Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2963: Online Coach Red Flags | Most Online Coaches Are Using AI to Reply to You and Not Telling You

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

My Maps Program: https://mymapsprogram.com$297 for a fully customized MAPS program. Answer 20 questions, get a program built for your specific goals and equipment, plus a 1-on-1 call with a trainer to review it. In this episode the guys break down the red flags to watch for when hiring an online fitness coach. They cover why 100+ clients per coach is a massive red flag, why you need to ask specifically how AI is being used (most coaching software now auto-responds to clients with AI without disclosing it), how often you will actually be in contact with a real human, and what the right answer is when you ask a coach what matters most to them about their clients. They also cover Sal running MAPS Anabolic three days a week in a deficit and feeling stronger than ever, Adam's Oura Ring hitting its highest readiness score in weeks after three days completely unplugged on a road trip, the Paleo Valley organ complex breakdown (liver, heart and kidney in capsule form), the story of Maximilian Kolbe who voluntarily took a stranger's place in a Nazi starvation block, the public speaker vs. communicator distinction and why Sal sweats through his shirts before every speaking engagement, the Andre Iguodala sleep study showing a 34% drop in points scored and measurably higher fouling rate on poor sleep, how music BPM affects driving focus and speed, why modern society has destroyed patience and why podcasts are the only media format that bucked the fast content trend. Then they answer questions from Instagram. Mind Pump Jobs — Apply to be a trainer: https://mindpumpjobs.com SPONSORS Paleo Valley (organ complex): https://paleovalley.com/mindpump 15% off automatically applied at checkout. Freeze-dried grass-fed beef liver, heart and kidney in capsule form — vitamin A, B12, CoQ10, choline, iron and more in whole food bioavailable form. Joovv (red light therapy): https://joovv.com/mindpumpCode: MINDPUMP for $50 off first purchase. Sal notices the difference on Jessica after just two sessions — skin looks noticeably younger. Uses same wavelengths and intensity as the studies. Seed Daily Synbiotic: https://seed.com/mindpumpCode: 25MINDPUMP for 25% off your first month. LINKS Mind Pump Store: https://mindpumpstore.comMaps Fitness Products: https://mapsfitnessproducts.com Instagram: @mindpumpmedia 0:00 - Intro 2:36 - Online coach red flags — the industry has exploded and bad coaches are dangerous 7:41 - Red flag 1: How many clients do you service? 10:35 - Red flag 2: How are you using AI — most apps auto-respond without telling you 16:08 - Red flags 3, 4 and 5: Contact frequency, trainer priorities and authenticity 20:52 - Sal getting stronger in a deficit on MAPS Anabolic three days a week 23:48 - Adam's Oura Ring highest readiness score in weeks after three days unplugged 26:23 - The cortisol stack that fixed waking up at 3am — ashwagandha and phosphatidylserine 29:59 - Paleo Valley organ complex and the Maximilian Kolbe story 35:22 - Public speaker vs. communicator and the Andre Iguodala sleep study 46:14 - Why modern society destroyed patience and why podcasts bucked the fast content trend 59:13 - Q&A: Scoliosis training, sodium tracking, menstrual cycle recovery and home gym equipment

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, and entertainment podcast in history. Approaching over half a billion downloads, this is Mind Pump. In today's episode, we answered some questions that people wrote in to our Instagram page, Mind Pump Media. Go give that a follow.

but this was after the intro. Today's intro is 56 minutes long. Now in the intro, we talk about how to find a good online fitness coach. We talk about muscle building, fat loss, nutrition, supplements. We also talk about current events and family life. It's always a fun time. Now, this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Paleo Valley.

Today we talked about the organ complex supplement. So these are capsules of freeze-dried organ meats from grass-fed beef. It's like a natural multivitamin, but it's a full. food. So if you want to get more nutritious with your supplements, you want to get those nutrients that you can only get from organ meats and you want them to be super bioavailable, go to paleo valley.com slash mind pump. That link will get you a discount. This episode is also brought to by Juve. Juve is a red light therapy company. So red light therapy has decades of research showing that it speeds up recovery, builds muscle, and dramatically improves the look and youthfulness

of your skin. Literally after two or three sessions, you can tell a difference. They use the same red light panels that you'll see in the studies. Other companies, they don't do that. Juv are the leaders in red light therapy. Go to juve.com. That's j-o-ovvv.com slash mind pump.

Use the code mind pump, and that'll get you $50 off your purchase. Also, for the first time ever here at Mind Pump, we can now customize your maps workout program. Look, we have lots of maps workout programs. You probably have one yourself. But when we write them, we have to write them for a general avatar.

We've never had the software or the trainers to be able to individualize a maps program. So, John, if you're watching, you want maps. John, we can do that now. Susan, we got Maps, Susan. For the first time ever, you can get an individualized maps program. So go to my Mapsprogram.com,

and within one week you'll get a call from one of our trainers who will deliver to you an individualized workout program just for you, your goals, your fitness level, and the equipment you have access to. Again, it's my maps program.com. All right, real quick, if you love us like we love you, why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at mindpumpstore.com. I'm talking right now, hit pause, head on over to mindpumpstor.com. That's it.

Enjoy the rest of the show. Online fitness and nutrition coaching has exploded over the last seven to 10 years. In fact, today, it makes up 22% of all personal training revenue globally. This is huge. You used to make up less than 5%. But here's a deal. Although a good online coach can have profound positive impacts on your health and fitness, a bad one can have equally profound negative impact.

So here's what we're going to do right now. We're going to talk about red flags. How do you know your online coach is someone you should work with? And how do you know you should avoid them? Check it out. I like this. Yes. I recently saw a video that Karen had posted on her personal page and called Kyle right afterwards and said,

did you know about this already? And he goes, yeah, no, this is how this is happening right now. And up to this point, I couldn't wrap my brain around how some of these other companies were doing this. So obviously, as we've continued to build a coaching business, here at Mind Pump. Part of that is doing research and seeing some of the leaders that are doing things in our space and what are they doing and what are we providing and how can we provide more value.

And so we've always been doing some of that. And one of the things that was coming back to me was like, you know, some of these companies have trainers that are servicing a hundred people. Some actually were up to 200. I'm like, per coach. Crazy. And I thought that's not even possible. Like, I mean, I coached online first before Mind Pump had started.

And I got to about 25 and I noticed after 25 I could coach more, but then my service started to sharply decline. That was kind of the max where I could stay in contact. It was, I was managing. I had a pulse of all of them in their weeks and what was going on and I was adjusting everybody and when I was in constant communication. once I got beyond 25, it got really. Now, granted, I know I'm not the most organized person, so maybe somebody who's a lot more organized to me that fall off doesn't happen until 30 or 35 maybe.

Yeah. But I'm not that so unorganized that you could double me or triple me or quadruple. And so I couldn't figure out what was going on until she made that video and called Kyle. And he's like, oh, yeah, that's how they're doing this. Yeah. Yeah.

So just to take a step back, like online coaching, was a tiny sliver of the personal training business worldwide. But we'll just talk about here in the U.S. It was a tiny sliver. It actually barely even existed maybe 10 years ago. And now it's exploded to the point where I said earlier. It's 22% right. It's almost a quarter of all personal training revenue.

Now, I'll just speak to personal training because this is what I did for decades. This is what Adam and Justin did for decades. a really good trainer, nothing will have a more positive impact on your health and fitness than a really good trainer. Nothing. Nothing comes close. There's no digital program, our podcast, there's no information. I don't care what it is. Nothing will have a potentially greater impact in actually having someone work with you and train you. And we know this. But the opposite is also true. Some of the hardest people, some of the hardest people to work with or some of the most difficult situations are when a person worked with a trainer and they had a bad experience. It was a bad

trainer. They either trained them the wrong way or they encouraged some kind of body dysmorphia, dysfunction. They gave them horrible dietary guidelines or they trained them wrong and injured them. And we oftentimes lose that person forever. When you look at the data, lots of people start and stop fitness, start and stop fitness. This is like really common, right? It's really hard to stay consistent for the average person. But when someone has a bad experience with a trainer, the odds that they don't come back skyrockets. It's horrible.

And so this is one of the reasons why we actually started the podcast is we're so over 10 years ago, we're so passionate about this because we know what a positive impact good fitness can have. We also know what a negative impact, bad fitness can have. And online coaching is really no different. It's different in the sense that you're not working

with someone in person. So it's a little bit different. But the impact can be just as impactful, for lack of a better term, and both a positive and negative. And one of the benefits of online coaching, well, from the client's perspective, it typically is a smaller investment. And for the coach, it allows you to typically train people who don't live near you, obviously, and also scalability.

You can scale. But what a lot of what's happened in our space is they've taken that scalability side and they've gone so extreme. Like one of the questions you should ask an online coach is how many clients are you servicing? Like if it's 100 or 200, that's a red flag. The only way to service 200 clients as an online coach is if you're doing a bunch of cookie cutter stuff. There's no individualization. there's no coaching. Yeah.

It's literally I'm sending you resources and have, and just here follow it. And I'm not really coaching the individual, which is the whole reason why you work with an online coach. An online coach with 200 clients is actually less effective than just listening to Mind Pump. We'll do a better job if you just listen to my podcast than working with a coach with that many clients. That's one of the biggest red flags. And when I heard that, because I did not know that, Adam. I knew that there was some craziness going on. Yeah.

But when I heard that stat and then it was echoed by some of our friends in the space, we confirmed it. That's crazy. What are you doing? You're not really coaching anybody. That's even after, because we saw this in our space even when we first like started out with, because influencers became a big part of people's, you know, everyday experience, like being on social media. And just because they would transform their bodies and they would, you know, show that.

the process, it was like just immediate accolades and qualification for now helping people. And so it was very tempting for a lot of these, you know, competitors to lean into that. And, you know, and some of them got in trouble, like, training, giving them plans for like thousands of people. But to your point, it was all like this cookie cutter, like no adjustments and no like individualization to it. But it had massive backlash. And now, you know, there's another trickier way that they're kind of handling that kind of volume. Oh, the way it used to look, just to describe it even more of the model and how they scaled it was I show you online that I can get shredded. I then am qualified to teach you and coach you how to get shredded.

I then fill my book so much that I can no longer help all those people. I hire an assistant that has no background whatsoever in that. And like their job is literally just a, I'm closing people and talking on social because that's what I'm good. And I'm using my body to sell and capture leads. And then on the back end, I either have a team of people if I got big enough and scaled enough that are selling. And then I have like assistants that are literally just basically the email people that are emailing the cookie cutter plans that you're talking about. It's like there's no customization to it or very minimal to it. There's no coaching.

There's no coaching involved in it. And so this literally, this new model is just a replacement of that. So instead of a human assistant doing that, they've cut out that overhead. And now they've just outsourced it to an AI. And AI is just using the data from all the Internet to guess the answer. Here's the other red flag. This is what you would want to ask a potential online coach. Don't ask them if they're using AI because they are.

There's a million and one different ways to use AI. Ask them, how are you using AI? Because here's what's happening. These coaches, and I know this, by the way, there are apps that now all. offer this as a service. So there are apps for trainers and you sign up for a subscription. And one of the pieces of value is it comes with an AI assistant. And what happens is you as a client send a text or a message to your trainer about a question.

Hey, I'm hungry. Hey, I'm struggling with this. Hey, I need help. And you get a reply. And you're like, oh, cool. My coach is coaching me. It's AI replying to you. Yeah.

It's not a human. And so this is. Which they're not disclosing, which makes it pretty sneaky. That is 100% right. And so you are paying a coach to have AI coach you the whole time. So ask them, how are you using AI? When I send a message, are you replying? Who am I talking to when I'm asking questions and I need help?

Who is it reply? Is it you or is it AI? And odds are, if they have a lot, a lot of clients, they're using AI. So you're not getting coached by your time. Just so you know, almost all of the trainer software now has this built in. or being built in. In fact, the software that we use, Kyle actually turns it off so it doesn't auto do that. So it's built into the software that the AI will automatically respond and answer for the client.

We have to manually shut it off so that it's not responding for us and that our coaches can actually communicate with them. This is why it's so sneaky because if you, the average person doesn't want to get coached by AI for obvious reasons. You want a real person. You want to be talking to somebody. You don't want to be coached by AI. So you buy your training from a real person. So the impression is, oh, I'm working with a real person. And then what replies to me is AI.

They don't even know that they're getting coached by AI. They think that they hired that coach and the coach is one that's... Well, the reason why this is so dangerous or not good is... I mean, I've shared this many times on the show already since this AI has popped up where I have my own family members that will ask AI something about their health or fitness. And the response, be it based off of how they prompted the AI, it can be completely wrong or totally right. And so it's so much of that hinges on the way that they prompt the question. Now, a good coach will get asked a question and they won't just give a direct answer.

They'll dig deeper. Yeah, they'll dig deeper or they'll want more nuance to it. Or what do you mean by that? And we coach our trainers on how to do this. Like, when someone just ask you a question or just says an answer to you, dig deeper and find out, well, what do you mean by that when you say that? AI isn't trained to do that. The AI is the answer the question with the best data it has based off of the way you prompted

it. And so here's your answer. And that could send somebody. And like, this was a hormone question that my family member asked. It was like, is this bad for me to do this? And they came or the way he prompted it was can doing taking testosterone. What are the risks of taking testosterone? Yeah.

Or is taking testosterone have adverse effects to it? So like it came back. The AI came back of all the adverse effects of that. It's like, but are there adverse effects for having low testosterone as a 45, 50-year-old male? Like, absolutely. So he didn't prompt it that way, though. He prompted it in a way searching that answer. And so he got that answer.

So here's why this is so dangerous. So you don't want an answer machine. You don't hire a trainer to coach because you just want a bunch of answers. That actually makes for a terrible trainer or a terrible coach. Now, they should know a lot of the right answers, but that's the lowest bar. A good trainer and a good coach understands the nuances in working with individuals. And so much, so much about having a successful fitness journey, one that lasts you for the rest of your life, has less to do with the right answers and more to do with the psychological piece and how you develop relationships with these things. And there's a reason why many states have made it illegal to get therapy from AI.

Okay, there's a reason. Why? Because suicides have been a result of some of this. Because AI is designed to essentially affirm you all the way through and lots of dangerous things can happen. A good coach knows when to do that and when to push, when to pull, knows when to ask more questions. And AI just simply doesn't do that.

It gives you answers. It's like a fancy Google, but it's not going to coach you the way a human can, at least not now. And so this can be quite dangerous because AI can lead somebody in the wrong direction. And not to mention, even if that wasn't the case, most people who hire a coach don't want AI to coach them. It's not thinking about how to steer your behavior in a positive direction because it doesn't have that capacity. It's just providing what you're prompting it for. And so it's like, you know, as a coach, you're already predictively thinking about their journey and like what to present them, what time to present them with that, what they're struggling with, you know, with their

behaviors and how to strategize that to make them successful. And so it's, it just doesn't have that ability. So, you know, you're very limited with an answer machine. Yeah. And you also want to know how often you're going to be, you can be in contact with the actual trainer themselves. Yeah, because you can't have 200 clients and be in like, consistent contact. Not unless you're using AI. So you want to ask them, like, how often can I be in contact with you? How often are we going to do, you know, a Zoom meeting and how often can I send you a message and when can you reply? Like, what does this coaching process look like? These are very specific questions that will raise red flags if you ask them. If you don't ask them, you have no idea. And then you can be

going down a road that is one that you didn't anticipate. I also think you should ask your trainer, what's the most important thing for you as a trainer in regards to your clients? Here's the wrong answer. And this you might think is the right answer. If a trainer says to you, get my clients to their goals, that's the wrong answer. Okay. A good trainer knows that that's important, but that's not the most important thing. The most important thing to a trainer who's good is, can I get this person to want to do this for the rest of their life? Yep. That's more important than getting your two goals at the time that you hired me for. Like, you tell me I'm going to lose 30 pounds in four months. I'm going to target that with you. But what's more important for me as a trainer is, can I get this person who want to do

this. Forever. Forever because when you look at the data, losing weight is hard, but it's not nearly as hard as sticking to this thing for the rest of your life. So as a trainer, that's always the most important to good trainers. That's the most important thing. Can I help coach this person through this process? And if that means we don't hit the goal in the desired time, so be it, so long as this person starts to really want to do this on the wrong. They fall in over the process. That's right. That's right. Can we do that? Do they also validate you, hear you, and are they authentic. AI is not authentic. What do I mean by that? Okay, you're a middle-aged woman, you're struggling with going through menopause, you've got kids, you're talking to your trainer,

and your trainer says to you, hey, look, you know, I'm middle-aged too, and I struggle with that stuff too, and I had some hormone issues. Immediately you're like, you know what, I think you kind of understand what I'm going through. Now, that's not, I'm not saying you need to hire trainer that's exactly like you, but authenticity helps build trust. It just does. And And it's so important. It's what we tell our trainers all the time. Most important thing that you can build with your client, work on with your client, is trust. How can you coach anybody without 100% trust?

And what does that come from? Authenticity and realism. If your trainer seems to be perfect, that's usually a red flag. First off, nobody's perfect. But second, why are they presenting themselves as perfect? I remember learning this as an early trainer that the more real I was when my client and my own struggles, the easier it was for me to coach them. the less they looked at me like I had no idea what they were going to.

Well, that's, I mean, that's something that you can do also, or a real coach can do that AI won't be able to do is be vulnerable. AI is not going to be like that's a global body image. AI has all the answers and is confident where a person is, a real person is humanizing and vulnerable. Or they can be if you're a good coach. You are, you too. And even if I haven't been through menopause,

there's other things that we can connect and relate through that I've struggled. through also that we can then connect and build a bond and build trust and build a relationship on, which is so valuable in being a good coach. So you don't necessarily always have to have somebody who's gone through the exact same thing. But a human that understands struggle, that understands trials, that understands failure, that understands what it's like to want something really bad and not be able to get it. Man, there's a connection that can be made there that you just can't possibly do. So, and just for, you know, people to hear this, like, remember, we did this for a long time and we had to kind of figure this out. And we, you know, we train, develop

trainers all the time. Successful coaching is all about the relationship you build with the trainer and the coach. And you can't build a relationship with a coach who's not coaching you. You can't build a relationship with an AI because it's not a human. And so that's why this is so important. And these are huge red flags. And by the way, what this looks like, and this is kind of skewed what it looks like to work with an online coach. But oftentimes, times online coaches will be like, yeah, you know, work with me. It's $100 a month. And like, how do you build a business at $100 a month? Well, you train 200 people. That's how you do it. And nobody's getting real coaching or real service. And so that's what you're kind of signing up for. Real coaching is

extremely valuable. It's the best thing you could possibly invest in. And so you want to ask these questions and really work with somebody that you know is going to help you accomplish these things. Otherwise, you're burning your money is what you're doing. Sometimes I feel, fat. I'm just imagining. That's right, you're trying to relate. I know,

I know. That's right. All right. All right. So I want to bring this up because you and I were talking off air, Adam.

Yeah, both of us are in this like, I'm trying to move away from cutting because I know it's extreme, but I'm still eating less. I'm trying to just eat when I'm hungry.

So I'm still kind of dropping weight and stuff. But dude, my strength is exceptional right now. And I know exactly why. Okay, so I'm having a similar experience. I wonder if it's the same thing.

It's probably not. because mine is more related to orring data that I think is really interesting right now. Oh, so tell me. Sleep, huh? So, well, no. You know, the sleep part is the part that is really interesting to me. So I can, I shared this the last time I kind of talked about this. So I apologize if it feels like I'm repeating myself.

But, you know, there isn't this, there's a correlation, but there's not a cause. It's not a direct causation of I get good sleep. Therefore, my body is ready. is ready. So I can have a great night of sleep. But you still need more recovery because you did some crazy. Yes. Yes.

And so, you know, I took off for three days and I was completely disconnect. No real physical driving, which can be mentally taxing because you're focused the whole time, but physically very restful. You know, sitting in a car 90% of the time.

And then coming home and then going straight to bed and sleep. So I had three days in a row of that. and came back. Monday was my friend. Now having it, which means I didn't train for four days in a row. So I'm like,

and I just came off. Remember last time I'm like having, so I'm like in this, oh, I'm itching to train because I'm in this rhythm right now. And so I intentionally did not look at my aura ring because I'm like,

I don't want it to tell me. I can't train or that I shouldn't. And because I'm like stubbornly going, I need to. It's Monday. I also know too. That sets the tone for the week for me. If I,

if I've missed that many days in a row. and I miss Monday, easily work can get ahead. And then the next thing you know, it's been seven or eight days. So I just said, I'm going to train, even if it's not intensely, I'm going to go in and lift. Man, I started in.

And I refused to look at my aura ring because I didn't want it. And I think there's some, by the way, I think there is some great value from a guy who loves to use things like that. But there's also, this is how I don't let it control me because it's like,

if it did give me bad news like that, I could let it get in my head and start to make excuses why I didn't. I'm like, I need to go through and I'll all listen to my body and let that be the, judge. And maybe psychological you need to work out. That's right. Exactly. So I'm like,

I go, so I start lifting. Bro, and I feel so good. Like I'm so strong. And so strong that I'm doing my, I'm doing my squats and I'm like so tempted to go up. And I'm like, I better not because I have no idea where I'm at. And so

I had a good lift and I did, I did strong, I did push it, but not push it like really hard. Like I wanted to because I felt like I could. And it was one of the best workouts I've had in a really long time. And I came home and I told Katrina, I was like, man, I such, she's like, how was your lift today? And I'm like, I had a great lift today, which is crazy. I thought I'd be off because of all.

I plug in my aura and I look. And I had the highest readiness score I've had in like two weeks. Like my body, my body needed that three days in a row of no physical taxing like that. Okay. So it's similar to mine. Okay. So I don't use, I don't track stuff. You know, I don't track most things.

But when it comes to that, I just do and try to list in my body, whatever. I'm only lifting weights three days a week. I'm doing full body, old school, maps anabolic, three days a week of training. I'm in a calorie deficit for sure because I'm dropping weight and I'm strong.

And it's just another reminder of, you know what? I still do too much. As much as I think I'm training the way I should, three days a week and I'm strong as hell. Man, I'm wrapping weights in my presses, in my rows,

in my lifts that I normally would wrap in a surplus, which is wild. Yeah. And it's all because I'm training appropriately. Full body. I'm literally doing one lift per body part between three to five sets, depending on the intensity. And I'm not even hitting my legs every single time because it'd be a bit taxing,

especially if I do squats. And I'm just like tripping over how strong I feel. So it's interesting because it's cool that we're both similar experiences, but I'm running like a MAP 15 protocol. Yeah. So and I'm not even. And I'm not even getting every. I'm not training six days a week.

It's like sometimes I get five, you know, sometimes I only get three or four. Wow. But it's two lifts. It's two lifts a day. And then on a day like where I feel amazing, I might throw two little auxiliary things in there on top of it. Like I messed around and I did some, I felt so good. I did some calves in lateral races, which normally don't make it into the routine. It was just like that's like a, oh, I'm feeling good.

I'll do a couple extra things that feel greatly. But typically a very Maps 15 protocol. You know what's hard about this is that you start to feel really. good and you'd be like, I want to do more. Yeah. It's such a hard thing to find. No, it's, it's, it is. And it was so interesting to see that, that I felt that way and I felt so good.

And then the data to prove like, oh, I was, I was actually very well rested. It's funny. I've been doing jazercise and stuff, dude. How are you? No, you're tired. What's going on, bro? You're just fried. I'm fried.

I haven't been getting any sleep. Yeah, I just wake up and like my mind is just racing at like three in the morning. and I just can't, I can't stop it. So I have a supplement you might want to try. There's no, there's no plug. We don't have a partner, but I did. So AI is an incredible data synthesizer. So I've been using it to synthesize data.

What are the studies say? Tell me the anecdotes. Cross-reference them. You know, what about for a man this age, woman this age? What are the best supplements with the most data? What are the possible mechanisms? Okay. Waking up at 3 a.m.

and being restless for the rest of the night, sometimes you'll hear from people. So you're like, go to sleep, no problem. You wake up at three. Starts out good. And then you feel like a bunch of like waking up from 3 a.m. until you need to get up. So it's like, drift off, wake up,

drift off, wake up. And you feel restless. They can get a move. Yeah. So could be a couple reasons for it, but one of them is cortisol. Yeah. So cortisol spikes.

Now that could be happening because you're under a lot of stress. Obviously, you're doing a lot of stuff with your house, you move, all that stuff. Yeah. So there's a supplement that has data. that shows pretty good data. It's two supplements that show pretty good data with cortisol.

Ashwagandah's one. The other one's called phosphatidil serine. That's a big word. Phosphatidyl syring. So taking both can possibly help. So I was having that issue. Okay. And I started taking both of them.

And I don't wake up. Fositol searing? I'll tell you after one. I want to keep saying it. It's unicorn hair. Fost. No, bro. No, both of them have data.

Stittility delicious. Supporting the school. cortisol kind of spike. And so I've been doing that and I don't wake up at three anymore. Okay. Now I sleep all the way through. And that combo was like it right there. Yeah, I'll try it.

Yeah. It's just been like, ah, so fresh rate, man. It's like, because now I'm like really caffeine dependent. And I was already trying to kind of break off of that. It's like just to function. I'm like getting by. I'm still like, you know, doing the bare minimum. I'll do like one lift a day.

And I'm just keeping it at that, you know, just to, just to keep the movement there. Yeah. I'm really not, like, loading it with these things. I mean, you and I, Justin and I were talking about this yesterday because I was, I've been the last month dealing with similar type stuff. It's, as a trainer, it's so frustrating when you can't get, when it's like, I, I wish it was something that I could point to.

Yeah. And I feel like you feel the same way. Oh, I've been addressing my whole ritual. I'm like, yeah, okay, nights are down, you know, I got like the cool, you know, room temperature, like everything, dude. I'm trying to like read, you know, boring books and all that kind of stuff. So here's the other thing, too, next to your bed, 200 milligrams of thionine and three grams of glycine. And so if you do wake up at three still, take it, try to go back to sleep.

And that also can help calm you. Glycine. Yeah. When we're done, I'll set you up. Give me a stack, yeah. I'll set you up and it's totally solved that issue. And it's helped Jessica, too. Jessica will also wake up.

Cool. And it's helped her off. I envision, like, your gut, like, just a sea of pills. Yeah. Which one releases? I have this visual of Sal's stomach, and it's just like, it's like the bottom, bottom third is just just pills. You know what's crazy? Just a pills dissolving waiting to get.

Just loads like a chamber of a gun. Most people, if they take a handful of multiple supplements on empty stomach, we make them throw out. I could take. Really? You have to be able to. Even first thing in the morning? Nothing. Like, oh, that used to kill me.

I don't eat before I work out. And I take all kinds of things before I work. You take the pills before you... Everything. Let's go. Wash it down with water. And I feel amazing. I think I've built a tolerance.

It's taken years. You trained yourself. It's years of training, dude. That's Black Belt. That's what's happened. Anyway, speaking of supplements, I have a friend of mine who she's been, she was asking me about if she should start taking organ complex from Paleo Valley because she wants to increase her nutrient intake.

And I said, yeah. Totally. I think most people would benefit for it. Yeah. So you know what I did? I pulled it. Let me pull it up. I looked up the. I say that while you're looking at that out. I love that they have that as an option because it's, man, I remember trying to sneak in organ meats and mix it into like.

I wish you remember where I first read it. But I read it as a pretty early trainer. And I've shared it before in the podcast that in order for a person to hit like all of their RDAs on everything or their optimal amount of nutrients and from whole foods, like, the amount of calories they would have to eat and what that included, like, so many servings of liver and some of that to hit that. It's just like, who does it? It was like 3,500 calories.

It was like 3,500 calories plus a serving of liver. So here's what's in it, right? So they freeze dry this and put in capsule. So it's grass-fed beef liver. It's grass-fed beef heart and grass-fed beef kidney. And so in this capsules, you take like four of them or something like that. You got vitamin A, B-12, copper, iron that is the kind that is the easiest to absorb. Very important for women.

So women will benefit a lot from this when they have a menstrual cycle because they tend to lose iron. Selenium riboflavin, co-Q10, which is really good for the heart, and coline, which is really good for the brain. So it's like, you know, you take this. It's almost like a multivitamin with some of those nutrients. And what you're taking is whole food. Yeah, it was more bioavailable. It's whole food based. That's right.

It's literally the organ meats, freeze, so you're taking organ meat. Yeah. Is what you're doing with this supplement. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, it's really cool. I read about, you guys know how I've been reading about, like, the different kind of saints that the traditional, yeah, yeah, that the, you know, the older Christian traditions like the Catholics and Orthodox will declare saints.

Yeah, these are some cool stories, bro. I learned about one yesterday. That is just, and this is a more recent one, so it's well, doc. Some of the other saint stories are like from so long ago that they have stories, but you're kind of like, did that really, like, what happened? Yeah. And some of them are more recent. And so right now I'm serving at the church

And I'm in this program called Alpha Which is it exists a lots of different churches Actually started in London years ago And it's for people who are curious about the faith And so they can go and ask any question Well anyway the topic yesterday So they go over like the fundamental topics And then we have discussion

And in the video that we watched They talked, they gave the story So the question was why did Jesus have to die So they talk about that in the Christian faith Then they talked about this guy Dude, this story's crazy. So this guy's name is Maximilian. Let me get his name.

Maximilian Colby. Maximilian Colby. So this happened during World War II. What do they call him, the saint of what? I'm going to tell you what happened. I don't know if he's a saint of anything in particular. That's a good question. So in Germany, so he was a Catholic, I want to say priest, I want to say.

during the German occupation of Poland, he sheltered thousands of refugees, including roughly 2,000 Jews. And he published criticisms of the Nazi regime. So he obviously is going to get himself thrown into the gulags. So he did. Gestapo arrested him, threw him in the gulags. So he's in there. In his prison block in July, 1941, a prisoner escaped. And so what the German Gestapo did or the German prison guards did is they said,

okay, somebody escaped. Here's how we're going to punish everybody. Ten of you, we're going to throw in the starvation block and we're going to starve you to death. So anytime somebody escaped in order to deter them, they would kill 10 random people. Wow. So they pick 10 random people and they pick them out and they're like, you're going to go starve. Well, one of the guys that they picked cries out is like, oh no, my poor wife and children. I'm going to be gone and no one's going to be there to help them.

Oh, what am I going to do? Well, Maximilian hears this. And he says, hey, when he says to the guards, I have no wife and children, I would like to take his place. And to everybody's surprise, the guard said, okay. So they let this man take the other man's place. So this Catholic priest took the place of this man who had wife and children, and they sent him to the starvation block. In the starvation block, they obviously starve to death. but during that time they were singing hymns they were praying it was this crazy environment and they all died

well after that the man that that he replaced for the rest of his life continue to talk about how this priest took his place and saved him and he was eventually canonized by the church as a saint what a crazy story how many are there I don't know that's a good question yeah no idea the book doesn't have like a Like a, these are, I don't think it lists all of them. Oh, it doesn't. No, there's even more than one. No, I'm just going through and reading. But this was actually not in that book that I have.

This is actually because, like I said, in the course last night. But just imagine that. And imagine, you know, you get picked to die and some random person says, I actually took a picture or something. I'll take your place. Yeah. It's crazy, man. It's crazy. Yeah.

It's heroic. He's remembered for that particular thing. And just the courage. I took a picture or something that I meant to send a you, Sal. And I didn't even send it to you. Is it a shirtless pick? No, it's not. I just thought you would like it because it talks about,

it's comparing a public speaker to a communicator. And you do a lot of public speaking. And I think you're a great communicator. And it was like the differences of the two. And so I thought you would appreciate. Like a public speaker seeks to be understood and liked. A communicator seeks to understand and connect. Oh, cool.

A public speaker asks, what do I have? A communicator asks, what do they need? A public speaker focuses on techniques. A communicator focuses on atmosphere. A public speaker is self-conscious. A communicator is audience-oriented. A public speaker wants to complete the speech. A communicator wants to complete the people.

A public speaker is content-oriented. A communicator is change-oriented. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I will send you. I thought that would be cool because whenever you do your public speaking,

having that kind of mindset, like going into it would be like... My buddy just asked me about that. So he was going to go speak in front of 150 people at his company. He was like super nervous. So he's asking me tips. And he's like, do you ever get nervous?

I'm like, dude, do you kidding me? Public speaking makes me so nervous. Oh, man. It's so different than doing this. A huge hurdle, yeah. Oh, like doing this, I don't care. I could do this with my eyesclothes and it's totally fun. Put me in front of a crowd.

And I was like, man, I actually have to block it out of my head leading up to it. Otherwise, I'll be so nervous. leading up. You get the nervous, the nervous sweats. I can play loud music in front of big crowds. That's no problem.

But speaking, that's a little other beast. I always found that so strange about musicians. Michael Jackson was so shy. But then you get him on stage and he was like, yeah, it's like a different gear. Yeah,

it's a totally different thing. I think, too, like some, some, um, I remember when I was going down this whole road because I was trying to get better. Um, you know,

there was some, some introverts who would actually like put glasses on. or they'd put like some kind of specific outfit on. Yeah. It was like this big... Your character. Yeah, your character. And you're just, you're presenting yourself, like, through this character.

And it really, like, took them outside of their own, where they just trip over their own thought. That's how I've heard people explain it. They say, like, when you do that, it's like, it's not them up there on stage playing. It's the character. They couldn't go do that. Yeah. But Michael Jackson and his hat and his glasses and his, you know, his glove... He could go do that, you know what I'm saying?

But I could not do that. That's how I've heard to explain before. Even like, I was it, James Hathfield was talking about that. He still gets massive anxiety, like, before he goes out on stage and performs. And you're like, what? Like, he's done, like, how many times has he done, like, massive arenas and everything else? But, like, that's why you always saw Lars was, like, in interviews. He was the one getting interviewed because it was just like, oh, wow.

Yeah, he's just uncomfortable with that. I mean, athletes are similar, too. Like, you're some of your greatest, most professional athletes. I'll hear about them throwing up before a game or something. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You know, and you're like, you've been playing in the NBA for 10 years. What?

You mean, oh, yeah, still get nerves. That's actually comforting. Right. Because you look at them, you think, this guy can't possibly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's annoying when people are super comfortable with that. I just like, what? I didn't tell you guys, but the last, the talk I did,

I had brought this like, like this blue button down shirt, looked really nice and sharp. Jessica picked it out. And I put it on because I was in my hotel room getting ready to go out. And I was nervous. I saw sweating and you could see my armpit sweat. Oh, yeah. And I had to take it off and I had to change it to the shirt I wore the day before.

Yeah. You just can't wear this. Yeah, dude. I'm not going to be on stage with armpits. You know, you just, I did send you something else. Did you watch the video that I sent you about Andre Iguodala? No, what is that? Oh, yeah, it's the last one I just sent to you.

So it's funny, we went this direction that we're talking about. So I totally forgot. I sent this to you because I wanted you to sell, I know Doug hates when I do this, but so what? So listen. NBA players, they studied Andre Aguadola. If he got over eight hours. of sleep, he would score 29% more points per minute. If he got less than eight hours asleep, he had like 45% more fowls and 32% more turnover.

The data is insane. Amazing accomplished athletes. I'm like, well, you would have had a 30% less risk for injury had you been sleeping better. Your time to fatigue, like if you're working out, maybe it takes you like 15 minutes of running really hard before you're just like crash. You can lose 10 to 30% if you're getting less than eight hours of sleep or if your sleep quality is just poor. So you could have gone like 30% harder, had your sleep down a little bit better.

You cannot have good health if your sleep is bad. Or if you're not getting into oxygen. I agree. I'm at least 30 to 40% better. I didn't know they. I'm a big Andre Aguio Duda fan. In fact, I read his biography and I didn't know that they did that. I didn't know they studied him like that.

I thought that was really interesting. That's a huge difference. I mean, talking about 30% at the professional level of like of performance. We're prone to fouling and everything. That makes a lot of sense. It totally does. It may, it's like, it's like kind of duh, because we talk about this stuff

when we talk about the importance of sleep. But to see it on, because you're, you're talking about the highest level performing athlete, right? They, they have been able to get to a, in spite of bad nights of sleep and, like they,

that's what makes them, they're genetic anomalies. Yeah. And even somebody who is this genetic anomaly, well trained, the best of the best, the one percenter, you know,

even they are being affected that, that much impact on his scoring and his factors. And so with that, that's, like, fascinating to me. Like, what do you think that's doing to us? You know, if it's affecting that guy. You guys should look at the studies on mothers who have, who just had babies, because obviously you're going to have poor sleep for a little while.

Their brain shrinks. Wow. Their brain actually shrinks through that process. Now, it comes back. Yeah, everything comes. Afterwards. But there's, like, a period of like. Why is it?

What's the adaptation for de atrophy? What's the... They're just, it's not a positive adaptation. It's just they get no sleep. I know. It's an adaptation, though. It's not a positive one. It's a negative adaptation.

Energy. It's trying to maintain it. Oh, so that's what it's down. It's basically downregulated because it's like, oh, I, we can't, we can't be. Because the brain uses a lot of energy. Yeah. And so they're deprived of energy. And so, oh, that's interesting.

Wow. Yeah, the brain for its size uses a tremendous amount of energy. Now, for the amount of processing it does, if you compare it to a computer, it's like a miraculous machine. But compared to the rest of your body, it uses a tremendous amount of energy. So that was one of the things that I found fascinating about these, these three days. My calorie burn was crazy high. It's like chess players. For somebody I... Yeah. Can we bring that stat up again? I remember I was... Dude, they burned so many calories. Dude, I burn more calories

according to my aura ring on that, on those three days of sitting in a car driving 10 hours a day than I have been in my 15,000 step days with a workout. Yeah. Is that crazy? Yeah. Like, I mean, come on, this is... Well, you're not cruising. You're racing. You're, you're, you're racing. I mean, We're not racing, but we're moving. Yeah. You're focused. But that's what, so that, you are definitely focused. I mean, you're, you're, you're 10 and two the entire time.

Yeah. This is not like, you know, this type of driving. You're, you're, you're, you're hyper focused around the car that you're, you're trailing and everything around you. And you are for eight hours straight, you know, like, you know, we have breaks in between. So they're more like sprints for two hours. But I mean, again, stuff that we've heard with with the chess player studies and stuff like that, really fascinating to see it on my ordering and to think like, man, I haven't done anything

a whole day, but actually my body is burning a significant amount of calories. Do you guys have, how does music affect your driving? Because I know for me, if I play EDM, then I, I go 15 miles an hour faster. And I don't even have to pay, I'm not paying attention. It just turns into a video game. Yeah, the beats per minute thing will affect it. Totally. For sure.

Totally. I start to, it becomes a video game. Yeah. I talk. So, I mean, that long of driving. I'm toggling through all. I listened to all kinds of genres and stuff. And depending on what part of the, you know,

trip we were at, I would toggle between different stuff. So, like, if it was a more aggressive cornering and turning and, like, I'm listening to something more intense. Something alert. Yeah. Hard rock or something like that.

When we were like, you know, long bends, you know, and like easy, like not like really aggressive. Like, I'm listening to like stuff like Journey and Def Leopard. And like, like stuff a little bit lighter. And so it definitely moved in and asses. We're guys like this with horses.

I know we like this with cars. It was like, well, before cars were invented. We're guys like, dude, I got this. Check out the horses. They're just like, home home. Oh, on the rain. Are you kidding me? Of course.

Hunter, it's, that has not changed at all. It's just the modality or the piece of equipment that you are. But that has been, I mean, long journeys, horseback riding. I mean, it still happens today. You know, there's that one guy with the harmonica that wouldn't shut the hell up. Yeah.

The whole time is on the horse. But I mean, people still ride to ride, right? Yeah. Like, they're not necessarily going somewhere. You know, it's like, we're like, we have to get on our horse and we have to just like, let's go for, you know, how long horseback ride and do, they do that all the time. I've never, I've never ridden a horse, but it sounds painful. Oh, I, I, we got a kick where we were like every vacation, we would schedule like a horseback ride.

Hey, when you get on the horse, though, is he like, ugh? Yeah, I always, I had a few that struggled. I was like way behind the whole group. He felt bad for the horse. He's jealous of Justin's butt. And I was in Iceland. He got a big horse by the one, dude. It was like, uh, you guys rode one in Iceland.

I forgot it. He was grunted. Come on, come on. Come on, blue. Poor horse. Just like, huffing and puffing. Trying to make it happen. I watched this really cool video.

It made such, it was a sermon, but it was such a good point on, fragility, because the data shows just how fragile people are now, especially kids. And he made it a connection to, and I'm going to pull it up, he made it a connection to patients. So he said, we're just far less patient than ever before. And so this has made us so fragile. And he points to, first off, you need patience in life.

Marriage requires patience. parenting requires patience. Fitness requires patience. You can't force things that happen any faster. You just got to be patient. So all the things that matter in life require a lot of patience. But here's what's happened in modern societies. Modern societies that are run by markets, which are wonderful.

Markets are wonderful. So I'm not speaking against markets. But what markets do best is they give people what they want. And you have to compete with other companies that are trying to compete for the same consumer. And here's a deal. If you're faster, you win. And so here's what's happened with our society.

Entertainment is what you want when you want it. And I was thinking about when I was a kid, if there was a TV show I wanted to watch, I had to wait until it was on. Yeah. I had to wait. In fact, when I was a kid, cartoons were not on all the time.

You can find cartoons whenever you want. My kids, I want to watch cartoons. You can watch whatever you want. When I was a kid, like Saturday morning, it was the only time. Yeah. I could watch cartoons. Now it's annoying.

It's like, oh, man, I got a week for the next episode? Consumerism is all about fast. If you're selling a product and you're selling a product and you can get it to me a day faster, you win. A day faster, you win. When we were kids, you guys remember ordering things in the mail? Yeah. You remember that? First of all, you write a check, put it in an envelope.

First of all, you had to write something to send to the company first. You had to wait for the mail to get to them. Then they got it. Then they put it together. Then they'd give it back to you. You would wait a month. And there was no... Or more.

There was no prime. Yeah, this is like a month process. It was a month or longer. You get your Sears catalog or your toys. you order them. Oh, my God. It's like, oh, cool. Well, I mean, they've figured that out a long time ago.

The shorter they can make that, that time, the more likely sales go up. That's huge. That's in all, like, internet marketing. Everything. Yeah, yeah. The faster you can get the buy now button out is quicker. In fact, the least steps, right? That's right.

In fact, it's not just about how fast they can deliver it. It's how fast I can buy it. Yes. If I got to enter my credit card, I'm going to lose a sale. Yeah. So that. One click was huge. What do you think is the strategy then?

Well, there's one more. Communication. Communication. Communication. Fast, fast, fast, fast, fast. I can send a text. I can call. I can get on whatever I want.

Yep. I can reach anybody whenever I want. Yeah. When we were kids, we went out. You want to get a hold of somebody? I got to get to a phone and then they need to be near a phone. And if they're not near a phone, then I got to leave a message. And then they got to get me back when I'm near a phone.

And sometimes it took a day, two days, three days, or I'll just see you at school. Now it's like instant, instant, which is killed patients completely. So now a kid in college wants something. If they can't get it right away, it's frustration immediate. And it turns into fragility because they haven't strengthened this muscle known as patients. And it's so true. So connect some dots here that I was, or what I was trying to connect this possibilities of this like ready, the highest readiness score that I've had in months, right?

I can't remember the last time I got that high of a readiness score. And I also was, I haven't, I can't tell you the last time. I was unplugged for three days in a row. Three days in a row, the only time I had any sort of cell reception to send a text, to go on the internet, to do anything like that, was when we got home and we were so exhausted,

I was in bed. So I literally would come home. I might have taken a video or two of the views or something that we were at, like a couple times I was able to do that. You can't really do that when you're driving. It was like when we stopped or something like that. So it was like very minimal that I even had it out.

It was always plugged into my car and listening to music the whole time, but disconnected from other than hitting play on a song, you know? So I can't remember the last time I detached from technology for that many days. And I wonder if that played a role and also my readiness too. Well, I mean, low level stress all day long. So not just the recovery of my... You're not getting inundated with all that nonsense.

And to my point, I think we underestimate how taxing that is of this like constantly, like hearing the stress. And dumb stuff, too. Like, as stupid as it sounds, but, like, I have a thread of buddies that are all playing fantasy football. And it's, like, go all the time. And it's like, everything from shit talking to, oh, this guy went hurt. And it's like, I was so disconnected from all that. All work stuff, disconnected, everything.

Yep. Yeah, or as you go on social media, and it's like, what's happening in the world? What's scary? What's going on with the market? Compare myself. And it's real. It's fast, fast, fast. By the way, they've had studies that show how that affects the brain.

It shrinks. Atrophies part of the time. Yeah, I've seen the stuff on that. It does crazy. Yeah, yeah. What do you guys think that the, um, strategy is for companies like Apple and HBO then that have chosen to do this releasing an episode a week versus giving it like the Netflix? Netflix will just say they don't have the capacity.

That's what Netflix will say. That's what they'll say. If you Google, try and get to the bottom of that, why does Apple and HBO drip their series versus Netflix who? They don't have the. catalog. And it's like simple. Otherwise, they probably would.

But I think part of it really is like they're trying to, since they can't like do the mass volume, they're going to do more of the quality. And so it's like they're just going to double down. Yeah. So I mean, we've made the comparison. I think it's such a great comparison of junk food versus like gourmet mills. Like if we were to use, if entertainment was a food, Netflix would be junk food, fast food, and Apple or HBO would be fine dining a restaurant or whatever.

And so I'm curious, though, because I don't think Apple or HBO are short of finances. So why couldn't they? They could go and play the Netflix game, couldn't they? Or are they truly trying to distinguish themselves as they have a culture. They are McDonald's and Burger King. We're not going to try and be McDonald's Burger King. It fits their brand more, I think, yeah, to go more on the higher quality side. Personally, I think that's...

I mean, these are all the speculations I have, too. I'm not sure, though. That's what it says there. What is it saying? I'm talking about. I mean, they have traditional roots. HBO was a lot. a premium cable channel,

weekly scheduling matches as longstanding television traditions. They spread episodes out, keep them in the public eye longer, which helps Emmy and award. They're essentially higher quality, less. Yeah, they're going for the awards. Yeah.

And you know, here's the thing, too, just along these lines when it comes to media. Because you think, like, media is largely gone in this direction. It's largely gone in the direction of volume and speed and consume and you don't wait. But there's one form of media

that completely bucked the trend. In fact, there's one form of media that even bucked the trend of television. And that's podcasts. Yeah. Podcasts are long form. In fact, they're so long form. They're longer form than television ever once.

Well, I think it shows that we have this thirst for that, that connection and that we want that. This is like, okay, so one of the things I notice with my own behaviors with comparing, let's stay on this comparison of HBO versus Netflix. So let's say like, you know, Katrina and I have been on this kind of routine where, you know, at the end of the night, we're putting on a show to watch us with that.

When we are watching a series, say like, gentlemen, which is like one of my favorite series that was just out on streaming so that, and it drips once a week. Man, I can't wait. That's it. I'm excited to watch it. I really enjoy that time with there. And there come seasons in the year when there's just not a lot, there's not a lot of good stuff on HBO, there's not a good stuff on Apple.

I'm finding myself on Netflix. I've watched that. I, the one good series they had, I watched all of it. And now I'm like, I'm just watching shit. to watch shit. Yeah. I start to feel gross. Just like if I were to eat fast food,

yeah. Four or five days in a row. It's so weird how it has a similar effect that I'm aware of that like, and I'll even tell her, she'll be like, well, what do you want to watch? And I'm like, I don't actually, I don't want to watch anything. I feel gross.

I feel gross watching this, because it's shit. I know it's shit. And yet I know that I could just watch it. I'm like, I don't want to. Well, I was having-dissociating. Yeah. And you're disconnected. That's all you're doing.

I was having a conversation with my friend who, he was asking me about doing some form of media. And he's like, what do you think I should do? Now, this guy is very well versed in his field. And I said, do podcasts. He said, why? And I said, it's the hardest to fake. I said, you talk for an hour about your topic and you do that weekly or twice a week.

You can't fake. You can fake reels and clips, Instagram, TikTok. Like, you can be the fakesest person ever and appear to be like, you know what you're talking about. Podcast, you can't. You've got to talk about it for hours and hours and hours. It's long form. You have a different consumer. This is true, everybody.

Now I know we're a podcast. Maybe I'm a little biased, but look at the stats. Podcast consumers are different than real consumers. They just are. Podcast consumers tend to be higher intelligent. They tend to be deeper thinking. They tend to be more growth-minded. Real consumers and fast content consumers, it's about distractibility.

It's all about that. And so as I was thinking about this, I'm like, man, this impatience thing. Yeah. And, you know, you like to consume media. Stick to long form type stuff and stay away from the quick. Do you think we organically pendulum swing back? Like, I think, like, society craves that eventually. Yeah.

Like, I think, I feel like we will. I feel like. You want some context? Yeah, it's just like it feels like there's a massive void, you know, from everything else. And so I think that, like, to your point of it being like a whole food, it almost feels like you get nourished when you get those conversations actually have nuance and it has like the experience to back up, you know, a lot of what they're talking about versus, you know, just this like quick, like just, I'm going to hear spoon feed you tips.

I think the back, I think the backlash is going to look like more in person, more in person content, more attending something where you hear somebody speak because it brings us together. There's some community there. It's real. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's with people. I think that. And I think you're already seeing that action fact. No, you are. You are already seen that. Yeah, no. IRL is for sure the future for any business, right, is to do more of that. I think that, especially as AI improves. Because as AI improves to your point, and it becomes

less and less indistinguishable between humans and content like that. It's just like, oh, yeah. Bro, AI content is, you can't tell. Bro, I mean, that video that Dylan walked in on Wednesday morning, and we were just getting ready to sit down to podcast and he's like, hey, let me hold still. I want to take a picture of you. And he just took his iPhone out, took a picture of what I was wearing, standing still, no special light,

no thing with his iPhone. And then he obviously did the same thing to you. And I had no idea what he was doing. And then, you know, 30 minutes later, there's this viral video of you and I rapping. And it's like, and it's weird for me to look at an AI version of me and me not. I know. So everybody else.

Although it made me taller than you, which is, I appreciate it. That was about the only thing that stood out. If that, if, if, if, if, if, stood out was it, Sal actually had dance moves. Yeah, yeah. That's happening. That's not real. But I mean, we, I was kind of like, damn, I should learn how to move.

Yeah. It looks, you're grooving. Really on point. No. Really on point. And it's weird to see yourself. Yourself. That well.

Because we, like, as yourself would point out that flat right away. Like, you know when people say, like, hey, you look like this person. You're like, I don't look anything like that person. You know, say, but they see. But they see. like that. It's like, but you, so you would pick apart something like that faster than the average person and to look at and go like, damn, that looks like I did that. That's crazy. I know. It's wild. Yeah. I'm going to change subjects here. How, I got to ask you guys this, because we have a Juve panel

at home and Jessica goes through periods of time when she's consistent or not. And I swear two sessions I could tell. I don't even know she's using it. I come home and I look at her and I can tell. And I say, have you been using? Yes. Her skin looks. Yeah, skin is huge. Young. By like two sessions. It is remarkable how quickly it works. How long does it take you? Katrina connected those dots a long time. She's religious about it.

It's her routine. Bro, it rocks anything you could do to make your skin look healthy and young. Yeah. Rocks it. You just do that for a week. I've said that for a long time that that's why they've done so well

is it's a product, it's a tool that you can use and you can see immediate difference right away. Things that you have to do for long periods of time for people to feel, or see or notice a difference, hard to sell. Hard to sell people.

No matter how much you talk about the studies and all this stuff, because we got all, there's tons of that. Use it for three months is what they'll say. Yeah, yeah, right? Like there's tons of that out there that would back up, obviously, red light therapy. But what gets you to keep coming back consistently during the week is that I can do a session with it and you can see a visible difference on your skin like

immediately. And so that's like, oh, wow. Which, by the way, for people listening, because red light's gotten so popular. There's a lot of red light panels out there that, we use like one-tenth or one-fifth of the intensity that's that you need, which means you're not getting, like what they have in the studies, look at the intensity and the wavelength in the studies.

That's what you've uses. Well, if you're not seeing any difference, that's probably, you know, your first one. Your first indication, yeah, you're probably not using the right bulb. Look, if you like our show, I'm sure you've heard us talk about gut health. Gut health is very, very important. 70 to 80% of your immune system, for example, lives in your gut. influences your mood, your skin, your energy, digestion. We even know how studies, we now have studies that even show that your gut health or

your microbiome in your gut influences how much muscle you can build or fat you can lose. And probiotic supplements can have a profoundly positive impact. The problem is there's a lot of probiotic supplements out there. Not all of them are great. Well, there's a company called Seed. They're the world's leader in probiotic science. They have a delivery system that brings live bacteria, beneficial bacteria, directly where it needs to go. Other probiotic companies, they don't have it.

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Use the code 25 mind pump, get 25% off. Back to the show. First question is from Amelia Eileen. Have you trained people with scoliosis? What kinds of general things have you recommended they do or do not do? This is actually one of the most common questions we get is how do you work out with scoliosis. So first off, you work out like someone who doesn't have scoliosis, but you also work out like someone with scoliosis. So let me explain what that means.

So there's more unilateral training involved, but that does not mean you avoid bilateral training. So one of the mistakes that I made as a younger trainer when I got a client with scoliosis is I avoided bilateral exercises. Right, as if they weren't going to be doing bilateral movements for the rest of their life. Yeah, because I was afraid of compensation, but it's like you have to have compensation.

So the body works. Compensations will protect you. And so you definitely should do it. It probably looks more like. It's like map symmetry. Yeah. So it's like, I would go 50-50 is what it would look like, whereas with the average client looks more like 80-20, you know, bilateral to unilateral unless I do a whole cycle of unilateral. But I'm doing a lot of unilateral work. So that's like one leg, one-armed type of stuff.

And then I'm still doing heavy bilateral extra stuff within reason, with good technique and good form because the real world involves bilateral stuff. You're going to lift things in. Oh, I would argue I would argue you just flip at 80-20. That's what would be my argument. That much? I mean, you could totally do that. Yeah. The point is don't avoid bilateral.

No, no, totally. I literally think that this person, like, more generic answer because we're not getting to ask more in-depth questions and get to know, like, generic, good answer is like, you could follow symmetry indefinitely. Yeah. And like that. Because it's got a phase in there that's bilateral. That's true.

Yeah. And so that protocol and two-thirds of it is, you know, isometrics and unilateral work. And then you go into bilateral for one-third of it. And I think you could just, you could just continually. to run that program over and it would serve you really well. Yep. Next question is from ESW Thomas. Can you guys explain how and why you would track and measure sodium intake?

I keep hearing of bodybuilders limiting sodium, tracking it, even obsessing over it. Does sodium intake move the needle that much and should we all be tracking it? The only people that should track sodium are people who are told to track sodium by their doctor or, bodybuilders who are about to get on stage. They're walking in at 2% body fat. And if they hold any water at all, it could blur their definition. But the average person, you should worry about sodium zero. Literally zero. Unless your doctor tells you, there's zero reason to track sodium. The only thing I would say to add to that is that we talk about bumping your sodium if you have a whole food diet. Right. And so, and I don't even think you know.

need to try. I think you could take an electrolyte supplement like LM and T. Perfect. Like you, like you don't need to be like, oh, I need to be at this many milligrams. Every single day, it's like that, that will cover you. That'll be, make sure you're getting enough sodium to support your workouts if you're on a whole foods diet. Now, if you eat out, you don't even need to worry about shit because you're intaking probably quite a bit of sodium eating out on a, if you eat out on a regular basis. But if you eat a predominantly all whole foods diet and you're a healthy eater, then probably work out. And you work out? And you work out? then adding a supplement, that electrolyte supplement has value to it.

But to the average person, to Sal's point, unless a doctor is telling you to track that because you have some condition, no, it's not. If you're low carb or no carb, this is where it gets important to add sodium into your diet. It makes a big difference. So when you go no carbohydrate, and we won't even talk about why someone would do that.

But let's just say that's you. You're like, I like to go keto and go no carb. Your body flushes out a lot of water. This is why initially when people went low, They thought it was more effective of fat loss than a traditional diet because they would lose so much weight on the scale. But what they were losing was water. You just lose a ton of water. And so what people will feel going to a low carb or no carb diet is headaches, sometimes, low energy.

They'll say it's the keto flu. But really what it is is your body's adjusting to all this less well. So bumping your sodium would definitely cure that. It would solve. You could have a loss of performance and noticeably in your workouts and whatnot. So sometimes it does help to kind of bump and boost that back. up. Next question is from Hannah Nadine Fit. I'm in a season of recovery from my menstrual cycle and know I need to focus on fueling properly and less stress. However, it seems like everyone

is on GLP-1s and trying to lose weight. What's the best piece of advice to change my mindset around my goals and ignore what everybody else is doing because I know it just won't benefit? Well, I'll tell you what. If your menstrual cycle is off, and your hormones are off, it'll be really hard to hit your goals. So you've got to fix that first. So if you're like, okay, I know I need to get my menstrual cycle back, I know it to improve my health, but I also want to lose weight or I also want to become more fit,

there's an order of operation because not fixing that will make it very difficult if you have meaningful results that'll stick around. It'll be very, very difficult. Hormone imbalances and issues with your menstrual cycle are red flags, and it can make it hard. your workouts have become far less effective. You won't be able to build as much strength or burn body fat. Or in many cases, you have to gain body fat to get that going again.

So it's like health is underneath all of that. Poor health makes all the other stuff much more difficult. So like if you, if this question was I got really bad gut health, but I also want to, you know, build muscle. Like how do I focus? What do I focus on? Like gut health. You got to fix your health first because through good health come the great results. Poor health.

All systems work better. Makes it much more difficult. I'm going to add to that. If you're somebody who lost their menstrual cycle, normally what that is is your malnutrition, and that's the reason why that is. Under-eating and over-training. You could not be a worst person for GLP once. That's right.

So if- That's typically the case. So that's an even more, I mean, you shouldn't be paying attention to what everybody else is doing for your health anyways. But to deter you even more from even considering that, you're a horrible candidate for a a GLP1. If we are coming off of just getting our menstrual cycle back because we did not, we weren't getting enough nutrition or we were overtrained or most likely both. Like that's a recipe for that to happen again for sure. Like it's, it's hard to do. Obviously, you're not on a GOP1 and it's hard to get the nutrients you need to have a regular cycle as it is. You've

already proven that. If you get on a GLP1, you will only exacerbate that situation. So terrible idea. Next question is from Bob Postpix. What do you guys have in your home gym? What's your favorite item? And what's something you want to get? You know, for you have the most extensive one. I do now. I do now. And it's a lot of fun. But for years and years and years and years, all I worked out with when I owned my studio, I didn't go to gyms. I went, I just worked out in my studio. And I had a small personal training studio with minimal equipment. But we had good trainers there. And all I had or all I ever used was a squat rack, barbell,

adjustable bench, dumbbells. That was it. That was all my training. If you get that for your home gym, you're missing nothing. What I mean by that is, because you can get in shape

with just dumbbells too. You can get in shape with just a suspension trainer too or just body weight. You can still do that. But in terms of like progressive overload and pushing things and getting really strong

and like, you know, would I benefit from going to a gym? If you just have those things, you're good. You really need nothing else. You just adjustable bench, barbell, squat rack,

dumbbells, done. You can do everything you want. You can progressively overload as far as your weight will take you and you get phenomenal. Do you think that the question is related to like this person thinks they need to know what's necessary?

They're more curious to like what things. I feel like they're more curious to what you have in your gym. Preferences. Yeah, that's how I kind of read it. So like I have like a foldable squat rack. I got dumbbells. What I wanted,

I thought would be cool. I also have a cable machine. But what I wanted was like a belt squat. I think would be rad. Like a reverse hyper would be sick. But I have a torque sled as well. So that's something that I use quite often. I have like Olympic rings.

I use like or, you know, TRX. But really that's that's about it alongside a bunch of bands. But I mean, I'm pretty much between that and kettlebells and dumbbells, I'm good. Yeah. What do you have now? Well, I'm building mine right now. What are you going to put in yours? So the things that I'm going to start off with is a squat rack and dumbbells and a bench.

Yeah. And a treadmill. And barbell, yeah, barbell, squat rack, dumbbells, and a bench, adjustable bench, and then a treadmill is what will be the first pieces. And then the next piece to come after that, because I'm limited in space. Like, I only have so much room that I'm, uh, that I have to do this. And so, and then, uh, I'm actually getting a hip thrust machine for my wife. Yeah. So that's going to be in.

Oh, that's smart. Yeah, yeah. So I know that she loves the hip thrust, setting it up on the barbell and the space, like that just can be. It just takes a whole time. Yeah. And so having a specific. machine for that. I know she would love that.

Part of me building this home gym is for her, so I want to put a piece in there that I think that she'd be excited about. Then from there, I'll decide. I will absolutely have a suspension trainer. I use a suspension trainer a lot, actually. I would like a cable machine with that I'll take up a lot of space for where I'm at. So we'll see if I put a cable machine on there. I know they've come out with some pretty cool stuff that you get attached.

Yeah, attachments that you can put on the squat rack. I've used a couple of. now that I like they used to be crappy yeah they've got some pretty good ones now that um that that like they create resistance um versus like you know the old ones used to be like it attaches like a cable and you're pulling like a free weight and it just right didn't feel didn't feel cable like to me the new ones have these like built in springs and they I've seen that and they're pretty cool and uh so I might do something like that on this on the squat rack so I can still because I like I love cable stuff there's a lot of cable stuff that I do but I also have learned to use

a suspension trainer to modify that if I don't have cable. So that's what will for sure be. So what I have now, and this is the most extensive home gym I've ever had, I have the squat rack, you know, barbell. I have all the dumbbells, adjustable bench. My squat rack has a cable that comes down so I could do lap pull downs, triscept, press downs on it. I also have a hip thrust machine.

I got that for Jessica and a standing abduction machine, which I also got for Jessica. And then I also have, and I love this machine. And I never saw it before. They didn't have it in gyms before, but now you're starting to see it. It's like a row machine, but you're leaning over. It's on a track, and you sit back on like a pad. So it's like a bent over barbell row machine on a track. And dude, the squeeze.

And here's the thing. So I've been doing this for so long. I know you guys are like this. I know definitely you are at him because you used a lot of machines when you were competing. I can look at a machine and know right away. That's going to be awesome. That's going to feel good. Yeah.

And I saw it online. And I'd seen them in videos of people in gyms, but I know they make a home gym version one. Like the Viking press for me. It was huge. That was huge. So I saw and I ordered it. Oh, man.

The squeeze I get on that, it's like the best back machine ever. And then I have a preacher curl machine just because I like preacher curl machines. Every time I'm in a gym and there's one, it's like this is what I like to do for biceps. Nobody else uses it. My wife doesn't touch it. But I have that. And that's pretty much it. And if I were to add, I'm trying to think, what would I add a calf machine?

Oh, a caft machine. Yeah, a standing calf machine or donkey. I love donkey. calf machines, which take up a lot of space. Yeah. Unfortunately. That's what I heard about like the belt. Like belts caught would be awesome.

I know. It'll take up space. They are. They're such big bulky machines, but they are so cool. It'd be sick. Yeah. I've tried it and I've always wanted to kind of incorporate that. But I mean, that's probably the most difficult part about a home gym for most people.

I mean, I mean, maybe some people have giant square footages where they can build a huge. I mean, I wish I had a, you know, a thousand, a thousand square feet that I can just build out the most custom. I don't have that, you know, so I'm building a outdoor gym. you know, that I'll have minimal equipment. And so, and really for me, like to me, at home, at least for me, like, if I really want to do a lot of machines, a lot of cool stuff, I'll just go to the gym. You know, it's right at the road for me. But really the idea of the home gym is there's so many times where if I just have access to some basic stuff, I'll go over and do a few movements.

Yeah, 20 minutes. And that's how I'll use it. In fact, I plan when this gets done is I want to do it a little experiment of only training that way for a while where I like try and sporadical. just no format, no like program that I sit. Throughout the day. Yes, throughout the day. You're getting the best shape of rest. Go three sets of shoulder presses.

Walk away. You know, like hours later after dinner. So like, oh, come back, go do three sets of squats. I'm going to play around with training that way. You're getting the best shape, relax. And I'm super curious to see what that feels like. If I could, if I built my home gym of my dreams, what it would have is it would be very nostalgic.

So first off, the dumbbells I would get, people think dumbbells. What's the difference? A lot of gym. have dumbbells where it's like a solid bell on each side. And I get the, they last long or whatever. But I grew up where dumbbells, those cool iron ones. Dumbbells had plates. Even though they were fixed, they had plates.

And so I want those. Pinch you. I want those kinds of dumbbells. Yeah. So I want dumbbells with like plates on them that stack. I don't know why. And it would be interesting to see if there's a difference in the, I can picture holding those.

Yeah. And I could just hold those. I don't know if it's nostalgic. I don't know if it makes a difference because the dumbbells I have now are solid because they were cheap and I could buy them. They're just solid. It just, balance-wise and all that too.

I think it does. So I would get that. Plus they sound good when you're clicking it together. Exactly. And then I would get, I would scour the internet and I would buy machines that they made in the 80s and 90s. They're the best.

Yeah. And they wouldn't have a, you know, chain pullover. They would be chained, fed. You've seen that guy over in San Francisco? His gym's sick. We should, yeah,

do like a little. I wish I had his handle. so I could shout him out because this guy has done something that I know all three of us totally appreciate it. I would go visit it. I know he's, and you know, I think he's curated that over like, yeah, he's taking them time, dude, to collect all this. And then he's, then he's re-upholstered it to be all like color matched to his, I think, that's a vibe, dude.

Yeah. Dude, that's a cool move. 100%. That's what I would do. It'd be very nostalgic. I would have in my home gym a barbell that would just be for looks and it would be the old school bell, you know, one that you see in the, like the, you know, the guys that turn a century would work out with. I'd have just stuff in there just to make it. See, yeah, I'd have

like unconventional stuff, but then also would have like a big moitai bag, you know, in the corner so I could beat the hell on that thing. Just get out some rage. And then I, and then I would have the sickest sound system ever. If you have a sick gym, you got to have a sick sound system. But you know what else I would want? You ever seen the old school benches? So the, the stand-up ones? No, no, no, no. Old school benches, you almost had to have another person load the bar with you because the handles that held the barbell were inside your hands on outside. You ever seen those? Now, for obvious reasons, Jims don't do this because if you take a 45-0-1 side, it's going to want to tip over. But the old-school barbell benches, and I would do this just for nostalgia.

It's got the old, it's got more of a narrow stance that's on the inside of the hands. I can picture that because I remember that used to pinch my, pinch, get close to my hands when you go to set it down. Yeah, and it's just pure nostalgia. It's nothing. It's really not more functional. No, dude. Just for fun. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. It's Mind Pump Media. We'll see you there. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump.

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