uh, oh, it was Cole. Cole played like, like, one of our. Yeah, you sounds like, Number four episodes. So he comes in and he goes, hey, he goes, how do I get better at podcasting?

So we're like, Justin, I'm like, just got to do a lot of it. That's all we did. We just keep going, bro. So I said, you got to listen. He's like, because how did you guys get so good or whatever? Which was a nice compliment. But I said, you know, why don't you go listen to whatever old episodes

so you can feel better about yourself? So he pulled up episode like 50 and hit play on his phone. First of all. I was going to leave the room. Bro, first of all, none of us sound the same. No. All of our voices got low. of us.

All of us. You did, you did, all of us. Yeah. So I don't know if that's just as you get older, your,

your throat bros, I don't know. No, I think that's, that's the calmness. No, bro. Your voice sounds different. It sounds like a kid.

I feel like yours really sounds different. Yeah. All of us do. Really? Yeah, dude. Listen to it. Justin too.

Justin too? Yes. Yeah, It did change. Yeah. Doug, look this up. Does a man's voice get old,

get lower or change as he gets older? I mean, not like Howard Stern. You put on like 75 pounds of muscles. That'll make a difference on your throat alone. Your neck grew through you. You lost 75 pounds. So typically deepens it gets lowered.

Okay, obviously during purity. But as men reach older adulthood, their voice actually tends to become higher a pitch. What? That didn't happen. You know what it is? We're not done with puberty. Is that what's happening? Wow.

I think it's more of a. Weird. for, I think there is a low level, I think there's a low level of anxiety or stress underlining our voices. Again, I think you, you listen to yourself and you're like, ew, I'm

annoying and you're like, like, calm down. I mean, at this point, I mean, God, how many, what are we at? Doug, 2000, 3,000, something like that. Like, it's just, uh, it's, it is no different than having a conversation with you, just you guys. Yeah. Early on, I, you know, we did a good job of,

of pretending that, you know, or, or, trying to figure that out. But I think that what you hear, at least my opinion is that, is just just relaxed. I'll pose one more theory, which is our recording environment has changed a lot since then.

Oh, yeah, it's improved. Yeah, so I mean, better sound deadening, maybe the equipment's better that we're using. Who knows, you know? When we're done here, I'm going to pull up episode 50. Yeah, the reason why I don't like that theory is that you can tell even like in Sal and I's

like early YouTube videos. which is... Our voice is different. Yeah, and then you compare... Well, we're using the same recorder, though. No, no, no. Yes. When we do a shootout here, it's no different than the first ones to the newest ones.

Yeah. Yeah. So what do you say to that? Well, so maybe the playback speed was a little different or something like that. I don't know. No, it's a very distinct. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, man. Yeah, no, it is different.

Well, if it keeps going like this... Our voice is supposed to be going higher. I don't think so. I can't imagine that. That's what the computer said. Think about it, though. At the very least, it just disproves that that's the reason why, though, is because we're getting older.

That shouldn't have anything to do with it. I definitely think it's when you're anxious, there's definitely changes. I mean, Google that. I mean, if you're anxious, does that have a... If a man is anxious, does his voice raise in octave? And so I think that... I guess that might be true, right? Like, picture a dude who's like going to...

Like a big news comes up. What are you talking about? Well, I don't, I wish. Do you remember? Yes, a man's voice can go out. See? So this is what I think. I think that we've had that.

I mean, at least personally, I know that there was a time and we were at this studio still. Yeah. I'm buying in Deer Theory. Where I, you know, I lose my train of thrott and I can feel myself get super anxious. Like, like, seriously. So. Uh-oh. So, but I can't tell.

you, I can't recall when that left. It's been a long time now. But we were here still. So it was within the lot, well, it's been, we've been here for almost, what, eight or nine years now? Doug, how long we've been here? 10 years. 10 here? 10 here? In October.

Look at Doug just posted up there. Look at Doug trying to fall us out. Testosterone increases the size of your vocal cords. We are on TRT now, guys. But I've been the whole time. So I've been the whole time. You're on less. I'm on less.

So that doesn't fly. Yeah. So you're wrong again, Doug. Well, so the theory was that men's vocal cards actually become more thin as they get older. That's why their voice goes up. However, with more testosterone, they will become thicker. We googled what I said and it confirmed. We've all thrown out ideas.

None of ours have been confirmed except for what I said. I snore now. I think it makes the sense. That's because you're fat. Yeah, if you get fat, you look that one up. You can hear that in someone's voice. Like, if you listen to Biggie, like, husky. You don't, I don't need to look at a picture of a big, you hear his voice.

You're like, oh, he's obese. Oh, yeah, yeah. He's got that sound. That's fair. Yeah, yeah. He's got that. Also, yeah, I know for sure. Yeah, I think it was that.

I think that we all were, even you as comfortable as you, you are with, with, you've always been with talking on camera and all those things. Yeah. I think you've even settled in a new year. Yeah, sure. Way more. Sure. Way more. I mean, at least from my perspective of watching you.

Yeah. And I know what I have felt personally with, you know, having moments like that. I haven't had a moment like that in years. in, you know, probably seven, eight years. But I do remember even being here, like, there'd be times we'd be talking, and I'd be like, oh, fuck, I lost my train. Yeah, and then feel inside the anxiety of, like, filling the gap,

or I just, I don't have any of that. Yeah, no, I just forgot what I was going to say. Yeah, I don't say that. I forgot I was going to say. I want to mention something to people before we, we transition. We, there are, there is a lot of misinformation on social media now about peptides, a lot now. It wasn't like this before.

It's gotten bad. But now I'm seeing all this content on peptides and how to use them and where to get them. And this is because they're popular. And I have friends. I have friends that get their peptides from God knows where. Anyway, if you want to be in a community where you can learn about peptides, where there are medical professionals who are in there, also who pop. in to answer questions, we have a community on the school app. So school with the case, so

school.com slash mind pump hormones. And you'll be in a community where you can ask questions and get good information. So the audience knows this is what's replacing our old Facebook form. Yeah, we got rid of that. And the reason is it's been, it was, it was such a headache because of how much misinformation around peptides and how much it's starting to get regulated and how many eyeballs are on it. Facebook starts regulating all the things that you say and not say. And so we were constantly getting flagged in our own private forum with conversations that we're having about peptides because they're starting to crack down on that, that we were having to go, we would shut down, then we had to go back and explain what it was. And then we get,

and it was just, we did that so many times. We finally said, we need to pull off this forum so we can just, we can control the conversation completely, uh, which that's what's cool about school, which is also exciting because there's a lot of things that we'd have to skirt around that we couldn't say or couldn't talk about because it would get removed from Facebook and we knew that. And so we can have way more open dialogue inside this. And so I'm actually really excited about it. And school has lots of ways to pen the conversations and webinars and content that we planned. So really excited to build this out. And so it's going to be an incredible community.

And if you like the forum that we had on Facebook, it's only going to be better than that. And if you were looking for that on Facebook, the reason why you can't find anymore is because it's getting shut down. Typical children's vitamins are basically candy in disguise. Haya is difference made with zero sugar, zero gummy junk. It fills in the most common gaps in modern children's diets to provide a full body of nourishment that our kids need.

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Kids food is nutrient deficient. Fill those gaps with Haya. Go to Hayahealth.com slash Mind Pump. On that link, you'll get 50% off. Back to the show. Our first question is from Anushka B. I'm 150 pounds and squat 80 kilograms with 7 to 9 reps or 60 kilograms for 15 reps. I'm struggling to progress with this.

What is the best way forward? FYI, I'm on a deficit following a one-year bulk. Well, that's the, well, that you're on right there. And you're strong. So we're already pretty damn strong and we're in a deficit right now. Really, really tough. So when we see examples of somebody who progresses in strength while in a caloric deficit, it's normally newbie gains. That's the most common time you'll see.

Otherwise, I am never seeing myself get stronger in a calorie deficit. No, the best you can hope for in a calorie deficit is a better strength to weight ratio. Right. Okay. But to get stronger total strength, like weight on the bar. Not happening. In a deficit. Pull-ups or dips.

it'll feel a little better. Exactly. Body weight. And I'm assuming we're speaking to a female client right here as a female who's already squatting 180, what, 80 kilograms is about 160, 170 pounds? No, I think it's less than that. It's like, oh, yeah, yeah. No, it's 2.2 times 80. That's 160 to 170.

You're right. You're right. It's more than 170. You're really strong. You're very strong already, especially for their weight. They're only 100. So that's good weight that you're already. And for, that's seven to nine reps. So we're not talking about a PR weight.

No. So this person's probably able to squat. 200 pounds for a single. I mean, that's true because the stronger you get, the harder it is to make strength. Yeah, 176 pounds for 7 to 9 reps. It's really good. Which means you're, I'm assuming, you're already squeezing your potential. You could probably squat 200 pounds for a PR for a single. Yeah. At that body weight, in a deficit is extremely impressive. I'll say this. Look, if you really want to hit PRs, you want to get on a program designed to hit PRs, and then you want to be in a surplus. Yep. So, eat in a surplus, follow Maps Power Lift.

Maps power lift is specifically designed to hit PRs, squat, bench, and deadlift. That plus a surplus, and you see your numbers go up. I'm glad you said that because I don't want to discourage this person like that you can't ever hit PRs again. It's just that you have to be realistic with where you're at. That's right. You're at peak strength, not peak, you're at the top end of strength

for your size probably already. And you're also in a deficit. The likelihood that you're going to PR anything is very unlikely. Next question is from, And Casey, when choosing a sauna is traditional or infrared better, have there been studies done showing one gives more benefits than the other? I like this question. Yeah, so the studies done on saunas, the best studies, the ones that get quoted often where they say things like, traditional. Yeah, they reduce all cause mortality by 40%, right?

The famous finished study were done on traditional sonas. So traditional saunas, get your body hot through the temperature inside the sauna, and they're much hotter. They get up to 180, 185 degrees, sometimes hotter, sometimes as low as 170, but they get pretty darn hot. Infrared saunas use infrared light that penetrates the body and raises body temperature and can cause a lot of sweating. But the temperature of an infrared typically goes up to what, 120? 145. 145 is high there? Okay.

So it's lower. Although, by the way, our friends over at Plunge have an infrared that actually gets up to 175. I believe, which is the hottest infrared sauna I've ever seen. Wow. A lot higher than normal. Now, Sal covered the science side of it. I'm going to cover my personal experience of owning several of all of these. I've had three infrareds and I'm now on my first traditional.

I love the traditional one so much better for multiple reasons. It gets up to temperature way faster that when I had the infrareds, they took an hour to get up to that, just a 145. Yeah. So they're not even getting up that high. Then to get it up to its peak temperature, I had to wait almost an hour to get it to there. And then when I get in it, because it's a dry infrared heat, it took 20 minutes before I broke my first sweat. And then I'm 30, 30 plus minutes in before I feel like I'm really sweating, which I mean, you're still getting other benefits of the infrared.

I get it. but I just, it was such a commitment for that time to get those, where the traditional one, I am, I'm by five minutes and I've timed it. Five minutes in, I am dripping in sweat and it's ready to go within 15 minutes. I personally look, all the studies that are done on V02 Max, the studies that are done longevity, they use traditional saunas. So there's some arguments I've heard made for infrared for detox because it kind of penetrates in the body, but the detox happens through the.

sweat and you sweat to back you up at them faster in tradition. I think if you have a choice, go traditional. That's where all the station. And then get your red light benefits from a red light panel. Yeah. Outside of that. Yeah. You know, shame.

I mean, this is plunge. I'm such a fan of their sauna. And we're not getting paid to say this. It's how much I love their sauna because it has the hot rocks in it. And so I can also pour water over it. And if you like the steam. Make a little wetter. love that. Yes. And so if you, an aromatherapy, if you like that, I like that too. And so I'm getting,

and you're getting all of that in a traditional sauna. You're not getting that in an infrared sauna. So I'm way more a fan of that. And Plunge has an incredible product. Next question is from Coach E. Kong, DFW. If your philosophy is that muscles grow through rest, how do bodybuilders train up to six to seven times per week, sometimes multiple times per day, and still end up as some of the largest specifications. we've seen. Is that down to steroid use or is there something else I'm missing? This is not our philosophy.

I love how this was phrased. It's a philosophy. This is science. Yeah, yeah. This is not our philosophy. This is science. This is actually how it works. Let me add this, okay.

So like a subtle dig. Yeah, that was a weird philosophy of resting theory. Recovery is part of this. Muscles build and recovery process. Okay, look, here's the deal. By the way, You do not build at all. Okay?

Let's make this clear. It's not a theory. This is not a theory of ours. When you were, you were, that you were stressing the body when you're training, okay? You are stressing it. It's what happens after. Yeah. It's what happens after as an, by the way, it's, that follows the entire adaptation process of everything in your body.

The sun is, it's like, the sun itself isn't tanning your skin in the moment. It's, yeah, exactly. It's irritating it. It's the adaptation process, the recovery process that tans your skin. it to change. Yeah. So, okay,

so here's a deal. First off, we're picking on, we're picking a subset of people who lift weights who happen to be the best in the world. Yeah, huge genetic factors.

So, so you're talking about a group of people who are extremely genetically made for bodybuilding. You can call it gifted if you want, but they are made to be bodybuilders. This is the 0.001% of the population. So that's number one.

So their bodies, genetically are made. The mirror teenager, you saw it. Yes. In extreme, I mean, you can see pictures of Jay Cutler when he was 16. He's more muscular than I've ever been in my childhood. Phil Heath playing basketball in high school.

And not ploughing. Look like a bodybuilder already. So that's number one. So their bodies are extremely sensitive and they recover quickly and they build muscle quickly. That's number one. Number two, they are on lots of steroids

on top of it, which also enhance recovery and adaptation and healthy muscle. All kinds of things. That being said, you look at all athletes. I don't want to say all athletes, but most athletes, Athletes, bodybuilders train the least out of most athletes. Okay, they just do.

Why? Because they can't train as much as other athletes, because they over-trained. Even bodybuilders find that they can't go in the gym for four hours at a time. Whereas when you play other sports, you're practicing for hours at a time. Isn't this too what they found? Where's that place over in Dubai where it was really, it was about the consistency, the rest, the nutrition. Yes. Dialed in, like, and that was all accounted for it.

They had way better results. I'm going to say some around it. follow a pro bodybuilder during his day, during the day when they're, especially when the, 90% of his eating and rest. It's, you, they work out in the morning. They do nothing else for the rest of the day. They're at home. They're eating.

They might do a little cardio. They're resting. They're eating eight times in a day. They might go back to the gym for a little bit in the evening. Even these guys, uh, who are so genetically gifted on tons of anabolic steroids, trained less than the average athlete. Such a good, such a good analogy, Sal, uh, because anybody who's, uh, you know, read Kobe Bryant's story,

knows about Michael Felt. The amount of training volume those guys are doing for their sport to be the highest level at their sport is insane. Because they're training skills. Kobe Bryant is famous for saying he put four hours in a practice

before everybody else got to practice. That's right. And then he'd do it again with all of them. No bodybuilders do that. You can't. A bodybuilder can't do their sport for four hours a day every day and build muscle.

It wouldn't work. But they can do it six to seven times a week for an hour, maybe two hours a day. They'll throw in some walking and then they take copious amounts of drugs that enhance the ability to build and recover. By the way, a lot of steroid stacks are designed for recovery. Recovery. They allow you lift more often. Yes.

Yeah, enhance that. That is part of the growth hormone, the eco poises and decas, like these things are used for the recovery process. Yep. And so that's like a big part of their steroid stack is also to enhance that. So, yeah, no, this is not a philosophy. This is how it works. Yeah, you're comparing to a... And also, if you look at, if you, I don't care who you are, by the way, I can make this and I can bet money on it.

Whoever wrote this, you do not have the genetics of a pro bodybuilder. So even if you copy the routine, you're going to fry yourself. It ain't going to work for you. Vast majority of us listening right now, the vast majority, do not have the ability to respond well on a consistent basis to a routine like that. We just don't have the genetics, and we're not on the anabolic steroid stacks that they're taking. So that's just the bottom line. Most people, half of that training or less is what you're going to give them the best results. Next question is from Teresa H. Fletcher.

How long do you give a caloric deficit and honest go before you should see results? I used to give my clients three to four weeks because water retention could change things. We could see some fluctuations. I want to see how they feel. There's a lot more than just, yeah. So I give it about three or four weeks in a deficit before I'd make any kinds of adjustments. Jumping the gun too quickly is probably one of the biggest mistakes people make. Yeah.

When they change their diet, they see a change they don't like. They overcorrect and end up messing things up as a result. I just want to address too, like before you should see results too. Sometimes we are seeing results, but the client doesn't see the results. Right. In other words, you're in a calorie deficit. and I'm speaking as if you're my client and it's three weeks in and you're like, I don't see any change.

I don't see any results. But we have. I know you have. I can see those results. Or maybe there's other metrics that we're improving that we see that this person is, all they're doing is looking at the mirror or looking at the scale. And so their definition of good results is maybe what's happening is our deficit's very mild, small deficit.

and you're still able to build a little bit of muscle and you're losing some body fat. So the scale is kind of staying we're in the goalie lock zone, but it's right where I want you, quote unquote, deficit wise. So the scale's not really moving, but you're actually leaning out.

But you think you're not seeing results. So be careful with even the advice we're giving right now of three to four weeks and you should see results because results may differ per person and what we're looking for and also that what the trainer would consider good results may not be the same as what you may consider. Well said.

Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. It's Mind Pump Media. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, 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. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal, Adam and Justin, as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now,

plus other valuable free resources at Mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is Mind Pump.