Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 297: Lifting To Failure- Good Or Bad?

Episode Date: May 23, 2016

How important is lifting to failure when it comes to building muscle? Is it really in that last rep that contributes the most toward muscle growth? There is a lot of mythology surrounding this concept and in this episode Sal, Adam & Justin reveal the Raw Truth about going to failure. Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Each week the best reviewers are announced on the show and sent Mind Pump T-shirts! Learn more about Mind Pump at www.mindpumpmedia.com.

Hey, Justin, can you, I don't know, come up with a song or something. I feel like our commercials are boring. We haven't done that. Did you ever know we got a bunch of cool shit? There it is. Yeah. We got to go to the website. That's good.

WWE, WWE, my pop media. .com. .com in your mom. I don't know. I didn't know how to end that. And we lost them. Dude, we've gotten some feedback from people who've gotten the Super Bundle, which includes all three maps programs.

Maps and a ball, so that's what you do. Okay. You start with maps and a ball. That's three phases, three weeks each long, four phases if you count pre-phase. Then after you're done with that, you move into math performance. Then after you're done with that,

you move into math systemic. At the end of this, this is nine months. So at the end of nine months, this is a realist. It's nine or seven. It's nine months. It's nine months of program. It's nine.

Dude, yeah. Wow. Here's the thing. It works out. When you see before and afters on social media, it's all bullshit. This is real. Nine months, it's gonna is tonight? Dude, yeah. Wow. Here's the thing. It works out. When you see before and afters on social media, it's all bullshit. This is real. Nine months, it's gonna take you a little while

for a full transformation. And I can confidently say, if you follow all of our programs, the way they're laid out, and you don't eat like a pig, you will have tremendous results with this. And it's all super bundle. It's available on mindpumpmedia.com, and it's less expensive than a car. If you wanna pump your body and expand your mind,

there's only one place to go. Mind, up, mind, up with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. I worked out this morning. Did you guys have a workout? I don't like you train early almost every morning. No, I went to a later, dude. I work out every time you're like a mid after you guys have a workout? I don't like, you train early almost every morning. No, I wait till later, dude. I work out every time I'm like a mid after you guys.

Me too. Every time you've invited me to a workout, it's been before 9 a.m. There's two reasons for that. One, it's usually when we're doing something with mine pump and later on the day, I have stuff to do and I never miss workout. So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go in the morning.

And number two, I know how shitty your performances in the morning I figured that's the time. I should work out with the lices. Yeah, I'm like, in the morning and number two, I know how shitty your performance is in the morning and I figured that's the time. I should work out with the lices. Yeah, I'm like, I got you. This is when I'm gonna do some dead lips with Adam. That's where the truth goes. Yeah. I'm like wiping the crust out of my eyes

till he's like, put on another plate there. I'm gonna wake him up in the middle of my mouth. I have his program on my phone that just calls him randomly randomly in the middle of the night. Keep him awake. Here Adam, try this new pre-workout drink. Yeah. It's a sedative. No, I did.

I did a little workout this morning. I don't like working out too much in the morning, but I do like it better than not working out. You know what I'm saying? So I did a little thing. I drank some of that coffee this morning. Oh, do you know like a difference? Do you notice a difference in yourself,

like your performance when you lift in different times of the day? Of course. Is it significant for you? Is there anything that I mean? So it's funny you say that because someone posted on our forum, the other day that studies show that working out in the afternoon can increase performance by like 10% or 15%. And so the forum member asked me like,

what's this is this valid? What's the validity behind this this claim? If you take a bunch of my estimates, did you have? I was like, I'm having gastrointestinal problems apparently. I know you farted. So mouth fart. So we if you take a bunch of random people and you test half of them in the morning, you test the performance and you test the other half

in the afternoon, the afternoon people, of course, are gonna perform better because waking up first thing in the morning working out is what most people don't do. But if you always work out in the morning, your body starts to adapt and then you start to learn to perform better at that time. And this is a strategy, and by the way, it's very small, but this is a strategy that some top athletes will do.

Let's say if their game is always at noon, that they always work out at that time, or whatever. So, no, I usually don't work out in the morning, so my performance sucks in the morning. Well, I would think it's mainly due to like, what you've established is habit, right? Like as far as movement patterns are concerned, I wouldn't think that like there's a standard of like,

well, 10 to 15% gains, you know, if you do it at 12 o'clock or two o'clock versus, you know, 6 a.m. If you're a 6 a.m. person or like you're like, you just, you know, springs right out of bed, you're gonna have a lot better time working out than me. So yeah, I would think it's more just based off of your patterns. Well, something else that's been a game changer for me is I've been having, I don't know if I talked about this on previous episodes, but I've been having,

I've been brewing my coffee cold. Cold brew coffee. I introduced you guys to some of this Starbucks service it now. And cold brew coffee is way easier. You invented it, right? I invented cold brew coffee. Okay. It's way easier on my stomach. Like regular coffee, if I drink too much of it, it'll irritate my, as Adam calls it, my- You're telling me? It's sounds like a little tummy. Yeah, it's sensitive little tummy.

It's always talking about sounds tummy. Anyway. I have to do this because it hurts my tummy. It's a big issue, it's just. It's my tummy. Maybe. a big issue. You may be saying it's my tummy. Maybe. Maybe sell like such a pussy. No.

Well, you know, like whatever. No. I just feel like you're telling me not at all. Every time we go on these retreats, this is where I decide to go off the meal plan. And you shit yourself. So don't act like it doesn't bother you too. Because you shit yourself.

Oh, yeah. You've actually had, we've had to pay leakage. We do the Airbnb and we've actually had them email us and ask for another $500 to make this bathroom is unacceptable. Their plumbing has been destroyed. That's for you. That's for you.

That's for you. That's for you. That's for you. That's for you. That's for you. That's for you. That's for you. That's for you.

That's for you. That's for you. That's for you. That's for you. That's for you. That's for you. That's, did a bunch of shister. It was one of those things though. You can't prove that. Yeah, what are you gonna do? Yeah, whatever. And it was like a ridiculous coffee table. Remember, it was like the metal, like you're like, it was like brittle.

It was like, Eagle claw iron like feet. Oh, yeah, it was iron in it. It had like these, the way the glass was attached to the iron was weird and it was, it could barely hold a glass on it. It could barely hold me and Adam doing jump squats on it. So, I know. Crazy, right?

What kind of a coffee table is that? That's weak. Yeah. How's your bulking going, Adam? I'm the heaviest. I thought you're cutting. I'm about to. Let's just take a step back real quick, Justin.

OK, just observe Adam right now. Does he look like he's cutting or bulking? No, I just say it. I saw the back pick on your Instagram. And you're like, yeah, the cutting begins. And I haven't seen it yet. He's not wearing a tank top because that was a tank top. That was a normal shirt.

Right. And it exploded. Yeah, no, I'm heavy right now. The only thing that I hate about it, it's like this, but I like this, right? I love the ability to go up and down and wait and, you know, one month or a couple of months, so I'm focusing on performance and then I'm getting ready to get on stage for aesthetic stuff and, you know, other times I'm all focused on

strength. Like, I love this, like, always manipulating. I think that's, I think for, at least for me, I don't know about you guys, but to stay sane as a trainer, I mean, we live in breathe, fitness, we talk it every single day. If your body's not changing, it gets boring. Yes, that's how I feel. I feel like if I'm not challenging it in a new way, it is, it's boring to me. But I've learned there's plus and minus to everything,

right? There's great things about being all both. I love being bolted up because then all my like XL double XL shirts are like filled out like I feel like I feel I can feel like a different presence just even when I'm around people I can feel I can even feel the way the way people look at me and I get comments and stuff like that all the time when I'm all filled out like that when you get all big you get a big old fat ass yeah dude that was creepy with it when I when I'm the, like, let's say I'm getting ready for a show though, and I'm completely shredded to the bone, right? And, you know, on stage pictures and stuff

that people see, you know, oh, that look to them, they may think that looks better. But when I walk around like that, I'm in a t-shirt and I look like a fucking clothes hanger. You know, I don't look like a, you know, you might be able to tell them a fit person. I don't think you're, I don't think you look like a clothes hanger. No, no, no, you still look pretty muscular with the, yeah, you don't know. Because I weigh less than you do when you're on stage. So what do I look like? Fuck you. Well, I also got three.

You didn't realize what a dick he is. No, no, no, I like it when you guys fall. I got three inches on his. That's not fair. Just to like say when we both, yeah. Yeah, I feel like I can hang out with you guys I got three I got three inches on it. It's not fair. Just the likes it when we bulk yeah Yeah, I feel like I can hang out with you guys again So I need to get skinny so that's the other thing so on the bulk I I allow a lot more flexibility on the way I eat you know, and I get to enjoy things more regularly than I would

How much is your weight fluctuate forget the contest contest weight, because that doesn't count, that's extreme. How much is your normal weight fluctuate from leaner to bulkier? 210 to 230. So 20 pound, a 20 pound swing? Yeah. That's a pretty big swing. I mean, you're tall and you carry a lot of muscle.

Yeah. But that's it. See, I used to go up to, when I would say I was extreme, I'd get up to 230 pounds, then I'd get lean at 190. That's a 40 pound. Well, when I used to dirty bulk, when I was, when I thought dirty, when I used to dirty bulk, I mean, I'm sure you went through the same phase too, or we thought that was the

best way to do that. Just ate everything. Yeah, just ate everything inside and you just put on all kinds of, and that was just, I remember bulking like that where I was not paying attention to my body fat or in that. It was just purely, I need to put on, I want to try and put on all kinds of, and that was just, I remember bulking like that where I was not paying attention to my body fat or anything like that. It was just purely, I need to put on, I wanna try and put on as much weight. And then really what that was was,

I wanted my body to feel what it feels like to be at that point, 220, then to 25, then to, What's the heaviest year I've ever got? 235. Really? That's the heaviest? Yeah, so I'm really, I'm two pounds from that, and I'm actually in better shape right now.

Well, here's the thing then, because obviously, I got a lot fatter than you did when I get bulk because I'm not as tall as you are. You carry a lot of muscle. I get up to 230, the heaviest ever got was 240. But I wasn't lean in any sense of the word. I was kind of rotundish. Yeah, I mean, not quite pinchable cheeks.

Not quite rotund, but I was rotundish, which is just before rotundish. Yeah, you know what I mean? Not quite pinchable cheeks. Not quite rotund, but that was rotundish, which is just before rotund and- And rotundish. But dude, I'll tell you something. I gotta find pictures. If I have any pictures on my legs, that my legs get so fucking massive at that size that I rub holes in my jeans in between.

Oh, I can imagine. I'm going to there where I'm chafing right now. When I'm, they my my quads rub together It's up when I walk and that years are way bigger than mine too, especially the way they're developed the way you from the From the front, you know, you can tell how wide your's are so I'm sure you get that you were getting that really bad Yeah, I know like my like my box or briefs and stuff like that they they at the bottom or it just doesn't feel You just got to wear the fucking bikinis, bro Cuz it lets them free, you know what I mean?

You gotta free them. I don't know if you can convert me, dude. I've tried that. I went through a phase where I was doing that for a minute. I just, you know, it didn't, it wasn't comfortable. Really? Yeah, it looked good, though. It keeps everything in place.

It's like airtight. Make sure business look good. I need to breathe. Yeah, that's how it. Yeah. I'm like, box or, box boxer briefs don't make them breathe. It's still tight. There's just.

There's just. There's just. Not a lot of stuff that come up there. No, yeah, they're not as tight as tight as like here. I hate them because they clam out my legs and shit. They make their wrinkles underneath my clothes from the boxer briefs. See, this way, there's almost no clothing underneath.

Yeah. To me, it depends on what I'm doing too. So I have all different types. I have like my loose boxers, I have boxer briefs, and I even have tidy wideies, and I do have some underwear like that. Now when you wore your leggings, what was it called?

Compression pants? Yeah. Did you wear, do you wear, are you supposed to wear underwear underneath them? So this is a serious question. Well, I did, and I wore, that's where I wore, I have these like your, your great, what do you call your fucking grapefruit, or your great, your great call what do you call your fucking grapefruit or your

great what do I call my grapefruit no let's let's also know to my to cucumber it's uh they're just they're just you're they're just you're a peon you know underwear okay yeah so I have some I have some Tommy Hill figures that are like that right they're white and so I wore that never buy white yeah Yeah, that's a big There's still there's still places change color

Bro Adam you don't have kids let me tell you said would you have kids especially boys? Yeah, don't buy them white I'm not good. Yeah, dude. I wouldn't my little well, I don't know because in my house I would probably I would probably teach my boys that what you guys are probably just now learning from me is the wipes, dude. The wipes are, that's what keeps that from happening. Well, kids, they just don't, well, yeah, I'm not gonna debate the kids here, but I'm a grown ass man.

So I feel like I can still make it to my ass side. I feel like I can manage my ass, okay. Do you have your kids, your boys, Pia, this Pia outside? Do they do that all the time? I don't find a tree all the time. It's actually gotten me into trouble. That's a ass, okay. Do you have your kids, your boys, P.O.D. side? Yeah, this P.O.D. side. Do they do that all the time? I don't find it true. Yeah, all the time. It's actually gotten me into trouble. That's a relief.

Yeah. Like, taking them to Taekwondo. And he's like, oh, I gotta go. I'm like, okay, let's find this bush over here. Go for it. It's, so here's, this is what's fucked up about society to me. This is why I think society's fucked up. This is the number one reason why I think society's fucked up.

No, it's not the number one. This is horrible. But when you're a child, when you're a boy, you piss outside. It's a great thing. When you're a man, you go to jail. Yeah. What the fuck? You know what I'm saying? There has to be like a time length there, right? Yeah. What's the break? That's what I want to know. You're peeing too long in your grown man. Yeah. I think this is a very varied. There should be like a, there should be a, should be more specific. Like once you reach the age of 12 or whatever, being outside now as a, as an offense is now a felony. But being up until then it's okay.

Fellany, well something. Well, no, dude, no, okay, here's a deal. This is not a joke now. If you as a grown man, let's say you go around the back, there's no one back there, it's fucking deserted. You're behind a tree, taking a piss. Someone just happens to seize you, reports it, you're on a fucking list forever as a, what do they call it? It's a sexual offender. It's not, it's not Angie's

list. It's like, it's the other one craigslist. Yeah. No, it's not that. It's, what's that, what's that list called? It's Megan's law. Megan's Law, yeah. I always get those two confused. Yes, some reason. You're wise like, one of them you have to pay for. The other one you get a lot of weird colors. Honey, look at the plumber. Where do I find a good plumber? Oh, no, this guy was a babe.

Babe, go find a plumber on Megan's Law. It's a great place. Right. It's a great place. The creep comes over. Yeah, no, you'll be on sexual, like a sexual offender list forever. And it doesn't say on there you were peeing outside. It literally will say like public indecency or exposure or whatever.

Yeah. And if there was a kid that was around, then it'll say expose himself to a child. Even though you were pissing and not doing, how fucked up is that? Yeah, no, that is pretty fucked up. That's crazy. Especially since I'm sure, I mean, I don't know about you got I do all time. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I mean No, what are you doing? Watch my back now? I guess never never be all time. Yeah, for sure I'll do in the car. I'll do it in like I'll do like a sharks game on the way like on the way to sharks

You're like, oh, we got a walk all the way over the Weight line on the building P right now. I don't wait. I get in there Be got somebody's tired and get in. It's like one of the benefits of being a dude. Come on, don't take that from us. But pooping outside is a big no-no. That's not okay. That's a big no-no.

That's a whole new dude. That's a faux pas. I did that once and I was a kid. And I did it once as an adult, but we're not gonna talk about what happened. Yeah, when that happened. That was great. It was a lot of money involved, it was weird.

Hey, I think you need to bring up something else that I was reading on our forum, which by the way, it almost bring, did you, were you guys on late last night? Late last night, a new guy comes on and he took a picture of himself and where he's starting at and that he was a hard gainer and he like,

The one in his underwear? Yes. He posted that yesterday, but it's been just on fire on the forum because he he peed a lot of people offering support and I don't know about you guys, but man, when I see stuff like that and then I see the the support people are giving him and the advice and whatever because he's new, you know, he doesn't know what he's, you know, he doesn't know what he's doing in this in this realm. It's a, I don't know, I get the chills every time I do it. It's like that. Very encouraging. I wrote that. I said that to him because I told him I wrote underneath. I think I was probably I had by the time I got to it, there was like 20, 30

people that are already commented before me. You know, and I always like anytime I see a new person, it's then they announced and they said it's their first day and so they always say hello and everything like that. Right. So I'm saying hi to women. And then I'm like, dude, just buckle up, get ready, right? Because I had seen all the people that had already commented. And then he's sends back to me by the time he sends back to me, another like 10 people in between had already, you know, wrote more information to him. And he was just like, it's almost overwhelming how crazy the support is. Like he goes like instantly, he asked a question and just like

people are giving. And they're not, it's not like cheesy, generic of like, Oh, you know, work harder. You can do it. Yeah. Yeah. Like people are specific. And it's not like cheesy, generis of like, oh, you know, work hard. You can do it. Yeah, people are specific. Of course, yeah. Very specific, you know. And we've got, we've got, there was some trainers on there that are telling them,

hey, when I train my client, this is what I do. Of course, I think all three of us commented to kind of give them some advice. Yeah. It's a, I'm loving it, man. I'm loving reading all the, the posts that people are putting up there,

the comments. I tell you what, man. I'm loving reading all the posts that people are putting up there, the comments. I tell you what, it makes me realize just how much the fitness industry needs, something like this. We add somebody in roll in our Nutrition Survival Guide the other day, who then sent to some message. It was a young lady. I don't remember her name. I wouldn't say it anyway, even if I remembered.

But she, she's like, hey, I don't think this is what I was looking for. I wanted like a specific, tell me what to eat every day, type of meal plan. And it, you know, in all three of us were reading it, we were kind of talking about discussing, I don't know how we should help her out. But it just occurred to me that the people,

they've been so inundated with this advertising and this fitness industry standard of, here's your solution, just do this one exact thing, and this will give you results with no consideration for long-term results, educating the person, actually giving them something that's gonna benefit them in a very real way, that they expect that same shit. You know, expect like, I just wanted a meal plan.

Like, I wanted some magical meal plan. Ladies and gentlemen, meal plans or magical meal plans don't exist. They do not exist. What you want is you want guidance to help figure out your body, to figure out what works best for, not just your body, but your personality, your preferences, the drawbacks to your personality and your preferences. There's going to be challenges that are going to come up for you that are not going to

come up with other people. You may have issues with food, for example, that someone else isn't going to have. You may have real strong connections to certain foods. You may find that you reach for sugar, not because you like sugar, but because it's comforting, or that cutting out certain foods you have an emotional connection to. I've had many people tell me, I think I have a food intolerance to dairy, but I can't cut dairy out because I don't know what to eat afterwards. Then they realize it's more of an emotional connection than anything, because there's

just lots of food out there that doesn't have dairy in it. And so what we aim to do with our programs and our guide is we try to guide them, help them, lead them. But so at the end of the day, they find the solutions that really work best for them. And then what you end up with is somebody who's been yo-yo dieting their whole life

to somebody now who has now finally follows the fitness lifestyle and it's totally not only doable, but it's better than the way they were living before. You know what I'm saying? Well, and this is really the idea. I think why we knew we had to have a forum to go with all of our programs, all of our stuff is because we knew that it was so challenging, right? I think one of the hardest things that for all of us has been, you know, we're so anti-cookie cutter anything.

So how do we how do we teach these people what they need to know and help them out and guide them nutritionally guide them training wise? How do we teach them about their bodies without you know, but we reach masses? How do we reach millions but not give those million people, you know, because you can't technically write a million people, you know, but we reach masses. How do we reach millions, but not give those million people, you know, because you can't technically write a million people, you know, design programs. We couldn't do a personal one every, I would love to, you know what I'm saying, but that'd be impossible, right? So how do we make it as custom to them

and what they need for them? It's what we have to teach them. We have to teach them and show them. That was the whole idea of like how maps all comes together is and it's not finished, you know, we're working on the next one already. And when it's all comes together is and it's not finished. You know, we're working on the next one already. And when it's all comes together, you know, it will make complete sense for everybody. We started where we started for a reason, but there are other pieces to really understanding

and learning your body that we want to help people with. But the forum had to go in conjunction with it because it was so important that when you came into these challenges, because everybody will, you'll hit a plateau or you'll feel some sort of an ache or a pain that was, you know, nagging out of nowhere or you'll notice something like your body is retaining and holding water or something weird. And so there's a lot of these questions that get asked all the time. And that's what's the power of the form is, as you're going through your journey, you know, you have a place that you can, you can actually talk to and communicate to other people that are either one already gone through what you're going through your journey, you know, you have a place that you can actually talk to and communicate

to other people that are either one already gone through what you're going through right now, or two are professionals themselves. We've got doctors, nurses, all these people that are on there, and in addition to all of us on their answering questions, so we can guide them through. Yeah, so you can substitute, you can implement, you know, specific things that are going to benefit you and your body the most. And so that's why we had to keep it kind of open ended. So we're talking about our programs. Our programs have foundational elements to them

and they have a structure behind it. And it's very much what any person can benefit from. Obviously there's gonna be limitations and there's going to be some people with restrictions or past injuries or you name it. But as far as what's going to benefit the body the most, we made sure to put that into the program, leaving sort of open-ended ways for you to implement other ways to enhance yourself personally. And so this is where a whole mod's concept comes from.

This is where a forum comes in. This is where all these different extra items are there to really personalize it. And that's why we wanted to do it that way because everybody has to have something to start with. You know, you need to have something that's like, you know, some sort of a format where I'm like, okay, I'm here. How do I navigate from here? Okay, here's how you navigate.

Okay, now where do I go? I'll try that, but I don't think that really works for me. Okay, it doesn't really work for you. Let's figure this out. Okay, and then now this is where the forum, we can kind of chat about it, and we can refine it and move forward from there. So that's why I like.

In the spirit of transparency and the spirit of mind pump, from a. So, that's why I like it. In the spirit of transparency, in the spirit of mind pump, from a business perspective, this is what our forum has done, from business, just from a purely business standpoint, because I get lots of personal benefit from the forum, just because people, there's lots of smart people on there, a lot of the studies that I post on my Instagram, I get from the forum from other people posting, a lot of them. I've done a couple of them now recently

But from a business from a purely business standpoint. This is what it's done. Number one If people enroll in our program and then get in the forum our return rates like zero because I'll tell you why when people get on our program Number one if you're looking at it and you've just been working out for a long time and you look at the program I think sometimes people look and they're waiting to open up the program and see like some weird magical, oh, this is this, what is this? Yes, exercises they've never seen before. Right, right.

What they're gonna do, crazy timing tip. Like hang upside down and spin. Right, what they're gonna see is a lot of exercises that they've done before, right? Your barbell movements, your dumbbell movements. I'd say the one program will probably see exercises they're never done is a lot of exercises that they've done before, right? Your barbell movements, your dumbbell movements. I'd say the one program where they'll probably see exercises they've never done before is the performance. But maps aesthetic and math sound ball,

they'll see a lot of exercises they've done before. What they don't realize is how programming works. I don't expect them to. That's something that took me, shit, almost two decades to understand how actual programming works. But then they get on the forum, and I can't tell you, you guys have seen this,

but tons of times, probably it doesn't at least in the last few months, where we'll have very experienced people who enroll in the program, we'll get on the forum. And now when I mean very experienced, I mean, some of them have been personal trainers for a long time, some of them have been competitors for a long time.

And they'll get on there and be like, well, I looked at the program and, I don't know, it seems basic and I think I need more, I need this and I've done this before. And of course, sure enough, 15 comments. Trust it, try it, do it. It comes with 30 day guarantee. Do it for 30 days, watch what happens.

And then of course, two weeks later, oh shit, I'm hitting PRs, oh shit, I'm getting this. I realize that. Yeah, there's a challenge right there. You just mentioned, like stick with it for the 30 days. Like a lot of people that, you know, any of them that we've had, like, and I don't say a lot because there's been very minimal amounts of people, but the it's, it's that, that trust factor.

Okay. If you don't, if you don't trust enough to, to try it for 30 days, don't buy it. Right. Don't, don't even do it. Uh, because like you have to, you have to go through the process. You can't just look at it from a peripheral and be like, well, you know, I tried for like a week and I was like, nah, you know, like you have to do it. Well, especially when the, especially when the industry does the complete opposite. And that's one of the things that

we came out and tried, I've been explaining on this show for so long is that, you know, it would be easier for us to throw a bunch of crazy exercises together that just blast everybody. And the first time you do a workout, you go like, holy fuck, that was the, this is what I must have been. This murdered me, bro. Yeah, this was awesome. Bro, that is a brilliant point, because I'll tell you right now,

if I were going to write up a workout on a piece of paper and to dazzle the average gym goer, it would look very different. Dude, I'll write a whole workout that you can't even read. You have to look up everything. I'll do labs. I don't know what it is.

I'll do labs on CrossFit. Yeah, if you wanna just get crazy like that. That's what I'm saying. If I wanted to dazzle the average gym goer, I could put a bunch of shit together. They could take a glance at it and be like, wow. Dude, you think burpees are hard for me?

That's gonna kick my eyes. I'll shit on burpees. Right, all day. Right, those look kinda be like, oh my God, this looks crazy. I've never seen shit thrown together like this. This is, I gotta try this. But no, that's not how expert programming works. It doesn't work that way.

And really expert programming when it comes to exercise is the brilliance is in its simplicity. It's not in its complexity. And you can go into any, I'm talking about, you find any advanced coach in any sport and you look at their exercise programming for the workouts and to the layman, to the average person, to the gym rat, the average gym rat,

they'll look at and be like, well, that looks, that looks like it, I could do that. No, you can't. If the simplicity, that's where the brilliance is in it. It, none of their workouts, none of these coaches, you talk to the best coaches, Mark Riptoe, or any of these guys, and you look at the programs they put together, and the average person's gonna look at

and be like, oh, that's simple. Yeah, I'm just gonna do that. No, follow that shit, and then see what fucking happens because your shitty super complex, refine your technique like every step of the way for every one of those simple lifts. And that's not hard, and it looks. It's also the programming, the way you, the types of adaptation you're aiming for, the

tempo, the way you use the weight, the repetitions you're working, the way the exercises are ordered, I mean, I could go on and on, but if you follow it and all of a sudden you're getting results, then you'll see what I'm talking about. But compared to your super complex, you know, body parts split routine that you on paper, you think looks awesome, even though you don't understand how exercise programming works. And by the way, you came to us because your workout wasn't working. Well, fucking try something different. And it's, you know, I say that and I sound like I'm angry, but I was that guy, dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was that guy. I was that guy that would keep doing the same shit over and over again, and I kept expecting something different to happen.

But some look, it's a comfortable place. It's time. People like staying in that. Try something different and then see what happens. What's the worst thing that can happen? You go back a month. Okay, you get back on your new year old shit and you'll be back within a week

to where you were before. You've lost nothing except you've maybe gained some knowledge. And at the very least, you've learned what doesn't work. It is that you've learned something about your body. Right. And here's the thing, we have people on the forum that don't buy any of our programs. We got one guy on there that could walk on a stage

and compete as a bodybuilder. The dude's a fucking beast. I forgot his name. Was it Timothy? Timonnie? Yeah, Timonnie or Timothin? No, it's not Timothin. Timothin.

Timothin. Timothin. The dude's yacked. I don't think he's bought any of our programs. All he's done is apply some of the principles. And the guy, has he bought our programs? Doug, okay, so this guy, if you saw me and you saw this guy standing next to each other, I could fit inside his pack. Like he just yacht, right?

He looks like he knows what he's talking about. And he's got lots of experience. He took some of our advice. And the guy's, I think he's in his of experience. He took some of our advice and the guys I think he's in his 30s or 40s. He's hitting PRs on his lifts and a lot of what he said was You know, he followed some of our advice by lowering his protein intake. Yes, believe it or not He lowered his protein intake feels better and another one that he said was a big one was he stopped going to failure Mm-hmm. He stopped lifting to failure. And I wanted to touch on this

because that one Instagram page, what is it, the muscle professor? Is that his name? Which by the way, one of the better Instagram pages I've seen, a lot of science-based information. He tests a lot of the theories that people come out with. And they recently showed a study that was done comparing people who trained and lifted

every set to failure versus people who didn't lift to failure. And what did they find? This was, I think it was a 12 or 16 week period. So it was a short week. It was like three or four months. No benefit whatsoever to lifting to failure. His recommendation is right along the lines of what we have always recommended, which is don't lift to failure.

Number one, it doesn't give you any better benefit. All it's gonna do is cause more damage to probably your central nervous system. And after long term, 16 weeks or whatever, not only are you gonna get no benefit from it, but you'll get worse benefits from it. So this is a big one. This going to failure one is a big one.

I kinda wanna cover this one. Well, I think it was one of, I we we talk about this all time right we always talk about Our paradigms being shattered and you know having moments in our our whether nutrition Life for our fitness life whatever we're trying to whatever our goals are right and this is one of those things that I remember when I Shifted from that, you How long ago? It was not even two years ago, two years ago when I completely shifted from it. I mean, I kind of, I had experimented with it before and I saw gains from it. And so it wasn't until I like completely stopped doing that though. Is that crazy how imprinted on your brain?

It was that you saw gains and yet you still went back to going to failure. That happened to me like four times before I finally decided. And that's just it. It's not like it was completely foreign to me. It was just that I didn't really realize how much more beneficial it was in comparison

to what I was doing. I had to revisit it again. And once I revisited it and I saw the change again from it, I thought, wow, from this is crazy me. I w everything I've ever read about going to failure, go fibers means more muscle like, you know there's so many, so many more factors that come into play than just breaking down more muscle fiber,

overcruiting more muscle fibers. And, you know, you continue to, there's something to be said that if you continue that mentality, the body gets adapted to that kind of stress. It'll get used to, you always hammering the body to failure and make it, and you said, frying your central nervous. Well, for me, it was more like, like it was more like, like, it was ingrained in me. It was the mental discipline.

Like, so going through sports and everything like the coaches, you know, they do their best as far as like trying to create a program for the team to follow. And for the most part, it was all intensity based. And it's like, just like the whole mentality of like this, this old school, like, no, we're not taking water breaks, you know, and like everybody, like it was all about this mental discipline. And so they just, that just carried over into the lifts. And so like,

so did you feel like, oh, I'm being a pussy if I don't look back? Exactly. 100%. Always, always in the back of my mind. And this is something that has taken years and years for me to, to just, you know, get out of my mind. It's something that has taken years and years for me to just get out of my mind. It's been there for so long because the last part of practice we did would always sprint and so we'd have these 100 yard sprints or whatever it was and you would pride yourself in being able to go like 100% each one of those. And so we would do the same thing with the workouts where I was going 100% on squats, 100% on bench.

And so it wasn't until I actually, I think it was when I was like going through like moist times and some martial arts where they're like, dude, you're going too hard. You know, like they kept telling me, you're too, you're too tight like, dude, you're going too hard. You know, like they kept telling me, like you're too, you're too, you're too tight, you know, you're too tight in your punches, you're too tight in your kicks, you know, everything, because I was just like, I have to go a hundred percent, you know, and like I felt like, you know, being loose and, and, you know, swinging my leg like the way that they wanted me to,

I felt like I was being a pussy. I'm not doing this at a full max capacity. And it's just that one thing for me, I realized once I started working on that and working on my flexibility, how much more force I was producing, and what was happening, it was just a light bulb went off,

and I'm like, oh my God, what about working out? And then I started to kind of take that into the workouts and then we got introduced maps and all these kinds of, like it reaffirmed that this is the way to do it. And so that's why I've been so vocal, especially like, I'm not mobility guy. I'm not like Mr. like, this is just recent. Like I've just decided that like this is better for my body.

And so that's why I became like this big focus for me because I had like pushed it away forever. Well, check this out. When was the, okay, we all know, I know we all pretty much work out alone now, you know? Like, I don't know how long that's been for us, but I bet you at ages between 20 and 25, you were always looking for a workout partner

or a working with someone because of that, because of that mentality of having someone push you and push those limits and you need a spotter. Like people always ask, who's your workout partner? Who you look? Because going to failure, a lot of exercises requires a partner because if you go to failure on a fucking bench press, you can't go to failure,

right, unless you have a partner. I mean, times I fucking had to should debar, and land on my chest and have had to roll it down on my fucking kidneys. You talking, huh? Yeah. I remember't know, sometimes I fucking had to should debar and land on my chest and I've had to roll it down to be fucking kidneys. You took it, huh? Yeah. I remember, I even remember being a trainer and I always had a workout partner.

And I was always like, but I was very particular about who worked out with me because I had a certain way I wanted you to spot me because I wanted to be spotted on every exercise. Like, when you think about it, isn't that crazy? I mean, I remember always having a guy there to spot me and everything. It's just like, why am I trading,

why am I trading to failure all the time like this? Well, so for me, the big light bulb came off when I realized, this was a huge fucking moment for me. When I realized that I am not that different from my clients. Let me explain. So for the longest time, when I would train my clients, I would train my clients and I am far more objective

of a trainer of my clients than I am for myself. I've always been a better trainer for my clients than myself. Still to this days, as awesome as I work out now on my own, I'm still better with my clients because I don't have ego when I train my clients. When I'm training my clients, I am just trying to get them to improve and feel better. I'm trying to get them to clients, I am just trying to get them to improve and feel better. I'm trying to get them to move better.

I'm trying to get them to lose body fat, build muscle, and just improve on a regular basis. And a lot of these people have trained for over 10 years. So when I'm training them, I'm watching those things. I can see what's going on. I can see what's working. I can scale the workout back. I can change the routine.

Whereas when I go workout, my ego kicks in and I'm like, no, fuck it, I'm squatting heavy. No, fuck it, I'm going to failure. So there was a moment and it was not that long ago. And this is what's crazy to me is that you've got three guys on this podcast who pride ourselves in being open-minded and advancing our knowledge and exercise science and how it works on the body.

And yet we all fell for the same traps. We all fell for that shit. That's how I want you guys to understand. The people that are listening right now, I want you to understand that right now, a lot of you are unclosiously incompetent. A lot of you don't know that you don't know. You think you know, but you literally have no idea.

And so you have to open your mind first. And this is what happened. I would train my clients, and then every once in a while I'd get a real serious client, and they'd be like, cool, I'm going to train this guy like I train myself and I would have them lift to failure. And every fucking time they would stop progressing or they would start regressing. And I would always chalk it up to, well, I'm special. I'm a trainer. I take supplements. I work out differently. I, whatever. And then I would stop training them to failure. And I'd have clients that would progress and do phenomenal.

And I'd look at them and be like, you know, they're doing really well. Like, this is no longer, we're not that different. Like, I've got a client now that can deadlift four hundred pounds. I've got a client now that can bench press a decent amount of weight, and that's pretty fucking good. Like, and then I started realizing like, I'm not super special, I'm pretty average.

Maybe I should try some of the stuff that I apply on my clients. And so that's what I started realizing like, I'm not super special. I'm pretty average. Maybe I should try some of the stuff that I apply on my clients. And so that's what I started doing. This is also why I moved away from Body Parts splits because I never trained clients body parts splits. I've had clients hire me for five days a week. I put them on Body Parts splits and they wouldn't get good results. And I would always be like, ah, their genetics aren't as good as mine.

Once I started, you know, being more objective and training myself like I trained my clients, it was mind blowing. Going to not going to failure was massive. It was huge. The second I, literally the second I stopped all my sets about two reps short of failure. So don't get me wrong. It's still intense.

You're still working out hard. I'm just not doing those two extra reps that make me where I can't move the weight anymore. The second I stopped doing that, literally the following week I got stronger. It was that fast, I was like, I stopped going to failure. Holy shit, I'm getting stronger. Well, that's a good point to make, too,

because the workouts aren't just weeny workouts. I think people would think that a lot of times like that we're in my mentality later on, or just like, you know, like, oh, well, that means I'm not working hard enough for, no, you're working hard. It's just that you're applying discipline that you know will benefit you down the road and you're gonna adapt versus just pummel yourself.

Well, here's what happens. When you go to failure, you fatigue the muscle, obviously. But you also fatigue the central nervous system to a very large extent. And what that does and what the studies show, we're going to talk about science now here for a second. What the studies show is that it... I'll prepare my brain. Thank you for the fucking heads up.

It. Sometimes I sound like I'll put my white coat on. Sometimes I sound like a pump assassin. It sometimes that sounds like I'll put my white coat on. Sometimes that sounds like a pump of sand. I don't know. I don't get it. I didn't talk about science. Each subsequent sets are negatively affected dramatically.

So if I go to failure on squats, it's going to dramatically reduce my performance for each set. So although I may have stressed my muscle fibers more and that one set, then I would in one set where I stopped to rep short of failure, it's now fucked up the rest of my workout. And so overall, I'm getting less, less work. You don't mean literally you just mean that you're getting less, you're getting less results. And on top of that, I'm hammering my central nervous system, which many times requires longer to recover than your muscles. And they both, you know, your muscles can recover great

and you can have a fried central nervous system. And that's gonna affect your performance and your gains. And if you don't believe me, take a week off of exercise, make sure your muscles are nice and fresh, and then stay up for 48 hours in a row. Don't go to sleep at all, go to the gym and see how you perform. Muscles are fully recovered,

central nervous system is fucked, and your workout is going to suck as a result. So you're best bet, literally, whether you change your workout or not, whether you enroll in maps or not, whether you stay in your bros split or whatever, just stop going to failure. One of the things, when we started following maps following maps right when we first started and the biggest game changer for me I've had the most growth in my legs over the last two and a half years that I haven't anything else and the number one factor that is of what what I mean following maps but what it's applying is it forced me to go from being that guy who used to do 20 to 25 sets on legs. And I would be so fucking sore for seven days that I would, I mean,

I'd be literally sore for three to four days, five days still filling it day six, still kind of filling it. Seven day finally, like, I feel like I'm fully recovered. So I'm hitting it once a week and I'm just pounding the shit out. When I started to pull back from that and then we spread it out over three days and maps, oh my God. Like my

my gains. I literally was like every week it felt like I was gaining size gaining strength, gaining strength, gaining size. And I mean, over the last two and a half years, I've made more progress on my squats and my legs than anything else by applying that science by finally by. And like I said, I've done it before and other things, but to actually stick to it and run through the whole routine, that was a game changer for me. It was, I was no longer crippling my legs to where I could, you know, and I see guys do that all the time.

It's still like a bragging right now. You see people post about, oh, post leg day, oh, post leg day, like cool, post leg day for me, I walk out, I feel fucking awesome. Yeah, bro, I think I got a nice little pump on and I'm walking around and I feel great. I don't fucking waddle. Yeah.

Out of the fucking gym. I don't need a meme word. I did though. Yeah. I did though, so I understand, you know what I'm saying? So I'm not, I'm not pumpkin anybody who does that because I get it. I did the same thing too. I mean, that was how I, all of us got, trainer buddies would talk to each other like,

oh, you pussy. You can see all of it, dude. Come on, dude. Yeah. It's such a, so this is probably why, you know, women tend to love the program. I'll tell you why, because men have this ego, where if I tell a guy, don't go to failure,

it's better for you, his response is like, well, I'm not a pussy. Well, that's not the fucking point. That's exactly what the response is. It was like, okay, do you take a sledgehammer and smash yourself on the face with it every day? No, oh, you must be a pussy, because you don't smash't smash your like what the fuck does I have to do with anything? It makes no goddamn sense at all

Now women are guilty of it. Another area is like childbirth when they're like I went natural I know I took you know epidural you must be a pussy. No, it's the same thing with exercise with guys Yeah, they think because I tell them I really talk shit like that. Dude, women are funny about that. I've heard women talking, like I'm going natural, like it's this big like, let me tell you, let me tell you, let me tell you, that's where guys don't have an ego.

If men had babies, there would be no question. Doctor would not ask you. I got a mon out in two months. How many milligrams you want? I doctor would, I think you could handle 14,000. I doctor would not ask you,

dude, would you like to go natural, would you like to use drugs? That would even be an option on the paper. Everybody would get a fucking drug, you know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do.

I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do.

I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're gonna do. I don't know what you're like, well, I like to do things the hard way because I'm a guy and I'm a manly dude and you're a pussy No, no motherfucker. You're gonna get better results. Forget your stupid ego for a second Would you like to build more muscle get stronger and get leaner? Yes, good then do it this way You know, you're not being a pussy. Just listening to you say that. I feel like you're attacking my little guy that's still there

little guy that's still there. Shut up, man. Shut up. I'm not a pussy. I'm not. Well, I think the reason why we're so passionate about it is because we were, we all did too. Yeah, we were there. You know, we were there.

And I think that's, it's always important that we, we tell people that because I know there's now, now that we've had all these episodes, there's lots of people that have never heard all of them that tune in just made this the first time you're listening to us. And you know, one of the things that we are first ones to tell you like, man, I remember going to that. It's normal to think that way, to feel that way, the thing is that you have to learn to challenge that, though, challenge yourself and be open minded.

Be open minded and you'll see when you start, when you start really applying real science, not the shit that you're reading in magazines or that your buddy told you or that you swore that someone, you know, you saw some study that said this, like you gotta be careful of all the propaganda that's out there in the industry. I mean, like I said, I could take a spin,

put a spin on anything, you know, that in twist any way of training, any modality and make it sound like it's the best way, but in reality, that's not what it's really. No, it's, here's the thing, the people that have made gains Working out and going to failure Have made gains not because they've gone to failure. They've made gains in spite of going to failure

That was likely working against them and they still made some gains Anyway, you take that that going to failure and you apply it properly and by the way, I'm not saying stay away from failure like it's cancer. You know, every once in a while you want to lift to your max, that's fine. All I'm saying is if you go into the gym and you're always going to failure, you're probably overdoing it. You're probably overdoing it.

For most of you, you're overdoing it. And if you use it as a test. Yeah, and if you stop going to failure, your results will be better. And that's just kind of where I would like to end it. So if you like Mind Pump, leave us a five star rating on iTunes, five star rating review on iTunes, and if we like it, you'll get a free t-shirt. You can check us out on Instagram, a Mind Pump radio. You can find me at Mind Pump Sal, add a Mind Pump Adam and Justin at Mind Pump

Justin. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. For more information about this show and to get valuable free resources from Sal, Adam, and Justin, visit us at www.mindpumpradio.com. Until next time, this is Mind Pump.